Racing For Recovery

A man who almost destroyed his life with drugs and alcohol, and recovered via the triathlon.

For the first time, Alaska musher and tribal leader Mike Williams shares his remarkable life story with veteran sports writer Lew Freedman. Williams is a man of many parts, a sports figure, a government figure, a leader of his people, a husband, a father, and a Native man with one foot firmly planted in the twenty-first century and another firmly planted in the roots of a culture that dates back 10,000 years in Alaska. Williams competed in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race fifteen times, and was once the only Yup’ik Eskimo musher, a symbol to all Natives around the state. Although he was never a top contender for the Iditarod title, he was a competitor whom everyone cheered because he resolved that to shed light on one of Alaska’s greatest threats to the health and future of its Native people, he would carry in his dog sled pages—pounds worth—of signatures of people who had pledged sobriety. A Yup’ik Eskimo, Williams saw firsthand how alcohol could devastate people as surely as if they had contracted a deadly flu: each of his brothers had succumbed to alcohol-related accidents, incidents, or illnesses. Williams describes how he recovered from his dependence on alcohol through religion, loved ones, and racing dogs. For many years Williams carried those sobriety pledges in his sled, focusing attention on a troubling, seemingly intractable problem. Williams gained national attention, being profiled by CNN, Sports Illustrated, and Good Morning America. Fellow Iditarod competitors have voted him “the most inspirational musher.”

A kinetic energy recover system (KERS) captures the kinetic energy that results when brakes are applied to a moving vehicle. The recovered energy can be stored in a flywheel or battery and used later, to help boost acceleration. KERS helps transfer what was formerly wasted energy into useful energy. In 2009, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) began allowing KERS to be used in Formula One (F1) competition. Still considered experimental, this technology is undergoing development in the racing world but has yet to become mainstream for production vehicles. The Introduction of this book details the theory behind the KERS concept. It describes how kinetic energy can be recovered, and the mechanical and electric systems for storing it. Flybrid systems are highlighted since they are the most popular KERS developed thus far. The KERS of two racing vehicles are profiled: the Dyson Lola LMP1 and Audi R18 e-tron Quattro. Four SAE technical papers follow the preface and focus on the use of KERS technology in F1 racing. The first paper examines the factors that influence hybrid performance and enable optimization for different racing circuits. The second paper describes a Flybrid KERS designed for the 2009 F1 season. The third paper considers the development of an electric KERS for the 2009 F1 season. The fourth paper presents the challenges and opportunities of the 2014 F1 engine and powertrain rules, particularly as they pertain to KERS. This book has been published for automotive engineers who are interested in hybrid systems, energy recovery, regenerative braking, and improving acceleration. It will also be useful for powertrain designers, researchers, academics, and motorsports professionals (race engineers, team managers, and technology practitioners who design and build racing powertrains).

The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery is the first comprehensive, practical exploration of the art and science of athletic rest. If you've hit a wall in your training, maybe it's because your body isn't recovering enough from each workout to become stronger. Hard workouts tear down the body, but rest allows the body to repair and come back stronger than before. Athletes who neglect their recovery will gain little from workouts, risking injury, overtraining, and burn out. The Athlete's Guide to Recovery offers a full exploration of rest and recovery for athletes. In her book, certified triathlon and running coach and pioneering yoga for athletes instructor Sage Rountree will guide you to full recovery and improved performance, revealing how to measure your fatigue and recovery, how much rest you need, and how to make the best use of recovery tools. Drawing on her own experience along with interviews with coaches, trainers, and elite athletes, Rountree details daily recovery techniques, demystifying common aids like ice baths, compression apparel, and supplements. She explains in detail how to employ restorative practices such as massage, meditation, and yoga. You will learn which methods work best and how and when they are most effective. The Athlete's Guide to Recovery explores: • Periodization and overtraining • Ways to measure fatigue and recovery including heart rate tests, heart rate variability, EPOC, and apps • Stress reduction • Sleep, napping, nutrition, hydration, and supplements • Cold and heat like icing, ice baths, saunas, steam rooms, whirlpools, and heating pads • Home remedies including compression wear, creams, and salts • Technological aids like e-stim, ultrasound, Normatec • Massage, self-massage, and foam rolling • Restorative yoga • Meditation and breathing Then you can put these tools and techniques to practice using two comprehensive recovery plans for both short- and long-distance training. This invaluable resource will enable you to maintain that hard-to-find balance between rigorous training and rest so that you can feel great and compete at your highest level.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s only authorized book revealing the inside track on his final year of racing and retirement from the driver’s seat. “Time was running out on my charade… My secrets were about to be exposed to the world.” It was a seemingly minor crash at Michigan International Speedway in June 2016 that ended the day early for Dale Earnhardt Jr. What he didn’t know was that it would also end his driving for the year. He’d dealt with concussions before, but concussions are like snowflakes, no two are the same. And recovery can be brutal, and lengthy. When NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired from professional stock car racing in 2017, he walked away from his career as a healthy man. But for years, he had worried that the worsening effects of multiple racing-related concussions would end not only his time on the track but his ability to live a full and happy life. Torn between a race-at-all-costs culture and the fear that something was terribly wrong, Earnhardt tried to pretend that everything was fine, but the private notes about his escalating symptoms that he kept on his phone reveal a vicious cycle: suffering injuries on Sunday, struggling through the week, then recovering in time to race again the following weekend. For the first time, he shares these notes and fully reveals the physical and emotional struggles he faced as he fought to close out his career on his own terms. In this candid reflection, Earnhardt opens up about his frustration with the slow recovery, his admiration for the woman who stood by him through it all, and his determination to share his own experience so that others don’t have to suffer in silence. Steering his way to the final checkered flag of his storied career proved to be the most challenging race and most rewarding finish of his life.

Renowned running authority, coach, and best-selling author Pete Pfitzinger teams with Philip Latter, senior writer for Running Times, in this must-have training guide for the most popular race distances, including the 5K, 10K, and half marathon. Faster Road Racing: 5K to Half Marathon presents easy-to-follow programs proven to give you an edge in your next race. You’ll discover detailed plans for race-specific distances as well as expert advice on balancing training and recovery, cross-training, nutrition, tapering, and training over age 40. And for serious runners who compete in numerous races throughout the year, Pfitzinger’s multi-race, multi-distance training plans are invaluable. Faster Road Racing is your all-inclusive resource on running your fastest at distances of 5K, 8K to 10K, 15K to 10 miles, and the half marathon.

A 75th anniversary e-book version of the most important and practical self-help book ever written, Alcoholics Anonymous. Here is a special deluxe edition of a book that has changed millions of lives and launched the modern recovery movement: Alcoholics Anonymous. This edition not only reproduces the original 1939 text of Alcoholics Anonymous, but as a special bonus features the complete 1941 Saturday Evening Post article “Alcoholics Anonymous” by journalist Jack Alexander, which, at the time, did as much as the book itself to introduce millions of seekers to AA’s program. Alcoholics Anonymous has touched and transformed myriad lives, and finally appears in a volume that honors its posterity and impact.

Recovery for Performance in Sport encompasses the latest scientific research in the study of recovery and draws from the experience of applied sport scientists working with elite athletes in leading performance and recovery centers around the globe.

Hunter Allen and Andy Coggan, PhD have completely revised the book that made power meters understandable for amateur and professional cyclists and triathletes. Power meters have become essential tools for competitive cyclists and triathletes. No training tool can unlock as much speed and endurance as a power meter--for those who understand how to interpret their data. A power meter displays and records exactly how much energy a cyclist expends, which lends unprecedented insight into that rider's abilities and fitness. With the proper baseline data, a cyclist can use a power meter to determine race strategy, pacing, and tactics. Training and Racing with a Power Meter makes it possible to exploit the incredible usefulness of the power meter by explaining how to profile strengths and weaknesses, measure fitness and fatigue, optimize workouts, time race readiness, and race using power. This new edition: Enables athletes to predict future performance and time peak form Introduces fatigue profiling, a new testing method to pinpoint weaknesses Includes two training plans to raise functional threshold power and time peaks for race day Offers 75 power-based workouts tuned for specific training goals This updated edition also includes new case studies, a full chapter on triathlon training and racing, and improved 2-color charts and tables throughout. Training and Racing with a Power Meter, will continue to be the definitive guide to the most important training tool ever developed for endurance sports.