COACH CYNDEE

Sometimes I feel the need to vent myself on this blog. Well today is one of those days. Hang in there if you don't want to hear me vent. I will discuss my training for Ironman St. George at the end. What do you think I am going to vent about? It is the weird people I see everyday at the gym. I think I am somewhat normal (other than the crazy training I do). I don't really stand out much or do weird things to bring attention to myself. On a regular basis at the gym I see people doing really stupid stuff that sometimes makes me laugh, shake my head in amazement, or get grossed out in disgust. Last week I was swimming my 5000 meters in the pool. This was at 24 Hour Fitness and I was so glad to have the pool to myself for the most part. I was having a great swim. Toward the end I feel a presence in the water and feel like someone is watching me. As I turn to one side to breathe I get this god awful sight of a man walking in the pool watching me swimming. Nobody else is...

Well it has been a while since I last posted anything. I guess that is what happens when you are training for an Ironman . Everything else becomes second to training. Today is Easter so I hope everyone is having a Happy Easter. I had an easy training day today. I only swam 5000 meters! I still need to get a short run in but I am not sure that is going to happen. My Ironman race in St. George is less than a month away. My training is slightly behind schedule. I would have liked to have gotten a few more 100 mile rides in. I feel like my run and swim are doing great. I plan to ride one more long ride before I start my taper. I will also run the Red Rock loop a few more times. May 1st is the date of the race. I adjusted a few things on my bike. I rode the course the first time with my new 11/28. This gives me more gears for the hilly course. I was riding a 12/25 and was hoping the 11/28 would help save my legs on some of the hills. So I was excited to try this out on the course. Sadly I ...

We are getting very close to the beginning of the triathlon racing season. Here in Vegas our first race is coming up in a few weeks! I have been talking to my clients about some things that are easily overlooked on race day. I thought I would provide a list for people to keep it simple. Things to focus on weeks or months before your race : Nutrition on your bike and runs. This becomes more critical in the longer events. You should be drinking and eating whatever you plan to use on race day. Don't try anything new race day. Test all products during training and find what will work for you. Practice the timing of your nutrition on the bike, run, and during brick workouts. I have some clients that don't drink enough on the bike so I have them drink on timed intervals. I know this sounds really OCD but it is important and great to practice in training. On longer events nutritional issues can be a huge problem. Timing your intake of gels is also a great idea. Usually on the bike on...

I went to my bike fit appointment yesterday. I went to one of the best bike fitters in the country and from what I learned yesterday one of the first to use the ReTul system. Greg ( http://www.endurocoach.com/ ) also trained others on the ReTul bike fitting system. This system uses data collected before and after to determine the best fit for each person. Who knew for the past two years we had this expert (Greg) living in Las Vegas. People fly in from everywhere to train with him and get their bikes fit by him. When I found out about Greg I sent several clients to him. I was going to go to him last year and then I got a new bike and thought I felt pretty good on it. So rather than spend the money (which was stupid) I decided to wait. After a few more people went to him and talked about how great he was, I thought I should go through the process. I was still thinking to myself that I felt pretty good on my bike. I had a slight amount of discomfort in my shoulders on my longer rides but ...

My training for Ironman St. George is in full motion! A few weekends ago I went back to Utah to train on the course. A few friends/clients from Florida and Georgia came to train with me. They will be doing the race on May 1st too. Jimmy got in first and Christians flight was delayed. He missed out on Saturday's training with me and Jimmy. We drove up to St. George and rode one loop of the Gunlock portion of the course. Then we ran one loop of the run course (about 90 minutes so not the whole thing). I felt really great during the ride and run. The only way to survive this course is to not kill yourself on the bike course. I took it pretty easy and focused on taking it slow on the hills. During the run my legs felt great even on the hilly run course. The next day we planned on riding two loops of the bike course which was 90 miles of hills! Christian got in late so we got a late start. It killed me to wait around but we did! I am a get up and go kind of girl and was ready to go by...

Hello Athletes! I wanted to take an opportunity to talk about injury prevention while we are still early in the year. My goal is to give you tools to make this your best race season ever. I have met many of you, but to give you a little background, I am Cyndee's personal performance doctor, and she and I often talk about injuries and how to prevent them. When prevention doesn't work, I usually perform Active Release, which is able to get rid of endurance sport injuries very fast. People come in complaining of tendinitis, bursitis, plantar fascitis , and swimmer's shoulder and within a few treatment are back training! Back to the purpose of this post. A few early tweaks in your training (and in your mindset) will pay dividends while you are racing this year. I want to address the most important factors that affect endurance athletes: 1. Perform a Dynamic Warm-Up! This is due to research done by the military. They found that the best way to prevent injuries in athletes is t...

Sunday 2/7/10 was not only Super Bowl Sunday but it was the Huntington Beach Surf City Half Marathon. I drove down with Anne on Saturday to run it on Sunday. It was a beautiful day on Sunday for the run! We drove down Saturday through torrential down pouring rain! Thank goodness Sunday the weather was beautiful! I did not plan to run this race hard because I have not been running fast since my foot and knee were acting up. The last few runs I have felt great so I just wanted to run the entire thing pain free! I told Anne if she ran faster than me that she could talk about on my blog! Thankfully she did not because lord knows what she would say! I have completed alot of races but only a few half marathons. The last half marathon I ran, was when I lived in Atlanta almost 4 years ago. They have a full and half marathon on Thanksgiving Day. I ran with my friends in Atlanta. I was determined to beat my friend Mike Lenhart founder of Getting2tri http://www.getting2tri.org/ . I ran a 1:37 a ...