It’s On

It’s been a while since our last NewsLink and lots and lots of news since then.  The race season has more than begun.  The Green have been to Oceanside, California, raced several times down in Florida (South Beach Nautica, St. Anthony’s, Florida 70.3)), kicked off our local scene (John Tanner, Peachtree City) and have more than represented in our larger regional races (Rev3 – Knoxville).  We’ve seen a multitude of PRs and have come home with hardware at almost all of these races.  Congrats to all of you on getting our season started off right and representing the DynaNation with such class.

New Service Offering – Lactate Testing

We are proud to announce that we are now offering blood lactate testing.  In partnership with Chris Hauth and Craig Upton of Performance Labs HC, we now have the ability to offer expert, elite-level testing to help athletes determine specific training zones, prescribe appropriate training, and provide longitudinal baselines to gauge fitness and training adaptations.  Craig and Chris are providing the analysis on the data Coach Matthew obtains from local athletes.  An ex-professional cyclist, Craig is a full-time coach in the Bay Area.  His athletes include Olympic Gold Medalist, Kristin Armstrong, as well as several Pro Tour cyclists and professional triathletes.  Chris is an ex-Olympic swimmer and professional triathlete whose roster of triathletes is equally as deep and impressive.  In partnership with these two elite level coaches, we are proud to offer area triathletes the best in expert analysis and training recommendations on an on-going basis.  Cost for Coached Athletes is $125 and $200 for all others.  To learn more about testing and to schedule a test, please contact Coach Matthew directly.

New Partner & Special Offer – Element Endurance Energy Bars

Coach Matthew has partnered with Element Bars and their Element Endurance products, the only customizable energy bar around!  Element Endurance bars empower endurance athletes with the ability to create fully custom energy bars based on their activity and nutritional needs.  Made with all natural ingredients, Element Endurance exemplifies the next generation of nutritional customization and athlete specificity, two critical attributes in training and race performance.  We are proud to be affiliated formally with Element Endurance and for a limited time Element has provided the DynaNation a special 15% discount code.  Type in coupon code: DYNAMO at checkout to get your 15% off.  Please feel free to pass this code along to family and friends and try out EE’s fantastic products and customization.

Race Reflection – Rev3

I wanted to quickly take a moment to reflect on our team race at Rev3 – Knoxville.  All-in-all we had 17 athletes wearing the green and competing at Rev3.  The vibe there was incredibly supportive, between athletes, family and friends (including a guest appearance by Super Fan, SpecialK, Kathryn Honderd), as well as uber-sponsors All3Sports (Morgan, Alex and Andrew), we were the loudest, most visible TEAM of athletes at the race.  While our uniforms may have questionable stylistic taste, there is no mistaking the yellow bands on our bright green shorts and the smiles of the athletes wearing them.  At one point during the HalfRev (in which I was racing), a competitor came by me on the bike and said, “man, there sure are a LOT of you out here!”  And from talking to other athletes who competed as well as family and friends there in support, there was quite the buzz around the transition area and finish chute about the GREEN.  And as if our participation and team camaraderie wasn’t impressive enough, the results were even more so.  13 athletes made it to the podium, including several Age Group wins – Mary Pick (W55-59), Hilton Kort (M60-64) in the Olympic; Matthew Rose (M35-39), Drew Marlar (M40-44) and Casey Hannan (M50-54) in the Half Rev; and Betty Janelle in the AquaBike (Female Overall).   In addition to these wins  and Podium finishes (Linda Anderson, HalfRev W50-54, Ernie Janelle and Micki Donegan, AquaBike), we had several race PRs and  inter-race PRs (fastest run personal swim and run splits).  For an incredibly challenging bike course, we had a lot of team speed in Knoxville.

Special Kudos

Speaking of Knoxville and Rev3, our own Haley Chura (“Frosh”) finished 3rd Overall in the amateur race in the featured Olympic distance at Rev3.  In doing so, Haley met one of six USAT professional application qualification standards.  Haley is now eligible to turn professional is she so chooses to apply to USAT for her professional license.  Congrats to Haley for becoming the first member of the GREEN to be pro eligible.  And not to be outdone, Kathryn Honderd (“Speacial K”) became Dynamo’s first Ironman 70.3 World Championship qualifier, via her 3rd place finish W25-29 at the New Orleans 70.3 in April.  Kathryn used a blazing 1′38 run split to literally tear through the field and secure her spot in Clearwater.   If you see either Haley or Kathryn on deck or in PowerCycle class, be sure to give them kudos.

Thanks to Our Partners

As always, we’d like to thank our partners who support the GREEN.  Many thanks to All3Sports.com, CycleOps Power, GU , Athletic Edge Sports Massage and Element Bars for their support.