According to Mens Journal [link], supercompensation is the secret to getting more from each workout in less time. On the one hand, if you workout too much your muscles will not recover instead becoming continually weaker. On the other hand if you workout too infrequently your body will regress back to baseline, and you will never improve.

According to Mens Journal [link], supercompensation is the secret to getting more from each workout in less time. On the one hand, if you workout too much your muscles will not recover instead becoming continually weaker. On the other hand if you workout too infrequently your body will regress back to baseline, and you will never improve.

By the way, FRS has come out with a new Protein product that I’ve been trying out.  We’ll give it a review when I’ve had a chance to fully test it.

The Wilier community is still celebrating Michele Scarponi’s 2nd place finish and other stage successes at the Giro D’Italia. Congratulations to Wilier and the entire Lampre ISD team. Scarponi dominated the field on a Wilier Cento1 SL as featured below from our friends at Competitive Cyclist. The second video is a shameless plug for my newest ride, the Gran Turismo. (Let’s be honest, I would make the Cento1 just look silly)

• 212F Water Boils
• 95F Hot Bath/Shower
• 80F Swimming Pool
• 63F San Francisco Bay Water Temperature (Summer)
• 47F San Francisco Bay Water Temperature (Winter)
• 32F Water Freezes

When folks ask me why I swim in cold water without a wetsuit I answer like this.

5 Reasons Not to Wear a Wetsuit

1. Because we can’t… Swim competitions and Official channel crossings forbid wetsuits because they add buoyancy and give an unfair advantage compared to swimmers who swam prior to the existance of wetsuit technology.
2. Because we don’t want to… Wetsuits are constricting and uncomfortable to wear.
3. Wetsuits are a drag to put on a take off.
4. Sauna feels better the colder we get.
5. When you gotta go, you gotta go, but not in a wetsuit.

  

  

A shout-out to my high school friend Michelle Macy who posted a similar post on her blog.

  

  

So according to the experts, the greatest moements in open water swimming history, in chronological, are:

1875: Matthew Webb (English Channel)
1896: Alfred Hajos (Athens Olympics)
1916: La Jolla Rough Water Swim (USA)
1926: Gertrude Ederle (English Channel)
1927: Channel Swimming Association
1927: George Young (Catalina Channel)
1927: Ernst Vierkotter (Canada)
1928: Mercedes Gleitze (Gibraltar Strait)
1947: Tom Blower (Irish Channel)
1950: Vansbrosimningen (Sweden)
1954: Traversata dello Stretto (Italy)
1956: Rottnest Channel Swim
1961: Antonio Abertondo (Channel)
1961: Keo Nakama (Molokai Channel)
1962: Barry Devonport (Cook Strait)
1963: Abo-Heif (Lake Michigan)
1967: Stewart Evan (Farallons)
1974: John Kinsella (WPMSF)
1978: Penny Dean (English Channel)
1985: FINA Long Distance Commission
1987: Lynne Cox (Bering Strait)
1991: Shelley Taylor-Smith (IMSA)
1986: Claudio Plit (Lac St-Jean)
2004: Midmar Mile (South Africa)
2005: IOC (Beijing Olympic 10K)
2006: Agua (Santa Fe-Coronda)
2007: Lewis Pugh (North Pole)
2007: Petar Stoychev (English Channel)
2008: Natalie du Toit (Olympic 10K)
2008: Grant Hackett & David Davies
2008: Larisa Ilchenko (Olympic 10K)
2008: Maarten van der Weijden
2008: Britain’s Olympic 10K Team
2008: Hong Kong Clean Half

Please be aware that if you’ve had your bike fit done professionally, cleat installation is a critical piece of the formula. Long rides locked in at the wrong angle can be terrible for your knees. If you’re uncomfortable replacing the cleats yourself, head back to your bike fitter and they’ll likely help you out for nothing if you’re a loyal customer.

ENJOY!

Do a Google search for caffeine and its effects on the body or its effects on an athlete’s performance, and you will get more information than you can possibly read or internalize in a lifetime. The frustrating thing is that there is no common conclusive ruling that the medical community has made on the subject. Most athletes, like myself, just want to know: is it beneficial or damaging?; how much should I take in?; how often?; daily/before training/before a race? will it help my sprint events? how about ironmans?

The other notable thing you will discover in your search around the web is the mind-boggling volatility in articles, blogs, and message boards on the subject. People in all walks of life subscribe to a personal theory that works for them and will defend that theory to the bitter end. It’s almost comical. I always encourage people to be passionate about things in life. I personally don’t choose to funnel that passion into the caffeine habits of other athletes who I’ll likely never meet.

It is not my intent to influence your own personal decision. I did find the following article to be very fair, straightforward, and academically sound, and applicable to 10DL readers.  If you don’t like all that boring sciency stuff feel free to skip about half way down to get to the meat you’re looking for.

Please feel free to add perspective in the Comments (keep it kind, please!)

Full credit to Dr. Mark Jenkins at Rice University for the content of this article.

Coffee was first discovered over 1000 years ago, and currently approximately 75% of Americans drink coffee on a regular basis. Despite the thousand years that have passed, there is still mystery and controversy surounding the biological effects of coffee and it’s principal active ingredient, caffeine. Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant drug in the world, usually ingsted in the form of coffee, tea, soft-drinks, and chocolate. Table 1 shows the relative caffeine content of these food items. Caffeine is also used by triathletes and other athletes as a peformance aid. The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of caffeine as an ergogenic (energy generating) aid in endurance sports and to discuss the health issues related to caffeine use.

What happens when caffeine enters the body

Caffeine is well absorbed from by the stomach and intestine, and peak blood levels occur about 45 – 60 minutes after ingestion. Once in the blood stream, caffeine causes a number of responses in the body. Caffeine is well known for it’s stimulant effects on the brain, but there are a number of other physiologic effects that occur. Blood pressure, pulse rate, and stomach acid production are increased, fat stores are broken down, and fatty acids are released into the blood stream. These effects can last from a few hours to as long as 12, but within 4 days of regular use, the body develops tolerance to many of the effects of caffeine. For example, although caffeine increases blood pressure and pulse in a first time user, a regular user will not experience any significant change.

Caffeine and Health

In making a decision whether or not to use caffeine — or any other drug — it is important to consider the potential adverse effects on health. These can be separated into short term (ie. related to a single dose) and long term. The short term affects of caffeine are much better understood than the long term effects.

Because caffeine increases the production of stomach acid it may worsen ulcer symptoms or cause acid reflux (“heartburn”). Insomnia, poor sleep, and anxiety are well described psychological side effects of caffeine. Regular evening use of caffeine may, over time, deprive the body of proper sleep, resulting in lack of energy and fatigue.

Many studies have suggested a relationship between chronic caffeine use and a number of diseases. Proving a cause-and-effect, however, has been difficult and most of these suggested links remain inconclusive. Some of the difficulties that arise in studying the long term health effects of caffeine are due to problems in accounting for other lifestyle variables (eg. smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise), differences in genetic inheritance, form of caffeine intake (coffee, tea, sodas), and the presence of other biologically active substances in the beverage. For example, one study looked at the whether caffeine intake increased the risk of heart disease. Over 45,000 people were evaluated and the data indicated a slightly increased risk of death from heart disease in individuals who had an average daily consumption of more than 5 cups of *decaffeinated* coffee. Currently, there is no evidence that caffeine causes cancer, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, or serious heart arrhythmias.

Caffeine Withdrawal

Abrupt discontinuation of caffeine in a regular user may trigger caffeine withdrawal symptoms. The most common symptoms are headache and fatigue. The headache may begin as soon as 18 hours following the last dose of caffeine and may worsen with exercise. It is not known why some people experience caffeine withdrawal and others do not.

Caffeine and Athletic Performance

Despite considerable research in this area, the role of caffeine as a performance enhancing drug is still controversial. Some of the data are conflicting, which is in part due to how the experimental studies were designed and what methods were used. However, there is general agreement in a few areas:

Caffeine does not appear to benefit short term, high intensity exercise (eg. sprinting)
Caffeine can enhance performance in endurance sports.
Glycogen is the principal fuel for muscles and exhaustion occurs when it is depleted. A secondary fuel, which is much more abundant, is fat. As long as there is still glycogen available, working muscles can utilize fat. Caffeine mobilizes fat stores and encourages working muscles to use fat as a fuel. This delays the depletion of muscle glycogen and allows for a prolongation of exercise. The critical time period in glycogen sparing appears to occur during the first 15 minutes of exercise, where caffeine has been shown to decrease glycogen utilization by as much as 50%. Glycogen saved at the beginning is thus available during the later stages of exercise. Although the exact method by which caffeine does this is still unclear, caffeine caused sparing in all of the human studies where muscle glycogen levels were measured. The effect on performance, which was observed in most experimental studies, was that subjects were able to exercise longer until exhaustion occurred.

In addition to the beneficial effects on muscle, caffeine may alter the perception of how hard you are working. During testing, athletes are asked to judge their effort, which is referred to as the rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Some studies have yielded significantly lower RPE’s — less fatigue — when the athlete used caffeine. Other studies have not found this effect. Obviously, the RPE is very subjective, and there are many things that may influence it.

What about caffeine in Ironman races?

The exercise studies on caffeine involved endurance testing of approximately 2 hours, so there is no specific information related to ultra-endurance races. Pre-race caffeine may be beneficial though, because the longer the race, the more important fat is as a fuel. During the race, caffeinated soft drinks are one of the choices at the aid stations in an Ironman. Whether this source of caffeine is useful is unknown, but these soft-drinks do supply necessary carbohydrate. Because longer races have a greater baseline risk of dehydration, nausea and abdominal cramps, it is very important to consider the side effects of caffeine (below).

Variable results and side effects

Despite the known benefits of caffeine in endurance exercise, individual results may vary greatly. Differences in metabolism, diet, and frequency of caffeine use are some of the factors that can determine how an individual will react to caffeine. Additionally, some athletes may actually experience a decrease in performance, usually due to side effects of caffeine.

Although caffeine does not appear to significantly alter water balance or body temperature during exercise, dehydration is a potential concern because caffeine is a mild diuretic. Some athletes may also experience abdominal cramps and diarrhea related to the large intestine contractions caused by caffeine. The combination of dehydration and cramping can have particularly detrimental effects on performance.

Recommendations for athletes

If you choose to use caffeine, then here are a few tips that may help you maximize the benefits.

Ingest caffeine about 3 – 4 hours before the competition. Although blood levels of caffeine peak much sooner, the maximum caffeine effect on fat stores appears to occur several hours after peak blood levels.
Consider decreasing or abstaining from caffeine for 3 – 4 days prior to competition. This allows for tolerance to caffeine to decrease and helps ensure a maximum effect of caffeine. Be careful though, because some may experience caffeine withdrawal.
Make sure that you have used caffeine extensively under a variety of training conditions and are thoroughly familiar with how your body reacts to this drug. Never try anything new on race day.
Be prepared to accept the consequences if your urine test is above the current cutoff.

Conclusion

In writing this article I am not suggesting that athletes use caffeine nor am I supporting the use of performance enhancing drugs. I am simply reviewing the use of caffeine as an ergogenic aid as well as the known health consequences. Athletes must individually decide whether or not it is appropriate to use this drug — both in competition and day-to-day. All of the information for this article came from the current medical literature. Those of you who take prescription medications or who are under a physician’s care should check with your doctor about the relevance of caffeine to your health.

There’s not a lot we need to say about our newest sponsor. When logging miles and miles and miles, what’s more important than your feet (ok, saddle excluded)? The cycling shoe market has gotten increasingly crowded over the past decade, but very few companies have a history of technological innovation that spans nearly half a century.

Since its inception in 1960 Sidi is responsible for the 1st nylon sole (pre carbon), the 1st micro-adjust buckle, the heel cup system, and in 2010 cycling shoes instantly dropped 60 grams with a new aerospace sole material with zero loss of strength, durability, or stiffness. After 50 years of innovation, Sidi still stands above the competition as the market leader.

If you haven’t heard of Prologo you’re soon to be in the minority. Prologo is a relavtively new company that has experienced a meteoric rise to prominence over the last few years, which they accomplished the old fashioned way. They developed a superior product and were able to get people to try it out. It didn’t take long for word to spread, and they have become the most in-demand saddle at every echelon of racing. They now hold titles in the Tour de France and the Olymipcs as well as the numerous successes by Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel.


They have become a prominent name in Europe and have aggressive plans in the US. We look forward to riding their saddles this year and letting you know what we think.

In the coming days we’ll be introducing our growing list of new and continuing business partners. We couldn’t exist without the help of these sponsors. The fact that we’ve had so many new companies agree to join forces with us as well as our existing sponsors that have all increased their participation in 10DL, is a humbling and exciting statement that we’re very proud to make.

Goals for 2011:
1. 10 Degrees Latitude North America – 1000+ mile multisport event from Washington to northern California

2. Deer Creek Challenge – slated as the toughest century ride in the North America



3. Summit of Mt. Evans – America’s highest road (the final 27 miles are the easiest!)

4. Summit of Long’s Peak – For Colorado mountain climbers, this is one of the toughest 14,000ft ascents in the Rocky Mountains.

5. Various local triathlons – let’s see what the season has in store!

http://www.diggles.com/ec
6-9PM
University Club of San Francisco

According to the book, “Bicycle The Pacific Coast“, if we cycle north to south–we’ll have a 10 mph tailwind most of the way. That sounds exhilarating, fast and fun.

I took the new Suunto X10 on a trip to Portalón, Costa Rica. The trip was one one-part real estate recon and one-part adventure travel. The watch was useful for both. For the adventure travel part of the trip, I traveled on horseback through the rain forest near Manuel Antonio National Park. It was the perfect place to run the watch through the paces. What follows is a review of this watch with pictures of the Google Earth integration. This Fall Suunto debuted their new flagship GPS product – the X10. The X10 is the replacement for the X9i.  This is proo positive that GPS technology has come a long way in a short time. It is now commonplace in the lives of so many people, and Suunto is leading the way in the GPS watch segment. Just a few years ago, the GPS watches that were out there were expensive and the quality was poor.

Suunto X10 Specs:

1. GPS Route Planning
2. 50 Routes, 500 Waypoints
3. Syncs with powerful Suunto Trek Manager Software as well as Google Earth
4. Altimeter, Barometer, Compass

TEST 1: Accuracy
Could it acquire and maintain a good satellite connection? Would this connection be compromised by the dense cover in the rainforest? I must tell you, it did not disappoint.  I was able to maintain a good connection throughout my entire ride.  There are three modes that determine how often the watch seeks a GPS satellite signal: Manual, 1 minute, and 1 second. Battery life is reduced correspondingly. The owner’s manual estimates a battery life of 16 hours, and 6 hours for 10 minutes and 1 minute respectively. I operated in both modes repeatedly and battery life exceeded these limits by 20% or more in all cases.

TEST 2: Interoperability
My favorite feature, by far, is the interconnection with Google Earth. The process was a super-easy, plug-and-play interface. With the press of a button, my entire trip was uploaded from the watch into Google Earth. See below. Aside from the map data, the watch also maintained time series data on speed, elevation change, distance traveled, etc. Any feasible data relating to my trip was captured and available through the Suunto Trek Manager software. This is, by far, Suunto’s best attempt at software design.

SYNOPSIS: Useful
A GPS wrist top computer has traditionally been a tool used by mountaineers. The X 10 has taken a large technological leap that brings it well within the realm of the casual fan of any outdoor activity: cyclists, trail runners, kayakers…the list goes on. The Google Earth interface makes it extremely easy to share via email, facebook, or your own personal blog or website. User-populated sites such as Mapmyhike/mapmyride/mapmyrun etc. are the perfect venue for these new Google Earth files. Information such as topographical data as well as distance, and elevation gain becomes easy and fun to share with others. Ohh, and don’t just take our word for it, this watch won the Gear of the Year Award by  National Geographic Adventure.

OTHER REVIEWS

Check out the pictures below for GPS maps of the trek — pretty cool!

I’ve always thought that Antarctica will be the most physically difficult expedition of all our 7 10DL expeditions. Until now I never had a structured way of thinking about how to measure “difficulty”. From a energy expenditure perspective, Antarctica will be the hardest. Here’s how I performed my calculations. 

1. The first step is to breakdown the activities of 10DL. The 10 Degrees Latitude is an expedition series that consists of 5 sports. Those being:

• Cycling 
• Open water swimming
• Kite assisted skiing cross country
• Hiking cross country
• Kayaking

2. The second step is to assume that calorie count is a proxy for “effort”. It’s possible to make a caloric estimate for each expedition assuming the athlete is 190 pounds and that each activity consumes a predictable amount of calories per hour at high exertion. Using this method we can figure out which of the 10DL expeditions is “hardest”, by virtue of the caloric expenditure required to complete it. The source for the calorie count information is here.

3. The third and last step is to type all this into Excel. The results show that the caloric expenditure ranges from the lowest of 57,500 calories in 10DL Australia to 138,000 calories in 10DL Antarctica. It’s not surprising that Antarctica is one of the hardest, and that calorie estimate doesn’t even take into the account the cold temperature, which will consume even more calories as our bodies try to keep warm. Below is the model I used.

The mental side of the “difficulty” equation is much more difficult to measure. I don’t have a measure for that.

Stats:

• 14,264 evelevation at the summit. 4,000 feet vertical gain
• 8 mph on the way up. 50 mph on the way down.
• 40F at the base. 0F at the summit
• Team: Adam, Adam, Neal

Here are a couple web links from others on the ride that we did:

• http://www.takemytrip.com/colo/01a.htm
• http://www.eskimo.com/~milan/colorado/mount_evans05july21/index.html
• http://www.subbu.org/blog/2007/06/mt-evans-ride

Pictures and Videos from our ride:

When Adam and I swam here we jumped in at the parking lot, swam upstream 1 or 2 hours, then turned around and swam back with the current. Swimming downstream you travel at 4x the speed, so it’s a quick trip.

View Schuylkill swimming spot in a larger map

5 Reasons To Train in the San Francisco Bay

1. The Bay is clean and has less chemicals than the pool.
2. Swimming allows me the feel the strength of my body.
3. Time with the people at the Dolphin Club makes me a better person.
4. Being among the ocean creatures puts me in touch with nature.
5. The colder the water the better the sauna feels at the end.

5 Reasons to Train

1. Test of my body and mind.
2. Feeling of tangible accomplishment.
3. Body feels better when I do.
4. Quality time with friends before and after.
5. Puts hardship and ego in proper perspective.

Join us for a journey of a lifetime,
Neal, Adam, & Amy
10DL Founders

Rudy Project continues their recession-busting sales promotions.  This year has been a huge year for them, and they’ve proven their resolve time and time again to avoid the normal pitfalls that traditionally hit the industry in the down years of an economic cycle.  Click on the link above to take advantage.

We are extremely excited to have these folks on board.  Rudy Project has long been a leading manufacturer of sunglasses for athletes and more recently has entered the world of helmets.  They are now our exclusive helmet and sunglass sponsor!

This company does not tread silently.  They have been making a huge industry splash lately, garnering Outside Magazine’s coveted “Gear of the Year” awards and “Killer Value” awards for both sunglasses and helmets.  Additionally in the last year they’ve been featured in dozens of publications from triathlon to golf to eyecare.

We have more exciting product news from Rudy Project that we will be featuring in the coming days.