Sometimes You Just Have to Believe

Einstein Would’ve Been a Triathlete: Part 4

Welcome back for the final installation into the theories and thoughts that Albert Einstein is so famous for and why, in today’s culture, he would have been drawn to the multisport world and would have done well among its citizens. If you missed the first three parts, you missed a wild ride through the U.S. patent office, some exciting space travel, and a little bit of crazy talk. I suggest you get yourself caught up and check out the first three editions or even re-read them if you dare.

The last part of Einstein’s thoughts that we will explore for now is another quote that he has been attributed to have made. Einstein was very familiar with the powers present in the universe including electromagnetism, gravity, and other very powerful forces that are present in nature. With all of this knowledge, he still proclaimed that “compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.”

While most people look at this in terms of money, Einstein would have looked at this with a physical mindset. Let me explain how with another space ship analogy. Given a space ship millions of miles from any significant body (aka star or planet), it would be pretty close to being in a vacuum (no air drag, friction, gravity, etc. to slow it down or alter its course).  For the ease of numbers, we will set our space ship going 100 mph. Now we have two choices on how to burn your fuel and gain speed while we go.

Option 1, you go all out and burn all of your fuel in one day once a week (let’s say your fuel is replenished by solar power). Let’s say that burn will last you 5 hours and you get a 5% gain in speed each time. After the first day you are now going 105 mph, a month (30 days) later its up to 127.6 mph, and after a year of this you are going 1264.3 mph. That’s a pretty good gain.

Option 2, you do a little every day and, make smaller gains but your fuel is able to replenish each day. This time you only turn the boosters on for one hour and that increases your speed by 1%. If you start at 100 mph, after the first day you would only be at 101 mph, 102.1 mph the second, and 103.03 mph the third. After a month (30 days) your speed would be 133.45 mph, big woop. But after a year…you would be going 3,740.93 mph!!! Now that’s impressive. You would have made gained almost 3 times more speed than in option 1.

Now let’s say the space ship is you and your “burns” are you workouts. Which option would you take?  No brainer!!! Unfortunately for us we do not live in a vacuum (maybe under a rock…but not a vacuum) and we must deal with resistive forces like drag, injuries, or the off season which can impede with our progression. Einstein, being the intelligent man he was, would have taken this knowledge to heart and would have compounded his “interest” daily by making small “deposits” and soon he would have been leaps and bounds ahead of where he started.

The key thing to take from this is that with any gains a slow progression made during years of hard work can never be out done by the quick gains of bursting effort especially in endurance sports more than anything else. This means you have to get out there every day and make that small deposit into your endurance bank. Some days will be harder than others, mentally and physically, but the key to success is consistently training smart, recovering hard, and repeating the process. Don’t be fooled because the path to greatness cannot be achieved by trying to make big leaps because your setbacks will end up being greater than your leaps forward.

Check out this recent Facebook post by Mark Allen on this topic. DISCLAIMER: I am not linking this to spread Mark’s feeling about any certain type of training. I just wanted to point out his comment about health gains. 🙂

Einstein Would’ve Been a Triathlete Part 2

In my last post I started in why I think that Albert Einstein would’ve been a triathlete in our current day and age. Yes, that Einstein; the Nobel Prize winner and theoretical physicist that everyone knows about. If you missed the first post, check it out and get caught up because the rest of these are sure to be a fun ride.

Now that Albert has his latest and greatest wetsuit, bike, and running equipment, it is time for him to hit the streets and workout. Now we all know (or have heard of) Einstein’s greatest physical theory: The Theory of Relativity. You don’t know it you say? Well what if I state it like this: E=mc². Now that you know what I am talking about, let’s get to know this theory a little better.

Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory

One part of Einstein’s theory (and believe it or not this is linked to the equation above) is the phenomenon known as time dilation. In laymen’s terms, this states that time for a moving object moves slower than time for an object at rest. This means if you synchronize a watch on Earth and keep it still (well, relative to the Earth’s motion which we’ll assume is zero) with a watch that is going to be moving really fast (like…half the speed of light), time will move slower for the watch in motion and therefore tick slower than the watch at rest.

Since we are the cool scientists, we will run an experiment by getting on a spaceship with the watch and leave at midnight on Jan 1^st already going our speed. We travel around space for a year, training hard to keep ourselves occupied, and we return at exactly midnight on Jan 1^st, according to our watch. We have aged a year, our training plan for the year is done, we set a bunch of new PRs (on the trainer and treadmill :/), and we are ready to do our New Year’s marathon we missed last year. When we land, we look at the watch we left here on Earth and it says Feb 25, 11:10 am. WTF?!?!?! These watches were perfectly synched and were proven to keep time perfectly!!! What happened?

NERD ALERT: I had to pull out my Modern Physics for a little review but I will try to simplify it as best I can…mostly for my sake. (Yep, got a C in that class….barely!!)

Time dilation is what happened. According to theory, the time difference between a stationary object and a moving object is:   Δt’ = Δt / √(1-(v²/c²)) where Δt’ is the change in time for the stationary object and Δt and v are the change in time and velocity for the moving object, respectively. Since speed is in the denominator, the faster the speed of an object the slower time goes.

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT……back to English and triathlon.

What does this mean to triathlon and how would Einstein have used it to his advantage? It means that when you are doing that REALLY  fast interval and you look down at your watch and the seconds seem to just stick and laugh at you before ticking again, it is partly due to time dilation. That’s the same reason why those slow rest intervals seem to just fly by…time is ACTUALLY moving faster for you when you’re going slow!!!

Einstein would have known this through his research and he wouldn’t have gotten discouraged or scared by those intervals that tended to linger on. He would have kept his motivation up by thinking “Man this interval seems really long, I must be going SOOO FAST!!!” and he would have never skipped an interval again!! By doing all of his intervals, he would have been able to get faster than those that got discouraged and shortened, or even skipped, their speed work.

NOTE: The speed of light is roughly 670,616,629 mph. If you spent your entire life on a Boeing 747 at max speed (604 mph) and lived for 100 years exactly (to the second according to your watch), you would actually be 100 years and 0.00128 seconds according to a watch that was stationary. But when you’re in zone 5, an extra 1E-21 second seems like an eternity. 😉

P.S. This is the last of the nerdy ones for this series so if I lost you, don’t be afraid of the next ones.

Einstein Would’ve Been a Triathlete

Albert Einstein is probably one of the most well known scientists and probably one of the most outrageous theoretical physicists of the 20^th century. He developed the general theory of relativity, discovered the law of photoelectric effect, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics . He was a genius and is praised to this day. ButI believe, in today’s culture, Einstein would have been made a great triathlete.

Over the next few posts I think I will convince you too that his thoughts and ideas would have provoked him to partake in the multisport lifestyle. I’m not sure how far he would have gotten with that hair, or if it would have even fit under a swim cap, but using some of his most well known ideas he would have been able to formulate his own path to success in the sport.

To start, he worked at a patent office as a young man as an assistant examiner evaluating patent applications. In the early 1900’s, he saw many electromagnetic devices come through his office which may explain some of his future endeavors. I think that if he were to have worked in the patent offices today (or should I say 20 years ago), he would have seen carbon fiber this and aerodynamic frame that and maybe, just maybe, he would have fallen in love with the advanced bicycle machines we have the privilege to ride today. Not only that, but the shark skin suits (now illegal :/)  and the advances in shoe technology would have been coming through his office.

Imagine with me, a young physicist working behind a counter trying to throw a wrench in all of these designs. With his drive and passion, he wouldn’t have had anywhere to turn but to the streets and the water to try these tools of wonder for himself. He would have immediately fallen in love with the sport, the people, and adopted a new lifestyle as those who join the ranks of triathlete tend to do.

Now that we’ve got Mr. Einstein sucked into our little game, he has nowhere to go but up. He would use his theories and ideas to propel himself forward in the sport. I will share with you some of his ideas that I believe would have allowed him to excel at the sport. Hopefully these ideas will motivate you, inspire you, and maybe even make you think about your multisport training and lifestyle.

Thanks to top10thebest.com for the picture and some really good quotes from a man that knew more about life than science.

2013: A look at the numbers.

I would say that 2013 was a pretty successful year for me with some big accomplishments. These accomplishments came through a lot of hard work and a year full of training. Thanks to the USMS Fitness Log system and Strava, I am able to log and look back at my numbers for the year. My total training time is logged to be 428 hours covering 3,650.9 miles for 2013.

In all of that training I had several accomplishments and breakthroughs in my. Some to note were:

• New personal record for 100 SCY swim of 1:06.
• Longest swim ever of 7,525 yards.
• Longest ride ever of 82.2 miles.
• First sub 1:10-400 meter lap since high school.

A year full of training would not be complete without the accomplishments made during racing. Here is a list of some of the biggest racing accomplishments I achieved in 2013:

• Completed first ever Half Marathon in a time of 1:22:13.3.
• Completed first ever Half Ironman in a time of 4:51:46.6.
• Set two Olympic Distance personal records; 2:05:30 in March and 2:01:52 in August.
• 76^th Overall place at first USAT National Championship appearance.
• First sub one hour Olympic Distance bike split.
• Qualified for 2014 Team USA and ITU World Championships in Edmonton.
• First ever swim meet (1500 SCM in 21:48.14).
  
  

This last year was also a very big and exciting year for me because Iwas selected to be a member of the Endurance
Films Racing Team and given the chance to represent Endurance Films and all of their fine sponsors. With the sponsorship I have gotten several goodies that are of the highest quality an athlete can get. Some of the things I have received from them are:

• Endurance Films RIDES DVDs (my trainer buddies keep begging me to bring these).
  
• Endurance Films Cycling Fitness Results (another requested series from the trainer group).
• Champion Systems racing kit, hat, jacket, and beanie (keep me racing fast and looking good.)
• AquaSphere goggles (clear as glass and oh so comfortable!!).

It has been a pleasure representing them and I hope to continue representing them throughout the next year and for years to come.

Believe it or not, there is more to life than training and racing and sometimes the accomplishments outside of the water and off the road make your multi-sport life that much more fulfilling. Some personal changes that happened to me last year were:

• Moved to Irvine, CA for a new job.
• Started my blog (this is mostly tri-related but I have more than tri stuff on there).
• Re-kindled my passion for aerospace and flying and seriously started progressing to earning my private pilot’s license.
• Moved into a place with my wonderful girlfriend, Julie, and her dog, Tucker.

The year started out for me in a new place with few friends or connections. Thankfully there is no paucity of multi-sport athletes in Southern California and I was soon surrounded by new training partners and friends. The beautiful weather of my new surroundings has been very conducive to a successful season and my continuing offseason preparation for a new year of racing and reaching my goals.

I look forward to 2014 and the many dreams I wish to accomplish. They say that two of the best ways to achieve your goals is to 1) write them down and 2) share them with others. Well, here’s for killing two birds with one stone:

• Break 2 hours in an Olympic Distance Triathlon.
• Go sub 4:30 in my 70.3 distance races.
• Complete my first Century ride (100 miles…not metric century).
• Complete 10 hill running workouts in preparation for Wildflower half distance.
• Compete in 3 swim meets (800 SCY, SCM, or LCM or above).

I am excited to continue sharing my journey with you through the next year. I hope that I can pass on some good stories, knowledge, and passion for the multi-sport lifestyle to you in the upcoming year. Until next time, I hope you have a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Remember, Train Smart and Recover Hard.

So, What is Recover Hard?!

If you’ve been reading my posts you’ve probably seen (at least I hope I’ve been able to grab your attention enough to get the end) my signature that I have put at the end of the majority of my posts. For those of you who fell asleep before making that far or are just new to my blog, here it is: “Remember, train smart and recover hard.”

Train smart has become a pretty popular thing to see with lots of articles about training smarter not harder to avoid overtraining, injury, and burn out. I have to say that I believe in the methodology that most of these articles talk about when it comes to progressing your training through various cycles and putting your body through different stresses to accomplish the best results as fast as possible with fewer injuries.

Now you are probably saying “Ok, Ok, I get that one!! Now, how the heck do you recover hard?!?! Isn’t that supposed to be the easy part?” Well there are a couple of reasons why I like to remember to “recover hard” during my recovery phases of training.

The first and hardest part about recovering is the mental aspect of the recovery phase which has two parts to it. First of all, it is easy to look at a recovery work out and say “I don’t feel like going on that easy swim/bike/run. I’ll just rest.” Well that is fine and dandy if you are looking for rest but if you are trying to recover from the last hard training session you are better off doing that light recovery work to help your muscles recover faster. (Rest and recovery are not the same thing…Did I just blow your mind?!?! More on this topic later.) That means you have to do the hard thing and get out there and do that easy workout. (Seems contradictory, huh? :-I)

Second, as triathlete’s we are naturally driven to excel and always want to get the most out of our time and workouts. This often translates into pushing too hard during a workout, causing more fatigue, and not being ready for the next planned hard session. I have too often found myself half way through an easy workout feeling outstanding and deciding to push it just a little too much. Pretty much every time, I find myself at the next big workout not being able to push as hard as I wanted because I had not adequately recovered during my previous workout.

During my recovery workouts I mentally force myself to “recover hard” and go easy through the entire workout. These are sometimes the hardest mental workouts I have for the week because I am constantly checking my breathing and heart rate to keep them in check. Doing this however is not only good for recovery but it helps with pacing as well and teaches you how to hold back during a long race so you will have the energy for that extra effort at the end.

Next, your muscles are rebuilt during the recovery phase and, if done correctly, this can be done faster and harder than being stagnant rest. Even though the work on your part is done after a hard training session, the work has just begun for your body to rebuild the muscles you just broke down. Doing these lighter workouts increases blood flow to the muscles bringing fresh oxygen and nutrients to the muscles without overly fatiguing or breaking them down. This increased blood flow and decreased fatigue allows the muscles to recover faster and harder than without a light workout.

Lastly, I find that after my recovery days is when I sleep the hardest. It seems contradicting but after a hard day of training I tend to be restless and want to continue moving even though I am so very fatigued. On the contrary, after a good recovery day (usually following a hard work out and a restless night) I find that I sleep like a rock (which is pretty hard) which promotes the whole muscle rebuilding thing mentioned earlier.

All in all, I think training smart is the first key to having a good training year and continually improving. All too often however, too much emphasis is put on the hard workouts and much of this hard work is not “soaked” up by your muscles because they are not adequately recovered before you go out to break them down again. Remember to recover hard and you will get the most out of those dreaded sessions that make you cringe. One day you will find yourself improving so quickly that you actually look forward to those breakthrough workouts just so you can have the opportunity to (insert cheesy melody here)…..

Train Smart and Recover Hard.

When have you made it?

When have you made it?
Is it when you are standing at the edge of the water about to begin?
Or maybe it is when you have finished that grueling swim?
Or is it when you are running down the finish chute with the masses cheering you in?

When have you made it?
Perhaps it is simpler than making it through a race.
Maybe it is just finishing a workout at your goal pace;
Or waking up early enough to actually lift some weights.

When have you made it?
It can be a simple thing to complete;
And is not reserved for the only the elite;
But it can only be achieved by those who won’t cheat.

When have you made it?
It is followed by a sense of honor and great joy;
But all too often leaves you with a void;
And calls you to come back to you have enjoyed.

So, when have you made it?

Weekly Review 11/11 to 11/17

This week started off with the lingering sickness from the previous weekend ruining my Monday workout plans. I woke up for swimming after 9+ hours of sleep and still felt exhausted with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and head in the sky feeling. After a great internal struggle, I got back into bed and fell right back asleep. I knew something was up because when I usually do that I lay and ponder about how the other guy is doing his workout right now and getting faster than me but this time I fell right back asleep.

By mid-afternoon I was feeling a lot better but didn’t want to risk it and took the afternoon off as well to ensure that I had really kicked this thing in the butt. I took the time to catch up on some reading and finished my flight ground school which was really exciting even though I still have some practice with charts and weather briefings before I will feel comfortable taking the ground test .:/

Tuesday morning I was up and at’em dark and early to meet the group for the trainer ride I do. I brought my Florida Rides DVD from Endurance Films and we got a good hard interval ride in. It was a good change of pace from the technique and strength workouts we have been doing. The hard work was nice and allowed us to practice some of the technique we had been working on under real load.

Wednesday I decided to do something pretty crazy…I ran to work!!! (Well I actually made the decision Tuesday and brought clothes and my lunch for Wednesday but whatever.) Granted I only live 4.5 miles from my house but that makes for a 9 mile day by the time I get home. If you think people look at you crazy when you show up on your bike, imagine the looks I got when I walked through the door (and left) in my running shorts, shoes, and little camelback pack I used to carry my keys, wallet, work id, etc. I got some pretty crazy looks and some ataboys when I was asked what I was doing.

The end of the week brought some really warm weather (>85^o F) and funky winds that made my allergies go absolutely bonkers. I usually don’t have a problem with but for some reason or another I was totally grounded by something in the air and had a hard time until I finally got some allergy medicine in me on Saturday morning.

Enough excuses had been made this week already and after finally finishing our DIY projects from a few weeks past I decided I was going to do my longer ride with a run after that I had promised myself I would do. This could be the last weekend to do a long workout before my half in December with moving next weekend and the Thanksgiving holiday coming up. (I’m still gonna try to sneak one in next weekend…Shhh!! Don’t tell. :D)

I pulled down The Shiv and went out for a 46 mile ride where I kept my heart rate in zone 3-4 for the majority of the way (even up most of the hills) only letting myself go into the upper regions of zone 4 toward the end of the ride going up the last few hills. This was followed by a 3 mile run at my recently comfortable 6:27/mile pace with plenty of gas left in the tank. Granted it is a pretty flat course I have been running but the race in December is going to flat as well. I am hoping that I can translate this training pace into the longer distance with the help of a little more calories consumed and the adrenaline of the race atmosphere to get me through the last few miles.

I would say it was a pretty good week filled with some good workouts and some good rest. Hopefully this upcoming week will be better than ever since I have seem to found my motivation to get out on the road and not just the pool.

Remember, train smart and recover hard.

 Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 10,400 yds (~5.9 miles)/ 3.3 hours
Bike: 57 miles/ 3.5 hours
Run: 12.1 miles/ 1.25 hours
Strength: 1 hour

Weekly Review 10/28 – 11/03

So I was supposed to start ramping up the miles to start building my base this week and getting ready for my second ever 70.3 race the second weekend of December. Notice how I said supposed to. Unfortunately my post season/winter (it’s rough in SoCal let me tell you) lethargic streak is continuing and I am having trouble getting out of this rut.

I’m sure it will hit me soon but the 70.3 distance just isn’t intimidating me as much as I had hoped it would and help me kick start the base period. The early darkness that looms for the next several months probably won’t help with that, or will it? I have been looking forward to putting that thick rubber trainer tire on the bike and riding it until it gets paper thin while enjoying some sports and/or movies on the boob tube. I’m planning to ride the road bike inside during the week and break out the tri bike for some long rides on the weekend. I figured it would make for a nice change of pace and keep me looking forward to the miles on the road. Heck, it might even encourage me to actually run a few miles during the week.

Anywho, this is supposed to be about my week not winter training (post idea!!!). So, as you all know, this was Halloween week and that gave me yet another excuse to skip a workout or two. J I didn’t really feel like I skipped anything because, of course, I swam on Thursday morning and Julie and I went to the ballroom to dance the night away with all of the other ghouls and goblins that showed up.

We just graduated from the beginner Lindy Hop lessons we were taking and we were ready to give it a shot with some of the regulars. We had heard a rumor that Thursdays were West Coast swing so we hit up the beginner lesson before the dance and learned a few moves. We were a little blown away by some of the people but by the end of the night we were mixing some Lindy with West Coast and teaching everyone on the dance floor a thing or two….Well, maybe not but we got the hang of it and felt pretty comfortable with our few moves by the end of the night. We even rocked our Lederhosen and Dirndl we got last year when we were in Germany for Oktoberfest and got 2^nd place in the ensemble costume contest.

Dirndl and Lederhosen ready to go out trick or treating!!!

As far as workouts go there isn’t much exciting to write about. I did do a double on Sunday with a bike ride after my swim. The ride was cut short because I was having some mechanical issues with the tri bike. I had to adjust the brakes since the aero wheels were on it the last time I rode it. Well, I didn’t get them quite tight enough and didn’t have very responsive braking. That really limited where I could go since I didn’t want to end up careening down a hill through traffic unable to stop. I managed to get a good little ride in and felt satisfied for the time being. I’ll try to have more to report on the training next week for you all.

Weekly Numbers:

Swim:  16,500 yards (~9.4 miles)/5.5 hours
Bike: 20.8 miles/2.5 hours (trainer said I did 42.5 miles in an hour…hmm?)
Run: 3.1 miles/.3 hours
Strength: .75 hours

For the Total Newb: Transitions

Transitions are often referred to as the fourth sport of triathlon and for good reason. Too often newbs think “Oh, that’s the easy part. I’ll just figure it out when I get there.” WRONG!!! There is no time in the morning before the race to figure things out between finding a good spot, standing in line for the bathroom, getting body marked, standing in line for the bathroom, warming up, and, did I mention, standing in line for the bathroom. All that while being surrounded by the nervous energy of several hundred other athletes and you will be lucky to make it to the start line with your wetsuit if you don’t have a plan.

Competitive triathletes practice transitioning over and over again to get their routine straight and capable of doing it fast with what little brain power they have after swimming and biking all that way. The shorter the race the more crucial a smooth transition (notice I don’t say fast) because you have less time to catch up with your competition. You may be sitting there thinking, “But I’m not competitive, why should I care?” Two reasons: 1) If you cut off 30 seconds per transition how many places would you have moved up in your race? If it were a sprint, I’d say there is a good chance it would be quite a few. 2) Having a smooth transition sets you up for the rest of your race to be smooth. If you fumble through transition, you will reminisce over it throughout your race and you won’t be thinking about holding good form.

If you are new to triathlon and just want to make it through your first transition smoothly, this is the post for you. I’ll talk about speed and some of the little tricks I use to get on with the race in seconds in a later post. Here are my 3 simple rules that I follow for transition:
1. Have a plan.
2. Keep it simple. (No lattes, sponge baths, and definitely NO Nudity!!)
3. Slow is SMOOTH; smooth is FAST.

Rule No. 1 is all about the plan and thinking about getting on or off the bike as quickly, simply, and efficiently as possible. Run through in your mind and visualize yourself transitioning; this would be a good time to practice too if it’s not the night before the race. :p Plan out all of the things you will need and where to set them up for you to comfortably get through the next leg of the race. Just remember that “Plans are nothing, planning is everything” and be prepared for the unexpected. (This is where I throw in that there is no such thing as a perfect race and you will mess something up along the way…it’s how you deal with it that really separates the greats.)

The next rule is all about simplifying your life in the transition area. You won’t have much room to work with, so the less you have the better. I also find that I don’t have much brain power to work with in transition (INSERT SMART REMARK HERE) and having less junk around keeps from confusing me. You don’t need to have a drink set up for after the swim, that’s what water bottle cages are for, and unless your feet are super sensitive, don’t worry about having a bucket to wash your feet off. Prepare yourself to do a triathlon; not a swim followed by a bike followed by a run. This means that you should be ready to bike and run in the same outfit you swan in. Some Ironmans will provide changing areas but I have never seen one at an Olympic or sprint race. No deck changes and absolutely no nudity allowed in the transition area. If you want to put bike shorts on over your suit (ladies) or throw a biking jersey that you didn’t want to swim in (fellas), go for it but make sure you have your number pinned on before the race. Oh, and make sure you don’t pin your shirt together (ANDREW!!!!). 😀

Lastly, my favorite rule is all about making sure you don’t scuffle around and cost yourself precious time. If someone asks you to tie your shoes, you would bend over and tie them in about 30 seconds. Now, if someone asks you to tie your shoes in 15 seconds, you would probably rush through, fumble around, and end up taking 45 seconds to tie your shoes. Weird huh?! The same thing goes in transition (oh and add the fact that you’re heart rate is elevated, your hands may be frozen from the swim, and you’re dripping wet). I’ve found that the best way to get through the transition area quickly is to be smooth. This entails having a SIMPLE PLAN and knowing how to execute it without much thought or effort. Too often I see people trying to hurry and they end up getting in their own way and fumbling around like a kid playing Operation….BZZZZ!!! Go smooth and you’d be surprised at how much faster your transition will be even though it seems to take a lot longer.

A smooth transition will allow you to flow through your race with ease and will calm your nerves before the next leg of your race. Transitioning can be difficult but with a little fore thought and preparation it can be the easiest part of your race. Without a plan you will likely fumble around wasting time and you may even forget a crucial requirement that could cost you a time penalty or worse, a DQ. Check out some videos online of the professionals or, better yet, volunteer at a local race, get a job near the transition area, and watch transitions occur right before your very eyes. I’m sure you will be amazed at how quickly some of the transitions go with no effort while others struggle and never seem to make it back to the race.

Remember, train smart and recover hard.