Sunday, December 27, 2009

Felt B16

As a triathlon coach and certified bike fitter I am always looking at bikes. As a rider of- and recommender of bikes, I pay attention to where the best value and bang-for-your-buck lies in the spectrum of price points. And this brings me to the Felt B16:





As described by Dan Empfield on Slowtwitch.com:

"The price Felt hits with the B16 is $1999, the same as QR's Seduza, and this is a discount from last year's MSRP of $2300 for this bike. Few if any all-carbon complete tri bikes come in underneath that price....As a consumer, I'm always drawn to that place in a company's lineup where they're really straining to make a margin—where the company's bean counters wince as they look at how much money they're not making on an item, and just shrug their shoulders and say, "We'll make back our margin on the other models." That's the soft spot where, as a consumer, I figure I'll get my best value. If I was to guess, I'd say the B16 is that soft spot. This might be the most Felt for the least dollars. Full review here.

If I was wanting to get on a tri bike in 2010 and on a limited budget, I would take a long, hard look at this bike. Come to think of it, I would probably get on one and ride it around the parking lot. This bike has everything you want, and nothing you don't want. It has the "steep" triathlon geometry, carbon aero frame, and hidden rear brakeset.

My next temptation would be to swap out some 105 for Ultegra parts, maybe upgrade the saddle. But now it is starting to look like a B12 or B2, and pretty quickly swells to the $3K+ price point. As a bike fitter I am always conscious if the stock aerobars are adjustable enough to get you into a good fit position. Work with your fitter to make sure you can get dialed in, or swap out the OE bars for something by Profile Design which will get you into a comfortable position.

You can explore the full line of Felt bikes--as well as the other tri-specific brands of Quintana Roo and Cervelo--at ACME Multisports.



From the New York Times

Fitness

Triathletes, on Your Mark ...Whoa!

Published: November 24, 2009

RICK MOTTER remembers the first twinge.

He was about to finish first in his age group at the Reeds Lake Triathlon in East Grand Rapids, Mich., when, after swimming a half-mile and biking 17.2 miles, a younger competitor began to surge by him at the end of the 4.9-mile running portion of the race.

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s not going to happen,’ and I sprinted really hard — that’s when I felt it,” said Mr. Motter, 61, a manufacturing plant manager from Plainwell, Mich., who began competing in triathlons three years ago when his doctor told him he needed to reduce his cholesterol.

Soon the twinge in his right ankle evolved into severe pain, severe enough that he wound up in physical therapy with Achilles tendinitis. “A lot of my triathletes end up here because they do way too much too soon,” said Scott Miller, Mr. Motter’s physical therapist.

As more casual athletes like Mr. Motter sign up for triathlons, the sport has seen a corresponding rise in injuries. The newcomers are particularly injury-prone, doctors say, because of the rigors of training simultaneously for swimming, bicycling and running.

Paradoxically, many people move from a single sport to triathlons because of the oft-heard promise that adding variety to their exercise regimen will reduce injuries. The theory is that the three sports work different muscles, ideally minimizing the strain on any single muscle set. For runners in particular, adding biking and swimming to their repertory means less pounding against pavement.

But in practice, people who take up triathlons tend to train harder, adding rigors to their workouts without necessarily subtracting anything. Thus, the idea that people can reduce their chance of injury by competing in triathlons may be a fallacy.

“That’s been a throwaway line for quite a long time,” said Dr. Joshua Burns, a researcher and podiatrist at the University of Sydney in Australia, who has studied the nature of triathletes’ injuries. “As humans, we try to do as much as we can to be the best we can,” he said. “So if we’re just running and doing 10 hours of workouts a week and we switch to triathlons, now we’ll try to work out 20 hours a week. It’s like a bottomless cup. You can’t do enough, and people end up breaking down.”

His study of 131 triathletes in Sydney found the same basic result that other studies have over the years: that triathletes suffer as many injuries, if not more, than people who just run — and certainly more injuries than people who just swim or bike.

“What we have to compare it to other sports is the injury rate, and triathletes have one of the highest incidence rates of any sport,” Dr. Burns said. “So there is a compound effect” of doing all three activities in triathlons.

Despite, or perhaps because of, their punishing nature, triathlons are becoming more popular. The two main organizing bodies in the United States, USA Triathlon and the World Triathlon Corporation, which puts on the famed Ironman contests, both report that the number of events they sponsor has nearly doubled over the last five years, as has the number of people who sign up. (The World Triathlon Corporation has 40 events next year, up from 17 in 2006.)

Those numbers have continued to increase despite news coverage of at least 26 people dying during triathlons from 2004 to 2008, with 21 of those deaths occurring during the swimming segment of the races. The death of a contestant in the 2008 Nautica New York City Triathlon did not seem to weaken interest: registration for the 2009 event lasted 22 minutes before all the slots were sold. For the 2010 race, the nearly 5,000 spots were spoken for in just six minutes.

The health news for triathletes isn’t all bad. Most of the dozen doctors, physical therapists, coaches and athletes interviewed for this article said they had seen fewer triathlon-related injuries than injuries related to other sports. But they also said that newer triathletes suffered more injuries than more experienced ones.

Mike Walther, 32, a computer engineer in Pittsburgh who has competed in triathlons for two years, had an accident during bicycle training and is recovering from a broken collarbone. (It’s an injury that one physical therapist called “a triathlete’s rite of passage” because of how common it is among newcomers.)

Mr. Walther had been a competitive swimmer and a recreational cyclist before a friend persuaded him to begin running, which led him to triathlons. “I don’t look at my shoulder injury as related to my triathlon training,” he said. “It could have happened on a Saturday recreational bike ride. My friends with more experience in triathlons tell me I’m lucky to have suffered the injury so early in my career, because I’m just starting out and haven’t been set back much.”

Even the most experienced triathletes are not immune to injury. Paula Newby-Fraser, 47, who has won the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii eight times, was at her peak in 1993 when, she said, she decided to increase her training. It was then she sustained a stress fracture in a foot.

“I thought, ‘If this much gets me through, then that much more will get this,’ ” she said, “If riding 100 miles a week was good, then 200 miles a week will make me that much faster.”

Ms. Newby-Fraser has a name for this mind-set. “I call it athletic greediness, and that’s what a lot of new athletes coming in to it do and get injured,” she said.

Doctors, therapists and coaches say the most common injuries among triathletes come from overtraining, usually in the legs from running and cycling. Typical problems are stress fractures, injuries to the Achilles tendons and knees, and iliotibial band syndrome, which causes pain in the thigh or knee region. But doctors also see plenty of swimming-related injuries: many a new triathlete has overtrained in the pool and hurt a shoulder’s rotator cuff.

Triathletes are prone to “everything that a swimmer, runner or cyclist gets,” said Dr. Andrew Hunt, medical director for USA Triathlon.

Doctors and coaches point out that the sport is still new, and there is still time for it to live up to its cross-training purpose. The first modern triathlon was held in 1974, and the Ironman competition began in 1978. The recent surge in popularity has put the sports medicine community on a fast learning curve as it tries to address the injury problem.

One lesson — that less is more — has come through loud and clear. At the coaching certification clinics run by USA Triathlon, instructors drive home the point that while there are benefits to doing 10 to 12 workouts a week, maybe triathletes don’t need to run as far some days, that a day off is more than good for the soul, and that putting more time on the bike and in the pool can make up for one day fewer spent running.

“You don’t build your fitness while in a workout, you build while in rest mode,” said Mary Delaney, a physical therapist, triathlete and certified coach. “As your whole self and cardiac system need to recover, you’ve also got to let your muscles and tendons recover, too.”

Mr. Motter, the triathlete in Michigan, said his Achilles tendinitis was a result of overtraining and not stretching properly, according to his doctors. He said that working with a physical therapist, modifying his workouts and stretching more over the last year have helped.

Yet, in typical triathlete fashion, he has never really stopped exercising to recover. “I have a hard time taking off,” he said. “I just enjoy the effort and activity so much, and right now the pain has been bearable.

Don't hide your enthusiasm...






What do YOU think of these displays of enthusiasm?

Off Season Lovin' Part II: Turn the Corner

If you haven't read Part I yet, check it out here.

Turn the Corner the corner is when you transition from the off season back into consistent training again. Turning the corner is one of the trickiest junctures of a yearly period of training. Believe it or not, there are more potential pitfalls now than at any other time in the year. Does this sound like you:


"My planned 4-6 week off-season has taken up residence. I was both phyically and mentally prepared, or so I thought, to resume a training regimen of some worth in early October. Well, it's now approaching mid November... [T]here has been zero consistency or commitment. That changes, starting today!!!!!! I think this is the 4th or 5th Monday in-a-row that I have said this"


Coming out of the off-season is hard enough in that it requires you to get back onto a consistent training schedule. To make it even harder, you have these additional adversaries
  • Many athletes are wondering why the nagging injuries that they had at the end of the season haven't gone away with extended time off. Why is this? You have to pro-actively deal with these issues or they will persist as you try to rebuild your fitness. Usually resolved through strength/stretch training, you also need to turn an investigative eye to your equipment (running shoes, bike fit) as well as technique (swim stroke, run stride.)

  • You remember what it felt like (past tense) to be in great shape. The last time you trained consistently you were peaking for your "A" race. Now you have the extra "jiggle" of the off season loving. Sluggish. Slow.

  • The conditions: Shorter days, training indoors, or in the dark. It's cold. Much less stimulating than long glorious days of awesome weather training.

  • ...and it is months away before perhaps even your first "B" level race.

These challenges can quickly sap your motivation and commitment to train. But if you are smart you will have already started to lay the foundation for an awesome season in 2010....the kind of season where you achieve some really big dreams, where you are more healthy than in the year before, and you where have a lot of fun in training and racing.

Weekly template. In order to be consistent you need to start a regular training program. This sounds obvious, but how do you apply it? Remember January will be WAY down from your peak-level training regimen. But nevertheless you should block in a few sessions each week. This may be tues/thurs strength-stretch, a saturday morning yoga, or a couple group swim workouts per week. Just plug in 2-4 workouts that are the same every week, then you can fill in the gaps around that. This will give you suitable flexibility to keep things fun, but will guarantee you are being consistent with the workouts you most need right now.

Proactively address your owies/injuries. This involves some serious work on your strength and stretch program. These are not necessarily the hard-grunting, big-weight lifts either. Full body, functional, and core-focused exercises will give you the best results. Spend at least as much time on "true the wheel" exercises as you do on the full body strength work. And don't forget stretching. If you want the benefits of stretching (and they are goooood!) then you need to stretch consistently and put some effort into it.

Even if you don't currently have any owies, it is a good idea to get some of this work in for preventative maintenance.


Do the Right Thing. Starting back feeling sluggish and wanting to return to your peak-fitness feeling, it may be tempting to hit a spin class, track workout, or masters' swim hammer fest. You know...pulse the system and get some "snap" back in the legs. This becomes even more tempting when there are so many "experts" (e.g., Endurance Nation) promoting intensity training (aka, reverse periodization) as the best off-season training.


For a good way to organize your training strategy, look at the figure below:



As you Turn the Corner, you need to start back to working on your Aerobic Endurance Base Training. The good news is that this kind of training is generally easy, completed at a lower intensity than most people realize. (Zone 2, not Zone 3.) The bad news is that it does not give rapid results. But the awesome results will come later...


The other good news is that this time of year gives you the luxury to work on your basic fitness in the form of strength/stretch, and also to improve your technique. Trust me, by the time you are in the throes of hard core endurance training you will not have much time for they gym. And don't wait until you have a huge base to substantively work on your technique. Make this change now and rebuild your fitness with better form.


You will also note that the top of the pyramid is anaerobic speed; this component has a role in your training for most of the year. This might be a weekly spin class, a few sprint sets in the pool, or a saturday AM 5K. Just remember to keep it in proper proportion to the other, more fundamental components of fitness. Speed work is the icing on the cake; make sure you've got some cake before you ice it.


Patience. Patience. Patience. When you turn the corner you are starting to lay a foundation for the "real" training, the long training and hard training that will follow in the coming months. It is time to get consistent, develop some form of a weekly training template, and focus on the main thing: start building your base. For now, just get around that corner and get moving.

Fitness and Triathlon EXPO




Winter Long Runs in Nashville

From the January 2010 Funrunner that went to print this week. These long training runs are organized by the Nashville Striders. Remember these are training runs not races, so train smart. Save the racing for race day.

COUNTRY MUSIC MARATHON 2010 SPRING TRAINING RUNS

Sunday, January 24
7:00 AM
14 MilesBongo Bob’s Bongo-to-Bongo Run

Leave from Bongo Java in East Nashville @ 11th & Woodland to Bongo Java on Belmont Boulevard plus a 4+ mile loop of the CMM course and return.

Sunday, February 7
7:30 AM
16 Miles

Leave from Titans’ Stadium parking lot across from Shoney’s. Loop Stadium and follow Tom King Course to Shelby Greenway and return.

Saturday, February 20
7:00 AM
18 Miles

Leave from Titans’ Stadium parking lot across from Shoney’s. Run 2 miles to 11-mile mark (Jefferson & Rosa Parks Blvd.] Then follow Marathon Course from 11 through 26 to finish back at Titans’ Stadium.

Saturday, March 6
6:30 AM
21 Miles

Leave from stone gates at Percy Warner Park and do the 11.2-mile loop in Park then do Radnor Lake and back (10 miles).

Saturday, March 20
6:30 AM
20 Miles

West End Ramble. Start at Centennial Park and run CM Half Marathon Course plus 7 mile return loop to Park.

(Call Peter Pressman at (615) 794-7171_for any of the above training runs.)

Sunday, April 11
6:00 AM
21 Miles

Kroger to Kroger From Franklin to Belle Meade. Last long run. Call Bruce/Katherine McCrea (615) 665-1334 for this run only.

Since these runs are well into the future, and are subject to change, please watch our website for any updates, or call to confirm dates and time.

* FLUIDS PROVIDED AT ALL RUNS *

Coaching Credentials: My Background

There are a lot of options out there for coaching. It seems every season a few more people hang out a shingle and start a coaching business. What is different with STtrainer coaching? I want to share my experiences here so you have an idea where I am coming from:

Fat kid in junior high.
That's right, I was the chubby kid on the short bus. I got pant legs shut in the locker and beat up on the playground. I was teased for being the fat kid (I was 30-40 lbs heavier when I was 6 inches shorter), and I remember the emotional pain and frustrated wondering how to get in shape. In gym class, I was last place in the mile run.

Being slow, being last...high school and college track/XC. In 9th grade I went out for the wrestling team, realized I was a better runner than wrestler, and then started running track...poorly. I remember looking at the varsity team runners wishing I was fast like them. I never got medals, I never placed, I never went to state.

For some reason I wanted to keep running, so I went to a small college in Iowa and really got my eyes opened. I went from middle of the pack in high school straight back to last place on the college team. I still don't know what I was even doing there. I came into my freshman year 10 lbs overweight and really slow for someone trying to run in college.

College running taught me about training techniques, mental toughness, and the importance of team camraderie. Four years of small, incremental improvements culminated my senior year when I scored a single varsity point in a collegiate 10K track race.

By this point I had experienced being overweight and in last place; working my way up the pecking order in the face of all adversity, and even a little taste of success. Most of all I knew that success takes hard work. But it was not until after college when I started racing triathlon and....

Winning. It didn't happen at first. In fact it took me three years to win a triathlon. But my lessons from running--combined with a lot of hard work on swimming and biking--led me to a position where I could win a triathlon. And in fact the wins started coming steadily. During the first few years all I raced was sprint and olympic tris. I got good at winning these distance races. I even won the Heart of America Triathlon Series in 2000, and came back to defend it in 2001. That was hard. This required the ability to race well all summer long. Subsequently I have won an iron distance triathlon, two half irons, and even marathon and a 50K runs.

Kona Hawaii Ironman World Championship. I qualified for Kona at the inaugural Ironman Wisconsin, where I also won the Ironman NA Collegiate Championship. I raced Kona in 2003.

Age Group World Championships. Kona is the World Championship for Ironman; Age Group Worlds is the same thing for Olympic Distance. I qualified for AG Worlds in 2007 and raced Vancouver in 2008. I placed 11th out of ~85 racers in my division there.

Ultra Marathon. Needing a break from triathlon, I spent a two-year period focusing on ultramarathon trail racing with considerable success. I won Chattanooga's Stump Jump and have placed top 3 in most races I've done, up to 50 milers.

Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology. Before I became a fitness trainer and endurance coach, I thought I wanted to be a psychologist. Little did I know that I would put this education to good use helping my clients master the mental side of their challenges.

Certifications:
USA Triathon, USA Cycling, Certified Personal Trainer, Postural Analysis and Program Design, FIST Certified Triathlon Bike Fitting

Beach 2 Battleship.
This is my most recent race, but it is also significant. I think one of the biggest challenges in triathlon is to have a "perfect" iron distance. After six years and 5 attempts, I did a 9:17 iron distance. If you want to "master" 140.6 miles worth of triathlon I can be someone to help you.

10 years as an endurance coach and fitness trainer. From a young age I knew I wanted to work in a helping profession, and it did not take me long to determine that fitness coaching would be a great way to do this. I have been leading training groups, coaching individuals, and doing personal fitness training for a decade now. Trust me, you do not want a novice coach no matter how much experience they have personally. It is one thing to get some good advice from someone with experience. A coach who can lay out a plan to systematically achieve your goal is a different matter all together.

Helping lots of people reach their dreams. This is what gives me the confidence I have as a coach. I've trained geriatric clients before and after joint replacements. I've helped people start running in their 60's. I've coached people from the couch to marathons and ironmans. Your goals are not too modest for me to help, and your goals are not to ambitious either.

I am ready to partner with you in your journey. When evaluating your options for coaching, some coaches may claim to be better with "beginners" or people who are just training "for fun." Others may tout national or world-caliber racing experience; I would place my experience alongside theirs. My system of coaching can be fine-tuned to fit your needs what ever your goal or dream. Remember, I've experienced both ends of the continuum (BOP and FOP) myself.


Photo: I have been doing triathlon since ALL the dudes wore speedos and mankinis.


Photo: I coach groups such as the Music City Runners.


Photo: The people I coached for JCC Triathlon. I have dozens of pictures like this one with the athletes I have helped prepare for events.


Photo: This was an open water training group I used to coach...10 years ago.


Photo: Leading a practice session with children before the Middle Tennessee Youth Triathon.


Photo: Team Magic trusts me to lead their pre-race clinics. They are the premier multisport race producers in TN and AL.


Photo: Leading a training camp with University of Iowa Triathlon Club in 2000. Bonus points for anyone who can answer this question: Who am I doing a bike fit with in this picture?


Photo: My most important client is YOU.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Tomkins tries STX Ropes

Richard Tomkins described it as "a torture den."

Inspired by TRX, (as seen in this month's Triathlete magazine.)

Training method endorsed by 2008 triathlon world champion Eric Bell.

Train all the buzzwords: functiuonal strength, core, stability, full body, muscular endurance....oh, and fun.

Notice the kettle bells and box jump step in the vicinity.


...Santa hat not included.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Ironman Crawl

This is the infamous 1982 Julie Moss video. If you do triathlons today you can probably thank Julie Moss for it. The first Hawaii Ironman occurred in 1979, but it was ABC's Wide World of Sports that captured the dramatic women's finish. To this day, many of the first wave of triathletes attribute this telecast for inspiring them to start the sport.




As a 23 year old in my first year of triathlon, this duel was broadcast during the Hawaii Ironman that year. The footage interspersed the Julie Moss finish and the Sian Welch - Wendy Ingram from the current year's edition. Very inspiring.




I don't recommend ever depleting yourself to the point where you can no longer stand up or control bodily processes. I'm pretty sure it is bad for your health. But the tenacity these women display sure is admirable. Ironically the only time I have ever found myself crawling on my hands and knees, stomach heaving, was at the 18 mile mark of the 2003 Hawaii Ironman. I walked the rest of the way to the finish.


Friday, December 11, 2009

TOA Re-Ups



STtrainer Endurance Coaching Fitness Training is proud to announce that TOA has renewed its sponsorship for 2010. Sorry I could only find the black and white version of this logo. Look around the website a they are all our awesome uniforms.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Off Season Lovin' Part I

I recently went for a 5 mile trail run with one of my clients. Both of us are in our off season and profess to be miserably out of shape. We started off at an arbitrary walk; in this shape I can’t even begin with a slow jog, and certainly not uphill. After leading the pace for a while I begged him to take the lead. I didn’t mention the reason was because my butt felt like it was jiggling like jello and I didn’t want him to have to stare at it. My steady diet of beer, fast food, and Thanksgiving pie had caught up with me.


If your goal is to reach a new peak in fitness this year, do you realize that the first, most important step is to get out of shape? If you have finished one season where you reached any sort of peak fitness it is imperative that you engage in adequate and extensive recovery. Yes, that means you have to lose fitness.


This is a basic premise of periodization. Fitness improves in cycles, and every cycle involves both an ebb and flow. In technical jargon you are ending one macrocycle and preparing for the next one. Just like you wouldn’t train long and hard 7 days per week, you also can’t do it 12 months per year. If you want to have some good days—or months—then you need to plan some down times also.


Another common off-season fear is that you will gain weight if you reduce exercise. If you are coming off of peak training super skinny race weight, then it is good to gain a little weight; muscle and fat. I may not be happy with the increasingly softer mid-section, but people no longer say my face looks like a concentration camp survivor. In any case you might be surprised; your off season weight gains will be minimal if you show a little extra discipline with your eating.


Client and I ran 5 mile trail loop. Actually we alternated between jogging and walking. I begged for mercy on the uphills, declaring walk breaks when the gradient steepened. Thankfully our time was limited and I had to leave in time for church, because I was ready to be done. Memories of fast 12 mile runs on these same trails seemed far away. If this had been my first off season I might be like many endurance athletes who get panicky: “I don’t want to lose what I have worked so hard to gain.”


I have horror stories...HORROR STORIES of people who have failed to do this and paid dearly. Newly minted endurance athletes are particularly susceptible. The endorphins and excitement of getting into really, really good shape is hard to set aside. The fear is "I don't want to lose what I've worked so hard to gain."


This paranoia--that you will irretrievably lose fitness if you allow yourself a recovery off season—is simply unfounded. Twenty years as an endurance athlete has shown me one very reliable truth: It is very predictable that you will get back to your best fitness, but it takes a major effort and effective strategy to surpass it. And that requires you to be well-rested before such an arduous campaign begins.


You don’t HAVE to take an off season in the winter. You might be running a marathon between December-February, and thus you should be firing on all cylinders right now. You might take a mini-off season after that half iron triathlon scheduled in May. But one thing is irrefutable; it is impossible to keep training hard year-round without consequences of burnout, diminished results, and injury.


How do you know if you have recovered? It should feel as if you have lost fitness. You should feel lazy and laborious when you start training. Do not worry that your times/paces/splits are slower. Remember, you have to lose fitness to gain fitness.


Next it will be time to Turn The Corner.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Foot Fetish, Fast Feet, and Mellow Johnny Arms



A few things that have caught my attention, and that of my feet and arms. (My apologies for the excessive flair displayed in this post.)


The Team TOA kits turned out great this year. Here I am making final bike preparations before Beach 2 Battleship. Note the custom Swiftwick socks in a 4".



This photo is during the post race awards cruise at Beach 2 Battleship. I am wearing my "other" custom Swiftwick sock, the 1" cuff. Susan is wearing the 12" black compression socks.



This is the shoes I raced in at Beach 2 Battleship. They are the K-Swiss K-ona. This shoe is great for a triathlon because it has adequate cushioning, along with a reasonable amount of motion control structure. They fit like a glove.

On the same note, I think most triathletes need to be careful not to wear too-light of a shoe for triathlon. The feathery racing shoe that feels great for a short run will suddenly leave your legs to get pummeled by the run in a triathlon. Most of the time I have found a little extra cushion is a good thing. This shoe will strike a good balance for some, and will be too light for others.


This is the Spira Stinger. It is the shoe Hunter Kemper wears for World Cup Olympic distance racing. It is the lightest damn shoe I have ever worn, and doggonit if it doesn't have great cushioning. But this is a light one...open 5K's to olympic distance tri only. And you will only get about 100 miles out of a pair of these, so use them judiciously.



Your feet aren't the only body part that likes some bling. We designed our team kits to come with matching arm warmers. Here (Tim) Lance displays the Team TOA arm warmers. I am particularly proud to have fit the "Rock Star Triathlon" logo and the argyles on this item.

You never know who is going to show up with the "TOA Argyles." Recently the Most Interesting Man in the World stopped by. He has been training for Music City Triathlon in 2010. He is training outside right now and with the cold, he has been wearing a TOA coat OVER his tuxedo while doing long rides.



While he may not be the most Interesting Man in the World, Lance (Armstrong) is pretty interesting. Although I must say, the first draft of the Team Radio Shack jersey looked like caca.
At least Lance (Armstrong) has good taste when he is picking the design:


And in this picture, Lance (Armstrong) displays his Mellow Johnny team kit arm warmers.
I added this picture to draw your attention to the logo on the right fore-arm...SWIFTWICK!!! They also have Swiftwick Socks...like those on Terry's foot below:




Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Cycling-Related Judge Judy

At first I didn't like the cyclist, but then the defendants opened their mouths.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Gary's Got the Emo

Here is a good example of what happens when you "get the emo." Pictured below is Gary M. in is the Augusta 70.3 triathlon...a half iron distance of 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. This is the longest triathlon Gary has ever done.


During the race he spends quite a bit of time doing routine tasks with no more than a passing amount of emo. For instance, in the above pictures he is reaching for an energy gel, then consuming the contents. Clearly this gel offers no more excitement than the notion of "this energy gel will help keep me from bonking." Not that exciting. Hence, minimal emo.



Here he is again, with a paucity of emo. You can see just a few glimmers of "Dear lord my legs hurt," or "how much longer to the finish line" slightly revealed on his face. But for the most part there is nothing dramatic going on in any emo-related capacity.


But then he starts to show a glimmer of that big emo as he approaches within sprinting distance to the finish line. Or rather, "flying distance" to the finish line. As his "emo sunshine" starts to break through the dark clouds of "fatigued-and-emoless-man-running-a-half-iron-triathlon."


Now the power of emo takes over at this point and Gary literally flies across the finish line.


Note how his un-suppressable smile is so intense it is actually whipping his head to the side. At the same time he is just starting to launch into orbit of the earth.



Here the emo has caused him to completely take flight.


And in this picture he is mostly back to the ground, except the facial emo is still being expressed. By this time the emo fist pump has been added to the situation.

And just to prove he--literally--flew across the finish line:


Here is a picture of Gary visibly several feet off the ground, and levitating across the finish line.

This is not the act of a normal human mortal. I know Gary as I have coached him for some time. What you see in these pictures is the superhuman effects of emo.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Get the Emo

Really, the inspiration is what it is all about; the EMOTION (aka, "emo.") If you don't have your emotions aligned with what you are trying to do, then it will be much harder to achieve your goal. Emotions can fuel your fire to work towards a goal....or they can create barriers to what you really should be doing in training.

Perhaps it is time to make seasonal changes to your training (e.g., reduce intensity, increase volume, or change priorities.) Are your emotions getting in the way? I will admit I have co-opted the term "emo" in this case. What is an emo?

emo kid

I am not sure but I think it looks something like the person in this picture. Emos (emi?) tend to be young people, which makes sense when you think about it because generally speaking your people are more emotional than grown ups.

Emos tend to be seen riding bikes like this one:

Emo


There are a whole bunch of emos riding bikes like this one in the new 30 Seconds to Mars video (which may or may not be an emo band, I'm not sure)....on this short video/written essay I trace the arc from emo peoples and emo bikes through Jared Leto back to Steve Prefontaine. He certainly ran by fueling his emotions. Perhaps Pre was an emo?

Torbjorn

Pictured above, Torbjorn Sindballe is displaying emo, the good kind. Although he looks a little scary, he is actually happy because he just finished 3rd place at the Hawaii Ironman when this picture was taken.

In my coaching I put a lot of emotions into what I do. I jump up and down when a client has a success breakthrough. I'm also perplexed solving an injury or motivation problem. And at the end of the day, I want to help you experience the very best emo...new achievements, better health, and fun times. After all, that is what life is all about, right? , fun times. That is what life is all about, right?

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Punk'd by the WS100 Lottery

Wow what a day! After a great Big Spin class and a couple of individual training clients, I logged on to see if I was accepted in the Western States 100 lottery. If you have ever seen the show Punk'd you know it involves pranks that are played on celebrities. The humor of the show is seeing them get distressed as they are put in highly uncomfortable situations.



Now I am neither a celebrity nor did I get distressed enough to want to punch Ashton Kucher....but this was pretty funny what happened:

I logged on to the results page in high anticipation to see the results. Remember it was only a 20% acceptance rate so my fingers were crossed. At the top of the lottery results page...



...I was so nervous I could barely scroll down. Finally I mustered the courage to slide the mouse down the page looking for my name, and this is what I saw:



Note the name "stephen taylor" on the results page....I immediately jumped up and started running around yelling "woo woo I'm doing the Western States 100 oh yeah!!!," or something like that. Upon turning my gaze back to the page I was to realize that I had just been Punk'd.....



The "stephen taylor" who was drawn from the lottery is from "New bedford, Massachusettes," whereas I am from Nashville, TN. The only consolation that I have is that he does not know how to capitalize our name. Oh yeah, and there are lots of other fun activities and races to do. Now I just have to decide what I want to do. And you can bet I will be in the WS100 Lotto next year.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

30 Seconds to Fixies to Pre

Okay I have been taking a few tangents lately. This is supposed to be a coaching blog. If you want to read post after post about nerdy training stuff that is fine. But me, I like to catch an inspirational video now and then to pump me up and go train hard.

This is a video by the band 30 Seconds to Mars. Patience....it takes a minute to get rocking but it is worth it. (If the HD version here is to slow, try it here....I hate slow streaming.)


Thirty Seconds To Mars - Kings + Queens - HD

30 Seconds to Mars | MySpace Music Videos



My my, this fixed gear urban bicycle thing sure has taken off lately. Bike Snob NYC is starting to take over slowtwitch.com as my favorite time waster. Anyway, the lead singer in this band is Jared Leto. An interesting tangent is that he played Steve Prefontaine in the movie Without limits. Here is another one of his songs with a montage from the movie.





Personally I liked the first video better. The song is better and I found it more entertaining to watch the fixed gear bikes. I know it is heresy to doubt Pre. I mean, he sure is on a lot of Nike posters and faux vintage track suits. He was well known for his aggressive, take-no-prisoners racing style. Unfortunately, whenever I think of Pre all I can think of is the 1972 Olympics where he got 4th place when he failed to execute a 4th quarter smackdown.




It may be sad that he got 4th place. But do you think perhaps he wouldn't have lost it in the last 10 meters if he hadn't led the whole way? When you are racing, race smart not just hard. Don't take off and "let the demons control your pace." If you care about the finish result use a smart strategy.

Actually it isn't sad that he got 4th place. The sad thing is that he never got a chance to learn from his mistakes, and win an Olympic gold. RIP, Pre.

Guacamole and The Red Pony

"You have to eat fat for your body to burn fat."

That is the words of wisdom that one of my early cycling mentors told me. And its true...the body requires a certain amount of fat to survive and thrive. And not the kind of fat that my friend who is on the Atkins diet eats. No, do not eat piles of bacon, boxes of chicken mcnuggets, and plates of bunless cheeseburgers.

Rather, the kind of fat you want to eat is plant and fish-based fat. This is of the mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated varieties. These sources of fat provide your body the necessary nutrients without the negative health downsides of saturated fat. They also help keep your ratio of omega-3 and Omega-6 in appropriate balance, which provides a natural anti-inflammatory effect for the body.

Appropriate sources of fat include: avacados, olives and olive oil, nuts, flax, and fish (preferrably wild-caught cold water fish.)

And so from the context of the health benefits of avacados, let me recommend for you to seek out this product, Jason's Guac Starter.



"Jason's Starter Guac" is by Jason McConnell, owner of SOL and Red Pony in downtown Franklin, TN. You can also get this delicious guacamole at SOL. Whether you eat the store-bought version or directly from the kitchen at Sol, however, I recommend that you eat it in moderate amounts. Not like I did the last time I went to Sol after a long ride, when I ate a whole order myself.

Just across the street is The Red Pony. Whereas Sol is a great southwest-themed restaurant that you can go to for post-ride beers and grub, The Red Pony is where I took Susan last Valentine's Day. It is a sophisticated and classy restaurant, so I got dressed up and put on my smooth moves. The Red Pony sponsors Team TOA-Gibbs, and Jason's wife Fran is an accomplished triathlete.