That sums up the 2007 race season for me.  Others might call it a slow start.  My wife calls it 'getting old'.  I call it being stubborn.

2007 was a return to being a Pro Triathlete for me.  In 2006 I had won an Ironman as an amateur; I had been the fastest  US amateur in Kona as well as the 4th American overall.  It was time to race with my 'peers' and given the year I had in 2006 I felt prepared to do this.  I didn't want to be that guy that gets passed by a handful of age groupers while racing Pro, although I know that day is coming!  

2007 I also committed to making it easier for my wife and daughter to enjoy races by racing closer to family and friends.  This made  Ironman Louisville ,  Kentucky the obvious choice.  It is in late August, giving me time to not only prepare very well but to also focus the off season on continuing to build my coaching business.  With a fantastic training camp for 25 of my athletes in  Tucson ,  AZ in February the season kicked off for me with a focus on Hawaii 70.3 in Kona, and the new 101 Series in  Clear Lake ,  CA .  Both being the tune-up events on the race calendar towards  Louisville . 

Things were progressing nicely until a calf injury sidelined my running for a month in May.  My first real injury in the sport due to any wear on the body.  Twisted ankles or broken bones due to crashes are different; an injury due to training was new to me.  After multiple 'restarts' the calf finally improved enough to jog (!) the run in  Hawaii . 

Courtesy Atlanta Journal Constitution

Published on: 05/11/08

What was to be a routine competition and a fun family getaway for a Roswell triathlete and his family ended in tragedy Saturday morning in Florida. Patrick Kane, 38, stopped and flipped onto his back during the swimming leg of the Gulf Coast Triathlon, was pulled from the water and died en route to a hospital. Kane was swimming in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1.2-mile first leg of the swimming, running and bicycling race.

Family members, many of whom were in Panama City Beach for the competition, were stunned. "He was a big, strapping guy, and an avid triathlete," said Kane's mother-in-law, Nancy Gaines of Novato, Calif. Contacted by phone Saturday night, Gaines said her son-in-law had no known health issues. A sales manager with Hilti Co., a construction equipment company, Kane finished the Gulf Coast race last year with a time of 6 hours, 5 minutes, 35 seconds.

His wife, Kristin, and their 5- and 7-year-old sons were at this year's race, along with his parents, his brother and his brother's family, Gaines said. "They were all there on vacation," she said. "It was supposed to be a good time." Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Lt. Stan Kirkland said officials from his agency were called to the scene at about 8 a.m. Saturday to help in the rescue effort. At the time, the weather in Panama City was misty, with a temperature of 76 degrees and westerly winds of 9 mph Kane's death cast a pall over the event. Race director Shelley Bramblett called it a "tragic incident." Gaines said Kristin Kane called to tell her what happened as Patrick Kane was being taken to the hospital. "Pat didn't survive the ambulance trip," Gaines said.

May 12, 2008 

This week's workout focuses on speed and pacing.  With some of you starting to get ready for early season races, this one's for you.
 
BEGINNER
100 warm up, 100 kick, 100 pull
4 x 100 fast, time the first one and keep all 4 the same time; take 10 seconds rest between each
100 easy swim
2 x 50 as fast as you can; take 10 seconds between them.
100 cool down
Total:  1000 yards
 
INTERMEDIATE
200 warm up, 150 kick, 150 pull
4 x 200 fast, time the first one and keep all 4 the same time; take 15 seconds rest between each
100 easy swim
8 x 50 as fast as you can; take 10 seconds between each.
200 cool down
Total:  2000 yards

Liane is a marketing manager and mother of two. Audrey is just out of law school and working long hours in a law firm. Evan is a freelance graphic designer hustling to grow his business.

What do they have in common?

Their lives are busy, their careers are going strong, they have a full load of friends and family, and they want and need to get physically fit. The catch is, they don’t have any time to waste when it comes to training or sports nutrition. They want to do what works and will make a difference, and not waste time on gimmicks or strategies that don’t apply to them.

Can you relate? If so, this article reveals the critical basics of sports nutrition for beginner endurance athletes and provides proven sports nutrition strategies to maximize the benefits of endurance training.1,2

Sports Nutrition Basics: Fueling, Hydrating and Recovery

Sports nutrition is the science of fueling and hydrating before and during exercise, and promoting recovery after exercise. Done right, sports nutrition can help you perform better while you train, and recover faster afterwards so that you’re ready for your next workout.1,2

Fueling
Sports nutrition isn’t rocket science, but it does have a few scientific terms that, as an aspiring endurance athlete, you’ll want to add to your vocabulary. Glycogen is one such term. Glycogen is muscle fuel. It’s stored in your muscles and liver as bundles of glucose bound together. When you pick up the pace during endurance exercise, whether it’s running, biking, or swimming, it is glycogen broken down into glucose that fuels that extra intensity. The problem is that your glycogen gas tank doesn’t have much capacity. You probably have less than a couple of hours of exercise worth stored at any given time.

So, the first critical sports nutrition strategy is to make sure that you start each workout with adequate glycogen stores for the task, take in carbs during long workouts, and replenish glycogen stores after training so that you’re ready for your next workout.2

Hydrating
Hydration is the second critical sports nutrition strategy. Your body is about 65% water and it doesn’t take kindly to shortages or excess intakes of fluid. Exercise causes sweating, which results in the loss of fluids and electrolytes, the key electrolyte being sodium. Dehydration is the term for losing too much fluid. Overhydration is the term to describe when you consume too much fluid. You want to avoid both during exercise because at a minimum each can impair your ability to perform at your best, and in severe cases they can be life threatening.1

Your job is to make sure that you start each workout fully hydrated, stay well-hydrated during exercise, and rehydrate properly after exercise so that you’re ready for your next workout.1

Recovery
Your training provides the impetus for your body to get fitter, stronger, and faster. But that’s only half the battle. After a workout, what enables you to adapt to your training and become more fit is the process of recovery. If you ignore recovery you won’t effectively progress in your training. Instead you’ll plateau, suffer persistent fatigue, and grow frustrated. Thus, recovery qualifies as the third critical sports nutrition strategy.3

To promote optimal recovery your job after exercising will be to provide carbs to refuel muscle and liver glycogen, some fat to restore lipid fuel stores within muscle tissue, protein so that muscle tissue repair and building takes place, and fluids and sodium to properly rehydrate.1,2

That, in a nutshell, is the science of sports nutrition. With the nuts and bolts of the science now in place, let’s get practical.

Anyone following triathlon in recent years has do doubt witnessed the rapid proliferation of “swim skins” or “skin suits” (the swimsuits that tend to resemble rubberized long johns and are fast becoming near-de rigeur for non-wetsuit races).  Chris McCormack himself is frequently cited for his quote that “If you do not swim in a swim skin, you will be at a definite disadvantage to those who are.”

Among the brands leading the charge of swim skins is blueseventy, whose pointzero3 suit made its Ironman debut at the 2006 World Championships in Kona. Following that race, which featured Norman Stadler crediting his PR swim time in part to his blueseventy swim skin, the pointzero3 exploded in popularity.  Among the 50% of competitors at the 2007 Ironman World Championships who chose to use swim skins, fully 75% were wearing the pointzero3 suit.

Is the pointzero3 for real? Is it worth adding to the triathlete’s arsenal? Should you invest in buying one?  To answer these questions, we decided to take the suit out for an extended spin, trying it out over several swims over the course of several weeks to get the full measure of the pointzero3 experience and a chance to better evaluate its value.

From a purely competitive perspective, the effectiveness of the suit in improving swim times is beyond question—there’s a reason why swim skins have become more prevalent in elite swimming events. The rise of the swim skin, in fact, initially engendered some controversy over their legality. The frequent perception is that swim skins give a competitive advantage by providing additional buoyancy, which is a definite issue for professional rules. 

The Hill Simulator. 

One of the best parts of our job, is that we  have the good fortune of being able to test and play with some of the coolest products on the market.  You would think having to pick one product as the stand out would be a difficult task, but this year, though there were some amazing innovation available, the best (as far as we’re concerned) is a little known product called The Hill Simulator.

The Hill Simulator does just that, simulates hill’s while you are on your Computrainer or your regular trtainer.  Though it may sound simple, it adds a level of realism to your trainer workout that will leave your legs aching and a lake of sweat on the floor below.  

The shiny little box about the size of a case of beer doesn’t look like much at first glance, but once you mount your front wheel onto the hill simulator and begin to pedal, you know that your trainer workout has changed forever, as the front wheel literally rises and lowers based on the grade changes that are happening on the Computrainer course.

In a traditional trainer workout, you can simulate the resistance of an 8 degree climb or a quick decline, by adding or releasing pressure on your back tire, the Hill Simulator takes that to the next level with it’s quiet, but strong lifting power (300 pound load) and raises your front wheel up to 10 degrees or as low as 8 on a decent.

Intervals are unquestionably an effective way to improve performance. While intervals are most commonly performed to improve the anaerobic system, they can also be effectively implemented to develop a strong aerobic base.

When running a 10k, for example, very few athletes can maintain a pace above their lactate threshold for the 40+ minutes it takes the average age grouper to complete, particularly coming off of the bike in a triathlon. That is why training for sub-lactate, high-aerobic intensities can help your overall speed in a 10k.

While most interval training limits the number of intervals to under 10, (and usually only up to 5 intervals for run training) interval training with a higher number of repeats but a lower interval duration works well on building highly aerobic abilities.

For this interval workout, perform twenty 400-meter repeats with only 10-15 seconds rest in between repeats. The time it takes each 400-meter interval to complete depends on your 10k goals. Use the chart below to determine the pace of your 400-meter repeats.

46:00        2:00
43:00        1:52
40:00        1:45
37:00        1:37
34:00        1:30

For example, if your goal is to run a 40:00 10k, perform 20 400-meter repeats in 1:45 with only 15 seconds rest between each repeat. With that workout, you would spend a full 35 minutes at a 7-minute pace, broken up over 20 intervals. Although that pace is slower than the actual pace required to run a 40:00 10k, it allows the athlete to train at moderately high intensities without the risk of overtraining. Plus, with an appropriate taper the athlete should expect to shave off significant time during a race-effort 10k.

It is important that the first interval and the twentieth interval be done at the same pace. The first time this workout is done, the tendency is to fade during the last 5-10 intervals. It is best to perform this first workout by choosing a pace that matches your current best 10k, and reducing the time it takes to complete each interval by about 1 second each subsequent week the workout is done until goal pace is met.

This is an excellent workout to perform if using a device, such as a Garmin 305 or 405, which will allow you to program a workout that matches this workout structure.