It's been a busy couple of weeks here with the holidays in full swing with Christmas and New Years. My mini training camp is going well, although my training schedule has been modified significantly to accommodate family and friends. Here are some quick updates:
- Christmas with the family was a blast! My brother and sisters are scattered throughout the US so it's great to see them again during the holidays as we all converge at my parent's house. I hear about other people dreading going home to visit their family and I'm thankful that our whole clan gets along well and enjoys spending time with each other. Hopefully that continues even as we go on to start families of our own!
- Traveling and the holidays have put a damper on my training. Trips to Louisville (work) and Las Vegas (play), and an upcoming Seattle trip (friends) are shuffling my training days so I'm trying to pack in as much as I can during the days I have open so I can treat those 'off' days as proper rest days. So far it's going pretty well, I don't feel like I'm overloading myself on the 'on' days and I still feel my strength growing from workout to workout.
- W/Kg is up a bit. I tested my FTP last week and picked up a few extra watts to play with. That combined with a bit of unintentional weight loss helped me move up a little on the power-to-weight chart. I do think I need to start eating more though, since I don't want to lose any more weight right now. The trick is to eat the right things and not just stuff my face with junk food. Maybe I'll set a New Year's resolution to find a nutritionist and finally put together a proper nutrition plan.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Rev3 Triathlon Series
By now most of you have probably heard about Rev3, the small upstart challenging the WTC in long distance triathlons. If you haven’t heard about it yet, head on over to Slowtwitch and read their latest article which features the Rev3 Triathlon series and its founder, Charlie Patten.
It’s clear that there’s a large demand for more Ironman and 70.3 type races, but it must require large amounts of capital to really get a race series going. The Slowtwitch article hints at some of the Rev3 backers and the expected return of investment for the private company, but with the prize purses offered at Rev3 events it seems that the initial investment must have been quite large. I wonder how much it costs to run a full Ironman distance event itself… Just a couple years ago there were several independent Iron distance races around the country, but it seems like most of them have folded or scaled back their efforts to half-Iron distances. There’s still several good full Ironman distance races out there (Redman, Silverman, Great Floridian, Beach 2 Battleship), but they seem to be far and few between. Independent half-Ironman races seem to get swallowed up every year by the ever-expanding WTC.
I know a lot of people would rather support smaller organizations than a large corporation like the WTC. How this sentiment will extend to the smaller (but still corporate) Rev3 races remains to be seen. For local half distance races, the WTC has taken over most of the major races in the area (Racine, Steelhead, Muncie), with the Door County Half remaining independent. This year alone I noticed many more people I know signed up for Door County instead of Racine or Steelhead, and several indicated that this was due to the fact that Door County was NOT a Ironman 70.3 branded race. Some of them told me they preferred to support a local race organization while others said it came down to the registration fees (the Ironman 70.3 races were almost twice as expensive). For full distance races, Ironman Wisconsin is the default race for most athletes in my area simply due to its proximity.
A couple friends of mine competed in the Rev3 Cedar Point race this year and they gave it positive reviews. One of the big things they raved about was Rev3’s refund policy, which they felt was much more reasonable than the WTC refund policy. It does seem like Patten and the rest of the Rev3 crew are focusing heavily on the customer service aspect of races:
The moment that sparked Patten to dream up Rev3 came when he was waiting in line to sign up for Ironman Lake Placid after finishing the 2008 race in 12 hours 15 minutes. “The thought came into my mind while I was waiting in line,” said Patten. “The supply of quality races must be very low if athletes are dishing over $500 one year in advance. And people were securing their accommodations for the following year while they were checking out of their hotel on Monday after the race. What sealed the deal for me was the fact that a lot of those athletes were complaining about having to commit so far in advance.”Supply and demand, two of the most basic terms in economics. Even today as the WTC hikes up registration fees most of their races continue to sell out. Clearly there’s more demand than supply right now, and the WTC understands that which is why they continue to raise race fees and introduce new Ironman races around the world. The past couple of years alone have seen the introduction of Ironman Cozumel and Ironman St. George, not to mention several other new 70.3 races.
It’s clear that there’s a large demand for more Ironman and 70.3 type races, but it must require large amounts of capital to really get a race series going. The Slowtwitch article hints at some of the Rev3 backers and the expected return of investment for the private company, but with the prize purses offered at Rev3 events it seems that the initial investment must have been quite large. I wonder how much it costs to run a full Ironman distance event itself… Just a couple years ago there were several independent Iron distance races around the country, but it seems like most of them have folded or scaled back their efforts to half-Iron distances. There’s still several good full Ironman distance races out there (Redman, Silverman, Great Floridian, Beach 2 Battleship), but they seem to be far and few between. Independent half-Ironman races seem to get swallowed up every year by the ever-expanding WTC.
I know a lot of people would rather support smaller organizations than a large corporation like the WTC. How this sentiment will extend to the smaller (but still corporate) Rev3 races remains to be seen. For local half distance races, the WTC has taken over most of the major races in the area (Racine, Steelhead, Muncie), with the Door County Half remaining independent. This year alone I noticed many more people I know signed up for Door County instead of Racine or Steelhead, and several indicated that this was due to the fact that Door County was NOT a Ironman 70.3 branded race. Some of them told me they preferred to support a local race organization while others said it came down to the registration fees (the Ironman 70.3 races were almost twice as expensive). For full distance races, Ironman Wisconsin is the default race for most athletes in my area simply due to its proximity.
A couple friends of mine competed in the Rev3 Cedar Point race this year and they gave it positive reviews. One of the big things they raved about was Rev3’s refund policy, which they felt was much more reasonable than the WTC refund policy. It does seem like Patten and the rest of the Rev3 crew are focusing heavily on the customer service aspect of races:
"When we decided to put on major triathlons, we made it our mission to truly try our hardest to put the customers first and understand our clients’ needs.”Customer service could be the secret ingredient to success for Rev3 as they continue to ramp up their races. If they can show consumers that a Rev3 race is a superior substitute to an Ironman branded race they should be able to steal market share away from the WTC and its subsidiaries. Heck, they just need a couple more incidents like the Ironman 70.3 Miami race fiasco to really push them over the top.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Ironman coverage on NBC
Yesterday I watched the IM Kona coverage on NBC after a mid-day bike/run brick workout. I settled in with my food and drinks while in my compression gear and got ready to watch the 2 hour highlight show of the world championships. I followed the live web coverage during the actual race so I already knew the outcome but I was excited to see how they would present the showdown between Macca and Raelert during the final miles of the marathon.
As usual the show did not disappoint. It was a good combination of race coverage and human interest stories (although many on SlowTwitch disagree), with a little more race coverage than year's past. Personally I like seeing more race coverage than human interest stories but I’m more familiar with the pros than the average person that NBC/WTC target with their coverage. I doubt the average person watching the show also watches ITU coverage on Universal Sports or has their Tivo set to record anything with the word “triathlon” in the title.
One thing I noted during the show that was different this year than last year was the advertising coverage. I don’t recall seeing many big ads last year that were specifically targeted at triathletes, yet this year there were major commercials by mainstream brands like Ford that featured pro triathletes (like Chris Lieto). I’ll tip my hat to the folks at Ford, they did a great job specifically targeting triathlon users with their advertising; the Ford commercials caught my eye and had me watching the whole 30 second segments. Wheaties Fuel also had Hunter Kemper in their commercials but they didn’t really give him a speaking role or call him out. I think that was a big miss by Wheaties, how hard would it have been to have an alternate version of that spot with the focus on Hunter Kemper? Other brands that did a good job are Tyr with their use of Andy Potts, Sarah Haskins and Chrissie Wellington, and K-Swiss with commercials featuring Terenzo Bozzone and Chris Lieto. PowerBar and RoadID had decent advertisement as well. I also noticed a couple WTC 5150 commercials.
Some people are complaining about the use of in-show advertisement (i.e. Ford, RoadID, PowerBar), but I think that’s just the nature of television advertisement today. In this day and age of Tivo, integrated advertisements are sometimes an effective way to capture viewer’s attentions, so long as the advertisement is not too heavy and doesn’t detract from the show. I’ll admit some of the Ford and RoadID placement was a little aggressive but I think it worked well within the coverage.
As usual the show did not disappoint. It was a good combination of race coverage and human interest stories (although many on SlowTwitch disagree), with a little more race coverage than year's past. Personally I like seeing more race coverage than human interest stories but I’m more familiar with the pros than the average person that NBC/WTC target with their coverage. I doubt the average person watching the show also watches ITU coverage on Universal Sports or has their Tivo set to record anything with the word “triathlon” in the title.
One thing I noted during the show that was different this year than last year was the advertising coverage. I don’t recall seeing many big ads last year that were specifically targeted at triathletes, yet this year there were major commercials by mainstream brands like Ford that featured pro triathletes (like Chris Lieto). I’ll tip my hat to the folks at Ford, they did a great job specifically targeting triathlon users with their advertising; the Ford commercials caught my eye and had me watching the whole 30 second segments. Wheaties Fuel also had Hunter Kemper in their commercials but they didn’t really give him a speaking role or call him out. I think that was a big miss by Wheaties, how hard would it have been to have an alternate version of that spot with the focus on Hunter Kemper? Other brands that did a good job are Tyr with their use of Andy Potts, Sarah Haskins and Chrissie Wellington, and K-Swiss with commercials featuring Terenzo Bozzone and Chris Lieto. PowerBar and RoadID had decent advertisement as well. I also noticed a couple WTC 5150 commercials.
Some people are complaining about the use of in-show advertisement (i.e. Ford, RoadID, PowerBar), but I think that’s just the nature of television advertisement today. In this day and age of Tivo, integrated advertisements are sometimes an effective way to capture viewer’s attentions, so long as the advertisement is not too heavy and doesn’t detract from the show. I’ll admit some of the Ford and RoadID placement was a little aggressive but I think it worked well within the coverage.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Video with Robbie Ventura: Recovery
Over on the Versus website Robbie Ventura talks about a key factor in making gains in cycling: recovery. Athletic growth doesn't happen while you're doing your workouts, but rather it happens afterwards as your body recovers and your muscles repair themselves. The more you train the better you will get, but you need to give yourself proper time to recover from your intense workouts.
"There's no such thing as over-training, just under-recovery"
3 important elements to recovering from hard training:
1) Get a solid 8 hours of sleep
2) Eat well - proper mix of carbohydrates, protein and fat
3) Cool down after high intensity sessions
After that you can add on other methods for recovery like massage, compression gear and the Normatec boots. I've got the cool down going, but I'm still working on the first two items from Robbie's list. I'm close to a solid 8 hours of sleep but I have bouts of insomnia from time to time. My nutrition is a lot better this year than it was last year but I think I still have room for improvement there. I've been thinking about seeing a nutritionist to review my diet but I haven't acted on that yet. I guess it couldn't hurt to get an assessment on my diet to see if I'm really off base or pretty close to a good mix.
To watch the video head on over the Coaches Corner on Versus.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Best Buy Portable Fitness Electronics
I was at Best Buy the other day looking for headphones and I stumbled upon a new section in the store for Portable Fitness Electronics. I'm not talking about the Nike+ iPod kits or Timex watches or anything basic like that, I'm talking some pretty heavy duty stuff like the Garmin Forerunner 310XT, SwiMP3 and other swim audio players, and even a Finnis Tempo Trainer! All they needed was a PowerTap SL+ and I would have been covered with all my fitness gadget needs!
When did these gadgets come to Best Buy? The last time I stopped in there I didn't see anything like this (aside from the Nike+ iPod kits). I did a little research and from what I've gathered Best Buy just recently added these electronics to half of its stores, in an attempt to capitalize on the growing $500 billion wellness and fitness industry. I'd be very interested to see how these toys sell over the holiday season in comparison to other consumer electronics. At my local Best Buy the Portable Fitness Electronics section had a pretty prime location near the front of the store.
Well, now I know what to use my Best Buy gift cards on this holiday season! I think I'm finally going to go ahead and buy the SwiMP3 player to help me pass the time in the pool. It was on my Tri Toys Wish List last year and after I picked up the Garmin 310XT this spring I think it's time for me to check off another item from the list.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Snowy Days
We're in the middle of a snowstorm this weekend here in Chicago, and luckily for me I managed to get my workouts in this morning before it got too bad outside. Not to say that I trained outside, since almost all of my training these days is indoors. I know a lot of people still keep training outside even when the temperatures drop below freezing, but I'm a bit of a cold weather wimp. My biggest issue with cold weather (aside from the coldness of it) is the fact that I have a hard time breathing properly when exercising in cold air. I always feel short of breath and my lungs and throat burn pretty bad when breathing in the harsh air.
Over on the Training Peaks blog they have a couple options for cold weather training, both for heartier athletes and cold weather wimps like me. One item from their list that I might look into this year is Cross-Country Skiing. It looks like fun and from what I've heard it's a pretty good total body workout. I know some friends who travel up to Wisconsin to do this every year, so I may have to join them this year. I'll have to rent all the equipment though, so hopefully that doesn't get too pricey. I already have one high-priced hobby to keep my wallet busy. :)
Over on the Training Peaks blog they have a couple options for cold weather training, both for heartier athletes and cold weather wimps like me. One item from their list that I might look into this year is Cross-Country Skiing. It looks like fun and from what I've heard it's a pretty good total body workout. I know some friends who travel up to Wisconsin to do this every year, so I may have to join them this year. I'll have to rent all the equipment though, so hopefully that doesn't get too pricey. I already have one high-priced hobby to keep my wallet busy. :)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Rest of December
Now that my school finals are over for this quarter I have a whole 3 weeks off before classes start up again in January! I'm traveling a bit for work this month but that shouldn't be too bad, just a couple days here and there during the week. So now that I have a good amount of free time on my hands I wonder what I'm going to do with it?
Last year I did a little mini training camp during the month of December, and although I don't *need* to do it again this year I think I'll probably still do something similar. Last year I was having a hard time finding a consistent training schedule and I used the mini training camp to try to kick up my off-season training into high gear. This year that hasn't been a problem. I've been consistent with my in-week training, and I've been flexible with my weekend training to accommodate my social calendar.
Mini training camp starts this weekend, and continues for the next 3 weeks. I expect to be able to take full advantage of all the training options at VQ, including biking, functional training, yoga, running, swimming and maybe even some massage therapy to smooth out the load. Let the 2010 December Mini Training Camp fun begin! :)
Last year I did a little mini training camp during the month of December, and although I don't *need* to do it again this year I think I'll probably still do something similar. Last year I was having a hard time finding a consistent training schedule and I used the mini training camp to try to kick up my off-season training into high gear. This year that hasn't been a problem. I've been consistent with my in-week training, and I've been flexible with my weekend training to accommodate my social calendar.
Mini training camp starts this weekend, and continues for the next 3 weeks. I expect to be able to take full advantage of all the training options at VQ, including biking, functional training, yoga, running, swimming and maybe even some massage therapy to smooth out the load. Let the 2010 December Mini Training Camp fun begin! :)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
On Pause
Training and blogging are on pause for a bit due to personal travel, school finals and work travel. I should be able to get back into it full steam next weekend.
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