As mentioned in a previous post we are creating a Leadership Team within the new TEAM Adrenalin, powered by EPC Multisport. Here are more details regarding the Leadership Team, and how you can apply.

In the past we have had what we called the EPC Elite TEAM, consisting of high ranking/high finishing athletes within the EPC club. The selection criteria was vague and the expectations were low. The new Leadership Team, will be open to all TEAM Adrenalin members, by an application process. There will be less emphasis on podium finishes and results, with more emphasis on what you bring to the team in terms of participation and function. The objective of the Leadership Team is to act as group activity leaders, mentors to the less experienced athletes and represent TEAM Adrenalin in a professional and well received manner. In return for their participation and dedication to the team, members of the Leadership Team will be rewarded with exclusive benefits from EPC, Adrenalin Cycles, and our sponsors.

• Leadership Team member requirements, including but not limited to the following:
  • A commitment to lead at least ONE weekend group training activity a month in the winter months and at least ONE weekend and ONE weeknight workout a month in the summer months.
  • Participation in the majority of TEAM Adrenalin racing events (triathlon or MTB), and team events throughout the year.
  • Frequent participation in all group training activities, making yourself available to club members for questions and advice.
  • Wearing TEAM Adrenalin clothing at all group activities and events attended.
  • Participation in TEAM Adrenalin & Adrenalin Cycles promotional events held throughout the year.

• Leadership Team benefits, including but not limited to the following:
  • The largest discounts from EPC and Adrenalin Cycles.
  • Personal Training plan assistance from EPC and inclusion of all group training activities.
  • Freebies & pro-deal purchasing from participating sponsors (Pearl Izumi, Shimano, First Endurance, Rudy Project, Schwalbe, etc.).
  • TEAM Adrenalin clothing.
  • more benefits in the works!

If being apart of the TEAM Adrenalin Leadership Team sounds like something you’d like to be a part of then here is how you apply:

• Send us an email at info@epcmultisport.com with the following info
  • Name & email
  • Address
  • Years involved with EPC (at any level)
  • Occupation & typical work week hours
  • Your expected availability to participate with the team (ex. tues & wed nights, sat mornings until noon)
  • Your racing focus (triathlon, xterra, mtb racing, etc.)
  • Your top 5 endurance sport accomplishments you are proudest of
  • A brief paragraph on what you can bring to the Leadership Team position, why you want to be involved and anything else that may pertain to you taking part in the role.

• We will be accepting application from now until December 15th. Decisions on the best fitting applicants will be made by EPC and Adrenalin Cycles staff by December 31st. We will contact every applicant to discuss their application, and recontact with the decisions made.
• There will be 8-10 members selected for 2012. A near equal division between male and female is desired. Your ability to win races is far less important than you ability to participate and have a great personality!

With 2011 coming to a close, we already have some big things coming for 2012 here at EPC. This is just a quick rundown of some of the things coming in the months ahead…

• EPC has partnered with Adrenalin Cycles as the new team shop. The new relationship will bring many advantages to the EPC family including a new team name: TEAM Adrenalin, powered by EPC Multisport! Other benefits include killer team deals and discounts on the gear and service you need, team clothing, and team support at races.
• A new “Leadership Team” will be created to act as the group training ride and run leaders for all of our “unstructured” group training events. This team will hold an open application process (happening soon) that all TEAM Adrenalin members can apply for. In return for their participation, the Leadership Team will receive special incentives and bonuses as a way to show our appreciation.
• The new EPC Training Lab is in the process of being created (should be ready to roll by mid-November) and will feature swim technique training and video analysis via an Endless Pool, along with bike and run lactate threshold testing on a Computrainer and treadmill, respectively. These new services being offered will be available to TEAM Adrenalin members as well as EPC coached athletes.
• The EPC Service Menu has been updated to include three levels of coaching along with basic training plans and individual consults. To compliment the two existing coaching options, Personal Coaching and Premium Coaching, we are adding the Group Coaching option. This option is intended to fill the gap between basic training plans and personal coaching, with a training plan geared towards specific TEAM Adrenalin events (Tri/XTERRA and XC/Endurance MTB options) that includes weekly coached workouts in swimming, biking and running along with a monthly conference call to cover training details for that month. The Personal Coaching option remains mostly unchanged while also including some additional features from the EPC Training Lab. Our Premium Coaching offering will include all of the bells-and-whistles from the EPC Training Lab to make it the most comprehensive coaching option available!
• Beginning in January running through April, many EPC group workouts will now be held at Green Mountain Rec Center in Lakewood. EPC has teamed up with the City of Lakewood to offer our popular stationary trainer workout series as well as a triathlon swimming group workout to TEAM Adrenalin members as well as the public. With the added exposure from the city, these workouts promise to be bigger and better than ever! The popular weekend outdoor training options will also be available  again this fall and winter.

Exciting stuff happening for sure! More info will be becoming available in the coming weeks so stay tuned. How do you take part in all of it? Join the TEAM! Open enrollment for TEAM Adrenalin will begin in November. Early enrollment will be held in November and December, where you can save $30 on membership and enroll for $120. In January the regular $150 membership fee will resume for the year. By becoming (or remaining) a TEAM Adrenalin member for 2012 you will gain access to a great group people training for similar events, challenging group workouts on a regular basis, access to the EPC Training Website, and discounts from EPC and Adrenalin Cycles. Make 2012 your best season yet in triathlon or mountain bike racing and join the TEAM!

Here is a good article I found on Triathlete.com regarding your end-of-season nutrition adaptation. The gist of the idea is to go ahead and “indulge” in some “bad foods” that you have been avoiding during race season, but only for a week or two max. Then get back to eating well again as you get back to training regularly. Be sure to drop your overall calories (mostly from carbs) to match you reduction in training volume and training intensity. Keeping the calories down during the off-season will help keep the pounds off over the winter so you can get back to your racing weight (or finally get there) in time for next year’s racing season. You can find the article online HERE, or just read it below.

Written by: Matt Fitzgerald

It’s mid-October, and most North American triathletes have now completed their last triathlon of 2011. In most cases that means they’re taking a short break from training and then going into “maintenance-training mode” through the holidays.

Every triathlete knows that training and diet go hand in hand. When you’re training hard for races, you need to maintain a diet that optimally supports performance and recovery. But what should happen to your diet at the present time of year? How should your eating habits change to match up with changes in your training?

Logically, food intake should decrease as training does. Otherwise fat gain is the inevitable result. But human beings are not completely logical. We’re also emotional creatures, and many triathletes feel an emotional desire to reward themselves after completing a season of discipline and restraint by allowing themselves to indulge in some fattening treat foods—fried foods, beer, desserts, whatever your special craving may be.

I believe that a brief, post-season food reward period is a perfectly acceptable practice to engage in. We tend to define health too narrowly—too physically. Sometimes a thing that is unhealthy for your body can be healthy for your mind and spirit, and sometimes what’s healthy for the mind and spirit can trump what’s unhealthy for the body. Cutting yourself some slack with your diet for a week or two after you’ve completed your last race of the year could be the very thing that enables you to stay disciplined in your eating habits for the rest of the year.

They key word is “brief,” however. Your season of feasting and bacchanal should last no longer than your break from training. If you let your bike sit idle, your running shoes lie empty, and your pool pass go unused for two weeks, then eat and drink whatever you want for two weeks and no longer.

If you tend to struggle with your weight, you might want to consider doing even less than that. Research has demonstrated that those individuals who maintain significant weight loss most successfully are those who maintain the most consistent eating habits year-round. For some people who struggle with their weight, a “just this once” period of pigging out around the holidays is all too similar to a smoker’s “just this once” cigarette to celebrate a year without smoking.

Okay, so what happens after the off-season break, when you move into maintenance-level training—consistent but much less intensive than the workload you bear at the height of the summer race season?

Two main things. First, your carbohydrate intake should decrease. Carbohydrate is fuel and nothing else. It is not used structurally in the body. Therefore the amount of carbohydrate you need each day is tied directly to your activity level. As your training load goes up, so should you carbohydrate intake. And as your training workload comes down in the off-season, so should your carb consumption. If you’re training four hours a week or less, don’t eat more than 2.75 grams of carbs per pound of body weight daily. If you’re training five to six hours a week, allow yourself 2.75 to 3.25 g/lb. And if you train seven to 10 hours a week even in the off-season, aim for 3.25 to 3.75 grams per pound.

The other thing about your diet that needs to change in the off-season is your total calorie consumption. Unless you actually want to get fat, your daily calorie intake must decrease by an amount roughly matching the reduction in the number of calories you burn daily through training. Fortunately, your lowering of carbohydrate intake can pretty much take care of that. For example, if your training load drops from 10 hours per week to five, and you lower your carb intake from 3.75 g/lb daily to 2.75 g/lb, then you’ve just lowered your total daily energy intake by 600 calories (assuming you weigh 150 lbs and assuming your diet remains otherwise unchanged).

You may be able to trust your appetite to help with this adjustment. Typically, appetite increases and decreases appropriately with training load, so that you will naturally find yourself eating less in the off-season. But not everyone can trust his or her appetite all the time. So you might want to conduct what I call a calorie audit at the start of the off-season—that is, sit down and use online resources such as calorieking.com to calculate how many calories you burn each day so you can set a calorie intake target that prevents weight gain and doesn’t put you in a hole when it’s time to start training for the 2012 season, which will be here before you know it.

Matt Fitzgerald is the author of Iron War: Dave Scott, Mark Allen & The Greatest Race Ever Run (VeloPress 2011) and a Coach and Training Intelligence Specialist for PEAR Sports. Find out more at mattfizgerald.org.