On February 22, 2012,
in 
I think we should all do butterfly in our triathlon swims. Nothing else. Just fly.
The rules say we must swim the leg. They don’t say how we should do it. Why rely just on freestyle? Too easy. Breaststroke? Come on. Backstroke? Seriously?
I say, it’s fly or nothing. Completing a 2.4 mile long distance swim in nothing but fly should be a piece of cake. If you can’t do it, you shouldn’t even think about doing triathlon. Go learn fly, then you can get in the lake.
Sound absurd?
It should. There’s no way the vast majority of us would want to do the butterfly for a triathlon race. Many of us aren’t good at the stroke. For others, it would be too exhausing. And while there are people who like to swim fly (take for example Julia Bradshaw, who in 2002 recorded the fastest ever fly-only English Channel crossing in 14:18 — hours, not minutes; or Dan Projansky of Michigan who competes in 10k open water swims doing noting but fly – see here), the vast majority of us just wouldn’t do it.
That’s not the point, though. If you WANTED to swim a triathlon with nothing but fly, you could. The same argument goes for any stroke.
Why do I bring this up? Over the past day or so, I’ve been following a growing thread on Slowtwitch where a poster asked if he should do a triathlon if the only thing he can do… Read the rest
On February 22, 2012,
in 
Coaches wear a LOT of different hats. I thought about that especially this past week as Coach Jim donned the extra hats of Sports Psychologist, Life Coach, and Psychic/Mind reader. I’ve been a little higher maintenance recently.
I try to be pretty low maintenance as a coached athlete – be clear on my goals, follow the plan, bring my best to workouts, log my data and times, etc. I strive to be positive, not complain (as differentiated from reporting valid concerns), and not question merely for the sake of questioning.
There are fluctuations in my level of neediness, and I might hit “high maintenance” for any number of reasons — I am shopping for a big piece of gear and have a lot of questions, am honing in on an A race, planning for the year, or coping with an injury.
This past week made me think about all of the other roles in addition to “Coach” that he, and other coaches, may be called to fill for us, from A to Z (and a few specific examples):
- Analyst
- Bike tour guide (let’s ride up to Mountain Lake and back!)
- Bike mechanic (no, you won’t notice a difference between an 11 and 12 on the cassette.)
- Counselor
- Drill Sargent (stick with those intervals at ALL COSTS!)
- Efficiency expert (especially transitions)
- Exercise physiologist
- Financial planner (it’s probably not worth $200 to save 8 grams)
- Interventionist (2010 phone conversation: that bike might be just fine but you don’t
So, even though we’re well into February, I don’t think I ever “really” announced that for the third year in a row, I’m associated with Revolution 3 Triathlon! I’m on Team Rev3 Tri – which previously was known as Team Trakkers.
Rev3 puts on a fantastic series of family-friendly triathlons in some very cool places. Like amusement parks? Check. Water parks? Check. Sandy beaches? Double check. Places with great history? Check. Races that help fight cancer? Check. The vibe and environment at Rev3 races is unlike any other national race series. People are friendly, pro triathletes are accessible, and you’re treated like a person – not a number. In fact, I like Rev3 events so much that I highly doubt I’ll ever do one of those “other” races again.
This year, Rev3 is not only proud to put on triathlons in ten venues, but they have also partnered with the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults to help raise money to support young adults dealing with cancer. Rev3 is the presenting sponsor for the Half Full Triathlon in October. Additionally, Rev3 will be raising money for UCF during March and April as they RUN ACROSS AMERICA! Click the image below to find out more about this great cause and to make a donation. I, and many of my teammates, will be participating in the run as well (just “virtually”). Please join us by committing to sponsor one of us as we run each day that the Rev3 crew is… Read the rest
On February 21, 2012,
in Chrissie Wellington just wrote a fantastic piece on CNN.com (find the full article here). Now, we all love us some Chrissie. And if you are new to triathlon and you do not know about Chrissie Wellington, then you should swim, bike or run to the video of 2008 Ironman World Championships. Chrissie gets a flat tube and still goes on for the win. She’s won the World Championships in Kona four times, and has never (never) lost an Iron distance race she’s entered.
On February 21, 2012,
in Solid February week again last week:
swim: 7000 yd
bike: 179 miles
run: 40 miles
Time: 19:41
Missed one swim to preserve motivation–I ran 11 miles on a chilly morning and when I arrived at the pool discovered the pool heater had broken and the temp was 74 degrees–I was already very chilled from the run so I went home, took a hot shower and had some chicken noodle soup pulled a quilt on to warm-up. I don’t think I’ll miss the 2000-yard swim come Kona!
Moved to the next part of my “Bike Symphny 2012″. I was moving up to the cusp of High Zone 3 and low Zone 4 wattage and decided to make a strong push into the upper reaches of Zone 4 over the next few weeks leading to my first race on 3/31. This necessitates moving away from the 2X20 format and going to shorter reps, more reps and smaller work/easy ratios. Yesterday I did the first workout of this type as I did 3X10@ 251, 252, 254 watts with 5 easy in between. I want to work towards something more like (3-4)X(10-15)@280 watts over the next 3-4 weeks but we’ll see how my body reacts to the training stimulus. I do know that yesterday’s workout was relatively easy so I’ll jump it up latter this week as I’ll still try to hit this twice a week if I can.
Running is strong right now–3 of last 4 weeks at 40+ miles….
About Tri Types
On February 20, 2012,
in Blogs,
by Mauricio
from Motivation and Inspiration Beyond the Ironman Journey
Triathletes, for the most part, have Type A personalities…
“A type A individual is ambitious, aggressive, business-like, controlling, highly competitive, preoccupied with his or her status, time conscious, arrogant and tightly wound. People with Type A personalities are often high-achieving workaholics who multi-task, push themselves with deadlines, and hate both delays and ambivalence.” This general identification of a Type A personality has been around since 1950 when Cardiologist Marvin Friedman finished a 10 year study conducted with healthy males between the ages of 35-59… long, long before the sport of triathlon ever came along. It is amazing how accurate this applies to the majority of those in our sport, at least to the majority of triathletes I have come in contact with through the years seem to fit this profile.
We are all ambitious, somewhat aggressive, perfectly business-like, highly controlling and extremely competitive. I can’t form an opinion regarding the social status thing because I, personally don’t see this. Our time is very valuable and although most of us would not care to admit, we are arrogant. Yes, we are. The tightly wound part, I have to confess that I’m not. At this point in my life all the tightness has been unwound and am pretty loose.
Just spend a moment with any triathlete and you’ll see how high-achieving workaholics we are, at least when it comes to our sport. Multi-tasker? How else could we tackle three disciplines at once? Deadliness drive us and yes to the hating delays and… Read the rest
Here’s your weekly dose of randomness from TriMadness:
- Bathing in Hand Sanitizer: Over the weekend, I watched the movieContagion - and I’m more than a little creeped out by it. This movie is about the spread of a viral epidemic unlike any we’ve seen (basically Bird Flu + SARS on steroids) and how the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization react. I thought the movie was pretty good – but as I said, I’m creeped out. I want to bathe in hand sanitizer, stay away from anyone who sneezes, and not touch any surface at all.
- Blown Away: The last 24 hours in Northeast Florida have been a little on the windy side. Yesterday, winds were steady at 25 mph, with gusts up to 45 mph. This amount of wind made for an interesting run yesterday evening to say the least. With the wind behind me, I felt as if I were running four-minute miles, whereas into the wind it felt like I was running 30 minute miles. I can only imagine what riding my bike would have been like with that tailwind!
- Need a Headlight: My run last night started in the light, but ended in the dark. And I didn’t carry any sort of flashlight or headlight. Not a big deal, usually, as most of the areas I run in are fairly well lit up. Except last night, I didn’t run where I normally run. I took a route that literally has few streetlights. Another runner
On February 20, 2012,
in To realize that the twinster… Julie… will get to finally see me compete in a triathlon when she is home over our birthday! Julie will not just get to see me but get to see a WORLD CLASS triathlon in Ellicott City, Maryland… The Columbia Triathlon 2012! Who knows which professionals she’ll get to rub elbows with this year!
Here we go…
Raining and icky here today. The scheduled 38 miler on the bike was postponed. I would ride in the cold rain, but not by myself. And the Expert said I wasn’t roping him into my insanity. Instead, I made him a part of my insanity for the blog.
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We took to a spin class plus an extra hour after class, cycling to nowhere.
Here’s my cycling buddy. He looks thrilled to smile for the iPhone.
Lots of you have asked about my knee. Glad to report that it’s feeling at 90%, so I’m pretty ecstatic. The knee is doing better than my mutilated thumb.
Injury – chopping onions, not triathlon. Still, I don’t have great luck with thumbs. [And I need my thumbs for triathlon:]
I feel like I have lost alot of ground in the past two weeks, not running and all. Especially now that the New Orleans countdown is barely sixty days and ticking down. I know I will be reasonably ready, but my hopeful finish of 6:30:00 is probably more like a 7:30:00, but I’m going to still hope. Have a great week everyone.
