Erinne and Lisbeth Kristenten posing in one of the best training locales in the US- Beech Mountain, North Carolina

Camping with BodyZen

2008 brings another round of training camps for us and after over 10 years of camps and clinics they never get old or boring. New athletes, new roads and new adventures keep us excited and getting fitter each day.
This current camp, which i am at currently, is in Clermont, Florida and we have a fun gregarious and rambunctious group with us. Clermont has hosted BZ camps many times before and unfortunately we will probably be choosing other locales in the Florida hills. Urban sprawl is the main culprit as the growth here is ridiculous to say the least. I am happy we have better restaurants and support stores to choose from but too many cars are on our old quiet roads. Not too mention any places in particular but our main training ground here has become too difficult to work with so we have some great alternate places to choose from next time. The good news is that the athletes are having a ball and in the last 24 hours have put in over 8 hours of training and tomorrow is the big day. Training groups and camps are a great way to see the effect of external motivation on an athlete. They are all here ready to fire and the smallest amount of pushing gets them to change into a bigger gear and put the hammer down. The girls are laying down the law here to and I think it is just AWESOME to watch female athletes hammer hard in the water, on two wheels and then on two feet. We intend to put the nail in the coffin tomorrow and then recover from this great dose of training.
We are looking forward to our next two big camps:
Fifth Annual Blue Ridge Mountain Camp April 16-20, Beech Mountain, NC
Villa Gaia Triathlon and Culinary Camp October 25-31, Villa Gaia Italy

Coffee today: Hampton Inn Robust Blend

Initial Impressions- SRM Professional Dura Ace Power Meter

CompuTrainer, PowerTap, Ergomo and SRM are all fine power meters each with their own strengths and weakness’. I have used them all for myself and for Coach Erinne’s training and also have used them in conjunction with many athletes training and racing programs. Recently I started using the SRM system, which is considered to be the gold standard in power meters. Through research and testing the SRM systems have been found to be the most accurate and reliable power meters in the world. They have strain gauges and circuitry built into the chainrings that measure torque and other info and relay the info to a small computer head unit.

I have been a long time reader of Pro Cycling and Cycle Sport magazines and anytime there was a good picture of a pro cycling team that had the unmistakable head unit that reads, ‘www.SRM.de’ I cringed with excitement. SRM is the power meter of choice for the pros and I just had to have one. After a few years with PowerTap and Ergomos I was excited to see what all the hype was about. So after I had my trusty mechanic Javier at Bike Tech Miami do a seamless, clean and beautiful installation I was ready to go ride, I thought. Then I remembered that power meters aren’t that simple to get up and going. So I did my hours of worth of reading and approached my unit!

I did all the torque settings and also the other calibration and set my time and date. The instructions were easy and actually quite funny to read and I set off on my first ride. I did an hour at easy pace and while I was riding I noted the following:
I liked that the elapsed ride time and the distance rotated on the top bar.
The HR, power and speed were easy to read even with a zero degree angle of the head unit.
It was easy to scroll thru the avg. and max screens

So I came home and plugged it into the laptop and started up my Cyclingpeaks WKO software. I changed the settings to SRM and the USB port and boom it was downloading. That was easier then the Ergomo and PowerTap set ups. They took hours to find the right ports. The ride was flawless in terms of no interruptions and all the info was there that I needed. SO, I am a happy cyclist with an accurate power meter. Final conclusions:
I like knowing that my data is the most accurate available
I like the size of the head unit and that it fits clean between my bars

Pretty easy and I am easy to please. I go out and ride with power on every ride, download the info and analyze it. The SRM is the way to go!

So if you want some pictures please visit the gallery here: http://www.bodyzen.com/htmlsite/qr.html

Coffee of the day: French Roast by Murrays Blend in Summerland Key, Florida