inside triathlon
How to win tHe mental game
The Journal of Competitive Triathlon
MaTT ChraboT | ride inside | full ThroTTle | MenTal gaMe MarCh/april 2011
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volume twenty-six. issue two
March/april 2011, vol 26/issue 2
The Proof is on the Podium!
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HIT THE GROUND RUNNING. We launched the new 808 Firecrest at Kona, and Chris McCormack took full advantage. Out on the Queen K, his 808s with Zipp Tangente tubulars were the fastest, most efficient, best handling wheels on the road. And in the marathon’s final mile, he had enough left in the tank to win one of the most dramatic duels in triathlon history. | Not only is Firecrest more aerodynamic than any other rim design, its distinctive wide profile also improves handling in crosswinds, wheel strength, and overall ride quality. It only took one shot for Macca to prove that it’s simply a better wheel in every way. | But that victory wasn’t the only one for Zipp this year. Mirinda Carfrae won on 650c ZEDTECH 4s and Karin Thuerig set a bike course record with a 303/1080 setup. Zipp once again dominated the Kona Bike Count with nearly 60% of all aero wheels. Clearly, superior technology makes a difference for every athlete. Firecrest 808 available in Tubular, Carbon Clincher, ZEDTECH ®. Zipp Tangente Tires available in Tubular & Clincher 21mm & 23mm.
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editor-in-chief Courtney Baird managing editor Somyr McLean Perry assistant editor Bethany Leach Mavis contributing editors Matt Fitzgerald, Aaron Hersh, T.J. Murphy contributing writers Courtenay Brown, Tim DeBoom, Torbjørn Sindballe, Jené Shaw copy editor Marilyn Iturri art director Bridget Durkin photo editor Nils Nilsen senior photographer John Segesta contributing photographers/illustrators Paul Phillips, Robert Murphy, Nick Salazar, N.C. Winters digital media content director Kurt Hoy web producer Liz Hichens senior video producer Steve Godwin video producer Kevin LaClaire digital advertising sales director Jason Rossiter, jrossiter@competitorgroup.com VP, endemic sales Kevin Burnette, kburnette@competitorgroup.com, 858.362.7998 San Diego, CA account executive Lars Finanger, lfinanger@competitorgroup.com, 858.362.6746 account executive, endemic sales Justin Sands, jsands@competitorgroup.com, 858.768.6747 account executive, showcase sales Alex Jarman, ajarman@competitorgroup.com, 858.768.6769 production manager Meghan McElravy advertising coordinator Shane Anderson director, audience development John Francis, jfrancis@competitorgroup.com manager, audience development Cassie Lee-Trettel, cleetrettel@competitorgroup.com Boulder, CO account executive Nathan Forbes, nforbes@competitorgroup.com account executive Mark Gouge, mgouge@competitorgroup.com account executive David Walker, dwalker@competitorgroup.com
A Publication of Competitor Chairman David Moross CEO Peter Englehart President & COO Scott Dickey EVP, Media Andrew R. Hersam CFO Steve Gintowt SVP National Sales John Smith SVP Marketing Bouker Pool VP Digital Media Dan Vaughan VP Western Region Sales David O’Connell SVP Midwest Region Sales Doug Kaplan VP Eastern Region Sales Rebecca McKinnon VP Sales Development Sean Clottu Mailing Address 9477 Waples Street, Suite 150, San Diego, CA 92121 Telephone 858.768.6805 Fax 858.768.6806 Subscriptions U.S. & Canada 800.494.1413 International Subscriptions 303.245.2162 Retailers 800.381.1288 Circulation Inquiries insidetriathlon@pcspublink.com Editorial Inquiries cbaird@competitorgroup.com Website insidetri.com
No part of this issue may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher. Editorial contributions are welcome but a stamped self-addressed envelope is necessary for the return of all materials. Inside Triathlon is a registered trademark of Competitor Group, Inc.
6
INSIDETRIATHLON
editor’s letter
A DreAm Come True running. And my entire vacation schedule was planned around what races I was be participating in and how much time I would need to travel to them. I was delighted when Inside Triathlon asked me to come on as a senior editor last May. I couldn’t believe it. I was going to get paid to obsess over race results. Traveling to races would now be part of my job. And I would get to write about whatever topic in triathlon I wanted to, whenever I wanted. There would be no more begging! I guess I must have done something right during my tenure as senior editor because it was a dream come true when Inside Triathlon asked me to become editor-in-chief. As editor-in-chief of Inside Triathlon, I hope to continue to bring you the kind of provocative storytelling and compelling photography that the magazine is known for. To me, Inside Triathlon is all about access to the sport’s elite—its pros, high-end gear, elite age-groupers, cutting-edge training and nutrition, and the sport’s influencers. I hope to continue this and I believe this issue offers just that. Among the many highlights of this issue, on page 40, Matt Fitzgerald asks why so many of the sport’s elites are taking their bike training indoors. On page 30, Jené Shaw invites you into the state-of-the-art coaching mind of Olympic silver medalist Brian Walton. And Aaron Hersh breaks down the Scott Plasma Premium on page 26 in a way that only Hersh can. I hope you enjoy.
Courtney Baird Editor-in-Chief cbaird@competitorgroup.com
8
insidetriathlon
Photo by brightroom.com
With a new editor-in-chief on the masthead, you probably want to know a little bit about me and my goals for what I hope is your favorite tri magazine. Triathlon was introduced to me many years ago as a runner in high school. As a starry-eyed neophyte, I dreamed of one day running in the Olympics. Unfortunately, as my coach was quick to point out, I was too tall and muscular to ever be a great runner. But triathlon, he said, was something that I would be perfectly suited for. While I never pursued elite triathlon, the sport remained in the forefront of my consciousness ever since that introduction. It was a big deal to me when Paula Newby-Fraser collapsed near the finish line in Kona in 1995. I paid attention when Simon Whitfield and Brigitte McMahon became the sport’s first Olympic gold medalists. And I cheered when Tim DeBoom followed in Mark Allen and Dave Scott’s footsteps to win Kona in 2001 and 2002. Professionally, I began my career as a journalist when I started writing for the sports section of a newspaper. I went on to receive my master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and I spent several years as an editor for a business newspaper in Orange County, Calif. But business journalism isn’t my passion. Triathlon is. During my stint at the Orange County Business Journal, I often spent any spare moment I had obsessing over and printing out race results. I begged my editor-in-chief to let me write about swimming, biking and
fifty Matt chrabot was the top-ranked ItU racer for the U.S. in 2010, and he has big goals for 2012. By Courtney Baird Photos by Nick Salazar
on the cover Matt Chrabot Photo by Janos Schmidt/ITU media
10 insidetriathlon
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contents tripod 16 notable 18 gear 26 conviction 28 at the finish 96
| thirty |
| forty |
| sixty-six |
| eighty |
twenty-two Big idea
twenty-four a Change
thirty CyCling’s gifT
forty Ride inside
sixty-six nyC TRi
eighty Mind gaMe
An iconoclastic exercise physiologist is changing the hydration game.
Hillary Biscay reassesses her status as an icon to the high volume camp.
One of cycling’s greatest legends has leant his wisdom to triathlon.
Why are so many elite triathletes shunning the roads and riding indoors?
The members of New York City’s Full Throttle are going to destroy you.
The mind is a mysterious thing—one that can make or break your race.
By Courtney Baird
By T.J. Murphy
By Jené shaw
By Matt fitzgerald
By Petra Bartosiewicz
By Torbjørn sindballe
Photo by Jon davis
12 insidetriathlon
Photo by Robert Murphy
Photos by Kris Mendoza
Photos by nick salazar
Photos by erick Rasco
illustrations by n.C. Winters
all3sports.com/tripackage
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contributors
LETTERS
Petra Bartosiewicz is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, N.Y., who has written for numerous publications, including Harper’s, Marie Claire and Mother Jones magazines. She is an avid runner and cyclist and thought she was in good physical shape until she met the folks at Full Throttle Endurance, a triathlon club based out of Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. Her profile of the team appears on page 66.
As a recent transplant from New York City to San Diego, Jené Shaw is loving her new training grounds and the sunny change of scenery. She’s usually a senior editor for all things training at Inside Triathlon sister publication Triathlete, but for this issue she interviewed retired pro cyclist and triathlon coach Brian Walton on page 30. “The more I found out about Brian’s credentials, the more I realized how fortunate I was to interview him,” Shaw says. “He and his staff at Cadence are in an entirely different league of triathlon coaching.”
14 INSIDETRIATHLON
Currently based in New York City, photographer Erick Rasco’s career began more than 10 years ago while covering the EcoChallenge adventure race. His passion for photography and sports has taken him from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, where he grew up, to the jungles of Borneo to the photographer’s dugout at Yankee Stadium. “I had a great time photographing the NYC Full Throttle team,” he says of the feature on page 66. “They were welcoming and full of energy. I hope that my images depict the intensity of the athletes, doing what they do best.”
• Just a couple of notes of clarification in Inside Triathlon’s January/ February article “A Foolproof Guide to Altitude Training.” Matt Fitzgerald did a great job taking most of our phone conversation and translating it into the article he wrote. However, there is one key point regarding training at the moderate altitude of Boulder, Colo., that appears to be left out. As Matt noted in the article, the bulk of the recent data on altitude training suggests that a living altitude of 6000 to 8500 feet is the ideal altitude for making additional red blood cells. However, this data was all generated from sea level natives going to altitude for a fourweek altitude training camp. Very little is known about the chronic effects of living long term (i.e. three months or longer) at lower altitudes, like that in Boulder. Therefore, the latest scientific recommendations are: If an athlete is completing a typical altitude training camp lasting about four weeks, a moderate altitude like Boulder’s is likely too low to make additional red blood cells and gain a natural “blood doping” effect. However, if moving long-term to altitude, the resources available to support training in a community like Boulder are likely greater in impacting performance than any altitude training effects. Robert Chapman, Ph.D. Indiana University Bloomington, Ind.
tripod
woodland running an age-grouper runs through a forest near lake Wanaka in new Zealand as part of the 2011 Challenge Wanaka. Considered by many to be the most scenic iron-distance race on the planet, Challenge Wanaka is one of eight in a series. this year, Kiwi Jamie Whyte won the men’s race and aussie Belinda Granger won the women’s. Photo by Phil Walter / Getty Images for Challenge Wanaka
insidetriathlon 17
AT THE FRONT notable KUDOS
MORGAN ANDERSON Placed second in the W18-24 age group at the Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Clearwater, Fla. Anderson raced in Clearwater despite fracturing her collarbone last October in a bike crash. She finished in 4:28:29 and her splits were 35:57, 2:19:02 and 1:28:32. She races for Fast Forward Triathlon/ Inside-Out Sports’ pro development team, which is based out of Chapel Hill, N.C.
RITCH VIOLA Won the M35-39 division at Ironman Arizona in 9:14:03. Viola, who owns Every Man Jack, a San Francisco-based maker of personal care products for men, got into triathlon in 2008 as a way to get back in shape after he stopped swimming competitively. He decided to race Ironman Arizona after watching his sister do it in 2009.
•
AN IRONMAN WISH LIST
Inside Triathlon picks the athletes we want at Kona With two-time 70.3 world champion Michael Raelert recently announcing that he is going to attempt to race Kona in 2011, Inside Triathlon’s staff got to thinking about which short-course and half-iron stars we’d like to see at the annual big dance. Here’s a look at what we discussed. Liz Hichens, Web editor of Insidetri.com: [Olympic gold and silver medalist] Simon Whitfield has been very candid on his blog that he believes the best triathletes in the world compete in the ITU. I’d love to see how he fares against the top Ironman athletes at their distance. T.J. Murphy, contributing editor: [U.S. Olympian] Laura Bennett has ferocious talent and, according to her husband, Greg, is the hardest working triathlete alive. She would be a great bet to get the USA back on the podium. 18 INSIDETRIATHLON
Aaron Hersh, contributing editor:Those are both great choices, but short-coursers who have had the most success in Kona have moved up in distance at a relatively young age. [Reigning ITU world champion] Javier Gomez has been one of the best ITU racers for years and has had success at the Los Angeles Triathlon, which is non-drafting, yet he is only 27. He’s the one I want to see in long course. Murphy: To you, sir, I say, “Michellie Jones!” Jené Shaw, contributing writer: After [Reigning 70.3 world champion] Jodie Swallow’s impressive jump from ITU to 70.3, I’d be curious to see if she could “pull a Dibens” better than [2009 70.3 world champion] Julie Dibens. Disagree? Follow us on Facebook at Facebook. com/insidetri or Twitter at @InsideTri to let us know what you think.
LOOSE TALK
@marybethellis: Watching “Biggest Loser” triathlon... very cool & 25k for the winners! That is better than 70.3 worlds and most pro prize purses. So jealous —Mary Beth Ellis, 2008 runner-up at the Ironman World Championship 70.3
Original photos of Bennett, Whitfield, Gomez by Delly Carr/triathlon.org, Swallow by Tim Carlson. Photo illustration by Bridget Durkin. Kudos photos by Asiphoto.com
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at the front where are they now?
“I looked to so many of the athletes of that era—Linda Buchanan, Colleen Cannon, the Puntous sisters … to me they were so iconic.” —Paula newby-fraser
20 insidetriathlon
Throughout the 1980s, while Julie Moss was crawling across a finish line and Paula Newby-Fraser was building her reputation as the “Queen of Kona” in the iron-distance scene, Colleen Cannon was racking up more than 70 career wins. While Cannon’s success spanned all distances, including winning the 1984 Nice World Championship, numerous half-iron races and the 1988 U.S. Sprint Distance Championship, Cannon’s greatest success was in the Olympic distance where she won the U.S. National Championship in 1988 and the Coca-Cola Red Jersey series in 1989. She raced for more than a decade until her retirement from the sport in 1992. An influential woman in the sport, she was even credited in Newby-Fraser’s acceptance speech when Newby-Fraser was inducted in the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame in 2010: “I looked to so many of the athletes of that era—Linda Buchanan, Colleen Cannon, the Puntous sisters … to me they were so iconic,” Ironman.com reported her saying. Since then, Cannon has used the life skills she learned in triathlon—taking care of her body, making time for physical activities, using meditation and visualization—to help other women become athletes through her organization, Women’s Quest. Now 50, Cannon puts on 15 to 20 retreats a year all over the world. During the retreats, she combines physical activities, such as mountain or road cycling, hiking and surfing, with mindfulness activities such as yoga, meditation, journaling and creative exercises. “It is so rewarding to help people catch their first wave, ride a mountain bike or do their first triathlon,” she says.
Cannon originally got the idea for Women’s Quest in 1992 when an American Indian elder approached her and prophesied that by 2012, “Women will save the planet.” “I thought, ‘What can I do?’ I wanted to share what I had learned through sport,” she says. Women’s Quest allowed women to have fun and play in a supportive environment. “I wanted women to learn to listen to their intuition, to slow down, and to realize anything is possible,” she says. The five- to seven-day retreats take groups of about 25 women to locations such as Hawaii, for activities including swimming, kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding; Bali, for yoga, cycling, swimming and snorkeling; Italy, for road cycling and a taste of Italian culture; and Northern California, for cycling and wine tasting. The retreats are for women of all ages and abilities—a lot of the women come to try new physical things. “I want them to explore [new activities] in a safe and comfortable environment,” she says. “Once someone does a triathlon, they can do anything.” In between retreats, Cannon enjoys being home with her husband of 22 years, Howard Kaushansky, and her horses in the mountains above Boulder, Colo. She enjoys training and riding her horses, and she even runs with them. “They’re the perfect training partner,” she says. She credits triathlon as starting her toward a career in helping women achieve new goals. “I want women of all ages and abilities to try a triathlon,” she says. “Triathlon was my first love, and I want to empower women along that path.” i —Bethany Leach Mavis
Photo by Lois Schwartz
Trailblazer Colleen Cannon ConTinues To open Doors
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redefining hydration “Spread the idea that water is probably the worst thing you could drink.” These are the words of an exercise physiologist who is challenging conventional wisdom on sodium consumption. This physiologist, Hal Goforth, 66, maintains that the most effective pre- and post-exercise hydration strategy is to drink an electrolyte and carbohydrate solution that is so packed with sodium that it actually tastes salty. Goforth, who holds a Ph.D. in kinesiology, recently completed two studies that compared the hydration effects of water and several electrolyte drinks with varying levels of sodium. For his first study, which he com-
22 insidetriathlon
pleted with students at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif., he tested water versus an electrolyte solution with about three times the sodium of Gatorade Endurance. Subjects began the study fully hydrated then drank about 1.5 liters of either water or the sodium solution over 30 minutes. He found that after three hours of monitoring, the subjects who had consumed water had actually “dehydrated”—on average, they had lost 22 percent more water than they drank. But the subjects who drank the highsodium solution retained 35 percent of the fluid—they became hyper-hydrated. For his second study, Goforth compared
the hydration effects of three different solutions: one with a sodium level equivalent to Gatorade Endurance, one with twice the sodium of Gatorade Endurance, and one that was three times saltier. He tested against Gatorade Endurance because of its high sodium level for a sports drink. After three hours, the subjects who consumed the Gatorade Endurance equivalent were dehydrated—on average, they had lost 6 percent more water than they had consumed. But the subjects who drank the mid-range sodium solution retained 25 percent of the water they drank, and the subjects who drank the saltiest solution retained 35 percent. As far as taste is concerned, the subjects preferred the mid-range solution but were OK with the saltier one. And while Goforth’s results deal with pre-workout hydration, they have been validated by several studies that have looked at post-workout hydration strategies. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends that severely dehydrated patients drink an electrolyte solution with a salt content similar to the high saline solution Goforth tested. Goforth stresses that his studies deal only with pre- and post-workout hydration and that the salty solutions should not be used during exercise, as they could harm you. He also stresses that you should use this salty solution sparingly, such as before a big race or special workout, as little is known about the effects of chronic high salt consumption. And sodium sensitive individuals should discuss the protocol with a doctor. On a personal note, Goforth has been using his hydration strategy for his own important races for many years. He has finished the Boston Marathon 35 times and won his age group in 1998, as a 53-year-old, in a time of 2:42. To test the strategy yourself, Goforth advises that you mix one liter of Vitalyte with a teaspoon of salt. The solution can also be made by blending half a liter of Gatorade, or a similar drink, with half a liter of water and a teaspoon of salt. The sports drinks’ sugar helps the body absorb the water and salt. Then, drink 1 to 1.5 liters of fluid about oneand-a-half to two hours before your triathlon. Goforth drinks half a liter of his solution before bed the night before a big morning race and then drinks another liter as soon as he wakes up. i —Courtney Baird
Photo by Jon Davis
at the front the big idea
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AN ICON TO THE HIGH VOLUME CAMP, HILLARY BISCAY RECONSIDERS By T.J. Murphy
On day one of the 2010 Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii, Hillary Biscay was relieved that the 10K swim leg went smoothly. The feeling was short-lived, however, as the ensuing 90-mile bike leg that curls around the southern half of the Big Island to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park included a net elevation gain of more than 4,000 feet and was plagued by paralyzing headwinds. The interspersed descents would offer little break. “I would be out of the saddle, pushing 200 watts on a downhill,” the 32-year-old Biscay recalls, “and only going 11 mph. It was excruciating.” Later on, pro Jonas Colting— who would go on to finish second overall in the three-day competition—would remark to Biscay, “It was the hardest day of my life.” But Biscay describes 2010 as the hardest year of her life. The eight Ironmans she competed in (all before Ultraman) were savage experiences. “I dragged myself through all of my races [last] year. I would dig and there would be nothing there.” She says it felt like she was carrying an extra 15 pounds, but, in fact, she’d dropped 15 pounds. “I was just killing myself.” For Biscay, more had always been better. Beginning in 2001, she has trucked through 30 Ironmans to net her first Ironman victory at the 2008 Ironman Wisconsin. Since then, Biscay has kept her foot firmly planted on the high-mileage gas. By the end of 2010 she had collected 47 Ironman finishes, but the last two years have been marred by staleness. 24 INSIDETRIATHLON
Oddly, it was Ultraman, where she would finish second in the women’s race, that her legs showed signs of returning, when on the last day, during the double marathon, she was able to hammer out 7:30 miles late in the race. “I was able to destroy myself,” she says brightly. “I haven’t been able to do that since I won Ironman Wisconsin.” The return to Biscay’s gleeful pursuit of pain was enabled by Derick Williamson, a triathlon coach and exercise physiologist based in Austin, Texas. The two met after Biscay’s disappointing 39th-place finish at the 2010 Ironman World Championship. Williamson’s company is called Durata Training, and he works with nearly 80 athletes throughout the world, relying heavily on the communication of workout data gathered through technology such as power meters. “I’m a very objective coach,” says Williamson. “I apply the principles of exercise physiology. With Hillary, it was extraordinary what she was doing to herself. I told her our aim would be podium finishes, not slogging through races.Yet at that point I didn’t know she’d already committed to Ultraman.” One of Williamson’s first objectives before agreeing to coach Biscay was being sure she’d do what he told her to do. “I was sick of what was happening to me,” Biscay says. “I knew I had to do things differently.” Convinced, Williamson knew that Biscay’s commitment to Ultraman was fixed, so the first task was to
get her to the starting line fresh. He mapped a plan with 48-hour training blocks with two to three days of recovery between each block. The two had decided to begin the new program on a Wednesday, so Biscay, being Hillary Biscay, decided to get her last kicks on Tuesday. Just after sunrise she ripped off a set of hard 400-meter intervals on the track. She was planning on swimming and running in the afternoon, but then she got an e-mail: “First, take today and tomorrow off.” Whoops! “One of the issues you get with the amount of stress Hillary was putting on herself is chronic glycogen depletion,” Williamson says. In addition to introducing rest to Biscay’s training cycles, he also tweaked her diet, making sure she was eating enough carbohydrates and protein to ensure restoration. So what happens when the average person tackles unending Ironmans like Biscay did? “You go and do your first Ironman of the year and it’s a big stress,” Williamson replies. “If you recover, you can get a boost of fitness and perform better at the second one. And this is another big stress on the body that can work for you or against you, depending on recovery. If you go into your third one only 70 percent recovered, you’re going to lose performance.You keep going harder and harder and digging a hole deeper and deeper. Triathletes are good at pushing themselves but they can be bad at going too hard and not backing off when they need to.” Despite the false start, Biscay has since followed orders and has been rewarded with a promising result at Ultraman. “I know I can’t be left to my own devices,” she says, adding she’s only doing three Ironmans in 2011. Williamson leads his elite athletes by the numbers. “I look at what she needs to do to make the podium. From there, for example, you calculate the average power she’ll need to be holding on race day for the bike, which in her case is 200 watts. If she can only race at 180 watts or run a four-hour marathon, those are the limiting factors we have to improve.” Biscay is apparently on board, giving her new coach the ultimate signal of obedience, performing a task that would have previously been unthinkable. After the Ultraman, Williamson proudly reports, “[Hillary] took a full week and a half completely off.” i
Photo by Robert Murphy
AT THE FRONT movers and shakers
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Since the Cervelo P2K—one of the first production bikes with airfoil-shaped tubes—gained popularity, mainstream triathlon bike manufacturers have steadily replaced the round tubes traditionally found on road bikes with shaped ones that create less aerodynamic drag. A vertical cylinder creates five times the wind drag of a teardrop-shaped object of the same size, according to research done by Sighard Hoerner in 1965, so every vertical tube that is not aerodynamically optimized slows the bike dramatically. The P2K was significant because of its aerodynamic downtube and seat tube (and tri geometry),
but tweaking and tuning every section of the frame from the head tube to the seatstays to minimize wind drag has become standard. Not all manufacturers agree on the best aero design, but the round tube has nearly disappeared from contemporary triathlon bikes. That is, except for the steerer tube and stem. These aerodynamically archaic components have survived because they form a reliable and highly adjustable handlebar attachment system, but they must be replaced for a bike to jump to the next level of aerodynamic efficiency. The newest generation of tri bikes, including
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the Scott Plasma Premium, does exactly that. Minimizing the aerodynamic drag created by the frame is critical to performance, but it makes up only a small fraction of the total drag created by the bike and rider in combination. Aerodynamic resistance generated by the entire system must be reduced to maximize speed, and the rider’s position has a massive effect on wind drag. But rider comfort is arguably even more important to race-day performance than aerodynamics, so a bike must be comfortable and fit well.
insidetriathlon 27
Front End many bike brands. To maximize the bike’s fit flexridE and Fit Scott did not reinvent the handlebar attachment system ibility, Scott spec’d the versatile Profile T2+ Cobra In addition to creating wind drag, tall steerer stacks when designing the Plasma 3. Instead, it controlled the aerobar, which allows for dramatic reach adjustment flex and sway when the rider torques on the bars. way the stem is positioned on the frame. The steerer and an additional centimeter of vertical adjustment. Scott’s integrated front-end system eliminates this tube is one of the last remaining vertical cylinders The aerobar can be swapped to further alter the problem by placing the stem directly on top of the found on many modern tri bikes, and its round shape Plasma Premium’s fit. Cyclists who prefer a posiframe, which improves the bike’s lateral stiffness generates unnecessary wind drag, especially if it protion with a short reach dimension from the saddle to when riding out of the saddle and cornering aggrestrudes high above the frame to prop up the aerobars. the handlebar or a tall stack height from the bottom sively. Scott removed this protruding cylinder by forcing the bracket to the top of the elbow pads might struggle The handlebars are robustly linked to well-constem to mount directly on top of the frame without to find a comfortable position on the Plasma 3, but structed handling geometry. This bike is designed to any spacers. many riders who choose a moderate or aggressive be ridden steeply, so Scott wisely gave it moderately Designers further integrated the stem into the frame by position will be able to find their ideal fit. stable handling characteristics. It responds in tight elevating the top tube to fill in the space behind it. Scott corners but never feels twitchy, even when in the offers four compatible stems, and this range of choices creComponEnts aerobars, which heavily loads the front wheel and ates 1.5 cm of fit variability in the fore-aft direction and 4 The components on the stock Plasma Premium aren’t can cause frantic steering. cm in the vertical. All four stems are within the range most just race ready—they are race optimized. Sram Red Bottom bracket stiffness is not critical to triathlon bike fitters consider acceptable to maintain a bike’s hanis the lightest stock groupset and comes standard performance, but riding a bike that snaps in response dling characteristics. Standard aftermarket stems cannot with a ceramic bottom bracket and derailleur pulto every pedal stroke is simply more fun than ridbe used on the Plasma 3, and this restriction eliminates the leys. Scott included the Sram R2C shifters, which ing a noodle-y frame. The Plasma Premium does not option of shoe-horning a rider onto the bike with an eximprove shifter ergonomics over standard bar-end feel quite as responsive as the stiffest tri bikes, but it treme stem or spacer stack. Although this limits the numshifters. The Profile Design Prosvet basebar has deepresponds sharply and is surprisingly stiff despite the ber of riders that can fit a Plasma Premium, it also prevents section construction for aerodynamic performance bike’s narrow downtube. a rider from ruining his bike’s handling characteristics with and a confidence-inspiring brake grip surface. Zipp The Plasma Premium cannot match the fit range an ostentatiously tall spacer stack or freakish stem. In some 808/1080 tubulars with reflective silver decals that of the Trek Speed Concept 9 Series, but it provides ways, this restriction will save some triathletes from their match the frame are standard, but these wheels are a wider range of fit possibilities than the bikes with lust for a bike that isn’t an appropriate match for them. not, however, built with Zipp’s new Firecrest rims. i proprietary handlebar attachment systems from
Photos by Nils Nilsen
at the front conviction
Hy-Vee MigHt Lose LegitiMacy witH wtc takeoVer By Courtenay Brown
The biggest change to the Hy-Vee Triathlon is that age-groupers, open amateurs (HyVee’s name for its elite amateur division) and professional athletes will all need to qualify for the Sept. 4 race. For age-groupers and open amateurs, this change is largely a positive one. One top-10 result at a 5150 series event earns an age-grouper or open amateur the right to purchase an entry to Hy-Vee. The race thus represents another Olympic-distance championship target, in addition to the USAT Age Group National Championships. For U.S. athletes, it’s also a geographically accessible alternative to the ITU Age Group World Championships in Beijing on Sept. 11. In the professional field, qualification is a little more involved and adds yet another series of points to be chased. Unlike previous years, professionals won’t get a Hy-Vee spot with ITU series points. Instead, the top 25 athletes in the 5150 points standings will earn an entry. Without the ITU to mandate the start list, the hope is that we’ll see a match-up of longcourse and short-course stars—Craig Alexander against Tim Don and Javier Gomez, or Julie Dibens against Sarah Haskins and Emma Snowsill. To do so, it’s quite possible that Hy-Vee will need to issue more than the five proposed discretionary invitations. The race has kept its million-dollar professional prize purse, and therefore it should theoretically keep its talent. But is a $1 million race enough to bring athletes to a series of mostly $25,000 races that offer neither Olympic nor Kona points? Hy-Vee’s rich prizes aren’t exclusive to the pros. The race offers age group prizes of value and quantity that are unprecedented in the sport, befitting a championship event in something like tennis or golf. Male and
female winners of the open amateur race will receive a car and a staggering $5,000 worth of goods. Just like in the pro race, such prizes should attract amateur athletes. But will it lure the best? Probably, but perhaps not at first. The 2011 Hy-Vee Triathlon details were released in October, after many of triathlon’s multidistance amateurs had already planned and purchased race entries for 2011. Perennial elite-amateur podium finishers such as Beth Shutt had already entered conflicting races when Hy-Vee announced its details. Budgetary constraints could also impact entries. Requiring athletes to qualify for a race increases costs by 100 percent or more, depending on how many attempts it takes to qualify. This qualification structure also exists for WTC’s other series championships, the 70.3 and Ironman World Championships, and it’s proven very successful in driving demand. But unlike 70.3 and Ironman, the new 5150 series faces strong competition in existing national and world championships, as well as the Best of the U.S. Amateur Championship and the Life Time Fitness series. And finally, despite the instant legitimacy granted by a headline event such as the Hy-Vee Triathlon, the 5150 series faces a symbolic obstacle: Trademark laws prevent it from naming any of its races, including Hy-Vee, a “world championship.” Titles aside, Hy-Vee is doing the right thing in giving amateur triathletes, the sport’s bread and butter, a meaningful target. As for the professionals, the sport’s caviar in a sense, the Hy-Vee Triathlon has become just another race. A spectacular one to be sure, but at the end of the day, without the ITU the race has lost its connection to the Olympics, the crowning event of athletic legitimacy. i
Courtenay Brown is an elite triathlete and a public policy Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
28 insidetriathlon
Photo by Nick Salazar
With its million-dollar prize purse and starstudded fields, the Hy-Vee Triathlon has been a showcase of draft-legal Olympic-distance racing in the U.S. since its inception in 2007. It’s also hosted an appropriate level of dramatics, such as Kirsten Sweetland fainting out of a three-way sprint for the 2007 win just 250 meters from the finish, and Simon Whitfield besting Brad Kahlefeldt and Beijing gold medalist Jan Frodeno in a triple dive across the finish for the 2009 victory. The big news for 2011 is that the world’s richest triathlon is no longer a draft-legal ITU race—and the days of nail-biting tactical finishes are probably behind us. In April 2010, World Triathlon Corporation, owner of Ironman, purchased the Hy-Vee Triathlon. It will now be a non-drafting Olympic-distance race, and the U.S. championship of WTC’s new 5150 Series (a name referencing the distance, in decameters, of an Olympic distance triathlon). ITU triathlon, and U.S. draft-legal triathlon in particular, has definitely lost a marquee event. Yet the loss seemed somewhat inevitable, even to the outside observer. Hy-Vee’s home city of Des Moines, Iowa, isn’t quite the metropolitan match to Hamburg, Germany, or Sydney, and doesn’t fit the ITU’s preferred venue for its big money events.The ITU is notoriously demanding of its race organizers, both financially and logistically. Hy-Vee President Randy Edeker founded the race with the intent of attracting the best triathletes in the world, but ITU rules prevented him from inviting champions of other distances to his race. Combine these potential sources of strife with WTC’s aggressive expansionism over the past two years, and the change in ownership and race format makes perfect sense. But what does this mean for racers?
TRIATHLON IS SPECIALIZED NEVER BEFORE HAS ONE TRIATHLON TEAM SO UTTERLY DOMINATED THE SPORT. ACROSS ALL DISTANCES AND DISCIPLINES, SPECIALIZED SET THE TRI WORLD ON FIRE IN 2010: OUR ATHLETES WON WORLD TITLES IN IRONMAN, OLYMPIC, SPRINT, AND XTERRA DISTANCES, ALONG WITH DOZENS OF OTHER PRESTIGIOUS TITLES. INCREDIBLY, FIVE DIFFERENT SPECIALIZED BIKES WERE RIDDEN TO VICTORY: TARMAC SL3, AMIRA, SHIV, TRANSITION, AND EPIC 29ER. WE ARE EXTREMELY PROUD OF THESE ATHLETES AND EQUALLY PROUD OF OUR OVERALL COMMITMENT TO THE SPORT. SO WE WILL CONTINUE TO INNOVATE AND DESIGN THE PERFECT BIKES FOR YOUR TRIATHLON—WHETHER A BEGINNER, SEASONED AGE-GROUPER, “MACCA,” OR EVEN A “CAVEMAN.”
SILVER LINING
By Jené Shaw Photos by Kris Mendoza
Cycling legend Brian Walton is keeping busy with his state-of-the-art coaching facility and triathlete clients.
•
• Triathlon is now half of Walton’s business at
the Cadence Cycling and Multisport Center in Philadelphia.
30 INSIDETRIATHLON
N
ot many triathlon coaches can rattle off the athletic résumé of Brian Walton: a member of the first North American cycling team to go to the Tour de France. A three-time Olympian, including a silver medal two months after arthroscopic knee surgery. Motorola teammate to Lance. A top-five finisher at the U.S. Pro Championships three times. After 18 successful years, Walton—nicknamed “Brain,” partly because of a letter mix-up in France, but probably more because he’s such a thinker—retired from the sport in 2000. He went on to coach Team Snow Valley, which earned him a nomination as USA Cycling’s 2003 Developmental Coach of the Year, and was then hired as a coaching expert for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Annual Olympic Forum for cycling. He found his way into triathlon after opening Cadence Cycling and Multisport Center in Philadelphia in 2004 (where he’s now vice president of performance) and after seeing such a demand for the sport. He came on as executive cycling coach for USA Triathlon’s U23 team in 2005, when Jarrod Shoemaker became the first American to win the U23 world title. “I was always intrigued and fascinated by the technology side of triathlon,” Walton says.
“When we opened Cadence, we saw such a need for triathlon, so I kind of became a student of the sport. Now triathlon has grown to half of our business.” Cadence is not just your typical bike store—it’s an upscale one-stop shop for coaching, physiological testing, mechanical services and, of course, retail products. Although Walton has been retired from professional racing for a decade, he can still keep up with his elite triathletes and rides about 10 to 12 hours a week. By now, he’s become pretty accustomed to the tendencies of triathletes: “I never have to ask them to do the workouts,” he says. “I usually have to hold them back from doing too much. I call cyclists the Type-A personality, but triathletes are Type A+.” Given Walton’s unique position to view triathlon, Inside Triathlon decided to sit down with him to get some tips on training, cycling and all things triathlon. Inside Triathlon: How did your cycling friends—such as Tour de France commentator Bob Roll—view your move into the tri world? Brian Walton: They’re very supportive.
Cyclists can definitely be a standoffish bunch when a triathlete shows up with aerobars on, but for the most part, cyclists are very
CHECK MATE
2010 FORD IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPION
CHRIS “MACCA” MCCORMACK’S TACTICAL BRILLIANCE—AND A WIND-CHEATING S-WORKS SHIV—HELPED HIM WIN THE 2010 FORD IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. IAMSPECIALIZED.COM
“I was amazed when I first started coaching after retirement by how much more volume I could do than the other elite amateurs I was coaching. I had to cut the volume almost in half because I was killing the guys. People can succeed on less volume.”
accepting and supportive of the triathletes. We do a lot of group rides together, and the mix is close to 50/50. Triathlon is such a different sport. If you look at the ITU-style racing and the speed needed there, it’s very, very impressive. IT: What is Cadence’s coaching philosophy based on? BW: We have over 100 years of combined
experience racing and coaching in the sport of triathlon, and we incorporate our personal knowledge of racing and training with science. Take Lance Armstrong for example, when he tackled his first Tour de France victory. There wasn’t one thing that stood out with Lance and his program. He kind of took everything that was out there and put it into play. He got a very good coach, he got the best products and he felt he put the best team into place. With his training, he focused on preparing for one race. We do the same here. We’re focused on each individual. There’s not a cookie cutter program, so our basic training plan is still customized to the individual. Once we get that athlete, we can apply our knowledge. They can see the success right away so we know what to prescribe, and it snowballs from there. IT: What are the advantages to being a triathlon coach with a professional athletic background? BW: I think the advantages are that pro
athletes have real-world experience. But what you have to be careful of is understanding that every individual is different and you’re helping them achieve their goals. They are not the coach’s goals. They have to want to do what they are setting out to accomplish. I was amazed when I first started coaching after retirement by how much more volume I could do than the other elite amateurs I was coaching. I had to cut the volume almost in half because I was killing the guys. People can succeed on less volume. IT: What ability levels do you coach? BW: It’s mostly beginner to intermediate
athletes. What we’re intrigued and impressed by is the amount of individuals who come to us who don’t consider themselves athletes at first. Before you know it, they’re placing in or taking their age group. 32 INSIDETRIATHLON
IT: What’s your approach when you take on a new athlete? BW: I want to get to know them first. Ev-
eryone looks at power and thresholds and we can skin it any way we want. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. What makes a difference is what makes the athlete tick. I prefer to observe. I like to give workouts based on what I see and what their goals are. I look at what their limiters are. Someone may be lacking muscular strength, another may have a low lactate threshold. And I look at how they generate power: Is it based on leg speed? Is it based on muscular strength? It’s the fine-tuning of the training that can have significant benefits for every individual. IT: How many athletes do you coach? BW: I’m coaching 25 personally; I mainly
handle the training side of the business. I’ve reassessed how we coach our athletes to be more of a team approach. I have a team of coaches underneath me including Holden Comeau, a professional triathlete, exercise physiologist and former all-American swimmer. I don’t claim to be a world-renowned triathlon or swimming coach, but I understand how to build a team and put all the right tools in place. IT: How does the team approach work from a planning standpoint? BW: Based on my experience being an elite
athlete, I’m good at planning the plan and putting the strategy in place for the athletic development of the individual. Take a young pro that I’m coaching, Joe Maloy. Holden and I have gone back and forth with his annual training plan. I’m building his training from a cycling standpoint and volume from a running standpoint, and Holden will handle the swimming. The communication goes to both of the coaches, and we have such an open relationship that it could be either one of us commenting. Another person we’re coaching right now needs the initial focus on swim so Holden will take the point. I’ll be in the background just creating the cycling aspect. IT: What’s your favorite technological tool to use for training? BW: Our center at Cadence. The testing
options we have at our disposal—our bike fitting, our classes, our CadenceTV—are all awesome tools.
8 HOURS USED TO BE FAST 2010 CHALLENGE ROTH CHAMPION
RASMUS HENNING ROCKED ROTH—AND THE TRIATHLON WORLD—RIDING HIS S-WORKS TRANSITION TO A BLISTERING 7:52:36 VICTORY. IAMSPECIALIZED.COM
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CADENCE AT A GLANCE Physiological Services Cadence performs both blood lactate threshold and VO2max testing to determine an athlete’s lactate threshold, power and VO2max. For elite athletes, they offer the “lactate at maximum sustainable power output” test.
1
Pedal Analysis As part of their extensive bike fitting process, Cadence coaches use the Computrainer Spin Scan to look for strengths and weaknesses in pedal efficiency. From there, they work to improve weaknesses and correct deficiencies with drills.
2
3
Recovery A room with comfy chairs and a large plasma screen playing past Tour DVDs serves as the “recovery room,” where athletes can wear a pair of $5000 NormaTec MVP boots to recover from their workouts.
34 INSIDETRIATHLON
IT: How does CadenceTV work? BW: It’s an individualized workout on TV.
It’s everything we do in our classes but $100 for a year subscription. Everything is Webbased and there are well over 100 workouts online now. If you log on, we have helmet cam video, and we’ll show people how to do the technique for an over-gear exercise. The cool thing about it is, if you have another coach or you do some testing, you can input your own power and heart rate numbers and they’ll actually come up during the exercise and tell you how you should be performing the intervals or the task at hand. There are very structured, one-hour workouts from technique-driven to intense. IT: What advantages do you see for incorporating so much technology? BW: You can quantify your coaching results.
With technology and physiology testing, we can back up the results.You can say, “Since last quarter you’ve gained seven watts, and I can see how your body is responding. With your VO2max, we can see how your body is work-
• Walton hones in on an athlete’s
weaknesses before he writes a program.
ing at these workloads and how it’s decreasing over time.” You can use a lot of these tests for tracking success, and the athletes feed off that. IT: Do you ever find there are times when technology gets in the way? BW: Absolutely. There are a lot of times
where I have to say, “Just shut it off.” I’ve had a few pro triathletes using a Powertap [power meter] and I make them put a piece of tape over it and just ride. I’ll look at it afterward and analyze the data, but I want them executing the task at hand and just going by feel. IT: What’s the biggest cycling mistake you see in triathletes? BW: Comfort. Comfort with their bike fit,
comfort with their bike handling. So much time can be saved by working on a significant amount of basic technique.
GOmez
2010 DEXTRO ENERGY ITU WORLD CHAMPION
JAVIER GOMEZ POWERED HIS S-WORKS TARMAC SL3 TO VICTORY IN THE PRESTIGIOUS 2010 ITU WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. IAMSPECIALIZED.COM
• of December. A lot of change-in-pace hill repeats. We’ll work from 5x5 minutes up to 10x4-minute hill repeats. Based on some of the testing we’re doing, I’ll know where their sweet spots are. I’ll change the leg speed on each individual and try to fine-tune it while maintaining lactate threshold. IT: How do you train your ITU athletes versus non-drafting athletes? BW: I have one ITU athlete right now, and
I have him do a lot more group riding and elite group races. I have him go on a Tuesday night ride that triathletes don’t come on. It’s averaging over 30 mph for more than an hour. He’s improved sitting on a wheel, which has been huge. He’ll be able to use bike racer tactics that a lot of triathletes don’t really know about.
• Walton is a big proponent of technology and physiological testing. “You can use a lot of these tests for tracking success, and the athletes feed off that,” he said.
“There are a lot of times where I have to say, ‘Just shut it off.’ I’ve had a few pro triathletes using a Powertap [power meter] and I make them put a piece of tape over it and just ride. I’ll look at it afterward and analyze the data, but I want them executing the task at hand and just going by feel.”
IT: Do you see mistakes even in pros? BW: Absolutely. Oh yeah [laughs]. Look at leg
speed. In the winter I try to emphasize leg speed and efficiency. I have a lot of triathletes doing group rides with professional or top amateur cyclists now. A lot of them don’t feel comfortable or are scared riding in a group. Or they say, “I don’t sit on [another rider’s wheel] in a triathlon, so why would I train like that?” My point is that they’ll be riding with better cyclists who will be pushing them, and they’re going to help them with endurance without the physiological load over a longer period of time. I can also give them recovery by sitting on a wheel. I’ll have them go to the front to do lactate threshold pace for two to five minutes and then go to the back and recover. Doing these [group rides] in the winter can help significantly with pedaling efficiency and endurance while getting the benefits of a three-hour ride. I wouldn’t have triathletes doing it all the time, but it’s a way to get them pedaling at a higher cadence as opposed to going out by themselves, slogging into a headwind at 80 to 90 RPMs. IT: What else do you have your athletes do in the off-season? BW: I’ve got some creative hill repeat exer-
cises I like to do that we started the first week 36 INSIDETRIATHLON
IT: Some triathletes don’t think of drafting races as “real” triathlons. How do you view it? BW: It’s a different sport. I’m supportive of
all. If you’re a great runner and great swimmer, it doesn’t take much fine-tuning on the bike to be a successful ITU athlete. For an Olympic distance non-draft race, you may need more balance. It’s an Olympic sport and a very exciting sport. I think it’ll be fun when they get to the point where they make bike courses very challenging so [cycling] will play more of a significant part. IT: What do you think about USA Triathlon’s new Olympic qualifying process, how they’re leaving open the possibility of a domestique being picked for the team? BW: I think it’s fantastic. They’re about
eight years late. They could’ve started back in 2004 in Athens with that course. I think that’s why they brought me in to help with the performance enhancement side of the team—it definitely needs to be looked at from a global aspect from the selection side. Does the U.S. have a good chance of winning a gold medal? With Jarrod Shoemaker, it’s a possibility, there’s no question. From a USAT standpoint, how do you put a fair selection process in place so you have the best team available? That’s tricky. Very, very tricky. Are there other agendas in place? Who is your Olympic gold medal hopeful and what type of domestique do you need? Do you need a swimmer, a cyclist? A both and don’t care about a runner? Or is it from a standpoint where you do need a runner? Those are all
HOW SWEDE IT IS!
2010 ITU SPRINT WORLD CHAMPION
LISA NORDEN WON THE 2010 ITU SPRINT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, WITH HELP FROM A CRUSHING BIKE LEG ABOARD HER S-WORKS AMIRA. IAMSPECIALIZED.COM
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if I’m strong, I’m able to help the team out more. He was saying, “Well, you have to do that just by doing longer and longer miles— you don’t need to do 4x4K intervals in January to prepare yourself for time trials.” The mentality has changed over 20 years. IT: What about nutrition, then versus now? BW: When we were just starting out, my diet
was atrocious. I was blessed that I was able to train 35 to 40 hours a week and could eat a pound of M&M’s a night and it wouldn’t affect me. In the 1992 Giro d’Italia when I was on Motorola, we were doing a study and measuring lean body mass over the course of three weeks. We were finding out how lean we were getting and how we weren’t taking in enough protein and it was eating away at our bodies. Over the course of three weeks, we got leaner and leaner but we were losing a significant amount of muscle mass. We were just starting to use amino acids at that time.
• Walton’s center reflects everything he
learned during his years as a pro cyclist, when he studied subjects such as changes in lean body mass over a stage race.
variables you need to look at before deciding on a domestique. IT: You’ve probably seen your fair share of doping scandals in cycling. Do you think triathlon has a similar problem? BW: It’s a newer sport but we’ve seen it hap-
pening already.We don’t have the same amount of testing, so I think that’s why we’re seeing so many positives in cycling. I think it’s going on in every sport; I’m not surprised anymore. I think we’re all numb to it because we’ve seen so much now. But it’s a disappointment. Look at the major sports:You get a twoweek suspension for steroids as opposed to two years. In triathlon, we know it’s going on. I’d personally like to see more testing right across the board—age group through professionals. There’s always going to be cheats, but to make it more transparent, that’s what needs to be done. IT: You come from an era when a lot of people were using crazy training regimens. How have things changed? BW: The mentality has changed. I remember
when I was a first-year professional in Europe. I was an accomplished time trialer, one of the top five pros in time trials at the time. While I was training, I would do intervals. I had a teammate who told me I was being very selfish for doing intervals and that I wasn’t a team player. I had to explain to this Norwegian that 38 INSIDETRIATHLON
IT: You were on Motorola with Lance. What’s your opinion of him getting back into triathlon? BW: I know if Lance does it, he’s going to do
it 100 percent. His age is definitely catching up with him, but he’s got the strongest mind in the cycling world. If he sets his mind to it, he’s going to do really well. I don’t want to take away from pros like Craig Alexander and Chris McCormack—these guys are champions and they’ve been there and done that. Lance has won the Tour de France seven times, and I think he would approach it the same exact way. “These are the guys, I have to beat them, I’ve got a cycling background, I’ve won the Tour de France, I’ve gotten two years under my belt and I know I can kill it on the bike.” But he also needs to run a 2:40 marathon. I mean, good luck! We’ve seen him running New York, so we know he has a ways to go. It’s not like he’s won the Tour de France and he’s going to walk in there and win Kona. IT: If you had the same fitness as 10 or 15 years ago, would you go back to racing? BW: I’ve raced 1,500 races in my life. I now
get enough enjoyment out of going out with these guys and sitting on wheels. I’ve had a great journey—racing in Europe and representing my country in three Olympics and winning a silver medal, and I get a lot of satisfaction out of coaching the individuals who I do right now. I wouldn’t change a thing. i
“THE CAVEMAN” REINVENTS THE WHEEL 2010 XTERRA WORLD CHAMPION
CONRAD STOLTZ SWITCHED TO THE S-WORKS EPIC 29ER FOR HIS BEST SEASON EVER, INCLUDING A HISTORIC 4TH XTERRA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AND 8TH US TITLE. IAMSPECIALIZED.COM
Why are so many elite triathletes riding indoors?
40 INSIDETRIATHLON
THE ENDANGERED OUTDOOR RIDE By Matt Fitzgerald Photos by Nick Salazar
Meredith Kessler is one of the better cyclists in triathlon. Her typical Ironman bike split is in the 5:10 range. Pretty good for a full-time office worker and longtime age-grouper who waited until she was 31 to turn pro. So what’s her secret? Simple: riding indoors. “I ride outside once every other weekend,” she says. “That’s it.” The rest of Kessler’s bike training is done under a roof, specifically that of Velo SF, a facility for group indoor cycling classes in downtown San Francisco. The 2010 Ironman Canada champion teaches four or five 90-minute sessions there each week. Each session incorporates high-intensity efforts that seem to do more than merely make up for any additional saddle time she might have if she always rode outdoors. INSIDETRIATHLON 41
In fact, Kessler knows for a fact that her indoor-based bike training program is more effective than outdoor riding, because she used to do most of her riding outside. That’s when she used to complete her Ironman bike legs in six hours. Her bike performance breakthrough coincided precisely with her move indoors, in 2007. Kessler is not alone in finding success with indoor-based bike training for triathlon. In the past several years, indoor riding has become a bona fide trend at the elite level of the sport, and that trend has begun to trickle down into the age group ranks. Also at the vanguard of the trend is Kessler’s fellow San Franciscan Tyler Stewart, who teaches three classes each week at Velo SF and rides outdoors once on the weekend. All of the indoor rides involve high-intensity intervals, and most of the outdoor rides are fairly short—seldom more than four hours. “I typically do no more than 10 rides of more than four hours before an Ironman,” Stewart says. Stewart feels she gains so much fitness from her high-intensity indoor rides that she can maximize her Ironman bike performance without ever logging more than 10 hours of saddle time in a single week.The results speak for themselves: Stewart owns bike course records at Ironman Florida (4:47:59) and Ironman 70.3 Vineman (2:23:55).
• Former swimmers like Andy Potts are leading the trend indoors.
42 INSIDETRIATHLON
No elite triathlete has taken the indoor cycling trend farther than 2010 Ironman Coeur d’Alene and Ironman Cozumel winner Andy Potts. Until 2009, Potts did all his bike training indoors.The only time he rode his bike outdoors was when he was racing. Under the guidance of coach Mike Doane, Potts rode a Computrainer in his garage for two-and-a-half hours per session, six times a week, including high-intensity work in most of those workouts. “When I get on the bike, it’s very dedicated riding,” Potts says. “It’s very focused. Everything is written down to the minute. When my coach writes my workouts, each minute is accounted for, as opposed to, ‘Oh, just ride out to suchand-such place.’”
This is the benefit that all triathletes who are sold on indoor cycling point to. Riding inside is conducive to “highquality” training. There are no stoplights to stop for, no descents to coast down, and no other cyclists to draft behind. Motorists cannot distract you from the task at hand, weather conditions cannot slow you down. The idiosyncrasies of the roads do not affect your workout. Instead, you are free to perform exactly the workout you design. Beyond all that, the indoor trainer, much as the pool does with swimmers, encourages athletes to divide their workouts into variable-intensity segments to stave off the boredom of training in a confined space. Consequently, athletes spend more time working at higher intensities on indoor trainers than they do outdoors— and they get fitter in the process. It’s probably no coincidence that triathletes with swimming backgrounds, like Kessler and Potts, are leading the indoor cycling trend. “I think it was my mentality of growing up as a swimmer,” Potts answered when asked why he chose to buck tradition and ride exclusively indoors at the start of his multisport career. “I didn’t have any problem following a black line. Mentally it doesn’t exhaust me—it doesn’t drain me. I’m able to engage my mind in other things while I’m doing that activity. So it almost became a challenge.” It would take an impossible experiment in which Potts cloned himself and trained outdoors to determine whether his indoor routine gave him the best possible race results. But the results he’s achieved suggest it didn’t hold him back. Most notably, Potts scorched a 2:04:28 bike split to set himself up for victory in the 2007 Ironman World Championship 70.3.
• Until 2009, Potts did all his bike training indoors.
While Potts has taken triathlon’s indoor cycling trend to its ultimate extreme, he did not start the trend. That distinction clearly belongs to former pro and longtime coach Troy Jacobson. Back in 1992, when Jacobson was just 23 years old, he taught an indoor cycling class for competitive cyclists and triathletes in the Baltimore area.
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“My first class was at a Performance Bike shop and I had three people who paid me $3 each,” he recalls. “Within a month I had over 25 people at that Wednesday night class and was giving other classes at different shops on other nights throughout the week.The athletes brought their bikes and trainers and loved the intensity and camaraderie.” Less than two years later an executive at the advertising agency representing indoor cycling equipment manufacturer CycleOps took one of Jacobson’s classes and loved it. He put Jacobson in touch with the principals at CycleOps and in 1995 the two sides partnered on a video called “Cyclerobx.” Featuring an all-star cast of guest instructors, including Ironman world champions Greg Welch and Karen Smyers, the video sold tens of thousands of copies. Inspired by this success, Jacobson lined up his own investors in 1997 and
began filming a series of indoor cycling workout videos called “Spinervals,” which proved equally successful. “Now we have over 40 DVDs and international distribution and we’ve sold several hundred thousand copies,” says Jacobson, who proudly notes that his Spinervals brand is now used generically in reference to serious indoor cycling workouts. Now based in Tucson, Ariz., Jacobson coaches triathletes across the country and beyond. He encourages them to do some, but not all, of their bike training indoors. “Most of the athletes I coach use the trainer two to three times a week,” he says. For him, coaching these workouts is as easy as telling them which “Spinervals” video to put in the DVD player. “I can tell them to do Spinervals 12 for a nice recovery ride or Spinervals 22 for a great time trial/tempo ride,” Jacobson says. Because indoor cycling has a long
RULE NO. 2: DON’T TAKE IT TOO FAR.
• In 2010, Potts added a little outdoor riding into his regimen.
history in triathlon, the most effective ways to do it have been pretty well worked out. So if you’d like to implement indoor training into your routine, don’t reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Model your indoor bike training after the recommendations of those who know. RULE NO. 1: GO FOR MAXIMUM TIME EFFICIENCY.
Incorporating indoor cycling into your training presents an ideal opportunity to trim the waste that more than likely exists in your current routine. Increasing the time efficiency of your bike training starts with trading some volume for intensity, but it goes beyond that. “The approach I’ve taken is to incorporate a modest increase in training intensity (more time at threshold across all three disciplines and more time above threshold as well) and an increased focus on specificity,” says Chris Carmichael, author of “The Time-Crunched Triathlete.” “That’s why the majority of the workouts in ‘The Time-Crunched Triathlete’ are brick workouts.” Both Kessler and Potts do a short to mid-length run after every indoor ride to maximize the fitness bang they get for their workout buck. “When I do clinics I tell people that if you have an hour and a half to work out,
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you’re better off doing a one-hour indoor ride and a 20-minute run than a 90-minute outdoor ride,” Potts says. The amount of riding time you slash and the amount of high-intensity riding you add should depend on individual considerations. You’ll definitely want to retain one weekly endurance ride that’s long enough to give you the endurance you need to go the full race distance. Two high-intensity indoor rides per week are appropriate for most triathletes. None of these rides needs to last longer than an hour. In 2009, inspired by the likes of Kessler, Stewart and Potts, I transitioned to a bike training regimen that consisted of three one-hour indoor rides and one long outdoor ride (up to five-and-a-half hours) per week. Two of those indoor rides were high intensity. One was some form of threshold ride (e.g. 30 minutes easy, 30 minutes at lactate threshold intensity) and the other was some form of interval ride (e.g. 12-minute warm-up, 12x1-minute sprints with 2-minute spin recoveries, 12-minute cool-down). This regimen represented a 20 percent reduction in my previous cycling volume, and yet, at age 38, it lifted my bike performance to a new lifetime high. I was sold.
After riding exclusively indoors for several years, Potts incorporated some outdoor cycling into his training last year, and plans to continue. Why? “It helped my bike handling a little,” he says. “I think it helped a bit with my cadence, too. I feel you can get lulled into a grinding cadence on a Computrainer. It also helps with the mental game of battling elements and conditions. And physiologically I’m able to push higher watts outside than inside.” It only makes sense: Since you race outdoors, you need to do some training outdoors. Failure to do so will leave you less than ideally prepared for the elements of outdoor cycling that are different from indoor cycling. RULE NO. 3: CONSIDER A GROUP BOOST.
If riding indoors is a trend in triathlon, then riding indoors in a group setting—as Kessler and Stewart do at Velo SF—is a trend within that trend. Of course, indoor cycling classes have existed for a long time, but indoor cycling classes designed especially for competitive endurance athletes are much newer. The typical fitness club Spin class is a good workout, but not a triathlon-specific workout. Those who sign up don’t use their own bikes and can’t use power to monitor and control their workout intensity. The workouts themselves don’t focus on the intensities that triathletes need to develop, are not progressive and often are not challenging enough for serious triathletes.
“When I do clinics I tell people that if you have an hour and a half to work out, you’re better off doing a onehour indoor ride and a 20-minute run than a 90-minute outdoor ride.” —Andy Potts
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• Potts does a run after every indoor ride for added fitness.
All across the country, endurance performance centers are opening their doors for business and offering group indoor cycling workouts for athletes, typically alongside other classes and services such as functional strength workouts and physiological testing. In addition to Velo SF in San Francisco, there’s Aire Urban Performance Co Operative in San Diego, Tri on the Run Fitness Center in Houston, and Target Training in Westport, Conn., to name a few. Henry Heisler is an IT project manager and age-group triathlete who frequently rides indoors at Well-Fit, an endurance
“When I get on the bike, it’s very dedicated riding. It’s very focused. Everything is written down to the minute. When my coach writes my workouts, each minute is accounted for, as opposed to, ‘Oh, just ride out to suchand-such place.’” —Potts
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sports training facility in Chicago. He says, “The advantage to group cycling workouts versus riding at home is the motivation provided by a group, especially for the more challenging strength or intensity workouts. “The social aspect is great too,” Heisler adds. “When you’re on Computrainers for a couple of hours and sitting a few feet apart, there are all kinds of conversations happening. Since you’re indoors, talking to the person riding next to you is easy. I’ve made many friends and found a lot of new training partners during those indoor rides, especially early in the year when Chicago is cold and riding indoors at WellFit is that much more attractive.” While group indoor riding offers clear advantages compared to solitary indoor riding, some coaches believe that there is also a disadvantage and that group indoor riding should not be done to the exclusion of solitary indoor riding. “Indoor training by yourself requires a great deal of focus,” says Carmichael, “and triathletes—especially Ironman triathletes—need to learn how to be alone with themselves and how to stay motivated to push themselves. To develop as a complete athlete, I think people need to spend time training both in groups and solo.”
There are no absolutes in triathlon training. There is no single type of training that is so good it should become your only way of training. But indoor cycling appears to be a better way of training than it was previously thought to be. That’s why more triathletes are doing more of it lately, and it’s why you might need to consider doing more indoor cycling yourself. i Fitzgerald is a contributing editor to Inside Triathlon. He has written 18 books. He last wrote about six-time Ironman world champion Dave Scott.
INTO THESTORM AMERICA’S BEST ITU RACER IN 2010 HAS SOME LOFTY GOALS FOR 2012 By Courtney Baird Photos by Nick Salazar
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• Chrabot now lives at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
olympic hopeful Matt Chrabot (pronounced shär-bòt) has a skill in his back pocket that is coveted by many but which cannot be taught: he can handle variables— huge ocean swells, blistering temperatures, freezing rain and anything else that can disrupt an athlete’s focus and wreak havoc on results.
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Part of the reason why Chrabot was the fastest American at the ITU World Championship Grand Final in Budapest, Hungary, last year was it poured before the race began and the streets were filled with potholes. Many athletes crashed, lost focus or cramped up in the cold. Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker, who was ranked ahead of Chrabot going into Budapest and who was a contender for the podium, finished 51st, later telling Inside Triathlon that he simply succumbed to the rain. Chrabot placed 16th, earning him a final world ranking of 12th, 39 spots better than where he landed in 2009, and the highest slot for an American in 2010. “Matt just thrives on [variables],” his long-time coach, Melissa Mantak, said. “He reminds me of what I’ve read and know about Lance Armstrong. The greater the adversity, the better he did. I’m reminded of when we were in Miami for the Miami [International] Triathlon in March. We got out of the car and it was dark and cold and the wind was howling. The first thing Matt said was, ‘I love the wind.’” Chrabot went on to win the race, beating Chris Lieto, Olympian Matt Reed and twotime Olympic medalist Bevan Docherty in the process. Chrabot has long demonstrated his predilection for challenges and adversity. During his college days, he used to tell his teammates on the George Mason University swim team in Virginia to “go back to baby school” if they ever complained during a hard workout. This ability to handle whatever is thrown at him has undoubtedly been instrumental in helping him claw his way to the top of
• “Matt’s probably the most methodical, complete
athlete I’ve ever met,” a former pro said.
the U.S. triathlon heap. Especially since he started his climb at the very bottom. In 2005, Chrabot raced his first event as a pro: the USAT Elite National Championship in Bellingham, Wash. He got annihilated—he was 28th out of the 36 men who finished, and he was 15 minutes behind the winner, threetime Olympian Hunter Kemper. “I thought I was strong on the bike, but I wasn’t. I thought I was a good runner, but I wasn’t,” Chrabot said about the race. “I got almost dead last.” After the race, Chrabot returned to Virginia Beach, Va., where he lived with his parents.
the same time, he found himself being invited to training camps sponsored by USAT. Technically, Chrabot wasn’t eligible for the camps because his results weren’t good enough. But the USAT elite national team coach at the time, Cliff English, took a liking to Chrabot. He admired his work ethic and courage, and that he listened, asked good questions and made use of the information that was given to him. “I just kept pushing to have him invited back,” English added. By the fall of 2008, Chrabot had earned resident status at the OTC, where he still lives in a dorm room. Still, Chrabot’s results were nothing to get excited over. “I was like, ‘All right, fine. I’m going “I was just having a to do nationals and I’m going to win hard time cracking into the top 20,” nationals.’”—Chrabot Chrabot said. “Like, I just couldn’t do it. And after a bad race in Kitzbühel [AusUndeterred by what he called a “rude awakentria, in 2009], I was like, ‘I really have to pull ing,” he decided to forgo the job opportunimyself together if I want to make something ties his former college buddies were offering of myself.’ Otherwise, I felt like I was just gohim and concentrate on triathlon. He began ing to eventually get washed away and never to pester USAT for information on how to really accomplish any of my goals.” become an Olympian and how to get a coach. He asked USAT if he could do the ITU After much nagging (Chrabot’s words), USAT World Championship Series race in Yokohooked him up with Mantak in 2007. Around hama, Japan, because that was near where 54 insidetriathlon
his father, a dental officer in the Navy, was stationed. They told him no. Instead, he had to race the 2009 USAT Elite National Championship in Tuscaloosa, Ala. “I was like, ‘All right, fine. I’m going to do nationals and I’m going to win nationals,’” Chrabot said. Which is exactly what he did, by breaking away with Brian Fleischmann on his best leg—the bike—and beginning the run with a 30-second lead over the chase pack. The win was a surprise to outsiders, and some dismissed it as nothing to brag about, as the field that year was relatively weak. But Chrabot backed up the victory by opening his 2010 season with a ninth-place finish at the Sydney leg of the ITU World Championship Series, over Kemper and every other American who entered. The highlight of last year’s season came in Kitzbühel, where Chrabot finished fourth by breaking away on the bike with eventual winner Stuart Hayes of Great Britain and three other athletes. It was the best finish by an American on the ITU circuit in 2010. To cap everything off, he went down to Mexico after Budapest and won the Pan American Championships, the second PanAm title of his career. (Mexico’s notorious heat no doubt played a part in Chrabot’s victory.) Chrabot hopes to use his 2010 successes as a springboard toward overcoming his biggest obstacle yet, one that’s bigger than any pothole or ice storm or muggy race he’s ever
Chrabot has long demonstrated his predilection for challenges and adversity. During his college days, he used to tell his teammates on the George Mason University swim team in Virginia to “go back to baby school” if they ever complained during a hard workout.
• Chrabot is working with one of the world’s premier swim coaches on his stroke.
56 INSIDETRIATHLON
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• Chrabot has sought the advice
of experts at the Michael Johnson Performance Center.
grappled with: the 2012 London Olympics. Because Chrabot doesn’t just want to qualify for the Olympics. He wants to win. That’s right. He wants to win. For those of you who follow the ITU, this goal might seem a little brazen for someone who hasn’t yet qualified for the Olympics and who has never even won a World Championship Series event. And although it’s early and extremely difficult to predict the 2012 gold medalist, right now it’s hard to bet against the sport’s most dominant draft-legal triathletes: Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee and Spain’s Javier Gomez. Brownlee has proven himself unbeatable when he is on his game, and Gomez will no doubt be out for revenge after coming in fourth at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he was the heavy favorite. Chrabot is well aware of his status as a severe underdog: “Even if a gold medal isn’t realistic, I sure as hell better try. Otherwise, I’d be wasting my time and everyone else’s time,” he said. He’s also one to follow the mantra that he had better shoot for the stars and be OK with biting off more than he can chew. If history has taught us one fact about the Olympics it’s that anything can happen (see Simon Whitfield, Jan Frodeno, Billy Mills, Abebe Bikila). The games are still a year and a half away, and a lot can happen between now and then—injuries, significant improvements, confidence-building breakthroughs, personal issues—you name it. 58 insidetriathlon
But Chrabot’s Olympic obstacle is more than just beating Brownlee and Gomez and Frodeno and Docherty and Whitfield and Shoemaker and Tim Don and Jonathan Brownlee and any of the other medal contenders out there. He has to beat them on a flat course that’s the exact opposite of what his racing style is suited for. While some ITU athletes—even strong cyclists—are known for conserving on the bike so they can be fresh for the run, Chrabot has a reputation for going balls to the wall from start to finish. He’s adopted the viewpoint that if he’s going to have any shot at winning, he’s going to have to earn it by breaking away on the bike. Because, right now, he can hang with the sport’s best cyclists but he’ll never win an open 10K against the sport’s best runners. “[Matt] pushes himself and doesn’t hold back. He’s a champion in that sense,” coach English said. “One day he will get that major win by racing aggressively like that. I have a lot of respect for how he races and trains.” Hayes, the man who won in Kitzbühel last year, has a similar viewpoint on Chrabot’s racing style. “I have huge respect for Matt and one day he will win something big,” Hayes said. “Matt gives it his all and doesn’t leave anything behind on race day.” Given Chrabot’s racing style and prowess on the bike, the courses that suit him best are ones with lots of hills and steep climbs—the ones that make breakaways more likely. But the direction the ITU has recently taken in
creating its races is toward flat courses in major metropolises, designed to be spectatorfriendly and for pretty pictures. Knowing what he’s up against, Chrabot has become one of the most outspoken critics against the ITU’s recent venue choices. The day before last year’s race in Kitzbühel, for example, he wrote a post on his blog about how the ITU is pandering to the sport’s super runners with its flat courses. “Tomorrow we’re racing in the beautiful town of Kitzbühel—in a valley surrounded by the Alps and epic climbs,” Chrabot, who would finish fourth the following day, wrote. “There won’t be any of that in our race though.You’ll see it in the background, but we won’t be there.” In another section of the blog, Chrabot wrote: “Big city, big crowds? It ends up being boring, crappy racing.You don’t need incredible background scenery to come up with an epic race. It’s the same thing every time. The same guys in the top 10. If the viewers want to watch something with beautiful background scenery, don’t you think they’d watch the Discovery Channel instead?” Chrabot says he got a lot of positive comments from his peers after he had his say. And the ITU is listening. “Right after I wrote that blog in Kitzbühel, I met with some of the ITU guys and they were like, ‘Next year we want to change the course in Kitzbühel—we even talked to the race organizers,’” Chrabot said.
“Living here, you see the Olympic rings … They just kind of stare at you. If you’re not careful, they’ll burn right through your eyes and poison you.”—Chrabot
• Chrabot has been toying with the Wattbike in search of that “extra 1 percent.”
60 INSIDETRIATHLON
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• Chrabot has been one of the most outspoken critics of the ITU’s recent venue choices.
For the ITU’s part, it has been focusing on making the bike more of a factor in its premier series. “We want to make the bike part of the race more exciting and add more drama,” said Paul Coleman, managing director of the ITU’s World Championship Series. “We want to give opportunities to athletes to create breakaways and make it more significant. The difficulty is the series has been up and running for two years, and we haven’t got completely the ideal solution right now.” Coleman says he’s talked with city officials in Kitzbühel about what they’d need to do to make the course more challenging, including paving certain roads.The ITU is working on it, he said. But Chrabot’s quest for change—whatever it accomplishes in the grand scheme of the ITU—isn’t going to make the flat course at the 2012 Olympics suddenly erupt into hills. As Chrabot says, right now, what he has to worry about most is “running fast in London.” To do this, Chrabot and his coach are exploring every potential avenue of improvement. As his coach puts it: “It takes a village to create an elite athlete.” And she and Chrabot are currently auditioning residents for that village by talking to just about every expert in the field of endurance sports. For example, Chrabot and Mantak have spent some time in Dallas at the Michael Johnson Performance Center, a training center founded by track and field’s 400-meter world record holder, Michael Johnson. 62 insidetriathlon
There, Chrabot underwent a running form analysis and had experts look at aspects of his stride, such as where he’s losing power and the differences between how he uses his right and left leg. He also underwent strength and agility testing and received a strength-training regimen meant to correct his imbalances. Chrabot is also working on his swim technique with Genadijus Sokolovas, Ph.D., who has engineered a unique test that measures a swimmer’s force, velocity, acceleration and power, and determines where the swimmer’s stroke is failing. Everyone from Michael Phelps to three-time Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin to the ageless Dara Torres has sought Sokolovas for his advice. (For more information on Sokolovas’ test, called the GST Swim Power Test, see page 64.) At home at the OTC, Chrabot regularly dabbles with toys that can potentially give him that “extra 1 percent” that will drive him over the top, he said. He spent some time in 2009 treadmill running with supplemental oxygen, allowing him to train at sea-level intensity while in Colorado Springs. After the 2010 season, Chrabot began working with the Wattbike, a machine designed to, among other things, help athletes rid themselves of dead spots in their pedal strokes and enhance their pedaling technique. Chrabot pays methodical attention to recovery, as well. He gets about nine hours of sleep a night and naps almost daily. He takes regular ice baths and makes use of the foam
roller. He receives more than two hours of massage a week for free from Great Moves Physical Therapy in Colorado Springs and from one of its massage therapists, Robby Dolby. And he regularly visits the OTC’s onsite chiropractors. “Matt’s probably the most methodical, complete athlete I’ve ever met,” said Dolby, who is a former pro cyclist, Chrabot’s good friend, and who also works as Chrabot’s motor pacer. “He really puts a lot of time into putting the program together and analyzing it and realizing when to make changes.” Chrabot isn’t one to ignore the mental aspect of racing, either, often visiting an on-site sports psychologist. He does this partly because living at the OTC, with all its advantages, can also wear on you. “Living here, you see the Olympic rings … They just kind of stare at you. If you’re not careful, they’ll burn right through your eyes and poison you,” Chrabot said. But for all of Chrabot’s preparation—for all the hours he spends on his stride and stroke and pedal mechanics and in the pool and on the trails—the one tool in his racing arsenal that could very well see him through come 2012 is the one he already has: his ability to handle variables and stand up to adversity. Because there isn’t a race out there with more variables than the Olympics. And as his coach says, “If it rains in London, it will be his day.” i
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If Olympic hopeful Matt Chrabot wants to have a shot at gold in London, he’s going to have to improve his 1,500-meter swim time by 10 to 20 seconds. To help him do this, he has elicited the help of Genadijus Sokolovas, Ph.D., who has created what he calls the GST Swim Power Test. This test, which has been used by 25 Olympic gold medalists including Michael Phelps, measures the velocity, force, acceleration and power of each phase of a swimmer’s stroke. This data is synchronized with an underwater video of the swimmer in real time. To take the test, a swimmer is connected to a machine via a string. While he swims, the machine is measuring about 30 different aspects of the swimmer’s stroke 60 times per second. After the test is taken, Sokolovas analyzes the swimmer’s stroke and can immediately recommend drills. He later provides the swimmer with an in-depth analysis of his stroke, partly by comparing his stroke against a database of many of the world’s best swimmers. Because each swimmer is unique, every swimmer comes away from the test with a different set of drills and different cues to think about. A swimmer can actually worsen his stroke by doing drills incorrectly, so the test is especially beneficial for athletes who have limited information on where they’re going wrong.
Some of the flaws that Sokolovas discovered in Chrabot’s stroke were:
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Chrabot loses velocity when he breathes. This is partly because he is using his arm to balance himself in the water when he breathes, instead of rotating with his core. “A lot of swimmers swim with their arms,” Sokolovas said. “In fact, swimming should be done from the core. Fish don’t have arms, but they’re swimming fast.” When swimming, Chrabot should imagine that his spine is a pipe and that it is rotating while he moves forward. Sokolovas recommends that Chrabot swim with a pull buoy between his ankles to help him develop the feeling of swimming from his core. Chrabot’s head moves a little to the side while he’s breathing instead of staying aligned with his spine. This creates drag. Sokolovas recommends that Chrabot do a drill where he kicks with fins and with both arms at his sides. That way, he can practice breathing on both sides while keeping his head aligned with his spine.
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3
Chrabot’s breathing takes too long, causing him to lose balance. To change this, he needs to practice exhaling earlier in his stroke, so that when he takes a breath, he’ll breathe in air more quickly. Sokolovas recommends that he should strengthen his respiratory muscles while wearing a snorkel. Chrabot reaches his peak velocity in the middle of his stroke. But he should be reaching peak velocity at the end. Sokolovas recommends that Chrabot use stretch cords to strengthen his arms so that he can apply the most amount of force at the end of his stroke. Chrabot’s right arm is more powerful than his left, which could be because it’s stronger than his left arm or because he’s not catching the water as well with his left arm (or both). Sokolovas recommends that Chrabot swim with a paddle on his left hand only, thus strengthening his left arm. He will also be able to get a better feel for the water with the paddle, as it will give him a heightened sense of the position of his hand in the water.
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GOING FULL THROTTLE A motley mix of bankers, executives, a former TV star, an Iraq war veteran and everything in between is coming to a race near you. And they’re going to beat you. By Petra Bartosiewicz Photos by Erick Rasco
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W
hen I ask Bill Kelly what makes New York City’s Full Throttle Endurance Training and Racing Club so special, he immediately launches into a drinking story. It’s about a particular night before the USAT Club National Championship, and, suffice it to say, it involves some of his teammates and a lot of red wine and a race day spent “puking on my singlet.” Kelly, a kinetic 47-year-old asset manager, pauses for dramatic emphasis before delivering the punch line: “I still won my age group, of course.” If that were the only story you ever heard about Full Throttle Endurance, you’d be forgiven for getting the impression that the team’s 100 or so members are merely partiers who happen to race triathlon. In reality, as any Full Throttle athlete will attest, after-hours revelry does not excuse you from daily team practices
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that commence at the unforgiving hour of 5:45 a.m. Full Throttle Endurance, it turns out, is one of the most hardcore amateur triathlon racing clubs in the country. Kelly and I sit at the bar of the Pop Burger restaurant and lounge in Manhattan’s hip Meatpacking District, where Full Throttle is celebrating the end of the season with miniburgers and beers while a video slideshow of the team’s triumphs is being projected on a nearby wall. The dozens of team members in attendance whoop and holler at the familiar faces and the scenes at the finish line. There’s plenty to celebrate this year. The team has won its fourth consecutive USAT Club National Division IV Championship title. Among their ranks are some of the best amateurs in the country: Jesse Du Bey, 34 years old and the first amateur at the 2010 Ironman 70.3 St. Croix; Doug Clark, 42 years old and a
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1. Doug Clark, 2. Andrew Kalley, 3. Dave Powers, 4. Dan Ownes, 5. Rick Krupa, 6. Mikael Hanson, 7. Bill Kelly, 8. Stacy Creamer, 9. Scott Berlinger
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2008, 2009 and 2010 USAT masters national champion, as well as the 2009 Ironman M4044 world champion; Stacy Creamer, 51 years old and first female amateur at the 2010 Nautica New York City Triathlon and third in her age group in the 2010 ITU Duathlon World Championships in Scotland. Kelly, drinking exploits notwithstanding, is a regular first team All-American and the 2009 overall winner of the Mighty Montauk Triathlon in Long Island; he is the oldest person ever to win that race. Full Throttle’s success is in no small part due to the team’s founder and head coach,
Scott Berlinger, 44, a former amateur bodybuilder and spandex-clad star of the television show “American Gladiator.” In 2005, the year Full Throttle began competing as a team, he was named one of the top five trainers in the country by Men’s Journal. Part cheerleader, part drill sergeant, part class clown, Berlinger built the team up from an original squad of 12 members. Today, among the members of “Full Throttle Nation,” as he has dubbed it, are Wall Street bankers and brokers—as Type-A as the city they call home—and a diverse cast of athletes that includes a Jesuit priest, a two-tour Iraq War
veteran and a former adult film star. “You’ll find athletes here with $100 million in the bank, and those just scraping by to make rent,” says one of the Full Throttle team members. As the slide show fades out, Berlinger takes to the floor as master of ceremonies to hand out the team awards, greeting his crew of “alpha narcissists.” Among those alphas, though hardly a narcissist, is the “most valuable female athlete,” Creamer, who joined the team full-time in January 2010 and quickly racked up an impressive number of podium finishes, including winning her age group at the Nautica South Beach Triathlon by 24 minutes. “She basically wins her division in everything, every year,” said Berlinger. “She’s a machine.” Creamer runs the Touchstone imprint at the Simon and Schuster publishing house, where among her many duties she edits memoirs penned by the likes of Billy Idol, Rick Springfield, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas and Lance Armstrong (whom she managed to sign
“We’re going to look back at some point and see that [elite] amateurs as a whole are all overtrained. The idea is to optimize for quality.” —Jesse Du Bey
just two days before his first Tour de France win). When she first heard about the team, she had no intention of joining. “I said, ‘If you think I’m joining a team of guys that calls themselves “Full Throttle” you’re crazy,’” said Creamer. Now she races to the front of the room to pick up her award with the enthusiasm you might expect if she’d just bested Chrissie Wellington. Like a lot of people who find their way to triathlon, Creamer started in the sport later in life, when the benefits of cross-training become more and more appealing. She was
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The bulk of Full Throttle’s training takes place at Chelsea Piers, a gym on Manhattan’s West Side.
already a decorated duathlete by the time she joined Full Throttle, winning her age group at the 2008 USAT Duathlon National Championship. Creamer logs approximately 50 miles of running a week each year, in addition to her biking and swim training. But she’s not complaining. “My friends think I’ve joined a cult or the Marines, but I love it,” she said. *** If joining Full Throttle Endurance is like enlisting with the Marines, then Day 1 of boot camp arrives each year on a bleary-eyed morning in early January. Regular practices begin right after New Year’s Day, with a 5:45 a.m. swim practice followed by a five- to seven-mile run. During the frigid early months the team does much of its training indoors, focusing on strength building with Thera-Bands and weights, core conditioning and volume work. Within eight weeks they begin to add plyometric strength training and regular Wednesday interval workouts— what Berlinger likes to call “building the pain bank.” And there are swimming and running workouts three days a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In the pool Berlinger has his team focus on technique work as well as distance. The swim and run days are interspersed by cycling days, with additional swimming, biking and running packed in individually on weekends. The bulk of this training takes place at Chelsea Piers, a stateof-the-art multisport athletic facility on Manhattan’s West Side. Full Throttle is, in a sense, the Chelsea Piers “home team,” evidenced by the enormous banners that hang from the rafters detailing the team’s major victories in recent years. When I meet Berlinger there he gives me a quick tour of the main gym, which comes complete with a six-lane, 25-yard swimming pool that sits perched just above the impressive expanse of the Hudson River. We walk past the only 400-meter indoor private gym track in the Northeast, where the team can often be found doing its midweek interval workouts. We sit at the gym’s in-house café, which serves a drink not listed on the menu but which is known simply as “The Drew.” It’s a concoction favored by one of Full Throttle’s coaches, Andrew Kalley. Café manager Doug Dougherty tells me that when regular gym goers started noticing that Kalley and then the rest of the team were ordering the drink—an iced combination
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Full Throttle members “train to race,” says the team’s head coach, Scott Berlinger.
of skim milk, peanut butter, a banana and a scoop of flavored protein powder—they, too, began to order it, asking for “whatever it is the team is having.” It’s now the most popular drink at the gym. Berlinger owns Full Throttle and runs the programming and training, but the team receives sponsorship from various sources. Training space comes from Chelsea Piers, and the team’s sizable travel expenses for races and equipment are paid for by training and membership fees and by sponsors Berlinger has attracted, among them companies such as Jamis Bicycles and nutrition company Twinlab Corp. Much of his hour-and-a-half commute home to Northwestern Connecticut, where he lives with his wife and two children, is spent on the phone trying to wrangle sponsor money for the team. In the stationary cycling room he has installed a new heart rate monitoring system that he got from Suunto, another of the team’s sponsors. The system hooks up 74 INSIDETRIATHLON
to each athlete in the room and displays his heart rate on an overhead monitor. Berlinger says a big part of his job is to see that his alpha-prone athletes don’t overtrain. Hence the heart rate monitors are often put to use not to catch slackers but to make sure individuals aren’t pushing themselves too hard. The pitfalls of overtraining were also stressed by a number of the athletes I spoke to. “You don’t have to train for more than 12 to 13 hours a week for a half-Ironman or even for an Ironman,” said Du Bey, who recommends taking one day entirely off from training a week and reserving one day for light or easy training. “We’re going to look back at some point and see that
[elite] amateurs as a whole are all overtrained. The idea is to optimize for quality.” Du Bey points to one of the team’s stars, Doug Clark, as an example of efficient use of limited training time. “Doug doesn’t train half as many hours as other top guys in the country. He’s always warming up, cooling down or going hard.” It turns out that Clark, a software engineer living in Morristown, N.J., gets in half of his training during his commute, running the 11.5 miles regularly, jumping into a pool for a swim en route. More concerned about time spent with family and work than triathlon, he averaged 10 hours of training per week in 2010.
“[Stacy] basically wins her division in everything, every year. She’s a machine.” —Scott Berlinger
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*** Berlinger got hooked on triathlons in 2000, after he tried one on a dare and tanked badly. His competitive spirit was sparked, and he decided to see how good he could get—the result being that today he’s a nationally ranked triathlete in the Clydesdale division.
“The tryout was like tackle football with no pads. You just went game to game knocking the snot out of people. It turns out I loved knocking the snot out of people.” —Berlinger
It’s not the first challenge Berlinger took up on a dare. His stint on the show “American Gladiators”—a now cult-classic 1990s television program that involved various physical challenges that pitted a group of amateurs against the show’s “gladiators”—came shortly after he’d moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting post-college. One day he and a buddy were sitting at home watching television when a casting call ad for the show came on. His friend chided him to go for it. “Over a thousand people came out for two spots,” recalls Berlinger. “The tryout was like tackle football with no pads. You just went game to game knocking the snot out of people. It turns out I loved knocking the snot out of people.” At the time Berlinger was training heavily as an amateur bodybuilder, a sport he’d competed in while at the University of South Carolina. His bulked-up physique no doubt helped him land the role as “Viper,” which he played with a mane of frosty blond hair held back by a headband. “It was not bad for being 25 years old,” says Berlinger. “I was making $70,000 a year and being treated like a rock star. I had my own trailer.” Still, the shooting schedule was brutal: 32 shows in 16 days. It left him with two broken thumbs and a broken shoulder. These days Berlinger is up at 3:30 every morning to make the drive in for the early morning practices. “We train to race,” says Berlinger. He helps each athlete decide preseason which races they will enter. The goal, he says, is to train and race in such a way that his athletes peak during two select races a year: generally the New York City Triathlon, 76 INSIDETRIATHLON
which comes in July, and, for those who qualify, the USAT National Championship, or the USAT Club National Championship. The traditional season opener for the team is the Nautica South Beach in Miami in mid-April. The team has a specially builtout trailer that transports the bikes down to Florida, allowing the athletes to fly in and out easily. The race “breaks the rust off ” and serves as a benchmark to let Berlinger know how each athlete is doing. The second major “B” race comes a few months later in June: the annual Mighty Montauk in Long Island Sound, where Berlinger says the water is sometimes so frigid that the participants can’t strap their helmets on because their hands are shaking so much. Berlinger aims to get the team members racing once every two weeks as the season kicks into high gear. When they’re not working out or racing, they’re perfecting their bike technique. The team coaches are known as cycling specialists, and Berlinger says there’s about a one-year learning curve for new triathletes on the bike. “Time in the saddle is key for the bike portion of the race,” he says.
Equally critical, he says, are quick transitions. He cites Kalley, who last year—when he wasn’t coaching—won both the Mighty Montauk and the Stamford triathlons. Even though Kalley didn’t put together the fastest overall swim, bike and run in each race, he beat everyone by posting faster transitions. By mid-July the team is near peak racing shape, just in time for the New York City Triathlon, which draws more than 3,000 competitors annually. The New York City race is a matter of local pride for Full Throttle. It begins at first light as the competitors wade into the Hudson River at 98th Street and swim south before emerging at the 79th Street Boat Basin, running three or four city blocks in bare feet to T1 and then cycling uptown along the Henry Hudson and Mosholu Parkway before turning back downtown. The running portion of the race enters Central Park near the famed Dakota Building and loops clockwise around the park before the grand finish at the Central Park Naumburg Bandshell. Several weeks later comes the season’s crescendo at the age group and club nation-
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Robertson, a new team member, tells me that he joined simply because he knew there was no other way to push himself to do the necessary training. “Triathlon can be a very isolating sport, so having a team atmosphere, having people push you every day, is crucial,” he said. “I’m not a morning person, but I am a routine person. There’s definitely times when you say, ‘I’m not going to get up today,’ but you know if you miss the next day you’ll get razzed.” A similar sentiment is expressed by Zach Iscol, a 32-year-old, two-tour Iraq War veteran who joined the Marines just out of college. Upon his return from the war he moved to Manhattan and joined the gym at Chelsea Piers to stay in shape. “I started working out earlier in the day, swimming a lot. Whenever I showed up at the pool there was always one guy on the deck screaming at everyone,” said Iscol. That guy turned out to be Berlinger, and when Iscol approached him he was persuaded to give the team a test run. He tried it and was hooked. “I missed the camaraderie of the Marines,” he told me. “A lot of my friends think I’m crazy, but the best part of my day is getting up early. The first reaction when the alarm goes off is, ‘Oh god no.’ But then you realize where you’re headed.” i
“My friends think I’ve joined a cult or the Marines, but I love it.” —Stacy Creamer
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al championships. The 2010 results for the Full Throttle team are impressive: Doug Clark, the man who balances triathlon with work and family by logging half his training on a daily commute to work, is second overall at age group nationals, sandwiched in between 20-something youngsters priming to go pro. He posts the fastest bike split of the day. At the same race, Luke Tuddenham qualifies for the age group world championships in Beijing. At the USAT Club National Championship, where bragging rights among the nation’s club teams are at stake, Full Throttle wins the overall title for the fourth year in a row. Fifteen athletes win their age group in their respective race, including Creamer, Kelly and coaches Berlinger and Kalley. Rick Krupa, a Full Throttle coach, wins the overall title in the sprint race. The athletes will tell you, however, that what keeps them coming back year after year are not just the scenes of racing glory. The night of the party at Pop Burger, Bill
Despite Full Throttle’s impressive race results, athletes keep coming back for the camaraderie, they say.
WHO’S GOT YOUR BACK?
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THE MENT there’s a subtle reason why the best
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TAL GAME pros manage to stay on top: the mind.
By TorBjørn SindBalle
illuSTraTionS By n.C. WinTerS
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The controversial coach Brett Sutton has churned out many world and Ironman champions. Many of his athletes—past and present—are perennial podium finishers and the best of the best. ¶ While Sutton is well known for his outstanding results, what he is perhaps less famous for is his ability to instill mental toughness into his athletes— for his psychology. ¶ “When you go for eight or nine hours [in an Ironman], there are a lot of places with dark and unlit streets,” he said. “People don’t train athletes to go to those places.” ¶ With Sutton, every athlete is unique, and he treats everyone differently, being a teddy bear to some and authoritarian to others, he said. When Chrissie Wellington showed up at his Team TBB training camp in the Philippines in early 2007, Sutton “challenged her at every inch,” he said. So much so, that the “first three months were horrendous.” Because Wellington had only given herself a 12-month window to succeed in triathlon, Sutton “hit her with everything that takes 12 months, psychologically, in a month and a half.” ¶ He says he helped her narrow her focus and develop an approach to training that was like “a laser beam, every day.” He says he helped her become OK with not having a steady paycheck. And he says he helped her tap into her love of adventure, making triathlon a journey for her. After three months of constant combat, something clicked, and Sutton’s task became a breeze. ¶ While Sutton has many detractors—those who say he breaks more athletes than he creates—no one can take away what came from his time with Wellington. During that time, he unlocked the talent of one of the greatest athletes in Ironman history. ¶ Sutton’s relationship with Wellington is a perfect example of what the right psychology can do for an athlete. And while few of us have access to the world’s best psychologists, there are mental tools out there for all of us to use. 82 insidetriathlon
Coaches across a wide range of sports agree that mental toughness is the most critical element to winning. For example, in 1987 Daniel Gould of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and his colleagues found that 82 percent of wrestling coaches rated mental toughness as the most important psychological attribute of success. Despite the importance of developing mental toughness in athletes, sport psychologists have had a hard time defining the term. Recently, Graham Jones and his team at the University of Wales attempted to coalesce the competing definitions by interviewing a long list of Olympic medalists, coaches and sport psychologists across a wide range of sports, including triathlon. They came up with the following definition of mental toughness, which was published in 2002 and 2007: “[Mental toughness is] having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to, generally, cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer and, specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident and in control under pressure.” This definition is still somewhat vague scientifically, but it nevertheless sheds a little light on what it takes, mentally, to become a champion—you must be able to cope with huge workloads and exacting demands as well as handle high-pressure situations. Much of this ability boils down to self-regulation, a psychological term that means regulating your mental state relative to a given situation. For example, when athletes fight for the win or find themselves having to endure a five-hour ride in pouring rain, they must be able to interpret the pain and the pressure in such a way that they are able to maintain, or regain, a positive mental state. This, in turn, helps build their motivation, confidence and focus relative to the task at hand. In short, they need to control what author Tim Gallwey famously called the “inner game”—the game one plays within one’s mind during an athletic event. Triathlon is designed to test mental toughness. At its core, it is about going the distance and overcoming every conceivable obstacle in your way. Many triathletes master the first part of the definition of mental toughness—being able to cope with huge workloads and exacting demands—and have a good handle on hard training and physical pain. The unique positive energy that flows through every event in our sport is a testament to this; in the face of oncoming pain, athletes are able to reframe their minds and create positive mental energy. However, when the heat of the moment arrives during the actual race, some triathletes fall short in the mental toughness department and perform poorly, largely because they have no conscious control over the decisions they make on pacing, race tactics and nutrition. This is somewhat expected as many triathletes—especially
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iron-distance triathletes—participate in only a handful of races each year and thus have limited practice in the art of racing.
MACCA’S MASTERPIECE
The greats in our sport all have a mental edge over the competition. Chris “Macca” McCormack’s 2010 Ironman World Championship win is a perfect example of this, as he had to mentally out-duel Germany’s Andreas Raelert to achieve the victory. After the race, Macca spoke to several news outlets about his win, and his story was a textbook example of how to remain calm and controlled under fire. When Macca entered the Energy Lab in the early afternoon of Oct. 9, 2010, he knew Raelert was steadily closing in, but he still had a lead of more than a minute. At this stage of the race, when severe physical fatigue is imminent, most athletes would likely have gone all out, putting in a surge to try to break the stalking Raelert and force the deciding moment. That way, the relentless pressure would diminish as quickly as possible. But Macca did not use this strategy. Instead, he decided to wait for the German machine and took his time through the hottest part of the course, ensuring his energy and fluid needs were met. After years and years of painful trial and error in Kona, Macca knew that managing energy balance and responding carefully to the signals his body was sending him were the key to success. When Raelert caught him with three miles to go on the Queen
Some dreams are pursued one meter at a time.
After years and years of painful trial and error in Kona, Macca knew that managing energy balance and responding carefully to the signals his body was sending him were the key to success. When Raelert caught him with three miles to go on the Queen K Highway, Macca was mentally energized and ready. K Highway, Macca was mentally energized and ready. He let Raelert close in on him, but he kept running with his shoulder just a notch ahead of Raelert’s as if to tell him, “You can catch me, but you will not get the lead.” Raelert had been on the hunt since the start of the marathon and must have spent oceans of mental energy in the process. As he finally caught McCormack he fought for every inch, but he did not have it in him to make a move. Raelert was left with little other choice than to accept his role in Macca’s mental game. He took a break, getting fluids and energy at the aid stations while the master tactician stayed one step ahead of him and chose not to slow down for drinks. Macca has studied the legends of the sport, the myths and the stories from the past 25 years, and he must have found confidence in the 1989 Iron War between Mark Allen and Dave Scott. During this duel, Allen
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gained the psychological upper hand over Scott in exactly the same way—maintaining drive and momentum in exchange for abstinence. With two miles to go, Macca turned to Raelert and said, “No matter what happens you are still a champion!” He then reached to shake his hand. Macca’s comment is a psychological work of art. At this stage, both of them are physically at their limits—their bodies are broken down and screaming for them to stop moving, and their subconscious is looking for that little excuse that will make giving up acceptable. Consciously or subconsciously, Macca was toying with Raelert’s mind, displaying his mental strength and giving him a lesson in race tactics. As the finish closed in, Macca made his move down the steep drop of Palani Hill, a point in the race where the muscles are shredded. This is the absolute hardest spot on the course to attempt a breakaway, but it’s also a place where he would gain a bit of free speed, given Macca’s slightly larger frame. There was never really any doubt who would win that day.
The average race lasts about two hours. But the experience will last a lifetime.
DEVELOPING MENTAL TOUGHNESS
“It is one of the strange ironies in this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal are the happiest men,” said Brutus Hamilton in 1952. Hamilton was the track and field coach of the 1952 U.S. Olympic team and his words say it all: Hard work is a key element to mental toughness. The simplest and most well-known tool to building mental toughness is killer training sessions. Most of the legendary athletes and coaches in triathlon are famed for favoring torturous workouts. When I was a professional iron-distance triathlete, one of my own favorite workouts in preparation for Kona was a seven-hour time trial at close to race pace. This workout made the 112 miles on the Queen K seem like a training ride. Two-time Ironman world champion Craig Alexander is known for his occasional 2.5-hour-long runs at Ironman race pace in the mountains above Boulder, Colo. (He often runs the final 30 minutes at slightly faster than race pace.) And Sutton is known for training his athletes in a way that makes racing feel easy.
The simplest and most well-known tool to building mental toughness is killer training sessions. Most of the legendary athletes and coaches in triathlon are famed for favoring torturous workouts. When I was a professional irondistance triathlete, one of my own favorite workouts in preparation for Kona was a seven-hour time trial at close to race pace. This workout made the 112 miles on the Queen K seem like a training ride.
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There must be a persistent focus on doing the work and mastering the task at hand rather than the dream of winning. Results can never be controlled—only your effort and level of skill can. If you build your fitness to the highest possible level, pace your race well and make sure you are completely spent at the finish line, feeling certain there was no way you could have run an extra inch—you have reached the limit of your potential that day and whatever results you get, you should be proud of. In his years under Sutton a decade or so ago, Olympian Greg Bennett ran 35 seconds on and 25 seconds off on a treadmill raised 1 degree and going 22 kph (faster than 4:30 pace)—for 2.5 hours straight! The German armada of the mid-1990s—Thomas Hellriegel, Jurgen Zack, Lothar Leder and others—were all part of the German national team under the leadership of Steffen Grosse, who was trained as a coach in East Germany. He demanded an extreme work ethic with 40-hour weeks for months in a row, and he once commanded a 55-hour week during a cross-country ski camp. What’s more, despite the high volume of their training, the athletes would endure massive intensity, such as 20x1 kilometers on the track, where the accumulated amount of talent and type-A personalities helped create a fierce competitive climate, with many training sessions becoming elimination races. Only the best of the best made it through. The results of the group are legendary, but their careers were, in many cases, cut short, largely due to the extreme mental and physical pressure. Racing experience is also a big part of developing mental toughness. Guys like Macca raced countless times on the World Cup circuit and in the American non-drafting classics such as Wildflower, Escape From Alcatraz and the Chicago Triathlon before attempting the iron distance. Because of this background, Macca and others like him grew very familiar with head-to-head racing and what was required to mentally vanquish one’s opponent. Back in the days of the great four—Allen, Scott, Scott Molina and Scott Tinley—it was normal to race a lot during the season. With former ITU guys such as Rasmus Henning—triathletes with heaps of races under their belts—now jumping into the Ironman mix, the iron-distance racing mentality seems to be getting more and more fierce. Sacrifices are another way to foster mental toughness. For example, many of the now dominant Australians started their careers by traveling to the other side of the globe to race back-to-back weekends in Europe. They had no support whatsoever other than their own desire to succeed. They slept in a different bed every few nights and had to endure the pressure that comes from racing for one’s need to put food on the table. Many of them also had to endure constant questioning from their parents, who wondered why they were striving to succeed in a profession with many risks and few rewards. 88 INSIDETRIATHLON
Nevertheless, all of these sacrifices sharpened their mental focus.
THE SCIENCE
The University of Wales’ Jones and his colleagues published an article in 2008 based on interviews with top coaches and athletes on how mental toughness is developed. First and foremost, every interviewee mentioned that building mental toughness is a long process that involves many different elements. But they agreed that the four most important elements are: motivational climate, key people, challenging experiences and a hunger to succeed. The scientists theorized that the • motivational climate within which the athlete works must be centered on the process rather than the end result. There must be a persistent focus on doing the work and mastering the task at hand rather than the dream of winning. Results can never be controlled—only your effort and level of skill can. If you build your fitness to the highest possible level, pace your race well and make sure you are completely spent at the finish line, feeling certain there was no way you could have run an extra inch— you have reached the limit of your potential that day and whatever results you get, you should be proud of. Legendary basketball coach John Wooden expressed this exact mentality in one of his most famous quotes: “Success is knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” To put it another way, going into a race with one goal—to race as hard as possible and to the best of your ability—can alleviate much of the pressure and dread that competition can stir up in your mind. You can’t control your competitors, so why focus on them and what they are doing? Jones et al also pointed out that the • key people around an athlete are an important part of developing mental toughness. Coaches, parents, team members and fellow athletes play a significant role in developing the values, goals and mental skills that lead to success. When Caroline Steffen began working with coach Sutton, he challenged her belief in her ability, telling her she had a lot more potential than she thought. The end result: She was the 2010 runner-up at Kona in her professional debut. By posing structured questions that help athletes gain a higher degree of clarity and insight into their own reaction patterns and motives, one can sharpen mental toughness. Asking athletes how they react to high-pressure situations, helping them determine what they can do to change unwanted behaviors and helping them hone in on what their dreams and goals are will increase their mental preparation and motivation to do the work, endure the pain and remain levelheaded at all times. Facing • challenging experiences in sport, or life in general, also seems to aid in the development of mental toughness. Lance Armstrong is an obvious example of this, as he clawed his way back from life-threatening cancer with a ferocious focus never before seen in cycling and later won a record seven straight Tour de France titles. Upon his return, he said that the pain he endured during the
hard climbs was nothing compared to the pain he underwent during chemotherapy, which is a classic example of how gaining perspective aids in cultivating mental toughness. Overcoming harsh childhoods, severe physical illness or trauma, as well as other life crises seems to heighten one’s ability to maintain a successful, albeit sometimes cynical, drive toward the podium. Nevertheless, if you have overcome any obstacles in your life, you can use them to gain insight into your own reactions to taxing situations and help you gain perspective on racing, which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t all that important. One can also attempt to simulate challenging experiences in training, even if these experiences pale in comparison to legitimate life crises. For example, I would often use extreme weather as an opportunity to train my mental toughness—I insisted on riding for hours through the worst winter snowstorms in Denmark where I trained, knowing that this broadened my perspective of what was possible to overcome. (Before you head out, make sure the weather is safe for riding and that you have the proper apparel.) Three-time Ironman world champion Peter Reid, my former colleague, applied a similar strategy by doing his transition runs on fields of logs and rocks, which honed his mental toughness by teaching him how to focus when he was tired. You can even take these mental tests a step further and accept challenges unrelated to triathlon, such as learning basic survival skills and then camping in the wilderness with limited supplies. The final, and in many ways most important, element of mental toughness is a deep • hunger to succeed. Athletes from Third World countries or poor neighborhoods in the U.S. perhaps see sports as their only way out of poverty and are thus deeply committed to success, no matter the costs. Other athletes are driven to gain their very ambitious parents’ recognition. And yet others are driven to satisfy a wild ego or a fascination with where their body and mind can take them. One’s hunger to succeed revolves around very deep mental structures that are often founded in childhood, and it is thus hard to develop. In some cases the hunger is founded in basic survival instincts, such as those used when a triathlon pro races to put food on the table. In other cases, it is founded in a deep love for the sport, such
as when an athlete chases the perfect race. While this hunger to succeed is difficult to develop, it is possible to develop it by forging a deep love for the sport through research into triathlon’s history and legends. Athletes have also found that committing publicly to extremely large goals and going all in to chase the ultimate dream, without a hint of a plan B, can galvanize one’s hunger.
The Risk
Surely the nature of sport is a constant struggle to push one’s limits and thus involves a high risk of injuries, burnout and, in some cases, severe psychological problems. Many coaches fall back on the simplest instrument for toughening up their athletes: creating a cult-like, isolated setting and pushing people harder than they ever thought possible. Those who break get left behind and those who last mentally have a chance of making it if their bodies hold up down the road. While this strategy is simple and in many cases successful, it is also very risky, and it may leave talented athletes behind who would have made it in a different environment. Athletes who are caught up with the hardened culture are risking running their bodies to the ground, cutting their careers short and possibly sacrificing life-long health for a few big races. While there is no way around relentless work in the pursuit of excellence, top coaches need to become more aware of all the other tools in the book they can use to build up their athletes. They must never forget that they need to focus on an athlete’s long-term development. It might be relatively easy to make a winner, but creating a champion—someone who can dominate the sport for years—requires an entirely different skill set. Good luck in developing yours. i Sindballe is a former professional triathlete and a frequent contributor to Inside Triathlon. He last wrote about Ironman recovery.
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at the finish
“ThaT Number” IsN’T so bad afTer all By Tim DeBoom
“Thirty-nine!” I’d holler back in pure defiance. Yes, I feel the effects of age. I have had my share of injuries. I am a little slower getting out of bed in the morning. When my feet are tender and my back aches a little, I chalk it up to the hard workouts I’ve done. When it lingers, even after some downtime, it makes me realize I am not the sprightly lad who could once run 20 miles in the morning, go out late at night and feel fine the next day. Thirty-nine was a great year, comparatively speaking. I think I turned the clock back a few years with my winter weight training, and I felt better than I had in a long time. It was not like I was 27 again, but I raced a full schedule and did not have any niggling injuries that lasted throughout the season. I was not as fast as I had wished, but I was healthy. Still, I knew that number was waiting for me in November, and I was dreading it. I don’t know why I’ve had so much trouble with that number. (See, I even have a hard time writing it.) I have many friends who are in their 40s, and they rave about it. For me, the day I turned 40 came and went rather unspectacularly. I did the things I always love to do, with the
person—my wife, Nicole—I love to do them with. We went for a long mountain hike and then rolled all over town and trail on our bikes. I did get one card, however, that gave me a nice perspective and improved my outlook on the forthcoming decade. A good friend wrote to remind me that your 40s rock. She said that in your 20s, everything is crazy, with so much turmoil, and you know nothing about life in general—I’d say that’s about right. She then said that in your 30s, it’s all about working toward professional goals, acquiring stuff, buying a house and finding some sort of stability. Right again. Finally, in your 40s, you can relax, enjoy the life you have created and truly appreciate where you have come and the people in your life who are important. That doesn’t sound too bad. Then she gave me the best advice: Enjoy where you are now. Enjoy the view. Appreciate every moment because it is what you have worked so hard to build. Enjoy being 40, and every time you step up to that starting line from here on out, kick every youngster’s ass that you can, just to show them you are still around. i
Pro triathlete Tim DeBoom is a two-time winner of the Ironman World Championship and lives in Boulder, Colo.
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Photo by Nils Nilsen
Black balloons and streamers decorated the house. Signs read, “It’s all downhill from here!” These are the memories I have of my father’s 40th birthday party. These are the memories that have stuck with me for the past 25 years. I always knew it would come. For the past few years, I could feel it. It is not the sort of thing that usually concerns me in the least—I just don’t think about that stuff. However, this number was causing me to stutter in my steps. I was having a hard time even saying it aloud. Forty. I was turning 40 years old. For most people, 40 is just another birthday. The symbolic start of middle age maybe, but nothing too life changing. For a professional athlete, however, 40 definitely looms over you like a weight on your shoulders saying, “It’s time.” Time to hang it up? Time to move on? What time is it? Because of that damn USAT rule in which you race at the age you will be at the end of the year, for most of 2010 I had to deal with the announcers at races calling out my name and occasionally surprising themselves. “Are you really 40?” they’d ask.
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