My last race data was staggering for me.
I just wanted to let you know that I have been having a great season this year. Though it had a lull from May-June when my wife and I had our little boy. But as we transitioned in adding child #2, we were able to keep health and fitness a high priority.
All that said, after having a season ending accident in 2010, when I was hit by a car in May, I knew coming back in 2011 was going to be humbling. My 2009 season was epic. Of 15 races I entered, I won 14 of them (was 2nd in the other) and set 8 course records. So to come back, after a season of recovery, to that level, would be a tall order.
Though this season has been a little different with a bit less racing, the results have been more than I could have ever hope for. Ranging from winning, and setting course records, in cycling time trials, to being the USAT regional champion, and setting course records on courses that have been around for a long time…I have been pleased to come back and accomplish all this in the year I turned 40. Sport has been good to me.
But I would be remiss if I thought I did it all on my own. Support from family, training consistency, and sponsors, have all made it possible… notably Extreme Endurance. You guys have been there for me every morning and night. I took a short hiatus when we had our little boy, and when I came back to training, I could tell I just felt flat. After getting a week or so of Extreme Endurance in me again, I could feel the workouts being absorbed, or my body adapting, to them more easily. I stayed true to taking Extreme Endurance and in the last couple weeks I have seen explosive growth…explosive! I can send you the excel data I have collected from all the Oly triathlons I have done since 2009, some cycling races I did in 2010, and then the Oly tris from this season. My last race data was staggering for me. I went from having a normalized power of ~320 watts, to 337 watts in my last race…which translates to 4.43 watts per kg. for a 40k bike leg. Now, it’s one thing to ride well, but a ride is only good when you can run well. I ended up running a 37 min 10k, which for me, is good. I had a 4+ minute lead off the bike, so I was not being pressured. I ended up winning by 6 minutes and setting a new course record.
After riding well in that race, and having some good training in the weeks leading up, I really started to look at my HR vs power on my daily rides and have noticed that my HR is about 10 beats lower, for the same power. I am blown away. When I look down to see my power on my SRM, I expect to see about 250 and I see 270-280. I have been riding with power since 2005, so I am pretty familiar with it and how I feel in relation to the power output.
Having tools like a powermeter and HR is great, and allows me to really hone in on the data on the bike, but what about the run? I have noticed the same thing on the run as well. I looked at data from the same loop I have run numerous times, compared time, avg pace per mile, and avg HR. Today I ran 8 miles, on the hilly course, and avg’d a HR of 143 and a pace of 6:25 min mile. It felt steady and somewhat effortless. And that has been my experience with my last couple weeks of runs.
I am sure you are getting tired of my ranting about watts, HR, run pace, etc. I guess what I am saying is that in the past few weeks I have seen a huge bump in my fitness.
I know I have a decent VO2 max, but this growth is leaving me shaking my head. I know Extreme Endurance has opened the door to this, so thank you.
I have attached a few pics of me racing this season…one, the front page of the Cda Press, and a few other of me in action. Here are a couple links to of some vids that have been posted of some races:
http://www.swimbikerunvideos.com/2011/08/14/coeur-dalene-olympic/
http://www.swimbikerunvideos.com/2011/09/05/titanium-man-olympic/
Sorry for the lengthy email…I tried to keep it brief, but I have so much to say and so many positive experiences with Extreme Endurance. I wish I could summarize it better.
Thanks again,
Roger Thompson
TIMEX Multisport Team
President- Tri Fusion (www.tri-fusion.com)
Finally I feel some of my "old" form coming back
Sunday and my friend Kenji took these great photos at the local short track race the next day. I am currently leading that series. You are free to use any of these photos just credit Kenji Sugahara. He can also provide higher resolution shots if need be.
The supplements are working great with my CPAP therapy. Seems like the higher does of Omegas and the Extreme Immune are a dynamite combo for relieving the chronic fatgue and inflammation that has set in over the last few years. Finally I feel some of my “old” form coming back–hopefully in time for some big results before the end of the year!
Thanks again for all the support. I couldn’t have made it without you guys this year!
Evan Plews
I’m aiming for nothing less than a win.
After the Outlaw Iron Distance race, I needed just 24 hours to get back into training. However I feel that I need to report back on some EE usage.
I took a break for a week and then had a training holiday in France. I spent a few days mountain biking in the alps but also went for a good 2 hour alpine run. The next day my legs were in bits. Despite cold pools, compression gear etc, it took me 4 days to be able to walk again.
Back on the extreme endurance it was and after 5 days there, my training started properly. 663 miles on the bike in 8 days for some extreme training and with that some 3-4 hour alpine runs. I made a point of sprinting down some of the mountains, real fell running stuff that should have ruined me for the rest of the week. Despite feeling tired, Extreme Endurance delivered and I could not only walk the next day, but run and continue 100 mile bike rides.
My major race of the year is one week away. The European Long Distance champs in Finland. I’m aiming for nothing less than a win.
Hywel Davies
UK
Age-Grouper
Extreme Endurance has been an outstanding addition to my overall training routine. As an age-grouper, I have to balance my training with graduate school, work, and so many other “general life” obligations. To those ends, it becomes critical to take a quality over quantity approach to workouts. Extreme Endurance allows me to recover faster from hard efforts, making it much easier to ensure critical quality without needing massive training volume. That said, make sure to still build in recovery!
In addition to the enhanced recovery between workouts, I have noticed a marked difference in the last 10% of workouts – the body just seems more willing to hold threshold pace and power levels. This makes sense, given the product’s effectiveness in combating the ill-effects of lactic acid by-products.
As I look forward to the second half of the season, my approach and goals around races have shifted from winning my age-group to finishing on the overall podium. This is a big-step toward my longer term goal of reaching elite-status, and I’m thankful to have Extreme Endurance to support the training required for this transition in both mindset and results.
Brad Stulberg
Multisport Athlete, Member of Team USA Duathlon, Graduate Student at the University of Michigan
3 Wins in 3 Starts
Yvonne van Vlerken takes third victory at 3rd start in Salzburg in front of Mirjam Weerd/NED.
Thomas J. Vonach surprises with a 7th Overall rank in the international field.
While the men´s World Cup in Kitzbühel fell substantially in the water on Saturday, the classic Salzburgerland Triathlon could get exactly two sun-hours in which the race took place after two rainy editions in the last 2 years.
The women´s race was firmly in Dutch hand. It ended with a double-victory of Yvonne van Vlerken who won the race now already for the 3rd time,
and Mirjam Weerd, 3. of Ironman Wisconsin and 4. IM South Africa 2010.
The strong swimmer Weerd led after swim and changed with a cushion of 1:40min on van Vlerken to the bike. Yvonne van Vlerken needed quite exactly 16km and until the peak point of the bike course to neutralise that and take the lead. Both training partners, van Vlerken and Mirjam Weerd, came into T2 with only 40 seconds gap and then made it quite exciting on the run. Mirjam Weerd, reigning Dutch middle distance Champion, surprised with a 38:02min. On the selective 10km-distance. Clearly behind the two Dutchies Salzburg´s Dominique Angerer made the podium of the ladies complete.
In the men´s race Thomas J. Vonach surprised with a 7th overall rank. The Schwarzach resident left the water in 12. Position with a good swim performance and clocked the 3rd bike-time moving through the field up to 7th position. Finally Vonach recorded an end-time of 1:47:22 hours and could hold off short-course youngsters like Daniel Herlbauer with a strong 36:23min run time. The German Alexander Bonauer won the race in front of Alun Woodward/GB and Dejan Patrcevic/CRO. Austrian short -course specialist Paul Reitmayr took 5th overall and was the quickest Austrian in front of Thomas Vonach in 1:45:40 hours.
See results here: http://results1.pentek-timing.at/results/show_results.php?veranstnr=11468
Secret Formula
We are doing pretty good over here on Fuji-CyclingTime.com! I got 5th in the UCI 2.2 Tour of Thailand prologue, Tjarco got 8th, then I was third on Stage 5. Tjarco had another 5th and a 7th, stages (I think) 4 & 6.
Not bad for first race of the season.
Tjarso is also 2nd currently in the list of ALL dutch pros – including ProTour – for wins. The list reads Rabobank, Fuji, Rabobank, Rabobank, Rabobank etc and so on! Pretty cool.
So yeah we are going well. big Tour of East Taiwan this weekend, then some smaller races, we intend to win all! haha
Anyway just a note to say thanks for the ‘secret formula’, seems to be working 
Lee Rodgers
Fuji-Cycling
2 Minute Improvement on the Old Record
First 2 races of the season have proved interesting.
Race 1: A duathlon, which was a world championship qualifier.
I have had a few weeks off using extreme endurance due to intermittent training through work pressure.
I started the first of a 2 lap 10 k run pretty strongly and kept with the lead group. We were running at around 5.15-5.20 per mile pace and feeling pretty good. After 5k, I lost touch with the lead group of 5. I finished the run about a minute down on the lead group and was feeling pretty shot.
Onto the bike and I found very little rhythm in the riding. On a 9 lap course, I expected to ride through the field but it was heavy going and it took 7 laps to get into 2nd place. The leader, a former british champion, was well ahead and I managed a good but hard 2nd run to finish second overall. Generally pleased with the event but expected to be closer to the leader, who finished 3 mins ahead. Training for the next few days was hard with sore legs.
2nd Race: 36 mile Hilly time Trial.
On the Tuesday of that week, I started back on the Extreme endurance, taking 4 a day and was able to get some good cycle rides in. The course is a 2 lap 36 mile course with a very long first climb and rolling roads. The course record was 1.30.34 which was set in 2009 when I had a good winter of cycle training and won the event. Last year’s winner was present and the weather was pretty good so I was hoping for another fast time.
The first lap was taken pretty steady, or as steady as you can ride a hilly course. Being careful not to push the heart rate too high on the climbs and trying to maintain speed on the flats. At the first checkpoint, I was at exactly the same split time as the previous winner. Knowing that I needed to up the pace, I attacked the climbs and pushed to the absolute limit, hoping that Extreme Endurance would kick in and help the final stages. It did a great job. The second lap was a minute faster and I won the event by 44 seconds, setting a new course record of 1.28.14, over 2 mins improvement on the old record.
First sprint triathlon of the year next weekend.
Hywel Davies
UK Triathlete
I AM FLABBERGASTED
I thought this was a load of cobblers but the listener review (was it Howell Towel?) late last year and your Marathon experience made me think I really should try it – it’s probably age but I have had a huge problem with sore legs in training for all 3 previous Ironman campaigns. They’re obviously supporting you well so I sceptically bought 3 tins of Extreme Endurance for Ironman NZ and have been popping the regimented 6 pills a day since early December.
I didn’t really notice much difference for the first month and thought – snake oil.
Then my volumes picked up and I am flabbergasted – like you say, it really does seem that it accelerates your recovery from muscle soreness incredibly. It reminds me of being 21 again (a lifetime a go for me .. literally) when you could do the most stupid long runs, have a bath, go to bed and feel fine the following morning. I’ve had a far bigger year this year than previously and have had nearly no leg soreness at all even in my biggest weeks. So there you go another unsolicited compliment for the product. Some of it will be new compression tights which are also better but, hey.
John Hancock
New Zealand