2009-11 Triathlete

32 CONTENDERS TO WATCH IN KONA GEAR >> TRAINING >> RACE SCENE >> LIFESTYLE

NO.307

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NOVEMBER 2009

KILL BOREDOM

MAKE

INDOOR TRAINING

FUN

RACE IRONMAN

WITHOUT GETTING DIVORCED

4 STEPS TO YOUR FASTEST RUN EVER

5 WAYS

TO CALM PRE-RACE NERVES YOUR PERFECT SWIM WORKOUT

[PAGE 116]

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ENEKO LLANOS

KONA’S #1 CONTENDER

© American Sporting Goods Corporation 2009

AVI-BOLT II

AVI-LITE II

AVI-STOLTZ

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PREFERRED RACING EQUIPMENT OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

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contents

november 2009

DEPARTMENTS 24 Starting Lines

By Mitch Thrower

26 Editor’s Note

By Brad Culp

28 Mail Call 30 Checking In Training Tip; Click This; Recipe; Kona or Bust; Kona Q&A; Medically Speaking; Endurance Traveler; Iron Kids; Light Read; IndusTri

178 At the Races TRAINING 110 Rest Up, Then Train Smart Get creative with your offseason indoor training.

By Mikael Hanson

122 On the Run

154 Tech Support

126 Fundamentals

158 Triathlete’s Garage

129 Speed Lab

160 Pro Bike

134 Dear Coach

162 Tri’d and Tested

NUTRITION

Columns

140 Nutrition Q&A

166 Up Front

By Brian Metzler

By Ian Murray

By Tim Mickleborough, PhD

By Paul Huddle and Roch Frey

By Pip Taylor

142 Multisport Menu 144 Breakthroughs 146 Get Leaner, Go Faster

114 Lane Lines

GEAR AND TECH

116 Big Ring

150 Project Bikes Specialized Transition and Felt DA

By Sara McLarty

By Mark Deterline

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By Jay Prasuhn

By Ian Buchanan

By Jay Prasuhn

By Jay Prasuhn

By Jay Prasuhn

By Andy Potts

168 Ticket Punch

By Samantha McGlone

170 Xterra Zone

By Melanie McQuaid

172 Endurance Conspiracy

By Tim DeBoom

216 Tinley Talks

By Scott Tinley november 2009

The Timex Ironman Race Trainer digital heart rate system kit features the ANT+Sport interoperable platform.

T1Ê TOÊ T2Ê FASTER

FREEÊ WINDÊ TUNNELÊ TIME

ItÊ isÊ timeÊ toÊ goÊ fast,Ê forÊ real!Ê Ê ThereÊ areÊ noÊ fewerÊ thanÊ aÊ halfÊ aÊ dozenÊ bikeÊ companiesÊ outÊ thereÊ toutingÊ theÊ Ò FastestÊ BikeÊ inÊ theÊ WorldÓ Ê andÊ whileÊ BlueÊ hasÊ doneÊ theirÊ homeworkÊ onÊ theÊ designÊ frontÊ andÊ inÊ theÊ wind-tunnel,Ê weÊ understandÊ theÊ truth.Ê Ê TheÊ truthÊ isÊ noÊ matterÊ howÊ Ò aeroÓ Ê andÊ Ò fastÓ Ê theÊ bikeÊ is,Ê theÊ riderÊ accountsÊ forÊ aboutÊ 85%Ê ofÊ theÊ overallÊ drag.Ê Ê InÊ anÊ effortÊ toÊ provideÊ youÊ theÊ fastestÊ bikeÊ split,Ê weÊ haveÊ partneredÊ withÊ theÊ A2Ê wind-tunnelÊ toÊ giveÊ eachÊ TriadÊ customerÊ aÊ freeÊ hourÊ ofÊ aeroÊ fittingÊ toÊ makeÊ sureÊ yourÊ positionÊ letsÊ youÊ haveÊ theÊ Ò FastestÊ BikeÊ inÊ YourÊ WorldÓ .Ê Ê HurryÊ toÊ aÊ BlueÊ dealerÊ orÊ visitÊ www.rideblue.com...becauseÊ theÊ TriadsÊ areÊ goingÊ fast,Ê reallyÊ fast.

RIDEBLUE.COMÊ /Ê WINDTUNNEL

-Project Athena Foundation For more info visit CarboPro.com, NutritionForEndurance.com or call 1-800-776-4363

Project Athena Foundation

inspires, encourages and funds women with breast cancer or other medical setbacks to unleash the athlete within and realize their dreams: whether that be to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, cross the finish line of an Ironman Triathlon, or fall into the arms of a proud family at the end of a local 5K.

“… instead of sitting back and taking setbacks, we are driven to embrace and squeeze every last drop out of life every day through training for and racing in the world’s toughest endurance events. And we want you to join us.”

-Project Athena Racing Team

PR O JE CT AT H EN A . O RG D O N AT E FUNDRAISE SPONSOR

For years, SPORTQUEST has proudly supported Robyn Benincasa, the force behind Project Athena Foundation, in her quest for adventure. Moving forward, we are now proud to partner with Project Athena Foundation in sharing its goals and objectives of encouraging women “to not just survive--but go on to STRIVE after enduring life altering yet life affirming medical conditions.”

IN SYNC WITH SCIENCE SINCE 1996

TRAIN HARD. PLAY HARD. GO BEYOND YOUR LIMITS. CARBO-PRO for sustained energy and calories; CarboPro 1200 an advanced sports drink for pure calories for a race; THERMOLYTE the best Sodium/Electrolyte Antioxidant Complex; VANTAGE VO2 Max to BEAT the BURN, and deal with lactic acid and ammonia build-up; RECOVER Amino Power for quick recovery after a performance; MOTIVATOR for mental energy and endurance; INTERPHASE Hypertrophy Matrix premium protein powder for muscular strength and endurance.

Designed by

.com

features

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november 2009

On the Cover Cover: Eneko Llanos • Photo by John Segesta Make Indoor Training Fun Race Ironman Without Getting Divorced 4 Steps to Your Fastest Run Ever 5 Ways to Calm Race-Day Nerves Your Perfect Swim Workout Eneko Llanos, Kona’s #1 Contender

52 Going Easy with Easygoing Eneko Llanos

78 Challenged Athletes Foundation Race Preview

60 Men’s Kona Preview

80 Bree Wee in Kailua-Kona

68 Women’s Kona Preview

90 Walking the Tightrope

By Matt Fitzgerald

By Brad Culp

By Jay Prasuhn

76 Expert Predictions for Kona Podiums

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By Brad Culp

Photos by Tek Mapon

Advice on keeping your passion for triathlon alive after it takes a backseat to family.

By Tim Hola

110 90 122 140 114 52

95 Triathlon Powerhouses The U.S. military academies are growing their contributions to the sport by turning out stellar cadet triathletes.

By Jim Gourley

102 Big Sky Tri The debut of Ironman 70.3 Calgary.

By Jay Prasuhn Correction: The photo on page 14 of the September 2009 issue was taken by Sean Walkinshaw, not Larry Rosa. november 2009

THIS SHOE GIVES JULIE DIBENS SECONDS. AND A LOT OF FIRSTS. Seconds. The difference between a gold medal or a personal best, and “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve.” That’s why Julie Dibens wears the Bontrager RXL Hilo. Easy in, easy out. Light. And super ventilated. If it weren’t the best tri shoe out there, Julie wouldn’t put her name on it. And neither would we.

BONTRAGER.COM © 2009 TREK BICYCLE CORPORATION

THIS MONTH ON

triathletemag.com

After months of anticipation, the Ford Ironman World Championships have finally arrived and Triathletemag.com will have unparalleled coverage to keep you in the loop. Even if you can’t make the trip to the Big Island, you’ll be in the know with daily news, analysis, photos and video straight from Kona.

TRICENTER

Tim Mantoani

During the week leading up to the big race on Oct. 10, Triathletemag.com will host daily episodes of our video show TriCenter, providing previews, interviews and analysis. Want to know who’s training with whom, who looks the most fit and who our experts think will be the dark horses in this year’s championship? Tune in to TriCenter for answers. We’ll also feature a post-race edition of TriCenter, where we will break down the race and give you the athletes’ reactions from the day.

PHOTO GALLERIES Triathletemag.com’s team of photographers will take the island by storm, capturing images of athletes as they prepare for the race and attend events. We’ll also cover the race from every angle and bring you several photo galleries full of racing action.

Triathlete senior editor Jay Prasuhn will keep you up to date on all of the gear making its debut at the Ironman World Championships. He’ll also take you to the bike racks and report on which cycling company comes out on top in the well-known Kona bike count.

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Jay Prasuhn

GEAR & TECH

november 2009

and help you perform your best on race-day

See LINSEY CORBIN** on October 11, 2009, enter the waters at the Ironman World Championship plus learn about her RACE SECRETS

at www.XterraWetsuits.com

2008 Ironman World Championship First Out of the Water* 1st, 2nd & 3rd fastest age-group men swims* 1st fastest age-group female swim* 1st American female overall** 1st age-group female overall*

First Wave 18

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Breath Control MARIO C ANTU A pair of women at the USAT Elite National Championship fight for position in the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa, Ala. For coverage of the event, see page 200.

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First Wave

Hang Time DELLY C ARR/TRIATHLON.ORG Australia’s Dan Wilson gets a little extra hang time before the second loop of the swim at the Dextro Energy ITU World Championship event in Yokohama, Japan. For coverage of the race turn to page 192.

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First Wave 22

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Cruisin’ on LSD PAUL PHILLIPS/COMPETITIVE IMAGE American Matty Reed bombs down Lake Shore Drive (LSD) at the Chicago Triathlon. Reed went on to win the race and take the overall lead in the Lifetime Fitness Race for the Toyota Cup. More coverage of the world’s largest triathlon is on page 178.

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Starting Lines The Ironman was a focus that became a process, a new way of living.

A Not So ImpoSSIble DreAm mitch thower When I finished my first Ironman it first felt like heaven as I ran into the finish line chute to match the pearly gates. The night after the race I thought there was a chance I was actually going to die. I was feeling pain in places I did not know existed. Going into the event, I thought when I crossed the finish line on Ali’i Drive that the quest would be over. The dream finally realized. Case closed.

Instead, I discovered an exhilarating truth.

Not only was the race not over, but the Ironman in all its life enhancing, spirit-altering facets and heart-testing challenges had just begun. Simply put, I liked it and wanted to do it again. I had to recover, rebuild, reload and 24

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start training. And after a few nanoseconds of reflection I realized those first 12 hours on the Queen K and Ali’i Drive were just the tip of the iceberg of a soul-expanding crusade toward excitement, satisfaction and transcendence.

So that first Ironman wasn’t just a finite experience, measured by the 140.6 miles spent swimming in the azure waters of Kailua Bay and suffering on Pele’s anvil. The Ironman was a focus that became a process, a new way of living. It started as a siren that lured the modest spirit into becoming a warrior. It demanded a metamorphosis into a new, greater place.

For those of us not too grown up to forget The Wizard of Oz, the Ironman was our

sport’s Emerald City. Starting with a vision of Ali’i Drive and hoping that by using the same swimsuits, bikes and running shoes as tri gods like Mark Allen, Paula Newby-Fraser and Chrissie Wellington we can unleash the passion that propelled Dorothy to keep seeking her return to Kansas. But ultimately, no matter what character flaw you yearned for, nor the direction of your Yellow Brick Road, we all end up like the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and Dorothy.

We discover we all have the brains, the heart and the courage within ourselves. It just takes the dream and the desire to unlock the Ironman within.

Which brings me to the incredible growth of triathlon, and in particular the hyper-speed acceleration of the worldwide explosion of Ironman participation. Valerie Silk once had to work hard to increase the starting field from 100 to 300. Now almost 60,000 people worldwide annually compete with aspirations of Kona as their goal. While millions can make the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Mecca of triathlon may seem to be more of an impossible dream.

With finisher times getting faster and faster, and qualifying times improving every year, it’s easy to get discouraged. To a beginner just starting out (or even for someone who’s been in the game for a while) the ultimate dream of the Hawaii Ironman can seem distant and daunting. Even the benefits of arduous training seem dwarfed by the statistical reality of posting a qualifying time. When discouragement looms and seems too heavy to keep making an effort, don’t forget to look back on what you’ve already accomplished.

I’m not talking about races you’ve completed or workouts you’ve done. I’m not even talking about the odds you fought in achieving the race medals on display in your home or office. I’m talking about the insurmountable odds you have already overcome in your life to get where you are right now.

So when you think things are impossible, remember that every year, 7,000 well-qualified athletes apply for a lottery slot in the Kona Ironman. Just 200 are accepted. So if these 35:1 odds don’t favor you this year, just remember that “impossible” is a relative term. You have already overcome significant odds during training to become a triathlete. No small feat, and no odds are insurmountable.

Mitch Thrower mthrower@competitorgroup.com november 2009

Editor’s Note

“We Are All Witnesses” I used to think Nike’s “We Are All Witnesses” ad campaign featuring LeBron James was heinous. I thought the most well-known apparel brand on earth was trying to elevate the Cleveland Cavaliers’ young superstar to some sort of religious stature. Needless to say, for the brand management gurus at Nike, the slogan was a bit riskier than the “Be Like Mike” push from last decade.

Lo and behold, now that most of us have gotten at least a glimpse of James in action, the campaign seems to be politically correct. The 24-year-old’s prowess on a basketball court is truly something worthy of being witnessed.

I got a firsthand look at James two years ago at a game in Chicago. I was in awe from start to finish and remember thinking that “King James” is a once-in-a-lifetime talent.

I felt the same way while watching Chrissie Wellington compete in Kona last year. I wrote the Brit out of the race while I watched her spend 10 minutes on the side of the road chang26

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Brad Culp

No. 307 | November 2009 Publisher John Duke Associate Publisher Heather Gordon VP, Event Marketing Sean Watkins Editor Brad Culp, bculp@competitorgroup.com Managing Editor Somyr McLean Perry, sperry@competitorgroup.com Senior Editors Matt Fitzgerald, mfitzgerald@competitorgroup.com Jay Prasuhn, jprasuhn@competitorgroup.com Associate Editor Susan Grant, sgrant@competitorgroup.com Online Coordinator Kurt Hoy, khoy@competitorgroup.com Online Editor Liz Hichens, lhichens@competitorgroup.com Editorial Intern Bethany Leach, bleach@competitorgroup.com Copyeditor Marilyn Iturri Photo Editor John Segesta, jsegesta@competitorgroup.com Graphic Designer Oliver Baker, obaker@competitorgroup.com Medical Advisory Board Jordan Metzl, MD; Jeff Sankoff, MD VP, Production/Circulation Heather Gordon, hgordon@competitorgroup.com Senior Account Executive Sean Watkins, Cycling & Events swatkins@competitorgroup.com Senior Account Executive Lisa Bilotti, Nutrition, Apparel, Footwear & Auto lbilotti@competitorgroup.com Marketplace Sales Laura Agcaoili, lagcaoili@competitorgroup.com Ad Manager Deena Hancock, dhancock@competitorgroup.com Ad Coordinator Lisa McGinn, lmcginn@competitorgroup.com Accounting Vicky Trapp, vtrapp@competitorgroup.com Customer Service Linda Marlowe, Linda@pcspublink.com Nancy Pomeroy, Nancy@pcspublink.com

John Segesta/johnsegesta.com

ing a flat. Consequently I was amazed when I then watched Chrissie rip by the 100-mile marker with a ridiculous gap on the entire women’s field. It shouldn’t have been possible, but she made it look easy.

But if you really want to see someone test the limits of what’s possible at this year’s Ironman World Championship, I suggest you look quite a few places behind the sure-to-bebrilliant Brit. Somewhere amid the sea of bodies in Kailua Bay, the freight train of bikes along the Queen K Highway and the precession of runners through the Natural Energy Lab, you’ll find Rudy Garcia-Tolson. He’s way more badass than the Rudy who played a single down for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame (watch the movie Rudy immediately if you don’t know whom I’m referring to).

This Rudy has no legs—something that would make it seemingly impossible to compete in the Ironman. But on Oct. 10, Rudy will attempt to become the first bilateral above-the-knee amputee to complete the race. I’d wager all three of my bikes on him doing it.

Over the past three decades the Hawaii Ironman has provided the backdrop for some truly amazing stories: Dick Hoyt raced with his disabled son Ricky, who can’t walk, to the finish on six occasions. Scott Rigsby finished without his lower legs. Sarah Reinertsen became an Ironman with only one leg. Jon Blais rolled down the finishing chute with Lou Gehrig’s disease. The list could go on.

Whether you watch this year’s race on-hand in Kona or you tune into the streaming coverage on Ironman.com, you’ll get to see a tough-asnails kid with no legs compete on the same course as some of the most physically gifted athletes on earth—and that’s worth witnessing.

You can find out more about Rudy and the rest of the physically challenged athletes competing in Kona on page 78.

Triathlete Magazine Offices 10179 Huennekens Street, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92121 Phone: (858) 768-6805; Fax: (858) 768-6806 Triathlon.competitor.com Attention Retailers: To carry Triathlete in your store, call Retail Vision: (800) 381-1288 SUBSCRIPTIONS: Your satisfaction is important to us. For questions regarding your subscription call (800) 441-1666 or (760) 291-1562. Or, write to: Triathlete, P.O. Box 469055, Escondido, CA 92046. Or, e-mail: subs@triathletemag.com.

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Triathlete Magazine is a publication of

David Moross Peter Englehart Scott P. Dickey Andy Hersam Steve Gintowt John Duke John Smith Dan Vaughan David O’Connell Rebecca McKinnon Sean Clottu Heather Gordon

Chairman President & CEO Chief Operating Officer EVP, Media Chief Financial Officer SVP, Group Publisher SVP, National Sales VP, Digital Media VP, Western Region Sales VP, Eastern Region Sales VP, Sales Development VP, Circulation & Production

JAMES STARTT PHOTO

BALLS OUT. TARMAC SL3

“WE TRAIN OUR BODIES BEYOND THE LIMITS, SO WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO PUSH OUR BIKES AND MATERIAL BEYOND THE LIMITS. WHEN YOU ATTACK WITH 800 WATTS, IT’S IMPORTANT THAT YOU GET IT BACK ON THE ROAD. MY NEW SL3 IS THE FASTEST BIKE I’VE HAD SO FAR — IT’S BEEN PERFECT.” FIND OUT MORE ON THE TARMAC SL3, ANDY SCHLECK AND THE REST OF TEAM SAXO BANK AT I-AM-SPECIALIZED.COM OR SPECIALIZED.COM/TARMACSL3

Mail Call a few years away from home while attending college, I gained the confidence and courage to wear shorts in public while running the streets of South Central Los Angeles where I was raised. After getting my Ph.D., I now enjoy the “freedom” to purchase the equipment I need, including short shorts, to train and race.

Still, the broke Mexican Catholic women in me still shies away from two-piece bathing suits. They don’t make me faster so I don’t care to wear them anyway. Thanks for raising the issue of diversity in the sport!

Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo Los Angeles

hydraTion is Key in sToMach issues

T

My Friends say TriaThlon is a WhiTe sporT

I

’m not a writer or editor; I’m just a normal guy with love of the sport. I love your magazine. You have a lot of interesting articles that have helped me become a triathlete.

One day I had the fellas over for drinks.

I told them about what I’ve been doing [in the sport] and they said that I’m crazy. We got into an in-depth conversation over being a triathlete and what it takes. The question came up about whether triathlon is a Caucasian sport. My friends suggested that this sport was not geared toward African-Americans. I argued that anybody can do the sport.

The fact that I am African-American was proof that it is open to all people, even though at most triathlons I’m the only AfricanAmerican. I can’t help the fact that a lot of my community does not like to be pushed unless there is a dollar sign behind the outcome. I do triathlons for a sense of accomplishment and the desire to one day stand on the podium.

My friends turned their attention to the magazine and pointed out that there was not a feature article of an African-American in the 28

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magazine. I didn’t look at it in that way, but as I went back through recent issues it makes me agree with them. I did find a picture but never a feature article.

Byron Hill St. Louis, Mo.

Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out the feature story on African-American triathlete David Goggins in our August 2009 issue (“The Toughest Man Alive,” page 95).

diversiTy arTicle hiT hoMe

T

hanks for the article on diversity in triathlon (September 2009). I completely agree with the points raised regarding lack of access and limited resources as main factors limiting the number of people of color we see on race day. However, I’d like to note that the role a woman has within her culture can also play a role in the type of activities/sports she engages in. As a Mexican woman, I learned early on that I was not to strut my stuff. Add to this religion (e.g., Catholicism) and you’ve got a broke Mexican woman who feels guilty about racing with the boys in the hood. After

hanks to Pip Taylor for her informative article on exercise-induced nausea. I am a 53-year-old emergency physician with a lot of interest in sports medicine. I have been doing triathlons since 1982, and I have had exercise-induced nausea since high school.

I agree with and would emphasize some of her points. Staying hydrated is key. And make sure that the liquids going into your stomach are being absorbed. The night before a long race I find pancakes to be the most digestible meal. They are high in carbs and I don’t taste garlic during the race. I don’t eat any solid foods the morning of a race. I think hydration in the morning is important but anything you put in your stomach needs to be broken up, get from the stomach into the intestine and then absorbed before it does you any good. If I start a race with food in my stomach, it sits there waiting for the race to end. It is probably impeding my ability to absorb liquids. On race day, I stick with liquids. I don’t try to consume calories though there are a few calories in sports drinks. I will avoid all the debate about how much sodium and how much liquid to drink and just say it is best to train with what you will drink during the race. It needs to taste like something you would want to drink. I have raced three Kona Ironman races and need more than fluids and electrolytes to do well there. I stick with liquid- or gel-based foods and I dilute them further to make it easier to swallow and hopefully digest.

Mark Baker Kailua, Hawaii

speaK your Mind!

Send Letters to the Editor to bculp@ competitorgroup.com. Include your name, address and the best way to contact you.

Letters may be edited for clarity and length. november 2009

©2009 Pearl Izumi

ITSaRUNNER.com

Pearl Izumi men’s and women’s syncroFloat® III with Seamless Race uppers, 360 degree lacing and SKYDEX® forefoot and heel cushioning. Men’s 13.0 oz / Women’s 10.9 oz.

C h ecki n g I n

John Segesta/johnsegesta.com

Training Tip Click This Recipe Kona or Bust Kona Q&A Medically Speaking Endurance Traveler IronKids Light Read IndusTRI

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Training Tip

C heC king in

Normal and symmetrical spinal mobility is essential for optimal muscular recruitment and for reducing muscular fatigue, resulting in greater force (power) production and more efficient movements.

normal mobility

compromised mobility

sPinal mobility: the missing linK oF core training By nate koCh Today’s triathletes have evolved their training to include more cross-training activities with a strong emphasis on increasing core strength. This trend has reduced injury rates and allowed athletes to perform at higher levels. However, in most core strengthening programs, one key component is consistently overlooked: spinal mobility. By increasing spinal mobility, triathletes can optimize bike fit and comfort, prevent injury and enhance performance.

The spine moves on three planes. In all three triathlon disciplines, the sagittal (or forward-backward) plane is the primary plane of movement. Repetition of sagittal movement leads to restricted spinal mobility in rotation (transverse plane) and side-to-side extension (frontal plane). This effect of the single-plane movement of triathlon is exacerbated by the flexed “caveman� posture many of us sit in for eight hours a day at the office. The spinal immobility and other postural and muscular imbalances that result from spending so much time locked in this position often cause leg 32

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malalignment, abnormal muscle firing and soft tissue restrictions. These problems may in turn create injuries such as sciatica, ITB (iliotibial band) syndrome, shoulder impingement and Achilles tendinosis.

In swimming, normal and symmetrical thoracic (mid-back) extension and trunk rotation are crucial to performance. The last 20 to 30 degrees of shoulder flexion (arm elevation) actually come from extension of the thoracic spine and not shoulder mobility.

If this motion is not possible, the result is a shorter and less efficient swim stroke.

Worse, inadequate thoracic extension can also lead to shoulder impingement and pain.

Proper trunk rotation also helps to clear the shoulder blade during the recovery part of the swim stroke (arm out of the water), reducing the possibility of shoulder pinch.

Symmetrical lower extremity movement in cycling is essential for power production, pedaling efficiency, saddle comfort and injury prevention. Because the upper body is fixed on the bike, abnormal spinal/pelvic rotation will

cause the legs to operate out of the straight plane (the thigh, knee and lower leg may be angled in or out). This results in abnormal stress and strain, and eventually an overuse injury.

In some cases this can be corrected with shims or a bike fit, but the underlying issue may not be resolved until spinal mobility asymmetries are addressed.

Another cycling-specific restriction is limited mid-back (thoracic) extension or back bending. This forces the neck to compensate (more so in an aero position) and can lead to excessive strain on the neck and upper trapezius region and may contribute to headaches and visibility restrictions. Improved spinal mobility in this region may allow for a more aero bike position and thus improvement in performance. Lung volume has also been shown to increase with improved thoracic mobility. A few studies have shown improved chest expansion, increased lung volume, improved posture and increased spinal mobility with thoracic spine mobility exercises.

Runners with asymmetrical spinal mobility often exhibit biomechanical faults, such as a functional leg length discrepancy, that lead to abnormal rear-to-forefoot loading, excessive motion in the lateral or rotation plane, abnormal stride length and an overall decrease in efficiency. These deficits are ticking time bombs waiting to explode when you increase volume or intensity, and can lead to everything from plantar fasciitis and patellar tendinosis to shin splints.

Bottom line: Do not discount the importance of core strengthening, but give spinal mobility equal attention so that you can realize your maximum potential and reduce overuse injury. Normal and symmetrical spinal mobility is essential for optimal muscular recruitment and for reducing muscular fatigue, resulting in greater force (power) production and more efficient movements. Think of the combination of core strength and spinal mobility as a tree trunk that is strong but not rigid, so that it bends but never breaks in strong winds.

For additional spinal mobility tests and exercises, visit Endurancerehab.com. november 2009

Click This

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oracvalues.com the internet antioxiDant Database Acai berries, pomegranates and blueberries are well known for their antioxidant properties.

But did you know that ground clove spice is also a powerful antioxidant? Search for almost any food on Oracvalues.com to learn if your diet is antioxidant rich. Antioxidants are thought to aid in counteracting the damaging physiological process of oxidation in body tissues. Many enzymes, vitamins and minerals that are antioxidants are believed to play a role in preventing the development of such chronic diseases as cancer, heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. * According to the website, the majority of the ORAC values listed on the website are taken from the 2007 study “Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods—2007” performed by the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

grist.org environmental neWs anD commentary With a Wry tWist

Grist prides itself on “making lemons out of the looming climate apocalypse,” and features environmental news that is an interesting mix of The Onion and The Huffington Post. Since its inception in 1999, this Seattlebased website has been featured in the New York Times and Outside magazine and has won numerous awards including a “Webby” People’s Voice Award for the best online magazine in 2005 and 2006. The site features everything from politics and columns about green living to a job-posting site for people looking for green jobs.

Fitnessjournal.org easy exercise anD Fitness tracKing Perfect for newbies breaking into triathlon, the website’s web-based fitness journal allows you to create a custom profile where you can track your exercises, workouts, diet and weight loss. You do have to maintain it every day, but the cost per month is cheap. As you build up your database of workouts, you can track your progress and evaluate your results using monthly, weekly and daily charts.

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Recipe

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craig alexanDer’s Pasta Fajoli 2008 Ironman world champion Craig Alexander and his wife Nerida gave us this family favorite, a hearty Italian bean dish that they serve over pasta. The Alexanders make it with bacon, but you can leave it out for an equally filling vegetarian meal or simply to lower the fat content.

—Compiled by Ashley Slaney

ingreDients 2 cans kidney or cannellini beans 2-3 tablespoons olive oil 4 teaspoons garlic 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped 1 can diced tomatoes ½ cup white wine 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste Dash teriyaki sauce Cayenne pepper to taste Chopped bacon Cooked pasta of choice

Directions Rinse the beans with water and cook in the microwave with about a cup of fresh water, until the beans are cracking open (several minutes).

Add to a saucepan and cook the olive oil, garlic, bacon and parsley.

Add the beans and about a cup of the bean cooking water, the diced tomatoes, the teriyaki sauce and the white wine. Add in the tomato paste and cayenne pepper to taste. Cover saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes or so. (The longer the better, as beans will continue to soften and sauce will thicken a bit.) Serve over pasta of choice with chunky garlic bread.

Cut this page out and save it in your recipe book!

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november 2009

Kona or Bust

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And Then There Were Six

By Matt Fitzgerald

The newest additions to our Kona or Bust team are, from top to bottom, Louis Bennett, Thomas Newton and Lisa Wei-Haas.

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The team is growing. Three new athletes now join the three Kona dreamers introduced in last month’s column on the roster of Triathlete readers we will follow as they pursue 2010 Hawaii Ironman qualifying slots.

Lisa Wei-Haas, 49, is a wife and mother of three grown children who lives in Tulsa, Okla. “I began training for triathlons shortly after my youngest child began school,” she says. “I decided to use my few free hours to get in shape. I had never been athletic, but had been an alternate on my high school swim team, and jogged sporadically in college. There was an annual indoor sprint triathlon held at the health club where I worked out, and I decided to attempt it after one of the employees commented that it probably was not something I would want to do.

“Nothing like a dare! I finished [near the bottom of my age group], and became obsessed with triathlon. At that time, there was no Internet, so I scoured book stores for information about multisport.

My progress from that point on has been largely through trial and error; I think I have made nearly every mistake in the book—before it was even written down!”

Wei-Haas qualified for the Hawaii Ironman years ago at the Memphis in May Triathlon, which is no longer a qualifier, but she turned down her slot because she was not interested in long-distance racing at the time. Since then she has completed 18 iron-distance events, but has not qualified again.

“In 2010, I turn 50,” she says, “and I am hoping that it will be the year I manage to put together the perfect 140.6. A Kona slot would be fine icing on the cake.”

She is taking aim at Ironman Lanzarote on May 22.

Lewis Bennett has probably forgotten more about triathlon than I will ever know. He has been a triathlete for 20 years and has coached other triathletes in and

around his home town of Largo, Fla., for nine years. While Bennett has coached Ironman qualifiers, he has never qualified for Kona himself. He did, however, qualify for the 2006 Ironman 70.3 World Championship, where he placed 10th in the men’s 60-64 age group.

Next year Bennett will age up to the 60-65 age group, within which he will compete for a Kona slot at Ironman Louisville.

Win or lose, Bennett will certainly enjoy the journey, as he is blessed with the opportunity to train daily and travel to big events with members of his Trilewis Multisport Club. “I expect that we will have around 15 in our group training for Louisville 2010,” he says.

The third new member of our Kona or Bust team is also an “industry guy.” Thomas Newton, 43, owns Quad Multisport, a triathlon store in Arlington, Mass.

Despite having this responsibility, and that of being a father to three children under the age of 7, Newton finds time to “train like a dog” with the support of his wife, Karma Paoletti, who nominated him for inclusion in this project.

Newton missed out on a qualifying slot by an agonizing 40 seconds at last year’s Ironman Lake Placid. Nothing to do but get back on the horse. Newton will return to Lake Placid next June to take aim at a 2010 Hawaii Ironman slot.

Congratulations to Wei-Haas, Bennett and Newton on being chosen to join the “Kona or Bust” team.

I will update you on their progress toward their Kona dreams, and on the progress of the previously announced selections in future installments of this column.

There are still a few remaining opportunities to claim a seat on this bus. I am particularly interested in receiving nominations from athletes hoping to qualify at international events: Western Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, etc. Are you registered? Are you a Kona dreamer?

Let’s hear from you! november 2009

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Kona Q&A

Lucy Alexander

By Holly Bennett We could have interviewed any number of Ironman pros for the Kona preview issue—the field will be fierce with contenders for the crown. But one young lady stood out from the pack, and not because of her athletic prowess, at least not yet, but because of her unique connection to the sport. Lucy Alexander, daughter of reigning men’s world champion Craig Alexander, granted Triathlete an audience—and made no bones about her famous father’s odds for scoring victory No. 2, as well as her own athletic aspirations.

Q: For the record, Lucy, how old are you?

A: Four.

Q: You have a lot of responsibility these days– you’re Mum’s No. 1 helper, Dad’s No. 1 fan and now big sister to Austin. How do you manage all that?

A: Well… Dad does a bike race, and I look after Austin while Mum’s in the shower. And when she’s done I still look after him because he loves being looked after by me. He smiles.

Q: What do you plan to teach Austin as he grows up?

A: I’m going to teach him to ride a bike. He watches me when I ride my bike, because he thinks it’s funny.

Q: I hear you raced against your dad at Muskoka 70.3 last year—and won! Tell me about that.

(Lucy waited in the finish chute until Crowie was in sight, then out-sprinted him for the line.)

A: Well… he was still No. 1, actually.

Q: What about your dad’s race against Chris Lieto 40

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at Boise 70.3 and their final sprint—what happened there?

A: My daddy looked over his shoulder and he saw Chris Lieto. They ran down the finish chute holding hands and they were exhausted. It’s because they were tired and they needed to go to bed.

Q: Who’s really faster be-

Sometimes I practice every day on my riding. Sometimes I do just one ride, but sometimes I ride once on my big bike and once on my pink Barbie doll scooter.

tween you and your daddy?

A: I’m faster! But I don’t go downhill fast because it scares me. I go a little bit fast uphill. Well … sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.

Q: Are you competitive with your friends, or just your dad?

A: I race a boy in my swim club. And I win.

Q: In general, who do you think is the faster/ stronger/better athlete—boys or girls?

A: I think boys. Because I like my dad the best.

Q: What are all the sports you like to do?

A: I like swimming and biking and running.

Q: Do you plan on racing Ironman when you grow up?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you think you’ll be a world champ?

A: I think I’ll be No. 2. My daddy will be No. 1.

Q: Does your dad coach you?

A: No, a real coach coaches me.

Q: What’s your training regimen?

A: Sometimes I practice every day on my riding.

Sometimes I do just one ride, but sometimes I ride once on my big bike and once on my pink Barbie doll scooter.

Q: What do you think is the hardest part of a triathlon— swimming, biking or running?

A: Swimming. Because you have to get up front fast. You have to get up in front of the pack.

Q: Do you help your daddy train?

A: Yes. In the Energy Lab, when he practices, me and Mum hand out drinks and salt tablets.

Q: Describe your dad to me.

A: He likes chocolate a lot. He makes me laugh and tickles me and I get out as quick as I can!

Q: Do you remember what you did to your dad last year after he won the Hawaii Ironman World Championship?

A: I jumped on him. He fell over and I jumped on him. He was tired because he won a big race.

Once, when he did a race in Boulder, I whacked him with a big balloon.

Q: What does your dad do with his finisher medals?

A: I have all my dad’s medals in a big black bag.

He gives them all to me.

Q: Do you ever wear them?

A: (Lucy hesitates and smiles coyly.) Yes, I do.

Q: What’s your favorite thing to do in Kona?

A: Pick frangipanis. And swim with turtles and dolphins. When I was only 3 we tried to swim with dolphins, and I had a big life jacket on, and we swam a long time but there weren’t any dolphins.

Q: Who do you think will win Hawaii Ironman this year?

A: I think my dad. november 2009

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Medically Speaking

Keeping Your Endocrine System In Check

By Jeffrey Sankoff, MD When triathletes toe the start line of a roid gland, which sits in front of the trachea race, they often run through a mini-diagnostic just below the voice box in the neck. checklist in their heads. How do the legs Thyroid hormone has wide-ranging effeel? Shoulders OK for the swim? Breathing fects throughout the body that include regulacomfortably? These questions yield useful tion of the basal metabolic rate. An increased insights into how the day is going to unfold, amount of thyroid hormone results in higher but only a very small group of triathletes add metabolism manifested as increased heart questions about their blood sugar or resting rate, body temperature and blood pressure. metabolic rate to that list. This group faces Too-low concentrations have the opposite some added challenges related to endocrine effects. Various diseases affect the thyroid dysfunction. gland and cause it to malfunction, but the The endocrine system is made up of a most common is autoimmune thyroiditis number of glands and hormones. The prin- (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis). cipal function of the system is to ensure that Autoimmune thyroiditis affects women the internal milieu remains very stable. Glands more commonly than men and has a peak respond to subtle changes in the internal mi- onset in the third and fourth decades of life. lieu by increasing or decreasing the output of The initial inflammatory process is often hormones that have far-reaching effects. The completely asymptomatic but eventually endocrine system regulates body temperature results in destruction of the gland and the by varying basal metabolic rate, and maintains development of hypothyroidism. As thyroid the concentrations of electrolytes and sugar hormone levels decrease, patients become in the blood stream in an incredibly narrow progressively fatigued, gain weight and have range. Normally the endocrine system is silent, changes in their hair and skin. While there but when things go awry, the results can be is no cure for thyroiditis, hypothyroidism is devastating and have a significant effect on easily treated with synthetic hormone pills. quality of life.

The difficulty comes in An increased amount of making the diagnosis, Endocrine dysfunction may arise because a thyroid hormone results which is often delayed gland does not respond because of the insidious in higher metabolism appropriately, a gland nature of the disease. does not secrete a horConversely, autoimmanifested as increased mone or the hormone mune processes can also does not have its usual heart rate, body tempera- result in overstimulaeffect on its target cells. ture and blood pressure. tion of the thyroid gland, resulting in The most common enToo-low concentrations hyperthyroidism. The docrinopathy relates to dysfunction of the thy- have the opposite effects. disease process in which 42

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november 2009

C heC king in antibodies attach to the thyroid gland and cause the release of thyroid hormone is called Grave’s disease. The resulting excess of thyroid hormone causes increased body temperature and higher heart rate, often with palpitations and weight loss.

Another cause of hyperthyroidism is inappropriate thyroid hormone supplementation. At its extreme, hyperthyroidism can become thyroid storm and may be life threatening. Fortunately, this is exceedingly rare and—with proper monitoring of thyroid function—is easy to avoid.

The endocrine system is inconspicuous until it ceases to work properly. The signs and symptoms of endocrinopathy, and especially of hypo- or hyperthyroidism, may be subtle and only manifest over a prolonged period of time, which delays diagnosis and treatment.

For this reason, triathletes should regularly take stock of how they feel and of how they are responding to training and racing. Sometimes, if things don’t feel right, it is because they are not. And in these instances, a doctor visit with appropriate testing may go a long way toward getting them back on track.

Jeffrey Sankoff, MD, is a two-time Ironman triathlete and ER physician at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colo. For more information, visit his website at Home.comcast .net/~jsanko20.

Women’s Health 7 reasons Why you’re exhausteD Nothing rejuvenates an athlete’s body like a good night’s sleep. But if you regularly get more than seven hours of sleep a night and you still feel tired, there might be an underlying medical reason. In a recent article by Colette Bouchez on WebMD.com, cardiologist Nieca Goldberg, MD, director of the NYU Medical Center Women’s Heart Program and associate professor at the NYU School of Medicine, outlines seven reasons you might be chronically fatigued: Anemia Underactive thyroid gland, or hypothyroidism Undiagnosed urinary tract infection Too much caffeine Food intolerances Sleep apnea Undiagnosed heart disease Many of these conditions require a doctor’s consult to diagnose and a doctor’s care to treat.

Regular medical checkups are a key element in keeping women triathletes healthy! november 2009

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Endurance Traveler

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Scenery on the Ride

Ironman Florida

By Dean Warhaft For one day in November, the relaxed beaches, shady oak groves and pine forests of Panama City play host to the Ironman. Here’s a look at what this fast course has to offer from racing and tourism perspectives.

The Water The swim is a beach start on the worldfamous sugar sand. Athletes run a solid 100 meters (a little more than 300 feet) into the Gulf of Mexico before turning horizontal and flailing at waters that are usually cool enough to make wetsuits legal, but barely.

After all, one must remember that the Gulf Stream originates here and is part of the Earth’s giant eco heater keeping us out of the Ice Age. Needless to say, if you have a preference for sleeveless wetsuits, this race is a good opportunity to exercise your right to bare arms. The swim is a two-loop affair and the water can get quite choppy, depending on the winds. The two loops are linked by another brief run on the beach, giving spectators the opportunity to spot their favorite seal.

These waters are also home to some spectacular oyster farms, which means oyster restaurants. One of the oldest and best oyster bars in the area is Shuckums. They’ve been serving up fresh oysters for more than 40 years.

After exiting the swim (the second and final loop of the swim, that is), athletes run up the beach to the parking lot of the Boardwalk Beach Resort, the host hotel for the week.

Transition can be a little hectic here for several reasons. First, the race is packed with more than 2,000 athletes. Second, the transition area would be better suited to accommodate 1,500 athletes … you do the math! To alleviate some of the congestion and confusion, the organizers have bike grabbers pulling your bike from the rack. It kinda works.

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So now you’re a fish out of water and racing westerly along the beachfront. Other than being pretty tightly packed early on, the bike course is rather uneventful for the first 12 miles as riders travel northwest along the beachfront and then turn inland as they head toward Pine Log State Forest at mile 20.

Pine Log is Florida’s oldest state forest and a great stop after the race, if you feel like going for a trail run or getting your mountain bike on. There are two trails in the park, a fourmile beginner trail and a one and a half-mile intermediate.

Next, the bike course turns east and traverses a series of small rollers that take little nips out of competitors like a lone piranha feeding on its prey. Indeed, Ironman Florida’s reputation as a pancake-flat course is not completely accurate. It is loaded with shallow, mile-long hummocks (half-mile up, halfmile down). The trick is using those rollers to your advantage rather than letting them insidiously tire you out before you even start running. Near mile 50, the course begins to head back south and downhill at the same time. This 15-mile stretch from Eldorado Acres to the Bridge at Clearwater Lake is the best place to push, since it goes steadily downhill. The next five miles are a false flat,

Tourist Attractions St. Andrew is of particular interest for tourists. The park has two-and-a-half miles of sugar-white sand beaches where visitors enjoy scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking and canoeing; two fishing piers and two trails for hiking or trail running. And for the adventurous triathlete, this is a favorite camping site for competitors and spectators alike.

If you have enough energy left for an after-party, Panama City is the place. Several clubs are lined up on the beach, but most staff and athletes looking to cut loose head to Spinnaker Beach Club. Because it hosts thousands of raging hormonal spring breakers every year, there

The park has two-and-a-half miles of sugar-white sand beaches where visitors enjoy scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking and canoeing. leading to the lone out-and-back section of the course. The next 25 miles back to the West Bay Bridge are mostly rural and fairly flat as riders skirt the north edge of the bay.

The last 12 miles are a retrace of the first 12 miles, only windier, as the heat of the day generally brings onshore winds to battle the riders as they head back to transition and the bike catchers that await them.

T2 is quick and painless, with athlete bags lined up on the ground along the side of the Boardwalk Beach Resort. Again, athletes must pass through the changing tents before heading out on the run course.

Spectator Support Once on the two-loop run course, expect to find plenty of cheering and partying spectators, especially in three sections. Starting in the first and ending in the last mile of each loop, runners turn down Surf Drive, where barbecues and beers are looking really good, but you’ll have to finish your exercise first. The next block party runners pass with envy is in mile 3 (and again in miles 10, 16 and 23) on South Lagoon Drive. Lastly, St. Andrews State Park gets its fair share of cheering, partying spectators and the Ford Inspiration Station is also in there.

is no threat of triathletes being too much for these folks to handle. The club boasts a groove room pumping dance, house and everything else you’d want to dance to. If live music is your bag, head outside to the rock arena, where jam bands are playing a mix of popular tunes and originals. There’s also a VIP lounge if you are just looking to chill, but let’s face it... you just finished an Ironman and it’s time to party!

With its gazillion putt-putt golf courses, amusement rides, water sports, camping, hiking and worldclass beaches, Panama City is a great destination for the single triathlete and family units alike. So when you’re deciding where your first or next Ironman should be, don’t overlook Ironman Florida. november 2009

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Coaches are often asked what kids should do over the winter months if they are interested in triathlon. My answer is pretty simple: lots of different sports, but they should also spend time in the pool working on their swimming skills.

Virtually all of the Ironman champions I’ve interviewed didn’t become a serious triathlete until they were well into their teens or early 20s. What they all did as kids was participate in a variety of sports. Michellie Jones rode horses. Greg Welch was a master at just about every sport he could take part in—tennis, cricket, surfing, you name it—he probably did it. Cameron Brown was a rugby player. Chrissie Wellington swam and played tennis as well as a variety of school sports. But what they all have in common is a solid swimming background that helped them excel as they became more serious in the sport.

Many competitive swim programs push kids into very demanding training schedules at young ages. The coaches often encourage even young children to drop all other sports to focus more extensively on swimming.

This can be a big mistake for some kids, especially for budding triathletes, who should be working on running and enjoying as many sports as possible.

Besides, many of the kids who spend long hours in the pool at a young age end up burning out long before they reach their prime years of competition.

However, there are many

2.

3.

4.

5.

swim programs that allow children to work on their skills and gain exposure to the sport without it dominating their lives.

Here are a few things to consider when you’re searching for the right youth swimming program: 1. looK For a sWim Program With a gooD rePutation. Talk to other parents about the clubs available in your area. Success shouldn’t be your only measure. Find out which programs seem to have the happiest children and parents.

The program should pride itself on stroke development. asK iF the coaches are certiFieD. sPenD time Watching the WorKouts anD note: how many coaches are on deck; how much time do coaches address technique; if the program is based on mileage or if it is a drill- and multi-stroke oriented program. Young triathletes need a program that is skills-based, not one that focuses on how many meters they can swim in a week. thinK about the Future. Is the program based on a steady progression? Will the kids have a group of cohorts they can develop with over the next few years? The social component of sports is an important motivator and will make things much more enjoyable. consiDer other sPorts. How open are the coaches to the children being involved in other sports? Once the summer hits, can the kids drop a few practices a week in order to spend more time running and cycling, or other things they enjoy?

As the summer nears and your youngster is ready to participate in the next IronKids race, the swimming they’ve done over the winter will make the competition that much more fun. november 2009

– Brett Sutton, Team TBB coach, 2009

No piece of equipment will save them more time in a non wetsuit triathlon... period.”

“When Team TBB athletes ask me if it is worth them wearing a swimskin, I give them a very simple answer:

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Light Read

Inside, They’re Just Like Us

By Holly Bennett With another Hawaii Ironman World Championship looming on the equatorial horizon, it’s time to tap the collective psyche of the sport’s top pros to get an insider view of what Kona means to them. How does Kona from the top differ from Kona amid the masses—or is it the same strip-you-toyour-core experience for all involved?

I asked a handful of cream-of-the-crop Kona-bound pros who, under condition of anonymity, agreed to take part in a supercasual, far from serious, non-scientific survey.

I posed only a handful of questions–complete with multiple-choice answers—knowing that as summer wanes, they’re all battening down the hatches and ratcheting up their training intensity, with little time to indulge my folly.

Despite their increased focus, though, what pervaded each pro’s answers were light-hearted humor and playfulness, indicative of the positive personalities that rule our sport.

Among the group surveyed are two Kona champions and three Clearwater victors.

Collectively, they boast 11 Ironman wins and countless Ironman 70.3 titles. Their podium placings rank in the hundreds. While not all 48

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C hec king in have achieved the ultimate title of king or queen of Kona, most share the sentiment expressed by one speedy young lady, who, when asked how many Ironman World Championships she has won, replied, “None. Yet.” And of course, there’s always a dreamer in the group: “I haven’t actually won any world championships, but I’ve had some really cool visions of doing so on my long runs.

They seemed pretty real to me.”

What do the pros crave in their build-up to Kona? “Salt” ranks highest, followed closely by “chocolate.” “Painkillers” was one of the multiple-choice options, but either no one uses them or no one’s telling. “Carbs” and “sex” are equally rated, though it seems that for most, time between the sheets (aside from the extra hours spent napping) is a rarity.

As one athlete lamented, “I wish I could say sex, but training is not an aphrodisiac—I’ll have to settle for salt.” The smart aleck in the group laid claim to every indulgence, treating me to this tidbit: “Nothing says sacrifice like scarfing down a couple of Vicodin stuffed into my favorite chocolate croissant sprinkled with sea salt while watching the Victoria’s Secret runway show after a long ride.”

The clear winner in the “My Kona race experience is best summarized as …” category is “life-altering,” with a few nods toward “painful” and “other-worldly.” And yes, one pro even selected “orgasmic.”

Kind of makes me wonder what saddle she’s riding.

A certain someone, who wins almost as often as he races, and whom I’ve seen collapse at the finish in a pile of pain on more than one occasion, chose to write in the F-word, “fun!”

While many age-groupers commemorate their Ironman experience with an M-dot tattoo, I wondered if the pros might be willing to one-up the ante by naming their firstborn after an island icon. Kona, Ali’i, Kamehameha, Lava Java? While each name received a few votes, none of the pros seemed terrifically keen on the idea, as summarized by this response: “Shoot me dead if I name my child any of these. Actually, you wouldn’t have to—my girlfriend would shoot me first.”

As extra credit, I asked the pros to identify a few common myths about top-level Ironman athletes. Most misperceptions center on discipline, “That we follow a super strict diet,

don’t drink alcohol, don’t go out at night and are in bed promptly at 8 p.m. In reality, most of us enjoy a bit of dirty food and indulgence during training, just like everyone else.” I can attest that one multiple world champion has rallied for many of her best races on the heels of a fat burger and fries. If Kona ever gets an In-N-Out Burger, watch out!

Other myths include, “That we are mentally stable” and, “That we always like it long.” And perhaps the most entertaining or controversial, “That we do it because we love it. Honestly, who loves training, watching what you eat, sleeping lots, being tired all the time and killing yourself in the lava fields?

That’s just crazy. We only do it because we have nothing better to do.”

Of course, nine out of 10 of his colleagues disagree. Overwhelmingly, the favorite raceweek activity is, “That eight-plus hours on Saturday.” Honorable mention goes to, “The VIP after party.” Shockingly, not a single pro opted for “Signing autographs, again.”

The summary of my highly irreverent data? The pros are just like normal people, albeit a smidge faster. They may train and race like super-duper humans, but they still have chocolate cravings and carnal desire (not to mention smart-ass senses of humor). They share visions of grandeur beyond whatever greatness they’ve already achieved, and they’re still in awe of the sport that can humble them in the blink of an eye. So this October, if you’re trudging through the Energy Lab and you come across a pro, waylaid by pain, cramping, injury or GI distress, walking those after-dark miles on the marathon, remember that he or she is just like you—and having fun!

Ask the Pros We are pleased to report that the professional triathletes questioned opted for “A” over “B” in the following two scenarios: Technical difficulties derail your hopes for a podium finish. How do you react?

A. Unless they carry me off the course, I’m crossing that line. It’s a matter of respect.

B. If I’m out of the money, I’m out of the race. No point wasting good training on another finisher’s T-shirt.

Your feeling on up-close-and-personal race-day video footage?

A. Bring it on. Just remember, if I’m projectile vomiting, make sure you’re shooting in full Technicolor!

B. Show some respect, please. What happens in my tri shorts stays in my tri shorts. november 2009

I PUSH... NOT TO SET RECORDS. NOT TO PASS MY OPPONENTS. NOT BECAUSE I NEED TO WIN. I PUSH BECAUSE I LOVE SPEED. BECAUSE IT IS MY PASSION. BECAUSE PERFECTION IS PERFORMANCE. AND FOR THE KNOWLEDGE THAT I WILL: LEARN FROM YESTERDAY. LIVE FOR TODAY... NEVER GIVE UP.

IndusTRI The cycling equipment industry has announced the formation of the Global Organization of Cycling Equipment Manufacturers, or GOCEM, with the goal of providing a unified voice for the cycling industry.

GOCEM’s long-term mission is to pursue a collaborative and consultative approach with the international cycling federation, the Union Cycliste Internationale, or UCI, for the creation, implementation and enforcement of UCI rules, as they have a direct effect on the financial viability of equipment manufacturers.

“Cycling equipment manufacturers represent the largest and most influential contributors to both the cycling industry and professional cycling,” said Phil White, co-founder of Cervélo and one of the GOCEM founders.

The enforcement of the UCI’s “3:1 rule” at the beginning of this year was the catalyst.

The rule refers to the shape of bicycle frames and components and states that the shape of parts can’t exceed a ratio of 3-to-1. Historically, this rule has been overlooked, but the UCI began strict enforcement of the rule this year.

Manufacturers of bikes and bike components have voiced concerns that this rule might negatively impact the retail bike market as consumers tend to avoid equipment banned in racing. Currently, it’s not possible for the UCI to obtain a comprehensive opinion from manufacturers since no formal line of communication exists and until now, there has been no formal mechanism for manufacturer interaction with the UCI. The UCI, through M. Philippe Chevallier, manager of the UCI Road Department, has expressed both its support for a single manufacturer’s association. Visit Gocem.org for more information.

SCOTT No. 2 Brand at Ironman Brazil SCOTT USA has announced that it was the second most represented bike brand at the Ironman Brazil competition, having surpassed every brand except Cervélo. The SCOTT Plasma1 and Plasma2 continue to grow in popularity globally, and showcase SCOTT’s continuing commitment to the triathlon community. Visit Scottusa.com.

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USA Triathlon Membership Surpasses 125,000 Participation in multisport events continues to skyrocket across the nation despite economic conditions that have other sports struggling. A chief indicator of the sport’s popularity is membership in USA Triathlon, the national governing body for triathlon

and other multisport events. USAT annual membership recently surpassed 125,000, marking a 14.2 percent increase since the end of 2008 when membership stood at 107,231.

The fact that the sport is doing well despite the sluggish economy not only points to its physical and psychological benefits, but also to the fact that many Americans might think more about their health than their pocketbook.

One area of growth that is bucking the economic trend is in sanctioned events.

USAT provides insurance and assistance for races, clinics and other multisport activities across the country. The number of events that USAT supports is well on its way to exceeding last year’s high of 2,800.

Current indications are that sanctioned events will surpass 3,100 by the end of the year, meaning athletes have access to more opportunities to race. Racing and training opportunities have also increased for women and children, making these two demographic groups the fastest growing among USAT membership.

USAT Age-Group Nationals to Feature Stellar Prize Package The 2009 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship could be one of the most competitive yet, and a number of USAT sponsors have put up more than $25,000 in product awards for the best amateur triathletes in the country. The athletes will be competing for national champion status in their respective age groups as well as overall categories including Masters and Grand Masters divisions, and USAT corporate partners are giving these athletes a little more to race for in Tuscaloosa.

Overall champions will take home nearly $500 in product prizes, and another $500 in sponsor product will be shared among the top

five of each age group. Additional categories will also be amply awarded. The fastest male and female bike splits of the day will receive a new Triad frame from Blue Competition Cycles and the fastest swim splits will win a new wetsuit from USA Triathlon Wetsuits.

In addition, Rudy Project will offer $3,000 in helmets and sunglasses, while Zone Labs is awarding $10,000 in supplements. There are hundreds of dollars in prizes such as Selle Italia, Fuel Belt, Flex Power, EcoSportsBottle and Trigger Point. And the national champion jersey tradition continues with Squadra jerseys going to each age group and overall champion. Visit Usatriathlon.org.

Branson To Host Newest Ironman 70.3 Event Ironman 70.3 Branson will be the latest addition to the Ironman 70.3 Event Series.

On Sept. 19, 2010, the inaugural race will take place in the vacation destination of Branson, Mo. Ironman 70.3 Branson will serve as one of 34 worldwide qualifying events for the 2010 Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Clearwater, Fla. Professional athletes will be competing for a $25,000 prize purse.

The 1.2-mile swim will be held in the crystal clear waters of Table Rock Lake with water temperatures expected to be 70 degrees F. The transition area will be on Moonshine

Beach, and athletes will cover a challenging 56-mile bike course through the rolling hills of the Ozark Mountains. Athletes will then transition to a flat, spectator-friendly, two-loop 13.1-mile run course. “The challenging course will serve as an ideal tune-up for November’s world championship in Clearwater and for athletes with a late season Ironman on their race calendar,” said Ironman’s chief operating officer, Steve Meckfessel. Registration for Ironman 70.3 Branson is now open and will be limited to 2,000 athletes. To register, visit Ironmanbranson.com. november 2009

John Segesta/johnsegesta.com

Global Organization of Cycling Equipment Manufacturers formed to collaborate with UCI

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FOR THE 2008 KONA RUNNER-UP FUN MARKS THE PATH TO SUCCESS.

BY MATT FITZGERALD • PHOTOS BY JOHN SEGESTA

november 2009

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hen I heard that Eneko Llanos was coming to San Diego to train, make some appearances on behalf of his sponsors and pose for the cover of this magazine, I vowed not to let him leave town before I’d had a chance to ride with him. I wish I could say that I was motivated solely by a desire to spend a few hours with him in his natural environment, talking casually and getting to know him for the sake of putting my impressions into this article. But my first motive was more selfish than that.

At the time of Llanos’ visit in mid-August I was at the height of my training for Ironman Arizona. Injuries affecting my swimming and running had more or less forced me to spend a lot more time on the bike than I had planned to, and as a happy consequence of this adjustment my cycling performance was better than ever. I could not resist reaching for an opportunity to test my bike strength against that of a man whose pedaling prowess had delivered him to two Olympic Games (he represented Spain in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Triathlon, 54

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finishing 23rd, and again in the 2004 Athens Olympic Triathlon, finishing 20th), a victory in the 2003 ITU Long-Distance Triathlon World Championship, two XTERRA World Championship titles (2003 and 2004), and three top-10 finishes at the Hawaii Ironman World Championship, including a runner-up performance in 2008. I knew full well that Llanos, just reaching the height of his powers at age 33, could crush me any day of the week, but I wanted to see just how hard he would have to work to crush me, and I believed that, in this case, what merely crushed but did not kill me might make me stronger.

Through an e-mail exchange Llanos agreed to let me join him on a five-and-a-half-hour Sunday ride. On the preceding Wednesday Llanos, a native of Spain’s northern Basque province who still lives and trains in the Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, came to Triathlete’s offices for an interview. I rushed through my list of prepared questions, hit the “stop” button on my voice recorder and finally asked what I really wanted to ask. november 2009

“So, how hard do you want to ride on Sunday? I don’t want to hold you back.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” he said in his very serviceable English. “I ride easy.”

“What sort of route should I plan? Hilly? Flat?”

“Not too hilly,” he said.

So, the great champion wanted to do an easy, flat ride. That was not what I had anticipated. But I knew that easy for him would probably still be hard for me, so I prepared for the ride as though it were a race. I tapered. I carbo-loaded.

I played psych-up music the night before. My wife couldn’t believe how nervous I was.

“You don’t think he would just cream you on purpose, do you?” she said. I laughed out loud. My wife has a way of putting things.

Llanos met me at the world-famous Nytro triathlon store in Encinitas, Calif., and we started northward along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Twenty miles into what I had expected to be the hardest long training ride of my life, we were still cruising along at the same tempo, and I felt a lump of disappointment rising inside me.

“Is this pace okay?” I asked.

“Yes, perfect,” Llanos said.

“Why, do you want to go faster?”

“No, no,” I said hastily. A moment of silence followed. I couldn’t help myself. “Do you always go this slow on your long rides?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

I suddenly recalled a story that Michael Sandrock told in his book, Running Tough. In the late 1970s Sandrock was a student at the University of Colorado and Frank Shorter was a two-time Olympic medalist living and training in Boulder. One day, Shorter invited Sandrock to join him for an easy run. They started slow—much slower than Sandrock expected, but what surprised him even more was that Shorter never picked up the pace. They ran 10 miles so slowly that Sandrock considered running again later the same day.

Before they parted, Shorter invited Sandrock to join him for a track workout the following day. Sandrock accepted, and 24 hours later Shorter tore him limb from limb.

“That was one of Shorter’s secrets,” Sandrock wrote: “running his easy days very easy, and his hard days extremely hard. A simple concept, but so hard to implement for some reason. Most of us make 56

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the mistake of going medium-hard all the time.”

Llanos seems to know what Frank Shorter knew. He works plenty hard, but he is that rare world-class endurance athlete who is every bit as scrupulous in avoiding doing too much as he is in steering clear of doing too little. “I think I train less than some of the other athletes,” he says. “I have been in this sport for a long time, so I think I have the base; I have the miles. To win an Ironman you need to be fast. It’s not just about going the distance. So we focus more on the intensity side of training.”

Except on long rides, of course.

“People in San Diego ride fast all the time, eh?” Llanos asked me as we continued our conversation on the Oceanside bike path. He had ridden with a couple of groups already since landing in town, and if they were anything like the groups of competitive San Diego triathletes and roadies I know, they tried to draw the visiting champion into an ego-fueled quasi-race.

These efforts would have been utterly fruitless. If I learned anything about Llanos during our time together, it was that he is not the type of man who feels the need to establish himself as the cock of the roost in every workout. He probably has another side, like everyone else, but the side I met was softspoken, gentle and nourished by the simple pleasures of being outdoors, feeling healthy and enjoying human interaction.

A fire burns inside every athlete who has accomplished as much as Llanos has, but there are different sorts of fire.

As I rode with him, I wondered what sort of fire burns inside of him. I don’t think it’s the supercompetitive, hate-to-lose type. I think it is a fire fueled by the thrill of speed. Llanos clearly did not relish the few hard climbs on our route, where I held my own, but he bombed ahead of me on the descents, fearlessly placing his forearms in the aerobars of his BH Aero Evo II (BH is a Basque company) at 40 mph on one steep plunge down a winding, narrow road with oncoming cars whizzing by at regular intervals.

When I caught up to him I said, breathlessly, “In English we have a word for people like you.”

“Yes?” “Daredevil.”

Some folks have a way of living by the creed, “If it feels good, do it,” that is more spiritual than hedonistic. One admires the clarity with which they perceive what is good for them and the directness with which they pursue it. That’s Eneko Llanos. During our sit-down interview I asked what he does to keep his head on straight during the Super Bowl madness of race week in Kona. “I just try to have fun—to relax and not november 2009

always think about the race,” he said. “When I go down to the pier to swim I just try to enjoy the pier and the atmosphere. For me it’s not right to be thinking about the race all the time and feeling nervous.

Thinking, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be here. Maybe I should be back at the apartment.’ You can make yourself tired by thinking too much about the race. It’s easier to be relaxed and have fun.”

Fun. Llanos participated in all kinds of sports as a kid: swimming, judo, Basque pelota (similar to jai alai), mountain biking, skateboarding and more. He did these things because they were fun. He happened to have a special talent for a couple of these sports, which allowed him to continue doing them, even make a living doing them, but his reason for doing them has not changed. Swimming, cycling, running, triathlon, mountain biking and off-road tri are fun for Llanos. And one senses that the moment they cease to be fun for him, on a competitive level anyway, he will have no trouble walking away from racing.

I asked him, perhaps unfairly, what his next goal will likely be if he wins Hawaii this year. Will he want to win it again, or will his focus turn elsewhere? “Right now my goal is to win,” he said. “If that happens, I don’t know what I will do next.

I don’t know if I’m going to have enough motivation to try to win again. You never know. One day you can just lose motivation and quit. But I think I still have some years to go.”

Understandably, Llanos has a lot more to say about his plans and preparations to win the Hawaii Ironman than about whatever he might do for an encore. In last year’s world championship he took the overall race lead from two-time winner Normann Stadler with only 11 miles to go in the run. His tenure behind the official lead vehicles was short, however, as eventual winner Craig Alexander passed Llanos near the 16-mile mark and broke the finish tape 3:05 ahead of the Spaniard.

To move up one position this year, Llanos cannot count on Alexander or anyone else to go a little slower. He will have to go a little faster. Can he?

Not by training differently. “Basically, we are doing the same training we did last year,” said Llanos, making an oblique reference to his longtime coach, Iñigo Mujika. “It worked very well last year and I think this year it is still working well. We are making some little adjustments but no big changes from last year. I think I’m improving year after year and I’m improving with my races. Every time I do an Ironman I am a little bit better because my body’s still adapting.”

Nor does Llanos intend to alter his race strategy. “The perfect scenario will be the one I had last year,” he says. “I think I was fourth or fifth when I started running, but the guys ahead of me were [Torbjorn] Sindballe and [Chris] Lieto and I knew they were not good runners. The good runners like Alexander were three or four minutes behind me. So for me it was perfect. I would like it to be the same [this year].”

They say that doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, but in Ironman racing, a different set of rules applies, and Llanos may be right to expect that just having another year of race experience in his body will enable him to trim his Kona finish time by 1 percent or so, which is probably all he will need.

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He sees proof in favor of this hypothesis in his second-place finish at Ironman Frankfurt in July, where he closed with a 2:47:20 marathon to finish with a personal best time of 8:00:21 and defeated former Kona champion Chris McCormack.

While Llanos is now measuring his improvement in Ironman racing in seconds, he is immeasurably better than he was when he first switched from short-course to long-distance racing after the 2004 Olympics. He never reached the finish line of the first three Ironman events he started. Nutrition was the main problem. “In the beginning I had a lot of problems with that,” he says. “I wasn’t getting enough food.

I learned what I need during a race. Now I know how many calories I can take and I have a plan for each race that I follow. I know it works so I try to repeat it.”

If Llanos has a motto for his career as a professional athlete, it might be this: “If it’s broken, fix it. Then leave it alone.”

I noticed at the start of our ride that Llanos carried only one bottle, in a cage on the downtube.

It was made of transparent plastic, and when we were more than 30 miles into the ride, I observed that it was still nearly full. Was he not even sweating?

As we moved farther inland and the sun moved steadily westward, the air heated up steadily and at last the fluid level in Llanos’ bottle diminished. At 66 miles we stopped at a gas station for refills. While our feet were on the ground, Llanos took the opportunity to pull an energy bar out of his jersey and gobble it.

“You asked me the other day what I usually eat when I need easy calories,” he said. “I forgot to say, I eat this.”

He showed me the wrapper, which identified the product as a Mule Bar. “It’s an English company,” he said. “All-natural. Mostly organic ingredients.”

Most professional triathletes have pretty clean diets, but Llanos’ diet is immaculate, and unlike most of his peers, he eats the way he does not because he feels he has to but because he genuinely prefers to. He became a vegetarian voluntarily when he was a teenager and has kept it up for 16 years.

When I asked him if there was any kind of performance rationale behind his meat abstinence, he said, “It’s just the way I eat. I don’t know if it’s an advantage or a disadvantage. It works well and I am happy with it.” When speaking a second language, one tends to communicate in simpler terms, but Llanos seems to have a simple way of seeing things, regardless of language. And that probably is an advantage.

As soon as we left the gas station we began to ascend the biggest hill on our route, a two-and-a-half-mile climb at 6 to 7 percent. At the summit I congratulated myself for staying on Llanos’ shoulder, apparently without slowing him down. Indeed, when we arrived back at Nytro I still felt so fresh that I almost couldn’t help but wonder if I myself shouldn’t take a shot at winning the Hawaii Ironman. Then I thought of something.

“Was that your only workout of the day?” I asked.

“No,” Llanos said. “Now I run one hour 20 minutes with five times 200 meters in 30 seconds.”

I went home, put my legs up and ate an entire frozen pizza. november 2009

Top

Men Contenders

A field of five former champions and an influx of young speedsters should make this year’s Hawaii Ironman one for the ages in the men’s race.

By Brad Culp photos by john segesta

Craig Alexander (AUS) 60

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Eneko Llanos (ESP)

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ormann Stadler, Tim Deboom, Luc Van Lierde, Peter Reid, Mark Allen, Dave Scott and Scott Tinley—the only seven men to win the Hawaii Ironman multiple times. On October 10 Craig Alexander and Chris McCormack will attempt to join this ultra-exclusive club, but doing so will be a tall order for the Aussies.

We’ve included 17 men in this year’s race preview—more than ever before—and a testament to just how deep the men’s field is. On a good day any of these 17 men are capable of being crowned Ironman world champion.

The various racing styles of the top men leave a lot of questions to be answered. Will the speedsters like Rasmus Henning, Andreas Raelert and Andy Potts run away with the race? Is it still possible for Normann Stadler to win on the bike? Will Alexander and McCormack push each other to sub-2:40 marathons? Can Eneko Llanos hang on to the lead just a little longer this time around?

The Favorite

Craig Alexander (AUS)

Crowie’s formula for success last year was simple: Win a lot of 70.3 races, train like a bat out of hell and run faster than everyone else in Kona. We don’t expect the defending champ to alter his formula too much. He has already won four 70.3 races this year, doing so in impressive fashion each time.

Alexander appears even leaner than last year, perhaps making him even better suited for the heat of the Big Island. The superstar did show a slight chink in his armor at Vineman 70.3 this July, when his stomach turned against him and he was relegated to eighth place. But we’ll give the guy one mulligan this year.

Aside from the stomach woes at Vineman, he’s been assaulting 70.3 races worldwide again this season. At Ironman 70.3 Singapore november 2009

he outran McCormack by more than three minutes. He had another impressive showing at Boise 70.3, where he ran the final mile in just less than five minutes to catch and pass Chris Lieto in the finishing chute.

Crowie is clearly fit, and we believe he’s faster than the pair of 2:45 marathons he’s posted in his previous Hawaii races. If he can approach the 2:40 mark, he’ll be almost impossible to beat.

The Contenders

Eneko Llanos (ESP)

Llanos was so close last year. The two-time XTERRA world champ led the Hawaii Ironman until mile 17 of the run. The pass by Alexander was swift and purposeful, and in an instant, the Spaniard’s hopes of winning Hawaii were dashed—at least for 12 months. Nothing motivates a person quite like finishing as the runner-up at the biggest race in your sport.

Llanos spent little time sulking during the off-season, and instead headed to the A2 Wind Tunnel in Charlotte with aero guru Steve Hed. Llanos’ position last year exposed a substantial amount of his torso to the wind (even so, he finished with the fifth-fastest bike split of 4:33:26). After a day with Hed in the tunnel, Llanos now rides lower and considerably narrower in the front. We got a first-hand look at the Spaniard’s new riding style during this month’s cover shoot—it’s a definite improvement.

While the bike leg may be Llanos’ greatest weapon, we expect to see an improvement in his swim as well. At this year’s Ironman Germany, Llanos exited the water in 44:59—seven seconds ahead of super-swimmer Faris Al-Sultan and almost three minutes ahead of McCormack. Needless to say, we expect Llanos to be at or near the front for most of the day.

History is on the Spaniard’s side as well. Over the past 15 years only one person has won back-to-back titles in Hawaii (Tim Deboom in triathletemag.com

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Rutger Beke (BEL)

Chris McCormack (AUS) Normann Stadler (GER) Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) 2001 and 2002) while on six different occasions the reigning runner-up has gone on to take the title in the following year’s race.

Chris McCormack (AUS) Win Kona once and you’re a superstar. Win it twice and you become an Ironman legend. Like Alexander, “Macca” is motivated by the allure of becoming one of the greatest of all time. The 2007 Kona champion’s fire is also fueled by the “DNF” that appeared next to his name in last year’s results book. A snapped derailleur cable on the climb up to Hawi forced the Aussie out of the race and meant he didn’t even have a chance to defend his title on the run, his signature discipline.

McCormack ran a 2:42 marathon to win in 2007. That’s three minutes faster than Alexander ran in his two races on the Big Island.

However, without anyone in close proximity to push him, Alexander noticeably let up during the final miles of last year’s marathon. We expect Macca’s derailleur cables to be in top form for this year’s race, which should set things up for a great marathon showdown between the two Aussies. No man has hit the 2:40 mark on the marathon since Mark Allen in the “Ironwar” of 1989, but as Macca stated on his blog earlier this year, “times under 2:40 are more likely this year.”

Normann Stadler (GER) After two disappointing showings in a row on the Big Island, many have written off Stadler as a contender to take home a third title, but it’s a bit premature to look past the 2004 and 2006 Kona champ. Stadler rode to a 4:14:42 bike split at the Quelle Roth Challenge this past July (26.3 mph average speed), which tells us that he will be riding at the front in Kona.

Stadler has kept a relatively low profile this year, making Roth his only other major event of the season. This is similar to what the 62

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German did before his previous two Ironman titles, and we feel the under-the-radar approach is a reflection of his focus, not a lack of fitness.

If Stadler is going to win his third Big Island crown, he’ll need a comfortable advantage over Alexander and McCormack at T2, which shouldn’t be a problem for the bike course record holder. After a few years of moderate conditions along the Queen K Highway, the race is due for a tough year. Strong trade winds play right into Stadler’s hands and would help him ride away from the field—something he’s done twice before.

Rutger Beke (BEL) In 2003 Beke had one of the most impressive Big Island debuts ever, finishing second to three-time winner Peter Reid. Since his debut, the Belgian has been one of the most consistent athletes in the field, finishing in the top five on four occasions. The super-runner told Triathlete that he’s comfortable getting off the bike between 10th and 15th place, and feels that he can win this race on the run. His third-place finish last year qualified him for this year’s race, and Beke has taken advantage of not having to race an additional Ironman event this year. We know the Belgian will be a contender to get on the podium, but if he wants to contend for the highest spot, he’ll need to shave a handful of minutes off his 2:47:49 marathon split from a year ago.

Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) During the past few seasons this 30-year-old Swiss star has transformed himself from a mediocre professional to an athlete with one of the finest bike/run combinations on the planet. Schildknecht’s fourth-place finish last year came as a bit of a surprise, but few will be surprised if he improves on that showing at this year’s race. Schildknecht’s best performance of this season came at Ironman 70.3 november 2009

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Faris Al-Sultan (GER)

Chris Lieto (USA)

Timo Bracht (GER) Andy Potts (USA) California in April, where he used an incredible 2:11:00 bike split to finish third. Based off of his 54:56 swim time from a year ago, he will trail the likes of Crowie, Macca and Llanos out of the water, but he has enough power on the bike to make up that gap before the turnaround at Hawi. If he can ride his way to a sub-4:30 bike split, he’ll be hard to keep off the podium.

Timo Bracht (GER) Perhaps no one is as motivated as Bracht to prove himself at this year’s race. The German had his breakthrough race at Kona last year, finishing fifth, only to find out that he was disqualified for failing to stop for a blocking penalty near the end of the bike leg.

That disqualification has clearly motivated Bracht, as shown by his absurd 7:59:15 winning time at Ironman Germany this July. At that race Bracht used a 2:43:06 marathon to track down and pass Llanos in the final miles. If Bracht can post a similar marathon split in Hawaii, he’ll be nearly unstoppable.

Andy Potts (USA) Potts spent only four months training specifically for Kona last year and still pushed his body to a seventh-place finish at his Ironman debut. While the American still races plenty of shortcourse events, Hawaii has been the focus of his training for the past 12 months, and he has plenty of room to improve on his 8:33:50 finish from 2008.

He has put together one of his most impressive seasons to date, winning highly competitive races at Escape from Alcatraz, St. Anthony’s and Wildflower. Potts has made it known that his goal this year is to win Kona, and considering the guy can still rip off a 31-minute 10K run, he must be taken seriously.

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Faris Al-Sultan (GER) Just like Alexander and McCormack, Al-Sultan has his sights set on a second Kona title, but it won’t come easy. At his winning race in 2005, Al-Sultan steadily pulled away from the field during the swim, bike and early portion of the marathon. By the time the rest of the contenders realized that the German-Iraqi was a legitimate threat, he was too far ahead. Now that there are a number of stronger cyclists in the field (namely Lieto and Stadler), it’s unlikely that Al-Sultan can get away like he did four years ago. However, there’s no reason to write off Al-Sultan yet. He’ll post one of the fastest swim/bike combinations of the day, but he’ll need to run close to a 2:50 marathon to be in podium contention.

Chris Lieto (USA) With Danish super-biker Torbjorn Sindballe’s retirement, the role of pace-setter on the bike has been passed to Lieto. We expect the American to exit the swim in about 51 minutes and to complete the ride in around 4:30 (conditions permitting). Such a swim/bike combo should put Lieto at or near the front at T2, but holding the lead on the run has not been Lieto’s forte in the past. The 37-year-old from Northern California has never run under three hours on the Big Island—something he’ll need to change in order to make the podium for the first time.

Cameron Brown (NZL) Brown has been one of the most consistent performers at Ironman Hawaii over the past decade, but the Kiwi has had trouble getting his run under 2:50 in Kona. Brown’s marathons have been much more impressive at Ironman New Zealand, an event he has won eight times.

Brown clocked a 2:43:10 marathon at his home country’s Ironman this March, which puts a sub-2:50 run in Hawaii well within his reach. november 2009

I can’t believe how light Nanograms are. It’s like riding with the weight of one pedal instead of two. My foot is so close to the spindle, I can hold the gear better, and I have a real awareness that 100% of my power goes right into the bike.

– Chris McCormack – 2007 Ironman World Champion

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Eduardo Sturla (ARG)

Cameron Brown (NZL) Terenzo Bozzone (NZL)

Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) Tim Deboom (USA)

You can never completely count out a guy with two Kona titles to his credit. Sure, he’s 38. And yes, he took last year off of competition.

That said, the guy knows how to race and he knows the Hawaii Ironman better than just about any other athlete in the field.

Deboom’s last race in Kona came in 2007, when he used a balanced approach to finish fourth. We doubt he will be in contention for the win, but with the right race plan, we won’t be surprised if he sneaks his way into the top five.

Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) Belgium’s other contender has one huge advantage: He trains with two-time champ Stadler on the Germany-based Commerzbank Triathlon Team. Stadler undoubtedly knows how to prepare for Hawaii and we’re assuming that Vanhoenacker has picked up a few tips and tricks from his superstar teammate.

The Belgian’s breakthrough race came at Kona in 2007, when an impressive bike/run combo put him at the line in fifth. Last year’s race was a step in the wrong direction for Vanhoenacker, as he struggled to a 3:08:22 marathon and a 22nd-place finish. He’s clearly fit this season, having won two Ironman races (South Africa and Austria).

Throughout his career Vanhoenacker has been strong on the swim and bike, but if he wants to improve on his past Big Island results, he’ll need to rip off a marathon close to the 2:50:15 he posted in Austria this July.

Eduardo Sturla (ARG) Sturla, the lone South American among our contenders, is another athlete with a lot of question marks surrounding his ability. He can swim and bike with the best in the world, but he has yet to prove that he can run in the low 2:50s—something he’ll need to do in order to improve on his tenth-place showing from 2008.

Nonetheless, the Argentine’s 4:23:35 bike split from this May’s Ironman Brazil proves that he can ride with the best cyclists in the sport.

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The Dark Horses

Rasmus Henning (DEN)

What happens when one of the winningest draft-legal triathletes of all time moves into Ironman? We’ll find out on Oct. 10 when Henning makes his Kona debut. Making the Dane a true podium threat is the fact that he already has three iron-distance events under his belt—impressive for a short-courser. Henning raced the ITU Long Distance World Championship in 2001 and 2002, posting a PR of 8:25:45 at the latter race.

The speedster also had an impressive showing at Ironman China in March, winning by half an hour even though the heat and humidity humbled him to a walk for the final 10K. After racing in 110-degree heat in China, Kona should be tolerable.

Andreas Raelert (GER) Raelert had only completed one half-marathon before the Ironman 70.3 World Championship last year. Nonetheless, the German put up a jaw-dropping 1:10:53 run in Clearwater—more than two minutes faster than race winner Terenzo Bozzone—and finished second (even with a drafting penalty on the bike).

A few weeks after Clearwater, Raelert headed to Arizona to race his first Ironman on zero miles of Ironman-specific training. Raelert won in Tempe by more than five minutes and had an impressive marathon debut of 2:46:37. He is one of (if not the) best pure runners on the Kona start list and will be very dangerous if he’s among the first dozen athletes back to T2.

Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) It may be the young Kiwi’s first go at Kona, but it’s hard to look past a guy with the fastest Ironman 70.3 time in history (3:40:10 at Clearwater last year). The 24-year-old made his Ironman debut in New Zealand in March, finishing second in 8:25:36. Even with a conservative approach to the race, Bozzone ran a 2:49:42 marathon at Lake Taupo, leaving questions about just how much faster he can run. He has no glaring weakness in any of the three sports—a nice attribute to have on the Big Island. november 2009

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Top woMen Contenders Can anyone give Wellington a run for her money? The Brit still comes in as the odds-on favorite, but 2009 could be the year that her competitors make it interesting.

By Jay Prasuhn photos by john segesta

Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 68

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november 2009

Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED)

I

f Dan Patrick ever called the highlights of the Hawaii Ironman on ESPN, which would be a coup in its own right, I think we can all agree on the catchphrase quote: “You can’t stop her, you can only hope to contain her.”

One woman stands at the helm: Great Britain’s two-time reigning Ironman world champ Chrissie Wellington. Now in its third year, The Christening of Chrissie raises questions at every race she participates in that ostensibly go from “Who will win?” to “How much will Chrissie win by?” But as dominant as she’s been, this year’s women’s field is better than ever, and the gap is closing. At the Quelle Challenge Roth in July, Wellington won by “only” seven-plus minutes in taking her world time record instead of the customary 25-minute chasm.

There are true suitors to the throne in 2009. We have returning top dogs Yvonne Van Vlerken, Linsey Corbin and Sandra Wallenhorst. We have injured reserve returnees Michellie Jones, Natascha Badmann and Samantha McGlone. And we have intriguing debutantes in Mirinda Carfrae and Catriona Morrison. “The depth in the last five years of talented women has skyrocketed. It’s going to be the strongest, deepest field we’ve seen in a long time,” Wellington says. “Belinda [Granger], Bek [Rebekah Keat], Yvonne, Sandra, there’s so many girls—and that’s fantastic. Hopefully it inspires more women.”

While Wellington’s Ironman-distance record remains unblemished through her career, with seven wins in as many races, there’s nothing that indicates that Wellington has plateaued. Wellington continues to surprise; she recently parted ways with coach Simon Lessing, who coached her through a stellar 2009 season with wins at Ironman Australia and 70.3 Kansas with ease. Then she simply crushed the Ironman-distance record, going 8:31:59 at Roth—and contends she can go faster. november 2009

“I’m so proud to hold that world record, and while it was a good race for me, it wasn’t a perfect race,” she said. “I still think there’s room for improvement—I do want to try to run the second half of the marathon a lot closer to the speed of the first. It’s something I’m working on. But I feel I’ve benefited from living and training here in Boulder, my swim has come on leaps and bounds, and I feel faster and stronger on the bike.”

So could Kona this year be a place for the perfect race? Once she has the race lead, the only things left in Wellington’s path are … well, records. She already owns the course run record with the 2:57:44, earned last year. With just two Kona titles to her name, she has plenty of time to approach Paula Newby-Fraser’s record seven Hawaii wins. But there is Newby-Fraser’s record time of 8:55:28, standing since 1992. And PNF’s 4:48:30 bike, recorded in ’93. Despite the what-ifs, Wellington keeps her eyes on the prize. “I won’t focus on records,” Wellington said. “My strategy is simple—race as hard as I can, as long as I can.”

So who can give Wellington a run for her money on Oct. 10?

The Challengers

Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED)

Last year, this Dutch powder keg said she rode under the wind along the Queen K Highway. With her tiny stature, there’s no reason she won’t do the same again, as she proved she can race in the heat.

But she also proved she’s human, faltering late at Ironman Germany to nutrition issues to take second. Her season has been fairly quiet, with runner-up finishes at Ironman 70.3 Geelong, the Challenge Barcelona half and Ironman Germany. If Van Vlerken can improve on her dismal 1:06 swim from Kona last year, she can set herself up much better for her powerful bike and run. triathletemag.com

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Sandra Wallenhorst (AUT)

Erika Csomor (HUN)

Samantha McGlone (CAN) Rebekah Keat (AUS) Erika Csomor (HUN)

Samantha McGlone (CAN)

One of the most accomplished athletes in the sport, including ITU Long Course Worlds and Duathlon Worlds titles as well as Ironman Arizona, Csomor is also one of the most humble. The swim was her weakness before TeamTBB coach Brett Sutton morphed her into a sub-hour swimmer, which puts her in prime position for her twopronged bike/run attack.

Csomor’s approach netted her fourth last year, and fourth at the hotly contested Quelle Challenge Roth this year. Doubtless Sutton has made a sub-three marathon Csomor’s focus for ’09, a sure ticket to a top-three placing.

McGlone was a brave soul in Kona, to sit idly by with an Achilles injury and achingly watch a race she was a favorite for last year. If you listened closely enough, you could hear her teeth grinding to powder.

After six frustrating months, the fiery Canuck finally got fit and healthy, and the 2007 runner-up will toe the line again in Kona. She took third at Ironman Lake Placid this year, which is probably just as well to let her competitors take up the pressure. Last time in Kona, she was surprised

by Wellington. This year, she will be well aware—and motivated.

Sandra Wallenhorst (GER)

It was a proverbial passing of the torch when Keat supplanted Wellington on TeamTBB, putting Keat next to teammate Csomor as the team’s top guns. After just one year under coach Sutton, 2009 has been a breakthrough; two second-place finishes, but both were to Wellington.

True, Keat’s 24-minute gap to Wellington at Ironman Australia this spring was not indicative of a true challenger. But her summer runner-up finish to Wellington at Roth in 8:39:24 was. It was only just more than seven minutes behind Wellington, earning her the world’s second-fastest race of all time over the Ironman distance.

When she recorded what is still the reigning M-Dot branded Ironman record time last year (8:47:26 at Ironman Austria), she was a question mark. When she then took third in Kona, she was thrust forward as a true competitor. Like Van Vlerken, the swim, particularly sans wetsuit, remains her Achilles heel. Like Van Vlerken, she will be chasing from behind. But consider this: Wallenhorst was the only woman in Kona last year aside from Wellington to go under three hours (2:58:36) for the marathon.

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The Dark Horses

Rebekah Keat (AUS)

november 2009

Bella Bayliss (SCO) Mirinda Carfrae (AUS)

Kate Major (AUS) Michellie Jones (AUS) No other woman has sought out battle with the Brit as Keat has this year, as Kona will be Keat’s third crack at Wellington. Not surprisingly, Wellington considers Keat one of her chief rivals. And should Keat flat on the Queen K, we can bet Wellington (the beneficiary of Keat’s generosity last year) will be the first to offer up her spare.

Kate Major (AUS) Major has performed like clockwork with a solid swim, solid bike and a punishing run, resulting in Hawaii podium finishes—until last year, when she finished an uncharacteristic 25th, thanks to a foot injury and bike mechanical. We’re considering it a hiccup; Major will again be a factor, running her way into the top five. She finished a comfortable second at Ironman Coeur d’Alene to secure her Kona ticket this year.

Catriona Morrison (GBR) Like Mirinda Carfrae, the effervescent Morrison makes her Kona debut this year, earned with her runner-up finish at Ironman 70.3 Monaco. But unlike Carfrae, Morrison has proven herself—admirably—at the Ironman distance, going 8:48 at Roth this summer.

And while she is the reigning ITU duathlon long distance world champion and won at Ironman 70.3 UK this year, she’ll have experienced nothing like the cacophony of Kona. She’s proven she has the speed but two questions remain: How far behind will a duathlete still honing her swim be after a non-wetsuit swim, 72

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and how will she handle the Kona heat? Cat is certainly the most underrated Kona rookie this year.

Michellie Jones (AUS) We normally wouldn’t put a past champ in this category, but a burst eardrum caused the 2006 Ironman world champ to pull out of last year’s race, and she has gone about her season since quietly, most recently winning at Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island. As a past Kona champ, she has earned the right to eschew a qualifying Ironman race, and comes in well under the radar, which is to her advantage. Our question is whether her run is to the level of her contemporaries—a 3:13 marathon won’t win Kona this year as it did in ’06.

Bella Bayliss (GBR) One of the most driven and focused women in the pro ranks, Bayliss is Sutton’s prototypical soldier. She has an astounding three Ironman victories this year (Lanzarote, Austria and the UK). Finishing seventh in Kona last year, Bayliss is on track to move easily into the top five thanks to a balanced attack and ability to relish suffering when things get grim. It’s here, typically on a hot run, where Bayliss shines.

Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) This year’s biggest X-Factor comes in the pocket rocket profile of Carfrae, the 2007 Ironman 70.3 world champ. “Rinny” has put a stamp november 2009

Natascha Badmann (SWI)

Linsey Corbin (USA) Virginia Berasategui (ESP) Leanda Cave (GBR) of authority on the half distance this year with wins at Rev3 and 70.3 Eagleman and Calgary (running 1:17:47, just two minutes slower than men’s winner Tim O’Donnell in the half marathon).

She’s untested at the full Ironman distance, but under coach Siri Lindley (a Brett Sutton disciple), there’s little question she will be primed. She has proved she can race in the heat, and her bike has improved in spades over the last two years, meaning she will be amid the players into T2.

The question is whether she can maintain her blazing run speed in the second half of a marathon.

Virginia Berasategui (ESP) Fantastic balance is this diminutive Spaniard’s hallmark. We were certainly impressed with her sixth-place finish in Kona last year, and she earned more respect by coming to America and taking one of the most coveted titles, the Wildflower Long Course triathlon. Berasategui is the real deal.

Tereza Macel (CZE)

America’s top finisher last year (fifth) was transformed into a Kona contender by coach Lance Watson. But she still has one glaring weakness: the swim. She needs to get out of Kailua Bay in under an hour in order to start her bike attack further up in the field.

Granted, the Czech (with Canadian upbringing) has been in the Ironman game for some time, having won Ironman Korea in 2006, and then waned into anonymity. But like so many under Sutton’s charge, she has been reshaped. Always one of the first females out of the water, Macel has significantly increased her bike; a 5:13 at Ironman Lake Placid all but assured. She is capable of biking up front with the likes of Belinda Granger. The question is, at what price on the run?

Natascha Badmann (SWI)

Leanda Cave (GBR)

As the saying goes, never count out a past champion. Even if that six-time Kona champion was told in 2007 she would never race again after hitting a cone during the race in Kona, resulting in a complex matrix of titanium hardware in her reconstructed shoulder. Last year, the still-healing Badmann made a token appearance in Kona and dropped out. This year, she won Ironman 70.3 New Orleans, and took second at 70.3 Eagleman and third at Rev3, and has looked precisely like the Natascha of old.

Great Britain’s “other” world champ (she won the ITU short-course world title in 2007) has had an up and down year, with victory at 70.3 Florida and a solid second at Wildflower, which were countered by a dismal result at Roth thanks to hunger knock. While Cave has blasted out to early bike leads, the Kona heat has seemed to be her nemesis. If training in hot Tucson helps temper her system to the heat and she gets her nutrition right, Cave could get off the bike and challenge for a prime position on the run. But even there, we’ve yet to see how she fares.

Linsey Corbin (USA)

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Expert Predictions Brad Culp Editor, Triathlete Men 1. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 2. Andy Potts (USA) 3. Rasmus Henning (DEN) Nothing motivates quite like getting second place—just ask Craig Alexander. Eneko Llanos is probably the only guy in the race who is a threat to break 4:30 on the bike and 2:50 on the marathon. If Llanos has at least six minutes on the “runners” at T2, I don’t think he’ll be caught. I’m going a little out on a limb with the rest of my podium, but I think Andy Potts’ ability to suffer and Rasmus Henning’s raw speed make each a podium threat.

Women 1. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 2. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 3. Linsey Corbin (USA) I tried like hell to think of a reason why Chrissie Wellington might not win. I came up empty. That’s all I need to say about my first-place pick. Rebekah Keat’s performance at the Quelle Challenge Roth (where she finished in 8:39:24) makes her the second best ironwoman on the planet, and I think she’ll do a good job of pacing off Wellington.

Linsey Corbin’s bike advantage will be enough to put the American on the podium.

John Duke Publisher, Triathlete Men 1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 2. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 3. Normann Stadler (GER) Alexander has really excelled in learning how to race Kona. It takes many athletes (like Chris McCormack) many years to learn what it takes to win—Crowie only needed one year. I expect Llanos to be dangerous again this year and Crowie will certainly need to keep the Spaniard in his sights throughout the bike. With Torbjorn Sindballe out of the race, Normann Stadler might ride with Chris Lieto or he might try to crush everyone as he has done in the past.

Women 1. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 2. Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) 3. Linsey Corbin (USA) 76

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I have been to almost every Hawaii Ironman and I’ve never seen a clearer favorite than Wellington this year. The men who finish fifth through 10th should be concerned about losing to Wellington. I’m picking Yvonne Van Vlerken to finish second again since I think she has the secondbest all-around package. Corbin will improve on her showing last year and finish third.

Jay Prasuhn Senior Editor, Triathlete Men 1. Chris McCormack (AUS) 2. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 3. Normann Stadler (GER) Let’s hope for a rebirth reminiscent of Dave Scott versus Mark Allen ’89: a side-by-side battle of two fleet flyers in the closing miles of the marathon. In that battle tactics win, and Macca’s a master tactician. If it’s windy, Sindballe’s absence opens the door for Stadler to tear into the bike. Out of sight, out of mind.

Women 1. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 2. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 3. Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) The only consideration in the women’s race is conditions. If favorable, Paula Newby-Fraser’s Kona record (8:55:28, 1992) is coming down. And like at Roth, it will be by a lot, with lots of smiling along the way.

The thing is, the depth of field means that Keat and Mirinda Carfrae will be behind Wellington, but not in spades.

Susan Grant Associate Editor, Triathlete Men 1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 2. Chris McCormack (AUS) 3. Eneko Llanos (SPN) This year Crowie will have to contend with the wrath of Macca, who, after last year’s mechanical problems, will be going for broke.

I see this race coming down to the two of them and who will have the best legs during those last few miles. Llanos is definitely the dark horse, but his power on the bike and promising finishes at several races this year could be enough to knock the two previous champions off of their game.

Women 1. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 2. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 3. Sandra Wallenhorst (GER) I predict that this will be one of the fastest female races on record—and not just because of Miss Wellington. Keat was able to keep up with Wellington at Roth, and she has had a stellar year overall. Sandra Wallenhorst doesn’t do many races, but when she does, she does well, and her sub-9 hour Ironman win in Frankfurt is a sign that she’ll bring her A-game to the lava fields.

Torbjorn Sindballe Retired Pro Triathlete Men 1. Rasmus Henning (DEN) 2. Craig Alexander (AUS) 3. Chris McCormack (AUS) I am taking on chance and picking Henning to bring the title home to Denmark. He represents the next breed of ITU athletes moving up to Ironman, and I think he has what it takes to win in Hawaii. Crowie is a bit better in the heat than Macca, so I’m picking Alexander to finish ahead of McCormack for second. I also expect Llanos, Potts and possibly Timo Bracht to be in the mix as well.

Women 1. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 2. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 3. Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) Wellington is the talent of the century in triathlon and should race in her own division called “superpro.” Imagine the day someone starts biking 4:20 and riding 2:40 in the men’s division and you have a clue of what the other girls are up against. Keat came within eight minutes of Wellington at the Quelle Challenge Roth and I think a similar performance in Kona will put the Aussie at the line in second. I think Vlerken is hungry after being off at Ironman Germany and I expect her to round out the podium.

Luke Bell Pro Triathlete Men 1. Chris McCormack (AUS) 2. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 3. Andy Potts (USA)

Macca is one of the smartest racers there is, and he knows what it takes to suffer and win. Llanos, the diesel engine, will finish second again. I don’t think he’ll be able to hold off the surge from the top runners. Potts seems to have improved his cycling this year and has had some great races. I’m picking Potts to finish third.

Women 1. Sandra Wallenhorst (GER) 2. Natasha Badmann (SUI) 3. Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) I’m sure I’ll be ridiculed for not having Wellington on my women’s podium, but all good things must come to an end. She has yet to have a bad day in Kona and this could be the year that things just don’t go right for the Brit. Wallenhorst is almost as good of a runner as Wellington and I think the German will be there to take the win. I like Badmann for second because she is a true champion and she’s hard to bet against. I think Carfrae can grab third in her first go at Kona because of her incredible run speed.

Paul Huddle Former Pro Triathlete, Triathlon Coach, Triathlete Contributor Men 1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 2. Andy Potts (USA) 3. Eneko Llanos (ESP) I think Crowie still has some room for improvement. He’s the first guy in a long time with the smarts and the mental toughness to repeat as champion. Potts was only concerned about finishing last year. Now that it’s his second Kona go around, I think he’ll move up to second place. Llanos is close, but I think he’ll be just a little behind the winner this year.

Women 1. Chrissie Wellington (AUS) 2. Kate Major (AUS) 3. Sandra Wallenhorst (GER) Chrissie is an easy pick—I don’t feel like I need much explanation there. I think Kate Major looks fitter and stronger this year and I think she’ll get second because she does well in tough conditions. I’m picking Wallenhorst to grab third again but I think she’ll do so in a faster time than last year. november 2009

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PASSION FOR PERFECTION

Just Like the Rest of Us, Only Tougher At least nine physically challenged athletes are competing in the 2010 Ford Ironman World Championship.

By Brad Culp

Rudy Garcia-Tolson 78

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David Bailey Hans Koeppen –

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ny athlete who has attempted an Ironman knows what a physically grueling test it is. No matter what body you were born with, finishing a 140.6-mile triathlon takes countless hours of training and suffering. The physically challenged athletes competing in this year’s Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, know a level of pain and suffering that most of us can’t comprehend. For these athletes the training and racing might be harder but it makes the reward that much sweeter. And the reward extends well past the finish line. In the world of physically challenged athletics, those who dare attempt the Ironman are the best of the best—they attempt something that might seem impossible. By suffering through this event they inspire countless other challenged athletes to do the same.

Rudy Garcia-Tolson, 21, U.S. Garcia-Tolson had both legs amputated above the knee at age five because of multiple birth defects. He competed in his first Paralympics in 2004 and took home gold in the 200-meter individual medley, setting a new world record. He won that event again at the 2008 Paralympics, setting another world record. On October 10, Garcia-Tolson aims at becoming the first bilateral above-knee amputee to finish the Hawaii Ironman. Garcia-Tolson finished the Wildflower Long-Course Triathlon earlier this year in 8:51:38.

Jason Fowler, 35, U.S. Fowler finished for the first time at Kona last year with a time of 11:29:52, which was good enough for second in the hand-cycle division. The Maine native is paralyzed from the chest down as a result from a motorcycle accident in 1991. Fowler spent 11 years competing in motocross and won eight New England Championships. Since his injury he has competed in almost 200 road races, marathons and triathlons. His first race came only two months after his accident. Additionally, Fowler has his MBA in Health Care Management and works for Medtronic, a Boston-based medical technology company.

Jason Gunter, 44, U.S. Gunter, a firefighter turned lawyer, lost his left leg below the knee and his right hand in a boating accident 17 years ago. He is attempting to become the first upper-and lower-extremity amputee to complete the Hawaii Ironman. He became inspired to race after watching a video of Scott Rigsby finishing in 2007. Gunter lives in Ft. Myers, Fla., where he has practiced law for the last 10 years. november 2009

David Bailey, 47, U.S. Bailey will be competing in Kona for the fifth time, and the first time since winning the hand-cycle world title in 2000. He is a former motocross national champion and spent eight years competing as a professional racer. Bailey suffered a spinal cord injury during practice in 1987 that left him without feeling below his waist. He helped mentor fellow ex-motocross rider Ricky James to a finish in Kona last year.

Gerald Geier, 48, Germany Geier lost a leg in a motorcycle accident in 1985. He has competed in Kona twice and won the physically challenged division in 2007 with a time of 12:15. The German has competed in eight other iron-distance triathlons and numerous marathon races.

Hans Koeppen, 52, Germany To regain his hand-cycle title, David Bailey will have to top two-time defending champion Koeppen of Germany. Considering that the pair’s Big Island personal bests are within 10 minutes of each other (Bailey’s 11:06 to Koeppen’s 11:16), the hand-cycle race should be one of the most exciting contests of the day.

Brian Cowie, 57, Canada Cowie began losing his sight at age 22 because of a degenerative disease.

He is now blind. He is a decorated paracyclist and competed in his third consecutive Paralympic Games in 2008. Cowie has raced in Kona twice before, setting a personal best of 12:10 in 1993. Piloted by teammate Devon Smilbert, Cowie finished Ironman Calgary 70.3 in 5:26:12 this August.

Additionally, Cowie has competed in three ITU World Championships, earning a pair of medals in the physically challenged category.

Rodolfo Fernandez, 61, Philippines Fernandez, also known as “Rudy,” lost his right leg above the knee after a bomb explosion in his hometown in 1978. Fernandez is perhaps the most well known physically challenged athlete in all of the Philippines. He was selected to participate in the celebrity edition of “Pinoy Big Brother,” a popular reality TV show in his home country. Fernandez has competed in numerous multisport events throughout the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

Yoshinobu Maeda, 73, Japan Maeda, a below-the-knee amputee, will be the oldest physically challenged athlete to ever compete in the Ironman World Championship. He started the 2004 Hawaii Ironman but was forced to drop out after a crash on the bike. triathletemag.com

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e komO mai! [welcome]

By Bree Wee photos by tek Mapon

Welcome to the rock in the middle of the sea! The Big Island of Hawaii is a lot more than the Ironman World Championship. The Hawaiian Islands are the most geographically isolated islands on Earth, giving its people an extremely unique lifestyle. Leave your run shoes, bike, cap and goggles packed away for this adventureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;time to explore the other side of our sportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most famous venue.

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Kilauea (4,078 feet) is the world’s most active volcano. Because the lava is still flowing, our island is growing bigger every day.

Yes, you can walk to the lava—just don’t touch it!

If you prefer it chilled—not hot or cold—take a dip in one of our many waterfalls snuggled around the island.

Not only is the Big Island hot, we are also way cool. The summit of Mauna Kea, (Hawaiian for “white mountain”), sits 13,796 feet above sea level and another 19,000 feet above the ocean floor, making it 32,796 feet tall! Bring your snowboard and bikini if you visit in December!

From sunsets and whale watching, to driving down long, isolated dirt roads, the Big Island has a bit of everything for everyone. A word of advice: The best kept secrets of our island are worth taking a hike or off-road drive to discover.

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Ho’ omalamalama Pono “Let us bring light, love and care to every effort, situation and intention in life.”

One of my favorite things about living in the middle of the Pacific is the life that surrounds us.

Every ocean swim is home to nai’a and honu (dolphins and turtles).

My favorite animals in the ocean are the playful whales. During my first surf session in Hawaii, a whale swam over to me and I have been captivated ever since. They grow up to 60 feet long and more than 100,000 pounds. From November to April you can hear their songs from under the sea.

Swimming in Hawaii truly is like swimming in a giant aquarium. Ua mau ke ea o ka `aina i ka pono.“The life of the land is preserved in righteousness.” (The motto of Hawaii.)

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If you insist on bringing your bike, feel free to check with Bike Works Hawaii for its local map that has more routes than just the Queen K Highway. Or ask a local cyclist, who might share their loops with you.

The Big Island is the youngest island in the Hawaiian Island Chain, and most of our beaches are still covered in lava rock. Thankfully, we do have a couple white sandy beaches for some early-morning beach runs.

The question I am most often asked is: “Bree, aren’t you scared swimming way out to sea?” No, not really. The ocean is home to many sea creatures and if you don’t bother them chances are they won’t bother you. Yes, we have sharks, but they aren’t looking for triathletes to eat. I think they prefer a bigger meal than some lean, super-fit humans— so brave the ocean with excitement!

When all the work is pau (done), we like to play! Cliff jumping is one of the favorite activities among locals and the young at heart.

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While visiting the island there comes a point when a little shade would be nice. The best shade can be found while exploring one of the many lava tubes. Lava tubes can be found on the side of the highway, in Volcanoes National Park or even in your neighborâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s back yard!

From jungles to forest, you simply cannot believe that you are on a tropical island when you are bird watching and hiking. My two favorite hikes are Captain Cookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Kaloko.

They are very different as one takes you to Captain Cook Monument, where the Captain himself first discovered the islands, and the other takes you through green fields with parrots to the top of a volcano.

The Big Island is home to 18 heiaus (sacred spots). These beautiful little spots were once the places where offerings were made to the gods or kings, and they were also places of safety during times of war. The offering of a lei was often a sign of thanks and peace. Other times animals were used as offerings in the hope that the ocean would provide fish or good hunting for families.

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PROBIKEKIT.COM EQUIP YOURSELF

Side-of-the-road shopping is very popular and safe on the Big Island. Fresh fruits, veggies, flowers, leis and meat are just a few of the many things you will find when cruising the island.

Some of my favorite colors and textures of the island are found in the fruits and vegetables. Every day you can shop at a local farmers market. Life on the island is pretty simple and giving back to the community keeps it going.

Life does not move very fast on the island. We prefer “Aloha time.”

Ohana and relationships with people yield the most valuable moments.

Taking the time to “talk story” or laugh is our secret to finding joy.

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Walking

the Tightrope:

How to Balance Training and

Family

By Tim Hola

This is it. The scenic and high-intensity bike ride

I’ve planned on doing for a month is here. All day at work I have been looking forward to it. The weather in Highlands Ranch, Colo., is a perfect 71 degrees F and sunny. With my water bottles filled and Power Gels packed, I give a kiss goodbye to my wife and 2.5-year-old twin boys, as I always do. Then my son Connor shouts out, “Daddy, let’s play with my new kite in the park!” I can’t explain how quickly that took the wind out of my sails. Anybody who does triathlons and has kids has experienced this classic situation. What do I do? On the one hand I really want to get in my ride, but on the other, I know the right thing to do is to scrap the ride and go to the park. As you might have already guessed, I didn’t ride—and loved every minute of it.

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Moments like this one make me think about how I balance triathlons with family. Before having kids, my life was pretty simple.

A good job, supportive wife and unlimited training. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? It all changed once I learned that Nikki was pregnant with twins. I always knew that things would change, but I wanted to try my hardest to keep my passion for triathlon alive even after it took a backseat to family. As happy and excited as I was anticipating being a father, I’d be lying if I said I was not worried about my training and racing. It scared me a little, but I knew that the passion for this sport ran so deep in my veins that I would find a way to make it work. When I became a dad in 2006, soon after finishing my eighth straight Hawaii Ironman, I wondered, “Are my days racing on the Big Island over?” november 2009

Since then, I have tried my best to not skip a beat in my schedule.

Of course, it took some fine tuning, but I have found that, with proper decision making, effective training plans and a little luck, I can make it work and reach my goals. Here are some tips based on my experience that I hope will help you balance triathlon and family and achieve great fulfillment in each. If you are not a parent yet, but plan to have kids soon, read on and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be ahead of the game.

Decide how important triathlon is to you.

Answering this question truthfully will be your foundation. Look deep down and ask yourself how important this sport is in your life. When you have a family, priorities can change. But happy parents are the foundation of a strong family. In my experience, attitude is infectious. november 2009

If you are happy, people around you will become happy. If triathlons are what you want to do and if doing them makes you smile, then ideally they will make your family happy as well.

Communicate. I have learned over the years that a supportive wife or husband is the golden ticket to balancing family and triathlon.

Discuss with your spouse your personal goals, always reminding her or him that family comes first. Laying the groundwork ahead of time will make future discussions easier for both of you. A supportive wife or husband will understand your feelings and thoughts. Open communication is a key element in all facets of a relationship and this situation is no different. As a parent, you have an abundance of daily commitments, so the more you talk about things, the more manageable they become. triathletemag.com

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When I started racing years ago, a friend of mine who raced many Ironmans told me not to tell his wife that he signed up for Ironman Florida. He didn’t want her to know that he was committing much more time to triathlon. I saw this as an example of what not to do, and felt that open communication could have possibly prevented the situation in the first place.

Don’t rush your important decisions. If there is one tip you take away from this article, this is the one. When you are confronted with a tough decision, slow down and really think through the decision about what is best. You might be surprised when you realize your instinct might not always be the best decision. When you are training, think about how long you’ll be away from the family and what’s more important at the time. There is a time and place for everything, but if you are really torn between a family activity and some training, take the extra time to think about what the right decision should be, and who it will affect.

Train early. This is a piece of advice that might not work for everyone, but it definitely works for many athletes. The way I look at it, most people (including the rest of your family) are sleeping at 4:30 a.m. (or should be). So if your body will allow it, try to get in that workout early. It’s a great feeling to start the day knowing the workout is behind you so you can focus your attention on work and family. Just be sure to schedule an occasional morning or two when you can sleep in to allow your body to catch up. My wife also races and we simply switch off. Each morning I work out first. I come home and Nikki gets in her workout while I look after the twins. When she gets home around 7:30 or so, I’ve got the suit and tie on and leave for work.

Include the family in your activities. Whenever possible, I take the family to my races. Sure, it might be easier to go to races alone, but having the family around makes the races more fun.

You can’t beat getting to take your kids to the podium if you are lucky enough to win an award. I also learned that having the family around a few days before a big race such as an Ironman takes my mind off the race and distracts me. It’s less worry time before the race and makes me a little more relaxed instead of thinking about the race. I’m not the only dad who feels this way. Participate in any triathlon at the Boulder Reservoir and you’ll see almost more kids than triathletes.

Work out with a purpose. This has a dual effect: It’ll make your workouts more effective, and they will seem to go quicker.

Until I had kids, I would train hard, but my workouts didn’t really have a specific purpose. Now, each workout has a goal, and that makes them more fun. We have all heard the term “junk miles,” and before I had kids this described a lot of my workouts, especially on the bike.

Now, when I plan out my day and I know I only have 90 minutes of biking planned, I make sure it is quality. A friend says that having kids actually made him faster because each workout had a clearly defined 92

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goal. Make each minute count, because sometimes when you miss a workout, it might be impossible to make it up later.

Embrace W.I.N. “WIN” stands for What’s Important Now, and it’s an old concept from my high school swim team.

It embraces the mindset that whatever you are doing at a given time, whether it’s getting in a long run, finishing a project for your boss or playing catch with your kids, that is most important now. When you give your attention to that activity and give 100 percent, it makes that time quality, and will help you do your best. For example, when you are on a five-hour bike ride and your training plan specifically calls for interval work, make sure you think WIN and you’ll channel your thoughts to that specific task, yielding quality results.

Take race vacations. When planning my race calendar, I try to find not only races that I enjoy, but races that are in location that will accommodate taking the family and giving them activities to do. Many family-friendly races are out there, such as Ironman 70.3 at Oceanside, California. After all, you run on the beach! It’s a win-win situation for you as an athlete because you get to race in a new place while knowing your family can enjoy themselves by participating in the activities the host city has to offer. One of the most obvious examples is Ironman Florida 70.3 in Orlando. After the race, hang out at Walt Disney World for a few days!

Share the love. We all want our kids to be healthy. Isn’t that what it’s all about, having our kids learn and grow? You might be surprised by how your kids embrace your healthy triathlon lifestyle. My kids are certainly dialed into the routine of getting up early and going to races.

They aren’t exactly using clipless pedals on their tricycles or wearing aero helmets, but I am already seeing them benefiting from watching their parents participate in sports. What better way to encourage a healthy lifestyle than to have your kids watch you enjoy doing a triathlon? That’s my story, as I grew up watching my dad race in triathlons, and now here I am, a 10-time Kona finisher. Thanks, Mom and Dad. It’s not just wishful thinking. You can balance it all if you really want to. Just make sure the passion is there, and the possibilities are endless. By fitting most of the pieces of the puzzle in place, you can achieve a healthy balance of family and racing. Good communication and decision making are keys in making it work. In the end, it’s worth it to try and balance it all together. Just think about those memories that you’ll have forever, even if you have to skip a ride once in a while to fly a kite with your kids.

Tim Hola has been competing in triathlon for 11 seasons and was the sixth overall amateur at last year’s Hawaii Ironman. In 2008 he was named on of the “fittest real men in America” by Outside Magazine and was Triathlete Magazine’s 2005 amateur triathlete of the year. Hola lives in Highlands Ranch, Colo., where he works as a pharmaceutical sales representative. november 2009

Photo: TDWSPORTS.COM

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Courtesy West Point Academy Triathlon Team

Triathlon Powerhouses

The U.S. military academies are growing their contributions to the sport by turning out stellar cadet triathletes.

Mario Cantu

By Jim Gourley

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Left and right: Courtesy West Point Academy Triathlon Team, center: Mario Cantu

I

n their combined 425 years of existence, the service academies of the U.S. Armed Forces at West Point, Annapolis and Colorado Springs have produced three American presidents, 104 astronauts, more than 100 congressional representatives, senators and ambassadors, a handful of Nobel Prize winners and 156 Medal of Honor recipients.

Through their halls have passed some of the greatest military leaders in history and the guardians entrusted to lead our nation’s sons and daughters into battle. With all that under their belt, now they’re adding some triathlon notches to it.

In the last five years, each of the schools has made a commitment to excellence in the sport. The results have been dazzling. Navy has produced five professional triathletes and dozens of elite amateurs.

West Point has established itself as a powerhouse team on the national collegiate scene, with seven USAT All-Americans and four cadets qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 Championships in Clearwater. Air Force has 54 Ironman finishers in five years and one of the most tech-savvy programs, sending graduates out to promote physical conditioning.

All of this may seem par for the course coming from institutions with such brilliant legacies, but it is all the more impressive when you realize how much harder academy life makes it.

It’s a major accomplishment just to get in the door at the academies.

An applicant must have a strong academic background with evidence of extracurricular leadership and athletic ability. Applicants must be recommended by their U.S. senator or U.S. representative, who can only have a certain number of appointees attending each institution at one time. Even then, the average acceptance rate hovers at 10 percent of total applicants; about 10,000 to 15,000 apply every year.

New cadets and midshipmen must endure the notorious first summer of Basic Cadet Training, the acronym for which gives rise to the appropriate nickname “Beast.” During the six-week introduction to the rigors and discipline of cadet life and the ensuing freshman year, it’s customary for more than 100 members of new classes to quit.

With days that start at 5 a.m., semesters with six or seven classes, and weekends and summers filled with military training, there’s hardly time to catch a breath. So how does one find time to train to become a top-flight triathlete? More importantly, what makes one want to? november 2009

For Cadet First Class Ashley Morgan of Portland, Maine, it comes down to something every service member can understand—the men and women to her left and right. “You really need your team on those long workouts. When you know you’re going to be on the bike for three hours and then follow it up with a 30-minute run, staying with the team is what keeps you going.” This philosophy is the foundation for West Point’s success, and Morgan is a great example of it. The Ironman 70.3 Kansas winner in the 18-24 age group and second-place finisher at this year’s USAT nationals says that it’s great to win, but she credits her fellow teammates and cadets with giving her the strength to make it through the challenges. “It was hard at first to learn time allocation and make the most out of my training, but I got a lot of help from the team and my company. It’s like having two extra families.”

Two families provide a lot of support, but they also double the demands. Morgan has to schedule her training around her primary obligation at West Point, which is her academic and military education.

Maj. Andy Caine, officer in charge of West Point Triathlon, explains why premier athlete status doesn’t buy slack from the other commitments.

“Other than practice and races, I want the cadets to be as integrated with their companies as possible. West Point strives to provide cadets with the resources to be the best athlete they can be and challenges them to the very edge of their ability, mentally and physically. This experience of overcoming adversity will serve them well a couple years from now when they have to overcome similar mental and physical adversity as leaders in combat.”

The triathletes of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis are similarly dedicated. Midshipman First Class Tyler Sharp, this year’s team captain, was training with the Navy SEALs and could not interview. He’s not the only team member to use triathlon as a training methodology. Recent graduate Ensign Derek Oskutis of Hershey, Pa., will soon put his pro triathlete career on hiatus when he begins training as a Naval explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) officer. Oskutis has held a professional card since his junior year at Annapolis. He couldn’t always make every race on the circuit, but this year he successfully qualified to compete in the 2009 ITU Under-23 (U23) World Championships held in Gold Coast, Australia, on Sept. 11-12. Having already passed the Navy’s physically triathletemag.com

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Mario Cantu

intense SCUBA course, Oskutis will be certified on the specialized closed-circuit rebreather apparatus used by special operations forces by the time he completes the two-year EOD training. He’ll also be trained in special operations tactics and disarmament of underwater mines, and know which wire to cut on the nuke. You could say he likes pressure.

There’s no end of pressure for midshipmen triathletes. Fifty-five cadets tried out last year for six positions on the team, which has limited slots due to funding. Triathlon is considered a “Club-B” sport at Annapolis, meaning it takes last priority over all other duties. That means every weekend has to be dedicated to training. According to Oskutis, only about two percent of the team are able to maintain serious relationships.

Oskutis explains the discipline involved to keep up. “Whenever I went to military training somewhere, I took my bike with me. Whenever I went home on vacation, I took my bike. Everyone on the team sacrifices their social life for this. It’s our bond with each other. If you want to be the best, you have to surround yourself with the best.” No kidding. Not wasting any time or opportunities, Oskutis declared pro status at the end of his sophomore year. He also took on the challenge of majoring in robotics engineering in the midst of all this.

Certainly, all the punishment is brought on voluntarily, but that urge to be pushed to the very edge of one’s abilities is indicative of the type of people who attend the service academies. “I don’t know what it was, but I always knew I wanted to go to Annapolis,” says Oskutis.

“I wanted to give something back to society, but I really wanted the challenge. Triathlon was just the cherry on top.”

The whole team shares that mentality, and uses it to push each member to greater success. Annapolis coach Billy Edwards never forgot the lessons he learned while competing as a midshipman, bringing them back to the team while continuing his own professional triathlon career and service as an officer in the Marine reserves. He emphasizes why the team needs to maintain intensity on all fronts. “As future officers, it is truly about endurance. I am trying to teach them that their training and endurance building will serve them as lean, mean fighting machines. It sounds corny, but if you are tired, giving orders under pressure is now a difficult task. For an endurance athlete, you 98

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are ready for the worst and can focus on the important part of being an officer: decision making.”

Decision-making skills, particularly in life and death scenarios, are key during combat situations when there’s a lot on your mind all at once.

That’s exactly what happened to Air Force Academy graduate, and founding member of its modern triathlon team, Capt. Prichard Keely in April 2008. “At that point, it got very real,” the weapons system officer said of the incident. “It was one of the most intense things I have ever experienced, knowing that those guys are getting shot at and knowing there are only a couple of things I can do to try to help them.”

Still, Keely, his pilot and the crew of the other plane kept it together and dropped ordnance on the enemy over the course of a three-hour marathon effort, contributing to a successful mission in which no Americans were killed.

For Cadet First Class Brendan Sullivan of Boston, N.Y., a family legacy of endurance in combat inspired him to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Both of his grandfathers served in World War II, one as a Marine aviator and another as a Navy corpsman who became a prisoner of war. His father served as a Marine and his brother, an Annapolis graduate and tri-team alumnus, is a Marine Corps officer. Learning from his brother’s experiences, Sullivan wasted no time in joining USAFA’s triathlon squad. Fourth Class Cadets at USAFA aren’t allowed to leave campus until completion of the first quarter, so he had to wait until October to attend his first race.

Facing the same military and academic obligations as his East Coast counterparts, Sullivan conducted his swims at 5:30 a.m., rushing to get back to his squadron by 6:30 for morning formation.

That’s an hour to knock out 2,500 meters in the pool, change and make it a half-mile back to his room. If you think that’s not cutting corners, consider this: Freshman cadets aren’t allowed to walk straight across any of the halls or open areas in the cadet area; they must go along the outside edges and conduct military facing movements at every corner. They run everywhere they go, as much out of necessity to get there on time as to obey the requirements of the fourth-class system.

While Army and Navy have different approaches to achieving greatness in collegiate competition, Air Force has an entirely differnovember 2009

ent definition of success. As the newest of the three programs, it lags behind its sister service academies in a couple of prominent ways. Army is coached by triathlon great Tony Deboom, the older brother of two-time Ironman world champion Tim DeBoom. Tony Deboom is a graduate who served as an infantry officer, with cycling support from Serotta, and Annapolis’ Bill Edwards, a level III-certified USAT coach.

Cadet Sullivan recently completed a year at West Point as part of the inter-academy exchange program, and admits that Army’s program “is a whole other level” beyond what Air Force has. Participating on the Army team, he brings back a lot of lessons that will serve his team well. He was even able to get in on its sponsorship deal with Serotta, getting a bike at reduced price, complete with custom Air Force paint job.

Being the new kid on the block is familiar territory for USAFA, the youngest of the three institutions by about 150 years. Air Force coach and OIC Lt. Col. Freddie Rodriguez is thus Air Force’s triathlon equivalent of Billy Mitchell, the famed maverick general who first advocated use of the airplane as a weapon. Rodriguez stresses the importance of triathlon to Air Force leadership as the service tries to figure out how to whip its airmen into better physical shape, a performance area in which the service dismally lags behind the others.

USAFA leadership refuses to excuse triathlon cadets from the intramural sports program, one of the few allowances given at West Point and Annapolis. This cuts the USAFA team’s training time to half that of their peers. In the tradition of Mitchell, Rodriguez is undeterred and makes up for a lack of time and resources with technology.

Holding a master’s in physiology from the University of Colorado and now serving on the USAFA faculty as a director of independent research, Rodriguez teaches the fundamental principles of training to cadets.

“I try to teach them not to just accept some new piece of equipment or training plan without researching it. If you want to train smart, you have to do the math.”

Indeed. For a recent senior thesis, Rodriguez had a cadet work through the equations to determine three-dimensional biomechanics using only two cameras on a test subject. It’s all heady stuff, but apparently the Air Force cadets are more than up to the challenge.

The team, larger than those of either West Point or Annapolis, maintains an average GPA well above 3.0. “Time is limited here, but they’ll have more time once they begin 100

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their officer careers. I may not have the time to make them the fastest athletes, but I’ll make them the smartest athletes. That will benefit them later.”

Cadet Sullivan embodies that future potential. He’s soaking up as much information from Rodriguez as possible while beginning his senior year as a civil engineering major. His passion for his school, his service and his team has also benefited the team’s future. Fellow officers constantly contact Rodriguez expressing interest in supporting the team, and support from the Olympic Training Center in nearby Colorado Springs is on the rise. Olympian Hunter Kemper has taken the time to speak to the cadets in evening seminars, and his coach occasionally provides advice. Still, it would be helpful if USAFA officials would kick in the kind of support that Army and Navy have. “Give me more time with these cadets, and I can get them to a top-five finish at nationals,” says Rodriguez.

The cadets’ future is as full of potential as their present. Cadet Morgan is looking forward to entering the Army either as an engineer or intelligence officer, and while Oskutis and Sharp are keen on jumping into future hot zones, Sullivan is looking forward to being the one getting them to the landing zone. Demonstrating that academy triathletes are just a little different from their peers, Sullivan hopes to pass on the fighter jets and bombers, opting instead for an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter or the peculiar tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey, both of which are highly specialized aircraft with few slots. The discipline and dedication fostered by triathlon will serve him well there; pilot training will obligate him to 10 years of service in the Air Force.

Asked about the possibility of facing combat, none of the soon-to-be front line leaders balk.

They all look forward to serving.

“I have a really strong desire to see what it’s like,” says Morgan. Sullivan is excited for the chance to lead. “I’m looking forward to working with an air crew to accomplish the mission. It would also be great if I could introduce my fellow officers and airmen to triathlon.” Oskutis hates to leave triathlon behind, but is more excited about what’s ahead. “When it gets right down to it, this is why we do what we do.”

With attitudes like that, the future of these teams, the service academies and the entire country is in very capable hands. To borrow from another academy graduate, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, academy triathletes don’t quit triathlon; they just go achieve bigger and better things. november 2009

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Courtesy Calgary Tourism Board

Big Sky Tri

A tough course in a city with a true sporting history made for an impressive debut for Ironman 70.3 Calgary.

Story and Photos By Jay Prasuhn

Courtesy Calgary Tourism Board

Forest for the trees: Catriona Morrison powers along in the Alberta plains en route to a third-place finish.

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Magali Tisseyre represented with the top Canadian finish, taking second.

Courtesy Calgary Tourism Board

American Tim Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donnell motors along Weaselhead National Environment Park, helping sew up his win.

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Courtesy Calgary Tourism Board

T

here are two events that happened in “With the mountains right the summer. This winter the bobsled runs will 1988 that placed the city of Calgary there and the rolling be used to train athletes for the 2009 Olympic on the global sports map. Surely hills, it’s a strongman’s Winter Games in Vancouver. you’ll recall Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, Great course. It was beautiful.”

But area visitors need not leave the downBritain’s first ever representative in ski jumping town area to get in some fun—or training. at the Calgary Olympic Winter Games. He was the lovable, coke bottle While downtown hosts the annual Calgary Stampede, one of the most glasses-wearing Brit who was adored for his fun-loving attitude despite renowned rodeos in the world, it ain’t all “howdy” and Stetson hats. his bad form and terrible results during the games, which were set at Set on the banks of the Bow River, the downtown area has one of the the foot of the Canadian Rockies. most extensive urban trail networks in North America, extending And perhaps you’ve seen the 1993 movie “Cool Runnings,” based more than 300 miles.

Yet the Western cowboy culture in plains Canada remains a focal on the Olympic experience of the Jamaican bobsled team, another lovable group known for their optimism despite several mishaps in point year-round. The reason? Prairies—beautiful, rolling farmland the bobsled event. It wasn’t exactly a brilliant debut in that sport, but that gently rolls east from the Canadian Rockies that shroud Calgary their flailing efforts endeared them to fans. from the west, with real cowboys herding grazing cattle. It also made In August, triathlon made a big debut with the Ironman 70.3 Calgary. for an undulating course that was tougher than initially predicted.

The race came off as a quick favorite for those who want something Call it “Colorado north.” special from their race: natural beauty. And while the ’88 Olympic “It’s a lot like Denver,” said men’s runner-up Ben Hoffman. “With Games are still a part of the city’s heritage, Calgary is also a cowboy the mountains right there and the rolling hills, it’s a strongman’s course. town that is much more active than one might guess.

It was beautiful.” Women’s winner Mirinda Carfrae was resolute.

Nowhere is the Olympic legacy better exemplified than at Canada “Gorgeous, gorgeous course,” she said. “It was definitely harder than Olympic Park, just 20 minutes north of downtown, where Winsport I expected, but wow … just good times.”

Canada maintains an Olympic Hall of Fame museum and hosts mountain While Mother Nature laid out the topography, it was veteran biking on the hill and zipline rides from the famed ski jump platform in Canadian pro Lisa Bentley who was largely credited with helping design 104

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november 2009

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Aussie Mirinda Carfrae backed her trademark run with a solid bike that she’ll employ at her Kona debut in October.

a tough, fair course—then chose to race on it. “It was a great chance to get first-hand knowledge of how to make this race even better,” Bentley said, “With the natural beauty here, it’s already one of the ones that makes me proud to be a Canadian.”

Australian Carfrae is accustomed to chasing from behind on the run. But a newly honed bike regime saw her take the race lead just seven miles into the bike, and she didn’t look back, with the only threat during the 56-mile bike being Canadian Magali Tisseyre.

Carfrae rode to T2 with a four-minute lead, then padded it by assembling a 1:19:45 half marathon—the third fastest of the day, even among pro men. She considered it an ideal dress rehearsal for her debut at the Ironman World Championship in October. “It felt good,” Carfrae said. “I have one more halfdistance race before Kona, but the bike and run are coming good right now.” Tisseyre held off a late charge from Scotland’s Catriona Morrison to take second.

In the men’s race, American Tim O’Donnell led wire-to-wire to claim his second 70.3 win of the year (following a spring win at Ironman 70.3 St. Croix), but it still didn’t distract him from his focus: the

London Olympics. “It’s been good doing these races to work on my run,” O’Donnell said. “If you look at the halfs I did last year, getting run down [while] getting off the bike, now I’m starting to come off the bike behind people and running them down. It translates well to short course, too.”

2009 Viterra Ironman 70.3 Calgary Aug. 2, 2009—Calgary, Alberta, Canada 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run Men 1. Tim O’Donnell (USA)

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4:02:51

3. Jamie Whyte (NZL)

4:03:58

4. Kirk Nelson (USA)

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5. James Hadley (GBR)

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Women 1. Mirinda Carfrae (AUS)

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TRAINING FEATURE OFF-SEASON PLANNING

LANE LINES

BIG RING

ON THE RUN

FUNDAMENTALS

SPEED LAB

DEAR COACH

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If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?

Quote by Joe Namath

november 2009

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109

is OK. Reward yourself for a successful season.

I like to start my end-of-season break minutes after finishing the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot in Philadelphia, as images of steaming apple pie and mountains of turkey always seem to make me run a bit faster than normal.

During your break, it is important to take a hard look at your recently completed season and ask yourself several questions—and answer them honestly.

What worked and didn’t work in your training? What were your strengths and weaknesses? And finally, what are your goals for the upcoming season? Only after you have accurately answered these questions can you begin to address the next season.

Once your mini-break is over, it is time to ease back into training—and I mean ease back. With so many months before your first event, there is no need to rush. However, it’s important to build a solid foundation in the early season (January to March). Take a cue from Lance Armstrong, who has often said that the Tour de France is won in December, not July. Use the off-season to focus on your weaker sports. I am a duathlete at heart who converted to triathlons, and that means leaving the bike alone for a few extra weeks while I focus on including a few extra sessions in the pool.

This is also a great time to try your hand at cross-training outside of the regular multisport disciplines. Cross-country skiing, inline skating and hiking are all great endurance-building activities, while yoga and Pilates can help with your core strength and flexibility—qualities we begin to lose as we get older.

Riding indooRs

Rest Up, Then Train Smart get cReative with youR off-season indooR tRaining.

By Mikael Hanson

I

f you are anything like me, the arrival of fall elicits mixed emotions. Sure, the turning of the leaves signals the much-anticipated start of the football season and the approach of another World Series. It also means the days are rapidly growing shorter and that slight edge in the morning air can only mean winter is knocking on the door, signaling the end of another racing season. Regardless of how your season ended up (good, bad or just plain ugly), one thing everyone needs at this time is good 110

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old-fashioned rest.

Many of us fail to take a brief but necessary off-season break. Depending on your own level of obsession with training, this break should be a period of one to three weeks when you do not worry about hill repeats, weekly running mileage or exotic brick workouts. Leave the triathlon toys at home and take some time to enjoy your family and friends. Go to a football game, take a drive in the country, go for a hike in the hills because some form of mild exercise

While many athletes ride almost year-round (multi-rider centers like Cadence certainly help here), come January, the bulk of us need to consider reintroducing ourselves to the twowheeled machine gathering dust in the corner.

However, as coldness and darkness reign, you might find it difficult or even impossible to ride outdoors. On the other hand, I find that many athletes dread their trainer, saying that riding indoors is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Perhaps these people suffer from a lack of imagination, as I for one relish the opportunity to ride indoors. Where else can one combine watching TV with a workout?

There are several things you can do to make riding indoors more enjoyable. First, your environment is a huge factor in how comfortable you are while riding indoors. I find that the closed confines of a New York City apartment make for some stuffy riding conditions. The first thing you should invest in (after a good indoor trainer for your bike) is november 2009

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T R A INING

a fan. Even on the coldest winter days, I crack the window a touch and aim the fan directly in my face so that I remain comfortable while generating a lot of heat. Make sure you have a towel draped over the handlebars, and if you have hardwood floors, place another one on the floor beneath your bike, as you will sweat (as you probably already know).

The next item on the list is entertainment.

Listening to music is always an option, but this only helps out one of our senses. I need more stimulation when riding at home. Why not ride while watching your favorite football or basketball team play? Or better yet, how about watching Lance win one of his Tour de France titles on DVD? My favorite source of riding entertainment is a good old James Bond flick.

Next, consider what sort of workout to do. Watching Brett Favre or James Bond will help pass the time, but you still have to think about your workout. Try adding some spice to your indoor ride while keeping in mind that you are still in the off-season by working on your technique. High-cadence drills will help improve your pedaling mechanics by making your stroke smoother and more efficient. Another drill to work on is one-legged pedaling.

This drill helps develop a more circular pedaling motion by incorporating more muscles into the pedal stroke, thus spreading out the workload and smoothing out the dead spots, 112

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up my spine. Even for lifelong runners, the boredom factor is quite high for a treadmill run, especially when compared to the alternatives. But if you think about it, what’s really so different about a treadmill and swimming laps at the pool or riding your bike indoors? Each offers little in the way of engaging scenery. So then, why do we all approach running on the treadmill with such negativity?

To beat treadmill boredom, instead of climbing on the machine with the aim of slogging out 30 minutes before succumbing to boredom, plan your workout in advance, making sure you have all of the necessary tools to assist you. Overheating is always a concern indoors so make sure you are equipped with a towel and water bottle. Then there is the entertainment aspect of the workout. Unlike riding a bike trainer, where your bike is in a fixed position, a treadmill does require a certain amount of attention to maintain your place on that moving black carpet. While following a TV show on the treadmill may prove disorienting, listening to music can be your savior.

With the ability to manipulate not only your speed but also your incline, the workout possibilities are endless. Always try to keep a modest incline on the treadmill (about 1 percent) to better simulate actual outdoor which will ultimately delay muscle fatigue and running conditions, which we all know include help increase endurance, strength and power. wind and rarely a perfectly flat road.

After you’ve completed your warmup and The treadmill workout I most enjoy is a drills it’s time for the core portion of the ride. modified ladder with changes in both speed In the off-season, intensity takes a back seat and incline. After a one-mile warmup, pick a to re-establishing a foundation and building moderate base speed to run at. At your base strength. If you are watching TV while riding, speed, run 0.25 mile at a 2-percent incline, try an over-gear interval or hill climb whenever then 0.25 mile at a 3-percent grade, then 0.25 your football team has the ball; throw in a mile at 4 percent. Next, drop the incline back 30-second standing effort for every touchdown to 1 percent and inch the speed upward by 0.1 or turnover; or do a large-gear seated climb for or 0.2 mph in the same fashion. Continue to the duration of every car chase. Just use your cycle through this progression. imagination and you will see the time fly by, Remember, while the majority of us are not and you’ll get a great workout. professional athletes, we all share a small obsession for our chosen sport and the lifestyle that Running accompanies it. A little is a good thing for indooRs One-legged pedaling helps drive Even in northern a triathlete to have, but develop a more circular ped- there are times when climates, there are many who successaling motion by incorporating it needs to be tamed. fully run outdoors Tame your obsession more muscles into the pedal this winter by resting year-round and thus never need to face stroke, thus spreading out the and training smart, so the boredom often you can enjoy a lifetime workload and smoothing out of racing success! associated with the treadmill. Coming the dead spots, which will ulfrom a cycling backMikael Hanson is the timately delay muscle fatigue director of performance ground, I admit that the thought of runand help increase endurance, for Cadence Cycling and ning on the treadmill Multisport Centers in New strength and power. used to send a chill York City. november 2009

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Designing a swim Workout

By Sara McLarty

I

t’s the middle of the week. The clock has just clicked to noon. It’s time for a lunch break, a few minutes of personal time before going back to work. What better way to use this time than to take a quick dip in the pool?

Swimming a couple of laps is the perfect way to mentally recharge, not to mention go faster at the next race.

These lunch-break minutes—an extra baby-sitting hour, laundry-in-the-dryer time, or any spare moments that just become free—are prized gems. They should be expertly shaped and polished so that every angle glitters and sparkles. They should be set in only the most beautiful and precious metals. Every minute spent in the pool should be designed to produce the maximum benefit.

A common belief among multisport athletes is that swim training is very similar to cycling and running. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As a result of this misinformation, millions of continuous laps in the pool are performed every day. Stop! Please stop!

Stop on the wall. Stop between sets. Stop on the other wall. Stop in the middle of the pool.

Stop between intervals. Just S-T-O-P! The most time-efficient way to improve swimming speed is to incorporate sets, intervals, drills and various levels of effort into your workout. A “set” is a fixed number of repetitions of a certain distance done at one time. For example: 4x100, 8x50 or 3x300. An “interval” is the period of time between one event and the next, or the amount of time given to complete a swim before starting the next one. For example: 100s on 2:00, 50s on 1:10, or 300s on 4:30. For this article, “drill” will refer 114

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to anything that is not freestyle swimming.

Pulling, kicking, technique work, other strokes and breath control fall into this category. Finally, some common terms used to designate effort levels in the water are: “race-pace,” “strong,” “cruise,” “aerobic” and “recovery.”

Swimming a well-designed workout will provide the most benefit for every precious minute in the pool. The first stage of all training sessions—and swimming is no exception—is to warm up all the muscle groups. Warmup can start on the pool deck with some light stretching and arm swings. If the water is extremely cold, dry-land warmup is very important to prevent muscles from seizing up when they are suddenly submerged. An athlete should use the first 400 to 600 yards of a typical 3,000-yard workout as warmup. These laps should be swum without looking at the pace clock or other swimmers; focus only on making slow, smooth strokes with pretty technique.

The second stage of a swim workout is focused on correcting and improving technique.

This is when most coaches will assign a drill set.

One example of a set is 8x75 yards as 25 kick/25 drill/25 swim. The purpose of a kick drill is to strengthen the legs for a more powerful freestyle kick. Some coaches will designate a specific drill to be used on the second lap. If no details are provided, the swimmer should choose a drill he knows will improve his stroke. The final 25 yards (swim) are where the swimmer tries to correctly put the kick and stroke together.

It is common that a rest interval, for example 30 seconds rest after each 75 yards, will be assigned for the second stage. This type of interval is allows each swimmer to complete

the set at her own pace. The focus is on correct technique, not speed.

A second drill or technique set might be included if that is the focus of the workout. If the focus is on improving speed or increasing power, the third stage is the main set. A main set should also have a specific goal that the swimmer tries to achieve. Descending time, holding pace, or best average are some examples of a main-set goal. The focus of the main set is to go fast and work hard. This is the part of the workout where swimmers get out of breath and turn red.

During a typical 3,000-yard workout, the main set is between 1,000 and 1,500 yards. Some examples include 4x300 swim on 6:00 (descend time 1-4); 12x100 strong swim (4 on 2:00, 4 on 1:55, 4 on 1:50); 3x150 pull/50 race-pace swim on 4:30. The main set might include pulling, swimming, kicking or a combination.

Another focus of the main set can be breathcontrol or hypoxic work. Just as hard pulling sets increase upper-body strength, hypoxic breathing sets strengthen the breathing muscles and increase lung capacity. There are a few situations an athlete might find himself in open water swimming where the ability to hold his breath is an advantage such as diving under waves or being pushed underwater by a competitor. A hypoxic swimming set looks like this: 5 x 150 swim (3/5/7 breathing pattern by 25). This means the swimmer breathes every third stroke on the first lap, every fifth stroke on the second lap, every seventh on the third lap, and then repeats the cycle to complete a 150-yard swim.

The fourth stage of swim practice is always cool-down. Cool-down can be as simple as 100 or 200 yards swum easy to lower the heart rate and stretch out the muscles. It can also be longer and purposeful, especially after an intense main set. The amount of lactic acid buildup in a swimmer’s muscles has a direct effect on the length and importance of the cool down. A simple set like 400 with fins (50 kick/50 swim) or 6x50 swim (extra long strokes) will help flush out the acid and reduce post-workout cramping.

Sara McLarty has swum for 20 years under some of the greatest swim coaches in the country. Now she’s one of the fastest swimmers in the pool, open water and triathlon and she coaches the Masters swim program at the National Training Center in Clermont, Fla. If you aren’t close enough to swim with her three mornings each week, visit NTCMasterSwim.blogspot .com where she posts every workout in three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. november 2009

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Bend Don’t Break

Choosing the right aerobars isn’t diffiCult if you follow these basiC guidelines.

By Mark Deterline

T

he three most important factors to consider when purchasing aerobars are fit, fit and fit. And the three most important factors to consider in determining the right fit are comfort, comfort and comfort.

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Newbie triathletes often believe they need to be uncomfortably low or contorted in order to get maximum aero benefit. There is a widespread notion that the back, shoulders, elbows and wrists must be positioned in an

extreme fashion for maximum aero efficiency.

Aerodynamics and biomechanics gurus like John Cobb refute this narrow way of thinking.

“Of course you want to be as low as your body and your flexibility will safely allow, and you generally want to be farther forward than on a road bike, but there is always a point of diminishing returns,” Cobb says. “The key is not sacrificing power just to look aero. Dial in your position so that you can use your whole body to accumulate power, then gradually work to make your overall shape more aerodynamically november 2009

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81mm rim shape and the third generation of our ABLC dimples. The larger axles, improved seals, and higher flanges of the all-new 88/188 hubs improve every aspect of performance without adding a gram to the sub-1500g wheelset.

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efficient. Sacrificing 10 to 20 watts of power over 40 kilometers will have a much more negative effect than any minor improvements in aerodynamics.”

Dr. John McDaniel is an exercise physiologist specializing in muscle physiology and has conducted cycling-specific research with professor Jim Martin of the University of Utah.

McDaniel points out that “the body has an inherent capacity to adapt to the biomechanical constraints associated with various body positions during cycling. However, what may be less known and researched is how taxing discomfort can be on an endurance athlete, and that pushing the limits of biomechanics may quickly undermine performance.”

Mark Vandermolen, director of product development at Profile Design, explains, “We’ve worked with athletes of all levels, refining the angles and bends of our extensions, but I tend to shy away from putting one style or bend in front of another because the individualized nature of bike fit makes it difficult to offer blanket recommendations. We’ve found that working with a fitter who recognizes the individual needs of athletes and can then get them matched up with the correct product (hopefully ours) for those needs is key.”

Steve Hed, one of the premier makers of all things lightweight and aero, is quick to point out that “aerodynamics is not even close to being the most important part of a correct fit. The same goes for weight.” According to Hed, it’s all about the subtleties. “It is easy to get a comfortable fit with wide pads and a high position with almost any bar,” he says.

“It’s the adjustments that let you fine-tune your positioning to get as aero as possible within the parameters of proper fit [that’s more important].”

Getting specific, Hed says, “There is the position of the wrists from wider to narrower; optimal twist of the wrists inward versus outward; arm cup positioning fore-aft, inwardoutward, higher-lower and angle adjustment, even arm pad choice; the right length extensions to accommodate one’s personal reach needs so that shifting is easy, etc. A good example of the collective role all of the subtleties play is in a rider’s attempt to narrow the shoulders for reduced drag: It’s not just about moving your arm cups; the bend of the extensions and the angles they’re tilted at affect how a rider gets narrower.”

Such fine-tuning would not be possible without a variety of aerobar products that allow for customization of fit to the individual rider. Says Vandermolen, “What we’ve tried to do is offer a variety of extension bends, angles, heights, etc., coupled with adjustable armrests 118

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november 2009

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MORE THAN CHEATS THE WIND

Zipp’s engineers have seen their share of breakthroughs in the wind tunnel. But even we were stunned at the VumaChrono’s test results: 9 seconds saved over 40km compared to the next-fastest aero crankset. At just

860g, it’s also the stiffest crankset we’ve ever tested, and it features a unique spider-less system to switch

seamlessly between single and double chainring

setups. So that any rider on any course can take

advantage of its groundbreaking shape and features, the VumaChrono is available in six lengths, three chainring combinations, and your choice of ceramic or Zipp’s ultra-precise steel bearings.

TJ Tollakson and Jo Lawn debuted it in Kona, and

they’ll tell you that the VumaChrono backs up its

numbers in the lab with performance on the road.

Find out for yourself. The VumaChrono is for real.

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which will allow riders (ideally with the help of a good bike fitter) to achieve and maintain a comfortable, stable, powerful aero position for the duration of their event—and be fresh enough afterward to effectively contest the run.”

extension bends I am continually impressed with how many options are out there and even how many choices individual manufacturers are offering within a given product line. HED offers an S-bend, a lazy S-bend and a J-bend. Zipp calls its bends by different names, and offers some guidance regarding which models are best suited to certain conditions: The “Chicane” bend combines aerodynamics and comfort, its straight grip straight extensions allow for improved aerodynamics and more leverage on climbs, while its ski grip provides comfort for long-distance events. John Cobb’s Wrist 120

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Relief extensions facilitate the popular, slightly downward (uncocked) wrist position while avoiding pressure and strain. Profile Design has come up with an impressive array of bars and bends, including models at very affordable prices. Profile has also made it easier for individuals who already own a bike to modify it for time trialing either temporarily or longterm. Easton offers compelling and unique designs, and 3T has jumped back in the game with a sleek product.

Oval Concepts has developed some innovative, integrated solutions that make it easy to go back and forth between aero and standard road configurations, with more in store for 2010. Additionally, Oval, Profile and Bontrager seem to be defying conventional wisdom by designing components that attach to bars via the stem clamp.

And the list of players goes on and on. For-

tunately, most manufacturers are adhering to the 22.2mm OD (outer diameter) standard so that one manufacturer’s extensions are compatible with another’s base bar-mounted clamps.

Before focusing on what appears fast, keep in mind that looks can be deceiving. “In my wind tunnel testing,” reports Cobb, “the steep (ski bend) extensions were slowest followed by straight ones. The S-bend and my Wrist Relief bars were about the same depending on where the rider’s hands were.”

Morgan Nicol, founder of Oval Concepts, clarifies that personal choice and event-specific issues continue to influence manufacturers’ development efforts and the resulting commercial selection we confront as we decide which models and systems are best for our particular needs. Ultimately, it makes for an as assortment of cool products to choose from and an interesting process. More is more. november 2009

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on T he Ru n

Training Tricks Four ways to keep your running on track—or get it back on track.

By Brian Metzler

1. give yourselF a break.

R

unning is simple. Just throw on a shirt and some shorts, lace up your kicks and head out the door. But somehow it’s never that 122

easy when you’re a triathlete. For starters, you’ve got other disciplines to consider and other workouts that might take precedence, and you have to deal with fatigue on a regular basis.

Here are a few tricks (or treats) you might be able to implement into your busy regimen.

triathletemag.com

Long runs can be a drag, even if you’re a good runner. But if you’re tired or putting in high volume on the bike or in the pool, it can

make getting through a 90-minute to two-hour jaunt a real chore and that can lead to a mental and physical downward spiral.

Seth Wealing, the 2006 XTERRA USA Champion and two-time ITU World Cup top-five finisher, typically runs no more than 105 minutes in his long runs. Although he has a college track background, he says even those runs can become burdensome.

So Wealing will often run 15 minutes, then walk at a moderate pace for a minute to november 2009

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on T he Ru n recover ever so briefly before running for 15 more minutes. Using that system, he might walk six times during a long run, but he’s refreshed when he’s finished.

“It releases everything that is built up in your hips and knees and flushes everything out,” he says. “Your heart rate doesn’t really get any lower; you just rejuvenate yourself and you can keep going. Ultimately, you don’t fade at all at the end of your run because you’re not dragging.”

2. work on your weaknesses.

Just as all triathletes have stronger and weaker disciplines, so too do they have strengths and weaknesses within each discipline. As a runner, a triathlete might be a speed freak, an endurance fiend or somewhere in between. The in-between part is ideal because it allows someone to be versatile enough to train and race at short and long distances and at all speeds. The key is figuring out which type you are by answering some simple questions: Do you really enjoy logging copious mileage or longer fartlek workouts?

Or are you more inclined to run fast for short distances such as a 5K race or 800-meter repeats on a track?

Once you’ve determined what kind of runner you are, work on your weaknesses first and then focus on your strengths, says Flagstaff, Ariz., elite running coach Greg McMillan. In other words, do what you like to do least in the early part of your training block and then focus on the thing you enjoy (and presumably do well) in the second half of your program.

But, he says, workouts that focus on your weaknesses take a greater toll on you than the ones that work your strengths. “So insert only small doses of these workouts into your plan and space them out by several days,” he says.

Later in your program, you’ll want to include heavier doses of workouts that focus on your strengths. For example, if you’re an endurance fiend, sprinkle in a few short and fast reps early on, but then be sure to load up your mileage with long runs later in your training cycle.

3. Don’t Follow convention.

It’s long been commonplace for triathletes to “run on tired legs” in training to mimic conditions in a race. That’s why we do so many bricks, where we’re running immediately following a bike workout or the day after a long ride or high-volume day. But that might not be the best approach, says Scott Fliegelman, founder and head coach of Boulder-based Fast Forward Sports, which trains hundreds of runners and triathletes every year.

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“That approach may indeed be helpful psychologically, but those athletes are shortchanging their ability to make significant improvement in their running speed, strength and endurance by doing their run workouts in a mostly unrecovered state—and that leads to an inability to run hard, steady, or long enough to challenge the body to make desired physiological adaptations,” says Fliegelman, a 10:20 Ironman finisher. “Our Ironman athletes, during their key specificity phase leading to peak conditioning, do their long swim/bike workouts on Sundays, and their long run on Wednesday evenings. Not only does this allow ample recovery between key workouts, but doing the run after a day at work mimics the time of day that most athletes will be running 26.2 on Ironman day.”

4. Don’t Destroy yourselF. Craig Alexander, the 2008 Ironman world champion, is human, just like the rest of us.

He was reminded of that on July 19 at the Vineman Ironman 70.3 in Guerneville, Calif.

Although he had a good swim, a decent bike and started the run in second place, he knew he didn’t have his A-game that day. He had a stomach bug that forced him to make several unplanned pit stops.

He could have kept hammering away at sub-six-minute pace and still probably finished in the top three. But he knew he’d be better off by backing off the intensity so as not to put himself in a big hole when his Ironman training block began two weeks later.

He slowed to 6:30-6:45 pace, completed the run leg in 1:24:07 and finished eighth overall.

“I could have finished on the podium, but who knows what state I would have been in after that and what my energy levels would have been to start my training for Kona?” he says. “We all like to do as well as we can in every race and every workout. But you just can’t tear yourself apart. Five years ago, I would have tried to battle on, and had I not won, it probably would have rocked me mentally a little bit. But these days, I’ve learned to be smarter about it.”

The moral of the story? If the Ironman world champion can back off in a race or a workout when it’s prudent, you certainly can, too. “Don’t hammer yourself just for the sake of hammering yourself at that moment,” he says. “Turn the intensity up or down based on what’s going to be most important for you. I had gone four-for-four in winning races up to that point, so going four-for-five wasn’t going to make a difference. What was really going to make a difference was my result in October.” november 2009

Matty “Boom Boom” Reed debuted his new Fuji D-6 Signature bike in style winning the Miami International Triathlon.

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easy steps for setting training Goals

By Ian Murray

“t

here is a first time for everything.” That adage applies to newbies dreaming of finishing their first triathlon as well as veterans aiming to qualify for the world championships. Follow these key steps when planning your goals for next season: Choose your event. Take into consideration where the event falls on the calendar. Some seasons are probably better suited to training, and some months might be better suited to racing.

The distances of each race should also be factored into your selection. Pick a distance for which you have time to train. Look closely at the details of the swim: ocean, river, lake, wetsuit or non-wetsuit swim? Look at the topography of the bike and run. Some bodies are built for climbing and some for flatland speed. Consider which works for you.

Plan your training. Sit down with a calendar and figure out how many weeks you have until the race. Three things can help you succeed when mapping out your training: Start from the race day and work backwards to today.

Practice step cycles, in which the first week is challenging, the next week is a little more challenging, and the third week is easy, to promote recovery. If you’re already pretty fit, practice four-week step cycles, in which the third week is the hardest.

Listen to your body. When you feel strong, go for it. When you feel fatigued, rest.

allow yourself to adaPt. When physical demands are placed on the body, it adapts. Move from sea level to Aspen, Colo., and you’ll be huffing and puffing at the top of every flight of stairs. But if you stay there for a few weeks, you’ll bound up the steps with ease because the body adapts to altitude. If you’re currently running two miles at a time and your goal race has a six-mile run at the end, work up to that mileage progressively so your body can adapt to the distance.

get sPeCifiC. Once you’ve mapped out the weeks to your race, plan each day. Include these three priorities: Take safety into consideration for every workout. Consider water quality and lifeguards during the swims; traffic, bike lanes and road shoulders for the rides; and air quality and running surface for the run workouts.

Convenience is also important.

Few of us have time to waste commuting to training locations, so plan workouts that are close to work and home.

Specificity is a critical principle of training, so be true to the event’s swim, bike and run demands. ”Look before you leap.”

That’s another old adage that applies to triathlon. Put a little time into planning your training and you will get much more out of it.

Ian Murray is an elite level USAT coach and the writer and host of a triathlon training DVD box set, which you can find at Triathlontrainingseries.com.

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Fighting Fatigue

By Tim mickleBorough, PhD I have a question on exerciseinduced hypoxemia. I read about this condition in a sports journal a couple of months ago and really don’t understand much about it.

What are the mechanisms behind it? Is it a specific disease or does an athlete somehow acquire it?

Carl Alsop Lawrence, Kan.

Dear CarL, The ability to ventilate has, traditionally, not been considered a limiting factor to exercise performance in healthy individuals. However, 40 to 50 percent of highly trained male endurance athletes exhibit exercise-induced arterial hypoxemia (EIAH), while moderately trained males do not november 2009

experience EIAH. EIAH is characterized by decreases in arterial pressure of oxygen and oxyhemoglobin saturation (saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen). The postulated mechanisms remain largely undetermined, but it has been suggested that highly trained endurance athletes have a reduced ventilatory responsiveness (drive) to hypoxia relative to the normal population. Pulmonary diffusion limitation has been commonly cited as a possible mechanism for causing EIAH. A diffusion limitation may be due to incomplete equilibration of oxygen in the lungs between alveolar gas and pulmonary capillary blood. In addition, it has been suggested that increasing age could potentiate the occurrence

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of EIAH. Changes with age in the mechanical properties of breathing mechanics or of pulmonary capacity are all possible explanations for this observation.

On the other hand, alterations in the membrane properties of red blood cells have been reported with increasing age, which could contribute to the disturbance in gas exchange in athletes.

Dear SpeeD Lab, This triathlon season I have not been able to race or even train much ever since I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome five months ago, and I have been told to rest. I have had three big seasons of racing and training and obviously it has caught up with me.

I have been doing a fair amount of reading on this condition, but I was wondering if you could tell me, in more precise terms, what really causes this condition. Is it really just too much exercise? What sort of symptoms should I look for to avoid this from happening again? What is the best way to handle this rest period?

Preston Rhodes Richmond, Va. november 2009

Dear preSton, Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is characterized by a fatigue that is disproportionate to the intensity of the effort that is undertaken, has persisted for six months or longer, and has no obvious cause.

Unless there has been a long period of athlete (patient)- or physicianimposed inactivity, objective data may show little reduction in muscle strength or peak aerobic power, but the affected individual avoids heavy exercise.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is characterized by a fatigue that is excessive relative to the level of physical activity that is attempted.

The condition shows some similarities to overtraining and is a well recognized problem among high performance athletes. CFS can and does develop in nonathletic individuals also, although there seem to be some points of difference from the syndrome as observed in elite competitors.

Postulated causes and/or precipitants of CFS include the following: primary or secondary disorder of personality, primary or secondary disorder of affect (anxiety and depression), nervous system dys-

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of avoiding setbacks in recovery by appropriate control of the level of exertion. A careful recording of the frequency and intensity of physical activity and its correlation with self-reports of symptoms is sometimes helpful in setting an appropriate exercise prescription. Repetition of the activity should be avoided if the resting heart rate increases by more than 20 beats per minute.

Despite some progress over the past five years, many major issues remain to be resolved with regard to CFS. Is it one disease, or many? In the case of the highperformance athlete, is there a clear linkage to overtraining, resulting immunosuppression and development of reactivation of infection?

Most recent articles recommend a progressive exercise regimen as part of treatment, but there is still a need to define the optimal pattern of reconditioning. For example, it has been suggested that athletes with CFS should exercise aerobically, while sustaining a pulse rate of 120 to 140 beats per minute (so they can easily conduct a conversation while exercising) for a few minutes (five to 10) each day, ideally in divided sessions, and slowly building this up over several weeks.

At present, it appears that CFS must be categorized as a syndrome rather than a clear-cut disease, defined by a symptom complex rather than clear physiological and biochemical manifestations. In the absence of a clear pathology, treatment remains unsatisfactory.

In athletes where the condition has become established, the best advice seems to be to break the vicious cycle of effort avoidance (resulting in a decline in physical condition and a deterioration of morale) by a combination of encouragement and a carefully monitored progressive return to training. Good luck with your recovery.

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function, hormonal disturbances, nutritional deficits, immunosuppression, infection, external factors (physical or emotional stress, overtraining, trauma, injury, and high-altitude training.

Fatigue is to be anticipated in athletes who are undertaking a high volume of training.

In an athletic population it is often quite difficult to distinguish between a normal level of fatigue, overtraining (an inability to perform at a previously demonstrated optimum despite a continuation of intensive training), fatigue that indicates the onset of some specific medical problem and CFS. The apparent prevalence of the disorder and its characteristics depend largely on the criteria that are adopted for diagnosis and the specialization of the examining physician. For example, if an athlete with CFS is examined by a sports physician, it seems likely that some evidence of overtraining will be reported.

In the general population, there is substantial overlap between CFS and unexplained chronic fatigue.

Other potentially overlapping conditions include fibromyalgia, Sjögren’s disease (an immunological disease) and depression.

The treatment of any CFS requires a holistic approach. Rest and regeneration strategies are central to recovery. Athletes will not rest, but fortunately their drive to exercise can be channelled to help speed their recovery. Given that many of the manifestations of CFS are associated with a cessation of training and resultant deconditioning, it seems logical to encourage the implementation of a carefully graded program of conditioning as a central component of treatment once any precipitant such as infection or injury has been resolved.

A moderate and progressive increase over current levels of exercise may help give the CFS athlete a sense of control over the condition. On the other hand, a sudden return to an excessive level of physical activity can exacerbate symptoms. Management is thus based on the principle

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de a r co a ch

can a Pregnant Triathlete race an Ironman?

By Paul Huddle and RocH FRey Dear CoaChes, I am about seven weeks pregnant and due in mid-February. Do you know anyone who has done an Ironman pregnant? I have done seven Ironman races and even went to Kona one year. I have heard you can continue training as long as you listen to your body and keep your heart rate in the aerobic zone. I will be about three months pregnant for race day in Lake Placid, but I am sure I can do this, although I may have to bike a little slower and jog or walk. However, I am sure I can make the time cutoff. So far, other than a little nausea, low energy and fatigue I seem fine, and I was able to ride 90 miles at a good pace. I just felt that 134

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form of a question: Are you crazy? But we didn’t want to be too quick to judge and, upon researching the question of pregnancy and training a little further, we’re happy we didn’t jump to conclusions.

Dear Pregnant triathlete,

I may need a little more Gu than usual. Do you have any advice?

Pregnant Triathlete

Dear reaDer, We’re initially addressing you as a reader and not as a pregnant triathlete because we know that this question will raise the ire of many of your fellow readers. Our own initial reaction wasn’t ire so much as frustration. No matter how many times we repeat the phrase “we’re not doctors” the medical questions keep coming. Most would dismiss the above question with what appears to be the obvious answer in the

As you know, we’re not OB/GYNs—we just play them in our Triathlete column. We still can’t believe people ask us questions like this—regardless of whether or not we know of others who have raced pregnant.

Our initial uneducated response is that it’s not worth the risk. Not so much because of the physical exertion, because a trained, sensible athlete (a rarity) could keep herself aerobic and properly fueled throughout the day, but why risk a bike crash and/or going through a day like this when you’re responsible for the life you’re carrying? That goes without saying, right? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps we’re being too conservative november 2009

de a r co a ch

tri.avia.com

or cautious. We consulted one of the many smarter people we know, in this case a real doctor.

We met Dr. Pete Johnson at Ironman Wisconsin last year and thought he’d be the perfect person to present with this question.

As it turns out, he did what many doctors do—ask other doctors.

Dr. Johnson said, “My first impression, as well as two maternal fetal docs I spoke with, was, ‘What the hell is she thinking?

She is so selfish; only thinking about herself; she needs to get used to being a parent, sacrificing for her child. What if everything is not perfect with the baby? She will forever blame herself.’ However, as doctors we must be evidence-based, and there is no research supporting a recommendation to refrain from a modest Ironman effort in the first trimester.

The likelihood of a bike crash leading to a miscarriage in the first trimester is small. The main authoritative body of obstetrics and gynecology, ACOG (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology), actually recommends at least one-half hour of moderate exercise daily throughout pregnancy. Granted, that’s nowhere near the 17 hours an Ironman might last.”

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But wait, it gets Better.

Dr. Johnson said, “Earlier this evening I had the privilege of speaking to the granddaddy of exercise physiology in pregnancy, James Clapp III, MD, emeritus professor of reproductive biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Dr. Clapp has researched exercise in pregnancy since the 1970s, published numerous articles on this issue, and wrote the book “Exercising Through Your Pregnancy” (Addicus Books, 2002). According to Dr. Clapp, he knows of at least two women who completed Ironman events while in the first trimester (less than 13 weeks) of pregnancy, neither with adverse effects on the pregnancy. Both women had signed up for Ironman events and began or continued training regularly when they found they were pregnant and went on to complete the event. Very athletic women often have difficulty getting pregnant, due to anovulation secondary to near anorexic states in many of them. Once pregnant, exercise actually helps the pregnancy, with fewer complications overall.

Dr. Clapp said that he recommends an ultrasound be performed at eight weeks gestation to make sure this is a viable fetus. I would recommend that another one be done shortly before (the week of) the event. If viable at eight weeks, the rate of subsequent loss,

triathletemag.com

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exercise or no exercise, is less than 5 percent.

The rate of spontaneous loss (miscarriage) in the first trimester is 35 percent, but again, if they make it to eight weeks with a normal ultrasound, this number drops considerably.

Addressing you, dear pregnant triathlete, directly, Dr. Clapp continued, “Once pregnant, continue training as you have been, but don’t push too hard, and you cannot use heart rate as a guide. Even in the first trimester, the heart rate will be elevated, even at rest.

A better guide is the rate of perceived effort (RPE), on a one to 20 scale, taking care to not exceed 14 to 16.

“When working out, you must stay well hydrated, given the expanded blood volume of pregnancy. Also, keep your core temperature less than 102 degrees F. If you feel hot, check your temperature. It may be a good idea to carry a compact digital thermometer during training and events and check periodically.

“Regarding nutrition, try to avoid ketosis, taking in plenty of carbs throughout your pregnancy. And, most importantly: This ‘pregnant Ironman’ should not be at a competitive race pace; it should be done at training pace.”

Wow. We’re glad we asked because that wasn’t the answer we were expecting. Regardless what anyone thinks about a woman doing an endurance event while in her first trimester of pregnancy, the evidence doesn’t support what we thought was the obvious answer.

Thanks for making us think and providing an outlet for information that isn’t as available as we thought it might be.

Thank you to Drs. Pete Johnson and James Clapp for their contributions.

Train on, The Coaches Paul Huddle and Roch Frey are not winners of the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, but they’ve trained with and coached many of them. They have lived the sport of triathlon on every level for the past 30 years and use this extensive background to assist others with their goals. Based in Encinitas, Calif., Paul and Roch are partners in Multisports. com, an endurance coaching service that includes camps, online coaching and personal coaching. Never resting on their considerable laurels, both continue to explore strange new worlds (adventure racing), seek out new life (ultra-running) and new civilizations (paddleboarding and stand-up paddling), and to boldly go where few men have gone before (The Underpants Run). If you want to consider coaching that emphasizes experience, common sense and simplicity, go to Multisports.com. If you have a question that begs for ridicule and sarcasm, please send it to info@multisports.com. november 2009

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nu t r i t ion Q&A

By PiP Taylor

Q:

I was thinking about going to a liquid pre-race meal given that I have had stomach issues, mostly due to pre-race nerves.

I try to calm down, but it doesn’t work. This makes it hard for me to test pre-race meals in training, as everything works in training.

So, do you think a liquid meal would digest better?

Jose Fuentes Via e-mail

A:

Race-day nerves can play havoc with your digestive system; those butterflies can feel like they are alive, leaving no room for that much needed pre-race meal.

Skipping out on that meal, though, is not an option, so the goal is to find something that is easily and readily digestible, will sit well even on a nervous stomach and fuel you for the race ahead.

In terms of the pre-race meal and the consideration of solids versus liquids, it really comes down to what you prefer and are comfortable with. In regard to energy for fueling you through the race, your muscles will not know the difference. The benefit of something solid is that it is satisfying—your brain and stomach both perceive they have had more of a meal and so you are less likely to feel hungry. However, many athletes are more comfortable with a liquid meal as this is easier to get down, especially when you’re nervous, and it can also help meet hydration requirements. Liquid meals are also convenient, and most can even be packed for travel to a race away from home.

Liquid meals will empty from the gut faster than solid meals, which means that they could also be consumed a little closer to the start time. Whether you are going for solids or liquids, make sure they are low in fat and high in carbohydrate but also contain a little protein. Not only will this add to the available energy and keep you satisfied, it will also slow gastric emptying slightly, meaning a greater 140

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sustained release of energy. Steer clear of high-fiber foods, opt for bland over exciting and be sure to adequately hydrate, especially if you have chosen a solid meal.

The amount of carbohydrates and calories you consume should depend partly on what and how much you will consume during the race itself. Aim for about 1.5-4 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight (or about 100-250g total). As for timing, four hours to 90 minutes before race time is the best window.

The earlier you eat, the more likely it is that pre-race nerves have not quite kicked in yet, making it easier to eat. The size of your pre-race meal also depends on timing; the earlier you are able to eat, the larger a pre-race meal you will tolerate. If you choose to sleep in a little more and are eating only 1.5 to 2 hours before the gun, then eat (or drink) a smaller meal and also be prepared to take in more fuel during the race. If you are racing Ironman distance, I would recommend some solid foods, both in your pre-race meal and during the race. You are going to need a lot of fuel, and if you try to rely on liquids alone, you are likely to fall into the boredom trap and stop eating and drinking altogether.

Personally, I like to have a combination of solid and liquid calories as part of my pre-race meal, which I have 2.5 hours before a half-Ironman and 3 to 3.5 hours before an Olympic-distance race. My menu generally consists of two or three slices of toast (or an English muffin) and jam and a 24-oz. bottle of Accelerade, which contains some protein. I follow this up with two AccelGels an hour before the start.

Other good options include cereal with a banana, oatmeal and sports bars.

Both solids and liquids can deliver all of the energy you need. If you are suffering from race-day anxiety, then a liquid meal or sports drink may be an option to deliver energy as well as hydration conveniently. However, if your race-day anxiety becomes overwhelming, then getting adequate nutrition is not your only concern.

5 Ways to Calm your Nerves There’s a fine line between having butterflies in your stomach and hurling into a trashcan five minutes before the start. Here are some tips to keep you calm, cool and collected before the gun goes off: 1. musiC: These days, MP3 players are the size of your thumb and can easily be stashed away in your transition bag prior to heading down to the start or handed off to a family member. Put together a list of songs that are uplifting—but not too mellow or too death metal (which will either leave you sleepy or so amped up that you punch the person next to you in the water). Music also drowns out the nervous chatter of other racers. Nothing brings on the butterflies quicker than listening to someone next to you at the bike rack ranting about some rumor they heard about the course or, worse yet, critiquing something about your own personal race preparation. Turn on, tune in—and drop their ass on the course.

2. relieve yourself: In a short, very nonscientific poll around our office about calming pre-race ner ves, “bowel movement” came in as the top choice. Porta-potties are hardly ideal—but take what you can get. Knowing that you’ve checked this off the list makes you feel as if the hardest part of the battle is already won.

3. Breathe deeply: Take slow, deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. When you’re really nervous, you’re also really tense, which means you’re wasting valuable energy that you will need during the race. Breathing deeply can help relax your muscles, and also brings oxygen to your brain (duh), which can help you slow your heart rate and keep your thoughts focused.

4. Warm up: Sometimes the best way to get calm is to get busy. Head out of the transition area and take a short (five to 10 minutes) jog to clear your head. Focus on your leg turnover and breathing, and just stay in the moment.

5. avoid high-stress areas: These include any area where you know there are a lot of other racers congregating, and feeding off one another’s nervous energy. Areas like the swim start, the transition area and the porta-potty line should be avoided as much as possible. Set up your transition area early, go to the bathroom and scope out the swim course as quickly as you can—then go find a quiet place, listen to music and breathe deeply until it’s time to walk down to the water.

november 2009

Oliver Baker

Battling a nervous Stomach with Liquids or Solids

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It delivers the same powerful levels of performance-boosting citrates, ornithine alpha-ketaglutarate (OKG) and branched-chain amino acids for those sensitive to the effects of caffeine.

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e at > br e a k t h r oug h s anyone For a spin and some spanakopita?

While Greece isn’t exactly pumping out any triathlon champions yet, it seems to have a leg up on the international competition when it comes to brain-healthy diets.

A recent study by The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that adherence to both physical activity and a Mediterranean-type diet are associated with lower Alzheimer disease (AD) risk.

According to our own “tri doc” Jeff Sankoff, MD, the causes of AD are still largely unknown but are thought to be partially genetic and are the result of the brain’s diminished capacity to heal itself from oxidative stress and neurotoxin exposure, which wear down brain neurons and eventually lead to loss of short- and long-term memory.

While the link between exercise and the delayed onset and slower progression of AD is well-documented, this recent study suggests that exercise and a Mediterranean diet may have additive effects in controlling and preventing the disease. “The Mediterranean diet specifically is known to contain large amounts of antioxidant vitamins and fats as well as important components required for neuron health and maintenance, which can be found in olive and fish oils,” Sankoff said.

So strap on those running shoes and don’t forget the post-workout pita!

did you know?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, between 1980 and 2006 the amount of bottled water consumed per capita in U.S. households increased tenfold.

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Try This!

avocado Hummus

This twist on regular hummus—a Mediterranean diet staple—is so creamy and delicious (and packed with healthy fats), that you may just eat it with a spoon and lose the pita altogether. We won’t tell.

1 can chickpeas (drained)

5 tablespoons tahini 1 avocado 3 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of one lemon (or more to taste)

directions

4 or 5 cloves of garlic

3/4 cup water

salt/pepper to taste

Peel and cut avocado, removing the pit. Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Serve with warm pita wedges.

news flasH| creatine: not Just for muscle Heads anymore Creatine, a naturally occurring nitrogenous organic acid that is found in the skeletal muscle of vertebrates and supplies energy to muscles, is most commonly seen in the kitchen cabinets of die-hard iron pumpers—not skinny-minnie cyclists. But a recent study conducted at the University of Oklahoma and published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found evidence that creatine supplementation can enhance aerobic performance. Forty-two college-age men were separated into three groups. One group received creatine supplementation and engaged in high-intensity interval training, while a second group did the same workouts but took a placebo instead of creatine and a third group took nothing and did nothing. Over six weeks, the group taking creatine saw a critical power increase of 6.7 percent, while the group training and taking a placebo saw a 3.87 percent increase and the non-exercising group saw a 6.27 percent decrease. So don’t be surprised if you see a guy in a chamois standing in line at MuscleMax sometime soon.

november 2009

Ge t l e a ner , Go f a s ter

Kristi shepherd thrives with Hard Work, Discipline, sacrifice

BY MATT FITZGERALD

“I

live for training,” says 32-year-old triathlete Kristi Shepherd. “I get up at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning to train. It takes a lot of discipline, but I have to be at work by 8:00, so it’s what I have to do.” In all, Shepherd fits in 15 to 18 hours of training per week around her work as a children’s speech pathologist in Miami.

Shepherd does most of her training with fellow members of the huge Team Hammerheads triathlon club. She’s not the fastest person on the team, but she holds her own, and nobody has more fun. “Everybody wants to get faster, but the reality for me is that I just want to go out there to have a good time and enjoy the races as opposed to trying to win anything.”

A golfer in her youth who got into running before doing her first triathlon in 2005, Shepherd says that what she loves most about the sport is “the healthy environment, the

healthy lifestyle and being around people who love to do what you love to do.”

Part of that healthy lifestyle is a healthy diet. “Before I work out I usually have toast and some chicken or turkey,” she says. “After I work out I have some cereal and Endurox R4. For a snack I have a little peanut butter and some crackers or something and usually chicken and veggies or chicken and rice or all three for lunch, and something similar for dinner.”

Shepherd’s healthy eating habits and consistent training have been rewarded with a significant body transformation since she got involved in the sport. “My body fat is way down,” she says. “My weight has stayed the same, but I’m a lot leaner.”

Shepherd admits it is not always easy to maintain such a clean diet. “In Miami we have a lot of Cuban food and it’s very fat and unhealthy,” she says. “So it’s very

easy to have an unhealthy lifestyle here. It’s hard to resist. I have problems resisting it sometimes too.”

This is not to say that Shepherd does not allow herself to enjoy some treats. “My thing is cookies,” she confesses. “I eat a cookie every day, or every other day. I feel I train hard enough to deserve a cookie.” And so do we!

Dave Scott’S tip The more consistent you are with your eating, the easier it will be to maintain your racing weight. Research has shown that leaner individuals tend to eat the same on the weekends as during the week and the same during the holidays as the rest of the year.

Dave Scott is a six-time winner of the Hawaii Ironman World Championship

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The Legend

Multiple Kona Ironman World Championships â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both mens and womens.

Numerous victories in every Ironman race in the world. Countless stages and overall victories in The Tour De France, The Giro and The Vuelta. National TT championships (in18 countries), TT World Championships, Track World Championships and The Olympics.

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november 2009

PROJECT BIKE TECH SUPPORT TRIATHLETE’S GARAGE PRO BIKE TRI’D AND TESTED

150 154 158 160 162

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Pr o jec t b ik e

culture clash

BY JAY PRASUHN • PHOTOS BY JOHN SEGESTA/JOHNSEGESTA.COM

A

fter a decade of field study, input from Harvard professors, a global survey and a NASA theorem application, we at Triathlete have determined that there exists a dichotomy of two different types of athlete at races: the overstated and the understated.

The overstated has a “look at me” persona, and building bikes as bright and blinged out as possible is the rule. If Swarovski crystals weren’t so aero-disruptive, we’d certainly see rides that would look right at home in Vegas.

The understated loathe the stylings of the overstated. As an almost 150

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defiant show of contrary exhibition, the understated athlete wants to be as muted and stealth as possible. His inspiration is the U.S. Air Force’s Stealth Bomber.

Whether at a sprint or Ironman, we see this dichotomy in transition areas around the world. So we figured it would be interesting to juxtapose the two different types of bikes, building bikes in that spirit to the nth degree with readily-available parts, creating what we affectionately call “Grillz” in the 2010 Specialized Transition, and in the murdered-out Felt DA, the “187 Special.” november 2009

Pr o jec t b ik e

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Pr o jec t b ik e

Specialized TranSiTion, concepT painT

cockpiT: Profile Design Volna in White; WheelS: Bontrager Aeolus 9.0 clincher TireS: Vittoria Rubino Pro clincher 700 x 23mm, white with white sidewalls Groupset: SRAM Red 10-speed groupset with R2C Shifters caSSeTTe: Sampson Stratics SL CNC Gold, 11-21 chain: KMC X10SL-TI Saddle: Fiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;zi:k Antares aero hydraTion: Beaker Concepts HydroTail H.5 cage: Zipp Speed Cage

FelT da

cockpiT: Devox aerobar, custom all black WheelS: Zipp ZedTech TireS: Continental Competition tubular 700 x 22mm groupSeT: Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 caSSeTTe: SRAM Red, 11-23 Saddle: Cobb Cycling V-Flow Saddle aero hydraTion: X-Lab Carbon Wing cageS: X-Lab Gorilla Carbon Fiber 152

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november 2009

t e ch support

everything You Wanted to Know About Ball Bearings

By Ian Buchanan Since the August “Tech Support” on bearings was published, I’ve been asked some good follow-up questions about choosing bearings and bearing ratings.

Q: A:

I’m not that technical. What is the most important thing to focus on when choosing a replacement bearing?

Look for quality and reputation before material and ratings. Just being ceramic, like just being carbon fiber, does not always make something better.

You get what you pay for. A high-quality steel bearing made with top-quality materials, grain structure and race polishing will perform better than a basic ceramic bearing, even if the ceramic is rated higher. If a company like Ceramic Speed, the arguable inventors of ceramic bearings for bicycles, or Zipp, likely the earliest to offer ceramic options from the factory, is selling a high-quality bearing for a certain price, you are not going to find that same quality bearing for significantly less money.

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Even if two bearings are rated the same on paper, if one bearing costs less, you can bet that the lower-priced manufacturer cut costs in the quality and refinement of the materials.

These are things you can’t see or feel by looking at or spinning a bearing in your hand, but they are significant in determining how well a bearing works and lasts when it is actually being ridden under load.

Q: A:

Why do some companies list both an ABEC rating and a millionths-of-aninch grade rating?

In the August article, I misstated that ABEC rates both ball and race tolerances and that millionths-of-an-inch grade primarily applies to loose ball bearings. Radial run out in ABEC ratings does not refer to the roundness

of the balls; it is actually a measurement of the consistency of the roundness of the groove in the race in which the balls roll. ABEC standards apply only to race symmetry and tolerances and do not consider the roundness of the balls.

Grade, on the other hand, refers to ball roundness in either a loose or cartridge bearing and does not consider the race tolerances.

Companies list both the ABEC (race tolerances) rating and grade (ball roundness) because both ratings are important reflections of the tolerances in the bearing system as a whole.

Q: A:

Why are some steel bearings more expensive than some ceramic bearings of a higher grade?

Bearing grade is not what matters most.

Bearing grade is universal across materials, so one Grade 10, regardless of whether the balls are ceramic or steel, has exactly the same tolerances/roundness as another Grade 10.

True bearing quality and performance come down to the grain structure, polish and refinement of the materials used in the fabrication. You can have very round bearings and races, but if they do not offer appropriate material integrity and finish for each other, they will not work ideally november 2009

REDEFININGÊ HUMANLYÊ POSSIBLE

Nathan products help you achieve your goals, no matter how impossible they may seem.

For many athletes, hydration belts weren’t a comfortable or productive choice for a hydration system. Until now. Nathan’s Speed 3R hydration belt features streamlined molded holsters for quick, one-handed access to its three 8 oz. Flasks, a canted waist that allows the belt to sit low on the hips without riding up, and a light and strong Velcro-fastened Titanium Belt that dissipates heat and reduces chafing. And with Nathan’s one-of-a-kind Race Cap, which has a high-flow, one-way valve that offers a quick burst of gel or fluid without intense squeezing or sucking, access to fluids has never been this intuitive. Nathan’s Speed 3R proves that just like its triathletes, even the best can get better.

Nathan Performance Gear is available at specialty running and triathlete shops as well as sporting goods stores or at www.NathanSports.com.

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t e ch support together. For example, before maABEC standards apply reputation imagine you had two terial and ratings when only to race symmetry choosing replacement bearing systems with identical tolerances or considering and tolerances and do not bearings (grade and ABEC an upgrade. consider the roundness of ratings) and identical ceramic balls, but My bearings the balls. Grade refers to are worn out. one had races made ball roundness in either a Should I upgrade to of Silly Putty and the other steel. When they loose or cartridge bearing ceramic bearings? are unweighted and On wheels, and does not consider the the answer is properly lubricated, both bearings might “maybe.” High-quality race tolerances. spin well in your ceramic bearings with hand, but what haptight-tolerance hubs pens when you apply weight? The Silly (DT, Zipp) is a great combination. However, Putty races deform, bind and grind to a if you have high-precision hubs and want to halt immediately, while the steel still spins. keep bearing costs under $100 per cartridge, Now, let’s take this same concept of consider buying the very best quality steel harder balls and softer races and apply it to cartridge bearing you can from a reputable common ceramic hybrid bearing construc- manufacturer, as it will likely work better tion. If ultra-hard Grade 5 ceramic balls are than a lower-quality ceramic. If your wheels placed in super-hard, fine-grained ABEC do not have high-precision hubs, consider 5 steel races with proper lubrication, they saving yourself some money and going with will resist binding, pitting and deformation the best grade and quality steel bearings and will roll smoothly and fast together you can get. Less aligned hub shells actually for a long time. However, if you take these require more bearing play to roll smoothly same Grade 5 ceramic balls and place them in the long term and a high-quality Grade into ABEC 5 steel races that are not as fine 10-25 steel bearing will not only save money, grained and highly polished (softer), the but might also work better and last longer substantially harder ceramic balls may wear than a tighter-tolerance ceramic that may the races much more quickly. The race will not be aligned in the hub shell as well as its pit and the softer race may even crack under tolerances require. impact loading (actual riding). The same Partly because they use bigger bearings thing can happen in full-ceramic or full-steel than hubs, just about all bottom brackets construction. In fact, some manufacturers benefit from high-grade steel or ceramic will not even use a full-ceramic cartridge bearing upgrades. Shimano, FSA and SRAM bearing at this time as they have not found cranks (among others) have a fair amount of a ceramic cartridge whose races are strong seal and bearing friction that is noticeably enough to meet their standards. reduced with a high-quality bearing upgrade In addition to making sure the balls and in ceramic (Ceramic Speed, FSA) or steel the races are polished and hard enough to (Chris King, Hawk Racing). Because bottom wear well together, the quality and tolerances brackets use bigger bearings than hubs, the of the seal design, the volume of grease in the tolerances and manufacturing precision bearing and its formula, and the purity and don’t need to be as precise to gain the same cleanliness of the assembly process matter. performance.

Keep in mind that the easiest way to save Note that no matter how high quality money when building bearings is to spend the bearings, if they are not mounted flush, less time refining the materials and assembly, they are going to be held back and could wear just as with carbon fiber construction. prematurely. Very few frames come from the If you are choosing between a $25 Grade factory with well-faced bottom bracket shells, 10/ABEC 5 steel bearing offered by a manu- so make sure the shell is faced by a good facturer known for high-quality engineer- technician before installation. ing, materials and attention to detail, and a $20 Grade 5/ABEC 5 ceramic hybrid from Ian Buchanan is co-owner of Fit Werx, which offers a supplier who sources bearings from an cycling and triathlon products, specialty bicycle fitting unknown factory based in a country that and analysis services, consultation and technology may not recognize ABEC standards, the steel research. Contact Fit Werx in Waitsfield, Vt., at 802bearing will likely offer higher performance. 496-7570, in Peabody, Mass., at 978-532-7348 or As stated previously, look at quality and at Fitwerx.com.

Q:

A:

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Visualize the motion of air...

2010 Jamis T-Series Flow Visualization Testing San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel , November 2008 Photo: John Segesta - wahoomedia.com

...and then dominate it.

Xenith T1

Xenith T

Xenith T2

It’s not too much to say our Xenith T-Series frame rewrote the standard for production tri machines. The first time we hung this baby up in T1, the other guys went scrambling. Full NACA aero profiles throughout, a chainstay-mounted rear brake and that full-carbon WindShield® fork with its fully enclosed front brake that delivers a 10% drag reduction over a standard aero fork, told them we meant business. They’re still struggling to catch up.

For 2010, we employed flow-visualization testing at the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel to refine our Xenith T-Series frames. Utilizing a technique dubbed “french chalk”, which is typically used in the

aerospace industry, our product development team was able to tune and optimize airflow not only over and near the surface of the frame (like most typical wind tunnel flow visualization techniques), but ON the surface of the frame as well, totally driving development of the new 2010 Xenith-T series design.

It’s not hard to visualize. Every Jamis T-series bike is built for one thing only: Getting you to T2 faster, and with fresher legs, than the competition. Now dominate! www.jamisbikes.com

TrIaThleTe’s GaraGe

T

here is something intrinsically alluring about German engineering. Consider the BMW motorcycle, the inner workings of Sinn watches and Mercedes Benz Motorworks. The care that goes into a hand-stitched Adidas soccer shoe. All these brands have built their names on unhurried attention to detail. In the bike realm, one can add the Focus Izalco Chrono—a German brand that applies the same basics of staid German mechanical precision— to the mix. It’s so very simplistic, so very… well, German. It is without hesitation that we predict the Chrono will be a quiet surprise on our side of The Pond among those who understand that to the wind, simple design is better.

The Focus Izalco Chrono, complete with Zipp 808 clinchers, a 3T cockpit and a SRAM Red groupset, retails at $8,300.

Focus Izalco Chrono

By Jay Prasuhn

While Focus is a staple brand in Europe, the Izalco Chrono is gaining North American traction thanks to new U.S. distribution. Of course, having German engineer Andy Walser involved in the design doesn’t hurt. Walser (who built his name in cycling a few years ago by making handfuls of self-branded bikes for top-name pro cyclists including Jan Ullrich) was contracted by Focus to produce a bike that has volume marketability and utility for its UCI ProTour team, Milram.

The 2009 Chrono is beautifully spec’d with Zipp 808 clinchers and a 3T front end including the Ventus Team aerobar and Funda Pro fork.

While a Walser-designed product, the Chrono maintains industry standards, including a standard SRAM Red ceramic external BB. It has a standard brake placement, making for easy adjustments and set-up.

No, the Chrono does not port cables in through the front of the top tube, which is a fan favorite of late. But I was most impressed with the rear derailleur cable port-out—an internal run exits cleanly at the chainstay/ seatstay junction, making for a smoother radius to the rear derailleur (and thus smoother cable pull and shifting action) than most designs out there.

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november 2009

Triathlete’s Garage But what really catches the eye are the razor-sharp edges. The Chrono has some of the narrowest yet stiffest carbon-fiber tubesets we’ve come across in quite some time. Using unidirectional fibers throughout the wet-look gloss painted frame, the trailing tubeset edges come easily to the sharpest point in the industry. Hearkening to the simple principles of aerodynamics, Walser goes narrow: clean entry, clean exit.The top tube/seat tube area, a Walser hallmark with no cinching bolts exposed, has a sharp terminus behind the wafer-thin seat post.

The Chrono will be a favorite of those who believe the aero creed: Simple is better. What sets this Walser-designed product apart from his earlier iterations comes in the geometry, which is thankfully not another tri-adapted road TT bike. In fact, Focus offers the Chrono in two models: the tri-focused AMP version with its 76.4-degree seat angle, and the time trial-oriented TT with a 74.3-degree seat angle. Complemented by a 72.3-degree head angle, a zero-offset seat clamp on the aero carbon post and a very short head tube and not-too-long top tube makes this a very aggressive tri bike that’s not terribly long in the cockpit.

If you’re a front-of-the-packer with Kona aspirations and are familiar with riding in a low drop, this is one we highly recommend—it’s a serious weapon.

One major difference when compared to direct competitors is the use on the Chrono of a replaceable vertical derailleur. With a tire gap of just 2mm with a 23mm Continental GP3000 clincher mounted, some of us (myself included) will prefer the convenience that comes with replaceable vertical dropouts.

Our fully-to-spec test ride was presented with a red, yellow and black tag, proudly stating “Made in Germany”—a rarity in an age of Asian production for nearly every major brand.

The ride itself? The Chrono is certainly not for the uninitiated, the comfort-conscious (it’s stiffness can be taxing on long rides) or those who ride out of the aerobars. It’s not meant for riding; it’s meant for drilling. I was able to get as low, tight and aggressive as I liked without fudging my fit, which is half the battle. Stiff, unyielding, serious and as halting as the German language, the Chrono was a

scythe. Despite the narrow tubesets (which typically result in a flexible ride, even in the aerobars), the Chrono was shockingly light and stiff. Whatever lay-up process the Chrono undergoes during its production will certainly be studied by Focus’ competitors. If a guy as big and powerful as former T-Mobile pro cyclistturned-triathlete Kai Hundertmarck can tear off a 4:32 bike time at the Quelle Challenge Roth this summer aboard the Chrono, it was certainly stiff enough for a 160-pound age grouper like me. Steering, descending, climbing, all executed with confidence thanks to a stiff, balanced platform.

The Chrono is a serious new contender to the high-end tri bike realm; the Felt DA, the Cervelo P3 or P4, the Cannondale Slice, Argon 18’s E114 and the Specialized Shiv have company. If you’re a front-of-the-packer with Kona aspirations and are familiar with riding in a low drop, this is one we highly recommend—it’s a serious weapon. Perhaps it takes up a few grams of drag by using standard brake placement and basic internal cable runs, but its stiffness and position promise to make up for it.

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159

pro bik e Headset Cane Creek ZS3, 1 1/8”

saddle Fi’zi:k Vitesse Tri, k:ium rails

tires Vittoria Corsa EVO-CX, 650c x 19mm tubulars

seat Post 3T LTD, 31.6 diameter

Frame Felt ZW1, 43 cm (petite)

Hydration Zipp Speed Cages

aerobar 3T Team road drop, 40cm width c/c; 3T Team stem, 120mm; 3T Team clip-on

Fork Felt 1.2 UHC, 1 1/8” carbon steerer

GrouPset SRAM Red 10-speed, 11-21 cassette

Crankset SRAM Red, 52-36, 165mm crankarms

WHeels Zipp ZedTech 202 ceramic bearing wheelset

Photos by Rich Cruse

Pedals Shimano Dura-Ace

emma Snowsill’s Felt ZW1

By Jay Prasuhn

W

hen you’re sponsoring one of the most successful athletes in ITU World Cup history and the reigning Olympic gold medalist, companies such as Felt Racing don’t cut corners. Historically, few companies invest in carbon-fiber tooling for a tiny 650c bike. Not so with Felt’s ZW1, which offers a true race pedigree rig for short-coursers and smaller riders that has the same level of carbon-fiber engineering for light weight and stiffness as more commonly seen and sold on centerpiece tri bikes.

As a fast, diminutive rider looking for pack riding stability and the climbing punch that ITU racing dictates, Snowsill gets what she needs—and not an iota more.

That means a light, women-specific bike with frame stiffness to attack short climbs, but with smaller diameter tubesets for greater compliance. The small frame triangles ensure the frame will be plenty stiff, eliminating the need for overbuilding of materials (and overweighing of the frame) at torque junctions, Zipp ZedTech 650c wheels complete the package, blending 160

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light weight with a touch of aero.

Italy’s 3T provides the clip-on aerobars (hidden from view by the brake levers) and a carbon seat post; the alloy post head comprises a counteracting push/ pull clamp, allowing for microadjusting of the saddle’s tilt.

Using Fizik’s Vitesse Tri saddle, which sports an aft kick-up, Snowsill’s position on the bike doesn’t vary much—back and upright enough to steer and handle in the pack, yet forward enough to grab her shorty aerobars and jam at the front of the group. She likes to lay out long (evidenced by her long 120mm stem) but not terribly low (evidenced by about 6cm of spacer under her stem).

As the company does with its centerpiece athletes, Felt put Snowsill aboard its smallest model, a 43cm frame, with a custom paint job, turning the ensign and Southern Cross constellation in the Australian flag pink, and completing it with a nice name badge, beset by a line of half-circle Olympic rings) at the back of her top tube. november 2009

Win the Ultimate Training Run!

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T rI ’ d a nd T e s T e d Unique silicone neck gripper to keep water out.

Core control panel to stabilize the swimmer’s torso and encourage proper swim technique.

A patented Yamamoto Biorubber Mark III fabric with hydrogen-bonded surface to reduce hydrodynamic drag.

.3mm thick skin with a water retention of just .5 percent.

The TYR Sayonara is a premium product, which merits premium pricing: $375 for the full-leg sleeveless version as tested, and TYR has a short john sleeveless at $299. As long as you’re not doing any FINA pool events, you’re golden. For more information, visit Tyr.com/sayonara.

Tested: TYr sayonara swimskin

By Jay Prasuhn

I

n an industry full of similar-looking products, TYR brings to the market a new swim skin complete with new technology and—not surprisingly—speed.

I love open-water swimming. I accept that I won’t get the good threshold training, or the great form that clean water in lane lines will present. I don’t care. I like seeing garibaldi in the distance, stingrays fluttering off the seafloor.

I’ve gotten over the gnar-gnar feeling of swimming through a kelp forest or sea grasses, and while I still get that tingle of wondering what that dark mass is off to my left, I remember that I am a few steps off the top rung in the 162

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food chain so I’m OK with it. Open-water swimming makes swimming fun for me, and the waters off Southern California are fairly tropical, up to 75 degrees F in the summer.

No need for a wetsuit, but still a bit chilly for just swim trunks.

I opted to test the TYR Sayonara at the Solana Beach Triathlon, a North County San Diego mainstay sprint event. Why not just wear a wetsuit? Lots of people did.

Well, with luck, it was the same weekend that a big south swell came rolling in.

And that’s always my hope: big surf. While the better pool swimmers typically slay me

when it’s a calm swim, I tend to have a better day when I can skitter with greater aplomb through the big surf.

Where does TYR’s new Sayonara fall in with all of this? Well, first a bit of recent history: The swim skin category is a growing one since Blue Seventy debuted one of the first ones at the Hawaii Ironman a couple of years ago. Since then, swim skins have been credited with faster swims in Ironman as well as Olympic-level long-distance open water swim events.

Like any swim skin, the goal of the Sayonara is not to provide buoyancy or warmth like a wetsuit. The skin doesn’t have neoprene for that november 2009

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T rI ’ d a nd T e s T e d effect. But what it does have is the namesake “skin,” over which water flows with much less hydrodynamic resistance than regular ol’ human skin, with its wrinkles and hair follicles fooling up hydrodynamic flow.

Unique materials and new design features are what set the Sayonara apart.

The Sayonara is the first skin to use Yamamoto BRS III fabric. That means that the outside layer of the suit has a limestone-based micro-honeycomb structure, which forms a ball bearing effect on water molecules for increased water repellency when compared to standard Yamamoto coating. TYR claims a hydrodynamic drag coefficient of .021, a decrease of 34 percent over the existing Yamamoto fabric on the market.

The suit has a middle layer with a flexible titanium alloy, which TYR says contours the swimmer’s shape for reduced muscle fatigue.

It’s all backed by a single-knit stretch with a water absorption rate of 0.5 percent.

The backing will keep the suit from getting heavy with water, but that’s a moot point, thanks to other advances. For me, the ankle terminus was very tight, mainly because I pulled the suit up to my calves so I could pull the rest of the suit well up into the hips and crotch. It was

almost uncomfortable, but my muscles became accustomed to the snug bite at the calf.

At the top, particularly the neck, which is a big area of water flushing in any wetsuit or skin, TYR uniquely used a new silicone neck gripper, which kept the suit in one place and prevented water from flushing.

The rest of the suit is about hydrodynamics, with flatlock seams and as much BRS III as possible. TYR introduces zoned ventilation (the red chevron down the thighs and under the lats on the back) to help avoid overheating. They also provide a bit of extra flexibility, beyond what an already flexy BRS III rubber provides.

TYR also introduces another new technology: the core control panel. Effectively a layer of rubber printed inside the suit, the rubber is purported to help stabilize the swimmer’s core. Crafty, since this is key in open-water swimming. But does it work? We’ll get to that.

During my test the water was warm enough to warrant a skin instead of a wetsuit. The decreased buoyancy of the skin meant easier diving under the big waves.

And so went my swim. It was only 300 meters, but it was one of my best swims of the year; I was able to submerge in the big surf

with ease as the more than 100 35- to 39-yearolds in my age group who got battered by the surf. Warm enough, flexy enough, and slick enough, I experienced a swim much greater than I expected.

Back to that core control panel. This rubbery section over the core is supposed to help stabilize the swimmer’s core for better body position and body roll for optimal stroke efficiency. That’s a big promise, but it delivers.

The stiffness in that one section serves as a constant reminder, as you’re breathing, to keep tight and roll. Once settled in to a good stroke after the surf, I could actually feel the section across my belly, and it did help serve as a reminder to roll well. You have to experience it to see that it does deliver on its intended purpose. It just does so the same way someone might tap you on the shoulder.

I swam on a guy’s feet until I realized when he stood up that we were already beached. Wow, already there. End result? Fifth out of the water.

I ended up seventh my in age group, and will wholeheartedly and unabashedly credit the majority of my top 10 to that swim. Usually it’s a bunch of top swimmers saying arrivaderci to me as I reach T1. This time, I was the one saying, well … sayonara.

Train Harder.

Race Faster.

Recover Quicker.

W I T H

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C O M P R E S S I O N

quicker recovery • more oxygen • more energy • reduced blister formation enhanced blood circulation • improved metabolisation of lactic acid “While racing in CEP SportSocks I noticed that my legs felt sharp the entire run. Whenever I asked my legs for quicker turnover they were able to respond.

Also, something that may go overlooked is your recovery after a triathlon. I noticed a faster recovery after racing with my CEP compression socks.”

–ANDY POTTS World Champion Triathlete cepsportswear.com 164

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nesses.” This saying holds a lot of truth for me.

For swimmers I take that to mean hitting the swim hard and trying to hold your position on the bike and run. If you adhere to this philosophy as you train and get stronger, you will continue to exit the water in the front but start to hold off your competitors deeper into each race.

For cyclists, racing toward your strengths means making up time lost on the swim and then trying to put as big a gap between you and the others by T2. A bonus for cyclists is that you are able to take advantage of the biggest leg of the race. Using that to your advantage is a great weapon to have, and it’s optimal for success.

And for you runners out there, this means minimizing your losses on the swim and the bike so that you can keep the gaps manageable for your blazing run. The less time you give up on the swim and the bike, the faster you can close those gaps on the run. If you keep your running strength, you’ll never have to worry about being caught from behind.

We all have a discipline that we do better than the other two; if you aren’t out splitting your opposition heavily on your leg then maybe the key to success is being the most comfortable during your specialty. To race toward your strengths you need to have that go-to leg. Plus, we all gravitate toward what we like and do best; it is human nature. With that in mind, you know that when you are working on your strength, you are improving as a triathlete.

There is no need to fight that urge to do what you like best.

Another way to look at it is to walk away from each race experience with something positive. If you have a strength that you can exploit during a race then you can build upon your positive experiI started this sport known as a swimmer. ences right away. That adds to your confidence.

That put me in a unique position to be a player The best foundation for continued success is to in every race that I entered, at least until we add all of your good race experiences together. reached the bike. Had I let my swim training go When things get tough in your next race, you by the wayside, then I would have struggled to have something to look back on so you can tell influence each and every race. Instead of letting yourself that you’ll be OK because you have my swimming go and focusing on biking and experienced this scenario before. running, I did the opposite. I tried to bring By adopting the goal of bringing up your my cycling and running up to the level of my weaker disciplines to the level of your strongest swimming. In each competition, I was able to one you’ll have that go-to strength in a race. hold on a little bit longer until finally I started I’ve never understood the mentality of forgowinning races. I had some early success because ing your strength to work on something else. of my swimming, but I To find real improvehad continued success you need to make If you have a strength ment, because I raised the your weaknesses your that you can exploit dur- strengths while at the level of my riding and running. time keeping your ing a race then you can same You’ve heard the strengths. That way you build upon your positive improve the whole packsaying, “Race to your strengths and train to age and take your game experiences right away. eliminate your weakto a new level.

Keep Your Strength; You’re Going to need It

By Andy Potts

I

always find it funny when people suggest that I take some time off from my swimming so I can ride or run more. That would take my strength away and leave me with being pretty good at all three disciplines. Bottom line is that I don’t think like that. If I swim at a world-class level, then the challenge is to bring the other disciplines up to that level so that my whole game improves. We all have a go-to strength in triathlon. As you improve and look toward bettering yourself, there is no need to let your strength suffer. You should have the mentality of bringing everything up to the level of your best discipline.

Letting your strength in triathlon diminish while you take time to improve another discipline is a philosophy I cannot subscribe to.

Triathlon is not a zero-sum game; you do not have to sacrifice one sport to benefit another.

I know through personal experience that it is possible to improve your weaknesses while keeping your strength.

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John Segesta/johnsegesta.com

Up f ron t

t Ick e t pu nc h If an athlete is too anxious and restless the night before an event, then sex may be a comforting distraction.

the night Before the Big Day Samantha mcGlone

I

t’s that time of year again—the Hawaii Ironman is just around the corner. By now all the training has been done, nutrition plans have been nailed down and taper programs are carefully charted. All that is left to do is rest up and wait for the big day. One of the better pieces of advice I have received over the years is this: “There is nothing you can do in the last 10 days that will make you faster, but there is a whole lot of stuff that will make you slower.”

One of the rarely addressed but often pondered questions has to do with pre-competition sex. Will it make you slower? Or faster? The myths abound, but what does science have to say about a little action before the big dance?

For years, football coaches, Olympic athletes and even Muhammad Ali have advocated abstinence the night before an athletic event.

Marty Liquori, once ranked as the world’s top 1,500 and 5,000-meter runner, believed that “Sex makes you happy, and happy people don’t run a 3:47 mile.” Marv Levy, head coach of the Buffalo Bills, insisted that the team be separated from their wives before competing in Super Bowls, but his policy was less 168

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than successful—four losses in four Super Bowls. On the other hand, there are plenty of anecdotal stories of athletes who claim to have benefited from sex the night before an event. More than a few Olympic gold medalists have attributed their success in part to their intimate “pre-race preparation.”

The longstanding myth that athletes should practice abstinence before important competitions may stem from the theory that sexual frustration leads to increased aggression and drive. Actually, sex can alter performance through either physiological or psychological factors. Of the physiological studies performed on the topic (there are not many), each suggested that sex the night before competition does not alter physiological testing results. In all of the research, strength, endurance and VO2 max were not adversely affected by sex the previous night.

So it might be easy to conclude that sexual activity the night before a competition would not affect performance. However, each of the above-mentioned studies focused on the physiological effects of pre-competition sex, which

would only be expected to decrease performance if the activity led to exhaustion. Considering that normal sexual intercourse expends only about 50 calories, the energy equivalent of walking up two flights of stairs, it is doubtful that sex the night before would affect laboratory physiological performance tests. In other words, one might as well skip the warm-up if the only concern is energy expenditure.

But the traditional wisdom claims that sex saps aggression, a psychological component of competition that is difficult to measure.

According to the Inverted-U hypothesis, used commonly in sport psychology, there is an optimal level of alertness/arousal before a competition, and being overly anxious or not alert enough will cause a poor performance.

Nerves or pre-competition jitters are often seen as a negative thing; in fact, they are a sign that an athlete is rested, excited and ready to compete. The top pros get nervous before a big race—many claim that if they don’t feel nervous, they aren’t psyched up and therefore won’t perform well. However, overanxiety can be detrimental to performance if it’s manifested in wasted energy and mental stress. This is where a little pre-race distraction can be helpful.

Since most Ironman competitors have been juggling large training volumes with jobs and family for many months in preparation for the race, they suddenly find themselves with a lot of extra time during race week. Some choose to tune out with movies, massages and extra naps . If an athlete is too anxious and restless the night before an event, then sex may be a comforting distraction. If an athlete is already relaxed or has little interest in sex the night before a big competition, then a good night’s sleep might be the best strategy.

As with almost everything triathlon-related, results will vary between individuals. There is no right or wrong answer. Needless to say, the night before an important race is not a good time for drastic changes in routine; consistency is the key, so stick with whatever you are used to. But rest assured that there are no special reserves of energy or adrenaline that can be sapped by a little pre-race action. As legendary New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel once put it, “Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It’s staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in.” november 2009

Hay in the Barn

By Melanie McQuaid

J

ust around the corner lies the biggest race of the 2009 XTERRA season—the Maui World Championships. Right now the “experts” are handicapping the field and choosing their favorites while the underdogs are quietly preparing to announce their arrival. There is no race on the off-road calendar that offers a better field of athletes, a more unpredictable course and more glory than this Hawaiian gem. This is why we all work so hard to arrive at peak fitness for this event.

Peak fitness is a slippery business. Producing your best performance at your most important event is “peaking.” Peak fitness requires a certain amount of loading through specific training, followed by a period of unloading called a “taper,” which helps you to arrive at the start line fit, rested and ready to perform.

The planning and preparation required for a major peak can usually only be accomplished once or twice in a season.

The XTERRA calendar released at the beginning of the 2009 season was not conducive to any kind of peak. The XTERRA Cup schedule called for eight races in 12 weeks. It was important to score well in five of those races early in the year and then do well at Utah Nationals, which was the last mandatory points race for the overall series. Utah was scheduled four weeks before Maui. If you wanted to peak for Maui, it would be difficult to also peak for Utah. You can certainly be fast at both races, but one would have to be prioritized above the other.

Racing a very long season is tricky. In order to race as well as possible for the U.S. Cup, I 170

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started the season somewhat “underdone” and still found that by the last July race in the XTERRA Cup before nationals I was overtravelled and a little off. I found some good fitness early in the season, beginning with the season opener in May, but it did not last all the way through July. Lack of training due to hectic travel and a lot of racing meant that by the time I completed my last race going into the break before nationals, I was feeling tired, less fit and injured. It is basically impossible to peak for that long.

The approach to training for a series is different than that for a single-day event. It is to be expected that with a demanding schedule with many races on consecutive weekends you would experience a level of detraining. Too much racing, with the taper required to race well, will eventually cause you to lose your peak fitness after three or four consecutive weeks. In XTERRA races, mountain biking and downhill running cause a lot of tissue damage in the legs, which takes time to repair. This adds another challenge to racing well over a long period of time. If you get any significant injury, you will struggle, as even a short layoff will make it difficult to get back to great form.

Participating in back-to-back weekends of XTERRA racing is not impossible, but consecutive races would likely result in residual fatigue.

The peaking strategy for most athletes vying for spots in the overall XTERRA U.S. Cup series was to hope to find good fitness early, hope the course conditions would suit their strengths and put together six fantastic races.

XTERRA is a unique discipline of triathlon in this regard, as the overall U.S. Cup series is a true series. Most other disciplines of nondrafting triathlon encourage cameo appearances and one-off performances, as there is no true

incentive for a consistent performer to race as often as we must.

The World Championships on Maui is another story. This is a one-day, winner-take-all affair. But it comes at the end of a racing season that has lasted eight to 11 months for many athletes, which is a long time to perform at a high level, and this year’s schedule had some athletes participating in more than double the number of events than in the past. Given these circumstances, there can be some unexpectedly bad performances on race day and some out-of-nowhere excellent ones.

If residual fatigue is lingering, both mental and physical, a great performance at the World Championships is impossible. One-day events like the Olympics and the World Championships reward those who are prepared and on their game. This year everyone racing the XTERRA tour has had a solid break to go home, train hard and put all the “hay in the barn” necessary to peak at the end of October.

Who is going to best handle the challenge of a tough early XTERRA Cup Schedule and a very late World Championships event?

Building to a peak takes careful planning, discipline and hard work. Even then you can make a mistake and become unraveled on race day. I have experienced both good and bad days at Worlds. Without exception, the good days are the result of some good work done more than two months in advance of the race. Luckily, preparation for nationals in Utah is also good preparation for a strong peak in Hawaii. Making sure you don’t overdo the preparation is the challenge.

When you are truly at your peak, you are especially susceptible to illness and injury.

Peaking is like sitting on a balanced teetertotter. On one side sits an amazing feeling and fitness; on the other side lie illness, injury and complete burnout. If you upset the balance, you will tip off the end and find that you are off on your big day.

Emotions run high the week of your big event. Mental strength is a key asset when you are fighting pressure both internally and externally, when most of your goals for this season are on the line. You can only hope that before you flew to Hawaii, you did enough work to get you the results you were looking for. Then again, you have to also hope that it wasn’t too much.

At the end of the day, no one can forget that fate and Mother Nature always hold a trump card at this event on Maui. The instances where the favorite or the leader fall victim to mechanics or disaster have been many. So plan carefully and come prepared, and then hope that it will be your lucky day! november 2009

Nils Nilsen/n2fotoservices.com

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E ndur A ncE c onspir A c y

A Little Acknowledgment Goes a Long Way

By TimFitSoulFitBody_HalfPageHorizAd_triathlete_FINAL.pdf DeBoom

1

7/29/09

2:26 PM

simple wave, a little nod or a nice quick, “How are you doing today?” Personally, I have always been partial to “Howdy.” All are nice, easy acknowledgments that exercisers share with each other on the road or trail.

I am a quiet guy by nature—not one to start conversations with the checkout dude at Whole Foods. However, I always try to acknowledge others when I’m working out. It seems like every day I read about a cyclist being killed on the road or someone dropping dead from a previously unknown heart condition while out for a run. This stuff brings perspective. I have learned to appreciate what I do—day in and day out. The way I look at it, I want to share my excitement and appreciation with others who are out seeking their own inspiration.

It was not always this clear to me. Growing up in Iowa, where I launched my triathlon career, I did not encounter too many who were enjoying running and riding. With the growth of endurance sports over the past decade, it is probably different there now (at least I hope so!).

But in Boulder, Colo., my hometown for the past 15 years, I can’t step foot outside without seeing 10 cyclists heading out for their morning ride and a mom running with a double-baby off-road stroller.

C

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CM

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Don Karle

A

E ndur Anc E c onspir A c y So what nurtured this desire to share my common interests? Motorcycles, naturally. I took the basic rider class to get my license.

After we had all completed the course, the instructor looked at us and told us the No. 1 rule of riding a motorcycle: Always give a wave to a passing motorcycle. Whether the rider is on a Harley, Ninja, dirt bike or cruiser, you always wave. No excuses.

I listened and shrugged it off. I was sure that not every motorcycle out there was going to give me a wave. The big Hell’s Angel guy with his “old lady” on the back of his hog was surely not going to throw a wave to me rolling past on my Ducati.

I was wrong. Every time I stepped over my bike and went out for a ride, I inevitably came across another rider, and sure enough, they dropped a hand to the side and said “hello.”

It was nice to feel like part of something out there.

Even though I still like riding my motorcycle—you all know that I am an endurance junkie at heart—I love to be outside running, cycling, swimming or doing whatever else the day brings. And what a pleasant surprise it was to find that I can enjoy sharing this passion with others, too. To that point, I have even recently

november 2009

noticed that I get a little irritated with people who can’t even acknowledge others with a little wave. How hard is it, really? I have even reached the point where I have encountered several “non-wavers” in a row. In frustration, I decide to stop acknowledging others altogether. Of course, the next person I come across gives a happy wave and even a “Great day, huh?” My faith is restored, and so too are my waving, nodding and “howdys.”

I do have a bone to pick with a couple groups in the Boulder area that always seem to be too cool to associate with anyone else out there. Maybe by my mentioning them here, word will get back to them, and they may reconsider their exercise etiquette.

The first group is the University of Colorado men’s runners—definitely in their own seemingly superior world every time I come across them. I’ve even been mocked by them for wearing a water belt because no “true” runner needs water on a run, right?

The second bunch that always appears to have their noses in the air are many of the elite or pro cyclists who share the canyons with us lowly triathletes and recreational riders. There are many pro cyclists out there who are quite friendly, but the “non-wavers” definitely out-

number them and are almost always in full team kit and pretending to look effortless. Down the road, maybe they will realize that it is a privilege to be out there pushing themselves, and they may even gain some appreciation for those of us who share the road.

I really don’t know why it bothers me so much, but I do know that I’m not alone in my need for just a little common courtesy.

An incident on a recent long run caused me to redouble my efforts to enjoy the company on the trails. I was near the end of a run and just cresting a steep hill. I was breathing pretty hard and passed a couple of guys coming the other way. I know that my eyes looked right at them, but they were covered by my Oakleys. I also know that in my head I said, “Hey,” but I don’t think it was audible. The lead guy had said “Mornin’,” and did not hear my response. The next thing I heard in a sarcastic tone was a loud, “Great! How are you doing?” I almost turned around to apologize, but that would have meant coming up that hill again.

Maybe when we buy new running shoes or a bike, the salesmen should be required to tell the customer the rule of the road: Always give a wave.

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a t t he r a c e s “The volunteers were amazing!”

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Reed, Haskins Roll THRougH Windy CiTy

More than 9,000 athletes rolled through Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive during the bike leg.

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Paul Phillips/Competitive Image

Sarah Haskins posted the secondfastest bike split of the day en route to the win.

With a win in Chicago, Reed now has the overall lead in the race to the Toyota Cup.

november 2009

a t t he r a c e s

“Plenty of porta-potties!”

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Water temperatures in the mid-50s and plenty of chop made the swim in Monroe Harbor a rough one.

10.03.2010 • Centennial Park • Ellicott City MD

A 70 MILE FIGHT FOR YOUNG ADULT CANCER SUPPORT SWIM 0.9 MILES

BIKE 56.0 MILES

WHY 70?

Each year an estimated 70,000 young adults, ages 15-40, are diagnosed with cancer. Cancer

This isn't your ordinary triathlon. The Half Full Triathlon is a 70-mile fight for young adult cancer support. We are making a statement about cancer and we need your help. We chose the distance of 70 miles versus the renowned 70.3 mile distance for this race for one important reason.

Benefiting:

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RUN 13.1 MILES

is the leading cause of death in this age group. Five year survival rates have not increased since 1975.

This is unacceptable. We will change it. Despite these challenges, our vision for the future is half full.

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Sponsored by:

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a t t he r a c es “Super challenging, but fun!”

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ChiCago TriaThlon Chicago, Ill. – Aug. 30, 2009 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run

Up-and-comer Matt Chrabot used a 33:30 10K run to finish second.

Women

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Sarah Haskins (USA)

20:28

1:01:41

36:45

1:59:48

2. Sarah Groff (USA)

20:28

1:03:01

36:07

2:00:23

3. Becky Lavelle (USA)

21:08

1:01:36

39:12

2:02:45

4. Rebeccah Wassner (USA)

21:48

1:04:36

36:55

2:04:11

5. Jenna Shoemaker (USA)

21:50

1:05:48

39:00

2:07:31

men

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Matt Reed (USA)

19:29

54:52

33:16

1:48:27

2. Matt Chrabot (USA)

19:25

55:42

33:30

1:49:24

3. Tim O’Donnell (USA)

19:26

56:43

32:59

1:49:58

4. David Thompson (USA)

20:14

55:35

33:51

1:50:34

5. Mark Fretta (USA)*

-

-

-

1:51:19

*Split times were not available

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Racing is competition and healthy competition builds character.

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T.J. Tollakson put in a stellar 2:13:03 bike split but faded to ninth place on the run.

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PoTTs, WellingTon RePeaT aT TimbeRman 70.3

Potts entered T2 more than three minutes behind Andersson but had no problem chasing down the Swede on the run.

november 2009

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Margie Ritchie From: Doctor and Cancer Survivor To: National Champion in the 50-54 Age Group (with a 10k run split of 39 min!)

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a t t he r a c es “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Wellington’s 2:19:59 bike split easily outpaced the rest of the women and even put her at T2 in front of a handful of pro men.

BAD-10-07-10543.Triathlete

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Even the devil was on hand to watch Wellington destroy the field.

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a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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ironman 70.3 Timberman Gilford, new Hampshire – Aug. 23, 2009

Wellington conceded almost four minutes to Catriona Morrison on the run but still maintained a comfortable gap all the way to the finish.

186

triathletemag.com

Women

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Chrissie Wellington (GBR)

27:22

2:19:59

1:24:36

4:15:11

2. Catriona Morrison (GBR)

27:50

2:25:43

1:20:25

4:17:07

3. Magali Tisseyre (CAN)

27:19

2:24:07

1:29:29

4:23:54

4. Dede Griesbauer (USA)

25:13

2:28:15

1:35:13

4:31:53

5. Kate Major (AUS)

28:32

2:35:22

1:31:27

4:38:15

men

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Andy Potts (USA)

22:23

2:10:04

1:16:20

3:51:19

2. Alberto Casadei (ITA)

23:26

2:14:19

1:18:24

3:58:52

3. Cigano Massimo (ITA)

27:53

2:09:13

1:19:53

3:59:32

4. Michael Lovato (USA)

26:11

2:11:00

1:21:45

4:01:29

5. Chris Legh (AUS)

27:14

2:12:45

1:19:10

4:01:53

november 2009

Robert murphy/robertmurphy.com

1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run

a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

bRoWnlee dominaTes again, sPiRig sPRinTs To Win in london

London was the site of race number five of the Dextro Energy ITU World Championship Series. Athletes were treated to a preview of the 2012 Olympic Games course.

188

triathletemag.com

Delly Carr/triathlon.org

After a few failed breakaways on the bike leg, all the contenders entered T2 in a tight pack, which played right into Alistair Brownlee’s hand.

november 2009

a t t he r a c es “Super challenging, but fun!”

DIGITAL EDITION NOW AVAILABLE

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O

ur digital edition is an exact replica of the print edition of Triathlete magazine, delivered to your computer by e-mail. It looks just like the print edition and contains the identical training information, gear reviews, race reporting, news and nutrition tips as the mailed copy. But the digital edition offers several advantages that print doesn’t: Links to all of the Web sites (URLs) and E-mail addresses Download: Save a local version directly to your computer for off-line viewing Tools that allow you to zoom, print or e-mail pages to a friend Find anything in the magazine by typing a search phrase View all available archived issues for this magazine Environmental friendly: No trees are cut and no fuel is wasted to deliver this edition

PREVIEW OUR SAMPLE DIGITAL EDITION TODAY triathlete-digital.com

Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig outkicked Swede Lisa Norden for the women’s title.

ISM ADAMO SADDLES

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190

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Delly Carr/triathlon.org

“I love riding my ISM Adamo Road saddle. Since I made the switch I have no more numbness and alot more comfort. Thanks to ISM, I’m riding better than ever.”

ANDY POTTS november 2009

but fun!”

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efore you sign up? atings & Reviews!

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Rated 5 times

With the win on his home turf Brownlee made it almost impossible for anyone to catch him in the ITU World Championship Series point standings.

Dextro energy ItU WorlD ChampIonshIp serIes lonDon London, England – Aug. 15, 2009 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run WomEn

Swim

Bike

Run

1. Nicola Spirig (SUI)

20:12

59:59

32:59 1:54:24

Total

2. Lisa Norden (SWE)

19:50

1:00:24 33:00 1:54:26

3. Helen Jenkins (GBR)

19:35

1:00:38 33:01 1:54:29

4. Elizabeth May (LUX)

20:24

59:48

33:09 1:54:38

5. Anja Dittmer (GER)

20:27

59:47

33:27 1:54:55

mEn

Swim

Bike

Run

1. Alistair Brownlee (GBR) 18:04

53:52

28:43 1:41:50

2. Steffen Justus (GER)

18:38

53:15

28:54 1:41:58

3. Kris Gemmell (NZL)

18:40

53:16

29:04 1:42:01

4. Sebastian Rank (GER)

18:48

53:08

29:01 1:42:01

5. Laurent Vidal (FRA)

18:12

53:43

29:12 1:42:16

november 2009

Total

triathletemag.com

191

a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

fRodeno and noRden CaPTuRe milesTone Wins in yokoHama

Race day temperatures reached 104 degrees F with 100 percent humidity.

192

triathletemag.com

Delly Carr/triathlon.org

After three secondplace finishes in a row, Norden finally took home the win.

Japan’s Kiyomi Niwata settled for sixth place in her home country’s race.

november 2009

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a t t he r a c es

“That water was COLD!” Wouldn’t it be nice to read about a race before you sign up?

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Delly Carr/triathlon.org

Laurent Vidal of France rushes out of T2 in the hopes of catching Javier Gomez.

Jan Frodeno pulled away in the run to capture his first win of the season.

Dextro energy ItU WorlD ChampIonshIp yokohama Yokohama, Japan – August 22, 2009 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run

194

triathletemag.com

WomEn

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Lisa Norden (SWE)

18:21

1:01:06

35:07

1:55:55

2. Andrea Hewitt (NZL)

18:16

1:01:08

35:14

1:56:00

3. Juri Ide (JPN)

18:15

1:01:12

35:14

1:56:03

4. Liz Blatchford (GBR)

17:50

1:01:36

35:31

1:56:22

5. Annabel Luxford (AUS)

17:48

1:01:35

35:40

156:30

mEn

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Jan Frodeno (GER)

16:33

55:42

31:02

1:44:31

2. Kris Gemmell (NZL)

16:42

56:18

30:37

1:44:49

3. Javier Gomez (ESP)

16:35

56:26

30:36

1:44:51

4. Laurent Vidal (FRA)

16:37

56:19

30:53

1:45:04

5. Bevan Docherty (NZL)

16:31

56:26

31:27

1:45:39

november 2009

a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

ZyemTsev, kRafT Take iT Home aT iRonman louisville

Nina Kraft traded the lead with Japan’s Maki Nishiuchi for much of the 112 miles.

196

triathletemag.com

Viktor Zyemtsev eventually pulled ahead of Luke McKenzie for the win.

Larry Rosa

Racers cross the finish line at Louisville’s famous Fourth Street Live.

november 2009

7∙ 18∙ 2010

REGISTRATION OPENS NOVEMBER 1, 12:01 AM www.NYCTRI.com

a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

This was Kraft’s first Ironman victory since 2007.

ForD ironman loUisville Louisville, Kentucky – Aug. 30, 2009

McKenzie settled for second place after staying with Zyemtsev for much of the run.

198

triathletemag.com

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Nina Kraft (GER)

52:56

5:14:29

3:07:32

9:20:21

2. Lisbeth Kristensen (DEN)

56:41

5:02:24

3:19:29

9:23:57

3. Kim Loeffler (USA)

1:10:24 5:16:36

3:05:07

9:38:23

4. Kate Pallardy (USA)

1:02:38 5:25:18

3:21:36

9:56:45

5. Fernanda Keller (BRA)

59:56

5:31:53

3:21:14

10:00:22

men

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Viktor Zyemtsev (UKR)

52:59

4:43:59

2:43:48

8:25:27

2. Luke McKenzie (AUS)

48:36

4:41:10

2:51:37

8:26:01

3. Raynard Tissink (RSA)

53:00

4:43:42

2:57:36

8:39:09

4. Swen Sundberg (GER)

53:05

4:43:47

3:02:21

8:43:36

5. Miximilian Longree (GER)

1:02:33 4:49:55

2:48:50

8:46:31

november 2009

Larry Rosa

2.6-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run Women

a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

oeinCk and CHRaboT dominaTe THe 2009 usaT eliTe naTionals

200

triathletemag.com

mario Cantu

The bike course took age groupers and elite athletes through the streets of Tuscaloosa, Ala.

november 2009

MAY 30, 2010 LOTTERY OPENS DECEMBER 1, 2009

30

Celebrating

Years

1980-2010

You may also qualify for the 2010 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon through one of our Escape to Alcatraz Triathlon Series Events! Visit the Official Event Website for more details:

WWW.ESCAPEFROMALCATRAZTRIATHLON.COM

a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

202

triathletemag.com

mario Cantu

The athletes faced extremely warm water and high temperatures during the Olympic-distance race.

november 2009

a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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204

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Rated 8 times

Jasmine Oeinck overtook the lead during the bike and held down Jenna Shoemaker on the run for the win.

mario Cantu

Matt Chrabot ran down the competition to win by more than 30 seconds.

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november 2009

a t t he r a c es “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

2009 UsaT age groUp naTionals Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Aug. 22, 2009 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run AGe GRouP Women

Swim Bike

Run

Total

eLITe Women

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Kaitlin Shiver (Satellite Beach, Fla.) 24:52 1:04:33 36:39 2:08:13 1. Jasmine Oeinck (Boulder, Colo.) 23:40 1:02:10 35:14 2:02:49 2. Lindsay Woodward (Gainsville, Fla.) 23:38 1:05:50 38:54 2:10:19 2. Jenna Shoemaker (Boulder, Colo.) 22:27 1:03:38 35:47 2:03:17 3. Cathy Yndestad (Apple Valley, Minn.) 27:24 1:02:50 41:10 2:13:39 3. Hayley Peirsol (Tustin, Calif.) 20:06 1:05:54 36:48 2:04:29 4. Alicia Parr (Durham, N.C.)

31:17 1:00:31 39:48 2:14:00 4. Margaret Shapiro (Herndon,Va.) 24:04 1:01:54 37:41 2:05:17

5. Bethany Handley (Oklahoma City, 25:24 1:07:41 39:04 2:14:14 5. Jennifer Spieldenner (Findlay, Ohio) Okla.)

Total

eLITe men

21:35 1:04:25 38:31 2:06:06

AGe GRouP men

Swim Bike

Run

1. Joe Maloy (Brighton, Mass.)

22:44 57:54

34:48 1:57:23 1. Matt Chrabot (Virginia Beach, Va.)

19:34 57:33

29:49 1:48:14

2. Sean Jefferson (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.)

26:37 58:12

30:59 1:57:35 2. Tim O’Donnell (Boulder, Colo.)

19:38 57:53

29:54 1:48:48

3. Devon Palmer (St. Paul, Minn.)

26:51 53:40

36:01 1:58:43 3. Matt Reed (Boulder, Colo.) 20:00 57:30

30:37 1:49:26

4. Parker Roth (Spartanburg, S.C.)

26:58 54:24

35:59 1:59:25 4. Mark Fretta (Portland, Ore.) 19:48 57:39

31:09 1:50:01

5. Mark Harms (Madison, Wisc.)

25:39 57:10

34:48 1:59:32 5. Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.) 19:36 57:55

31:40 1:50:32

Bike

Run

Total

i m /tr r wi an m fo e S Pl e g .co r F in it ch a ain Vis oa c Tr im sw tri w. ww

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november 2009

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205

a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

RaPP Takes His fiRsT Win, maCel HeR THiRd aT iRonman Canada

The athletes nervously wait for the start at Okanagan Lake Beach.

sUbarU ironman CanaDa Penticon, B.C., Canada – Aug. 30, 2009

Jordan Rapp’s blazing 4:34:47 bike split helped secure him his first Ironman title.

206

triathletemag.com

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Tereza Macel (CAN)

51:11

4:58:13

3:17:52

9:11:20

2. Belinda Granger (AUS)

53:18

5:12:19

3:31:41

9:40:48

3. Janelle Morrison (CAN)

1:05:24 5:21:58

3:17:49

9:48:54

4. Haley Cooper (USA)

1:01:12 5:22:07

3:26:58

9:53:35

5. Tara Norton (CAN)

57:23

5:14:15

3:43:46

9:59:42

men

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Jordan Rapp (USA)

51:20

4:34:47

2:55:32

8:25:13

2. Mike Aigroz (SWI)

48:40

4:47:22

3:01:00

8:40:17

3. Courtney Ogden (AUS)

50:43

4:49:50

3:00:20

8:44:37

4. Jasper Blake (CAN)

53:09

4:55:24

2:56:49

8:48:29

5. Wolfgang Guembel (CAN) 48:28

4:55:43

3:00:59

8:50:27

november 2009

Larry Rosa

2.6-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run Women

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a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

Sean Walkinshaw/brightroom.com

gambles, lavelle Run THeiR Way To lake sTevens TiTles

Super-swimmer John Flanagan was the first man out of the water, but he lost his lead early to Gambles once on the bike.

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Triathlete is not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, damaged, illegible or postage-due mail.

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november 2009

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a t t he r a c e s “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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Rated 8 times

ironman 70.3 lake sTevens Lake Stevens, Washington – August 16, 2009

Australia’s Joe Gambles posted the fastest bike and run splits of the day on his way to claiming the Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens title.

210

triathletemag.com

Women

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Becky Lavelle (USA)

25:58

2:35:35

1:24:29

4:28:16

2. Heather Wurtele (CAN)

28:11

2:32:56

1:25:39

4:29:24

3. Michellie Jones (AUS)

28:02

2:36:10

1:24:37

4:31:07

4. Melanie McQuaid (CAN)

30:10

2:35:34

1:28:29

4:36:19

5. Samantha Warriner (NZL)

27:16

2:37:29

1:32:31

4:39:23

men

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Joe Gambles (AUS)

25:36

2:14:22

1:14:39

3:56:36

2. Jeffrey Symonds (CAN)

25:02

2:21:47

1:14:49

4:03:46

3. Justin Park (USA)

25:32

2:22:39

1:16:56

4:07:26

4. Eric Limkemann (USA)

23:54

2:24:55

1:18:56

4:09:48

5. Jamie Whyte (NZL)

25:40

2:21:23

1:22:13

4:11:26

november 2009

Sean Walkinshaw/brightroom.com

1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run

a t t he r a c es “Watch out for the climb at mile 12!”

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vanHoenaCkeR Wins anTWeRP

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Rated 8 times

kienle dominaTes Weisbaden

marC herrremans ClassiC ironman 70.3 anTWerp

sparkassen-FinanzgrUppe ironman 70.3 germany

Antwerp, Belgium - August 2, 2009

Weisbaden, Germany – August 16, 2009

1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run

1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run

Women

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

Women

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

1. Sofie Goos (BEL)

24:32

2:16:08

1:25:40

4:08:06

1. Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) 31:24 2:30:01 1:26:16 4:42:46

2. Belinda Granger (AUS)

24:31

2:15:43

1:25:56

4:08:24

2. Tiina Boman (FIN)

27:53 2:45:10 1:28:20 4:44:47

3. Delphine Pelletier (FRA)

22:27

2:18:56

1:26:10

4:09:46

3. Eva Janssen (NED)*

28:59 2:45:50 1:29:58 4:47:40

4. Lucie Zelenkova (CZE)

21:18

2:22:06

1:29:27

4:14:52

4. Andrea Steinbecher (GER) 27:05 2:50:37 1:28:29 4:49:27

5. Emma-Kate Lidbury (GBR) 23:09

2:20:54

1:30:03

4:16:14

5. Wenke Kujala (GER)

29:44 2:43:19 1:35:31 4:51:56

men

Bike

Run

Total

men

Swim

1. Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) 21:23

2:01:10

1:17:14

3:41:45

1. Sebastian Kienle (GER)

27:01 2:17:56 1:16:22 4:04:34

2. Paul Matthews (AUS)

21:13

2:07:40

1:14:43

3:45:21

2. Michael Raelert (GER)

23:41 2:24:45 1:14:00 4:05:25

3. Bert Jammaer (BEL)

22:07

2:07:01

1:15:35

3:46:34

3. Mathias Hecht (SUI)

23:55 2:19:41 1:19:06 4:05:52

4. Axel Zeebroek (BEL)

21:18

2:04:53

1:18:40

3:46:39

4. Andreas Böcherer (GER) 23:44 2:19:38 1:20:45 4:07:30

5. Dann Brook (GBR)

21:10

2:07:58

1:16:41

3:47:35

5. Alessandro Degasperi (ITA) 25:03 2:23:17 1:17:01 4:08:34

Swim

Bike

Run

Total

* Age grouper

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Trek-Livestrong U23 Sponsor november 2009

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211

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Warriors in Spandex

conversion at a time. But now, 20-plus years since, triathlon has grown more conservative and structured while the U.S. military has widened its thought processes in determining the ways and means to protect our rights and freedoms. Less than 10 years into this millennium, endurance sport and military preparedness have perhaps not been as intersected since the cult of manliness under-pinned the build up in forces before World War II. Inner-city guerilla warfare and harsh environmental theaters of operation require a postmodern fitness, a way of adapting and thinking, of using one’s thoughtfully trained body. Temperatures and tolerances in Kona or Phoenix can mimic Basra and Kandahar.

Wars and races don’t end when you think they are over. But if you commit yourself to an endurance sport event and service to your country, regardless of the personal motive or political ideology, you finish what you started.

That mutual perseverance defines both.

Not since Gordon Haller, winner of the first Ironman in 1978 and a former Navy communications specialist, has a top triathlete served in the U.S. armed forces. While the Big Four might’ve trained like Spartans, I doubt we’d fight other men like them.

Recognizing the connections between new kinds of war and new kinds of endurance sport, the U.S. military is now fishing for new enlistees in the growing pool of endurance athletes while multisport events find new ways of attracting men and women in uniform to their events.

Stranger bedfellows have slept together.

Sport cannot prepare you for war any more than war can prepare you for sport.

But there is a unique and fascinating cultural overlap between the military—particularly the Navy—and the sport of triathlon. It is historical, functional and fascinating.

Plato reportedly said, “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” Regardless of the accuracy of this claim, the ways and means if not the motives for why nations advance on each other define that society. The same can be said about sport—the way we play our games tells us who we are.

Many are the pundits who claim that perhaps commercial sport’s greatest gift to modern society is that it has replaced war. Of course, the answer offered by the defensive back for the Tennessee Titans would be different than the gunnery sergeant sitting in a foxhole outside Tora Bora.

Scott Tinley

Triathlete (ISSN08983410) is published monthly by The Competitor Group, 10179 Huennekens St, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92121; (858) 768-6805. Subscription rates: U.S., one year (12 issues) $34.95; two years (24 issues) $59.95. Canada $58.95 per year; all other countries $90.95 per year, U.S. currency only. Periodicals postage paid at San Diego, CA, and additional mailing offices. Single copy price $5.99. Triathlete is copyright 2003 by The Competitor Group. All rights reserved.

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tough ones gathered after work on a Tuesday can claim to be entered in an RAC—a Real Athletic Contest.

The fluid relationship between the U.S. military and multisport competition has always been an interesting intersection of ideologies. Early triathletes were cast as unique individuals but not quite matchless athletic marvels. They marched to drums of their own making and were described as freaks bordering on insanity. The 1979 Ironman winner, Tom Warren, had long hair, owned a saloon and lived in a quirky 5,000-square-foot one-bedroom house. Howard Moody, a fixture at the mid-‘70s events, purportedly had been a member of the Hell’s Angels and was rumored to have gone to prison for killing a man in self-defense.

Many of these folks could not be found in the society columns of local papers.

But then there was the quiet storm of the military presence, something rational, structured and focused on the horizon.

While the SEALs rarely broke the top ranks in those local gatherings, John Collins, a Navy commander, took what he’d seen as a competitor in San Diego and somehow morphed that The boggy shores of San Diego’s Mission vision into the Ironman. And while California Bay are littered with half-naked bodies. A few swim coach Dave Scott blistered the 1980 Ironbeach lifeguards with sunburned lips and man, winning by more than an hour, second summer-colored hair swing their arms as rail- place went to the former Navy SEAL Chuck thin runners look warily toward the water at Neumann, who gave perhaps the most telling a scheduled 300-yard swim that will soon be post-race interview in the history of “ABC Wide underway in chest-deep waters. An exercise World of Sports” by literally falling asleep with physiologist, P.E. teachers, a retired trades- the microphone in his face. No one could ever man are there, jacks of all trades, masters of doubt that military personnel had given their none—and trustafarian fitness bums rounding all to the young sport.

Thirty years later, it is a different sport, a out the field for this mid-‘70s triathlon.

But nothing validates this event as ath- different world and a different military that letic, let alone competitive fights a new kind of war. in nature until the military There is a unique and Triathlon race bikes have arrives. The competitors 20 gears and onboard comfascinating cultural watch the battleship-gray puters and the enemy can trucks laden with Navy overlap between the look like your little sister.

SEALs making their fashis simple in sport military—particularly Nothing ionably late arrival across or in battle. the cove. They legitimate the Navy—and the sport In the mid-‘80s, triaththis eclectic band of mullon was neon disco, creative of triathlon. It is his- and exploding in its antitisport potpourri. With torical, functional and status quo image. The U.S. the U.S. Navy represented, even a ramshackle group was winning the Cold War fascinating. of pseudo-jocks and semione calculated capitalism

John Segesta/johnsegesta.com

Tinley TalkS

ANDY POTTS

CHRISSIE WELLINGTON

IRONMAN 70.3 WORLD CHAMPION

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