And the Winner Is...

Watch Leah Vande Velde prepare Frank Overton's power recipe from the CycleOps contest mentioned in the post below - congrats, Frank!

CycleOps Power Food Contest

If you can tear yourselves away from the Tour on television long enough this weekend, be sure to raid your recipe books and put together your favorite power food concoctions. CycleOps Power wants your favorite mojo-making meals and snacks for both training and recovering. Submit your recipe by midnight CDT on July 6th, and Cyclops will submit the top five for careful review by none other than Leah Vande Velde, the culinary expert featured on VeloNews.com, and wife of Garmin-Slipstream rider Christian Vande Velde!

On July 10th she'll reveal her top pick via video as she prepares the recipe in their home from Girona, Spain, so get in the kitchen and post your favorite recipe via video, or just step-by-step instructions to the CycleOps Facebook Wall before midnight CDT on July 6th. For more information, and to see world-renowned Sports Physiologist Dr. Alan Lim prepare his power packed "rice cakes," click here now!

Cooking with JP!

By JP Severin

In this latest edition of Cooking with Me, I will dissect an interesting variety of pancake. It is called the German Pancake. This recipe will follow a different format. 

Experiment
Pancakes vs. German Pancakes

Pancakes are delicious but are incredibly easy to O.D. on. Once you reach that breaking point, there's no going back and pancakes will not seem appealing for months. This benefits no one. There are alternatives though and that is what we are going to explore today in the german pancake, the  light und fluffy brethren of the traditional pancake.

"If I have to eat another bite of this maple syrup soaked carpet I'll cry! Help me, JP!!!"

Hypothesis:
Making pancakes german makes them better.

Procedure:
So easy, you'll think I'm lying and trying to hoodwink/ punk everyone ALA Ashton Kutcher. Trust me I'm not, I hate Ashton Kutcher.

• Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk (any kind), 6 eggs and beat together until it is very smooth.
• Preheat your oven to 450 and place a 8x8 casserole dish with a bit of butter in it
• Once butter melts, pour mixture in, pop in the over, and wait for 15 minutes or until it puffs up and is golden brown on the edges
• Take it out... you're done.

 Take a picture! It lasts longer.

Rachel Ray probably couldn't cook this, as the recipe calls for something other than heating up whatever she has in her trash can, but you definitely can.

Data/ Observations:
Makes about 9 slices.
Exceptionally delicious with lemon juice and powdered sugar. Can also be covered with cinnamon sugar or bake apples producing extreme euphoria.

Conclusion:
After analyzing normal pancakes compared with our delicious experimental variable, it is determined that making something german makes it better. German Pancakes are good. Enjoy!

Now here's a workout that will burn the calories I just piled into you...

Bike - 40 minutes of moderate spinning focusing on a smooth pedal stroke. Find a hill or an area you can hammer effectively for 6 minutes and do 3x 6 min as hard as you can with 3 minutes rest in between.

Run - Hop off your bike and jog for 15 minutes then do 5 x 30 sec pick ups for a total of about 25 minutes of running.

WIBA: 2009 in Pictures!

Another successful WIBA weekend is on the books ladies and gentlemen, and we'd like to thank all those who helped make our fourth time around the bend so memorable.

Despite the Lake Monona algae blooms and the looming threat of thunderstorms, newbies and veterans alike conquered the Ironman Wisconsin course yet again. We do hope if you were unable to attend this year you'll be able to make it out in 2010, so please the date: July 9-11, and be sure to stop back in April when we'll open registration! For now though, please enjoy the weekend in pictures:

click here to see the full-screen slide show.

Please also click here to read the personal thank-yous from Iron Wil on behalf of RobbyB, and all of Team Evotri.

The Collegiate - Issue No. 5

by JP Severin

April 17th saw college teams from around the country converging on Lubbock, Texas, where they were greeted by tornado warnings and hail. It was a storm of Biblical proportions. I met some of the triathletes from Washington who were scheduled for my flight to Lubbock. We were delayed in the Dallas Airport for a day, which made us about as happy as Bob Knight stuck in rush hour traffic. American Airlines sent us packing to a nearby hotel and placed us on a red eye flight the following day. After four hours of sleep we were flying into the eye of the storm. All of our bikes had different plans and didn't make our flight. Perhaps they chose to get a resonable amount of sleep two nights before the race. I can't say I blame them.

Either way, we got to Lubbock no worse for wear and met up with the MSU and U Dub teams. We made friends and schemed about the post race drinking.

Washington and MSU throwing up the W and the M.

It was awesome to see the Michigan State team. We tweaked our bikes at our hotel and jogged around working out the nerves. Our former president and physically challenged world champion, Aaron Scheidies, called to rally the troops. He challenged us to race with passion and smile through the pain, then played the Spartan Fight Song over the phone. After that, Aaron Bachman, our coach and one of our top racers, told the team to focus and give 100% every second of the race. I got a chance to talk to the team as well, and talked about being confident in their training. I told them to lay their hearts out in this race and to take chances because you can't reach your limits without risking blowing to bits. 

In 2007 Chris Mccormack was running up on Norman Stadler and finished second 70 seconds behind. People said to him, "if the race were a mile longer, it was yours." He laughed it off saying, "Mate, if the it were a mile longer, I wouldn't have finished the damn race." This really stuck with me. There is no shame in bonking, there is only shame knowing you could have done more. I watched as the team digested what we had said. Pure focus.

Race morning was about 45 degrees. We rolled up to the race site and groggily got marked, put bikes in transition, and sipped Gatorade. The water was 54 degrees, and it felt like cats were scratching your face when you dipped your head in the water. The sprint race went off and our races represented State in the worst conditions. Several people were dragged off the bike course from hypothermia. It was absolutely ridiculous. Chris Gelinas, a good buddy from MSU, said he couldn't put his bike shoes on because his fingers were frozen in a raptor claw position.

Oscars the Grouch (45 degrees).

Chris Gelinas in a similar pose to how he biked… Much happier than when he was racing.

We all drank 50 Red Bulls before the race and were so amped that we were pulling out each other’s hair.

The Olympic race went off and John Dahlz from California, Nick Vandam from Army, Derek Oskutis from Navy led out of the water. Aaron Bachman, was in the first wave and followed closely about 10 spots back. The bike course was pretty windy and made the splits embarrasingly slow. Dahlz ripped the bike and led by over a minute. He hung on to win by about 20 seconds over Oskutis who ran like a sleek weasel. Our first guy across the line was Matt Inch in 12th. He had a rock solid race and was consistent through the whole day. Anthony Klingler, our forth male, finished strong despite having a chipped bone in his foot. I was proud of his effort as he hit the line looking absolutely demolished. The girls' race saw Jessica Broderick from CU Boulder come out of nowhere to smash the field and heavy favorite Ashley Morgan. Jackie Brosius, an MSU chica I saw on the course, spent all her chips and raced really strongly. The girls all came in around the same time of 2:40 and change, placing them 10th in the nation (out of about 70 teams), which was the highest place ever! The guys took fifth behind powerhouses Navy, Cal, Army, and Colorado. Co-Ed, we took 7th, which was the highest ever!

A MAJOR PRIZE! A MAJOR PRIZE! 5th place men’s team!

Girls' Team looking cute before turning into horrible monsters on the course.

My surrogate team UCLA also had a stellar day with killer races from 19-year-old Brad Jacobs who destroyed the run with a blazing 33 minute 10k. UCLA club president, David Quiros was solid all around and will smash his goal of two hours very soon. Brittany Day took forth overall in the girls' race. She is unbelievably tough and it was great to see her place so high.

The awards ceremony was an absolute spectacle. Every college was attempting to out do one another. Alabama was clad only in Speedos and holsters for the cap guns they were firing off every chance they got. The Army crew were the loud meat heads you expect. California cheered with an exceptional lack of creativity as their results spoke for themselves. Cal Poly grinded on the race director, which was a stroke of pure genius and MSU cheered like the well-oiled war machine we are. Alabama came out on top for their sheer lack of self-respect and funny creativity.

Alabama firing off their cap guns. This team probably needs mood stabilizers. They were absolutely hilarious and by far the most entertaining team.

Meatballs from Army cheering about how much they can bench. We were all very impressed.

The teams dispersed from Lubbock the following day, wildly hungover and sleep deprived. It was my last race as a Spartan and I am proud of the team. We placed well, but more than that, we raced harder than ever. Hopefully, this will become the standard at MSU. We may not be the fastest, but we have a ton of guts and we showed that at Nationals.

Go Green!