"I'mmmmmm Baaaaack"....

So, after Boston, I sort of laid low and in light of everything that happened during - and after - the marathon, sort of lost my mojo.

But, one can't wallow forever, so, I slowly headed back into training, knowing that the ITU World's are only 16 weeks away - and full on training seemed to be the way out of the darkness that Boston foisted on all of us.

Under the excellent - but often merciless! - coaching of Tommy Ferris Team Ignition Fitness, we targeted the Binbrook Triathlon as the first tri of the year.
Having raced this event for the last several years, it is a great season opener to shake off the rust and get back into the game. John Salt, Jason V and the team at MultiSport Canada put on a fantastic series of events and this one is one of my favs - warm lake, flat bike on beautiful country roads and flatter cross country run: perfect for me!
So with more swim/bike/run miles on my aging and pretty creaky body than last year (thanks Coach!), I was pretty excited about how going from the long tempos of Boston training to the "seeing red from hurling blood" fast shite would play out (and of course, there was and is the great unknown: my wonky hip - but more on that later).
Race day started with the usual bad sleep - you would think after nearly 25 years of racing every summer I would have this dialed in, but nope, still get those butterflies and nerves, which I suppose is a good thing?!
Arriving and setting up in transition was like old home week - all the old farts in my age group [50 plus...] were there: Brett, Alfred, et al - really great to see all the gang back, and they are as competitive as ever!
The race - well, suffice it to say I made the usual "early season mistakes" - but overall I was pleased with the whole race.
My swim was quick - and thankfully the water was quite warm [relative to Lake O!]; out 3rd, as usual I was passed on the run up by what seemed like the entire 11th grade of a local high school! Great bike - pushed up and stayed in 3rd - which is where I started the run about 300m back from the 2nd place runner.

And the start of the run is where I had one of those "come-to-Jesus" moments: do I settle for 3rd, or not...
I think we have all had those internal chats with ourselves during a race: "Hey John, it's your legs - this pace is too hard! Settle back, go easy, no shame in 3rd, pal - 3rd is better than 4th - so relax, and stop hurting so much..."
You know what I mean - the dark demon of mediocrity!
But as Jens Voight [he of TDF fame] is known to say, "shut up legs".
And so, I sucked it up, and while I knew this was going to hurt - a lot - I began to try and run down the two guys in front of me.
And it was a good day - and I was able to somehow put together the turnover to catch Roman, who was battling hard to stay up front - and take 1st overall.

*ya, I did the "hands on knees and drool" thing at the finish line. nice.

                                                                           

The better news was that I although one year older and thus should-be-slower, I actually had a better swim, bike and run time then last year -and shaved over a minute off my ridiculous "are-you-kidding-me-how-slow-that was" transitions (seriously - I freakin' hate transitions - since when does it take a minute to take off a bloody wetsuit> For god's sake, when I was in university living in my frat, with the right sorority girl, I could make 2 martinis, get completely undressed and throw on some sexy tunes in less time than that!)(...if my wife is reading this, kidding!).

My teammates from Team Ignition Fitness also tore up the course - with Jesse, Cavin, and Keith having stellar races (man, if I could run like Jesse - and ride like Keith - I would be SuperHero fast!).
And: my training partner also podiumed - in only her second full tri [awesome job Mits!] so it was a good day all around.
After I finished, I went for a nice easy cool down run on the country roads - and yes, like a total idiot, I missed the awards - so there are the two podium shots: overall winners, with me absent, and then me, hopping up and getting a solo pic (big shout out as usual to Mike Cheliak and his team for their usual excellent race pics!).

I also found this race summary on You Tube: great coverage of the race, and for my money, it gets really good at around 7:10 into the vid - hahaha (note to self: wipe race crap off face if on camera after crossing finish line!)(and ya, some of the other racers really were "so young", or is that just a reflection, sadly, that I am just bloody old?).

So there it is: 2013's race #1 under the belt.
See ya in Welland.
Johnny Boy

ps: go 'Hawks.

After Boston: Run the Recovery

I read this piece, by American distance runner Mike Cassidy, in the upcoming May 2013 "Running Times".
Wish I had written it...

I am a runner.

I’m also an American. I’m a Catholic. I’m a New Yorker. I’m a graduate student. I’m a former government employee.

Those things describe me. But running defines me.

I am a runner who ran the 2013 Boston Marathon. My family and I — like most runners — were fortunate to be out of harm’s way. The victims were someone else’s child, someone else’s parent, someone else’s friend. Their faces and names were unfamiliar, their pain incomprehensible.

But they were part of the tribe of runners, family and friends of runners. They are the type of people who sacrifice Friday nights for Saturday mornings — or support it. The type of people who measure life in minutes per mile — or can interpret it. The type of people whose most treasured possession stinks up the closet — or at least don’t complain about it. They are strangers, but they are runners, and so we know who they are.

Runners share an unspoken bond, a spiritual affinity that runs deeper than age or race, nationality or religion. Show me a runner, and I’ll show you a friend. Running identifies.

Running is not something you do; it is something you are. It’s a worldview as much as it is a form of exercise. It’s a way of life as much as it is a sport. It’s a state of being as much as it is a means of transportation. An attack on any of us running is an attack on all of us.

That is why we must run on.

The cruelest part of the bombings was the jarring juxtaposition between the senseless slaughter of innocents and the marathon’s jubilant pageantry. In an instant, something we had spent months and years meticulously preparing for became magnificently inconsequential. Our standard obsessions — in my case, a disappointing finishing time — suddenly seemed astoundingly selfish.

The overriding sentiment was one of shocked disbelief, tinged with anxious outrage. A sacred ritual had been gruesomely desecrated. We were confused, angry, scared. We wanted comfort, security, revenge. But most of all, we wanted answers.

Who did this? How could this happen? Will marathons change forever? 

In the wake of tragedy it is natural to ask questions. To change perspectives. To challenge priorities.

As runners, we were forced to confront a troubling truth: Running was fallible, even trivial. As we watched others suffer, we were forced to ask: Does running matter?

And the reality is: Running doesn’t matter as much as we think. It matters more.

When despair is overwhelming, what do we do?  Go for a run. When stress is oppressive, what do we do? Go for a run. When hope is gone and all seems lost, what do we do? Go for a run.

A run can turn the worst day into the best day; it can bring us from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. I ran after September 11, I ran after the deaths of my grandparents, and I run whenever things aren’t going my way. It never fails.

If the perpetrators wanted to inflict lasting devastation, they could not have picked a worse target. Running defies destruction.

To run is to live. Running nourishes our muscles and nurtures our minds. It induces clarity of thought, vitality of physiology, and tranquility of emotion. It demands complete unity of body and spirit, it requires your legs, your lungs, your heart, your mind, but rewards all those parts too. It’s in this harmonious holism that we come to understand our true identities, our authentic selves. The universe’s uncertainty is distilled into a singularity: We exist in and of the moment. In the midst of entropy, serene bliss. In the midst of confusion, clarity. Surrounded by constraints, we are freed. Running creates.

But running is more than the antithesis of terror; it is also the antidote. Just as a vaccine implicates pestilence in its own defense, running takes pain as a template and produces something beautiful.

Terror holds no more power over running than wind over wildfire. Runners do not avoid suffering, they embrace it. Pain is merely the pathway to our potential. From the depths of agony rise meaning and purpose.

It is perhaps this fact that separates runners from non-runners, and it’s why we are the subject of curious bemusement and occasional derision. In a world that celebrates leisure and luxury, runners seek austerity. In a world in search of simple answers, runners chase impossible questions. In a society that valorizes the easy way, runners take the path of most resistance.

But it goes deeper than that. We do it together. Running unites.

The falsest truism in all of sports is that running is an individual pursuit. Anyone who has ever run for a team recognizes the value of training partners. They push us when we’re hurting. They make us laugh when we want to scream. They turn our doubts into confidence, our dreams into realities. United by shared sacrifice, they become lasting friends.

But the same is true of our opponents. In running, there is no such thing as foes, only co-conspirators. It’s one of the few competitive endeavors where my success doesn’t mean your failure.

Sure, only one person can win — but it’s not a zero-sum game. The real rewards are diffuse and self-defined. Victory and defeat — these occur internally, in our ability to conquer our emotions and triumph over our own limitations. Work together, and we realize collective greatness. Our fates are linked. It’s no accident that records are often set in pairs. As much as relative success yields medals, as much as podiums mean prize money, as much as second place is a footnote, we cannot hide from our most relentless rival: ourselves.

And this amicable accord extends beyond the athletes to the fans. In running, the sidelines are part of the playing field. If competitors require us to run faster, crowds inspire it. Nothing can galvanize greatness as much as throngs of screaming fans. Running persists on passion. It rides on emotion. Cheers can’t compensate for underprepared hearts or untrained legs, but they can make those hearts beat a little faster and those legs drive a little harder. 

Just as important as the volume is the attitude: inclusive rather than exclusive, universal rather than partisan. In running, cheering for someone doesn’t mean rooting against someone else. Being a fan at a marathon is an expression of genuine altruism: helping a stranger without request or recompense.

Kind words infuse failing spirits with optimism. Internal anguish is transformed into external glory. I’ve always felt a marathon felt seems shorter when it’s 26.2 miles of compliments. Adrenaline is a heck of a drug.

Nowhere is this more obvious than Boston, where the fans are unquestionably the most passionate, most knowledgeable spectators in our sport (and this is coming from a Yankee fan). In many cities, a marathon is a significant event; in Boston, it is a holiday. Lined with fans, Heartbreak Hill feels flatter. With applause echoing, the Citgo sign approaches faster. When you do something for 117 years, you get pretty good.

It’s days like the Boston Marathon that remind us the running community is greater than the sum of its parts. Bound by the pursuit of the same ephemeral euphoria, our collective presence makes its realization all the more likely.

This is why running community must carry on — not in spite of Boston, but because of it.

As we heal from the attacks, the right question to ask is not if we should run, but why we run.

It’s not about running logs or mile splits, PRs or age-group awards, breaking tapes or setting records. It’s much more basic than that. We run because it’s who we are.

Running cannot resurrect lives or repair limbs, but it can recall the spirit that brings us together on Marathon Monday. It reminds us that even on the loneliest of long runs, we are not alone. We are part of something bigger. What distinguishes running is not solitariness, but solidarity.

Each run is an emphatic statement for everything that terrorism is not. Terrorism destroys; running creates. Terrorism divides; running unites. Terrorism is about fear; running is about hope. Terrorism signifies giving up; running means pushing ahead. Terrorism represents humankind at its malevolent worst; running, people at their inspirational best.

When we run, we take a stand for life, and in so doing, we bring into being the very spirit that defines the greatest threat to terrorism: the unconditional embrace of existence, the relentless optimism that progress is possible, and the unflinching conviction that our individual hopes are inseparable from our shared humanity.

To transcend our limits, we must confront our own mortality. As runners, reaching new levels demands staring human fragility in the face, accepting the futility of our quest, and forging ahead anyway.

Then somehow, when those magic Marathon Mondays come, what was once unfathomable becomes unavoidable. The inconceivable becomes tractable; the hypothetical, real. The most insurmountable peak becomes a mere plateau on the path to greater heights. The boundary is extended. The cycle begins anew. The finish line becomes the starting line.

see you in 2014, Boston
Johnny Boy

Thoughts on Boston Marathon

ALL THAT IS NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS THAT GOOD MEN DO NOTHING.  Edmund Burke 

I wanted to thank everyone for their kind words and concern about Monday's race. My friends and I arrived home safely quite late Monday night - the lockdown on all cell service and the airport/trains etc was lifted around 9pm that day and we were able to sneak out.

Sensitive as I am to the horrors of what happened at approx.  4:09 into the marathon, I will be brief: but I wanted to let all who sent emails inquiring as to the events in Boston that it was a sad and tragic day. 

I finished the race some time before 2 bombs were detonated approximately 100 meters from the finish. 
As of now, they have confirmed 3 dead, including as we have last heard an 8 year old boy who was watching for his dad at the finish line. There are also over 170 injured and again the estimates are that 17 are critically injured. 
At the point the bombs exploded, I was approx 1 block from the 1st detonation and can say it was scary as hell, as well as extraordinarily loud (and so unexpected and out of context). 

I cannot begin to describe the shock and terror that we all experienced. To have been a part of this carnage and watched the drama unfold was both unnerving and truly frightening.

Most disconcerting was that Saturday I was with 2 close friends and we three spent 2 hours watching several "elite mile" races - standing at almost the exact spot the bombs hit at the "Marathon Sports" running store (right at the finish)(the site of the first bomb).

Then, to add more fear into the mix, I read  that there was a 3rd bomb found (undetonated) quite near where I was watching for friends to finish [at Copely Square, which is approx 200m behind the finish line, and 1 block from our hotel]. 

A terrorist attack at a marathon is not what any of us signed up for. 
I fear that this will once again tear away another layer of innocence, regardless of those responsible. 
But my friends and I are all safe and really, that is what matters most. How I did in the race seems so unimportant now.

To be honest, this was not how I ever imagined my first Boston Marathon to be. 

With that being said, I'm trying to focus on the positive as much as possible. That all of my friends are safe and sound fills me with an enormous amount of relief. My faith in the resiliency of the running community could not be any stronger, and I know we'll pull through this. Though I worry about how this will affect the sport that touches every aspect of my life, I'm confident that we'll endure and persevere. Heck, it's what we do.

I will go back - we can't let evil triumph.
Johnny Boy

You Cannot "Unwatch" These - ever

In the "spirit" of continuing to creep on vids I find on the 'net, I have no way of commenting on the one below; rarely am I speechless.
I was as I watched this - and am still laughing.

Enjoy this - or I will "pop a cap in your ass and shout "Hallelujah"


Then, of course, to round out the "Glee"ful nature of this posting (singing and dancing and rap - oh my!), ask yourself, when you are next out riding, can you "bust a move" like this [for that matter, who actually says "bust a move" anymore, except for old white guys reliving their frat days?]:
TDF Epic Dance Off
**warning: do not try this with cleats on, especially at the end of a long ride.

rap on, my brothers and sister
Johnny Boy

Dogs are from Mars, Cats are from Venus

While I understand that it will be hard to top the video I posted yesterday (see Blog posting below), this one here is pretty good.
In fact, as Larry David was wont to say, it is "pretty, pretty, pretty good".

Reflective of the inherent and yet important differences between dogs and cats, this video also stresses and reinforces some of the basic ideals I hope to impart here in this Blog: trust, caring, nurturing, team work, and most importantly, the lesson that sometimes - whether it is to head out the door for a 3 hour run when it is -25 with the windchill, or trudge into work on a Friday - we all need a kick or shove in the ass to get going.
So, here's to training partners who help us get "down those stairs" (however they do it!) and out the door - and just as importantly, our partners' at home who put up with us and all our training/racing/injuries and crap...


play nice
Johnny Boy

Perspective

So, I raced a Half on the weekend (well, better stated to say I "trained through a race", but that's a different blog) - and ya, my hip was pretty sore throughout the race.
And then I saw this; sorta puts my crappy little aches and pains into perspective.

People often throw around the term "hero" when talking about pro athletes, etc; in the age of Lance, Oscar, Tiger - whatever.
For me, well, these two little guys seem to fit the definition of what a "hero" is perfectly.
So, the next time you are out there training, racing, or even having a "bad" day at work, when you find you are feeling sorry for yourself, think of Connor and Cayden.

'nuff said
Johnny Boy

Tour de France Team Overview

So, I was mulling over the upcoming TDF, and wondered which teams have been invited to ride...when it occurred to me, as I am sure it has many. many people, just who are the sponsors of these teams and how do they come up with the Team names? One of my favourite blogs, The Inner Ring, has the answers:

There are 18 World Tour teams and 21 Pro Continental teams. One difference from other sports is that cycling teams come with naming rights and usually they are named after the sponsor. But who are these sponsors and what do they do?

You might know about Garmin or Cannondale but do you know what Qhubeka, Orica or Vacansoleil are about? What’s the link between Frano Pellizotti and Hello Kitty? Why do Ag2r ride in brown shorts? All this and more…

Ag2r La Mondiale: an insurance and savings company. Note the team name is not two sponsors but Ag2r La Mondiale is the name of one company. The firm offers retirement savings, healthcare insurance and other forms of social insurance. And why are the shorts brown? Well the corporate logo is blue and brown but note the company’s Parisian headquarters are located at 35 boulevard Brune. Brown Boulevard.

Astana: not a company but a city, a nation. Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan and the team is funded by the state to promote the country, a bid to counter the “Borat” image if you like. The jersey features the names of various state-owned companies. Note team manager Vinokourov was on a winning list in the last parliamentary elections, showing the close links between the team and the state.

FDJ: is short for La Française des Jeux or “French Games” and is the French state lottery with regular draws, scratchcards and more. The sponsor has backed a team since 1997 but almost quit in the wake of doping scandals but courageously decided to stay in the sport on the condition the team rode clean. This meant lean years in terms of results although we now know why. The Fondation FDJ also supports other supports like other nations the lottery funding helps cover Olympic sports

BMC Racing: a brand of Swiss bicycles. The team is registered in the US but funded by the Swiss francs of Andy Rihs, a billionaire cycling enthusiast who owns BMC and other bike brands. Registering the team in the US helps the team to tap this giant, lucrative market whilst trading on the image of Swiss quality.

Euskaltel – Euskadi : Euskaltel is a regional telephone operator in the Basque region, known as Euskadi in the Basque language. Euskaltel has had a tough time of late with the Spanish courts imposing a €222 million fine last year but this is being appealed. The region is semi-autonomous and retains a strong separatist movement. The team is one way to affirm the region’s identity.

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the new Garmin team bike computer - haha

Garmin – Sharp: Garmin is the US satellite navigation company, well it is from Kansas but registered in Switzerland. It was founded by Gary Burrell and Min Kao which explains the Gar-Min name. Some have questioned the company’s future in a world where smartphones replace many GPS devices but the cycling and sports equipment is proving to be a big new area. Sharp are a Japanese electronics company but the sponsorship is with the European subsidiary as the firm wants to promote its brand in Europe. The team cleverly has a large screen TV incorporated in the side of the team bus.

Orica – Greenedge: Orica is an Australian company that makes explosives and other speciality chemicals for the mining industry. It bought Nobel, the Norweigan dynamite firm several years ago. Australia has been a big part of the global mining boom and the company does not have a great reputation with explosive disasters as well as several fines for environmental damage but sponsoring a cycling team is seen as a way to put something back. Greenedge meanwhile is a holding name as the team searches for a co-sponsor, green as in the Australia but also the environment and edge as cutting edge.

Lampre – Merida: Lampre make rolled, laminated steel. If this sounds unfamiliar take a look at your washing machine or fridge and the white steel around it. The Italian firm supplies the “white good” industry with the white steel and has operations around the world. It’s been in the sport since 1991 with Colnago Lampre and then in 1992 the Lampre team was born with the blue and fuchsia jersey that we still see today. Merida is a Taiwanese bike manufacturer linked to Specialized that’s keen to make a name for itself in the pro peloton.

Cannondale: the bike brand has had its ups and downs. In the 1990s it supplied bikes to the Saeco team in Italy and was famous for its oversized alu tubing. The company moved into motorcycles, offering innovative lightweight offroad bikes but this was a commercial disaster and the brand was bought by Dorel, a Canadian conglomerate that also owns Sugoi, Schwinn and GT as well as a range of brands supplying infant products like Bébéconfort.

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pee break

Argos – Shimano: Argos is a Dutch oil company but don’t think of oil rigs, think gas stations and tanker trucks as the firm sells and distributes diesel, heating oil, petrol and lubricants in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. It was recently bought by a Russian firm but I’m told the takeover changes nothing and the sponsorship continues. Shimano is obvious but note their European base in the Netherlands which explains this Dutch connection.

Lotto Belisol Team : Lotto is the Belgian state lottery and like FDJ in France, has the monopoly in Belgium. Founded in 1934 to raise funds for the sick in the Belgian Congo, the company has continously sponsored a pro team since 1985 although at times it has been the number two name, for example Omega Pharm – Lotto a couple of years ago. It also sponsors the Stanard Liège football team. Belisol make alu and wooden windows and doors and has branched out into domestic renewable energy products like solar energy panels.

Movistar Team: Movistar is a mobile telecoms operator owned by Spanish national telecoms firm Telefonica with operations in Spain and Latin America and also in several European countries under the 02 brand. It’s a giant company but the pro team is one of the smallest budget teams in the World Tour. Be sure to pronounce the team name right, it is not “movie star”

Omega Pharma – Quickstep: contrary to the name Omega Pharma is not a pharmaceuticals company. Instead it sells para-pharmaceutical products like wound dressings, vitamin supplements and other products find in pharmacies. Quickstep is a brand of laminated flooring that might seem indissociable from Belgian cycling but in fact it’s owned by US company Mohawk Industries.

Blanco Pro Cycling: “your name here” as the team formerly known as Rabobank is hunting for a sponsor. Rabobank quit the mens’ pro cycling at the end of 2012 but fulfilled its contract by leaving enough money to fund the team. It says something that the sponsor prefers to pay for the team but not have its name linked.

Radioshack – Leopard: Radioshack is a US electronics retailer that came into the sport to support Lance Armstrong’s comeback. Surprisingly they’ve lasted longer than the Texan although the company frequently attracts headlines about being bought out. Leopard is another holding name, supplied by Luxembourg real estate millionaire Flavio Becca. I gather a new sponsor will be announced later this spring.

Team Sky: Sky is a satellite television channel with operations in Britain, Germany and Italy. The brand is ultimately controlled by Newscorp and the cosmopolitan Murdoch family. The team is partly owned by British and Italian Sky which helps to explain the presence of several Italian riders and is surely an additional incentive as Wiggins targets the Giro.

Team Saxo – Tinkoff: Saxo is a currency brokerage from Denmark that offers software platforms to the banking industry. Tinkoff is a Russian bank and credit card issuer that operates online only, copying the model of Capital One in the US.

Vacansoleil – DCM: Vacansoleil is a Dutch operator of holiday camps across Europe and the name is play onvacances and soleil, French for holidays and sunshine. They have camping sites in France and beyond. DCM is a company selling garden products, notably soil and plant food. Note this is big business in the Netherlands where the flower industry is huge and supplies much of Europe.

Pro Continental teams
Accent Jobs – Wanty: Accent is an employment agency in Belgium whilst Wanty is a construction company.

Doug's new bike

Androni Giocattoli – Venezuela: giocattoli is Italian for toys and Androni makes a range of plastic toys under licence including a Hello Kitty lawnmower. Venezuela is of course the South American nation and the team has recruited several riders from here.

Bardiani Valvolve – CSF Inox: two names but the same company, Bardiani makes steel valves for the food industry. The next time you see TV footage of a food factory with liquids being pumped and poured as products move along conveyor belts it might feature Bardiani’s valves or CSF’s steel piping.

Bretagne – Séché Environnement: Bretagne is the cycling-mad region of north-west France that juts out into the Atlantic whilst Séché is a recycling company that manages waste and other products.

Caja Rural: a Spanish banking brand, it covers over 70 different small banks run on a cooperative basis.

CCC Polsat: CCC is a chain of shoe shops in Poland whilst Polsat is satellite TV channel.

Champion System Pro Cycling: makes custom cycle clothing for clubs and teams.

Cofidis: is a French consumer credit company offering loans in France, Belgium and Spain. It concentrates on the sub-prime segment and has drawn criticism for aggressive tactics.

Colombia: is a quasi-national Colombian team but the funding is diverse with the national government making a contribution via the Coldesportes (Colombia Sports) agency and then a range of co-sponsors chipping in funding and equipment.

Europcar: is a privately-owned vehicle rental company with operations around the world. The green brand is a common sight at airports and beyond and in France you can spot the likes of Thomas Voeckler painted on the side of rental vans.

IAM Cycling: Independent Asset Management is a Swiss fund management company that has focussed on private funds but is moving to sell its funds to the general public.

Crelan – Euphony: Crelan is the new name for Landbouwcrediet (“land-build-credit”) a bank offering savings and mortgages. Euphony is a telecoms reseller offering mobile phones and broadband in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Meets the UCI’s 6.8kg minimum weight rule

NetApp – Endura: NetApp is a Californian company offering data storage and other IT services. Endura is a Scottish cycle clothing manufacturer.

Team MTN Qhubeka: MTN is a mobile phone operator from South Africa with operations across Africa and beyond. The continent often lacks the infrastructure of traditional telecoms and MTN has grabbed a big share of the mobile market. Qhubeka is a charity project in South Africa to get people cycling. It helps rural communities by giving bicycles to children in return for work done to improve their environment and their community, this way the kids can get to school or provide improved access to healthcare.

Bon appetit!

Sojasun: is a French brand of soya-based food products from drinks to snacks to other healthfoods.

Team Novonordisk – Type 1: Novo Nordisk is a Danish pharmaceutical company with a range of insulin products and it is funding a pro team comprised only of diabetic athletes as a way to show the condition need not prevent an active life.

Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise: Topsport is a Flemish sports foundation funded by the regional government and is helping younger riders in the pro careers. Baloise is a Swiss insurance and savings company.

United Healthcare: a US healthcare insurance provider.

Vini Fantini: a brand of wines from Italy. The same company as Vini Farnese last year, now the team promotes Fantini wines.

Rusvelo: is essentially the Russian track cycling program with a road team to allow the endurance athletes to race on the road and is funded by the Russian government.

Katusha: is the abbreviated version of Ekaterina, the Russian version of Katherine and the name of a famous Soviet wartime folk song in Russia which still gets patriotic hearts stirring today. In English you’d call them Team Kathy but there’s nothing diminutive about the sponsors: Gazprom and Itera are energy giants and Ростехнологии / Rostechnologii is a Russian state agency designed to fund and control various technology and defence companies making this a team funded from the heart of the Kremlin.

ride on.

Johnny Boy

Catchin' ZZZ's

Message for today: sleep more, get faster...

THINK for a moment about your typical workday. Do you wake up tired? Check your e-mail before you get out of bed? Skip breakfast or grab something on the run that’s not particularly nutritious? Rarely get away from your desk for lunch? Run from meeting to meeting with no time in between? Find it nearly impossible to keep up with the volume of e-mail you receive? Leave work later than you’d like, and still feel compelled to check e-mail in the evenings?

More and more of us find ourselves unable to juggle overwhelming demands and maintain a seemingly unsustainable pace. Paradoxically, the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less. A new and growing body of multidisciplinary research shows that strategic renewal — including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office and longer, more frequent vacations — boosts productivity, job performance and, of course, health.

“More, bigger, faster.” This, the ethos of the market economies since the Industrial Revolution, is grounded in a mythical and misguided assumption — that our resources are infinite.

Time is the resource on which we’ve relied to get more accomplished. When there’s more to do, we invest more hours. But time is finite, and many of us feel we’re running out, that we’re investing as many hours as we can while trying to retain some semblance of a life outside work.

Although many of us can’t increase the working hours in the day, we can measurably increase our energy. Science supplies a useful way to understand the forces at play here. Physicists understand energy as the capacity to do work. Like time, energy is finite; but unlike time, it is renewable. Taking more time off is counterintuitive for most of us. The idea is also at odds with the prevailing work ethic in most companies, where downtime is typically viewed as time wasted. More than one-third of employees, for example, eat lunch at their desks on a regular basis. More than 50 percent assume they’ll work during their vacations.

In most workplaces, rewards still accrue to those who push the hardest and most continuously over time. But that doesn’t mean they’re the most productive.

Spending more hours at work often leads to less time for sleep and insufficient sleep takes a substantial toll on performance. In a study of nearly 400 employees, published last year, researchers found that sleeping too little — defined as less than six hours each night — was one of the best predictors of on-the-job burn-out. A recent Harvard study estimated that sleep deprivation costs American companies $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity.

The Stanford researcher Cheri D. Mah found that when she got male basketball players to sleep 10 hours a night, their performances in practice dramatically improved: free-throw and three-point shooting each increased by an average of 9 percent.

Daytime naps have a similar effect on performance. When night shift air traffic controllers were given 40 minutes to nap — and slept an average of 19 minutes — they performed much better on tests that measured vigilance and reaction time.

Longer naps have an even more profound impact than shorter ones. Sara C. Mednick, a sleep researcher at the University of California, Riverside, found that a 60- to 90-minute nap improved memory test results as fully as did eight hours of sleep.

MORE vacations are similarly beneficial. In 2006, the accounting firm Ernst & Young did an internal study of its employees and found that for each additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their year-end performance ratings from supervisors (on a scale of one to five) improved by 8 percent. Frequent vacationers were also significantly less likely to leave the firm.

As athletes understand especially well, the greater the performance demand, the greater the need for renewal. When we’re under pressure, however, most of us experience the opposite impulse: to push harder rather than rest. This may explain why a recent survey by Harris Interactive found that Americans left an average of 9.2 vacation days unused in 2012 — up from 6.2 days in 2011.

The importance of restoration is rooted in our physiology. Human beings aren’t designed to expend energy continuously. Rather, we’re meant to pulse between spending and recovering energy.

In the 1950s, the researchers William Dement and Nathaniel Kleitman discovered that we sleep in cycles of roughly 90 minutes, moving from light to deep sleep and back out again. They named this pattern the Basic-Rest Activity Cycle or BRAC. A decade later, Professor Kleitman discovered that this cycle recapitulates itself during our waking lives.

The difference is that during the day we move from a state of alertness progressively into physiological fatigue approximately every 90 minutes. Our bodies regularly tell us to take a break, but we often override these signals and instead stoke ourselves up with caffeine, sugar and our own emergency reserves — the stress hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol.

Working in 90-minute intervals turns out to be a prescription for maximizing productivity. Professor K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues at Florida State University have studied elite performers, including musicians, athletes, actors and chess players. In each of these fields, Dr. Ericsson found that the best performers typically practice in uninterrupted sessions that last no more than 90 minutes. They begin in the morning, take a break between sessions, and rarely work for more than four and a half hours in any given day.

“To maximize gains from long-term practice,” Dr. Ericsson concluded, “individuals must avoid exhaustion and must limit practice to an amount from which they can completely recover on a daily or weekly basis.”

So, if you want to maximize your performance - at work or on the roads running - get to bed, take some time off, and, most importantly: chillax.

Good way to "RELAX"? **chill out to 80's grooves!

see ya on the roads

johnny boy