wise athletes podcast

Glen and I are joined today by Rob Andrew and Joseph Vigil of Cyclists 4 Community.  C4C was founded only 7 years ago; how C4C has accomplished so much in such a short time is a fascinating story of camaraderie and generosity and determination to make cycling safer on the roads of Boulder county.   If you are in the Boulder County area, you have to hear Rob and Joseph tell the C4C story.  If you live in another city or state and want to make your community better for cyclists, you also need to hear this.  Maybe you’ve heard of Wednesday Morning Velo? Listen in to hear the whole amazing story. Rob AndrewOne of the founders of C4C along with Russ Chandler.  By day a corporate insurance guy: partner at Lockton Companies.  Early morning or after work, tooling around Boulder on Road, Gravel and MTB.  Racing masters for the Full Cycle FCX team.   Also one of the organizers of WMV the pre-eminent cycling/business networking ride in Boulder Joseph Vigil Joined the C4C Board in 2015 after being super impressed with the great work and effort done for the communities of Jamestown and Lyons, where he went to high school. Joseph stepped up to become the C4C Board President 2019, and then has stayed on through 2020-2021 when the president elect for this term had to step down for family reasons. He is an architect and founder of WORKSHOP8 in Boulder, and rides his bike as much as he can, before, during and after. He joined the Wholesome Masters Racing team in 2018 at the behest of Rob Andrew, who then left and joined Full Cycle. Home Cyclists 4 Community Home Wednesday Morning Velo Outline of Discussion: Wednesday Morning Velo – started 20 years ago as the Bankers Ride.  Evolved and grew over time: today would get up to 200 riders on some summer mornings.  Pandemic has put a halt to that for a short time.  Now have 4+ rides each week, moto medics, sponsorships, kits every 2 years, coffee and snacks after each ride.  Annual budget close to $20,000Cyclists 4 Community – started in 2013 after the floods.  Looked for a way to give back to the communities most impacted and build a better relationship between cyclist and drivers in those communities.  Cyclists 4 Jamestown was the beginning raising over $250,000 to help solve big problems there and in Lyons.  Both locations were staples of the WMV routes we commonly road on.  Other notes:Incorporated in 2016 501c3 non profitBig event: Crank-it-Forward started in 2017Hired 1st Becca Blay and next Matt Muir as staffWorked with Boulder County extensively on rebuild of LHC, James Canyon, and 4 mile to be re-build bike friendlyPortable sign on 36 every springSignage around Boulder county (3 feet law, cross yellow line)Lights on bikesLights at key intersectionBicycle Friendly Driver Education program developed – now working with Bicycle Colorado  and potentially nationalPorta potty in JamestownC4C today: Very engaged board and staff working on making Boulder County safer for cyclists and for better relationships with all users.Boulder to Lyons bike way study (LyBo)Matching Fundraiser going on right nowCrank-it-Forward Oct. 1 at the JCCMay bike Auction – fundraiser and virtual eventSt Vrain road workJeffco to Boulder bikeway discussions

The perfect nutrition plan is so simple that there are obviously no oversights, not so complex that there are no obvious oversights. (borrowed from Tony Hoare). Today we’ll focus on considerations for how to use nutrition to improve the older athlete’s ability to recover from exercise. The nutritional knowledge we discuss will be useful to any athlete on any diet.  But still, each of us has to make our own trade-off decisions.  Recovering faster and getting stronger is not all we want in life.  Some of you may decide that you’d rather enjoy what you are currently eating and drinking instead of improving your athletic performance or even your longevity.  So be it.  At least you can make an informed decision. Nutritional topics impacting recovery  Recovery from exercised induced damage:  refueling, repairing damage, reducing chronic inflammation Keeping / building muscle mass:  eating enough protein (leucine), hormone support, sarcopenia Nutrition has been described as a pseudoscience masquerading as a religion.  So much new information and interpretations and conspiracy theories come out that people don’t know what to do except stay out of it or choose sides.  I’ve done it myself more than once.  EC’s perspective is refreshingly simple.  She doesn’t advocate for extremes or even for any particular diet.  EC’s advice is to keep it simple when it comes to choosing a formula for choosing what to eat and how much.  Don’t make a list of 1000 rules of things to avoid and do.  Instead, EC approach to focus on what matters the most, and then fine tune as you get closer to your personalized diet that best fits your goals and lifestyle. As John Von Neuman said, “There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.” EC SynkowskiOptimizeMe Nutrition | Home of the #800gChallenge®M.S., Nutrition & Functional MedicineCertified CrossFit Level 4 Coach EC Synkowski EC Synkowski runs OptimizeMe Nutrition, a company dedicated to making nutrition easy through digital education products and corporate wellness programs. The mission of OptimizeMe Nutrition is to provide solutions to improve weight, health, and overall well being through sustainable diet methods. Thousands have used her #800gChallenge®, a diet free of restrictive rules, to eat healthily and have reported weight loss, increased energy, and improved performance! She has extensive education in the life sciences with a BS in biochemical engineering, a first MS in environmental sciences (with a focus in genetics), and second MS in Nutrition & Functional Medicine. EC holds the Certified CrossFit Level 4 Coach (CF-L4) credential. Her professional experience includes working as a Program Manager for CrossFit Inc (2011-2017) authoring their training course materials and serving as a subject matter expert for their certifications. She has accumulated more than 600 hours of public speaking teaching fitness and nutrition all over the world, including at TEDx (Boulder). With more than 20 years of experience and academic training, EC seamlessly translates the evidence-based scientific data into practical solutions for everyday success. This: End Your Nutrition Confusion – Learn My 10 Principles of Nutrition – https://optimizemenutrition.com/2019/11/17/end-your-nutrition-confusion-learn-my-10-principles-of-nutrition/ And This: Nutrition Essentials Masterclass – https://optimizemenutrition.com/masterclass-waitlist/

Glen and I are joined today by Rich Voss of Voss on Track Coaching.  Rich is a highly accomplished track cycling racer and coach.  Rich is a 5x masters world champion, 14x masters national champion, and he has coached 5 masters world champions plus many masters national champions.  And, Rich has set 5 masters world records over the years.  Yeah, Rich knows power:  how to train with power, how to build and recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers, how to get the most out of what you got from “mom and dad”.  But that’s not all, Rich is a master at athletic longevity….knowing how to stay in the athletic game for a long time by focusing on camaraderie and health as the basis for long-term high performance and enthusiasm for sports.  Be sure to listen to the entire episode as Rich offers his best advice for improving your sprint near the end of our talk.  It is definitely worth your time. In our talk with Rich, we discuss the following topics (in order): GeneticsMuscle Fiber trainabilityVO2 Max trainingGoals vs. interestsTime managementGym workRecoveryBuilding a better sprint, even if you are not a sprinter.Camaraderie I think you’ll find it interesting, and you might even pick-up a few tricks for getting stronger on the bike. You can find Rich and the Hammer Racing Team at: http://hammerracing.club/

Glen and I are joined once again by Jeff Winkler of Winkler Cycling (winklercycling.com) in Boulder, Colorado.  You’ll recall that Jeff is a Category 1 USAC coach who has over 30 years of experience in bicycle racing.  He started racing as a junior athlete and rose up through the ranks to become a professional cyclist racing in the U.S. and Europe.  As a coach,  Jeff has worked with racers in road, track, cyclocross and mountain bike disciplines, working with novice to professional athletes.    I thought it would be easy to come up with a list of common mistakes made by masters athletes, but I was wrong.  “Mistakes” per se are contextual, and masters athletes in particular have a wide variety of goals.  We settled on discussing a set of areas where mistakes are easy to make for masters athletes in particular as a result of aging or health issues that seem to arise or become more prominent as we get older.  In general, I think it is safe to say that we are speaking to masters athletes who fall into a range defined as:   At one end is the masters racer, who is emphasizing athletic performance but is also interested in not undermining health and wellness.At the other end is the masters athlete who is emphasizing health and wellness but also interesting in getting better / stronger / faster in his or her sport, and improving over time or limiting losses that may be unavoidable due to aging or shrinking time allocated to athletics. Health issues that tend to appear later in life due to aging: Sleep issues/ recovery slowing / more aches and painsIncreasing body fat – slowing metabolism (drives a desire to burn calories)Emerging general health issues:  cardiovascular issues, metabolic (diabetes), brain health, joint health, cancerDecreasing testosterone, muscle mass…this becomes a serious issue eventually.  The lost muscle mass is mostly fast-twitch fibersDropping VO2 max….decreasing max heart rate, 10% per decade after 30 (can lower to 5% with exercise)Decreasing elasticity in connective tissue:  getting stiffer and less flexibleWorsening posture and muscle imbalances (stiffness, maybe pain) Other issues that emerge over time: Doing the same thing year after year – a loss of novelty & fun…losing the passionEgo caught up in athletic performance – a loss of fun as performance declines…More time constraints; limited time for exercise or less willing to spend as much time . Biggest Mistakes made by Masters Athletes: Not enough high intensity training (vs. endurance, tempo, and threshold)Too much high intensity training (thinking that HIIT is enough)Insufficient cross training (strength, mobility, balance, muscle activation)Buying into the “I’m getting old” story (no longer testing limits, playing it too safe)Not being proactive about recovery and health. You can find Jeff Winkler at https://winklercycling.com/

Today, we are joined by Mindee Stevenson, who is the current masters world champion in the team pursuit.  Mindee has been winning races on the velodrome for many years.  After winning the Masters World Championship in the Team Pursuit in 2019, Mindee discovered she had bladder cancer.  Listen in as Mindee walks us through her racing as an elite cyclist, and her later return to racing as a masters athlete to become world champion.  Mindee also describes her battle with cancer, and how her coach and team are so important to her fight.

Back when I was a mountaineer and rock climber, and looking for funny but true sayings to help guide me in moments of need…moments of high risk…moments of trying to explain to other people why the hell was I doing these crazy death defying acts of adventure. I came up with a list of rules and laws…principles that I found helpful.  Some of these are I think helpful just in general, and once in a while I’ll share one here on the Wise Athletes podcast. Here’s the second one, which I should have mentioned first as it is central to the Wise Athletes idea: Don’t confuse measurements of what is commonly or conveniently called ‘success’ such as race wins, racing category upgrades, miles run or ridden, Strava Achievements, feet skied, PRs, 14ers climbed, etc. with your true goals, which should be something like: happiness, health, full & long life.  The former are just metrics, which are useful for easy tracking of progress, and perhaps for motivation.  But don’t forget what you really want from your athletic endeavors.  It is easy to mistakingly substitute one for the other when you aren’t paying attention.  I call this the Error of the False Proxy:  

Today, I am joined by Sarah Brittain is the founder and CEO of Colorado Concussion Clinic, a clinic that provides evidence based care to people with head injuries.  Sarah Brittain has a Master of Science degree in Communication Science and Disorders from MGH Institute of Health Professions in Charlestown, Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. She is an active member of the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado’s (BIAC) board.  Joining in the discussion with Sarah is Brian Heber, a cycling friend who was hit on his bike by a vehicle 7 years ago resulting in a traumatic brain injury from which he is still recovering. Brian agreed to share his story and lessons learned. According to the CDC, a concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury—or TBI—caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement can cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull, creating chemical changes in the brain and sometimes stretching and damaging brain cells. Listen in as Sarah explains the causes and consequences of brain injury, which can be particularly bad for children and older adults.  She shares her knowledge about what to look for immediately and in the days afterward, and what to do to heal as fast and as well as possible.  After listening to Sarah, you’ll be armed with the critical information we all need for quickly assessing and helping friends make good decisions in the immediate aftermath of a crash.  Are they okay to get back on the bike?  Should they go to the ER?   Should you call 911?   All of this information and more is on today’s episode. Colorado Concussion Clinic: healmyconcussion.com info@healmyconcussion.comphone: (303) 932-2030 UCI Concussion Protocol: https://www.uci.org/docs/default-source/medical/2020-uci-cycling-specific-sport-related-concussion-protocol.pdf Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute: https://www.bhsi.org/buying.htm Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings: https://helmet.beam.vt.edu/bicycle-helmet-ratings.html Mayo Clinic on Concussion: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/concussion/symptoms-causes/syc-20355594

Today, Glen and I are joined by Charlie Merrill, PT in Boulder, Colorado. Charlie is a Physical Therapist who has been serving the Boulder community and athletes for over 20 years.  Over the past few years, Charlie has added pain science and more psychologically informed modalities to his manual therapy and biomechanical toolkits. He emphasizes the body and mind in identifying physical AND psychological/social factors that result in physical symptoms, like pain.  Charlie says the source of most athlete’s pain is often not what you’d expect and you can now work with him remotely at Lin Health, a new pain management platform.   Charlie’s website is Mperformance.com Charlie’s new pain management platform: https://www.lin.health/ Charlie’s Youtube channel has nearly 200 videos with free content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCinoyk46RyzA1v6PqbUl8_wCharlie’s and Dr Howard Schubiner’s upcoming professional training for clinicians: https://adlpages.lpages.co/beyond-pain-education-registration/ I learned from Charlie that there is a disconnect between pain and structural damage in the body.  What regular people think is true is that pain indicates something wrong, something damaged…that pain is a signal to slow down, be careful, let the damage heal.  But that is not always true.  Pain comes from the brain. Listen in as Charlie explains the science and practice of solving pain issues for athletes. Some topics we touch on: What is pain and where does it come from? Is pain the same as damage to the body?What is pain that seems to come out of nowhere?What is chronic pain? Is it caused by damage to the body?Are overuse injuries real? Is Wear and Tear for athletes a thing?How to tell and how to deal with pain that is not related to damage in the body? Advice for the older athlete who wants to remain strong and active for a long time? (Hint: add fun, pursue novelty, connect with your psychology) The twin peaks model I referenced from the book “Explain Pain”Which can be downloaded here.  It’s excellent for anyone to read: https://www.noigroup.com/product/explain-pain-second-edn-epub/ Other Resources: Wise Athletes Recovery Deep Dive Wise Athletes Recovery https://www.stitchttps://www.stitcher.com/show/cycling-in-alignment/episode/4-charlie-merrill-the-psycho-social-considerations-of-pain-70104112her.com/show/cycling-in-alignment/episode/4-charlie-merrill-the-psycho-social-considerations-of-pain-70104112 https://petermcgrahttps://petermcgraw.org/pain-injury-and-moving-with-joy/w.org/pain-injury-and-moving-with-joy/ A few documentaries but none really apply specifically to athletes. Howard Schubiner’s This Might Hurt Trailer: Link HereJohn Sarno’s All the Rage Trailer: Link HereAllen Gordon’s Pain Brain Trailer: https://painbrainfilm.com/Howard Schubiner’s book “Unlearn Your Pain”: https://www.amazon.com/Unlearn-Your-Pain-Howard-Schubiner/dp/0984336702

Today, Glen and I are joined by Jeff Winkler of Winkler Cycling in Boulder, Colorado.  Jeff is a Category 1 USAC coach who has over 30 years of experience in bicycle racing.  He started racing as a junior athlete and rose up through the ranks to become a professional cyclist racing in the U.S. and Europe.  As a coach, he has worked with racers in road, track, cyclocross and mountain bike disciplines, working with novice to professional athletes.  I met Jeff racing on Zwift, the largest of the social, riding virtual platforms.  In this episode, we will discuss Zwift and the benefits of virtual training and racing.  Listen in to hear us discuss how Zwift and other virtual platforms can aid you in your efforts to be stronger / faster / better in your sport, while adding advantages not found in the “real” world.  Jeff Winklerwww.winklercycling.comFB: winklerjeffIG: jeffwinkTwitter: jeffwink Glen WinkelBRAC: www.coloradocycling.org/Website: www.glenwinkel.com/ —— Here is a summary of the Zwift on a Budget video below: 1) Software:  Download the Zwift app to your laptop or desktop.  It can also run on your iPad, or phone.2) Trainer:Zwift works best with smart trainers, but it can work well with traditional trainers too.   You will need sensors for Zwift to understand how fast and hard you are riding.3) Sensors:  Be sure to have a rear wheel speed sensor that is Bluetooth or ANT+.  It is best if you also have a cadence sensor that does the same.   A power meter and/or a heart rate monitor that has Bluetooth / ANT+ are great extras / alternatives, but not necessary for a basic setup.4) Zwift Companion App:Download this one to your phone.  YES, Zwift uses TWO Apps to work!  It helps you to find races and rides, and has many other functions you can use while you are riding.

Bike Fitting has always seemed like a high art.  There is definitely something to it, and a few bike fitters seem to have it but most don’t for some reason. It must be hard to know how to put an asymmetrical body built for walking and running upon a perfectly symmetrical bicycle which requires perfect circles of power deployed in a bent-over, aerodynamic position without compromising the ability to breathe.  And that would be the easy scenario with a perfect body that has no dysfunctional neuromuscular patterns, no muscle imbalances, no adaptations to an old, bad bike fit, unresolved injuries,  or compensated weaknesses.  Well, it’s the rare cyclist or triathlete who feels a perfect connection to the bike.  If you are like me, you’ve been tinkering with your setup for years, and reluctantly sought out experts once in a while only to continue tinkering.  Surely there is a better way.  Recently, I’ve been hearing about the existence of bike fitters who are experts in the human body first, and then experts in fitting a bike to a body.  When I discovered that a friend of mine, Brian Heber, was getting a bike fit from a doctor of physical therapy, I just had to tag along.  Listen in as Brian and I talk to the physical therapist bike fitter, Natalie Collins, PT, DPT, COMT, Cert. FDN, BikePT, owner of PedalFit in Denver, Colorado.  Natalie and Brian talk about their experience working together to resolve Brian’s pain and increase his power via a combination of targeted exercises for Brian and a few small but important changes to his position on his bike.  Brian was even able to keep his aggressive handlebar position! I think you’ll be amazed at how much improvement is possible by making a few, perfect changes. Natalie Collins, PT, DPT, COMT, Cert. FDN, BikePT https://www.pedalfitpt.com/ (720) 460-1106 NATALIE@PEDALFITPT.COM