Tomkins tries STX Ropes

Richard Tomkins described it as "a torture den."

Inspired by TRX, (but much cheaper.)

Training method endorsed by 2008 triathlon world champion Eric Bell.

Train all the buzzwords: functiuonal strength, core, stability, full body, muscular endurance....oh, and fun.

Notice the kettle bells and box jump step in the vicinity.

...Santa hat not included.

Ironman Crawl

This is the infamous 1982 Julie Moss video. If you do triathlons today you can probably thank Julie Moss for it. The first Hawaii Ironman occurred in 1979, but it was ABC's Wide World of Sports that captured the dramatic women's finish. To this day, many of the first wave of triathletes attribute this telecast for inspiring them to start the sport.




As a 23 year old in my first year of triathlon, this duel was broadcast during the Hawaii Ironman that year. The footage interspersed the Julie Moss finish and the Sian Welch - Wendy Ingram from the current year's edition. Very inspiring.




I don't recommend ever depleting yourself to the point where you can no longer stand up or control bodily processes. I'm pretty sure it is bad for your health. But the tenacity these women display sure is admirable. Ironically the only time I have ever found myself crawling on my hands and knees, stomach heaving, was at the 18 mile mark of the 2003 Hawaii Ironman. I walked the rest of the way to the finish.

TOA Re-Ups

STtrainer Endurance Coaching Fitness Training is proud to announce that TOA has renewed its sponsorship for 2010. Sorry I could only find the black and white version of this logo. Look around the website a they are all our awesome uniforms.

Off Season Lovin' Part I

I recently went for a 5 mile trail run with one of my clients. Both of us are in our off season and profess to be miserably out of shape. We started off at an arbitrary walk; in this shape I can’t even begin with a slow jog, and certainly not uphill. After leading the pace for a while I begged him to take the lead. I didn’t mention the reason was because my butt felt like it was jiggling like jello and I didn’t want him to have to stare at it. My steady diet of beer, fast food, and Thanksgiving pie had caught up with me.

If your goal is to reach a new peak in fitness this year, do you realize that the first, most important step is to get out of shape? If you have finished one season where you reached any sort of peak fitness it is imperative that you engage in adequate and extensive recovery. Yes, that means you have to lose fitness.

This is a basic premise of periodization. Fitness improves in cycles, and every cycle involves both an ebb and flow. In technical jargon you are ending one macrocycle and preparing for the next one. Just like you wouldn’t train long and hard 7 days per week, you also can’t do it 12 months per year. If you want to have some good days—or months—then you need to plan some down times also.

Another common off-season fear is that you will gain weight if you reduce exercise. If you are coming off of peak training super skinny race weight, then it is good to gain a little weight; muscle and fat. I may not be happy with the increasingly softer mid-section, but people no longer say my face looks like a concentration camp survivor. In any case you might be surprised; your off season weight gains will be minimal if you show a little extra discipline with your eating.

Client and I ran 5 mile trail loop. Actually we alternated between jogging and walking. I begged for mercy on the uphills, declaring walk breaks when the gradient steepened. Thankfully our time was limited and I had to leave in time for church, because I was ready to be done. Memories of fast 12 mile runs on these same trails seemed far away. If this had been my first off season I might be like many endurance athletes who get panicky: “I don’t want to lose what I have worked so hard to gain.”

I have horror stories...HORROR STORIES of people who have failed to do this and paid dearly. Newly minted endurance athletes are particularly susceptible. The endorphins and excitement of getting into really, really good shape is hard to set aside. The fear is "I don't want to lose what I've worked so hard to gain."

This paranoia--that you will irretrievably lose fitness if you allow yourself a recovery off season—is simply unfounded. Twenty years as an endurance athlete has shown me one very reliable truth: It is very predictable that you will get back to your best fitness, but it takes a major effort and effective strategy to surpass it. And that requires you to be well-rested before such an arduous campaign begins.

You don’t HAVE to take an off season in the winter. You might be running a marathon between December-February, and thus you should be firing on all cylinders right now. You might take a mini-off season after that half iron triathlon scheduled in May. But one thing is irrefutable; it is impossible to keep training hard year-round without consequences of burnout, diminished results, and injury.

How do you know if you have recovered? It should feel as if you have lost fitness. You should feel lazy and laborious when you start training. Do not worry that your times/paces/splits are slower. Remember, you have to lose fitness to gain fitness.

Next it will be time to Turn The Corner.

Foot Fetish, Fast Feet, and Mellow Johnny Arms

A few things that have caught my attention, and that of my feet and arms. (My apologies for the excessive flair displayed in this post.)


The Team TOA kits turned out great this year. Here I am making final bike preparations before Beach 2 Battleship. Note the custom Swiftwick socks in a 4".



This photo is during the post race awards cruise at Beach 2 Battleship. I am wearing my "other" custom Swiftwick sock, the 1" cuff. Susan is wearing the 12" black compression socks.



This is the shoes I raced in at Beach 2 Battleship. They are the K-Swiss K-ona. This shoe is great for a triathlon because it has adequate cushioning, along with a reasonable amount of motion control structure. They fit like a glove.

On the same note, I think most triathletes need to be careful not to wear too-light of a shoe for triathlon. The feathery racing shoe that feels great for a short run will suddenly leave your legs to get pummeled by the run in a triathlon. Most of the time I have found a little extra cushion is a good thing. This shoe will strike a good balance for some, and will be too light for others.


This is the Spira Stinger. It is the shoe Hunter Kemper wears for World Cup Olympic distance racing. It is the lightest damn shoe I have ever worn, and doggonit if it doesn't have great cushioning. But this is a light one...open 5K's to olympic distance tri only. And you will only get about 100 miles out of a pair of these, so use them judiciously.



Your feet aren't the only body part that likes some bling. We designed our team kits to come with matching arm warmers. Here (Tim) Lance displays the Team TOA arm warmers. I am particularly proud to have fit the "Rock Star Triathlon" logo and the argyles on this item.

You never know who is going to show up with the "TOA Argyles." Recently the Most Interesting Man in the World stopped by. He has been training for Music City Triathlon in 2010. He is training outside right now and with the cold, he has been wearing a TOA coat OVER his tuxedo while doing long rides.



While he may not be the most Interesting Man in the World, Lance (Armstrong) is pretty interesting. Although I must say, the first draft of the Team Radio Shack jersey looked like caca.

At least Lance (Armstrong) has good taste when he is picking the design:


And in this picture, Lance (Armstrong) displays his Mellow Johnny team kit arm warmers.

I added this picture to draw your attention to the logo on the right fore-arm...SWIFTWICK!!! They also have Swiftwick Socks...like those on Terry's foot below:

Cycling-Related Judge Judy

At first I didn't like the cyclist, but then the defendants opened their mouths.

Gary's Got the Emo

Here is a good example of what happens when you "get the emo." Pictured below is Gary M. in is the Augusta 70.3 triathlon...a half iron distance of 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. This is the longest triathlon Gary has ever done.


During the race he spends quite a bit of time doing routine tasks with no more than a passing amount of emo. For instance, in the above pictures he is reaching for an energy gel, then consuming the contents. Clearly this gel offers no more excitement than the notion of "this energy gel will help keep me from bonking." Not that exciting. Hence, minimal emo.



Here he is again, with a paucity of emo. You can see just a few glimmers of "Dear lord my legs hurt," or "how much longer to the finish line" slightly revealed on his face. But for the most part there is nothing dramatic going on in any emo-related capacity.


But then he starts to show a glimmer of that big emo as he approaches within sprinting distance to the finish line. Or rather, "flying distance" to the finish line. As his "emo sunshine" starts to break through the dark clouds of "fatigued-and-emoless-man-running-a-half-iron-triathlon."


Now the power of emo takes over at this point and Gary literally flies across the finish line.


Note how his un-suppressable smile is so intense it is actually whipping his head to the side. At the same time he is just starting to launch into orbit of the earth.



Here the emo has caused him to completely take flight.


And in this picture he is mostly back to the ground, except the facial emo is still being expressed. By this time the emo fist pump has been added to the situation.

And just to prove he--literally--flew across the finish line:


Here is a picture of Gary visibly several feet off the ground, and levitating across the finish line.

This is not the act of a normal human mortal. I know Gary as I have coached him for some time. What you see in these pictures is the superhuman effects of emo.