True Blue Swimming

All,

Check this out from our friends at True Blue Swimming!!!

Starting in January (possibly December depending on the response) I will be offering swim clinics specifically designed to provide instruction in three areas of swimming; introduction to swimming, stroke mechanics and effective training strategies.

The clinics will meet for 2 hours (6:00-8:00pm) on Friday and 4 hours on Saturday morning (7:00-11:00am). Proposed dates are below. The goal of each clinics is to provide quality instruction using illustration, videos, demonstrations, interactive coaching. Class size will be limited to a maximum of 6 athletes to ensure individual attention is provided and needs are met. Specific content areas allow individuals to receive precise instruction for their needs instead of a shotgun approach. As you know, so many topics can be covered in a swim clinic. A focused approach will yield greater success for the participants.

In consideration for your support and promotion of the EOS Swim Clinics to your athletes I am willing to make this offer. All those who sign up by December 1, 2011 will receive one thirty minute one-on-one training session with me at no charge. In addition for your promotion and support I would like to offer you a personal video stroke analysis or test set analysis.

You can use this yourself or gift it to one of your clients as a reward or incentive. In addition we are offering a $50 tuition reduction for those that sign up for the December Clinics. And the first four participants who sign up will receive 1 personal video analysis, a $100 value!

Complete details are at trueblueswimmer.com

Proposed Clinic Dates

December 2^nd & 3^rd Essential Fundamentals

December 9^th & 10^th Efficient Stroke Mechanics

January 5^th & 6^th Effective Training Strategies

January 13^th & 14^th Essential Fundamentals

January 20^th & 21^st Efficient Stroke Mechanics

January 27^th & 28^st Effective Training Strategies

$224 – Facility Members, $249 – Program Members.

Discounts will be available for participants that attend additional clinics.

Maximum 6 participants per clinic.

Sign-up and pay by December 1 and receive free personal session.

Volunteers Needed - Oil Man Half Iron

Volunteer Call: We're in need of 30 volunteers to help with the run course of Oil Man Half Iron on Nov. 6th!!!! There are two shifts: 9:00a to 12:30p and 12:00p to 3:30p. Please e-mail me if you'd like to help: jendanyell@yahoo.com.

http://www.out-loud.org/ironstar_triathlon.htm

Thank you!

Jennifer Zambarno

Snapping Tortuga Open Water Swim - November 13, 2011

5k & 2.5k November 13, 2011

Location: The Boat Ramps Located at 14099 FM 830 Willis, TX 77318

Time: 5k Open Water Swim- 7:30am

2.5k Open Water Swim- 7:45am

Awards: Will be given for Top 3 Overall for Each Division

Course Descriptions: The 5k Course will start on the beach to the right of the Boat Ramps and it will be 2 Loops. The 2.5k will start at the same location and will be a 1 Loop Course.

SWAG- T-shirts and Fit Kit will be given to every Senior Division Participant.

Junior Divisions will receive a Fit Kit and have the option to purchase a T-shirt for $15.

Click Here to Register Now! Take Advantage of the Early Registration Price.

2011 Fire Response

All-

Montgomery County United Way is responding to the recent fires in our county and needs our help.

To donate dollars, call 281-292-4155, ext. 235 or toll free 1-888-825-MCUW, ext. 235. Or mail a check made payable to: MCUW, P.O. Box 8965 The Woodlands, 77387. Include 2011 Fire in the memo line.

To donate goods such as clothing, furniture or other household goods, visit www.HelpOurCounty.org. Click on Donate Goods or Volunteer. To donate goods, click on "Gift Match" and follow the instructions to register. To volunteer, enter "Fire 2011 Volunteers" in the keyword search and then follow instructions to register. You will be contacted as soon as opportunities become available.

5 Racing Weight Tips From Chris McCormack

Updated: Jul 5th 2011 4:41 PM UTC by Matt Fitzgerald
Sixteen men have won the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. None of them has weighed more than Chris “Macca” McCormack did when he won his first title in 2007 at 177 pounds. Macca is living proof that you don’t have to be a natural-born whippet to excel in long-distance triathlons.

But he’s also living proof that a careful and committed approach to weight management is needed to excel in longer races, especially if you are naturally bigger. McCormack’s normal weight—the weight he returns to when he’s not actively seeking his racing weight—is 185 pounds. When he claimed his second Ironman World Championship victory last October, he was just 175 pounds.
Nobody has more experience-based knowledge of how to manage weight for maximum triathlon performance than Macca. Here are his top five tips.

Experiment
McCormack failed to even finish his first attempt at the Hawaii Ironman in 2002, discovering the hard way that his size made it very difficult to handle the oppressive heat. He lost four more times before finally winning in 2007. “It took me some time to find my perfect Kona race weight,” he says.

McCormack learned that losing too much weight weakened him, causing his performance to suffer despite his greater leanness. Realizing he could only get so far by dropping pounds, McCormack began to look at changing how he raced Ironman to make the most of his strength advantage and to minimize the effects of his weight disadvantage.

“I just had to find a way to get as light as I possibly could without losing my strength and then build a racing plan that suited the conditions and my issues in them,” he says.

In the end McCormack learned that a racing weight of 175–177 pounds gave him the ideal balance of leanness and strength, and that being aggressive on the bike and more cautious on the run was the best Kona racing strategy for a big fella.

Let form follow function
Getting lighter is not an end in itself. Getting faster is the goal. There are different ways to get leaner, and not all of them will make you faster. McCormack saw that the best way to get faster through weight loss was to go fast in training.

“I added a lot more speed to my Kona training block last year,” he says. “This really thinned out my core and gave me a tighter build over the hips.”

Dial in your race nutrition
“It’s no secret that the bigger you are, the more difficult dealing with heat and water loss is,” McCormack says. So if you’re a larger athlete, make an extra effort to develop the best race fueling and heat management strategy for you.

McCormack’s formula for success, which took years to develop, includes racing primarily on liquids and gels instead of solid foods, using salt tablets, drinking cola during the marathon, and not forcing in nutrition when his stomach seems unable to tolerate it.

Don’t go overboard
As Macca found out, it’s possible to become too light, losing not only extra pounds but also essential pounds that you need to perform your best. It is also possible to reach the “right” weight the wrong way by under-fueling your body.

“My first few years in Kona I was petrified of the heat and was racing at 171 pounds,” McCormack says. “I would starve myself to get my weight down to the realms I thought were necessary for a bigger guy to deal with the heat.”

Keep your weight-loss goals practical.

Have fun with it
“I really enjoy the game of managing weight and speed and monitoring my body’s feel at different weights,” McCormack says.

No matter your size, improving over the long term in triathlon is like solving a puzzle. You need to figure out what’s holding you back and experiment with various possible solutions. If you embrace this challenge, it can be half the fun!

Learn From A Pro: 10 Cycling Tips From An Olympic Hopeful

• 1. Time In The Saddle
• 2. Join A Group Ride
• 3. Follow The Roadie Rules
• 4. Ride With Faster People
• 5. Keep Up Your Run Speedwork
• 6. Do Strength Work
• 7. Ride Eeasy During The Winter
• 8. Do Brick Workouts
• 9. Practice Descending And Cornering
• 10. Don't Be Afraid To Back Off

Jillian Petersen is one of the strongest cyclists on the ITU and non-draft short course circuits, often turning in the fastest or nearly the fastest bike split in races such as the Miami International Triathlon, St. Anthony’s Triathlon and the Chicago Triathlon. (In fact, she’s been known to out-bike Sarah Haskins, one of the strongest cyclists in the sport.) But Petersen didn’t start her triathlon career as a great cyclist. A runner and swimmer in high school, Petersen ran cross-country and track at the University of Missouri and only started biking in late 2005.

Rule No. 1: The best way to get fast on the bike is spend time in the saddle.
There are no real shortcuts to becoming a better cyclist—you simply have to get your bum on the saddle. “The longer I spent on the bike, the faster I got,” Petersen said. But don’t think that your cycling strength is going to materialize overnight. “It took me, I want to say, at least two full years to really get a good handle on the strength side of cycling,” Petersen said.

Rule No. 2: Join a group ride
When Petersen first started out in the sport, she did at least one group ride a week, which not only helped her improve her fitness but also helped her improve her bike handling skills. In fact, group rides are one of the only ways that you can improve your bike handling skills, something that can save you upwards of 90 seconds on a technical 40K course, Petersen estimates. “Just getting the experience and being around people and having those quick movements gets you more comfortable,” Petersen said. Group rides also help you get used to riding at speeds that you could never reach by yourself without the help of a draft.

Rule No. 3: When you do join a group ride, follow the rules of the roadies.
Cyclists are known to have a less-than-friendly attitude toward triathletes, which means if you want to seamlessly join a group of roadies, you have to follow their rules. This especially means that you should never show up to a group ride with your tri bike, which is more difficult to handle than a road bike and can be dangerous in large groups.
Once you get the hang of the unspoken rules of the roadies, remember to have fun (most cyclists are actually nice) and ignore the more surly ones. “Every now and then I’d have a breakthrough day and make the front group for an extremely hard finish of the ride and then get yelled at,” Petersen said. “ [They’d say,] ‘This wasn’t hard—that’s why she stayed with us.’ But take it with a grain of salt and brush those guys off.”

Rule No. 4: Ride with people who are faster than you.
Petersen quickly improved her cycling by riding several times a week with a few guys who were speedier than she was. “They would go on these very difficult, hilly, technical rides,” Petersen said, and she would have to ride her best just to stay up with them. These rides would last anywhere from about two to three hours.

Rule No. 5: Keep the speedwork up on your run while you focus on the bike.
Spending more time on the bike inevitably means you’ll have to back off on your run, which can ultimately hurt your run split. Petersen says that focusing your limited running time on speedwork will help you keep your running legs underneath you while you work to improve your cycling. “Speedwork would help, because you’re getting so much endurance from the bike,” Petersen said.

Rule No. 6: Do strength work on your hamstrings
Cyclists can develop big quads and this can create an imbalance with your hamstrings, so Petersen recommends that you focus on doing strength work on your hamstrings to limit this asymmetry. She does many of her hamstring exercises with a physio ball—a large rubber inflatable ball often seen in physical therapy offices.

Rule No. 7: Ride easy in the winter months
During the winter months, don’t go crazy with your riding. “Just go out and ride, and you’re going to be fine,” Petersen said.

Rule No. 8: Don’t be afraid to get in some brick workouts
Petersen will sometimes bring her trainer to the pool deck and do a hard 500M followed by 3 minutes hard on her bike. (She’ll do this three or four times in a row.) Or, she’ll do a bike-to-run workout where she’ll ride eight-to-10 minutes hard and then run a hard 1K off the bike, repeating this three to four times.

Rule No. 9: Practice your descending and cornering skills
“I’ll go on some difficult descents and practice cornering and leaning,” Petersen said. She does this on her own, away from a group.

Rule No. 10: Don’t be afraid to back off once your cycling is where you want it to be.
“I definitely do less riding than I used to,” Petersen said. “I think it’s because I got a couple of good years of a lot more riding.” Currently, she rides about five times a week, with two of the days being hard (one being a tempo workout and one being a VO2-max workout, generally on hills) and one of these days being long (usually about three hours.) The other two days are just easy 1.5-hour rides.

Sprint Triathlons: The Possible Dream

Michael Levin
Vibrant Life

As I look at the front tire on my racing bike, I discover that my twin 3-year-old sons have removed the bolt and spring that holds the wheel in place. In other words, I've trained for months, packed all my gear into my car, gotten up at 4:45 a.m. so that I could be here by 5:45, and it looks like I'm not going anywhere.
But the real question is: What's a slow, slightly overweight 46-year-old doing entering the Carlsbad (California) Triathlon?

When most people think of triathlons—events that combine swimming, bicycling, and running—they imagine Ironman contests of strength and endurance that originated in Hawaii and now take place all over the world. In an Ironman triathlon you swim 2.4 miles, bicycle 112 miles and then run a full 26.2-mile marathon.
Yet many may not be aware that shorter-distance triathlons take place throughout the year in many parts of the world. The shortest triathlons are called "sprint-distance triathlons" and cover about a quarter of the ground of their much larger cousins. Typically, such events involve an ocean, lake, or river swim of a half mile; a bicycle ride of 15 to 20 miles; followed by a run of three to four miles.
A triathlon actually consists of five events—the swim, T1 (transition from swimwear to bike gear), the bicycle component of the race, T2 (transition from hiking to running), and the run. Books, websites, and magazines are devoted to showing the novice triathlete how to prepare for each of the three athletic portions of the race and for the transitions as well.

The Possible Dream
When I started triathlons, I had just turned 44. My wife and I had gotten married three years earlier and had subsequently produced a honeymoon baby girl and twin boys. As I do now, I owned my own business, a ghostwriting and coaching service. This meant that my time was my own so I could schedule my race training around my family and work responsibilities.

I mention family and work because I want to make a point. It's possible—no matter how busy your life—to train for and compete in triathlons. This is true even if you're starting at a relatively advanced age as I did. You don't have to be Olympics-bound either.

I've got more body fat on me than any 20 other triathletes. I'm also speed-challenged and tend to finish way in the back of the pack. But that's not the point. The simple fact is that I found it possible to train for, enter, and complete triathlons—and a couple marathons along the way—despite the fact that at first glance (and second and third), I don't have the time or body for that type of racing.

Triathlon Training
If you can find an hour a day for exercise, you've got all the time you need to prepare for a triathlon. The simplest schedule, recommended by many triathlon experts, is to alternate your training: Run, bike, swim, run, bike, swim, then rest on the seventh day.

They say that the hardest thing for a triathlete to do is take a day off because with three sports to master, you feel like you should always be out there doing something. But giving your body some downtime is absolutely essential.
Much of competing in a triathlon has to do with conservation of strength. When swimming, you need to know the most efficient ways to pull yourself through the water with your arms so you can save your legs for the hiking and running. On your bike, you need to know how to pull up with your legs instead of pumping down so you can save your running muscles for the run. It's quite exciting to get coached and learn the latest techniques in each of the three sports.

Another important triathlon technique is called "bricking," which means combining one or more activities in a single workout. You hit the pool, get in your laps, then jump on your bike. Or you start off your exercise session hiking, then transition to running; either outdoors—if weather permits—or on the treadmill. Bricking gives your body a chance to get used to the physical transitions you'll make on race day.
The transitions themselves require preparation. First, you've got to have gear—goggles and wet suit (depending on your climate) for the swim; bicycle, bike shoes, helmet and sunglasses for the bike portion of the race; running shoes for the run.

Race Day
The weeks quickly tick by, and the big day approaches. So here I am in Carlsbad, primed for a new triathlon challenge. That's when I notice the missing part of my bicycle. Am I finished before I begin?

The answer is no. A mobile bike repair business, "Wheels on Wheels," has set up shop at the race site. Its owner, Dan, sees my plight, takes pity on me, and loans me the part I'm missing. He doesn't ask for a deposit or my driver's license or anything. He just hands me the part and tells me it would be great if I returned it when I'm done since it costs $30.

My Day is Saved
Dan's thoughtfulness typifies the triathlon community. It's a bunch of people who love the thrill of the race, the challenge of the multi-sport experience, and the camaraderie of likeminded, fit individuals.

It's inspiring for me to be a part of the whole thing. I'm thrilled by the sight of the incredibly fast 20-year-olds who are sprinting into the end of the run course even as I'm getting out of the water. I'm also excited to see individuals in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s lining up for the three-part event.

On Course
The horn sounds. You run down the beach to the ocean, dive into the waves, heart pounding. You round the first buoy, then the second, the third, fourth, and fifth. Suddenly you're headed for the shore. You run up the beach, strip out of your wet suit at the transition area, climb into your hiking gear, and hit the trail. Fifteen miles later, you head back to the transition area, dismount, take a swig of water or sports drink, slip into your running shoes, and start the run. Three miles later you see the sweetest word in the triathlete's vocabulary: FINISH.

Is it too much of a stretch, too corny, to say that life is a triathlon? After all, both are about body, mind and spirit. Neglect one and the others suffer. In life, as in triathlons, the race isn't always to the swiftest. It's to those who pray for balance, who show up prepared, who want to enjoy themselves, and who accept the grace that awaits us if we seek it, typified by Dan the bicycle man's open-handed kindness.

The race is on, whether we know it or not. Success is showing up and making a committed run as we move through life's events and transitions. At the end of the race comes the reward: a voice saying, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."