It is Gallo®´s original formula, the most famous beer in Guatemala, with a different name exclusively for commercializing in foreign markets. Famosa® is a lager beer with a light golden color which...

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Results for Ironman Wisconsin 2010 and qualifiers for Ironman Hawaii 2011 have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Results for Ironman Wisconsin 2010

This event has now closed – we’ll bring you latest training camps for 2011 and 2012 in our e-newsletter, which you can sign up to here. Or you can get in touch with Club La Santa today to talk about your next holiday!

Details of the 2011 camp

World’s leading sports resort Club La Santa is proud to offer the first official European training camp for the magical and untamed African mountain bike race, the Absa Cape Epic. Every year in the end of March South Africa hosts a well known stage race held over 8 days of approximately 800km and 16.000m of climbing for amateurs and professionals from around the world (www.cape-epic.com).

Lanzarote, part of the Canary Islands and located about 100 miles northwest of Morocco’s coastline, is the ideal location to train for such an adventurous and extreme event; not only because of the similar road and track conditions, but also the warm and sunny climate in combination with the perfect training facilities at Club La Santa. This camp is not only for Absa Cape Epic (future) participants, but for all experienced mountain bike riders with a passion for stage racing (you should be able to ride 4-5 hours on the mountain bike daily).

The Training Rides

The routes will vary both in length and difficulty, taking you to the far south, through the fascinating Fire Mountains and up to the north with the view over the nearby island La Graciosa. The dramatic landscape of the island and the wind will challenge you on the lava fields, gravel and sandy roads, single tracks, jeep tracks and rocky descends.

The daily rides will be between 3 and 6 hours, organized in different group levels. Four times Absa Cape Epic finisher Laurent Sillon, together with the hosts and Green Team bike guides, will offer you plenty of challenges, guidance and many unforgettable off road experiences. On top of that you will get the chance to challenge yourself and experience the race adrenaline in the Club La Santa 2 stage Mountain Bike Race (30 + 60k) taking place on the 29th and 30th of January 2011.

Programme

The programme also contains other activities than biking. We will have different lectures on stage race nutrition, “Epic experience”, Absa Cape Epic 2011 race/ practical information and workshop on bike set up and repair. The week will end with a nice dinner in the restaurant “La Casa”, where companions can participate for the price of 26 € for a 3 course menu and ½ bottle of wine.

Camp registration and travel arrangements

The camp is restricted to guests staying at Club La Santa during the event. Pre-registration is required as we have a limited number of participants. The price for the Absa Cape Epic Training Camp is 125 Euros including all activities on the programme, sandwiches and refreshments on long rides, service car, event t-shirt, dinner and free entry to the Club La Santa 2 Stage Mountain Bike Race. The full payment for the camp will take place in the welcome meeting upon arrival in Club La Santa.

Laurent Sillon

Laurent Sillon, 4 times Absa Cape Epic finisher will be the leader of this Camp. He has been working at Club La Santa since 1994. From March 2006 he has been organizing all the popular Club La Santa Bike Weeks in co-operation with the Event Week Coordinator. Laurent has 30 years experience of cycling and MTB including some years of A-Level/advanced amateur level cycling in both Lanzarote and his home country, France.

PLEASE NOTE- We recommend that you bring your own mountain bike.

Accommodation has to be booked separately with Club La Santa UK on +44 (0) 161-790-9890

FOR APARTMENT PRICES CLUB LA SANTA. Please refer to the pricing tab.

Event weeks are restricted to guests staying at Club La Santa.

BUY YOUR NEW ROAD BIKE HERE

Results for Ironman Louisville 2010 and qualifiers for Ironman Hawaii 2010 have been added to triresults.com

URL: Results for Ironman Louisville 2010

FOR APARTMENTS AT CLUB LA SANTA. Please refer to the pricing tab.

For the very first time in the Club La Santa history, we are now planning a Fun Cricket Camp. The Camp caters for young cricketers of all abilities between 8 and 14 years of age, who want a week of fun in the sunshine while playing the game.

There will be 2-4 hours of training, playing and fun every day but outside the actual training sessions, the instructors. Club La Santa do not take any responsibility for the children, therefore it is required that the child are accompanied by a person over the age of 18 years. The players will experience many different skills and techniques plus fun activities such as T20 six hitting competitions, swimming pool diving catching and fielding games. On the last day we will have the diploma ceremony and a competition where the parents can also show off their skills.

The Coaches

The coaching and teaching will be run by qualified Lancashire CCC coaches who will be accompanied by special guests.

Mike Watkinson

Current Director of cricket with Lancashire CCC, a former Lancashire Captain who represented England on 8 Occasions. He was a valuable all-rounder – a useful seamer who later turned to offspin, and an aggressive lower middle-order batsman. International recognition came late – he was a week shy of 34 when first picked in 1995 – but he turned in two solid performances against West Indies (and a third less impressive one at The Oval) that won him selection for the winter’s tour of South Africa. But he was a peripheral figure on the tour, playing further one Test and one ODI, and he returned to the county ranks, moving seamlessly into the role of county coach after retiring.

He was drafted in as England’s bowling coach for the tour to Bangladesh in 2003-04 and worked alongside Duncan Fletcher for two winters. His coaching credentials were boosted by Lancashire’s production line of England quicks – Andrew Flintoff, James Anderson and Sajid Mahmood – but domestic success proved elusive for Watkinson. After six years as coach, he moved into a new role as Lancashire’s Director of Cricket in 2008.

Warren Hegg

Former Lancashire Captain who represented England on 4 International tours a consistent performer behind the stumps in a long career with Lancashire, with the ability to score useful lower-order runs, Warren Hegg was 30 before he achieved full international recognition.

Selected to tour West Indies with England A in 1990-91, illness prevented him taking part, and a loss of confidence kept him from further international honours until an A tour to Australia in 1996-97. Chosen at last in the full England squad to tour Australia in 1999, Hegg expected to carry out the tour as understudy to the captain, Alec Stewart.

However, England’s dismal performance in the Ashes series, and a growing perception that Stewart was being overburdened, prompted a re-think after the third Test.

To free up the captain to open the batting, Hegg made his Test debut at Melbourne. After another admirable season with Lancashire in 2001 (in which he had averaged over 40 with the bat). Hegg holds a notable record of 11 catches in a first-class match, set in 1989. His batting, like his keeping, is consistent and has steadily improved. Hegg was appointed captain of Lancashire in 2002. After finishing third and second in Division One of the County Championship in his first two years in charge, Lancashire were hotly-tipped to be champions, but when they were relegated after a season of internal unrest, he resigned. Although he was relatively injury-free throughout his career, an injury to his hand caused him to retire in September 2005.

Both coaches have a high level of coaching facilities and have experience coaching at all levels

Accommodation has to be booked separately with Club La Santa UK on +44 (0) 161-790-9890

Event weeks are restricted to guests staying at Club La Santa.

BUY YOUR NEW TRIATHLON KIT HERE

FOR APARTMENTS AT CLUB LA SANTA. Please refer to the pricing tab.

Celebrating 20 years of coaching at Club La Santa

Join Archie Brew one of the UK’s leading stroke technique coaches and benefit from a week’s maximum attention dedicated to improving your swimming.

Archie’s reputation precedes him, for he’s as an outstanding technique coach with a knack for achieving what many would think was impossible!!

Archie has a wealth of knowledge that is beneficial to all levels of ability, from complete beginners to Olympic Champions.

The ‘Maximum Attention Swim Course’ can help swimmers of all abilities and strokes. We will have two swim sessions daily, am and pm along with stretching routines and gym work. You will love the technique sessions during the evening where you will learn from Archie’s vast experience and also see yourself swim on DVD.

This course is a must if you need to make major improvements to your swimming in a short period of time. No matter what your current swimming ability, you will find this course invaluable for swimming improvement and our aim, as always, will be to ensure your time with us in Lanzarote is both enjoyable and rewarding and also, best of all, lots of fun!!

• Learn from one of the UKs leading stroke technique coaches
• Talks on Technique on all strokes including DVD play/feedback
• Advice on training methods and preparing for competition
• Stretching Routines
• 2 pool sessions every day in the sun
• Individual video / DVD analysis with 1-2-1 feedback
• A unique opportunity to tailor the course to your individual needs
• Use of fully equipped fitness centre for land training
• DO AS MUCH OR AS LITTLE AS YOU WOULD LIKE
• Free Course T-Shirt

(In order to fully benefit from the course it is recommended that you can swim at least 200m.)

To book your place on the Archie Brew Max Attention Swimming Training Camp then please visit Robin Brew Sports website.

Or contact Liz (mob) 07808 582589 (e-mail) liz.brew@btinternet.com

Event weeks are restricted to guests staying at Club La Santa.

Accommodation has to be booked separately with Club La Santa UK on +44 (0) 161-790-9890

BUY YOUR NEW SWIM KIT HERE

Results for Ironman Canada 2010 and Ironman Hawaii 2010 qualifiers have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Results for Ironman Canada 2010

I run an SEO firm, and we just launched a little side project creating niche business directories. We just launched two at TriathlonShopDirectory.com and TriathlonStoreDirectory.com. These are national directories where any triathlon shop can go and create a listing for free. So if you own a triathlon shop or store, or if you’re a bike or running store that sells some triathlon gear, or you don’t even really have a physical shop but sell triathlon stuff online, go and create your free listing today.

Welcome to Miami! Island Queen Cruises offers special activities and rates for all Rohto Ironman 70.3 Miami athletes and guest. Get ready for a magical setting enhanced by amazing city views. Cruise...

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I started doing triathlons in late 2007. I think I weighed between 220-225 lbs at that time, and I’m now under 200 lbs. Less than a year before I started triathlons I was as heavy as 236 lbs, and that was absolutely no muscle. While losing almost 40 lbs has been a blessing in many ways, there are also some downsides that have come with it, as follows:

1. Many of my clothes are too big, and my belt loops around almost to my back.

2. My wedding ring just falls off my finger, so much so that I don’t wear it any more because I’m afraid of losing it.

3. People I haven’t seen for a few years don’t recognize me (sometimes this is a benefit if I don’t really want to talk to that person).

4. I am no longer drought and famine resistant.

5. People think I’m mean when I tell fat jokes, whereas before it was ok because they figured I was just making fun of myself. I still am, they just don’t think I am.

6. People aren’t as hesitant to ask me to perform physical tasks, like moving heavy boxes.

7. Fat people I used to think were my friends now reject me.

8. I apparently don’t have as much padding on my backside, because it seems to get sore more quickly when I’m sitting down, especially on hard surfaces.

9. If I sleep on my side, I have to put something between my knees because they’re all bony now and hurt each other.

10. I just realized this one while writing this–I don’t get belly button lint buildup anymore, and I kind of enjoyed that. It was always blue for some reason.

Starting with the Boise 70.3 I tried out EFS energy drink (yes, I do mean the first time I used it was on a race day–I know, I know, bad idea). I had some gastrointestinal issues that day, but nothing too big. Just some knots in my stomach, and I felt like if I drank any more I would puke. But I didn’t puke, and I thought the reason I couldn’t drink any more was because I didn’t need any more. In retrospect, I’m wondering if I should have been drinking more, but couldn’t because the EFS was harsh on my tummy. But I only came to this thought because as I’ve been drinking it more and more, I seem to be noticing a correlation between a tight stomach and EFS. Again, it’s not that bad, and I’ve never had that “I’m going to throw up if I drink anymore” feeling (I’ve also never made it as goopy as I did for Boise), but the more I drink it, the more tight the correlation seems to be such that I’m thinking there is a cause and effect situation going on.

Other than that, it tastes fine (very subtle, mild flavors), and seems to work fine as an energy source. But if I continue to have the knotted up stomach, I’m going to have to switch back to Heed or something new.

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With women’s participation in sport on a huge increase and the success of the Women’s Only Triathlon Camp, Club La Santa are now hosting a Women’s only Bike Week.

It is an ideal week to take the pressure off and enjoy riding, meet new people, have lots of fun and laughs, and gain experience and confidence with riding in a group.

The dramatic landscape of the volcanic island of Lanzarote offers a varied terrain with some fantastic mountain climbs making it an ideal place to train.

Your designated bike guides, together with the Green Team bike guides, are specifically here to help you, offer you plenty of challenges, guidance and many unforgettable experiences while you’re biking.

The Women’s Bike Week caters for all abilities from beginners, to novice to the serious racing club cyclist.

Ideally, to get the most out of your bike week, you should have some experience of cycling and be able to bike 2 to 4 hours daily.

The Training

The routes will vary in length and difficulty, taking you to the beautiful North with the view over theisland of La Graciosa, the fascinating Fire Mountains and to the far South while biking a large part of the Ironman Lanzarote course.

You will have the chance to challenge yourself and test your legs on the exiting and hard climb to Femés and on the 10 km long beautiful mountain climb to Tabayesco.

During the long rides there will be stops allowing you to have a sandwich and refreshments while enjoying the beautiful views.

We will divide you into various groups according to ability and experience, so that there will be a suitable group for everybody. All the groups will be lead by a guide and each morning will start with a short briefing on the course for the day’s ride, after which the first group will depart.

There will be plenty of opportunity for you have ask the hosts for advice regarding biking in groups, hills/mountains and how to take corners, gears, hydration and training.

The Coaches

Tanja Slater
Former GB Elite Professional Triathlete and Professional Cyclist. Tanja rode with Nicole Cooke in Raleigh Lifeforce Creation Swiss Team competing in major tours and one day events. She has represented Great Britain in two World Cycling Championships and won a stage in the Ladies Tour de France in 2007. Tanja has used Club La Santa as a training venue and been an integral part of triathlon training camps here for many years. She is now a full time coach at Club La Santa, working alongside Phil Price.

Laurent Sillon
Has been working at Club La Santa since 1994. From March 2006 he has been organizing the popular Club La Santa Bike Weeks in co-operation with the Event Week Coordinator. Laurent has 30 years experience of cycling and MTB including some years of A-Level/advanced amateur level cycling in both Lanzarote and his home country, France. Since 2002 he has also been a VIP guide for the sponsor of Pro Cycling team CSC during the Tour de France, the world’s most famous cycle race.

Phil Price
Coach at Club la Santa. Almost 30 years experience of coaching in Triathlon, Athletics, and Cycling. Welsh Triathlon Coach and Manager. Former Welsh Veteran 5 km track Champ, and many times County Champion.

Please note that if you want to rent a Club La Santa bike rather than taking your own, you will have to arrange this separately with CLub La Santa UK prior to departure. The price for a bike is around 95 € per week or 21 € a day. It is advisable to book these bikes at time of booking and will be subject to availabilty

Accommodation has to be booked separately with Club La Santa UK on +44 (0) 161-790-9890

FOR APARTMENT PRICES AT CLUB LA SANTA. Please refer to the pricing tab.

Event weeks are restricted to guests staying at Club La Santa.

BUY YOUR NEW ROAD BIKE HERE

Results for Ironman Austria 2010 and Ironman Hawaii 2010 qualifying times have been added to triresults.com

URL: Results for Ironman Austria 2010

Results for Ironman USA Lake Placid 2010 have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Results for Ironman USA Lake Placid 2010

The Lifetime Fitness in Sandy, Utah has been doing some minor renovations in the locker rooms lately. Specifically they’re replacing the carpet that exists in certain areas with tile (don’t ask me whose idea it was to put carpet in a locker room in the first place).

Now, to fully appreciate how the events I’m going to describe to you could have happened, you have to appreciate how I get to my preferred locker spot in the locker room, which is the group of lockers nearest to the swimming pool. If one enters the normal way, one walks through the gym, enters the front of the locker room, walks the entire length of the locker room past all the lockers and sinks, and only then arrives at the last group of lockers. This group of lockers is more enclosed than any of the others, offering more privacy–not that privacy is my concern, proximity is, but I bring up the privacy aspect because it will be relevant shortly.

The alternative way to enter the locker room is to, instead of walking through the gym, enter the family locker room, walk through it, exit into the pool area, and then enter the men’s locker room. Upon entering, one walks past the hallway of showers (not through it, but past it), and then the last group of lockers is right there. I think it saves me a few steps getting there, plus it’s closer to the pool, as I mentioned, so I generally enter this way, although sometimes I go the other way just to throw anybody off who might be waiting to ambush me, like a terrorist or IRS agent.

Today, I entered in my normal way, that is, the alternative way, through the family locker room and pool area. As I turned to go into the locker room, I noticed a large sign place prominently near the front of the entrance, but I figured it was another promotion for some product or some event Lifetime was having, so I ignored it. Later I would realize I had indeed read it, but just didn’t process it.

I entered the locker room, passed the showers, and went into the last group of lockers. I chose one, undressed, put on my swimsuit, got everything else ready, and went into the showers to take a rinse off. In retrospect, I already felt that something was a bit strange, but my first real clue that something was wrong was when I noticed what appeared to be a woman’s swimsuit hanging over one of the glass shower doors. My second clue was the blurry figure through the glass that did not look very manly. Now what were those words I had seen on that sign outside? I think some of them were “temporary”, “women”, and “locker room”.

I dashed out of the shower stall and quickly exited into the pool area, probably looking a bit pale. A male gym employee happened to be standing there, and as I came through the door he looked at me a bit strangely. I looked at the sign again, which clearly read “Temporary Women’s Locker Room” and something about apologizing for the inconvenience. There was a separate sign in front of the women’s locker room explaining that it was temporarily the men’s locker room.

The gym employee assumed I had just walked into the women’s room after swimming, had quickly realized my error, and had done a rapid about face. I explained that no, I had indeed been in the women’s locker room for a good five minutes, had been naked for at least a few seconds of that time, had entered the shower area where there was at least one woman taking a shower, and only then had realized my mistake and come darting out. He seemed unfazed and not very amused, and expressed some disbelief that I hadn’t seen anyone else in the locker room sooner than I did. I explained that I was in the group of lockers that is more private, right next to the exit, so I couldn’t see anyone while I was changing, nor could they have seen me unless they had walked into that group of lockers. He said he would find a female employee to go inside and retrieve my belongings, which a few seconds prior had been merely a step or two away, but were now completely inaccessible to me.

Long story short, it all got sorted out and nobody will be pressing charges, but a few hours later I’m still a bit jittery.

Now, you might ask why the locker rooms were switched? Because of the renovations. You see, having completed the tile work in the men’s locker room, they had moved to do tile work in the women’s locker room, but I’m guessing the contractor they hired doesn’t have any female tile layers, and since the tile is being laid during business hours (which are 24/7) they had to move the women out temporarily.

FOR APARTMENTS AT CLUB LA SANTA. Please refer to the pricing tab.

Club La Santa are happy to be able to welcome you to the second Shape up for Summer (Celebrity FitCamp) with Celebrity Fit Club Winner, Tina Baker. This could be the perfect opportunity to shape up under the sun in great surroundings with lots of fun & fitness to get you in your best shape yet! Beginners are also very welcome.

Do you want to…

• See results?
• Look good?
• Lose weight?
• Tone up?
• Feel better about yourself?
• Get fit?
• Feel more energetic?
• And have a good time?

If any of these sound appealing to you, you should join Tina at Club La Santa for…

• Fun and effective Exercise Classes for any level of fitness – you’ll have a chance to sample a variety of exercise styles and build your own fitness programme.
• Body Image sessions – boost your self esteem, tackle some of the obstacles you put in the way of your success, and set goals to work on in between classes.
• One to one sessions with Tina – focusing on a personalized exercise and motivational programme.
• Plus, you’ll get some inspired Tina’s Tips to take away with you to keep you going once your holiday’s over.

The instrutor

British TV personality Tina Baker

For more details on Tina Baker visit her website.

Tina lost 19 kilos and won the UK version of the prime time television series, Celebrity Fit Club. She’s kept off the weight for 4 years, and has toned up from a UK size 16 to a size 10.

Tina now divides her time between her writing and broadcasting and motivational fitness coaching – a combination of life coaching and personal training – teaching aerobics, body conditioning, and core stability, focusing on holistic techniques, support and fun.
She has devised and runs The Factory Fit Club, a series of supportive weight management and goal setting workshops at London’s top private gym. Factory London

Price

The price for one week is120 € and this includes all the activities in the programme, a special event t-shirt and a dinner in the restaurant “La Casa”. The final programme will be handed out at the introduction meeting, where payment also has to take place. It is necessary to pre-register.

Club La Santa reserves the right to cancel or change this event if under subscribed.

To register, simply download the waver form

Accommodation and flights have to be booked separately with Club La Santa UK on +44 (0) 161-790-9890

Event weeks are restricted to guests staying at Club La Santa.

FOR APARTMENTS AT CLUB LA SANTA. Please refer to the pricing tab.

Club La Santa are happy to be able to welcome you to the second Shape up for Summer (Celebrity FitCamp) with Celebrity Fit Club Winner, Tina Baker. This could be the perfect opportunity to shape up under the sun in great surroundings with lots of fun & fitness to get you in your best shape yet! Beginners are also very welcome.

Do you want to…

• See results?
• Look good?
• Lose weight?
• Tone up?
• Feel better about yourself?
• Get fit?
• Feel more energetic?
• And have a good time?

If any of these sound appealing to you, you should join Tina at Club La Santa for…

• Fun and effective Exercise Classes for any level of fitness – you’ll have a chance to sample a variety of exercise styles and build your own fitness programme.
• Body Image sessions – boost your self esteem, tackle some of the obstacles you put in the way of your success, and set goals to work on in between classes.
• One to one sessions with Tina – focusing on a personalized exercise and motivational programme.
• Plus, you’ll get some inspired Tina’s Tips to take away with you to keep you going once your holiday’s over.

The instrutor

British TV personality Tina Baker

For more details on Tina Baker visit her website.

Tina lost 19 kilos and won the UK version of the prime time television series, Celebrity Fit Club. She’s kept off the weight for 4 years, and has toned up from a UK size 16 to a size 10.

Tina now divides her time between her writing and broadcasting and motivational fitness coaching – a combination of life coaching and personal training – teaching aerobics, body conditioning, and core stability, focusing on holistic techniques, support and fun.
She has devised and runs The Factory Fit Club, a series of supportive weight management and goal setting workshops at London’s top private gym. Factory London

Price

The price for one week is120 € and this includes all the activities in the programme, a special event t-shirt and a dinner in the restaurant “La Casa”. The final programme will be handed out at the introduction meeting, where payment also has to take place. It is necessary to pre-register.

Club La Santa reserves the right to cancel or change this event if under subscribed.

To register, simply download the waver form

Accommodation and flights have to be booked separately with Club La Santa UK on +44 (0) 161-790-9890

Event weeks are restricted to guests staying at Club La Santa.

Do you want to…
See results? Look good? Lose weight? Tone up? Feel better about yourself? Get fit? Feel more energetic? …and have a good time?

If any of these sound appealing to you, join Tina at Club La Santa for a week full of:

• Fun, effective Exercise Classes for any level of fitness – sample a variety of exercise styles and build your own fitness programme.
• Body Image sessions – boost your self esteem, tackle some of the obstacles you put in the way of
  your success, and set goals to work on in between classes.
• One to one sessions with Tina – focusing on a personalized exercise and motivational programme.
• Plus, you’ll get some inspired Tina’s Tips to take away with you to keep you going once your holiday’s over.

Feedback from last year:

“Really fun, entertaining and love the jokes! Also love the life coaching. Great advice and inspiring handouts. Thanks for everything!” Joe.

“Great for beginners and a great introduction to things like dance. Really clear instructions.” – Gail

“The classes were brill. The one-to-one talks were very good and I really enjoyed Tina’s friendliness and approachability. Tina has been a great help and support.” – Lindsey.

“It was like a show! Very funny and a good workout.” – David.

The instrutor

British TV personality Tina Baker

Tina lost 19 kilos and won the UK version of the prime time TV series, Celebrity Fit Club. She’s kept off the weight for 5 years, and has toned up from a UK size 16 to a size 10.

Tina now divides her time between writing, broadcasting and motivational fitness coaching – a combination of life coaching and personal training – teaching aerobics, body conditioning, and core stability, focusing on holistic techniques, support and fun.

She has devised and runs The Factory Fit Club, a series of supportive weight management and goal setting workshops at London’s top private gym.

More information at Factory London

For more details on Tina Baker visit her website.

Accommodation has to be booked separately with Club La Santa UK on +44 (0) 161-790-9890

FOR APARTMENT PRICES AT CLUB LA SANTA. Please refer to the pricing tab.

Event weeks are restricted to guests staying at Club La Santa.

Tony Kanaan is a Brazilian race car driver of Lebanese heritage. Kanaan won the 2004 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series championship driving Andretti Green Racing’s 7-Eleven sponsored car,...

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Tony Kanaan is a Brazilian race car driver of Lebanese heritage. Kanaan won the 2004 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series championship driving Andretti Green Racing’s 7-Eleven sponsored car,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Rohto Ironman 70.3 Miami proudly presents FootWorks as the official running store. . FootWorks took root as an Earth Shoe store in 1973. In 1976, store-owners and runners Hans and Laurie Huseby...

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Reports for Ironman Coeur d’Alene 2010 Athletes Who Qualified for Ironman Hawaii 2010 have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Hawaii Qualifiers

The sports drink will be available on the course (20 oz bottles).  Ironman Perform™ is a serious sports drink specifically developed by the sports nutrition experts at PowerBar®. Designed to enhance...

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Results for Ironman Coeur d’Alene 2010 have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Resutls for Ironman Coeur d’Alene 2010

This is not the pet peeves that race management has, but rather pet peeves I have about race management.

1. Not listing the price of the event anywhere on the website. I’m not going to name names at the moment, but I’m trying to find out how much a certain triathlon here in Utah costs, and it is nowhere on the website, and the online registration system they are using doesn’t display the price either. Maybe it displays the price at the end, but only after you fill out a bunch of information. Just tell me how much the freakin’ event costs already! It’s not that hard, just look at how US Trisports does it. Easy, right?

Well, I only have that one pet peeve right now, maybe I’ll add more to the list later. I just had to gripe about this one while I was in the middle of it.

View This Poll
survey software

I live in Utah, which means I get to train through the winter. And since I’m not a huge fan of the bike trainer or the treadmill, that means running and biking outside in the cold, and that means winter clothing. And as anyone with any sense knows, the best time to buy your winter triathlon clothing isn’t at the start of winter–it’s in the summer. As in, right now. For example, PowerTri.com just marked their winter clothing down by 40%. Well, not “just”, they actually did it a week or two ago, but you don’t think I was going to write this post before I got in there and made sure I got everything I wanted, do you?

So what did I get?

Pearl Izumi PRO Softshell Jacket. Man, this thing just looks so good, I’m not even sure I’ll train in it, I might just wear it to fancy dinner parties. Normally $175, but I got it for just over $100.

Pearl Izumi Barrier Shoe Cover. I really, REALLY needed a pair of these this last winter. But I made do with what I had, and saved $24 off the full price.

Pearl Izumi Softshell Glove. I really needed these too. I’ve been using cheap gardening gloves in the winter. But again, patience paid off with an $18 discount.

Pearl Izumi LS Baselayer Shirt. I wasn’t patient enough to buy one of these. I got one at full price. But I liked it so much I got another one at $24 off.

The only thing that stinks now is that I have to wait six months to use any of it.

It’s not Christmas yet, and Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are long gone. But maybe you know a special triathlete who has a birthday coming up, or maybe you’re one of the seven people in the United States who plan out their Christmas presents this far in advance. Whatever the case, if you want to get some sort of triathlon gift for that special guy or gal but you’re not into triathlons yourself, you might be a bit mystified as to what to get them. And you wouldn’t want to make an embarrassing or awkward mistake. I mean, you’re probably smart enough to not buy somebody a bottle of “McNett MiraZyme Odor Eliminator“, but what about Chamois Butt’r?

So here’s my list, from the inexpensive to outrageous:

Under $10

Blister Shield. Get them a few of these trial-size packets, and they’ll be thanking you the next time they run hard and don’t get any blisters. Tell them it’s better than Body Glide. Or play it safe and just get them some Body Glide.

Nuun Active Hydration. You know, I haven’t tried these yet, but EVERY SINGLE person I’ve talked to who has raves about the stuff.

Yankz Shoe Laces. A must-have for triathletes, unless they’re using Zoot shoes in which case this type of system is built-in. But if they’re running in Nikes, Saucony, etc. then they need a set of these for fast transitions.

Gu. The easy choice. Does anyone not like Gu? Get them a 6-pack of Gu for $7.

Under $20

Bento Box. One of the simplest, greatest inventions for carrying food on your bike.

Running visor. How about a running visor? Hey, everyone can use more triathlon clothing.

$20-30ish

This is where we start to have some fun.

The Triathlete’s Training Bible. This is THE book on triathlon. If the triathlete you love doesn’t have it, he/she needs it, even if they don’t like books.

1st Endurance Drink Mix. Trust me, this is good stuff. This ain’t Gatorade. Fruit punch is delicious.

Ironman Championship DVDs. If triathlon is half mental, this is food for the triathlete’s mind.

The good thing about buying a gift for a triathlete is that there are so many things they need and want. Most of what they need wears out, so even if you get them something they already have, chances are they’re going to need another one soon. And if they don’t need it, chances are they want it but are spending their money in their “needs” and will be grateful for the luxury of being able to use your gift without feeling guilty about having put off some other priority.

And of course if you don’t want to make a decision, you can always choose the easy route and get a gift card.

I’ve decided to not do my first Ironman event this year, so now what? Should I just workout for the sake of it, or should I plan to race some other events locally? Should I focus on some sprint distance triathlons and improving my speed? Should I just work on personal goals, like riding my bike up Suncrest in under 30 minutes or running a 24-minute 5K?

Who’s got some recommendations?

That’s right, I’m scrapping the plan I put in place almost a year ago to do the Florida Ironman this year. The Florida Ironman 2010 in Panama City would have been my first Ironman ever, and I’ve been pretty excited about it, since this was the goal I set when I started doing triathlons back in 2007. While there are personal reasons having to do with simply having too much on my plate and needing to focus, and those reasons may be more than enough by themselves, for the purposes of this blog the one reason I want to talk about is the uncertainty caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Training for an Ironman requires 15-20 hours per week of training (or if not actual training time, then training-related time), maybe more, if you’re slow at the gym like I am and you factor in drive time. It’s an incredible sacrifice not only for the individual, but that individual’s family. Then there is the money involved in getting to the event and back, which is a few grand if you’re taking the whole family as I’ve been planning on doing. For me, to spend upwards of 400 hours on training and a few thousand dollars on travel and lodging, only to end up with the event being postponed or the swim canceled isn’t an endeavor in which I want to participate.

It’s not that the time would be wasted, of course. I’d still have the health benefits of all that training. But I don’t like the uncertainty of not knowing whether the event I’m training for is going to happen. Of course there’s always the risk that an Ironman might be canceled, or that at least the swim portion might be canceled, but generally I’d say that risk is fairly low compared to the risk that Florida Ironman 2010 will be canceled or turned into a duathlon.

As for doing a duathlon, I’m not into it. For me, if I do an Ironman without the swim, it’s not really an Ironman. If I were on the spot and they announced the day of the race that the swim was canceled, I might still participate, even though I wouldn’t go around telling people afterward that I had “Finished an Ironman”. But if I were already there, and had already spent the money and had done the training, then why not at least get a good bike/run brick workout in? But I wouldn’t buy plane tickets to do an Ironman duathlon, even if I had already done the training.

If the folks who run Ironman had already announced a different swim venue, then that might have changed my mind. But with the time having approached for me to start my training in earnest, I feel I need to make a decision one way or the other, and given the uncertainty (and the other personal factors I mentioned at the beginning) I’m deciding to drop out. Perhaps the oil will never hit Panama City, and come November I’ll be thinking “Dang, I could be there right now.” But that really isn’t the point. The point is that right now, in June, I don’t know what’s going to happen, and that’s all I need to know.

Now the question is this–do I get my partial refund now? Do I wait and hope that perhaps they will give full refunds if oil hits the beaches and they cancel the event? Will they postpone the event and give us the option of doing the race in 2011? Does anybody know what they did for participants after the recent cancellation of the Japan Ironman?

What would be really nice would be if they would let me trade my Florida Ironman 2010 registration for the St. George Ironman 2011 in Utah.

One of the  fastest runners in triathlons will take part in the Rohto Ironman 70.3 Miami: Brazilian Santiago Ascenço. . Last season, Ascenço won Ironman 70.3 Brazil 2009, and was fourth in Ironman...

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This is the program to use if you are a beginner triathlete with a few Sprint and 1-2 Olympic races under your belt! . This is the plan to get you to have a great first or second Half IM using all...

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Results for Ironman Lanzarote 2010 have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Results for Ironman Lanzarote 2010

The Bento Box is one of those things you wish you would have invented. It’s simple, and it gets a job done that just about every biker needs done–making it easy to carry and access your food on your bike.

It’s nothing more than a lightweight nylon box, with a net on the top that is sewn on one side and velcro on the other so you can open and close it easily. The Bento Box has four velcro straps, two of which go around the stem of your bike, and two of which go around the top tube. Then you put your Gu, Clif bars, Chomps, or whatever you want in there.

I just used it for the first time at the Boise 70.3 (yeah, I know–don’t use new things on race day) and I loved it. I got the small Bento Box and was able to cram three Gus and two packages worth of Gu Chomps in there. I took the Chomps out of the packages and just squeezed them in–I didn’t want to have to deal with opening the packaging during the race. I left the Gu in the packaging for obvious reasons.

My only regret is that I got the small Bento Box. Personally I think it’s a little on the small side, and I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t want to err on the side of having a Bento Box that is too larger vs. too small, unless the larger one runs into your legs or something. But I don’t think it will.

One concern I had is that the Bento Box definitely affects how freely you can turn your front wheel. I noticed this after I put it on my bike, but while I was riding I didn’t notice anything at all, probably because you have to turn your wheel quite a bit to really feel the resistance, and on a tri-bike if you turn your wheel that far it probably means you’ll soon be flying over the cockpit and have other things to worry about. In that sense maybe the Bento Box is also a safety feature…

Anyway, this is one of those products I would say you’ve got to have if you do longer bike rides. Now that I have it I can’t imagine biking without it.

This year is “the big year” for me. It started off with my first marathon in April and will end with my first full Ironman in November (assuming the oil spill doesn’t prompt a cancellation). I’ve already completed a half-Ironman in Oceanside, California, but that was back when I didn’t know what I was doing, plus that was over two years previous and I felt doing another half-Ironman (or Ironman 70.3 as they officially call it) would be a good step on the way towards my first full Ironman. Given my wanting to have plenty of time to focus exclusively on training for the Florida Ironman, not wanting to fly or drive too far, and other scheduling matters, the Boise half-Ironman was the event that fit the bill.

When I did Oceanside, my training plan was “each week swim a little farther, bike a little farther, run a little farther.” It worked, in that I finished the half-Ironman, but it didn’t work very well in that it took me over 7 hours. In preparation for Oceanside all I had under my belt were two sprint-distance triathlons. This time I had those events, plus another sprint, my first olympic, and a full marathon. Having done one half-Ironman already, I had a good idea of what I was up against, where I needed to hold back, and where I could let loose a bit. Also, I was weighing in about 15 lbs lighter than at Oceanside, and this time had a new tri-bike instead of my old road bike. This new bike was a disadvantage as well as an advantage, since I had only got it a few weeks before, and therefore wasn’t completely adjusted to riding it. But I figured that overall it would be a benefit. Given these improvements in my training, physical condition, and equipment, I decided to set a goal of finishing the race in under 6 hours.

Brynn and I made a family trip out of the event by driving up with our two-year old daughter and 4-month old son. The plan was to drive up Thursday, check in and prep for the race on Friday, race Saturday, relax Sunday, and drive home Monday.

The trip from Salt Lake City to Boise is about 6 hours, and fortunately both kids slept most of the way, or at least didn’t scream. Unfortunately that pattern didn’t hold the whole time we were in Boise, but I don’t believe in giving kids opium so what’s a parent to do? We stayed with my wife’s second parents, the Newby’s, who treated us with the utmost hospitality and Joan, the mom, was an absolute life-saver the day of the event as my wife tried to enjoy things while herding the two kids and their diapers. But let’s get on to the details of the event…

Friday – Athlete Check-in

Friday morning we woke up, and I got ready to drive from Meridian, where we were staying, to downtown Boise to check in. Thus began what turned out to be a bit of a nightmare, the only silver lining of which was that I was able to familiarize myself with a large portion of Boise. Getting downtown wasn’t a problem. I quickly arrived and found out where the Qwest Arena was. The problem was finding somewhere to park. The information packet, unless I missed something, had no information or recommendations on where to park for check-in.

There were plenty of spots in the area, but they were all taken. Even the “No Parking–Loading Zone Only–Tow-Away Zone” spots were taken by what were obviously athletes checking in. I should have grabbed one of those, but decided I would find a metered spot somewhere. In retrospect, I should have paid for parking in a garage, but I was set on not spending $4, and at the time I didn’t think it would take me 45 minutes to find a spot.

One of the problems downtown Boise shares with many other metro areas is that those who founded the city did not plan for our modern day, meaning their streets are not wide enough to accommodate two-way automobile traffic. The city therefore has no choice but to make all the streets one-way streets. This meant I couldn’t just circle the block until a parking spot opened up, but rather I would drive by the arena, want to turn left, but be forced to go straight or turn right. I would turn right, but then I couldn’t turn right on the next street either, but I certainly didn’t want to go left, not that I really wanted to go straight either, but if I went straight then theoretically I would be able to turn right at the next street. I would turn right, but then realize I was now too far away from the arena to park, so I would try to find my way back. Whoops, I turned right again too early, and wasn’t able to scope out a block where parking would result in a reasonable walk. That meant repeating the process all over again, but turning right one block later so that I could have the right approach to the arena. Of course a parking spot would not be available, so then I had to repeat the process again or try something else. You know, I’m not sure it took just 45 minutes. Maybe it was an hour and a half. All I know is I am now quite familiar with all the streets of downtown Boise.

My recommendation for future Boise half-Ironman participants? Be prepared to pay to park in a parking garage. Or…Google the OfficeMax store. There’s a small, almost hidden street there that is metered, and there were several open spots, and it’s just a one-block walk to the arena. There’s just one problem–you can only pay for an hour on the meter.

As I exited my car, there was a parking meter cop printing out a ticket and putting it on an athlete’s car. This probably should have been a warning to me. But in my mind I thought “They must just be hanging out and forgot they only have an hour to get back to their car, it couldn’t possibly take a whole hour to walk to the arena and check in.”

I jogged over to the arena, and found a half-hour line for check-in. Let me say right now that the volunteers were wonderful. But someone, somewhere, could have made some small changes that would have eliminated this check-in line, or at least cut it in half. You see, the first booth was the primary bottleneck, because there was only one person there. There were actually three volunteers there, but only one of them was checking people in. Why the other two weren’t, or couldn’t, I don’t know, but it seems like giving them the ability to check people in would be fairly simple.

As I stood in line and got a sense of how slow it was moving, I started to sweat a bit. Maybe I wasn’t going to make it back to my car in time to avoid a ticket, and instead of paying $4 for a parking garage, I was going to pay $25 for a parking ticket. I tried to mentally will the line to move faster, but it slowly shuffled along, as though everyone in it were saying “Hey, there will be enough rushing around tomorrow, today we can just relax and take it easy.”

Once I got through the first station, things moved a bit more briskly, but I kept checking the time nervously, and as soon as I had my gear bag and everything in hand, I ran through the area where they try to sell you stuff and jogged back to my car. Turns out I had 8 minutes left on the meter, but better safe than sorry.

Friday – Getting Home

If finding parking in downtown Boise was an exercise in frustration, the drive home was quite a bit worse. As I drove off, leaving the parking meter cop disappointed at his loss, I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. I knew I was supposed to go up the street on one side of the Qwest Arena and get back on the 84 to go back home, but I found myself on a one-way street that took me by Boise State University. Then I was going around the University. Then I was driving through old, tree-lined streets. A few more attempts to get back downtown and I was thoroughly lost. In my head I kept thinking “I just need to get back downtown, then I can get on the freeway” but the more I thought “I bet if I turn here I’ll end up there” the more I ended up in what appeared to be suburbs. The tall trees and lack of huge mountains, like we have in Utah, made it so that I had no idea what direction I was really headed in.

I tried using the Google Maps application on my Blackberry, but it was loading too slow and it was dangerous to try and make it work while driving. And I didn’t stop to do it because I kept thinking “Oh, right over there, I think I can see downtown!” I think it took me about an hour to get back on the freeway. Then I missed my exit, got off on the next one, and got lost in an industrial area. By the time I got home, I had been gone for 4-5 hours, and this ate substantially into the time I had wanted to spend dropping off my bike at the first transition area, driving the bike course and seeing the run course.

I arrived home, we put the kids in the car, got my bike on top and the other gear in the trunk, and took off to Lucky Peak Reservoir.

Whoops – Shuttle Tickets

In my rush to not get a parking ticket, I had forgotten to ask as check-in about tickets for the shuttle. You see, the transitions for Boise are different than many other triathlons. In most triathlons you have a transition area that is near the swim area, and after you swim you go to transition and get on your bike, leave, and then return to the same spot, get in your running shoes, leave, and finish back in the same spot. At Boise, you bike from the transition area, but you never return there. Instead, you bike to a second and separate transition area downtown. Now, just save this information in the back of your mind for later.

T1 (the transition area from which you swim and then start your bike course) does not have a lot of room. There is virtually no room for parking. The information packet says you can buy shuttle tickets online prior to the end of May so that you don’t have to have someone drive up and drop you off. If you don’t get them prior to the end of May, the packet says you can get them at the “Information Booth” the day before race day. I hadn’t planned on using the shuttle, figuring my wife could just drive me up, but then we decided that due to the late 2 pm start and the napping needs of our children it would be better for me to take the shuttle up by myself, and my wife and kids would miss the swim start and just see me later on at the bike-to-run transition and then the finish.

I assumed the information booth was located somewhere in the Qwest Arena where check-in was, but I hadn’t seen it while checking in, and in my rush forgot to ask someone. But no worries, the information packet said the information booth was open on Friday until 8 pm, so we figured we would drive the bike course, which ends up downtown by the arena, and then I could run in and see if I could buy a shuttle ticket. More on how this worked out below.

Friday – Bike drop-off

You’re allowed to drop your bike off at T1 the day before the race, along with your helmet and shoes and anything else you can attach to your bike. I did this and tied a garbage bag around the seat, and another around my handlebars and helmet in case it rained, which I believe it did that night.

T1 is located to one side of Lucky Peak Reservoir. To get there you drive across the dam. As we neared T1, there were cars parked along side the road with people getting their bikes off of or out of them, and more people parking in a line behind the cars already parked. I decided to drive on past all these cars and see if there were some spots at the very spot. There were plenty of open spots at the front, which saved me from an extra five minutes of walking in the hot sun.

The spots are all assigned in T1 and T2, which is kind of nice because it means it doesn’t matter when you get there–it’s not as though all the good spots will be taken. It turned out I had a pretty good spot, right on the end of a row, and instead of another row behind me, there was a tree planter which meant I didn’t have to worry about bumping into people behind me as I got my bike out after the swim. I set my bike up, used the restroom (I was a quite hydrated at this point and having to pee every hour), and went to check out the swim start. Having satisfied myself, we left to drive the bike course.

Friday – Driving the Course

When I did Oceanside I’m not even sure I looked at a map before the race. I just showed up and did it. This time around I had checked out maps, and decided to drive the course so that I would know better what to expect.

Driving the course was fairly uneventful, but one note about the Micron Property. The information packet tells you that you cannot bike it the day before the race, but you can certainly drive it. The only problem is that the street names on the bike course map don’t conform to the names on the Micron Property, and thus we got lost on the Micron Property and drove all the way around it. It appeared several other cars were equally confused as they were also driving all around and criss-crossing paths with us.

We had gotten a ways away from Micron when we realized that due to our late start driving the course, our kids were going to need to eat soon, we needed to eat soon, and we didn’t have time to eat before going to the information booth downtown. So we cut the bike course trip short by not driving to the turnaround point, and we started on it towards downtown.

Friday – The Information Booth

Rather than messing around with parking, I parked in the “No Parking–Unloading Zone” parking right outside the arena. My wife was in the car, so if they really wanted to tow the car she could just drive away and pick me up.

It was a little bit after 7 pm, well ahead of the 8 pm closing of the information booth, but when I got inside the arena the inner doors were all locked and nobody was around. Two female athletes came out of an elevator and  asked me if I knew how to get in. They said they had taken the elevator to see if they could get in from another floor, but had met with defeat (one of them was missing the bib number stickers from her race packet and was trying to get them). Unable to get in, we left to see if perhaps there was an information booth outside somewhere. They went one way and I went another. I found an Ironman staff member (not a volunteer) putting banners on the fences for T2, and asked him if he knew where the information booth was, the one that was allegedly open until 8 pm. He called someone, and that person said I could buy shuttle passes the next morning. Apparently the information booth was a hoax of some sort, only referenced in the information packet for entertainment purposes.

Anyway, we decided Brynn would just drop me off at the reservoir, and then take the kids home for a nap. Forget the shuttle.

Friday Night

We found some food and comfort at Golden Corral (I wasn’t the only athlete eating there, I noticed from the blue wristbands others were wearing), went home, and got to bed. I have to admit it was nice not having to stress out that evening since the race didn’t start until 2 pm the next day. Leave the stressing for the morning.

Saturday Morning – Gear Bags

I suppose it’s clear once you’ve done it, but I think the information packet could explain things a bit better. In the first paragraph of the shuttle tickets section above, I explained how there are two transition areas. You leave your wetsuit and other swim gear at the first transition area, and you never go back there. So how does your stuff meet up with you again? You’re given a swim transition bag, and after you’re done with your swim you stuff your wetsuit, goggles, cap, and everything else you’re not going to take on your bike into that bag, tie the strings, and drop it in the appropriate box. The bag is numbered (if you got your stickers and stuck one on), as are the boxes, and that evening you pick up the bag at the second transition area where your bike is stored during the run.

But wait, there’s another bag! What about the stuff you wear before the swim? Like shorts, a shirt, a hat, etc.? There’s a “morning clothes bag” for that. You drop this bag off with volunteers prior to beginning the swim.

Yet one more! The final bag is your run gear bag. You see, you’re going to come in to T2 on your bike, and now you need to put on your running shoes, socks, hat, sunglasses, etc. Where is this stuff? It’s in your run gear bag, which you drop off at T2 Saturday morning.

Saturday Morning – Pre-race

So on Saturday morning I got all three gear bags ready, and we drove downtown to T2. There was a small parking lot on the corner right next to T2, so we quickly pulled in there, I ran into T2, found my spot (which again was a great spot, right at the entrance of T2 which meant I could quickly get off my bike and into my running shoes rather than having to run the length of T2 in my bike shoes), left my bag there, and got back in the car. It all took about two minutes, which in part made up for the hassle of the day before.

We then drove up to Lucky Peak Reservoir so that Brynn could drop me off there with my other two gear bags. As we got to the reservoir and turned right to drive across the dam, we were stopped by a man of the law. He informed us that there was no traffic allowed across the dam the day of the race. Uhhh…could I get out and walk? Nope. Uhhh…did this mean the only way to get to the race was to take the shuttle? Of course not, the man informed me, all I had to do was drive to the bottom of the reservoir, and my wife could drop me off there.

“But how do I get to the top of the reservoir?”

“You hike up.”

“I hike up?”

“Yeah, see all those people on that trail down there?”

“Yeah…”

What I saw was a dirt trail extending from a recreation area at the bottom of the reservoir and winding up and around it towards T1. It looked pretty steep, and pretty long. And the day was already quite warm.

We drove down, I got all my gear, and I started following the others up the trail, carrying my heavy gear bags, the strings on which were cutting into my hands, which might be the cause of my pinkies being numb for two days afterward. The hike was hot, dusty, steep, and about 1/2 mile long. I also think it may have re-strained my left soleus which slowed me down during the run portion later.

In other words, taking the shuttle is a good idea. If only the information packet had informed us that not taking the shuttle meant you get to start your half-Ironman off with a 1/2 mile hike in the hot sun.

Pre-race Excitement…and Sunburn

T1 is an asphalt parking lot without much shade. Getting there early means waiting around in very hot sun, and this is when I got my feet burned walking around in flip-flops. At least I was smart enough to put sunblock on my neck.

I chatted with a few people, kept drinking lots of fluids (which I was losing rapidly in the hot sun), and waited in the potty line. One more complaint–why are there only 4 porta-potties in T1 where everybody is hanging out, but 40 of them down the hill towards the swim start where nobody hangs out until right before the swim?

One great thing they had in T1 was a guy with an electric pump checking tire pressure. I don’t remember seeing this at Oceanside, and it was great to be able to pump up the tires quickly and correctly without having to bring your own big pump.

A new rule was announced, apparently created within two hours of the start, that only pros can have their shoes clipped onto their bikes. Everyone else has to put their shoes on prior to exiting T1. Since I’ve never gotten on my bike with the shoes already clipped on, this wasn’t an issue for me, except that I had been feeling a bit adventurous and had thought of trying it this time around. The rule put an end to that which was probably a good thing.

As I waited around in the sun, trying to find some shade, I realized I was still wearing my sunglasses. The sunglasses I was supposed to wear on my run. The sunglasses I was not going to wear on my bike because they’re not made for biking and get in the way and slip down my nose. The sunglasses I don’t wear on my bike because I have a super neat LG Superleggera aero helmet with a visor on it. The sunglasses I had meant to leave at T2 that morning when I dropped my run-gear bag off there. I quickly realized there was no way for me to get my sunglasses down to T2 without carrying them on the bike. It took me a few minutes more to realize there was no way to carry them safely other than to wear them. I considered the pros and cons, and decided that wearing the sunglasses on the bike would be more detrimental than not having them on the run, and so put them in my morning gear bag. 1st mistake of the day–darn.

Pre-Swim

Normally I’m pretty nervous in the hour or so before a race, but this time I was feeling pretty relaxed. After all, this was just a warm-up for the full Ironman in November, and I had already done a half before, so what was there to be nervous about? I was so relaxed, in fact, that I wasn’t keeping track of time and hadn’t had my tires checked yet when the race announcer yelled out “T1 closes in 5 minutes!”

I grabbed my bike and ran over to get it checked. Then ran back to my rack, stripped off my shorts and t-shirt to expose my black superman one-piece underneath, and ran with my morning clothes bag, wetsuit, goggles, earplugs, and swim cap to join the throng over in the swim area. After using the bathroom again, I gave my morning clothes bag to a volunteer, put my wetsuit on up to my waist, and go in line with my wave.

As we waited for the swim we struggled to keep our feet cool by standing in the shadow of other people or standing on the white painted lines that were cooler than the black asphalt. It really was quite warm, and the people who had fully suited up and put their swim caps on too early were sweating profusely. I decided to wait until the last minute.

The Swim

The race has a wave start, and having turned 35 in May I was just barely in the men’s 35-39 wave, which started at 2:25 (the male pros were the first wave, at 2:00). We made our way towards the front of the line and the water as wave after wave started every five minutes. When the last wave in front of us went in the water I started getting my wetsuit, goggles, earplugs, etc. in place. I checked the seal on my goggles several times, not wanting to repeat my last half-Ironman experience in which I put sunscreen on my face which prevented my goggles from sealing and ended up swimming the entire 1.2 miles with goggles full of water.

We walked into the water and swam to the start line where we floated, treading water and waiting for the horn. Somehow I had ended up right where I didn’t want to be–right in the middle. Not only the middle from side to side, but the middle front to back. But I didn’t have too much time to correct things because the horn sounded and we were off.

In every other triathlon the swim start has been hectic. Feet in my face, people swimming over me, my own feet kicking other people, swimming too hard and getting out of breath, etc. A few days prior to the race I asked Heath at PowerTri what his #1 swim tip for racing was, and he said “just relax”. As I started out, I thought “Ok, I’m just going to pretend I’m doing a normal workout at the pool.” I started swimming slowly, focused on my form and breathing, taking breaths on both sides every three strokes.

Soon, my muscles started loosening up and I started pulling a little harder and breathing on the same side every two strokes. As I would lift my head to sight, I kept seeing people to my right, people to my left, but nobody directly in front of me for 25-30 meters. This was great because I could swim straight ahead with my head down and not worry about running into someone. I’ve never had this happen before and it seemed strange since I was right in the middle of everyone at the start. But every time I sighted I had a clear path ahead, and I didn’t touch a single person’s foot with my hands until the very end of the race.

As we neared the first turn, I could feel my strength really coming on and I started pulling a lot harder. Apparently I pulled too hard because a minute after turning the buoy I noticed I had passed everyone. Not forwards, but to the side. I was 25 meters outside where everyone else was swimming. Not far enough that a kayaker had to come steer me back on course, but far enough that I felt a bit lonely. I was having some issues seeing clearly with my goggles (the lake water seemed to be sticking to the insides in big drops), but I thought I could see the next turn and so decided to go in a straight line towards it, rather than returning to the crowd, which would only make the distances farther and put me back in the crowd. I didn’t want to be that close to everyone else.

I was feeling quite good as I made the last turn. I’ve never been able to focus so well on swimming and ignore the giant fish and snapping turtles in the murky water that want to eat my toes. I know there isn’t any such thing in this lake, but somehow not being able to see the bottom always makes me feel like something is going to bite my foot off. Must be that book I read when I was a kid about the old man’s pond with the giant snapping turtle in it.

As I neared shore, I realized I should have been swimming harder. I was feeling great and not at all tired out like I normally do at the end of the swim. Normally I get out of the water and feel like I’m going to pass out. This time I just felt great, and wished I had pushed just a little bit harder. But it was too late for that. I stood up as soon as I could and started getting my wetsuit unzipped as I ran up the boat ramp.

T1

Something else Boise has that Oceanside doesn’t–wetsuit strippers! I’m glad I didn’t try to take my wetsuit off by myself right out of the water, as I would have had something not tickled the back of my mind. No, it wasn’t a line in the information packet informing us that there would be wetsuit strippers (that would have been nice), I just didn’t feel like I should take it off immediately out of the water because it seemed like I’d be in everyone’s way. When I saw the strippers I couldn’t help but grin, and I ran over, laid down on the carpet, and two guys grabbed the waist of my wetsuit and ripped it off my legs in a flash, pulled me up, and shoved the wetsuit into my arms and I was off running towards my bike.

Once at my bike, I realized my spot wasn’t as fortunate as I thought it was. I had mistook which side of the rack I was supposed to get my bike from, so after I was all changed and ready to go, I realized I had to run around the rack to the other side because my bike wasn’t going to fit under the rack. This only added a few seconds since I was at the end of the rack (thank goodness I wasn’t in the middle of a long one) but it was a mistake nonetheless that I should have noticed during the hour and a half I was standing around in T1 before the swim, doing nothing.

I got everything on, including my Garmin, and ran towards the bike start. I hadn’t worn a watch nor seen the time when I came out of the swim, so I had no idea what my time was at this point. But I was pretty sure I had beat my previous time at Oceanside of almost 41 minutes.

The Bike

The bike starts out with a short downhill, which is nice to get firmly on the bike, and then a small climb to the dam, which is flat all the way across. At the end of the dam you start the downward descent out of the canyon. I was looking forward to hitting 40 mph, but as the road turned we were hit with a gust of wind so strong that it started slowing us down and required us to put some effort into maintaining speed–even on a steep hill. This would be the beginning of what turned out to be the windiest bike ride of my life.

I’m not sure what details to share about the bike ride. It was on roads, there were some decent hills (nothing like The Big Hill at Oceanside), and the volunteers, spectators, and traffic control were great. What set this ride apart from any other was the WIND! I’ve hit some pretty good winds before, but this was like nothing else I’ve experienced. I figured the winds were around 30 mph. They were brutal. On areas where we should have been riding at 20-25 mph, we were going 5-10 mph, in aero position, in low gear, just trying to dodge the wind and keep moving. A slight downhill felt like a steep hill because of the headwind. A steep downhill felt like flat. Fortunately, there were a few times when the wind was at our backs and so going up a steeper hill felt like a mild hill, and a mild hill felt like flat. Flat felt like downhill as we rode 30 mph and couldn’t feel a trace of breeze because we were moving with the wind. It was at these times that my aero-helmet started feeling pretty warm, and it almost felt good when we would hit another headwind that would cool me down.

During the bike I had the new experience of feeling like I couldn’t take in any more liquids. Normally I can drink quite a bit, but my stomach was feeling just a tiny bit queasy, and I didn’t want to be the guy on the side of the road hacking up his stomach and being taken out of the race. I didn’t feel thirsty, but I did feel like I needed more energy, and much of it was stored in my drink that I had made extra goopy for this purpose. I trusted my gut instead of my head, and I think that was the right decision, even though at the end of the bike ride I hadn’t finished off my first drink bottle and hadn’t touched the second. All I took in during the bike was two packages of Gu Chomps, two Gus, and perhaps 18 oz of EFS sports drink.

As we neared the final stage of the bike, I realized I was ahead of where I thought I would be. I was thinking 3 hrs at the fastest, but more likely 3:20 or so. I knew that a 40:00 combined swim and T1 and a combined 3:20 bike and T2 would put me where I needed to be to run a 2:00 half marathon and reach my goal of doing a sub-6 hour half-Ironman. As I saw that my bike ride was going to be closer to the 3:00 side of things, I started to feel pretty good about reaching my goal, or maybe even coming in 10-20 minutes ahead of it.

My one concern was how low on energy I was feeling. As I was about five minutes from the end of the bike, I started feeling tired. The kind of tired where you just want to lay down in bed and go to sleep. I did NOT feel like running a half marathon at this point.

T2

I pulled into T2 at just over 3 hours. That felt good. At this point I realized I was on the wrong side of the rack again. I ended up having to lift my bike over the rack to put it on correctly.

I took my bike shoes off, put my socks on (I was planning on going sockless but changed my mind the morning of), and got my shoes on. I stood up, and jogged through the transition area towards the run start, turned the corner, ran through some buildings, and out into the start area that ran parallel to the finish.

The Run

The bib numbers we wear have our names on them, but they must not have at Oceanside, because people were calling my name out. I couldn’t get used to this, because I kept thinking somebody I knew was there and recognized me. I’d look at the person who called out “Way to go Josh!” and I’d think “Who in the world is that? Do I know this person?” Even after I realized what was going on, it would still catch me off guard. But I think it was a great thing in that it helped make the race feel more friendly and personable. I’m guessing it made the volunteers feel more of a connection as well.

This is where I first saw my wife and kids and Joan Newby who had come along to help out. They waved, I waved, and ran on. Due to the nature of the run course they were able to see me several more times during the run.

As I started the run I realized I needed to pee. I saw one guy peeing in some bushes in a highly public area–I guess he had to go so bad he couldn’t worry about propriety, or rules, for that matter. I found a porta-potty at the first aid station next to the river along which the run course wends its way, and decided it was worth the 1:00 to 1:30 I was going to lose by going, since the potty was quite a way behind the aid station, plus I wasn’t counting on this being a quick pee.

Upon exiting I did feel quite a bit better, and lighter. I took my friend Te Koi’s tip of filling my cap with the ice handed out at the aid station, which felt great on my head and seemed to do a good job of keeping my body temp low. At this point the temperature was around 77 degrees, and even though much of the run is shaded, it was still plenty warm.

Did I mention I didn’t feel like running? It wasn’t getting better as I ran more. The first half felt pretty brutal. Whereas I normally run 9:00 min miles if I’m doing a 13 mile training run, I was now struggling to keep 10:00 miles, and I knew that whatever advantage I had gotten on the bike was now being eroded away. But I didn’t know exactly how much. I didn’t have a total time for the event so far, and I had forgotten to start my watch immediately out of T2, so I knew things were a little bit off and I couldn’t depend on my Garmin to tell me whether I was 1-2 minutes from goal. I knew it would tell me if I was 10-20 minutes away from my goal, but I couldn’t trust it to be more precise due to my haphazard management of it.

As I finished the first half of the half marathon, I started to feel a little better. My running muscles seemed to be picking up energy, most likely from the aid stations, and I was getting into a better rhythm. But I was also experiencing some pain in my lower left leg, the soleus area, and I was still tired.

It’s hard to express in words how hot and tired I felt. As we crossed over the large, fast running river, I kept feeling the temptation to jump in and float down. Sure, I’d probably drown, but that water would feel sooooo good.

The time dragged on, and I wished I had my iPod and a good book to listen to. Most of all, I just wished I had the stomach to swallow another Gu or two, but I felt like if I did I would vomit for sure. All I could handle were small amounts of Gatorade, orange slices, sips of water, and chewing on ice. A small piece of banana took me five minutes to get down and I almost lost it once or twice while trying to swallow it. My stomach just wasn’t in the mood.

I started to wonder how close I was to meeting my goal. I knew my run time wasn’t going to be close to what I wanted it to be. But would my good bike time make up for it? What if I finished and I was 30 seconds past 6:00? What a bummer that would be, eh?

I walked the aid stations, and a few of the small hills (there are only very, very small hills on the run, it’s mostly quite flat–I probably shouldn’t even call the bumps “hills”). But mostly I just ran slower than I normally do. Keeping a 9:00 pace just seemed too hard mentally.

The two final miles seemed to drag on forever. But it felt a lot better than Oceanside, where by this time I was running all by myself for the most part, the majority of other participants having finished. This time I knew I was doing better than many, if not most of the other racers.

As I rounded the final turn and heard the crowd I picked up the pace to run to the finish. As it turns out, I was mostly alone, having nobody for a long ways in front of me and nobody I could hear behind me, so I got a healthy dose of cheering from the crowd and people calling out my name.

I looked up at the clock as I ran across the finish line and was able to make out three numbers; 6:26. What?! I had started 25 minutes after the race start, so this meant my time was…6:01 and some seconds. You gotta be kidding me! I wasn’t ticked, I was laughing. I couldn’t believe after all that I had come to within a minute and a few seconds of my sub-6 hour goal. All it would have required for me to make my goal was to have picked it up slightly on the bike, on the run, or on the swim. A few seconds here and there was all that had put me over the 6:00 mark.

I was thinking all this, but I was also desperate to find a porta potty, because now I realized I was seriously close not only to vomiting, but I could feel a massive diarrhea attack coming on. I had visions of simultaneously vomiting and having diarrhea right there at the finish line in front of the huge crowd. I caught a glimpse of two porta potties at the end and ran for them and somehow I was able to hold it until I got inside. I didn’t vomit, but…well, let’s just say when it came to the other end I did my job. I exited, feeling much better.

Now, at Oceanside you finished and were quickly escorted inside a tent full of food. Here, I finished, and stood there not sure where to go. There was no tent. There was no food or drink. There were a lot of people milling about. Where’s the darn food?! My wife found me and we ended up having to find a volunteer and ask them. We found out the food was about 100 meters down a path between two buildings. It was completely out of sight from the race finish. This too would have been nice to know beforehand.

We walked together down to the food, and after drinking a can of soda I felt well enough to eat a single slice of pizza, and 20 minutes or so later well enough to eat a few more bites of other food.

They were posting printouts of the times over on a wall, and I went and checked it out. As I read over from my name, I saw that the 6:26 time was wrong! I had actually finished in 5:57! They must have gotten something wrong somewhere, or my wave didn’t start on time, or something. Only after getting home to Utah and checking the website would I find out that no, the first time was right, and the 5:57 was wrong…at least I think it was. I swear that’s what my time was on the printout, however, so I’m still not entirely sure. But here’s what the website says, and what would seem to be more likely to be correct:

JOSHUA STEIMLE

BIB	AGE	STATE/COUNTRY	PROFESSION
723	35	DRAPER UT USA	Business Owner

SWIM	BIKE	RUN	OVERALL	RANK	DIV.POS.
36:35	3:01:38	2:15:28	6:01:43	435	91

LEG	DISTANCE	PACE	RANK	DIV.POS.
TOTAL SWIM	1.2 mi. (36:35)	1:55/100m	372	68
TOTAL BIKE	56 mi. (3:01:38)	18.50 mph
TOTAL RUN	13.1 mi. (2:15:28)	10:20/mile	435	91
TRANSITION				TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE				4:54
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN				3:08

What’s the lesson here? For me, I think I learned something about really giving it your all. If I had known I was going to be that close, I would have tried harder. I should have assumed it would be that close, and I should have tried as hard as I could. On a technical level, I should have worn a watch in addition to my Garmin, so that I could have known exactly how close I was.

Another lesson, however, is that you can’t make up for this type of thing in the last minute or two. In order to have met my goal, I would have had to run faster throughout the half marathon, or at least over a few miles. I couldn’t have made that up in the last mile or two. Maybe in three. Probably in four. Definitely in five or six. But if I had just maintained 10:00 miles instead of 10:20, that would have kept the run fairly easy, and I would have easily have made my goal.

Well, live and learn, kids. It’s all mental.

Summary

Overall, the race was great. The volunteers were great, the course was great, and things were very well organized 95% of the time. Where there is room for improvement is mostly in the information packet which often left me feeling confused, and which didn’t contain certain information that would have been quite helpful. Oh, and the t-shirt sizes, which are all too small (I know I’m not the only one with this problem). Normally I fit into a large just fine, but the large I’m wearing as I type this is smaller than some mediums I’ve tried on. I would have gotten a different size when they were handing them out, but I was in a rush to not get that parking ticket…

Thank you to the race organizers, the volunteers, PowerTri, my coach David Warden, the Newby family, my friends and family, and especially my wife for putting up with all my training.

Placings

#447 out of 784 participants.

#93 in my age group (male, ages 35-39) out of 175

I have added results for Ironman 70.3 Eagleman 2010 to triresults.com.

URL: Results for Ironman 70.3 Eagleman 2010

Note: See updates at bottom of post.

I could just post a link to the review for the Profile Design Aerodrink that’s up at BeginnerTriathlete.com, but I actually have something to add to the hell Dominic went through. My only consolation is that my hell wasn’t as bad as his, because I gave up after 20 minutes of hell, decided to look online to see if anyone else had a similar experience, and upon reading about Dominic’s hell I realized I was better off returning the product.

There is only one scenario under which I can recommend trying product–you have a friend who uses it, loves it, and is willing to install it for you…actually no, just don’t use this product. I’m sorry, but it stinks, and that’s the review I’m giving the product before I even had a chance to use it. Here’s why…

I got the Aerodrink bottle several weeks ago, but PowerTri didn’t have the bracket in stock and the rubber bands didn’t seem to work, so I hung out waiting for the Aerodrink bracket to come in. I picked it up today, and then spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how the bracket worked. Yes, you would think this would be relatively simple, and yes, I even looked at the instructions, but I’m still stumped.

The first problem is that the photos in the instructions are unrecognizable as anything but some long-lost form of dot-art. Perhaps if I were to back away to a distance of 10 feet the photos might become clear, but since they’re only an inch square, I still wouldn’t be able to see what I’m looking at. The written instructions were not clear to me–perhaps because of what I’ll describe next.

The bracket “fits” around the bottle on three sides, and then has a velcro strap on the fourth side which you tighten to hold the bottle in place. Simple enough, right? Bwahahaha, not a chance! You see, as near as I can tell, the velcro strap they include was sewn together backwards. That is, no matter how I put the velcro through the designated slots in the bracket, I can’t do it in a way such that the velcro can stick to itself, because the metal hook side ends up matching up with the back of the fuzzy side, rather than the fuzzy side itself. Trust me, I spent 15 minutes on that part alone, and unless I’m a complete idiot there’s no way to make it happen. But let’s accept the possibility that I may indeed be a complete idiot and move on.

The Aerodrink bracket doesn’t fit the Aerodrink bottle. You heard me right–it doesn’t fit. What does fit in the bracket? I’m not sure, but it sure ain’t the Aerodrink bottle. Oh, I can fit the bracket around the bottle fine enough, but this causes the two sides of the bracket to bend at strange angles. You could make the case that my German heritage makes me a stickler for precision engineering, but anyone who knows me can attest to the contrary. All I care is that it works, and the Aerodrink bottle and the Aerodrink bracket are not made to go together. We’re not talking about things being just a little bit off, we’re talking about things being way off. Imagine that you went to buy a car, and when you closed the door there was a one-inch gap between the car and the door that you could see through. Even though you’re not an engineer who designs cars, you’d know something wasn’t right.

So…I don’t have time to return this stuff tomorrow, but rest assured, the Aerodrink and its poorly designed bracket are being returned first thing after I get back from my race this weekend, and no, they will not be used in the race. Thank goodness for the other review that saved me from trying to rig this up to work somehow. I’m sure I would have ended up chucking the whole contraption in the trash during the middle of the race had I persevered.

Update 16 June, 2010: Since posting this, I raced in the Boise 70.3 and saw many people using the AeroDrink, and I’ve talked to a few people who currently use it. They have convinced me to give it a real try (which I admit I haven’t, since I never got the thing on my bike). In the spirit of doing a thorough gear review, I have decided that one way or another, I’m going to get this thing on my bike and try it out. Perhaps once I really use it I’ll end up loving it, like apparently everyone else does I know who has one.

Shipping a bicycle that’s worth $5-10K can be a bit nerve-wracking. While companies like TriBike Transport can ship your bike for you to many events, that only works when you’re going to an event that TriBike ships to. If you’re going to an event that isn’t covered, or you’re not going to an event–just traveling, then you have to deal with the cost and regulations of shipping with the airlines. That can be expensive and a hassle (whereas TriBike Transport is just expensive), but if you’re shipping your bike with Delta Airlines it can get even worse. Check out the video.

Delta’s website states that “your bike must be packaged in a cardboard or canvas container”. I guess James’ mistake was to ignore Delta’s bike shipping advice and pack his bike in a heavy-duty, specialized container made for shipping bikes on airplanes. If his bike had been in cardboard or canvas I’m sure it would have been just fine.