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CrossFit champ Samantha Briggs believes in resting as hard as you train and ditching the set training plan. She shares her favorite training tips.

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Training Secrets from the Fittest Woman on Earth

After three days of grueling physical tests at the 2013 CrossFit Games in Carson, California, at the end of July, Samantha Briggs For the 31-year-old from Manchester, England, that crowning achievement capped a long hard journey back to the upper echelons of competitive CrossFit.

Samantha Briggs' Vital Stats

Age: 31
Height: 5'6″
Weight: 132 pounds
±á´Çłľ±đłŮ´Ç·É˛Ô:ĚýManchester, England

No stranger to success, Briggs played elite soccer in England in her younger days and competed in the World Duathlon Championships as an age group member of Team Great Britain. A firefighter by trade, she started Crossfit in 2009 and quickly made her mark in competition, placing 19th at the 2010 Games and fourth in 2011. However, her seemingly inevitable rise to the top was derailed when she was forced out of the 2012 edition of the games with a painful knee injury that turned out to be a broken patella.

A year of rehab, rebuilding and refocusing toward 2013 followed. Making the most of her time, Briggs trained smarter and kept herself busy as the co-owner of a new Crossfit box, , where she continues to work out and coach other athletes.

On the eve of the Crossfit Games, Briggs was happy just to be back, but she wasn't in California just to coast—she was there to win. Here she shares some of what she's learned along the way to becoming the “Fittest Woman on Earth.”

Work Your Weaknesses
The knee injury ruled a lot of exercises out but I found a good gymnastics coach and chose to use this time to work on my weaknesses. Long sessions were also spent with a functional movement therapist ensuring when I was able to squat and lift again my mechanics were more efficient. There were definite positives to come out of taking time off due to injury. The rehab and attention to technique that was employed, newly improved gymnastics and more efficient movements resulted in me being a more rounded athlete.

Go by Feel
I will still do more training than is planned if I feel OK, but I always let my coach know what I've done so it can be factored in. Also, I'm more aware of programming and the effects of training so I'm not constantly beating my body up anymore. I do now allow some recovery time too!

Train Hard, Rest Hard
I typically train every day but two of these will be lower intensity or active recovery days. The normal training day will be broken into two sessions both ranging from two to three hours, depending on loads or intensity of training employed. I try to mix the training up as much as I can.

Rest Actively
I don't typically have a complete rest day—I'll have active recovery days where I enjoy getting out on my bike, going swimming, or skiing.

Avoid Alcohol
I try to eat as clean as possible. If I fancy a treat I'll have it and not worry about it. My favorite treat is a white chocolate and raspberry cookie. I don't really drink. Occasionally I will indulge, but I find alcohol has the biggest negative effect on my training so I see it as a waste of time.

Competing Isn't Everything
I'm still a firefighter at the moment.Ěý I just took a career break to concentrate on the games this year. Along with that I part own . Sometimes it does get stressful trying to juggle everything and ensure I manage to get my training in. I guess that's life though!

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Training Secrets from the World’s Best Rock Climber /health/training-performance/training-secrets-worlds-best-rock-climber/ Mon, 29 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000 /uncategorized/training-secrets-worlds-best-rock-climber/ Training Secrets from the World's Best Rock Climber

Chris Sharma may be 32, but he’s still pushing the sport’s limits as a pioneer of deep-water soloing.

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Training Secrets from the World's Best Rock Climber

Chris Sharma has been dominating the sport of rock climbing almost since the day he took it up at the age of 12. In 1996, at 14, he took home top honors at Bouldering Nationals. A year later he became the first person ever to complete a 5.14c climb in North America (Necessary Evil in Utah’s Virgin River Gorge). And just this March, a month before turning 32, he became just the second climber to conquer the 5.15c climb La Dura Dura in Spain, currently the hardest sport climbing route in the world.

Chris Sharma's Vital Stats

Age: 32
Height: 6'0″
Weight: 165 pounds
Hometown: Santa Cruz, California

Ěý

After nearly two decades at the top, Sharma is far from done. His latest venture is bringing the thrill of deep water soloing to a competition format. To that end, he’s organized the new competition, the first of its kind in the U.S.

Held July 31 to August 2 in conjunction with the Outdoor Retailer summer show in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Psicobloc event features climbers going head to head on a custom-built wall perched over the 750,000-gallon freestyle skiing aerial training pool at Park City’s Utah Olympic Park. “I think in a lot of ways it could be a before and after for competition climbing,” Sharma says of the new highly accessible and thrilling format.

It’s Not Supposed to Be Easy
As climbers, we're always looking for something that’s just past our level. Sometimes we get frustrated because it’s too hard, but our goal is to try to do something that is beyond our limits. If it feels easy then we’re not actually at our limit.

Go Out and Climb. A Lot
I’ll usually climb four days a week. Other times when I’m just having fun and climbing a little more recreationally, I’ll climb six days in a row.

Ditch the Gym
I’ve never actually trained. I’ve always just been a climber. Some people like to work in the climbing gym or follow a program and then they’ll go out and try to achieve their goals on rock. I’ve always just gone straight out onto the rock and tried these projects over and over again.

Diet by Feel
I’ve never followed a strict diet. I’m not a vegetarian, but I don’t eat a lot of red meat. I try to eat a lot of fish and I’ll eat some chicken and turkey. Once in a while, I’ll have a hamburger. I’ll have a beer or glass of wine for sure. I just gauge it by how I feel.

Supplement Sparingly
Over the last few years, I’ve been taking supplements like glucosamine and chondroitin, plant-based vitamins, and fish oils from Nutriex. When I’m climbing year-round punishing my body all the time it does give me a little bit of an edge.

Train Until You Crack
To get better you have to break yourself down, and you have to push yourself to that point where you’re almost getting injured. You really have to have a lot of body awareness to know where that point is so that you actually don’t injure yourself.

Rest Hard
Eight or nine hours of sleep a night is my sweet spot. I really focus on having these crazy solid rest days where I just lay on the couch and fully let my body regenerate.

Be Your Own Coach
I think it’s really a mistake to blindly follow a training plan. It’s important to listen to your body.

Getting Older Means Getting More Regimented
I’ve always had a lot of natural talent, and I kind of coasted on that for a lot of years. Sometimes I wouldn’t even climb for like a month and then go to a competition and just cruise in and win it. But now I’m 32 and I definitely feel like I have to maintain my level a bit more.

Failure Isn’t Bad, It’s a Motivator
Failing on climbs gives me motivation to push my limits. Sometimes it can be frustrating for sure. But that’s the catalyst to actually push yourself.

Enjoy the Journey
I spent four years working on Those moments of success are so few and far. Ninety-nine percent of the time you walk away not succeeding, and that’s just part of the process.

Climbing is my lifelong journey. And in the same way you go running and you have days where you really feel in tune, you have some days where you don’t feel that good. It’s this never-ending process. Accepting that and enjoying that for what it is, that’s really where the life of climbing is.

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The Top 10 Biggest Cycling Scandals in Tour de France History /outdoor-adventure/biking/biggest-scandals-tour-de-france-history/ Mon, 15 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000 /uncategorized/biggest-scandals-tour-de-france-history/ The Top 10 Biggest Cycling Scandals in Tour de France History

Forget about the doping. These ten scandals rocked cycling to its core.

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The Top 10 Biggest Cycling Scandals in Tour de France History

While the 100th edition of the Tour de France has been blessedly free of scandal so far (despite insinuations that Team Sky was suspiciously dominant on the mountain stages), throughout its history La Grande Boucle has had more disgrace and drama than the Kardashians. Although it remains one of the world’s most beautiful sporting events—a grand showcase of athleticism, grit and courage—since its earliest days the Tour has been sullied by epic displays of cheating, stupidity, and generally bad behavior. With that fact in mind, we offer the following short tour of some of Le Tour’s lowest points.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 1904—The Last Tour

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The Tour's first winner. (Nationaal Archief/Wikimedia)

“The Tour de France is finished and I’m afraid its second edition has been the last.” So wrote race founder Henri Desgrange following the conclusion of the scandal-plagued 1904 Tour. During the race, nine riders were disqualified for hopping trains or taking rides in cars and trucks.

Along the route, overexcited fans showed their support for their favorite competitors by beating up their rivals. When the race finally reached Paris, it appeared that inaugural Tour winner Maurice Garin had triumphed again. But after ongoing complaints to the French Cycling Union about cheating, the top four finishers were all disqualified, making Garin the first Tour winner to be stripped of his title.

In the modern era, post-race: Americans Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis, and Spaniard Alberto Contador. All had their victories revoked for doping violations.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 1910—The Assassins

Octave Lapize at a six-day race in Paris.
Octave Lapize at a six-day race in Paris. (Rol Agency)

Today, a Tour de France without brutal climbs snaking over snow-capped peaks would be unthinkable. However, in 1910, when Tour organizers announced the race route would include the Pyrenees, more than two dozen cyclists withdrew from the starting list in protest of what the considered a dangerous stunt.

Stage 10 of that year’s Tour included ascents of the Tourmalet and the Col d’Aubisque. Only one rider, Gustave Garrigou, was able to conquer the Tourmalet without dismounting his bike (for which he received a prize of 100 francs). At the top of the Aubisque, eventual overall winner Octave Lapize shouted, “Assassins!” as he rode by race organizers, who’d driven to the top to watch the suffering cyclists from the safety of a car.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 1966—The First Drug Tests

French hero Raymond Poulidor.
French hero Raymond Poulidor.

Widespread use of performance enhancing drugs was common since the first days of the Tour de France. In an effort to control drug use in sport, France passed a national anti-doping law in 1965 and introduced drug testing at the 1966 Tour. The first doping control was carried out following the eighth stage, with several riders being ordered to submit to testing.

Among those told to provide a urine sample and submit to an examination by doctors was French hero Raymond Poulidor. The following day, the entire peloton protested the tests by walking their bikes for the first part of the ninth stage in Bordeaux while shouting, “No to pissing in test tubes!”

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 1967—The Death of Tom Simpson

Tom Simpson on the slopes of Mont Ventoux.
Tom Simpson on the slopes of Mont Ventoux. ()

In 1962, Tom Simpson made history as the first British racer to don the yellow jersey as the Tour’s overall leader. He lost it the next day, but the feat signaled he was a rider to watch. Indeed, more success followed, including victory at the 1965 World Road Race Championships, stage wins at the Vuelta a Espana, and the overall at Paris-Nice.

In 1967, Simpson entered the Tour hoping for a podium finish and to wear yellow for a portion of the race. He started well but unfortunately got sick as the race passed through the Alps. By stage 13, weakened and unwell, Simpson was determined to fight on. That day’s route went over the infamous Mont Ventoux, the feared “Giant of Provence,” a hellish climb snaking over barren, moonscape-like slopes to a brutally exposed summit. Simpson hit the Ventoux with the leading group but then fell off the pace, slipping back though the shattered field of riders.

Soon he started zigzagging erratically across the narrow road. A kilometer from the summit, he toppled over. Helped back on his bike he road another few hundred meters before again nearly crashing. Caught and held upright by spectators, Simpson was now unconscious, still sitting on his bike gripping the handlebars. The Tour’s medical staff was unable to revive him and he was airlifted to a hospital in Avignon, where he was pronounced dead.

The official cause of death was heart failure due to dehydration and heat exhaustion. However, traces of amphetamine were found in Simpson’s body and medical officials said the drugs were a contributing factor to his death, as they likely allowed him to push his body too far. A memorial on the Ventoux near where Simpson collapsed is a popular pilgrimage site for cyclists from all over the world.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 1986—Hinault vs. LeMond

(BeWePa/Flickr)

After three weeks of torture, only one man stands on the top step of the podium in Paris as the overall winner of the Tour de France. But no one gets there without the help of teammates. In 1986, Greg LeMond was poised to become the first (and to this day the only official) American champion.

To accomplish that feat, LeMond was counting on the assistance of his French teammate Bernard Hinault, whom LeMond had helped to victory the previous year. Hinault, still a great rider and a five-time winner of the Tour, repeatedly pledged that he and the entire La Vie Claire team were on board to help LeMond. However, Hinault’s actions out on the roads seemed to indicate otherwise. Hinault repeatedly attacked LeMond, forcing the American into the awkward position of chasing down the aggressive Frenchman.

On stage 18 of the ’86 Tour, one of the most memorable stages in history, with LeMond already wearing the leader’s yellow jersey, the putative teammates went mano-a-mano up the switchbacks of the legendary climb to L’Alpe d’Huez. Hinault could not crack LeMond and the two men crossed the finish line side by side. Five days later, LeMond rode into Paris the overall winner. Hinault finished second and then retired from pro racing.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 1998—The Festina Affair

Forget about the Lance Armstrong. These ten scandals rocked cycling to its core.

Richard Virenque would go on to
Richard Virenque would go on to stand trial in 2000 for his role in the Festina Affair. (Numerius/Flickr)

While doping had been an omnipresent seamy underside of the Tour since its first days, the tawdry ugliness of banned performance enhancing drugs exploded into the spotlight on a grand scale in 1998. The scandal known as the Festina Affair began when an employee of the Festina team, Willy Voet, was arrested by police three days before the Tour at the Belgian-French border.

A search of Voet’s car turned up EPO, banned steroids, syringes and other doping-related products and paraphernalia. Eventually, Festina’s team director, team doctor and nine of its riders were all arrested. Under questioning, the doctor, Bruno Roussel, admitted Festina operated a systematic doping operation. French police, suspecting doping wasn’t limited only to Festina, conducted raids on other teams throughout the Tour.

The raids incensed the racers, who felt they were being treated as criminals, and tensions reached a height on stage 17. First, the peloton held a sit-down strike at the start of the stage. Once on the road riders agreed not to race and dawdled along at a slow tempo. riders threatened to withdraw from the race en masse. Finally, they walked across the finish line in Aix-les-Bains and the day’s stage was nullified. By day’s end, French national champion Laurent Jalabert and all of the race’s Spanish teams had quit. Of the 189 starters, just 96 finished in Paris on August 2.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 2006—Le Tour de Dope

Forget about the doping. These ten scandals rocked cycling to its core.

Floyd Landis went on to win the but was later disqualified for
Floyd Landis went on to win the 2006 Tour de France, but was later disqualified for doping. (Dodo/Flickr)

Seventeen years on from the Festina Affair, if anyone had hoped cycling had made progress regarding its problems with banned substances they were in for a rude awakening. The 2006 Tour de France was bookended with doping scandals.

Beginning in May, a Spanish police investigation dubbed Operación Puerto uncovered an alleged massive doping ring involving several top cyclists. Due to the unfolding investigation, on the eve of the Tour’s start in Strasbourg, nine riders with ties to Puerto were kicked off the start list, including the 2005 edition’s 2nd through 5th place finishers: Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Francisco Mancebo, and Alexandre Vinokourov (2005 “winner” Lance Armstrong had retired).

Once underway, the Tour was enthralling, with American Floyd Landis eking out a victory in an excruciatingly tight three-way battle with Spaniard Oscar Pereiro and German Andreas Kloden. Landis wore yellow into Paris, but his victory celebration was short, as four days after the Tour wrapped up it was announced that his urine sample following his epic win on stage 17 had tested positive for banned synthetic testosterone. Landis claimed innocence, but after exhausting the appeals process his title was stripped in September 2007.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 2007—Firing Michael Rasmussen

Forget about the doping. These ten scandals rocked cycling to its core.

Michael Rasmussen had a rough 2 but an even worse 2006.
Michael Rasmussen had a rough 2005 Tour, but an even worse 2006. (Gsl/Flickr)

Scandal continued to plague the Tour in 2007. During the race, three riders were expelled for doping violations and the entire teams of two of the three offenders left as a result. Then, after winning stage 16, race leader Michael Rasmussen, a Dane riding for the Dutch Rabobank squad, was sacked by his team management for violating team rules.

Rabobank claimed Rasmussen had lied about his whereabouts the month before the Tour started (teams must know where their riders are at all times in case anti-doping officials wish to conduct tests). Rasmussen said that he was training in Mexico, but was spotted by a former cycling pro on the road in Italy instead.

Rasmussen’s removal from the race was unprecedented. The only other Tour leader expelled mid-race—Belgian Michel Pollentier in 1978—was removed for trying to cheat a doping test. Rasmussen is the only leader to have been fired by his own team.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 2010—Chaingate

Forget about the doping. These ten scandals rocked cycling to its core.

Tour de France 2009 Mont Ventou
Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador in 2009.

On stage 15 of the 2010 Tour, Luxembourger Andy Schleck was riding in the yellow jersey when he attacked a group of his rivals near the summit of the Port de Balès, a high mountain pass in the central Pyrenees. But soon after Schleck darted up the road he came to a dead stop and hopped off his bike.

While he struggled to get it back on, Schleck’s closest competitor, Alberto Contador, who was trying to mark Schleck’s attack, rode past him in anger with two other riders. Contador looked back a few times to check on Schleck’s progress, but he did not slow down and wait for Schleck. A desperate Schleck tried to reconnect with Contador but failed, eventually losing the yellow jersey at day’s end and never regaining it.

The stage 15 incident will forever go down in history as “chaingate.” The reason for the controversy has to do with the unwritten rules of the road at the Tour de France—in this case the rule that the leader’s closest rivals should not attack him if he has a mechanical issue. The thinking goes that profiting from the leader’s bad luck is dishonorable, and that the battle for the lead should be held on an even playing field.

Never before has this “rule” been put to the test like it was in 2010. Footage of “chaingate” has been dissected as closely as any in history, and opinion remains split to this day on whether Contador should have waited for Schleck to fix the chain and rejoin the group, or since Schleck attacked first, whether Contador was “allowed” to drop him.

The Biggest TdF Scandals: 2011—TV Car Crashes Riders

Forget about the doping. These ten scandals rocked cycling to its core.

Johnny Hoogerland injury
Johnny Hoogerland after tangling with a barbed-wire fence last year. Expect more spills at the 2012 Tour. (Tim De Waele/Corbis)

Anywhere in the world, cars and cyclists can be a dangerous combination. But given that the Tour route is closed to traffic, it’s safe to say that few riders are worried about being toppled off their bikes by some distracted or dangerous driver. But that’s just what happened in 2011, when a car that was part of the official Tour caravan on stage 9.

Trying to pass on the left, a car from broadcaster France Télévisions inexplicably bumped rider Juan Antonio Flecha, knocking him violently to the pavement. Riding behind Flecha, Belgian Johnny Hoogerland was vaulted into the air and landed on a barbed wire fence marking a field alongside the road.

Amazingly, Flecha was OK—he remounted his bike and received treatment for a scraped and banged elbow by Tour medical staff. Even more amazingly, Hoogerland was able to finish the stage, despite sustaining deep cuts to his legs that required 33 stitches. Sadly Hoogerland’s bad luck with cars didn’t end there: in February 2013 he collided with a car while training in Spain, fracturing five ribs and injuring his liver and spine.

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