Support Your Local, Independently Run, Triathlons – Race em, Watch em, or Volunteer

The trend has been seen and talked about for more than a few years now, the numbers of athletes competing at local races (i.e., one of a kind races), triathlons and running, is down.  As best anyone can guess there are potentially many different reasons, starting with the fact that the Baby Boomer generation that…

What Does “Strength Training” Mean to You?

The topic for discussion at the Santa Barbara Triathlon Club March meeting, hosted by club prez Aldous Pabon, was myth busting. Aldous brought together a panel of local coaches, Matt Trost, Jason Smith, John Abrami, and nutritionist in training Chris Latham, with yours truly, to try and separate the facts from the fiction from a…

Things I Know, Now

After 25 years in the sport you would think that I knew everything there was about training and racing for triathlons, yet I’m still reading about new ideas, practicing different things to improve my training, and rethinking things I had taken at face value. I thought I start out and jot down a handful of ideas and then…

A Bike Fitting with the GURU Bike Fit System

When cyclists think about getting a bike fitting they probably associate the process with buying a new bike. The sales person/bike shop owner/bike fitter does their own assessment on what size frame a person should be riding and then based on how sophisticated a system the bike shop uses, either sits that bike on a…

Drafting 101: Riding with a USAT Official, Part II

Now that you’re familiar with the rules for drafting during the bike leg of a triathlon, Drafting 101: Riding with a USAT Official, Part I, with those in mind I once again asked Jonathan Lewis a few questions to help sort out what I was seeing. Fred: As a racer I feel like I see…

Drafting 101: Riding with a USAT Official, Part I

The bike portion of a triathlon is an individual time trial, the key point being individual. Sitting behind another rider, shielded from the wind is called drafting and it is illegal because it is cheating. When you are drafting you are not riding as an individual and therefore you are gaining an advantage over your…

Singing the Praise of Sprint Triathlons

I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that the majority of triathletes start out in the sport by doing either a sprint triathlon or as part of a relay team. Once the hook has been set, most continue to add distance and time to their training, moving up to longer and even longer distance…

The Streak Continues, 25 Years and Counting

Back in the summer of 1989 the only connection I had to triathlon was maybe something I read in Sports Illustrated or saw during the limited coverage of this crazy event held in Hawaii called Ironman. I swam for fun on hot summer days in the ocean, commuted to work on my bicycle with an…

Bike Out/Bike In Safety

Anyone that has stood at bike out or bike in at a triathlon has likely seen many different approaches to how to get on and off a bicycle to start and end the bike leg of a triathlon. Some of them are very good; some of them are not so good. On the eve of…