I remember watching every Olympics during my childhood. One summer, an athlete botched a dive, and the announcer exclaimed in a british accent, “She blew it all over the pool!” My siblings and I ran around for weeks afterward, saying “She blew it all over the pool” at every opportunity. It was funny.
That’s what I did today at the Kure Beach Double Sprint Triathlon. Double sprint means swim-run-bike-run-swim. And, I sure blew it all over the pool during that second swim. I was having a great race, too. I worked very hard and passed Aquaphor chic and another girl during the bike. They both passed me back in Transition. I had to work hard again to pass them back in 2nd run. I was going as hard as I could during that 2nd run to try to put some distance on them, because I knew they were better swimmers. So hard that my brain was not working too well.
When I got to the beach for the second swim, I entered to water too soon and started swimming for the middle buoy (see orange path in figure below). We were supposed run 300 yards down the beach to the far buoy, and swim with the current back past three buoys (see yellow path below).
I realized my mistake about half way out. Then, I had to swim 150 yards against the current to the round the far buoy, and back track to the middle and last buoy, then back in. That 150 yards against the current was a tough swim. And a hard pill to swallow. And it cost me at least 3 minutes.
My finish time was 1:19:56, still very respectable, so I am pleased. The bummer thing, is that it was going to be a really close race whether Ginger would catch me in the end. It would have been so cool if we got our picture together going thru the finish chute.
All in all, I had a great race, and good times with my friend, Ginger. Here is a picture before the race of Maria (a facebook friend), Ginger and me:
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I like that tag line: ”Drink water, not sugar”. If you are trying to cut calories out of your diet, replacing sugary drinks with calorie free drinks is a great way to do so. And as an athlete who forever struggles to get – and stay – lean, I need to choose my calories wisely.
A marketing company contacted me recently asking me to review a new flavored water called hint.
They sent me three flavors to try: raspberry-lime, pomengranite-tangerine, and mango-grapefruit. Oooo, I’m having fun with font colors in this post!
The three bottles of hint essence water arrived on Friday. I put the bottles in my refrigerator to chill. On Saturday morning, I woke up very thirsty, so I drank the pomengranite-tangerine flavor. It was cool and refreshing with just a hint of flavor. No sweetness, just a little bit of flavor. Yet it was not bland as are some other unsweetened flavored waters that I have tried.
I drank the bottle of raspberry-lime after a very hot bike ride on Saturday, and downed the mango-grapefruit after a very hot run on Sunday. I loved all three flavors, and they were oh so refreshing after my hot hot heat weekend workouts.
I am a big fan of SoBe zero calorie flavored “life water”. SoBe is fruity and also very sweet, and I have a big sweet tooth! Yet SoBe does not have any warning on the label indicating it contains artificial sweeteners. I was always stumped by that, so I just now visited the SoBe website looking for nutrition facts. Very cool website, but it sucks because I could not find what I was looking for. I googled it; and I learned that SoBe contains a new, naturally derived, sweetener called Stevia. Interesting. However, natural doesn’t always mean safe… after all, tobacco is a natural substance, right?
The ingredients of the hint water are as follows: ”purified water, mango, grapefruit and other natural flavors”. Seems pretty safe, and it tastes great. Plus I love their website! Simple yet fun, and I enjoyed reading the little quiz questions for each flavor.
I don’t know yet what I will choose when I see the hint water next to the SoBe life water at the Convenient store. I will let ya’ll know when that happens.
FTC GUIDES NOTICE: THIS PRODUCT WAS PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE BY Behrman Communications. THE PRODUCT IS MADE BY Hint, Inc.
Tags: flavored water, product reviews
Okay, I am at the end of week two of my training plan for the Halfmax Half Iron triathlon in October. And I have formulated my thoughts about how to use P90X and/or strength training into into my training plan.
I have never done any strength training, aside from a few crunches or lunges. In part, because I never wanted to join a gym. And my training plan book by Matt Fitzgerald does not have anything about strength training. Well, it does have a chapter at the end talking about the importance of stretching and strength, but no details about exactly what to do.
I got P90x last fall when I started to work full time, as a way to squeeze short intense workouts into my overly busy life. I love Tony Horton, and the videos are very motivating. If you want to get lean and buff and don’t want to join a gym, P90X is a great way to do it.
However, now that I am into serious training mode, I don’t think the P90x system is good for triathlon training. I find that it leaves my body so sore that it negatively impacts my other workouts. And I don’t think doing 300 different kinds of push ups and chin ups are really all that beneficial to a triathlete. The leg stuff is great, especially in the Legs and Back workout, but I don’t want to do all those chin-ups in between all the lunges and squats! I wish he had just a “Legs” workout. What I really do like is Ab Ripper, Core Synergy, and Plyometrics. I will fit those three workouts into my plan.
Here’s the plan I came up with. Well, actually, Gale Bernhardt came up with this. In her book, “Training Plans for Multi-sport Athletes”, she includes very specific details about strength training in her plans. Twice per week, at varying levels, this is what she recommends:
1 Leg Press
2 Lat Pull Down
3 Hip Extension
4 Chest Press or Push Ups
5 Seated Row
6 Personal Weakness (for me, this is glutes/adductors)
7 Ab Exercises
8 Optional: back extension
Since I joined O2 Fitness in Cary, I now have access to gym machines. The first phase of Gale’s plan is called “AA” for Anatomical Adaptation. You do high reps using low weights. I did this workout at lunchtime at the gym twice this week, and it was not hard. I did not even break a sweat, or have to take a shower afterwards. My muscles were a bit sore the next day, but not so bad that it ruined my other workouts. Best of all, just this little bit of strength training makes me feel like I have a little bit more pep in my muscles for swimming and running. 
For #7, Abs, I am doing the Ab Ripper DVD. For #3 and #8, I am doing this Roman Chair Hip Extension, which I found on Youtube:
After four weeks of “AA” in Gale’s plan, you increase the weights, and lowers the reps. Then even later, she lowers the weight, and ups the speed of the movements to build power and adds Plymotrics. For the Plyometrics, I will do P90X plyo dvd! In the final phase, as the training plan peaks, her strength plan goes to maintenance mode, still 2x per week. I may do 1x at the gym, and 1x Core Synergy at that point. Haven’t decided yet. This is still a work in progress, but I am excited about it.
Tags: gym, P90X, plyometrics, strength, weights
I’ve been meaning to give a shout out to the folks at Trakkers and Rev3Tri, and their call for volunteers is the perfect opportunity.
The Rev3Tri Quassy Half on Sunday, June 6th, is looking for volunteers. If you live anywhere near there, it’s a great opportunity to see a superb race in action, and meet some pro triathletes. And they are offering some free schwag and discounts to boot! Click here for more information: http://rev3tri.com/!/volunteer/index.htm
Some of you may know I was on Team Trakkers last year. It was a great experience to be part of a racing team, and super great to take part in the Inaugural Revolution 3 Triathlon race in Quassy, CT.
I backed out of Team Trakkers this year because I did not think I could contribute to the team with my full time work schedule. That was a good call, because I am really struggling. I dearly miss my Trakkers Teammates, tho 
I so wish I was doing that race again this year. I got to meet my hero, Natasha Badman. And I loved the crystal clear bubbly water. I loved the hills on the bike. I did not like the hills on the run so much, but they taught me alot about mental toughness. That lesson paid big dividends in my Ironman race, later that year. Someday I will go back and conquer those Quassy hills again. Gosh, I am getting all teary eyed just remembering that race.
Click this link to read all the stuff I wrote about Rev3Tri last year: http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/tags/Rev3Tri/
I wrote about P90X back in February and March. I did a few weeks worth of the workouts, and they were killers. Ouch. Pain. But also fun, and I like Tony Horton alot.
But I laid off the P90X as I approached my two early season races, as I didn’t want to have toasty muscles for them. Now that those races are done, I do want to incorporate the P90X workouts into my base training plan for the October Halfmax Half Iron race. I have not yet decided how to do that, yet.
My very favorite P90X workout is Core Synergistics. It’s a well rounded total body workout, that focuses on, you guessed it, your core. Specifically – engaging your core while doing other movements. That is exactly what we triathletes are supposed to be doing. I think every triathlete should be doing this workout once or twice a week. You can’t just buy one P90X workout tho, you have to buy the whole set. Unless maybe you could find it on ebay.
Here’s a link to an earlier article I wrote about Core Synergistics.
BTW, I was going to run at lunch at the gym, or do something there, but got tied up at work. I’m kind of glad, because now I have rediscovered this workout. I wonder if I could bring this on a mini DVD player and do it at the gym during lunch, if there are no classes going on in the fitness room. Would that be totally dorky?
