COACH CYNDEE

Last year, I made a bold decision to embark on a new adventure—an Ultra Swim in Croatia. This particular race was unique because it spanned over four days, with each day presenting a different distance, including one day exceeding 10 kilometers. The total distance for the four days was an impressive 33.3 kilometers. I recently returned from this incredible journey and am thrilled to share my experiences with you all.  As I approached the race, I felt a surge of confidence. I had diligently trained in the pool, as a confident open water swimmer, I wasn’t overly concerned about the limited open water swims I had before the event. My longest swim prior to the race had been 8,600 yards, which took me a grueling 3 hours. In the weeks leading up to the race, I had been swimming consistently, covering 25,000 to 26,000 yards each week. However, one aspect of the race that made me a bit apprehensive was the water temperature and the unpredictable weather conditions. I had signed up for the...

Everyone who eats healthy and promotes it talks about limiting processed foods. It's easy to say but when you live a fast paced life it's hard and many people struggle with this. When you start anything new you should try and ease into it. If you try and go full force without giving yourself some wiggle room then I think you are setting yourself up for failure. I tell people this same thing if they want to eat vegetarian or vegan. If you do it slowly and make small changes over time you are far more likely to stick with it. Going all or nothing isn't the best option for success. If you want to limit processed food I think it's a great idea and you will no doubt feel and look better. Below are a few tips that will help you achieve your goals. Planning is very important to eating healthy.  If you are rushed and want something fast its much harder to eat clean.  That is why proper planning is important. If you can prepare a few things on your day off that will las...

 Living a healthy lifestyle shouldn't be a lot of work or add extra stress to your daily life.  Making small changes can be much easier than making too many drastic changes at one time.  Here are some things that can help you be healthier. Yuka App 1.  Avoid or limit processed foods .  Try and eat fresh foods and if you do eat packaged foods eat ones that have limited ingredients.  You can use the Yuka app to scan products and this app will rate the product from excellent to bad.  This app takes into consideration the amount of sodium, sugar, fat, fiber,  and additives products have.  2.  Get enough sleep .  Sleep is incredibly important to your overall health.  If you are not sleeping good you should try some natural supplements to help or lifestyle changes that could help.  If you can fall asleep fast but you wake up several hours later and can't go back to sleep then you could try Tranquil Sleep by Natural Factors....

It's the time of year when the season changes and people end up getting sick.  I take supplements regularly but this time of year I add a few to help me stay healthy.  Some thing that can make you more susceptible to getting sick are: overtraining  drinking alcohol lack of sleep poor diet poor gut health allergies that are not controlled stress some medications smoking  dehydration  If you are training for a major event like a marathon or ironman then it is essential to make sure all the other factors on the above list are in check.  You should ensure you are getting enough sleep and eating healthy.  Staying hydrated and avoiding alcohol and reducing stress are also helpful to staying healthy.   I like to add a few supplements during cold and flu season to ensure I stay healthy.  Supplements that I take year around include: Multiple Vitamin Vitamin D and K Omega-3 Turmeric B-complex Probiotic  MetaPwr Mito2Max by doTERRA Life Extens...

  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 ...

Most people have a fitness watch of some sort that will track their activity and workouts.  Many jobs today require a lot of sitting at not much activity.  Having an activity tracker will give you daily goals to get moving.  Maybe it will inspire you to take a walk on your lunch break because even a short walk is something. If you have a goal (number of steps) each day then you can make small modifications to your daily habits to achieve these goals.  This adds up and if you make positive changes like this overtime you will see a difference.   If you start tracking your steps and immediately set a goal of 10,000 steps you may find it is hard to achieve.  That is usually equal to about 5-6 miles a day.  If you have a desk job and are currently not very active then possibly start with 5,000.  If you don't have a fitness watch but have a smart phone then you can still track your activity with your phone.  You just need to make sure you carr...

Let's face it when you're dedicated to your training you want to have things that you really like!  From gadgets to clothing and shoes we all have our favorite things.  Here are some products I  really like to use when I train and some things I use in between training.   Wahoo Kicker Bike and Element Computer I do a lot of my riding inside so I decided to invest in a good bike that I could adjust to fit me like my tri bike does. I have had the settings professionally measured by the person who fit my tri bike and I have the same saddle and peddles on the kicker bike and on my tri bike.  I also put tri bars on the kicker bike so I can ride indoors on this bike and have a set up very close to my tri bike.  I get all my metrics on the bike and by using the element computer I can download just about any route outdoors that I want to ride.  You could also choose to use any of the apps like Zwift.   Goodr Sunglasses I purchases a pair of these...