Info on the Simple Retreats

 There is an inaugural event of Simple Retreats (www.simpleretreats.com ), an off road multi sport retreat for women to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Taking place from October 13 - 18, 2002 at the base of Mt Tam in Marin, CA, Simple Retreats has assembled an all - star cast of current and former pro triathletes (Nancy Vallance, Michelle Deasy, Tory Valentine), cyclo cross (Rachel Lloyd), ultra endurance cyclists (Cassie Lowe, 2 - time RAAM Champion) and runners (Martha Cederstrom, 3 - time Western States 100 finisher), and a group of leading sports medicine and training authorities lead by Drs. Max Testa and Eric Heiden. (please see below for details). We would like to know if you would be willing to make a posting of this information to your club, and/or if we can send you some brochures to distribute at your next club meeting.
Best Wishes,
Nancy Vallance
David Strong
Co-Founders
Simple Retreats

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SIMPLE RETREATS GIVES WOMEN A NEW APPROACH TO EMPOWER THE MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT SIMPLE RETREATS TO BENEFIT THE KOMEN BREAST CANCER FOUNDATIONMILL VALLEY, CA

Simple Retreats (www.simpleretreats.com ) offers a new environment for athletic women to explore and expand their physical, mental, and spiritual boundaries. Founded in 2002, Simple Retreats brings together world-renowned experts to share tips, techniques, and new ways of thinking to challenge and redefine the way women think about their bodies and their abilities.

The overall theme at Simple Retreats is experiencing empowerment as women. Whether the goal is a race, or breaking through a barrier (physical or mental), or simply to share a passion with a group of like-minded women, Simple Retreats offers an exhilarating, high-energy, and potentially life changing vacation opportunity.

Simple Retreat will offer an exciting array of structured activities but plenty of down time to allow for impromptu fun and lots of time for daydreaming. The week will be filled out with mountain bike rides, scenic trail runs, open water swims at Paradise Beach, yoga classes, training lectures, chakra healing sessions, full moon hikes, daily massages, and wine and cheese pairings. Healthy, gourmet meals prepared with local ingredients will keep the energy up.

The retreat will be lead by an inspired team of athletic women including Nancy Vallance, a 10-year professional triathlete with over 50 career victories, ultra-endurance cyclist and Race Across America champion Cassie Lowe, and yoga gurus Jen Traeger and Martha Cederstrom, as well as sports luminaries like Olympic Gold medallist Eric Heiden, and Dr. Max Testa, co-founder of the UC Davis Sports Medicine Group and world-renowned sports medicine specialist, currently with Team Mapei, the #1 cycling team in the world.

This premier multi-sport retreat will take place Sunday October 13-Friday October 18th, in scenic Mill Valley, CA at the Ralston L. White Retreat-a 43-acre estate on the breathtaking eastern slope of Mount Tamalpais.

Simple Retreats Fall 2002 Retreat will benefit the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. For more information on Simple Retreats please visit www.simpleretreats.com or contact David Strong or Nancy Vallance at (415)-457-5690; david@simpleretreats.com, nancy@simpleretreats.com.

FACT SHEET
Mission Statement
Simple Retreats was established in 2002 to create an environment for athletic women to explore and expand their physical, mental, and spiritual boundaries.

Dates
The first Simple Retreat will take place Sunday, October 13, through Friday, October 18, 2002.

Facility
The Fall Retreat will be held at the Ralston L. White Retreat in Mill Valley, CA. Located on 43 acres on the eastern slope of Mt. Tamalpais, the historic Ralston Retreat has three stories, several balconies with spectacular views, and beautiful furnishings throughout. It accommodates up to 45 guests, with comfortable, spacious meeting areas, an elegant dining room and ample kitchen space. Casual, spacious guest rooms accommodate from 2 to 5 women, each with ample bathroom facilities. Extensive hiking, running and mountain biking trails originate from the Retreat. Massage services are available for an additional fee.

Summary Agenda
The agenda for the Retreat features an exciting array of structured activities, but we also designed it to allow for all kinds of impromptu fun. (It is a vacation, after all!) Over the span of the five days, we have planned:
* 4 Mountain Bike Rides
* 3 Scenic Trail Runs
* 3 Open Water Swims
* 3 Yoga Sessions
* 3 Training Lectures
* Daily Massages
* Daily wine and cheese gatherings

Sample Day:
7:00 am - Get your blood pumping with a Galaxy Granola Breakfast
8:30 am - Bike through breathtaking scenery on the Eldridge Grade to Lake Lagunitas
1:00 pm - Replenish with a hearty lunch back at Ralston
2:30 pm - Lean back and learn mountain bike techniques and skills from the pros during a lecture and Q&A session
4:00 pm - Soak up some late afternoon sun with a swim on Paradise Beach
5:00 pm - Chill out and restore with Chakra Healing
7:00 pm - Kick back and relax with a home-made gourmet dinner
9:00 pm - Keep the beat on a full moon hike with drumming (you've got to experience it to believe it!)

Program & Price
The Program: The Fall 2002 Simple Retreat is $1,495.00 and includes:
* 5 nights lodging at the Ralston L. White Retreat
* All meals (delicious California cuisine), all SAG food and support
* Group assignment based on skills and experience (you'll always be at a comfortable level)
* Personal and small group instruction in all sports, including open water swim, mountain/road biking, and trail running
* Instructor-led activities, grouped by ability, including trail runs, mountain bike rides, hikes, and swims
* Complete physiological testing and bike fit with Dr. Max Testa
* Yoga classes, chakra healing, full moon hikes with drumming
* Triathlon transition training
* Preventative medicine and injury management with Eric Heiden
* Full access to world renowned staff
* Instructional materials
* Generous gifts from our sponsors
* And many surprises!

Who Should Go...
We encourage any woman who:
* Considers herself athletic
* Wants to explore and expand her physical, mental and spiritual boundaries
* Feels like she's reached a plateau in her fitness and isn't satisfied with that
* Enjoys sharing experiences with other provocative, accomplished and interesting people
* Wants to learn more about sports nutrition and the scientific aspects of training
* Is thinking about competing in an athletic event, be it a 10K run or a race across America
* Is sick of hearing about "guys' vacations" and wants her own escape
* Thinks it would be cool to hang with an amazing group of fitness experts
and star athletes
* Wants to experience the exhilaration of empowerment

The Simple Retreats Team:

Nancy Vallance
Simple Retreats Founder and a 10-year professional triathlete with 50 career victories. Nancy is a sports coach for triathletes, and the Head Cycling Coach for Northern California Team in Training.

David Strong
Simple Retreats Founder, and a Partner at Far West Capital Management (his day job). David is an ultra cyclist, and the guy behind the scenes at Simple Retreats - a.k.a. "Oz".
Stacey Artandi
Simple Retreats business guru, and Internet Marketing and Business Development Executive in her other life. Stacey is an avid cyclist, runner and hiker, and huge fan of anything else that keeps her outdoors.

Martha Cederstrom
Martha is a yoga professional, an ultra runner, and Western States 100 finisher. She has completed some of the hardest ultra running events in the world, and has blended her meditation and yoga practice with her training and her life. She is also Chairman of the Fine Arts Department at Drake High School, and a Mom.

Michelle Deasy
Michelle is an accomplished professional triathlete. She has placed in the top 10 for the last two years in the prestigious Hawaii Ironman, and placed in the top 4 in Ironman California. Michelle has been selected to represent the United States in the 2002 Long Course World Championships in Nice,
France.

Rachel Lloyd
Rachel is one of the most diverse cyclists in the world, and the only rider since the legendary John Tomac to ride a complete schedule of Mountain Bike X Country, and Downhill in the same season. She is also a world class Cyclo Cross pro, finishing in third place at the National Championships in 2001. She has finished in the top 10 standings in the NCS for the past 3 years and finished top 10 at Worlds Cyclo Cross.

Cassie Lowe
Ultra Endurance Cyclist from Down Under, Cassie has won every endurance race she has entered since 1999, and recently defended her title in the world's most grueling 2,980 mile non-stop endurance cycling race - The Race Across America (RAAM). This year, she has been given the honor of being the only woman invited to the Race Across the Alps (RATA) in July in Nauders, Austria.

Tory Valentine
Tory has been racing for 10 years and was on the U.S. National Amateur Triathlon Team for four years. She has top ten finishes at the 1996 and 1997 World Triathlon Championships and is currently ripping up the Xterra Tri scene for the third year.

Instructors:

Dr. Max Testa
Europe's most renowned authority on sports medicine and co-founder of the UC Davis Sports Medicine Group. Dr. Testa has been a professional cycling team doctor since 1985, working with some of the greatest teams of all time, including: 7-11 Professional Cycling Team (1985-1990); Motorola Professional Cycling Team (1991-1996); MG-Technogym Professional Cycling Team (1997); and Mapei Professional Cycling Team (1998 - Present). He has coached some of the greatest cyclists in the world, including Lance
Armstrong, Bobby Julich, Stefano Garzelli, and Eric Heiden. Among professional cyclists, he is known for his ability to combine nutrition, psychology, physiology and bio-mechanics for maximum results.

Dr. Testa, along with Olympic champion Eric Heiden, started the UC Davis Sports Performance program and opened the training center in early 2001. He received his medical education at the University of Pavia in Italy, where he earned an MD in Family Practice in 1982 and a specialization in Sports Medicine in 1985. He is a member of the Sporting Safety and Conditions Commission of the International Cycling Union (UCI) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a member of the Italian Association of Cycling Physicians.

Eric Heiden
In nine days in February 1980 at Lake Placid, NY, Eric accomplished what no Olympian had ever done -- he won 5 individual gold medals in a single Olympics. In 1985, he won the U.S. professional cycling championship. He competed in the world's premier cycling event, the Tour de France, in 1986. He was also a member of Giro d'Italia winning Team Motorola. Heiden also succeeded where it counted most for him. He graduated from Stanford Medical School and, following in his father's footsteps, became an orthopedic surgeon. Eric, along with Dr. Max Testa, co-founded the UC Davis Sports Medicine Group.

Steve Born
Steve's more than ten years' involvement in the sports nutrition industry has given him unmatched knowledge with the products now flooding the shelves of health food stores. As a three-time Race Across America finisher, the 1994 Furnace Creek 508 Champion, holder of two ultramarathon cycling records, and avid Nordic skier, Steve knows what works in endurance nutrition. Steve edits Endurance News and spends several hours each day providing individual consultations to athletes.

Jen Traeger
Jen's own excitement and curiosity about the practice of yoga is reflected in her teaching. Her goal as a teacher is to encourage students to do their best in the moment and has faith that the practice done consistently and accurately will open the practitioner to her own internal light. She uses compassion, honesty and a light hearted sense of humor to help students cultivate a passion for consistent practice. Jen began studying the Iyengar system in the early 1990's and in the last two years, her practice and teaching have been profoundly influenced by her study of the Ashtanga Vinyasa tradition.

Sabrina Page
Sabrina is a Chakra healer, and a somatic educator with over 20 years experience. A graduate of Cornell University and the Rocky Mountain Healing Arts Institute, she is also a Certified Massage Therapist and a Hypnotherapist.

Melanie Souther
Melanie is a Sports Nutrition Lecturer at Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa City College, and the Cooper Institute. Given her strong background in Mountain Biking and Triathlon, she brings a strong understanding of not only sports nutrition in general, but specifically sports nutrition for women athletes.

Michelle Johnston
Michelle is the Sommelier at the world-renowned Buckeye Grill in Marin, CA. She will act as our guide in exploring the different varietals and how to tell one from another without looking at the label. Her love of wine is almost as great as her love of the outdoors and mountain biking.

Sponsors:
* Powercranks
* Hammer Nutrition
* Platinum Performance
* Light & Motion
* Orca Performance Speedsuits
* Galaxy Granola
* UC Davis Sports Medicine Group
* VeloNews
* Inside Triathlon
* Yoga International