NFL great rows the Arctic, Science + Athletes, Caffeine 🤝 Performance, why sodium bicarbonate, and more…

👋 Good morning and happy Friday! Welcome to the Front Pack newsletter, your source for all things endurance. Click here for the web edition.

It’s been a very active and energetic week. To focus on everything I have to get done, I find myself throwing on a Chris Luno mix (here) and conquering the to-dos. I’m definitely feeling the heat as we get ready to launch Front Pack, the first social network for endurance athletes. In no particular order, I’ve been tackling writing this newsletter, the websites landing page copy and design, reworking a welcome video you’ll see on the app when joining, and going through pricing structures, designing badges, having meetings, securing September livestream guests, and more. It’s all work I’m truly in love with but there you go, some insight into what I’ve been up to this week.

Hope your week was as productive and that you owned it.

Stay moving…✌🏼 – Scott

Headlines

🚴 Leadville 100 Crowns New Champ: At the Life Time Leadville 100 MTB race, despite a puncture that set him back momentarily, it was Keegan Swenson winning for the 4th time. But it was Melisa Rollins winning the women’s race. An unknown to many, Rollins nearly bleeds Leadville dirt as her parents have done the race 18 and 26 times, respectively. Rollins herself first did the race as a 20-year-old college student in 2016, making it where her cycling journey began. Read more…

🏊🚴🏃 Last Chance for Kona: At the IRONMAN European Championships in Frankfurt this Sunday, pro men get their last chance to qualify for the World Championships this year. Why? It is the last full distance Ironman in their 2024 Pro Series; meaning if you haven’t yet qualified for the World Championships in Kona, it is now or never. But who? Big names like Max Neumann, Kristian Blummenfelt who spent all year focused on Olympic distance racing, and Sam Long who was T100 focused have not qualified. Watch here…

🚴 Tour de France Femmes: The action packed summer of cycling continues with the women. To bring you up to speed on the femmes TDF, its Demi Vollering the 2023 Tour de France Femmes winner leading after 4 stages. But it was Olympian Puck Pieterse who took Stage 4 and currently sits 22-seconds behind Vollering for the overall lead. Read more…

Happenings

Stats

Meanwhile

🚣🏻‍♂️ 🏈 NFL Player Rowing Across the Arctic: Football. Rowing. Not our usual subjects but this peaked my interest. Former NFL Tight End, Jimmy Graham is part of a four-person team embarking on the Arctic Challenge — a rowing expedition expected to take anywhere from 10 to 21 days. Sleep deprivation, blisters and outside temperatures that will hover around 37 to 45 degrees will be among the hurdles they may face in an attempt to break the current speed record of 15 days, 5 hours and 32 minutes. Read more…

🏊 Swim Lake Michigan? Guess again: 60-year-old long distance swimmer, Jim Dreyer attempted to cross Lake Michigan to Milwaukee this week. “The Shark” — began his 80-something mile swim only to turn about half-way through. It was his third attempt in two years. Crazy? Probably. But he did complete the feat in 1998. Read more…

🏊🚴🏃 Caffeine 🤝 Performance: Caffeine peaks in the bloodstream 60 minutes after consumption and has a half-life of approximately five hours (the time it takes the body to break down 50% of it). Synthetic caffeine. Even better. That’s absorbed faster by the body and thus takes effect faster than its natural counterpart. Caffeinated gum? Even faster! Read more…

🏊 Teacher uses summer break to swim around Manhattan: It’s actually much bigger than that but made for a good header. Long-distance swimmer Lura Wilhelm, 43, swam the entire 28.5-mile circumference of Manhattan Island in July. With that, the art teacher is only one of 340 swimmers to complete the Open Water Triple Crown: Long distance swims across California’s Catalina Channel and the English Channel, and the swim around Manhattan. Read more…

🏃 The 2024 Sneaker Awards (So Far): After months of testing more than 100 shoes, Men’s Health has put together a list of their favorites. See which make the cut as we’re 3/4 of the way through the year. Read more…

🏃 Treadmill vs. Outdoors: What’s More Effective?: Ughhh, I find myself on the DREADmill more often than I’d like because it’s right in my garage. And I know outdoors is better. But it’s just so easy to walk 20 steps and have it at my house. What do you think, which is more effective? [answer: Outdoors] Read more…

🚴🏃 Why Athletes are using Sodium bicarbonate: It’s a chemical compound most people would associate with baking or cleaning. However, it is increasingly being used as a legal supplement by elite athletes, particularly runners, to improve their performance. The UK’s Keely Hodgkinson, who won the 800m gold at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris swears by it. But does it actually work, and if so, how? And, importantly, are there any side effects? Read more…

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Quote

“I think in the future there needs to be a rule that there’s no drafting because that impacted my race too. The three of us [Rollins, Villafane, Thompson] that got away after Powerline, we were with a group of men, and I think we were moving faster.” – Leadville 100 winner, Melisa Rollins discussing the current Life Time race series drafting rules. Read more…

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Training Tips

Because training is life.

What I Eat For Health & Longevity: A fitness journey isn’t just about getting into shape. In the latest Dan’s journey back, get insights into what’s the best fuel for extending health and longevity. From breakfast, to lunch, to creatine, to unprocessed foods and more.

How I Went From a 5-Hour to a Sub 3-Hour Marathon (And How You Can Too): Enjoyed this video because Rob is just a normal dude trying to get better. Doesn’t have a big following, started at 225 lbs, dropped the weight, put in the work. Just like we all can.

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Rewatchables

Content for long training days inside or just everyday life.

Tom Evans | No Stone Left Unturned: In 2023, Tom Evans attempted a feat no man before him had ever accomplished; winning both Western States 100 Endurance Run and UTMB in the same year. This is his year long journey.

Migration: I’ve talked about it many times but the Migration Race in Kenya is a bucket list race for me. One that would be a dream to do. The folks at Rapha captured this years story perfectly.

The 2024 Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB: Though the men’s race wasn’t a nail biter, the women’s side was unexpected and exciting. Relive all the highlights.