Advise to all you RUNNERS & CYCLIST

Some times athletes forget about one important factor for good results.One of our therapist,Alessandra Perberllini  tell us a bit more.

Sports massage is an effective addition to a training schedule.

As pre-event treatment, it helps to get the body and tissues ready for the race ahead; as post-event, it eases fatigued, tired tissues and prevent DOMS; as maintenance, in between training sessions, it releases soft tissue tightness therefore it improves performance and prevent injuries.  

Benefits

1.     More oxygen and nutrients as massage improves circulation and blood flowtherefore healing is promoted thanks to a more efficient immune system.

2.     Speeds up recovering time.

3.     As the training program becomes higher in intensity and millage, treatment is necessary to reduce fatigue, lactic, tightness and shortening of the tissue.

4.     Reduces pressure of spinal column overstressed by repetitive movements, pressure around joints and ligaments.

5.     Relaxes mind and body pre and during race day which has an impact on the range of movement and performance.

WHEN

Weekly massage can help preventing injuries by targeting tight areas before they become problematic.

More frequently during the hardest training block or speed work.

Massage treatment is recommended either the evening after a hard workout or the following morning. Muscles can often be sore or lethargic for a few days after a massage.                                     

Massage before the next big race, needs to be scheduled 3 to 5 days out from the race. The deeper the massage, the longer it takes for the body to recover and respond,  just like running workouts!

After: it allows you to walk properly the day after……and enjoy the full passive stretching!!

Dominant Orica-GreenEdge takes Stage 6 and overall victory at Tour Down Under to set tone for the year

Report of the Last Stage of the TDU from James

It was a dream end for Orica-GreenEdge as Caleb Ewan took Stage 6 and Simon Gerrans took his fourth Tour Down Under crown in South Australia.

“It wasn’t just a great week for me, the team showed that this week they are by far the strongest,” said race winner Ewan soon after showing why he’s the top sprinter on the continent, winning the final sprint of the TDU. Teammate Simon Gerrans stayed out of trouble and claimed his fourth TDU crown.

Stage 6 of the TDU rolled around 20 laps of a 4.5km street circuit around the City of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, including the historic Adelaide Oval.

Orica GreenEdge studiously made the pace while four men broke away; Laurens De Vreese and Leuwe Westra(Astana), Adam Phelan (Drapac) George Bennett (Lotto NL Jumbo), and Carlos Verona (Etixx-Quick Step). The early race pace was too hot though, and they were reeled in after 5 laps.

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Maarten Tjallingii (Lotto NL – Jumbo) managed to escape soon after and would stay away for most of the race.

Tjallingi took the first sprint point on lap 8/20 uncontested over De Gendt. Behind, Daryl Impey (Orica GreenEdge) out-dragged Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff) to take the final point, protecting teammate Simon Gerrans’s sprint jersey.

The KOM points on lap 10/20 were taken by de Gendt, Tjallingii, with Jarlinson Pantano (IAM) who was leading the bunch taking third.

De Gendt took the second sprint point on lap12/20 over Tjallingii, and Johan Le Bon (FDJ) was third as he tried, unsuccessfully, to cross the gap.

De Gendt dropped back to the peloton, leaving Tjallingii to be joined by Leuwe Westra (Astana).

The front of the peloton became hotly contested territory on lap 17/20, with, Drapac, Dimension Data, and Lotto-Soudal, and Tinkoff driving the pace.

Westra and Tjallingii’s lead disappeared on the scorching lap 19/20 and they returned to the speeding pack. The pack flew, led by Tinkoff and Lotto-Soudal.

The final lap bell rang and SKY made their first appearance at the front of the day, followed by Orica GreeEdge ushering Caleb Ewan to the front. They flew over Montefiore Hill for the last time and thundered down towards the line.

“He’s the definition of a ‘pocket rocket’,” said Jens Voigt about Caleb Ewans sprint at the finish.

Trek-Segafredo dove to the front, trying to lead out their man Giacomo Nizzolo, but an out of position Caleb Ewan accelerated from 200m out, and several riders back. He overhauled the other sprinters, and opened a gap on the line to finish a near-perfect TDU for his team.

Mark Renshaw (Dimension Data) crossed second, ahead of Nizzolo in third.

“It was always going to be hard going into the race with two ambitions of trying to win sprint stages and also GC with Simon but I think we did it perfectly, coming away with stage wins and overall,” said race-winner Ewan said.

Overall champion Gerrans reflected on a great event, and a great showing by his team.

“We are so lucky to have this race here in Australia,” he said. “It's fantastic to race the Santos Tour Down Under with Orica-Greenedge, an Aussie team winning a WorldTour race in Australia, it's just awesome.”

Gerrans also takes the lead in the UCI WorldTour ranking.

Orica GreenEdge team director Matt White was understandably happy with his team.

“To win the overall and book-end with Caleb… he clearly was the fastest rider here all week,” said White. “And for Gerro (Gerrans) to come back, everyone saw how hard he worked. This will set the tone for rest of the year.”

Taking The Plunge (Into A Wading Pool) With Trek-Segafredo

Author Chris Komorek.

Details Trek-Segafredo post-race recovery, interview with Daniel Green, head of sport science and assistant team coach. Quotes from cyclist Kiel Reijnen.

As the Trek-Segafredo riders roll back into the Tour Down Under village in the middle of Adelaide from a scorching hot stage on the roads of South Australia, there’s one factor that sets them apart from their competitors. It’s a shallow, wading pool – suitable for ages 6 months to 3 years, a sticker warns on the side. It’s the kind of pool you’d expect to see your two-and-half-year-old cousin splashing around in with rubber duckies, not elite cyclists.

No rubber duckies here though. Just ice cold water. The whales, jellyfish, turtles and starfish decorating the edges are a nice touch, but no one was being fooled into thinking this was going to be fun.

“Ice plunge baths are something I’ve done in the past and something I want to introduce more regularly,” says Daniel Green, Trek-Segrafedo’s head of sport science and assistant team manager. Ice baths are important for recovery and most pro-teams have them in place. In fact, Orica-Greenedge upgraded their hotel room to one with a bathtub.

Peter Stetina and Kiel Reijnen, the team’s American contingent, are the first to take the plunge. Reijnen eases in gingerly ­– partly so he doesn’t tear the sides of the pool and partly because it’s a shock to the core.

“What, where is everyone? No one else is coming in?” Reijnen asks as his teammates begin to head back to the hotel just across the street. 

Writ

He then starts discussing the Corkscrew descent, a legendary ride amongst the growing peloton of riders in South Australia.

“That was intense,” he says. “I didn’t enjoy that one bit.”

The average speed of the peloton on the descent from atop Corkscrew was 104.9km per hour. At that speed, you’re tightening your grip and adjusting your posture... in a car. These guys are doing it on two wheels, the wind ripping through their hair and the corners approaching rapidly.

When Dutch cyclist Boy Van Poppel returns to the village, he, like everyone else, hits the scales to record his post-race weight.

“You’re looking good,” Green says as he scribbles down Poppel’s weight.

“We (get them on the scales) to check their pre and post hydration status. We look at how much weight they have lost on the stage just through sweating, and we try to get that replaced as soon as we can and most certainly before bed,” says Green.

Van Poppel’s heart rate drops from around 90 to 60 bpm as soon as he enters the ice bath. Lowering the heart rate and making sure each cyclist is relaxed is an essential part of recovery.

Green says potential weight loss over an entire stage is dependant on a lot of factors.

“It can vary greatly between individuals and even between days. Some riders will be able to hydrate more than others and return pretty balanced, whereas others might be 3.5kg down on where they started.”

In hot and humid conditions, such as found in South Australia during the 2016 Tour Down Under, the riders are likely to lose 2.5L in perspiration every hour. In a three and a half hour race, that’s around a total of 8.5L of water loss.

Green says they’ll drink as much as they can while riding, which is usually around 1 litre per hour, but even that won’t balance it out.

“Drinking one litre per hour can still leave you three to four litres down post race, so it’s important we get their weight pre and post race to get the rehydration right,” he says.

Sure, people have died from drinking too much water in a short time but those people were certainly not elite athletes riding hundreds of kilometres in searing heat.

So do the elite athletes competing in the hot South Australian sun at the Tour Down Under ever hit the limit of what is humanly possible?

“Probably not,” says Green, “Your body is able to rehydrate pretty quickly with fluid, if anything, it’s more limited in terms of the amount of carbohydrates and electrolytes that can actually be absorbed from supplements. Our supplements are purposely watered down so it doesn’t have a huge impact on their bodies.”

For us average, non-elite cyclist folk, to consume 1L of water per hour would probably find us making trips to the bathroom more frequently. But is that due to something colloquially known as “breaking the seal”? And do the cyclists experience that constant need to relieve themselves when drinking that much water?

“Breaking the seal definitely exists,” says Green. “When you drink a lot, your bladder fills up gradually and when you ‘break the seal’ your body, which is suddenly holding all this liquid, begins to continually fill up and it tricks you into thinking there’s more than what there actually is.”

Riders who need to relieve themselves, they put their hand up and they stop by the side of the road. It’s a simple solution to a natural urge, and one that the riders engage regularly.

Ice-baths are, in Green’s eyes, imperative for short-term recovery. However when it comes to post-tour recovery, it takes more than just ice to set the riders right.

“At the end we look at getting the hormone levels balanced, but the most important aspect of recovery is physical down time and a regaining a regular sleeping pattern,” says Green.

A regular sleeping pattern? Obviously we asked what mischief the riders get up to every night on tour.

“I refrain from calling myself the ‘Team Dad’ because I don’t want to be that guy,” says Green, adding that the riders don’t have a set time to sleep, but they do have a meeting time in the morning.

“That’s an 8am breakfast call. So as long as they’re then, that’s fine with me. A bedtime story is not out of the question though,” jokes Green.