I spent last week at the 2009 NSCA National Conference in Vegas.  I hate Vegas, but I go to the conference every year to keep up will all the strength and conditioning research.  Long story short, I spent 5 hours of the trip with the head strength and conditioning coach from the U.K. Track Cycling Team.

 

If you follow Track Cycling, you know that the U.K. walked away with the most hardware, and are considered by many to be the best Olympic Team in this past Olympiad.

 

OAO and I went to the 3 hour presentation, and then got the chance to have a few beverages with the coach at the Paris Lounge for another couple of hours.

 

He gave us the “no holds barred” juice on what they do in training.  He had videos of all the top names in the weight room, showed us all the data from the last 2 Olympic training cycles, and even let us see both the SRM power data, and the weights and lifts he has had them do.  Two of his guys are ripping it up this year in the Tour.

 

OAO went home to Florida, took all the information, and has given us an 8 week Core cycle similar to what would be Rx’ed in the U.K. for cyclists going into the most critical time of the year. Now that his NFL guys have had to report to camp, OAO has put aside time to program all the Core work through CX Nationals for our team.

 

Now, that being said, you should scale these workouts to your own abilities.  So far, I made it past the first couple of days, but I can tell you this will be a war of attrition.  You should take the WODs at core value, and make sure you ease into them, especially if you have not been doing Core work in the “Off” season.

 

Once our season is in full swing, there will be a taper period to make sure you are firing on all cylinders, and are able to finish this season on top.

 

For more juice, check out Highlandelitefitness@blogspot.com and go to the Crossniacs Wod link.

 

B