COACH CYNDEE

One of my clients Brett is training for his first Ironman. He will be doing Lake Placid in July. You can read about the reason he is racing at his website http://www.imhalffull.com/ . He is raising money for a cause that is important to him. Please visit his website and support him. I decided last year to do my first race and raise money for a cause that was important to me. It was a really great feeling to know that you have a purpose to your training, other than making you feel better physically. We (most triathletes) are very self absorbed in our training. When I was training to raise money for the NSPCA it was a very different feeling. I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted so bad to help all the neglected animals in the shelters. I wanted to get as much money as I could for them. I wanted people to know that I would be thinking about these animals, and all the support I got from everyone every mile I ran. It was the most rewarding race I have ever done. Not because I ha...

I hate fads and when something new comes along I rarely jump on the bandwagon right off the bat. Most fads are short lived and don't have much merit to them. Just like this new fad of shoes that tone up your legs and butt called sketcher tone-ups or something like that. What a joke and if your reading this please don't buy those. Donate the 100 dollars to a charity or something. The money will be much better off. I can't believe people buy into the myth that they can lose weight by wearing a pair of shoes. The other fad that annoys me is this new HGH diet fad. Apparently you can take this injection and suddenly lose weight. Oh wait you ONLY get to eat 500 calories a day! Well anyone should know that if you eat 500 calories a day you will lose weight. You will also regain it right back when you start eating normal again. There is one fad however that I am beginning to think does have some merit to it. It actually became popular last year when the best selling book Born...

I wanted to talk about the Ironman Tattoo . I am a fan of tattoos and actually have a few. I have completed 4 Ironman races and DON'T have an Ironman tattoo. I hope I don't offend anyone reading this who does have the tattoo. I feel the need to express my opinion (that is surely a surprise)! If you are one of the many with the tattoo please keep in mind I say all this in fun and I will still like you even if you have one. I might make fun of you but I like you. You might ask, what I have against the Ironman tattoo? I think there should be a disclaimer that a person has to sign when they get an Ironman tattoo. They should have to agree to complete an Ironman at least every five years for the rest of their life. If they don't agree to that they should not be able to get one! Too many people get the tattoo and then suddenly stop training and get fat. If you do one Ironman and get the tattoo then suddenly don't workout are you still an Ironman ? Then some people ...

I did Ironman St. George last weekend. Going into the race I felt pretty good. My training was not as consistent as it had been for previous Ironman races but I trained hard for this race. I averaged about 20 hours a week of training for the last month going into the race. I began to ramp up my training back in January. Let me start off by saying if you were even thinking about doing this race I would personally NOT suggest it. It was one of the hardest Ironman courses I have done. Most people who have done several Ironman events said the same thing. The water temperature was in the mid 50's. Air temp in the morning was in the 40's. The winds were blowing and the high for the day was in the 70's. You will have enormous hills to climb all day on the bike and run! So if that doesn't scare you away from this race then you are as crazy as I am. For the first time in an Ironman I had to change clothes for each leg of the race because of the weather. I usually wil...