Greetings fans  -

The Boulder Summer Camp is underway and I want to share a few photos of all the action.  Click on our Flickr Photostream to the right for the complete set.

The Camp got underway on Wednesday afternoon with VO2 Max Testing & Bike fitting.   On Thursday after more testing and bike fitting, nutritionist Meg Forbes gave an excellent talk about “Nutrition for Optimal Recovery”.  Meg shared a Recovery Shake with us that she has recently developed with Dr. Allen Lim for Lance Armstrong and Team Radio Shack.  She went on to explain the benefits of the shake and how campers could optimize their nutrition to facilate their recovery.

On Friday morning, Meg joined us for our ride but also gave an excellent presentation on pre/during/post exercise nutrition.  After our 4 hour ride in the mountains, Physical Therapist and FasCat biomechanist, Ann Trombley lead us thru a foam roller & stretching routine that would also help us recover better following our training and races.

And why do we want to recover more?  So we can train more! And why do we want to be able to train better at a higher quality?  So we can go faster!

Before dinner, we met back up at the Performance Center to hear Krista Schultz explain what our physiological data meant.  More importantly how we were going to use it moving forward to improve our performance.   Krista gave a great talk and I’m extremely excited to be able to our this service to the FasCat athletes – and any athlete for that matter.

Saturday morning began with some unseasonable rain so we watched the Alpe D’Huez stage of the Dauphine while we waited for a window of favorable weather.   We missed out on the crown jewel ride to Estes Park because it was probably snowing there!  There’s still hope for tomorrow.

Stay tuned we’ll post more as it happens, thanks for reading,

-Coach Frank

P.S. Don’t forget to check out all the photos on our Flickr Photostream to the right!

SIGN UP NOW

It’s now well accepted that attending a camp or clinic is the single best investment you can make in your ‘cross skills. The question isn’t whether to go to one, it’s when and where to go.

The Boulder Cycle Sport FasCat Coaching CX Camp starting August 13th is unique in several ways:

First, it’s in August! 4-6 weeks before the ‘cross season. The benefit here is that you can learn all the skills, get your bike set up, see what you need to do for training, and then you’ve still got time to really get all that stuff settled and in order before the season starts.

Second, we’re doing bike fits! In the past, folks would just show up at a camp or clinic on whatever, and we’d try to make sure they were on an adequate setup, but here we’re really going to do full fits – the kind of fit you’d travel hours and plunk down good money for. Proper fit and setup are so crucial in cyclo-cross.

Third, we’re doing physiological testing, and you’ll walk away not only knowing your strengths and limiters as individually analyzed by professional coaches, but you’ll have a plan to address those limiters before the season. This type of coaching would usually be an add-on if you wanted it, but here it’s included as part of the package.

Finally, you’re going to get a true diversity of experience serving you.

Boulder Cycle Sport (BCS) is one of the premiere shops in the country, the staff there are all very ‘cross knowledgeable. They can tell you exactly what you need to really optimize your rig, and by working with them and getting set up in June, you’ve got time to get everything together. No more wondering if those mud tires will be available in time for the first wet race weekend.  BCS owner Brandon Dwight is an elite ‘crosser and multi-time national champion.  Frank Overton and FasCat Coaching have a truly unique performance center in Boulder, with unparalleled training expertise all under one roof.   I bring the experience of having coached world class athletes like Jeremy Powers, Danny Summerhill and Marc Gullickson, in addition to national champions in various age groups, as well as multiple U.S. World Championship team members. I’ve also been running ‘cross camps and clinics for the last decade, and have continually enhanced and improved the way I approach teaching the sport.

In short, you’re going to get a turnkey solution:

1. Skills practice: check

2. Cyclocross bike fit: check, E

3. Equipment check,

4. Physiological Testing: check, and an

5. Individualized Training Plan: check CHECK!

This CX camp has verything you need to make your 2010 ‘cross season a huge success! You’re going to get it at a time of year that’s early enough to really work the training plan and practice the skills, but also close enough to ‘cross season that you’re not going to forget what you learn. As an added bonus, you’ll meet more people who are as passionate about ‘cross as you, you’ll get some great meals in Boulder, and you’ll be super-amped to get ready for the 2010 season!

After watching the Monte Zoncolan stage of the Giro this morning I set out to ride one of the routes we have planned for the FasCat Boulder Training Camp June 10-13th For this particular ride the goal is to get up in the mountains and onto the Peak to Peak Highway.  The Peak to Peak Highway is Colorado’s equivalent of the South’s Blue Ridge Parkway – awesome road riding and beautiful Rocky Mountain snow capped scenery.

Here is the power data, elevation and map of the route in Training Peaks.

Lefthand Canyon to WARD > Lyons < Boulder

Basically this ride takes one up Lefthand Canyon 21 miles and 3,800 feet later you arrive in WARD and ready to access the Peak to Peak Highway.   It may sound ominous for the out of town atheltes but I assure you I saw cyclists of ALL abilities out there riding to Ward.   The average gradient is 3.4% based on my Garmin Edge 500 data.

With my kids and family I only had about 3 hours to ride so I took a little shortcut over Lee Hill which is more difficult but it saved me about 45 minutes.  In that elevation and power profile, please disregard the first 34 minutes – that’s the Lee Hill shortcut over to Lefthand Canyon.

If you are wondering what I did for ‘training’ I sweet spotted the whole thing.  And yes, I am sufficiently whacked (intensity Factor for the climb was 0.85).  Round trip was 3 hours and 16 minutes but this will be a 4 hour ride not including the rest stop at the Ward General Store during the training camp.

Here is a picture from our training camp in 2008 when we rode this same route the opposite way.  FasCat Athlete Mark Graffagnini from New Orleans is on the right and he’ll be in attendance for 2010.