COACH CYNDEE

  I've been coaching people in the pool for over 15 years.  I have coached people who were advanced swimmers and people who didn't know how to swim at all.  I recommend every person who swims regularly to use swim equipment.  Swimming equipment will help you improve your swim and also break it up so it's not so boring.  Here is a list of equipment and reasons why I recommend each piece of equipment.  Pool Buoy - this goes between your legs and will help you focus on your stroke because you will not have to kick at all and the buoy will help your legs stay afloat.   Amazon - pool buoy Fins - fins are great to help beginner swimmers. It will make learning to swim a little easier.  Fins are also great to use to do drills.  Drills are important for beginner and advanced swimmers.  They help swimmers focus on certain aspects of the stroke.   Amazon Fins Kick Board - kick boards are used to practice your kick and I also have new...

I have raced over 30 Half Ironman distance races over the years.  I have picked my top 5 favorite races!   Let me know what you think and what your favorite Half Ironman Courses are!  5 - Mountain Man Half Ironman in Flagstaff.  I really like Flagstaff and I have raced there many times.  In the summer it is always great weather and a really good place to vacation and race. It gets really hot in Vegas and going to Flagstaff to race in July is a great way to escape the heat. This course is a good course and the race is very well organized. They also give really good overall awards!  I have a handful of these cool overall awards from the various distances over the years.  I really enjoy this race and hope they continue putting it on.  4 - Oregon 70.3 was a really great race. It was a great city to visit and a nice place to race.  The weather was great and it is a very fast course.  You could literally float the swim, the bike was pre...

  Over the years I've completed 15 Ironman races.  Some of the courses I completed multiple times so I will be listing 11 courses and I'll start with my least favorite. 11 - Ironman Utah was a miserable day with extremely cold weather along with a very difficult course.  Living close to St. George Utah I was able to go up and train on the course so I knew what I was getting into.  The day of the race the weather was horrible.  The air temperature was in the 40's to start and the water temperature was high 50's.  Along with cold conditions it was very windy and racing on a difficult course with  bad weather made for a long day.  Over the years they have modified the course  trying to get larger attendance but its not a race that a lot of people want to do  because of the difficulty.  I had to get help out of the water because of hypothermia but I warmed up and was able to finish.  St. George Utah  10 - Ironman Chattanooga h...

I can't believe in my 20+ years of racing I had never done a relay.  I haven't been training for a triathlon for over a year. I've been doing some running, swimming and teaching spin classes to stay fit. We decided to do the a vacation/relay race.  We thought it would be good to get away and race but not be too serious about it.  I like swimming and running so I decided to do that portion and my boyfriend said he would do the bike.  We got there a few days early and booked a fun day at Flora Farms.  They grow their own food, have a few shops, you can tour the farm and they also have a spa.  Being mostly vegan is hard when you travel to certain areas and the two times I've traveled to Mexico it's hard to find good places for me to eat.  This place however was fantastic! The food was super fresh and great!  The specialty cocktails were amazing!  This is the good thing about doing a relay is you don't have to be really serious and can have fun a...

I haven't been doing many races in the past year but I recently did the St. George Marathon.  I have not ran a lot of marathons in my racing career in fact I think I've done more Ironman triathlons (15) than marathons over the years.  I have been very busy but thought I'd like to challenge myself and run a marathon.  St. George was a good choice because I've heard it's a great course and really well organized and it's close to Vegas. A lot of the course is downhill which was good for me because I am usually a good downhill runner. I ran the Revel Mt. Charleston race several years ago and had one of my best races and qualified for Boston. My finishing time there was 3hrs 39 min. I wanted to run some long downhills training for this race but I didn't have the opportunity to do that more than once when I ran 16 miles down from Red Rock (mostly downhill).  My second to last long week of training went great and I felt good. I knew I wouldn't be fast but felt ...

When I speak to clients about their diet I always ask what percentages of  protein, fat and carbohydrates they're eating.  Most don't have a clue they just tell me they eat good.  I will ask them to start tracking their food intake and while most do not want to do this, the ones that do find it very eye opening.  People often think they are eating healthy but when you break it down to them it becomes clear that they are not eating good enough to achieve their goals.  Sure maybe they are eating better than the average person but a lot of times that won't get you to where you want to be.   I do all the shopping in our house and although I'm vegan I do have to buy meat for my boyfriend and my dogs.  My boyfriend likes turkey burgers and my dogs get raw ground beef and raw ground turkey.  I always look for lean choices for both of those.  The label on the ground turkey and turkey burgers I was buying said 93% lean and 7% fat.  Which at ...