TYR Ogden Valley Triathlon

September 15, 2007

Eden, Utah

Long Course

Men

Michael Nordberg 2:14:11

Dave Ference 2:19:47

Weston Woodward 2:24:03

Women

Malaika Homo 2:33:30

Anne Heiner 2:33:36

Laurie Browne 2:50:26

Short Course

Men

Michael Mamales 1:15:08

Chris Meek 1:15:31

Jake Rushton 1:16:10

Women

Sarah Jarvis 1:17:10

Bri Klug 1:22:19

Sandra Branby-Green 1:23:34

Popularity: 4% [?]

Choose from the options below:

Yuba Tri Sprint Overall

Yuba Tri Sprint Age Groups

Yuba Tri Oly Overall

Yuba Tri Oly Age Groups

Popularity: 7% [?]

Achilles tendonitis, plantar fascitis, patellar tendonitis, IT Band syndrome, p-femoral syndrome, SI Joint dislocation, stress fractures, torn Meniscus, and Piriformis pain. No, this is not a list of poorly made horror films in the last decade. Instead, it’s a list of common maladies that plague runners everywhere. Any of them sound familiar? For me, there were some items on this list that I can personally attest to after completing ACL reconstruction in 00’. Thanks to Paula and Lloyd Eldredge’s referral to Dr. Nicholas Romanov, I was led onto the POSE Method© in early 2001. I had a choice. I could either run with extreme pain compounded with extremely slow running or opening my mind to new ideas with regards to this sport. Well, this swimmer cracked open her mind and let the principles of the POSE Method flow in.

Thanks to Dr. Eisenman’s approval at of the University of Utah, I was able to complete my coaching certification through Dr. Romanov. The principles were relatively simple. They involve increasing efficiency through improving muscle elasticity, decreasing ground reaction time (not to be confused with ground reaction force), involving core strength, and decreasing vertical oscillation (up and down movement common in some runners). These ideas seemed foreign to most “running experts” I had spoken to previously. Most coaches would take one look at my six foot frame and repeatedly suggest that improving stride length would be my ticket to faster running. Unfortunately, increasing my stride length only seemed to further aggravate my already existing pains and didn’t improve my speed. From what little I remembered from my early college Physics class, I remembered one equation; SPEED = STRIDE LENGTH X STRIDE FREQUENCY. Since changing the stride length didn’t improve much of anything, the main focus was stride frequency. Once frequency was introduced, it was necessary to also involve technique work that would minimize and even eliminate pains and injuries. It is logical to conclude that if someone were to improve technique and eliminate pain that they would also run faster. For me and many clients since then, this was indeed the case.

In a society that seems to crave “quick fixes”, the POSE Method© showed me huge improvements in speed immediately. Sound enticing? Read on. One must first adopt strong posture. This means finding a somewhat neutral spine when running. This will enable you to more efficiently recruit your hip flexors and hamstrings when in motion. From that point, the runner is asked to change their strike zone from ahead of their general center of mass (GCM) to under it. This somewhat mimics a swinging gate. By doing this, one minimizes both vertical oscillation and stopping force (the result of the foot landing in front of your GCM). Once you have tried this, you may notice that your foot strike zone has also changed. This is where runners need to be careful. It has often been a criticism of some people who have not looked into the POSE Method© thoroughly that Dr. Romanov was suggesting that people run on their toes. This is a misrepresentation. Dr. Romanov suggests a mid-foot strike zone. Running on one’s toes begins to cause various problems relative to the Achilles tendon as well as the tendons on the bottom of the foot. The mid-foot refers to the base of the ball of the foot (BOF).

Now, the next thing to remember is that old habits die hard. One must remember that changing one’s running form may result in fatigue of underused muscle groups. By implementing just a few drills into your running program each day you exercise, you can make the transition a bit smoother. Each day you grow stronger, muscle elasticity will improve. Before long, your times will be dropping and your pains diminishing.

Shannon Mulder is a level 1 USAT triathlon coach. Shannon can be contacted at 801-865-6269.

Popularity: 26% [?]

In Part 1 of this article, I focused on the primary “time points” related to sports nutrition – those being what to eat Before, During, and After exercise. In Part 2, I’d like to look at another useful way to categorize sports nutrition products – by their primary effect or mode of action. Using this method, sports nutrition products fall primarily into 3 categories (but there is some overlap between categories):

• Muscle strength and Mass

• Endurance and Energy

• Post-exercise Recovery

As the “off-season” approaches for most triathletes and other endurance athletes, it is often helpful to employ specific nutrition regimens to help you build strength, base endurance, and injury protection for next season.

Muscle Strength and Mass

Although bodybuilders may be tempted to experiment with prohormones, steroid precursors, and related enhancers of muscle mass, endurance athletes will be most interested in developing muscular strength without a lot of added bulk. A strategic use of creatine, protein, and specific amino acids can help to enhance your body’s adaptation to off-season strength training.

Creatine is stored primarily in skeletal muscle as creatine phosphate (CP), where its main role is to restore adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which can then be used as an energy source to support muscle contractions and possibly to help reduce lactic acid accumulation. Creatine can also cause muscle cells to “swell” due to an influx of fluid. This “swelling” effect of creatine leads to a muscle cell with an increased cell volume and cross-sectional area, as well as higher glycogen content – each of which may stimulate protein synthesis and lead to increased muscle size and strength.

Much speculation has associated creatine use with several adverse side effects such as muscle cramping and strained muscles – effects which are now thought to be less due to creatine itself than to athletes exceeding their capabilities and trying to do more work than their muscles are ready to do (”too much too soon”). A real concern may be the possibility of dehydration (due to retained fluid inside the muscle cell) – but an increased intake of fluids easily remedies this situation.

Protein powders are available from virtually every supplement manufacturer – with claims for everything from increasing muscle mass and strength and to losing or gaining weight. The most common sources of protein come from milk (casein and whey), egg, and soy.

Aside from their use in weight loss and muscle building applications, protein supplements are also being used in some of the newer “recovery” formulations. Because the body’s protein needs increase dramatically (and disproportionately to caloric needs) during physical trauma and injury, supplemental amounts of protein added to the diet can not only enhance recovery from exercise, but may also boost immunity and help prevent injuries from repeated training (and overtraining).

Protein sources are often classed based on their “biological value” (BV) – a term that refers to the amount of protein deposited in tissues per gram of protein absorbed. In general, the higher the BV, the more effective the protein will be its utilization in the body. Whey protein is often considered to be the protein source with the highest BV (100), but using a more precise calculation of protein “quality” (the PDCAAS), other concentrated sources of protein such as egg, casein (milk) and soy now rival whey proteins. Depending on how soy protein is processed, it may also retain various antioxidant compounds, known as isoflavones (genistein and daidzein).

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein – so most protein supplements provide a full complement of amino acids. In some cases, however, the use of higher levels of specific amino acids may provide an additional benefit. For example, the three “branched-chain amino acids” (BCAA = leucine, isoleucine and valine) are “essential” amino acids, meaning the body is not able to synthesize them and they need to be supplied in the diet. The BCAAs are believed to be important in delaying “central” fatigue during exercise, which originates in the central nervous system (as opposed to “peripheral” fatigue that results from biochemical events within the muscles). BCAA supplementation can help delay the production of serotonin in the brain and result in a longer duration of exercise before fatigue sets in. BCAA supplementation may also decrease protein breakdown and maintain immune function during strenuous exercise.

Endurance and Energy

I see a lot of “energy” drink these days, which are little more than different combinations of sugar and caffeine (often listed as Kola nut, Guarana, Yerba Mate, or other “natural” source of caffeine). Undoubtedly, these drinks will give you a short-term “charge” but they’ll fail to give you, as an endurance athlete, the particular kind of sustained energy that you’re looking for. Some people can use caffeine-based energy drinks with no side effects, while others experience elevated heart rate and blood pressure, as well as insomnia, anxiety, irritability, and heart palpitations.

I have written about some effective herbal options for improving stamina and endurance (cordyceps, rhodiola, eurycoma, eleuthero, ashwagandha) in previous editions of TriHive and at SupplementWatch (www.supplementwatch.com). Many other supplement ingredients promoted as “energy” products overlap with popular weight loss or “thermogenic” products, including B-complex vitamins, Bee pollen, Blue-green algae, and numerous others – BUT, it is important to choose your energy product based on available research evidence rather than on its marketing hype or athlete endorsements.

Post-Exercise Recovery

In previous articles for TriHive and at SupplementWatch (www.supplementwatch.com), I have written about effective strategies for enhancing post-exercise recovery – including the timing of carbohydrate and protein intake, the inclusion of BCAAs and glutamine for tissue repair and immune system maintenance, the tissue-repairing benefits of proteolytic enzymes, and the protective effects of antioxidants. One additional area of significant interest to endurance athletes, particularly triathletes, is joint protection and the rebuilding to joint cartilage.

Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplements are used with outstanding benefit by arthritis sufferers – and biochemical evidence suggests that endurance athletes may also derive joint protecting effects from these supplements. Glucosamine, whether used alone, or in combination with chondroitin, appears to be quite effective in alleviating the pain and inflammation associated with arthritis – while also leading to enhanced rebuilding of damaged cartilage in large joints such as the knee. As such, many sports supplements are beginning to include these ingredients in recovery formulas designed to help repair and prevent damage to muscles, joints and other connective tissue structures.

Summary

Endurance athletes, and triathletes in particular, can strategically use sports nutrition supplements to promote improvements in muscle mass & strength, energy & endurance, and recovery after exercise. Using these products the right way, in the right amounts, and in the right situations can help improve exercise performance, bolster adaptations to training and promote optimal recovery from exercise training.

About the author: Shawn Talbott, PhD is a Nutritional Biochemist, author of 7 books about nutrition and health, and a 10-time Ironman finisher. He is Research Director at SupplementWatch (www.supplementwatch.com) and Chief Scientific Officer of Wicked Fast Sports Nutrition (www.wickedfastsportsnutrition.com). Dr. Talbott is continually tweaking his own nutrition regimen in Draper, Utah where he lives with his wife and 2 kids.

Popularity: 24% [?]

President, Utah Blaze

Years in endurance sports?

21 years

Ran first marathon (DesNews) in 1986 – Bonked at mile 19 (DNF) – Since then have completed (27) marathons, (10) ½ marathons, (2) IM’s, (4) ½ IM’s, and lots of 10K, Olympic, & Sprint Tri’s

Athletic background

College Football – University of Utah: Punter 1988, 1991-1994

NFL – Tryouts with San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns

Endurance Sports – Triathlete/Marathoner

Popularity: 6% [?]

Throughout my triathlon “career” I’ve been a proverbial middle-of-the-pack finisher, or MOP’er as they’re often referred to. However, at the Scofield Triathlon I had the great experience, and yes I mean great, of finishing as a BOP’er, or back-of-the-pack finisher. It certainly changes your perspective, and not in a bad way.

The weeks leading up to the Scofield Tri were fraught with near-sleepless nights and stress-filled days between my “real” job and race directing the Cache Valley Classic Triathlon. I hadn’t trained once, unless you count the Spudman Tri at the end of July as a training day. The morning of Scofield I was relaxed, knowing that I could finish a sprint tri without too much difficulty. God has thankfully given me a body where I’m able to push through just about anything, as evidenced by my impressive(?) 7-hour finish on no training at the half-Iron CaliMan Tri a few years ago. Maybe I’m just stupid, but one of these days I’m actually going to train and see what kind of times I can really pull down.

Regardless, I woke up at 5:30AM Saturday morning, grabbed my tri gear (which I had packed at 1AM that same morning), and headed for Scofield Reservoir. I was right on time: left home at 6:00AM and arrived at the lake at 7:30AM. With an hour-and-a-half before the 9:00AM sprint start, my morning was going perfect so far. I strolled up to the packet pickup table, said my name, and found out that my friend Burke had graciously put me in the Olympic event, which started in just 20 minutes! Now, I probably could have switched events without any problems, but given that we had just instituted a “no change” policy at TriUtah, I would have felt like a hypocrite.

Maybe it was a good thing that the race started as soon as it did. I didn’t have time to stress out. I found a spot on the bike racks, laid out my bike and running shoes, took one sip of water with a Hammer Gel, and donned my wetsuit. While in the back of my mind I knew it was going to be a long day (especially in the water), I knew I was going to finish, regardless. That’s just the way I’m wired. After a few kind words from Burke on behalf of Richard Barnum-Reese, we were off: 1500 meters. Never mind that Marcel, Heath, and a few other phenomenal swimmers were heading towards the swim finish and passed me while I was STILL on my first loop. By the time I reached the second loop of the swim, I could feel the lack of fitness really get to me. Breast stroke for 25 breaths, head in the water freestyle for 25, repeat over, and over, and over.

It was at this point that I gained the BOP’er perspective. I had a personal escort during the last half of my swim. That poor lifeguard on the surfboard was probably wondering if and when she was going to have to save me. Why was she asking me if I wanted to hold onto her surfboard? Did I really look that bad? I also had fun with the lifeguards in the boats. I mentioned something about going wakeboarding afterwards (since I had plenty of time to talk while breast-stroking). They fired back that they’d rather be on the boat than where I was at the moment. I almost agreed with them. Finally the swim ended, and more than a few well-wishers told me “nice job” and “way to go”. They probably were just glad to see that I wasn’t being taken away by an ambulance. At least it was easy to find my bike in the transition area since it was just about the only one left.

The bike was relatively uneventful, passing a few people along the way, but truthfully most people were already WAY in front of me. Then came the run. The sprint turnaround seemed to tease me as it approached. I kept thinking what if…what if… I got those demons out of my head and kept moving forward. That next 1.5 miles was the longest of my life. Walk-run-walk-run. I have to say that anyone who volunteers at aid stations on the run are angels. With only a handful of people left on the course, these volunteers were there for me. Cheering. Whooping it up. Encouraging me. I was so thankful in my BOP’er condition that these people were dedicated to my cause. I must have looked horrible because at the Mile 5 aid station, one of the kids actually walked a cup of water about an eighth of a mile up the course from the table to hand it to me! You don’t get that kind of service when you’re MOP’ing it.

By the time I approached the finish line, the crowds had all gone. There was no one cheering. A few volunteers were still there to hand me a cold bottle of water, probably wondering “Is this the last finisher?” But, at least they were there. They stayed until the bitter end, and all just for me and the last few BOP’ers. That feeling of gratitude is one that will stay with me forever. At TriUtah races, we’ll always leave the finish line going until the last person crosses the finish line. As I was reminded at the Scofield Tri, the joy is in finishing what you initially started out to do, and there are volunteers and race staff along the way who are there to help you meet your goal. All triathletes deserve that kind of encouragement, regardless of where you finish.

Chris Bowerbank is the co-owner of TriUtah (http://www.triutah.com) and is a USA Triathlon certified race director. He is also the former USA Triathlon Rocky Mountain Region representative for Utah. Chris and the TriUtah staff are producing 6 triathlons and one half-marathon in Utah in 2007, and are planning a new half Iron event in August, 2008.

Popularity: 6% [?]

A strong word, but can it also be beautiful? Yes,- I believe so! Every single one of you who has done something out of the ordinary knows that one has to be pretty determined in what one does.

I am no exception. I wrote a book, a fiction novel. I composed Relocating Mia in less than five months, but it still took almost a year between my first scribbled sentence and me holding this printed beauty in my hand. In the mean time there were calls to make to the Publisher, Editor, Designer… phone calls, follow-up phone calls, following up with follow up e-mails… well; just stuff one has to do to get the word out.

So, being determent about this writing thing really helped me - but today, I’d like to talk about a different kind of determination:

Determination as a character trade. Some people I know live their lives pretty kicked back, they talk a lot about what they’d like to do, what they could do, what they gonna do… and waste all this precious time TALKING about these things. I think that a determined person actually puts the money where the mouth is and DOES IT.

You might not succeed right away, but that’s the beauty about determination, - you do not give up.

Being a born and raised European maybe makes a difference, I don’t know. Many times I get praised about my work ethics and my determination. Well, I’m not super woman - nor am I perfect. Believe me, I’m far from it. I just like to get stuff done. Having several projects at once doesn’t scare me, as long as I keep the upper hand.

However; all of last year (2006) I was observing myself talking about doing a triathlon. How fun that would be, what an accomplishment it would be, how well I could do it… blah, blah, blah.

By the time February 2007 came along I had wasted yet another beautiful Utah winter sitting in my house, glued in front of the computer. (Yes, I just finished a 367 page manuscript, but that’s no excuse) I stumbled across a website called active.com, I am certain you know this site and visit it frequently.

I read a few articles on shaking off the winter rot and getting an early start on training for the first spring triathlons around the country…

Well, and what was I doing? I sat, behind the acer laptop, with my thumb up - well not really, but feeling guilty about me yapping my flapper for way too long about this issue.

So, the very same day I grabbed my (very dusty) running shoes and my iPod (thanks honey, best Christmas present, ever) and off I went on my first run in God knows how long. The next day I was punished with severe muscle pain and a swelled up knee. A very good friend of ours is a Captain in the Marine Corps and was at that time in Iraq on his second trip. He had e-mailed us once in a while telling us (but never complaining!!) about the conditions they had to deal with over there. And I was moaning over a cramped up hamstring? I don’t think so!

Our friend was a big influence on my training in the following weeks and months.

To make a long story short, besides my husband who shares bike rides with me (he owns Downhill Cyclery in Payson, Utah) I don’t have a training partner. I’m out there running and swimming to the best of my ability, which isn’t much, but I’m very determined once I begin a project.

By June 6th of 2007 I felt I was somewhat fit and entered my very first sprint triathlon in the neighboring town of Salem. To my amazement over 600 people participated and as I was watching the crowd, I saw a few very determined faces. So, I set my square, German jaw, pulled on my wet suit and joined the other 25 women in my age group on the boat ramp.

I look at myself as a competitive person. I play a board game - I want to win. I play golf with my husband - I want to beat him. Sport has been a big part of my years in school, but besides the Dressage competitions at horse shows I’ve been doing forever, I hadn’t competed in 15 years. (Or maybe 20?)

Determination kicked in, however, and gave me wings. I won my

class by more than just a nose and needless to say; walked on air for a few days.

On August 11th 2007 I went up the mountain to participate in the Scofiled, Utah tri. The altitude up there sure took its toll on my stamina, but I wasn’t suffering alone – grinning from one ear to the other.

I won second place in my division and I couldn’t have done it without the determination in my attitude toward ‘getting things done and doing them right’.

Determination is beautiful, because success is guaranteed. And who doesn’t want to be successful?

So no matter what it is in your life what needs a little determination; bite your teeth together and swallow the pain because the reward is tremendous!

Rebecca Lerwill
Author of the romantic suspense ‘Relocating Mia’
www.rebeccalerwill.com

Popularity: 5% [?]

Kokopelli Rains Out

The 2007 Kokopelli Triathlon held at Sand Hollow Reservoir on September 22, 2007 prematurely ended as heavy rain and thunderstorms entered southern Utah. Event Director, Brogg Sterrett cancelled the event after several waves had already begun. The event will not be rescheduled. Kokopelli was the final event in the St. George Trifecta series.

“Unfortunately, that day was what it was and the race will not be rescheduled. We will just hope for the best weather possible next year for this series,” said Sterrett. “Like all of you, we worked very hard not only on the event itself but also to create a Trifecta point series that would include not only the overall winners but the age groupers as well, again due to the severe weather we cannot change the rules for this series and we will all have to accept that it will be a wash this year This is not what any of us wanted, but mother nature had her own plan for the day.”

For more information about the Kokopelli Triathlon visit www.BBSCEnduranceSports.com.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Popularity: 10% [?]