Yo Swim, Bike, Run gang,

I find it helpful to surround myself with triathlon books and magazines, a bit of motivational reading and I’m ready to get out the door and hammer! The web is full of valuable info but it can’t compare to a fresh copy of “Lava” magazine in my hands. I love the full color way the action is captured… without the click of a mouse, and it looks good on the coffee table!

As for books, I just read Matt Fitzgerald’s book “Iron War”, a tome on the 1989 epic dual in Kona between Dave Scott and Mark Allen. I’ll give it a 7 out of 10 … I enjoyed the account of the race and loved being taken back to the birth of the sport and its early heroes. On the downside, I found the book to be choppy, jumping back and forth between the race and interviews and explanations from experts in the fields of Sociology and exercise physiology, trying to explain the extreme effort being put forth by Dave and Mark. My feeling is that Matt is reaching a bit to give us insight into what makes these incredible athletes tick, trying to add to his gripping account that of this amazing race, but taking a bit away from it by doing so. That said, I say read it, It’s one heck of a race!

Swim, Bike and Run forever,

Randy Step – Head Goat, obsessed runner, closet triathlete

It takes a lot to get me excited about a new swim product these days but boy am I jazzed about the Aquaspotter™ by Goat Gear, LLC.  Available exclusively at Running Fit or via Running Fit's online store, www.shoprunningfit.com, the Aquaspotter helps solve a problem I've been having for decades swimming in open water:  how to be visible enough to boaters, jetskis etc. but still be comfortable.

I often get the question, "How do I train in open water for distance?  What do I do?" I like to think of training in open water as similar to training in a pool. Of course it varies depending on the time of year and what you're training for, but the general outline goes something like this: warm-up, drill set, kick set, warm-up set, main set 1, easy swim, main set 2 (maybe), easy swim, timed sprints or X distance(s), cool down. Since I just wrote an article about this called "How Do I Train To Swim Faster In My Races" I won't get too detailed here. Instead I'll just give you another sample workout. Below is what I did the other day (July 27), which I would call a "moderate effort" workout in preparation for a 5k race in about a month.

There are many factors involved with swimming faster, both in competition and in practice (e.g. form, rest, hydration, nutrition, training schedule, warming up etc.) but the answer to the "train for race" question is simple: you have to swim faster in practice in order to go faster in competition. Seems pretty obvious to me, but I hear this a lot so I guess it isn't. But if you think about running, clearly a sprinter needs to sprint in practice to become faster, a distance runner needs to do longer intervals at higher levels of effort etc. in order to become faster. It's no different in swimming:  at some point in your training you actually have to "work", huff and puff, hurt a little (or a lot) and really push yourself in order to get faster. Puking is ok too, just like training for anything else (please, though, no dairy products before practice and please hurl your lunch in the gutter!).

With Spring "peak-time" here for so many athletes, Brad shares a few thoughts on getting through big blocks of training. Brad's Blog

With this week's theme being “time” I decided to talk about transitions.  There is no better time saving product than elastic laces - they turn any shoe into a slip-on, which allows you to be out of T2 and on the run without wasting energy tying your shoes.

I have tried a bunch of different transition laces over the past few years and my favorite would have to be the Yankz! brand Sure Lace System.

The biggest difference between the Yankz! Transition laces and other transition laces is that Yankz are adjustable in two places. Yankz is the only lacing system, which has two points for adjustment for the ankle, foot, and toe box area.  This is a huge benefit for someone who has a either a narrower heel and needs a tighter fit around the ankle or for someone who needs a little more room around the front of the shoe.

Most people do not have time to put in long training volume.  It is not necessary to spend long hours training for races.  The majority of triathletes do not

Efficient Swim Training for Grown-Up Triathletes Who Have Jobs, Spouses & Children

Swimming is a practice-intensive (by necessity) sport and there is NO WAY around that and NO MAGIC SYSTEM for quick results! Please do not waste your money on products that make claims that sound too good to be true.  They are. However, if you are time-strapped you can improve your swimming by practicing intelligently. To do so you need the following:

Wow, adult triathletes can be such an argumentative lot!  I consider myself a former great swimmer and a very average runner. If I asked a great runner for advice on my technique and paid that person, why on Earth would I then argue the answers? I don't get it! So I'm kind of ornery today because I keep hearing the same stuff, and some of it is downright wacky! And I have to engage in these strange arguments about things that I obviously know a lot more about than the average person (swimming, for example). For the record, I do NOT like Total Immersion, although there is some overlap in that program and in how I teach. There is some overlap in how EVERY coach teaches with the TI program, because we are talking about the same thing: shipbuilding and how to build an efficient craft. There aren't all that many different designs that work. And no, they (TI) did not invent it! None of this stuff is new, but marketing methods are so good now. Shoot, that guy could sell sand to Egyptians and they'd buy it!