The Great Adventure Challenge Triathlon--Part 2, GLORY!

Well kids, I did it. The unthinkable. The unimaginable. The most rewarding thing I've done for myself, personally, in my fitness lifetime. I won a triathlon. The Great Adventure Challenge 2011 is all mine. As is the fastest time ever on it for the 17-34 year old age group: 2:13:19. I beat the previous record, which was set last year, by 1 minute and 11 seconds. The second place guy finished in 2:21:40. Glorious. 

Not to mention I broke my own 17-34 age group run record (last year was 30:10, this year was 27:02). I took 2:37 off my 2010 kayak time and a 4:42 off my 2010 bike time.

Of all of it, I must say I'm most proud of the run. Literally you run straight up the face of Shawnee Peak, then around the warming hut at the top, then straight back down. Your legs are jello and the sun is blasting you for about 98% of it. It's the last leg of the race, directly following the grueling, and I mean grueling 14+ mile mountain bike ride. You want to die. If God struck down any of the athletes as they are climbing/running/limping up the face of Shawnee, I guarantee none of them would have minded if given the chance. None.

Fortunately the ambulance wasn't put to use. My parents and three of my friends came to cheer me on--without them I'm not sure I would have been so successful--and everyone at the event had a great time. Over $7000 was raised for Good Neighbors, a group dedicated to working with adults with disabilites.

It was a glorious day, indeed, and I look forward to training even harder next year to defend my title.

The Great Adventure Challenge Triathlon--Part 1, Training

So tomorrow is the much anticipated Great Adventure Challenge Triathlon. Much anticipated by me, of course.

This isn't your every day tri we're talking about here. The GAC includes 2.5 miles of open-water kayaking, followed by 14+ miles of mountain biking, and finishes up with a run up and down Shawnee Peak (GAC). Last year was the first year I did the GAC and was actually the first tri I've ever done. I went in to last year's event with the mindset that all I wanted to do was finish. Needless to say that I blew my own expectations away with a 2nd place finish in my age group and a new course record on the run up and down Shawnee. They even gave me a trophy!

I left last year's tri with the determination that I was going to do it again in 2011 and do it to win it. I was behind the winner by 9 minutes and 18 seconds, which is quite a gap to cover in essentially only two events (the kayak and bike portion because I won the run). 

Fast forward to May 2011. Training begins. This is the time of year to really build a base for an event that takes place in late August. Running outside becomes easier (and warmer). Mountain biking is actually pretty fun because of the crazy amount of mud on the trails. Kayaking isn't quite feasible yet--for me anyway-- but stabilization and core exercises start becoming a whole lot more routine.

Training through the summer months is pretty easy if you focus. But it's when the two-a-days start in early August that you might start questioning your own sanity. Bike in the morning, run at night. Lift in the morning, bike at night. Kayak in the morning, run at night. You get the idea. Brutal through the dog days of summer but absolutely essential if you want to succeed. This past week has been a taper week, meaning the two-a-days are over and it's time for a recovery and lots of pasta!

I've had a little outside help to try and speed up last year's time. Two good friends of mine have coached me up (one in kayaking, one in mountain biking) and even let me borrow some of their gear. Anything to help shave off those 9 minutes and 18 seconds...

...but who really knows what tomorrow will bring. It doesn't take much to derail months of hard training--a flat tire, someone falling in front of you, falling yourself, tipping over in the kayak...anything! With a little bit of luck and some knocking on wood and a focused plan, none of those things will happen and I should be sprinting down Shawnee in one piece, wondering where my trophy is.

Intervals

Intervals. We've all heard the term and they can certainly apply to a wide variety of things, but the intervals I want to write about are cardio intervals, the most beneficial form of cardio that there is, period.

Anyone who goes to the gym or has ever gone to the gym has run on a treadmill. Now I ask you this: How fun was it? Are you seeing the results you desire? It's not called the "dreadmill" for nothing. This is probably because you run for the standard 20-30 minutes, two or three times a week. Then you might even go as far as going home and saying to yourself or someone else something along the line of "I ran at the gym today and according to the treadmill I burned 500 calories so I deserve this ice cream!" Sorry, this doesn't work in my book. What you need is to do intervals and stay off the ice cream. Then it's hello Result City!

Intervals combine short bursts of speed or intensity followed by a longer recovery period and can be done in any form of exercise--running, biking, walking, even resistance training. This process of increasing and decreasing your heart rate will get you better results quicker, guaranteed. The American Council of Sports Medicine believes that not only will you burn more calories in short bursts of high-intensity exercise, but you will also see a improvements in your cardiovascular fitness as well (HIT High-Intensity Training Benefits). 

I'm a huge believer in the benefits of interval training not only for myself for when I'm training for a race, but it is the very first routine I put my clients through when they start working with me. After a proper warmup, I'll have the client get on the elliptical for 15 minutes and perform intervals of usually 15 seconds at a higher speed and 1 minute at recover speed. The beauty of intervals is that they can vary, too! Try 30 at a high speed followed by 1 minute recovery, followed by 15 seconds high speed, followed by 45 seconds recovery.  The key is to let your heart rate fully recover, though!

Personally, I'm not a fan of running long distances at one pace because I have the attention span of a fruit fly. So I mix it up by picking out some telephone poles along the road and running hard--not sprinting--for one set followed by an easy jogging recover for the next set. Try this on the road and you're bound to see faster results as well as a workout that just seems to fly by!