By Chris Canning,     TeamBrauns.com

As a newbie to endurance sports, I had no real direction or goals for my new found love of cycling and running. I just felt like I regain my youth in doing so. I would go on bike rides or runs haphazardly with no purpose other than pure enjoyment. My exercise volume was low, my intensity of the workouts were all over the place, however, my fitness level increased quickly so I took my new passion to a new level.

I entered my first race, an Olympic distance duathlon at Guelph Lake. I had no clue what to expect or any idea about pacing, fueling and hydration. I “grunted” my way to the finish line with a time of 2:38, placing 74th out of 100. Not bad considering I bonked big time and my quads completely cramped up at the beginning of the 10K run. I quickly learned from my mistakes and have since done 3 more duathlons at Guelph Lake, improving each time.

One day I decided to go to Braun’s to buy some tire irons. After meeting and chatting with Winston for the first time I knew I had found a local bike shop that I could rely on and have quality customer service. I have since returned to Braun’s for my cycling needs and during one of those visits Winston dropped the idea of joining a cycling team Braun’s was putting together. The concept of joining a cycling team intrigued me – taking my training to the next level.

Since last Summer I have had the speed factory fitting and had Braun’s build me a wheelset. Changing those two things alone made a large impact on my performance. I had an average speed on 35.3 km/hour on the bike in my last duathlon event. I was hungry for more speed. The Fall of 2011 I purchase a Quarq power meter and started the Speed Factory training program.

This program works – trust me.

In less than 6 months I have raised my 60 minute threshold from 239 watts to 295 watts (and climbing). If a middle age slacker, like me, can train 3-4 hours per week and make large gains anyone can! You just have to be consistent and willing to suffer a bit.

In 2012 I plan on racing in some duathlons but have also decided to give road racing a try. I purchased a sponsored Argon18 Gallium from Braun’s and I am excited to learn the ropes of riding in the peloton. This will be an adjustment from the time trials I’ve gotten use to but knowing I will be mentored by TeamBraun.com from the get go gives me great confidence in my success.

I look forward to training, learning, and competing with my new team members.

By Darcy Brown,  Team Brauns.com Athlete

I thought I’d make this first blog entry into a sort of introduction.

For fitness, I race in triathlons.  Last year I partnered with Braun’s in support of my trip to the 2011 ITU World Championships in Beijing and was pleased to carry their logo here in Ontario, in the States and of course in China.  The support from the store was fantastic and I’m very excited about the emergence of TeamBrauns.com. Read More …