2007-06 Triathlete

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8-WEEK PLAN FOR ULTIMATE FITNESS

TRI BACHATHLETE ELOR ’S P.11 8

N ° 278/JUNE 2007

WORLD’S LARGEST TRIATHLON MAGAZINE

07 swimsuit 20

EDITION PLUS: 7 TOOLS FOR FASTER SWIMMING POWER YOGA MOVES XTERRA PROGRAM: PART 2

triathletemag.com

AGE-GROUP TRIATHLETE $4.99 / Canada $6.99

MAXINE BAHNS


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We make it different so you can make a difference.

RECENT, CONTROLLED, DOUBLE-BLIND

LABORATORY TESTS! •••• •••••

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>

Lactate in patented Alpha-L-Polylactate provides fuel energy

RESULTS

THREE TIMES FASTER

HAVE PROVEN: ©2007, CYTOSPORT, Benicia, CA 94510.

than glucose, which is the main carbohydrate in most other sport drinks, including the market leader.

+

The Alpha-L-Polylactate in Cytomax is used

THREE TIMES MORE

efficiently than the glucose in most other sport drinks. (92% vs. 27%)

+

[cytomax. com for


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IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT... “IT’S HOT IN FLORIDA”. Years of previous research have shown the efficacy of sport drinks in terms of supplying fluid and electrolytes to athletes and others performing intense exercise in warm climates. More recently, however, new technologies have produced dramatic insights into how the body gets and uses energy during long, hard exercise. These breakthroughs have allowed CytoSport scientists and food technologists to blend ingredients into a sport drink that increases the speed and quantity of energy supplied during exercise. The result is Cytomax®, a true performance drink combining a proprietary blend of Alpha-L-PolyLactate with glucose polymers, crystalline fructose and other ingredients that provide unparalleled advantages over leading sport drinks containing only simple sugars. TM

888-cytomax www.cytomax.com

Athletes completing a long hard ride (90 minutes at 65% of VO2 max) still sprinted

22% LONGER

on Cytomax than when consuming another popular sport drink.

=

More fuel energy

••

••••••••••••••••••

What Fuels You?

Still available in original powder.

••••••••••••

START TO FINISH! Available at

complete results]

Hi-Health, Performance Bicycle, Vitamin Shoppe, Vitamin World and fine specialty retailers nationwide.


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SPEEDSUIT PROFILER


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CONTENTS

JUNE ‘07 No. 278 Cover: Age-group triathlete Maxine Bahns

Photo by Tim Mantoani

TRAINING

On the Cover: • DAVE SCOTT’S 8-WEEK PLAN FOR ULTIMATE FITNESS • TRIATHLETE’S BACHELOR • SWIMSUITS ’07 • 7 TOOLS FOR FASTER SWIMMING • POWER YOGA MOVES FOR SPORT-SPECIFIC STRENGTH • RACE OFF-ROAD WITH OUR XTERRA TRAINING PROGRAM

COLUMNS

LAB RABBIT by Lance Watson

166

LANE LINES by Paul Regensburg

170

172

127

THE BIG RING by Matt Fitzgerald ON THE RUN by Andrew Tepen

176

166

184 118 64 196

DEPARTMENTS STARTING LINES by Mitch Thrower

24

PUBLISHER’S NOTE by John Duke

26

MAIL CALL

28

CHECKING IN 32 News analysis; Tri news; Second take; Training tip; 70.3 series; Gear page; Point-counterpoint; Pro bike; Gatorade athlete; Q&A; Industry profile; Club profile; Travel talk; Light read AT THE RACES 200 XTERRA Saipan, Ford Ironman 70.3 California and more

8 JUNE 2007

SPEED LAB by Tim Mickleborough, Ph. D.

178

MIND GAMES by Michelle Cleere

180

DEAR COACH by Roch Frey & Paul Huddle

182

TRAINING FEATURE by Dave Scott

184

XTERRA ZONE by Alex White

188

BIKE OF THE MONTH by Jay Prasuhn

190

CUTTING EDGE by Jay Prasuhn

192

GEAR BAG by Jay Prasuhn

196

RACE CALENDAR

220

TINLEY TALKS by Scott Tinley

240

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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The finish line is 20 miles away, the road ahead is treacherous and there’s not a muscle in your body that isn’t screaming out in pain.

To which you reply, “And your point is?”

New PowerBar® with C2 MAX. Breakthrough research has revealed an optimized blend of 2 different carbs that gives your body 20-55% more sustained energy when you need it most. Science proves it. PowerBar with C2 MAX has it. Discover how to push your limits at powerbar.com/fuel

®

Be Great.

POWERBAR® and BE GREAT® are registered trademarks of Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., Vevey, Switzerland.


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Normann St win 54:05:00

8:11:56

4:18:23

2:55:03

NEW RECORD

thanks Normann “Norminator

machine”

At the end of the machine” wai Bike session the “Norminat ted alone the or arriv pursuers with his 7 minutes al of the first lead.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

21.10.2006 - KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII - TRIATHLON

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP


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Gusmini Comunicazione

adler and Kuota Kalibur together...again!!

www.kuota.it


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CONTENTS

FEATURES THE SECRET OF THE SOUTH COAST

64

Home to the reggae revolution of the 1970s, Jamaica’s unspoiled South Coast celebrates more than its musical roots.

Photos by Tim Mantoani Styling by Natalie Bohlin for

top

136

By Jay Prasuhn

SWIM, BIKE, RUN . . . AND YOGA? Athletic yoga performance

INSEPARABLE

Christophe Jouffret of Look Bicycles and wife Nathalie Jouffret of Zoot Sports raced 2007 Kona together wireto-wire in a true industry marriage to the sport

127

triathlon

By Karen Dubs

25 YEARS OF CROSSING A COUNTRY 152 New Zealand’s Coast to Coast—the event that helped kick-start multisport and adventure racing Down Under— turned 25 this year

By Michael Jacques

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY... 138 Bars & gels: Part 3 of Triathlete’s 3-part nutrition series

By the editors 18 J U N E 2 0 0 7

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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FIRST WAVE

2 0 JUNE 2007

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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Treading carefully Rich Cruse/richcruse.com

Athletes at XTERRA Guam, in March, slid down waterfalls, slogged

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

through deep sand and navigated cramped tunnels through dense jungle. For more on XTERRA Guam, please turn to page 200. T R I AT H L E T E M A G A Z I N E 21


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TEAM NEWTON: Michellie Jones Natascha Badmann Peter Reid Paula Newby-Fraser Heather Fuhr Michael Simpson Katja Schumacher Chris Lieto


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STARTING LINES No.278 • June 2007 Board of Directors Mitch Thrower Steven E. Gintowt Matthew Barger Russ Crabs Bill Walbert Jean Claude Garot Publisher John Duke Chief Executive Officer John Duke Associate Publisher Heather Gordon VP, Sales & Marketing Sean Watkins Chief Financial Officer Steven E. Gintowt

Courtesy Mitch Thrower

Editor-in-Chief T.J. Murphy, tjmurphy@triathletemag.com Managing Editor/Interactive Editor Cameron Elford, cam@triathletemag.com Senior Editor Jay Prasuhn, jay@triathletemag.com Associate Editor Rebecca Roozen, rebecca@triathletemag.com Photo Editor John Segesta, johns@triathletemag.com Associate Interactive Editor Brad Culp, brad@triathletemag.com

The sexy sport By Mitch Thrower Triathlon is exploding. Races sometimes now fill up what seems like decades before they occur. Everywhere you go, someone seems to be training for their first or next triathlon. Currently there are too few races to meet the demand of the thousands of athletes worldwide who now pursue health and fitness regularly through swim-bike-run. Our sport is growing exponentially, which could be one of the reasons the Triathlete magazine swimsuit edition flies off the newsstand shelves each year. But to be honest, sheer numbers isn’t the main reason for the swimsuit edition’s popularity. It isn’t that triathlon’s worldwide buzz attracts people with a beautiful surface and somehow manages to hide the imperfect. It’s the happy fact that training for and competing in triathlon simply sculpts the human body into its most ideal form. Tom Wolfe noticed and popularized that very fact when he described one of his characters as possessing a “triathlete’s body” in the pre-publication excerpt of Bonfire of the Vanities in Rolling Stone. Triathlon’s universal allure stems from the beauty within that worked to achieve the beauty without, and the awe-inspiring human form in motion can achieve breathtaking things. Our bodies are a constant reminder of how lifestyle directly dictates physical—and mental—self-image. Bodily change with age is inevitable, but as triathletes we learn very quickly that we can dramatically influence how we change, how we look and how we perform. The human body is, in fact, a big deal. Just look at it, and—through triathlon—look at what it can do. Now look at your body—head to toe—not in a critical way but rather take in all its awe-inspiring possibility. You should smile, because you will have your healthy body for the rest of your life. It will always be your vehicle on this journey. Triathlons are quite often completed entirely in a swimsuit or tri-suit. This may explain why, other than for the purpose of competitive scouting, that at the start of most races everyone is checking each other out. The triathletes featured in this issue are prime examples of how hard work and dedication creates results. They chose a lifestyle based around balance—balance through healthy eating, swimming, biking, running, yoga. Our sport is here not just to make you look good but to inspire you to balance your lifestyle and improve your self-image—and thus make your life better. Train Smart, Remember that the human machine is a miracle that has allowed us to accomplish everything we have achieved in this world. It’s up to you to decide what Mitch Thrower yours will help you accomplish in your lifetime, and in mthrower@triathletemag.com your triathlon time.

2 4 JUNE 2007

Creative Director Kristin Mayer, kristin@triathletemag.com Graphic Designer Oliver Baker, oliver@triathletemag.com Contributing Writers Matt Fitzgerald, Roch Frey, Paul Huddle, Tim Mickleborough, Scott Tinley, Barry Siff Contributing Photographers Delly Carr Robert Murphy Medical Advisory Board Jordan Metzl, M.D., Krishna Polu, M.D. Advertising Director John Duke, johnduke@triathletemag.com Production/Circulation Manager Heather Gordon, heather@triathletemag.com Customer Service Linda Marlowe Senior Account Executive Sean Watkins, Cycling & Events seanw@triathletemag.com Senior Account Executive Lisa Bilotti, Nutrition, Apparel, Footwear & Auto lisab@triathletemag.com Marketplace Sales Laura Agcaoili, laura@triathletemag.com Office Assistant Shannon Frank, shannon@triathletemag.com Accounting Vicky Trapp vicky@triathletemag.com Triathlete Founded in 1983 by Bill Katovsky & Jean Claude Garot Triathlon Group North America Offices 328 Encinitas Blvd., Suite 100, Encinitas, CA 92024 Phone: (760) 634-4100; Fax: (760) 634-4110 www.triathletemag.com Attention Retailers: To carry Triathlete in your store, call Retail Vision: (800) 381-1288 SUBSCRIPTIONS: Your satisfaction is important to us. For questions regarding your subscription call (800) 441-1666 or (760) 291-1562. Or, write to: Triathlete, P.O. Box 469055, Escondido, CA 92046. Or, e-mail: subs@triathletemag.com. Back Issues available for $8 each. Send a check to Triathlete Magazine Back Issues, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Ste. 100, Encinitas, CA 92024 and specify issues requested, or visit www.triathletemag.com. Publication Mail Agreement #40683563. Canadian mail distribution information: Express Messenger International, P.O. Box 25058, London BRC, Ontario, Canada N6C 6A8 Submission of material must carry the authors’/ photographers’ guarantees that the material may be published without additional approval and that it does not infringe upon the rights of others. No responsibility is assumed for loss or damage to unsolicited manuscripts, art work or photographs. All editorial contributions should be accompanied by selfaddressed, stamped envelopes. Printed in the USA.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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Photo by Gernot Gleiss

Congratulations to Natascha Badmann on winning 2007 Ironman South Africa.


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PUBLISHER’S NOTE SONIC CSX CARBON AEROBAR

>> Mulit-weave Carbon Fiber >> Ultralight at only 328 grams

Courtesy Kristin Zimmerman

AERODRINK HYDRATION STSTEM

Suit yourself >> Hydrate efficiently in the aero position

QUICK STOP CARBON BRAKES

>> Lightweight and ergonomic. 110 grams

ELITE CARBON KAGE

>> Sculpted design and only 18 grams World-Class Triathlon Components

By John Duke adies and gentlemen, start your pencils. It is that time of year again when we draw the ire of some of our readers with our annual swimsuit issue. I have used this space before to take a proactive approach to the issue by explaining why we feel it is necessary to have one feature a year that highlights swimsuits . . . the only accessory we wear throughout the entire competition known as a triathlon. This year we will have had three nutrition reviews, an entire issue dedicated to bicycles and components, a wetsuit review, four shoe reviews, summer and winter training-gear reviews and only one swimsuit review, which uses approximately 12 percent of the pages of the issue you are holding in your hands. The balance of the magazine is chock full of training articles, lifestyle columns, race reports and all of the other great things our readers regularly find within the pages of this magazine. But my guess is that a few of you may not be able to get past the cover. Looking into my crystal ball, I see letters saying: “How could you produce such trash?” “What do good-looking athletes wearing swimsuits have to do with our sport?” “I cannot leave this magazine on my coffee table because I have young children.” And so on and so forth. Let me go on record that this issue is my fault. It was my idea and it is my idea to continue publishing it. We owe it to the numerous manufacturers of swim apparel to give them their day in the sun, just like all of the other

L

suppliers of products for this industry. We also owe it to the 60,000-plus readers who do not find it offensive and are truly interested in what swimsuits are available in the marketplace. Now, granted, we don’t need to publish a photo from this feature on the cover, but it is our biggest feature in this particular issue, and it sells magazines. That’s right, we have another agenda: to sell magazines. It is our job to sell magazines and try to attract new readers and, hopefully, new triathletes. Our sport is still in its infancy, and as more people become interested and get involved, more events spring up and existing events elevate the experience at the consumer level. Now, a few of you may have already started your letters: “What about us, the subscriber? We buy all 12 issues, and we did not subscribe to see the likes of this.” Well, we hear you. While we only get 10 or 12 such letters each year (and usually a reader canceling his or her subscription), we do want to give you a choice. We are currently running a survey on our Web site soliciting your opinions on these covers. If we feel there is a strong negative sentiment by our subscribers we will consider doing an alternate cover for subscribers only. In closing, I apologize in advance for anyone who is offended by these attractive, super-fit models (all of whom are triathletes). For everyone else, please enjoy. And if any of you find Andy Baldwin attractive and want to see more, please watch ABC’s “The Bachelor” airing now.

WWW.PROFILE-DESIGN.COM T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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SWIM WITH THE BEST

WORLD-CLASS TRIATHLON COMPONENTS || WWW.PROFILE-DESIGN.COM

bionik 2 wetsuit: Features a SCS (Super Composite Skin) coating−neoprene treatment makes the suit super slick and reduces friction with the water. An Express Opening System allows faster transitions while preventing accidental openings. Uniquie Flexible Zipper Design is contoured to fit the body’s natural curve in the swimming position.

TRIATHLON WETSUITS BY


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MAIL CALL

I receive in between the bills every month. (I already have to hide all of my training gadgetry.) Maintain our sport’s integrity and keep our hard-bodies in the standard triathlon kit. Gregson Marx Via e-mail

Fernanda flap I

just received your April magazine with Brazilian triathlete Fernanda Keller gracing the cover. Good gravy! I’d be willing to bet she is pulling a pretty big paceline if she really wears that thing on her long rides. What could you possibly have been thinking? You were clearly trying to increase readership at the counter, but I’ve got to wonder what market you’re going after? The most ironic part was that you tried to balance it out with exceptional articles on people like Dave Rozelle, Sister Dorothy “Madonna” Buder and that Lance guy who ran a sub-three-hour marathon. The reason

28 J U N E 2 0 0 7

I love triathlon isn’t only because of the enormous amount of personal satisfaction I get but because it attracts the amazing people you capture in your magazine each month, including Fernanda Keller. In an effort to prevent you from selfdestructing let me provide a little advice on your marketing effort. I am a happily married 40-year-old father of two little girls and actively involved in Ironman racing. I subscribe to Triathlete because I can identify with the people you feature in your magazine. God knows I love to stare at a naked Fernanda, so it was an interesting diversion. However, I already love your magazine and will continue to subscribe, so don’t force me to hide the best inspiration

I just wanted to let you all know that I am highly disappointed in your latest issue of Triathlete magazine. I was appalled at what I saw when I pulled it out of the mailbox. Not only are such (basically nude) images harmful to your male subscribers, they are also harmful to their families. Do you not realize that there are impressionable daughters and sons in the homes of these wonderful triathletes who subscribe to your magazine for quality information and stories? I’m personally blessed to have an upstanding Christian husband who was equally appalled by your obvious lack of responsibility. The magazine is now in the trash. It is obvious that your magazine is unfortunately headed down the road of just another magazine using sex to sell their subscriptions. I know I’m just one person, but I’m one person with an amazing husband and three beautiful daughters and I will do whatever it takes to try to turn this world around. My husband has been teaching our girls that being a triathlete is an incredible thing, and taking care of the bodies God gave us is equally as important. I really find it unfortunate that you are now teaching young girls that being a woman triathlete is about selling out their bodies. We unfortunately can’t even have your magazine lying around the house as an inspiration anymore. There is no reason that these triathletes shouldn’t be proud of how fit they are, but I don’t imagine most triathletes do these triathlons without their tops on. Just wanted you to think about what you’re doing and the magnitude of the consequences of your irresponsibility. Kathy Eversole Via e-mail I was appalled by your cover photo of Fernanda Keller and even more so by the mostly naked photo inside the magazine. I suppose my dismay and embarrassment at receiving a magazine with what amounts to pornography is mitigated slightly by the fact that she’s 42 years old and, frankly, looks great. But the fact is, you had a magazine chock-full of bike porn. Jessica Zahn Via e-mail

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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OAKLEY.COM/MAKINGHISTORY 1-888-318-9964 ©2007 Oakley, Inc.

SCOTT TINLEY

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MAIL CALL

I know you will receive tons of mail about the April cover featuring Fernanda Keller. I just want to thank you for that photo and the photos on pages 48, 122, 124, 126, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 150 and 171. I like fit women; what else can I say except more, please? Thanks for another great issue. Martin Loftus Apache Junction, Ariz.

-ORE THAN ANY OTHER ELECTROLYTE REPLACEMENT FORMULA '5 / MAINTAINS YOUR ENERGY STEADILY AND KEEPS YOU GOING STRONG SO YOU CAN ENJOY EVERY WORKOUT EVERY RACE

Point-counterpoint: Women-only races

W

omen-only races. Lame.

A. There are plenty of intimidated men too. Should they have their own tri? Separate tri for each race, religion, etc.? B. Many men are not fond of a spandex body wrap either. Do we ban men from volunteering, cheering or make them wear blindfolds at women-only races? C. I won my first triathlon last year. Well almost. I was first male, right behind first overall female. Women have arrived; don’t dilute the competition! We (men) don’t want gender-only races. If they want their own, then give us the Boston Marathon back. Oh? You want to have your cake and eat it too? Brian Baker Boise, Idaho

$AN #AMPBELL 0HOTOGRAPHY

whatever you do

wherever you go

choose gu 2 o

Thanks for Hubie & Warren

was happy to see mention of the Door County Triathlon in your March issue. I competed in the international-distance race last year as my first tri and came in dead last or close to it. I had a blast! Shortly after I finished, exhausted but happy, either Warren or Hubie came up to me. He offered his congratulations and welcomed me to the sport. It was perhaps a small gesture on his part, but it made a big impression on me. I look forward to the race again this year. Thanks, guys! Brad Kennedy Middleton, Wis.

I

Did you earn your M-Dot? I

just picked up the March edition of your magazine and read an article by Dave Wallach (“Light Read,� March 2007). First of all Mr. Wallach, you are not an Ironman. There is only one real Ironman race, and that is in Kona. The WTC may have partnerships all over the world and license out the Ironman name to all different races, and these races may be very challenging and well run, but they are not the Ironman. They don’t have the lava fields, winds, the Energy Lab or other things that make the Ironman the Ironman. With all due respect to your friends, let me tell you flat out: No, they do not deserve to the M-Dot, and until they cross the finish line in Kona they have no business calling themselves an Ironman. I don’t want to take anything away from them, but Coeur d’Alene and Wisconsin are not Kona. Let me also tell you that Chris Hauth did not win the Ironman in Idaho last year because the Ironman is not in Idaho; it is in Kona. What he did is very impressive, but he did not finish the Ironman, so no, he does not deserve the title Ironman. The Ironman is not just about completing a 140.6-mile race. I have done several Olympic-distance triathlons. I have even done some pretty fast times and won my age group many times. Does that make me an Olympian? Absolutely not, and I would never ever try to pass myself off as one. And you are wrong to try to pass yourself off as an Ironman. Frankly, it is insulting to me and everyone else that has completed the Ironman. Charlie Yu Mission Viejo, Calif.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Courtesy Hubie and Warren

DRINK IT IN


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EAT IT UP ,OVE TRAINING ,OVE RACING ,OVE FEELING GOOD NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU RE PUSHING -ORE THAN ANY OTHER GEL '5 MAINTAINS YOUR ENERGY STEADILY AND KEEPS YOU GOING STRONG 'IVE YOUR BODY THE BEST AND ENJOY THE JOURNEY

wherever you go

whatever you do

choose gu

$AN #AMPBELL 0HOTOGRAPHY

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CHECKING IN

CHECKING IN

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

• NEWS ANALYSIS • TRI NEWS • SECOND TAKE • TRAINING TIP • 70.3 SERIES • GEAR PAGE • POINT-COUNTERPOINT • PRO BIKE • GATORADE ATHLETE • Q&A • INDUSTRY PROFILE • CLUB PROFILE • TRAVEL TALK • LIGHT READ

3 2 JUNE 2007

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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NEWS ANALYSIS CHECKING IN

2000 Olympic bronze medalist tests positive for controlled substance Michellie Jones the lone 2000 Olympic medalist untainted by doping allegations By Cameron Elford

agali Messmer, the Swiss triathlete who won the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney, Australia, Olympics, was in March handed a three-month suspension from competition stemming from a doping positive at the European championships in June 2006 in Autun, France. According to news reports, Messmer, 35, tested positive for salbutamol, often sold under the brand name Ventolin. Salbutamol is designed to control asthma. Messmer, who has suffered from asthma since 1998, claims she has been granted a Therapeutic Use Exemption by the Swiss Olympic committee authorizing her to use the drug. The World Anti-Doping Agency, which regulates controlled and banned substances, states that international sports federations and national anti-doping agencies must have a process in place whereby athletes with documented medical conditions can request a TUE and have their requests considered by a panel of independent physicians. Based on the recommendations of the panel, known as a Therapeutic Use Committee, the athlete’s international federation or national anti-doping body is then responsible for granting or declining the TUE application. According to WADA, a Therapeutic Use Exemption can be granted if: • The athlete would experience significant health problems without taking the prohibited substance or method, • The therapeutic use of the substance would not produce significant enhancement of performance, and • There is no reasonable therapeutic alternative to the use of the otherwise prohibited substance or method. As per WADA guidelines, after the doping-control authority receives the

M

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

results of the athlete’s drug test from the lab, an initial review takes place to verify that the TUE is still in effect and that the results of the analysis are consistent with the TUE granted (nature of substance, route of administration, dose, time frame of administration, etc.). If the review proves satisfactory, states WADA, and the conditions of the TUE are met, then the result of the test is recorded as negative. Salbutamol, classified by WADA as a beta-2 agonist, is a WADA-prohibited substance, except when administered by inhalation and accompanied by a TUE. Even with a TUE, however, WADA notes in its 2007 prohibitedsubstances list that a concentration of salbutamol greater than 1000 ng/mL will be considered an adverse analytical finding unless the athlete proves that the abnormal result was the consequence of the therapeutic use of inhaled salbutamol. At issue, however, for the French anti-doping agency (L’Agence française de lutte contre le dopage, or AFLD), which conducted the Autun test, is the relatively high level of salbutamol found in Messmer’s June 2006 urine sample. Although the amount of the drug found measured below the maximum 1000 ng/mL allowed by WADA, the AFLD noted that the June 2006 sample registed 25 percent higher than in a May 2006 test, leading the AFLD to conclude that Mesmer had misused the medication—presumably in an effort to gain a competitive advantage at the European championship race last June. Messmer and the Swiss Triathlon Federation, however, have refused to accept the French ruling and plan to challenge the AFLD ban in the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. Messmer’s representatives state that evidence collected indicates numerous physiological factors,

including dehydration, can affect the outcome of the salbutamol test. According to a statement on Messmer’s Web site, her test was conducted while she was in a dehydrated condition following a hot, challenging race. “At the time of the [European championship] race, many athletes finished the race in a state of advanced dehydration,” says Messmer on her Web site. “The Swiss federation doctor noted my advanced state of dehydration . . . and the control took place the following day at the end of a second difficult race in two days . . . It is completely normal that the rates found in the two situations are different.” Messmer’s suspension, which ran from Jan. 10, 2007 to April 10, 2007, and only prohibited her from racing France-based events during the period, is unlikely to significantly impact her 2007 racing schedule. Of far greater import, however, is the cloud of suspicion that hovers over accused dopers—as was the case with Belgium’s Rutger Beke, who fought a competition ban for months before proving the testing protocol was flawed and did not account for his unique physiological condition. The doping allegation against Messmer leaves 2000 Olympic silver medalist Michellie Jones, from Australia, as the only women’s triathlon medalist from the Sydney games who has never faced a doping charge. Switzerland’s Brigitte McMahon, the 2000 gold medalist, tested positive for EPO in 2005 and faced a possible twoyear competition ban before retiring. “I am very shaken by this and the effect it has on my reputation and my image,” said Messmer. “The scandalmongering very quickly does its work and the rumors circulate.” Messmer and Swiss Triathlon pledged to fight the AFLD charge and associated suspension.

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year. The goals and ideals of the Olympic movement are at the center of my years building the Olympic sport of triathlon,” McDonald said. McDonald is widely regarded as the driving force behind the event’s inclusion onto the Olympic program in 2000.

FORMER TRIATHLETE MAGAZINE OWNER CATERS MONEY MANAGEMENT TO BUSY ATHLETES

TRIATHLETE SUBSCRIBER WINS A TRIP TO JAMAICA Subscribing to Triathlete can get you a whole lot more than exclusive training and racing info from industry experts. Just ask Richard McCutcheon. He’s the recent winner of a free trip to Jake’s OffRoad Triathlon at Treasure Beach, Jamaica, compliments of Triathlete, Air Jamaica, the Jamaica Tourist Board and Jake’s Resort. McCutcheon, a dentist from New York, will be treated to a fourday/three-night stay at Jake’s as well as ground and air transportation and two entries in the 12th annual Jake’s OffRoad Triathlon. The event kicks off with a 500-meter ocean swim in the small fishing community of Treasure Beach. After the athletes exit the warm Caribbean water they’ll head into the 25-kilometer mountain bike leg and seven-kilometer cross-country run. Jake’s has been heralded as the Caribbean’s premier offroad triathlon as it has routinely attracted competitors from around the world. The race caps at only 100 participants, which adds to the intimate atmosphere. The resort, located on Jamaica’s unspoiled South Coast, celebrates the traditional beachcomber lifestyle at a mid-range price.

TYR SPORT PARTNERS WITH LIFE TIME FITNESS This spring TYR Sport announced its three-year partnership with the Life Time Fitness, Inc., a national operator of large health-and-fitness centers. “With our Multi-Sport apparel being one of our fastest growing divisions of our company, teaming up with Life Time Fitness is an ideal fit. The three triathlon events are highly respected competitions and we look forward to working hand and hand with them,” says David Miller, vice president of sales at TYR. “We are pleased to join forces with 3 4 JUNE 2007

XTERRA WORLD CHAMPION MELANIE MCQUAID SIGNS WITH BMC BIKES BMC has signed a contract to provide Melanie McQuaid with bicycles through 2008, expanding its presence in the triathlon and mountain-bike world. Melanie McQuaid, of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, won her third XTERRA world-championship title last October in Maui, capping a dominating year where she won the U.S. championships, the U.S. championships series and the world championships. “We are pleased to support Melanie in her quest for a fourth XTERRA world championship,” said BMC brand manager Scott Thompson. “Melanie epitomizes the winning spirit and dedication to excellence that embodies BMC. We are excited she will be out there competing on a BMC.”

ITU PRESIDENT, LES MCDONALD INDUCTED INTO CANADIAN OLYMPIC HALL OF FAME The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) inducted International Triathlon Union president Les McDonald into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame during its annual dinner in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on April 21. McDonald was recognized as a “Builder” for his efforts on behalf triathlon’s emergence in the Olympics. “This is indeed an honor, especially when you look at the great Canadian athletes and sport leaders who are also being inducted this

Scott Kyle, an owner and board member of Triathlete Magazine for seven years, knows about the demands athletes who are also working professionals have on their time. As the CEO and chief investment officer of exclusive La Jolla, Calif.-based money-management firm Coastwise Capital Group, LLC, Kyle caters to athletes looking for expert investment advice. Says Kyle, “I have a wife and child and work out 10-plus hours per week. I know that for most professional business people who live an active lifestyle, there just are not enough hours in the day to also manage one’s own investment portfolio . . . Relieving clients of the time and stress associated with money management and helping them to live richer lives in every sense of the word is our mission at Coastwise.” For more information call 858-4546670 or visit coastwisegroup.com.

DATES CONFIRMED FOR TRIATHLON’S GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM The International Triathlon Union (ITU) confirmed in February its sportdevelopment calendar for 2007, mapping out a program of events specifically designed to raise triathlon coaching standards and support talented and upand-coming athletes worldwide. “We at the ITU are very excited to be able to offer these programs to emerging triathlon nations as part of our sport development goals,” stated ITU sport development director, Libby Burrell. “Thanks to our new global partner, BG Group, we are able to begin setting the foundations necessary to build our sport around the globe.” Visit triathlon.org for the most up-to-date schedule.

MACCABI TEAM USA IN SEARCH OF JEWISH ATHLETES Maccabi Team USA is looking for Jewish triathletes to compete in the Maccabi Pan-American Games in Argentina this December. Contact David Brown for more information at dbrown@livefluid.com, or visit maccabiusa.com. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

TYR as the official swimwear sponsor for the Life Time Fitness Triathlon and for two of the series events, the Nautica New York City Triathlon and the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon,” says John Reilly, vice president, Corporate Business for Life Time Fitness.

Rebecca Roozen

CHECKING IN TRI NEWS


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John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

CHECKING IN SECOND TAKE

An athlete works his way through the Presidio at the Escape from the Rock Triathlon in San Francisco, Calif.

4HE 4IMEX -ULTISPORT 4EAM S .UTRITIONAL )NSURANCE 0LAN

7(!4 3 9/523

$EDICATED !THLETE IS A PROUD SPONSOR OF THE 4IMEX -ULTISPORT 4EAM $EDICATED !THLETE PRODUCTS ARE DISTRIBUTED BY $EDICATED!THLETE COM


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PERSEVERANCE “Victory belongs to the most persevering.” – Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

After several flats forced him out of the lead in last year’s race – Normann came back, not only to win this year’s Ironman, but to set a new bike course record at 4:18:23! The silky smooth and refined aero performance of his Si3N4 equipped 606’s meant Normann’s legs were fresh enough to never relinquish his lead on the run. They really are very fast… you really ought to try them.

Normann Stadler - Two Time Ironman Champion

Photo – Jay Prasuhn

800.774.2383 www.zipp.com


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CHECKING IN TRAINING TIP RUN STRENGTH WORKOUT B: HILL WORKOUT

Running for strength By Troy Jacobson uccessful running off the bike in any triathlon requires more strength than speed. Accumulated fatigue from time trialing zaps the legs of speed; therefore, the triathlete who runs well off the bike is able to sustain a steady tempo without fading and slowing down. Training for the multisport athlete needs to be specific and reflect this skill set. My favorite workouts for triathletes during the in-season phase of their annual progression focus on sustaining a tempo effort of around 5K pace and faster. Repeat intervals are longish in duration with short rest intervals designed to clear most, but not all lactate. The effort for each rep should be hard to the point of sustainable discomfort. In other words, you want to slow down because it hurts; yet you physically don’t have to slow down.

S

The following two workouts can be done once or twice per week, depending on your experience and current level of fitness. Only the most experienced athletes should perform two intense strength-building run sessions per week.

RUN STRENGTH WORKOUT A: TRACK TEMPO • Warm-up: 1-2 miles of jogging • Dynamic stretch routine of 3-5 minutes • Run 4 x 200m striders with a 200m jog recovery • Main set: 4 x 400m tempo (5K pace) on 100m jog recovery • Jog 400 • 2 x 800m tempo (5K pace) on 200m jog recovery • Jog 400 • 1 mile tempo (5K pace) • Cool-down: 1-2 miles easy and stretch

Cycling

Running

• Warm-up: 1-2 miles of jogging • Dynamic stretch routine of 3-5 minutes • Find a hill of 4- to 6-percent grade, 100-200m long • Start at the bottom of the hill at 70 percent of your maximum speed, and each 50m build your speed by 10 percent. In the last 50m, run close to 90-95 percent of your maximum effort. Focus on lifting the knees and driving with the arms. Jog down easy and repeat for five to 10 reps, depending on your current fitness level. • Cool-down: 1-2 miles easy and stretch. Incorporating these strength workouts into your weekly routine will greatly enhance your running strength off the bike, making for faster overall run splits in your upcoming events. Coach Troy Jacobson is a former pro triathlete and creator of the Spinervals Cycling DVD series and the Runervals Treadmill Workout DVD series. For more information, visit coachtroy.com or call 888-288-0503.

Swimming

Triathlon

CW Performance Speedsuit with Teflon Coating

Team Design We offer custom design for tri, bike and run apparel! Low minimums, quick turnaround!

annulink.com nnulink.com Cycling · Running · Swimming · Triathlon: 3 8 JUNE 2007

Quality made in Germany T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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CHECKING IN 70.3

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

Checking in with race director Paul Huddle By Brad Culp his month Triathlete sat down with Multisports.com coach Paul Huddle, who along with Roch Frey, served as race director at both Ford Ironman California 70.3 and Ford Ironman Arizona.

T

Triathlete Magazine: The date for California has been shifting a bit in recent years. Why’d you guys decide to move it back another week and were you a little worried that athletes wouldn’t race in Oceanside and Tempe? Paul Huddle: It’s hard trying to fit two races around the Easter holiday. We also have a lot of government agencies to work with, like the Marines at Camp Pendleton (in Oceanside). We hope to keep the races set now. California should stay at the end of March, with Arizona coming two weeks later. TM: What’s been your worst experience as a race director? Any moments where you wished you had chosen a different profession?

4 0 JUNE 2007

PH: You could say we ran into a few problems at the first year of Ironman Arizona (2005). At about 9 a.m., I got a phone call from the police saying we needed to stop the race. That’s just about the single worst thing you could hear two hours into an Ironman. Apparently, some of the traffic officers were having some serious problems on the bike course. The route was deemed unsafe and the police wanted to stop the race. Thankfully, we worked things out and the race went on, but that could’ve been really bad. TM: How do you think having a World Championship at the 70.3 distance has changed the professional race scene? PH: It’s been great. It’s done nothing but add to the sport. Clearwater gives pro triathletes a chance to race on a huge stage and support their sponsors. Plus it’s a really cool distance. The best athletes can race flat-out for the whole day, but there is no faking it through 70.3 miles. You have to come prepared.

TM: Your experience ranges widely: A top-level pro triathlete, a coach and a race director. Basically, your entire life has revolved around multi-sport. So if triathlon didn’t exist, what would you be doing? PH: I don’t know about the top-level triathlete part, but thank you. Let me put it this way: If I didn’t have this sport I would just find another way to keep away from having a real job. I could never have an office job. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. I do spend most of my day behind a desk, but I really do love what I do. I’m passionate about triathlon, so it never really feels like work. TM: You’ve coached several tri superstars. Who’s been your favorite? PH: That’s a tough one. It’s been great coaching pros like Spencer [Smith] and Luke [Bell], but to be totally honest, I have the most fun coaching age-groupers. You really get a chance to see the coaching pay off and to see them enjoy the sport.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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Number of triathlons in which professional triathlete Becky Lavelle will compete in 2007:

15

Estimated number of hours she will train in 2007 (swim, bike, and run):

700

Estimated number of kilometers she will cover while training and racing in 2007:

11,300

Estimated number of swim-to-bike and bike-to-run transitions she will negotiate in 2007:

75

Number of times Becky has finished first since turning pro in 1998:

25

Number of races Becky has podium-finished since 2001:

38

Number of years Shimano has been producing carbon fiber racing soles:

18

Number of years Shimano has been producing pedals:

26

Number of bearing systems in one Dura-Ace pedal set:

6

Number of other shoe brands that use or have used Shimano soles:

CLASSIFIED

ProTriathlete Becky Lavelle

SH-TR50 TRIATHLON SHOE Outsole Material: Carbon Fiber Composite Strap System: Reversed for Speedier Transitions Interior: Seamless for Sockless Comfort Ventilation: Unparalleled

SH-TR30 TRIATHLON SHOE Interior Construction: Seamless Sock Usage: Unnecessary Strap System: Reversed for SpeedierTransitions PowerTransfer: Immediate

SH-TR50W TRIATHLON SHOE

PD- 7810 DURA-ACE PEDAL

Outsole Material: Carbon Fiber Composite Strap System: Reversed for SpeedierTransitions Interior: Seamless for Sockless Comfort Ventilation: Unparalleled

Weight in Grams: 278 Oversized Platform: Maximizes Power Transfer Triple-Bearing Axle System: Silky Smooth Stability: Rock Solid

Š2007 Shimano American Corp.


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ven in the absence of mighty Lance Armstrong and the vaunted F1 Team, Trek continues to show a vested interest in improving an already industry-leading collection of products. As evidence, and with the acclaimed San Diego Low-Speed Wind Tunnel as center stage, Trek brought its team of top aero experts and two centerpiece athletes, Hawaii Ironman top-10 finisher Chris Lieto and defending Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso of Team Discovery, into the tunnel to refine positions as well as play with some new product. Lieto is perhaps the only American response to the of-late German stranglehold on the bike in Kona. Last year he rolled a 4:25 bike for 112 miles, largely solo, for the second-fastest split en route to a ninth-place finish. Can one of the fastest men on the bike get faster? Trek and Steve Hed wanted to find out. In late February, it was Lieto’s turn to tweak position, with his coach Max Testa overseeing affairs. “The big take-home we got from working with Chris was that comfort was the priority,” said Trek engineer Mark Andrews. “You gotta be comfortable for 112 miles, and to his credit,

Lieto, Basso enlisted in Trek Hunt for Speed as Hed, Bontrager show off new products

Jay Prasuhn

By Jay Prasuhn

chrisorwig.com

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longtime right-hand men, was resolute that while Lieto’s changes were in centimeter increments, the test was worthwhile. “A lot of it is giving the athlete a sense of where they are,” he said. “With his talent and competing at such a high level, to increase by a half a percent would be a big deal. At that level it’s hard to find a big jump, so it’s just looking for that extra little bit.”

BONTRAGER, HED’S NEW TOYS It’s no secret that Trek and Bontrager have been one of the most prolific prototypers in the industry. With a Computational Fluid Dynamics program able to predict on computer how a shape will affect wind, Trek engineers are able to design products on screen before ever creating a part. Hed had Basso playing with a sort of monopod, which allowed for narrower forearm positioning when on straight flats but allowed the rider to widen the

Jay Prasuhn

Chris was the first to say, ‘Sure, it could be fast, but I gotta be able to ride it for four and a half hours.’” The details? “While he has what would be a pretty laid-back aero position by triathlon standards on his Equinox TTX, Chris was pretty well dialed,” Andrews said. “We did move him forward just a bit, and in his testing since then he said it hasn’t messed with his power, so that’s a victory.” Andrews added: “You look at some of the positions the Discovery guys are in at 30mph for 30km, and discomfort is part of short time trialing. Ironman guys can’t do that. Everything came back for Chris to being comfortable and efficient.” A few weeks after the session Lieto set a new bike-course record with a victory at a small Tucson Triathlon sprint race, then backed it a week later with a dominant win at, of all things, an ITU points race in Honduras. Trek’s Scott Daubert, one of Lance’s

position when navigating technical sections or when facing blustery winds. Bontrager had two new aerobars on show: the new XXX Race Lite carbon base bar and XXX Race Lite Clip-ons. The base bar and matching clip-ons just hit your shop a month ago. The 240g, oversized 31.8 basebar has internal cable routing with ports out the back for a clean cable exit. It’s slated to price at $199. The 430g clip-ons with aluminum s-bend extensions work with the oversize bar or with a 26.0 base bars with an included shim. At $159, they are adjustable cut-to-fit, have a carbonfriendly alligator-serrated clamp and all bolts are coated for corrosion resistance from sweat. “These new bars have a bit of a downward slope compared to our existing XXX Lite one-piece aerobar,” said Trek engineer Mark Andrews. “That slope seemed to work better with smaller guys like Levi.” They also had a true prototype, an unnamed, Discovery Team–only onepiece aerobar, also with a sloping base bar, that piqued our interest. While we didn’t have a scale on hand, hefting it revealed it to be in the 400- to 450-gram neighborhood—certainly lighter than most other offerings. It’s set up with Hed aluminum s-bend extensions and features a simple aluminum clamp to fix the extensions to the base once cut to length. But Andrews was mum on availability. “This bar is made for the team at this point, and we haven’t figured out production on it,” Andrews said. You can find more at hedcycling.com, trek.com and bontrager.com

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C ? 9>; B B? ; @ED;I ¸ M ? D D ; H ( & & , < E H : ? H E D C 7 D M E H B : 9 > 7 C F ? E D I > ? F /0'.0)'

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At issue: Helmet laws. Do they make us safer or dumb us down by trying to protect us from ourselves?

Call in the ACLU, the do-gooders are at it again

Helmet laws save lives. That may be the case, but ultimately this is not what I’m taking issue with. No, it’s about personal choice—the ability, as a big boy—to make a decision based on free will. For the record, let me state this: I wear a helmet both on my bike and my motorcycle. I’m okay with this because I have made the choice to do so. That said, not everyone, given the information available, will reach the same conclusion as I have. Let me also state that I can understand why race directors demand competitors wear helmets—as private citizens they can set the terms to which others must adhere if they want to come out and play. I do, however, get bent out of shape when I’m presumed to be unable to make decisions on my own— to say nothing of the fact that the helmet hype is just that: hype. I’ve taken a few spills, both on-road and off, yet I have never so much as put a scratch in my helmet. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, but if the safety police really wanted to help me they’d mandate some form of protection for my hip and ass, as inevitably a spill involves a side-impact followed by nasty road rash on the thigh and butt. But I suppose championing ass safety, although perhaps more germane, is far less sexy than stirring up a bunch of sensationalistic crapola about helmet use. Yet, I shouldn’t sell anyone short: When it comes to policy decisions, the ass figures prominently, as lawmakers often have their heads wedged firmly up theirs when it comes to letting grown-ups be grown-ups.

By Cameron Elford here would we be without the selfrighteous do-gooders who know what’s best for us? Look, I recognize that for society to function we need to adhere to laws that provide structure, establish predictability and foster a sense of community. But when it comes to personal choice I take exception when The Man (no, not Dave Scott) seeks to impose the will of the majority (or, in many cases, the will of a vocal and acrimonious minority) in an effort to circumscribe the actions of the individual. There are many recent instances of policymakers overreaching, and we seem, collectively, willing to cede more and more personal liberty for the sake of safety. As triathletes, we can distill this inexorable trend down to a familiar refrain:

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How thick is your skull? By Jay Prasuhn ’m gonna avoid the “there’re two types of cyclists” thing. But where to begin? Let’s start with Story No. 1, a recent trip to Tucson, on the Saturday Shootout group ride. Recent years have witnessed the growing celebrity of the Grey Wolf, a middle-aged roadie who, eschewing jersey pockets, has his ride accoutrements hanging off some sort of utility belt (frame pump, bag of oatmeal cookies, Nalgene water bottle, all

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dangling from his bum as he battles for sprint-sign glory). It’s amusing as he appears out of nowhere, cookies flailing, literally howling from exertion as he pounds the pedals. But he’s shunned, told to take his show elsewhere. Not because of the howling or attire. It’s his insidious behavior in traffic and insistence on using a baseball hat as his mode of cranial protection. Yeah, that cap will sure keep Grey Wolf’s grey matter from scattering too far along the road. Story No. 2, this one from my wife, who trained with former Australian ITU world champ Loretta Harrop in Brazil two years ago: “I remember she’d go off yelling at someone passing in the other direction without her helmet.” Who made her the authority? She did, when her brother Luke, a fellow top triathlete, died five years ago. Hit by a car. Traumatic head injuries. So, not only can you be “that guy,” dissed by the rest of the bike community, you can also die on your easy recovery day. After century-old thinking from roadies who’d still rather be using bacchetta rod shifters, the powers forced change and ushered in the helmet mandate. Triathlon never had to undergo the roadies’ silly rite of passage. I watched Normann Stadler redline one warmish day in Kona last October wearing a helmet; I didn’t hear him whine once. It all really comes down to one question: Are you that selfish of a person to think you’re impervious, that you’re so deft you can avoid a surprise open car door or the spaced-out teen carefully applying lip gloss while approaching your rear wheel at 45 mph? Must be those guys have zero responsibilities. Me? I’ve got a wife, a job, parents, a brother. I like to think they enjoy having me around. Imagine how crushed your family would be if they heard a rock caused a spill that didn’t scratch your bike (whew), but caused you to land kinda funny on your head . . . and kinda die. Should we be mandated to wear helmets? No—I think we all hate when Big Brother “encourages” us. I’ve also seen my wife’s ugly scars on her hip and knee (and not her head) from catching pavement at 25 mph, seen impromptu roadside shrines beset by water bottles. We should be compelled to wear helmets, for ourselves and those we love. It’s something we shouldn’t have to think about. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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© 2007 Bell Sports, Inc.

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CHECKING IN PRO BIKE

Karen Smyers’ Trek TTX Equinox 9.5

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over the aero carbon post and was drilled with the athlete’s bottle position preference. Smyers rides in a rearward position with the saddleback and reversible rail clamp in the aft position, and matched with a short, slightly risen cockpit that allows her to engage more of her glutes during the ride. Now in her 24 years of racing, Smyers has her fit pretty well dialed. You can find more on the Equinox TTX at trekbikes.com A A. Frame Trek Equinox TTX 9.9, OCLV

110 carbon, size medium B Fork Bontrager Race XXX Lite Carbon,

alloy steerer C Headset Cane Creek Integrated, 1 1/8” D Aerobar Bontrager XXX Lite, Bontrager

Race X Lite OS stem, 80mm E Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace 10-

speed, 12-23 cassette F Crankset Bontrager Race X Lite GXP,

52-39 G Wheels Bontrager Aeolus 6.5 rear,

Aeolus 5.0 front H Tires Continental Competition, 700 x

21mm tubulars I Pedals Speedplay Zero Titanium J Hydration Bontrager SpeedBottle K Saddle Terry Butterfly Ti T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Jay Prasuhn

he venerable elder stateswoman of the Ironman circuit . . . blah, blah, blah. Every year, 1995 Hawaii Ironman champion Karen Smyers sits in the wings, downplaying any training (or non-training) she’s done and up-playing her ability to keep a balanced life that includes husband Mike, daughter Jenna, a beer or two with any meal and comically sweet aw, shucks attitude that leads you to ask “She’s a world champ? Aren’t they supposed to be wired Type A’s?” And every year she mows down several hopefuls en route to a strong Kona finish—12th last year in 9:39. It’s that carefree attitude that has helped the lovable Smyers retain pretty much every sponsor she’s ever had. One of those longtime sponsors has been Trek, and finally, after years of round-tube tri bikes and heavy deepaero aluminum, Smyers had a truly aero lightweight rig for her annual long-course assault: the Equinox TTX. “It was sweet,” Smyers said of her computer fluid–designed Kona ride. “It’s very comfortable and yet very stiff for power transfer, and it fits me well. I’m usually having to rig things with my bikes, but with this I didn’t have to—the angle options are great.” Trek engineer Mark Andrews also fashioned a one-off carbon-fiber aero bottle holder for Smyers, which slid

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Win a FREE trip to SUBARU

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ironman.ca


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GATORADE ATHLETE OF THE MONTH AARON PATEL

Fort Worth, Texas

By Marni Rakes f you are ever racing in Fort Worth, Texas, you will certainly notice our current Gatorade Athlete of the Month, Aaron Patel. Not only will he bless the American flag before each race but he has faithfully run with the American flag during every triathlon and running race. Why, you ask? As a respectful gesture to honor the 9/11 tragedy, Patel participated in a memorial 5K Freedom Run. Contemplating how he could pay even

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more of a tribute to his country, he removed the American flag from his front door and ran the entire race with the flag in one hand. Patel noticed that, “Not only were the members of a police squad applauding for me, but holding the flag appeared to make everyone happy.” And from then on, Patel has completed every race by running with the American flag.

After experiencing a stress fracture in a half-marathon, Patel decided to purchase a bike to stay active. In 2005, with only a prior 300-yard pool swim under his belt and a brand new hybrid mountain bike, Patel finished his first sprint triathlon. “I was extremely exhausted, but the pain was great!” So what comes next for this 24-year old? Patel registered for Ironman Arizona the following day. Aaron has carried a flag during all of his marathon races and plans on continuing the tradition during all future triathlons. Due to Patel’s exceptional swimming, cycling and flag-holding marathon-running abilities, he successfully completed Ironman Arizona (first Ironman), Ironman Canada and Ironman Florida all within the same year. Among his most memorable moments, Patel finished all Ironman races in less than 13 hours, paced a friend for a marathon six days prior to Ironman Florida and cycled over 15 miles with one foot in Ironman Florida due to a broken crank arm and no bike-repair car.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Courtesy Aaron Patel

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INNOVATION IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES.

Bones™ RS The world’s first locking strapless rear rack that uses ratchets and steel-belted bands to secure the rack to a wide range of vehicles.

Former duathlete champ battles and beats a bigger test than sport im Girand is a veteran duathlete and former age-group national champion. He’s participated in 16 consecutive duathlon world championships and served on the Board of USAT from 2002-2005. We met with Jim recently to discuss his battle with and victory over prostate cancer. Triathlete Magazine: Tell us about your diagnosis. Jim Girand: I had regular PSA tests starting in 1998 because it was slightly elevated and increasing a little more than normal. I had a biopsy in 2000 that showed no cancer. As a precaution, I started getting my PSA tested twice a year in 2002. This year, my PSA increased again, but given my history my urologist said his recommendation for a biopsy was a “soft call.” I chose to have a biopsy. Contrary to his expectations, when the results returned he told me I had an aggressive and malignant tumor in my prostate. Digital exams over the years did not suggest a tumor was present. I am a believer in PSA being a useful diagnostic tool.

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pink Bones™ Support more than your bike with this cause-conscious Bones rack. $5.00 from each sale will go to Breast Cancer research.

Bringing the Power of Cycling to Life.™ Madison, Wisconsin 800.783.7257

TM: Just how prevalent is this disease? JG: Prostate cancer is the most pervasive disease a man can face. One in six men will get it, and one in 34 will die from it. There are 20,862 men who are USAT members

who are over 40, so you can be assured about 3,500 will get prostate cancer. I want to create awareness and educate men so they will have a better chance of surviving this disease. TM: What are your future plans for creating awareness? JG: I am so thankful I am surviving this dreadful disease and learned so much from the work to choose the best treatment for me. I am in the process of creating a Web site (prostatecancerpatients.org) to help others. It will be dedicated to providing information and helping men recently diagnosed or potentially being diagnosed with prostate cancer. In a sense, it will be a first stop for men contemplating dealing with prostate cancer. There will be two main components: survivors stories and extensive quotations from luminary urologists. I realized while I was choosing my treatment there was no central collection of experiences from men who have been treated for prostate cancer, and they have so much to offer people starting through this process. With survivor stories and expert opinions the patient will be armed with information to approach his doctor and make a more informed decision about the best treatment. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Courtesy Jim Girand

The innovation that went into the legendary Bones™ carries through an entirely new line of Saris Cycle Racks. Because no matter which one you use, you deserve a lifetime of great cycling experiences.Where every trip is as enjoyable and worry-free as the ride itself. And you always arrive confident that your bike is ready to go.


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GIVE YOUR BIKE THE LOVE IT DESERVES.

HASSLE-FREE T.L.C. She’s as simple to use as she is stylish. As easy to install as she is to load. So your only workout is the ride, not racking your bike. Her name is Thelma and she’s the perfect combination of brains, beauty and brute strength. Welcome to the family Thelma. Discover how Thelma redefines the rear rack and find your nearest Saris dealer at saris.com.

Saris Cycling GroupTM is Saris Cycle RacksTM and CycleOpsTM Power.


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Kuota’s kharacter: Q&A with Paul Thomas By Jay Prasuhn

n a short four years, Kuota has built a powerful name on the heels of one man’s two Hawaii Ironman wins, Normann Stadler, and it continues to grow, bringing on big sponsorships like the recent announcement as the bike sponsor for the Wildflower Triathlons. Give Stadler credit for building the brand, but give Kuota North America Sales VP Paul Thomas just as much props. Sales guys typically don’t make interesting stories in the sport, but Thomas is a total throwback to the early days when guys like Dan Empfield, Emilio De Soto and Cervelo’s Phil White and Gerard Vroomen used a truly competitive background and a true man-of-the-people persona to help build the brand. Thomas has done just that, single-handedly becoming the man behind a once-obscure Italian company that now sees 60 percent of its worldwide sales come through his distribution network, helping them double their numbers in his short two-year tenure. If your local shop has Kuota, Thomas is the reason why. Triathlete chatted up the gregarious San Diegan.

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Triathlete magazine: Of course, many of your dealers and Kuota owners know you have a brilliant past as the 1994 and ’99 national duathlon champion and came fourth at 1994 duathlon worlds, behind winner Normann

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Stadler. Not to mention the fact that at age 11 you ran a 4:55 mile and set a national 10K record in 33:52. Plus you learned to swim to do your first Ironman at Canada last year. Paul Thomas: It’s funny. I never toot my own horn. I always talk up to my customers, never use that, but they always bring all that stuff up. I hope that means they respect my opinion. But honestly, I wouldn’t care if my title was VP of Sales or Floor Sweeper. TM: It’s your likeability and ability to, as you said, talk up to your customers that have you as a favorite among those in the industry and customers. PT: Yeah, instead of making sales, I connect the dots between the retailer, the tri clubs and the athletes. If you forget to do that, you miss who your consumer is. Grassroots is the best way to know the customer. But I have the most fun dealing with the consumer. I’m always thinking of ways to engage them, whether on Slowtwitch or at an expo. I think like a retailer and a consumer. It’s really relationships. Most of my contacts in my cell phone are in the “friends” category. You can’t buy relationships, and I treasure them. They’re earned, and they’re real. TM: How much input does Normann, or you as a respected ath-

lete, have regarding frame design with the Italian engineers? PT: Kuota Italy really respects our opinion. In fact, I got to name the KOM. [Kuota North America president] Patrice Lemieux and guys like Mario Comali, the head honcho at Kuota Italy, get everyone involved. And Normann of course, has input on design like internal cable routing. He wanted every ounce of drag taken away, so they made that happen in the new Kalibur. Normann and I give them the intangibles. I’m not an engineer, and to design a bike I wouldn’t have the first idea. But once it’s built, I can ride the heck out of it and understand it. TM: That must translate to easy conveyance to your consumer. PT: When you’ve been riding that long—and at my point, I’ve been riding at every level, competitive to recreationally—you tend to find what a good bike is. I’ve ridden the Khan 500 miles a week, the Kalibur 500 miles a week, the K-Factor 500 miles a week—not for testing, but as part of my existence in the sport. You really do get to tell the difference when you ride a lot. Consumers and the shops can recognize that, and they trust your input more. TM: We see you at pretty much every event, earning our unofficial James Brown honors as the hardest working man in bike business. How many miles did you log in your van last year traveling to race expos? PT: Close to 40,000 miles. The VW Eurovan is the greatest vehicle for living like a Viking. Living at the races is better than staying at the Sheraton. And there’s no need to set the alarm clock when you rise with the sun. TM: As the inside man, what’s coming from Kuota? PT: The Kuake is coming. It’s named in memory of the Kona earthquake last year and is slated for sometime this summer. All I can say is it’ll be light, stiff and fast, and Normann will be on it in Kona. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Jay Prasuhn

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Kincardine Triathlon Club he Kincardine Triathlon Club members are certainly not, in one sense of the phrase, fair-weather athletes. In fact, the worse the weather is the greater the number that come out to play, according to 2001-2006 club president Pete Richards. “This is definitely a club with attitude,� says Richards. The Kincardine Triathlon Club was founded in the small community of Kincardine on the shore of Lake Huron, in northwestern Ontario, in 2001. Taking into account the relatively small

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population of Kincardine, the founding members had some doubt as to the eventual success of the club. Since then, KTC members have populated the podiums at provincial races, won series’ agegroup awards, transitioned to the elite level, placed high in international events and represented Canada at world-championship triathlon events in New Zealand, Hawaii, Denmark and Lausanne, Switzerland, as well as the Boston Marathon. Members are not only getting faster, they are going longer

with more and more athletes competing at the Ironman level. Club coach and veteran Ironman, Ian Driver (with 28 Ironman finishes), has been providing a wealth of knowledge and inspiration since the club’s inception and continually encourages members to participate at all levels, including coaching. The club’s positive attitude has spilled over into the community where the membership has been actively engaged in local initiatives. To date, these have included planting trees along highways, bike rodeos for kids, support of the local food bank and funds raised via the Assistive Devices Program of the Ontario March of Dimes. Under the race directorship of Patti Richards, members have run the Kincardine Women’s Triathlon. The Ontario March of Dimes Assistive Devices Program has been the recipient of funds raised by this event for six years, with donations totalling $32,000. This entry-level event has encouraged, empowered and inspired women from the local community and beyond to participate in triathlon. For more, visit kincardinetriathlon.com.

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Race: Lifetime Fitness Triathlon Date: July 14, 2007 Events: Olympic and sprint Years running: Six Location: Lake Nokomis, Minn. Water temp: 78-84 degrees F Air temp: 80-90 degrees F Participants: 3,000 Best libation: Black Knight Return/Barley John’s Brew Pub mack dead in the middle of the summer, we, the U.S. Multi-Sport team, were off to Minneapolis, Minn. It’s our neighbor to the west in the nort' woods, as they say up there. Our crew crossed the great Mississippi River and made its way to the camping accommodations for the night at Afton State Park. No showers here folks, the river proved to do the trick. We jerry-rigged our gear and made it one of the biggest ridges in the area, but we realized a pole was missing as we put the tent up. Being a good Boy Scout and with no rain in past weeks, we fashioned the fly pole for the tent, with a rope here and there we were good to go. While playing pool with some friends a couple nights before the race, I looked

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The U.S. Multisport team sticks in the Midwest for Lifetime

up at the TV and saw lots of reds and yellows on the weather radar. Severe weather had just blown through. Not good. No fly. We looked at each other and laughed, maybe the storm missed our site. Not so. Our tent and everything was done for, a victim of Mother Nature. Sleeping in wet sleeping bags drenched with an inch of water sucks, but the following day made up for it. The expo had everything a triathlete could possibly need. We met a lady in her 80s all pumped up. She said her doc didn't want her to do the event and that’s when the decision was made. “You only live once,” she said. The night before the race was hot, calling for 90-degree race-day temps. The morning of, the mist lifted and the heat pumped in. Race directors had safety in mind when they shortened the course due to the hellish temps. But it didn't dampen the spirit of the athletes who plunged right through the humidity. This is a class-act event from the top pros to the 80-year-old grannies. See you there next time! H&W usmultisport.com

Rick Peters

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he competitive season is once again upon us. The visions have come to me after several long brick workouts, and I am now sure this is what’s going to happen. 1. Now in his early 50s and knowing that time is running out, six-time Hawaii Ironman champ Dave Scott spends the summer in secret training in a bid to retake the Hawaii crown that he last held 20 years ago. Pounding away in the solitude of the Colorado mountains, the work goes spectacularly well and he announces he’s going to compete in the October event just 10 days before the starting gun. In the race, Scott exits with the leaders after the swim, hangs well with the primary bike pack, and launches himself into the run. The sun kills off the clouds and word flows around the island and through the Internet that Dave Scott is running 6:30 miles. The incessant heat takes its toll, and Scott is not immune. Burning up on hypoglycemic fumes, his mind begins to come unhinged. With just six miles to go, Scott begins to slip into a hallucinatory trance and slows. The crowd’s hopes of a possible top-five fin-

Race year predictions By T.J. Murphy

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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ish begins to diminish, until, with just three miles left, an NBC van carrying Mark Allen pulls up aside The Man. When Allen yells encouragement to his former foe, Scott turns and sees the image of Allen’s face and timetravels into pure flashback. Shockingly, Scott erupts into a furious sprint, flying into the village and securing a third-place finish. 2. Australian Craig Alexander returns to the Life Time Fitness Triathlon and, while network television cameras follow him as he leads the run, is discovered by a channel-surfing Martin Scorsese. The acclaimed director sees the ripped-fit, square-jawed Aussie and knows Crowie is perfect for a role in his new movie about an Australian rancher who decides to move to Spain and become a bullfighter. 3. While on a vision quest in South America, Cam Widoff drinks from a sacred river and within days re-grows his famous dreadlocks of the 1990s. Returning to the United States, Widoff begins an eerie winning streak with little to no training.

4. When efforts by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to revise the U.S. Constitution to allow naturalized citizens to run for president succeed, Paula Newby-Fraser (also a naturalized U.S. citizen) is compelled to launch her own campaign for president. She selects Triathlete magazine publisher John Duke to run her campaign and, shockingly, raises enough money to fund a national go of it. Unfortunately, the campaign falters when a youtube.com video is distributed of triathlon agent Murphy Reinschreiber (conservative) and race director Jim Curl (liberal)—both part of Newby-Fraser’s campaign committee—are seen and heard arguing and insulting each other while discussing immigration policy. 5. Reigning Hawaii Ironman champ Normann Stadler and 2006 runner-up Chris McCormack forget to check each other’s calendars and both go to one of Mark Allen’s Sport and Spirit shamanism workshops in Santa Cruz. During the first day of the workshop, Allen has to break up several fistfights

between the two. On the second day, the volatile pair simply avoid each other and embrace the workshop exercises. On day three, during a sweatlodge ceremony, the two walk out from the grueling two-hour session as good friends, laughing and punching each other in the arm. The tri world is shocked when reports of the two training together surface. The friendly détente, however, collapses when Stadler suggests in an interview that the only way McCormack was able to hang with him during long bike rides was because he was drafting. The two clash in Kona for one of the greatest races the sport will ever see. 6. Cameron Elford, Triathlete magazine’s managing editor and notorious contributor to Point-Counterpoint, is abducted by group of Clydesdale athletes at the Accenture Chicago Triathlon. Elford is tortured by being forced to listen to three hours of New Age music and then released. It takes months for Elford to recover, mostly due to a particular track from an album called “Celestial Touch.”


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Speedo

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Axcel Back 2-piece $54

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The secret of the South Coast Home to the reggae revolution of the 1970s, Jamaica’s unspoiled South Coast celebrates Jake’s Jamaican Off-Road Triathlon and a rustic-but-vibrant oceanfront resort along with its Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff musical roots.

Pelican Bar

Photos by Tim Mantoani Styling by Natalie Bohlin

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YS Falls, St. Elizabeth Parish

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Shark Power Sleeveless $85 Shark Power Shorts $85

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Jake’s

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T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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BECKY LAVELLE HAS VISION BECKY LOVES THE UNCOMPROMISING FORM OF THE VISION TRIMAX CARBON INTEGRATED BAR - SOLID HARDWARE, EXTREME ADJUSTABILITY & AERODYNAMICS THAT CANNOT BE MATCHED USING SEPARATE COMPONENTS. 975 GRAMS. LEARN MORE ABOUT VISION COMPONENTS AT WWW.VISIONTECHUSA.COM

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Aquaman Lady’s Swimsuit $46 Triathlon Shorts $46

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Frenchman’s Bay in Treasure Beach

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Desiree, 30, top American at the 2006 Ironman in Kona, seeking ultra-responsive, 50.55 cm partner who’s a real winner

Desiree Ficker finished on the podium with an inspiring 2nd place performance at the 2006 Ford Ironman World Championships. Like the competitive spirit that burns in Desiree, we at Guru are equally fired up about creating the best triathlon bikes in the world. And for 2007, they feature an exciting new paint and design program. At Kona, we set Desiree up with a completely new customized, carbon monocoque Crono that’s incredibly responsive and swift as the wind. A match made in Hawaii. gurubikes.com


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Halter Top $46 Side Tie $44

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Zoot TRIfit 8” $65

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Jake’s

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YS Falls, St. Elizabeth Parish

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TYR Starsearch Diamondback Workout Bikini $66 Starsearch Jammer $37

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Orca ELITE Tri Swimsuit $95

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Kristin Zimmerman

On location on the South Coast

Tim Matoani

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Jake’s

1 1 4 JUNE 2007

Rebecca Roozen

A two-hour rural bus ride south from the Montego Bay Airport lays a diamond in the rough—a rustic, get-away-from-it-all destination: Jake’s. Sally Henzell, designer and wife of Perry Henzell, the producer/director of the 1970s hit movie “The Harder they Come,” opened a tiny restaurant on the undeveloped South Coast about the same time. That dining spot grew to include a single guesthouse, and a few additional guesthouses later the sleepy backwaters of Treasure Beach became host to Jake’s. Today, a cluster of quirkily designed and colorful cottages lines the resort’s oceanfront landscape. A hammock hangs near the main eatery. An easy-going Dougie mans the seaside bar, stocked with Red Stripes and local rum. Come only if you’re willing to obey the humidity’s unhurried effects and hang with the locals. Life is slow and appreciated here. But if you’re looking for adventure, St. Elizabeth Parish hosts some natural wonders just a bus ride away from this Jamaican fishing village.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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Tim Matoani

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Rather than counties, Jamaica has parishes, and Treasure Beach is located in St. Elizabeth Parish. St. Elizabeth has much to offer and is one of the last parishes on the coast that is still truly unspoiled. There aren’t any sprawling hotels, just polite country people and spectacular scenery. As they say on the South Coast, “St. Bess is best!” YS Falls: A lush land of seven waterfalls and green jungle, YS Falls opened in 1990 and serves as a playground in the woods. Several waterfalls cascade into natural pools, some of which are safe for swimming and exploring. Lifeguards on deck will let you know the boundaries and keep you safe from the rocky areas. You can also take the zip line from the top for an aerial view of the rushing falls. Rainy months are May and October, and the river generally comes down in waves; swimming may be suspended during these times. Visit ysfalls.com for more information. Black River: Take a tour up Jamaica’s largest river. Crocodiles, hidden herb gardens and three species of mangrove, including Royal Palms, make these wetlands sort of magical. For more details, visit jamaica-southcoast.com/blackriver/tour.htm. Jake’s Off-Road Triathlon: In 1995 Jason Henzell (Perry and Sally’s son, who had quit the banking business to take the reigns of the hostelry) wanted to thank the U.S. Peace Corps members who had been working in Treasure Beach, so he started a triathlon for them, with free entry. Today, Jake’s Off-Road Triathlon joins the Calabash Literary Festival and the Treasure Beach Fishing Tournament, as the biggest events of the year in secluded Treasure Beach.

Rebecca Roozen

St. Elizabeth Parish

Held the last weekend in April (April 29, 2007, was its 12th year), the 600-meter swim, 25-kilometer bike and 7-kilometer run is as simply orchestrated as was the first race. All signs are still hand-painted on wood (which also serve as age-group awards), and the finish line is a scratch in the dirt filled with white marl (crushed coral). The locals, who come to cheer on the racers, stick around to swim and celebrate with the competitors afterward. The triathlon field is limited to 50 Jamaicans and 50 international participants, guaranteeing the race retains a local, Jamaican feel. It’s still free for Peace Corps members. All proceeds from the triathlon go to BREDS, a Treasure Beach charity that helps local families. BREDS is currently raising donations from triathletes and sportspeople throughout the world to build a sports field and community center for Treasure Beach. Go to jakesoffroadtri.com or BREDS.org to be part of “Blade of Grass” a sports-charity project. International athletes interested in participating in the triathlon can go to jakestri.active.com for registration and travel information. Jamaicans should call 876/965-3000 and ask for Tanya, or e-mail her at jakes@cwjamaica.com and she will fax an entry.

Air Jamaica offers direct flights from 10 U.S cities to Montego Bay (MBY). Island Car Rental has weekly rates starting at $300, but your best bet is to call Jake’s and they will have a driver pick you up and take you over the mountains to the South Coast, a two-hour drive. For more information on Treasure Beach, visit treasurebeach.net; for Jake’s Village, visit islandoutpost.com/jakes or try Sunset Resort, next-door neighbor to Jake’s and a center for fishermen, at sunsetresort.com. For other accommodations in the Island Outpost chain, go to islandoutpost.com.

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T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Rebecca Roozen

Getting there and more


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Saluting Dr. B Andy Baldwin may be the object of 10 million viewers’ affection, but he’s a lot more than meets the eye

Tim Mantoani

By Rebecca Roozen

It’s been said that he’s the “sexiest Bachelor ever” in the history of ABC’s reality TV show. Thirty-year-old LT Andrew James Baldwin, M.D., of Lancaster, Penn., has had quite an eventful mission the past few months, finding the girl of his dreams. But we’re Triathlete magazine, not People, and we knew him as the fun-loving triathlete and Navy doc before ABC had the chance to set up the cameras. So, we’re not interested in whether he wears boxers or briefs (at least most of us aren’t; see sidebar), rather, we want the world to learn something even more revealing about Andy. Triathlete magazine: As a Duke University varsity letter winner on the men’s swim team, were you always curious about triathlon? What got you started in the sport? Andy Baldwin: As a kid, I started swimming really young and stayed with it through college. I also ran track and cross-country in high school, and my first two marathons in college. I knew about triathlon and Ironman as a kid but didn’t get really involved in them until I moved to California for medical school. I brought my 10-speed bike from high school with me, and a friend convinced me to train with Team in Training for the Wildflower Triathlon. It was a great way to meet friends in a new area, San Francisco, and was for a good cause. I ended up finishing on the podium. Someone suggested I get a tri bike and actually train a bit, and the rest is history. 1 1 8 JUNE 2007

TM: What’s your tri calendar line-up for 2007? New races? Old favorites? AB: Lavaman, Lanikai Tri, Wildflower, Honolulu Tri, Escape from Alcatraz, Tinman Triathlon, Ironman Canada, Malibu Tri, LA tri, Ironman Hawaii are all on the calendar, but my job with the Navy comes first, so I may not make all of those. TM: Take a look in any celebrity gossip magazine and we know you have a lot more on your ’07 calendar than triathlons. Besides fulfilling the role as the “Bachelor,” what else is in store for you this year? More work with Project Active? Finishing up your medical school residency? AB: Priority No. 1 is providing quality medical care to my special-operations divers and making sure they are fit and ready to fight. My responsibility to the Navy is paramount. I also will be doing quite a lot with the community in Hawaii, and charity organizations like Project Active, Special Olympics, American Cancer Society, the Hawaii Kokua Association and Aloha Medical Mission. TM: Rumor has it that you had your own lawn-mowing business, worked a paper route and the lifeguard stand as a teenager. When was this hard-work ethic instilled in you? T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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AB: I get it from my grandfather. He is still learning at his ripe old age of 82 . . . learning Russian, mastering computer programming and becoming certified as a lifeguard. I had a dream to go to a top-10 university, but my parents told me they didn’t have enough money to send me to one, so I either had to get a scholarship or save up money on my own. So I set out to do that, and by working all these jobs saved up 25k, enough to pay for my first year of college. In the end, I got a Navy ROTC scholarship and put the money into savings.

TM: I’ve heard that your work in Laos sticks with you to this day. Tell us a little bit about what you did there and why it means so much to you. AB: I was asked to accompany a POW/MIA recovery team to the mountainous regions of Laos (Ho Chi Minh Trail) on a mission in 2006. Laos being a communist state still has very tight restrictions on allowing the U.S. into its territory. Part of the diplomatic deal was that they bring a physician and medications to provide aid to their ill in remote mountain villages. We reached them primarily by helicopter. What sticks for me is how happy these Laotian people were living with virtually nothing, and suffering from gastrointestinal

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1 2 0 JUNE 2007

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Tim Mantoani

TM: I’m sure you’ve encountered plenty of influential people in your world travels. What have they taught you that you’d like to impart on others? AB: Have an open mind, wear a smile on your face and always ask what you can do to help.


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worms, malaria, dengue fever and malnutrition. Despite all of their suffering and lack of the amenities that most of us have, their smiles were resilient and ever present. It made me realize that, perhaps, we don’t appreciate what we have.

TM: Now, for the ultimate burning question: Why does such a successful, good-looking and funny guy like you have to go on television in order to find “The One�? AB: I don’t.

TM: Of all your accomplishments, what do you consider your top-three biggest rewards in life so far? AB: Being born into a loving and caring family, having my health and mind and being able to serve in a caring profession.

TM: Then why’d you sign up to be on “The Bachelor�? AB: Because there is a chance that I could find the one, and I wouldn’t know unless I tried. TM: Twenty-five good-looking girls are going to step out of a limo and hope to steal your heart. Who is “The One� for you? What’s she like? Does she own running shoes? A wetsuit? AB: She is a woman who believes in family values, is smart, driven, athletic, caring, witty, adventurous, beautiful, open-minded and kind and has a sense of humor. She definitely owns running shoes, and if she doesn’t own a wetsuit, she will soon.

TM: And of all of your titles: lieutenant, triathlete, undersea medical officer, which do you feel the strongest tie to? Why? AB: Andy, because I’m a kid at heart. TM: What do you hope to experience and accomplish in the next 10 years? AB: I hope to meet a wonderful woman, settle down, have children, finish my residency in orthopedic surgery, travel the world doing more humanitarian missions, educate and inspire others to be the best they can be and lead a healthy lifestyle.

Triathletes may be strong-willed but even some of the most determined athletes can’t fight the force and get sucked into reality television. For those of you that can’t help yourselves when Monday nights roll around (and I’m not talking football), here are a few of the finer points on triathlon’s very own bachelor. Are you related to the Baldwin brothers? No, I wish. Guilty pleasure? Exercise Republican or democrat? Republican Up early or stay up late? Up early Thai or Italian? Thai Blondes or brunettes? Brunettes Wine or beer? Wine Downhill or water skiing? Downhill Dance club or Irish pub? Irish pub Boxers or briefs? Boxers Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate Alternative or rap? Alternative Soymilk or regular? Skim milk Books or mags? Books Coffee or tea? Coffee Silver or gold? Gold Serious or goofy? Goofy Lid kept up or down? Down Any nicknames? Dr. B Dinner and a . . . movie or a walk on the beach? Walk on the beach. You screw up . . . wildflowers or roses? Roses

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Tim Mantoani

The Cast

Kristin Zimmerman

Hannah Cornett Hannah currently competes for the Scott USA Contessa mountain-bike team and will be racing in a world tour with XTERRA in ’07. Beyond Triathlete magazine’s swimsuit issue, Hannah has modeled for New Balance, Accelerade and was featured in Muscle & Fitness magazine for surfing.

1 2 2 JUNE 2007

Maxine Bahns When she’s not training for triathlon, Max is doing Bikram or Hatha yoga. Other than fitness, her work as an actress keeps her busy. You can catch her on “Studio 60,” as Matt Perry’s love interest. She also shot a film in New York in December called “Steam.” And, of course, she’s spending as much time as possible with her new fiancé, adventure racer Patrick Watson. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Kristin Zimmerman

Traveling and working as an acupuncturist for the USA Bobsled team on its World Cup Circuit, Tara grew accustomed to high altitude, rough terrain and extreme weather conditions this past winter. She will continue to participate in road triathlons but plans on competing in XTERRAs, adventure races and other off-road challenges this season. Her new home in Park City, Utah, serves as a great training ground.

Tim Mantoani

Tara Kulikov


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Kristin Zimmerman

Andy Baldwin

Kristin has spent most of the last seven years training, racing and organizing events like the Nautica New York City Triathlon, Age Group World Championships in Honolulu, the ING New York City Marathon, PGA Golf Tournaments and the US Open of Tennis. A recent accident during a triathlon sidelined her, but she plans on returning to racing this summer. Kristin lives in San Diego where she works in nutraceutical sales and fitness modeling.

Andy is Navy doctor for a specialoperations dive unit in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He has raced six Ironmans so far, including a 34thplace finish in his age group in Kona last October. ABC began filming Andy as its latest “Bachelor” in February. This summer we’ll find out if Andy found his “One” through reality television.

Tim Mantoani

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Natalie is a prominent hair and makeup artist working in Southern California, with numerous print and television credits to her name. In the past year, she’s worked with Michellie Jones, Fernanda Keller, Trevor Hoffman, Phil Mickelson, GU, Yamaha, Callaway Golf and Road Runner Sports, to name a few. This is her third consecutive Triathlete magazine swimsuit photo shoot.

Tim Mantoani

Courtesy Kristin Zimmerman

Natalie Bohlin


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Tim Mantoani

Robert Murphy

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Lynn Mantoani When she isn’t photo assisting on the Triathlete swimsuit issue with her husband Tim, Lynn works as the senior investigator for San Diego County’s Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board where she conducts civilian oversight of the Sheriff’s and Probation Departments. Tim and Lynn live in San Diego with their 6-year-old son Lucas.

Robert Murphy

Tim Mantoani

Tim Mantoani For over 15 years, Tim has traveled the world shooting for a variety of advertising and editorial clients. Best known for his award-winning portraits, he has photographed the likes of Robin Williams, Michael Jackson, Brett Favre, Mark McGwire and Lance Armstrong. If you are a longtime subscriber, you have seen Tim’s work before, as he has over a dozen Triathlete covers to his name, including those of Peter Reid and Sarah Reinertsen.

An Ironman finisher, Robert has been a contributing photographer for Triathlete for over three years now. Jamaica was his first swimsuit shoot as a photo assistant. Robert lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa . . . for now.

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Swim, bike, run . . . and yoga? Athletic yoga for top triathlon performance

By Karen Dubs • Photography By John Segesta Your goal is to improve speed and performance. You’re not interested in chakras, contortions and chanting, much less sitting still, meditating or focusing inwardly on your breathing. Although you keep hearing about the benefits of yoga, you feel like it’s probably a waste of your precious and limited training time and is either too easy or too hard—or just too weird. Yet thousands of athletes are cross-training with yoga to give them an extra edge . . . reducing chances of injury, muscular imbalance and overtraining while improving endurance, focus and flexibility. What if there was a style of yoga that offered all the benefits but without the extreme poses and strange stuff that might make you uncomfortable? What if there was an athletic yoga specifically for triathletes? Well, the following sequence of yoga-based stretches focuses on alleviating some of the biggest race-season enders for triathletes: stiff shoulders, sore hips, achy low backs and tight hip flexors, quads and hamstrings.

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Getting started Athletic yoga will increase your flexibility, strength and balance, which can have a positive effect on performance— but like all training, yoga needs to be practiced regularly for top results. The pose sequence in this article is a great place to start, and you can do it at home in under 20 minutes. You don’t need any special equipment or expensive gear (although a yoga mat is suggested). The time you take to add yoga to your training routine can actually save you recovery time or spare you injuries. While doing the entire sequence three times a week is ideal, think of it like training for your first triathlon: You didn’t try to do the entire distance in the first week, and you shouldn’t expect to touch your toes in your first yoga session either. As you gain flexibility and get more comfortable you can add poses and increase your yoga training time. During the summer and fall while your race schedule and mileage is heavy, focus mostly on gentler flexibility poses, especially if yoga is new to you. After your race season ends, consider adding more challenging strength, endurance and core-conditioning poses. Athletic yoga sessions end with a final relaxation where participants lie still and rest. This motionless pause is truly the pose athletes need most. Taking the time to rest increases energy, strength, power and potential, and instead of feeling exhausted and over-trained you feel energized, empowered and ready for what’s next. Triathletes are determined, persistent and committed to being their best. While it’s fun and addicting to compete and train hard, it is important not to be competitive with yoga poses. Athletes are used to pushing through pain and connecting with the more-is-more philosophy; however, a less-is-more approach works best for athletes who are used to pushing through pain and beyond their limits. After the yoga session you can go back to being a competitive athlete.

Practice tips: Stretch without strain • Move slowly and deliberately through the sequence, listening to your body. • Like anything new, yoga may feel a little awkward at first, so commit to at least six weeks. • Do not force a stretch. Doing so will only tighten muscles and could result in injury. • Hold each pose for five to 10 breath cycles before moving onto the next stretch. • Use full, diaphragmatic breathing in and out through the nose. Feeling breathless is an indicator you’ve gone too far. • For the best results, practice this sequence three to five times a week, or after each swim, bike or run.

The pose sequence 1) Balanced Knee to Chest

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Why? Stretches glutes and low back while developing balance and stability. How? Balance on your right leg, holding under the left thigh and drawing it toward your rib cage while maintaining a lengthened spine. In all balance poses, find something to focus your gaze on, and keep your breath smooth and even. Tip: If your balance is shaky, keep one hand on a wall or a chair back until you feel steadier. Working the little muscles in your feet and ankles is important too.

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3) Pyramid Stretch Why? Stretches hamstrings How? From Balanced Pigeon, step your left foot back about two to three feet from your right foot. Your heels should line up, your right toes will be angled straight forward and your left toes will be angled out at about a 45-degree angle. Keeping your right knee slightly bent and your hips level to the floor, hinge forward and support by placing your hands on your right shin. Keep your front knee bent as much as feels comfortable.

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2 2) Balanced Pigeon with Chest Expansion Why? Stretches hips, glutes, piraformis, chest and shoulders while developing strength and balance. How? From Balanced Knee to Chest pose, keep the left knee bent, taking the left ankle across the top of the right thigh and flexing the left foot. Gently rotate the left knee out until you feel a stretch in left hip (you don’t want to feel any pain in the knee). Keeping an extended spine, hinge your torso toward your left shin to feel a deeper stretch. Stay here if the pose is already challenging or progress by adding the chest and shoulder stretch by interlacing your fingers behind your back and lifting your arms up and away from your low back. Keep your eyes focused on a still spot.

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4) Forward Fold with Chest Expansion

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Why? Stretches the hamstrings, chest and shoulders. How? From Pyramid Stretch, step your left foot forward and stand with feet hip distance apart and parallel. Interlace your fingers behind your back and fold forward keeping the knees slightly bent and the hips aligned over the ankles. Lift the arms up and away from the tailbone until you feel a stretch in the front of the shoulders and chest as well as the hamstrings. Release your torso toward your thighs. Before moving on, repeat poses 1-3 with the left leg, followed by a second forward fold.

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5) Runner’s Stretch Why? Stretches hamstrings. How? From forward fold, bend your knees as much as you need to put your hands on the floor, then step your right knee back to the floor, putting extra padding under the knee if it is sensitive. Your left knee is directly over your ankle. Shift your weight back into the right knee, extending your left leg straighter until you feel a stretch in your left hamstring. This is a deep stretch. Your left leg does not need to be straight.

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6) Crescent Lunge Why? Stretches hip flexors and quads. How? From Runner’s stretch, shift your weight forward so your left knee is directly over your left ankle with one hand on either side of your left foot. Bring your hands to your left thigh and press your torso up, extending and lengthening your spine (not leaning forward). Hinge your hips forward until you feel a stretch in the right hip flexor and quad. If you feel comfortable you can release your hands from your thigh and bring them up over your shoulders, reaching through your fingertips as you breath in, releasing the hips toward the floor as you breath out.

6 7 7) Downward Dog Why? This is one of the best total body strength and flexibility poses, stretching calf muscles, Achilles and hamstrings, while strengthening and stretching the shoulders and lats. How? From Crescent Lunge, bring both hands down on either side of your left foot and step your left knee back to meet your right knee so you are on all fours with your hands shoulder-distance apart and your knees under your hips. Curl your toes under, press through your palms and lift your tailbone up so you are in an inverted “V” position. Keep your knees slightly bent if your hamstrings are tight. Work toward straightening your legs. Inhale and think of extending and lengthening your spine, exhale and allow the heels to sink down toward the floor as you continue to press through your palms. Repeat poses 5 and 6 on the other leg followed by a second downward dog. The featured pose sequence is from Karen Dubs’ DVD, Flexible Warrior: Athletic Yoga for Triathletes Vol. 1. The DVD is part of the Spinervals International multisport series by Coach Troy Jacobson. Dubs is a Registered Yoga Teacher and ACE Certified fitness professional specializing in yoga for athletes. She has trained a wide range of athletes including triathletes, runners, cyclists, swimmers and Baltimore Ravens football players. For more information, visit flexiblewarrior.com. 1 3 4 JUNE 2007

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Christophe Jouffret of Look Bicycles and wife Nathalie Jouffret of Zoot Sports raced 2007 Kona together wire-to-wire in a true industry marriage to the sport By Jay Prasuhn

Jay Prasuhn

INSEPARABLE

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The Look Keo Ironman pedal is synonymous with Ironman, and in fact may well be the most widely raced pedal in Hawaii every year. As such, the France-based company is entitled to a sponsor’s wildcard entry into the race. Not that the speedy cats at Look need it. Christophe Jouffret is a prominent name as deputy managing director of the storied brand. And he is now a three-time Kona qualifier, having qualified last year with a 9:39 at Ironman Brazil. He was also instrumental in the creation of the 495 Tri, Look’s first triathlon bike. The guy not only knows his stuff, he’s fast too. His wife, Nathalie, is the European sales manager for Zoot Sports in France. She did her first Ironman in 13 hours, also at

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Brazil last year. The two then set a goal: to do Hawaii side-by-side (within the legal rules of Ironman racing, of course) and experience the Ironman world championship together. In the end, they finished together 12:48:23 after a 1:25 swim, 6:27 bike and 4:41 run. Triathlete sat with the Jouffrets on the eve of their race to find out about balance, putting aspirations aside and seizing the moment. Triathlete: Christophe, as the more experienced triathlete, have you put Nathalie on a program? Christophe Jouffret: No, I’m not a coach. I just let her do what was good for her. We tried to have one bike ride together every weekend, though, about 80 or 100 kilometers long. Triathlete: Being the centerpiece event of the sport, was there any pressure on Nathalie that you’re taking off her? Christophe: We didn’t have too much pressure because we got a wild card for Kona. It was more for her to understand what Ironman, what this race on the island, means. Triathlete: At what point did you say, “Hey, let’s do the race together,” instead of the traditional, “See ya at the finish” approach to the race? Christophe: It’s a challenge we wanted to achieve together, once in our life, for quite some time. It’s really a family thing, and we wanted our kids to be there. Of course, we have our parents here to take care of the kids! Nathalie: Benjamin is 12 years old, Tristan, 7 years old, and I don’t think they realized really what it is we’re doing out there all day. But they know that we train. Christophe: This is our time. I think because I travel I see all the things going on in the world, and I am now in the spirit of enjoying life, doing things instead of waiting, because you never know when the opportunity will come again. Nathalie: Yes, at first I didn’t want to do Hawaii, didn’t think I was ready . . . but now I’m really happy Christophe encouraged me.

Jay Prasuhn

Triathlete: Christophe, how easy is it to shelve your own aspirations for Kona? Christophe: I did Hawaii for the first time in 2002, then in 2004, I said to her, “One day, you have to do it, and don’t wait too long, because you never know what can happen.” It’s about sharing the experience. It’s like when you go on a nice trip somewhere, you want to experience it with your wife. I’m so happy she can share it with me. Doing it for me, going fast, that’s all in the past. It’s good too, because I’ve put in minimal training, so I can keep being a good parent. For me, it’s her race.

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Stay Balanced! When you eat is just as important as what you eat. Let us show you how our Within-Day Energy BalanceTM technology will maximize your performance.

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY . . . Bars & gels: Part 3 of Triathlete’s 3-part nutrition series By the editors

..

In the late 1980s PowerBar, at the time nearly alone in the sports-nutrition wilderness, began an athletic revolution when it released its energy bar. With just three PowerBar flavors to choose from in the early days: Chocolate, Malt Nut and Wild Berry, athletes didn’t have a great deal of selection, but the bars quickly caught on as much for their convenience as for their extraordinary ability to ward off the bonk. If you had picked up this magazine in 1988, our sports-nutrition guide would have been, let’s say, succinct. But the category has grown in colossal steps over the past two decades, and today athletes have literally hundreds of products to help fuel their racing and training. Here, then, is the third and final installment of our 2007 nutrition guide.

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John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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I’LL TAKE IT TO GO By Jay Prasuhn For some of us, the on-course offerings sometimes don’t sit well with our tummies—meaning that when it comes to nutrition we have to take it with us on the bike and run.

TNI Bento Box $16 The top-tube nutrition box is not only an ideal place to stash your gels and cut-up bars but, lo and behold, MIT testers have found them to provide an aero advantage, cleaning up the airflow behind the steerer. tniusa.com

Fuel Belt Sprint palm holder $10 and Gel-ready number belt Say goodbye to sticky hands on the run with Fuel Belt’s new adjustable Sprint hand strap, which keeps 10 ounces of your gel at hand on the run. Want to keep your gel in its standard packets? The Gel-ready number belt holds not only your number (duh) but has 10 elastic loops for gel packets or a tablet dispenser. fuelbelt.com

SaltStick $24

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Photos courtesy the manufacturers

Instantly embraced by scores of pros including 2006 Ironman world champ Normann Stadler when introduced over a year ago, the SaltStick, a salt-capsule dispenser designed to fit inside aerobar extensions, has proven to be one of the most handy (and safest at speed) salt capsule–dispensing systems for the bike, keeping your caps dry and at the ready per the twist of the dial. Also available in a mini version for road drop bars, and both include mounts for use on other bars or on your run belt. saltstick.com

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Gu Bike Mount $12 There’s nothing more harrowing than trying to tear open a gel packet with your teeth on a downhill. Gel in a flask is good. Making that flask easily accessible on your top tube is better. A Velcro-backed flask simply sets onto the plastic mount for quick, easy and safe gel intake. gusports.com

Not only does the new Crush hold a bottle for your long training days but it also has a pocket for your gels, bars and salt tablets, making you nutritionally self-sufficient for that solitary three-hour Sunday run. Not down with pink? It’s available in red, too. fuelbelt.com

Photos courtesy the manufacturers

Fuel Belt Crush $30


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BELAY THE BONK

Our 2007 tour of the top sports bars and gels (and other goodies) on the market By T.J. Murphy

The longer the race or training session, the more important calories become in sustaining effort and the intensity of the effort. You only need to watch the Hawaii Ironman once to see this fact graphically demonstrated: great athletes breaking to pieces because they missed their special-needs bag.

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Crank Sports e-Gel A single packet of e-Gel contains 150 calories, 220mg of sodium and 80mg of potassium. Crank Sports points out that the addition of electrolytes allows you the freedom to chase your gel with water as opposed to a sports drink, and they maintain that sports drinks do a poor job of helping you dilute the gel. Flavors include Mountain Rush, Vanilla Strawberry Slam, Tropical Blast and Cherry Bomb. cranksports.com

Baker’s Breakfast Cookies Cookies baked with the health nut in mind (no trans fats, no cholesterol), Baker’s cookies come in 11 different flavors. Each cookie delivers 52 grams of carbohydrates and 250mg of sodium, the primary nutrients you need during the middle of a long race. About the time you can’t imagine eating another gel or bar, this sort of cookie can really help bring you home. bbcookies.com

Enervit Bars and Gels Enervit produces three different energy bars and two gels, each serving roles in Enervit’s systemized sports-nutrition program. The Powersport bar includes essential aminos, time-released energy and minerals; the Energy bar is a fruit-based cereal and nut bar; and the Powersport Crunchy includes soy protein, fructose, maltodextrin, antioxidants and B-group vitamins. The Enervitene Sport Gel combines a concentrated mix of carbohydrates, amino acids and vitamins; and the Enervitene Cheerpack is strictly designed as shot of pure energy, perfect for a mile or two out from the finish line. enervitusa.com

Promax Bar

Keep in mind that when you dabble in exercise taking longer than two hours, the importance of food escalates. In training and racing, try to keep a wide variety of options on hand (especially during the bike) so you can negotiate with what your stomach is saying to you. The following bars, gels, cookies and more offer you not only the necessary spike of energy but also myriad combinations of flavor, electrolytes, protein and other nutrients to help you keep going and keep going good. An additional thought on variety: Even though you may love a certain bar or gel, try to get your hands on as many different flavors and textures as possible. When the game is afoot and you cross over into the world beyond six hours, you can get very, very tired of certain things, yet the need for calories marches on, right underneath the ever-hovering sledgehammer known as bonking. A note about prices: just about every company listed below offers valuable discounts when you buy in bulk quantities from their Web site. Generally speaking, a gel is about a dollar and a bar is somewhere between a dollar and three dollars. Buying in bulk can bring these prices radically downward. Besides, bulk is what you need.

The whopper of sports bars: The Promax bar contains 20 grams of protein, 39 grams of carbs and five grams of fat. The primary flavor is Black Forest Cake. Maybe too much for certain stomachs during the race but a surefire way to add a tasty thunderbolt to your post-race recovery. promaxbar.com

Endurance Max Energy

GU hit the shelves in 1991, and as old-timers may recall, it was the initial answer to the needs faced by endurance athletes who couldn’t bring themselves to chomp down solid food but still wanted a concentrated blast of energy. The essential formula used by GU produces an 80/20 complex carbs versus simple sugars ratio. The classics like chocolate and vanilla been are still available, as are Espresso Love, Lemon, Strawberry and Berry. gusports.com

A new high-carb gel you can drink, Endurance Max Energy packs 70 calories into every ounce. Comes in a flask and is available in the following flavors: Peppermint Schnapps, Jammin’ Banana, Octane Orange, Stokin’ Strawberry and Caffeine Cola. endurancemaxenergy.com

Sport Beans Sports Beans are Jelly Beans fortified with electrolytes for raceday needs, as well as vitamin C and B. Lemon-Lime, Fruit Punch, Orange and Berry Blue. sportbeans.com

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PureFit Nutrition Bar With no wheat, gluten, dairy or trans fats to mess up your digestion, the PureFit bar is designed to be easy on the stomach and provides 18 grams of protein in addition to a blast of carbs. purefit.com

3Bar 3Bar boasts a low sugar content and hence registers a lower punch on the glycemic scale. 3BARs are organic, vegan, kosher, wheat-free, gluten-free, GMO-free and cholesterol-free. Made to be eaten before or during long workouts. Comes in Blueberry, Tropical and Cocoa Crunch flavors. e-fitfoods.com

GU

Accel Gel Pacific Health Laboratories, known widely for Accelerade and Endurox, present their patented carbs-to-protein 4:1 ratio within

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packets of Accel Gel. The measured dose of protein, Pacific Health maintains, is small enough of a portion that it won’t irritate your digestion, but the infusion of protein will aid muscular recovery. Available in Citrus Orange, Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry Kiwi flavors. accelerade.com

Hammer Gel Hammer Gel doesn’t dig into the realm of artificial ingredients, instead relying on real fruit and avoiding refined, simple sugars, artificial colors and sweeteners. Hammer Nutrition also points out the flexibility of its product, suggesting that you can drink it straight up or mix it into a variety of water-bottle potions for a variety of flavors and textures. With nine different gel flavors to choose from, the combinations are indeed limitless. e-caps.com

First Endurance EFS Bar A mirror product of their EFS drink formula, the EFS bar is fortified with doses of the amino acids Glutamine, Leucine, Iso-leucine and Valine to improve glycogen resynthesis and delay central fatigue. As per the usual protocol of First Endurance, the EFS bar is the result of years of field-testing with athletes as well as being grounded in quality clinical research. firstendurance.com

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chocolate chips) and whey protein concentrate. Mint Chocolate, Chocolate Cashew and Peanut-butter-and-jelly flavors. jojobar.com

Clif Bar Bloks Clif Bars, Clif Shots, Luna Bars, Z Bars and more. Clif Bars and all Clif’s associated products have secured a reputation as being balanced in terms of nutrition, almost entirely organic and with flavor upon decadent flavor to choose from. Luna Bars, for example—a bar produced with the female athlete in mind—are also a big favorite among the boys. New from Clif are Bloks: soft, organic cubes of energy and electrolytes presented in flavors as unique as Margarita. clifbar.com

PowerBar and PowerGel New to PowerBar and its vast line of bar products and flavors (the company is widely recognized for establishing the sports-bar category) is the C2 Max concept, based on research PowerBar says demonstrates that a specific ratio between glucose (sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar) can increase the rate of carbohydrate utilization. The ratio has been implanted in their performance products, including PowerGel. powerbar.com

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Exercise lasting longer than 90 minutes depletes muscle glycogen and blood-glucose levels, while races lasting between four and 17 hours are extremely depleting. Carbohydrates are the foundation of any endurance athlete’s nutritional plan, and the first step is to calculate the number of carbohydrates/calories per hour that you require. It is not possible to replace all of the calories you burn during a race or workout—and attempting to do so may lead to a gastrointestinal meltdown on the run. Instead, the key is to replace just as much as is needed to sustain you through the duration of your training or race without causing GI troubles. The American College of Sports Medicine recommendation is to consume 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour during prolonged exercise. For a more precise calculation, grab your calculator. Women should try to consume one gram of carbohydrate for each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight per hour, while men should take in 1.1 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight. If you want to convert this into units of energy, a carbohydrate has four calories. These numbers are a starting point, of course, and you may need to increase or decrease these values based on your metabolism, workout intensity and the conditions of the course. According to the results of testing I had in January, I need to consume 67 grams (that’s 268 calories) of carbohydrate an hour on the bike, far more than the 52 grams (208 calories) of carbohydrate predicted by the 1:1 ratio, but this is offset by needing only 40 grams (160 calories) of carbohydrate per hour on the run. Gordo Byrn, Ultraman Hawaii champion and co-author of Going Long, races at the extreme end, ingesting 125150 grams (500-600 calories) of carbohydrates an hour on the bike. He recommends replacing 50 percent of the calories expended on the bike. Since eating while riding is much easier (both logistically and physiologically) than eating on the run, be sure to fuel well on the bike. In fact, in one study of Ironman athletes, the ingestion rate was three times higher on the bike than it was during the run (Kimber et al., 2002).

Avoid a nutritional meltdown on race day By Joanna Zeiger

Inevitably, whenever I give a talk to a triathlon group somebody asks what my race-day nutrition involves. This is a perplexing question since race-day nutrition is extremely individualized, so I often joke that I eat spam sandwiches. Although the needs of one person rarely mimic the requirements of another, there are certain parameters that are nearly universal. So, when viewed in conjunction with the discussion about dehydration last month, your fueling strategy should no longer be scary and mysterious.

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Morgantown West Virginia July 1, 2007 Featuring both Olympic and half distance races www.mountaineertri.com The half distance includes a 1.2 mile swim in the Monongahela River, a challenging 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run in and around downtown Morgantown and West Virginia University, while the Olympic race includes a 1500m swim, 40k bike, and 10k run. The city of Morgantown has been rated among the top small cities in the nation where spectacular scenery and the fun of a university town come together so naturally! The MedExpress Mountaineer Triathlon will host professionals from around the world, who are racing for the $15,000 prize purse. Presenting Sponsor


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The nuts & bolts of race-day refueling It is far better to eat on a regular schedule, such as every 10-15 minutes, rather than scarf down a bar in desperate hunger 45 minutes after your last feeding. Taking in fewer calories more often will keep your glucose levels stable and may fend off GI problems. And be sure to drink plenty of water with your food intake. Over the last decade, hundreds of nutritional products and supplements have been developed to help you achieve your personal best. How does one sort through the crowded landscape of sports nutrition? Some of this has to be done through trial and error and personal preference. According to the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, you can train your stomach to handle most nutrition products—provided they are ingested at a rate below your physiological threshold for digestion. So rather than fuss over whether you’re getting your energy from bars, gels or liquid sources, it’s more important to focus on your ingestion rate and ensure you drink enough water to maintain hydration. The bottom line: if you are unable to handle solid food during competition, gels and liquids will do just fine. I often hear of athletes that enjoy moonlighting as part-time chemists. They create strange liquid concoctions that have 1400 calories—their nutrition for the entire day that they put into a single water bottle. Throughout the day they sip on this sludge and chase it with water. This is a very risky fueling plan. If the bottle ejects and breaks, your season of training is now splattered on the pavement. Also, there is an optimal carbohydrate concentration that the body can tolerate. A 5- to 8-percent carbohydrate solution appears to be most favorable for delivery and least likely to cause

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an upset stomach. Heavily concentrated carbohydrate solutions can lead to later GI problems (Jeukendrup et al., 2006). Glucose, sucrose, maltose and maltodextrin are oxidized at high rates, and using them in combination will help increase absorption. Many drinks and gels are formulated in this manner. Fructose, galactose and amylose are oxidized more slowly and should be consumed sparingly (Jeukendrup et al., 2006). While it is well established that carbohydrate intake during exercise can delay fatigue, two studies reported that consuming a carbohydrate-protein mixture during exercise further improves endurance capacity (Ivy et al., 2003; Saunders et al., 2004). Although these findings are noteworthy, the physiological explanation for these observations has yet to be established. A study by van Essen and Gibala (2006) showed that ingesting a 6-percent carbohydrate solution at a rate of 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour improved 80km cycling time-trial performance, but ingestion of protein along with carbohydrate provided no additional performance benefit. It may be that when a suboptimal amount of carbohydrate is consumed during exercise, as was the case in the Ivy et al. (2003) and Saunders et al. (2004) studies, the additional energy from protein might provide a benefit. During exercise, rely on carbohydrate for fuel, but a little protein will certainly not hurt and may help during longer races (and can speed post-event recovery).

Putting it into practice Once you determine your race-day nutrition plan, practice it during training. I try to train only with the foods that I will consume on race day. That said, there is nothing like a Slurpee in the

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middle of a hot summer-time ride, and if hunger really strikes I will eat some solid food during training. I do recommend training solely with your race-day nutrition and fluid plan at least once a week, however. Incorporate some long race-pace efforts during these training sessions and practice eating and drinking during this time to get a good sense of how many carbs an hour you require and to determine how your gut reacts. Once you hone your nutrition plan, commit it to memory and follow it closely. Train hard, have fun! Dr. Joanna Zeiger, a 2000 Olympian, is a top long- and short-course athlete. She is based in Boulder, Colo. Thanks to Beth Stover from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute for her assistance with this article.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

Works cited Ivy JL, Res PT, Sprague RC, Widzer MO, Effect of a carbohydrate-protein supplement on endurance performance during exercise of varying intensity. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2003.13(3):382-95. Jeukendrup AE, Jentjens RL, Moseley L. Nutritional considerations in triathlon. Sports Med. 2005. 35(2):163-81. Kimber NE, Ross JJ, Mason SL, et al. Energy balance during an Ironman triathlon in male and female triathletes. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 2002; 12: 47-62 Saunders MJ, Kane MD, Todd MK. Effects of a carbohydrate-protein beverage on cycling endurance and muscle damage. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004. 36(7):1233-8. Van Essen M and Gibala M. Failure of Protein to Improve Time Trial Performance when Added to a Sports Drink. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2006. 1476-1483.

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YEARS OF CROSSING A COUNTRY New Zealand’s Coast to Coast—the event that helped kick-start multisport and adventure racing Down Under—turned 25 this year Story and photography by Michael Jacques

$BSCP MPBE XJUI #BLFST New Zealand’s Southern Alps, sandwiched between the pounding surf of the Tasman Sea and the warm swells of the Pacific Ocean, are one of the most popular tourist destinations on the map. It’s this wild and unspoiled wilderness that attracts endurance junkies from all over the world to the Speight’s Coast to Coast.

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This year, in mid-February, almost 1000 people from 12 countries lined up for the 25th anniversary of one of New Zealand’s favorite races. It’s a far cry from the 79 souls who stood on the start line 25 years ago. Robin Judkins, the eccentric, ex-alcoholic, unemployable would-be event promoter who dreamed up the race across New Zealand’s South Island, had not an inkling of what he’d created. “Honestly, I had no idea how big the race would become,� says Judkins when unveiling two memorial plaques on the West Coast beach of Kumara, where the race starts every year. “I thought I would organize it for two or three or four years at most.� What Judkins did know, however, was the course he’d dreamed up: 243 kilometers of road cycling, mountain running and white-water kayaking across the South Island’s main divide, T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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was something special. From early settlers forging a life in the land, to the first to scale the world’s highest mountain, to ground-breaking brilliance and Olympic excellence in sports such as triathlon, distance running, cycling and kayaking, New Zealand’s history is rich with adventure and endurance. It was only a matter of time before New Zealanders combined these pursuits, but the man who actually did was Judkins, and his vision of a race across New Zealand’s Southern Alps inspired the beginning of an entire sport. 1 5 4 JUNE 2007

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In 1980, Robin Judkins and a group of mates embarked on a classically Kiwi adventure for no better reason than to see what was out there. They kicked off by climbing the South Island’s 3000-meter Mt. Aspiring, then trekked down to the Matukituki River to kayak across Lake Wanaka and down the Clutha River to the sea. They dubbed the expedition “Aspiring to the Pacific,” but toward the end of the 12-day journey one of Judkins’ companions commented that had they started on the western side of Mt. Aspiring they would quite literally have crossed the country from coast to coast. “It was like a light bulb going off,” says Judkins, who then spent the next three years trying to turn the concept into reality, and then another five before it became an international success. In the first two years, entries of just 79 and 139 competitors drew him perilously close to bankruptcy. But instead of giving up, he convinced state-owned television to produce a documentary-type program, and the images of human will battling an uncompromising environment inspired hundreds. In the next three years he got more than 300 entries, and along the way the Coast to Coast inspired a host of other similar events worldwide. By 1990 more than 600 people from half a dozen countries were lining up for the New Zealand event, and its future was secure. Judkins’ own zany persona helped; his eccentric antics becoming almost as legendary as the race itself. Every year he flies on a helicopter into the start line area at the last minute, stands with a megaphone on the rocks above the beach and yells, “Go you crazy barstards, go!” But really it was the concept that made the Coast to Coast a winner. The West Coast was founded as a gold and coal-mining region and today is the last link that New Zealand has back to those days. Kumara, where the race starts, is something akin to a ghost town that swells from a resident population of just over 100 to several thousand T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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when the Coast-to-Coast wagon comes to town. The race itself starts on Kumara Beach, with competitors ceremoniously dipping a toe in the Tasman Sea before sprinting off the beach at the first sign of the sun rising over the Southern Alps. A three-kilometer run up to the road is followed by a 55-kilometer ride to the foot of the Alps for a 36-kilometer mountain run to Arthur’s Pass. A 15-kilometer ride then leads to the Waimakariri River for 67 kilometers of white-water kayaking down to the Canterbury Plains for the final 70-kilometer ride to the finish at Sumner Beach. Recreational competitors can compete over the traditional two-day format as either individuals or two-person teams, but in 1987 Judkins introduced a one-day race for elite competitors. In New Zealand, where triathlon and adventure racing are the mass-participation sport of choice, it’s ironic that the person who established the standard at the Coast to Coast was an Australian. In 1987, four-time kayakmarathon world champion John Jacoby was conned into doing the race in a team with his mate, a top Australian runner, and they were surprised to be beaten by an unheralded pair of Kiwis. “We were pretty blown away by how many good athletes there were doing this stuff in New Zealand,” says Jacoby. “We didn’t have a race anything like this in Australia, but New Zealand was full of guys who were bloody good at it.” Jacoby was bitten by the bug: “I remember watching the oneday race that year and thinking, ‘Well I can kayak better than them, and I’ve always been a keen cyclist, so all I need to do is get some running going.’” That’s exactly what Jacoby did, returning in 1988 and 1989 to win the one-day title comfortably, and then again in 1993 to win by just 20 seconds after breaking his bike

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seat in the final 10 kilometers. Jacoby, who went on to win every major adventure race in the world, had forced the established Kiwi stars in this still young sport to up their game. Steve Gurney took this most to heart, using fierce determination to set a new standard. In 1990 he won courtesy of an aerodynamic fiberglass pod surrounding his bike that saw him complete the final 70-kilometer ride 20 minutes faster than anyone else in a time that is still a course record. The Coast to Coast’s lack of constraints, rules and regulations has been one of the initiatives that allowed the sport to grow. While Gurney’s pod was banned, other initiatives, such as kayak design and mountain equipment, took huge steps forward as a result of the Coast to Coast, and often as a result of Steve Gurney’s flair for detail and innovation. But Gurney’s biggest asset was his willingness to train harder than anyone else. During 1990 and 1991, when he rewrote the record books, Gurney regularly trained 50 hours a week, and he went on to win the event a record nine times. Gurney’s reign at the Coast was all the more incredible for the near-fatal disease that he contracted when winning the Raid Galouises adventure race in Borneo in 1994. He spent a month in a Malaysian hospital with leptospirosis, and it took him three years to return to top form, after which he won the Coast to Coast for the following six years in a row. Judkins has a soft spot for Gurney. “He was just so determined and consistent,” says the event’s creator. “There have been others who have been faster or have beaten him once or twice, but Gurney is the only person to have beaten every top multisporter and adventure racer in the world.”

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2007 SCHEDULE - DATE / EVENT / LOCATION 03.11 XTERRA GUAM / Piti, GU 03.17 XTERRA SAIPAN CHAMPIONSHIP / CNMI 04.01 XTERRA MIAMI / North Miami, FL 04.01 XTERRA REAL / Granite Bay, CA 04.21 XTERRA ARIZONA XTREME / Mesa, AZ 04.28 XTERRA FT. YARGO / Winder, GA 04.28 XTERRA GATOR TERRA / Ruston, LA 04.29 XTERRA CASTAIC / Castaic, CA 05.06 XTERRA UWHARRIE / Uwharrie, NC 05.20 XTERRA PATANELLA'S KING OF THE HILL Lebanon, NJ 05.20 XTERRA LAST STAND / Augusta, MI 05.20 XTERRA DIRTY / Canyon Lakes, TX 05.20 XTERRA WESTCHAMPIONSHIP / Temecula,CA 05.27 XTERRA SMITH LAKE / Fort Bragg, NC 06.03 XTERRA ACE BIG CANYON / Oak Hill, WV 06.03 XTERRA DEUCES WILD / Show Low, AZ 06.09 XTERRA EUREKA SPRINGS / Eureka Springs, AR 06.10 XTERRA TRIMAX / Mifflinburg, PA 06.10 XTERRA SOUTHEAST CHAMPIONSHIP Pelham, AL 06.16 XTERRA BUFFALO CREEK / Buffalo Creek, CO 06.17 XTERRA EASTCHAMPIONSHIP / Richmond,VA 06.23 XTERRA DAWG DAYZ / Little Rock, AR 06.23 XTERRA SOLSTICE / La Grande, OR 06.23 XTERRA TAHOE CITY / Tahoe City, CA 06.24 XTERRA GARNET HILL / North River, NY 06.24 XTERRA TORN SHIRT / Brighton, MI 07.08 XTERRA M2XTREME / Ellicottville, NY 07.08 XTERRA LOCK 4 BLAST / Gallatin, TN 07.14 XTERRA IRON CREEK / Spearfish, SD 07.15 XTERRA THOMPSON LAKE / Poland, ME 07.15 XTERRA EX2 / Flintstone, MD 07.15 XTERRA MIDWEST MUDDER / Lawrence, KS 07.15 XTERRA VASHON ISLAND / Vashon Island, WA 07.21 XTERRA HAMMERMAN / Anchorage, AK 07.22 XTERRA WILD HORSE CREEK / Bozeman, MT 07.28 XTERRA DINO NEW CASTLE / New Castle, IN 07.29 XTERRA SKY HIGH / Grafton, NY 07.29 XTERRA FIRST COAST / Jacksonville, FL 07.29 CRESTED BUTTE BANK XTERRA Crested Butte, CO 08.05 XTERRA APPALACHIA / Indiana, PA 08.05 XTERRA PANTHER CREEK / Morristown, TN 08.05 XTERRA CAMP EAGLE / Rocksprings, TX 08.05 XTERRA SNOW VALLEY / Running Springs, CA 08.12 XTERRA STOAKED / Hanover, NH 08.12 XTERRA IRON WILL / Jonesboro, AR 08.18 XTERRA DINO LOGANSPORT / Logansport, IN 08.18 XTERRA MOUNTAIN CHAMPIONSHIP Ogden/Snowbasin, UT 08.19 XTERRA CHARLOTTESVILLE / Charlottesville,VA 08.25 XTERRA MOUNTAINMAN / Kaaawa, HI 08.26 XTERRA SCHIFF SCOUT / Wading River, NY 08.26 XTERRA BLACKHAWK / Muskegon, MI 08.26 XTERRA WILD RIDE / McCall, ID 09.02 XTERRA ONTEORA / Livingston Manor, NY 09.29 XTERRA NEVADA / Lake Tahoe, NV 09.30 XTERRA USA CHAMPIONSHIP / Nevada 10.28 XTERRA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP / Maui, HI XTERRA CHAMPIONSHIPSERIES RACES IN RED. XTERRA POINTS SERIES RACES IN WHITE. Schedule subject to changes. As of January 3, 2007.

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The only person to get the better of Gurney and Jacoby at their best was a Scottish doctor and occasional jogger named Keith Murray, who moved to New Zealand and became an adventure-racing ace. In 1994, perfect weather and a perfectly conditioned Murray combined to set a course record that still stands today. Murray simply cleared out with a record-breaking run. Jacoby and Gurney gave chase on the kayak, but Murray held them at bay all the way to Christchurch, eventually winning by 17 minutes in a record 10 hours 34 minutes and 37 seconds. To date, no Americans have been featured among the front runners at the Coast to Coast, although in 1997 American-born Andrea Murray, Keith’s wife, set a woman’s record that still stands. The most impressive woman at the Coast to Coast, however, has been the multi-talented Kathy Lynch, who became as well known for her sharp and often profane tongue as she has for her athletic talent. Lynch didn’t take up any form of competitive sport until her late 20s when she took up white-water kayaking and represented New Zealand within a year. Being a keen outdoor type she got caught up in the beginnings of the mountain-bike boom and represented New Zealand at that as well. Then, to get better at mountain biking she took up road cycling, and two years later finished sixth in the women’s Tour de France, followed the next year by eighth place in the inaugural Olympic mountain-bike race and a near win in the world championship when she finished third after breaking her seat when in the lead. During all this she was invincible at the Coast to Coast, winning for six consecutive years and becoming the dominant female on the world adventure-racing scene at the same time. Still, for most of the field the Coast to Coast is so much more than merely a race. Mike Ward—jewelry maker, former member of New Zealand’s Parliament and endurance athlete—never expected to win anything when he turned up for the inaugural Coast to Coast. And in 25 years he hasn’t won a thing, except the honor of being the only person to compete in every event. Talking at this year’s 25thanniversary race, Ward, who was a 2:40 marathoner at age 40, said he can’t remember why he lined up in the inaugural event. “It was just something different to do, and I had friends who were doing it,” he shrugs. There are others like him. Geoff Hunt, who competed in the inaugural event and later created the Southern Traverse adventure race and the Adventure Racing World Series, returned to the Coast to Coast this year and won his 50-plus category in the two-day individual race. Joe Sherriff, a top runner in his native England before emigrating to New Zealand, won the inaugural race and is a regular at the event still. “Every year I say it’s my last time,” said Sherriff after finishing this year. “But I guess I enjoy coming back and seeing friends that you make over the years.” Just as Robin Judkins envisioned a quarter of a century ago, people like Mike Ward, and Joe Sherriff and hundreds of others remain inspired by the thought of crossing New Zealand under their own steam. Nothing much has changed since 1983, when Judkins sent Ward and 79 others into the Southern Alps. Every year he gives another eccentric cackle and a thousand people follow the same trail. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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A NEW ERA Auckland’s Gordon Walker had a lot to prove when he lined up for the 25th Speight’s Coast to Coast in February. The anniversary of this iconic endurance event wasn’t his motivation. After five attempts, he had a feeling that this year was going to be make or break. With a baby on the way and a life to lead, if he didn’t win this one it was probably time to move on. That kind of motivation creates a lot of pressure. But nothing like the pressure Nelson’s Richard Ussher must have felt when he lined up for what pundits were tipping would be his third straight Coast-to-Coast victory. The two-time world adventure-racing and multisport champion had enjoyed his best-ever build for the Coast to Coast, and his international record of late provided a powerful mental edge over his competitors. But in the end it was more about who wanted it most.

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Racing against one of the strongest fields ever assembled for the Speight’s Coast to Coast, Walker took the race to the defending champion when he instigated a breakaway on the first cycle leg after less than five kilometers of the 243-kilometer race. Walker and training partner Dwarne Farley had planned the early attack. “I’ve finished second here for the last two years,” says Walker, “but I’ve always been strong all the way so I thought maybe the way to win was to go a bit harder from the start.” The plan worked perfectly. Only two other riders were able to join Walker and Farley. The only problem was that one was defending champion Richard Ussher and the other was one of the best runners in the race, New Zealand orienteering rep Aaron Prince. In the last two years Ussher, a former Olympic skier, has ruled the Coast to Coast, opening up strong leads on the run and then holding on to the finish. He tried the same tactic this year, pushing hard in the early going to open a three-minute lead as he disap-

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peared into the clouds on Goat Pass. But behind him Gordon Walker was starting to smile. Last year he had been almost 10 minutes behind Ussher, but now he was actually starting to close the gap. “I thought then that he [Ussher] might have gone too hard,” says Walker. But Ussher wasn’t giving up. “I knew early in the run that I wasn’t having a great day,” he said later. “But this race is so long that a lot can happen. Sometimes you can bring it back together, so I just kept pushing.” Walker, however, pushed harder, saying later, “I just kept telling myself, ‘I’ve got to want it. I’ve got to go out there and make it happen.’” And that’s exactly what Walker did, although only after a scare from 2004 winner George Christison. Christison had been one of several contenders who missed the early breakaway. But on the run he churned through the field, recording the fastest split to reduce a nine-minute deficit to five minutes as he started the kayak. Sensing it was now or never he chased hard after the two leaders and surprised even himself to catch them after only 90 minutes of the four-hour kayak. “It was incredible,” says Ussher. “For about 10 minutes all three of us were paddling side by side, waiting to see what would happen, who would make the first move.” What happened was that first Ussher and then Christison slowly started feeling the effects of their early efforts, and halfway down the river Walker was in front and going away. With only the 70-kilometer ride to go, and his confidence rising every minute the 34-year-old kept pulling away all the way to Sumner Beach, eventually winning by 19 minutes in 11 hours 39 minutes and 30 seconds.

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If Ussher’s demise, and Walker’s success, was unexpected this past February, then the women’s race was nothing short of a surprise when unheralded Wellingtonian Fleur Pawsey hit the front and never looked back. The women’s race had been billed as a big clash between Christchurch-based Canadian Emily Miazga and Finnish adventure-racing ace Elina Maki-Rautila. These two had been first and second last year, and the rematch was much anticipated, and with Maki-Rautila engaged to Ussher it created the potential for the Coast to Coast’s first household double. But the little-known Pawsey, who had been an anonymous 10th place the year before, ruined the party. When the Wellingtonian headed into the run in first place even she was surprised. “I was looking around waiting for them to pass me,” says Pawsey. “But they never came, and I felt good and just decided to go with it for as long as I could.” That proved the story of the day, with Maki-Rautila trying several times to close the gap, even doing so at the start of the kayak, but then falling apart to eventually finish fifth. Miazga, meanwhile, had withdrawn halfway through the run with a foot injury. Pawsey says she just couldn’t believe what was happening: “About halfway through the run I started thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I was first off the run.’ Then halfway through the kayak I was thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I won.’ Then in the last cycle it was, ‘I can win this. If I can just hold on I can win this.’ When I crossed the line I still couldn’t believe it.”

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TRAINING

TRAINI LAB RABBIT

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LANE LINES

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THE BIG RING

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ON THE RUN

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SPEED LAB

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MIND GAMES

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DEAR COACH

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TRAINING FEATURE

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I HATED every minute of TRAINING, but I said, “Don’t quit. SUFFER NOW and live the rest of your life as a CHAMPION.” [Muhammad Ali]

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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TRAINING LAB RABBIT

Go off-road Weeks 5-8 of our 12-week XTERRA training program

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

By Lance Watson

kay folks. Here we go with weeks five through eight of our 12-week XTERRA training program (weeks one through four ran in the May issue; to order a back issue, please go to triathletemag.com). The three-month training program will conclude next month, in the July issue, with weeks nine through 12. Weeks one to four focused on strength and endurance with on- and off-road work for the run and bike. Three weeks of building were followed by one week of recovery. As we work through weeks five through eight, we will shift the training cycle toward two weeks of hard training followed by one week of recovery. This will help accommodate the increased emphasis on threshold training. Generally, this program fits into a typical work week, with shorter sessions Monday to Friday and longer sessions on the weekend. You will

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The goal of any program is to make sure all the energy systems are stressed regularly and in a methodical progression, and recovery sessions are key to this cycle. Recovery sessions are completed at an aerobic rate that won’t induce further fatigue but which will facilitate blood flow to the muscles, removal of waste products and healing of muscle tissue. Heart-rate zones and training: You can monitor your heart rate to ensure you are training in the correct zone. Generally, the zones are listed as 1-5, with 1-2 being your easiest effort used for recovery, warm-up and endurance sessions. We tend to race 10Ks or 20- to 25-mile bike time trials at our lactic-threshold heart rate, or at the top of heart-rate zone 4 (note that swimming, cycling and running may have different lactic-threshold heart rates). Zone 5 is at, or above, your lactic threshold, similar to going all out on the track for 400-800 meters. Triathletes do not spend too much time in zone 5, since it is highly taxing on the body, and too much work in this zone leads to breakdown and overtraining. Pay attention to your heart rate and your sense of perceived effort each day. The heart is a muscle, not a machine, and numbers change from day to day due to stress in your life, hormones, caffeine and a whole host of factors. Learn to rely on both perceived effort and heart rate to train effectively. Heart-rate training zones: Zone 1: lactate threshold minus 15-22% Zone 2: lactate threshold minus 9-14% Zone 3: lactate threshold minus 4-8% Zone 4: lactate threshold minus 0-3% (this is the heart rate at which you would race 10km of running or 40km of cycling) Zone 5: lactate threshold plus 0-8%

note ranges in training time and the number of intervals, which allows you to adjust the schedule to suit your fitness and goals. Older athletes and newer triathletes should allow for lower training volume and more recovery.

TRAINING NOTES: WEEKS 5 THROUGH 8

Energy systems and recovery: Workout descriptions as they appear on the below schedule provide guidelines for which energy systems you will train from day to day. The aerobic and threshold energy systems are the two main systems that you will use racing triathlons. Intervals, Tempo, Steady State and Time Trial are types of sessions that will improve your lactic threshold and anaerobic capacity—this allows you to race faster or harder. Base sessions train your aerobic endurance. Power and speed are also addressed to prepare the body for intensity, to increase strength and prevent injury.

Swim: Longer swims shift from Endurance to Aerobic Power. We maintain volume in these longer swims while working on holding a slightly faster pace and stroke-rate turnover (relative to weeks 1 through 4), maintaining form as you gradually fatigue. • Pace Work and Threshold swims incorporate some work at just slower than your goal 1500m race pace (to reinforce race-specific efficiency of movement) and mix in some threshold-boosting intervals at just faster than 1500m pace. • Weekends will include both speed work, to boost stroke rate and lacticT R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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TRAINING LAB RABBIT acid tolerance, and strength work with pull and paddles to lengthen your stroke and strengthen you shoulders, lats and triceps. Bike: Riding at a lower cadence continues this month to improve strength and muscular endurance; however, heart-rate targets increase, as will work done in heart-rate zone 4. • Strength-and-endurance rides now go off-road after four weekends of base riding on-road. Take note of the targeted sections of the ride and be aggressive with your pacing. Don’t choose a course so technical that you can’t get any physical training benefits. Off-road riding requires fluctuations and spikes in HR and cadence and the ability to keep pace and rhythm up across varying terrain. If varying terrain isn’t available, incorporate regular sections of low cadence and standing sprints to adapt the body for race day.

• On recovery ride days, find a technical loop, take your time and practice your skills. Stay within your skill set and create

a methodical skill progression without taking any unnecessary risks. You should be off-road two times per week now.

MOUNTAIN-BIKE CLIMBING TIPS • During long climbs, remain seated, look 15 to 20 feet ahead and break the climb into many smaller sections. With many shorter goals you will be at the top before you know it. Pick a lower gear to start, shift the front derailleur before the hill begins, as it is almost impossible to change chainrings when on a hill. Choose a gear that allows you to hold a steady pace for the entire climb. You want to ride at a threshold state, always pushing but not going so hard that your speed drops off toward the top. Continue to pedal over the crest of the hill into the next section. • For steep or technical climbs, slide forward on the seat, drop your elbows and pull back on the bars. Concentrate on keeping the front wheel on the ground; you will often have to make small adjustments to your position on the seat. Centering your weight over the bike allows the front and rear tires to maintain their grip, the front for steering and the rear for traction. Remember to look ahead, visualize yourself making it and don’t give up. • On sharp uphill turns like switchbacks, stay toward the outside of the turn, where the grade is not as steep and there generally is not as much washout. Remember to keep the bike as vertical as possible, when turning, to keep the front wheel tracking. If there are technical sections in the climb, back off the effort a bit, allowing your heart to rest before you make the push over the obstacle. Often the climb will flatten out between numerous steeper grades; use these sections to recover your breath and flush some of the lactic acid from the muscles by spinning at a higher cadence.

XTERRA TRAINING: WEEKS 5-8 Summary

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Day off: Walk, stretch

Swim 1:30: Pace work and threshold: Total 20003000m. Main set: 2 x (4-8 x 100 with 30 seconds rest). Swim 100m recovery between sets. Set 1 is pace work at goal 1500m pace. Set 2 is threshold building at goal 1500m pace minus :02-:03/100m. Bike 1:00: Strength and threshold: Trainer 60-75 minutes. Strength: 10-15 minutes @ 55-60rpm. HR zone 3. Threshold: 4-6 x 3 minutes (3 minutes recovery) @ 90rpm, HR zone 4.

Run 1:00: Strength and threshold: Hills. After a good warm-up include: 2 x (4-8 x 1.5-minute hills). 5 minutes easy jog between sets. Choose a moderate hill of 4-6%. Set 1 is HR zone 4; Set 2 HR zone 4 rising to 5. Strength: Optional. 60 minutes. 2/3 of the session is hip flexor, gluteus and legs focused. 1/3 is core and upper body to complement swimming. Light weights, 20-30 repetitions. Choose different lifts than your weekend session.

Swim 1:30: Aerobic power: Total 25004000m. Main set: 4-6 x 400m (30 seconds rest). Best average pace for the set. Focus on holding stroke length and rate as you fatigue. Bike 1:15: MTB ride. 60-90 minutes. Aerobic, but test technical skills.

Day off: Walk, stretch

Swim 1:30: Pace work and threshold: Total 20003000m. Main set: Set 1: 46 x 150m (30 seconds rest). Set 1 is pace work at goal 1500m pace. Set 2: 8-16 x 50 (15 seconds rest) Set 2 is threshold-building at goal 1500m pace minus :02/50m. Bike 1:15: Strength and threshold on trainer 75-90 minutes: 2-3 x 6 minutes (on 3 minutes recovery) as 2 minutes @ 50rpm, 2 minutes @ 55rpm, 2 minutes @ 60rpm, all in the same gear. HR rises to zone 4. Threshold: 5-8 x 2 minutes (2 minutes recovery) @ 90rpm, HR zone 4.

Run 1:00: Strength and threshold: Hills. After a good warm-up include: 510 x 2 minutes (2 minutes rest) hills. Choose a moderate hill of 4-6%. HR zone 4 rising to 5 through the set. Strength: Optional. 60 minutes total. 2/3 of the session is hip flexor, gluteus and legs focused. 1/3 is core and upper body to complement swimming. Light weights, 20-30 repetitions. Choose different lifts than your weekend session.

Swim 1:30: Aerobic power: Total 25004000m. Main set: 2-4 x 400 (30 seconds rest), 4 x 100 (10 seconds rest). Best average pace for the set, but pace it out. No extra rest between sets. Focus on stroke length and a steady stroke rate as you fatigue. Bike 1:15: MTB ride. 60-90 minutes. Aerobic ride, but test technical skills. Work on skills.

Week 5 Swim: 4:30 Bike: 5:15 Run: 2:55 Hours: 12:40

Week 6 Swim: 4:30 Bike: 5:30 Run: 2:55 Hours: 12:55

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Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Day Off: Walk, stretch Optional: Swim. recovery (10002000m as 50% drills) or bike recovery ride: 6090 minutes flat.

Bike 3:00: MTB Strength and endurance Off-road: 2.5-3.5 hours. Pick a hilly trail network that is intermediate in technical challenge. Ride the middle third aggressively, letting HR climb to zone 4-5 on sharper climbs. If hilly terrain is not available, incorporate 1 x 1 minute @ 55rpm (HR zone 3-4) and 1 x 20 seconds standing sprint (HR zone 5) within every 6 minutes for the middle third of this ride. The balance of the ride is zone 1-2. Run 0:35: Threshold 30-40 minutes off the bike as 10-20 minutes very hilly, fast tempo. HR zone 4, on trail if possible. Cooldown 20 minutes.

Run 1:20: Endurance/Aerobic capacity. 65-90 minutes. Flat on road or trail. Build this run from HR zone 1 to 2 to 3. Swim 1:30: Speed and strength: 2000-3000m. Main set: 12-18 x 50m (30 seconds rest) as 25m sprint/25m easy. Strength set: 12 x 600m. 50% pull-paddles, 50% pull with no paddles. Slow it down and stretch out your stroke. Strength: Optional. 60 minutes. 2/3 of the session is hip flexor, gluteus and legs focused. 1/3 is core and upper body. Light weights, 20-30 repetitions. Choose different lifts than your mid-week session.

Day off: Walk, stretch Optional: Swim recovery (10002000m as 50% drills) or bike recovery ride: 6090 minutes flat.

Bike 3:00: MTB strength and endurance off-road: 2.5-3.5 hours. Pick a hilly trail network that is intermediate in technical challenge. Ride the middle section of aggressively, letting HR climb to zone 4-5 on sharper climbs. If hilly terrain is not available, incorporate 1 x 1 minute @ 55 rpm (HR zone 34), and 1 x 20 seconds standing sprint (HR zone 5) within every 5 minutes for the middle section of this ride. The balance of the ride is zone 1-2. Run 0:35: Threshold 30-40 minutes off the bike as 10-20 minutes very hilly, fast tempo. HR zone 4, on trail if possible. Cool-down 20 minutes.

Run 1:20: Endurance/Aerobic capacity. 65-90 minutes Flat run on road or trail. Build this run from HR zone 1 to 2 to 3. Swim 1:30: Speed and strength: Total 2000-3000m. Main set: Speed set: 6-12 x 50m (30 seconds rest) best average pace for the set. You should accumulate lactic acid here. Strength set: 2 x 300-600m. 1 is pull; 2 is pull with paddles. Slow it down and stretch out your stroke. Strength: Optional. 60 minutes total. 2/3 of the session is hip flexor, gluteus and legs focused. 1/3 is core and upper body to complement swimming. Light weights, 20-30 repetitions. Choose different lifts than your mid-week session. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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LAB RABBIT TRAINING Summary

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Day off: Walk, stretch

Swim 1:15: Recovery and technique: Total 15002000m. Main set: 10-20 x 50 as 25 drill, 25 perfect technique (20 seconds rest).

Run 0:50: 45-60 minutes flat in heart-rate zone 1, gradually rising to zone 2. Strength: Optional. 45 minutes total. 2/3 of the session is hip flexor, gluteus and legs focused. 1/3 is core and upper body to complement swimming. Light weights, 10-15 repetitions. Choose different lifts than your weekend session.

Bike 1:15: MTB ride: 60-90 minutes aerobic Ride. Test technical skills. Run 0:20: Endurance off the bike. 15-20 minutes flat terrain in HR zone 2.

Day off: Walk, stretch

Swim 1:30: Pace work and threshold. Total 2000-3000m. Main set: Set 1: 3-6 x 200 (30 seconds rest). Set 1 is pace work at goal 1500m pace. Set 2: 6-10 x 100 (25 seconds rest). Set 2 is threshold building at goal 1500m pace minus :02-:03 seconds/100m. Bike 1:15: Strength and threshold: Trainer 75-90 minutes. Include 15 minutes (3 minutes recovery) as 6 minutes @ 50rpm, 5 minutes @ 55rpm, 4 minutes @ 60rpm, all in the same gear. HR rises to zone 4. Threshold: 6-12 x 1 minute (1 minute recovery) @ 90rpm, HR zone 4-5.

Run 1:00: Strength and threshold: Hills. After a good warm-up include 4-6 x 3 minutes (3 minutes recovery) hills. Choose a moderate hill of 4-6%. HR zone 4 rising to 5 through the set. Strength: Optional. 60 minutes total. 2/3 of the session is hip flexor, gluteus and legs focused. 1/3 is core and upper body to complement swimming. Moderate weights, 8-12 repetitions. Choose different lifts than your weekend session.

Swim 1:30: Aerobic power: Total 25004000m. Main set: 800 (20 seconds rest) then 600 (20 seconds rest). Optional: 2 x 400 (20 seconds rest). Best average pace for the set. Focus on holding stroke length and a steady stroke rate as you fatigue. Bike 1:15: MTB ride. 60-90 minutes aerobic. Test technical skills.

Week 7 Recovery week Swim: 2:45 Bike: 3:15 Run: 2:10 Hours: 8:10

Week 8

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Day off: Walk, stretch

Run 1:00: Endurance: Aerobic capacity. 50-70 minutes flat run on road or trail. Build this run from HR zone 1 to 2 to 3. Swim 1:30: Strength and endurance: Total 20003500m. Main set: 3-4 x 300 pull (30 seconds rest), 8-16 x 50 (10 seconds rest) pullpaddles. Focus on aerobic pace and long, strong stroke.

Bike 2:00: MTB strength and endurance off -road: 1.5-2.5 hours Pick a hilly trail network that is intermediate in technical challenge. Ride aerobic, HR zone 1-3. Strength: Optional. 45 minutes total. 2/3 of the session is hip flexor, gluteus and legs focused. 1/3 is core and upper body to complement swimming. Light weights, 10-15 repetitions. Choose different lifts than your mid-week session.

Day off: Walk, stretch Optional: Swim recovery (10002000m as 50% drills) or bike recovery ride: 6090 minutes flat.

Bike 2:30: MTB strength and endurance off-road: 2-3 hours. Pick a hilly trail network that is intermediate in technical challenge. Ride the last 3/4 of this ride aggressively, letting HR climb to zone 4-5 on sharper climbs. If hilly terrain is not available, incorporate 1 x 2 minutes @ 55rpm (HR zone 3-4) and 2 x 20 seconds standing sprint (HR zone 5) within every 8 minutes for the last 3/4 of this ride. Run 0:35: Threshold 30-40 minutes off the bike as 10-20 minutes very hilly, fast tempo. HR zone 4, trail if possible. Cool-down 20 minutes.

Run 1:30: Endurance/aerobic capacity. 75-105 minutes flat on road or trail. Build this run from HR zone 1 to 2 to 3 Swim 1:30: Speed and strength: Total 2000-3000m. Main set: Speed as 6-12 x 50m (30 seconds rest) best average pace for the set. You should accumulate lactic acid here. Strength set: 2 x 300-600m. 1 is pull; 2 is pull with paddles. Slow it down and stretch out your stroke. Strength: Optional. 60 minutes total. 2/3 of the session is hip flexor, gluteus and legs focused. 1/3 is core and upper body to complement swimming. Moderate weights, 8-12 repetitions. Choose different lifts than your mid-week session.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

Swim: 4:30 Bike: 5:00 Run: 3:05 Hours: 12:35

Thursday

Run: Hill repeats now move off the treadmill and onto the road as rest increases. Choose a grade that is steep

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

enough to give you some resistance but not so steep that you can’t run with rhythm or decent stride length. As rest

increases relative to work, so do heart rate and effort expectations. • Saturday brick runs are on hilly terrain at a high pace, which will teach you to run fast on tired legs. Your body will become more efficient at running off the bike with practice. Simulate hilly XTERRA trail conditions. • Aerobic capacity-building base runs gradually build heart rate and pace on flat terrain, which will allow you to adapt to holding your rhythm as you fatigue. Flat runs emphasize the importance of maintaining run cadence and turnover. Strength training: As mentioned last month, strength training is optional. If this program represents a significant increase in your regular training volume, if you have never lifted before or if you are newer to triathlon, the strength work may be more detrimental than beneficial as it can inhibit recovery from the core elements of swimming, cycling and running. If you are not going to lift, a good program should include core strength two to three times a week. If you are lifting, increase your reps while keeping the resistance unchanged for weeks five through seven. In week eight, decrease the number of repetitions and increase resistance.

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TRAINING LANE LINES

Go-fast gear The essential tools for your swim bag

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

By Paul Regensburg

riathletes love gadgets. If a piece of equipment or technology promises to help them make significant fitness gains, then they are certain to own it. However, when it comes to swimming, many athletes do not know which go-fast toys they should use and when. Here is a list of swim gear that every triathlete should have in his or her bag.

T

lack ankle flexibility—a key to good kicking. For a kick to be effective, you need to hyperextend your ankles and point your toes so the top of the foot forms a straight line with the shin. Fins increase the load on your feet and can improve ankle extension during the power phase of the kick; therefore, regular kick sets with fins will eventually boost ankle flexibility.

Fins: As many triathletes who start swimming later in life may tell you, a weak kick can be a double-whammy. First, without a strong kick you can sacrifice up to 20 percent of your speed/propulsion in the water. Second, a weak kick may cause the legs and hips to drop, compromising your hydrodynamic body position. Using fins increases the surface area of the foot against the water, providing greater propulsion, which can improve body position and increase speed. Once you learn proper body position with the fins on, then you will be more likely to maintain proper form once the fins come off. Additionally, triathletes who come from running and cycling backgrounds often

Paddles: Paddles can strengthen the forearms, shoulders and back by increasing water resistance. Paddles also promote efficient underwater hand position (with the hand flat and fingertips pointing straight down, not tilted or slipping through the water). Other benefits include high elbows during the pull phase and improved extension/stroke length. Be sure to include regular pull sets without a pull buoy. This will provide all the benefits of the paddles and allow you to increase rotation and activate your lower body as well. A couple of words of caution, however: • Paddles, especially large ones, can contribute to shoulder problems if they are not used properly

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• Athletes can also become too reliant on big paddles (especially the men)— because if you are strong you can increase your speed with less cardio effort, and this may not transfer well once the paddles are taken off Try paddles that cover only the fingers, and look for paddles that attach to your hands by the finger-bands only. This teaches you to enter the water correctly. Swim snorkel: A swimming snorkel allows swimmers to keep their face down in the water and fully concentrate on body balance, head position and stroke technique. Specifically, a swimming snorkel can help you develop your swimming platform: the straight paddle formed from your fingertips to your elbow that sets you up to hold the maximum amount of water with each stroke. The key to developing a good platform is to keep a high elbow while beginning the pull phase. Another benefit of the snorkel is that the swimmer must develop a longer inhale-exhale cycle, which can improve lung capacity.

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TAKE-HOME MESSAGE Here is a list of swim gear that every triathlete should have in his or her bag. Fins Paddles Swim snorkel Swim band Stroke-rate monitor Pull buoy Kickboard Swim band: The low-tech band can help you make big gains. You can make a band by simply grabbing an old bike tube, cutting it in about three pieces and then tying two ends together to form a loop that’s just big enough to fit your feet through. When you first swim with a band, use a pull buoy down by your feet to aid with flotation and balance, and then progress to not using the pull buoy. Band work not only keeps your swim practice interesting but it also helps you to focus on the catch phase while keeping a low head position and stable core. Stroke-rate monitor: A stroke-rate pacing device is a useful tool that fits under your swim cap and beeps at an interval that you set, working like a waterproof metronome. You match up the beep with your hand entry so you develop a consistent stroke/cycle rate at a certain pace. The device can be adjusted to beep at a slower rate to allow you to focus on your efficiency and distance per stroke or at a faster rate to help you hold a higher cadence and stroke rate. When you add efficiency plus a fast stroke rate, the result is greater speed. Training sets can be designed to determine the most efficient stroke rate for the swimmer over certain distances, and then the device can keep you on that pace. This is especially helpful for open-water training. Pull buoy: Pull buoys can be highly useful for isolating the upper body and building strength while supporting the legs to improve body position. However, many athletes use pull buoys as a crutch. If you want to be a better swimmer, keep the pull buoy in your bag most of the time, using it only for longer strength-building intervals. Kickboard: Kickboards are available at most pools and are a bit bulky to lug around, so there’s little sense in purchasing your own. Also, note that doing kick sets without a board can often more effective, as this will encourage you to maintain a more

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realistic swimming position and thus become a better kicker—so use your board, but use it judiciously. By incorporating the proper use of all of these tools into your swimming, you should see significant technical and fitness gains—not to mention the positive mental

boost that comes with training variety. Happy swimming! Paul Regensburg is an Olympic, Pan Am Games and Ironman coach and team manager. Visit lifesport.ca or e-mail coach@lifesport.ca for more information. Thanks to Jessica Kirkwood for her contribution to this piece.

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Evolve your ride By Matt Fitzgerald n evolutionary theory (bear with me), there is a phenomenon that is sometimes referred to as branching and pruning. Under changing environmental conditions, a species may begin to branch genetically and morphologically in numerous directions, transforming from a single, uniform species into a group of heterogeneous subspecies, each with one

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or more special characteristics that may give it a survival advantage in the new environment. Time determines which subspecies is truly best adapted to the new environment, and the rest often die off. A process of precisely this sort is believed to have occurred in human evolution—a decisive break when a species of ape decided to move from a familiar tree

environment to a new environment on the African Savannah. A whole collection of early hominids emerged from these first land apes, each with its own set of special survival characteristics. But only those with the biggest brains survived to become human. It has often been noted that the evolutionary process of branching and pruning occurs in the domain of human inventions, as well. When a new technology is first born, there are all kinds of different designs as inventors let their imaginations run free in search of the most effective and least wasteful design possible. The bicycle is good example. In the early days of the bicycle, in the mid-nineteenth century, bicycle designs were all over the place. Some had no pedals, others had frontwheel pedals and still others had pedals attached to cranks and a drivetrain. Some had two small wheels, while others had two big wheels and others had either a big front wheel with a small rear wheel or vice versa. Frame styles and materials were also widely divergent. Over time, the simple pruning mechanism of racing determined which designs worked best, and the rest were gradually eliminated. So today’s bikes, despite their many differences on the level of details, are all pretty much the same as compared to the vast array of disparate designs that existed a century and a half ago. The phenomenon of branching and pruning even applies to the development of fitness on the bike. A fascinating new study from the University of Queensland, Australia, has provided evidence of branching and pruning in the building of cycling fitness. Researchers used electromyographic (EMG) sensors to compare patterns of leg-muscle recruitment, coactivation (or the contraction of muscles other than those doing the main work of pedaling) and cadence in novice and highly trained cyclists. The overarching difference they observed was a much higher degree of variation in these variables among novices than among well-trained cyclists, indicating that the novices’ bodies were searching for effective and efficient ways to pedal (branching), whereas the experienced riders had found more or less optimal pedaling styles (pruning). The specific thing that the trained cyclists had trimmed from their pedaling was waste. EMG data revealed that trained cyclists were able to produce shorter, tidier bursts of muscle activity at various moments of the pedal stroke and

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minimize unnecessary muscle activation between these primary bursts. The amount and variability of coactivation was also much smaller throughout the pedal stroke among the trained cyclists, meaning they had developed a greater ability to relax muscles not needed to turn the pedals, thus conserving energy.

PRACTICE–AND VARIATION–MAKES PERFECT These results suggest that developing cycling fitness is largely a matter of cultivating more refined communications between the brain and the muscles. So how do we train to make this process unfold as quickly as possible? The answer is repetition with variation. As with any motor skill, pedaling becomes naturally more efficient as we practice the movement over and over. The more often you turn the cranks of your bike, the more your pedaling efficiency will improve (as long as you don’t exceed your capacity to recover from the fatigue that results from high-volume training). Simple repetition alone is not sufficient to optimize the rate of improvement in pedaling efficiency, however. To get the greatest benefit from each turn of the cranks, it is important to constantly vary your pedaling in a number of ways. By variation I mean, specifically, challenging the limits of your pedaling capacity in different ways. Throwing disparate types of pedaling challenges at your neuromuscular system forces it to get creative—to try out different patterns of muscle recruitment, some of which will be more efficient, others of which will help you resist fatigue better. Each bike workout you do within your weekly training regimen should be somewhat unlike the others. Following are the five major variables you should manipulate in order to challenge your neuromuscular system and stimulate rapid pruning of waste from your pedal stroke. Speed/intensity: The most important variable to manipulate in training is speed, or intensity, because fatigue results from different causes at different pedaling intensities, and experiencing fatigue from different causes stimulates performance-boosting physiological adaptations. The four major speed/intensity levels you need to incorporate regularly into your training, in order of decreasing volume, are moderate aerobic intensity (a comfortable but not dawdling pace), threshold intensity (roughly 40km race pace), VO2 max pace (a pace you can sustain for no longer than 10 minutes) and maximum power.

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TAKE-HOME MESSAGE Developing cycling fitness is largely a matter of cultivating more refined communications between the brain and the muscles. So how do we train to make this process unfold as quickly as possible? The answer is repetition with variation. Throwing disparate types of pedaling challenges at your neuromuscular system forces it to get creative—to try out different patterns of muscle recruitment, some of which will be more efficient, others of which will help you resist fatigue better. The five major variables you should manipulate in order to challenge your neuromuscular system and stimulate rapid pruning of waste from your pedal stroke include: speed/intensity, gradient, duration, force and cadence. Duration: The greatest stimulus for fitness adaptations occurs when you pedal in a fatigued state. This is when your neuromuscular system really has to get creative to find new patterns of muscle recruitment to sustain a desired speed. Obviously, fatigue develops at different rates at different intensity levels, so you will need to manipulate the intensity and duration workout variables together. You don’t have to ride to the point of extreme fatigue in every workout, but you should complete one long-duration/moderate-intensity ride ending in moderate to significant fatigue and at least one high-intensity/shorter-duration ride ending in moderate to significant fatigue each week, most weeks. Gradient: Pedaling uphill presents a very different physiological challenge than pedaling on level terrain—that’s why new leaders emerge when the Tour de France hits the mountains each year. You should experience challenging hill climbs in at least one bike workout per week (either in the form of a hilly longer ride or in the form of high-intensity repeated hill climbs). But not all of your rides should be hilly—otherwise, where would the variation be? Force: Pedaling in high gears presents a different sort of challenge to the neuromuscular system than pedaling in lower gears. Your muscles must produce more force to sustain a given speed in higher gears. This is also the case when climbing hills, but equivalent levels of force application represent different physiological challenges on hills and flats due to the differences in joint angles and gravitational resistance in the two situations. So it’s beneficial to challenge your force-production capacity by cranking up the gear ratio and pedaling hard sometimes.

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Cadence: You can produce a given level of power (speed) at various pedaling cadences, only one of which will feel most natural; all others will feel either slower or faster than natural. Pedaling at faster and slower than natural pedaling cadences also challenges your neuromuscular system to adapt by finding new efficiencies. Pedaling in high gears automatically constitutes a slower-than-natural cadence training challenge. A good way to challenge your capacity to produce high cadences is the spinout drill, where you shift into your

lowest gear and pedal as fast as possible for 30 to 60 seconds. A small amount of formal cadence training is sufficient. But I also recommend being a little playful in your gear selection and pedaling cadences in most of your normal training rides, sometimes resisting the urge to shift into a lower gear and increase you cadence, other times doing the opposite. This will add another small layer of variation to workouts whose primary purpose is other than formal cadence training.

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The next drill is the Brick, the fundamental bike-to-run transition workout. In a sprint tri, you have no time to ease into running form—your run leg is over before most Ironman athletes even find their rhythm. That means you’ll need to practice the bike-to-run transition much more than other triathletes. The easier it becomes, the quicker you’ll be able to find your 5k pace. Last is a core-strength exercise that doesn’t involve running: the plank. Remember, the key to a fast 5K is efficiency. You’ll need a strong core to provide a stable platform for you legs to turn over smoothly and quickly. Unfortunately, most athletes neglect core work and ultimately never enjoy their full potential. With this easy exercise, you won’t be lumped into that sad category.

5K the right way Boost your sprint-distance run speed By Andrew Tepen he sprint-distance triathlon, as its name implies, is about speed. This means two things: The race is over quickly and you don’t need to log hours upon hours of training for the event. But going fast takes more than horsepower and stamina; it also takes skill. And building skill requires drills—especially for the run. Most sprint-distance triathletes I know like to head to the running track to develop their 5K speed. They run lap after lap at different paces and stride rates, and that’s fine, but it negates a big attraction of the sprint events: the reduced training-time requirement as compared to longer races. By the time you schlep to a track to do a speed workout, you could have completed your run and my four drills, described below, on a course that starts right from

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your front door. They’ll make you a more efficient runner and a much stronger triathlon runner, and efficiency is a key requirement for speed in the run segment of a sprint triathlon.

OVERVIEW OF THE FOUR DRILLS The first two drills are strides and skipping. When I ran track in college, we started and finished each workout with a set of strides. A stride isn’t an all-out sprint but a chance to focus on good, quick running form. Skipping, yes skipping, is a simple form of plyometrics, the explosive jumping exercises that build fast-twitch muscle fibers: Since roughly 20 percent of the energy tapped for a 5K is anaerobic, you need to train this energy system to last.

Add these drills to your run training and the results will become readily apparent during a race as you’ll run past more people than ever. Strides: Do a set of strides before and after each run. If possible, do them on dirt or grass. Run for 20 seconds as fast as you can while maintaining smooth form, then rest 30 seconds. Do a total of four strides. Skipping: Once a week, find some grass or a dirt trail and start skipping. If it’s been two decades since you last skipped, start with 2 x (3 x 30 seconds) with an easy oneminute jog after each of the three reps and a three-minute jog between the two sets. As you progress, work up to two sets of six repetitions and cut the recovery time in half. Brick: Because of the importance of the neuromuscular transition from the bike to the run, I like to see people do—at a minimum—one brick a week throughout their training for a sprint event. Two bricks a week is even better. Your run shouldn’t last longer than 20 minutes and should follow this format: Take two minutes to find your legs and then do six 30-second fartleks at 5K race pace with one minute of jogging recovery after each. Use the remaining time to run easy and cool down. Core: Start in a modified push-up position where you’re resting on your forearms. Keeping your legs, torso and head in a straight line, push your body up off the ground and hold the pose for 30 seconds. Repeat four times. Work up to holding the pose for one minute. Do the plank exercise every other day, year round. Andrew Tepen is a Senior Coach for Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. To find out what CTS can do for you and to sign up for a free newsletter, visit trainright.com.

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DRILLING DOWN: THE FOUR TO MAKE YOU FLY


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The extra edge This month: Fluid absorption and respiratory-muscle training By Tim Mickleborough, Ph.D.

DEAR SPEED LAB, Is the delivery of nutrients (such as carbohydrates and electrolytes) into the blood enhanced by the ingestion of liquids that are cooler? If so, is there research to back this up? Colin, Muncie, Ind.

REFERENCE: 1. Maughan R. J. “Physiology and nutrition for middle distance and long distance running.” In: Lamb DR, Knuttgen HG, Murray R eds. Perspectives in exercise science and sports medicine. Vol 7. Physiology and nutrition for competitive sport. Carmel, Cooper Publishing, 1994: 329-72.

DEAR SPEED LAB, Colin, Early experimental evidence suggested that drinking chilled (to four degrees Celcius) fluids is advantageous for nutrient delivery as it speeds up gastric emptying (GE)—that is, absorption into the bloodstream from the intestine. However, more recent research reveals that the GE rate of hot and cold beverages is not markedly different. Nevertheless, there may be advantages in taking chilled drinks, as the palatability of most carbohydrate-electrolyte drinks is improved at low temperatures. This has the effect of stimulating consumption and helps the athlete feel better. The impact of significant volumes of cool fluids on body temperature is another factor that cannot be disregarded. Although this effect is relatively small, it helps delay the point at which critical core body temperature will be reached. 178 JUNE 2007

I have recently bought a respiratorymuscle trainer, and the information booklet states that I will be able to increase my VO2 max after using the trainer for only four weeks. Is this true? If so, do you think that I could also increase my lactate threshold? Do untrained and trained people respond differently to respiratory-muscle training? In other words, will you see a bigger response in the untrained individual? Thanks, Brian, Tempe, Ariz. Brian, It is known that, like all other skeletal muscles, the respiratory muscles can be trained to specifically improve their strength or endurance. Some researchers have used hyperpnea training (using abnormally deep or rapid breathing) to successfully improve either maximal sustainable ventilatory

capacity or maximal ventilation. Other researchers have had subjects breathe against inspiratory resistance (via a resistive device) or a threshold load, and these subjects have improved their respiratory muscle strength. The research using the hyperpnea and resistive-type respiratory-muscle training devices has demonstrated not only an increase in respiratory-muscle strength but also increases in exercise performance. Endurance training seeks two major results: 1. to increase the anaerobic threshold (i.e. to push the threshold as close to VO2 max as possible); and 2. to increase the distance the athlete can cover before fatigue forces speed reduction. To improve the latter, respiratory-muscle training (RMT) should be considered by a competitive athlete. It is intriguing to speculate about improving world records in endurance disciplines with RMT. If RMT reduces ventilation and blood-lactate concentrations in world-class athletes, then an improvement in performance should be possible. On the other hand, it is very likely that world-class athletes have already maximally trained respiratory muscles. Any muscular exercise involves respiration and increases the endurance of respiratory muscles to some extent. Therefore, trained subjects breathe less than untrained persons at the same exercise level. However, RMT, as suggested above, is far more effective. Without special devices, the respiratory muscles can be trained additionally only with interval training or uphill cycling. These types of exercise are very taxing physically as well as psychologically. Therefore, even athletes with perfect respiratory stamina could benefit from isolated RMT. A potential downside exists, however. Many studies have found that, after RMT, subjects lose the feeling of breathlessness at higher exercise intensities—not a bad thing in itself, but because the sensation of breathlessness is often used as a pacer to determine optimal speed, subjects who experience diminished breathlessness may not adhere to a sustainable pace, resulting in fatigue due to acidosis. Therefore, these subjects have to regulate their pace using alternative signals other than ventilation rate (e.g. heart rate, pace, power). REFERENCE: 1. Sheel, A.W. “Respiratory muscle training in healthy individuals: physiological rationale and implications for exercise performance.” Sports Medicine. 32: 567-81, 2002. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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Train your brain Boost your triathlon performance by tapping in to mental imagery By Michelle Cleere

f you have ever watched someone you thought was a great swimmer then tried to mimic that person’s stroke—or if you’ve mentally rehearsed how you will feel and perform on race day— you’ve used imagery to improve your performance. Imagery should include as many senses as possible. Psychoneuromuscular theory: When an athlete practices using imagery, the athlete imagines movements

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without performing them; however, with practice the brain interprets this as if the athlete were performing the sport’s movements, which produces similar neuromuscular impulses. Cognitive theory: States that the movement blueprint in your mind can be changed through imagery. For example, if you’ve run for years with your arms swinging across your body you will automatically do that out of

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WHEN TO USE IMAGERY Use imagery if you are experiencing anxiety or thinking negatively about your triathlon training or competition. Incorporate imagery into your dreams. Use imagery prior to going to sleep. This can help the activity remain fresh in your mind and allow your subconscious carry it over into your dream state. Use imagery as part of a pre-practice/preperformance routine. A pre-practice/preperformance routine is a way of positively structuring your experience to keep you focused on the task at hand.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

THE BENEFITS OF IMAGERY

habit every time you run. However, if your coach points out that efficient runners move their arms back and forth, you can help change your mind’s blueprint by using imagery.

WHERE TO BEGIN Recreate a past experience: Think back to a time when you were in your focused, efficient zone during triathlon training or competition. Recreate that experience by writing down as much as you can remember, using as many of your senses as possible. Create a positive experience you have not had: If you can’t remember having your own past positive experience, the next best thing is to use someone else’s. Most of us have a triathlon role model: Mark Allen running, Normann Stadler on the bike, for instance. If you have a DVD or can find one of your athletic role model, watch it and think about what makes this person proficient at the activity. Write those elements down on a piece of paper again, including as many of the senses as possible.

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For triathletes, imagery can be beneficial in a variety of ways: • Imagery can improve concentration. If you are focused on what you want to do and how you want to do it, then you won’t be focused on unrelated, and potentially distracting, elements of your performance. • Imagery can build confidence. Feel good about your performance by visualizing yourself taking control and staying strong. • Imagery can help control emotional responses. If you are feeling lethargic about your training or a race, imagery can get you pumped up. On the other hand if you are feeling uptight or anxious, imagery can help reduce those symptoms. • Imagery can help you acquire or practice important skills. You can practice skills to fine-tune them. Research clearly concludes that combined with physical practice, imagery can produce superior skill acquisition. As children, we typically possess considerable capacity to engage in imagery, but we are quickly taught to neglect this form of thinking in favor of developing our analytical and language centers. Fortunately, we can all still tap in to that area of the brain. Much like a muscle is strengthened, imagery skills can be improved through practice. It’s not magic. It’s a human capacity that few athletes have developed to its potential and most people have chosen not to use. With all the potential benefits imagery has to offer, why not give it a try? Michelle Cleere is owner of Sports Minded, a sport and exercise-psychology consulting practice. She works with individuals in person, by phone or via e-mail and conducts group workshops. She is an NASM-certified personal trainer and a USAT-certified coach. E-mail her at sportsmindedmc@aol.com or visit mentalstrength.com.

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TRAINING DEAR COACH

That sinking feeling Bulking up and streamlining your stroke

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

By Roch Frey and Paul Huddle

DEAR COACHES, I have put on a few pounds from lifting weights—at least enough where I can tell the difference—especially in my lower body. Is it possible that this extra bulk will come off before race day? Thanks, Anonymous Anonymous, Okay, what you’re experiencing is very common and, assuming you’re a guy, what are you worried about? You’ve finally got some muscle mass and you’re worried about getting rid of it? Are you kidding? Enjoy it! Revel in it! Flaunt it! Go to work in a tight tank top and shorts! Mow the lawn shirtless! Cut the sleeves off one of your old jerseys, oil up your legs and show up on the group ride looking like you just came from the velodrome. Hey, you worked hard for the new you, so what the heck? You’re not a guy? Well, women should embrace their inner (and outer) brawn too. Give your older brother a noogie. Help a feeble male with his groceries. Arm-wrestle your boss. Remember, your body will always strive to make itself efficient at the activities it does the most. The excess muscle mass that allowed you to bench more than just the bar will come off while you translate these gains in strength to your sport-specific activities (swimming, cycling and running). Have patience. Don’t make the mistake of feeling like you have to diet to lose the muscle you have worked so hard to develop. Remember, because muscle is composed

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primarily of water, it’s much heavier than fat. Also remember that for every one pound of muscle mass gained, you require 50 additional calories to simply maintain it. You’ve been hungrier than normal, right? These two indications that your consistent strength-training program is working are often mistaken for the negative implications associated with every triathlete’s deepest fear—getting fat. Please. Enjoy the experience of being stronger than you’ll be all season because once your strength training diminishes and swim/bike/run training and racing becomes the focus, those extra pounds of muscle mass will disappear. Feeling and looking like Arnold after going through a periodized strength-training program should be expected. If you can get through the emotional stress that this temporary change in your body composition brings, you’ll be rewarded—not just with a lower risk of injury but with better race performances. Roch and Paul

DEAR COACHES, I’ve heard that during the glide portion of your swim stroke you should push down with the armpit. I’m having trouble doing this. It seems like this causes me to push my shoulder down into the water, resulting in more resistance. Swimming is my weakness. I’ve attended masters sessions and have spent hours in the water, but my times have not improved. I will say that the coach only provided the workout and did not attempt to improve technique. It’s frus-

trating, and I’m at the point where I’m beginning to believe I’m as fast (and that’s slow) as I will ever be. Thanks for your time, Doug Doug, Rather than thinking of pushing the armpit itself down deep into the water, think of that as the focal point or direction of the pressure you apply to balance yourself. Don’t try to submerge the shoulder more, but use that point as the target for pivoting those hips up. Sometimes trying to do everything right at once can be frustrating. When we deconstruct and reconstruct the stroke of someone who is fast in the water to get them to use the principles of balance and greater efficiency, they often slow down dramatically at first, and it takes a lot of patience for them to get things right. For someone starting out from a nonswimming background it is just as tough or even tougher. The key is to build things up slowly—this is why coaches use so many drills, to allow you to work on each part of the stroke separately without the confusion of trying to correct multiple flaws or hold it all together while starving for oxygen at the same time. Masters sessions with no technique help available will give you lots of cardiovascular work but also will reinforce bad habits as you spend lots of energy to keep up. Often the coach will be happy to offer advice, but you may need to ask, as other swimmers often don’t want any help with stroke

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mechanics but would rather hammer out another set of 100s. Finally, don’t hesitate to move down a lane or two from time to time so you can work on your stroke without the pressure to keep up. Be prepared to explain your move to your new lane mates to minimize the disruption to the lane hierarchy. Masters swimmers are particularly territorial and sometimes need a little shaking up to realize that their personal self-worth really isn’t attached to the fact that they’re in the 1:40 lane vs. the 1:50 lane—or whatever the case might be. Do your drills during warm-ups and cool-downs, and be patient; the potential is there. Swim on, Paul and Roch

DEAR COACHES, Lately I’ve noticed that my extended arm and shoulder begin to sink just before I catch up. As a result, the beginning of my stroke is inefficient. Generally speaking, I feel like I may be swimming too deep in the water. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Thais Thais, Based on our interpretation of what you’re saying is happening with your stroke, we have some suggestions, but make sure you also approach your swim coach, who can see what you’re doing in person and offer you advice and observe the changes you make. Starting the catch and pull too soon is counterproductive—a little bit of float down (sinking) toward the catch is okay, as long as you don’t drop your elbow too much. If you try to press down too soon, that will lift your head/torso and drop your legs and you will lose balance. If you are sure you are dropping too low and not getting a good grip on the water, it may be that you are dropping your elbow and then reaching too deep to compensate, dragging your shoulder down along the way. A key drill would be single-arm swimming. Try continuous single arm with two strokes to each side with catch up or cheating catch-up changeover: Keep one arm extended while you work on the entry, reach and catch of the other arm and your rotation to the stroking side. You need to press through the armpit to keep your balance. Another drill is to swim single arm but with the off arm at your side and breathing to the non-stroking side. This is difficult to do and awkward at first but

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might help you to stay on top of the stroke as it makes the dropped elbow obvious. Another thing to consider is you may not be initiating rotation to the stroking side with your hip. This could leave your shoulder and straight arm deep in the water and make the stroke feel late and less powerful. Single-arm drills will help with that too.

That all made sense, right? Consider finding a swimming coach in your area that offers videotaping above and under water. This will tell you if you’re really sinking during your catch phase and allow direct feedback as you make the corrections. Hope this helps, Paul and Roch

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Sharpen your peak in 8 weeks How to bring your race phase to its ultimate conclusion By Dave Scott ow long can you hold peak fitness? What is the length of time that you are feeling that floating sensation while maintaining peak speed? Can you hold it for 10 minutes or two hours? A handful of professional athletes seemingly “peak” for every race based on their consistency of racing throughout the year. Don’t be deceived! The top athletes learn how to rest properly and perform well under adversity, but no one can hold peak form longer than eight to 10 weeks. Using discretion on your race selection, allowing adequate recovery and selecting a program that sharpens the peak will ultimately bring out your highest potential. Typically in a yearly cycle, there will be a split season training program that will have two peaks during the year. These two “A” races, ideally should have a 15- to 24week spread. This time period will allow a two-to-six week post-race recovery and then a cyclic build up in preparation for the second “A” race.

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So what is the definition of sharpening the peak? The suggested feelings are: 1. “Fluid Form” at a very hard effort. (I’ll explain the intensity below.) 1 8 4 JUNE 2007

2. A deep, yet well controlled breathing pattern. 3. Runners would describe their form as “light on their feet,” barely feeling the contact of the pavement on their feet. Swimmers would describe their body as swimming in a vacuum—each stroke surges ahead and their body is drawn through the water. Cyclists feel a pop at the bottom of their pedal stroke. Each cadence snaps through the power phase—free of a concerted push. Triathletes should feel all of the above. Most importantly, the sensations that you have during “sharpening the peak” are both psychological and physical. 4. Ultimately, there is a feeling of being in control while enduring a high level of discomfort.

OBJECTIVE EVALUATION 1. The schedule for upping the intensity should be between three and eight weeks with a peak output for racing at eight to 10 weeks. In other words, if you try to drive the intensity beyond eight weeks, there is a high probability of injury, over reaching and ultimately burning out.

Does this effort apply to all distances from sprint to Ironman? Not exactly. Depending on your race goals and fitness level the high intensity workout should slightly exceed your racing capabilities. For example, if you are a competitive athlete, the run output in a sprint and Olympic distance race would require an exceptional aerobic/anaerobic mix. The skills to run an efficient sprint or Olympic distance race are multi-faceted and require a progressive mixture of training variables to reach this optimal peak. Certainly in the early season the objectives of developing muscular endurance, cardiovascular strength and smooth biomechanics shifts to a more focused high-intensity routine as the season progresses. Running economy at faster speeds, burning fuel efficiently and allowing adequate recovery are all, hopefully, achieved as you begin the taper for your “A” races. Specifically, training your absolute lactate threshold and VO2 are both essential for the two shorter distance races. These workloads should be included one to three times per week in the swim, depending on your ability and goals. An actual race during this eight-week period is certainly a substitute for a high intensity session. If you are racing an Ironman or halfIronman distance race, the higher intensity sessions are critical: 1. To raise the sub-threshold to the threshold economy. 2. To improve fuel burning efficiency primarily by preserving muscle and liver glycogen. 3. To train the faster twitch type II

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

2. High intensity training for triathletes includes sub-threshold sets. These are of great value, but during this short highintensity phase, efforts or intensities gravitate to slightly above threshold and up to VO2 for sprint and Olympic distance races. The perceived exertion should equate to a hard to very hard effort. 3. Running pace can either be based on a VO2 max test determined in a lab or a graded test to measure lactate threshold in a lab or in the field. If you are using a lab VO2 test, the repeats should be run at 85-90% of VO2 with a heart rate at 90-95% of VO2. If you are planning to use your lactate threshold, the pace and heart rate should correlate to your absolute lactate threshold. This effort is approximately 25-to-35 seconds slower than your 5K pace or 10-to-20 seconds slower per mile than your 10K pace for a running race, not a triathlon.


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TRAINING muscle fibers that will accommodate and assist the slow twitch fibers. As I mentioned, the high intensity workouts should be implemented in a minimum of three weeks up to an eight-week cycle. The intensity can be maintained during a one-to-three week taper, but the distances should be reduced during the taper week(s). I have selected the run leg to highlight recognizing that the third leg of a triathlon always presents the biggest challenge for most triathletes. Running rhythm falls off and consequently the speed diminishes as well. As a coach, one of my concerns with all levels of triathletes is NOT integrating higher intensity sessions during the final build-up for your key race. High intensity

sessions will improve your “A” race performance. Quite often, the high intensity sessions are intermixed with big volume weeks and this can compound your ability to achieve the desired goal. Use discretion in inserting these super sessions in other training blocks. One rule of thumb is not to include more than 10 percent of your weekly workout volume at this high workload. There must be adequate recovery during the week, so that you are capable of maintaining the output and recovery from these sessions. Sub-threshold sets are manageable for several months. Lactate threshold and VO2 sets have a limited training span. The following table gives you a template for an eight-week “sharpening the peak”

plan. It indicates a range of repeats and a variable rest interval. The goal is to run these at fore mentioned intensities or heart rate—no higher, no lower. If your heart rate creeps up too high and or you have the inability to finish the repeats, then stop! Try it again the following week. The sprint and the Olympic distance workouts progress from a lactate threshold to VO2 level of intensity. The half-Ironman and full-Ironman workouts progress to a sublactate threshold to slightly higher than lactate threshold. All of the sessions follow a pattern of increased repeat length per session with a repeating length workout in the fifth week. A 15 to 25 minute warm up is not included in the sessions. Include an adequate warm up and cool down.

Sprint/Olympic Distance

Half/Ironman Distance

WEEK 1

3 x 500 + 100, repeat twice. Rest interval: 45 seconds on 500’s, 2:00 on 1000’s. Goal: 500’s are descending by four seconds. 1000 is equal to first 500 doubled. All are around lactate threshold.

5 x 1000. Rest interval: 90 seconds. Goal: descending one through five, up to lactate threshold.

WEEK 2

THE PROGRAM

3 x 1000 + 5 x 500. Rest interval: 1:30 on 1000, 1:00 on 500. Goal: hold 1000’s steady (lactate threshold), 500’s descending by two seconds (start at speed of No. 3 in week 1). Final 2 x 500 is at VO2 max suggested ranges. *

4 x 1200 + 2 x 1000. Rest interval: 90 seconds. Goal: Descending one through four. Hold No. 3 and 4 at lactate threshold (1200’s). On 1000’s: five to eight are below lactate threshold.

1 8 6 JUNE 2007

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WEEK 3

5 x 1 mile. Rest interval: 90 seconds to two minutes. Goal: descending one to three and three, four and five are all the same. Final 800 is run at lactate threshold or slightly higher (two to four beats above lactate threshold or four to six seconds faster/mile).

WEEK 4

2 x 1500 + 1200 + 1000 + 1 x 1500 x 1200 + 1000. Rest interval: two-three minutes. Goal: 1500’s are at lactate threshold, 1200 & 1000 are at VO2 max.*

2 x 2000 + 800 + 2 miles + 800 Rest interval: two-three minutes. Goal: 2000’s are at five to eight beats slower than lactate threshold. 800’s are faster than lactate threshold. Mile repeats are at lactate threshold.

4 x 500 + 3-5 x 1000. Rest interval: 500’s – 90 seconds, 1000’s – two-three minutes. Goal: 500’s one to three at lactate threshold, four to six at VO2max. 1000’s All steady for one to four, VO2max for set five.

6-9 x 1000. Rest interval: 90 Seconds. Goal: Start at pace from No. 4 in week one. Descend the set by two repeats. i.e.: No. one and two are the same time, No. 3 and 4 are two to three seconds faster.

4 x 2000. Rest interval three to five minutes. Goal: steady at VO2 max. Check your heart rate on these longer repeats.

3 x 3000. Rest interval four-six minutes. Goal: Hold first 1500 five to eight beats below lactate threshold, final 1500 at lactate threshold or slightly higher.

6-8 x 1000. Rest interval two-four minutes. Goal: Hold odd repeats at lactate threshold, even repeats at VO2 max.

3 x 1500 + 500, twice. Rest interval: two-four minutes. Goal: 1500’s are descending to slightly faster than lactate threshold, 500’s are hard!

2 x 400 at lactate threshold + 1200 at VO2, 2 x 600 at lactate threshold + 1800 at VO2, 2 x 800 at lactate threshold + 2400 at VO2. Rest interval: 400, 600, 800 rest is one minute – rest is three minutes after second repeat. Rest interval: 1000, 1800 and 2400 –rest is two-four minutes before shorter repeats.

2 x 600 + mile, 2 x 800 + 1.5 miles, 2 x 1000 + mile. Rest interval: 30 seconds. This rest interval is tight. The goal is to run the entire set at a steady pace. This is the final test before your taper.

WEEK 8

2-3 x 1 mile with 250 between each. Rest interval: 40 seconds after each mile, 2.5 minutes after each 250. Goal: Miles run at lactate threshold, 250’s are fast!

WEEK 7 WEEK 6 WEEK 5

TRAINING

* The VO2 efforts are at 85-90 percent of VO2 speed or a heart rate of 90-95 percent of VO2 max.

These workouts are all very challenging. If you have just begun to integrate harder efforts into your routine, reduce the total volume of the workouts by 40-60 percent. Good luck with these sessions. You’ll surprise yourself. If you only have three to five weeks, that’s okay, just make time for these challeng-

ing workouts and look out on race day. Dave Scott is the most recognized athlete and coach in the sport of triathlon. He is a six-time Ironman World Champion and the first inductee into the Ironman Hall of Fame. Today, Dave continues to live up to

his reputation as “The Man� through his many speaking engagements, sport clinics and race-sponsored activities. He currently trains professionals and age-group triathletes and has recently completed a DVD on nutrition called “The Art and Science of Fueling, for Pre, During and Post Endurance Training and Racing“ available at: davescottinc.com.

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XTERRA ZONE

A winning team The great GU relay-team revival Courtesy XTERRA/Jim Safford

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By Alex White

ow many athletes haven’t gotten into XTERRA because the mountain-bike courses are just too gnarly? Or they can’t swim, don’t run, aren’t in shape, hate the dirt, fear failure, refuse to wear spandex or are simply too embarrassed to try? GUsports is betting there are a lot of you out there, and they’d like to get you out and active this year with the GU XTERRA Team Challenge. “We believe that the team competition offers GU an excellent opportunity to expose off-road triathlon to athletes who may be intimidated by the task of complet-

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ing all three disciplines,” said Moritz Hoemke, GUsports marketing manager. “A swimmer may not feel super-comfortable on a bike. Or a cyclist might fear sinking. So the GU XTERRA Relay Team Challenge is a great opportunity for single-sport athletes to approach triathlon and live the XTERRA experience.” As bait, entry fees for relay teams have been slashed nearly in half, and GU is giving away generous heaps of GU swag to participants, and XTERRA has added a national-championship race for relay teams. “We’re going to invite the men’s, women’s and co-ed relay-team winners T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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from each of our regional championships to Incline Village, Nevada, to race for a national championship,” says “Kahuna” Dave Nicholas, the managing director of the XTERRA Global Tour. “We know we have a reputation for being a difficult race, and we also know that there are a lot of people out there that live the XTERRA lifestyle but don’t feel ready to tackle the big challenge yet. So, we want to invite them out, teach them the sport and give them a taste of the spirit and adventure of XTERRA.” The adventure of an XTERRA can be found in all three disciplines, with swims in rivers, oceans and lakes, mountain-bike courses in valleys, mountains and cities and runs traversing every imaginable terrain from sand to stairs. As for the spirit, veteran Nick Baldwin says, “XTERRA is an environment where athletes place atmosphere and fellow competitors’ welfare above competition.” Add the free XTERRA University clinics taught by pros at the regional championships and the half-distance XTERRA Sport races and there really are a lot of ways to learn and start slow. “What I think is cool about racing on a relay team is I get to be a part of the XTERRA world without doing the things I don’t want to do—like swim and run,” says Dick Peterson of Berkeley, Calif. “And because it runs at the same time as the main event it intermingles with all of the activities and festival atmosphere. Everyone who is a first-timer can feel that it’s a blast and a cool environment with fun, athletic people, and once people do it, they’re hooked.” So, who would make a good candidate to be on a team? Seafarers and landlubbers unite, we say. A member of a club or shop team that finds the full XTERRA too dauntT R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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ing to tackle individually would be well suited to the GU XTERRA Team Challenge. There are plenty of mountain bikers that want no part of the XTERRA swim but would be great teammates for strong swimmers and experienced trail runners that aren’t as comfortable picking their way through a rock garden on two wheels. The relay-team idea lends itself perfectly to family and friends, and the challenge could also be easily tailored to corporations for team-building efforts. Mountain-bike, swimming and running clubs could join together and discover a new world off-road. Pros and top-notch age groupers in the different disciplines can form a team and race just to see just how fast they can go (and maybe win a national title). “The team concept can work as long as we can be inclusive in the way we sell the event, encouraging all walks of life to join in what could be a lifechanging experience. Sounds hokey, but given the magnitude of the obesity problem in this country, pushing fitness and making our sports inviting to all comers is meaningful and not in any way trite,” says Hoemke. With GUsports taking the lead, the relay-team revival is on, and there’s no doubt the word will spread. “Everyday we interact with hoards of athletes and with tri, mountainbike, running and swimming clubs. Whenever and wherever we address these groups we’ll be promoting registration for the GU XTERRA Team Challenge,” says Hoemke. “Come on out; you will not be disappointed.”

Note: Visit the community forums at xterraplanet.com to see who’s looking for relay teammates or call XTERRA communications at 877751-8880 to get linked up.


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BIKE OF THE MONTH

Jamis Trilogy

Photo supplied by manufacturer

By Jay Prasuhn

Big bang, little buck: The Trilogy’s $2,250 price puts tri geometry and a great spec on an affordable rig. utside of the QR’s and Kestrels of the sport, much of the bike industry has had a love-hate affair with the tri bike. For while they may kick ass at delivering road bikes, they’ve seen multisport boom and want a slice of the tri-bike sales pie. But poor design, bad balance and zero features can be the result when companies with a road-bike pedigree dabble in the tri market. Every so often, however, we come across a brand that gets it right. Geometry, features, spec and price, all checked off. It rarely happens, but after putting together a Jamis Trilogy, we’ve seen a bike we’d put our $7,000 bikes aside for and happily race this weekend. Initially, I was hesitant; Jamis is, after all, a road- and mountain-bike brand. But Jamis has experienced something of a revival of late, picking up steam even in road and mountain circles with improved product. The Trilogy is designed for the athlete with a few years in the sport, having graduated beyond a road bike with clip-ons, with 70.3 or Ironman in the crosshairs. Given the demographic, we expected the midtier spec including a Shimano Ultegra groupset with Dura-Ace shifters, Syntace

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1 9 0 JUNE 2007

Stratos aerobars, a Mavic Cosmic Elite wheelset, FSA Gossamer crankset. Nothing exotic, but all rock solid and reliable. What surprised us is the stuff we’d expect on a bike twice its price: the Easton EC90 carbon aero fork—the lightest full-carbon fork (including dropouts) on the market, the Vision aero brake levers and Fi’zi:k Arione Tri saddle. We were also pleasantly jazzed with the frame. At this price for a 7005 aluminum mainframe, we’ve come to expect pseudoaero frames—that is, they have seat-tube cutouts, but in the aesthetic sense only—with vertical dropouts that result in a gap over an inch from the supposed aero cutout. The Trilogy? Horizontal dropouts with adjusters threaded through the dropouts. We ran the tire as far back as possible and bottomed out clearance on the 23mm tires, bumping it against the seat tube. Jamis also borrows the best features from some reputable brands. Like the one-inch head-tube steerer. Like a true 3:1 aspect-ratio down tube and a tiny, round top tube. That’s respecting your customer’s knowledge of what aero really is. Then you’ve got carbon seat stays to take the sting out of a stiff frame and take a quarter pound off last year’s bike, to 19.50

pounds (although our digital scale read 19.09 pounds). As much as carbon makes everyone dreamy-eyed, the truth is that some of us have wallets that only go so deep. Those stays give you a taste of the comfort without the full-carbon big ticket. The ride? More surprise. The 76-degree aero aluminum post has a zero-offset clamp and short head tube, allowing a steep, deep ride with no fussing. Although it’s a newbie price, it’s optimized for a veteran athlete. Stability, steering and stiffness are all there. It’s no full-carbon cloud ride, but the stays did what they are intended for, nullifying the resonant frequency in back. Downside? We’re still not big fans of fixed clip-on aerobars, especially on a bike of this level where an athlete’s perfect fit is probably not yet determined. Can you beat this bike for weight? Sure. For silky ride? Certainly. But can you fault it for not delivering? Not by a long shot. The thing is loaded with a spec that belies its price and a geometry that belies its pedigree, or lack thereof. Every brand needs a place to enter the market, and Jamis did so admirably with the Trilogy. Find more on the Trilogy at jamisbikes.com.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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Revolutionary speed Zipp’s wind-tunnel test Story & photos by Jay Prasuhn

s Zipp head engineer Josh Poertner and fellow designer John Fearncombe whisk one wheel out of the brace, they drop in a prototype disc with a plastic-looking convex outer fairing near the rim. A collection of engineers and designers stare at the panels in the control room of the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel. Then, suddenly, on run No. 79 . . . “Andy, we just got negative 80 grams at 15 degrees!” Poertner exclaims to Zipp president Andy Ording. After what would be an eventual 106 wheel-only runs, the assemblage is as animated as they’d been as when they stepped off the plane two days before to San Diego sun after an Indianapolis grey winter. “The exciting thing for us is how that wheel surpassed the standard disc at all yaw from zero to 22 degrees,” Poertner says. “For an age grouper, 15 degrees is going to be about the most statistically common wind angle, but for pros, it is more like 10 degrees as they are averaging higher speeds, which reduces the apparent wind angle. To have a technology that not only

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kicked butt at 15 but also reduced drag at every other data point below 15 by a serious amount, and reduced drag slightly from 15 to 22 degrees, is really significant.” Zipp spent a long weekend at the tunnel, proving its intent to make the fastest wheels on the market. They invited Triathlete to

ostensibly the largest wheel aerodynamics test in the history of the sport as they—and we—learned more about the importance of rim shape, tire width and aerodynamics at real-world bike speeds. And of course, those curious dimples.

TESTING VERSUS MARKETING Before Zipp’s trip to San Diego from Indy, the team was involved in computer modeling to decide what to test and prototype, what to expect and why. “The computer models help give us an idea of what to do,” Poertner says. “The wind tunnel will tell you what the data is, but it doesn’t tell you why. So we figure it out on the computer first, then verify it in the tunnel.” After arriving at San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel, it was three days of testing 42 wheels: 13 prototypes, 12 competitor brands, the rest standard Zipp wheels and oddballs like wheels with new spoke shapes. One run after another, repeated as needed until optimized drag numbers are achieved. Repeat the test, just to make sure. Then produce the wheel.

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We’d venture to guess for every brand doing this, there are a handful of others who are not. And for those few testing, fewer are testing to the degree Zipp is. While the market is flooded with Brand X and Brand Y deep-dish wheelsets that look good on a bike, the design is often unproven. “We created this market of superlatives—lightest, fastest, strongest,” Poertner says. “It’s our impetus to prove it, and that’s why we’re here. We’ve been working on this with three months of preparation. There’s a lot of hard work invested, and we wouldn’t be able to make those claims if we didn’t go to these extents.”

SHAPING UP At the tunnel, Zipp had its work cut out. “We came down with all these wheels and had a very complex set of runs we needed to do,” says Ording as we dodged wheels scattered around the tunnel. Those prototypes were, to be frank, hideous looking: standard discs with plastic-y fairings bonded onto the rim of the discs and flat white wheels of different depths and thicknesses. They were actually unridable, laser-sintered plastic pieces glued together to form a rim, then laced to test the shape concept that was within 0.002 inches of the specified design.

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The test that got the Zipp boys fired up was from a prototype disc with a bulged shape at the rim that, at a 15-degree wind angle (the most frequent wind angle triathletes find at racing speeds) created a negative 80-gram drag. That is, there was not only zero drag but there was a propulsion effect to the wheel, providing the rider about 10 watts of power. That’s translatable into not only increased watts or increased speed but also into a lower energy output and caloric burn for the same effort. It’s that sweet spot—wind angle between 10 and 20 degrees—that Zipp designs its wheels around. “We design the wheels to allow wind to adhere the flow to the wheel as long as possible, which is what our shape and dimples do,” Ording says. “We’re already the best at doing that, but we want to come down more. If you can make a wheel great at zero, five, 10, 15 then 20 degrees, keeping that flow smooth attached to the rim, you’ve got a great wheel. What we’re trying to do is make that sweet spot bigger.” Poertner concurs. “Depth is important, but it becomes secondary to shape. If you have two rims of the same depth, the difference is going to be shape.” In fact, Zipp finds that shape can make a rim perform as if it is up to 25-percent

CAMERON BROWN 2006 European Ironman Champion, 6x New Zealand Ironman Champion.

orca distance range: triathlon’s fastest long distance racing speedsuits and apparel.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

For dealer enquires, please email dealer@orca.com or call 1.866.257.6722. For further product information check out www.orca.com


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deeper than it really is. Zipp also finds that many three-, fourand five-spoke wheels look good when tested alone but are not as effective when put into a frame or fork, as the spokes actually create disruptive sound pressure—that familiar thwap-thwap-thwap sound we can hear in the wheels. “We actually brought in sound-pressure equipment on one test to measure what was happening, and it really happens,” Poertner says. “This sound pressure is created by the airflow being forced sideways into the fork blades as the composite spoke passes through them. The findings were that sound can cost four to six watts of power.”

durability and handling. Zipp created a rim shape and tire-bed geometry that is optimized for 19-22mm tires in tubular and 20-23mm in clincher. That’s why Zipp’s rims feature a slight inward bow near the rim. A year ago Zipp introduced the Tangente, the first dimpled tire (with slight dimples opposite a file center strip) at a 21mm width, to both optimally pair with the rim, and of course, provide a more comfortable, less flat-prone tire for race day. At the February tunnel test, Zipp brought four prototype tires, swapping them among various wheels during the tests. Those results stay under wrap until they are debuted at the Tour de France.

WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

SHOWING THE PROS

Traditionally 19mm tires have been used in aerodynamic testing to reduce frontal area, but that is unrealistic as 21mm tires offer better rolling resistance and increased

CSC, Zipp and Cervelo brought in three team athletes—time-trial world champ Fabian Cancellara, Frank Schleck and Carlos Sastre—on the final day of their long

weekend, helping them to refine their aero positions. The guys were excited, especially Cancellara, who was making his first-ever visit to a wind tunnel. “Right now, Fabian’s the fastest man in the world. If you can take more time out of his performance, it’s fantastic,” CSC boss Bjarne Riis says as he surveyed the testing from the control room. “What Zipp has done here is very impressive, and it’s very important to us.”

REAL-WORLD TESTING SPEEDS Drag numbers are always sexier against Normann Stadler-like speeds of 30mph. But what about at 20mph, a speed many of us race at? Zipp wanted to know the effects and see if they could debunk the thinking that aero wheels are good only at high speeds. So they used four wheels (a standard box rim wheel, a Zipp 404, 808 and 900 disc), dialed down the speed to 20mph and mathematically calculated the data from

Drag at 30mph vs. 20mph 200 180 160

Drag Force (in grams)

140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0

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15 Wind Angle (in degrees) Zipp 404

Zipp 808

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Zipp 900 Disc

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30mph

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the world’s first breathable wetsuit.

CAMERON BROWN 2006 European Ironman Champion, 6x New Zealand Ironman Champion.

wheels run at 30mph. (See graph to the left) Result? Aside from revealing that adding something as simple as a 404 rim halved the wheel drag when compared to a box-rim wheel, all showed nearly identical drag numbers. “That proves to the shop guy that yes, that consumer is fast enough to merit using a race wheel and that athletes can get true aero advantage and watts savings at lower speeds,” Poertner says. So yes, even middle- and back-of-the-packers can benefit from aero wheels. After $35,000 in prototypes and $850 per hour of tunnel

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testing to compare just three new wheel models, Zipp was thrilled with the results. “We learned so much,” Ording says, “but much of it wasn’t what we thought we’d learn. After a hard first day, we learned a lot the second day. It’s been well worth it. And this test on this disc, this is a big achievement.” When will we see them? Nothing definitive yet, as the team headed home to analyze the data and figure out just how to put it into production—which is a whole other beast. Poertner says: “As we say in our engineering department, ‘90 percent there, 90 percent more to go.’”

orca distance range: triathlon’s fastest long distance racing speedsuits and apparel.

For dealer enquires, please email dealer@orca.com or call 1.866.257.6722. For further product information check out www.orca.com


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In the swim By Jay Prasuhn The season for early-morning or after-work Masters programs and open-water group swims is upon us. While swimming doesn’t require much beyond a body of water and a solid stroke, there are a few essentials.

TYR Microback $64 and Femme Petite goggle $13 The 100-percent polyester Microback is the first competitive suit with an adjustable back strap. Available in a one-piece or workout bikini, the adjustability adds comfort and range of motion. Already a gym bag staple of Lisa Bentley and Jamie Whitmore, the compactframed Femme Petite is a new six-color goggle with an anti-glare lens to kick away UV rays—great for into-the-sun swim starts. tyr.com

Speedo Hydralign $15

Zipp Gear Bag $125 For a wheel company, Zipp thought of it all with the Gear Bag. It’s loaded enough to be your transition bag and smartly equipped to work as your daily swim bag. Standard backpack straps, pockets for your bottle, keys and swim toys and a separate wet compartment provide all the essentials. But how many bags come with a wring-out, quick-dry towel in its own mesh bag? zipp.com

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T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Photography courtesy the manufacturers

How can a goggle make you a more efficient swimmer? Hydralign’s upward-angled lens and frosted lower lens allow you to look ahead without forcing you out of good hydrodynamic position to tilt your head up. It’s Chris Lieto’s goggle of choice, and we’ve used this in training and racing and love it. It’s easier to sight the wall for flip turns and track the feet ahead of you in the race without wasting energy cranking your neck. speedo.com


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Photography courtesy the manufacturers

GEAR BAG

Barracuda Predator $20

Finis Alignment Kickboard $15

2006 Ironman world champion Michellie Jones selected this goggle both for its fit (Super Soft Positive Pressure frame delivers comfort and leak-proof performance) and a wide lens for excellent peripheral vision. But the biggest benefit is a massive range of lens options including clear, smoke amber, blue blocker. The Predator also boosts contrasts, enhancing shadows and making those course buoys easier to see. skylinenw.com

Building leg strength by doing kick drills is good. Doing them with a kickboard that helps build needed stability is better. The new alignment kickboard from Finis has a single center strap to put your overlapped hands into; the centralization builds core stability. finisinc.com

PT Paddles, Price TBA Instead of being used for strengthbuilding, these new paddles out of Great Britain have a convex undershell, deflecting water around your hand and making proper technique the focal point of your stroke. ptpaddles.com

Lane 4 Five-O Aviator $20 A killer open-water goggle, the Five-O has a slightly oversized lens for excellent 180-degree peripheral vision on race day, paried with a soft frame for comfort and fit. Available in smoke or Aqua/clear. finisinc.com

Zoot Sports Mesh Sling Backpack $15, silicone cap $9 and tri towel $15 Ah, the tools of Masters: a mesh bag to ride to workout with your gear, including swim cap and change of clothes—allowing quick drying of your wet suit and towel so you’re soon dressed and back to the rest of your busy day. zootsports.com

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Home cookin’ at SoCal 70.3 By Jay Prasuhn

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he more you travel, the more “home” has wonderful appeal. Which is what made the Ironman 70.3 California such a draw for Australian Kate Major. Like many elites, the Australian has made the North County town of Rancho Santa Fe her second home.

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Waking up in your own bed, making your perfect brew, taking on a course you know like the back of your hand. It’s perfect. “Yeah, right . . . perfect,” Major said with a laugh, eyes rolling skyward, then over to her husband Jeff, who wore a sheepish look. Major was eager

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AT THE RACES

to explain. “Jeff was snoring so loud last night, I had to send him out of bed. When I woke up to get ready, he was out in the living room, sleeping on the floor with the cat.” “In his defense, he did have a busy day,” Major added, casting a loving look at her beau with a smile. Ah, the sacrifices for sport. Fortunately Major got all the sleep she needed, as she used a metronomic pace to whittle away at early race leaders Becky Lavelle and Dede Griesbauer on the bike and finish them off on the run to win in 4:26:15. Among the men, it was ITU star Andy Potts that led from gun to tape to dominate in 3:59:59. On a clear SoCal spring morning, 1,950 starters took on a decidedly crisp day. Out of the water first for the women was American Linda Gallo and Great Britain’s Leanda Cave. Both would be supplanted by

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the early bike effort from Los Gatos, Calif.’s Becky Lavelle. But while she looked invincible early on and ready to vindicate her 70.3 worlds DNF due to a broken finger, it was early optimism in Oceanside. Thanks to a bug she caught while racing the ITU circuit in Australia, she wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “I was really down after that trip,” she admitted. “I really wanted to give this race a shot, though.” While Lavelle was off the bike first, her three-minute buffer early in the bike had deflated to one, with Griesbauer leading the pursuit, followed by Major a minute behind. Once on the run, it was all Major, who backed up the bike with the day’s fastest half-marathon (1:21) to pass Griesbauer, then Lavelle to take the lead for good. Griesbauer moved past Lavelle midway through the run to take second, while Lavelle dug in to hold on to third. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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The men’s race was a portent of things to come—not for anything 70.3 or Ironman, but, rather, regarding Olympic iron. Because if Andy Potts can hold off an entire field wire-to-wire in a half-Ironman, we’re jazzed to see what he can do next year at the Beijing Games. One of America’s top hopes for an Olympic triathlon medal at the 2008 Olympic Games, the former University of Michigan swimmer was first out of the water at the Athens Games in the men’s triathlon, en route to a 22nd-place finish. True to form, Potts burst solo from Oceanside Harbor in 22:35—three minutes ahead of the chase group. “It’s fun to put myself out there and say, “Come get me,’’ Potts said. But while a big chase amassed, the group could not close on the intrepid American. Through the hilly Camp Pendleton bike course, Potts held his gap, and by T2 and the halfmarathon along Oceanside’s waterfront, Potts had things well in hand. “If anyone were to reach me, they’d have to have been running lights out and have paid for it, and I’d have been able to respond to it,” said Potts. That scenario never occurred. With Potts off the bike with over two minutes and clicking off 5:45minute miles. Names like Luke Bell, from Australia, feeling fatigue from his Ironman New Zealand runner-up finish from three weeks prior, and others like Kiwi Bryan Rhodes, David Thompson, Michael Lovato and Jasper Blake were either too far back or losing ground. The only athletes to take up the chase was the duo of Dane Jens Koefoed and young Scottsdale, Ariz., pro

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Lewis Elliott, who battled side-by-side throughout the half-marathon. Potts cruised across to a win that surprised, mostly, him. He’d been consumed with his wife Lisa (battling cancer for over a year) and the couple’s coming child due in May, and was hopeful for any result after being pulled off the race course due to heat stroke the week prior at the ITU World Cup in Mooloolaba, Australia. “I’ve been occupied. Lisa’s tiny, and there ain’t much room for that baby,” the expecting father said with a smile. “But the wire-to-wire thing, it’s a hard way to race, but a rewarding one.” For Potts, the greater reward was exposing ITU athletes for their ability to race, and dominate, nondrafting events. “Racing in America in front of Americans is something I don’t do often enough,” Potts said. “Coming out and doing these races shows the American public that while my focus is World Cup and the Olympics, it’s like, ‘Here’s what we’re capable of doing.’”

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2007 FORD IRONMAN 70.3 CALIFORNIA

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March 18, 2007 Oceanside, Calif. 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run

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Women 1. Kate Major (AUS) 4:26:15 2. Dede Griesbauer (USA) 4:31:46 3. Becky Lavelle (USA) 4:33:03 4. Alisha Lion (USA) 4:34:49 5. Leanda Cave (GBR) 4:37:46 Men 1. Andy Potts (USA) 3:39:59 2. Jens Koefoed (DEN) 4:03:43 3. Lewis Elliott (USA) 4:03:53 4. Richie Cunningham (AUS) 4:04:57 5. Bert Jammaer (BEL) 4:05:13

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www.motortabs.com • 888.500.TABS(8227) Ask for MOTOR TABS at your favorite bike, multi-sport, running or sports nutrition retailer today!

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

MADE IN THE USA

T


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erfect weather and brilliant performances by Swiss triathletes Olivier Marceau and Renata Bucher defined this year’s XTERRA Saipan Championship in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, in the South Pacific, on March 17. The race consists of a 1.5km ocean swim, a 30km mountain bike, which climbs 1,500 feet to the highest point on the island, and a 12km trail run that winds through heavy jungle and into caves used during World War II. Winning in paradise has become an annual tradition for the two as Marceau notched his fourth consecutive Saipan victory and Bucher won her third in a row. The two also broke their own course records. Marceau’s time of 2:27:16 was six minutes faster than his 2004 performance, and Bucher’s 2:45:08 was four minutes better than the standard she set last year. “For me it was a very good day,” said Marceau. “It was sunny, the weather was perfect and I felt very good. Saipan is always a good race, and this year I was enjoying the whole day.” Marceau came out of the water on the heels of Great Britain’s Olympic triathlon star Julie Dibens, was first out of the swim-to-bike transition, quickly built an insurmountable lead on the bike, had the fastest run split by nearly four minutes and cruised across the finish line 10 minutes ahead of runner-up Sam Gardner from the United Kingdom. “To win a race is always good, but to win in Saipan is more than good. I think Saipan is a race you have to do in your life at least once,” said Marceau. The two-time Olympian Marceau will now focus his efforts on qualifying to represent Switzerland in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

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Marceau, Bucher golden at XTERRA Saipan Championship 2 0 4 JUNE 2007

The women’s pro race in Saipan boasted a strong field with a pair of Olympians (Dibens and Switzerland’s Sibylle Matter) along with Jamie Whitmore (the all-time winningest XTERRA athlete) and Bucher, the XTERRA European Tour Champ who won six championship races last year. Early on it looked like it was going to be all Dibens. Dibens powered through the swim to lead the entire field out of the water and take more than a sevenminute advantage over Bucher.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Rich Cruse

BUCHER BEST OF THE BEST


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Rich Cruse

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Once on the bike, however, Bucher began to make up time and had reeled in all of her competition—except Dibens—by the end of the 1,500-foot climb up Mt. Tapotchau, just over halfway through the bike. “I was so nervous because I really wanted to win this race again,” said Bucher. “Three times to be the winner here was my dream, and I raced very hard to do it. I knew this race was going to be hard because Julie is such a great swimmer, and Sibylle and everyone could win.”

Still, with the third-fastest bike split in 1:30:51 (behind Bucher’s sizzling 1:23:20 and Whitmore’s 1:29:35), Dibens was able to hold off Bucher until the last downhill on the bike, and the pair hit T2 together. “I know Julie is a good runner and I had to run faster, but I was already suffering,” said Bucher. “The first part of the run is all uphill, and you feel it in your legs, but on the downhill you can just fly. I took the risk to go fast on the T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


Rich Cruse

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run, because it’s quite slippery.” Dibens had Bucher in her sights on the hills and the flats through the first half of the run but couldn’t match the three-time champ’s speed as they maneuvered through the technical jungle-ravine section. “I think we were running the same on the flats, but on the technical run she put too much time on me. Once we got into the ravine she was just gone. She just danced through there,” said Dibens. Bucher ended up finishing more than three minutes ahead of Dibens, who placed second in front of Whitmore. Whitmore took nearly five minutes off her best time in Saipan (she has done all six and won the first three) to

2 0 8 JUNE 2007

finish in third. “It went well today, and I had one of my fastest times out here, so I’m excited,” said Whitmore. “[I] finished stronger than ever, so that means that I’m ahead of where I was last year.”

2007 XTERRA SAIPAN CHAMPIONSHIP

TOP AGE-GROUPERS

Women 1. Renata Bucher (SUI) 2. Julie Dibens (GBR) 3. Jamie Whitmore (USA) 4. Sibylle Matter (SWI) 5. Mami Saito (JPN)

2:45:08 2:48:57 2:51:24 2:56:03 3:09:01

Men 1. Olivier Marceau (SUI) 2. Sam Gardner (GBR) 3. Andrew Noble (AUS) 4. Thomas Richard (FRA) 5. Margus Tamm (EST)

2:27:16 2:37:04 2:39:56 2:49:43 2:52:59

The top overall amateur male was Gary Mandy of Hong Kong with a time of 2:45:33. The top amateur female for the second straight year was Mieko Carey of Saipan, in 3:33:10. There was also an XTERRA Sport race comprised of a 750-meter swim, 20km mountain bike and 5km trail run. The overall male winner was Keenan Tydingco from Guam, in 1:58:12. The female champion was Heather Kennedy from Saipan, in 2:27:58.

Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands March 17, 2007 1.5km ocean swim, 30km MTB, 12km trail run

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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fter a two-year layoff due to injury, Australia’s Rebekah Keat, preparing to catapult back into the sport at the Panthers Ironman Australia on April 1, said to competitor and fellow Australian Belinda Granger, “I don’t care which one of us wins this, but it has to be an Australian.� Keat’s vexation could be understood: 14 years had passed since an Australian woman had taken the crown. In the past five years, Canadian Lisa Bentley, collecting five consecutive Ironman Oz championships, seemed to be on her way to having a town named after her. Keat’s declaration to Granger set the stage for the 2007 women’s race: It was time to reclaim their turf. From a patriotic standpoint, the men’s side of Ironman Australia’s history was different: Lockstep with Lisa Bentley’s victories was Aussie Chris McCormack’s string, winning five championships in a row as if he were tossing back pints of Victoria Bitter. With McCormack passing on this year’s competition, the spotlight shifted to sentimental favorite, Australian Jason Shortis, now taking on

Keat, Vernay handle Ironman Australia Rebekah Keat ends 14-year drought for Australian women at Ironman Oz, while Patrick Vernay picks up where Chris McCormack left off

By T.J. Murphy

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Delly Carr

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AT THE RACES

the race for the 13th time. Speaking of vexation, Shortis, a huge crowd favorite, seemingly has lived and died trying to win, year after year, desperately trying to scratch out at least one Ironman Australia crown, a dream that has long eluded a man who is now married and a father of three. To realize his quest, it was expected that Shortis would have to survive a dogfight that included the likes of France’s Patrick Vernay plus Aussies Craig Alexander (making his IM debut), Mitch Anderson and Cameron Watt. More than 1600 athletes followed the favorites through the swim. As they exited the 2.4-mile leg, it was all Australian: Matthew Clark, Shane Gibb, Paul O’Brien and Watt making up the first pack, followed by Vernay and Alexander, and eventually, minutes behind, was Shortis. After the first lap of the three-lap 112-mile bike, Vernay and Watt had established a four-minute lead from a group of 14 headed up by Shortis and including Craig McKenzie, Alexander and Gibbs. At the 80km mark Shortis made a move, although five Ironmans in

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12 months was beginning to show its wear and tear: Throughout the rest of the bike ride, Shortis could gain no ground, and at the 170km mark was overtaken by Mitch Anderson. Vernay began running with a resilient gap of four minutes over Shortis. The pressure being exerted on the field had sucked the life out of the legs of their competitors, and except for Alexander, Vernay and Shortis were the only two to run sub-three marathon efforts. Shortis ran an extraordinarily courageous 2:49:18, which would have been good for first place if only Vernay had cracked. But Vernay didn’t crack, running virtually stride for stride and posting a 2:49:38, winning his first Ironman Australia. Shortis finished second and Alexander ran himself into third. In the women’s event, an age grouper from Queensland, Sarah Pollett, led the swim with a 49:05. As they transitioned onto the bike, down 1:20 were Keat and Granger, with Bentley 3:30 back. Three Australians took up the primary battle as Granger, Keat and

Melissa Ashton pushed away at the front of the bike. As time checks indicated, Bentley steadily lost time. A heel injury had impaired Bentley’s preparation to defend her title, but on her Web site the Canadian explicitly suggested that drafting played a role in her slipping out of the picture. Wrote Bentley, “I did continue to lose time over the remainder of the ride, but I can honestly say that I rode very well and very legal! There was a lot of drafting out there and I did cross the line knowing that I did, in fact, ride the bike course myself and earned my bike time myself and on my own.” Whatever the case, at the end of the ride, Bentley was nearly 20 minutes behind the lead and, at the end of the day, would not finish in the top 10. Keat had suffered problems of her own, as her seatpost had loosened and she reported having to stand up on the final lap of the bike ride. Granger led Ashton out onto the run, but Keat clearly had the freshest legs—in fact, she later commented that the third lap out of the saddle helped save her for the marathon. She posted

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a 3:04:06, nearly 16 minutes better than Granger, earning her a victory for Australia in 9:13:00. Granger, 9:20:26, and Ashton, 9:23:23, rounded out the top three.

PANTHERS IRONMAN AUSTRALIA April 1, 2007 Port Macquarie, Australia 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run Women 1. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 9:13:00 2. Belinda Granger (AUS) 9:20:26 3. Melissa Ashton (AUS) 9:23:23 4. Kate Bevilaqua (AUS) 9:37:03 5. Alison Fitch (AUS) 9:45:08

By Jay Prasuhn he 2007 Ironman season has only just begun and we have already had a too-close-to-call finish with Kiwi Cam Brown nipping Aussie Luke Bell to win Ironman New Zealand. Only weeks later on the other side of the planet Ironman South Africa hosted its own tight battle between homeland favorite Raynard Tissink and Belgian Gerrit Schellens. In the end, it was Schellens coming from behind in the last miles to take the title in 8:33. The women’s race was less dramatic, as Switzerland’s Natascha Badmann decimated the field by nearly a half hour to win convincingly in 9:22. In the men’s race, Schellens had his work cut out for him. Starting the day in a hole with an almost 1:04 swim, he was about six minutes behind his main contenders, while Bjorn Andersson of Sweden shot off the front and out of sight on the bike.

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Delly Carr

Badmann, Schellens take Ironman South Africa

8:21:50 8:25:35 8:38:50 8:46:53 8:48:53

Andersson rolled into T2 after a blazing 4:23 bike split and set off onto the marathon with a sizable lead of 14 minutes over Tissink and 25 minutes to Schellens—but began experiencing leg pain that would start to affect his run. Tissink, Switzerland’s Stefan Riesen and a host of other contenders began trickling into T2 well after Andersson and began the process of chipping away at the Swede’s lead. Despite his massive T2 deficit, once on the run Schellens ripped through the field. Clipping off a 6:15 per mile pace, the Belgian bounded past South African Carl Storm and Riesen. By the midpoint of the marathon, he caught Andersson (who was reduced to walking due to a pulled muscle) for second place and had Tissink in his crosshairs three minutes up the road. Not long after being passed, Andersson pulled out of the race. With just one mile left in the marathon, Schellens passed Tissink, who fought gamely for a few steps before fading to the light footsteps of the Belgian. Schellens kept up the pressure to make sure the defending champ didn’t launch a last-second assault and went on to win. A cracked Tissink came across second, just three minutes later. Riesen, who also rebounded from a slow 1:08 swim, enjoyed the buffer of a 4:32 bike that helped vault him to third place.

M. Holmes

Men 1. Patrick Vernay (AUS) 2. Jason Shortis (AUS) 3. Craig Alexander (AUS) 4. Mitch Anderson (AUS) 5. Cameron Watt (AUS)

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AT THE RACES 2007 SPEC-SAVERS IRONMAN SOUTH AFRICA Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth, South Africa March 18, 2007 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run Women 1. Natascha Badmann (SUI) 2. Edith Niederfriniger (ITA) 3. Bella Comerford (SCO) 4. Cora Vlot (NED) 5. Heleen Bij De Vaate (NED)

9:22:00 9:47:01 9:48:40 9:52:40 9:58:25

Men 1. Gerrit Schellens (BEL) 2. Raynard Tissink (SAF) 3. Riesen Stefan (SWI) 4. Petr Vabrousek (CZE) 5. Carl Storm (SAF)

8:33:04 8:36:06 8:41:38 8:48:18 9:06:45

M. Holmes

Among the women, the Czech Republic’s Tereza Macel led out of the water and kept at bay the duo of Scotland’s Bella Comerford and Edith Niederfriniger for over 30 miles of the bike. But as the two hunted Macel, they in turn were being tracked by Badmann, who made up her 1:11 swim deficit and stole the lead from all three by the 33-mile mark. From then on, it was a chase for second. Badmann started the run with a 22-minute lead. Comerford and Niederfriniger made the biggest attempts at losing the least ground from the multi-time Hawaii Ironman world champ. In the end, it was Niederfriniger who won the battle for second over Comerford, distancing herself in the last mile for runner-up honors.

Dibens and Marceau tops at XTERRA Guam Weeklong rains make Guam a slippery mud bath

Rich Cruse

By Eric Tydingco

ust when it looked like the weeklong rains would subside, Mother Nature threatened to spice up the already damp bike course early race morning. Instead, she played nice—well, sort of—bringing consistent cloud cover and nearly 25mph winds to greet the 100 participants at XTERRA Guam on March 11. The blustery conditions forced a quick re-routing of the 1000meter swim course in an attempt to minimize the effects of a very strong current in the Piti Channel. The gun went off promptly at 7:30 a.m., and the racers surged forward, adding to the already churning waters. Julie Dibens of Great Britain emerged

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2 1 4 JUNE 2007

from the water first, in 14:48. Thirtytwo seconds later another female pro, Sybille Matter of Switzerland, exited the swim, followed by the first male, Olivier Marceau of France. Once on the bike, Marceau quickly dominated the course. The 27km bike started with about three miles of climbing on paved road before entering the technical terrain. The strong winds managed to dry up most of the course but left enough mud to warrant hike-abike sections. Hurrying to make up for a nearly five-minute deficit to Marceau on the swim was the UK’s Sam Gardner. With a professional mountain-biking background to his credit, the technical,

muddy conditions suited him perfectly as he set the fastest bike split of the day. But Marceau remained steady and only gave up 28 seconds of his lead to Gardner as they headed into T2. Meanwhile, Dibens, in only her third XTERRA event, held off the chase pack of Renata Bucher (Switzerland), Jamie Whitmore (USA) and Matter to reach T2 with a seemingly comfortable fiveminute lead. The improperly billed 5km trail run turned out to actually be 6km. After a short run through the village of Piti, the course turned off-road with a quad-burning hill climb, an eight-foot ridge jump and then about a half-mile

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BUCHER GIVES CHASE The women’s race began to exhibit considerable drama as Bucher started her pursuit of the leader. Down nearly eight minutes to Dibens out of the swim, Bucher posted the fastest women’s bike split and was carving out chunks of time during the run. Dibens, an experienced ITU racer, expressed concern pre-race about the steep and slippery waterfall section. She cautiously made her way through the run knowing there were some impressive runners

on her tail. Both Bucher and Whitmore made their final charge in the treecanopied river, posting the fastest and second-fastest women’s run times. But their efforts were not enough as Dibens crossed the finish line in 2:15:58, with Bucher a minute and half later followed by Whitmore in 2:18:22.

XTERRA GUAM Asan Beach, Guam March 11, 2007 1.2km ocean swim, 27km MTB, 10km off-road run Women 1. Julie Dibens (GBR) 2. Renate Bucher (SUI) 3. Jamie Whitmore (USA) 4. Sybille Matter (SUI) 5. Shannon Cutting (Guam)

2:15:58 2:17:30 2:18:22 2:22:26 2:43:04

Men 1. Olivier Marceau (SUI) 2. Sam Gardner (GBR) 3. Jim McConnell (GBR) 4. Courtney Cardenas (USA) 5. Taro Shirato (JPN)

2:01:49 2:05:27 2:14:18 2:23:04 2:28:18

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of grass-covered path. Racers then had to navigate down a waterfall. Once at the bottom of the falls, the course followed the river channel, which varied in depth from anklehigh to waist-deep. Marceau continued to hold his lead through the trail run, but Gardner was digging deep to catch him. Despite setting the fastest run split, Gardner could not reel the speedy French athlete in as Marceau broke the tape in 2:01:49. Gardner was second in 2:05:27.


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Marr, Mensink win Lavaman By Cameron Elford lthough triathlon was born in San Diego and the Ironman began on the island of Oahu, multisport has reached perfection on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Ironman has been a part of the Kona Coast since the early 1980s, when then-race owner Valerie Silk moved the event from Honolulu. But the Ironman is just one key part of the triathlon landscape that has since grown up on the Big Island, with races like Honu 70.3, Ultraman and KeauhouKona—in addition to myriad training camps (three-time Ironman world champ Peter Reid used to sequester himself in a remote cabin on Hualalai in the weeks before Kona to sharpen his form) all building the region’s triathlon pedigree.

Matthew Genuardi

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MARR MAKES UP GROUND

For the last 10 years, the Lavaman Triathlon, located in the resort area of Waikoloa, 25 miles north of KailuaKona on the South Kohala Coast, has been a key pillar of the sport on the Big Island. This year, on April 1, more than 750 athletes—including the legendary Cowman—took on the scenic Olympic-distance Lavaman course. And while the race attracted a few top pros, such as California-based Ironman star Chris Lieto (racing just the swim as a training session), as well as Dutch ITU athlete Lisa Mensink and Canada’s Carolyn Murray and Charlene Waldner, the low-key Lavaman is all about the age groupers, with a Team in Training contingent of 250 athletes raising $1.1 million dollars for cancer research. 2 1 8 JUNE 2007

Despite battling through heavy traffic on the second swim lap, as the quick swimmers plowed through the tail end of the second swim wave, Mensink, who lives in Calgary, Canada, but races for Holland, and Tim Marr, the defending Lavaman champ from Honolulu, were well positioned to attack the 40km bike course. Marr, however, couldn’t shake swim leader Collins, from Seattle, Wash., on the bike, and the pair hit T2 within seconds of each other. Collins grabbed the early advantage on the run, leading Marr across the sweeping lava fields by five seconds in the opening kilometers. “I was worried,” said Marr of Collins’ concerted challenge. “The bike is my strength, and he hung with me. But in the first mile of the run my legs felt awesome, so I knew it would be my race to lose.” Capitalizing on his race-day form, Marr threw in a surge on a short uphill section after the run turnaround to drop Collins. He then continued to build on his advantage through to the finish to take the win

in 1:53:00. Collins faded over the second half of the 10km and gave up more than two minutes to Marr. Still, the speedy Collins held steady and was not challenged for second place, finishing in 1:55:12.

MENSINK DICTATES THE PACE Lisa Mensink, a 2008 Beijing Olympics hopeful focused on gaining experience on the ITU World Cup circuit this season, arrived on the Big Island in good form after a training camp in Australia. And despite a challenge by Slovakia’s Magdalena Stovickova on the bike, Mensink crushed the field on the run and held off a fast-moving Murray to take the 2007 Lavaman win after finishing second here last year. “I just came from a training camp in Australia, so I was a bit fitter this year,” explained Mensink after her impressive performance. “It was pretty rough out there, though—I have a bit of a head cold, and I worked hard.” Shadowed by Stovickova for much of the day, Mensink worked the first half of the run hard to shake her competition before hitting the technical lava rock and coral sections in the final kilometers—as well as the sandy beach run to the finish, which sapped the leg strength from many competitors including Collins, who collapsed at the finish after pushing hard to the finish in pursuit of Marr. With an impressive run, Murray moved past Stovickova on the run to take second, while the Slovakian held on for third place among the women’s field.

LAVAMAN TRIATHLON Waikoloa, Hawaii April 1, 2007 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run Women 1. Lisa Mensink (HOL) 2. Carolyn Murray (CAN) 3. Magdalena Stovickova (SLO) 4. Bree Wee (USA) 5. Yasmine White (USA)

2:08:17 2:11:12 2:11:28 2:12:06 2:16:49

Men 1. Tim Marr (USA) 2. Ben Collins (USA) 3. Luis de la Torre (USA) 4. Jimmy Davis (USA) 5. Eric Harr (USA)

1:53:00 1:55:12 1:59:22 1:59:37 2:00:48

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Matthew Genuardi

Although it’s just a 40-minute drive from the home of the Ironman, the Kohala Coast is typically less humid than Kona, and while Lavaman athletes literally run through lava fields and across beach sand, they do not have to contend with the hot, oftensuffocating conditions of Alii Drive, making the Lavaman a top destination event for not only triathlon veterans but also for newbies. The two-loop swim begins at an idyllic white-sand beach that fringes a protected warm, shallow bay bordered by a lagoon on the inland side. Athletes began the 1.5km swim in two waves, with Honolulu’s Ben Collins leading the field out of the bay and onto the 40km bike, which winds through the Waikoloa lava fields and luxury resorts before heading north on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, which this year gave athletes a respite from the tortuous winds that can blast out of the Kohala Mountains. The 10km run includes a mix of hardscrabble lava rock and crushed coral, deep sand plus meandering footpaths through the manicured grounds of the Waikoloa Hilton.


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CALENDAR

International Triathlon & Duathlon Race Calendar Triathlete endeavors to present the most comprehensive calendar of tris and dus. However, because event dates are subject to change, please check with race directors to confirm event information before making plans. See Multi-Event Contacts for contact information for promoters that have multiple listings. Listings printed in red indicate Triathlete-sponsored races. USA Triathlonsanctioned races are designated with a #. Register at active.com for events designated with @. RACE DIRECTORS: For online race listings, please go to triathletemag.com and post your races under our Calendar link. Allow one week for your events to become live.

XTERRA TV

2 2 0 JUNE 2007

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

Check your local listings to see when the award-winning TEAM Unlimited Television productions of the XTERRA USA Championship and the Nevada Passage adventure competition are on in your area. For more information on the shows and a complete list of broadcast dates and times visit xterraplanet.com/television.

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CALENDAR

For listing in our print calendar, e-mail your information to rebecca@triathlete mag.com or fax it to (760) 634-4110. Entries submitted before March 31 have been included in the June issue. All entries that were submitted after that date will be in the July issue. Please note that most XTERRA global tour events consist of approximately a 1.5K swim, 30K mountain bike and 10K trail run.

MOUNTAIN PACIFIC 06/02- Idaho Falls, ID—Dual at Kelly Canyon. PB-Performance. 16mi B, 10K R. 06/03- San Francisco, CA—Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. Tri-California. 1.5mi S, 18mi B, 8mi R. 06/10- Morgan Hill, CA—California Man Triathlon Long Course. Firstwave Events. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. 06/16- Boulder, CO—Boulder Kids Triathlon. 5430 Sports. Distances vary by age. 06/17- Boulder, CO—5430 Sprint Triathlon. 5430 Sports. .5mi S, 17mi B, 3.1mi R. 06/23- San Jose, CA—San Jose Mt. Bike Sprint Triathlon. Firstwave Events. 500yd S, 10mi Mt.B, 3.1mi R. 06/24- San Jose, CA—San Jose International Triathlon. 1.25K S, 40K B, 10K R.

06/24- San Diego, CA—San Diego International Triathlon. Koz Enterprises. 1K S, 30K B, 10K R; .5K S, 20K B, 6K R. #07/07- June Lake, CA—June Lake Triathlon. 1.5K S, 41K B, 10K R; .25mi S, 8.2mi B, 2mi R. 07/14- Magic Reservoir, ID—East vs West Triathlon Challenge. PB-Performance. 800m S, 13mi, 5K R; 1600m S, 26mi B, 10K R. 07/22- Boulder, CO—Boulder Peak Triathlon. 5430 Sports. 1.5K S, 42K B, 10K R. 07/29- San Diego, CA—Solana Beach Triathlon. Koz Enterprises. .25mi S, 9mi B, 3mi R; 1mi R, 9mi B, 3mi R. #08/05- San Francisco, CA—Alcatraz Challenge Aquathlon & Swim. 1.5mi S, 7mi R. #08/11-Emmett, ID—Emmett’s Most Excellent Triathlon and Sprint Triathlon. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; .5K S, 20K B, 5K R. 08/11- Boulder, CO—Boulder Kids Triathlon. 5430 Sports. Distances vary by age. 08/11- Telluride, CO—TelluTri Mountain High Challenge. .75mi S, 43mi B, 5mi R. 08/12- Folsom, CA—Folsom International Triathlon. Firstwave Events. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R. 08/12- Boulder, CO—5430 Long Course Triathlon. 5430 Sports. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. 08/12- Honolulu, HI—Ironman Revisited. 2.4mi S, 112mi

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B, 26.2mi R. 08/25- Santa Barbara, CA—Santa Barbara Long Course Triathlon. 1mi S, 34mi B, 10mi R. 08/26- Santa Barbara, CA—Santa BarbaraCo-Ed Sprint Triathlon. 500yd S, 6mi B, 2mi R. 08/26- Santa Barbara, CA—Santa Barbara Women-Only Sprint Triathlon. 500yd S, 6mi B, 2mi R. 08/26- San Diego, CA—Imperial Beach Triathlon. Koz Enterprises. .25mi S, 9mi B, 3mi R; 1mi R, 9mi B, 3mi R. 08/26- Steamboat Springs, CO—Steamboat Springs Triathlon. 5430 Sports. .75mi S, 20mi B, 4mi R. 09/01- Auburn, CA—Lake of the Pines Triathlon. Three sprint-level races. 09/08- Idaho Falls, ID—Blacktail Triathlon. PB-Performance. 800m S, 13mi, 5K R; 1600m S, 26mi B, 10K R. 09/08-9- Pacific Grove, CA—Triathlon at Pacific Grove. Tri-California. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; .25mi S, 12.4mi B, 2mi R. 09/09- Glenwood Springs, CO—23rd Annual Tri-Glenwood Triathlon. 825m S, 15mi B, 5mi R. 09/09- Santa Cruz, CA—Big Kahuna Triathlon Long Course. Firstwave Events. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. 09/23- Tempe, AZ—Timex Triathlon. Red Rock Company, Inc. 1500m S, 24mi B, 10K R; 750m S,

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6 Time Ironman World Champion Consultant:

Fitness, Nutrition, Product Speaker:

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12mi B, 3.1mi R. 09/28-30- San Luis Obispo, CA— Scott Tinley Adventure Races. TriCalifornia. bike hill climbs, road and off-road triathlons. 09/30- San Diego, CA—Mission Bay Triathlon. Koz Enterprises. 500m S, 15K B, 5K R. 10/28- San Diego, CA—San Diego Triathlon Challenge. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. 10/28- Tempe, AZ—Soma Half Ironman. Red Rock Company, Inc. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. 11/09-11- San Francisco, CA—Treasure Island Triathlon. Tri-California. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; .5K S, 20K B, 5K R.

SOUTH ATLANTIC 06/09- Pelham, AL—Buster Britton Triathlon. Team Magic. 400yd S, 12.6mi B,

2 2 4 JUNE 2007

3mi R. #08/11- Guntersville, AL—Mountain Lakes Triathlon. Team Magic.600yd S, 16.2mi B, 3mi R. 09/23- Miami, FL—Escape to Miami Triathlon. PR Racing, Inc. 1.1K S, 40K B, 10K R.

NORTH ATLANTIC 06/02- Pawling, NY—Annual Pawling Triathlon. New York Triathlon. .3mi S, 13mi B, 3mi R. 06/02-03- Bristol, NH—The Mooseman Triathlon Festival. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R; 1mi S, 25mi B, 6mi R. 06/03- New Hyde Park, NY—New Hyde Park Duathlon. New York Triathlon. 5mi R, 15mi B, 2mi R. 06/10- Keuka Park, NY—Keuka Lake Triathlon. Score This!!!, Inc. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; .75K S, 22K B, 5K R; 5K R, 22K

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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DIGITAL EDITION NOW AVAILABLE Our digital edition is an exact replica of the print edition of Triathlete magazine, delivered to your computer by e-mail. It looks just like the print edition and contains the identical training information, gear reviews, race reporting and nutrition tips as the mailed copy. But the digital edition offers several advantages that print doesn’t: • Links to all of the Web sites (URLs) and e-mail addresses • Download: Save a local version directly to your computer for off-line viewing • Tools that allow you to zoom, print or e-mail pages to a friend • Find anything in the magazine by typing a search phrase B, 5K R. 06/10- Madison, NH—King Pine Triathlon. 600yd S, 12.5mi B, 3.1mi R and kid’s race. 06/10- Harriman State Park, NY—22nd Annual NY Tri/Biathlon Series #1. New York Triathlon. .5mi S, 16mi B, 3mi R; 3mi R, 16mi B, 3mi R. 06/16- Middlebury, CT—Pat Griskus Olympic Triathlon. 1mi S, 25mi B, 6.2mi R. 06/17- Port Washington, NY—11th Annual Long Island Gold Coast Tri/Duathlon. New York Triathlon. .5mi S, 12mi B, 3.1mi R; 3.1mi R, 12mi B, 3.1mi R. 06/17- Salisbury, VT—Vermont Sun Triathlon. 600yd S, 14mi B, 3.1mi R. 07/01- Buffalo, NY—A Tri in the Buff. Score This!!!, Inc. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; 750m S, 20K B, 5K R; 5K R, 20K B, 5K R; 200m S, 10K B, 2K R. 07/11- Middlebury, CT—21st Annual Pat

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Griskus Sprint Triathlon. .5mi S, 10.5mi B, 3.1mi R. 07/15- Salisbury, VT—Vermont Sun Triathlon. 600yd S, 14mi B, 3.1mi R. 07/22- Town of Ulster, NY—11th Annual Hudson Valley Tri/Biathlon. New York Triathlon. .3mi S, 16mi B, 3mi R; 1mi R, 16mi B, 3mi R. #08/05- Trumansburg, NY—Cayuga Lake Triathlon. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; 750m S, 14mi B, 5K R; 200m S, 9mi B, 1.5mi R (youth only). 08/11- Grand Island, NY—Summer Sizzler. Score This!!!, Inc. 400m S, 17K B, 4.4K R; 4.4K R, 17K B, 4.4K R. 08/12- Salisbury, VT—Lake Dunmore Triathlon. .9mi S, 28mi B, 6.2mi R. 08/12- Central Park, NY—20th Annual Central Park Triathlon. New York Triathlon. .25mi S, 12mi B, 3mi R. 08/19- Harriman State Park, NY—22nd

• View all available archived issues for this magazine • Environmental friendly: No trees are cut and no fuel is wasted to deliver this edition

PREVIEW OUR SAMPLE

DIGITAL EDITION

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Annual NY Tri/Biathlon Series #2. New York Triathlon. .5mi S, 16mi B, 3mi R; 3mi R, 16mi B, 3mi R. 08/18-19- Gilford, NH—The Timberman Triathlon Festival. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R; .3mi S, 15mi B, 3mi R. 09/02- Lake George, NY—Lake George Triathlon. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R. adktri.org/lakegeorgetri.html. 09/09- Salisbury, VT—Half Vermont Journey. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. 09/09- Barker, NY—Danforth Fall Frolic. Score This!!!, Inc. 400m S, 20K B, 5K R; 1.6K R, 20K B, 5K R. #09/09- Lake Lure, NC—Hickory Nut Gorge Triathlon. Race Day Events. 400m S, 25K B, 5K R. 09/29- Darien, CT—Itpman Triathlon. New York Triathlon. 1.5K S, 25K B, 10K R. 09/23- Canandaigua, NY—Finger Lakes Triathlon. Score This!!!, Inc. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; 750m S, 21K B, 5K R.

NORTH CENTRAL

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06/02- Stony Creek, MI—X-tri Shelby Township. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, TBA mt. B, 5K R; 2mi R, TBA mt. B, 5K R. 06/03- Kalamazoo, MI—Seahorse Challenge Tri, Du, Sprint. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1.5K S, 40k B, 10K R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R; 5K R, 20K B, 5K R. 06/09- Neoga, IL—Wolf Creek Sprint Tri. Mattoon Beach Tri. .25mi S, 10mi B, 3mi R. 06/10- Sylvania, OH—Racing for Recovery Half & Sprint. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R; 500m S, 14mi B, 5K R. 06/16- Hadley Township, MI—Big Fish Tri, Du, Sprint. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R; 5K R, 20K B, 5K R. 06/16- Davenport, IA—Quad Cities Triathlon. 600yd S, 15mi B, 3.1mi R. #06/16- Hopkins, MI—Johan’s TriFest. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R. 06/17- Elkhart, IN—Get it Goin Tri/Du. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, 30K B, 4mi R; 2mi R, 30K B, 4mi R. 06/24- Detroit, MI—MotorCity Triathlon. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1.5K S, 23mi B, 10K R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R. 06/30- Lake Shore Park, MI—Novi X-tri. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, TBA mt. B, 4mi R; 2mi R, TBA mt. B, 4mi R. 07/08- Grand Haven, MI—Grand Haven Half Tri, Du, Sprint. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R; 5K R, 20K B, 5K R. 07/09- Neoga, IL—Mattoon Beach Triathlons. Mattoon Beach Tri. .25mi S, 12mi B, 3.1mi R; .5mi S, 24mi B, 6.2mi R. 07/14- Holly recreation, MI—Holly Xtri. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, TBA mt. B, 4mi R; 2mi R, TBA mt. B, 4mi R. #07/14- Danville, IA—Lake Geode Challenge. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R. 07/15- Interlochen, MI—Interlochen Music Fest Tri, Du, Sprint. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R; 5K R, 20K B, 5K R. 07/22- Milford, MI—YMCA Happy Trails Triathhlon. 3 Disciplines Racing. .6mi S, 16mi B, 5K R. 07/28- Iona State Park, MI—Ionia Xtri. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, TBA mt. B, 4mi R; 2mi R, TBA mt. B, 4mi R. 07/29- Mackinaw City, MI—Mackinaw Multi-Sport Mix. 3 Disciplines Racing. 800m S, 30K B, 5K R; 1.5mi R, 30K B, 5K R. 08/04- Neoga, IL—Mattoonman 1/3 Iron Distance. Mattoon Beach Tri. .8mi S, 38mi B, 8.6mi R. 08/04- Gaylord, MI—27th Mark Mellon Triathlon. 3 Disci-

plines Racing. TBA. 08/05- Clarkston, MI—Craig Greenfield Memorial Tri. 3 Disciplines Racing. 800m S, 16mi B, 5K R. 08/11- Fort Custer State Park, MI—X-tri Battle Creek. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, TBA mt. B, 4mi R; 2mi R, TBA mt. B, 4mi R. 08/11-12- Mentor, OH—Greater Cleveland Triathlon. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R; 1.2mi S, 56mi B; .75mi S, 23mi B, 6.2mi R; .5mi S, 12mi B, 3.1mi R. 08/12- Lansing, MI—Lansing Legislator Tri. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R; duathlon TBA. 08/18- Sanford, MI—Sanford & Sun Triathlon. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, 30K B, 5mi R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R. 08/19- Petoskey, MI—Petoskey Tri. Du. Sprint. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, 30K B, 5mi R; 2mi R, 30K B, 5mi R. 08/26- Ludington, MI—Ludington Tri, Du, Sprint. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, 40K B, 10K R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R; 5K R, 20K B, 5K R. 09/01- Kalamazoo, MI—Prairie View Tri. Du Sprint. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, 40K B, 10K R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R; 5K R, 20K B, 5K R. 09/01- Boyne Mtn., MI—Boyne Mtn. Triathlon. 3 Disciplines Racing. TBA. 09/02- Boyne, MI—Xtri Championship. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, TBA mt. B, 4mi R; 2mi R, TBA mt. B, 4mi R. 09/08- Novi, MI—Novi Sprint Triathlon. 3 Disciplines Racing. 800m S, 15mi B, 5K R. 09/15- Neoga, IL—Great Illini Challenge Full Iron Distance and Half Iron Distance. Mattoon Beach Tri. 2.4mi S, 112mi B, 26.2mi R; 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. 09/16- Shelby Township, MI—Stony Creek Championship. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R; 500m S, 20K B, 5K R; 5K R, 20K B, 5K R. 09/23- Holly, MI—Autumn Colors Triathlon, duathlon. 3 Disciplines Racing. 1000m S, 30K B, 5mi R; 2mi R, 30K B, 5mi R. 10/13- Neoga, IL—Eagle Creek Long Course Duathlon. Mattoon Beach Tri. 5mi R, 40mi B, 5mi R.

SOUTH CENTRAL 06/09- Shelbyville, KY—Shelbyville Triathlon and Duathlon. Head First Performance. .5mi S, 16mi B, 5K R; 5K R, 16mi B, 5K R. 06/10- Sugarland, TX—Texas Triathlon. Out-loud. 600yd S, 12mi B, 3mi R. 06/23- McMinnville, TN—McMinnville City Triathlon. Team Magic. 350m S, 15.5mi B, 3mi R. #07/01- Vonore, TN—Tellico Sprint. TN USAT Sprint Championship. Race Day Events. 800m S, 17mi B, 4mi R. 07/15- Chattanooga, TN—Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon. Team Magic. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R. 07/15- Carrollton, KY—14th Annual Gen. Butler Off-road Triathlon. .4mi S, 3mi R, 10mi B. #07/28- Cleveland, TN—TrYMCA Double Dip Sprint Triathlon. Race Day Events. 200m S, 200m S, 10mi B, 2.5mi R. 07/28- Lebanon, TN—Cedars of Lebanon Triathlon. Team Magic. 300yd S, 16.5mi B, 3mi R. #08/11- Guntersville, AL—Mountain Lakes Triathon. Team

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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REDEFINING HUMANLY POSSIBLE

Nathan products help you achieve your goals, no matter how impossible they may seem. Our Speed 4 is ideal for triathlon training and competition. A bounce-free, adjustable belt carries four 10 oz. Nutrition Flasks for water, carbo gels, or your own special concoctions. Our unique molded holsters allow you to remove and replace Flasks effortlessly, with one hand. No more fumbling or breaking stride. Silicone grips inside the holsters ensure Flasks stay securely in place. Nathan Performance Gear is available at specialty running shops & sporting goods stores, or at www.NathanSports.com.

Congratulations to all the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon in Fairmount Park™ participants! And thanks to volunteers and sponsors: Philadelphia Insurance Companies, Cadence Performance Cycling Centers, Nathan Performance Gear™, Sorbothane® Performance Insoles, Triathlete Magazine, Penguin Sport-Wash®, United Health Care, Endless Pools™, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Wissahickon Mountain Spring Water, REI, Zoot Sports, Gatorade Endurance Formula, GU Energy Gel, and Excel Physical Therapy.


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Magic. 600yd S, 16.2mi B, 3mi R. #08/11- Alcoa, TN—Springbrook Sprint Triathlon. Race Day Events. 300m S, 10mi B, 2.5mi R. #08/18- Pikeville, TN—Fall Creek Falls Triathlon. Race Day Events. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R. 09/08- Hendersonville, TN—Old Hickory Lake Triathlon. Team Magic. 400yd S, 1.5mi R, 13mi B, 1.5mi R. #09/16- Nashville, TN—Music City Triathlon. Team Magic. 1.5K S, 40K B, 10K R. 09/22- Lake Barkly, KY—Lake Barkly Full and Half Iron Distance Triathlon. Head First Performance. 2.4mi S, 112mi B, 26.2mi R; 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. #09/23- Vonore, TN—Atomic Man Half Iron Triathlon. Race Day Events. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R. 09/29-30- Austin, TX—The Longhorn Triathlon Festival. 1.2mi S, 56mi B, 13.1mi R; .5mi S, 15mi B, 3.1mi R. 10/07- Houston, TX—Du the Bear Duathlon. Out-loud. 2mi R, 12mi B, 2mi R.

#10/14- Lenoir City, TN—Atomic Duathlon. Race Day Events. 5K R, 35K B, 5K R. 10/28- Montgomery, TX—Iron Star Triathlon. Out-loud. 1.2mi S, 59mi B, 13.1mi R. REMINDER: If a race’s contact information is not listed with the event in the preceding section, refer to the Multi-Event Contacts listings below. There, you will find a list of race organizers who put on either multiple races or series events. For more events and online race registration, please be sure to check out triathletemag.com and active.com. Both sites offer up-to-date racing and training information, as well as the most recent news and coverage of triathlon’s most popular events. To list your event in our online calendar, please go to triathletemag.com.

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M


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MULTI-EVENT CONTACTS 3 Discliplines Racing: www.3disciplines.com; 866.820.6036 5430 Sports: Barry Siff, 1507 North St., Boulder, CO, barry@5430sports.com, www.5430sports.com; 303.442.0041. AA Sports: 503.644.6822; www.racecenter.com; events@ racecenter.com. Blue Sky Sports, LLC: 678.237.0308; director@ tribluesky.com; www.tribluesky.com. Bradventures LLC. Producer of Auburn International Triathlon. www.auburntriathlon.com; 530-888-9911; info@bradventures.com. By the Beach Productions: 5153 Soquel Dr., Soquel, CA, 831.465.6517; www.bythebeachproductions.com; info@ bythebeachproductions.com. Capri Events: 773.404.2372; www.caprievents. com. CFT Sommer Sports: 838 W. DeSoto St., P.O. Box 121236, Clermont, FL 34712; 352.394.1320 (p); 352.394.1702 (f); info@triflorida.com; http://greatfloridian.com. CGI Racing: 856-308-7522; www.cgiracing.com. Cutting Edge Events: 217.347.3739; www.cu tingedge events.net, beccakoester@yahoo.com, www.sign meup.com. Danskin Women’s Triathlon Series: 800.452.9526, www.danskin.com, triathlon@ danskin.com. Elite Endeavors: Jim & Joyce Donaldson, 8963 Stoneybrook

Blvd., Sylvania, OH 43560; 419.829.2398, jdjp@sev.org. Emerald Coast Events Commission: 850.784.9542; www.emeraldcoasstevents.com; jlynch@knology.net. EndorFUN Sports: 603.293.8353, 512.535.5224; www.endorfunsports.com, keith@timbermantri.com. Envirosports: P.O. Box 1040, Stinson Beach, CA 94970, 415.868.1829 (p), 415.868.2611 (f), info@envirosports. com, www.envirosports.com. Event Power: 22 Jagger Ln., Southampton, NY 11968; 631.283.7400; eventpower@aol.com; www.swimpower. com. Exclusive Sports Marketing & Nestle Sprintkids Series: 1060 Holland Dr., Ste. 3-L, Boca Raton, FL 33487; 561.241.3801; 888.ESMSPORTS (376-7767);tjcesarz@ exclusivesports. com; www.fam ilyfitnessweekend.com. Fat Rabbit Racing: Craig Thompson, 614.424.7990, 614.306.1996; craigthompson@fatrabbitracing.com; www.fatrabbitracing.com. FIRM Racing: 66 Bruce Rd., Marlboro, MA 01732; P: (508) 485-5855, F: (508) 229-8394; bill@firm-racing.com, www.firm-racing.com. Firstwave Events: P.O. Box 321269, Los Gatos, CA 95032; P: 408.356.0518; F: 408.356.0534; www.firstwaveevents.com.. Georgia Multisport Productions: Jim Rainey, 4180 Liberty Trace, Marietta, GA 30066; 770.926.6993, 770. 928. 9292 (F); jim@gamultisports.com, www.gamultisports.com.

Great Smokey Mountains Triathlon Club: www.gsmtc.com; tri2000@dnet.net. Greater Knoxville Triathlon Club: Kevin Mahan, 205 Cross Creek Private Ln., Lenoir City, TN 37771, 865.675.BIKE (2453) (p), 865.988.9250 (f), www.knoxtri.org; kevinmahan@char tertn.net. Green Brook Racing LLC: Joe Patanella, P.O. Box 825, Green Brook, NJ 08812-825, 732.841.2558; greenbrookracing@ aol.com, www.greenbrookracing.com. HFP Racing: P.O. Box 375, Thornville, OH 43076; shannon@hfpracing.com, 740.743.2418; scott@ hfpracing.com, 440. 350.1708; www.hfpracing.com Ironhead Race Productions: Jack Weiss, P.O. Box 1113, Euless, TX 76039-1113; 817.355.1279; ironjack@ironheadrp.com; www.ironheadrp.com. HMA Promotions: 216.752.5151; www.hmapromotions.net Ironman North America: 4999 Pearl East Circle Suite 301, Boulder, CO, 80301; 518.523.2665; 518.523.7542; imanusa@capital. net. J&A Productions: www.japroductions.com; info@japroduc tions.com. JMS Racing Services: P.O. Box 582, Marion, IN 52302, 319.373.0741; www.pigmantri.com/ jmsracing.html; jim@ pigmantri.com; john@pig mantri.com. KOZ Enterprises: San Diego Triathlon Series. P.O. Box 421052, San Diego, CA 92142; 858.268.1250;

SWEEPSTAKES RULES

$5.00* PER ISSUE *Additional postage may apply

BACK ISSUES

1. No purchase necessary. To enter without ordering, send an index card to: Triathlete Ironman Canada Sweepstakes, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Suite 100, Encinitas, CA 92024, with your name address and phone number. 2. This sweepstakes is sponsored by Triathlete, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Suite 100, Encinitas, CA 92024. 3. All entries must be received by June 30th, 2007. Triathlete is not responsible for lost, late, misdirected damaged, illegible or postage-due mail. 4. Prize winners will be selected no later than July 15th, 2007 from among all the entries received. Winner selection will take place under the supervision of Triathlete, whose decisions are final. Each entrant consents to the transfer of all information contained in the completed entry form to other companies. 5. The odds of winning are determined by the total number of eligible entries received. Taxes, where applicable, are the sole reasonability of the winner. 6. Potential winners will be notified by mail, telephone or e-mail. Potential winners must follow the directions contained in any correspondence and return all forms correctly completed within 7 days of the date on the correspondence. Non-compliance will result in disqualification and the naming of an alternate winner. 7. All entrants will be eligible to win a 3-night stay at The Penticton Lakeside Resort, airfare to Canada and entry in the Subaru Ironman Canada race taking place August 26th, 2007. There is no cash exchange for this prize. 8. Employees of Ironman North America and Triathlete or anyone affiliated are not eligible. Sweepstakes subject to all federal, state and local tax laws and void where prohibited by law.

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9. For the name of the winner, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope and letter of request to: Triathlete Ironman Canada Sweepstakes, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Suite 100, Encinitas, CA 92024.

*international shipping additional

2 3 0 JUNE 2007

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www.kozenter prises.com; info@ kozenterprises.com. Lake Geneva Extreme Sports: P.O. Box 1134, Lake Geneva, WI 53147, www.lakegenevasports.com; lgsports@lake genevasports.com; 262.275.3577. Lakeshore Athletic Services: 847.673.4100, lakeshoreinfo@aol.com. MESP, Inc. Racing Series: 29395 Agoura Rd., Ste. 102, Agoura Hills, CA 91301; 818.707.8867 (p); 818.707.8868 (f); www. mesp.com. Mountain Man Events: P.O. Box 255, Flagstaff, AZ 86002; www.mountainmanevents.com; admin@ mountainmanevents.com. New York Triathlon: P.O. Box 50, Saugerties, NY 124770050; 845.247.0271; www.nytc.org. North Coast Multisports, Inc: P.O. Box 2512, Stow, Ohio 44224; 216-272-0064; mrzymek@aol.com. On Your Mark Events: 209.795.7832; info@onyourmarkevents.com;www.onyourmark events.com. Pacific Sports, LLC: 1500 S. Sunkist St., Ste. E, Anaheim, CA 92806; 714.978.1528 (p); 714.978.1505 (f); www.pacificsportsllc.com. Palmetto Race & Event Production: P.O. Box 1634, Bluffton, SC 29910; 843.815.5267 (p); 843.785.2734 (f); andy5267@ aol.com; www.palmettorace.com. Personal Best Performance, Michael Hays, 808 Saturn Ave., Idaho Falls, ID, 83402-2658. 208.521.2243; Michael@PB-

2 3 2 JUNE 2007

Performance.com. PCH Sports: www.pchsports.com; 2079 Cambridge Ave., Cardiff by the Sea, CA 92007; 760.944.7261. Piranha Sports, LLC/ Greater Atlantic Multisport Series/Greater Atlantic Club Challenge/Escape from School Youth Triahtlon Series: Neil Semmel, P.O. Box 150, Kirkwood, DE 19708; nsemmel@piranha-sports.com; www.piranha-sports.com. PR Racing, Inc., P.O. Box 56-1081, Miami, FL, 33256; 305.278.8668. trimiami.com, trimiami@gmail.com. Premier Event Management: P.O. Box 8764, Metairie, La. 70011. 504.454.6561. www.pem-usa.com. Race Day Events: P.O. Box 31333, Knoxville, TN 37930; 865.250.5948; www.racedayevents.net; Kevin@racedayevents.net Score This!!!, Inc.: 15 Ranch Trail Ct., Orchard Park, NY 14127; 716.662.9379; www.score-this.com; info@score-this.com. Set-Up, Inc.: P.O. Box 15144, Wilmington, NC 28408; 910.458.0299; set-upinc.com; billscott@set-upinc. com. Shelburne Athletic Club: 802.985.2229; www.shelburneathletic.com. TBF Racing: Bill Driskell, 5209 Blaze Ct., Rocklin, CA 95677; 916.202.3006; bill@totalbodyfitness.com; tbfracing.com. Team Magic, Inc.: Therese Bynum, Faye Yates; 205.595.8633; www.team-magic.com; races@ team-magic.com.

Team Unlimited: XTERRA Series; 877.751.8880; www.xterraplanet.com; info@xterraplanet.com. Time Out! Productions: Rich Havens, P.O. Box 543, Forestdale, MA 02644; 508.477.6311 (p); 508.477.6334 (f); timeout@ capecod.net; www.timeoutproductions.com. TriAthlantic Association: 410.593.9662; www.triath.com. Triathlon Canada: 1185 Eglington Ave., East Suite 704, Toronto, Ontario M3C 3C6; www.triathloncanada.com; 416.426. 7430 Tri-California Events, Inc. Terry Davis, 1284 Adobe Ln., Pacific Grove, CA 93950; 831.373.0678, www.tricalifornia.com. Tuxedo Brothers Event Management: Don Carr, 317.733.3300; tuxbro@indy.rr.com; www.tuxbro.com. UltraFit/USA: P.O. Box 06358, Columbus OH 43206, 614.481.9077, www.ultrafit-usa.com. Updog Sports LLC. www.updogsports.com, info@updogsports.com. Vermont Sun Sport & Fitness: 812 Exchange St., Middlebury, VT 05753; 802.388.6888; www.vermontsun.com/ triathlon. html, vtsun@together.net. YellowJacket Racing: 6 Regent St., Rochester, NY 14607; 585.244.5181; www.yellowjacketracing.com, yellowjacketracing@hotmail.com. â–˛

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the mounting tension as race day nears, the smell of massage oil mixing with mai-tai mix. The varied motives to compete are as eclectic as the individuals behind them. But the universal is this: something we identify as valuable, memorable and worthy of our investment is justifiably repetitive. If you’re having a wonderful time at a party, why get up and leave? Of the two that received their sunburn, their finisher’s medal and were at work on Monday morning, one I can’t remember. Shame. The other was Mike Plant, an endurancesport journalist between 1970 and 1995. Plant, a keen and observant writer, had covered triathlons since their Fiesta Island inception. He’d been to Kona numerous times before jumping into the fray. He knew what to expect, trained intelligently and ran a safe and sane 11-hour-ish race. He came home and hung his bike from the garage rafters. That was fine, thank you very much. Check please, no dessert or coffee. It must’ve been the early ’90s. I don’t recall Mike having to scour the globe in search of a qualifying slot. But what struck me were his insight and his resolve—what he’d been looking for, he’d found in one long day. No more, no less. Any further amount of digging might unearth things of value, but not to him. At the time when Plant had told me that he was through, I thought it partly selfactualized and partly nuts. “Dude,” I said, “you’re already qualified for next year. You can go faster, party harder, maybe get free

How much are you willing to pay?

“Only pain is intellectual . . . interesting. This is the treason of the artist.” –Ursala Le Guin By Scott Tinley f the hundreds of people I’ve known who’ve competed in the Hawaiian Ironman, only two have done it just once. Exactly one time. Everyone else, for whatever reason, opted for more. Some were satisfied at two, others five. And a few are now at 15, 20 and counting. It seems easier to relate to the people who wanted more. Maybe it’s our nature to want to repeat a pleasurable experience, assuming that you feel 10, 12 or more hours of pain under the hot sun can be considered such. Maybe we feel that we can always improve—just a few more miles on the bike, an improved swim stroke, comfortable running shoes. Less pain, more gain. Or maybe it’s the ceremony of it all—the friends,

O

stuff.” But those were simply my own projections onto a screen only he could view. Sometimes you have to be told quite frankly, “The party is over.” For many who preach the gospel of longevity through exercise, this may seem blasphemous. But research has shown the fountain of youth is tending more toward 30 minutes each day than 30 hours each week. The idea of aging and mileage reduction is well-accepted. Few people are looking to build a base in their 40s in order to hit their peak at 55. And the concept of balance and common sense are well . . . common sense. But applying these terms when the stakes are high is altogether different. I don’t think competing in more than one ultra-distance event per year is particularly healthy, even under the best of circumstances. But then again, driving the freeways has become rather high risk. In one period during the mid-’90s I raced seven Ironman- or near-Ironmandistance events in a 13-month period. I was never the same person after that, and it took nearly 10 years of gradual de-training to reduce the effects of that baker’s dozen of excess. There were benefits, of course, championships and titles that enabled me to ride out those 10 years of declining performances with some degree of comfort. But I can never say if it was a fair trade. It’s been said before—we make decisions at the time based on what we know, what we feel and what we desire. The best that we can do is to try to utilize a bit of all three. I sometimes wish I would’ve listened to the many who advised against the excess. I wish I would’ve reacted more objectively to the feel of the deep ache in my bones. But I was acting on desire and passion, the things that drive men and women to create things of lasting value, regardless of the costs. Yes, knowledge and self-perception are good things. And clear rationale will build nations, sustain economies, objectify the fuzzies. But displacing caution with devilmay-care drive will create artful legacies that stand the test of time, even when they begin to lean. Mike Plant has cartilage left. I have my memories and my aspirin. I wouldn’t change a thing. ST

Triathlete (ISSN08983410) is published monthly by Triathlon Group North America LLC, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas, CA 92024; (760) 6344100. Subscription rates: U.S., one year (12 issues) $29.95 (12 issues); two years (24 issues) $49.95. Canada $51.95 per year; all other countries $61.95 per year, U.S. currency only. Periodicals postage paid at Encinitas, CA, and additional mailing offices. Single copy price $3.99. Triathlete is copyright 2003 by Triathlon Group North America, LLC. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Send address changes to Triathlete, P.O. Box 469055, Escondido, CA 92046-9513. Ride-along enclosed in all book region 2 copies. 2 4 0 JUNE 2007

T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

Publication Mail Agreement #40683563: Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to Triathlete Magazine, 328 Encinitas Blvd Suite 100, Encinitas, CA 92024

TINLEY TALKS


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