Here is a tidbit from www.triathlon.competitor.com about pacing the swim leg of your race. I like it because it reinforces my beliefs of focusing on efficiency and using less energy in the swim, rather than throttling yourself with speed work in the pool, wearing yourself out with little to no gains. Get smooth, get long, get lower stroke counts, and you will use less energy in the water and be able to go faster on the bike! Here is the article:

Faster Swim Times May Not Lead To Faster Finish Times

Updated: Mar 22nd 2011 4:38 PM CDT by Jennifer Purdie

For 2011 we have two new “Special Edition” EPC tops featuring several of our local team member business owners; in a bike jersey and a tri top. The Special Edition designs are headed into production as we speak and will be available around the end of May from Pearl Izumi. We only ordered 25 each of each updated design (to compliment our 2010 kit design, which we have shorts and a few other pieces still available in limited sizes). More than half of this current order has already been spoken for by many of our club members, so act quickly to purchase yours now before they run out. Sizes include XS-XL in both versions. The “pre-delivery” prices (that is purchasing now before we have them) are $90 for the bike jersey and $60 for the tri top. Once “in-stock” they will sell at their MSRP of $120 and $80, respectively. Email us at info@epcmultisport.com to reserve yours today!

-EPC

Check out my new duds for 2011…

In addition to footwear and all the stock clothing product I need, long time clothing/shoe sponsor, Pearl Izumi, is making me a custom kit for racing and training this year! I think it looks great and it’s my first uniform with my name on it. Pretty cool and I’m very thankful for Pearl Izumi’s continued generous support of not only myself, but also providing discounts for my EPC Team and Club members. Thank you Jason Armknect and Kody Riley at Pearl!

I am also grateful to have the support of my new sponsor ASEA this year. Without the support from them (and my mom who made the connections for me) I would be riding in the luggage bay of the airplanes and sleeping in the transition areas at the races. If you are looking for a way to increase your aerobic capacity, recovery capabilities and immune system, you have to try this stuff out. Check the ASEA review from last summer in Road Bike Action Magazine. The ASEA product is incredible and I’m thrilled to be representing them in 2011! You can learn more about ASEA and order a case to try for yourself HERE.

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Check out this article reviewing the use and benefits of ASEA in cycling training by Richard Cunningham in Road Bike Action, July 2010.

- EPC

Download it HERE

EPC is forming eight-person teams for the 2011 Winter Park Mountain Bike Series. We are currently looking for riders to make up the teams. We need both men and women, all ability levels are welcome! The only requirements we need from riders are for a commitment to race at least 4 of the 7 events and wear an EPC jersey. Current EPC athletes are encouraged to sign up and if you’re not an EPC athlete yet, what are you waiting for? Join our team, come train with us, and race Winter Park!  Each team requires a “Captain” that will be responsible for email communication between “their” team and the Winter Park event organizers. Captains DO NOT need to race every race. Sign up as a team Captain and you can solicit fellow EPC’ers and friends to build your team. It will be a fun competition between EPC teams as well as the other teams in the series. If you interested in being a Team Captain or a member of an EPC team, email info@epcmultisport.com and let us know. We’ll get you on the list!

Below is the 2011 Winter Park Series Schedule. Just about every race works with the XTERRA schedule without any conflicts. No excuses. This will be great training and great fun! More details from Winter Park below.

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Once you have a solid aerobic base developing through consistent aerobic training for several weeks and/or months you may be ready to begin to add  a higher workload or even some speed to the mix. How do you know if you are ready for more? Well, when you first got back to training from your end of season break, you probably found it quite easy to get your HR up to your aerobic threshold (the HR zone of maximum aerobic development). In fact you may have even had to slow things down a bit (and even walk at times) to keep your HR under control. After several weeks of consistent training now, you might be noticing that you can cruise along much more easily at your aerobic HR’s and your speed is improving too. This improvement is called Fitness. Yeah!

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I was introduced to a new product last summer called ASEA. It touted big claims of increasing your body’s ability to utilize oxygen, improve cellular regeneration for better recovery, and improve overall health through enhanced antioxidant usage. The science behind these benefits comes from the actions of Redox Signaling Molecules, a relatively new discoverey in the human body that activates antioxidants through appropriate reduction and oxidation of free radicals and the naturally occurring antioxidants surrounding our cells. The ASEA scientists figured out (accidentally, I’m told) how to bottle these molecules, that until now only were found stable inside the human body. I wasn’t totally sure what all this meant (still learning in fact) when I was introduced to it, but the performance benefits the studies reported were hard to ignore, so I wanted to try it out for myself. I can say that I did notice an improvement of recovery between hard efforts in training and racing as well as improved endurance at higher intensities. I went on to have some of my best racing of the season last year and feel like ASEA contributed to to the performances. So convinced, I decided to get more of the stuff for 2011.

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