Masters Swim - Setting up Auto-Renew

CycleLife is excited to offer automated billing for your Master's Swim classes! Bringing your wallet to class can be a real drag, not to mention writing checks in a aquatic center locker room. Many students have requested that their credit card get billed monthly.

Tony Gets Dirty (And Tries 'Cross)

 I have been wanting to try a Cyclocross race for the last couple of years but for some reason the stars never aligned with training schedules, personal schedules and actually having a cross bike.

Well, 3 weeks ago someone posted on the MABRA list that they were selling a well used cross bike for $200. It was too good of a deal to pass up, and I figured for $200.00 the bike would fit the engine I was going to use to power it. Next step, I found a practice organized by a team member held on a free morning. Things were finally coming together. Nice thing is there seems to be a practice every weekday around the DC area.

Fall / Winter CompuTrainer Program Announced

 Head coach Eric Sorensen removes the guesswork. With 40 structured workouts, the 20-week program (divided into two, 10-week blocks and a holiday break) is designed to establish base fitness, build threshold power, teach key skills, and raise intensity progressively. Each week features eight supervised classes, including early morning, noon, and evening time slots. 

Open Water Swim Clinic w/Omar Nour

CycleLife organized an open water swim clinic on the 24th of July. As a CycleLife sponsored athlete, I had volunteered to help out with the workshop. I had a long, hard week of training and I must admit I was not too excited to wake up at 5:00 AM to get to the lake in time for check in. Michelle Harburg, also a CycleLife sponsored athlete, and I ended up going to the lake together.

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by a large number of participants and a well organized check-in system run by the CycleLife staff. I never had the opportunity to swim open water before my first tri. I must admit that it would have been an extremely valuable experience, not just for the obvious swim technique purposes but also for learning how to swim in packs and not be nervous about it or the logistical side of things which mimicked nicely race morning at the workshop.

Open Water Swim Recap

Swimming is often the most challenging triathlon discipline to master, and open water swimming can be downright intimidating. Uncertainty abounds – Am I swimming in the right direction? Am I going to get kicked, dunked, punched by other swimmers? What was that you just bumped your hand into? Having the opportunity to practice in a non-competitive environment can go a long way toward minimizing that intimidation. And even if one is finally ready to practice, there are very few places in the area with public access to lakes or rivers where one can do so.

Run Fast!

Many runners fail to recognize the importance of incorporating speed and strength based workouts into their training. Even endurance athletes benefit from speed work. Going on log runs at a comfortable pace will only help you improve so much. In order to be a faster runner, you have to actually run faster!

Here are a few strength and speed workouts to add to your workout routine: