Endurance news from the week of February 12
Good morning 👋 ! Welcome to the Front Pack newsletter, your source for all things endurance. We bring you the top stories, deals and other highlights from the week. What an exciting year so far and it’s only February. We’ve got professional cycling in full swing, ultra season starting in Arizona, and professional triathletes in the middle of training camps. Not too much longer before everyone is full gas.
Stay moving…✌🏼 – Scott
Headlines
🏃 World Trail Majors – Ultrarunners took to Arizona and the 2024 Black Canyon 100K. The first race in the new World Trail Major series – Hayden Hawks broke the course record and Rachel Drake took the female Win. Big win for Hawks who is coming back from knee surgery. [irunfar]
🚵 New Season, Same Results – At only 24 years young, Tom Pidcock has already cemented himself as a beast in cycling. The Brit started his 2024 campaign by coming back from behind to win the opening round of the Shimano MTB Super Cup. [GCN]
🏊🚴🏃 Big Things to Come? – After an up and down 2023 for Chelsea Sodaro, the 2022 female Ironman World Champion went down under and won Ironman Tasmania 70.3. Her first W since Kona. [Triathlon]
🏃 Kelvin Kiptum – Rest in peace to the men’s marathon world record holder, Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum, and his coach, Gervais Hakizimana, both passed away following a car crash on Sunday. Kelvin recently set the world record in the marathon distance at the Chicago Marathon, being the first person to ever run under 2 hours and 1 minute. [BBC]
Real World Pains
Zwift, the virtual cycling and running platform is going through real world pains. After a 15% workforce reduction 11 months ago, they announced 100+ more layoffs this week. Along with the layoffs, Co-CEO Kurt Beidler reportedly resigned, leaving co-founder Eric Min as the sole CEO. Beidler, who only recently came to Zwift in late 2022 from Amazon was tasked to reshape the business and bring efficiencies. A statement from the company noted “the company remains a healthy, global business but faced economic headwinds and growth has not rebounded at a fast enough pace to justify all the investments that we have been making. As a result, we are taking action to become leaner with a continued focus on delivering great experiences for our community.”
Its hard to tell what’s happening behind closed doors especially since Zwift is privately held. But is Zwift going the way of Peloton or are they just experiencing growing pains? With patent disputes, multiple layoffs, c-suite struggles, and discontinuing the Zwift Hub smart trainer, calling yourself healthy may be a stretch. They very well could be righting their own ship to stay afloat and maybe these are just the painful results of innovation. Only time will tell.
More top stories
How did the bike industry get into such deep trouble? – A fascinating 4-part podcast series that dives into the bike industry and why its currently in complete disarray. [Escape Collective]
Wahoo KICKR Core Firmware Update Delivers Auto Calibration, Virtual Shifting – a new firmware update expands the capabilities for one of the most popular trainers. [Zwift Insider]
The Advantage of Treadmill Training – Coach Darcie Murphy digs into what makes the treadmill another worthy tool in your arsenal [Ultra Running]
Best Ironman Courses 2024 – Fans voted and this years best North American races are IM Wisconsin and IM 70.3 Michigan (Overall). [Ironman]
Deals and Steals
President’s Day is here so that means deep discounts on some products we love.
💸 16% off ($59) – Arena Tri-Swipe. I take care of my goggles like I do sunglasses. Keep them in a case and don’t scratch them. The Tri-Swipe’s are my go to and are incredible. My two biggest concerns with goggles are fogging and are the lens’ wide enough to see in open water. These are great with both.
💸 41% off ($88) – ASICS Magic Speed 2 – I’ve owned 3 pairs of these carbon shoes and they’re great for speed or long distance. Incredible deal considering the Magic Speed 3 are still going for $160.
💸 41% off ($135) – New Balance FuelCell Supercomp Elite V3 – The company just launched the V4 super shoe so naturally this elite racer gets a deep discount.
Other things we’re loving:
📖 Book – ‘The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team. An awesome read and Kara Goucher is even more of a legend for speaking out. Couldn’t put this one down.
🧰 CO2 inflator kit – This tool gives me peace of mind on my bike rides. First it’s tiny (smaller than a Snickers) and easy to store. A Swiss Army knife for fixing flats – it is part CO2 inflator, has an insertion fork, and comes with plugs.
The Rewatchables
It’s cold and you’re stuck training inside. Below are a few favorites to get you through the suck.
Call of a Life Time Season 2 – A captivating six-part docuseries that captures the thrilling off-road exploits of 70 elite cyclists competing in the 2023 Life Time Grand Prix.
VC Adventures: The California Coast Project – The California coast project is a seven episode mini-series about two guys riding bicycles up the coast of California over seven days. It includes two races, 710 miles, five days of bike packing, over seven individual episodes.
The 2023 Barkley Marathon Documentary – The Barkley Marathon is a race unlike any other. With over 100 miles of wild terrain, and twice the elevation of climbing and descending Mt. Everest from sea level, it’s a race that expects runners to fail. In 38 years, only 15 runners have completed the Barkley Marathons, but that doesn’t stop hundreds of athletes from applying for entry every year.
Nerd Nugget
What Strava subscriber number are you? Head to the web version of Strava —> log in—> click ‘My Profile’ in the top right. → The number in the browser is your subscriber number.
We are subscriber number 12,879,305. What about you?
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