Triathlon as an NCAA sport. maybe.

“USA Triathlon has an interest in training the next generation for the Olympics. The NCAA has an interest in student-athlete well-being and education. This sport is a perfect blend”  Marymount Athletics Director Debbie Warren

I couldn’t decide what to think when I say the article on adding triathlon to the NCAA list of championship sports in the near future. So I organized my thoughts, then wrote a blog about it. There are still a lot of questions, and no doubt it will take a few years, at the very least, to get programs rolling and attract talent to foster high level competition. My question is, can we train the next generation of Olympians through the NCAA system?

I’ve lived the NCAA reality for 4 years now, and I had my first taste of what triathlon racing at the highest level is all about over the last few months. (it’s ridiculously challenging but utterly addicting). I’ve experienced the sheer amount of rules rules imposed on athletes in order to be eligible in the NCAA. Totally ridiculous. No rides from the coach, wear team gear at all times, can’t tweet about anything, minimum credit hours every semester, progress towards your degree, etc.The one that might be a problem in this case is the 20 hour rule. 20 hour training week. 8 hours in the off season. That’s not very much. Half of what Frodeno does, maybe?. Also, even if there were no 20-hour rule, how many hours can you fit in around 12 or 15 credits worth of classes a semester? I tried to be a full time student and a triathlete for about 3 weeks last December (yes, that is during exam time, good timing sarah). I ended up in tears in the middle of the living room one day. Not good.

Looks like they are aiming at a sprint distance, draft-legal format. That would accommodate a lighter training load, and allow the sport to be accessible to more athletes, as all the junior racers would stay at the same distance for an extra 3 years. Let’s look at who’s winning the Olympics. Spirig, Norden, Snowsill, even Brownlee² and Gomez. Mostly endurance beasts. Endurance is built with miles. Miles take time. It’s not going to be an easy balance. To stay eligible, you can’t just take a semester off, go train at altitude for a while and travel all around the world for races. Oh, but you won’t need to because you’ll have quality races around the country to race for your school! For a few years, the level just might not be quite high enough. Let’s say we reach about the level of a solid North American continental cup. Decent swimmers, a few fast runners, and a fairly unexciting bike leg. That’s all good, but it’s nothing compared to what you’re up against you reach the big leagues; a mid-level world cup or the WTS circuit. Is 4 years of mediocre competition a good way to built future Olympic champions? Then lets have the NCAA season be sometime in the spring, which would allow all the north American athletes to have their regular ITU season during the summer, even race worlds in the early fall, and go back to school to do base training, maybe complemented by racing cross country for their school. The only hitch will be finding a way around the 8 hour rule, which is done regularly, but will require a lot of smart planning from everybody involved. Easier said than done.

On the positive side, college campuses are where all the best runners and swimmers can be found in America, racing a lot but also training hard. If triathletes can take advantage of that, maybe coaches working together with an emphasis on a long term plan, those alliances can turn into gold (medals). College Campuses also tend to be in small towns, pretty areas with some trails for running and some country roads. It might not be Wanaka, but most colleges would be conducive to logging lots of quality miles.

The one thing I got me the most excited about the idea of NCAA triathlon is the team aspect of it. Even track and swimming manage to add a strong team component to their championships, and with the push for the team relay in Rio, what better stage to not only practice the short relay races but also include team tactics in the standard distance race. Every Olympics, there is talk about how team tactics are going to help win medals, and then we don’t hear about them again for 4 years. Practice makes perfect, tactics are going to work if we practice implementing them early. I owe one medal at least partially to team tactics; it adds another dimension to the race and is a whole lot of fun. (maybe less so if you’re on the wrong team...).

I think it would be good for the sport as a whole if this goes through, if they get enough schools to sign and get the support staff in place. Extra exposure for the sport, opportunity for juniors to keep triathlon as a part of their lives and development opportunities. bigger base tends to lead to better results at the top. But there are still a lot of kinks to work out, and the NCAA route might never be the best road for those aiming for those ITU mdeals. My two words on the issue, that’s it, nothing to take too seriously. Now I can go back to calculating cash flows and cheering for our mountaineer football  team...

Until later,

whats a blog without pictures? Go WVU and the yellow house crew. 

Sarah-Anne

Red Rock Country

I wrote this one a while back. seems to have gotten lost in transit somewhere over the Atlantic....

It was a little bit of an odd group. Some juniors, some U23, some older kids, some that haven’t quite grown up yet, most in school, although some were taking breaks and some were on strike. From Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the odd Bajan. City kids, country folks, Frenchies; swimmers and runners turned Triathletes.

All these fine folks came together under the blazing Arizona sun, looking for some solid training amidst the cactuses and the garbage-eating javalinas.

I made a little pit stop in between a couple WTS races, caught up on the gossip, formed new alliances, put in a few solid miles and worked on my bathing suit tan, which has been neglected since my time in Barbados.

A few tips if you ever run into one of them at the races…

Domi is an absolute beast on the descents, even if it’s only warm-up. Tristan is a country boy. Whatever D-quick threw at him from Stevie’s Ipod, he could sing along. To be fair, Stevie knew all the worlds as well, but that’s old news. Gabby knows her way around the track, I heard she’s got wheels (didn’t get to join in the track fun). Things would have gone to the dogs without Mama D. She’s got this uncanny gift of organizing things and planning without being bossy or getting people irritated. I don’t understand.  Unger has no real concept of what ‘pacing’ means. But you know what, he means well. And he just won Thief River Falls for the 4^th time in a row. Kudos. You might not know Tyler B, he’s rather quiet. But if you ever get the chance, join him for a ride or something; he’s pretty cool even for a middle kid. And he fixed the ice maker (sorta, we ended up with ice is what matters) . Derek Quick and Tristan are now ready to cause some serious havoc in Quebec bars, with pickup lines and swears taught by Manon and Jo. Thanks girls. Zander hasn’t quit yet, which is very fortunate since he’s the comic relief. If you need a nickname, he’ll hook you up real quick. Apparently You can’t trust Jason with your chicken, unless you want some charcoaled dinner. Leave the grilling to Domi or Riley M instead, they’re unbeatable. Rachel seemed to eat up books, I didn’t know you could read that much AND get some serious training in during the day. And throw in the occasional Make it or Break it episode, just to balance things out. I got stuck in a room with the all the frenchie, and some of them (such as Manon and Joanna) would dance with the pillows before sleep. Weirdos.

Sadly, my team lost the IM relay on Amelie’s 19^th birthday, but we had the highest cumulative VO2 max and we had to go against team #1 who had Tyler x2. Not fair. If only the race was on the track…

 Huge thanks to Craig for organizing the whole thing, and to RossAnn for the coaching on-site. And thanks to everyone for the awesome week, even though I wasn’t on the same plan and I decided to arrive late and leave early. All in all, I predict we’ll see some pretty good things from young Canadians this summer.And it’s only the beginning…

Non-Interactive Guide to Ishigaki for non-residents

For those of you out there who have not yet had the chance to visit one of Japan’s most southernest island, here is a little guide to help with your future trip, in order to avoid embarrassing situations or intense cultural shock. Bear in mind that this guide relates to the Island of Ishigaki, as rumors are that the rest of Japan is quite different and therefore the principles described below may not be applicable.

GREETINGS

 Avoid waiving enthusiastically at strangers or acquaintances. Chances are they will respond with a head nod and you will look like a doofus with too much energy. Also, when meeting new people, ensure that you truly pay attention to their appearance. Asians have fewer distinguishing features than Caucasians and in case you come across that person again, it may be hard to know remember you actually have talked to them before. Things are usually smaller in size, a bit like in Ahna’s house. However, as long as you are comfortable feeling a bit like a giant, there should be no problem.

TOILETS

 A key part of the Japanese experience, the toilets can cause a shock if the non-resident is not previously warned. If one is lucky, he will come across the all-inclusive toilet; featuring butt-washing features as well as a button that looks like the toilet is set to play music. However, outside those high-end comforts, the racing traveler might encounter porta-potties without seats. After staring at the hole for long enough, most westerners figured out how to use these interesting commodities. (we hope they do anyways)

FOOD

Before venturing into the local grocery store, it is probably best to be accompanied by a local translator who can explain what the hell it is you are buying. If no such person is available, fruits and vegetable usually look similar to what we can find in normal countries. Breakfast foods will be the hardest to locate (our correspondent had an interesting experience with oatmeal), and there will be some risks involved as to whether or not you are buying what you think you are buying. What looks like chocolate milk is most likely gross coffee-flavored cold liquid and the variety available at the fish counter is quite mind-boggling. Goya (also known as the Bubbly Cucumber) is best avoided, unless sought for its vitamin benefits over its bitter taste, but the island-grown pineapples are a must.

TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF

Just do it. House, hotel room, etc. Just take em off.

SLEEPING SITUATION

If you walk into the apartment where you will be staying for a week, and it is rather small, but there is not a bed in sight, do not panic. Beds are most likely stored away in the nearest closet and only come out at night. Here, the term ‘bed’ is used rather loosely, and might be closer to our definition of “camping in the living room” than of typical indoor sleeping arrangements.

GARBAGE SITUATION

When in doubt, you are probably looking for the “burnable” bin. If not, rubbish might go into the recyclable bin, the non-burnable bin, the glass bin, the cans bin, or if all else fails, the compost bag. This is all rather confusing. The complexity of the rubbish situation is probably the main reason why public garbage cans are a rare occurrence and one might be forced to walk for miles to dispose of their candy wrappers. Or find candy wrappers in every single one of their pockets in every single one of their pants/shorts/jackets when doing laundry.

THINGS TO DO

Refer to local tourist guide. The correspondent has not done very much. The triathlon world Cup event is a recommended stop, as it is well organized, with friendly volunteers and is guaranteed to start on time. Riding around the island is also recommended, but plan extra time to stop for coffee and beach pictures, especially when riding with a notoriously easy going Columbian who might miss his flight if he stops again.

That's all for today folks! I'll try harder to take pictures, and I'll go back to being productive and writting my final paper on american ecnomic history.

Life Amongst the Sheep

After being “home” for a few weeks, the winds blew westward. That’s how I ended up on top of a mountain in New Zealand’s south Island. My uncle travels a lot and his two favorite spots are probably Barbados and NZ. I’ve managed to hit up both in the span of a few months. Gold star for me.

So what’s it like here? Training camp life. Train, eat, sleep, make new friends and try to get a few minutes of spotty internet connection from time to time.

Honestly, it’s been great. Wanaka itself consist of a few blocks of little shops and café by the (cold) lake. The roads surrounding Wanaka lend themselves quite well to hour upon hour of quality riding. And the running trails…oh the running trails….

The company is top notch. Some crazy people out there, but as long as they channel it the right way, then they become winners. That’s my theory anyways. Lots of learning going on. Lots of little things to work on, things to tweak, a never ending process. Process process process…

Tea and crosswords in the morning remind me of home. Although NZ crosswords are different, they have more black squares. Adaptation necessary.

Just finishing up this block of training here before our little group is off to Sydney, Australia, to take on the rest of the world in an epic battle on the blue carpets in front of the opera house. Stay tuned.

Your friend the Mountaineer

Home #2

Home

I got to go home last week.
Well, one of my homes.

I had to redefine that concept a few years back

Home was Winnipeg, where I grew up, with my parents and my friends and my coaches and people who cared, with the places I kept going back to. Familiarity.

Then I went to school. Home was still home and school was school.

Then my parents moved and all of a sudden, I had a home where I didn’t have a house and I had a house that didn’t qualify as home.

And at the same time, school became that place where I had friends and coaches and people who cared, with the places I kept going back to.

Sounds awfully like home to me.
So what now?

I keep it simple. In my mind, I have three homes. I don’t believe in discrimination.

Thanks for everyone in my Motown home for a great couple weeks. Not a single solo run, Black Bear evenings and Zenclay mornings. Shout out to all the peeps at Friday breakfast, that freshman year tradition that keeps on givin’. And I picked the best Saturday to go home, Beat Feast for the win. Got to hang out with the girls, remember how it feels to take a test a stress out about a paper. Ride the Percy and of course, not start packing till way too late because the conversation at Mountain State is too good. And Schiff and lil’ Sean had to get the s’mores dessert pizza, of course.

hey there...

Long time no post

I raced today, national championships...kinda of a big deal i guess. Ended up 6th. solid race. Got to stand on the podium with Paula and Kirsten. Sweet deal. Sweet race. sweet people.

Great posting again. See you in 6 months.

Gandalf



tonight, i was gandalf at dinner.

The Tempo Loop

There's this place in Morgantown called the "Tempo Loop". All the college runners know exactly where it is. Somewhere in Suncrest, a nice jumble of random streets make up a loop about a mile a a half long. How it came to be exactly the way it is today, no one really knows (alright, Sean probably had a bit part to play in it). The veterans talk of a time when the tempo loop was quite a bit longer, spilling into Universtiy Av, which could be dangerous when workouts where held at the high time of Morgantown rush hour traffic. As the name sugests, it is mostly used for tempos, although it can also accomodate fartlkets or road intervals. Needless to say, it is use a lot. There comes a time in every West Virginia girl's running carreer where she might realize she knows pretty much every crack in the road, every corner angle (urban designers around here dispise clear cut 90 degree intersections) and every incline, down or up, she might encounter.

Sometimes we go fast on it, sometimes its more of a controlled workout. Saturday it was controlled. But it also happened to go fast.

Best Average Ever. 5:39 per mile. big thanks to Jess O and her crazy arms for bringing that last mile down.

Looks like a good season ahead...