Cross Country Skiers have Fabulous First Triathlon

Finally received the detailed results from the Island Lake of Novi Sprint Triathlon. All the NordicSkiRacers in the Triathlon did great in our age categories, but I always like to compare myself to the winning time as well.

The swim was half a mile, the bike was 12 miles, and the run was around a 5K. There were 253 competitors. Of those, 5 dropped out after the first or second leg.

Race Times

NordicSkiRacer	Swim	Trans	Bike	Trans	Run	Total
Winning Time	10:19	1:30	28:21	:49	16:58	57:56
Ryan Robinson	16:53	1:19	29:40	1:19	17:34	1:06:44
Yvon Dufour	16:24	1:43	31:44	:33	19:23	1:09:45
Mike Muha	16:11	2:54	31:58	1:18	22:33	1:14:53
Greg Worrel	17:01	2:57	35:29	2:23	26:11	1:23:59

My claim to fame is that I beat my fellow NordicSkiRacers in the swim, and I am probably the least experienced swimmer! Both Ryan and Greg gave me some good technique tips that helped. I also was told about "Total Immersion" swimming by a former pro-triathlete whom I discovered at work. I read the free chapters on the web site from the book "Triathlon Swimming Made Easy" (Terry Laughlin) and picked up some pointers that seemed to make me faster both in practice and in the race. The books was all about technique and minimizing resistance through the water rather than on using power to go fast.

I was very happy with the bike leg. Given the wet roads, I took the corners conservatively. I was happy with an average speed of 22.5 mph. The run? I was hoping for sub-7:30 minute miles. Oh so close...

My first transition was slow. Since I had not swum in a tri-top in practice, I decided not to wear it in the swim leg of the race. Instead, I attempted to put it on over my wet body before getting on the bike. The first attempt, I missed one of the arm holes and had to pull the top completely off! The arms went into the right holes on the second try, but the top stuck tight to the middle of my wet back and I struggled to get it down.

I'll be practicing swimming with the tri-top tonight. Now if I can just get my transition time down to Yvon's incredible 33 seconds...

Overall Rank and Pace

NordicSkiRacer	Swim Rank	Bike Rank	Bike pace (mph)	Run Rank	Run pace	Overall Rank
Winning Time	1	2	25.4	3	5:40	1
Ryan Robinson	101	4	24.3	6	5:52	7
Yvon Dufour	82	17	22.7	13	6:28	13
Mike Muha	72	19	22.5	70	7:31	37
Greg Worrel	106	77	20.3	151	8:44	105

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Both Ryan and Yvon had awesome races: a 7th and 13th overall! Two NordicSkiRacers in the top 15! Both had substantially faster run times than me, and Ryan crushed both Yvon and me on the bike.

Feeding for the race went as planned. I had a bagel and cream cheese about three hours before race time, took 3 Race Cap Supremes an hour before the race, then had a water bottle containing HEED on the bike. Never ran out of energy; felt I could have kept on going.

For this coming weekend's triathlon, I'm trying Race Day Boost. The event is probably a little short for Race Day Boost, but I wanted to try it under intense racing conditions well before cross country ski racing season rolls around...

V2 Skating on the Vasa Ergometer

We've continued on with our little friendly competition on the Vasa Ergometer, experimenting with different exercises. Mounting the Ergometer on the wall has greatly expanded the possibilities. Not only can you work the upper body and abs with the Ergometer, but you can add in your legs!

Hugh doing V2 on the Vasa Ergometer

We did a "100 meter" sprint doing V2 - arms and legs. Crunch the abs, drive the knee forward and down, pull through while turning the knee to the inside, finish the poling as you "skate" onto the other foot, recover, repeat. In some ways, it's easier to work on V2 technique while using the Ergometer than it is on rollerskis:

• Balance is less of an issue, so you can focus more on technique
• You don't have to worry about falling
• Your coach (fellow skiers in our case) can easily look for technique flaws from multiple angles simply by taking a few steps around you, and provide instant advice.

No coach? Here's a couple other ideas:

• Put a mirror in front of the Ergometer
• Hook up a tripod-mounted video camera to a PC or TV. If you have a long enough cable, you can change from a front view to a side view.

One skier had his hands to close together in front. Another was hopping from ski to ski instead of driving the knee down and in. Another was skating off the power ski onto the gliding ski before the poling motion was finished. These were all problems that could be easily identified and corrected using the Ergometer.

By the way, when you use your total body - upper, abs, and lower - the exercise gets harder and your heart rate heads north. In the table below, you'll notice that the time to do 100 meters significantly increases if you add in the legs. Why? First, the timing changes: you tend not to pole as frequently when you add in the legs. Second, even though your legs are moving, they're not actually generating any forward momentum. Finally, the energy expended in the legs reduces the energy available for the arms.

We tried V1 as well. I found V1 a little more awkward, partly because I never use V1 except on uphills. I think putting down a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood on an incline in front of the Ergometer to simulate a hill would be a very interesting enhancement. Body angles and timing change as you go from flats to hills, and it would be easy to focus on those changes with the Ergometer.

Here's our recent personal bests. Garret, at 9 years old, becomes our youngest competitor! (**indicates Garrett competed at the 1st resistance setting):

Personal Bests on Wall- Mounted Vasa Ergometer (Best score in bold. * indicates improved score).

	Level	Mike	Greg	Hugh	Spencer	Garrett**
Fixed Distance		Time
100m Doublepole	3	1:09*	1:06	1:21	1:15	1:46
100m Single Pole	3	1:23*	1:20	1:14	1:26	2:04
100m V2 with legs	3	2:39	1:43	2:03	2:20	1:55
Fixed Time		Distance
Doublepole - 3 minutes	1	231m	235m	-	-	-
Doublepole - 4 minutes	3	319m	-	-	-	-
Single Pole - 4 minutes	1	260m	-	-	-	-

So what's the difference between using the Vasa Erg as it ships (horizontally) versus mounting it on the wall? Everything!

No more pain...

Through most of this spring and summer, I've been running sporadically at best - maybe a run every couple of weeks. And every time I ran, I'd be sore for days after.

With my decision to do a couple triathlons, I increased my running frequency and - guess what! - no more pain.

I should have known better.

If you're coming off one sport and getting ready to get on your rollerskis, or start weight training, or begin ski walking, plan on being sore the first few times you go out. But don't let it get you down - the soreness will go away with frequency of exercise.

Weight training always kills me when I start out after a long delay. No matter how easy the first session, I'm sore for days. But after three or four sessions, the soreness lessens. After a month, I never get sore. Instead, my muscles get pleasantly tired.

And how about you? Kids, work and family been keeping you busy? No exercise whatsoever? Still planning on skiing this winter? Get out for some short workouts - a half and hour here, a half an hour there. You'll be sore, but the more frequently you get, the sooner the soreness disappears. A single big session once a week is going go be much more painful.

The key? Frequency. Your body gets used to something if you do it two of three times a week. It adapts and expects the stress. If you wait too long between similar exercise, your body loses any adaptation, and you have to start all over again.