VINCENTVERGARAFITNESS

All the countless hours of hard work done in training can be thrown away if you come to a race unprepared.  The worst thing I've ever done was forgetting to bring cash for registration.  I had to ride as fast as I could to get to an ATM and ride back just before the race started.  I was winded before the race started and to no surprise- had one of the worst performances of my life!  Spare safety pins are also a racers best friend, especially when the race organizers forget to provide them!  The checklists below are the same checklists I run through to make sure I have everything I need to get through registration stress-free.  I have the checklist below in Word format, so if you want a copy, just leave a message on Twitter, Strava or send me an e-mail at eatsleeptrainsmart@gmail.com.

WHY I'VE BEEN M.I.A. THESE PAST MONTHS If you follow me on Strava, you might have learned that at the end of the 2013 season, my Continental GP4000S tire blew up right after I made a solo attack and reached 33mph.  It sent me falling to the ground on my back and shoulder, gave me a concussion, plus strains and sprains at my neck, shoulder and abdomen.  The most dangerous aspect of my fall was that it was impossible to anticipate the tire failure.  The tread separated from the casing and caused an instant loss of traction- enough to send me to the ground despite travelling in a straight line.  Here are some pictures of my wounds.  Some of them went deep enough to reach my fat cells.  Check it out: After 2.5 months off my bike to focus on rehabilitation, I was finally able to turn my head without my neck and shoulder going into spasms.  When I finally made it back on a bike, my legs and lungs hit the wall 15 minutes into the ride and forced me to stop.  Afterwards, my neck p

HOW TO TRAIN THE CORE PROPERLY Contrary to popular belief, the core was not designed to move the spine- it was designed to protect the spine from movement.  When the spine flexes, extends or rotates (twists), it places severe stress on the discs.  The goal of core exercise is to train the core to resist movement throughout all planes of motion and various loading patterns so that the entire body can operate as one single unit. WHO DISCOVERED THAT SIT-UPS ARE BAD? A Spine Biomechanics Professor, Dr. Stuart McGill was first to discover that the sit-up exercise places harmful stress on the spine.  A great article posted on Mens Health interviewed and covered several of Dr. Stuart McGill's ground breaking research on core training and its impact on the spine.  Check out the article below or do a Google search of his name to find hundreds of his studies on this topic.  After reading the article below, you'll learn that the sit-up is merely one of the many exercises that are dang

VELOCITY A23 PRO BUILD REVIEW I would like to start this review with a huge thank you to Velocity and The Wheel Department for sponsoring me through the 2013 season!  In the Velocity USA website, they described the A23 Pro Build wheeset as "THE set for crits, road races, and cyclocross.  This is not an exaggeration because I rode my A23 Pro Build to three podium finishes out of five races.  Thanks guys! When you buy a Velocity A23 Pro Build wheelset, they arrive individually wrapped inside familiarly shaped boxes.  I was too excited to open up my wheels, so I didn't get a chance to take unboxing pictures.  I only remembered to take a picture when I saw the sticker signed by the wheel builder who built my wheelset, Jacobi!  Check out his bio at The Wheel Department  website. THE LOGIC BEHIND MY BUILD: The benefit of the Velocity A23 Pro Build is that each wheelset can be entirely customizable to the rider. Other than rim, spoke, hub and nipple color, you can cho

Burpees are a great way to develop explosiveness, core strength and most importantly, bone density! The workout was set to an interval timer with 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest.  Perform the burpees in the order listed below.  The order of the burpees was specifically organized to ensure high quality work at each station.  Start with #1 and end at #5, then repeat three times. Depth Burpees Burpee Hops Pendulum Burpees Slam Burpees Long Jump Burpees Here are a few tips on setting up this workout: In order to prevent excessive Achilles stress, the small box in the "Depth Burpees" should be about a third of the large box's height.  The large box should be set to ~3/4 of the height of your maximal box jump. The Pendulum Burpees should be performed between two stable structures at about half of your maximal box jump height. The distance of the cones in the Long Jump Burpees should be set to the maximal distance that you can jump backwards, not forward

Saddle position is the core of any bike fit.  When the saddle is positioned incorrectly, it can cause a wide range of overuse injuries throughout the entire body.  Pain or numbness can occur at the hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, back (commonly low back), knees and feet.  This is no exaggeration!  Whenever I perform bike fittings, it's not uncommon for me to fix almost all of the rider's problems solely from correcting saddle position.  This post will discuss saddle tilt. THE PEVLIS & THE LUMBAR SPINE "LOW BACK" Since the lumbar spine attaches directly to the pelvis, its fate is determined by the tilt of the pelvis.  When you tilt your pelvis forward, the lower back extends.  When you tilt your pelvis backwards, the lower back will flex.  The right amount of saddle tilt is one that lets the pelvis maintain neutral- the healthy balance of flexion and extension. Image taken from: http://fixtheneck.com/Other_postural_effects.html It took some digging

While I was setting up my roller for another training ride, I noticed that my tire looked like this. At first, I thought this was some sort of tire indicator telling me that the tire needed to be replaced, but after rubbing it with my finger, I noticed that some of the metallic material transferred to my finger.  Apparently, the aluminum from my Travel Trac roller transferred to my tire.  Keep in mind that this was from a single one hour ride.  Check out my ride at Strava. http://app.strava.com/activities/112243986 Prior to this ride, the entire tire was just as red as everything else.  While aluminum is used in many applications (beverages, deodorant, cooking and food storage), I question whether this much aluminum would be considered safe.  There has to be some sort of health consequence.   How Can Aluminum Affect Your Health? I did a quick Google search and came across health information related to aluminum from the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry .