2007-12 Triathlete

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MARK ALLEN:12-STEP POST-SEASON PLAN GEAR >> TRAINING >> RACE SCENE >> LIFESTYLE

65 HOT

GIFT IDEAS

N O. 2 8 4

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INSIDE THE LONDON TRI

7 HABITS

OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TRIATHLETES

2 KEY

WINTER BIKE SESSIONS

TOP KIWI

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REAL-WORLD

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V 130 Š2007 BSNŽ These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

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- Antony Galvan, U.S. Masters National Champion Cyclist, Masters World Record Holder and Accomplished Triathlete

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CONTENTS No. 284

DECEMBER 2007

TRAINING LAB RABBIT | 117 B Y M A R C E VA N S

LANE LINES | 122

B Y M AT T F I T Z G E R A L D

THE BIG RING | 126

BY MIKE DURNER

ON THE RUN | 128

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BY ALISTER RUSSELL

BY TIM MICKLEBOROUGH

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DEPARTMENTS FIRST WAVE “A BALANCING ACT”

BY RICH CRUSE

“INTO THE BREACH”

COLUMNS XTERRA ZONE | 142

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BIKE OF THE MONTH | 144

| 12

CUTTING EDGE | 146

B Y J AY P R A S U H N

BY FRANK WECHSEL

BY REBECCA ROOZEN

STARTING LINES | 14

GEAR BAG | 148

EDITOR’S NOTE | 16

RACE CALENDAR | 169

BY BRAD CULP

B Y M I T C H T H R OW E R

TINLEY TALKS | 176

B Y T. J . M U R P H Y

MAIL CALL | 18

BY SCOTT TINLEY

CHECKING IN | 21

COVER: KIWI GREAT CAMERON BROWN PHOTO BY JOHN SEGESTA

News report; IndusTri; Medically speaking; Second take; Training tip; Reality check; 70.3 series; Selection; Beijing countdown; Pointcounterpoint; Pro bike; Gatorade athlete; On the Web; Industry profile; Crash-test dummy; Review; NA Sports; Winter tri scene; Club profile; Travel talk; Light read

AT THE RACES | 150 L.A. Triathlon, Ironman Wisconsin and more

ROCKET SCIENCE | 132

BY LEE ZOHLMAN

TECH SUPPORT | 134

BY IAN BUCHANAN

DEAR COACH | 136

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142

SPEED LAB | 130

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DECEMBER 2007

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B Y R O C H F R E Y & PA U L H U D D L E

TRAINING FEATURE | 138 B Y J A S O N R . K A R P, M . S .

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

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CONTENTS No. 284

DECEMBER 2007

FEATURES

SANTA BABY, JUST SLIP A GPS UNDER THE TREE | 58 Wow your favorite triathlete this holiday season

BY BRAD CULP P H O T O S B Y J O H N S E G E S TA

THE HARD-KNOCK LIFE | 72 Think being a pro triathlete is the dream job?

Think again B Y J AY P R A S U H N

THE FOURTH SEASON | 78 12-step program for ramping down

BY MARK ALLEN

LONDON REINVENTED | 86 Dynamic, thriving London Triathlon reflects the resurgent energy of the city it calls home

BY CAMERON ELFORD

DRIVEN | 94 Kiwi Cam Brown lets his racing do the talking B Y J AY P R A S U H N

ON THE COVER MARK ALLEN: 12-STEP POST-SEASON PLAN | 78

INSIDE THE LONDON TRIATHLON | 86 65 HOT GIFT IDEAS | 58 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TRIATHLETES | 138 2 KEY WINTER BIKE SESSIONS | 126 REAL-WORLD WORKOUTS TO TARGET YOUR TRAINING ZONES | 132

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FIRST WAVE

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A balancing act

By Rich Cruse Brian Barrett, 28, of Mesa, Ariz,. powers along the rugged Flume Trail at the 2007 XTERRA USA Championship in Lake Tahoe, Nev. T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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FIRST WAVE

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Into the breach

By Frank Wechsel Athletes begin the ITU World Cup in Beijing in September. The event was a U.S. Olympic qualifier, with Jarrod Shoemaker and Laura Bennett grabbing first spots on the U.S. triathlon squad.

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STARTING LINES No.284 • December 2007

Courtesy of Mitch Thrower

Board of Directors Mitch Thrower Matthew Barger Russ Crabs John Duke Jean Claude Garot Steven E. Gintowt Bill Walbert Publisher John Duke Chief Executive Officer John Duke Associate Publisher Heather Gordon VP, Sales & Marketing Sean Watkins Chief Financial Officer Steven E. Gintowt

Take off your training wheels There are moments in life we will always remember, but it’s most often our first anything that imprints itself on our memory permanently. Like riding a bike for the first time without training wheels. Last weekend, on the eve of the Nautica Malibu Triathlon, I was at a friend’s house, Billy Gerber, and we were teaching one of his little ones how to ride without training wheels. At age 5, Georgia was enthusiastic and ready to try, but when she started to pedal with her dad holding her up, she yelled, “Don’t let go, Daddy!”

After a few moments of pedaling though, she changed her tune and shouted, “Okay Daddy, let go!” and she was off, riding for the first time without training wheels on her bike. The whole family cheered, and it was even caught on video by her sister, Gracie, 10.

The next morning, I met and interviewed many triathletes who were doing their first triathlon in Malibu, and they had the same look on their faces: enthusiastic and ready to try. As always, the race was filled with triathletes from around the world, gobs of celebrities and corporate teams, including Team Disney (pictured above), which raised $235,000 for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, adding to the excitement and the energy of the day.

And Andy Baldwin won the celebrity division as the Ironman triathlete and TV star crossed the finish line a mere 10 minutes behind the race’s overall winners.

Our lives can be filled with self-imposed training wheels. In training we stick (most of the time) to the same routes, the same equipment and the same diet. Why not break the mold? Why not take the training wheels off? Is it time to meet some new friends, run on a different trail or try a unicycle? Okay, forget the unicycle, but get out there and try a new road you’ve never traversed. This winter, learn how to snowboard, ski, skate or even how to swim faster so you can move up a lane at masters. Break new ground.

Only you know when you’re leaning on your training wheels in life. Only you can take them off and start to pedal forward, balancing in the uncertainty of what lies ahead.

“Look Daddy, I did it!” Georgia yelled, after her first Train Smart, five-second bike ride free of training wheels, free of security. She then performed a ballet-style dismount to avoid falling as the bike ran off the driveway and fell on the Mitch Thrower lawn. Looking back at her dad, smiling with her arms in mthrower@triathletemag.com the air, she won.

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Editor-in-Chief T.J. Murphy, tjmurphy@triathletemag.com Managing Editor/Interactive Brand Manager Cameron Elford, cam@triathletemag.com Senior Editor Jay Prasuhn, jay@triathletemag.com Assistant Managing Editor Rebecca Roozen, rebecca@triathletemag.com Photo Editor John Segesta, johns@triathletemag.com Associate Interactive Editor Brad Culp, brad@triathletemag.com International Editor Shane Smith, shane@triathletemag.com 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., Jeff Sankoff, 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 self-addressed, stamped envelopes. Printed in the USA.

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Crime and punishment

By T.J. Murphy

I

In the early 1990s I became friends with a world-class 800meter runner who spent his summers on the European circuit.

He described to me what was going on in terms of drugs. It was depressing to hear. It was right about the time EPO was reported as being abused by cyclists to boost aerobic capacity for races like the Tour de France. EPO, first manufactured in 1989 by a California biotech firm, was a miracle drug for those suffering from kidney disease. It was also found to increase endurance performance by about 10 percent (according to a 1990 study conducted in Sweden). Cyclists got a hold of it, turned their blood to oxygen-packed sludge, and started dying. Cycling did nothing to prevent the abuse of the drug, and its use in cycling (and other endurance sports) bloomed. As the 1990s wore on, and I became a triathlon journalist, my interest in cycling and track and field waned. I just stopped caring.

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Triathlon seemed very clean by comparison. When rumors of drug use in triathlon surfaced in the mid-1990s—a time when EPO use in cycling was still driving toward a peak—you had to wonder, if not now, when? The tests in place at the time could not detect synthetic EPO. They eventually would, but fear of getting caught would not stop every would-be cheater. We would one day know this as fact.

In 2004, I covered the women’s race at the Hawaii Ironman and followed Nina Kraft as she built a zip-code-sized lead on the bike and broke the tape an apparent winner. About two days before the article I had written would have been printed in the magazine, news came tumbling through e-mail messages and phone confirmations that the heroine of the article, Nina Kraft, had tested positive for EPO. Kraft admitted that she had done it, and her championship was revoked and handed over to Natascha Badmann. I wrote a second feature on the race, one bearing practically no resemblance to the first, and it went to press.

I was now feeling much the way New York Times cycling correspondent, Samuel Abt, felt when he told slate.com, “I’ve always said that if I ever thought that what I was watching was primarily influenced by drugs, then why in God’s name am I covering it? I kind of feel that way now.”

Nina Kraft is not the first person in triathlon to get caught using drugs, nor will she be the last. Her two-year competition ban issued by the WTC is equivalent or harsher than what most sports do. Ben Fertic and the WTC are to be commended. They spend $25,000 to conduct drug testing at the Hawaii Ironman alone.

They knocked on the door of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and said, “Tell us what to do,” and signed on to the WADA code, the first private entity to do so. Fertic is a smart guy and an age-group triathlete. He gets it, and he’s seen what happens when you turn a blind eye to drugs: It can eat a sport alive.

Kraft was free to race in WTC competitions in 2007, and she did. She dropped out of Ironman Malaysia. She won Ironman Brazil, earning a slot to Kona, but didn’t take it. She raced Ironman Louisville, finishing second to Heather Gollnick, and again passed on a slot for the Ford Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. Before the race she said she wasn’t sure, if given the chance, if she would take the slot or not. It seemed that two things were on her mind: wanting to be strong enough to race well in Kona, and second, wondering how friendly people would be toward her. “If I go back, I want to be ready for Kona,” she said. “Now I’m not sure if I’m ready for Kona. If I win more races and I see that the people are friendly to me, that makes me stronger and stronger. If this year isn’t the right time, maybe next year.”

A longer ban on Nina Kraft may or may not have made any important difference. She hasn’t been contrite, just defensive.

Maybe the penalty would have had more teeth if she had been sentenced to community service: volunteering at 10 triathlons, for example. But if the possibilities of death and cancer are not a strong enough deterrent to cleanse sport of drugs, what could anyone possibly come up with?

I’ve been reading, thinking and listening to experts for years about ideas on how to eliminate drugs from sports. It’s a dire situation. It feels like it will be a whack-a-mole game for years to come; and with genetic drugs on the horizon, we can rightly fear that things can only get worse. And I’ve heard stories of age groupers pursuing performance-enhancing drugs. Wonderful.

Got any ideas on how to kick this? We’d like to hear them. E-mail me at tjmurphy@triathletemag.com. We’ll compile the best and publish them in a future edition.

Robert Murphy/bluecreekphotography.com

EDITOR’S NOTE

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MAIL CALL Photo finishes I am truly sorry my 9-year-old son keeps dropping Jay Prasuhn in the dash to the finish line (October 2007, Point-counterpoint).

With natural athletic abilities and an internal drive that far exceed what I have or have ever had, my son is thrilled by that couple-hundred-yard dash to the line with me. It’s that kind of excitement that fills kids with a life-long love of the sport.

After all the family sacrifices when I can’t go for a ride with him because I just finished a long ride or run, or when I miss his game for a conflicting race, letting my son carry me to a strong finish is a welldeserved part of the payback plan. Let’s face it, Jay, if you’re getting caught up in the chute by people with their toddlers, you’re not running with the big boys anymore— you’re an age grouper like the rest of us.

What are the chances that a back-of-thepacker like me will chose a draft-legal race? After training as much as I can, will I chose a race where the pack will blow by me even if they are not as fit?

Draft-legal races go against the entire reason to do triathlons. Do I care if spectators like it, or if it has become an Olympic venue? No, it is for the participants to measure their own individual fitness. Sure, it is attracting big money into the sport (a negative about which I could also write much).

Some definitions are in order: Draft: what we drink after the race Wheel sucking: the negative slant says it; it’s contrary to the spirit that attracts us to this sport TV: we do this sport to get away from the likes of it. I will not watch a wheelsucking race on it

Kevin Peter Philadelphia, Penn.

Joachim W. Schnabel North Haven, Conn.

I’ll just have to say that this month’s point-counterpoint was probably the best I’ve read. I ride the metro rail into DC in the morning, and people had to wonder what the hell I was laughing at so hard (I really liked the USC marching band comment).

Andy MacDonald Washington D.C.

Mail call madness Can we please give the M-Dot tattoo analysis a break? I don’t see why we should dignify the original letter with any more publicity. There are more important things going on. Ditto on the Fernanda Keller correspondence. What a great person and role model. I don’t think Triathlete mag needs to give credence or publicity to anyone who thinks differently.

I have to say, somewhat inconsistently, that I do look forward to the feedback following the swimsuit issue. There is some sport in watching people shoot themselves in the foot with their own crazy views.

Otherwise, keep up the good work!

Bill McCormack Singapore

Sucking wheels sucks Here I am, back-of-the-packer, one of the guys that supports triathlon with fees and purchases.

I actually placed third in my age group; what a thrill. I came in the top half of the bike after a slow swim, meaning I passed people on the bike the whole race. This is why draft-legal races will have a hard time.

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Camaraderie or cut-throat?

It’s still burning me up, and I wasn’t even the target! Two of my colleagues and I participated in Vineman 70.3, and my image of one big happy triathlon family has been tainted. My colleague got into a little scuffle while setting up in T1 on race morning. It can be a tight squeeze to place your bike on the rack and have some personal space for your stuff.

John asked the guy next to him if he could move his bike over to accommodate his.

“Joe Triathlete” got somewhat peeved, refusing to move. After a lengthy, not-so we’re-all-in-this-together discussion, Joe gave John some space.

After the race, the three of us are telling our stories of survival and John tells that he found the clip lock on his helmet strap was locked into the other side, but the strap was removed from it and the end of the removed strap was frayed so badly that it was nearly impossible to thread back through. I would have lost my mind, but not John. He took his time and found a way to thread the lock back onto the strap. I couldn’t believe that someone could even come up with that idea, let alone put the plan into action. I think “Joe” has done this before.

If people like Joe are out there then here’s some food for thought on the latest hot topic: Who’s worthy of the Mdot tattoo if Joe and John are both Kona finishers?

Julie Gennarino San Francisco, Calif.

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SUB HEADING

CHECKING IN

Robert Murphy/bluecreekphotography.com

CHECKING IN

NEWS ANALYSIS | INDUSTRI | MEDICALLY SPEAKING | SECOND TAKE | TRAINING TIP REALITY CHECK | 70.3 SERIES | SELECTION | POINT-COUNTERPOINT | BEIJING COUNTDOWN | PRO BIKE | GATORADE ATHLETE | ON THE WEB | INDUSTRY PROFILE CRASH-TEST DUMMY | REVIEW | CLUB PROFILE | NORTH AMERICA SPORTS | WINTER TRI SCENE | TRAVEL TALK | LIGHT READ T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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CHECKING IN

The 7-10 split

Will Ironman’s increased draft box change the pro race?

By Jay Prasuhn

Last year, Triathlete columnist and multisports.com coach Paul Huddle was at the San Diego Air and Space Low Speed Wind Tunnel hosting a windtunnel camp. That’s when the curiosity bug hit: how far back could you go in the tunnel and still tuck into the wake of the athlete ahead?

Huddle and engineer Dave Sanford went into the tunnel as it was fired up, stood behind the athlete testing and walked back. Back. Back. “We went nearly to the back where the vanes turn the wind toward the propeller,” said Sanford. “We’d wave our hands and could feel the draft at about 60 feet back. It wasn’t any sort of quantitative test, but it was a big ‘Wow!’” That was interesting in its own right.

But what spurred Ironman to extend its draft box this year was feedback from the pro athletes. Last year, pros and age groupers were held to a seven-meter draft box from front wheel to front wheel. This 22

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year, the Ironman pros have a new rule: 10 meters, front wheel to front wheel (or about 8.5 meters between bikes).

Roughly, it moves the pros from riding four bike lengths apart to riding five apart. Additionally, Ironman will penalize for so-called slingshot passing—that is, using the draft to ride up to an athlete’s rear wheel just prior to passing.

Ironman’s head referee Jimmy Riccitello has championed the changes, which are based largely on athlete feedback. “As an athlete myself,” says Riccitello. “I am of the opinion that extending it makes a difference in reducing the draft. And so far, the athletes have been really receptive to it.”

For age groupers at Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races, the draft zone remains at seven meters. But for the pros the change to 10 meters is a big deal, especially at Ironman’s centerpiece event, the Hawaii Ironman. “I’m definitely excited,” said Chris Lieto, a California-based pro known for his bike strength. “We’ll see what choices people make . . . but I think it makes for a better playing field and creates a truer look at who’s the world champion.”

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

After having a 10-meter rule in effect for several years and toying with a stagger draft ruling a few years ago, Ironman and event sponsor Ford collaborated for a 2005 test at Ford’s Detroit wind tunnel and determined Ironman’s draft box. Per their findings, seven meters from the front wheel of the forward rider to the front wheel of the trailing rider saw a dissipated draft effect. And so became the pro and age-group draft rule for 2005 and ’06.

But according to the pro athletes, particularly the pro men, real-world application tells a different story. Last year, athletes riding solo expressed exasperation with those athletes riding in a legal pack.

“You heard the rumors about wattage differences among different riders in the group,” said Lieto. “I wanted to get closer to Normann Stadler and went solo, but I was only 30 seconds ahead of the group.

So I drifted back to the group, sat the legal seven meters for 20 minutes and my watts and heart rate dropped.”

It was drafting, but it was legal—much to the consternation of Lieto, Stadler, Faris Al-Sultan and Torbjorn Sindballe, guys who prefer solo riding to pack riding. The concern among the pros was enough to hasten the rule change, which took effect through the 2007 season.

According to Sanford, it can be difficult to effectively pinpoint draft zones in a wind tunnel when that tunnel is relatively small. “I think the National Fullscale NASA Ames tunnel near San Francisco would be great; they do testing of full-size aircraft and helicopters in a tunnel with a really, really long test section,” says Sanford. One tunnel has an 80foot test section, the other a 190-foot test section. “Put a rider on a balance, then put a guy in front of him and move him up a bike length until you don’t get a benefit. That’s how you find the true zero draft,” he adds.

But absent such a test Sanford agrees that the increase in distance from seven to 10 meters is a smart draft-busting move. “Yes, absolutely, farther is better,” Sanford says. “Ten meters is great, 15 meters would be even better.”

In the meantime, officials and athletes are keen to see how the bike in Hawaii is affected by the increased draft zone.

“There will still probably be a pack of 15 or 20. But the guys going hard on the bike will be more at peace knowing people are doing more of their own race,” Riccitello says. “It’s going to make for some aggressive riding. They may ride 20 together, but 17 may pay the price off the bike.”

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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CHECKING IN

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Let freedom run U.S. Multi-Sport Athletic Events, the Challenged Athletes Foundation, Soldier Security Association of America and the Sunshine Foundation are teaming up to operate the 2008 Freedom Run Across America. Seventy-four year old Tom Knoll, one of the 15 original 1978 Ironman participants, intends to run and complete the entire 3,000-mile course, along with his son, Warren. As an ultimate test of endurance, the Knolls will begin their journey on March 1, 2008, in San Diego, Calif., and expect to finish in Washington, D.C., on July 4.

The goal is to raise one million dollars. If you are interested in participating, volunteering or making a donation, please call 414-483-5412 or go to active.com/donate/freedomrunacrossamer.

You can track the run online at usmultisport.com.

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A group of 30 ninth- and 10th-grade girls recently overtook the San Diego Wind Tunnel. Their mission: to gather data on the aerodynamic cycling helmets they had just designed and fabricated, which were basic road helmets augmented by the strategic addition of clay, tape, fabric and cardboard.

With the help of Amanda Felder and Sergio Borges from San Diego XTraining, the drag data for each helmet was measured on a cyclist in the wind tunnel. A total of 10 helmet designs were tested, with the winning entry reducing drag enough to take almost 70 seconds off of a one-hour time-trial.

The donated wind-tunnel testing session was one part of the Get SSET (Sport Science, Engineering and Technology) program developed by Dr. Jani Macari Pallis founder of Cislunar Aerospace, codirected by Dr. Jill McNitt-Gray from USC, and sponsored by the San Diego Science Alliance.

Craig Alexander joins Carmichael Training Systems

Visit CycleOps.com/PTC to find a CycleOpsTM Power Test Center near you.

Australian triathlete Craig Alexander will be working with Chris Carmichael, who is best known for coaching Lance Armstrong and Peter Reid. Alexander has had tremendous success at all distances and broke into Ironman-distance racing this past April with a third-place finish at 24

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TAKE THE CYCLEOPS

INDUSTRI

Ironman Australia in a time of 8:38:49. Of his 10 races in 2007, he has won seven and set a course record at the Vineman Ironman 70.3 in 3:50:49.

Fuel Belt ranks as one of top 5,000 fastest-growing companies Inc. has ranked Fuel Belt on its firstever Inc. 5,000 list in the country. The Inc. 5,000, an extension of Inc. magazine’s annual Inc. 500 list, catches many businesses that are too big to grow at the pace required to make the Inc. 500, as well as a host of smaller firms. “It’s been a longtime personal goal to be included in Inc. magazine’s list,” said Fuel Belt founder & CEO, Vinu Malik.

Set Up Events announces Beach2Battleship race Triathlon production company Set Up Events announced new Ironmandistance and half-Ironman-distance races in Wilmington, N.C., scheduled for Nov. 1, 2008. The Beach2Battleship Full will span 140 miles starting from Wrightsville Beach and finishing in downtown Wilmington at the historic battleship USS North Carolina.

Rock ‘n’ roll to swim, bike, run Lead singer for the rock band AMPAGE, Mark Mason, will be touring the States with his band and participating in every triathlon he can along the way. “I train two hours a day now in between band rehearsals,” said Mason.

“I'm in the best shape of my life right now.

“When I toured in the ’80s and ’90s I used to do a lot of drinking and drugging and smoking. I can't do that anymore. Keeping in shape is much better, not only for my health but also for my music,” Mason said. “I'm very competitive and love pushing myself.”

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FITTER.FASTER.

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10/16/07

2:45 PM

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CHECKING IN

Navigating cold and flu season

By Dr. Jeffrey Sankoff, MD, FACEP, FRCP(C)

Viral illness is as much a part of winter as snow angels and the holidays, and triathletes are not immune. Fortunately,

MEDICALLY SPEAKING

the vast majority of these ailments are self-limited and require only a brief cessation of your off-season training.

Nonetheless, a general misunderstanding of these illnesses can lead to visits to the doctor, often with the express purpose of getting antibiotics. The reality though is that for all but a small fraction of flu-like illnesses antibiotics are unnecessary and potentially harmful. Here is a brief primer on how to make it through the winter sniffles without spending a lot on co-pays or unnecessary prescriptions.

When NOT to go see your doctor • If your symptoms have been present for less than a week and are not terribly severe.

• Fever is commonly seen in viral ill-

nesses and is a component of the body’s defense against the infection.

Recurring low-grade (less than 103 degrees F) fever for less than a week is not uncommon and should not be cause for alarm.

• Ear infections, especially in children, commonly accompany respiratory ailments and are almost always viral in origin. Antibiotics are no longer considered the first line of treatment in these cases and are reserved for proven bacterial cases.

• Sore throat accompanies most viral respiratory infections and is only rarely attributable to strep throat.

• The flu is a specific viral illness caused by the influenza virus. It is much more severe than the common cold but is still not amenable to antibiotic treatment.

When to go see your doctor • Persistent high fevers (greater than 103 degrees F) especially when accompanied by headache and neck stiffness.

• Fever that lasts more than a week.

• Presence of shortness of breath or chest pain.

Train hard, train healthy.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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John Hirsch rides through the lush greenery on Kentucky Highway 1694 at the inaugural Ironman Louisville on Aug. 26, 2007.

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SECOND TAKE

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TRAINING TIP

Laser focus

By Troy Jacobson If there is one thing that separates a good triathlete from a really good triathleteâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; beyond basic natural talent and abilityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it is the ability to focus on race day. Triathlons, as well as other endurance sports, can be monotonous by nature. When racing, the natural tendency is to try to entertain yourself by taking in the scenery or thinking about what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have for dinner after crossing the finish line. The problem is that doing so takes you out of the present moment, and you are no longer effectively racing: A wandering mind slows you down and you may not realize it. For example, when your focus is diverted from your cadence and effort, your cadence can drop or you can forget to change your gearing to accommodate for the terrain. This same idea applies to your nutritional strategy. A focused athlete remembers when to hydrate and when to eat according to the plan. An athlete who allows his mind to wander forgets to eat and drink.

Focus is an important skill that can be learned. Competitive athletes at the highest level train their ability to stay focused in the moment until they cross the finish line, and you should too.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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REALITY CHECK

Nutrient insurance policy in vitamins

By Troy Jacobson

The hectic pace of life makes it difficult for most achievement-minded people to eat a balanced diet. Add the additional physical and emotional stresses of multisport training and racing and you may discover you’re not optimizing your nutrient intake and

absorption. As an athlete, any deficiency of essential nutrients can negatively affect your performance and possibly damage your health. This is why vitamin supplementation might be a good choice. In fact, according to an article published in 2002 by the American Medical

Association, several Harvard researchers wrote, “Most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone. It appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements.”

So, which vitamins should you take?

How much and of which brand? And what time of day?

Iron supplements should be taken on an empty stomach, 30 minutes before a meal or two hours after a meal, for greatest absorption. On the contrary, B-Complex vitamins may cause nausea, so it’s recommended they be taken with a light meal.

Multivitamins containing lower doses of several vitamins should also be taken with food in order to reduce the possibility of getting an upset stomach.

While taking vitamins can enhance your health and your athletic performance, note that vitamins are powerful chemicals and some can be toxic in high doses. Consult your personal physician before starting on a vitamin regimen.

Troy Jacobson has coached triathletes since 1992 and is a former pro triathlete.

For more triathlon training information, go to coachtroy.com.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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TM

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70.3 SERIES

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70.3 heads way down south with introduction of Ironman 70.3 Pucon

By Brad Culp

Pucon, Chile, is pretty much as far south as you can go. Beyond that, there’s just a whole lot of ice and penguins.

While it’s easy to believe it’s always cold at that kind of latitude, January in Pucon is the heart of summer and the weather is ideal for triathlon.

Pucon has hosted a half-Ironman race since 2003, but 2008 is the first year it will serve as a qualifier for the Ford Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Fla. The inaugural Pucon 70.3 event will hand out 30 slots to Clearwater as well as a $25,000 pro prize purse.

The fact that southern Chile is a great place to race clearly isn’t a secret.

Ironman superstars such as Mark Allen, Chris McCormack and Lisa Bentley have all traveled to Pucon to race, and we expect an impressive pro field at the start line on Jan. 20.

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The Villarrica Volcano will provide an impressive backdrop for the athletes, but luckily for them they won’t have to worry about climbing the 9,000-foot mountain. Still, the two-loop bike course is challenging, with two sustained climbs on each loop, but it is relatively tame in between.

If you stick around after the race (and we suggest you do), you’ll find Pucon is an adventurer’s paradise. There’s plenty of fishing, hiking and rafting, but if you’re a true adventure-enthusiast, then a guided ascent of Villarrica is a must. It is one of the only volcanoes in the world to have an active lava lake within its crater.

As they have in the past, Endurance Sports Travel is organizing trips to Pucon for the event. If you’d like them to help coordinate your trip, check out endurancesportstravel.com.

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SELECTION

Pre-workout boosters Worth the time or a waste of coin?

By Brad Culp

This month, Triathlete put a number of pre-workout boosters to the test. The result? We have a serious caffeine addiction, but we’re training like madmen. The following will give you a kick in the youknow-what the next time you’re feeling a bit unmotivated before a training session.

First Endurance PreRace $40 (20 servings)

PreRace comes in a flavorless powder, which can be mixed with any flavored drink (we recommend an orange sports drink). The blend contains nitric oxide precursors to increase blood flow plus a neuro-stimulant blend, including 200mg of caffeine and quercetin. Best when taken before a hard session on the bike or in the weight room. firstendurance.com

SportQuest Vantage VO2 Max $35 (30 servings)

Vantage VO2 max is one of the few preworkout supplements with zero caffeine.

Vantage works by buffering lactic acid and removing metabolic waste, leaving you feeling fresh, even after hours in the saddle. We recommend it before any anaerobic workout, especially bike or run hill repeats. sportquestdirect.com

Amino Vital Conditioning $40 (30 servings)

Amino Vital Conditioning is available in a powder or a capsule, with each serving containing a precise blend of vitamins and amino acids to increase blood flow and focus. We found it especially effective during the middle of a long ride. amino-vital.com

Cytosport Fast Twitch $3 (bottle)

With 200mg of caffeine, nitric oxide precursors and a cortisol suppresent, it’ll get you pushing gears you never thought possible. Available in a ready-to-drink bottle and a mixable powder. cytosport.com

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EAS Catapult $40 (25 servings)

Take Catapult 10 minutes before a hard session on the bike and you’ll know right when it kicks in. With 200mg of caffeine per serving and a precursor to acetylcholine, Catapult gets you in the zone faster than any other product we tested. We recommend it for short, intense workouts on the bike or in the gym. eas.com

BSN N.O.-Explode $64 (40 servings)

Just as you would expect from a company with roots in bodybuilding, BSN’s pre-workout drink is an absolute madman. Don’t get too nervous, it won’t pump you up as big as Arnold, but it might make you want to train as hard. N.O.Explode provides a flurry of nitric oxide precursors to get maximal blood flow to your working muscles. There’s just enough caffeine to get you focused and a little creatine to support muscle recovery.

We enjoyed it most before a hard session at the gym. bsn-online.net

Hammer Nutrition Race Caps Supreme $55 (30 servings)

Hammer produces a caffeine-free boost with its Race Caps Supreme.

Each caplet contains a substantial amount of antioxidants. It also contains inosine, glycerol phosphate and other ingredients to enhance oxygen utilization and buffer lactic acid. We recommend it for longer rides and runs. hammernutrition.com

Images courtesy the manufacturers

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POINT-COUNTERPOINT

Are ultra-distance triathlons

the epitome of endurance, or are these athletes just crazy?

Ultra-stupidity

Bust on Ultraman?

Better look in the mirror

By Jay Prasuhn

Remember those kooks doing that— what was it, a tri-athlon?—in ’78? You know those crazy people who did over two miles of swimming, then rode over 100 miles, then ran a marathon? In one day?

I used to be of the same mindset: ultra-athletes are out of their minds. It’s enough to do an Ironman. Then I started running long and found the enjoyment in going for distance. For some, Ironman represents the pinnacle. Everyone and their mother wants to get back to the office with a finisher’s medal and a story of accomplishment to last them the rest of their lives. For others, Ironman is a stepping-stone. These athletes have a unique gift: an ability to go on, and on, and on, injury-free, fatigue-free.

Fortunately, there’s a battleground for those few to take on the challenge.

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Then you have the deca-Ironman guys: going 10 times the distance of an Ironman? Crazy? How about intense?

For those that think ultra-distance athletes are nuts, I pose this question: Why is it hardcore and cool to do an Ironman and considered freakish to do an Ultraman spread over three days?

People used to think Commander John Collins and his buddies were tweaked as well, back when they were swimming, biking and running all over Oahu, fueling on burgers and finishing across a crude chalk line.

Still, it’s a Spartan endeavor with few sponsors, a little finish-line banner flapping in the Hawaiian breeze and zero media hounding the winner. Reminds you of—yup—Ironman’s original day in ’78. Fringe as it gets. Odd? Well, the question is elementally similar as you bask in the looks of amazement from your coworkers when they ask for the second time the distances as you show them your cool new Ironman finisher’s medal: how far can you go? For ultra-triathletes, there are no limits.

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

The following conversation, which took place at Triathlete’s office recently, is a clear example of why ultra-distance events (like the deca-Ironman) are about as cool as the Aqua Bike World Championship.

The dialogue was between my counterpart, Jay, who was training for his first ultramarathon, and me, who at the time, was preparing for an Ironman.

Jay: “Dude, I’m going on a 16-mile run tomorrow morning . . . wanna come?”

Me: “Sweet . . . I’m doing a 16-mile run in the morning too.”

Jay: “Cool. Let’s meet here at 7.”

Me: “Wait . . . I know you’re slow, but just how slow do you run?”

Jay: “I’ll do about 8:40 per mile tomorrow. Is that cool?”

Me: “Hell no, that’s not cool.”

Conversation over.

An 8:40 mile wouldn’t even win my age group if I were competing against Robert McKeague in the centenarian division at Ironman South Africa. Even the fat kid in your first-grade class could waddle his way to at least an 8:35.

You see, a few years ago, Ironman athletes started getting faster and a small cult of athletes rebelled against it. They decided that instead of following the masses, they would slow down, almost to the point of not moving, and go longer than any triathlete had gone before. This revolt led to events like the deca-Ironman (yes, “deca” means 10) and just about no one in the triathlon world took notice.

If you do an Ironman, you’re likely to earn the respect of your peers, a more chiseled physique and an appreciation for hard work. Doing a deca-Ironman (or any other senseless ultra event) will earn you a divorce, chronic inflammation of every joint in your body and a complete loss of respect from you peers.

Ironman is as good as it gets, and it should be as long as it gets. Ultra-distance triathlons will never take off, because nobody cares about someone pedaling his bike around a one-kilometer circuit course at 9.4 mph.

Trust me, you’ll never hear Mike Reilly exclaiming, “[Insert idiot’s name here] you are a deca-Ironman!”

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

By Brad Culp

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CHECKING IN

BEIJING COUNTDOWN

Robert Murphy/bluecreekphotography.com

ORANGE COUNTY’S LEADING TRIATHLETE HEADQUARTERS

Bennett, Shoemaker punch their tickets to Beijing Olympics

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By Brad Culp

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First off, we’d like to clear up a little confusion from last month’s Beijing Countdown. By virtue of their wins at the Pan-American Games, Andy Potts and Julie Swail secured a spot for their country, not necessarily themselves, for the Olympics. Each athlete will still have to win one of the USATqualifying events to make the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.

The Beijing World Cup in September served as an Olympic qualifier for just about every country on the globe, including the United States. Few were surprised to see Laura Bennett finish as the top American woman (third overall), but many were shocked to see Jarrod Shoemaker finish as the top American male (11th overall) and thus earn a spot to race in Beijing 2008.

“For me, getting the spot this early allows me to have the time to prepare and work toward the ultimate goal of earning a medal at the Olympics,” Shoemaker said. “I pushed myself very hard in the race knowing that Hunter 38

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[Kemper] and Andy [Potts] were right behind me on the run and I had no room for error.”

The final two Olympic spots on both the men’s and women’s side will be determined at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Honolulu on April 26 and the Hy-Vee Triathlon in Des Moines on June 22.

On the men’s side, Olympic veterans Hunter Kemper and Andy Potts are the favorites for the final two spots, but as Shoemaker proved in Beijing, the dark horses have a shot. Matty Reed, Doug Friman and Brian Fleischmann are all potential spoilers.

The race for the final two slots on the women’s side is even more wideopen. Sarah Haskins (11th at Beijing) and Julie Swail (13th) showed the best form in 2007, but multi-distance superstar Becky Lavelle has to be considered a contender. In 2007, Lavelle raced on both the 70.3 and World Cup circuits.

In 2008, expect Lavelle to concentrate her efforts on ITU racing and make a serious run for the Beijing Olympic Games.

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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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CHECKING IN

PRO BIKE

K D

L

C

J

A

H

G B

E I Linda Gallo

F

By Jay Prasuhn

While she’s been a pro since 2004, the 2007 Ironman Canada may well have been Linda Gallo’s breakout race.

As a former NCAA All-American swimmer from the University of Notre Dame, Gallo’s a lock to be first out of the water and onto the bike at almost any race. But Ironman Canada was a breakthrough.

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The Luna Chix team member exited the water first as expected, then drove her Ordu through the hilly, windy Penticton course to finish the bike in first as well.

She ceded the race lead at mile 10 of the marathon to eventual winner Lisa Bentley and was passed by two other quick runners, but this fourth-place finish against a solid field was one of her finest long-course showings.

Gallo’s rear-wheel-shielding Ordu is comprised of 75 percent M30S highmodulus carbon fiber used by Formula I race-car shells to keep weight down.

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

Continuing the weight savings theme, she uses an Easton Attack TT aerobar, at 350 grams still the lightest one-piece aerobar we’ve seen on the market this year. Her bike, which goes up to 76 degrees, was probably to her liking for all the hills on the Canada course.

You can track Gallo through her season at her Web site, lindagallo.com.

A Frame Orbea Ordu, 54cm B Fork Giant Aero Composite, carbon steerer C Headset Full Speed Ahead Orbit IS, 1 1/8” D Aerobar Easton Attack TT, Easton EA50 stem (90mm), Profile Design QS brake levers E Groupset Shimano Dura-Ace 10speed, 12-25 cassette F Crankset Shimano Dura-Ace, 5339, 172.5mm cranks G Wheels Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL clinchers H Tires Tires Maxxis Zenith, 700c x 23 clinchers I Pedals Shimano Dura-Ace PD-7800 J Hydration Blackburn Switchback bottle cages, Minoura bottle holder K Saddle Selle Italia SLR Flow L Computer Vetta VL110 wireless

Jay Prasuhn

Linda Gallo’s Orbea Ordu

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GATORADE ATHLETE

GATORADE ATHLETE OF THE MONTH

Ciara “Pepper” Hopkins CLERMONT, FLA.

By Marni Rakes

Ciara “Pepper” Hopkins has attended over 100 triathlons. As a passionate triathlete and honor-roll student, the 10year-old says she wants to be just like her dad, who nicknamed her Pepper because of his love for spicy food.

With a garage filled with baby joggers, bike seats, running shoes and goggles, it didn’t take long for Pepper to

become a triathlete. “Pepper was always around the sport, and I tried to keep her involved with all my training and racing,” says her dad, Ralph. At age 7, Pepper competed in her first triathlon at the TriAmerica TriKidz Triathlon in Clermont, Fla., and won.

Since then, she’s won gold at St.

Anthony's Meek & Mighty, Madeira Beach Mad Dogs Kids Triathlon, Heartland TriKidz Triathlon and in the 910 division at the 2007 USAT Youth National Triathlon Championship.

Pepper enjoys riding and considers herself a strong cyclist. With a few cycling time-trial races in her resume, it is no surprise that Pepper is begging for race wheels. “She already put aerobars on her bike. As for the wheels, she will have to wait,” says her mom, Linda.

Both Ralph and Linda support Pepper’s ambitions to be in the Olympics, be the youngest person to win the Ford Ironman World Championships and to be the youngest person to complete the Accenture Alcatraz Triathlon. In hopes of pursuing these goals, Pepper hopes to one day see triathlon become a collegiate sport, which offers full-ride scholarships.

“I would love to do triathlons at Stanford,” she says.

Courtesy the Hopkins family

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Courtesy tri-talk.com

ON THE WEB

tri-talk.com When first visiting tri-talk.com, you may ask yourself, “Is this a podcast or a Web site?” The answer is both.

Tri Talk focuses on the physics and physiology of triathlon, using independent scientific research as its primary source of information. That information is then delivered on the Web site in a free audio format via a podcast or in an iden42

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tical written format. Each of the nearly 50 podcast episodes covers a wide variety of training topics. The audio quality, professional delivery and relevant triathlon content make for an addictive combination for any tri-geek.

But tri-talk.com is not just about podcasting existing research. Original research includes the Kona I.Q., which takes the results from worldwide Ironman Hawaii qualifiers, crunches the numbers and ranks the difficulty of qual-

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

ifying by age group for each event. Or, it’s a nutrition calculator that calculates calorie requirements based on weight, percentage VO2 max, distance, speed and fuel from fat versus glycogen.

Each episode can be streamed or downloaded to your computer or audio device. Haven’t caught on to podcasting yet? No problem. Each episode is also transcribed and available to read online.

To start listening, log on to tri-talk.com.

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INDUSTRY PROFILE

American success at the ITU triathlon world championships

Gold medalists W35-39: Alicia Parr (Durham, N.C.) W70-74: Gerry Fitch (West Chester, Pa.) W75-79: Molly Hayes (Bozeman, Mont.)

W80+: Peggy Gudbrandsen (Lake Forest, Ill.) M20-24: Ben Collins (Seattle, Wash.) 1:57:16 M60-64: Steven Smith (Granger, Ind.) 2:16:41 M75-79: Richard Robinson (Bonita, Calif.) 3:11:00 M80+: Charley French (Ketchum, Idaho) 3:12:29 Silver medalists W20-24: Leah Larson (Boulder, Colo.)

W45-49: Annie Carrino (Portola Valley, Calif.)

W50-54: Donna Smyers (Adamant, Vt.) W60-64: Lauren Binder (Portland, Ore.) W65-69: Peggy McDowell-Cramer (Santa Monica, Calif.)

M65-69: Patrick Wickens (Redondo Beach, Calif.)

2:34:00 Bronze medalists W18-19: Ashley Morgan (West Point, N.Y.) W20-24: Katie Ellis (Phoenix, Ariz.)

W30-34: Caroline Walden (Paradise Valley, Ariz.)

W35-39: Stacey Richardson (Chapel Hill, N.C.) W65-69: Graciela Val (Evanston, Ill.) W70-74: Sheila Isaacs (Shoreham, N.Y.) M18-19: Shea Wilfong (Colorado Springs, Colo.) 2:07:38 M25-29: Jesse Thomas (Eugene, Ore.) 2:01:00 M55-59: Rick Trachok (Reno, Nev.) 2:18:44 Physically challenged athletess Gold medalists Women's Above Knee Amputee: Sarah Reinertsen (Mission Viejo, Calif.); Women's Below Knee Amputee: Amy Dodson (Adrian, Mich.); Women's Blind: Nancy Stevens (Glenwood Springs, Colo.); Women's Other: Beth Price (Headland, Ala.); Men's Below Knee Amputee: Paul Martin (Natick, Mass.) 2:31:44; Men's Above Knee Amputee: Matt Perkins (Boise, Idaho) 3:02:51; Men's Other: David Kyle (Athens, Ala.) 2:51:07 Silver medalists Women's Upper Extremity: Suzanne Elbon (Decatur, Ga.); Women's Below Above Knee Amputee: Scout Bassett (Palm Desert, Calif.); Women's Blind: Crista Earl (Forest Hills, N.Y.); Men's Above Knee Amputee: Jonathan Bik (Sacramento, Calif.) 3:05:37 Bronze medalists Men's Below Knee Amputee: Jeff Glasbrenner (Little Rock, Ark.) 2:35:59; Men's Above Knee Amputee: David McGranahan (Sylvania, Ohio) 3:09:59 Sprint-distance world championship Gold medaalists W16-19: Natalie Russell (Oswego, Ill.) M16-19: Brian Duffy (Westchester, Pa.) 1:04:28 44

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Courtesy of Rocket Science Sports

Where: Hamburg, Germany When: Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2007

Rocket Science Sports

By Brad Culp

Rocket Science Sports president Marcin Sochacki is a lot like that one kid you just couldn’t stand growing up. He did all the same stuff you did, but he did it just a little bit better. He got into a better school; he hit one spot ahead of you in the batting order; his girlfriend was just a touch better looking than the gal you settled for.

Rocket Science does pretty much the same stuff as many other companies in the industry, but Sochacki’s goal is to do it just a bit better than everyone else.

“Our philosophy is to defy mediocrity,” Sochacki said. With products like a dimpled water bottle, he’s doing just that.

Rocket first gained notice with the introduction of its tri-specific bags and has since branched out into other areas of the sport. Sochacki’s background is in aerospace engineering, so he’s always looking for ways to make old technology faster.

The company certainly had modest beginnings. Sochacki started working on existing triathlon products in his Austin, Texas, garage in 2004 and was amazed at how little technology and effort went into so-

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called high-tech products. “My original goal was to make triathlon products better than what was on the market at the time,” Sochacki said. “That’s why we have so many different products and our focus is so diverse.”

Sochacki’s wide range of products includes gear bags, race belts, thermal swim caps, transition mats, wetsuits and race suits. In the last few years, the company has shifted its engineering focus to the always-evolving wetsuit market. Their new Elite Wetsuit comes complete with arm panels designed to increase your feel for the water. In 2008, Sochacki plans to unveil a new Rocket SL wetsuit.

In keeping with his aerospace engineering background, Sochacki is constantly looking ahead. “We are currently working on two new products for 2009 that will change the industry and change the way we think about speed and aerodynamics.”

In the meantime, you can learn more about their products at rocketsciencesports.com.

photos: dykes and gilman

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in it to win it

and always off the front.

As the 2006 USA Elite National Champion, phenom Sarah Haskins is feared for her prowess on a bike. Consistently setting the pace and off the front in her races, she knows that her equipment could be her best friend or worst enemy. She trusts the breakthrough triple compound technology in the Maxxis Courchevel tire to support her skills on race day.

Aggressive cornering, impressive acceleration and fast rolling toughness let Sarah ride the race she wants to ride, all the way to the podium. Maxxis tires, technology for speed.

maxxis.com

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CHECKING IN

CRASH-TEST DUMMY

The lagoon at the Hilton Waikoloa.

Pleasure and pain

Lava Camp a perfect early-season jump-start for your fitness

By Cameron Elford Early-season fitness is a manysplendored thing. Yes, it’s great to finally feel as though you can tap into your anaerobic engine again, but in the early spring most of us can’t yet count on our fitness to sustain repeated trips into AT territory. As such, it can be helpful to jump-start your form with a training camp in March or April. No, you needn’t spend weeks abroad training in the Pyrenees or Canary Islands (although, if you’re lucky enough, you could), but you could benefit from a focused week of warm-weather mileage in, say, Hawaii.

And you could even squeeze in a fun, low-key Olympic-distance race such as the Lavaman (lavamantriathlon.com), which in 2008 will take place on April 6.

Then, after stretching out your earlyseason legs at the Lavaman, you can stick around for the week and attend the Lava Camp, organized by LifeSport’s Lance Watson and Paul Regensburg, who last spring were named the official coaches of Ironman and have since rolled out a series of clinics tailored to various IM events.

The Lava Camp, which in 2008 will be the official camp of the Ford 46

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between the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea volcanoes. Located just above Waimea, a small town at an elevation of 2500 feet near the northern tip of the Big Island, Parker Ranch—which rises from sea level to 7000 feet—is a world apart from the at-times frenetic Queen Kaahumanu Highway and features spectacular running. Typically many degrees cooler— and often downright chilly—Parker Ranch is crisscrossed by lightly traveled dirt roads that provide a scenic respite from the concrete and crushed lava rock and coral that dominate the coast around Kailua and Waikoloa.

But perhaps the Lava Camp’s signature workout is the ride from Waikoloa south along the Queen K, past the Keahole Airport then left up Koloko Drive, a climb that takes athletes toward the summit of Hualalai Volcano, which towers above Kailua-Kona. Although well supported by camp staff, the climb is a grind, with no fewer than seven switchbacks as athletes power up the progressively steeper road that offers little relief from the punishing ascent. Beginning near the Costco on the Queen K, the climb first winds through commercial and residential areas before giving way to thick jungle and, ultimately, high-alpine scrub adapted to the windwhipped seaward exposure of Hualalai’s western slope.

Other key Lava Camp training sessions include a run workout on the Energy Lab Road, the marathon turnaround point of the Hawaii Ironman, and an open-water swim session—complete with sea turtles—at the lagoon in front of the Hilton Waikoloa.

Whatever your 2008 race goals, or early-season fitness level, the Lava Camp can help boost your form and provide a sound foundation for the rest of your racing season.

Ironman 70.3 Hawaii triathlon, will focus on helping athletes of all abilities develop a solid foundation—in both theory and practice—for their spring races.

Both the Lavaman Triathlon and the Lava Camp, which in 2008 will take place from April 7-11, are centered in Waikoloa, a resort area on the Kohala Coast of Hawaii’s Big Island about 20 miles north of Kailua-Kona. At last April’s Lava Camp I had the opportunity to join a group of athletes from across the U.S. and Canada as they worked with coaches Watson and Regensburg as well as guest speakers that included top U.S. Ironman Chris Lieto and Dutch Olympic hopeful Lisa Mensink.

While the week’s agenda includes classroom time and covers such topics as nutrition, motivation, heat acclimation, race-day tactics, gear selection and LAVA CAMP open-water swimming, the camp realFACTS ly shines when the rubber meets the What: Seminars with coaches and top athletes road, or open water, as the case may plus structured workouts on portions of the Ford be. Specifically, workouts target Ironman World Championship and Ford Ironman some of the most scenic and leg70.3 Hawaii courses. The 2008 camp will be the offiendary training locations on the cial camp for the Ford Ironman 70.3 Hawaii Triathlon.

Big Island’s west coast, from secWhere: Waikoloa, Big Island, Hawaii tions of the Hawaii Ironman When: April 7-11 course to Anaehoomalu Bay, a Who: Athletes of all abilities shallow, protected bay within the Contact: lifesport.ca Waikoloa resort, to Parker Ranch, a Camp cost: $595 not including travel or 160-year-old working cattle ranch accommodation that sprawls across 150,000 acres

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2008

Courtesy Hilton Waikoloa

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REVIEW

From Lance to Landis is David Walsh’s second installment in his anti-pro cycling series. Walsh, the chief sportswriter for The Sunday Times (London), previously co-authored the controversial L.A Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong.

While many steadfast cycling enthusiasts accuse Walsh, and many other European journalists, of unjustly attacking the sport, anyone who has read his books knows the guy has done his research.

As with his previous book, Walsh attempts to educate readers as to how prevalent doping is in professional cycling and specifically the Tour de France. While a good deal of the information seems relatively outdated, the interviews are very intriguing. Walsh sat down with cycling insiders like Emma O’Reilly (Lance’s former massage therapist), Prentice Steffen (Postal team doctor) and cycling legend Greg LeMond, and the dialogue he provides is truly one of a kind.

But as fascinating as the interviews is Walsh’s in-depth discussion of the doping culture of the sport. He paints a clear picture of how drugs can infiltrate a team and how most riders seemingly have no choice. The author also gives readers a clearer understanding of how drugs like EPO work and how accessible they are for a pro cyclist.

While the book is clearly an indictment of pro cycling, the title is a bit misleading. Of the book’s 330 pages, only 30 focus on Floyd Landis. The end result is that the reader walks away convinced that the U.S. Postal Service Team had a huge doping program, but they’re still unsure as to what to think about Landis.

—B.C.

Courtesy of David Walsh

From Lance to Landis

CLUB PROFILE

Atlanta’s Peachtree Tri Club is a testament to our sport’s recent boom.

Although the club is less than two years old, they’ve already accumulated 122 active members and they show no sign of slowing down. The team was started in 2006 by Mari Fridenmaker, and 121 members later Atlanta is becoming a triathlon hotspot.

The club strikes a true balance between training, racing, socializing and community service, which provides a model for other up-and-coming clubs. The team will typically train together three times each week in preparation for the USAT Southeast Region Club Race Series (they’ve been Georgia State Champions twice).

In addition, this year 12 club members volunteered to mentor a group of inner-city youths from the East Atlanta Kids Club. After receiving mentoring and training advice, the children will compete in the Meek and Mighty Triathlon, in April (part of St. 48

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Peachtree Tri Club

Anthony’s Triathlon). The team also helps clean up local parks and volunteers at various endurance events, like the ING Georgia T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

Marathon and IronGirl Triathlon. To learn more about the club, visit peachtreetriclub.com.

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WWW.XTERRAWETSUITS.COM

858.565.9500

2 .0 0 Y T I C O L E V UITS

by XTERRA WETS ed er w po it su Speed ket dsuit on the mar ee sp y an f o t efficien Lowest Drag co ast swims ating for ultraf co S C S o an N Yamamoto races n-Wetsuit swim Legal in all No

WORLDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FASTEST TRIATHLON SPEEDSUIT

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NA SPORTS

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

CHECKING IN

Ironman Community Fund gets kids in the game One of the major goals of North America Sports is to contribute to the communities that host an Ironman event. To that end, the Ironman Community Fund was created in 2001 and allows Ironman to generate funds for groups and non-profit organizations in each community that hosts an Ironman.

The Ironman Community Fund contributes between $25,000 and $50,000 yearly to each race community.

In 2007, North America Sports has undertaken support of two significant projects through the ICF, one in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and the other in 50

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Penticton, Canada. In Coeur d’Alene, the North America Sports Community Fund will provide a donation of $50,000 over the next five years to the Kroc Center.

The Kroc Center will feature a myriad of athletic facilities, including a pool and education, fitness and arts programs for all ages.

The same thinking has brought about the partnership between the South Okanagan Youth Soccer Association, the Penticton Soccer Club and North America Sports. These clubs are building an indoor soccer facility to be located at King’s Park, and the building will feature

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an indoor running/walking track. Judy Sentes, president of the Ironman Canada Race Society, said Ironman wants to direct its $250,000 donation to a venue that supports healthy lifestyles for all residents as a gift to the people of Penticton in this the 25th anniversary year of Subaru Ironman Canada.

“Both these projects fit perfectly with our mandate for the North America Sports Community Fund,” said NA Sports CEO Graham Fraser. “We are an athletic event and one of our mandates is to try and help kids and families become more active and involved in sports. The building of the Kroc Center and the indoor track in Penticton will fulfill this mission for people of all ages in these Ironman race communities.”

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Trade in your running shoes for crosscountry spikes

By Brad Culp

In the early 20th century, cyclists seeking a way to maintain fitness throughout winter developed cyclocross.

It allowed them the opportunity to stay fit,

WINTER TRI SCENE

while providing a little mental and physical reprieve.

Almost a century later, multisporters in the Northern Hemisphere were faced with the same corundum. So, those looking to stay fit for all three sports developed winter triathlon, and the rest is history. Sort of.

Winter triathlon is a bit too young to have any real history, but at the rate it’s growing, we expect it to have some historical milestones shortly. The ITU hosted its first Winter Tri World Championships in 2002, and this year the circuit continues to grow, with the world champs slated for Jan. 22-24, 2008, in Freudenstadt, Germany.

If you’re looking to stay fit this offseason, perhaps winter tri is just what you need. In the U.S., you’re likely to have to travel to Colorado to find an event, however the sport is a bit more widespread in Canada. Check out the race calendars at usatriathlon.org and triathlon.org (ITU’s homepage) for specific events.

Once you choose an event, you’ll need to spend a little extra time getting your gear prepared. Winter tri is probably the only sport on earth with more gear than

traditional triathlon. Most races begin with a three- to six-mile run. The run course is usually on hard-packed snow, so you’ll need to make a few adjustments to your footwear. Unless you can find a sturdy pair of cross-country spikes, we suggest drilling a few sheet-metal screws into your leftover running shoes from last season. About five to 10 1/8-inch screws ought to give you just enough traction.

The bike leg ranges from five to 10 miles. Any mountain bike will work, but we recommend a hardtail over a full-suspension to give you a little extra stability on the snow. A few companies have started making snow-specific tires for mountainbike rims, but if you can’t get a hold of any, just find the widest tire that will fit on your rim. Lastly, keep your tire pressure very low. Anything over 20psi will send you skidding all over the course.

Like traditional triathlon, winter tri finishes up with its most physically punishing event—cross-country skiing.

Expect most courses to range between five and eight miles on a groomed trail.

Practice your freestyle-skiing technique so you can finish hard.

Katie Baker

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KUOTA FOLLOW YOUR D REAM

K-FACTOR

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TRAVEL TALK Courtesy of U.S. Multi-Sport

CHECKING IN

Three under-the-radar races for your ’08 schedule By the U.S. Multi-Spor t team Evergreen Lake Triathlon

Location: Hudson, Ill. Date: July 19, 2008 Distance: 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run Company: Tri-Mom Events Web site: tri-shark.org With a campground next to the transition area with plenty of recreational activities for the whole family plus a great post-race barbecue feast, this race is certainly a taste of the Midwest. Located in central Illinois, it’s just a couple hours from St. Louis, Chicago and Indianapolis.

ILLINOIS

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Diamond in the Rough Triathlon

Location: Perryville, Md. Date: TBD Distance: 1-mile swim, 27-mile bike, 5mile run MARYLAND Company: Piranha Sports Web site: piranha-sports.com With a swim in the Chesapeake Bay, a rolling bike course and a run along the Susquehanna River, this truly is a diamond in the rough. Being in the MidAtlantic, you’ll be surrounded by great American history, making for a great destination event.

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Elkhart Lake Triathlon

Location: Elkhart Lake, Wis. Date: TBD Distance: 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run Company: Elkhart Lake Multisports Web site: elkhartlakemultisports.com About 70 miles north of Milwaukee, the Elkhart Lake Triathlon is a great venue because the bike course follows the Elkhart Lake racetrack where Road America is held. The Ostoff Resort is on the lake with plenty of campgrounds nearby.

WISCONSIN

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Watergirl

By Jessica Shambora The morning after the Ford Ironman World Championship in Hawaii I wake up feeling destroyed. I have a wicked sunburn, my throat hurts and there is stiffness in muscles and tendons I didn’t know existed. Even my fingertips hurt. Although the veterans had warned us rookies what we had coming, I never anticipated anything like this.

It is truly a taxing endeavor, but someone has to pass out the water.

Seeking a change of pace on our vacation at nearby Kona Village, my brothers and I arrived at Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway at 8 a.m.—about the same time the lead triathletes were exiting Kailua Bay. Within an hour they would reach this aid station on their bikes. We were recruited to join the Kokua (“help” in Hawaiian) Crew and pass out water, learning that there is a precise protocol governing the handoff—a process akin to shaking hands with a freight train.

When the leader, Faris Al-Sultan, approached around 8:30 a.m., I had a minor anxiety attack. What if I started running too late? Or worse yet, missed 56

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LIGHT READ

the handoff and sent the bottle spiraling into his spokes? He went in for an orange at the tent before ours and rode right by.

“The first few will probably pass,” the veteran scout-troop leaders told us as they lounged under the tents. They’d seen Ironmen and women come and go; watching us in the ready position, testing alternate grasps and giving each other pep talks—this was entertainment.

A few minutes later the rest of the pack arrived, some gladly accepting our goods, others declining but offering cheerful appreciation. We sounded our battle cry, “Water!” and our technique improved with every attempt.

The riders answered with, “Thanks mate! You’ve got some wheels!” and “Darlin’ you can run faster than I can cycle!” I dug their gratitude, but all I could think was, “Don’t waste your breath on me! I’m just the watergirl!”

Around 10:30 a.m. we moved our operation to the opposite side of the road.

We knew the first rider was approaching before he came into view, as he was heralded by a helicopter and giant digital clock. The closest I have come to an arrival like this was the time the muffler broke on my truck.

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

Waving my arms and hocking my goods, I could see it was Al-Sultan still in the lead.

This time he was not going to pass me by. I prepared myself, knowing this might be the most important handoff I made that day.

With my left arm stretched out, I began tearing along the shoulder of the highway, completely indifferent to how ridiculous I might look. I had one mission: to ensure AlSultan got the water he needed to arrive at T2 prepared to run a marathon.

Faris got his water (and eventually first place in the race). And then the riders descended on us in hordes, unloading half-empty bottles and leaving the highway perilously littered with the discarded fuel sources: endurance road kill.

This time everyone wanted water, as they were not only in the home stretch but also on a descent right into our station. We felt that if we did not get it for them they would die—or at least fail to finish.

I completed successful handoffs to Cameron Widoff, Francisco Pontano and Stephen Sheldrake, among hundreds of others. It occurred to me that these athletes possessed something the rest of us do not. I hoped it was contagious.

As the rush of riders slowed to a trickle, I pondered our role in the day’s events. After all, who were we but tourists looking to steal a front-row seat for the ultimate test of will, and perhaps even touch it, in the form of a green Gatorade water bottle? But we are much, much more. We are ambassadors of water, stoically enduring our sunburns and sore fingertips, maybe even a strained hamstring, all in name of the ones called Ironmen.

Courtesy of Jessica Shambora

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DAMAGE ® CONTROL

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As an athlete, you should do everything you possibly can to avoid excessive oxidative damage.

The problem is that prolonged endurance training accelerates the normal oxidative processes in your body by up to 2,000% and can create up to 100 times the free radical “fallout” in your cells. This fallout - better known as oxidative damage - is exactly what you want to minimize or avoid in training and in life. And if you think your body can deal with this naturally or through a good diet, just look at any triathlete who has been training hard for several years without supplemental antioxidants (or with common antioxidant supplements). You can see the damage in their faces and on their bodies. Fortunately, there is a better way to help your body combat this oxidative damage, so that you can train and race to peak performance and not get so beat-up in the process. The key is Damage Control®.

The Damage Control® Master Formula was designed to be the most powerful broad-spectrum antioxidant formula in the world, and a recent independent lab test confirmed this. At over 20,000 ORAC units per dose, the Master Formula was far more powerful than other “super formulas” and 10-20 times higher than the 5 most popular antioxidant formulas*.

No other product in this magazine or in your health food store comes even remotely close to the antioxidant activity in the Master Formula. The fact that it includes a “broad spectrum” of 20 different synergistic antioxidants means that no part or process of the body is left without strong antioxidant support. The Master Formula also contains high potencies of all the critical vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to support healthy joints and liver function, reduce stress hormones and boost cognition and focus.

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1-888-774-6259 *See results of our test at www.masterformula.com. The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated these statements. This product is not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure any disease.

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Santa baby, just slip a GPS under the tree Wow your favorite triathlete this holiday season with these great gifts

By Brad Culp // Photos by John Segesta

Triathletes can be a picky bunch. But with good reason. They know what they want and know their high-tech go-fast toys can help them get to the finish line faster. Get them an out-

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dated heart-rate monitor and they’ll never take it out of the box, but if you get them a state-of-the-art GPS system they’ll think of you every time they strap it on.

This month, Triathlete brings you this holiday season’s hottest gifts and gadgets that’ll make any triathlete very merry.

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Barracuda Ultimate Goggle $18

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One of the only goggles you’ll ever find that has a guaranteed fit. Couple that with state-of-the-art anti-fog and you’re ready to hit the open water (or pool if you live anywhere but Hawaii, Florida or Southern California). barracudausa.com

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TYR Skull Microback $68

Finis SwiMP3 V2 $200

The new and improved SwiMP3 device has no bulky hardware hanging behind your head. The player can store 256 MB of music and is both Mac- and PC-compatible. finisinc.com

Tired of the same-old boring swimsuit? Pick up TYR’s new skull suit and you’ll get noticed on the deck. Also available in a workout bikini or men’s drag suit. tyr.com

Tri-Swim Shampoo $10

H20 Audio for iPod nano with headphones $120

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Sometimes, even a long shower isn’t enough to remove the smell of chlorine, but Tri-Swim’s odor-neutralizing shampoo does the trick.

Lotion, conditioner and body wash are also available. tri-swim.com

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With this housing and headphones, your iPod will be waterproof up to 10 feet under, and you’ll be able to use all the scroll-wheel functions while you swim. h2oaudio.com

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AQx Aquatic Training Shoe $80 Get into water running with the only shoe designed to add up to 30 percent more resistance to any aquatic exercise. Works for both deep- and shallow-water workouts. aqxsports.com

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AquaVee Portable Swim System $90 With this complete kit, you can make just about any pool feel Olympic-sized. aquaveeonline.com

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Aqua Sphere Vista $20-$25 Give the gift of 180-degree visibility, anti-fog and a leak-proof seal. aquasphereswim.com

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Delphi NAV200 Portable GPS $250

Suunto t6 $450

You will never have to worry about getting lost on your way to an event again with this userfriendly and affordable GPS system. delphi.com

Among a litany of other functions, it provides data on heart rate, oxygen consumption, respiratory rate and calories burned. suunto.com

Timex iControl $125

Bose In-Ear Headphones $100

Great for any triathlete who can’t get through a workout without a little music. The in-ear design will keep the buds secure while riding the trainer, running or hitting the gym. bose.com

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Polar RS800G3 Training System $500

Perfect for athletes who like to train across multiple disciplines. Whether you’re training for XTERRA, adventure racing or just regular tris, you’ll have speed, distance 2 and heart-rate data available anytime. polarusa.com

With this watch you can change songs, pump up the volume or pause your iPod on the go, without ever breaking stride. timex.com

Tanita 3 Axes Pedometer $30 This super-small (and cheap) pedometer will work in your pocket or around your neck and provide feedback on distance, calories, time and steps. tanita.com

Trimble Outdoors AllSport GPS $6 per month Turn your Sprint of Nextel phone into your personal trainer with data on speed, pace, elevation and more. You can even access other users’ routes when you’re on the road, so you’ll always know where to head for a great workout. trimbleoutdoors.com

Solio Universal Hybrid Charger $100 Leave the Solio in the sun to let it charge, and then plug it into your phone, iPod or GPS unit to bring it back to life. The charger can also plug into a wall outlet if you can’t find the sun. solio.com

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Magellan Triton 2000 GPS $500 A GPS unit that does a whole lot more than help you find your way. The Triton features a 2 megapixel camera and voice recorder so you can truly take in the great outdoors. magellangps.com

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Oakley O Rokr $250 Listen to music, talk on your phone and look pretty cool. It’s a gadget geek’s dream come true. oakley.com

Human Touch 1470 Robotic Massage Pad $250 Why spend a fortune on a whole massage chair when you can get a transportable pad at a fraction of the cost? The pad weighs only 11 pounds and fits almost any home or office chair. humantouch.com T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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Canyon Holiday Gift Racing Set $50

Beaker Concepts HydroTail $100

With five race belts, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have enough to make it through next season, no matter how many you lose. 2canyon.com

Give the gift of wind-tunnel-tested aerodynamics. The carbon-fiber wing shields all your water bottles from the wind. beakerconcepts.com

Fuel Belt Helium $40-$45 (2 or 4 bottle)

Trigger Point Therapy Total Body Package $130

Fuel Beltâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newest design is slim, ventilated, lightweight and comes complete with a detachable race pocket. fuelbelt.com

Help keep your body pain-free next season with this complete package, which includes rollers for your legs, feet and back. tptherapy.com

Lickety-Split Transition Mat $20

TriTowels Transition Towels $16-$26

This colorful mat helps triathletes find their gear in any transition area so they can get on the road fast. fasttransition.com

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Loud enough to help you find your spot in transition and available in over a dozen different designs. tritowels.com

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BodyRev Perfect Pushup $40 The pushup is one of the most simple and time-efficient exercises for any athlete. With the perfect pushup, each rep will be less stressful and more effective. bodyrev.com

Lucky Dog Products Water Bottle Holder $10 Okay, it may not a necessity, but for 10 bucks you can save a lot of water bottles from molding. luckydogproducts.net

Gu Mint Chocolate 6-pack $3.75 Each pack comes in a festive gift box, with a portion of all proceeds going to the Challenged Athletes Foundation. gusports.com

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ErgVideo $40 each Each of these 14 training videos works in sync with your CompuTrainer to deliver realistic trainer sessions. You can ride courses like Ironman Lake Placid while seeing the scenery right in front of you. ergvideo.com

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Endurance Films Performance Pack $40

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Runner Core Complete Training System $90 One of the most time-efficient training programs out there. Coach Al Lyman shows you how to squeeze in a great core workout in just 15 minutes, plus you get a four-week jumpstart training program. runner-core.com

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Techno Sweat CDs $9

Get $25 off this two-pack during the holidays.

You get Endurance Core, with two hours of core exercises, and Endurance Nutrition, with all the info you need to be properly fueled on race day. endurancefilms.com

With these music CDs youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll actually be pumped to ride your trainer or hit the treadmill.

Each CD (also available as an MP3 download) contains high-energy music at five different speeds. technosweat.com

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Spinervals On the Road 2.0â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Lake Placid Training Ride $35 Follow Coach Troy Jacobson as he takes you through the scenic and challenging Ironman Lake Placid course. spinervals.com

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TTU Yoga for Endurance Athletes DVD $40 Finally, a yoga program designed for triathletes instead of a juice-bar attendant on a wheatgrass-only diet. ttuniversity.com

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Yoga Fit for Cyclists $20 A perfect gift for anyone who has to cut their rides short due to back or leg pain. yogafit.com

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Sub-17 T-Shirt $20 and up

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Whether you’re a tortoise or a hare, these vintage cotton shirts will show your love for the distance. sub17.com

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Gizmo Gear Performance Socks $8

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Under Armour Women’s Velocity Softshell Jacket $130

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DeSoto Fleece Tights $64 Even if you’re training at the North Pole your legs will stay toasty. These tights also work pretty well under a pair of ski pants. desotosport.com

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Zoot Recovery Sandal $65

This jacket boasts 360-degree reflectivity and enough warmth for any winter run. underarmour.com T R I AT H L E T E

You could go for a late-night run in a reflective vest, but you may be mistaken for a crossing guard. This cap provides 360-degree visibility without the orange vest. ajelan.com

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Show your holiday spirit by heading out for a winter run with Kris Kringle around your ankle. gizmosocks.com

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Ajelan Mesh Cap $18

This thermo-moldable sandal creates a custom fit, which helps reduce swelling and promotes recovery. Available in March. zootsports.com

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Running Funky Tri Suit $74 Get noticed at your next event with one of more than 60 designs, including leopard print and snakeskin. runningfunky.com

Tri My Apparel Women’s Light Tee $20 At Café Press, you’ll find thousands of T-shirt designs, including our personal favorite: Swim, Bike Run, Booze. trimyapparel.com

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Beaker Concepts Compression Socks $25 Available in white, black or argyle. Now you can recover from your long run while wearing a three-piece suit. beakerconcepts.com

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XLAB Mini Wing $46 XLAB’s newest hydration wing tips the scales at only 195 grams (with both cages) and has room for all your spare parts. xlab-usa.com

Craft Siberian Glove $60 The ultimate glove for cyclocross, winter mountain biking, skiing or any place with sub-zero temps. craft-usa.com

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Road ID Firefly Supernova $13

Kaenon Hard Kore $200 Finally, a pair of glasses you can wear on the bike and around the town. Kaenon’s newest creation will wrap around your face tightly to minimize light leaks and foreign-object damage. kaenon.com

A must for a late-night run or a ride in the wee hours of the morning. The ultra-bright light clips onto just about anything. roadid.com

Blackburn System X4 Headlight $150

CycleOps Fluid2 Trainer $330

Small enough to stay out of your way and bright enough to light up any road or trail. The X4 comes with a bar and helmet mount. blackburndesign.com

A must for winter training in colder climates. The new Fluid2 has a larger flywheel for improved road-like feel and a wide enough resistance range for any workout. cycle-ops.com

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Speedplay Nanogram $625 (pedals and cleats)

BIKE

The Nanogram is Speedplay’s first race-dayonly pedal system, and the ultra-lightweight set-up (each pedal weighs just 62 grams with the cleats 90 grams) uses a carbon-fiber pedal body paired with ceramic bearings, alloy bowties and titanium spindles and fasteners. speedplay.com

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Saucony Run for Good red laces $1 (suggested donation) All the proceeds raised from Sauconyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Run for Good campaign will help fight childhood obesity. sauconyrunforgood.com

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Changing the Present (prices vary), not pictured Give a gift to someone who is truly in need. Changing the Present turns your donation into gifts for those doing good deeds all over the world. Our favorite: For $50 you can purchase a bike for a medical volunteer in Africa. changingthepresent.org

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Skeese Greets Holiday Cards $14 (10 cards)

Christmas cards for the athletic minded. A perfect complement to any gift. skeese.com

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DogHead Design Tri Pendant $16

Choose from gold or silver plating to show off your sport to the world. dogheaddesign.com

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TriThings Tri Panel Print $100

JEWELRY AND MORE

This framed and matted 11 x 14 print is a classy addition to any triathleteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office. trithings.com

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TriSanta Holiday Cards $15 (12 cards) Choose from over 25 varieties of cards featuring Jolly Old St. Nick competing in triathlon. trisanta.com

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Triathlete pendant with 5-point diamond $190

Show that special lady that you love her and her sport. sportsgifts4u.com

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Voyagers Jewelry Triathlon Bracelet $1195

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For the multi-sport diva who already has all the toys. With 14kt gold and four diamonds, we suggest she take it off before her next Ironman. voyagersjewelrydesign.com

Finish Line Charms earrings and necklace $72 (each) A subtle way to reveal your love for the sport.

A little triathlon bling for not a lot of bucks. finishlinecharms.com

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way better than another cheesy necktie.

Forget the snowflake socks, the reindeer sweaters, the blasé gift cards. This year, stuff their stockings with something they’ll really love. Our delicious new Mint Chocolate GU is wrapped up and ready to go. And in keeping with the spirit of the season, we’re donating 10% of every Mint Chocolate six-pack sale to the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Happy Holidays from all of us at GU.

©Scott Markewitz Photography

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give gu gu

gu gives back

Since 1994, CAF has raised funds to provide equipment and encouragement for individuals with physical challenges to compete in the sports they love.

L Learn more at www.challengedathletes.org.

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BAGS

Triathlon Bag Apollo $70 With this free-standing bag you can set up for T1 and T2 the night before the race. Just sit it in front of your bike and all your gear will be positioned for easy access. triathlonbag.com

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Rocket Science Elite Bag $110 Sure, it might just look like a backpack but open it up and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find a place for all your race-day gear. rocketsciencesports.com

Nathan Laboratories Quick Change Bag $125

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Spend all day on the trails with this lightweight bag, featuring pockets for your water, iPod and energy gels. asics.com

Speedo Triathlon Competition Bag $150

So big you can fit a small person inside.

However, we suggest you stick to your tri gear. nathansports.com

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It fits everything but the kitchen sink. Come to think about it, it could fit just about any kitchen sink. speedousa.com

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The

HARD–KNOCK Think being a pro triathlete is the dream job? Think again

By Jay Prasuhn

For pro triathletes Greg and Laura Bennett, 2007 has been a financial windfall. Laura won the ITU World Cup in Des Moines, Iowa, scooping up the $200,000 check and Hummer H2. Two weeks later, Greg snagged $120,000 for winning the Life Time Fitness Triathlon. Toss in Greg’s fifth-place earnings from Des Moines and Laura’s sixth-place award from Life Time, and the two took home a third of a million dollars in June and July. Add the $10,000 Greg took by winning the L.A. Triathlon and the potential for a $300,000 payday if he wins the Life Time series finale in Dallas in October, and it could be a near million-dollar year for the two. To paraphrase Sammy Sosa, triathlon has been very, very good to the Bennetts.

Around the same time in San Diego, the epicenter of triathlon, Brazilian pro Caue Suplicy amassed a solid win streak as well: victory at the Imperial Beach Triathlon, the Camp Pendleton International, the Encinitas Sprint Triathlon and the Tritonman triathlon. Earnings: $0. Expenses: about $300. But he did win a can of powdered energy drink.

Triathlon requires the tactical acuity of a road-bike racer, the endurance of a marathoner and the sharp, quick mind of a Major League baseball player, all wrapped into one athlete. So why don’t pro triathletes receive the same return on investment for their efforts as, say, a back-of-the-pack PGA player?

Top pros like the Bennetts, Australia’s Emma Snowsill and reigning Ironman world champs Michellie Jones and Normann Stadler make a very comfortable living, picking up a host of endemic and non-endemic sponsors to help defray the expenses of travel, cutting-edge equipment like altitude tents and services like massage that are required if they are to perform at a top level. “In the beginning it was writing sponsorship letters, but it came down to who I knew,” says Stadler. “But after I won Hawaii, they all contacted me.”

But for every pro doing well enough to use the sport to pay the mortgage, there’re 100 struggling just to meet their most basic needs. They’re begging for product, scraping for travel money, asking for homestays, racing without health insurance.

Suplicy figures being a pro in the sport costs him $20,000 a year.

Still, Suplicy’s dream of being a pro mirrors the dreams of many international athletes for whom America is the land of opportunity. “I lived in Curitiba, was collegiate national champ and was winning all the races in Brazil as an amateur,” Suplicy says. “Then I turned pro when I turned 20 and [ITU racer] 72

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life

Juraci Moriera and Leandro Macedo started kicking my ass. They were some of the best in the world and it was hard, but I felt like I needed the challenge.”

Suplicy joined Moriera for a San Diego training camp and decided to move there. “I thought it would be better,” he says. “In Brazil there were races that had a little money—$500 here, $800 there, so if you raced a lot you could make a little money. But when I got here, I saw all the big races like L.A. and Chicago that offer big money—and they’re like World Cups, with guys like Simon Lessing finishing fifth. It’s hard to race the big boys when they’re rested and training hard, while we’re working. That’s the edge; they can afford to train and rest. I’m just glad I have a sponsor who gives me a free massage each week because I couldn’t afford $80 every week for that.”

Tucson’s Doug Friman’s plans started in a similar manner.

Entering the pro ranks at the age of 22, he began living the dream, figuring if the results came, money would soon follow. “Ten years down the road now, I haven’t really achieved those dreams,” the touring ITU pro laments. “I still only get by on my checking account, but I’m comfortable with that. I am not the young kid anymore so I don’t have the same optimism, but thoughts of the five colored rings still get me out the door. It is not the money but the chance of representing my country in international competitions that keeps me coming back year after year.”

He adds: “Dreams don’t really pay the bills. Neither do ITU ranking points, for that matter.” In the meantime, he finds homestays and looks to the generosity of family and an old college roommate who gives him a free points ticket to use for one race every year.

Youthful optimisim? See rookie pro A.J. Johnson. After remarkable age-group results (including a solid 9:12 finish in Kona last year for 74th overall and eighth in the 25-29 age group), the Highlands Ranch, Colo., athlete made his pro debut in 2007. Like Suplicy, he wanted a true measure of his talent. “I always want to test myself against the best. It’s hard to swallow at first, going from being top in the age group to mid-pack pro, but you have to start somewhere,” Johnson says. This year, he didn’t earn a Hawaii pro slot at Louisville. So he scrambled, doing Ironman Wisconsin two weeks later. Not fast enough. No Kona for Johnson this year.

Welcome to the big leagues.

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IT’S HARD to race the big THEY’RE RESTED AND TRAINING HARD,

boys when

while we’re working.

THAT’S THE EDGE;

they can afford to train and rest.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

Brazilian pro Caue Suplicy won four triathlons this summer. His reward? A can of powdered energy drink.

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MAKING ENDS MEET While the average NFL player’s salary was $1.1 million in 2006 and the average Major League Baseball player takes in $2.9 million per year, the average pro triathlete faces a different reality. The reason for the lack of multisport dollars points largely to mass-media exposure. Triathlon, whether it’s the fast-action draft-legal ITU variety or the drama of Ironman, is still a niche sport and has a hard time gaining a foothold with the average ball sports-centric North American TV viewer. “The sponsorship dollars are not there yet, and the prize money is non-existent compared to other sports,” says Jarrod Shoemaker, an athlete who has seen a career goal through by being the first American triathlete to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games. “The biggest problem is that triathlon is not on TV. Draft-legal racing is very interesting to watch on TV, and I think if there were more races on TV you would see different things happening in races, like athletes breaking away to get their sponsors on TV a la the Tour de France. Until triathlon can secure a more mainstream fan base I do not think there will be many sponsorship dollars.”

Stadler, who trains and races in both the U.S. and Europe, makes a key point. “In Europe, for sure, triathlon is much more popular than it is in the U.S., with live coverage on TV for Ironman,” he says. Daniel Unger, who won short-course worlds, Faris [Al-Sultan], me, Timo [Bracht], we’re all getting great exposure. Right now it’s the biggest endurance sport because cycling is not good in the media. Triathlon’s the next biggest sport.”

When Stadler crosses the pond to train in San Diego, he sees the difference. “I went to a San Diego Padres game, and it’s amazing: the money . . . million-dollar contracts,” he said. “You have so many other big sports in the U.S., it’s difficult for us. The beginning of the sport came from here, but it’s not where it’s most popular.”

Johnson is realistic that while he has a good collection of product sponsors, his Oakleys won’t pay the bills. So like many pros he works, both as a coach for the last three years with D3 Multisport and part-time at Bicycle Village bike shop. “I also have what I call the silent sponsors: my wife, parents and in-laws are all very supportive and have helped defray the cost involved with racing.”

Similarly, Friman also has relied heavily on the work-train model, thanks in part to an initiative launched by Home Depot: The program, for Olympic-caliber athletes, provides a salary equivalent to twice the hours worked. But even with that generous program the demands of serious training were too much for Friman, who worked for six months while trying to maintain his ranking.“In 2005 I couldn’t break into the prize money to save my life,” Friman says. “It sounded great, but you have to average 20 hours a week for 52 weeks. So if you are traveling for three races in a row, you have 60 hours to make up in addition to your 20hour weeks. I worked in the lumber and building-materials departments and tired my legs and arms out standing on the floor and lifting concrete and drywall. But the money got me to the races in 2006.”

Suplicy faces a similar reality. After his morning swim or bike he’s on the phone with one of the seven athletes he coaches, assembling training programs. At 8 p.m., it’s back to the pool, this time for a one-on-one swim session with one of his clients.

“Sometimes I’ll get in and swim with them, just to try to get a bit of a workout,” Suplicy says.

Suplicy also took a leap of faith, finding some local investors to help him start his own carbon-fiber bike company. It’s a risk, but one he hopes pays off—and pays the bills. “You win the local races and people come up to me and ask what bike I should buy.

That happens a lot. And here I am making a lot of money for

Courtesy Kuota North America

Ironman world champ Normann Stadler (center) makes a comfortable living, but in the beginning, he says, it was all about writing sponsorship letters.

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other people,” Suplicy says. “I had my own ideas and was lucky to meet a guy from Taiwan and we started talking about ideas I had based on my experience racing and decided to go for it. It’s a lot of work and time, so many things involved in it. It’s hard to train and rest when you’re talking to Taiwan at 2 in the morning.”

It’s hard to look at the golfers out there making six figures when they still finish in the bottom half of their sport. You can’t focus on what the other sports are making. If I did, getting to the pool at 5:30 a.m. would be even more difficult.

“Getting sponsorship can be hard as a first-year pro,” Johnson admits. “I was fortunate that some of my sponsors have been with me when I was an age grouper. With all the resumes pouring in, you have to find a way to separate yourself. Every guy has good results, so you need to have something that makes you more marketable.”

While Johnson is lucky to have a shoe sponsor, Suplicy struggles as he goes through shoes every few months and opens his wallet each time. “I tried to get sponsorship but couldn’t get anything,” he says. “People give you one pair of shoes and expect you to represent the company the whole season, but that can’t be viewed as a sponsorship—I can’t wear one pair of shoes for an entire season. So I’m buying shoes all the time.”

Why pro triathletes earn so little can be attributed—in some cases—to the fact that the athletes are perhaps overly passionate about the sport. So many pros will settle for little, happy to get whatever they can. “I would love to see the pro ranks up their standards when it comes to sponsorship,” Johnson says. “[But] I think most of the industry is doing the best it can—most tri-related companies just don’t have the money to hand over to athletes.”

“To get a company to put its faith in you and invest in you is hard,” Johnson says. “Most companies will get hundreds of proposals, so your chances are slim. If you can meet someone in person at an event it is much better than just sending in a resume. And a lot of sponsorships come about by knowing someone who knows someone at company X.” For the elite short-course ITU pros, the sponsorship opportunities are even more limited. Race rules strictly limit the number, size and location of sponsor logos on a race kit. “I know a lot of ITU athletes who complain about the lack of space for sponsors on their uniform. My goal is always to get into one of the three funded levels of USAT,” Friman says.

“I haven’t been on the national team since 2004 though, so I do fork out a lot of travel money. But I understand this is necessary to get to the Olympic trials, so I am willing to do it. I always believe I am one race away from getting onto a national team. I may be deluding myself, though. But I like the carrot that USAT dangles in front of you with its criteria for national teams resting on top World Cup performances. I have no problem opening my wallet to spend on my dreams.”

The trick to earning a living in the sport? Being world champ helps. But some enterprising pros do as 2006 Ironman world champion Normann Stadler has done—look outside the sport. This year, Stadler managed, through his agent, to secure a German investment bank that is literally bankrolling his racing and creating a financial career for him. The trouble is it’s hard to find those connections and even harder to convince them that exposure in a fringe sport such as triathlon—as opposed to a sponsorship goldmine such as pro golf— is a worthwhile venture.

“If you compare it to golf and tennis, they train hard too,” Suplicy reasons, “but finishing last they get a few thousand. And if they win 76

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they get a few million.” Johnson concurs. “It’s hard to look at the golfers out there making six figures when they still finish in the bottom half of their sport,” he says. “You can’t focus on what the other sports are making. If I did, getting to the pool at 5:30 a.m. would be even more difficult. I would like to see triathlon rise to that level. Look at golf— each tournament has a big sponsor, and few of them are golf-related. What does Buick or John Deere have to do with golf? Not much, but each sponsor a big tournament—their target market watches golf.”

But there is reason for optimism among those pros in waiting who have yet to make it big. “Lately there have been more companies from outside the tri world, like American InterBank and V.M.G., that have stepped up, and that is promising,” Johnson says. “We need more companies that have the big money to throw at marketing to get interested in triathlon. In Germany they have the Quelle Challenge Roth. Quelle is a huge company like J.C. Penney; they sell everything from clothes to computers.

Imagine if Best Buy or Sears decided to sponsor a race.”

In the meantime, for the rank-and-file pro it’s business as usual, which often boils down to racing for pride.

“There is a lot of sacrifice in this sport—not that other sports are easy—but triathlon can really wear you down.

When you are physically exhausted, the stress of thinking about bills can really weigh on your mind,” Johnson says.

“On those perfect days when everything is clicking, it is absolutely worth it. But it’s the days when you feel terrible that you start to wonder what the heck you’re doing.”

Suplicy echoes Johnson. “I do the sport because I love it, but it’s just hard,” Suplicy says flatly. “In 2004 [friend and fellow pro] Kevin Danehy won the Palm Springs Triathlon and won a box of PowerBars—and we looked at them and they were expired. It was just sad.”

One weekend in pro sport IRONMAN WISCONSIN Sept. 9, Madison, Wis.

$30,000 PRIZE PURSE WINNERS: MAIK TWELSIEK AND GINA FERGUSON, $5,000 EACH EIGHTH PLACE: NORBERT KOENIG AND ISABELLA JUNGFER, $500 EACH

PGA BMW CHAMPIONSHIP Sept. 6-9, Lemont, Ill.

$7 MILLION PRIZE PURSE WINNER: TIGER WOODS, $1,260,000 EIGHTH PLACE: CAMILO VILLEGAS, $229,000

INDYCAR PEAK ANTIFREEZE INDY 300 Sept. 9, Joliet, Ill.

WINNER: DARIO FRANCHITTI, $111,400 EIGHTH PLACE: HIDEKI MUTOH, $45,300

U.S. TENNIS OPEN September, New York

$19.653 MILLION PURSE WINNERS: ROGER FEDERER AND JUSTINE HENIN, $1,400,000 EACH QUARTER-FINALISTS: FOUR MEN AND FOUR WOMEN, $150,000 EACH

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The fourth 12-step program for ramping down

By Mark Allen // Photos by John Segesta

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A triathlon season has four parts. The first three are pretty clear. It starts with the base period, usually in winter and early spring. Long, steady aerobic miles and weight training lay the foundation in the base period. The second is the anaerobic or speed phase, which lasts about one-quarter to one-third of the time you spend on your base. You add intervals to the endurance and strength of your aerobic training base and receive high-output speed in return. Next comes the taper. A well-executed taper down from peak training volume lasts around four weeks from start to finish.

Now, for the fourth phase. This is one of the most critical

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yet least understood parts of training: It’s the off-season, when you allow your body to fully charge up and recover. It’s the balance to the energy output of the other three phases. To many, the off-season translates into taking two weeks easy after the final race of the season and then jumping back into a structured training program in hopes of getting a head start and a foot up on their competitors.

However, our bodies don’t work best this way, and a good off-season can last up to three months. If this sounds impossible, then go train, but don’t expect any significant gains in ’08. But if you want to get faster, have more endurance and do better in your races next season, read on.

TRAINING PEAK’S Training Plans Training Peaks has developed a series of triathlon-training plans for all levels of multisport athletes.

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EVERY PLAN INCLUDES: • Nightly e-mails of your workouts • A daily log to track your workouts • Powerful calendar lets you change the plan to fit your schedule

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Moving forward

Most of you are nearing the end or have already ended your main training for the year. What you do now will have a profound effect on what happens in the future. The off-season is not a time to discontinue workouts altogether.

Activity is essential, but rigid structure is not. Intensity, speed and regiment at this time of year will get you a rap on the knuckles, as both body and mind get depleted from months of big workouts.

You’ll get the list of Do’s to choose from in a moment. But first we need to cover the three big Don’ts.

1. Don’t start back too soon. Just about everyone goes into the early winter months motivated to train. The drive to train hard early on can come from two opposing forces: success and disappointment. If you were pleased with your performance last season, you may be even more excited for what could be achieved in 2008. With success as your motivator, you can be on a race high that masks the need to cut back on training. However, to accomplish the two most important goals of the off-season, which are to recover and regroup, downtime is essential. An early jump into a big training program can lead to mid-season burnout next year.

The second reason for wanting to dive back into training can come from disappointment, especially if this disappointment occurred at your season finale. Using disappointment and frustration as a motivator can put your name on the Early Start mistake list with just as much ease as if you were overly zealous. But once again, emotions (disappointment, frustration) are masking the body’s need to shut down for a while and just chill out, take a breather, relax and recover.

2. Don’t become one with your couch. Taking a break from structured training is not a carte blanche invitation to become a sloth. This can result in excess weight gain, lethargy and the development of a huge mental block against getting back into the swing of training. This is the opposite of the Early Starter but can have a similarly negative effect on what happens next season.

We’ll talk in a moment about what activity means during the off-season, but safe to say it doesn’t mean mastering the remote control for your television.

3. Don’t sneak biggies. When most triathletes feel their fitness beginning to slide they want to sneak a big workout in just to maintain things. It may be an unscheduled long ride on the bike, a

Recovery cream Worth the cost or just temporary relief?

By Brad Culp

We’ve all been to the doctor complaining about some minor ache or pain, and the prescription is almost always the same: rest, ice, heat, compression. During the off-season, you may actually have time for all these steps, but if you’re still looking to speed up the process, perhaps it’s time to try a pain-relief cream. A short stroll through your local drug store and you’ll find enough creams for every day of the month. Most all of the products work in one of two ways.

The majority of products work by triggering a hot or cold sensation to the aching area. Such creams include Ben Gay or Icy Hot. The compounds in these creams (typically methyl salicylate and menthol) cause the nervous system to send either hot or cold sensations to the area to which the cream is applied and can be an excellent way to provide temporary relief.

Other products, such as ALCIS Daily Relief or Aspercreme, act by delivering anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving medicines directly to the affected area. The most common and recommended medicine is tromaline salicylate, a topical analgesic. These products will not offer the same kind of immediate numbing sensation of the menthol-based creams, but they are more effective as a longterm means of relieving minor inflammation.

Oddly enough, the off-season is when many athletes complain of minor aches in their muscles and joints. This is mainly due to a tightening effect caused by a lack of exercise and flexibility training. Occasionally working a recovery cream into your post-season routine is a great way to provide a little relief, but anything more than a slight ache should be checked by a physician.

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quick speed session or a workout that turns into a race with their buddies. This can be a good thing as long as it’s not a regular part of your schedule. Otherwise, it becomes training, and training turns the off-season into a muddled version of the regular season, which turns the regular season into a muddled version of the off-season.

Getting it right

So, what should you do? Here are a few tips for setting yourself up with the right balance of recovery without losing too much fitness.

1. Rest then assess. Take three weeks rest and recovery with only a minimum of easy training (up to a maximum of 30-60 minutes per day) after your last race of the year. Simply do light exercise that still moves the blood through your body with the focus of having total enjoyment. If you plan an hour jog, but at 20 minutes your body is saying enough, then in the off-season it truly is enough. By doing this, you will allow full recovery that only really begins after about two to three weeks of very low intensity workouts.

2. Train without training. During the year you swim, bike and run with focus. Part of a good off-season requires taking a mental break from the standard routine. Begin your offseason training with workouts that don’t feel like workouts.

Try mountain biking, trail hiking, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, rock climbing or anything else that uses the heart and muscles but is not about miles or training time to put in your log book. If you must swim, bike and run, start with a volume that is at most one-quarter to one-half of what you do mid-season.

3. Keep running . . . a little. You can take a complete break from the bike and the pool and still come back strong next year. However, it’s important to do a small amount of maintenance work for the run. If you take complete time off of running, when you begin your training again the joints and tendons could be subject to a higher chance of injury. But don’t worry about developing a definitive plan or time goals. If you feel good, go a little longer. If you feel tired, cut the run short.

4. Stay flexible. The off-season is one of the best times to work on general flexibility. Without your body having to deal with the miles of training, you can effectively apply the benefits of flexibility work. When you start back with your structured triathlon-training program in the late winter or spring, you will be more flexible and your body will be better adapted to the rigors of flexibility work.

5. Let your mind relax. One to three months away from a structured training schedule will not only recharge your body but will also recharge the motivation stores in your mind.

Skipping workouts or cutting back is not being lazy. It is being wise. Take time to listen to your body, take more breaks, naps, sleep more at night and cut out the workouts. Be flexible when deciding what to do for exercise.

6. Eat now for next year. We all tend to scarf down the junk food in the first weeks after the last big race. All the things that you denied yourself in the pursuit of excellence come calling your name, and most of us succumb. Splurging T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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a little bit is fine, but do your best to practice good nutrition before your splurging adds too much evidence around the midsection.

Body composition is only one reason to eat well in the offseason. A second is that it can take weeks to several months to stock up the reserves of nutrients that are depleted over the season.

It can also take that long to heal the tissues and build up the reserves of components in your hormonal systems that help you race well, think clearly and have emotional stability. Balance the splurge with an even larger amount of healthy foods.

7. Do a race. Find a fun race every three to six weeks. This is your get-out-of-jail-free card.

Go into the race with no speed work, and give it everything you have. This will keep a huge amount of your overall fitness intact yet still allow you to recover. Make sure you have not been sick in the two weeks leading up to your fun race, and monitor your health in the two weeks post-race. If you do come down with something in that timeframe, it is your immune system indicating a need to keep the training knob turned to low.

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8. Sleep, sleep and sleep some more. There is nothing like several weeks with full nights of sleep to charge the body up and rebalance the hormone and energy systems. Think of catching up on sleep just like you would losing weight. Make it a long-term project. One healthy well-proportioned meal won’t melt away months of overindulging at the dinner table. One or two nights of good rest won’t make up for months of cutting the ZZZs short.

9. Remember your support crew. Just about everyone has a group of family and friends that was left on the chopping block when it came to carving out time to train. Thank them . . . more than once. Do something with them they enjoy . . . more than

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once. Hang up the training shoes and hang out with them . . . more than once.

After a while they’ll get tired of you and want you out of the house again anyway.

Mark Allen is a six-time winner of the Ironman world championship in Hawaii. For information about Mark’s T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

speaking availability, please call 800994-5306. Mark has a state of the art online triathlon-training program at markallenonline.com. In addition to his online program, Mark co-teaches a workshop called Sport and Spirit with Brant Secunda (shamanism.com) and has worked with infinIT Nutrition to develop a real-world sports drink. |

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LONDON REINVENTED Dynamic, thriving London Triathlon reflects the resurgent energy of the city it calls home Story & Photos by Cameron Elford

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Since the inaugural event 11 years ago, the Michelob ULTRA London Triathlon has grown at a record pace, attracting athletes from throughout the UK, U.S. and Europe. And this year the event, staged in East London, boasted 12,000 athletes, including relay teams, making it the largest triathlon in the world and allowing London to, at least temporarily, reclaim the honor from the Chicago Triathlon.

Held over two days—Aug. 4-5 this year—the London Triathlon features three distances: super-sprint, sprint and Olympic (or near-Olympic with a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40.4kilometer bike and a 9.8-kilometer run) to cater to all levels of triathletes, plus two distinct courses. While all athletes swim in the River Thames at the Royal Victoria Dock, part of East London’s sprawling, industrial Docklands area (which is located five miles to the east of the City of London), which served as the city’s major sea-freight hub from the beginning of the 19th century until the 1960s, Olympic-distance athletes race on one of two out-andback bike courses, one cutting through the City of London to the turnaround point at the City of Westminster, the site of Britain’s Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and one turning at the Tower Bridge, which spans the Thames next to the Tower of London, a former royal residence and medieval torture chamber that now ranks as one of the UK’s top tourist attractions. The run course loops through the Royal Victoria Dock area before finishing inside the massive ExCel conference center, a new facility that also houses the race’s indoor transition area.

Big Ben towers over the Houses of Parliament, left, while Queen Victoria keeps watch over The Mall outside Buckingham Palace.

Founded as Londinium by the Romans in the first century A.D., London boasts a mottled 2000-year history, first as an outpost of the Roman Empire (fragments of Roman rule can still be seen throughout the city in the form of crumbling sections of the

GETTING THERE:

London is served by two major airports, Gatwick (gatwickairport.com) and Heathrow (heathrowairport.com), both of which can be extremely congested and challenging to navigate, so give yourself plenty of time to get around, whether arriving or departing. Also note that the airports limit carry-ons to one item apiece for departing passengers. This is strictly enforced, and if you try to bring more than one bag through security you’ll be sent back to the baggage drop/check-in, which can literally set you back hours during heavy travel times.

If you’re traveling through Gatwick you can choose from several options to get into the city: • First Capital Connect (firstcapitalconnect.co.uk) train service to the London Bridge Station; takes about 30 minutes. Fare is £10 for an adult, £5 for a child.

• Gatwick Express (gatwickexpress.com) train service to Victoria Station; takes about 30 minutes. Fares begin at £14.90.

• Bus or taxi: Depending upon where you’re going a bus (National Express Airport: nationalexpress.com, fares from £6.60) or taxi can take an hour or more, and a cab can cost upwards of £70-80.

If you’re traveling into Heathrow, you have even better options to get into the city: • The Heathrow Express (heathrowexpress.com) train will take you from Heathrow to Paddington Station (where you can catch the Underground to another destination) in 1520 minutes. One-way fares start at £14.

• Jump on t he Underground (tfl.gov.uk/tube) subway system, better known and the Tube. Heathrow is served by the Piccadilly Line, with trains every four to five minutes. Fares are typically no more than £4 (there’s a route planner and fare calculator on the Tube’s Web site), and the journey takes less than an hour to most London destinations.

• Bus or taxi: Heathrow is also served by the National Express Airport bus to Victoria and King’s Cross stations. The trip takes about 40 minutes and costs £10. Again, skip the taxi unless you’re a glutton for punishment and/or have time and money to burn.

Getting around London: This one’s a no-brainer. Don’t rent a car. Gas and parking are outrageous, and you’ll have to pay a congestion charge of £8-10 per day if you venture into Central London. London boasts one of the world’s best public-transit systems, the Underground. Getting around is easy and inexpensive.

Buy a week’s multi-zone pass, available at most Underground stations, and ride as much as you like. Additionally, on race weekend the Docklands Light Railway, an extension of the Underground network, offers athlete/bike-only trains right to the ExCel center.

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London Wall, which once encircled the Roman settlement and today roughly circumscribes the boundaries of the modern City of London, also known as the Square Mile; and in the form of place or street names, including Ludgate, Aldgate and Bishopsgate) then, after the Roman departure from the island in 410, as a small-scale Anglo-Saxon settlement until falling to Normandy’s William the Conqueror in 1066, an event that heralded the beginning of the Middle Ages and ultimately set the stage for the emergence of Britain as a cohesive state rather than a fractured and, at-times, squabbling collection of autonomous kingdoms.

Indeed, since medieval times London has enjoyed a position as one of Europe’s most important political, commercial and cultural centers, producing spectacular architecture, fueling the development of modern parliamentary democracy and providing the backdrop for many of the English language’s greatest poets, playwrights and novelists, from Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. And today, nearly 1000 years after the Norman invasion—despite plague, civil war, catastrophic fire, two World Wars and economic hardship—London is once again enjoying a renaissance as it reemerges as a global financial center after decades of slow post-war decline.

THE CHANGING FACE OF LONDON In 1777 English writer Samuel Johnson, credited with compiling one of the English language’s first comprehensive dictionaries and whose house still stands, just off Fleet Street, noted to fellow writer James Boswell, “Why, sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

Today, however, little of Johnson’s London, with its narrow, winding alleys, overcrowded, decaying tenements and largely lawless streets remains. Still, some of the landmarks that dotted the skyline of 18th-century London still exist—including Westminster Abbey, the Tower and the Sir Christopher Wren-designed St. Paul’s Cathedral—despite The Blitz, a massive German air assault on the city from September 1940 through May 1941, plus what has been criticized as an overzealous post-World War II reconstruction effort.

And London is once again remaking itself through a large-scale redevelopment initiative. Bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe and then, by the 1960s and ’70s, made obsolete by increasingly large container ships, leading to massive divestment in the region, the Docklands area now boasts comprehensive new commercial and residential development such as Canary Wharf (so named because the docks in the region once served ships bringing goods and raw materials from the Canary Islands,

On race day, athletes swim in Royal Victoria Dock, carved out of the Thames, and make their way past crumbling relics of the Docklands’ seafaring past.

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YOUR TO-DO LIST Begin by surfing the Web, including Google Maps and visitlondon.com, to get your bearings. London is one of the world’s most action-packed cities, and you’ll need a game plan for pre- or post-race sightseeing. That said, here’s a short list of a few of the top attractions to get you started: The Tower of London and the Tower Bridge: The Victorian Tower Bridge (towerbridge.org.uk) spans the Thames next to the medieval Tower of London. hrp.org.uk Buckingham Palace: Official London residence of the royal family. Near the Green Park Tube station. royalcollection.org.uk Westminster Abbey: Coronation and burial site for British monarchs from medieval to modern times. westminster-abbey.org St. Paul’s Cathedral: Designed by Sir Christoper Wren in the 17th century and the site of the 1981 wedding between Charles and Diana. stpauls.co.uk Houses of Parliament: Neo-Gothic building is the home of the British Parliament and Big Ben. parliament.uk Trafalgar Square: Constructed as a monument to Admiral Lord Nelson.

Charing Cross: The recognized center of London and site of the last of the 12 Eleanor crosses (although the extant cross is a 19th-century replica) erected

by King Edward I to commemorate his wife during her funeral procession in 1290.

Piccadilly Circus: Popular tourist site in the West End dominated by massive neon billboards and a statue of Greek god Eros.

Soho: Trendy theatre and entertainment district that maintains roots to its not-so-distant seedy past.

London Eye: Oversized Ferris wheel near the Waterloo Station that provides a stunning view of the city. ba-londoneye.com Note that there is perhaps no better way to see London than on foot, hopping on and off the Underground as desired. In addition to the above, there are myriad attractions that are less well known but nonetheless interesting, such as Dr. Johnson’s house (drjohnsonshouse.org), St. Mary Le Bow Church (stmarylebow.co.uk), the reconstructed Globe Theatre (shakespearesglobe.org), the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (nmm.ac.uk), Hyde Park plus numerous historical areas and streets including Pall Mall, Fleet Street and Chelsea.

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The Tower Bridge, spanning the Thames, frames the WW II-era HMS Belfast cruiser, which took part in the invasion of Normandy in 1944. off Africa’s west coast), a massive regentrification project begun in the late 1980s that, after a slow start, is now home to more than 90,000 workers and much of London’s financial sector, including Credit Suisse, Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup and HSBC, plus publishing icons The Independent and Reuters.

In addition, much of the rest of East London, a great deal of which still remains littered with obsolete and decaying relics of the region’s 19th-century seafaring past, has been tapped as the location for many venues for the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, which London was awarded by the IOC in 2005. And, as a result of an initiative spearheaded by the city’s Olympic Delivery Authority, the organization responsible for developing and building the venues and infrastructure for the games and steering their long-term use post-2012, city officials anticipate the 2012 games will bring

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO • London is expensive, and the U.S. dollar has weakened considerably against the pound in recent years, with about a 2:1 dollar-topound exchange rate.

• Security is tight. London is patrolled by thousands of CCTV cameras, and the police presence can be heavy, especially in popular tourist areas. Reassuring but also Orwellian.

• Look right when crossing the street. Britons drive on the left, so look right when you cross the street. Many crosswalks are marked with a bold reminder.

• There are many great restaurants in London, especially in Soho, but note that much traditional British cuisine can take some getting used to. Don’t find this out the hard way on race morning.

• If you want to get in a good run workout head to Hyde Park, where you can find a few scenic loops that will take you off the frenetic sidewalks of central London or Westminster. That said, if you go early enough you can run in almost any part of London without getting too many odd stares.

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large-scale remediation of Docklands brownfield sites as well as 9000 new homes and a large urban park featuring a wildlife habitat plus restoration of the region’s natural floodplains.

Still, despite the optimism and the city’s centuries-old successful track record of reinventing itself, many fear the projected £2.375 billion (about $4.75 billion U.S.) cost of the games could leave a far less positive legacy in the form of decaying Olympic infrastructure and massive public and private debt as occurred in Montreal following the 1976 Olympics; indeed Montreal only retired its Olympic debt in late 2006, some 30 years after the conclusion of the games.

LONDON TRI AT THE HEART OF LONDON’S EVOLUTION Despite the controversy surrounding the Olympic-inspired future of East London, Londoners remain smitten with the London Triathlon, which casts a broad net, appealing as much to first-timers as to triathlon veterans. And, games or not, the large capital-investment initiatives are quickly transforming the triathlon from a tour of the city’s gritty industrial zone—an area where Jack the Ripper prowled in the 1880s and which is still largely a rough-and-tumble working-class region—to a tour of its modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers.

Indeed, the ExCel Centre will host the Olympic boxing, judo, taekwondo, weight lifting and wrestling events, paving the way for even greater redevelopment in the area as existing buildings are hollowed out and repurposed as upscale restaurants and offices or leveled to make room for new facilities, such as the proposed 500-acre Olympic Park near Stratford to the north.

It’s into this context that the London Triathlon fits as a relatively young sport in a historic place with an unmatched ability to continually recreate and renew itself while maintaining ties with its remarkable past. As such, the growing London Triathlon mirrors the changing, dynamic backdrop of the city as both entities surge forward fueled by London’s inexorable energy.

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DILLON, DON TOP THE FIELD Although the London Tri was not a part of the ITU World Cup series this year, the event still permitted the pros to draft on the bike. And a top field of short-course athletes turned up, including Australia’s Annabel Luxford and Great Britain’s Jodie Swallow, Michelle Dillon and Andrea Whitcombe.

On the men’s side, the field was led by British stars Tim Don, Stuart Hayes and Richard Stannard with American Matt Reed and New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty also highly capable of challenging for the win.

Athletes on both days of the event raced in hot, sunny conditions, with warm water temperatures disallowing the use of wetsuits among the pro athletes. Still, flat, windless conditions early on ensured quick swim times, with all the top contenders in both the men’s and women’s events near the front as the athletes emerged from the Thames and sprinted up a stairway to the transition area housed within the ExCel convention center.

Once on the bike, Luxford built a slim margin over Dillon while the top men formed a six-man break that included Don, Hayes and Reed. This group of six powered to a decisive advantage, and by T2 it was clear that the winner would come from this select group as Don charged out onto the run in first place followed closely by Hayes.

“I was first out of T2, and at about six k [kilometers] I attacked aggressively,” said Don, who was second here in 2006 and says he set up his win this year with a good swim that placed him within the lead pack on the bike. “Ben [Sansun] went out like a shark on the swim,” Don continued, “but once we got onto the bike we didn’t wait for anyone.”

Tim Don, at right above, drives the bike pack as the athletes head into T2 at the ExCel center.

After putting in an extraordinary effort to pull away from Hayes on the second half of the run Don cruised in for the win, his first in his hometown. “What a race!” Don exclaimed after finishing. “I’ve never won in London before. I’m pretty happy.”

Among the women, Dillon, a 2000 Olympian and the winner of the 2007 St. Anthony’s Triathlon in Florida, charged onto the run to take the win with a comfortable 30-second margin over Whitcombe. “Once I got onto the run I was really surging on the first lap and then ran on adrenalin the second lap,” said Dillon.

“I really wanted to win this race badly this year,” she noted, “and I visualized winning all year. I won in 2002, but [since then] I’ve had bad luck at this race.”

MICHELOB ULTRA LONDON TRIATHLON London, UK Aug. 5, 2007 1.5km swim, 40.4km bike, 9.8km run

Michelle Dillon emerges from the Thames and prepares to tackle the bike and run courses.

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Women 1. Michelle Dillon (GBR) 2. Andrea Whitcombe (GBR) 3. Annabel Luxford (AUS) 4. Jodie Swallow (GBR) 5. Leanda Cave (GBR)

1:55:29 1:56:05 1:56:20 1:58:34 1:59:45

Men 1. Tim Don (GBR) 2. Stuart Hayes (GBR) 3. Matt Reed (USA) 4. Harry Wiltshire (GBR) 5. Hendrik De Villiers (GBR)

1:42:01 1:42:19 1:44:29 1:44:54 1:45:07

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DRIVEN Kiwi Cam Brown lets his racing do the talking

By Jay Prasuhn Photos by John Segesta

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To say things were silently dire was an understatement. When we met with Cam Brown in early June, it was a week until Ironman Germany. But a case of plantar fasciitis was making life rough for the friendly Kiwi. Nobody wanted to say it, but even a start in Hawaii in October was a question mark for the guy who has a remarkable four top-three Hawaii Ironman finishes in the last six years (second overall in 2001 and ’05 and third in 2002 and ’03).

But three months later, in early September, redemption.

Well, sort of. At a pre-Hawaii Ironman training camp with the Triathlon New Zealand ITU squad in France, Brownie sat for a meal that was, for lack of a better word, eclectic: frog legs spread about a bed of paella. “The French food isn’t that great,” Brown said flatly. “I can’t wait to get home for some great Kiwi food . . . mince meat and cheese pie.”

But for all the culinary pitfalls and earlier training stumbling blocks, Brownie was otherwise in heaven. The plantar fasciitis gone, his Hawaii Ironman plans back on track. And despite his affable likeability, this quiet Kiwi brings to the sport a fierce intensity and drive that has propelled him to triathlon greatness.

Triathlete: It’s certainly fortuitous that you could find a collection of countrymen (and women) to train with in France leading up to Hawaii—plus you got to check out some of the Tour de France and log a few seven-and-ahalf and eight-and-a-half-hour bike days in the mountains.

How’d the injury come about?

It was the last week of December, and I did the half-Ironman New Zealand champs, and it was pretty sore after that and became an annoying part of training. I had to be aware of it all the time, massaging and icing it. Then I won a New Zealand series race and every race after that just flared it up. Then running 42 k’s at [Ironman] New Zealand really screwed it up. Two weeks turned into four weeks, and that turned into six weeks and I had to make a decision. So I called it quits, took a break.

Sitting out your home race was not an option then?

I didn’t think I was going to be able to do New Zealand . . . but it was because of the stomach virus I got Wednesday night [before the race in early March]. Fortunately I came right that Friday. Then it was Luke [Bell] and I pretty much running the whole way together. It’s my home race; it really drove me to go harder. It’s actually probably the hardest I’ve had to push myself.

I know Luke was stuffed as well. I was pretty lucky to end up winning. To win seven years there has been fantastic.

The fact that it’s a home race is one thing. But Taupo does stand out as one of the finest events.

Oh, yeah. It’s one of the most impressive crowds, especially with 3k to go—it’s a solid line of people. That’s the great thing about having Ironmans in small towns. They’re so well supported. All of Taupo comes out and supports us. And the course is just beautiful.

Cameron Brown: The training is just fantastic with some of the best cycling in the world right on your doorstep and some great trail running as well. I had the luxury of seeing one of the toughest stages in this year’s Tour de France: stage 14, a 197km ride through the Pyrenees. And we did a weekly lake swim in the beautiful, calm waters of Lake Montbel. So after an hour ride to the lake, 25 of us thrash up and down the lake, churning up the waters under the eyes of the local and unhappy fishermen. It’s normally quite an intense hour session, then straight onto the bikes.

Your early years as a pro saw you racing draft-legal ITU events. What prompted your switch to Ironman? When did you switch to long-course racing?

My first half was in New Caledonia in 1992, which I won as a 20-year-old. My first Ironman was Ironman New Zealand in 1997.

I started winning the Tauranga Half Ironman in 1997 as well.

Historically, your run has always been your ace in the hole. But in recent years you’ve proven to have very solid bike through 112 miles.

It’s changed so much, especially this year with my long build-up to Kona. This is something my coach has always wanted me to do, miss a mid-season race and build up my bike.

Maybe my body did need a break from running, but the biking has been a big, big change, especially this year.

I know the plantar fasciitis was of grave concern for you; having knocked you out of Ironman Germany, it really left your Hawaii up in the air.

I thought I would never get over this injury. I would look at people running and get pissed off because I couldn’t run. So running now is just fantastic. I ran 132 kilometers [82 miles] last week and will run maybe more this week. So things are going very well now. I’m starting to get very happy with how things are going.

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Looking at the plantar fasciitis from a silver-lining standpoint, it forced a totally different Hawaii lead-up; in the past you did two Ironmans a year: an early title defense at your home race, Ironman New Zealand, and a mid-summer Ironman before one final lead-up to Hawaii.

was blowing his trumpet [at the pre-race press conference in Kona]: “I train harder than anyone”—shit, what does he think we do? You got to be very careful what you say sometimes. I like to let the racing do the talking.

In some ways it sucks. Historically I’ve done well doing it this way, and not doing Germany as defending champ was a big dent in the pocketbook, especially when you have a family to support. But then you think: this might be the key to winning Kona, to just focus on Hawaii.

I know some people reckon that because you’re not vocalizing your desire to win in Hawaii that you really don’t want it as bad as someone like McCormack.

While Chris McCormack, Normann Stadler and Faris AlSultan have been trading verbal jabs in the press over the past year, you tend to avoid making statements about how you hope to do. Does this motivate you or do you just silently smile and let them do the talking?

Trash talk and all that, I’ll never get into it. It’s not my kind of thing. Those three guys, they get a bit of positive energy with it, but I’ll be the person in the back corner they don’t even notice. I’ll just turn up on race day. Sometimes it’s annoying to hear some guys, like last year when [Boulder, Colorado’s] Cam Widoff

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Oh yeah, there’s no question—no question—I want to win the Hawaii Ironman. It’s the world championship, and my career revolves around it. I have a lot of important things in my life, but I wouldn’t be doing this, suffering in training, making these sacrifices, being apart from my wife and kids, if I didn’t think I was capable of winning there. No, I want to win this race very badly.

As a husband and father, do you have a cap on when you’ll hang up your race wheels and call it quits?

I’ll be in the sport until I stop enjoying it—that’s the factor that will make me stop. At the moment there is still a lot of drive to try and do well in Hawaii, and my wife Jenny is very understanding. And this is a dream job! When I have to get a real job, I’ll then know how lucky I was.

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RACING AROUND THE GLOBE

International editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note

Lisa Pringle looks at the business of hosting the ITU world championships as the event heads to the Gold Coast in 2009 | 100

News Down Under

Triathlete magazine rounds up the news from Australia and New Zealand | 102

Searching for gold

Amanda Lulham highlights the Aussiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performances in Hamburg and what lies ahead for Beijing | 104

Aussie training

Are you about to step up to the Olympic distance for the first time this season? Triathlete is here to help | 110

Joe Sphryan

At the back

Jo King won a world-championship title, Ironman Germany, finished 10th in Kona and then faded away.

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For the record

World championship equals big business

By Lisa Pringle

In September, Hamburg, Germany, hosted a magnificent ITU short-course championship, showcasing our sport. In 2009 Australia will host the ITU triathlon world championships on the Gold Coast, adding a new chapter to Australia’s triathlon history.

Who could forget the 1991 triathlon world championship when a 20-year-old Miles Stewart out-sprinted the world’s best, including Rick Wells (NZ) and Mike Pigg (US), in the final straight to win? Australia’s love affair with triathlon had begun.

Triathlon had been introduced to Australia back in the early 1980s when the first official event was staged in the southern suburbs of New South Wales on Cronulla Beach. The event was billed as a tri-marathon. Fast forward 27 years, to 2007, and triathlon in Australia is a healthy and thriving industry. Indeed, triathlon can no longer claim the title of an emerging sport that flies under the radar; it has a history, with now-retired champions who have spent an entire career carving out a healthy living.

And many have gone on working in the sport after the curtain closed on their competitive careers.

However it’s not just the athletes who do well from triathlon.

Hosting major events is big business, and triathlons inject millions into the local economies of their host cities such that Queensland Events, the event-management arm of the Queensland Government, is a major investor in Australia’s biggest triathlons: Noosa, Mooloolaba, Gold Coast and the 2009 worlds.

Garth Prowd, managing director of USM Events, notes that Queensland’s ability to deliver events at an elite level is well recognised throughout the international sporting community.

“The economic impact of the world championships is very variable, as it is based primarily on the number of competitors we can attract to participate in the event,” says Prowd. “We believe 100

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Based on the recent ITU world championships in Germany, Australia sits atop the world-championship leader board, with the Australian women leading the way. The USA is next on the ladder, again with the women leading the medal count. Great Britain rounds out the top three.

Country Australia: Male Australia: Female Total USA: Male USA: Female Total Great Britain: Male Great Britain: Female Total

Gold

Silver

Bronze

6 11

6 9

6 6

1 4

4

1 9

7 1

3 1

2

Totals 18 26 44 2 17 19 12 2 14

But who’s keeping score . . .? that the real value for the region will come from the large numbers of non-competing people who will come to Australia to accompany the competitors,” continues Prowd.

Queensland premier, Peter Beattie, agrees with Prowd and has heralded the ITU’s decision to award the 2009 championships to the Gold Coast. “The world championships will provide major tourism and media benefits for Queensland and further our international reputation as a host of world-class events,” said Premier Beattie.

The Gold Coast is a stunning natural location that is one of the world’s great tourist destinations. This is a lifestyle city, and its beaches are among the top in the world; plus its entertainment and accommodation options leave tourists spoiled for choice. It’s a city where visitors can choose to be glamorous, adventurous or relaxed.

Lisa Pringle International editor

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News Down Under

A grand dame turns 25

Other side of the hill Australian former professional triathlete Chris Hill has decided to move from the peloton to the press pack in 2007. Hill came to prominence in the late 1990s with a flurry of consistent performances on the ITU circuit. He was awarded Australian Triathlete of the Year honors and won the ITU World Cup series in 2001. Hill currently studies journalism at Bond University, Gold Coast, and will gain his degree in December. He writes for several publications in Australia and is excited about his new career on the other side of the sport.

“The press has always interested me,” said Hill. “I am loving the direction my life has taken. I get to write, photograph and promote the sport that I did as a professional for 15 years.”

Shortis’ new business Australia’s longest-serving Ironman, Jason Shortis, is looking beyond Ironman and venturing into business, recently purchasing a bike shop at the southern end of the Gold Coast at Tweed Heads (53 Wharf Street). If you’re ever in the area, Jason extends an invitation to pop in and say g’day.

“The opportunity came up, and was too good to pass up,” says Shortis. “I’ve been racing since 1984, so a large part of my life has involved bike shops.” Shortis fell one spot short of achieving his dream of winning the Australian Ironman earlier this year in his 13th attempt and elected not to race Hawaii this year after suffering a chest infection.

Take a step back to 1983, when sweat bands were in, Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean and the Weather Girls’ It’s Raining Men were topping the charts. It was also the year the Noosa Triathlon had its humble beginnings.

Twenty-five years later and the event has evolved into something no one could have imagined. The Noosa Triathlon Multisport Festival is now regarded as the largest of its kind and the third-largest triathlon (behind London and Chicago) in the world—plus, it has been voted Australia’s best sports-tourism event.

Question any triathlete in Australia and they’ll ask if you’ve done Noosa, been to Noosa or have an interest in Noosa, and for good reason: It’s one of the world’s most popular triathlons, drawing 5,500 athletes each year to the Olympic-distance challenge that also routinely lures the country’s top professionals.

But the glitz and glamour that now surrounds the Noosa Triathlon is a long way removed from its humble beginnings when just 180 competitors started. The festival celebrated its 25th anniversary on Nov. 4 with that irresistible mix that has made it one of the world’s greatest multisport festivals— triathlon, entertainment, sun, sea, surf and partying—at one of Australia’s most popular holiday destinations, Noosa.

There is a week-long festival of swimming, cycling, running and triathlon events for everyone from age 7 to 70, plus a beach-volleyball skins tournament, two golf tournaments (celebrity and corporate), a massive expo, corporate/VIP facilities, a Ms. and Mr. Noosa Model Search and a serious after-party you’ll also need to train for.

The run course for the 2008 Panthers Ironman Australia has been altered as a major step in the ongoing improvement of this iconic event. The course will now be a three-lap circuit, which still encapsulates the picturesque rolling hills of Pacific Drive, the flat-water pathways out to the beautiful Settlement Point and the city centre for the benefit of spectators. The southern turnaround point on Pacific Drive has been brought back from Harry’s Lookout to the Rocky Beach Lookout.

“We have resolved to alter the run course this year for logistical and safety reasons,” said race director Ken Baggs. “The police had concerns with those sections of the run course which are shared with cyclists. With these sections, lighting had also been a problem for us, and less use of Pacific Drive means better lighting is possible and it also makes it safer and more userfriendly for athletes.

“In making these changes we were mindful of the aspects of the course that attract athletes to Port Macquarie,” continued Baggs. “The new course maintains the integrity of the event, still keeping the hills and the scenery, while reducing the risk to competitors. Over the years while the event was held in Forster, we tweaked that course on several occasions to improve the race and cater to the changing needs of the event and the community. We will continue to look for ways to improve and grow the event in Port Macquarie in the same way.”

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Courtesy Trent Taylor

Altered run course for Panthers Ironman Australia

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Searching for bold Aussie athletes make a bold statement in Hamburg

By Amanda Lulham

Australian triathlon coach Bill Davoren will add alchemy to his bag of tricks in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics as he hunts for ways to turn world-championship silver and bronze into much-sought-after gold.

The architect of the Australian program with the grand plan of winning both triathlon gold medals in Beijing next August is adamant that what he witnessed from the sidelines at the world championships in Hamburg, Germany, in early September 104

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shows Australia has the right stuff to achieve its goal.

“We are still chasing two golds next year at the Olympics, and what I saw here in Germany shows me we can do it,” Davoren says. And the two stars of Australia’s elite performance in Hamburg, Emma Snowsill and Brad Kahlefeldt, are likely to be among the headliners in Beijing in less than a year.

Kahlefeldt believes his bronze behind popular German Daniel Unger, who recorded a thrilling and tearful hometown win, and world No. 1 Javier Gomez of Spain, has hammered down his Olympic selection, and he’s probably right.

Snowsill probably doesn’t need to think about it at all after a haul of three world titles and a silver medal since 2003.

But following the 2007 world championships both know they need to lift to a new level to achieve their dream of winning Australia’s first-ever triathlon Olympic gold medals, and in Kahlefeldt’s case, Australia’s first-ever men’s triathlon medal of any color. Kahlefeldt believes it is just a 2-percent improvement he needs to win gold next year after matching an inspired Unger and Gomez stride for stride until the final kilometers of the run in chilly Hamburg.

Snowsill, dogged by a back problem and recently diagnosed with asthma prior to the Hamburg worlds, hasn’t got a magic number, but with newly crowned world champion Vanessa Fernandes growing in stature day by day, she knows she must continue to lift the bar.

“I just have to keep improving everything I do little by little,” said the 25-year-old Snowsill, who divides her year between the Gold Coast and Boulder, Colo. “Every race I do I learn something, and I just have to keep doing that.”

Snowsill learned the hard way what it is to be a pre-race favorite in a 77-strong women’s field in Germany. A moving punching bag for an unidentified assailant during the 1.5km canal swim, Snowsill lost over a minute in transition struggling to pull her wetsuit over a dislodged timing device. “I got punched in the face,” said Snowsill, who admitted she was left seeing stars after the watery altercation. “Someone picked my wetsuit up and punched me. That threw me back a little. They tried it again, but I scrambled away.”

The damage, however, was done in transition when her struggles saw her lose touch with a dozen-strong front pack driven by a frenzied Fernandes.

Delly Carr

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working Matt Hopper (35th, 1:46:00) and David Dellow (60th, 1:50:10), Kahlefeldt was back in medal contention when the runner of the field launched off the front for the start of the final leg.

“We’d all pushed hard on the bike so I just stayed behind [Javier] Gomez on the run and stuck with him when he went for it,” said Kahlefeldt. “I thought he was the man to beat, and so did all the boys.” But he, and they, were wrong, with the 29-year-old poster boy of the Hamburg world championships lifted over the line by a mass wave of emotion from a 250,000-strong crowd. A tearful and overwhelmed Unger crossed in 1:43:18, ahead of Gomez (1:43:22) and Kahlefeldt (1:43:36).

“Today showed me I can win next year. It’s good,” said Kahlefeldt, now the owner of two world-championship bronze medals.

Joseph Ryan/designseven.com.au

“I only lost a few seconds but missed the first pack on the bike. One second in this game and you miss the train,” Snowsill said. “With that many girls in front of you, it’s really hard to close that gap.”

But in an extraordinary comeback Snowsill fought on, picking off more than 20 women one by one in the final, desperate run.

A world championship record run time of 32:55 saw Snowsill (who finished in 1:54:31) pip American Laura Reback (1:54:37) for the silver, a performance the brilliant Australian rated as one of her best ever.

Kahlefeldt, who had openly acknowledged the world crown was on his agenda pre-race, also suffered setbacks during the rugged swim, including falling on the exit ramp and being trampled by a couple of rivals. But recovering, and with some help from a hard-

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Race notes • Simon Thompson, who fell during the swim-to-bike transition, was unable to finish after injuring his foot.

• In the women’s race, Erin Densham was also sent to the sidelines after gamely racing until the run with a knee injured in a pre-race bike crash. Annabel Luxford, also hindered by knee problems, finished 30th, while Emma Moffatt continued to impress Olympic selectors with her gutsy fourth place.

• In the under-23 competition, Brendan Sexton thrust himself into the spotlight ahead of the Beijing Olympics thanks to a silver medal and a little help from a friend. A bad swim almost derailed Sexton’s bid to make it onto the world-championship podium before close mate Clayton Fettell went to his aid.

Fettell, one of the strongest swimmer/bikers in the race, was to wait for Sexton and teammate Dan Wilson after the swim and then

Delly Carr

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Frank Wechsel

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shotgun during the 40km bike leg. “But I didn’t know I was going to have to go that far back for Brendan,” Fettell laughed after Sexton lost close to a minute in the swim and first transition. Fettell then helped drive Sexton back into the lead pack, with the effort forcing him to retire from the race during the run.

“I’d done my job; I was just smashed,” he said.

For Sexton, the silver medal, his first podium finish in any major international race, has come at the perfect time with the youngster keen to be in the mix for Olympic selection. “I stepped up, and that’s something the Olympic selectors are looking for,” said Sexton. German Gregor Buchholz (1:49:31) won the gold, with Sexton just three seconds back.

• In the first race of the world championships in Germany, Queensland teenager Ashleigh Gentle came up trumps in the rain with a silver medal to identify herself as a rising star of the sport. The lean 16-year-old turned heads with her performance against a field dominated by women both older and significantly more racehardened.“It’s my first world title, so I’m really happy,” said Gentle who struggled in a swim where she noted she took in a good deal of water.

“I really didn’t expect anything. I just came here for the experience.”

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muscles. On arriving back from the jog do a light stretch of the major muscle groups that are going to be used, and then have a light breakfast.

Shower: A lot of athletes don’t do this, but a warm shower before leaving to go to the race site is the ideal way of waking the body fully and making you feel refreshed and ready to go. You wouldn’t go to work without showering first would you?

Pre-race warm-up: After checking your bike in and setting up your transition area, find a quiet area to stretch. It is not always possible to get into the water early to warm up; in such instances, use stretch cords to simulate the movements of swimming.

Swim start Deep-water start: If the race is a deep-water start, be sure to find your own space. Be a little bossy and get people out of your area by having your feet rise behind you to the surface. This is the best position to start your race from as you will already be horizontal before the gun goes. The second that it takes to get your feet from under you to the top of the water can allow athletes to swim over top of you, so starting horizontally can prevent some discomfort and get you off to a flying start.

Swim-to-bike transition Grease up your wetsuit: Getting your wetsuit off efficiently is one of the best ways to have a speedy transition. If it gets caught on your foot or is bunched around your ankle you can lose precious time hopping around the transition area trying to get it off. The best way to make sure it all runs smoothly is to place a wetsuit-safe lubricant, such as Bodyglide, on the outside of the wetsuit from the knee down.

Build your pace: Don’t go flying out of transition at 100 miles per hour. You will be on the bike for over an hour, so start off conservatively and allow your body to get used to being vertical again after the swim. Wait 10 minutes or so before taking any calories or fluid in. Once you have built a good rhythm and your breathing is controlled you can then look at building your pace.

Bike-to-run transition

One step at a time

Tips for your first Olympic-distance race

By Shane Smith

So you’ve completed a few sprint triathlons and now you want to jump up a measure to the Olympic distance. This is a great, and attainable, goal, but the step up in distance poses a few additional challenges, and the more prepared you are the better the outcome will be. Below are a few tips to help you prepare for the next part of your triathlon journey.

Pre-race primer Early-morning warm-up: A good warm-up prior to the start is critically important. One trick is to do an early-morning warm-up roughly two hours prior to the event. Once you are fully awake and have had some water, put on some warm clothes and do a very easy five- to eight-minute jog, slowly waking your 110

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Visualize: When you are approaching the 37-kilometer mark on the bike, it is advantageous to begin visualizing the transition that’s to come. Think about where your gear is positioned within the transition area and the best route to reach that point (you should have walked it out before the start so you know exactly where to go). Think about what you will do when you reach transition and the order in which you will do it. Visualize yourself racking your bike, taking your helmet off, putting your hat and shoes on and then running to the exit. Also, stretchy shoelaces are a must and can save any seconds in transition.

Tackling the run Start off conservatively: The jump from a race with a 5km run to a 10km run is a big one, and the run is where many athletes struggle. Not only is the distance double what you have raced before, but you have also been riding your bike for double the distance. Begin the run slowly, shaking your arms out and getting your breathing under control. After a few kilometers your legs should begin to feel almost normal and you can start building into a good pace. Make sure you get drinks at the aid stations and focus on taking the run one step at a time—don’t get too far ahead of yourself and start thinking of the post-race spread.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

On the bike

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King’s quest to reign again

By Jo King

Australia’s Jo King isn’t making any predictions for her comeback to triathlon after a three-year absence from the sport.

The 1996 world junior and 1998 world

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painful foot injury diagnosis when grade-two melanoma was discovered on her lower back. King, 31, writes below about her setbacks and moving forward. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Ed. In 2004 I decided to take a break from triathlon. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been having a tough year with injuries and health problems and was struggling mentally to train right.

I spent the first few weeks feeling lost. I was used to structured training sessions. Every training session had a purpose. I had races to train for, goals to achieve. It took some time to adjust to exercising for pleasure rather than as an occupation.

Six months prior to my break I bought myself a goldenretriever puppy, Polly. She helped to keep me in my hometown of Torquay. I was used to moving around a lot and couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do that with her. Now, there arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t many places I go without her.

During my break I set up a personal-training business in Torquay, mostly training mums who had never run before.

Some of these mums are now running marathons, halfmarathons and doing their first triathlons this summer. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inspiring to see what they have achieved in such a short amount of time. Deciding to return to training was always in the back of my mind, but knowing when was the hard part.

In mid-2005 a friend asked if I would be interested in doing a 1000-kilometer mountain-bike race in South Africa in April 2006. I was turning 30 in March 2006 and wanted to do something significant, so I began training in December 2005.

If I made it through this ride in one piece I would resume triathlon training.

It turned out to be a fantastic time, sort of. My teammate and I finished third in the womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s division. However, during the race I fell and landed on my knee. I finished strong but was left wondering what sort of damage I had done. After a few weeks of recovery, I started training for Ironman Western Australia. After six weeks of training, Polly joined me. She got a little excited one day and knocked me over. Again, I landed awkwardly on the same knee. I took a week off from running, but my knee was always a bit niggly after that.

Just before the South Australian Half Ironman, (about six weeks before Ironman Western Australia), I got bronchitis, which forced me to lighten my training load again.

Finally, it was time to compete at Busselton. I was just excited to be there and knew I had made the right decision. But I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t finish. I got halfway through the run, and my legs just didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have enough, so I pulled the pin. I had spent far too much time in medical tents, and I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to do that my first Ironman back.

After my disappointment at Busselton I had a great win at the half-Ironman in Tasmania and decided to race at the 2007 Panthers Ironman Australia in April. My knee started acting up and prevented me from training how I needed to. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go as fast as I wanted, but mentally it was great to finish one. I had surgery on my knee a few weeks after the Ironman. There was considerable damage, and I spent two weeks on crutches and another six weeks without running.

By September I was getting fitter and stronger by the day and had won the Cairns Half Ironman. After that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Gold Coast Half Ironman and the Western Australia Ironman. It would be a dream come true to qualify for Hawaii again. But Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned to enjoy all the moments that may or may not lead up to that. The journey toward a goal is often more rewarding than the outcome itself.

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117 122 126 128 LAB RABBIT 114

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THE ON THE RUN BIG RING

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G “The essence of sports is that while you’re doing it, nothing else matters, but after you stop, there is a place, generally not very important, where you would put it.”

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[Roger Bannister]

130 132 134 SPEED LAB

ROCKET SCIENCE

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TRAINING FEATURE

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TRAINING

Last month, we reviewed the importance of a professional bike fitting, examined six separate training-intensity zones, looked at a few key exercises for dry-land training and went through the specific workout details for weeks 1 through 4. This month, in part two, we continue fine-tuning your physiology and biomechanics to help you PR your 40km split in your peak races in 2008. The workout-definition key below is an expanding chart included again this month with updated definitions.

WORKOUT DEFINITION KEY Maintaining a rigid arch

ATA

Average torque angle

Backstroke

The phase of pedaling where the foot moves backward

Bilateral symmetry

Equal movement in terms of timing and positioning of the limbs

Cadence

The rate of pedaling frequency (rpm). A cadence of 85 to 100 on flat to rolling terrain is considered efficient

Downstroke

The phase of pedaling where the foot moves forward and downward (90% of power)

Head line

Maintain neutral spine and head angle

Heel line

Maintain the heel alignment with the center of the knee

Hip extension

Generated from the gluteus maximus and hamstring muscles.

You will feel light muscular tension bilaterally in the buttocks and hamstrings when isolating hip-extension movements

HPR

High pedaling resistance (higher gear ratios, large chainring)

Increasing OLS

Increasing the number of spins with each leg

Intensity zones

Zones 1 through 6, which establish intended physiological intensities

Knee line

Maintain the knee in alignment with the second toe

Large chain ring

Front largest ring

Lower gear

Easier gear

LPR

Low pedaling resistance (lower gear ratios, small chainring)

Normal

“N” normal pedaling stroke, which places more emphasis on the downstroke with a smooth transition through the back, up and overstrokes

OLS

One-leg spins, dominating the stroke one side at a time. The other side is passive and remains clipped in. Not doing so is counterproductive to symmetrical pedaling mechanics

OLS/L

One-leg spin, left leg only

OLS/R

One-leg spin, right leg only

Rev up for weeks 5-8 of this cycling-focused Olympic-distance training program

Overstroke

The phase of pedaling where the foot passes over the top of the stroke

By Marc Evans

RPMs

Revolutions per minute

O

Sectors

Over, down, back and upstroke

Over the past several months, we have brought you a number of 12-week step-by-step training programs from sprint to Ironman distance. This month, you’ll find weeks 5-8 of our 12-week bike-focus phase, designed to help you hone your cycling ability for the 2008 season. If you’d like to follow any of our previous Lab Rabbit training programs, please visit triathletemag.com and click on Order a Back Issue. The following program is designed for Olympic-distance-focused triathletes.

Small chainring

Front smallest ring (middle for triples)

Standing

Out of saddle

Standing squats

Pedaling out of saddle; squat down slightly for a number of strokes. Then squat down a little more. And again, while pedaling, squat down to nearly resting on the top tube

Up gear

Shift to a higher/harder gear

Upstroke

The phase of pedaling where the foot rises from the bottom toward the top of the stroke

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

Arch line

12 weeks to a faster 40K

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LAB RABBIT involvement. There is an optimal pedaling rate for varying levels of power output, and this rate is rider- and terrain-dependent. However, it is well documented that as power output intensifies cadence also increases. So, pushing a hard gear at a lower cadence is less economical over time. Triathletes generally work at 90 to 100 rpms. Work on finding the right pedaling rate where energy expended and generated power is balanced and muscular fatigue is not too intense or moderate when working in Zone 3 and Zone 4. Through experimentation and repetitive training you’ll find the right cadence ranges for different intensities, terrain and competitions.

INTENSITY ZONES The intensity zones consist of six distinct levels of effort. Not all intensity zones are used this month, but detailing the potential systems is helpful in determining effort; fundamentally, training intensities produce certain adaptations in the body that may not be duplicated at a higher or lower intensity. How you determine intensity is largely based upon heart rate and/or rate of perceived exertion (RPE). The intensity-zone table below provides several characteristics, ratios, heart-rate percents, RPE perceptions and workout examples to help you fine tune your intensity.

THIS MONTH’S TECHNIQUE FOCUS: CADENCE With changes in pedaling rate (cadence) come a corresponding change in the activity and the intensity of muscular

In the following program (workout details are on page 120) you’ll ride three to four times each week on the road or on an indoor trainer or rollers. Several of the workouts this month include specific warm-up and cool-down sessions; however, where only the main set is specified be sure to begin and end each workout with 10 to 15 minutes of easy spinning.

Blend these workouts around your swimming, running and dry-land training.

Weeks 5 through 8 gradually increase in both volume and intensity. Increased Zone 3 and 4 intervals and time-trial efforts are also included. Workouts target muscular-coordination drills and pedaling practice. Your muscles work best when they apply power to the cranks in a systematic and coordinated manner. The most powerful and propulsive phase is the downstroke, which generates 90-plus percent of total power. During this phase, the hip, knee and ankle joints extend while the other leg is 180 degrees opposite in the upstroke and recovery phase. During the backstroke, upstroke and overstroke, foot and pedal pressure should be feathery but continuous. Note that pulling back, up and pushing over too aggressively will lessen the total power of the opposing downstroke. This month’s workouts feature body lines (technique focus) to help develop specific muscle involvement and recruitment when cycling. The lines are used to isolate pedaling and movement characteristics.

Marc Evans has been a triathlon performance coach since 1982 and is the author of Endurance Athlete’s Edge and Triathlete’s Edge. For more, go to evanscoaching.com.

INTENSITY ZONES ZONE 1 Aerobic Recovery

ZONE 2 Anaerobic Conditioning

ZONE 3 Anaerobic Conditioning

ZONE 4 Anaerobic Conditioning-Plus

ZONE 5 Aerobic Capacity

ZONE 6 Anaerobic Capacity

1 to 60 minutes

20 minutes to several hours

15 to 75 minutes

10 to 25 minutes broken into intervals

8 to 21 minutes broken into intervals

4 to 10 minutes broken into intervals

% of maximal heart rate

60% to 75%

75% to 80%

80% to 92%

90% to 95%

95% to 100%+

100%+

RPE (Perceived Exertion)

Very, very light

Fairly light to somewhat hard

Hard

Harder

Very hard

Very, very hard

Characteristics

Race and interval recovery

Aerobic conditioning subthreshold endurance to tempo training

Race-pace threshold for 40km

Supra-threshold to cruise intervals

VO2 max aerobiccapacity training

Speed, lactate tolerance

Work-rest ratios

N/A

N/A

5 to 30 seconds

1:0.5

1:1

1:3

Easy spinning between intervals or post-race-day regeneration

Steady-state distance training at rpms of 90-110 on flat to varied terrain. Lower rpm strength work on hilly to rolling terrain

10- to 25-mile time trial or 610 x 5 minutes on 30 seconds recovery

4 x 4 minutes on 1minute recovery, just above 40km race pace

2-5 x 4 minutes on 4 minutes recovery at 20km race pace

6-20 x 20 seconds on 1-minute recovery

Workout durations

Types of workouts

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WEEKS 5 THROUGH 8

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LAB RABBIT

BIKE-FOCUS PHASE: WEEKS 5-8

WEEK 5 Total week: 5:15 Longest: 2:00 Primary intensity zone: Z3 Primary focus: Introduction of Z3 extended intervals WEEK 6

Total week: 5:45 Longest: 2:30 Primary intensity zone: Z3 Primary focus: HPR/LPR pedaling and Z3 intervals

WEEK 7

Total week: 6:00 Longest: 2:45 Primary intensity zone: Z3-4 Primary focus: Technique, hills, alternating intensity

WEEK 8

Tuesday

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday

1:00

1:00

2:00

1:15

Zone 2 session on rollers, trainer or road.

Warm-up: 12 x 30 seconds OLS/90-100 rpm left/right. Odd-numbered intervals go arch line, and even numbers work heel line.

Main set: 4-6 x (30 seconds focusing on each sector of the pedal stroke: downstroke, backstroke, upstroke, overstroke).

The remaining workout time should be at Z2, emphasizing the downstroke and light but constant pedal pressure on remaining sectors.

Zone 2 session on flat to rolling terrain or on rollers or trainer.

Warm up: 2 x (5 minutes LPR/100 and HPR/75).

Main set: 6 x (5 minutes on flat to rolling terrain in Z3).

Cool-down: Spin Zone 1-2.

Zone 2 session.

Warm-up: 20 minutes on rolling terrain.

Main set: 30 minutes Zone 3 climbing, including 6-8 x 30 seconds LPR (high rpm spinning) standing plus 2 minutes seated.

Zone 2 session over flat to gently rolling terrain.

Main set: • 15 minutes working down stroke OLS alternating left to right leg on 30-second rest intervals.

• 30 minutes HPR at 65 to 75 rpm working down and backstroke • Z2 LPR for remaining time

1:00

1:00

2:30

0:30

Zone 2 session with High Pedaling Resistance (HPR) on rolling terrain.

Main set: 4 x (3 x 4 minutes) with 1minute easy spinning recoveries as: • Sets 1 & 3: 4 minutes seated at HPR 70 rpms/4 x (45 seconds standing HPR 60 to 70 rpms) plus 15 seconds seated at Zone 1/2 x (2 minutes left OLS and right OLS).

• Sets 2 & 4: 4 minutes working on bilateral knee and arch lines at 75 to 80 rpms/4 minutes at HPR 50 to 60 rpms working downstroke and smooth transitional stroke through back, up and overstrokes/4 minutes steady state Zone 2.

Zone 2 session on rollers, trainer or road.

Warm-up: 15 minutes spinning 90 to 100 rpm in small ring.

Main set: • 3 x (5 minutes in Zone 3, or 40km race pace) with 30 seconds easy spinning at Zone 1 between work intervals.

• Throughout the set, focus on bilateral pedaling force.

Cool-down: 15 minutes including 8 x (30 seconds left and 30 seconds OLS at 100 to 110 rpms).

Zone 2 session on rolling terrain. Work on symmetrical, bilateral pedaling pressure, focusing on the downstroke, and smooth and light pressure through the backstroke, upstroke and overstroke.

Include 4 x (45 seconds standing squats at 95 to 110 rpms) every 45 minutes.

Zone 2 session. After running, LRP spinning from 95 to 110 rpms in small chainring over flat to rolling terrain or on trainer. Concentrate on downstroke, with even and light pedal pressure during backstroke, upstroke and overstroke.

1:15

1:15

2:45

00:45

Zone 2 session focusing on technique on rollers or trainer.

Main set: • 3 x (5 minutes, increasing rpm from 90 to 105 over each 5-minute work interval).

• 10 x (30 seconds of arch line, heel line, knee line and standing). Odd numbers in small ring LPR/100 rpm, even numbers in large ring HPR/75 rpms.

• 12 x 30 seconds at LPR/90-110 rpm.

• Spin at Zone 2 for any remaining time.

Zone 2 session with hills.

Warm-up: 15 minutes LPR/100 rpm.

Main set: Zone 2-3 to brief periods of Zone 4 on hilly terrain or long climb for 35-40 minutes (slightly above race pace at times).

Cool-down: Spinning LPR/90100 rpm.

Zone 2 session.

Main set: • 1 hour sustained moderate tempo on flat to gently rolling terrain with synchronous pedaling movements with LPR/90-100 rpm.

• For the next 75-90 minutes, move into rolling to hilly terrain and work from the high end of Zone 2 to just above Zone 3.

Cool-down: Small chainring with LPR/95-105 rpm.

Zone 2 session over flat to gently rolling terrain.

Main set: 4 x (3 x 20 seconds standing) with 1 minute easy spinning between work intervals.

0:30

1:00

2:00

0:30

Zone 2 workout on rollers or trainer.

LPR/90-110 rpms working hip extension and arch/knee lines.

Time trial test.

Warm-up: 15 minutes Zone 2 with LPR/90-100 rpm. Include 3 x (20-second accelerations toward Z6) on 2 minutes rest.

Time trial: Zone 3 to 4 for 30km on flat to rolling course.

Cool-down: Spin 5 to 10 minutes LPR/100 rpm; work symmetrical pedaling.

Zone 2 group ride.

Main set: • 1 x (15 minutes at Zone 3-4) in the first hour.

• 1 x (12 minutes Zone 34) in the second hour.

Otherwise, ride protected in peloton.

Zone 2 flat to gently rolling terrain. Spin LPR/90-100 on trainer, rollers, road or mountain bike.

Total week: 4:00 Longest: 2:30 Primary intensity zone: Z3-4 Primary focus: Reduced volume with time-trial test mid-week 120

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Train your brain

Visualize perfect freestyle to improve your technique

By Matt F itzgerald

D

Do you ever feel that your arms and legs prevent you from swimming better? After all, lack of knowledge clearly is not the factor that’s holding you back. You’re already familiar with the various elements of proper freestyle technique: floating high in the water, rotating from the hips, pulling with a “big paddle” and the rest. You have a very clear mental vision of what your body should do. During workouts, your brain commands your arms and legs to move just like Michael Phelps’s limbs do when he swims freestyle, but the muscles do not (or cannot) obey. If only you could get rid of your body and swim in your mind with the perfect technique you picture and intend there.

Actually, to some degree, your limbs really do get in the way of improving your swimming, and you can in fact refine your freestyle technique by practicing without your arms and legs.

What makes this possible is the fact that the motor programs stored in your brain and activated to control your freestyle stroke are far more malleable than your muscles, which execute these programs. In other words, your brain’s motor centers can imagine and intend alternative ways of swimming far more easily than your muscles can adjust their movements. Thus, by temporarily replacing your real muscles with imaginary ones—that

is, by visualizing yourself swimming—you can practice alternative techniques with greater freedom and make it easier to get your muscles to do what you want them to do when you return to the pool.

Your freestyle swim stroke—like every other motor skill—is produced through two-way communication between your brain and your muscles. The motor centers of your brain store programs for your freestyle stroke that were developed through previous practice. When you decide to begin swimming, your brain selects the appropriate programs and executes them by sending electrical signals to the muscles, causing them to move in the programmed pattern. As you swim, your muscles send a constant stream of sensory feedback to your brain, providing data that enables your brain to refine and adjust the stroke.

PRACTICE VISUALIZATION It’s this sensory feedback, or the feel of your muscle movements, that constrains your ability to fiddle with your stroke in ways that make it more efficient and powerful. When you practice your swimming through visualization, you replace real sensory feedback from the muscles with images of correct technique that you have captured by studying photographs and instructional videos and by watching better swimmers at the pool. Armed with this data, you can easily see and feel yourself swimming with better technique while lying in bed with your eyes closed. When you imagine yourself moving, you activate the very same neurons (brain cells) that become active when you actually move. Frequent mental practice causes these patterns of

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LANE LINES neural activity to consolidate into newer, better motor programs for swimming.

When you return to the pool you can draw on these new programs. With your muscles factored back into the equation, you won’t find it quite as easy to swim like Michael Phelps as you did in your bed, but it will be decidedly easier than it would have been if you had not used visualization.

Most athletes are unaware of just how much control the brain has over athletic movement. Your brain is the puppet master; your muscles are mere puppets. In fact, they are totally replaceable. By implanting electrodes inside the brain’s motor centers, medical engineers have enabled quadriplegics to play video games with their thoughts. In these cases, the visual feedback the patient receives from the movements of the character representing him on screen replaces muscle feedback. Through trial and error, the patient learns to connect neurons previously used to move his arms to the video-game character.

As a triathlete wishing to swim better, you can exploit the plasticity and independence of your brain’s motor centers, as highlighted by the above-described medical example, by connecting your freestyle swimming programs to images of perfect swim technique as seen in others. All you have to do is gather some concrete and detailed images of the technique elements you covet and picture your body performing these movements for a few minutes each day while sitting or lying quietly with your eyes closed. Be sure to imagine the feel of swimming in this manner, as well. In fact, the more detailed and real you can make your visualization, the more effective it is likely to be. Throw in the smell of chlorine, if you can.

TRAINING

Perhaps all of this sounds like hocus pocus, but it’s not. A number of studies have proven the capability of visualization to improve motor-skill performance beyond the level that can be achieved through physical practice alone. For example, in one study subjects were challenged to toss a ping-pong ball at a target from a cup affixed to the crook of the elbow. Half the subjects practiced the skill only physically, while the other half practiced it both physically and through visualization. On average, members of the latter group improved their aim more rapidly than the others. Field studies involving skills that actually matter to real athletes have produced similar results.

New research suggests that everyone practices a de facto form of visualization to learn new motor skills during sleep.

In a study performed at Harvard Medical School, two groups of right-handed subjects practiced a rapid typing task with their left hand, at the end of which time they were tested for improvement in the skill. Then they waited 12 hours and were tested for further improvement in the task. One group was tested at 10 a.m., following a practice session, and was retested at 10 p.m. the same day without any additional practice.

The other group was tested at 10 p.m. and retested at 10 a.m. the next morning, after sleeping, and without additional practice. Members of the first group showed a 2-percent improvement when they were retested. Members of the second group, who slept between tests, showed a 20-percent improvement the next morning without any additional practice of the skill.

In light of these results, I would suggest that the best time and place to mentally practice your swimming is at night, in

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LANE LINES

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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bed, as you are preparing for sleep. Not only do you have nothing better to do in this situation, but taking advantage of the opportunity in this manner will ensure that your freestyle stroke is at the top of your subconscious mind as you fall asleep, increasing the chances that 124

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you will wake up a better swimmer in the morning.

Triathlete contributing editor Matt Fitzgerald is the author of Brain Training for Runners (NAL, 2007) and is the editor of poweringmuscles.com.

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Short and sweet fitness saviors All hope for productive training—and bike fitness—needn’t be lost this holiday season

By Mike Durner

A

As the holiday season approaches, many athletes are concerned that circumstances beyond their control will rob them of their hard-earned fitness. The office parties, visiting, snow days and sledding trips tend to reduce everyone’s training hours in November and December. But instead of trying to cram more training into an already packed schedule, try boosting the impact of a couple short workouts.

Cutting back on training time during the holidays doesn’t have to harm your performance. Research shows that fitness can be maintained with a reduction of training frequency of 20 to 30 percent. If you were training six days a week, drop down to four.

However, if you were training four days a week, you shouldn’t go below three.

Intensity is the key to maintaining fitness with fewer training hours. Given the proper intensity, your power at lactate threshold can be maintained or even improved during this period. The workouts that follow provide the intensity needed to maximize the fitness bang for your training buck.

WORKOUT 1: The first workout is designed to increase your maximum sustainable power output. Alternate between two intensities, tempo and steady state, during the course of one long interval. After warming up for 10 minutes (including 3 x 1126

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minute high-cadence intervals with one minute of active recovery after each), go right into a five-minute tempo interval. This interval is a moderately hard effort (seven on a scale of 10, or 8185 percent of your average time-trial power output) with a lower than normal cadence of 70-75 RPM. After five minutes, pick up the pace to your steady-state intensity (eight on a 10-point scale or 86-90 percent of your average time-trial power) for 10 minutes. Think race pace for an Olympic-distance event and keep your cadence at 90-95 rpm. Next, return to tempo intensity for

WORKOUT 1 Time

Description

RPE

RPM

0-10 min.

Warm up with 3 x 1-minute fast pedals with 1-minute recovery

5 or 6

90-110

10-15 min.

5-minute tempo

7

70-75

15-25 min.

10-minute steady state

8

90-100

25-30 min.

5-minute tempo

7

70-75

30-40 min.

10-minute steady state

8

90-100

40-45 min.

5-minute tempo

7

70-75

45-50 min.

Five-minute recovery

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90-100

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five minutes and then do one more 10minute steady-state effort and one last fiveminute tempo effort before cooling down.

This workout is hard enough to produce plenty of lactic acid but not so much that your body can’t process it. As a result, you’ll accumulate 35 minutes of solid work that will help your body adapt to handle more lactic acid and produce more power for prolonged efforts.

WORKOUT 2: The second workout is aimed at maintaining your high-end power with repeated maximal efforts. High-intensity efforts bring up your overall aerobic capacity—which makes you better at all intensities—and they provide the biggest payoff for your time. After a similar warm-up to the one in Workout 1, jump into the intervals. Alternate between three-minute and two-minute maximum efforts (recovery is equal to the work-interval duration). Round out the session by doing a few shorter efforts (as shown in the table) to finish on a high note. If your pace or power output falls dramatically as this workout progresses, stop doing the maximum-effort intervals and ride easy instead.

WORKOUT 2 Time

Description

RPE

RPM

0-10 min.

Warm up with 3 x 1-minute fast pedals with 1-minute recovery

5 or 6

90-110

10-13 min.

3-minute VO2 max interval

10

95-110

13-16 min.

3-minute recovery

4

80-100

16-18 min.

2-minute VO2 max interval

10

95-110

18-20 min.

2-minute recovery

4

80-100

20-23 min.

3-minute VO2 max interval

10

95-110

23-26 min.

3-minute recovery

4

80-100

26-28 min.

2-minute VO2 max interval

10

95-110

28-30 min.

2-minute recovery

4

80-100

30-33 min.

3-minute VO2 max interval

10

95-110

33-36 min.

3-minute recovery

4

80-100

36-38 min.

2-minute VO2 max interval

10

95-110

38-39 min.

1-minute recovery

4

80-100

39-40 min.

1-minute VO2 max interval

10

95-110

40-50 min.

10-minute recovery

4

90-100

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Here are a few options for fitting these power workouts into your normal training schedule.

Tuesday

Thursday

Saturday

Option 1

Workout 1

Workout 1

Workout 2

Option 2

Workout 1

Workout 2

Workout 1

Option 3

Workout 2

Workout 1

Workout 2

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TAKE-HOME MESSAGE Rather than trying to cram more training into an already packed schedule, try boosting the impact of a couple short workouts.

Research shows that fitness can be maintained with a reduction of training frequency of up to 20 to 30 percent.

Intensity is the key to maintaining fitness with fewer training hours.

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TRAINING

ON THE RUN

POSTERS

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By Alister Russell

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O R D E R O N L I N E AT

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One of the oldest sporting competitions consists of running between two places over whatever terrain existed between them. In the modern age, this type of competition has evolved into a separate sport we now call cross-country. Over the past 100 years or so, the majority of the best middle- and long-distance track athletes and road runners have incorporated winter cross-country events into their preparations for races in their primary discipline later in the year, as a means of developing running-specific strength.

Okay, so what’s the connection to multisport? Well, if you accept that the run in a triathlon of any distance is a strengthendurance event, then there are important similarities between the triathlon run and cross-country. So spending a bit of time 128

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running cross-country—either on your own or in a local race series—this winter will pay dividends come the triathlon season. Here are a few tips to help you get off-road this winter and then transfer the benefits to the road in the spring.

STRENGTH: Although cross-country courses have become more userfriendly (read less extreme and elitist) over the past few years, they are still typically more challenging than running on the road, since hills and soft running surfaces require greater strength and endurance than road or track courses of equal length. Also, cross-country runners often develop a high level of mental toughness—just what you need to race well off the bike in a triathlon.

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RUNNING TECHNIQUE: To run effectively on rough, muddy terrain, you need to have an effective, economical stride. Runners who over-stride tend to have a low cadence and apply a great deal of force to the ground, expending excess energy and beating up their legs.

Economical cross-country technique reflects the economical run technique triathletes should practice: light foot strike, minimal time on the ground, a shorter stride and a higher cadence. This type of running helps reduce energy expenditure and enhances running economy.

AMPLIFY THE VOLUME, NOT THE INJURIES: Training between November and April is often referred to as the base or general preparation period (GPP). It is characterized primarily by a steadily increasing volume of moderate-intensity aerobic training, with a little event-specific strength work to prepare the body for formal high-intensity workouts to come. Running injuries occur most frequently during periods of increasing volume. Cross-country running provides the event-specific strength work you need in the GPP while reducing your injury risk through variation. As you adapt to the changing terrain, you subject your muscles to less-repetitive actions.

TRANSITION TO TRIATHLON RUNNING: After spending a few months training and racing off-road you will find you are strong and fit and quite probably a bit faster than you were before. However, running on rough terrain is different from road running, and many triathlon run sections take place on roads that demand running with rhythm and a consistent stride. To regain that rhythm and stride consistency, integrate a few technique-focused workouts toward the end of your base phase. For example, after an appropriate warm-up, run 20 x 400 meters at 10K race pace, with 30 seconds of active recovery after each. Focus on maintaining a consistent rhythm and staying as relaxed as possible. Make sure you stick to your goal pace—the goal of this workout is to cover the distance and maintain your pace while expending as little effort as possible and staying relaxed as possible.

Training for and racing cross-country events this off-season can be a fantastic way to boost your run fitness during the GPP while also providing a healthy competitive outlet. And trail running can develop strength and mental tenacity that should serve you well once you get back into your racing flats in the spring.

For the last 20 years, LifeSport coach Alister Russell has been coaching endurance athletes and formerly was a national-team coach for Scotland. He has coached athletes from beginners to world champions at all distances. Visit lifesport.ca or e-mail coach@lifesport.ca for coaching enquiries.

TAKE-HOME MESSAGE If you accept that the run in a triathlon of any distance is a strengthendurance event, then there are many similarities between the triathlon run and cross-country.

Both disciplines develop strength, endurance and mental toughness, and hitting the trails this winter can leave you well prepared for 2008.

Spending a bit of time running cross-country—either on your own or via a local race series—this winter will pay dividends come the triathlon season.

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SPEED LAB

Health check Prevention is the best medicine

By Tim Mickleborough, Ph.D. DEAR SPEED LAB, I recently started competing in triathlons after many years of running marathons. I am experiencing pain in my shins and have been diagnosed with shin splints. The pain appears to be worse when I run (compared to biking), and I experience it swimming, when I push off from the wall. What is your recommendation for how best to avoid getting shin splints?

Regards, Mike Atlanta, Ga.

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Thanks for the question. Shin splints can often be traced to a bone injury localized to one or both calf bones (tibia and fibula). Physical therapists and sportsmedicine doctors generally use the terms medial tibial stress syndrome, tibial stress syndrome and posterior tibial syndrome to describe the condition.

It appears that shin splints are caused either by excessive pronation of the ankle and/or a bone that is unable to adapt to shock. In most cases, shin splints occur along the inner border of the tibia, into which the soleus muscle inserts. While posterior shin splints (the most common form) are generally caused by excessive ankle pronation, anterior shin splints are most likely caused by over-striding.

Some common factors associated with shin splints are inflexibility, muscle imbalance inappropriate running shoes and running on hard surfaces consistently. Running tends to increase the strength of the posterior calf muscles relative to the anterior muscles. This can lead to a muscle imbalance and possibly shin splints. To strengthen the anterior leg muscles, sit in a chair where your feet canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t touch the ground and lift your toes up toward your knees eight to 12 times. As this becomes easier, hold a light dumbbell between your feet and repeat the same movement.

Inflammation is the result of increased blood flow to an injured site.

While this process delivers white blood cells needed for healing, it also allows fluids to leak from the blood vessels (capillaries) into the tissue, accounting for the swelling associated with trauma. Taking a pain reliever is not always the best solution as some of these medications can actually hinder the recovery process by inhibiting the inflammatory response.

The right treatment depends on the severity and location of the injury. For starters, stop running altogether and avoid anti-inflammatory pain relievers. Continue swimming and biking, as the impact stress to the tibia/fibula is minimal. Apply ice massages (rub the injured area with ice in a plastic bag or use a cold pack with insulating foam) to the sore area(s) two to three times a day for 20 to 30 minutes per session.

If you can stand it, put your entire calf muscle into a bucket of ice water once per day for about 10 minutes. Afterward, elevate your legs for 15 minutes as this will aid in the removal of some waste products from the injured site.

The above tactics will help you to treat the injury; however, the cause of the injury is the most important concern. See a physical therapist and have a gait analysis performed. Also, think about your training routine and whether you have increased your weekly mileage too quickly, and consider the surface you regularly run on.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

DEAR MIKE,

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DEAR SPEED LAB, I am a 45-year-old Ironman triathlete. Recently, I had a physical exam and my blood work showed that my triglyceride (3.7) and cholesterol (5.2) levels are high. I eat a healthy diet, which is high in carbohydrates and low in fat. I do not drink alcohol or eat junk food. I am worried by these results, since I eat healthy and compete in triathlons. Can you offer any explanation?

Thanks, Steve Seattle, Wash.

DEAR STEVE,

Thanks for the question. Cholesterol and triglycerides are two forms of lipid, or fat. Cholesterol is necessary for, among other things, building cell membranes and for making several essential hormones. Triglycerides, which are chains of highenergy fatty acids, provide much of the energy needed for cells to function. When LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) levels are too high, the LDL tends to stick to the lining of the blood vessels, leading to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

Atherosclerotic plaques cause narrowing of the arteries and lead to heart attacks and strokes. Therefore, elevated LDL cholesterol levels are a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Triglycerides are another matter. Their measurement is part of a standard blood-lipid profile, but for the most part doctors don’t know what to do when triglyceride levels are modestly elevated. While high triglyceride levels have been associated with heart disease, no study has yet proven that high triglyceride levels are an independent risk factor for heart disease. So doctors don’t have the evidence to recommend aggressive triglyceride-lowering therapy. The most difficult association to sort out is between triglycerides and HDL (i.e., good) cholesterol. When triglycerides are increased, HDL cholesterol decreases. So is the increased risk seen with high triglycerides due to the triglycerides themselves or is it a result of the associated reduction in good cholesterol? We don’t know for sure.

Elevated cholesterol levels can be caused by several factors, including: • Heredity • A diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol • Being overweight • A sedentary lifestyle • Age: cholesterol levels increase with age, beginning at about age 20 • Gender: premenopausal women have cholesterol levels lower than men at the same age, but when menopause occurs their LDL cholesterol levels increase, as does their risk of heart disease Of these causative factors, heredity, age and gender cannot be controlled. The others can. Some people have elevated cholesterol levels as a result of specific diseases or medical conditions. These people are said to have secondary lipid disorders. In these individuals, treating the underlying medical problem often results in an improvement in cholesterol levels. Your cholesterol numbers might be explained by a history of high cholesterol levels in your family, or they might be a sign of another health issue. It’s worth looking into. You also may want to look at your nutrition more closely by visiting a nutritionist so he or she can monitor the type of food that you eat.

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ROCKET SCIENCE

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Testing the limits Benchmark your training zones with field testing

By Lee Zohlman

IN THE POOL

S

Some of you may have experienced the rapture that is a VO2 max test in a lab—either on a treadmill or stationary bike.

While such a rigorous test yields extremely useful data to help you pinpoint your training zones, VO2 max testing can be expensive and logistically complex. As such, many athletes and coaches have turned to field testing as a more accessible substitute to the lab. Field testing—that is, determining training zones under controlled conditions outdoors—while more convenient for most athletes, nonetheless involves an established protocol that can provide highly accurate numbers, including your anaerobic-threshold pace.

Below, we outline testing protocols for swim, bike and run.

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below. If you are an advanced athlete or are doing long-course racing, choose the longer tests. It is a good idea to test every eight to 10 weeks, and be consistent, making an effort to repeat the conditions, time of day, diet, level of fatigue, etc., each time.

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• Newbies should warm up with 300-500 yards of easy swimming and kicking with some drills. Seasoned athletes should shoot for 800-1200 yards of the same.

• Next, complete 6-10 x 50 of fast swimming to get the muscles firing with 20 to 30 seconds rest between. This will help your lactic acid-clearance system kick in. Spend a minute or two stretching and reaffirming your test strategy in your head. Get in the game and visualize your test like it is a race.

• Now it’s test time. Novices should complete 300 or 500 yards all out and the vets should aim for 500 or 1000. At the very least, get your total time for the set. Now you have data to reference. If you are up for a challenge, get your 100-yard splits. If you’re going for the gold star, then also

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take your stroke-count average for the first 100 and last 100. You now have a baseline to track your improvement.

• You can identify your threshold pace by breaking down the average 100-yard time for the test. If you did 500 yards in 7:30, your threshold pace is 1:30.

ON THE BIKE Now for the big, bad bike test. We are looking to achieve the same thing as with the swim test: How long does it take to cover a certain distance? (If you are unable to turn the pedals over, feel tired or unmotivated then turn around go home, sleep and eat well and try the test another day.) Find a flat, smooth road with little traffic, and wear your heart-rate monitor for increased feedback. Warm up with: • 10 minutes easy spinning in small ring • 5 minutes easy spinning in big ring • Then 5 x 1 minute at a hard effort. Take 3 minutes easy spinning between efforts (these little pickups will make it easier for your legs to transition to the workload of the test) • Once you are warmed up, pedal for 20 minutes as hard and fast as you can, building up your effort. (If you are a seasoned triathlete or cyclist, use the warm-up as above or add 15 to 20 minutes, then complete a 30- to 40minute test.) Record the distance traveled, average speed, average heart rate, separating the data from the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes to see if you paced it correctly.

• Your average heart rate for the 20-minute test (or the 30to 40-minute test if you are more advanced) will give you a good estimate of your lactate-threshold heart rate (LTHR). Once you have determined your LTHR you can then plot your various training zones using any of the standard formulas.

ON THE RUN Make sure you are well rested, fueled and hydrated before the run test. Visualize the test in your head a few days ahead of time. Come up with your pacing and motivational strategy to ensure you give your best effort.

Warm up with: • 8-10 minutes easy running • 1-2 minutes stretching • 5 x 30-second accelerations to 90-percent effort with 2 minutes between efforts • For the run test, newbies should run 30 minutes hard on a flat, smooth road or track. Hit your HR monitor split button 10 minutes into test. Your average heart rate for the last 20 minutes should be close to your LTHR. Again, note the distance covered.

• More experienced runners can use a flat, open 10K race for the test. Your average HR will approximate your LTHR, and you can go from there.

These three training sessions will show you the changes that come along with consistent, quality training. Being able to quantify these changes and the work you are doing is a big piece of this triathlon puzzle.

Coach Lee is a USA Triathlon Elite Level 3 coach and owner of BodyZen Enterprises. He has been coaching age-group and elite athletes for over 10 years. For further coaching, visit bodyzen.com or e-mail questions@bodyzen.com.

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TECH SUPPORT

Gearing up

Exploring big gears and compact cranks

By Ian Buchanan

A

After being a long-time supporter of Ironman Canada, I have decided to attempt the distance. This will actually be my first attempt at any distance triathlon. I have been riding the typical cycling drive-train set-up (53/39 with a 11-23 rear cog) and am now considering switching to a compact. I hope to go sub-12 hours with a 5:45-6:00 bike leg.

What are your thoughts on compact cranks for Ironman distances and specifically Ironman Canada?

Chris Kelowna, Canada

CHRIS, It sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Regardless of gearing, consider doing a few shorter-distance races before doing an Ironman. From

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nutrition to transitions, the experience you gain in shorter events can be invaluable to helping make your Ironman go as smoothly as possible.

The gearing you use is specific to the course you and your individual riding style, power and pedaling technique. The ideal gearing for a flatter course can be quite different from a hillier course; a riderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cadence and power can also play a large role in what is best. The goal is to know your body and the course and to select a gearing range without compromising the commonly used gears.

One of the best places to start exploring gearing options is with your current set-up. While doing your long training rides on similar terrain to the Ironman Canada course, decide whether you are searching for a higher (top speed) or lower (easier to spin) gear than your current 53/39 and 11-23? A 23tooth rear cog is higher than what many athletes need to encourage spinning up hills and serve as a good bail-out gear just in case things go wrong. So if you want to go lower, you have two main options to get lower gearing: A wider-range cassette or a compact crank.

CASSETTE CHANGES

Changes in the number of rear-cassette teeth have a more significant impact than do changes in front chain-ring size. While the effect is even more pronounced in higher gear combinations, in lower gearing combinations a one-tooth change in the rear cog is equal to a 1.5- to 1.7-tooth change in chain-ring size. This means you may not have to change cranks to get the gearing you want.

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TECH SUPPORT Your initial goal is to find gearing that covers the full range of options you could need for a given course. Think about how much lower you need to go and, if you switch to a cassette that eliminates your 11-tooth small cog, whether you are willing to give up your top-speed gear in exchange for a lower climbing gear. If you make this change and still want lower gearing options, the compact crank is the next step.

CHAIN-RING AND COMPACT-CRANK CHANGES

A more complete discussion of compact cranks can be found in the December 2005 issue of Triathlete’s Tech Support (you can order this back issue online at triathletemag.com).

Compact cranks (commonly geared 50/34 from the factory) do not have the extra weight, wider stance or mechanical complexity of a triple, but are geared almost as low. However, remember that when switching to compact you need to keep the middle gears in mind. Unlike a triple, compact will notably change middle gearing combinations as well as the extremes. Gear inches let you compare gearing options before you make the change and thus can be very valuable.

COMPARING GEARING AND GEAR INCHES

The origin of gear inches can be traced back to the front-wheel diameter sizing used on high-wheeled/Penny-farthing bikes in the 1800s. Penny-farthers are driven off the front wheel directly by the crank, so the distance traveled per crank revolution is the same as the wheel’s circumference. Bikes with bigger-diameter wheels travel further per crank revolution than ones with smaller wheels.

TRAINING

With the advent of the rear chain-drive bike, things became more complicated—one crank revolution no longer added up one wheel revolution. However, people still wanted to compare chain-drive gearing to their Penny-farther and thus the gearinch formula was born: Gear inches = (front chainring teeth x wheel diameter)/rear-cassette teeth These same gear inches still provide an accurate method of comparing gearing options across wheel sizes and tooth combinations. Gear inches are practical numbers as you can find out how far your bike is going to travel in a given gear, by multiplying them

by Pi (3.14). For an even more accurate result, use an online gear calculator (that also takes crank length and tire size into account) like the one found at sheldonbrown.com/gears. In addition, machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/gears/gear_calculator.html shows how your gear inches relate to your cadence and speed and distance traveled.

You can compare the gearing range you use most often to different cassette and crank options to make sure you get the gearing range you need. This allows you to eliminate the guesswork with gearing and make an educated decision as to what combination will work best for you as an individual.

Train hard and smart!

Ian Ian Buchanan is co-owner of Fit Werx. Fit Werx has locations in Waitsfield, Vt., and Peabody, Mass., and offers cycling and triathlon products, specialty fitting and analysis services, consultation and technology research. For more information, go to fitwerx.com.

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DEAR COACH John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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Easy does it

Boost your climbing and cool your jets

By Paul Huddle and Roch Frey HEY COACHES!

Earlier this season I finished my goal Ironman and had a great race. Now, just over a month after the fact, I find myself getting bored during exercise after I pass the 25-minute mark. I am not physically tired, but mentally I feel drained. I am supposed to do a short triathlon this Sunday, but I’m questioning if I should. How do you get rid of mental fatigue when you’ve already tried rest, new sports, sleep and vacationing?

Thanks guys!

Maureen

MAUREEN,

Let’s see. It’s been 4.5 weeks since the completion of your goal Ironman and you’ve tried “rest, new sports, sleep and vacationing”? From where we sit, 4.5 weeks is not nearly enough time to mentally recovery from an Ironman. If you’ve just spent the better part of your year preparing for and executing an Ironman, it’s going to take longer than a month to readjust your body and mind to the fact that there’s no huge, impending goal on the horizon. While this should be a boon in terms of time and energy resources, it can also lead to a bad case of the postIronman blues. If you’re losing interest in any given swimming, cycling and/or running workout after 30 minutes, we’re willing to bet that, while your mind might be telling you that you’re not tired, you certainly are sick of swimming, cycling and running.

It’s important to understand that there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s 100 percent normal. It’s even healthy.

We would encourage you not to worry so much about it and to pursue other interests that are not triathlon-specific. These interests don’t even have to be athletic in nature. It could be work and/or family and/or friend and/or sleep and/or eating-related.

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and doing another short race isn’t going to help. There’s nothing worse than standing or treading water at the starting line of a triathlon wishing you were somewhere else. If that’s what you’re feeling, go with it. Maybe you’d enjoy the triathlon more if you were volunteering instead of competing. Give the race organization a call and see if they need help with some aspect of the race.

There’s nothing better for your own perspective as an athlete than to participate in a race from the other side. It allows you to be close to something you know you love (even though you might be sick of it) but approaching it from a totally different angle with different concerns. There’s no better volunteer than an athlete who understands what those in the race are going through.

Whether or not you do the race this weekend isn’t as important as making sure that whatever you do with your time, you actually want to be doing it. The attitude you bring with you to the starting line of any event can be worth more than all the fitness in the world in terms of both performance and your enjoyment of the event. In watching athletes go through the inevitable burnout phases throughout their racing careers, we have discovered that motivation often trumps fitness. It doesn’t matter how fit you are if you don’t care about what you’re doing.

Give yourself a break for feeling like you do, and don’t feel pressured to continue training specifically for an Ironman in 2008. If you’re ambivalent about doing an Ironman next year, this is a tough time to make the decision. We’d be willing to bet that if you let it go for a couple of months you will eventually return to your old self with renewed motivation, energy and perspective—but it might not happen until January. Remember that even the very best professionals in the sport take a longer break than you’ve had so far.

Now, get back to the couch and put your feet up like you mean it.

Paul and Roch

DEAR COACHES, Simple question. How do you train to become fast and efficient at climbing hills?

Neville

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U.S.Multi-Sport Directory

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Climb on, Paul and Roch

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Simple answer: power-to-weight ratio. Okay, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not really that simple, so weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll add a little to that.

Look, if we really knew the answer to this question, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be cajillionaires. The simple answer is what we once heard from a fellow pro back in the olden days. If you want to become a good climber on the bike youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to go out and ride in the hills. There. Howâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that? Genius, huh? Well, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not even quite that simple because weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve met too many flat-landers who are good on hills and too many people who live in mountainous areas who canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t climb out of bed. So whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the secret?

When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve spent 25 years in this sport, you begin to realize that while you may never become a great climber (like us, for example), you can certainly maximize personal potential and become the best climber you can be. Climbing is like cycling-specific strength training with an aerobic component. You need to be able to generate a lot of power (due to the incline) but also have the cardiovascular fitness necessary to support this strength. Finally, and sadly for the bigger folks who take up this sport (like us), climbing on a bicycle is easier if you have great relative strength and small relative weight. Specifically, if you had a bike (or, in our case, a gut) that was one pound heavier than another person on the same 1000-foot climb, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to have to generate the energy necessary to lift that additional pound up 1000 feet.

Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sound like much? Take your bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weight and add it to the weight of your bicycle and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll understand better why climbing is very strength-to-weight ratio-dependent. You need adequate muscle mass (fit muscle mass, that is) to power the bicycle, plus you, over any given hill.

Does that mean that big people canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be good climbers?

Not at all. Five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain was 6â&#x20AC;&#x2122;2â&#x20AC;? and 175 pounds and he did okay in the mountainsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;even against the little garden-weasel climber guys from France with names that look like Richard but are pronounced â&#x20AC;&#x153;reeshard.â&#x20AC;?

So, how can you become a better climber? Ride in the hills when given the opportunity and do some of your harder and longer rides in those hills. Think about the kinds of hills that give you problems and go out and practice on those kinds of hills. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve known guys who could go very fast up 20-mile, 5percent grades but who couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go up a one-mile, 15-percent grade nearly as well.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to sit here and tell you that you needed to buy some carbon-fiber gizmo that we made in order to become a better climber, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no secret weapon. Become as fit as you can and practice climbing with variation in grades, lengths of climbs, cadences, gears and intensities. Work on over-geared seated climbs with a slow cadence to build up that climbing-specific (and seated time-trial) strength. Also work on lower-geared seated and standing climbs that elevate your heart rate and breathing. When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve trained all shades of the climbing spectrum and your weight is at an optimal level for your size, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see what it is to climb to your potential. This is the way youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll become a better climber.

Either that or just hang on to the rear-view mirrors of cars driven up the hill by close friends.

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TRAINING

7 habits of highly effective triathletes Nail your training and racing by getting back to the basics

By Jason R. Karp, M.S.

I

I recently finished reading the popular book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. According to the book, successful people share a number of specific habits, regardless of the forum within which they find their success. To that end, have you ever wondered how the athletes who grace the covers of Triathlete got to that level? Me too. So I asked them. And here’s what I found are the seven most important habits of effective triathletes.

1. EFFECTIVE TRAINING The No. 1 secret is that there are no secrets. With three sports, triathlon requires a lot of training. You have to be willing to do the work necessary to attain your desired level of performance. “An athlete who is new to the sport should start with two workouts per discipline per week,” says Andrea Fisher, an Austin, Texas-based professional triathlete and multisport coach. “As you get stronger and adapt to the training, build up to three to four workouts per week per discipline for age-group athletes and four to five workouts per week per discipline for elite athletes.

One of those elite athletes, Lisa Bentley, a multiple-time Ironman champion, runs three days per week, swims five to six times per week, bikes five to six times per week, does a strengthtraining circuit three times per week and does physical therapy three times per week. “I believe that two to three workouts in each sport consistently will lead to great fitness gains in athletes who have full lives with work and family,” she says.

Fisher suggests that you spend more time on your weakest sports to get the most out of your training time. “Evaluate what your strengths and weaknesses are and structure your training plan around the discipline that will give you the best bang for your training buck,” she advises. “Because I have a proficient his138

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tory with swimming, I don’t tend to do as much swim training compared with other elite athletes. If I spend more time on my running, I will receive more benefit from my training time than spending more hours in the pool to be a mere couple of seconds faster for an Ironman swim.”

2. CONSISTENT TRAINING In addition to adequate training to meet your goals, your training must be consistent. It takes a lot of consistent work, over a long period of time, to meet your genetic potential. That’s because many of the physiological and biochemical adaptations to endurance training result from the expression of genes and the formation of new proteins, which is a slow process. If you regularly miss workouts, or if your training is haphazard and spotty, it will take longer to get where you want to go, if you get there at all.

“Stringing together weeks, months and eventually years of consistency will enable an athlete to reach his or her potential and ultimate success,” says Fisher. “That consistency includes key components: staying injury free, solid training blocks without overtraining, proper recovery, good nutrition and minimizing stress.” For Dave Scott, a six-time Hawaii Ironman champion and member of the Ironman Hall of Fame, consistent training is paramount for not only physiological adaptation but also for emotional and psychological reasons. “I needed that endorphin rush to get me through my day,” he says.

3. ADEQUATE RECOVERY Recovery may be the most overlooked aspect of training. For all your hard training, improvements in fitness occur during the recovery periods between training sessions, when your body repairs and rebuilds, not during the training itself. Positive phys-

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TRAINING iological adaptations only occur with a correctly timed alternation between stress and recovery. When you finish a workout, you’re weaker, not stronger. The efficacy with which you recover from a long or intense workout will dictate how often you can perform other long or intense workouts, which may ultimately influence your ability to reach your athletic potential.

“Without proper recovery, training is only going to put an athlete into a hole that he or she will eventually find near impossible to climb out of,” says Fisher. Hunter Kemper, a two-time Olympian, six-time U.S. elite national champion and the number-one ITU-ranked triathlete in the world in 2005 and 2006, learned the importance of recovery the hard way. “I’ve always been the athlete who tries to get one more key session in before a big race, even when sometimes it is probably too much,” says Kemper. “I’ve realized that if I don’t recover and adapt from the previous hard workout, I will be unable to have a successful workout the next time around.” If you have the luxury of being a full-time triathlete like Kemper, finding ways to recover can be a bit easier. “I have made it a habit to take a long nap almost every day,” says Kemper. “I try to get a good hour and a half nap in between my workouts. This rest helps me recover for my final workout of the day.” If you can’t take a daily nap (yeah, right), at least try to minimize the amount of physical activity between workouts to maximize your recovery.

4. SETTING GOALS All successful people, whether they sell used cars or win the Hawaii Ironman, have specific, definable and difficult but realis-

tic goals. Goals provide direction, motivation and a sense of purpose. “If I didn’t set goals I’d just be working out,” says Fisher. “I hate working out. I love to train.” Scott advises to make your goals finite and tangible and write them down. “I like goals to be short-term, two to three weeks, with one long-range rainbow goal that represents what you’d like to accomplish on a rainbow day if you could perform at your peak in all three sports,” he says. Bentley adds that your goals need to be personal. “They can be dreams—whatever it takes to keep you doing hill intervals, swimming early mornings and running when you would rather be sleeping.” After you’ve defined your goals, make a habit of surrounding yourself with others who support them. You’ll find the energy and motivation to be contagious.

5. COACHING While it’s possible to be an effective triathlete without a coach, as Scott’s six wins at the Hawaii Ironman attest, a good coach can help you to reach your potential, especially in a complex sport like triathlon that requires simultaneous proficiency in three disciplines. “I would never be the athlete I am today without the coaches I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with,” says Fisher. “A coach is there to see when you need to step back, rest and reevaluate things, which is something you can’t always do on your own.” Kemper agrees: “One of the most important jobs of a coach is to tell the athlete when not to do a specific workout because he or she is too tired or hasn’t been able to recover from the previous training sessions.” A coach can also relieve you of the responsibility of planning your own training so you can focus on

SWEEPSTAKES RULES 1. No purchase necessary. To enter without ordering, send an index card to: Triathlete Ironman China 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 March 31st, 2008. Triathlete is not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, damaged, illegible or postage-due mail.

4. Prize winners will be selected no later than April 18th, 2008 from among all 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 responsibility 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 of correspondence. Non-compliance will result in disqualification and the naming of an alternate winner.

7. All entrants will be eligible to win round trip airfare for two, 7-night hotel stay and free bike transportation for the 2008 Ironman China race taking place April 20th. There is no cash exchange for this prize.

8. Employees of Ironman China and Triathlete or anyone affiliated are not eligible. Sweepstakes subject to all federal, state and local tax laws and void where prohibited by law.

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

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TRAINING the training itself. “Having a coach eliminates the stress of having to think of what to do and provides consistency in the flow of training,” says Chris Lieto, three-time Ironman champion and owner of Base Performance Nutrition. “Find a mentor who has experience at the level you want to attain.”

6. NUTRITION Training for three sports concurrently, which often necessitates two workouts a day, makes good nutrition an important habit for effective triathletes. “Well-rounded nutrition is vital to allowing an athlete’s body to recover and improve with each training block and race,” says Fisher. According to Heather Gollnick, a five-time Ironman champion, nutrition is essentially the fourth sport. “Practice this just like you do the other disciplines,” she advises. Bentley is one of those athletes who has seen first-hand how big of a difference good nutrition can make. “I made a big nutrition change in 2003 and was healthier than ever. I cut out all refined products (except PowerBars for training and recovery) and breads and started eating lots of fruits and vegetables.”

Nutrition is also important to recover quickly from workouts. “I have found that the most important part of my nutrition is to eat and drink consistently throughout the day and try to eat right after hard workouts to allow my body to recover as quickly as possible,” says Kemper. To maximize recovery between workouts, consume 0.7 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight within 30 to 60 minutes after long workouts, especially if you’re training twice per day. Also consume 20 to 30 grams of protein after workouts to help repair training-induced muscle damage.

7. POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE If you want to be an effective triathlete, you must have the right attitude. Say to yourself, “I will nail this workout,” rather than, “I want to nail this workout.” Believing that a positive mental attitude is critical to his success, Kemper seeks outside help to work on this habit. “I meet regularly with a sport psychologist at the Olympic Training Center, and we work a lot on positive self-talk. It’s easy for negative thoughts to come into your head when things aren’t going according to plan during a race. It’s important for me to notice those thoughts and immediately refocus my thinking on the process,” he says. Part of having a positive mental attitude is being able to move past bad workouts or races. “If you have a positive attitude, you’ll get a lot more out of your workouts,” says Lieto. “You have to believe you can do it.”

So if you want to be an effective triathlete, or if you just want to place in your age group at your next triathlon, integrate these habits into your lifestyle. Remember that good habits are like bad habits—once you form them, they are hard to break. And if you treat the whole process as a formula that includes the above components, you will find success in the sport.

Jason R. Karp is a Ph.D. candidate in exercise physiology at Indiana University, director and coach of REVO2 LT Running Team, freelance writer and competitive runner. He has coached high-school and college cross-country and track and field and currently coaches athletes of all levels through runcoachjason.com.

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XTERRA ZONE 8 j`dgc\ gX`i f] j_f\cXZ\j

ing 83 days on the roadâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; more than half inside an RV with no ACâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;still begs the question . . .

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XTERRA: Why? Will Kelsay: I wanted an adventure where I would travel the country just doing races all summer. No work, no responsibilities: just race, train, and have fun! I also wanted to help spread the word and get people excited about XTERRA. I love it so much and I wanted to share that with others.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the coolest race you did?

The EX2 in Maryland.

Fun, challenging course that was unique and totally XTERRA.

J_fn pfli jlggfik n`k_ I\[ CXZ\ :_`c[_ff[ fY\j`kp `j X iXg`[cp ^ifn`e^ eXk`feXc \g`[\d`Z% N\Ă&#x2039;i\ _\cg`e^ [f jfd\k_`e^ XYflk `k# Xe[ pfl ZXe kff% JXlZfep Ile =fi >ff[ K_\ JXlZfep Ile =fi >ff[ =fle[Xk`fe `j [\j`^e\[ kf ]`eXeZ`Xccp jlggfik k_\ \]]fikj f] efe$gif]`k fi^Xe`qXk`fej k_Xk j_Xi\ fli ^fXc f] \e[`e^ Z_`c[_ff[ fY\j`kp% K_ifl^_flk k_\ p\Xi# k_\ =fle[Xk`fe j\c\Zkj ^iXek i\Z`g`\ekj k_Xk n`cc _\cg ^\k b`[j XZk`m\ Xe[ _\Xck_p% @] pfl Xi\ gXik f] X efe$gif]`k fi^Xe`qXk`fe k_Xk `j jlggfik`e^ k_\ ]`^_k X^X`ejk Z_`c[_ff[ fY\j`kp Xe[ nflc[ c`b\ kf Xggcp ]fi X ^iXek# fi c\Xie dfi\# gc\Xj\ m`j`k jXlZfepile]fi^ff[%Zfd% I\[ CXZ\j JXlZfep n`cc Y\ j\cc`e^ I\[ CXZ\j ]fi ( Xk ilee`e^ \m\ekj eXk`fen`[\ jf pfl ZXe gifl[cp [\dfejkiXk\ pfli Zfdd`k$ d\ek kf af`e`e^ lj `e k_`j `dgfikXek ]`^_k% GifZ\\[j ]ifd k_\ jXc\ f] k_\j\ I\[ CXZ\j n`cc jlggfik k_\ JXlZfep Ile =fi >ff[ =fle[Xk`fe% =fi dfi\ `e]fidXk`fe# gc\Xj\ m`j`k jXlZfepile]fi^ff[%Zfd%

There were several races where I was warmly greeted. Loads of people came up to talk to me, and I caused quite a scene at the EX2. I raced in just a speedo, so drawing attention was pretty easy (not to many 6â&#x20AC;&#x2122;3â&#x20AC;? guys with a Mohawk wearing a speedo). At the mountain championship in Utah I was pleasantly greeted by dozens of people who had been following my adventure. The Fleet Feet in Bozeman was absolutely amazing, and they set me up with a place to stay and held a BBQ. At the Wildhorse Creek race in Bozeman I led a pre-ride and helped design a unique finish option to the race: athletes were given a choice for the last part of the race to swim 50 meters, or run 150m.

Meet Mr. XTERRA Cross-country road trip takes in 12 races If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve done an XTERRA race in this century, watched one of the videos or come across an XTERRA brochure youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen him. With the most famous hairdo in the triathlon worldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a radical blue, green, orange, red, purple, aqua or pink Mohawk spiked to the skyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to miss.

Will Kelsay, a 26-year-old from Boulder, Colo., is likely the most energetic, positive, wild and wacky guy youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll ever meet. This year, he took his just-go-for-it attitude to a new level by embarking on a 12,630-mile, 12-week, 12-race, cross-thecountry road trip in a beat-up RV to share his love for XTERRA. Along the way he put on 10 clinics at Fleet Feet stores, traveled through 31 states, won four races, finished in the top 10 at three others, rebuilt the RV and then ran out of money.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no surprise he was named Mr. XTERRA 2007, but the notion of spend-

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Craziest story?

I was in the middle of nowhere (aka west Texas) when the transmission started to have problems. After a quick diagnostic the mechanic determined the transmission was shot and I needed a new one. Yikes! My first major bump in the road and I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even made it one week into my trip. So, I left the RV and checked into a hotel, started making phone calls and writing e-mails, doing whatever I could to come up with a plan to get to Alabama. Finally I got hooked

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

Rich Cruse

What location did you receive the wildest reception at?

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up with a stand-by plane ticket to Birmingham at 5:20 a.m. the following morning. One problem, the airport was 30 miles away and I didn’t have a way to get there. I told the mechanic my situation, and they gave me a ride into a town about 15 miles from the airport. So, I packed up everything I needed for the race into one backpack and threw my bike into the mechanic’s car. He dropped me off and I rode to a bike shop to pick up a bike box. Hooking the box under one arm, I began riding toward the airport. As I rode I switched arms, tried balancing the box on the handlebars, rested it on the top tube—anything to get relief from that heavy box. After about 10 miles, I thought my arms were going to fall off, and the trek was becoming pretty miserable. After some quick thinking, I pulled up in front of a nice hotel. The free shuttle service pulled up and asked me where I was heading. “To the airport,” I replied. So, I get to the airport around 7:30 p.m. and that night slept on the floor. Amazingly, I made all my flights to Alabama and had a great race at the XTERRA Southeast Champs in Pelham (placing 10th and incredibly stoked). Then on the way back there was more madness, but you’ll have to ask me about it because there’s not enough space here.

How many nights did you sleep in the RV? About two-thirds of the time I slept in the RV. I was very surprised by how many people heard about what I was doing and invited me to stay at their homes. I graciously accepted almost every offer because when someone

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offers you a real bed, nice meal and shower it sounds like heaven after days of sweating my butt off to sleep in my non-air-conditioned RV.

What’s the most common misperception people had about XTERRA? That you have to be a super-good mountain biker to do one.

DIGITAL EDITION NOW AVAILABLE

Most interesting ride-along buddy?

I actually ended up doing the majority of the trip by myself, but it was really fun to have my mom along for awhile because she’s just as goofy and outgoing as I am, so we had a knee-slapping good time.

How has this trip changed your life and what did you learn along the way?

The biggest thing that I have learned from this trip is to just go for it! I realized that if you want to live life to the fullest, you shouldn’t hesitate or play things safe. Throw caution to the wind, don’t have regrets and don’t sweat the small stuff. If you have the right attitude, things always seem to work out in the end. I’m definitely going to keep racing triathlon, living the dream and having a blast doing it. I don’t want to miss out on all of the wonderful things life has to offer, so that’s why I figure I’ll work some other time. I also learned that you need to spend more than $2,500 on an RV that you want to drive around the country.

It’ll come back to bite you in the butt if you don’t, but it’ll make one hell of a story. That’s another thing that I’ve learned: just remember when totally bad things are happening, it will probably make a really good story later.

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, news and nutrition tips as the mailed copy. But the digital edition offers several advantages that print doesn’t: • Links to all of the Web sites (URLs) and E-mail addresses • Download: Save a local version directly to your computer for off-line viewing • Tools that allow you to zoom, print or e-mail pages to a friend • Find anything in the magazine by typing a search phrase • View all available archived issues for this magazine • Environmental friendly: No trees are cut and no fuel is wasted to deliver this edition

PREVIEW OUR SAMPLE

DIGITAL EDITION

Rich Cruse

TODAY triathlete-digital.com T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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BIKE OF THE MONTH

Courtesy the manufacturer

Pinarello FT1

By Jay Prasuhn

I

I recall Interbike 2006, having to scoop my jaw off the carpeted floor after seeing Pinarello’s ultra-sexy time-trial bike, the Montello. It carried sleek lines, a curved seat tube, a cool silver seat-binder cap and came with two seat posts—one with a fore position for triathlon, one more aft per UCI timetrial regulations.

Only problem? It didn’t have a true triathlon pedigree—the bike was built for pro cycling’s Caisse d’Espargne’s Alejandro Valverde. The tri-industry players said, “Oh, cool,” then went on riding on their tri-specific machines.

A year later, the venerable Italian company has seemingly recognized the tri market, creating a bike exclusively with triathletes in mind: the FT1. With price, design and adjustability, it’s one bike that the finicky triathlete ought to take note of—and one that shops can actually stock.

Created as a bike that won’t leave you with sticker shock, the FT1 goes for value at $3,999 complete, using 30HM monocoque carbon (versus their 50HM variety used in the Montello), which brings it to a 1,300-gram frameset. The FT1 then pilfers the finer points from the Montello, with a fork that sweeps toward the down tube for a fairly continual surface and a modified, more swept version of its seat-tube cowling.

But that’s where the imitation ends. The mold was created with a steeper, more triathlon-appropriate 76-degree seat angle than the 74.5-degree one the Montello wears. The bike is finished with a Shimano Dura-Ace derailleurs and Shimano’s new Ultegra SL brakeset.

Not unlike what Felt has done, the FT1 is specified with a host of Pinarello’s in-house M.O.st parts: wheels, saddle, carbon-wrapped stem, aerobars and brake levers, all very nice, performing very well. And we loved the bling of the carbonwrapped crankset. Always our first look, the aluminum aerobars were a pleasant surprise; no carbon anywhere (isn’t it funny everyone expects it these days?), but the bars were ultraadjustable in pad width and extension length and canting—

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making for a dialed-in shop fit from the moment you roll out of the store.

On the road, more surprises. While many bike companies are designing entry-level to mid-range bikes with high head tubes, Pinarello gives age groupers the benefit of the doubt that they want to get the bars low in front and offers a short head tube. It’s a thoughtful offering considering this bike is aimed not just at the first-timer but also at the experienced athlete. No need for the experienced guy to sacrifice a deep frontal drop.

But in designing the front end, Pinarello smartly erred on the safe side. The front end of the FT1 is quite slack and, as such, the bike was predictable, comfortable and steady in the aerobars, which is what the novice triathlete will want.

That said, I was able to descend into a deep drop and ride nearly on autopilot, thinking only about driving the cranks as I easily snaked past cracks in the road and the errant V8 (engine, not can) littering the bike lane. I had no hesitation remaining in the bars on a sweeping descent. The Pinarello proved riding in the aerobars doesn’t have to be a whiteknuckle affair.

While the 30HM carbon adds a bit of weight to the frame (thanks to more resin in the weave), that resin does add stiffness, always a nice feature. We liked the looks of the silver carbon seatbinder clamp located behind the top tube, yet functionally it wasn’t the easiest to operate when it came to freeing the seatpost to adjust its height. It wasn’t a major deal on this new bike, requiring just a bit of muscle, but a neglectful owner might find the joint tough to loosen after a few wet rides.

Pinarello’s real entry into the triathlon market is a worthy one. The FT1 is a great full-carbon value with amazing handling and fit variance, stealing a bunch of great features from its big brother. We reckon the FT1, a bike built exclusively for the tri market, won’t as easily escape the gaze of many buyers in ’08 as it finds its way onto shop floors.

For more on the FT1, visit pinarellousa.com.

Courtesy of the manufacturer

P i n a r e l l o ’s t r i d e b u t , t h e F T 1 , c o m e s i n c o m p l e t e a t $ 3 , 9 9 9 .

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CUTTING EDGE

$5.00

*

The tech behind the tights

PER ISSUE

BACK ISSUES

*Additional postage may apply

Run tights are simply run tights, unless of course they’re compression tights

By Rebecca Roozen

I Order Online at

trimagstore.com Statement of Ownership, Management, & Circulation 1.

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Publication Title: Triathlete Publication Number: 0898-3410 Filing Date:September 27, 2007 Issue Frequency: Published Monthly 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: 12 6. Annual Subscription Price: $29.95 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 328 Encinitas Blvd., Ste 100, Encinitas, San Diego, CA 92024-8704; Contact Person: Heather Gordon; Telephone: 760.634.4100 8. Complete Mailing Address ofHeadquarters or GeneralBusiness Office of Publisher:328 Encinitas Blvd., Ste 100, Encinitas, CA 92024 9. Full Names and CompleteMailing Address of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher: John Duke, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Ste 100, Encinitas, CA 92024; Editor: TJ Murphy, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Ste. 100, Encinitas, CA 92024 Managing Editor: Cameron Elford, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Ste 100, Encinitas, CA 92024 10. Owner: Triathlon Group North America, LLC., 328 Encinitas Blvd., Ste 100, Encinitas, CA 92024; La Jolla Holding Group, LLC., 7777 Girard, Ste 200, La Jolla, CA 92037 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or more of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None 12. Tax Status: The Purpose, Function, and Nonprofit Status of this Organization and the Exempt Status for Federa Income Tax Purposes: Has Not Changed During the Preceding 12 Months.

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Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: 93,500.

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No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: 41,333.

(4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS: Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: N/A. No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: N/A. C. Total Paid Distibution: Average No.Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: 82,832. No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: 84,890.

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17. I Certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions and/or civil sanctions and or civil sanctions.

If you could grant yourself quicker recovery and race times and less injury simply by training, racing and sleeping in a different get-up, wouldn’t you give it a whirl? Of course you would. It’s somewhat debatable whether these specially woven fabrics will help you to the line in less time, but compression tights have a medical history and a recent tradition in running that support the above claims—and your legs—quite nicely.

“When we first started promoting them, I thought it was B.S.,” says 2XU’s director and product-development manager Jamie Hunt. “But now we believe they’re one of the most dramatic pieces of equipment that sports have had in a long time.”

Compression tights are marketed to distance athletes as a way to make their muscles work more efficiently. The goal is to expend less energy in order to perform a given amount of work. Hunt says the benefits of compression materials are three-fold: “They’re good for recovery, with increased blood flow; muscle injury prevention; and to wear while actually competing, not just in training.”

Compression wear originated in the form of stockings— not tights—to aid several medical conditions that result in edema of the lower legs, says Dr. Jeffrey Sankoff, a two-time Ironman triathlete and ER physician based in Denver, Colo. (and regular Triathlete and triathletemag.com contributor).

“For various reasons, fluid is unable to return to the heart and pressure builds in the veins, forcing that fluid out into the tissues. Compression apparel provides outside pressure to force fluid back into the veins and prevent further leakage.”

Compression stockings can also be used to help prevent blood from pooling in the legs and therefore decrease the risk of blood clots forming.

Brandt Furgerson, director of product at Zoot Sports, says the technology began with the development of DuPont’s Lycra spandex. “Lycra has a very distinct job,” says Furgerson. “The patterning of the garment will always be the most beneficial aspect.” Zoot uses as low a Lycra content as it can (20 percent or below), since “Its only job is to stretch and contract, over and over again, adding support,” Furgerson explains.

ATHLETIC ADVANTAGES Compression tights have been subjected to numerous studies. The best-known study, Hunt says, was done at a French university. “It concluded that over a 3.5-hour marathon, on average, runners can cut off up to six minutes [when wearing compression tights],” he notes. “The faster time was attributed to increased VO2 max and better blood circulation throughout the body.”

Hunt is referring to a study co-authored by Dr. Stephane Perrey of the University of Montpellier’s Motor Efficiency and Deficiency Laboratory in France and published in the

Heather Gordon Associate Publisher

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International Journal of Sports Medicine.

French researchers found that compression tights allowed runners to expend less effort during their runs when compared with shorts or traditional lowtech tights. Researchers also measured the runnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; efficiency using portable monitors that gauged their oxygen needs during the run. During more intense runs, the compression tights performed best, trimming the runnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; oxygen use. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Paula Radcliffe has been the leading founder of this for years. Muscles vibrate while working out. The less vibrating, the less fatigue,â&#x20AC;? Hunt says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re great for

competition and recovery, just ask Michellie Jones,â&#x20AC;? adds Hunt. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She wears them to sleep at night.â&#x20AC;?

FUTURE OF COMPRESSION As more studies are done to test the true benefits of compression tights, leading companies in the triathlon industry continue to make the most of these technologies. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think it has a long way to go,â&#x20AC;? says Hunt. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re already working on three or four versions. The major issue to deal with is a graduated fit, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re working out the best way to make that happen.â&#x20AC;?

MUGUSJBUIMPOTFSJFT DPN mOJTI

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GEAR BAG

No pool, no problem Improve your swim with the Vasa Ergometer and the Halo Swim Bench

By Brad Culp

Triathletes are always looking for ways to boost their speed and efficiency in the water. However, many athletes forget that swimming is like most other sports—it takes a combination of form and power to improve. While weight training is a great way

to increase upper-body power, no gym exercises can target swim-specific muscles quite like the Vasa Ergometer and the Halo Swim Bench. This month, Triathlete tested both machines, and now we’re swimming faster than ever.

Vasa Ergometer

$1799

Okay, the price may be a bit alarming. However, it’s roughly the same cost as a treadmill, and that’s exactly what it is—a swimming treadmill. The machine resembles the rowing ergs you’ll find at your gym, and it works in pretty much the same way.

A durable rope connects the handles to a large flywheel, which provides a range of resistance options and actually mimics the feel of water. To increase or decrease the resistance, there is a damper door, which adjusts the amount of airflow allowed into the machine. Put the resistance at level one and you’ll feel like you’re swimming downstream. Turn it up to level seven and you’re ready for a punishing anaerobic workout.

According to veteran swim coach Al Lyman, “With focused training on the erg, athletes can gradually build the force and muscular power they need to stay strong for the duration of any race.”

Perhaps the most useful feature of the Ergometer is the instant feedback it provides. Throughout your entire workout you can see your time, distance, pace and stroke rate. The machine even measures the power output of each arm independently, so you can hone in on where you need to improve.

The Ergometer is easy to set up, but it does occupy quite a bit of space. So if you’ve got the room (and the wallet), it’s a surefire way to beat your buddies to T1. vasatrainer.com

$349

Three-time Olympian (with a gold medal in the 4 x 200 freestyle in 1996) and 2004 triathlon world champion Sheila Taormina swears by the Halo Swim Bench as part of her training program. While the Vasa Ergometer is ideal for developing swim power, the Halo system focuses a bit more on developing proper form. The machine was designed to target three aspects of freestyle technique: high-elbow catch, power-stroke path and race-pace tempo.

A large template (with six sizes to choose from) sits in front of the bench and forces your elbows to remain elevated as you pull the resistance cords back (four different cords are available).

The template also ensures your hands follow the ideal stroke path throughout each pull.

While the bench itself doesn’t move to mimic the feel of the water, as with the Vasa Ergometer, the stationary bench allows you to be in complete control of your stroke rate. This way, you can pull at race pace while improving your mechanics.

The Halo doesn’t provide the same kind of instant feedback as the Vasa, but we enjoyed the pacing device and the fact that the foldable bench can be stored just about anywhere. haloswimtraining.com

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Images courtesy the manufacturers

Halo Swim Bench

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AT THE RACES

Germany’s Daniel Unger celebrates his win at ITU worlds in Hamburg.

Unger, Fernandes on top of the world in Hamburg On Labor Day weekend, the world’s top ITU superstars stormed the streets of Hamburg, Germany, with hopes of bringing a world championship back to their home country. After three days of competition, over 20 champions were crowned in the junior, age-group, U23 and elite categories. Top honors went to Portugal’s Vanessa Fernandes and Germany’s Daniel Unger, who took home their respective elite world championships.

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The elite women were led out of the water by Joelle Franzmann, of Germany, with a big group of contenders in close contact. Pre-race favorite Emma Snowsill, from Australia, entered T1 alongside Fernandes but lost a few seconds as she prepared herself for the bike leg.

“You can never waste a second, and I lost that second in transition,” Snowsill said after the race.

On each of the six laps of the bike course, Snowsill fell further and further back from the lead group, which was pushed forward by Fernandes and Aussie Annabel Luxford. As the top women pounded their way toward T2, Fernandes drifted to the back of the pack, presumably to save energy for the run, her signature discipline.

Fernandes headed out onto the run course in 11th place, but the crowd quickly realized that she was virtually leading from behind. The ITU’s number one-ranked woman methodically reeled in her competition en route to a 1:53:27 win.

Behind Fernandes, the real race was taking place in a battle for the final podium spots. Snowsill, who was almost 90 seconds behind the lead group at the start of the run, put in a huge surge to pick up silver. The Aussie was just six days removed from her win at the Accenture Chicago Triathlon, but her running legs showed no signs of fatigue.

Snowsill finished the race with the day’s best run: a stunning sub-33minute 10km.

Only six seconds behind Snowsill was American Laura Bennett, who finished in 1:54:37. Bennett’s teammate, Sarah Haskins, was the next American to cross the line, in 10th position (1:55:27).

On the final day of competition it was time for the elite men to take center stage. To no one’s surprise, American Andy Potts led the field out of the water, but a number of contenders were at his feet, including current world number one Javier Gomez, of Spain.

During the flat and technical 40km bike leg a number of athletes attempted to break away from the huge lead pack, but none was successful. After a very fast bike the men flew in and out of T2 and the stage was set for the stronger runners.

asiphoto.com

FRANZMANN LEADS THE WOMEN’S ELITE RACE

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Courtesy of ITU

AT THE RACES Defending world champ Tim Don, of Great Britain, attempted an early surge but was quickly reeled in by the likes of Unger, Gomez and Canadian super-runner and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield. As expected, Gomez surged just past the halfway point and broke the lead pack into pieces. Only Unger was able to keep pace with the fleet-footed Gomez, and even he looked as though he was struggling as the pair sprinted toward the finish.

With about one kilometer to go, the 300,000 German fans urged Unger into another gear and he sprinted away from Gomez to win in 1:43:18. Gomez retained his position atop the ITU’s World Cup standings by finishing in second, just four seconds behind Unger. Aussie Brad Kahlefeldt rounded out the podium, finishing 12 seconds behind Gomez.

Prior to the race, many believed that in order to win an athlete would have to run under 30 minutes over the flat 10km course, and only Unger and Gomez were able to do just that (in 29:47 and 29:42, respectively).

Potts was the top finisher for the United States, stopping the clock in 1:44:31 to earn 11th place. Not far behind was his countryman Matt Reed, in 14th (1:44:55).

After the race, Potts seemed satisfied with his finish, given that the flat bike course didn’t allow him to make one of his signature breaks.

“I’m not disappointed, I’m not elated,” Potts told reporters.

“I came here to test myself, and that’s exactly what I did.”

Unger and fellow German Jan Frodeno secured a place at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, as this event served as a German qualifier for next year’s Games.

More than 20 ITU world champions were crowned in Hamburg.

JUNIOR/U23 ROUND-UP The world’s top rising stars took to the streets in the junior championship event on the first day of competition. The junior athletes raced on a sprint-distance course.

In the women’s junior championship, Great Britain’s Hollie Avil ran away from the field to win in 59:43, 11 seconds ahead of Aussie Ashleigh Gentle.

As for the junior men, France’s Aurelien Raphael stayed out front from start to finish as he took home the title in 53:43.

Reigning European champ Alistair Brownlee, of Germany, excited the crowd by picking up a silver medal for the host nation.

That afternoon, the U23 athletes competed in their Olympic-distance championship. In the women’s race, Sweden won its first triathlon world championship as Lisa Norden took top honors, in 2:01:24. American rising star Jasmine Oeinick, of Boulder, Colo., picked up the silver medal, finishing 51 seconds behind the Swede.

In the U23 men’s race, the host country took another championship as Gregor Buchholz won a thrilling race in 1:49:31.

Buchholz and Aussie Brendan Sexton were forced into an all-out sprint to the line, with the German coming away with a threesecond margin of victory and a gold medal.

ITU WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Hamburg, Germany

Sept. 1-2, 2007 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run

Courtesy of ITU

Elite women 1. Vanessa Fernandes (POR). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:53:27 2. Emma Snowsill (AUS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:54:31 3. Laura Bennett (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:54:37 4. Emma Moffatt (AUS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:54:54 5. Ricarda Lisk (GER) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:54:59

Portugal’s Vanessa Fernandes has been unstoppable this season.

Elite men 1. Daniel Unger (GER) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:43:18 2. Javier Gomez (SPN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:43:22 3. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:43:36 4. Simon Whitfield (CAN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:43:40 5. William Clarke (GBR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:43:45 T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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AT THE RACES

Snowsill continued her dominance at the LA Triathlon.

Bennett, Snowsill dominate in L.A.

By Brad Culp

Earlier this season, when it was announced that any man or woman who could sweep the Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series would win a $300,000 bonus, most believed that the feat would be impossible. With one race left in the series, Aussie speedster Greg Bennett is on track to accomplish the impossible.

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The seemingly unbeatable Bennett won the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon on Sept. 9, narrowly outdueling his countryman Craig Walton. Another Aussie, Stephen Hackett, completed the podium sweep for the men from Down Under.

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AT THE RACES In the women’s race, few were surprised to see yet another Australian, Emma Snowsill, run her way to victory. Great Britain’s Julie Dibens held off Aussie Mirinda Carfrae for second.

BENNETT KICKS HARD FOR REPEAT WIN Twenty-one pro men charged into the Pacific Ocean off

Venice Beach to start the 1.5km swim under ideal conditions, with American John Kenny leading the way into T1 after a sub21-minute swim. Not far behind the leader were Paulo Miyasiro of Brazil and Walton, who routinely has one of the best swimbike combinations in the sport.

Once out of transition, Walton surged away from the rest of the field and flew through L.A’s famous neighborhoods in a quick 55 minutes for 40km on the bike. The rest of the top men lost about two-and-a-half minutes to Walton, and it appeared that Bennett’s shot at $300,000 was all but lost.

But Bennett stormed out of T2 to begin his 10km pursuit of Walton and his big paycheck. After almost five-and-a-half miles of chasing, Bennett caught Walton as they made the final turn toward the finish line at the Staples Center. The two were side by side for mere seconds before Bennett made his move and pulled away to win by just six seconds.

Next up for Bennett is the Toyota U.S Open in Dallas, Texas, in October. If Bennett crosses the line in first, he will earn the cash bonus on top of the series championship. The bonus, combined with his wife’s (American Laura Bennett) $250,000 check from the HyVee World Cup, will make for a big year for the world’s fastest couple.

SNOWSILL OUT-RUNS WORLD’S BEST AGAIN The women’s race didn’t have nearly as much excitement as the men’s, which is becoming standard for any race that Snowsill enters. Although she was only seven days removed from her runner-up finish at the ITU world championship, Snowsill had no problem dominating her competition in L.A. Snowsill was the second woman out of the Pacific, just seconds behind American Jasmine Oeinick, but she and Dibens took control of the race as they biked up Hollywood Blvd. The pair destroyed the rest of the field over the 40km course and entered T2 comfortably ahead of their pursuers.

In typical Snowsill fashion, she put three minutes into the rest of the women on the 10km run and cruised down the finishing chute in 2:00:45. Dibens finished less than three minutes later, with Carfrae another three-and-a-half minutes back.

“I was pleased with being third [behind Snowsill and Dibens],” Carfrae said after the race. “It was a great way to see the city. I had never been to L.A before and the race was a great way to see it all.”

KAISER PERMANENTE LOS ANGELES TRIATHLON Los Angeles, Calif.

Sept. 9, 2007 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run

Rich Cruse

Women 1. Emma Snowsill (AUS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:00:45 2. Julie Dibens (GBR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:03:33 3. Mirinda Carfrae (AUS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:07:17 4. Rebeccah Wassner (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:07:38 5. Mary Beth Ellis (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:08:48

Australia’s Greg Bennett is on track to sweep the Life Time series.

Men 1. Greg Bennett (AUS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:51:49 2. Craig Walton (AUS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:51:55 3. Stephen Hackett (AUS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:54:51 4. Timothy O’Donnell (USA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:55:04 5. Simon Lessing (GBR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:55:37 T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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AT THE RACES

Winter-like conditions greeted athletes on some of the trails.

Stoltz, Whitmore take Tahoe and U.S. Pro Series One day prior to the Sept. 30 XTERRA USA Championship at Lake Tahoe, the surrounding mountains looked as though it were the middle of winter. Snow covered the mountain-bike trails and icicles hung from the pine trees. The mercury dropped below 30 degrees F the night prior to the race, but fortunately the athletes awoke to clear skies and warmer temps on race morning.

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather were South African Conrad Stoltz and American Jaime Whitmore. With their Tahoe wins, the athletes secured a clean-sweep of the America Tour Pro Series and picked up a $19,000 bonus.

The race kicked off with a chilling swim in the clear waters of Lake Tahoe, with American Seth Wealing leading the pro men 154

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out of the lake. Last year, Wealing led from the start and never saw another athlete en route to victory. This year, the powerful Stoltz looked determined to hunt the American down from the moment he got on his bike.

Stoltz caught up to and passed Wealing as the pair started the brutal 1,600-foot climb up Tunnel Creek. Stoltz finished with the fastest bike split of the day (1:32:17) and had built an enormous lead heading into T2.

Little changed on the run, as the top five men off the bike crossed the finish line in the same order. Canadian Mike Vine took advantage of his blazing descent from Tunnel Creek Road to secure second.

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Rich Cruse

AT THE RACES

Conrad Stoltz used a powerful bike leg to seal the win in Tahoe.

The women’s race started just like last year, with defending world and U.S. champ Melanie McQuaid blowing by the field in the swim and looking strong on the early stages of the bike leg.

However, by the time McQuaid started her way up the grueling Flume Trail her stomach was in revolt and her energy levels plummeted. “In the morning I thought I was just nervous because I couldn’t eat breakfast,” McQuaid said after the race, “But then I started getting sick on the Flume Trail and I couldn’t keep anything down.”

Jennifer Smith took advantage of McQuaid’s misfortune and took the lead into T2. However, Smith had to settle for second, as Whitmore, the top runner on the women’s circuit, became the first female to break three hours in the seven-year history of the event.

XTERRA USA Incline Village, Nev.

Sept. 30, 2007 .93-mile swim, 21.7-mile bike, 6.1-mile run

Rich Cruse

Women 1. Jaime Whitmore (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:59:18 2. Jennifer Smith (NZL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3:01:26 3. Dara Marks Marino (USA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3:04:42 4. Candy Angle (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3:10:01 5. Melanie McQuaid (CAN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3:10:25

Jaime Whitmore hammers her way to victory at Lake Tahoe.

Men 1. Conrad Stoltz (SA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:34:08 2. Mike Vine (CAN). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:35:40 3. Andrew Noble (AUS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:37:18 4. Josiah Middaugh (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:37:47 5. Seth Wealing (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:39:55 T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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Cameron Elford

AT THE RACES

Race winner Michael Halstead runs past scenic Fort Pond Bay.

Vitai, Halsted win MightyMan Montauk

By Cameron Elford Liz Vitai, from New York City, and Mike Halsted, from Stoneridge, N.Y., won the MightyMan Montauk on Sept. 30 in Montauk, N.Y., a town of close to 4000 on the eastern tip of Long Island. Officially part of the Town of East Hampton, funky, surfer-friendly Montauk is a world away from the posh Hamptons, which are simultaneously venerated and reviled by New Yorkers for their high-priced boutiques and antique stores that have contributed to the region’s reputation as the playground of the East Coast elite.

In contrast, Montauk’s vibe is more old-school, although equally exclusive in its own way, with locals restricting corporate chains from setting up shop in the town, leading to a landscape blissfully free of Golden Arches and strip malls, which gives compact downtown Montauk (with everything, including the race start, within easy walking distance of the myriad seaside hotels) a unique and inviting streetscape.

Montauk, although just 100 miles from New York City, 156

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enjoys a far slower pace than the City and boasts several thousand acres of state parks and some of the East Coast’s top mountain biking. As well, the region is a frequent refuge of New Yorkbased triathletes who come to train on Montauk’s quiet roads and rolling terrain.

Indeed, the region is a popular outdoor-recreation hub and is well known for its long-running triathlons, such as the Mighty Hamptons, which celebrated its 26th birthday in 2007. Given the success and sheer staying power of the Olympic-distance Mighty Hamptons event, it’s no surprise that in 2004 race organizers added the MightyMan to the Long Island race calendar.

Although challenging, the MightyMan course attracts a large contingent of triathletes eager to race their first long-course event, thanks to a spectacular course featuring a freshwater swim in protected Fort Pond (with temperatures that average in the upper 60s) followed by two-loop run and bike courses that incorporate no major climbs but include several short, steep pitches on each lap. And in 2006 MightyMan organizers added a sprint-distance race, which this year attracted close to 500 participants and runs the day before the long-course event.

Although the grassroots long- and short-course MightyMan races have attracted small pro fields, the exceptionally well organized triathlons are primarily age-group events with amateurs from around the country coming to close out their 2007 racing with a scenic late-season contest.

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AT THE RACES

Cameron Elford

A COOL START In 2006, athletes racing the long-course MightyMan event had to contend with unseasonably wet and cold conditions that saw several sections of the course flooded out; however, this year, despite cool early-morning temperatures, athletes enjoyed brilliant weather with highs in the upper-60s that made for fast times.

After a flat 1.2-mile wave-start swim, athletes made a quick scramble out of Fort Pond and a short run to T1. Once on the bike, athletes ride east to the tip of Long Island, which takes them through Montauk Point State Park and past the Montauk Point Lighthouse, which was commissioned by President George Washington and built in 1796 and still stands as one of the country’s oldest lighthouses.

On the 56-mile bike, local age-group triathlete Grant Connelly, racing from the first wave, quickly consolidated his advantage, opening up a comfortable gap over his chasers as the men wound through the two-lap course, which includes sections on the highway and rural seaside residential streets. But over the second half of the bike Halsted began taking significant time out of Connelly, catching the leader just a mile from T2.

“I tried to stay steady on the first lap and hammered the second,” said Halsted. “On the second lap I could see the leader [Connelly] and thought I’d make a move.”

And making Halsted’s performance on the bike even more impressive was that the 41-year-old veterinarian was racing from wave four, which started six minutes after Connelly’s wave, making Halsted the clear T2 leader on paper if not on the course.

Despite Halsted’s challenge on the bike, however, Connelly, who won the Mighty Hamptons race on Sept. 16, attacked early on the run to again open a lead over Halsted, who battled leg cramps over the first three miles of the half-marathon.

“I got off the bike and my quads cramped in the first three miles of the run,” said Halsted. “But I was patient.”

After finding his rhythm on the run Halsted raced well but conservatively, comfortable in the knowledge that, because of the staggered wave start, he held a solid margin over his closest chasers, two of whom moved past him in the closing miles of the run but posed little threat to his overall lead. “I knew I had a big cushion,” explained Halsted, “but I kept them close.”

Although he crossed the line fourth, Halsted took the win in 4:25:39, his first here after finishing second in 2006 and fourth in 2005.

In second place was New York, New York’s Mike Arnstein who, racing from the first wave with Connelly, overcame a 34-minute swim and, incredibly, raced and won the Hamptons Marathon the day before in 2:44. “I was really tired for the first six miles of the run,” said Arnstein, who nonetheless ran a spectacular halfmarathon to cross the line first and ultimately take the runner-up spot fewer than two minutes behind Halsted, in 4:27:24.

In third was Brooklyn’s Michael Perlberg, in 4:30:17, who placed second behind Connelly at the Mighty Hamptons race.

For his part, Connelly finished fourth in 4:31:59 after hanging tough on the run. “I went too hard early on and started fading,” said Connelly. “I started the run strong, but it’s late in the season and my legs didn’t have anything for the end of the run.”

VITAI RUNS INTO FIRST Pro triathlete Liz Vitai, who works as a trader on Wall Street, wrapped up the women’s title with a surge on the run. “I came off the bike in second and caught the leader by mile three,” said Vitai, 42, who raced Ford Ironman Wisconsin three weeks ago,

Liz Vitai closed the gap on the run to take the top spot.

finishing eighth there in 10:22.

For much of the day, however, Vitai had been chasing Arizona’s Kathryn Bertine. “I’m done,” said Vitai after her win, which came on tired post-Ironman legs. “But once I got the lead I thought I’d better suffer. It was hard to get going, but once you get in the front the adrenalin takes over.”

Vitai took the win in 4:50:00 with Bertine a strong second in 4:53:37.

MIGHTYMAN MONTAUK Montauk, N.Y.

Sept. 30, 2007 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run

Women 1. Liz Vitai (USA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:50:00 2. Kathryn Bertine (USA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:53:37 3. Jessica Allen (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5:03:13 4. Christine Kachinsky (USA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5:03:28 5. Katherine Ward (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5:06:34 Men 1. Michael Halsted (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:25:39 2. Michael Arnstein (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:27:24 3. Michael Perlberg (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:30:17 4. Grant Connelly (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:31:59 5. Kevin Higgins (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:37:38 T R I AT H L E T E M A G . C O M

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ITU’s top man and woman dominate in Beijing Bennett and Shoemaker take first American Olympic spots

In 2007 there was pretty much one way to win a World Cup race: Find an event that Javier Gomez or Vanessa Fernandes wasn’t entered in. The top-ranked ITU athletes once again outran the best draft-legal triathletes on the planet to win the Beijing Olympics test event in China on the weekend of Sept. 15-16.

The event served as an Olympic qualifier for just about every country competing, including the United States. Laura Bennett (third overall female) and Jarrod Shoemaker (11th overall male) secured the first of three spots on the 2008 U.S. Olympic triathlon team.

Frank Wechsel

AT THE RACES

ITU BEIJING WORLD CUP Beijing, China

Sept. 15-16, 2007 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run

Women 1. Vanessa Fernandes (POR) . . . . . . 2:00:36 2. Emma Snowsill (AUS) . . . . . . . . . 2:01:51 3. Laura Bennett (USA). . . . . . . . . . 2:02:06 4. Debbie Tanner (NZL) . . . . . . . . . . 2:02:10 5. Anja Dittmer (GER) . . . . . . . . . . . 2:02:43

Frank Wechsel

Men 1. Javier Gomez (SPN) . . . . . . . . . . 1:48:41 2. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) . . . . . . . 1:49:04 3. Bevan Docherty (NZL) . . . . . . . . . 1:49:08 4. Kris Gemmell (NZL). . . . . . . . . . . 1:49:15 5. Simon Whitfield (CAN) . . . . . . . . 1:49:18

Javier Gomez shows off his gold medal from the Beijing World Cup.

A pair of 26-year-old rising stars picked up their first Ironman victories at the 2007 Ironman Wisconsin on Sept. 9 in Madison. German Maik Twelsiek used a blistering bike ride to secure the win in the men’s race, topping American Paul Fritzsche by over 10 minutes. The women’s race was anything but a race. Kiwi Gina Ferguson, competing in her fourth Ironman of the year, destroyed the women’s field en route to setting a new course record and winning by 24 minutes.

asiphoto.com

International rising stars top Wisconsin field

IRONMAN WISCONSIN Madison, Wis.

Sept. 9, 2007 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run

Pro men 1. Maik Twelsiek (GER) . . . . . . 8:52:49 2. Paul Fritzsche (USA) . . . . . . 9:03:22 3. Uzziel Valderrabano (MEX) . . 9:06:05 4. Werner Leitner (AUT) . . . . . . 9:06:41 5. Christophe Bastie (FRA) . . . 9:08:08 Amateur men 1. Thomas Brunold (USA) . . . . 9:13:34 Gina Ferguson takes a decisive victory at Ford Ironman Wisconsin.

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Twelsiek used a strong bike to power into the lead and set up his Wisconsin win. |

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Amateur women 1. Sarah Mercer (USA) . . . . . 10:35:59

Robbie Little/asiphoto.com

Pro women 1. Gina Ferguson (NZL) . . . . . . 9:37:03 2. Hillary Biscay (USA) . . . . . 10:01:30 3. Ina Reinders (GER) . . . . . . 10:03:39 4. Heather Haviland (USA). . . 10:06:26 5. Lauren Jensen (USA). . . . . 10:07:41

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AT THE RACES Louison, Perez top Monaco 70.3 field

Rebecca Roozen

By Don Ryder

Franceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alexandra Louison came from five minutes back after the swim to overtake Sibylle Matter on the run, while Spainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Marcel Perez battled through the hills MONACO IRONMAN 70.3 and a bike crash to Monte Carlo, Monaco take the menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s title September 2, 2007 at this spectacular, 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run challenging event in Women the Mediterranean 1. Alexandra Louison (FRA) . . . . . 4:49:43 playground of the 2. Sibylle Matter (SWI) . . . . . . . . . 4:51:30 rich and famous.

3. Christel Robin (FRA). . . . . . . . . 4:52:46 4. Michelle Lee (GBR) . . . . . . . . . 4:55:02 5. Sione Jongstra (NED) . . . . . . . . 4:56:51 Men 1. Marcel Zamora Perez (SPN). . . 4:14:14 2. Paul Amey (GBR) . . . . . . . . . . . 4:16:06 3. Nicolas Lebrun (FRA) . . . . . . . . 4:16:32 4. Massimo Cigana (ITA) . . . . . . . 4:17:07 5. Alessandro Degasperi (ITA) . . . 4:18:54

MIKU

Amateur women 1. Inge Vancauwenberghe (BEL) . . 5:17:09 Amateur men 1. Bruno Inverinizzi (SWI) . . . . . . . 4:28:41

Crosby defends title at third-annual RYKA Iron Girl Bloomington Duathlon Local Minnesotan Marlo Crosby crossed the line in 1:20:58 to win the thirdannual RYKA Iron Girl Bloomington Duathlon in Bloomington, Minn., on Sept. 23. Crosby posted the fastest first run leg of the day, covering just over two miles RYKA IRON GIRL in 12:09, and BLOOMINGTON DUATHLON was up three Bloomington, Minn. minutes on secSept. 23, 2007 ond place Julie 2-mile run, 22-mile bike, 2-mile run Hull going into the second run.

1. Marlo Crosby (Duluth, Minn.) . . . . . . . . 1:20:58 W i s c o n s i n â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2. Julie Hull (Farmington, Minn.) . . . . . . . 1:25:31 Sarah Kolpin 3. Sarah Kolpin (Madison, Wis.). . . . . . . . 1:25:35 finished third 4. Catherine Lee (Minneapolis, Minn.) . . . 1:26:51 in 1:25:35.

5. Leslie Curley (Topeka, Ks.) . . . . . . . . . . 1:28:13

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AT THE RACES Andy Baldwin is top celeb in Malibu Andy Baldwin, formally of ABC’s The Bachelor, and Pamela Conley Ulich, Mayor of Malibu, won the celebrity divisions this year at the Malibu Triathlon in California on Sept. 16. In the real race, Californian Chris Foster narrowly edged out Chris McCormack for the men’s title, while Anissa Sequin ran away with the women’s win.

NAUTICA MALIBU TRIATHLON Malibu, Calif.

Sept. 16, 2007 .5-mile swim, 18-mile bike, 4-mile run

Foster (left) and McCormack topped the field at the Malibu Triathlon.

Men 1. Chris Foster (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:15:32 2. Chris McCormack (AUS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:15:36 3. Fabio Carvalho (BRA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:16:31 4. Jose Antunes (BRA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:18:18 5. Caue Suplicy (BRA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:20:19

Mitch Thrower

Women 1. Anissa Sequin (USA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30:06 2. Rachel Challis (USA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:31:35 3. Claudia Campos (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:39:16 4. Kara Rossi (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:39:32 5. Tina Geller (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:41:38

Courtesy the Mighty Hamptons

Yasterbov and Corbin run to wins in Vancouver

While Long Island, New York’s Hamptons may be better known as a vacation destination, the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon, which took MIGHTY HAMPTONS place on Sept. 16, has TRIATHLON quite a history as well.

Sag Harbor, N.Y. Sept. 16, 2007 Legendary athletes 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run including Dave Scott Women and Scott Tinley have 1. Karen Smyers (USA) . . . . . . 2:13:00 toed the start line in the 2. Magdalena Stovickova (USA). 2:16:57 past, and this year 1995 3. Kerry Simmons (USA) . . . . . 2:19:37 Ironman world champi4. Amy Bevilacqua (USA). . . . . 2:19:57 on Karen Smyers took 5. Liz Vitai (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . 2:27:18 the ferry over from Massachusetts for the Men race. Smyers came away 1. Grant Connelly (USA) . . . . . 2:05:27 with the women’s win, 2. Michael Perlberg (USA) . . . . 2:07:45 while Grant Connelly 3. Peter Ventura (USA). . . . . . . 2:12:03 was a repeat winner on 4. John Hirsch (USA) . . . . . . . . 2:12:40 the men’s side.

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Fleet-footed Andriy Yasterbov ran down Christopher Brown and Trevor Wurtele to win the men’s race at the inaugural Subaru Vancouver International Half Iron on Sept. 16. In the women’s race, Montana’s Linsey Corbin closed with a 1:18 half-marathon to pull away from Kim Loeffler and Kristin Baker.

SUBARU VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL HALF IRON TRIATHLON Vancouver, BC, Canada

Sept. 16, 2007 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run

Women 1. Linsey Corbin (USA) . . . . . . . 4:20:29 2. Kim Loeffler (USA). . . . . . . . . 4:34:38 3. Kristin Baker (CAN) . . . . . . . . 4:59:20 4. Louise Porto (CAN) . . . . . . . . 5:00:10 5. Alina Brown (USA). . . . . . . . . 5:04:12 Men 1. Andriy Yasterbov (UKR) . . . . . 4:01:01 2. Christopher Brown (CAN) . . . . 4:02:43 3. Trevor Wurtele (CAN) . . . . . . . 4:06:53 4. Trevor Williams (CAN). . . . . . . 4:09:01 5. Colin McArthur (CAN) . . . . . . 4:25:03

Mark Oleksyn

Triathlon hits the Hamptons

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INTERNATIONAL TRIATHLON & DUATHLON RACE CALENDAR

XTERRA TV SCHEDULE (December 2007) MARKET

STATION

DATE

TIME

SHOW

Albany, NY

WTEN

12/30

3 p.m.

Nevada Passage

Denver, CO

KMGH

12/29

1 p.m.

Nevada Passage

Hartford, CT

WTNH

12/8

3 a.m.

Nevada Passage

Peoria, IL

WHOI

12/29

2 p.m.

XTERRA USA Championship

Tampa, Fl

WTSP

11/18

2 a.m.

Nevada Passage

Topeka, KS

KTKA

12/22

1:30 p.m.

XTERRA USA Championship

Traverse City, MI

WGTU

11/25

2 p.m.

Nevada Passage

Tulsa, OK

KOKI

11/17

11 a.m.

XTERRA from Hawaii

Tulsa, OK

KOKI

11/18

11:30 a.m.

XTERRA Planet from Reno

Check your local listings to see an updated broadcast schedule for the award-winning TEAM Unlimited TV productions.

For more information on the shows and a complete list of broadcast dates and times visit xterraplanet.com/television.

Reminder: If a raceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 registra-

tion, 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 triathlonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most popular events. To list your event in our online calendar, please go to triathletemag.com.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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 Triathlon-sanctioned 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.

For listing in our print calendar, e-mail your information to rebecca@triathletemag.com or fax it to (760) 634-4110.

Entries submitted before Sept. 30 have been included in the December issue. All entries that were submitted after that date will be in the January issue.

Please note that most XTERRA global tour events consist of approximately a 1.5K swim, 30K mountain bike and 10K trail run.

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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.cutingedgeevents.net,beccakoester@yahoo.com, www.sign meup.com.

Danskin Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.familyfitnessweekend.com.

Fat Rabbit Racing: Craig Thompson,614.424.7990, 614.306.1996; craigthompson@fatrabbitracing.com; www.fatrabbitracing.com.

Finish Line Productions: 475 Tinkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Trail, Boulder Creek, CA. 831.419.0883; info@finishlineproduction.com; finishlineproduction.com.

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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.firstwave-events.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; 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,

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

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-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.

John Segesta/wahoomedia.com

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Tucson Tri Girls Niki Mathias tucsontrigirls@cox.net

St. Louis Triathlon Club Jason Difini contact@stloustriclub.com stlouistriclub.com

CALIFORNIA LA Tri Club president@latriclub.com latriclub.com Tri Club San Diego triclubsandiego.org Fleet Feet Multisports Orange County Michael Collins info@multisportsoc.com Orange County Triathlon Clubb Huntington Beach OCTriClub@triathlete.com San Francisco Tri Club Amy Bohutinsky info@sftriclub.org Golden Gate Tri Club-San Fran Karen Kofod president@ggtc.org Silicon Valley Triathlonn Club webmaster@svtriclub.org svtriclub.org Tri Club Marin Mike Belloumini mike@fleetfeetsananselmo.com Kain Performance-San Jose Pete Kain pete@kaiperformance.com kainperformance.com Newport Coast Tri Team Daniel Mathot ncttpresident@hotmail.com nctt.us Sacramento Triathlon Club Kathryn Caucci 916.736.2746 sactriclub.com Santa Cruz Triathlon Assoc.

Sherri Goodman scat@sctriathlon.com sctriathlon.com

COLORADO Pikes Peak Triathlon Club John “Woody” Noleen noleen@aol.com p2triclub.org

FLORIDA Gold Coast Triathletes goldcoasttriathletes.com

ILLINOIS Tri- Sharks Chris Sweet tri-shark.org/tri-sharks

INDIANA Tri Fort Triathlete Tom Carpenter trifort@triathlete.com www.3rvs.com Circle City Multi-Sport Club Rob Beeler rbeeler@nsisw.com circlecitymultisport.com

NEBRASKA Team Nebraska Triathlon Club Kelley Perry KelleyTRIUSA@hotmail.com teamnebraska.org

NEVADA Tri Pro Cyclery, Las Vegas Baker1@ameralinx.net triprocyclery.com

NEW JERSEY Team Paramount Mike Grussgott mgrussgott@yahoo.com eteamz.com/paramountadventure Road Fit Multi-sport eric@roadfit.com roadfit.com

NEW YORK Asphalt Green Triathlon Club New York, NY 212.369.8890 CNY Tri Club Inc. Jim Szczygiel president@cnytriathlon.org Hudson Valley Tri Club markstriclub@hotmail.com HVTC.net Team Runners Edge mindyruns@aol.com runnersedgeny.com Terrieer Tri Robert@terriertri.com terriertri.com Triathlon Association of New York City (TANYC) Mo Modali mo@tanyc.org tanyc.org

NORTH CAROLINA South Charlotte Tri Club CJ Warstler info@southsharlottetriclub.com southcharlottetriclub.com

OHIO Cincy Express Joe Yorio cincyexpress.org info@cincyexpress.org Team Toledo jdjp@sylvania.sev.org

TENNESSEE (HEAT) Hendersonville Endurance Athletic Team Bill Taylor Ftaylor200@comcast.net triheat.com

UTAH Team Fastlane Scott Kelly teamfastlane@comcast.net Teamfastlane.com

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VIRGINIA

Team Earthquake Ben Hewett trioften@teamearthquake.org teamearthquake.org

Tri Cats Chas Ryan tricats.org Tri Girl Training Jaime Waite grandison@trigirltraining.com trigirltraining.com

MAINE Bikesenjava Multisport Chris Christie shop@haybikesenjava.com haybikesenjava.com

MASSACHUSETTS North Shore Tri Club-Salem Randi Hodson-Dion bhodsdon13@aol.com Wheelworks Multisport- Boston wwmsdirector@yahoo.com wheelworksmultisport.com

WASHINGTON WSU Triathlon Club Dave O’Hern daveohern@wsu.edu

WISCONSIN Wisconsin Fox Cities Triathlon Club info@foxtriclub.com foxtriclub.com

MINNESOTA

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Gear West Triathlon Club Gw tri club of Long Lake kris@gearwestbike.com gearwestbike.com

Team Trichic Brenda Gilchrist trichic@trichic.com trichic.com

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Work

By Scott Tinley

L

Lumpy’s occupation was listed as crossing guard. Norm Paul had said that he was a lambada instructor. Dave Scott was serious when he told the editors of the Ironman program that he paid the rent as a fitness consultant. But I don’t know who was fooling who. Of course there were lots of lifeguards and teachers and military-types and guys who’d made a bunch of money and didn’t have to work but were embarrassed about it.

It seems that most pro triathletes in the ’80s had some kind of occupational identity crisis. We didn’t earn enough money competing to label it a living wage, but to admit that you worked a real job on the side was a sign of weakness. And so, when asked, we played the fool.

Yet the deeper in the ranks of age-group competition you searched, the more eclectic the employment mix. There were night security guards and bank presidents who left their offices by 3 p.m. and retired fund managers who worked from their home office (read: unused back bedroom) and trustafarians who sublet their float tanks and taught aromatherapy between astrallevity sessions—the common denominator being time to train and to race. While the pros were predictable in their deception,

all that could be said about the rest of the early multisport devotees was that there was a pattern of unpredictability. I used to like to train with these folks, but I wouldn’t make them the best man at my wedding.

Still, for some reason I was attracted to this nuanced collective.

They had risked something in order to chase the white rabbit into a hole, had traded legal tender and long-term relationships for a mid-week bike ride and a two-hour swim at noon. Whether they’d realized they were a part of an athletic movement or were just looking for a valid excuse to work less and play more didn’t concern me. They were interesting.

When I read the Ironman programs now, it seems there is still an inordinate number of lifestyle coaches and health mentors. But either I’m naïve or competitors are still lying about what they do besides swim, bike and run. Or perhaps the entire crisis of identity has become a commercial entity and hedgefund managers are shelling out $125/hour to smooth-skinned fitness gurus whose vanity plates read TRI4LIFE or METRIHARD. Maybe entire industries of mail order-certified health professionals have replaced the Navy SEALs, ER docs and tavern owners who pioneered the sport.

Certainly there is something pointed if not warped with the way we label and categorize ourselves according to how we are compensated for our labors, real or imagined. Our occupation classifies and stratifies our place in the world; it’s the first thing people will ask you about at a party.

“So, what you do?” as if our chosen career track will offer a Polaroid of family, education, political tendencies and religious beliefs.

And if your current j-o-b doesn’t seem to fit within the immediate paradigm of acceptance, there is the tendency to suffer the protracted, eyes-slightly-rolling reply of, “Oh, that must be, uh . . . interesting work.” Or we can just make stuff up. That’s more enjoyable but carries more risk.

Currently, more than 90 percent of the students I teach have no idea of my athletic background. I like it that way. It levels the playing field, reduces pre-conceived notions. Of course, they also think I’m 35 years old, and it is with great risk that I go public with this odd item: I’ve never lied about my age, but I’ve worked very, very hard at disseminating misinformation.

You see, I delude myself that I’ve pulled it off with some groovy skate shoes, dark lighting and a reference to some current en vogue punk-rock band I’ve never heard. But the truth is we all ought to come clean with who we are, regardless of what we do or where we’ve been. We need to break the cycle if not the stereotype that an occupation categorizes and quantifies our soul in synch with our tax return.

One of my early mentors, a quirky, likable old salt named Glen Brandenburg, has managed a marine-recreation facility for the area universities for some 30-odd years. When he’d finally saved up enough pennies from his sunshine-discounted state salary to buy a small boat of his own, he named it, It’s My Job. One day, triathletes of all categories and skills might take note of such quipish honesty and do the same. And their racing singlets might be screened with such block-font mea culpa as: Midlife Manifesto, Clapton Wasn’t God or Celebrate Cialis.

ST

Triathlete (ISSN08983410) is published monthly by Triathlon Group North America LLC, 328 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas, CA 92024; (760) 634-4100. 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.

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TINLEY TALKS

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