10/28/10

Durango's Coach Steve Ilg With Info You Need


Coach Steve Ilg, USCF/RYT/CPT
aaCoach Steve Ilg
Helping set a new course record in the 2004 Furnace Creek
508-mile Race through Death Valley, CA
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"Yoga is the only training discipline that complements all sports
yet contraindicates none of them."
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Let's forget about all the cycling equipment and expensive tweaks you've purchased over the past, say 3 years.

Let's trade ALL of it for something that is endlessly more vital to your enjoyment, performance, and spiritual transformation through cycling:   a flat spine while riding.
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A flat spine?   Uh...yeah...a flat spine?   Did I stutter or something?

Riding a bicycle with your elbows soft and low, and your spine flat - like your kitchen table instead of hunched over like a sad sack of potatoes - will achieve at least 1-2 mph more speed to your riding instead of the idiotic fractions of seconds presumed to save you by pencil-necked bicycling engineers with stocks in their company urging you to buy fancy wheelsets, cranks, and of course seat stems. Thank God I have an integrated carbon seat stem!

I recall a Los Angeles Times reporter interviewing me after my team's record-setting effort through the supra-heat and heights of the Furnace Creek 508-mile Race through Death Valley, CA.

"I was in your support van cruising along side you. When I reviewed the video of you a couple weeks later, I was so fascinated by your low body position, that I freeze-framed the DVD and the Ilg’s cycling form became a zen-koan, “How does he do that?” I kept saying to myself."

The reason why my flat back was at issue is that many of the cycling world’s top experts on positioning talk about achieving a flat back is key to good cycling. Yet few attain it.

Why is a flat back key to cycling performance?

One reason is more power; A flat back lets you ride faster because it provides an ideal platform for quads and glutes to push-off against, almost like a wall.

Another reason, probably the most important, is injury prevention. As cyclists have aged-up over the last couple of decades with the sport’s continued popularity, back pain has replaced knee pain as cycling’s number-one injury. And the cause of a cyclist’s back pain, many experts say, typically can be traced directly to the bent-over riding position, which flexes your spine in the exact opposite way that it was meant to flex. While a young body can recover from this position, decades of of riding with a rounded back eventually can cause “creep” — a stretching of the ligaments that string the vertebrae and the discs between them together. As the ligaments weaken, so does their ability to keep the back aligned. Result: A high incidence of back pain for cyclists.

It’s great to tell people to ride with a flat back. Yet, it’s obvious that very few actually achieve this position. What good is focusing on proper pedaling cadence and lactate thresholds when you can’t ride because your back’s out or that your pelvic horizontality is 60/40 in favor of your dominant leg? Where are the tools —the instructions—we need to get our backs and aligned hip power and other key elements of our cycling
foundtions!?

Coach Steve Ilg enjoying Vasisthasana "Sage's Pose"
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I can answer those questions with one word: "Yoga."
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Yoga is an ideal compliment to all sports — especially for the limited motion and odd positioning of cycling. My deep involvment in both bike racing (i edited the USCF Cycling Manual) and yoga at high levels as led me to develop a number of cycling-specific yoga routines that simultaneously serve as antidote and supercharger. One class with me and you will ride better the moment you hop on the bike.

Oh, like you have something MORE important to work on over the winter than getting a flatter back, more open, powerful hips, and a stronger core?
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Hope to see you this winter in the Practice Cave...

head bowed,

coach steve ilg
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Coach Ilg teaches his High Performance Yoga™ classes 3x weekly at The HUB (which he calls, 'The Cave of Champions'): Mondays; 5:30 - 7:00pm, Wednesdays; 10-11 am, and his infamous Secret Weapon of All Athletes; his HP PROP Workout™ Wednesday evenings from 5:30 - 7:00 pm. Ilg has competed in 7 World Championships in 5 Different Sports and was named, "America's MultiSport Mutant" by OUTSIDE Magazine. He has authored 5 books in 13 different languages.

Carl (Durango Coffee): Drama at Levi's Gran Fondo!

Gran Fondo - California
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The weather was perfect. We started out at 8 am from Santa Rosa with 6000 people this year. As we left Santa Rosa in the mob it took 20 miles to thin out. By then we had traveled by narrow roads through the wine vineyards and were starting into the redwood forests. We passed through these huge redwoods that were just far enough apart to drive a car through. So what did they do? They put the road there. The tree trunks were as wide as a car too. They were tall and it was dark in there.

About mile 42 we started to climb out of the redwoods and climb and climb and climb on a road that was wide enough for one car. 12- 18 % grade for the next 6 miles. Finally made it to the top and out into the sunlight and onto the coastal meadows. Lunch was the next stop at about mile 50 at the top of Kings Ridge. Then what goes up must go down. You thought lunch but no I meant the road. We descended a bit and then back up another 12 -14% grade. Ok then down one more time. The descents were as steep and narrow as the climbs. More redwoods to miss on the way down. Then..... thump, thump, thump coming from my back wheel on the way down. 30 mph. Some crazy curves, steep and kind of dark in the trees. My rim started melting from the brakes. Oh my! I didn't know they could do that? :-( Should I start walking? The rim was barely holding my tire on. I still had 40 miles to go with another 3 miles descent on an 18% grade down to the ocean. But first I had another 14% grade to climb. I wasn't sure if my wheel was gonna hold me. Drama !-)

Well it held for the rest of the ride but it is toast. The descent to the ocean was spectacular on just the front brake. Pictures attached. What a great route. Then one more 14% grade for a couple miles to climb and descend leaving the coast on the way back into Santa Rosa through the vineyards.
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So I never caught up to Levi, Taylor Phinney, Ben King the new young US pro champion, Steve Cozza and Dr Mc Dreamy on Grey's Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey. That is the picture of Levi and Patrick while being interviewed on stage talking about their charities at the end of the ride.

All for now,

Carl

10/26/10

Hydration Info Made Easy

Things to consider:

High sugar drinks can slow hydration. A cheap simple recipe for hydration fluid:

1 liter water

1 tsp salt, NaCl

1/2 tsp salt substitue, KCl

8 tsp sugar, helps ion uptake

4 oz orange juice or similar, for flavor (optional)

This recipe has much less sugar and more electrolytes than commercial brands. The addition of KCl is similar to the WHO and UNICEF formula. You can make gallons of this stuff for a couple of bucks.

Cheers!

Gregg from the California Congregation

10/19/10

Rich and Martha Rode Dry Fork to High Point the Other Day



World Class Congregants
World Class Trail

10/8/10

Deep Vein Thrombosis - Up Close and Personal for Cyclists

BLOOD CLOTS IN LUNGS INCREASING AMONG ATHLETES

by: Rich Bagienski

Martha Iverson and Rich Bagienski returned from St. Johann Austria after racing in the UCI Master World Cycling Championships, late August of this year. Iverson, a former world champion, was 4th in the time trial and 6th in her road race. Bagienski was 39th in the TT and 54th in the road race.


Rich works hard in the 90F heat and sun. Martha climbs in the cold and rain.

Rich said, “Martha did very well in her races. And I was my usual mediocre self. Definitely far from last, but not near the top.”

He then said “Less than a year ago I didn’t know if I would ride again, much less race. Last December I was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot in my left leg. The clot broke several times, the pieces traveled through the heart, and lodged in the lungs. I now had eleven pulmonary emboli, blood clots in the lungs. Needless to say I was hospitalized and place on blood thinners for 4 months. I’d like to share some info that may help lessen your odds developing a DVT.”
All the following info is from my experience, web information, professional athletes, and conversation with ER doctors and sports medicine MD’s.

The DEEP VEIN THROMBOSIS, DVT, and PULMONARY EMBOLISM, PE, rates are increasing in athletes. This includes runners, cyclists, and triathletes. The initial clots result when blood does not circulate properly and pools in the veins. About 80% of PE’s are the result of clots moving from the deep veins of the legs, DVT, into the lungs. There are many reasons for DVT formation, but I’ll list the ones that mostly effect athletes.

1.DEHYDRATION essentially thickens the blood and requires more force to move the blood.

After a long race or hard ride REHYDRATE. Water alone won’t due it. Use drinks that contain electrolytes for faster re-hydration. Some athletes require IV feeds because they are too dehydrated. When on the road to re-hydration your urine will be normal color, not dark or clear.

2.INJURIES and INFLAMATION can cause a section of the vein to malfunction and not operate to help push the blood.

Use compression hose after the event and when traveling. This helps recovery. They also help the blood flow in the legs.

3.SLOW CIRCULATION caused by low blood pressure or a slow heart rate.

Sitting in one position when traveling will lower your heart rate, decrease blood pressure, and may restrict vein diameters. Sleeping in the car or plane increases these affects. Recover before you travel. Even if it means traveling the next day. When traveling, take the time to walk around and do knee bends. Every 60 to 90 minutes is good. This stimulates the muscles, elevates heart rate, and raises blood pressure thus increasing blood flow.

Again, use compression hose when traveling. They are available in knee high, thigh high, or full panty hose. Many athletes you see in magazines and on TV wear these leggings.

4.GENETICS can increase the odds of a DVT.

Special blood tests are done to check for certain protein and enzyme levels when blood clots are discovered. These proteins and enzymes control the blood clotting. If your tests are abnormal, you may require the blood thinner regimen beyond the time initially determined by your physician.

Other contributors to a DVT are congenital abnormalities of venal anatomy, May-Thurner syndrome, cervical rib causing an outlet obstruction, and problems with the vena cava, the main abdomen vein.
COMMON SYMPTONS of DVT and PE
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DVT: PE:

1.Swelling of leg or arm 1. Shortness of breath

2.Pain in leg or arm. May only feel like a sore muscle 2. Sharp stabbing chest pain, especially when breathing

3.Discoloration of leg or arm 3. Rapid heart rate

4.Continuous tingling sensations when leg or arm is still 4. Coughing up blood or blood streaked sputum

Lastly, the death rate for untreated PE is 18-30%, and the death rate for treated PE is 1-5% depending on the survey. It took my experience with the PE to realize mediocre is good.

(Scribes Note: Thanks Rich for the current and important information.)

Walt Axthelm - Powered by ASEA

ASEA Makes Big News in the Cycling World

By: Walt Axthelm 

Have you seen the July, 2010 edition of Road Bike Action magazine?

Technical editor Richard Cunningham has been putting the ASEA product through the paces for about 90 days, and his article in the July issue of Road Bike Action gives a glowing endorsement of our product's effectiveness in aiding in athletic endurance, performance, and recovery.

Some excerpts:

"Independent tests with ASEA...discovered that athletes, on average, could push 10 percent longer at their maximum thresholds with high results in the 30-percent range and lows around 7 percent. After testing the stuff for three months, I'd have to agree with them. We could pedal harder longer and recover from repeated, 100-percent efforts in ridiculously short intervals."

"ASEA quietly powers up the muscles, dramatically reducing recovery times after over-the-top efforts, and it enables you to push precariously close to the anaerobic threshold for prolonged periods of time.... Typically, ASEA users can go hard over and over again and count on a full recovery within a few minutes. I addition, it is possible to push harder on the pedals for extended periods without going anaerobic."

"Most people simply feel fresher and more energetic when using the stuff. Residual muscle pain and soreness is considerably reduced during a hard ride, so it encourages riders to push even harder."

"Hi-Torque has a long-standing policy of not recommending any supplement or drug for cycling, partly for liability reasons, and also because we lack the resources to do double-blind scientific evaluations of every compound that claims to enhance performance. We can say, however, that our three-month trial use of ASEA substantiated Dr. Samuelson's laboratory results of preliminary Athletic study of ASEA."

This is great validation for ASEA! A credible, professional magazine editor performed his own tests on ASEA, and found fantastic results!

For More Information Contact:
970-247-8520

Edgar "Fast Eddy" Reicke - Two Beauties For Sale


Trek Madone 5.9 2006 in pristine, like new condition. 54 cm frame, all Shimano 7800 Dura-Ace components. Crankset 53/39. Cassette 12-25, 10 speed. Carbon frame, seat post, handlebars, and stem. Race X Lite wheels. $1900



Trek Madone 6.9 2010 in pristine, like new condition, 56 cm frame, all Shimano 7900 Dura-Ace components. Compact double drivetrain: crankset 50/34, cassette 11-28. All XXX Race carbon: frame, wheels (Bontrager XXX Lite, carbon), seat post, handlebars, and stem. $4500

Contact Edgar Riecke

10/2/10

The Best Blaze Yet

(Click on the Image to see a larger version)
The Best Blaze Yet
"Thank You" To All of the Church Congregants That Participated

This Is The Bike Deal Of The Year

Giant TCR Advanced SL
Medium (50cm actual seat-tube/55.5 top-tube)
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DuraAce 7900 with TRP R960 brakes (red), Shimano 7850 tubeless wheels/Hutchinson Fusion2 tubeless tires, Shimano 7800 cogset (12-25). Giant GRC carbon bars (42cm), Giant carbon stem (90cm but can trade out for different length) Giant carbon bottle cages, Giant Continuum W wireless computer, Selle Italia Signno saddle (new), grey Hudz, GoreTex cables and housing.
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(Scribe's Note: Here's why it's the best deal of the year):
"This is the last bike we have to sale from 2010. Trying to meet budget for the rest of 2010 so my personal bike has to go. This was my personal bike, which I got in April and I only get to ride a few weeks a month. I put on a newer set of wheels and the tires have a little use so I will throw in a new set of Hutchinson Fusion 2 tires and a few other extras.  This bike would be around $7000 new. Selling it for $3000.00."

Michael Engleman  
m.engleman@uswcdp.org
United States Women's Cycling Development Program

It's Cyclocross Season

Cyclocross Season
It's a Spectator Friendly Sport
Get Out and See For Yourself

Florida Congregant at the Top!

The Mt Washington Hill Climb
Florida Mennonite Michael Herman On Top!
Wearing the DWC Colors with Pride