Live Multi-Sport

Multisport Canine-Style

Jen — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:51:17 +0000

After Louisville last year, I attempted multiple times to get back on the training bandwagon but each time my knee told me, “Uhm. Not yet!” It was pretty disheartening when even swimming would hurt – kick drills were verboten and an odd push off the wall could terminate a session early.

I had settled into a blue mood when in November a serendipitous ad appeared in the paper:

Jack Russell Terrier puppies. Available immediately.

Call: 543-xxxx

Jacks? And a local number?!? Serendipitous because if we were to get a puppy again this was the breed – small in size so it could travel easily with us but big in nature plus active – Puppy Trifecta!

Long story short … introducing our newest family member … Stella!

Having a new puppy certainly kept my mind focused but I’ve been able to slowly work my knee back into shape. First by resting, LOTS. Then walking Stella. Short but many, initially. And as she has grown (now 4 months old) varying in terrain, length and even intensity as we incorporate some light running.

Locally we’ve been attending Puppy Classes but Jane also specializes in Flyball which sounds like lots of fun. One snowy afternoon, as I went looking for Flyball videos, I came across something called Dock Dogs. Be sure to look at the videos on dockdogs.com – crazy stuff! I had no idea this was even out there! Intrigued I googled “dog sport” and a whole host of other dog sport descriptions came up. Did you know there is Skijoring? Or Dog Bikejoring? You’ve probably heard of Dog Sledding? But what about CaniCross?

It was the latter that really tweaked my interest. How fun would that be?! Generally I’ve found that people who enjoy their dogs are people I want to hang around. And I can’t think of anything more fun than hitting the trails attached to your dog with a bunch of other like-minded folk. Add in some challenges and an element of competition? I’m in!

From the Canicross website:

7th-15th August 2010

The Trophee Des Montagnes - French Alps

Website – Awaiting new site for 2010 event.

We are awaiting the website for the 2010 event to be published but the dates have been confirmed as 7-15th of August. The event takes place in the French Alps with 12 races over the period of 9 days. The event is a series of races held at 4 different villages in the high Alps, from each location you will run 4 races, sometimes 2 a day and some will be in the dark, bring a headtorch. There are mass starts of up to 100 runners and dogs, handicap chases and relays to be run. You will find yourself running up and down the pistes of the Alps without skis or snow, crossing streams, races cover 3 to 8kms and cover some serious up and down hills. In 2008 one race climbed the height of Snowdon and finished at a cable car station, where you then returned to the start with your dog in the cable car.

These links will take you to the start points of the 2008 and 2009 events.

Alpe de Grand Serre, Vaujany, Auris, Oz-en-Oisans

These maps will show you the general areas that the event takes place in.

This is a truly amazing event, Cush and I will be going next year, so check out your diary and start booking your journey, I know I am.

So just when you think you’ve been sidelined by injury and all is lost, sometimes, it takes a new edition to the family to bring attention to a whole different genr of multisport!

See you on the trail! woof woof

Fly Away

Cliff — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:56:54 +0000

Its less than a week away for me to visit Victoria for the Lifesport tri camp. I am in a bit of a predicament: Whats the best way to send my bike?

In the past I’ve boxed my bike up and was charged $50-100 depending on the airline. Air Canada is $50. Not a big deal but I’d like to save as much cash as possible. Exploring other options has led me toalternative ways to pack my ride. First, the hockey bag.

Most airlines don’t charge extra fees for sporting equipment. Golf clubs, lacrosse, and archery are among those. A hockey bag could be a great choice.

So, will a bike fit into a hockey bag? Well, at first I went to a hockey store to measure. The dimensions for my 52cm, P2SL are: it has to be at least 40cms long and wide. A feature that is quite hard to find in a bag.

In the fall I went and bought a canoe bag. Its a huge red book bag made for storing a lot of wet gear. It was on sale, bonus, and fit all the dimensions. So I bought it. And it fit a road bike well. The only issue I saw is that it was a thin canvas material. Not great but I figured I could jimmy rig something together for “added protection”.

When I added my carbon support frame there is barely enough room to add another wheel. A bicycle isn’t much good with only wheel. Looks like I need another option.

As luck would have it, I was out for a routine dog when I came across a rather large suitcase. In fact, it will have no problem holding a bike, wheels and anything else I can scrounge up. My only issue with this one is it exceeds the dimensions allowed by Air Canadas. The fee for oversized luggage, $70. So I’m better off with the bike box.

I’m kinda leaning towars the hockey bag. Hopefully if Ipack the box well enough that everything will get there safe and sound. At least, thats what I hope!

Happy Trainin

Cliff

Training Logs – Which do you prefer?

Jen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:37:08 +0000

You might remember that one of my chosen blogs is Steve Stenzel’s “Steve in a Speedo?!“? Well he’s been doing a series called “Does it Work?” reviewing tools that triathletes use on a day-to-day basis. Yesterday’s entry was Steve’s review of four online training logs … Beginner Triathlete, Buckeye Outdoors, Daily Mile, and Training Peaks. Two were new to me, one I’d heard of but hadn’t used and of course, the defacto Training Peaks. Steve has graciously allowed me to repost his thought provoking review. We at LMS would love to hear what YOUR favourite online workout logs are. And why. Then head over to Steve’s and see what they’re saying over there too!

Does It Work: Beginner Triathlete, Buckeye Outdoors, Daily Mile, and Training Peaks

By Steve Stenzel

Note: Choosing an online workout log is a VERY personal choice. If I have bad things to say regarding your website of choice, it’s nothing personal against you. This whole process of finding an online log is really specific to one’s personality, and what works for me might not work for you, and vice versa. But here’s my 2 cents:

Back in August of last year, I put up a post asking for recommendations on different sites for tracking mileage. I had a “physical” day-planner that I had been using as a log, but wanted to try something new. I noted that I had a Wellsphere account, but didn’t like that for tracking miles. If I had to give Wellsphere a grade, it’d be this:

Wellsphere: Grade of F+. This may have changed since I deleted my account, but I had to round every workout to the nearest mile! REALLY?!? This site was horrible, and the layout made it really difficult to get around. Sucktastic.

Oh, and I DID consider just tracking everything in a spreadsheet file on my own computer. Some bloggers sent me some VERY COOL spreadsheets files all set up by day, month, and year. Everything was totaled up automatically, pie charts would appear at the bottom, etc, etc. They were pretty sweet. But I decided I wanted to work online. Plus, I was afraid that the file could suddenly go corrupt and I’d lose all my training info. (I guess I have more faith in unknown online companies to not lose my data…*gulp*)

Personal Spreadsheet: Grade of ??. You could make this as simple or as complex as you’d like, so it’s tough to give this a letter grade.

So in that post back in August, people were recommending some great sites. I listened to what people were saying, and in September of last year, I started 4 new accounts with Beginner Triathlete, Buckeye Outdoors, Daily Mile, and Training Peaks. I started tracking my workouts, mileage, and races with those sites. I QUICKLY found ones to work better for me than others.

Here’s my review of all 4 of those from worst to best (in my opinion):

Daily Mile: Cute design. It’s like Twitter (or a Facebook Group) where you can add workouts. That’s great, but I don’t need ANOTHER place to chat with “friends.” Great for runners only or people tracking their “workouts” (but not for people tracking their “training” [unless you’re a runner]). Not great for mulitsport athletes. Take a look at this screenshot:

2 main problems with this:
1. “5 months ago”? How about an actual date?
2. See the triathlon in the middle of that image? It’s labeled as a “fitness workout” (with no way to store my splits). That’s a little insulting. (But at least it got a bit smiley face! Sheesh.) You can’t add a triathlon, duathlon, or brick workout.

It’s “cutesy,” but a little unprofessional. When you enter a workout, you can give it varying degrees of a smiley face:

Trying to enter a triathlon or a duathlon nearly started the website on fire. Really. It’s like I was asking them to rearrange the stars. It’s FINE for tracking weight lifting routines, runs, etc., but it’s not for multisport athletes.

Daily Mile: Grade of D. (This is a little awkward because “Team Daily Mile” retweeted my tweet that linked to the “foam roller” post yesterday. Sorry.) Like I said, it’s fine for more casual athletes, or those that are runners only.

Training Peaks: Very professional. Many coaches like this because you can leave workouts in OTHER people’s log telling them what to do each day. Nice. You can track your equipment usage. It’s easy to get around, and easy to enter workouts (it’s all pretty intuitive). It totals your weekly mileage. Here’s a screenshot:

Some things I DON’T like about Training Peaks: The calendar (seen above) is a little “clunky” – it’s hard to glace at it and see what you’ve done recently. It’s also “tall,” so you can only see 2 weeks at a time (I like to see the whole month). It also takes a bit to load the calendar; I spent 5-9 seconds looking at this when I first logged in:

(that’s the actual picture – don’t sit here and wait for something to initialize)

Training Peaks: Grade of B-. It’s good for tracking workouts, mileage, and races (including multisport races), but the format didn’t quite fit for me. I wasn’t happy with the way the info is shown on the calendar. That’s just a personal preference, I know.

Buckeye Outdoors: The calendar was JUST was I was looking for, and it was super easy to add a workout. You can quickly see what you’ve done, and the little multi-colored symbols helps make it clear right away. Here’s a screenshot:

The calendar is “clean” and minimal. If you want to see more on a workout, you can scroll over it. Here I am with my mouse over the run workout on the 9th, and you can see the details of that workout on the far right:

Buckeye Outdoors really surprised me. I didn’t expect to like it THIS much. I’d never heard of it before people started recommending it, and it sounded like something for fans of Ohio State that liked to canoe (or something like that).

Buckeye Outdoors: Grade of B+. No major complaints. Tracked everything I wanted it to quite well (even intervals). It’s possible to print out “reports,” but the printout is a little awkward and not in that same calendar format.

Beginner Triathlete: I didn’t like the name; I don’t see myself as a “beginner” anymore. But I liked about everything else on their site. Here’s a screenshot from last month:

All the info is there that I want to see. Swim, bike, run, and strength workouts are all there in different colors. There are weekly totals at the end of the week, and monthly totals at the bottom. I can track my weight if I want to, and I have the power to make that invisible to other users if I’d like (you can see my weight on a few days when I weighed myself). If you want more info on a workout scroll over it, and more info will pop up. Here I am with my mouse over the 12 miler on the 16th, and you can see all my notes:

It easy to add races to your schedule, and then you can see who else is planned to do the race. (In fact, it was because I had the TC 10 Miler on my schedule last Oct that Emily [BikerGrrrl on Beginner Triathlete] knew I’d be running, and she snapped a photo of me that she sent to me.) You can read other people’s race reports if you find a race you’re thinking about doing. Here’s my race list:

At Beginner Triathlete, you can add equipment and note when you use it (Training Peaks has something like that too). I use it like most people: to track mileage on my running shoes. That info appears in your “blog” on Beginner Triathete. You can put whatever info you want in the header of your blog (I have my 2009 races listed, and I need to update it for 2010). Here’s my “blog” on BT, with a few things that I’ve noted:

A: Graph of my recent workouts by week (all run and swim right now…).
B: My “Equipment” list, showing that my main running shoes have exactly 251.55 miles on them (and 52.43 miles on my racing flats).
C: “Personal Bests” that link to my race where I set that PR.

You can add workouts much like you can at Training Peaks. And the calendar is nice and easy to use like at Buckeye Outdoors. So, for me, it’s the best of those 2 sites. But the forums are what sold me on Beginner Triathlete. The forums are SOO extensive. There is a LOT of good info in there, and it easy to add your own question. (There are forums for “triathlon talk,” “classifieds,” “strength training,” “IM specific,” state-specific forums, etc, etc, etc, and even a “cup of joe” forum for anything non-triathlon related.) Anyone can respond to any issue in any forum, so you have to take all advice with a grain of salt. But sometimes you’ll find the person responding is a 9:20 IM athlete (really, there are a few that I’ve “met” on BT, and that have offered me advice, and one of them is ALWAYS on BT).

I contacted the “owner” of BT and told him that I would be talking about what I liked about BT. I asked him what’s in the works at BT. He actually shared a special username and password with me so I could login as a beta tester and check out what’s on the way! Cool!! They’re planning to add more functions to each person’s “blog.” One of the biggest ones is a “Goals” page where you can add weight loss goals, speed goals, fitness goals, etc, and then track your way towards that. Thanks for letting me check that out, Mike!

Beginner Triathlete: Grade of A. It’s not 100% perfect, but I do really like it. And it’s possible to print out a weekly calendar with all your workout notes if you want a hard copy (similar to what Buckeye Outdoors can do, but easier to read). One downside to BT is that some of the settings take a bit to find when you first set up an account – it’s a little “clunky” and takes a moment to find what you’re looking for in the settings the first time or 2. (But entering workouts is a cinch.)

I’ve been using BT since I first checked it out in September of last year. I LOVE throwing my workouts up there ASAP after a workout – it makes me feel very accountable and it makes me want to work hard. That sounds stupid, but it’s true. It’s like some form of subconscious motivation.

Check out the sites I wrote about here, and maybe I’ll see you on BT!

Daily Mile: D. No thanks. Not for triathletes IMO.
Training Peaks: B-. Not bad. Good for working with a coach.
Buckeye Outdoors: B+. Nice calendar. Easy to use.
Beginner Triathlete: A. My site of choice.

What’s your preferred way to track your mileage? Do you use one of these methods? (And like I said at the top, I don’t mean any personal disrespect if you use one of the methods that I don’t care for as much. I hope we can still be friends.) And don’t forget to check back at 2 am and 2 pm every day this week for more “Does It Work” posts. Click on the “Does It Work” tag to see all posts in this mini-series.

Thanks Steve! So. What’s YOUR favourite online tracking/training log??

Power of da Leggies

Cliff — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:26:58 +0000

Quick post but something I’ve been thinking of a lot lately.

In the fall I got a Powertap which I’ve trained with religiously since acquiring it. First off, just by using a training tool once doesn’t tell you a whole lot of what your capable of. Tools are: HRMs, GPS and power measuring tools. You need at least a month of progress to really understand what your body is doing. It also depends on what “season” your in because your numbers will be down in the rest season and higher in racing. At least that is what you hope.

So for all you Lance worshipers you’ll know that he talks about watts per kilogram. I’m not going to go into the definition of power so please google it. Watts/kg is basically how much power you can produce per your body weight in kilograms. For endurance athletes the number we care about is how much can we sustain over a period of time (longer intervals). Below is a chart of the break down of how one would rank as a cyclist.

Men

Women

5 s

1 min

5 min

20 min

5 s

1 min

5 min

20 min

24.04

11.50

7.60

6.50

20.43

9.78

6.46

5.53

23.69

11.35

7.47

6.29

20.14

9.65

6.35

5.34

23.35

11.21

7.34

6.17

19.85

9.53

6.24

5.25

World class

23.00

11.06

7.21

6.06

19.55

9.40

6.13

5.15

22.66

10.92

7.07

5.95

19.26

9.28

6.01

5.06

22.31

10.77

6.94

5.84

18.97

9.15

5.90

4.96

21.97

10.62

6.81

5.72

18.67

9.03

5.79

4.86

21.62

10.48

6.68

5.61

18.38

8.91

5.68

4.77

Pro Rider

21.28

10.33

6.55

5.50

18.09

8.78

5.57

4.67

20.93

10.19

6.42

5.38

17.79

8.66

5.46

4.58

20.59

10.04

6.29

5.27

17.50

8.53

5.34

4.48

20.24

9.89

6.16

5.16

17.20

8.41

5.23

4.38

19.90

9.75

6.02

5.04

16.91

8.29

5.12

4.29

International Rider

19.55

9.60

5.89

4.93

16.62

8.16

5.01

4.19

19.20

9.46

5.76

4.82

16.32

8.04

4.90

4.10

18.86

9.31

5.63

4.71

16.03

7.91

4.79

4.00

18.51

9.16

5.50

4.59

15.74

7.79

4.67

3.90

18.17

9.02

5.37

4.48

15.44

7.67

4.56

3.81

CWG Rider

17.82

8.87

5.24

4.37

15.15

7.54

4.45

3.71

17.48

8.73

5.10

4.25

14.86

7.42

4.34

3.62

17.13

8.58

4.97

4.14

14.56

7.29

4.23

3.52

16.79

8.44

4.84

4.03

14.27

7.17

4.12

3.42

16.44

8.29

4.71

3.91

13.97

7.05

4.00

3.33

Jersey Rider

16.10

8.14

4.58

3.80

13.68

6.92

3.89

3.23

15.75

8.00

4.45

3.69

13.39

6.80

3.78

3.14

15.40

7.85

4.32

3.58

13.09

6.67

3.67

3.04

15.06

7.71

4.18

3.46

12.80

6.55

3.56

2.94

14.71

7.56

4.05

3.35

12.51

6.43

3.45

2.85

Intermediate Rider

14.37

7.41

3.92

3.24

12.21

6.30

3.33

2.75

14.02

7.27

3.79

3.12

11.92

6.18

3.22

2.66

13.68

7.12

3.66

3.01

11.63

6.05

3.11

2.56

13.33

6.98

3.53

2.90

11.33

5.93

3.00

2.46

12.99

6.83

3.40

2.78

11.04

5.81

2.89

2.37

New Rider

12.64

6.68

3.27

2.67

10.75

5.68

2.78

2.27

12.30

6.54

3.13

2.56

10.45

5.56

2.66

2.18

11.95

6.39

3.00

2.45

10.16

5.43

2.55

2.08

11.61

6.25

2.87

2.33

9.86

5.31

2.44

1.98

11.26

6.10

2.74

2.22

9.57

5.18

2.33

1.89

Untrained

10.91

5.95

2.61

2.11

9.28

5.06

2.22

1.79

10.57

5.81

2.48

1.99

8.98

4.94

2.11

1.69

Currently I sit between the Jersey Rider and the CWG Rider. So I’d need to either lose some weight or increase my leg power. What I’m interested is in the change from when I started, to race time. I’ve got 2 months till Cali 70.3 so we’ll see what happens.

The Flight Deck

Cliff — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:04:42 +0000

Just another Saturday. 5 hours in the spin room.

My legs look twice the size of my arms! Arnold would not be impressed with my biceps….

Cap it all off a date with the ice bath. Glutton for pain…

Old School

Bluenoser — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:03:41 +0000

So like myself, the shoes were getting a little worn and needed some TLC. This may get into a bit of a diatribe as those that have had the pleasure to ride along side of me on a Sunday know. I’m a bit old school. I may be straight, but I’m not narrow. I’m the first as an Aquarius to adopt the latest in technology when I see fit. But some times we lose site of the pleasure of the sport for the “Gear”.

Thus the ritual of the shoes. The snow shoes you see above I’ve now had for 32 years. We’ve clocked a lot of miles over a lot of terrain. One of the things that these old school shoes need is an annual touch up with a bit of sand paper on the ash and some spar varnish to keep the gut nice and waterproof. That’s modern. In the olden days, 20 years ago, it was shellac.

Now comes the argument. Lets not say argument but more like intelligent disscussion. I know that all you Multi-sport type folks, note how I use the word folks and not people, because then you get rolled in with the crazy dog/cat/horse people. Picture it, you know wild hair and waiving your hands in the air yelling, Down Duke Bad Dog…

Anyways, I digress. You Multi-Sport Folks, will be the first to say, well I have the latest moon tested tubular crabon blabla snowshoes that “I” don’t have to do anything to. And to that I say, I feel sorry for you. Why is this do you ask?

Well like all your other “Gear” if it doesn’t break or wear out, you forget about it. OR, replace it as soon as the next latest greatest next best thing comes along. Then when you get home from shoe shoeing you throw them into the corner.

To be forgotten about… not me.

As I was jazzing up my still very useful shoes and we can have looonnnggg discussions as to why mine are better than yours. I will take the two hours and two coats and then start to remember.

I’ll remember back in 1980 when me and the Jungle Hunter aka Glen Forbes were up in the hills of New Annan, doing our usual thing of follow the leader. We were going across a blueberry field on a side hill that was deep in snow and had been blowing for a few weeks up into the edge of the woods.

As I approached the edge of the woods in the lead, the Hunter said I just disappeared. What had happened was that the snow drifted up over small fir trees, about 10 feet. They held the snow up like umbrellas, but you couldn’t see them. And down I went.

I was tangled. I couldn’t reach my bindings to undo and there I was. Stuck. The Jungle Hunter had to take off his shoes, sit on one, use the other like a shovel and dig down to me. He got down deep enough to undo my bindings and free me. If he had not been there I would have died because no one was expecting me for two days.

When gear is used over and maintained, it then becomes PART of your sport. The scratches and the rubs mean something. Not something to be thrown in a corner until next time. Sport is an overall experience and the gear is a part of it not just a tool.

-B

Quest for Upgrading

Cliff — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:35:09 +0000

I must be getting old because I’m starting to understand this little world we live on. My “elder age” was confirmed at my swim practice on Tuesday when a woman of about 60 said, “Let’s go get’em Grandpa!” as we began a set led by three teenagers. Sorry Ma, you ain’t 26 any more if I don’t pass for it!

So what have I learned from my year’s on this planet? Well, if the title of this post isn’t a dead give away it’s that we all need to continue learning. Read books, download manuals, even look up a word in a dictionary (or Wikipedia). Once you stop, your going to be a tumbleweed. Just letting life pass you by.

My quest for a higher knowledge began at University. You pay $12K a year and you’re supposed to come out “educated”; knowing more than someone who just skipped the college route and went straight to the job site. What I’ve come to realize is having that piece of paper may get you in the door but if you don’t have a whole other list of things to offer, you’re going to be back out in the cold.

Naïve as I was when I graduated, I figured having the “willingness to learn” combined with a degree would get you anywhere. Man! I couldn’t be more wrong.

You see, what I’m learning is that most people don’t want to teach you anything. If they can’t show you in 5mins you’re SOL. This means that you have to pay for another service or wait until you find someone who’s willing to help you. Both in my opinion, suck.

Why is it that people just don’t care to help one another? Is it just this city? This province? Or is it people in general?

I’m not losing hope on the world. These past few months have been a really eye-opening experience for me. What I’m learning is that instead of just coasting along with that piece of paper, I always have to be reaching higher. And never be satisfied with where I am. To keep climbing the education ladder which, hopefully, in the end, produces a person with whom I’m satisfied.

And to keep this triathlon related … if you’re happy with where you are why bother paying for swim lessons? Why bother racing to know your 5K time? But if you are interested in your own improvement then you must take it upon yourself to seek out ways of making yourself better. Go to a training camp or try out for a team or get a coach. You don’t have to aspire to be the world champion. But maybe if you ran 3 times a week last year then this year you could try for 4, a good first step. Or having only done a sprint distance maybe you’d aim to do an Ironman. A bigger step, but it can happen!

I’m not losing faith in myself or other people. I guess I kinda got lazy. So maybe it is my fault. A good life lesson learned but now has to be acted upon.

Whatever you do, keep pursuing greatness. Hopefully with enough work, you’ll find it.

Happy (I gotta get home cause it’s Friday and I’ve worked wayyy too long) Trainin

Cliff

Jerseys…

Cliff — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:12:02 +0000

Man. It’s about 3 months till race season and I got nothing to show for it! I’m still interested in making jerseys for LMS but time is always an issue. I stumbled upon this today which shows you how to make t-shirts. But will it do tri tops?

Print Your Own T-Shirts

Though screen printing is the most efficient way of printing on textiles (check out my how-to here), it’s a lot of work to print a one-of-a-kind t-shirt. Here’s a cool way to create a stencil on the computer, and hand print it upon your shirt. It produces a different aesthetic than silk screening, as your completed shirt won’t look brand new, but nicely broken-in.

Ingredients:

Computer with image editing software (the instructions here are for Adobe Photoshop)
Craft knife and blades (such as X-Acto)
Cutting Mat, or scrap piece of plywood
Thin or Medium sheet of acetate (overhead transparency)
Masking tape
Textile Ink, or Acrylic Ink and Textile Fixer
Small Painter Roller
T-Shirt
Iron and Parchment Paper

Read the rest here.

Shark Tank

Cliff — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:46:53 +0000

On Saturday I participated in the second of three swim races held at the University of Ottawa. This series called, “The Shark Tank”, is a mix of long distance swimming and life guard race drills.

My race had 3 different events spread out over 2 hours. The first race was a 1500m time trial, the second was a 400m obstacle course and the finale was a 200 TT on a zig zag course.

If your wondering how the actual swim was prepared I’ve prepared a couple of sketches seen below.

Swim course

This is my beautiful picture of the pool. So first thing, we had the entire pool to swim (8×50m). One lap around the outside of all 6 buoys was 100ms. The 1500 TT was 15 laps around the outside 6 buoys. My lines are the obstacles for the 400 which were pulled during the 1500. The 200 TT started at the top left buoy went down to the bottom left buoy up to the top middle buoy then down to bottom right and finished at the top right. Confused?

So the 1500 TT was probably the best experience you could get for open water swimming in the winter. In our “heat” there were 6 people. Heat maybe an understatement as there was actually only 6 of us in total for the entire 2 hours!. It wasn’t much of a race as everyone quickly spread out. I swam around in no mans land except when I got lapped or lapped some of the others. One lady did the entire course breast stroking! Props.

The 400m was again done on the same course but this time the obstacles were brought in. How this worked was the obstacles were submerged about 2.5ft and you had to swim up and under them as you went around. It’s a weird feeling to be freestyling then all of a sudden dive down to go underneath a gate. Neat experience.

The night ended with the 200 TT. It was an ambush to the first buoy which resembled a tri. A couple of the life guards chose to join us for the last one. Making it a little more congested (just a little).Overall the Shark Tank is a good experience. It’s too bad there were not more people but I guess when it’s winter, people are not thinking triathlon training.

Next one up is in March.

GIMME SPEED

Cliff — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:16:34 +0000

I’m not fast enough. I put in so much work but I just can’t get faster. I eat this, I wear these and I sleep in an altitude tent. Why am I not getting faster?

Do a quick search for “fast” in google and you will have more than 725 million websites to choose from. That’s a lot of people asking for or offering up their opinions on how to make you go faster. So why, with all the information available are we still searching for answers? How does one get faster?

Honestly, training boils down to two simple ingredients: train and recover. Apply a stimulus that the body is not used to, let it heal and then repeat. Simple as it is people love to look for the easy ways to work around this.

You’ve probably heard of power used in around the home and maybe, if the people around you are techy triathletes, used the word in their cycling. Power is the measurement of work (an applied force over a distance) divided by the time it takes to do it. Another way way of putting it is: Triathletes in general are not as “powerful” as a football player over a short period of time. However, if you increase the duration of the exercise, which requires more work because you have to go further, the triathlete has an advantage because we can sustain a longer average power than the chunkier football player.

Okay enough blather. So how does one become more efficient? Well over the last couple of weeks I’ve been looking at what are the most efficient ways of getting from point A to point B. For example, in swimming did you know that most world class swimmers swim at a stroke rate of 0.70-0.80 strokes per second? Ever try to swim like that? Basically for the “average swimmer” it will feel like windmilling through the water.

Scientifically there has to be a point where stroke rate is going to have a negative impact on speed. Basically the arms will be going faster than the body can rotate. The key is to keep everything in perfect sync regardless of cadence. This is what a lot of swimmers experience (myself included) when they first try to speed up their stroke rate. Swim form will fall to pieces as you try to keep the pace high. That’s okay because building an efficient effective stroke takes time (TIME!).

How about running? Well elite Kenyan runners typically run 180 foot strikes per min and can go as high as 220. Next run, count how many strikes your right leg hits the ground then multiply that number by 16. This will give the total foot strikes per minute. Again, changing the natural running style will take some time.

Cycling is kind of the odd ball. Lance Armstrong proved that a 100 RPM + cadence can be very beneficial over long distances. However, this works very well with people who are small or have an enlarged heart (a large heart allows more oxygen to be pumped through the body). Riders who are heavier may benefit from pushing large gears during time trials. Their muscles allow them to push a larger gear, in theory making them go faster. This one really comes down to your physical make up. You should be open to trying different cadences and see what works for you.

Here’s what I propose before you start your season. Go out and measure each of these difference cadences and see where you’re at. I bet that in each discipline you’re at least 10% off what the “elites do”. I know what works for them might not work for you but if you want to get faster, heres an inexpensive way to try out some new speed. Plus it gives you a baseline to work from.

Next time you get stuck in a training rut, remember that efficiency will truly build a faster you.