Ironman Arizona Coverage: Wellington Highlights Stacked Field
November 18, 2010
A Superstar Professional Field to Race at Ford Ironman Arizona
Published on Ironman.com November 15, 2010
The seventh edition of Ford Ironman Arizona includes one of the strongest professional fields a domestic Ironman event has seen in years. The men’s race is highlighted by defending champion, Jordan Rapp, Denmark’s Rasmus Henning, Germany’s Maik Twelsiek and Americans Chris Lieto and Matt Reed. An equally stacked women’s field includes Great Britain’s Chrissie Wellington (pictured winning Ironman 70.3 Timberman) and Rachel Joyce, Canadian Heather Wurtele, Hungarian Erika Csomor and American Linsey Corbin.
Rapp, of the U.S., is back to defend his Ford Ironman Arizona title and the course record he set last year. He was involved in a severe bike accident in March and this is one of his first races since the incident. Henning, who spent eight years on the Olympic-distance circuit, finished first at Ironman China and fifth at the Ford Ironman World Championship in 2009, his first year of full-distance racing. After finishing 23rd in Kona last month, Henning is hoping to end the year with a top placement in Tempe. Twelsiek celebrated his first Ironman victory at Ford Ironman Wisconsin in 2007 and won at Ford Ironman Lake Placid in 2009. Lieto has finished in the top 10 at the Ford Ironman World Championship three times, highlighted by a second-place finish in 2009. This year, Lieto took the titles at K-Swiss Ironman 70.3 Kansas, Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake and Ironman 70.3 Vineman. Reed, a skilled short-course triathlete and Olympian, hopes to find success in his first attempt at the full distance.
Wellington, a three-time Ironman World Champion, surprised many when she pulled out of this year’s Ford Ironman World Championship on race morning due to illness. Ford Ironman Arizona marks her first time racing in a domestic qualifier event. Corbin’s resume includes a fifth-place finish at the 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship and the win at this year’s Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene, her first full-distance title. In 2008, during her second year as a pro, Wurtele won Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene with a time of 9:38:58. Csomor, the winner of the April 2008 edition of this race, is also a title holder at Ironman 70.3 Austria and Ironman 70.3 California. Last year, Joyce placed third at Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa, second at Ironman Lanzarote Canarias and, most notably, sixth at Ford Ironman World Championship. She returned to Kona this year and again claimed sixth place.
Approximately 2,500 athletes representing 50 states and 30 countries are expected to race in the seventh-annual event. Ford Ironman Arizona offers a total professional prize purse of $50,000 and 65 qualifying slots to the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championship, to be held in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on Oct. 8, 2011.
USA Triathlon Announces 2010 Coaches of the Year
November 17, 2010
USA Triathlon announced Wednesday that three of the top multisport coaches in the United States – Melissa Mantak, Keith Dickson and Beth Sanden – have been honored as the 2010 USA Triathlon Coaches of the Year.
Mantak (from Denver, Colo.) was chosen as USA Triathlon’s National Coach of the Year; Dickson (Geneva, Ill.) was honored as the Developmental Coach of the year; and Sanden (San Clemente, Calif.) was selected as the Volunteer Coach of the Year.
A USA Triathlon-certified Level III coach and a former standout athlete on the international level, Mantak guided two of the top U.S. elite triathletes – Matt Chrabot and Jillian Petersen – to outstanding 2010 campaigns. Chrabot finished the ITU World Championship Series as the top-ranked American and 12th overall. He posted the top WCS finish for a U.S. athlete in 2010 with a fourth-place showing in Kitzbühel, Austria, and closed his season by earning his second career PATCO Pan American Championship title in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Petersen, who was third at this year’s Pan American Championship, finished 2010 as the No. 4 American and 32nd overall in the WCS series rankings
Dickson, has coached more than 100 youth and junior athletes as a part of the Multisport Madness Triathlon Team, including some of the top up-and-coming multisport athletes in the U.S. Among Dickson’s athletes are five of the six members of the U.S. team for the 2010 ITU Junior World Championship, as well as a pair of Youth Olympic Games medalists – Kevin McDowell (silver) and Kelly Whitley (bronze). Additionally, McDowell took bronze at the ITU Junior World Championship, and Whitley and Lukas Verzbicas finished fourth. Ben Kanute was the winner at the 2010 USA Triathlon Junior Elite National Championship, while Multisport Madness earned the 2010 Development Team National Championship and Youth Club National Championship titles.
There are currently more than 1,800 USA Triathlon-certified coaches in the U.S.
Ironman Florida Race Tracking
November 5, 2010
So the race is finally here! Pretty psyched actually. Other than the wind which I hope will die down a bit for tomorrow the conditions should be near perfect.
In the event someone out there is reading this blog and actually wants to follow the race, you can do so by going to Ironman Live to view it. I’m bib #1442. You can also track me at:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0hvl2dqKZdqPoZQuNv9kKphgC6omaQC1M
This will give you a :10 delay gps positioning of me on the course; bike and run. You won’t actually see any data on that link until I hit the on but getting ready to head out on the bike.
Fingers crossed!
Southwest Airlines
November 4, 2010
Okay, let me just say that I love Southwest Airlines. I showed up to the counter with my bike box, two large bags and my carry-on laptop bag. I payed $50 for the bike; that was it! And now I get to the gate and they have specially made, large, cushioned seats with outlets for laptops, or phones, or whatever! Now why can’t all airlines follow suit?
Can’t believe the race is finally here. Three days until the off-season. I really don’t feel as though I’ve been training hard for the past twelve months and to be honest and am not sure how I’m going to deal with taking an extended break from training; three weeks of absolutely nothing…I’m hoping this will let my lingering calf strain finally heal.
It’s funny, as I look around I see a few people who are wearing their “Ironman” clothing from other races. I always wonder why people are so into wearing these clothes to races as if to say “look at me”. Who cares! You spend a ton of money not only on the races, travel but also on Ironman clothing that is ridiculously over-priced. Yes, I will admit I am guilty of this to some degree; buying some of those clothes. But I would never one to wear these things while traveling, etc.
Social Media and the World Triathlon Corporation…
October 29, 2010
On October 27th, the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), announced a new program called “Ironman Access”. This new Ironman Access membership program was to be an exclusive program whereby triathletes could pay $1,000 to have special membership privileges, including registering for Ironman races a week prior to them opening to the general public. This was to be on a “first-come, first-serve” basis (smart as it would allow them to control the marketing piece of this); in the event there was no interest or very limited interest they could always quickly pull the plug and say that they had reached their limit of members.
Within hours the social media websites were abuzz with an outcry of displeasure. Twitter postings, Facebook pages, Online Forums like Slowtwitch.com were all showing the vehement feelings against this idea.
The typical race entry fee for an Ironman event is currently around $575 per race. Now the organizers of these events were proposing what seemed to be an additional money maker for them and more money taken away from the people who do the events.
As a result of this outcry, Ben Fertic, President and CEO of the World Triathlon Corporation released an official video statement about the cancellation of the Ironman Access membership program.
This video statement can be seen HERE. Mr. Fertic stated that the Ironman Access program was really created for those triathletes who register for multiple events. He further stated that those particular athletes end up registering for more than one event just in case they didn’t get into the one they wanted and that they only went to the one they want and let the other slots go unused. With the creation of the Ironman Access program they had estimated an additional 2500 to 3000 slots could become available within the US alone.
As a result of the outrage in the triathlon community via email and Facebook, Ironman is now pulling the program. Fertic comments “If you guys think we’re wrong then we’re wrong.” Ironman is now refunding the money to those who had joined the program.
The example here, however, of the power of Social Media is undeniable. There was a cause and an effect, all from Social Media.
Heading in the right direction for IMFL
October 26, 2010
Over/Under mile intervals tonight were consistent.
Learned bodyfat was down to 8.5%. Pretty pleased with that!
Speedo Endurance Jammer – A GREAT suit!
October 20, 2010
If you swim a lot and are tired of your suits lasting four or five weeks before they begin to get thin and stretchy from the chlorine of the pool, then the Speedo Endurance swimsuit is for you! I’ve tried just about everything on the market and this is by far the best suit I’ve come across in terms of it’s, well, “endurance”!
Typically the suits I wear tend to become loose and wear through over a relatively short period of time (four to six weeks), from all of the chlorine typically found in club pools. But I realized this morning that I’ve had this suit now for about eight weeks and it’s still going strong. There’s no sign of fading or loosening.
Here’s a link to the Speedo site for the men’s suit. Here’s a link to the Speedo site for the women’s suit.
Check them out!
Sleep deprivation! Not good for Ironman training…
September 28, 2010
Just as important as training is for an Ironman, so too is sleep. That is something my coach Pat Wheeler of Qt2Systems constantly tells me. Eight or more hours of sleep is critical to a successful training plan, particularly when it comes to racing an Ironman.
Lately, however, I’ve been having some serious issues, though only on nights I swim. Apparently the guy who takes care of the pool over at Sports Club LA where I swim has been experimenting with different chemical mixes which in turn has affected my sleep bit time. I know it’s not just me with my allergies as my wife was going through the same thing until she began swimming last week with a nose clip. I tried that method but after 200 yards had to abandon protocol as my breathing was being affected. As breathing has been one of my issues swimming (I need a lot of oxygen!), I simply couldn’t do it.
Last night was the worst night yet. I barely slept. Luckily today is a scheduled day off. In fact, this week is considered a “light” week of training. I’ll have two more really heavy weeks before I begin my taper for Ironman Florida the first weekend in November.
Just wondering if anyone else out there has dealt with this issue in their pool and if so what measures you took to overcome the resulting sinus nightmare!
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Late Season Ironman Training Rides
September 11, 2010
It’s 59 degrees at the moment in Boston which reminds me that fall is in the air. Perfect weather for my 3:15 training ride followed by a :25 transition run. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to do a late season Ironman race and this year I’ll find out. I have less than two months until Ironman Florida and every workout counts. But at this point in the season or more likely in a few weeks, these rides might get more difficult knowing that I’m the only one out there. 
Misery loves company I suppose and training alone is never that much fun or at least knowing that no one else is out there at the same time doing the same thing somewhere else. I guess it’s really not that big of a deal. I’ve become so focused and used to do training like this that it’s really just more of the same.
I never followed up with a blog piece about my Lake Placid Ironman race I suppose because it wasn’t the race I had hoped it would be. My 12:51 finishing time was :30 off of my goal. My good friend Simon who was doing his first Ironman that day crushed my performance with a 12:10 time. With all of the training I had put in over the past 18 months that seemed to be more of the distraction for me than my overall time. Add to that the fact that I’m racing on a team (Qt2 Systems), where the average finishing time is probably under 11 hours and you can see why I have high standards.
I’m hoping and expecting the Florida race to be very different. It’s a completely flat course whereas Lake Placid is one of the hardest in the Ironman series. I will have no competition out there but myself; and while this really was how I went about racing Lake Placid I have to admit that seeing Simon ahead of me on the run course really got into my mind towards the later part of the marathon.
Anyway, I’m sure this is no different from anyone training for a fall marathon. You begin 26 weeks out from the race date and you work you way through the long months. Here in Boston I suppose that would apply to the Boston Marathon in April. Those long winter months of running along the Charles River take a lot of focus that is for sure…
Well, enough of this. Off to Concord!
Somewhat better.
August 25, 2010
If you’ve ever had a needle injected pretty much into your spine, you’ll know that it’s not a pleasant process. I showed up yesterday at the Pain Management Center at the Bringham and Women’s offsite location expecting a pretty quick procedure though honestly I didn’t know how to feel.
It was rather quick but it was also pretty uncomfortable. Not necessarily painful per se. After cleaning the area on my upper back they covered the area with some sort of gauze type material; more like a big patch (not really sure). They then injected me with some type of local anesthetic to get me ready for the fun ahead. Once numb they injected 80MG of Depomedrol and 3 cc’s of Lidocaine into what I think was the epidural space of the spine.
While this was all going on I was trying to focus on anything but the uncomfortable feeling I was having. I began to really try and focus on my breathing while feeling sick to my stomach and thinking that I was about to pass out. Luckily it was all over in :10-:15 or so? I then lay down for about :15 and I was better.
The only feeling I really have today is the soreness in my back where the injection went in. The numbness and tingling I’ve mentioned before is pretty much gone although they did say I wouldn’t feel the effects of the drugs for about 48 hours or more. We’ll see. I have to do this again in 30 days unless of course the problem goes away.
The first real test comes this Sunday when I race the Cranberry Country Olympic Triathlon. I’m hoping to be pain free throughout the 2 to 2.5 hour race. Fingers crossed!
