Monday, April 10 @ 7:00pm, Bicycle Outfitters

Guest Speakers: Dr. Eric Heiden and Dr. Max Testa

Great KP Team meeting last night! What a pleasure to have two of the greats in the cycling world come and talk to the KP Team! Dr. Eric Heiden is a very humble Olympic Champion and now Orthopedic Surgeon who gave us a great presentation on different orthopedic injuries common to endurance athletes. Dr. Max Testa gave a great presentation on human performance and the different tests they do at the UC Davis Sports Performance Clinic. I thought both talks were very informative and am excited to go through some of the performance tests. They will be coming down again to do a "field test" with the KP Team. We will keep you informed on the date of the field test.

Dr. Testa went pretty deep into some exercise physiology, but on a whole gave out some very good information. Here are a few of the things I took away from the talk:

1) Economy is a very big contributer to reaching your full potential. When we talk about 3 sports, economy is huge. This is why it is very important to do DRILLS in swimming, focus on an efficient spin in cycling and your stride and foot strike in running. Focus on form and you will become a better, more efficient athlete. I like to call it "free" time, you waste less energy being efficient, thus have more energy to give.

2) Every individual is different. We each have a different make up, different muscle fiber types, different lactate thresholds, etc. You can improve your lactate threshold, but your V02 Max will not change a whole lot. Knowing your lactate threshold allows you to train at, or near that level, thus improving it.

3) Knowing your Power Output (watts) is also a key to improvement. He gave a few examples of athletes holding certain watts over extended periods. It is easier to predict an outcome by knowing watts.

4) Specificity of training is also a key to success. A Ironman athlete will train differently than an Olympic Distance athlete.

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After the talks, we held the nuts and bolts of our meeting. We held a raffle for all present and gave out our Monthly Awards. Here are the winners for the month of March:

KP Athlete of the Month - Female

Beth Stern - Beth is the Den Mother of the KP Team. Always looking out for everyone and concerned about everyone's well being. Well, she is also getting pretty fit training with the KainIron Team. She finished her first 1/2 Ironman down at Oceanside last month in 6:34:26! Way to go Beth! Keep up the hard work!

KP Athlete of the Month - Male

Steven Aurousseau - "Aussie Steve" is another KainIron Team member who always has a pleasant thing to say to everyone. Steven is a very humble athlete who is usually toward the front of the pack. He had a great race down in Oceanside, finishing in 5:15:07! G'Day Steven!

KP Performance of the Month - Female

Sarah Sawulski - Sarah is also on the KainIron Team. She went down to Oceanside and crushed the course, swimming, cycling and running to a PR by 20 minutes in 5:33:02. Way to go Sarah!

KP Performance of the Month - Male

Jacco van der Kooij - Jacco is NOT on the KainIron Team, but he is a Long Course specialist. Jacco ran a personal best 1:31 1/2 marathon down at Oceanside to finish in 4:50:44 and qualify for the 70.3 World Championships in Florida in November. Way to go Jacco! Hard work does pay off!!!

KP Most Improved Athlete of the Month - March

Brian Brunello - Brian had a tough February dealing with some injuries, but has made a great comeback in March/April. He went down and completed the swim, bike and 1/2 of the run at Oceanside even though his training had been suspect leading up to the event. He played it safe only running 1/2 of the run and is now back to full strength. He ran a Personal Best 5:32 mile at the track last week! Taking :20 off his old PR! He also completed the Tierra Bella Century ride last week! Way to go Brian! Wildflower look out!

• KP Athlete of the Month Winners receive a $50 gift certificate to Runner's Factory + a can of Cytomax + bottle + KP Schwag!
• KP Performance of the Month and Most Improved Athlete Winners receive a $25 gift certificate to Bicycle Outfitter + CytoSport product.

Thank you to all our great sponsors: Bicycle Outfitter, Runner's Factory, Zeal Optics, CytoSport, Aquaman Wetsuits, Piercey Toyota, TEAM Clinic, Bell Helmets, Bradventures, Advanced Muscle Therapy, Absolute Telecom, Vidovich Vineyards, Dr.Gregg Trent, DDS, J + A Productions and Dr. James Ratcliff.

Congratulations to all our Award Winners! Great job last month! Wildflower is coming up next, so get ready to go!

This coming weekend will be your first attempt at the K-Man Challenge this year! Get psyched!