I guess you know a bike company is doing something right when they’re all sold out of the bike you want by April. The snow has just melted, and the Scott tri-bike I had my eyes on (a 56″ Plasma 20) is all sold out. Not just at PowerTri, through whom I was going to get it, but at Scott. The Plasma 10’s in 56″ are all gone too. Guess I should have moved a little faster.

PowerTri, an online triathlon retailer (with a physical store in Utah) is just about to launch their new blog at PowerTri-Blog.com. A little bit of content is up there, but they’ll be adding about 50 new posts today or tomorrow, and many more in the days to come. Check it out.

You would think it would be a piece of cake to connect this Wordpress blog to Facebook so that posts from it would show up on my personal profile, but it’s not. My latest attempt is to use the Simple Facebook Connect plugin for Wordpress, which requires setting up a Facebook Application. Here’s an idea Facebook, how about a field in a person’s profile that says “Blog URL” and you put a url in there and Facebook automatically grabs posts?

Anyway, this post is something of a test to see if it works the way I’ve set it up.

Since August of 2009 I’ve been under the tutelage of a world-famous triathlon coach. But I have a limited budget for all my triathlon needs, and I need a tri-bike, so earlier this month I started thinking about talking to my coach about bumping down to one of his lower-priced plans. Coincidentally, my coach had become more occupied with his full-time job, plus he’s co-owner of PowerTri.com, and so of necessity he told me he had to let go of 5 of his coaching clients. Given that I was already looking to cut down on his services, I was one of the logical people for him to cut entirely.

I think this is going to turn out to be a good thing. I’m a bit overwhelmed not having someone to tell me exactly what to do each day, but this has spurred me to really start digging into the Triathlete’s Training Bible and I’ve been learning a lot that I wasn’t learning before because I didn’t have to. As much as I enjoyed having a coach, and as much as I think I would race better this year with him as opposed to without him, I think it’s in my long-term best interest to be on my own at this point.

When I first starting triathlon, I didn’t know anything. Having a coach would have been great, but completely unfeasible financially. I didn’t even read books like the TTB because they seemed so overwhelming. There were so many words I didn’t understand that I didn’t know where to begin. What’s a cockpit? What’s an interval? What’s a split, taper, base, period, fartlek, or brick? What do the terms fast twitch, slow twitch, and glycogen mean? Every time I read an article or part of a book on triathlon I was completely confused because I didn’t know what half the words meant within the context of triathlon.

Over time I picked up things, but it was slow going. My training regimen consisted of doing a little more each week than what I did the week before. It got me to a half-Ironman, but it took me 7 hours and 13 minutes to finish it. When I was able to get a coach, I was ecstatic. And it made a huge difference. Not only did I have someone who could answer all my questions, but he was telling me exactly what to do each day. I started losing weight and improving my times dramatically.

During the past 6-7 months, I’ve learned a lot from my coach–enough that now reading the TTB isn’t so overwhelming. It’s overwhelming to try and figure out a 7-week half-Ironman training plan on my own, based on what I’ve been doing for the past 6-7 months, but if I were starting a brand new year it would be fairly straightforward. In other words, having a coach for half a year has provided the bridge I needed to get from being completely clueless to the point where I can learn on my own. If I’m not an expert on triathlon right now, I’m at least heading in that direction under my own power. And since it’s now up to me and nobody else, I think I’ll start progressing much faster in my knowledge, and while that might not give me as fast of times in my events this year as I might achieve otherwise, 2-3 years down the road I think I’ll be much better off for it.

I wonder how many hits this page is going to get from people looking to go from nothing to a half-Ironman in seven weeks. Let me end the suspense early on–you’re not going to find a training plan on this page, which is unfortunate for you if you’re really looking for a 7-week half-Ironman training plan, because I know you’re not going to find one anywhere else either. Trust me, I already looked. But if you do find one, let me know. Ok, I relent, I posted my rough-draft plan below, although I’m not sure how much good it will do anyone, since I came up with it myself and I don’t really know what I’m doing.

You see, I just finished my first marathon a week ago. I’ve been biking, swimming, and lifting weights under adult supervision since August of last year without any break for the winter, and I’m not taking a break until I do my full Ironman in November (Panama City, Florida). In planning out the year, my coach and I figured that based on event availability and my desire to complete a marathon prior to the Ironman that I should do the Salt Lake marathon in April, the Boise half-Ironman in June, and then the full Ironman in November. The only tight part was that it only gave me 8 weeks in between the marathon and the half-Ironman, including a week of recovery after the marathon.

Well, the marathon and the recovery week are over, so now I’ve got seven weeks left to train specifically for the half-Ironman. Obviously if the half-Ironman were my one race of the year, I probably wouldn’t have put the emphasis on running that I have for the past five months in order to gear up for the marathon, so maybe I’d be in better all-around shape for the half, but then again, maybe not, since running was always my worst thing and having trained for the marathon I’m feeling pretty good about my running these days.

So here’s my plan, again, in rough draft form, without much detail.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
26/4	27/4 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	28/4 Bike: 0:15:00 Run: 0:30:00 Bike: 0:30:00	29/4 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	30/4 Bike: 1:00:00 Run: 0:45:00	1/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00
Planned: Swim: 1:30:00, Strength: 3:00:00, Bike: 1:45:00, Run: 1:15:00, Total: 7:30:00
3/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	4/5 Bike: 1:00:00 Run: 1:00:00	5/5 Swim: 0:45:00 Strength: 1:00:00	6/5 Bike: 1:30:00 Run: 1:00:00	7/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	8/5 Bike: 2:00:00 Run: 1:30:00
Planned: Swim: 1:45:00, Strength: 3:00:00, Bike: 4:30:00, Run: 3:30:00, Total: 12:45:00
10/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	11/5 Bike: 2:00:00 Run: 1:00:00	12/5 Swim: 0:45:00 Strength: 1:00:00	13/5 Bike: 1:30:00 Run: 1:00:00	14/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	15/5 Bike: 2:30:00 Run: 1:00:00
Planned: Swim: 1:45:00, Strength: 3:00:00, Bike: 6:00:00, Run: 3:00:00, Total: 13:45:00
17/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	18/5 Bike: 2:00:00 Run: 1:00:00	19/5 Swim: 0:45:00 Strength: 1:00:00	20/5 Run: 1:30:00 Bike: 1:30:00	21/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	22/5 Bike: 3:00:00 Run: 1:00:00
Planned: Swim: 1:45:00, Strength: 3:00:00, Bike: 6:30:00, Run: 3:30:00, Total: 14:45:00
24/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	25/5 Bike: 2:00:00 Run: 1:00:00	26/5 Swim: 0:45:00 Strength: 1:00:00	27/5 Run: 1:30:00 Bike: 1:30:00	28/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	29/5 Bike: 3:00:00 Run: 1:00:00
Planned: Swim: 1:45:00, Strength: 3:00:00, Bike: 6:30:00, Run: 3:30:00, Total: 14:45:00
31/5 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	1/6 Bike: 2:00:00 Run: 1:00:00	2/6 Swim: 0:45:00 Strength: 1:00:00	3/6 Bike: 1:30:00 Run: 1:00:00	4/6 Swim: 0:30:00 Strength: 1:00:00	5/6 Bike: 2:30:00 Run: 1:30:00
Planned: Swim: 1:45:00, Strength: 3:00:00, Bike: 6:00:00, Run: 3:30:00, Total: 14:15:00
7/6 Bike: 2:00:00 Run: 1:00:00	8/6 Swim: 0:30:00	9/6 Bike: 1:00:00 Run: 0:30:00	10/6 Swim: 0:30:00 Distance (P): 1640 yards	11/6 Bike: 0:30:00 Workout Description: Get warmed up, throw in a few accelerations to goal race pace or slightly faster Run: 0:15:00 Workout Description: Warm-up, then some accelerations to slightly faster than race pace	12/6 Race: 6:00:00 Workout Description: Boise half-Ironman
Planned: Bike: 3:30:00, Run: 1:45:00, Swim: 1:00:00, Race: 6:00:00, Total: 12:15:00

I have three events this year; 1) my first marathon, 2) my second half-Ironman (Oceanside being the first), and 3) my first full Ironman (Panama City, Florida). My first marathon took place just over a week ago, so that’s checked off. I now have just under seven weeks to prepare for the Boise half-Ironman.

First off, I have no doubt I’ll do better this time around. I had zero coaching for my first half-Ironman (other than general advice from friends), and I wasn’t doing much self-coaching either. I just went out and swam, biked, and ran a little farther each week. In retrospect, it’s something of a miracle I finished my first half, even if it did take me seven hours and thirteen minutes (includes a trip to the medical tent to take care of a sliced-open big toe that evidently happened during the swim–who ends up with a foot injury in the swim?!).

This time I’ve been religiously studying the Triathlete’s Training Bible (I guess since the word “bible” is used I should clarify that I don’t actually take the TTB to my church meetings), have had a coach (although he’s having to discontinue his coaching services to me due to his crazy busy schedule…but that’s a topic for another post), I weigh at least 10 lbs less, maybe 15 lbs less (can’t remember off the top of my head how much I weighed for my first one), I’ve already got a half under my belt, not to mention a marathon, I’ll be using a Garmin vs. just biking/running blind, etc. Oh, and I don’t plan on cutting my toe open on the swim. In just about every way I’ve got a huge advantage over my first half. Actually, in every way. I can’t think of a single advantage I had doing my first half-Ironman over this second one.

The med-tent visit alone took over 10 minutes, so that takes us down to 7 hours even, let’s say. I was running 12-13 minute miles, vs. 9 minute miles now, so let’s say 3:30 minutes shaved off per mile on the run x 13 miles = 45:30. We’re already down to about 6:15. Oh, on my first half-Ironman swim my goggles came off and I got sunscreen in my eyes. You better believe that added some time to my swim, so let’s take off five minutes there–6:10. And this time on the bike I’ll be in the aero position (I rode a road bike without aero bars last time). That should shave off at least five minutes, I would think.

The above time-savings don’t reflect anything about the course. Add to the list of positives that Boise has just over 400 ft of elevation difference on the bike ride (albeit a bit more consistently hilly, whereas Oceanside has one very large hill and then some smaller ones) vs. almost 800 ft. for Oceanside. The runs are both relatively flat, as near as I can tell. But I think the easier bike course should get me to within striking distance of doing a sub-6 hour half-Ironman, which I’d feel pretty darn good about at this point in my triathlon career.

There is some risk, however. Last year it rained. That would probably slow me down a little. But if nothing else, I’m pretty sure I won’t be as bad off as this guy when I finish. That guy’s experience makes my cut toe at Oceanside look like a pinprick.

Well, tomorrow is the first day of training, and here I am typing this up at 12:39 am. I’m not off to the best start when it comes to getting adequate rest.

I wish I didn’t like these shoes so much, because I think they’re ugly as sin.

Since August of last year, I have been training and racing in Zoot’s Ultra Race 2.0 running shoes. I have done sprint and olympic distance triathlons in my first pair, and I just completed my first-ever marathon wearing my second pair. I had run in Nike, Saucony, Asics, and Newtons before, and these are totally different. All those other shoes feel like heavily padded moon boots compared to these puppies. These are super light, and super thin. There is no extra material on these. And coming from those other thick shoes, it didn’t feel right at first. I felt like I was wearing a reinforced sock more than a shoe. The sole is very, very thin and there isn’t much padding. The upper is a thin layer of…whatever that stuff is, leathery stuff. You don’t feel like you’re getting much for your money when you pick them up or put them on, and especially not when you look at them, but I can’t speak more highly of how they performed. I’m a 200 lbs guy, so trust me, I was nervous to run in something without a lot of padding on the sole, but I never had any problems I would blame on the shoe (some other problems, but I don’t believe they had anything to do with my shoes).

The real moment of conversion for me came when I tried running in an old pair of my shoes. Since running in the Zoots I had started running on my toes and avoiding heelstriking. When I went back and tried running in a pair of Sauconys, it was hard to not heelstrike because the heel was so big. That’s when I realized I could never go back to a standard shoe that isn’t designed to keep you from heelstriking, and the Zoot shoe is great for making it easy to run on your toes.

Pros

• Super light
• Quick to get on (if you’ve used Yankz, these have the same type of thing built in–you slip the shoe on, pull a string, and your laces tighten instantly without any tying anything).
• Comfortable
• Airy
• Great sockless shoe
• Results–Hey, I trained for and ran my first marathon as a 200 lbs guy in these dogs. What better testimonial could you ask for?

Cons

• Ankle wear – I never had any problem with blisters or wear in these prior to my marathon, but on the marathon the part of the heel you grab to pull the shoe on wore slightly on my Achilles area and wore it raw during the marathon. It would have been easily preventable had I ever had this issue come up on my long training runs, but it never did. Evidently it took a marathon for me to find this out.
• Ugly – Seriously, ugliest shoe ever.
• While they’re airy due to ventilation holes in the sole, that means they’re not the greatest shoe for winter training in snow, slush, or other wetness.

Would I buy a third pair? Yeah, this is definitely the best shoe I’ve run in to date (although I’d like to spend some more time in Newtons), so I’m hesitant to mess with a good thing.

Results for Ironman South Africa 2010 have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Results for Ironman South Africa 2010

Results for Ironman 70.3 New Orleans 2010 have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Results for Ironman 70.3 New Orleans 2010

On Saturday the 17th of April, 2010, I completed my first marathon. The full story is below, but let’s start out by quickly reviewing how I got here.

Before the Beginning

The first time I remember having any sort of desire to run a marathon was circa 2005-2006. I remember talking with Bruce Miller, my contact at Bank of American Fork (a former client of my web development firm), and he was talking about marathons and I remarked that I’d like to do that someday. I also remember talking about it with Shaun Christian, now at Telos, but whom I know from the Slate Canyon Youth Detention Facility (he worked there and I volunteered there–neither of us was detained there). Shaun is a ultra-distance runner, Ironman, etc., and I remember telling him the same thing, that I was interested in getting into running someday, and I remember asking him for some advice on shoes. But at the time I had these brief discussions with Bruce and Shaun, I’m not sure there was any real intent backing up my statements. At the time I weighed around 230 lbs, had never run over a mile in my life, had difficulty walking up a flight of 12 stairs without wheezing, enjoyed spending time with my best friends Ben & Jerry, and despite having been disgusted with myself for several years had not taken any substantial steps towards doing anything about it.

Helpful Friends

In December of 2006 I hit rock-bottom and decided to start going to the gym. I had done this before, but this time I got my friend Ben Smith to go with me. I told him I’d pay for his membership as long as he promised to get me to the gym. This worked out well and I started to slowly get into some semblance of shape and lost about 10 lbs within the next few months.

In April of 2007 I went and watched my friend Te Koi Smith (no relation to Ben as far as I know) race in a short triathlon. At the time I knew nothing about triathlon, but afterward as we stood talking I told him I’d love to do something like a triathlon, but I also thought it was too expensive and time-consuming. I had some desire, but not enough to make me actually do anything. Doing triathlons seemed a bit too much. But something inside was telling me “You’re going to get sucked into this, one way or another.” Within a few months I had gone from being a spectator to telling Te Koi I was going to start training for an Ironman, the longest of the standard triathlons comprised of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a full 26.2 marathon.

The Beginning

I bought Te Koi’s old bike, the other gear I needed, got Lasik surgery, and started training. I finished my first triathlon (sprint distance) in September of ‘07. It was incredibly hard, but I was already feeling like I was hooked. I did my second triathlon (another sprint distance) a month later and felt such an improvement over my first event that the hook was set. My plan at the time was to do a half-Ironman early in ‘08 and the full Ironman later that year. I did the half-Ironman in Oceanside, CA in April ‘08, but financial pressures caused me to postpone more triathlons and sell my bike and much of my other gear. Plus we had just adopted our first child and I wanted to be a good dad and spend time with her. I figured I could focus on running, my worst of the three disciplines, and then return to doing triathlons later.

Getting Hurt

That year I didn’t do any more events, but kept on running with the plan of doing my first marathon in April of ‘09. But during that year, I started having a rash of injuries, starting with what I thought was a pulled hamstring which, upon further research, appeared to be a pinched sciatic nerve. I tried to figure it out on my own since I didn’t want to pay a physical therapist, but by January the pain was still there and I was forced to downgrade my marathon registration to the half-marathon. I just couldn’t see that I would have enough time to get in shape given the pain I was having.

Eventually I did go and see Steve Orrock on Te Koi Smith’s recommendation. His diagnosis was that I had a bulging disc which was causing the sciatic pain. He recommended I get an MRI to find out for sure. I never got the MRI because I found out it would have cost me $1,000 out of pocket, and so to this day I’m not sure exactly what the problem was. All I know is that I went through about $350 worth of physical therapy during a six-week period, which seemed to help, but then it came back, and when I asked my physical therapist whether I should spend another $350 on his services or get back in the gym (I had canceled my gym membership for the same financial reasons that prompted me to sell my bike) he said I’d be 10 times better off getting back in the gym so I could get some cross-training and weightlifting than if I continued doing physical therapy. I returned to the gym, and my back pain went away in two weeks and has never returned.

But this didn’t happen in time for me to train for the Salt Lake marathon in April, so my wife and I ran the half-marathon together. I did pretty well, finishing just behind the guy who came in 1st place…well, he came in first in the full marathon, which means he ran twice as far as I did in the same amount of time.

Focusing on running alone seemed to cause me a lot of injuries, and I was glad to get back in the gym, per my PT’s recommendation. But it was hard to take swimming seriously without training for something, and I still didn’t have a bike. I really wanted to get back into triathlon and while our financial situation had improved (I own my own business and there were a lot of ups and downs around this time) I couldn’t justify spending several thousand dollars on equipment. It was way down on the list of priorities. But a solution presented itself soon enough, and I see it as proof that there must be a God, and that He likes me.

Triathlon Comeback

On one of the days I was talking to my physical therapist he mentioned a triathlon store that had opened nearby. I decided to check it out and see if the owners were interested in doing some sort of trade deal for the web development services my firm could offer. Turns out the timing was perfect, and long-story-short–we worked out a deal in which they got a new website and I got credit for the triathlon gear I needed to start training again. Not only that, but one of the owners was a triathlon coach and I was able to get this advice as part of the deal. I was back in the triathlon business after almost a year and a half out of it.

In August of ‘09 I was able to get back on a bike for the first time in over a year, and I started swimming and running with renewed purpose and enthusiasm. I strategized with my coach and we decided I would try to fit in two smaller triathlons before the end of the season, just to get me back in the game, and then I would train for a full Ironman in 2010.

My comeback-triathlon was the Daybreak Triathlon, which turned out to be fun, but with a very short swim course (75 meters) because the lake was infested with a parasite and so they had to move the swim to a small pool. I had almost no time to train and get back in shape, but it was fun nonetheless to be back doing something. I then trained for and completed my first-ever Olympic distance triathlon down at Lake Powell. This was the same triathlon I had done as my second triathlon ever, only this time it was twice as long. I didn’t have much training time for either of these events, but I was feeling great doing them, and with my coach’s advice I felt I was progressing much, much faster than I had before when I was on my own. I was learning so many things I had chosen to ignore the first time around because it seemed so overwhelming. But with an expert like my coach it was easier to get my head around.

After the two small triathlons were over, we started planning out 2010. I knew I wanted to run a marathon before doing a full Ironman, but I didn’t know which one. I also wanted to do another half-Ironman if possible, because I really didn’t know what I was doing on the first one and in some ways I feel that my finishing it was a bit of a fluke that had more to do with my indomitable will than my smart training plan, which was nonexistent. I should say it was nonexistent, but my training plan at that time consisted of swimming, biking, and running a little farther each time I went out, and that was it. There was no other science to it. I hardly knew what a taper was at that point (for you non-athletes a “taper” means you scale down your workouts the last week or so as your big event approaches, which gives your body time to rebuild the muscles you’ve been abusing and puts you in peak shape for the event).

Based on the available events, my desires, and my schedule, we settled on me doing the Salt Lake marathon in April, the Boise half-Ironman in June, and the Panama City Florida Ironman in November. That meant I would train throughout the winter and early spring for the marathon, I would then have 6-7 weeks to train for the half-Ironman (a bit short, but enough time given that I would keep swimming and biking while I was training for the marathon), and then I’d have plenty of time to train really well for the full Ironman.

Marathon Training

As I trained for the marathon through the winter and spring things mostly went well. I was relatively injury free and feeling better than ever on my runs. Tips from my coach helped me to run faster than I ever had before, and we did things I had never done before in preparation for an event like speed drills and focused weight training. I also started to learn a lot about nutrition and fueling my body. I was feeling great and every time I passed a construction site the ladies working there would whistle at me. But seriously, I was losing weight while gaining muscle and I really was feeling healthy. From my peak of 236 lbs I was down to around 205 lbs and edging in on 200 lbs.

Then I made the mistake of ignoring some advice my coach gave me. He had told me to start doing calf-lifts by standing on the edge of something (like a curb) and lifting myself up onto my toes and then back down again. This would stretch out my calves and make them stronger. But I didn’t listen, and about a week and a half later, at the beginning of March, I was out running and strained the soleus muscle in my right leg. I cursed my inattention to my coach’s advice, and hoped it would just get better. The next time I went running, it felt good, but after an hour I got strains in both legs in the soleus area. Apparently things were getting worse. And it was bad timing. There was little more than a month before the marathon, and if I didn’t get this injury taken care of, I’d have to miss the marathon and chances were that would mean I’d just have to skip doing a marathon before my Ironman. I really, really did not want the marathon in the Ironman to be my first marathon ever.

I returned, reluctantly, to my physical therapist, where I was brutally tortured. If I needed any more motivation to pay careful attention to my coach’s advice, this was it. My PT engaged in a practice called “a-stem” which I’m 100% positive would land its practitioners in prison if they were applying it to say, a captured terrorist, instead of a poor athlete. During this treatment, specially designed plastic utensils are used to scrape your skin off–at least that’s what it feels like. I’ve had three broken arms, including a compound fracture and another case where they had to break my arm all the way through after it broke partially, and a-stem is worse. The idea is to put you through such intense pain that your injury doesn’t seem like that big a deal…or maybe it’s to stretch out all your muscles and loosen them up so you don’t strain them again. Whatever the case, it seemed to help.

But it was hard to say whether I was ready for the marathon because during the last month of my training I wasn’t running outside very much. I ran on the elliptical machine at the gym to maintain my cardiovascular fitness, and as my legs felt better I would go out and run on a very flat jogging trail, unlike the hills I’m used to running on (and unlike the mostly downhill course of the SLC marathon). I would go to the gym, run on the elliptical for about 20 minutes to get really warmed up and sweaty, and then I would go outside and run as far as I could. That generally meant about an hour outside before my soleus would start tightening up on one or both legs, and I would then come back inside and finish up on the elliptical machine.

On April 8th I had my last long run scheduled. At this point I figured if I couldn’t do this long run, then I wouldn’t pay the $100 for the marathon since it seemed unlikely my soleus strain would allow me to finish. I warmed up for 20 minutes on elliptical, and then went out to do a two hour and twenty-five minute run. Amazingly, both legs felt great the whole way, and the only reason I stopped was because I was done with the workout. Not only did my soleus muscles feel great, but my fitness level felt great too. Even though I hadn’t been running much outdoors and had been confined to the elliptical and some treadmill, I didn’t feel like I had missed anything. I signed up for the marathon and a few more physical therapy appointments.

The Day Before

Everything went well with my training between then and the night before the marathon. I decided the night before that I wanted to be in bed by 8 pm so that I could be up at 4 am with a full night’s sleep under my belt. Instead, the day was super busy with all sorts of activities, I didn’t get home until 7:30, and I found myself having dinner at 8. And then I wanted to get everything ready for the next day before I went to bed. I didn’t get to bed until around 9:40, and then I lay awake with my mind racing, trying desperately to go to sleep, then trying to distract my mind by counting goats being put in a boat and crossing a river, and then getting distracted and going back to all sorts of thoughts racing through my head. I finally fell asleep, but woke up a little while later when my wife came in to go to bed. After an hour or so I fell asleep again and slept fitfully.

Pre-Race Morning

I woke up at 2:40 am, on purpose, to go eat breakfast. I was back in bed by 3:00 am, but didn’t fall asleep until about 3:30 am. Then I woke up at 4:30 am to get ready to go. I didn’t feel too tired, but I didn’t feel well-rested either. Luckily, I had prepared everything the night before, so it was quick work to get dressed, grab my gear, poop, and run out the door at 4:55 to meet Ryan Witzel with whom I would carpool.

As we rode the light-rail train up to Salt Lake, I noticed Ryan had his running clothes, his Garmin watch, his phone, and a plum. I had my running clothes with a warm-up suit over them, my Garmin, a fuel belt with three full bottles of drink, 8 Gu packets, my phone, three protein bars, a 20 oz bottle of protein/energy drink, and possibly some other things. I wasn’t planning on running with all that, but I was planning on running with most of it. The fuel belt with the three bottles was a good 2 lbs of weight by itself that would be bouncing around my waist. I was really worried about that, but I was more worried about the race running out of of liquids, since the race doesn’t have the best history of good management. I figured I couldn’t really depend on the aid stations to have what I needed when I got there, and I’d rather carry the weight than risk cramps, fatigue, and dehydration.

When we got to the starting line I got out, took off my warm clothes, filled my gear bag and gave it to the volunteers, and started walking and jogging around to try and get warmed up. There was another reason I was jogging around–I hadn’t really pooped yet. Sorry to talk about poop, but if you’re involved in these types of events it’s a real issue. Jogging gets “things” moving, and if you had a big meal the night before, like I had, and you’re 3 miles into the race and things start moving and the next porta-potty isn’t for another two miles, then you’ve got a big problem. I had a BIG meal the night before, plus a big bowl of oatmeal that morning, and I knew most of it was still inside me somewhere hiding.

After 10-15 minutes of walking and jogging around, I started to feel like I would be able to vacate my lower intestine, so I went to stand in line for a porta-potty. The lines are quite long, and I missed the race start. Not that it matters. Your time doesn’t start until you cross the starting line with your timing chip, plus I was going to go off my Garmin anyway rather than my timing chip since I wasn’t going to count potty breaks if I needed to take them, so I didn’t care much about that.

When I got to the front of the line and into the porta-potty, I discovered that some sad person who had occupied that spot before me had evidently been raised in a barn, or possibly in the jungle. Wherever they were raised, it was obvious they didn’t know how to use a toilet, because they had pooped everywhere but in the spot where poop is supposed to go. Then, in an attempt to clean it up, they had smeared it everywhere they hadn’t directly pooped on. It was a horrible mess, and it stunk. I certainly wasn’t going to sit on anything in that porta-potty, but without going into any detail I’ll just say I did my duty while maintaining my virtue.

Race – The First Half

After the unpleasantness of the porta-potty, I walked up towards the starting line. I got my iPod and belt ready to go, made sure I felt comfortable, tried to ignore what I was getting myself into, and jogged across the starting mat that would detect my timing chip and I was officially in the race.

It was a delightfully cool morning. Not cold, but very cool and comfortable. There was just enough of a breeze to take away the sweat, but not enough of a breeze to push against you.

The course started out with mild downhill and I was flying along doing an 8:30 mile (fast for me) but feeling as though I were taking a walk in the park. Nothing was hurting. Nothing felt tight. Everything felt just perfect. It was a perfect start and I had high hopes for doing a sub-4-hour marathon on my first marathon. I knew that to make it I needed to maintain a pace under or around 9:08 per mile, and as the miles quickly clicked away I was having no trouble staying under 9:00 per mile.

The first 4 or 5 miles disappeared without a thought. I was passing lots of people, and hardly anyone was passing me. I felt like the fast guy on the course (especially since most of the really fast people had probably started 20 minutes earlier than I did). We parted ways with the half-marathon runners and suddenly I was mostly alone. Apparently there are a lot more of them then there are of the marathon runners. I ran along the course and into a park, where I had to run down a steep hill. I don’t like running down steep hills, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to realize what this hill and the mostly downhill course would mean to me later on.

Oh, there was one thing. My left foot started hurting, right in the middle where my full weight was placed. This had never happened in training, but it started within the first mile or two of the race. It wasn’t bad enough that it affected me at that point, but it was bad enough that I was worried it would get worse and force me to stop. As I left the park and was turning a corner I said a prayer and asked God to help my body make it through the event. I felt like I needed divine intervention if I was having problems this early in the race.

Somewhere around the first quarter of the race I stopped to use a porta-potty again. It was fast work and I was quickly back on the course. The second quarter of the race went as fast or faster than the first. I found myself at an aid station just past the 13th mile, and I stopped to use the potty again. I figured what’s the use of holding it for another two hours when I can spend 30 seconds here and be rid of that weight and strain? I entered the porta-potty and as I turned to lock the door the thing almost tipped over. I think somebody had set it up on a log or something. It could have been real ugly. I regained my balance, did my thing, and as I stepped out the door to start running again I stepped on my left foot and almost collapsed.

My left ankle wasn’t working. It was working 30 seconds earlier. It had worked fine to stand on while in the potty. But now I couldn’t stand on it without it feeling as though it were entirely out of joint. I hobbled, hopped, and limped for a few steps, thinking it would snap back into place, but it didn’t. This had never happened before to me–ever. I had no idea what had caused it, or what I should do. It didn’t feel like a cramp, it just felt like something was out of place and needed to snap back into place. Finally I hobbled over and sat on a curb and started shaking my foot around and wiggling it with my hands. I did this for a while, stood up, and it was fine and I took off running again.

At this point the course had effectively finished the downhill portion. It wasn’t uphill, just flat and easy, but certainly not as easy or fast as running on a slight downhill plane. Still, I was keeping my pace in a zone that kept a sub-4-hour marathon a reality, or at least it seemed like a reality to me if I could keep it up. But having never run more than 16 miles in my training, I didn’t know what reality might look like at mile 20, or mile 25.

I have always heard people say that around mile 20 is when you start to really feel it. I’ve heard this can be due to your glycogen stores being used up which causes your body to fatigue, or due to your muscles simply being pushed beyond their normal limits. At mile 15 I felt as good as I felt at mile 3. 16 felt pretty good too. It was between miles 17 and 18 that I started to feel it. In my case, my energy levels, my hydration, and my breathing all felt great. But my muscles were starting to fail me. Not my soleus muscles, which felt better than ever, it was my quads.

For the past month, I had been running on an elliptical machine, a treadmill, or on a flat course. But the first 13 miles of this marathon had consisted of slight to steep downhills, and that pounding had taken its toll on my quadriceps, or the thigh muscles in my legs. I was no longer running downhill, but I was using those muscles with every step, and those muscles were starting to get very tired, and very sore. My pace slowed from 9:00 to 9:15, then to 9:30, then to 10:00, and the mile markers started coming more and more slowly. By the time I got to 20 miles I was hurting pretty bad.

To this point I hadn’t walked, other than through the short aid stations (it’s hard to drink while you’re running). But now I was feeling like I might need to rest those quads. I realized that at 10 minutes per mile, I had an hour to go, and for the first time in the race, it seemed like there was quite a long time left before I would be done. Around miles 22-23 I made what, in retrospect, was a mistake. I stopped to stretch my quads. As I started to run again, I realized I couldn’t. My legs felt like lead. Very sore, throbbing lead. I pushed myself, and gradually was able to get back into a jog, but now I was doing 11-12 minute miles and feeling it every step of the way.

Around mile 24 I started walking again, thinking that I would just take a short rest, let my legs recover, and then start running again. But walking hurt just as bad as running. And when I started trying to run again, it hurt worse than walking, and worse than how bad it hurt to run before. It seemed I couldn’t win. I would walk a ways, then try to start running, and then quit and walk again. I think it looked pretty pitiful whenever I would start trying to run. I mostly tried to do that through intersections to get out of the way of the traffic the cops were stopping for me as I walked/jogged along, mostly alone at this point. It’s not there was no one else in sight, there was a large group about 200 meters ahead of me, and another large group behind me, but I was in the middle feeling like I was all by myself. I wasn’t lonely, it just felt kind of weird, as though all these cops were out there directing traffic just for me. I felt very visible.

I’m not sure there was more than a flicker of thought going on during the last six miles. Early in those six miles I realized that even if I ran 8:30 miles for the rest of the way I wouldn’t be doing a sub-4-hour marathon. But that didn’t bother me. Somewhere in there I also realized that barring something strange happening, I was going to finish, even if I had to walk the rest of the way. But mostly I was just listening to the audiobook on my iPod and in a sort of hypnotic state in which I didn’t really know I was running. I felt pain, but it didn’t matter. I just kept on moving.

Right around the last mile there is a small hill. It’s not big, and it’s not very steep, but it’s a hill. Last year, in the half marathon, it took all my mental power to run up it. This year, I walked to it, up it, and past it. I didn’t dream of trying to run up it. But I knew that once past it, there was no more uphill parts. I also knew I was just a few minutes from the end, so I started to job slowly, and as my muscles softened up I moved faster and faster. The Gateway shopping center, where the race ended, came into view. I reached it, turned left to run south alongside it, turned the corner, ran a hundred feet, and then turned into the final run. Suddenly I was surrounded by a cheering crowd and I started running faster and faster. I kept scanning the sides for my family, but they were on a bridge above the course and I didn’t see them. But by the time I crossed the finish line I think I was doing a 9:00 mile or better, once again. How, I don’t know.

I walked to the refreshment area, took a bite of an apple, drank a small chocolate milk, ate a chocolate creamsicle, and then felt like I better not eat another bite of anything or I’d throw up. I got my gear bag, and limped back to look for my family, my wife, two kids, and my parents, who were there waiting for me.

Aftermath

“Was it easier or harder than you thought it would be?” is a question I’ve heard several times in the past 48 hours since the event. “Both” is my response. I thought my cardiovascular system was going to have a harder time with the race than it did, and I thought my muscles would have an easier time. Mostly, I didn’t realize how sore I would become within a few hours of finishing.

As my wife drove us home, I wanted to pass out in the car, but couldn’t. I came home, took a shower, fell into bed with sore legs, and didn’t wake up for four hours. When I woke up, I could barely move my legs, and now, 48 hours later, I’m barely starting to recover. Standing up from a sitting position is almost impossible without assistance. I groan every time I move. Taking two Alleve doesn’t seem to do anything. Ice and hot showers feel good, but it’s hard to tell what effect they’re having. The same goes for compression tights. I’m wearing them out of faith, not works.

Soon after getting home, the right side of my right foot started hurting quite a bit. I was worried I had a stress fracture or something, but upon talking with a long-distance runner in my neighborhood he told me it was because I was running on the side of the road too much where it sloped off. That seems to make sense, and my foot feels almost entirely better today.

The only other injury I suffered was from my shoes. I had trained in these shoes since September, but apparently there are things I couldn’t learn about them until I ran 20 miles in them. One of those things is that the top of the heel rubs the back of my achilles. It was never a problem on 15-16 miles runs, especially since I often wore long socks on my winter training runs, but after the marathon and running with short socks, I had no skin left where the shoes were rubbing on my achilles area. It wasn’t merely a case of blisters–there was no skin left.

Overall, I would say that 48 hours since the marathon has been more painful and difficult than the marathon itself. But if there’s anything I’ve learned from the experience, it’s that the marathon itself is not the accomplishment. The marathon is easy. What’s hard is the months and months of preparation that go into being ready to run a marathon. There’s a good quote out there somewhere about the “courage to prepare” that would go really well here, but I don’t remember it and can’t find it. How about if I just tell you to “be inspired to do great things and think great thoughts” at this point, does that work?

Looking Forward

This is a big year for me. It’s the culmination of a journey that started at the beginning of 2007. The “culmination” consists of completing three events, one of which is now finished. The next one is really a repeat of an event I’ve already done. And the last one is going to be much bigger than anything I’ve done before. I say “culmination” but in reality it’s only a step towards something more important, the same way this marathon is just a step towards the Ironman. What will come after the Ironman, I don’t know exactly, but it feels good to be moving in that direction.

Please read the full article on Modeled Behavior:

… around 100 years ago his obesity was so shocking that people would pay money to see him as he toured the country as a circus “fat man”.

source: Modeled Behavior

Reports for Ironman Australia 2010 Athletes Who Qualified for Ironman Hawaii 2010 have been added to triresults.com.

URL: Ironman Australia Qualifiers

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

URL: Results for Ironman Australia 2010

Train better with the award-winning Sports Tracker app. Your phone becomes a full-featured GPS sports computer, keeping track of everything from calories burned while running to your average cycling speed over altitude. You get maps, time and distance calculators, step count, and even heart rate when you use a compatible HR belt. All data is stored in a diary so you can chart your progress, find your strengths and weaknesses, and share with others.

more information here.

Chafing is such an ugly word, isn’t it?

This Saturday I’ll run my first marathon, and I could use some advice on clothing. The temperature is going to be around 50 degrees at the start of the race, and probably around 70 degrees by the time I finish. I’ve been training through the winter, so I haven’t had to deal with temps over 50 most of the time. That is, overheating has never been an issue, although keeping warm enough has been. I often run wearing my swim jammers as shorts, covered by a pair of running tights. I wear a tight, long-sleeve base layer shirt, which I tuck under everything at my waist, and which prevents my skin from getting holes in it around my waste from the bunched up waist of my tied tights. Then I generally cover the baselayer with a t-shirt or running jacket.

However, I think I’ll overheat in this event if I wear all that. I think I could get away with tights and a t-shirt, but then I don’t have the baselayer protecting me from wear and tear around my waist. I could wear the baselayer with no t-shirt, but even that might be too warm. Last year the marathon winner was wearing those skimpy running shorts and a tank-top, and he didn’t look like he was cold. So what should I do? How do I keep from chafing around my waist?

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

After the success of last year, this brand new, innovative addition to the Club La Santa event week program combines fitness, fun, sport and group fitness activities in an amazing climate thousands of miles from the stress of home

The Training

This year the event will run for almost 2 weeks. During the weeks our fully certified team of instructors will teach a wide range of group fitness classes that will suit all your fitness needs, no matter what your level is.

With over 80 classes available during the week and the Green Team program to choose from you will have a well over 100 classes available to take part in as you wish.

Some of the classes during the week include Pilates, Relaxation, Boxercise, Aerobics, Step, Dance, Fitball and 6 of the Les Mills programs which many of you will recognize from home (Body Combat™, Body Attack™, Body Step™, Body Jam™, Body Pump™ and Body Balance™)

Following on feedback from last year we plan to include a bigger variety of dance and more regular aerobics and step classes throughout the week.

Leave all your stress at home – come and enjoy your favorite classes and the Club La Santa lifestyle.

The instructors

David Muir (UK), Franziska Piel (D) and Gavin McCann (UK) are all sport Graduated Teachers, Fitness Instructors and Aerobic Professionals and ready to boost your fitness before christmas!

Provisional programme

The provisional programme is available to download, click here

Total Body Conditioning week – Class descriptions

Aerobics
Our aerobics classes during this week have themes which make the class more exciting and fun, still using all the basic steps but adding a different ’feel’ to them for example Rock n Robics has a Rock and Roll theme with lots of jive rhythm in it.

Ballroom Aerobics- Come and learn the steps to different dances in an aerobics style class. A new way to get an effective workout. No partner needed.
Body Attack™ – Another one of the Les Mills programs. This will Challenger your fitness to the maximum using mixed impact aerobic moves and plenty of running!
Ibiza Aerobics – Do all your favorite aerobics moves to the rounds of Ibiza
Latin Aerobics – Great fun Latin style class with plenty hips PartyRobix – Great fun high energy team teach class with all your favorite party songs!!
Rock ‘n’ Pop Aerobics- Great fun, high energy class using pop and rock and roll music from through the ages to drive you through a simple dance aerobic workout
Rock ‘n’ Roll Aerobics- High energy dance aerobics with simple moves, set to the best rock ‘n’ roll songs of all time, take a step back in time and learn how to jive and do the ‘hippy shake’!
Legs, Tums & Bums- A hard class designed to tone and shape your Legs, Abs and Bum.

Aqua

Aqua Jogging – This is a form of fitness that involves ‘running in the water’ you will wear a aqua jogger and the instructor will teach you how to successfully aqua jog in order to burn calories and tone your legs, running without impact!!
Deep Water Aqua – Although the class is held in the 2 m deep Olympic pool you do not need to be an advanced swimmer, as you’ll wear an aqua belt which will keep you afloat and with the use of the water as resistance and specialized equipment the class offers a non impact cardio and strength workout for all levels.
Deep Water Disco – Do the deep water aqua class with all the classic disco music, get ready with your disco pointer!!

Ballroom Dance
Designed to be a ‘Ballroom workout’, these simple classes aim to teach you the most popular of the classic dances, from the Cha-Cha to Jive and Quickstep.

Body Balance
Body Balance is a perfect combination of Tai-Chi, Pilates and Yoga which is designed for all stages, you will leave the session feeling revived and refreshed.

Body Combat
Les Mills Bodycombat TM draws the martial arts of Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Tai Chi and boxing together in an exercise to music class. Using motivating music the class will push you to your max.

Body Toning
A hard training class designed to tone and condition your whole body using your body weight as resistance, along with bars or bands.
Body Pump- The worlds best toning workout! Body Pump uses barbells and weights and will get you results…FAST!
Ab Attack- This is a ½ hour workout on a mat, where we use a widerange of exercises

Boxercise Circuit
This is a tough boxing circuit which is designed for all levels of boxing. This will work your cardio systems and tone your upper body and abs.

Circuits
Good ‘old skool’ circuits will work your whole body, various stations all set out around the room you will take about 1minute to 2 minutes at each station before moving on…get ready to be motivated and train hard!! Not for the faint hearted!!

Dance
The freestyle dance classes in this program are designed to be manageable by all but still challenging, learn the routine in the hour with a very simple breakdown and then explode during the dance final at the end. There will be several different styles during the week from street and hip hop to club dance and house dance.

Body Jam™ – A relatively new Les Mills program, this program is a pre-choreographed dance class which combines all the latest music from the charts to make a great fun dance class for ALL levels, really simple dance choreography!

Fitball
These classes are a tough workout on the Fitball which is designed to Condition your whole body and improve balance and core strength.

Pilates Matwork
Core stability training, strengthens the abdominal muscles in a functional way, improving posture and alignment, circulation and strengthens weaker muscles.

Spinning/Body Bikes
The spinning classes during this week are separated into 2 kinds, the normal classes (some with themes) and the Activio classes.

Activio Spinning – Activio Spinning is a brand new state of the art Heart Rate training class which allows you to see how hard you are working and gives you the best spinning workout you will ever experience! (Spaces given on a first come first serve basis).
Club Classics Spinning-The best club tunes…EVER, squashed into a 50 minute spinninglass…remember your glow sticks!!
Spin Back to the 90s – Theses are normal spinning classes which are set to your favorite music from the 80s and 90s, spin back in time!!

Step
The step classes during this week have themes which make the class more exciting and fun, still using all the basic steps but adding a different ’feel’ to them.

Body Step™ – this is a Les Mills program which combines simple, powerful athletic moves on to a step to give you the best cardio and toning workout!
Cheesy Step – this will be a ‘retro’ style step class using all your favorite tunes from the 70s and 80s
Double Step – During this class you will be challenged mentally and physically with the use of 2 steps at once!
Latin Step – Move like a Latin dancer around the step…prepare for loads of hips!!

Stretch & Relax
Flexibility training and relaxation. Movements are performed slowly and deep breathing techniques are used to improve the level of relaxation.

You can pick up the final programme in Sports Booking upon arrival.

Accommodation has to be booked separately with Club La Santa UK on 0161-790-9890

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

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

Second swim cross El Rio (Orzola – La Graciosa) organized by the “Gabildo de Lanzarote”.

25th September 2010

XVII Swim Crossing El Rio (Orzola-La Graciosa)

The aim of the event is to open this discipline to a wide range of sport enthusiasts.

Course description

The participants will be ferried from Orzola harbour to La Graciosa Island.

The start will be from ”Bajo el Risco beach”, where more than 400 swimmers will begin the 2.600 mt swim. They will cross the short stretch of water known as “el Rio” till reaching the harbour in Caleta de Sebo, a typical fishing village in La Graciosa Island.

Timing

The Chip is selected as the official timing system. Each swimmer must wear the chip on the right ankle before the race start. In case of loss the swimmer will have to inform the organisation immediately.

Medical Service

In case of emergency Emerlan will provide medical assistance. A helicopter and a team of lifeguards in canoes will supervise the race.

*Schedule of Events

Saturday 25th September 2010

09.00: Ferry from Orzola Harbour to Caleta de Sebo (La Graciosa Island)

12.00: Swim Start from Playa Bajo el Risco (Lanzarote) to Caleta del Sebo (La Graciosa)
Awards Ceremony and paella for the participants after the race

Rules

Due to the endurance of the race a medical certificate will be requested.

To participate in this event you should be in good health and have extremely good swimming skills.

You will be required to wear a numbered swim cap which will be provided from the organization.

No flippers and no wetsuit are allowed.

The participants, who are still in the swim course after 1 hour of the finishing time of the winner, will have to retire and will be brought to land by the boats of the organisation.

For more information about the rules please consult the organiser website.

Awards

Top 3 female/ male overall winners and the female/ male winner of each age group will receive a trophy.

T-shirts for all the participants and medals for all the finishers

Age categories

18-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64.

Registration

For registration please contact the organiser’s website.

Date: 25th September 2010

Price: 10€

Age Group: +18

Level: good swimming skills

Registration: Pre-registration necessary

Max. number of participants: Unlimited

BUY YOUR NEW SWIM KIT HERE

In four days I’ll be running my first marathon. I’m not 100% I’ll finish due to a soleus strain which unfortunately cannot be healed or overcome strictly by willpower, exercise, stretching, or physical therapy. Not that those things don’t help, but they only provide ideal conditions in which the strain can heal itself. The good news is that I was able to do a 2.5 hour run last week for the first time since the injury, and the only reason I had to stop was because my workout was over. As far as my injury was concerned, I could have kept on running.

Since then I’ve had several more physical therapy appointments in which I’ve been tortured in ways I’m sure are much worse than anything our government has done while interrogating terrorists. If my injury could be healed by having underwear draped over my head, dogs barking at me, or even participating in a naked pyramid, I’d take that over this “a-stem” therapy any day. It feels like they’re scraping my skin off. I keep expecting to look down and see my calves looking like those of the guy in the encyclopedia when you’re looking at his muscles. I’ve had three broken arms, including a compound fracture, and another break where they had to twist my arm around until the bone broke because it needed to be completely broken in order to be set correctly, and the only thing better about a-stem is that it only lasts for 10-15 minutes. Otherwise, it’s more painful than anything else I’ve ever been through. If it weren’t helping so much I’d press charges against my therapist.

To take care of my soleus strain I’ve been warming up on an elliptical prior to my runs, going out and running as long as possible, and then if need be returning to the elliptical to finish the workout. That seems to have worked well for maintaining my cardiovascular fitness and most of my muscle fitness. What’s missing is the impact on my knees, and so I am somewhat worried about them holding up during the four hours or so it will take me to finish the marathon, but I don’t think that will stop from finishing, it will probably just hurt a lot afterward. But that’s ok, as long as I finish.

Today I had a 30 min swim and a 30 min bike ride on my trainer, which I’ve been getting more used to the more I use it. And I just registered for the marathon, so I’m committed. I waited until today because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it or not. With my 2.5 hr run last week I’m feeling pretty confident I’ll make it, although we’ll just have to see.

More historical qualifiers added triresults.com and cloudtri.com.

URL: Ironman Brazil 2009 athletes who qualified for Ironman Hawaii 2009

Just added to CloudTRI.com.  Please note, earlier years didn’t have as many qualifiers and some events might be missing the qualifying times, but this is still the most comprehensive collection of Ironman Hawaii qualifying times on the internet.

URL: http://cloudtri.com/qualifiers

I have added the list of Ironman 70.3 California 2010 athletes who qualified for Ironman Hawaii 2010 to triresults.com and cloudtri.com.  You can filter the qualifiers by the age group.

URL: Ironman 70.3 California 2010 athletes who qualified for Ironman Hawaii 2010

One of the reasons I have created the TRIResults  API and the sample application by using the API (CloudTRI.com) was because I wanted to let triathletes to export their triathlon results and take them anywhere they wanted.  Now you can do it in two different ways, by using the API or simply by adding the .xml to the CloudTRI.com URL that displays your results.  For example, this page shows all Tim DeBoom’s results:

http://cloudtri.com/athletes/40239/events

if you add .xml to the url:

http://cloudtri.com/athletes/40239/events.xml

you’ll get those results in XML format that you can save to your desktop.

Results for Ironman 70.3 California 2010 have been added to TRIResutls.com.

CloudTRI.com URL: Results for Ironman 70.3 California

TRIResults.com URL: Results for Ironman 70.3 California

If you would like to use TRIResults.com API and display triathlon results on your own site, please go to the developer page and request a free API.

I have created a new TRIResults.com API call: Get Results for other Years.  When you are viewing results for a particular event, for example Ironman 70.3 California on CloudTRI.com, you’ll see a new link at the top “results for other years”:

click on the link and you will see a list of Ironman 70.3 California events for all other years:

If you would like to use TRIResults.com API and display triathlon results on your own site, please go to the developer page to learn how to request a free API.

Ironman 70.3 California 2010 is underway.  I’ll post the results as they become available.     In the mean time, take a look at the historical results for Ironman 70.3 California on CloudTRI.com:

Ironman 70.3 California 2009

Ironman 70.3 California 2008

Ironman 70.3 California 2007

Ironman 70.3 California 2006

Registered TRIResutls.com users can find all historical results for Ironamn 70.3 California (2002-2009) on this page.

If you would like to use TRIResults.com API and display triathlon results on your own site, please go to the developer page to learn how to request a free API.

New API call has been added to TRIResults.com: Ironman Hawaii Qualifiers per Event.  You can also filter the qualifiers by division. You can see how it works on the sample application that I wrote to demonstrate all TRIResults.com API calls – CloudTRI.com

If you would like to use TRIResults.com API, please go to the developer page to learn how to request a free API.

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

Aimed at beginners and intermediate level triathletes looking to find clear, concise and helpful coaching. This provides the perfect jump up the learning curve in a sport many take 5 years or more to be successful.

This is the camp to understand how to plan a winters training and be ready for next spring – from swimming technique and bike fit to run training and nutrition.

The sessions are perfect for athletes from beginner to intermediate levels and the aim is to mix practical workouts with talks and workshops. Athletes from single sports who have a few years endurance experience will find it manageable and great fun. The camp would not be suitable for very high level or experienced triathletes.

The Coaches

The coaching team has been improved immensely with the addition of two very experienced coaches working alongside Head Coach Joe Beer:

Joe Beer
Joe has been competing in multipart events for 25 years, covering all distances from sprint to Ironman – Including the legendary Hawaii Ironman. He has been coaching and writing in multisport magazines for almost two decades. His entry-level book “Need To Know Triathlon” was Published in January 2008 by Harper Collins. He was voted the inaugural 220 Magazine Coach of The Year in 2004 and is a qualified BTA Coach. He has been coaching on camps at Club La Santa for over 10 years.

Dan Bullock
Dan is a swim coach par excellence who knows how to teach triathletes to swim at their best. Dan brings with him state of the art filming equipment and a level of experience which is second to none. He was 220 Coach of the Year 2004 and London Regions Coach of the year 2005.

Phil Price
Phil has been coaching for well over two decades. His local knowledge and wealth of experience adds a dimension of expertise that younger coaches do not possess. He knows his stuff and is very personable.

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 85 € per week or 18 € 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

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

BUY YOUR NEW TRIATHLON KIT HERE

Aimed at beginners and intermediate level triathletes looking to find clear, concise and helpful coaching. This provides the perfect jump up the learning curve in a sport many take 5 years or more to be successful.

This is the camp to understand how to plan a winters training and be ready for next spring – from swimming technique and bike fit to run training and nutrition.

The sessions are perfect for athletes from beginner to intermediate levels and the aim is to mix practical workouts with talks and workshops. Athletes from single sports who have a few years endurance experience will find it manageable and great fun. The camp would not be suitable for very high level or experienced triathletes.

The Coaches

The coaching team has been improved immensely with the addition of two very experienced coaches working alongside Head Coach Joe Beer:

Joe Beer
Joe has been competing in multipart events for 25 years, covering all distances from sprint to Ironman – Including the legendary Hawaii Ironman. He has been coaching and writing in multisport magazines for almost two decades. His entry-level book “Need To Know Triathlon” was Published in January 2008 by Harper Collins. He was voted the inaugural 220 Magazine Coach of The Year in 2004 and is a qualified BTA Coach. He has been coaching on camps at Club La Santa for over 10 years.

Dan Bullock
Dan is a swim coach par excellence who knows how to teach triathletes to swim at their best. Dan brings with him state of the art filming equipment and a level of experience which is second to none. He was 220 Coach of the Year 2004 and London Regions Coach of the year 2005.

Phil Price
Phil has been coaching for well over two decades. His local knowledge and wealth of experience adds a dimension of expertise that younger coaches do not possess. He knows his stuff and is very personable.

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 TRIATHLON KIT HERE

I have added a new API call to triresults.com: Ironman Hawaii Qualifiers per division per year.  It generates a list of all available qualifiers per division (age group) per year.  You can find more information about the API on the triresults.com developer page.  To view this API call in action, please go to the TRIResults.com sample application CloudTRI.com and click the “qualifiers” tab.

Some examples:

M30-34 qualifiers  for 2009: http://cloudtri.com/qualifiers/per_div/M30-34/2009
M30-34 qualifiers  for 2008: http://cloudtri.com/qualifiers/per_div/M30-34/2008

If you would like to use TRIResults.com API, please go to the developer page to learn how to request a free API.

I started working on the next set of TRIResults.com API calls.   With the new API calls, you will be able to generate various reports for Ironman Hawaii qualifying times.   You will be able to generate a list of all available Ironman Hawaii qualifiers per event for all available years  and per year for all available events.   You can already run these reports on triresults.com but with the API you will be able to display the results on your own site.  Stay tuned and let me know if there is a specific report you would like to have an API call for.

TRIRestuls.com API documention
CloudTRI.com – sample application built completely by using the TRIResults.com API.

Reports for Ironman New Zealand 2010 athletes who qualified for Ironman Hawaii 2010 have been added to triresults.com.  Please go to the analysis page to run the reports.

Do you have a triathlon related site?  Take a look at TRIResults.com public API.

          Jeff Cuddeback, President of Triple Fitness Training, Inc., and a three time Hawaiian Ironman age group course record holder, has been named an official Rohto Ironman 70.3 Miami coach. Jeff...

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BodyZen is passionately committed to helping people achieve their performance goals and in doing so improve their health and fitness while remaining injury free. BodyZen is focused on delivering the...

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I have been collecting, transforming and loading the data for TRIResults.com since 2001. The site has become a unique source of information for historical triathlon results and especially for Ironman results and qualifying times. TRIRresults.com has collected the most comprehensive database of well-organized historical Ironman results and qualifying times. The results for each athlete are cross-referenced with all events, so that when you click on an athlete’s name you can see all his or her results on one page. This makes viewing and researching athletes very efficient.

I decided that it was time to open the triresults database to the outside developers and let them create their own applications by using the extensive triathlon results database that I have collected for many years. I created the first set of API calls and to demonstrate what can be done with them I have written a sample application that was built entirely by using the TRIRestults API. To view the sample application, please go to CloudTRI.com. To see the API documentation, please visit the TRIResutls developer page.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me. Good luck!

BodyZen BodyZen is passionately committed to helping people achieve their performance goals and in doing so improve their health and fitness while remaining injury free. BodyZen is focused on delivering the safest, current and most knowledgeable multi sport training, testing and coaching programs available for individuals and groups. BodyZen is also committed to providing first [...]

Andrew Yoder is a 20 year old professional triathlete based in Pennsylvania. Known for his strong bike, he specializes in Olympic distance non drafting races where he can play to his strengths....

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This event has now taken place – for the latest news and offers, please sign up to our newsletter here or get in touch to find out about our next events.

Details of the 2011 event

5 K Run – 20 K Bike – 2.5 K Run : Another exciting day of racing for athletes of all abilities, from novices taking their first steps into duathlon to elite athletes looking for a personal best.

Registration

If you would like to apply to take part in the International Lanzarote Duathlon, please download the information leaflet with application form above. Early registration is required and the form is to be received by Club La Santa no later than January 14th 2011.

Course Description

5km run

The 5K run is a 2 loop course starting at the Club La Santa Stadium where you will run a 3/4 lap of the track and then turn left towards the lagoon. After the turn point the runners will return to the Stadium and then repeat the same course to make 5K.5 K Run – 20 K Bike – 2.5 K Run : Another exciting day of racing for athletes of all abilities, from novices taking their first steps into duathlon to elite athletes looking for a personal best.

20km Bike Course

The bike course consists of one loop starting and finishing at Club La Santa. Upon leaving the Stadium at Club La Santa you will turn right and at the roundabout head left towards Caleta de Caballo, then onto Soo, Famara (the surfers paradise)and back to Club La Santa.

2.5km run

The second run course consists of one loop of the first run (see above).

Schedule of Events

Friday, January 21st
15.00-19.00 Registration and information,
Sports Booking, Club La Santa

Saturday, January 22nd – Race day
08.30-09.30 Bike check-in, Stadium, Club La Santa
10.00 Race start, Stadium, Club La Santa
Award ceremony shortly after the race, Stadium, Club La Santa

Awards

1st male/female: 600€* and a trophy
2ndmale/female: 450€* and a trophy
3rd male/female: 300€* and a trophy

*local tax & bank commissions will be deducted from the prizes trophy to the best citizen/resident from Lanzarote in the male and female categories

Rules

• You must wear your start number on the front and back of your race kit, making it clearly visible.
• It is mandatory to wear a helmet.
• No biking inside the transition zone.
• Drafting is allowed (the use of tri bars is not allowed).
• Normal traffic rules must be obeyed as the roads are open to traffic.
• Personal assistance or help of any kind is not allowed.
• Not obeying the rules will lead to automatic disqualification.

Timing

ChampionChip has been selected as the official timing system.

Medical Service

Full medical care will be available during the event.

For more information and Entry Form please .

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 85 € per week or 18 € 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 DUATHLON KIT HERE