A Life Without Limits by Chrissie Wellington was simply a book without much excitement. Although intriguing and various points of the book, this journey through Chrissie Wellington's life takes most of the book to get going. I was initially excited to get to the stories of this 4 time Ironman World Champion's Kona accounts, but found myself dragging myself slowly through the first half of the book, bored by the stories of continuous career changes and travel logs.
Read MoreWith today’s ever-growing plethora of technological training and racing aids, it can sometimes create a bit of a headache when choosing what devices to use while training. From GPS to Power Meters to non-electric swim aids, there are so many training helps out there.
Read MoreThis is what my training schedule had looked like leading up to the 2017 Canadian Standard Distance Championships. Visibly vacant and unfulfilled. There’s a lot of incomplete (red). There was no glitch in the system, nor did my Garmin stop working. On May 16th, I felt the first pull of tightness on my IT band during a cross country workout. I made it through the workout and thought nothing of it, keeping up with my regular volume and intensity. This was my second mistake. On May 19th, I was 10 km out on my long run when a sharp pain ran down my leg and caused me to default to a limp/hobble 10 km back to the starting point. I knew my IT band was damaged, but I had no idea how bad it would turn out to be. To make matters worse, when I got back to the starting point, the gym doors were locked, with my car keys inside. I proceeded to run another 4 km home on a bum leg. The next morning I couldn’t bend my leg without excruciating pain and could not walk at all. Clearly this was not good.
Read MoreSince I began to race, I have always been fortunate enough to have the full support of my family and friends. For 99% of my races, I have had a spectator cheering me on, whether it be a cross country race, cycling race or triathlon of any distance from a try-a-tri to full Ironman. As much as I appreciate the support, as a competitor its easy to forget just what a spectator experiences during a given event.
Read MoreFor the first time, I really don’t know where to start this one. I really can’t even begin to describe how I ended up here. My first World Championship experience was a surreal and humbling one. I've had a week to let it sit and sink in. I will apologize now for the probably super long write up (edit: it ended up being super long). As always, the purpose of these is for me to look back years down the road and remember or be re-inspired by these events... Or to cringe at the dated references and linguistics. If anyone can benefit from these, all the better! I've split this race report summary lets call it a diary entry, into two manageable chunks; a prologue outlining my journey to get to worlds and a main article elaborating on race week itself.
Read MoreWith the busy schedule that so many triathletes have, efficient training is key to a successful training and racing season. Are you effective with your time?
T1Triathlon asked High Performance Team member, Yume Kobayashi: How do you make time in your busy schedule for training? This is Yume's response:
Read MoreThe world is a very busy place. It seems that as time moves on there are more and more things that keep us occupied. From busy jobs to family and social life, it is often difficult to find the time to train for that upcoming race season.
Elite level age groupers are no exception, and often wish they had more time through the day to take care of their careers, families, and preparing for that upcoming World Championship.
We asked our T1Triathlon High Performance Athletes: How do you make time out of your busy schedule for training?
Read MoreI don't even know where to start with this race. Saying it was hot just seems so underwhelming. It was super mega death man hot. There, that's a better explanation. The day started just like any other race - woke up, ate breakfast, shuttled to the race site, set up transition, waited till start. Except for one small detail; the waiting around for the race to start ended up being three hours of waiting in the scorching heat and humidity. Athletes were all piling in under any piece of shade they could find to stay out of the sun until their race start. It still baffles me that we had to wait that long, but with thousands of athletes going off at different times during the day, it was just very unfortunate that I was in one of the last groups to go off. The current was quite aggressive that day and some of the weaker swimmers were actually being pulled from the ocean with a time of over 45 minutes for 750 meters! Just wild.
Read MoreDream. Travel. Race. That's exactly what I did back at the beginning of this decade. I had been training and competing in triathlon for a few years when I decided to make myself a goal. My wife and I had always enjoyed travelling, but I had never thought about combining two of my most favourite things.
I set the goal to qualify for the ITU World Championships. In fact, I gave myself a goal to accomplish this within 5 years. I trained extremely hard, and won the National Championships in my age group. Qualifying for the Age Group World Championships was one of the greatest accomplishments I have ever had. It was an absolute amazing experience that are difficult to put into words.
Read MoreThe racing season is nearly upon us. As you prepare physically for the racing season ahead, do not forget the psychological preparation and thought you need to put into your training as you prepare your mind for the activity ahead.
T1Triathlon High Performance Team Manager has 4 crucial things you should think about before even toeing the line.
Read More“Having won the 25-29 Age Group Sprint Canadian Championships in Edmonton last year, I qualified for a spot on the Canadian team for the 2013 ITU Age Group World Championships.
Read MoreSince an early age I have been involved in endurance sport. I was the completely wacky and abnormal kid who at the age of 15 would get up at 5 am, grab my golf clubs, hop on my bike, ride to the golf course in a tiny town in Southern Alberta, and get a round of golf in before ANYONE showed up. I’d then cycle all the way home, throw on the running shoes and go for a 10K run. Upon returning I’d grab my board shorts, head to the pool, teach some swimming lessons and spend the afternoon honing my lifeguard skills (aka basking in the sun and working on developing skin cancer). I really spent every minute trying to do as many things as I could. I was doing slow-cycling races with my best middle school friend before I even knew it was an actual way of training for killer cycling skills. You know the drill: ride in a straight line from point A to point B as slowly as humanly possible. Much easier now as an adult, but BOY! When you are an awkward 12 year old boy, riding your bike slowly is a recipe for some good comical viewing, BUT also the development of some SWEEEET cycling skills.
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