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As summer grudgingly gives was to fall we are hard at
work on our upcoming programs. Among the things
we're doing:
Saturday endurance rides - starting the first week in
October we'll be hosting a bi-weekly training ride
from our Sunnyvale headquarters. These rides are
geared towards retaining your base fitness,
improving endurance, and having fun (mostly having
fun!). Rides will depart at 8:30am from the Peets
Coffee at Foothill and Homestead. We'll start with 3
hours and gradually increase the duration over the
course of the next couple of months.
Compu-Trainer Workouts - this year we've got a
couple of options for your indoor training. We'll again
host our weekly group sessions that target specific
training needs. Right now we are in negotiations to
secure a permanent site. New this year is the option
to lease a Compu-Trainer and do your own workouts
on your schedule. For only $100 /mo we'll give you
a Compu-Trainer, a laptop to run it on and 5 workouts
customized to your goals (or just $75 for the Compu-
Trainer and workouts sans computer). What a great
way to
maximize your training time!
Drop me an email for
more info on either of these programs
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As Pauly Shore might say "what's your power
buddy!?" Don't get left behind what is certainly the
technological wonderkund of 2007 - Power Training.
Nearly all of our athletes are training with power and
it truly gives them an advantage when it comes to
preparation. Instead of 'best guessing' your workouts
effectiveness, using a power-meter gives you the
opportunity to KNOW what you did and how it related
to what you wanted to do!
This isn['t simple hyperbole. Power is a repeatable
and
quantifiable measure that is worth investigating, so
here's some 411 for ya:
Most often power is discussed in terms of watts, and
watts at threshold, or threshold power. This is simply
the maximum sustainable power output that you can
maintain for approximately an hour. Many of you
may relate it to Threshold heart rate and that's a good
baseline for comprehension. Threshold power, like
threshold heart rate is a good way to measure your
effort on a ride or interval. Unlike heart rate, power is
a constant. Heart rate is very reactive and can be
influenced by internal and external factors like
temperature, hydration, or fatigue so on a given ride
your true 'threhsold heart rate' maybe elevated or
depressed depending on these, and other factors. A
watt, however, is a watt so if we know that your
threshold power is 300Watts then it allows us to
create a training program that stresses you in an
appropriate relative proprotion.
To take it a step further consider that while Threshold
Power represents your best power for that one hour
window, you have other power threhsolds that
correlate to different energy systems like sprint
power, VO2max power and anaerobic power. In
addition each person has a self-attained power
profile, or 'picture' of your power at different durations.
This power profile can be closely correlated with your
abilities. If I have great sprint power chances are I
can do well in sprints, if I have great VO2max power it
pre-disposes me to be good at Pursuit type events,
and if I have tremendous Threshold power I'll
probably be a pretty good time trialist.
Ok, ok - so cut to the chase right! If you want to get
onto
a power systesm, we can help. We are offering all of
our
athletes, and anyone recieving our newsletter the
chance to purchase a POWER TAP SYSTEM at a
DISCOUNT PRICE! Current or new Sterling coached
athletes will get 20% off, athletes on Sterling
sponsored teams get 15% off, and any subscriber to
the newsletter gets 10% off! As an added incentive
new athletes that purchase an SL or SL - Wireless
system will get a free month of coaching! If you'd like
more information e-mailo me for the pricesheet.
Deadline for this offer is October 1st!
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If you've been firing on all cylinders this year you're
probably ready to take a break. So how do you
effectively rest and recover from a season's worth of
athletic boundary pushing while not throwing away all
the fitness, power and endurance gains you've worked
so hard for?
The simple answer is to skip the off season! Sure it
sounds counterintuitive, but really when you think
about it an "off season" is somewhat illogical. Instead
of putting the bike away we propose that you simply
cut back on the total volume of training, and on the
volume of intensity (Zone 4+ efforts, you know the
ones that hurt!).
A good rule of thumb is to cut training frequency by 20 -
30%. So if you typically work out 6 days a week you
should only cut back to 4 or 5. As to duration of the
workouts (volume) - that can be cut back by ~50% or
so without substantial loss of submaximal ability. A
final consideration is the volume of intensity - the
amount of workout time you spend at high intensity.
During this period training intensity should not
decresae by more than 10-20% in order to maintain
the positive training adaptations. So how to put it all
together...
1. Decrease Training Frequency by ~20%
2. Decrease Training Volume by up to 50-60%
3. Decrease Training Intensity no more than 10-20%
4. Cross Train! Look for activities that you enjoy and
get out and do them regularly!
5. Take a mental break - the pressure to "go workout"
can be overwhelming. Be sure to give yourself the
license to enjoy the decreased volume and intensity
by making your workouts short and fun!!
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If you are not currently on a coaching program now is a good time to start (or restart)! We offer a variety of coaching options for athletes at every level. From the ease and simplicity of our pre built training plans to the private training sessions of our Gold and Sterling programs, each one is created with athletes in mind. In addition, If you are a member of one of our sponsored teams you'll enjoy a substantial discount as well. So do something productive for your cycling...Sign up for a Sterling Sports Group Program Today!
Sincerely,
Matt McNamara
Sterling Sports Group
email:
info@sterlingwins.com
phone:
408.891.3462
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