Alameda Runners – Get After It!

The German-based Team NetApp-Endura will ride the 2014 Tour de France this July, after the team received confirmation of a wildcard invite.  Expect to see its riders livening up the race by going into breakaways and trying to take any advantage if the ProTour teams stop paying attention.

Here is what Ralph Denk, Team Manager of NetApp-Endura (in a blog post)

“A dream comes true. We have worked towards this news since the first day of the team’s founding.  That our wish has now become reality is overwhelming, and will put the whole team into a euphoric mood. We could not have hoped for better news shortly before our season opening.”

It’s great to see a team like NetApp-Endura, which was founded in 2010, work their way up to a Tour wildcard invite.  Czech rider Leopold Konig picked up stage wins in the Tour of California and Vuelta a Espana in 2013 while Czech teammate Jan Barta won the country’s road race and time trial championships.

Best of luck in your quest to get to Paris!

Los Angeles, CA – Cannondale presented the 2014 team last night at the Canyon Club outside Los Angeles, California. During the night of revelry, that included major music performances and plenty of surprises for those in attendance, the team captains Peter Sagan, Ivan Basso, Elia Viviani, Moreno Moser, Damiano Caruso and the entire 2014 squad were officially introduced to an adoring crowd at the Cannondale Pro Cycling event followed by guests mixing and mingling with the team throughout the evening.

During the team presentation, attendees were given an exclusive look back at the amazing 2013 season and a sneak peek of what the upcoming 2014 season will bring.  After the presentation, guests rocked the night away to an epic concert by The Green Machine, a special Cannondale band made up of rock legends Curt Schneider on bass (Five For Fighting and Richie Sambora), Jared Shavelson on drums (BoySetsFirst and Purelove), Michael Ward on guitar (Gogol Bordello and The Wallflowers), John Rubano on the vocals (Jim Belushi and The Blues Brothers) and Matt Rollings on the keyboard (Fiona Apple and Richie Sambora).

Highlights of the event included a surprise musical performance by rider Moreno Moser who showed the crowd that his musical chops might just rival his skill on a bike when he popped up on stage to perform “Molly’s Lips” by Nirvana with The Green Machine. Also getting in on the action was Cannondale General Manager, Bob Burbank, who rocked the stage with the band for his rendition of the Bon Jovi classic song “It’s My Life.”

This year, to bring our fans closer to the excitement, Cannondale Pro Cycling partnered with select SoCal Cannondale dealers offering consumers the chance to win a Golden Ticket to the team presentation and launch party. The 50 winners each were able to bring a guest and meet their favorite riders live and in-person to share in the excitement of the team presentation.

The 2014 team promises fans an incredible year of racing coming off of the team’s successful inaugural season. The official roster will continue to develop a stable group of young, talented international riders with a flair for winning and world-class camaraderie. The “Green Machine” team boasts 28 riders including four recent signings, four neo-professional riders, and twenty returning riders from the 2013 squad.

“The entire team is getting ready for great things from Cannondale Pro Cycling for the next year,” said Peter Sagan, Cannondale Pro Cycling athlete. “I feel good about our squad and the quality of each rider this season. We want to give our fans a strong performance again this year showing our passion at being a part of Cannondale Pro Cycling, and having fun along the way.

The 2014 team presentation is part of a four-day team camp in Los Angeles, CA. The members of the Cannondale Pro Cycling team in attendance are training on and around the local roads of Thousand Oaks, preparing for the rapidly approaching start of the 2014 season.

“With the combination of the ‘best bikes in the world’ and the awesome talent of our Cannondale Pro Cycling team, we’re looking forward to an unforgettable 2014 season,” said Rider Ted King. “Kicking off the season with a sweet launch party event wasn’t half bad either.”

On the road, the Cannondale Pro Cycling season starts in just one week with riders heading to the Tour Down Under and the Tour de San Luis.

ABOUT CANNONDALE

Founded in 1971, Cannondale is a global industry leader with a strong heritage in design, development and manufacturing of high performance bicycles, apparel and accessories. With a reputation for continuous innovation and quality, Cannondale corporate headquarters is located in Wilton, Connecticut, USA, with offices in Brazil, Canada, Holland, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, United Kingdom, Taiwan and an assembly/manufacturing facility in Bedford, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.cannondale.com.

For those of you building up for a long distance race or event, I hope you are doing your long slow runs.  The long slow run is what helps us build up to the target distance without getting hurt.  I like to wear a heart rate monitor for my long slow runs.  I have learned that 120-130 beats per minute is my ideal range for the long slow run.  It is okay, if I go up to 140 BPM for short durations.  My long slow run for today was 8 miles long.  I maintained a constant HR of 133 for most of the runs duration.  I went up to 140 for the home stretch because I have that old horse heading to the barn mentality and pick up the pace as I get close to home.  When I realized my heart rate was at 140, I slowed down until my heart rate was 120 then I started to walk for the cool down portion of the run.  It is important to cool down for 5-10 minutes after a long slow run.  There are a lot of arguments about stretching for runners.  I like to gently stretch by bending over for 30-60 seconds.  I don’t do anything aggressive; I just bend over and let my arms hang.  How you want to stretch is up to you.  I recommend reading up on stretching and running and find something that works for you.

One of the standards for determining your maximum heart rate is 208-(age*0.7)
The long slow run is an aerobic run at 50%-75% of your max heart rate.  That is a huge span.  I recommend 50% max for beginners who are just starting to increase your mileage.  At 50% max hr you should be able to converse comfortably and joke around.  At 75%, you should be able to talk but joking around will be difficult.

Here is an explanation of the heart rate theories.  We like to call them rules but people are not created equally so things can vary a lot.
Aerobic training is officially 50%-85% of your maximum heart rate.  The long slow run is typically 50%-75% of your maximum heart rate.  As you progress, the lower number will gradually increase.  My long slow runs are usually at 65%-75% max heart rate.
Long slow runs are fat burners.  The long slow run trains your body how to burn fat.  As your long slow runs increase in time and distance, your body gets better at burning fat and other types of fuel.
They say, you officially start burning fat between 60-90 minutes depending on who you ask.  I don’t care when I officially start burning fat.  I like to look at my watch and tell myself how close I am getting to burning fat.  When I am in the fat burning stage, I tell myself “Burn, baby, burn”.
The higher your heart rate, the higher the risk for injury.

Heart rate example for a 52 year old.  Since this is general in nature, I will use whole numbers.
208-(age*0.7)
208-(52*0.7) =208-36=172 max hr
50%*172=0.5*172=86 lower aerobic hr
75%*172=0.75*172=129 maximum long slow run aerobic hr
85%*172=0.85*172=146 maximum aerobic hr
Ted’s long slow run at an hr of 133=77.5% of max hr.  When my long runs get longer than 15 miles, I will probably lower the max to a max of 130.

I don’t usually eat during any exercise that is less than 2 hours.  When the workouts are longer than 2 hours, I like to practice eating.  I don’t like to eat when I exercise.  That is very bad for endurance athletes so I practice eating all of the time.

I hope everyone who is training for a half marathon is getting out and logging the miles.  I have been doing this for so long I forget to mention how important it is to log your miles.  The miles that you run have to increase gradually.  It is normal to increase your mileage by about 5% per week and never increase by more than 15% per week.20

You can buy the Complete Runner’s Day-By-Day Log 2014 Calendar from amazon.com for about $10 now.  I have used these books in the past and feel they are worth the money.  It is handy to have a book that is designed for runners with little tips on every page.  The book encourages you to take notes and comment on your health and how you felt.  In most cases, you will not go back and read the notes but if you are injured or want to get faster, the notes will come in handy.  I use a plain old open source calendar that works for pretty much any word processing program.  You could draw something up on a piece of paper as long as you track your weekly mileage.

I harp on tracking your mileage because it helps your motivation.  The endurance phase is all about increasing your mileage so you are capable of making the distance.  To increase your weekly mileage, you have to get out and run 4 days per week.  It is okay to run 5 or 6 days per week.  No matter how many days per week you run, track the miles and increase your weekly mileage slowly.  If you are a regular reader, you know that I am training for a 2:15 half marathon in late march.  I am going to carry a pace sign and lead the group.  My training is going to be a little different from the standard plan but it will be close.  My long run this week was a 6 mile run at a 10:30 pace.  I could have gone faster and I could have gone farther but I did not.  It is not good to overdo things.  I am recovering from injuries (from over doing it) and rest (from finding excuses to take it easy).

Use your calendar and try to stay close to the plan.  When you look at your calendar and see a blank where there should be miles, it can give you the extra motivation to get you out for your run.  It works for me, it may work for you.