FEATURES
Cathy's Masters Thesis...
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Tuesday, 13 December 2016 23:10
Not long ago we received this email from Minnesota's Triathlete of the Decade (2001-2010), Cathy Yndestad, who is finishing her Masters degree at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland:
As part of my master's thesis at the University of Lucerne, I am conducting research on Mobile Fitness Technology trends. By understanding behaviors and usage patterns, health promotion professionals can design and implement more valuable tools to improve user experience and encourage lasting behavior change.
Mobile Fitness Technology refers to applications which provide an array of fitness programs and advice related to physical fitness. This can include activity tracking, activity logging, and online coaching systems. MyMoves, Strava and MyFitnessPal are examples of mobile fitness applications.
Mobile Fitness Technology also includes wearable devices such as heart rate monitors, activity trackers and GPS units, which are used to monitor your physical activity. Garmin, Fitbit, and Polar are common brands of wearable fitness devices....
The All Star Team...
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Monday, 12 December 2016 23:10
Yesterday we revealed some of the reasoning behind the determination of men's Team MInnesota. Today we attempt to make sense out of the women's list.
The reason we use the expression "make sense" here, is that the women's talent pool is deeper than ever, and the ladies are, more than ever, very evenly matched.
When discussing the men's list, we described the 4th and 5th positions as basically interchangeable. On the women's list, it can be argued the positions two through ten are somewhat interchangeable. We could argue that there was a nine-way tie for 2nd, and not be too far off. We, therefore, do not look at women's Team Minnesota as a ranking of athletes, but as an All Star Team.
Let's look at the list: ...
Men's Team Minnesota: Why...
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Sunday, 11 December 2016 23:10
Today we discuss the determination of Team Minnesota, starting with the men. The five Selectors scrutinized the resumes of 25-30 viable candidates and ranked their top 12-15. The points (1st place - 1 point, 2nd place - 2 points etc.) are then totalled, and the Top 10 is determined. It is rare for a Selector's personal list to be the same as the final rankings.
The rankings are based on resume only, not reputation. An athlete's competitive history does not give him or her an advantage, at least that's the goal.
Here are the Top 10 guys, and some explanation for their placement. Please know that, invariably, certain positions are basically interchangeable. We'll explain as we go along....
Why Wade?
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Saturday, 10 December 2016 23:10
All five MMA Selectors favored Wade Cruser for Most Improved, though not before they answered a couple of crucial questions:
1. Was his rise from being in the 15th-16th range in the determination of 2015 Team Minnesota all the way up to 3rd in 2016 significantly aided by the absence of four team 2015 members (Bennett Isabella, Nick Nygaard, Brian Sames, Devon Palmer). The Committee as a whole believed that it was not. Cruser's resume--five wins and four other regional podiums--would have been hard to beat by the aforementioned guys. The fact that he raced often and excelled in both triathlon and duathlon--nominated for TOY and DOY--and received a total of four MMA nominations (matching Matthew Payne and Sean Cooley) bolstered this assessment.
2. We also compared Cruser's resume to Kris Spoth's 2015 scorecard, which landed him in the 3rd spot on Team MInnesota. This didn't tell us much. Wade raced ten times, landing on eight podiums, including five wins. Spoth's 2015 card had nine starts with four podiums, including two wins. The reason we were reluctant to favor Cruser came down to "race choice." Spoth only raced in events that featured...
Training By Perceived Effort...
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Friday, 09 December 2016 23:10
By Mike Buenting (mike buenting.wordpress.com)
In today’s world of technology and gadgets so many people get focused on buying more gear and then focus training, racing and so on around the technical data things like power meters, heart rate monitors, GPS watches and so on produce. Now as a competitive athlete and coach yes of course I love these things and I love data and using the data to coach an athlete and help them improve. But not everyone can afford all of these things and not every athlete likes to wear monitors and gadgets of these sorts and that’s OK.
So as a coach I like to take things back to basics often times and teach athletes to train by perceived effort level. Cycling this can be really crucial because so many own a kinetic trainer which does not go by watts, and they don’t have power meter crank sets etc… so I can’t hardly prescribe them a workout based on FTP and watts. This is where I use a scale for perceived effort for them....
