Indoor Spin

Fond du Lac Cyclery and Oshkosh Cyclery are welcoming cyclists to spin on trainers at their stores. Bring your bike and a stationary trainer if you have one — if not, the shops have a limited number of loaners. Groups are spinning at both locations Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6 to 8 p.m. Additional spin time is available at the Fond du Lac store Saturday and Sunday mornings from 7 to 9 a.m. All spinners should be ready to go at 6 p.m. or 7 a.m., so show up early and be prepared to go on the hour.

USA Cycling Newsletter Highlights Ripon

USA Cycling's weekly newsletter, published Nov. 29, includes a nice feature on the Red Hawk Cycling program. Ripon even gets a shout out across the top of page 1. Download a PDF here and turn to page 8 for the story.

Fuel: Some Tips for Off Season and On

I happened upon a couple of articles by Steve Born on the Hammer Nutrition site that I think are worthy of a good read by any competitive cyclist or other endurance athlete.

The first offers suggestions for off season nutritional supplements. The second offers 15 tips for nutrition and hydration during exercise: both training and racing.

Born is senior technical advisor at Hammer Nutrition. He is a member of the Ultra Cycling Hall of Fame, having competed in the Race Across America five times. The Hammer site contains many more related articles by Born, who obviously knows a thing or two about how and what to eat during rigorous competition.

TRAINING: Spinervals Week No. 48

Number 48 Week of November 26 by Coach Troy Jacobson

• Warm up 5 minutes easy
• 3x30 sec 53x15 @ 30 sr (Seconds Rest = easy spin)
• 1 minute easy spin
• 5 min tempo 53x15 (Time Trial pace) then easy 30 sec
• 4 min tempo 53x14 (TT pace) then easy 30 sec
• 3 min tempo 53x13 (TT pace) then easy 30 sec
• 2 min tempo 53x12 (TT pace) then easy 30 sec
• Off bike, 3 x 18 vertical jumps with 15 sr between sets of 18
• On bike, 1 min easy spin
• Repeat 3 times
  • 3 min tempo 53x15, then easy spin 15 sec, then
  • 30 sec out-of-saddle sprint 53x12, then 30 sec easy recovery spin
• 2 min easy spin
• 5 min tempo 53x12, with last 10 sec of each minute standing and sprinting
• cooldown 5-10 minutes
  

Holiday Survival Guide

Here's what Chris Carmichael has to say about keeping the holiday pounds off.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Gives Team Props

Tom Held posted a nice feature on the Red Hawks cycling team on his "Off the Couch" blog today. Read it here.

Why Wisconsin?

Some may wonder what Wisconsin has to offer for cyclists, especially mountain bikers. Well, for just one: the top marathon mountain bikers in the country will be back in Wausau next summer for the USA Cycling 24-hour national championships.

Kevin Eccles and Team Sports Inc. will host the nationals races for a third straight year, while celebrating the 10th anniversary of the 24-9 at the Nine Mile Forest in Marathon County. The 2008 event is set for Aug. 2 and 3.

Ripon College will enter a team if there is interest.

TRAINING: Spinervals Week No. 47

Number 47 Week of November 19 by Coach Troy Jacobson

• Warm up 5 minutes easy
• 3x30 sec 53x15 @ 30 sr (Seconds Rest = easy spin)
• 2 minute easy spin
• 15 killer minute repeats (110% hard effort!)

• 1 min hard (alternate between 53x12 and 53x15 during the minute) then
• 1 min very easy spin to recovery

• Off bike, 2 x 2 min wall sit with 20 sr between sits
• 3 x 15 vertical jumps with 20 sr between sets of 15
• On bike, 2 min easy spin
• 10 x 30 sec tempo 53x14 (time trial effort) @ 1 min easy spin
• cooldown 5-10 minutes

TRAINING: Legs and Core

Here are a couple of quick workouts that I picked up from Bicycling Magazine to specifically target two fundamental regions of any cyclist:

Legs: Six Strengthening Moves | Core Exercises

TRAINING VIDEO: Strength Workouts

Ripon College Cycling Wallpaper for your computer

Help spread the word about Ripon's new cycling program by downloading this wallpaper and proudly show the RC colors on your desktop.

800x600 or 1024x768.

I'll get something for you widescreen folks soon.

Fond du Lac/Oshkosh Cyclery, Rudy Project Offer Support

The Red Hawks Cycling team has received offers of support from Fond du Lac Cyclery/Oshkosh Cyclery and Rudy Project.

FdL/Oshkosh Cyclery will give all Ripon team members a 30% discount on almost everything in either store. Certain items may be excluded. After all, owners John and Carol Bartow still have to pay their bills, and not all items — such as helmets — have a significant mark-up to justify the discount.

That said, Rudy Project has extended a BRO contract (not quite a pro contract, more like the discount you'd give your brother) to the team which provides a 30-50% discount on their full line of sport optics (that's the fancy word for glasses) and helmets.

Links to websites can be found under the Supporting Partners on the right.

TRAINING: Spinervals Free Workout

Visit the Spinervals website to check out Troy Jacobson's workout of the month, “Aerobic Training Session A” (or download a PDF here).

Coach Troy also posts a workout of the week. I'll post them here, as they can be valuable methods to break the winter monotony.

Number 46 Week of November 12 by Coach Troy Jacobson

• Warm up 5 minutes easy
• 3x30 sec 53x15 @ 30 sr (Seconds Rest = easy spin)
• 1 minute easy spin
• 4 x 1 min one-leg drill (alternate 4 times each leg) 53x15 with 30 sr between legs
• Off bike, 3 x 1 min wall sit @ 20 sec rest
• Off bike, 4 x 10 explosive vertical jumps with 20 sec rest between sets
• Back on bike, 1 min spin
• 2 x 6 min tempo 53x14 @ 60 sr
• 3 x 30 sec one-leg drill (alternate 3 times each leg) 53x12 with 30 sr between legs
• 8 min steady tempo 53x13
• cooldown 5-10 minutes

Getting it done.

It's been at least three years that Athletic Director Bob Gillespie, President David Joyce and I have been kicking around the idea of forming a bike team at Ripon. Now, the vision is becoming a reality. Following a unanimous vote by the faculty in support of the program, Ripon is set to compete in the 2008 Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference mountain bike season.

Now comes the hard work of recruiting a cast of talented cyclists to field a competitive team. In the last week, I have received a fair amount of interest from current Ripon students who want to participate. I've also received inquiries from prospective students and offers of assistance from bike shops and other coaches.

Helping to get the word out was this post on the VeloNews Web site.