Under partly cloudy skies, nearly 900 participants hit the water at Boulder Reservoir (A.K.A. “The Rez”) on Sunday, August 12th for the 5430 Long Course (Half Iron) triathlon. Following the first wave that included 20+ Pro athletes, including Chris Legh, Joanna Zeiger and Samantha McGlone the age groupers swam a single-loop 1.2 mile course in water that hovered around 75 degrees. The athletes exited the water and headed out on the 2 loop, 56-mile bike course around the foothills and farmland of Boulder. The cloud cover stayed in tact for the majority of the bike portion of the race and athletes were treated to well-staffed aid stations around the course. As promised, during the first loop of the bike ride, age groupers were treated to sightings (some quicker than others) of the Pros zooming past while completing their second loop. At the start of the run, most athletes were faced with blazing temperatures that hit the mid-90’s. Aid stations dotted the 2 loop 13.1 mile run course around The Rez at every mile with enthusiastic volunteers providing all the necessities to the participants as they tried to beat the heat. Finishers were treated to “all you can eat” pizza and a great awards ceremony. Minnesota’s David Thompson posted an amazing 27.33 MPH bike split which contributed to a course record time of 3:49, smashing Craig Alexander’s previous record by more than five minutes. Samantha McGlone from Canada won it for the women in 4:17 in the midst of a heavy 20+ hour training week for the Ironman World Championships in Kona in October.

As for the first Utah athletes to finish, congratulations to Bruno Araujo from Park City who finished in under five hours at 4:58. And congratulations to Marlene Hatch of Park City who represented the women well with a 5:21 finish.

One of the biggest challenges a coach faces is helping athletes understand how to “train hard” on “key workout” days and how to “train easy” on the other days. Many athletes spend too much time in “no man’s land,” going too hard to call it an easy day, and not hard enough to boost performance fitness. They train at one pace everyday, a semi-hard intensity that fatigues them over the course of several months. Training without paying attention to cardiovascular stress or heart rate is a bit like playing “Russian Roulette” with your racing season. You might be fitter and faster by the end of the year, but you could just as well be injured or burned out. Plus, it’s a pretty good bet that you won’t reach full potential.

Depending on your experience level, most athletes should not have more than one to three higher intensity workouts per week. That’s a real juggling act for triathletes attempting to do intervals in three different sports plus add a long ride and/or run during a seven or ten day training cycle. It’s imperative that athletes assess cardiovascular stress and understand training zones in order to optimize these workouts and remain healthy throughout the season. There are several options for measurement.

Perceived exertion charts rely on “how you feel” and have a fair degree of correlation with high tech assessment tools. Heart rate monitors generally give you a better idea of cardio stress. Cycling power meters measure muscular effort in the form of watts and offer information on your horsepower, or how hard you are pushing on the pedals. Comparing power output and heart rate response can give you a better understanding of performance on the bike.

In order to use heart rate monitors and power meters effectively, it’s necessary to determine your personal training zones. You can do this in a lab test on a treadmill, or on a bike and computrainer, or with a field test. I generally use both, i.e. I like to have my athletes tested once to twice a year in a lab situation, and I use time trials, 5 & 10K races or specific protocols at a track or on a bicycling hill climb. I am looking for heart rate, run pace and/or power at lactate threshold, the cross over point between aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. From that information, I can formulate training zones for each individual by calculating percentages of lactate threshold numbers (or in the case of run pace, by using various charts created by Jack Daniels, one of the foremost experts in run training in the country).

I generally use five heart rate and power zones. Zone 1 is for recovery. Workouts require no concentration to maintain pace and continuous conversation is easy. Zone 2 is long endurance and often referred to as all-day pace on a bicycle or classic long slow distance running. Zone 3 is intensive endurance, or aerobic tempo. Conversation is somewhat halting. Group rides and runs with long sustained efforts usually fall into this category. Zone 4 is threshold endurance. Heart rate and power efforts are just below to just above LT or lactate threshold. Continuous conversation is difficult and it’s mentally taxing to maintain the pace. Typically, multiple repeats are prescribed and range from 5 or 6 minutes to 20 minutes. This zone is key for time trial improvement and speed endurance. Zone 5 is anaerobic endurance or just plain ugly. Conversation is impossible with intervals lasting 3 to 8 minutes, and primarily used for increasing VO2 max. Short course athletes can benefit from small amounts of work here. The amount of time spent in each zone is dependent on many factors including general guidelines, athlete experience, weekly training hours, and periodization blocks.

If you are serious about training and reaching new heights, it’s imperative that you understand your intensity zones. Places like TOSH Sports Medicine in Murray will test you for a modest fee on your choice of apparatus. A good coach can help you make sense of all the data.

Have a great season!

I have been a runner for about 35 years and in June of 2007 recorded my 40,000th mile. You know, a car is just getting broke in at 40,000 miles.

Through the years, my friends would encourage me to do the entire Spudman Triathlon in Burley. But instead I’d just run on a great team. That is until about four years ago. Four years ago, my ‘Spuddy Buddy Trophy Collection’ took a nosedive. I’d earned 14 of those cute ceramic men in team competition. I’ve yet to earn one solo.

After doing three Spudman’s, I signed up for the Oklahoma Redman Ironman Triathlon and finished under the cutoff to receive the coveted finisher’s medal. Two days prior to Redman tornado warning were posted in Kansas and Oklahoma. Race day was windy with whitecaps visible on the water, but the race was incredible. It was definitely and unforgettable day.

“I have never done a ½ Ironman,” I said to my friend and mentor, Randy. “Well, it’s only half as long as a full Ironman. Therefore, you only have to go half as far; it should only take half as long; and you should be only half as tired. As a side benefit, you should recover twice as fast”.

With encouragement like that I signed up for my first full ½, the Burley Vikingman.

Coming out of the water at the Vikingman I was so focused on having a quick transition that I did not even see my husband standing almost right in front of me.

I had been so concerned about the water temperature that I had taken Randy’s advice and ordered both a neoprene cap and booties for my feet off the Pro Motion website. When they arrived they were both the wrong size. So I sent them back and reordered one size larger. Wow. When that package came I got a wetsuit and a shirt! So I sent them back because it was the right thing to do and because the lady who received my cap and booties wanted her more expensive items.

When my cap and booties finally arrived, the booties did not fit! So I re-ordered them and they arrived the afternoon of the morning we pre-swam the cold river course.

On race day, wanting to have a quick transition time I had my wetsuit down ½ way and ran to my bike removing my cap and goggles enroute. Trying to step out of the wetsuit…it got stuck. Trying to pull it off my feet did not work either. Oops. I had not even thought about removing the booties first! So I pulled the suit back up, pulled the booties off and still struggled to get off that darn wetsuit!

Rule # 1 Practice removing (mentally if necessary) all items used during competition BEFORE race day.

Now the last time I had on the wetsuit was during training for the OKC Ironman. I think that as it hung in the closet those past months it dehydrated & shrank. It barely fit. I was thank-full to get it on let alone take it off again.

It either shrank or sadly but more honestly, I grew a size since September of 2006. Drats.

Rule # 2 Be honest about actual weight gain and fight back.

One lady in the bike transition was saying, “I’m so glad to be out of that water.” I said, “I’m so glad to be out of that wetsuit.”

I was pleased with my bike ride to Murtaugh. Excited to be ahead of Lisa Taylor and pedaling strong so she would not catch me. Gina B. and Bonnie W. caught me in their car as I headed to the frontage road and they chatted a bit. I was struggling some and Bonnie, bless her heart, reminded me that my best event was yet to come! Then she took the wind right out of my sails by stating that Lisa was only about 2 miles ahead of me.

Now the main reason she was ahead of me was that after I exited the wetsuit… I hit that blue commode before biking out of transition. Someone else did not. My friend caught a trail of it on the overpass.

Rule #3 Maintain your dignity at all costs. Use the blue commode instead of the bike.

I really struggled over the last few miles on the bike. The heat, hills and wind took its toll. I even had my own private police patrol following me part way on his bike! (I think this was also because I was about the last competitor on the bike course). I realized much later that I did not drink nearly enough on the bike.

Rule # 4 Hydrate faithfully

At the bike to run transition I put my running shoes on, took the wet washcloth I’d sat in a baggie to wipe my face, and Yuk…it was hot! I grabbed a drink from the water bottle I’d left sitting there and Yuk! Hot water! Did I mention the temperature was in the mid 90’s? Heading out on the run I saw my husband by the fence. And I know it cost me a minute but I ran over and kissed him!

Rule # 5 Never take your spouse for granted!

I’m a runner. I was so excited about the run and looking forward to relaxing over the next 13 miles. Not the case at all. The 1st two miles I felt rather depleted and could not run much. I thought, “I’m not sure that if I continue to feel this way I can run, let alone walk 13 miles.” At the 1st aid station I stopped, got a drink and as I stood there I started to feel dizzy. “I think that I am going to faint,” I said as blackness danced behind my eyes. They let me sit in a chair and offered to call the sag wagon. You know, they have lots of cups of water on their Aid Station table so I poured about 8 of them on top of me and drank two or three more then headed