Sort of newlywed, Brendan Lowen is leaving this weekend for the ITU World Long Distance Champs in Henderson, Nevada in the United States of America. The event is hosted by Lowery’s Multisport. You can also keep an eye on them on Facebook.

Involving a 4km swim, 120km bike and a 30km run; Brendan talks to me about his preparation, equipment, motivation and the people involved in making all this possible.

Hey Bren, let’s start off with “How are you?”

I am in a good space, recently married as you mentioned, to a lovely girl! Looking forward to the new season as well…

Talk us through your equipment and any tweaks you have made and where to give you added comfort and more importantly, speed.

In the water, I am currently using an Orca Apex 2 wetsuit, probably due for an upgrade soon, but it keeps me honest (and hopefully like an arrow through the water).

On the bike, I ride an Argon 18 E112 TT bike, what I enjoy most is the transfer of power into the frame which is in proportion to the output of speed…In other words, I don’t lose any power that I put into the bike due to the bike being too flexible, etc. It’s very stiff which promotes added speed.

On the run, I am fortunate as you enjoy yourself, with racing in Saucony’s lightweight personified… I use the A4’s for sprint and standard distance races whilst opting for the Kinvara’s for the longer runs and training.

As far as comfort is concerned, ensure that you have had a professional bike set-up, to avoid injuries down the line. I have had niggles with calf strains in both legs so I know how frustrating these type of persistent injuries can be.

Now every season any competitive triathlete tries to improve a specific area or discipline of their race. What area or discipline have you worked on the most leading into this race?

Definitely my swim! You are quite right, the last two seasons I have concentrated on my run and bike respectively… This year I thought I would try and work a lot more on my swim so as to be a little more competitive, especially at the start of a race.

Congrats on the marriage by the way. Surely balancing the married life with triathlon isn’t easy but I know Carole is no slouch herself around a triathlon circuit. Just talk a little about the wedding, training and the “new’ life in general.

Thanks! Ja, the more I look back on things I realise how important balance becomes in your life. It’s easy to get too absorbed into something, especially a phase that works well for you, without knowing that suddenly you have blinkers on and become oblivious to things happening around you – this can lead to being self-absorbed and a bit selfish.

So I am enjoying the balance and in Carole, I have a constant reminder of that. She is really talented herself, probably more so than me with ultra distances where I tend to prefer sprint and standard distance.

The wedding was a great day – friends and family from all over! We laugh at times looking back on the day, wishing we could have spent more time in the moment, but it passes by so quickly.

Is Carole going with you?

Unfortunately not. She will be holding the fort back at home so to speak. The cost of getting to such races is probably the biggest burden we have to deal with as athletes, even over and above the training required. So after having recently bought a house and having just had a wedding, the budget did not allow for both of us to travel.

Give us a little insight into the race course. Is it your kind of course?

Honestly, it is probably not my kind of course in distance, although it is cleverly positioned between a 70,3 distance and a full ironman. If I break the course up, I reckon I will be competitive on the day, however Las Vegas is notorious for its heat and that could squash any ambitions of good positioning if the thermometer goes through the roof!

The swim is pretty straight forward (out and back), whilst the bike ends with some serious climbing over a pass called the “3 sisters” and the run is 4 laps with some rolling hills which should help break up the monotony.

Having said that, I realised that this race and the training involved for it would give me a great platform for the rest of the season and hope that results that follow this race will be indicative of that…

Are you staying on afterwards and doing a little sightseeing; perhaps a little visit to Vegas baby? You can give the world your version of “The Hangover”.

A little sight-seeing would be great, so fingers crossed time will allow for that. I think my version of The Hangover will be the condition I will be in straight after the race -  knackered, slow to react, possibly dehydrated and not making much sense… I see the similarities!

 So the USA isn’t all that close and getting there isn’t all that cheap. Who helped you out, who is looking after you?

I am very grateful to my company (Everite) who have shared in my passion and desire to be competitive not only in the workplace but also out of the office. I have also forged a great relationship with Cipla & PVM, ensuring I am fit and strong as well as healthy in mind and body. Saucony, Glider Eyewear & more recently 2XU have been fantastic from a product perspective and without their assistance, my scope to think and achieve big would be that much smaller.

You’ve also got a blog. Where can we find it online?

Yeah, I have a blog, simply called Tri-Bren. It’s essentially a link between beginners and seasoned multi-sport athletes. Of late I have been a little slack, possibly from winter hibernation, but it will be far more active as the season progresses.

http://www.tri-bren.blogspot.com

Any final comments? Words of inspiration perhaps?

I am a strong advocate for the word “performance”. Whatever you may be involved with, ensure that your performance is one you can look fondly back at!

Thanks for your time Bren. Best of luck. Fly the Saffa flag loud and proud.

Okay now this sounds like something AWESOME. Perhaps I should do it, not to race but just because it is a once-in-a-lifetime!

Challenge Cape Town is an iron-distance triathlon based in the heart of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Cape Town! The swim starts a stone’s throw from the city centre at Granger Bay and follows a 3.8km course in the heart of Table Bay. The unique cycle leg is a single-lap 180km ride from the breath-taking views from De Waal Drive on the slopes of Table Mountain, to the Constantia wine lands onto the culturally-rich township of Khayelitsha along the Indian Ocean coastline and up the famed Chapman’s Peak back to the transition.

The run heads up the arterial road of Kloof Nek to Table Mountain, down into the magnificent beach suburb of Camps Bay and then follows a two-looped run along Cape Town’s beautiful Riviera on the Atlantic Seaboard with the finale in the Cape Town Stadium precinct.

The 226km scenic course offers all the attributes that has made Cape Town famous.

Go to the Challenge Cape Town Website

Video courtesy of Jack and Adam’s Bicycles

Saucony ProGrid Kinvara coming to South Africa in December 2010. I will be doing a review on these shoes very soon. Super amped.

Over the past years I have experienced lower leg trouble to the extent of full blown compartment syndrome which required an operation in May 2009. A bilateral subcutaneous fasciotimy was what the procedure was called. Simply put, the thin facia (sheath) which encloses the muscles were too tight. This resulted in the muscle filling up with blood faster than it could drain. The rock hard muscles restricted blood flow to my feet and also affected motor-neuron function which more often than not made my feet go completely dead. Not ideal whilst running. I needn’t mention the pain either.

I tried everything, orthotics, duct tape strategically stuck to my inners, 6 different pairs of shoes but nothing worked so it was operation time. 18 days after my operation I was running again. It was recommended that I get some compression socks so that’s what I did. I was blown away as to how well they actually work. Having tried just about every brand under the sun I have now discovered Zensah. Quite simply, it is a compression revolution.

Let’s run over compression, what it does and how it works.

Athletes have been frustrated by the onset of muscular fatigue for quite some time now. Muscular fatigue results in loss of power and efficiency and occurs as a result of the depletion of muscular glycogen, a lack of oxygen and an increase in muscle lactic acid (increase in hydrogen-ion concentration). Muscular fatigue occurs during brief intense exercise. However over an extended period of time by training without significant recovery from muscular fatigue you will experience accumulated muscular fatigue. And recovery from this is not just a few days to a week… so you may want to avoid that.

It is important to avoid muscular fatigue during training, especially accumulated muscular fatigue as this will affect your technique.

Applying graded compression (This is one aspect where Zensah is miles ahead of any of the other brands) to working muscles improves blood circulation which means that you will:

Improve your performance

Compression gets oxygen rich blood from your heart to your muscles faster. This means that they perform better. This also means that you get fresh blood into the muscle and thus getting nasty by-products out of them.

Recover Faster

Again, getting oxygen rich blood to tired muscles is the key. Like a massage, compression promotes better blood flow to traumatized muscles. Better blood flow means faster and more effective recovery to the muscle cells. It’s recommended they be worn for a couple of hours after exercise for maximum benefit.

Reduce your Risk of Injury

Picture a “Time-Warp” (Like the show on Discovery Channel – super-slow-mo video) of a runner’s foot striking the ground. Imagine the downward shockwave through the thigh followed by a reverberation as the quad bounces back up. All this violence causes the muscle fibres to tear. This is the natural degradation of muscles that lead to fatigue. Quite simply compression reduces the shock. This means less damage so you can go for longer and have less damage to recover from, thus avoiding accumulated fatigue.

And that my friends is what compression can do for you.

Now onto why Zensah, I actually ran in my Zensah calf sleeves tonight up and around Vredehoek. Zensah is a 10 out of 10 product for me. They are super easy to get on and off and the seam is guaranteed for life. It is one piece of fabric with 3 different weaves, each weave developed for each specific targeted area. It really is a beautiful thing.

But don’t take my word for it. If you’re considering compression do Zensah. It is the best by miles!

When I die wrap me in Zensah please.

Now days you have countless choices of frames, wheels, handle bars, saddles, pedals, helmets, nutritional products and even clothing. In fact there are so many mass-produced choices that it’s just plain confusing at the best of times.

Having had a sneak preview of some of the 2011 bike ranges from the recent Eurobike show, I can’t help but wonder how many products are actually made in a factory both owned and based in the same country, let alone the same town, as the actual brand.

It’s common knowledge that a number of large brand companies have a large portion of their range made in the Far East. I think that the Chinese and Taiwanese factory owners must be laughing all the way to the bank. Good on them.

As a triathlete, however, it can be tough to decide on equipment amid the myriad of options. Bike frames and complete bikes are the hardest to choose.

Many athletes ponder questions like: which is the most aerodynamic, which is more comfortable, and, my personal favourite, which is the lightest? The truth is who cares what the answers to those questions are.

What you should be asking yourself is: does this frame/bike suit my ability; is it the right geometry for my body type and size, and, the most important one of all, does it fit into my budget?

Too many of us are caught up in the if-they-have-it-I have-to-have-it-hype.

Everyone, unfortunately, chooses a frame or bike based on what others are riding. No sooner have they bought it and the problems start.

The question most athletes are not asked when choosing a bike is: what is your injury history? This may seem a little weird but it has a significant bearing on both the style and the geometry of the bike that you may need.

Let’s take a road bike for example. You would think that the geometry on a 58cm-frame for one manufacturer would be the same as for the same size frame from all the other manufactures. Not so!

Frames can have as much as a 17mm difference in the head-tube length, which is the section on the frame between the handle bars and the top of the fork.

Let’s say you have lower back or neck discomfort. That 17mm could be the difference between you putting in a strong ride at your next race or having a shocker.

In the same instance,if you do have an old neck injury why choose a time-trial-style frame that is very low at the front thus placing even more strain on the neck than what it’s already going through?

My advice to you is simple. Ask your coach for help.

And if your coach says it is not their area of expertise, appreciate the honesty because it means that your coach is looking after your interests, rather than his back pocket.

In that case, I advise you to find a dealer that has been trained by Dr Andy Pruitt in bike fitting. What this man does not know about bike fitting is not worth knowing. Put it this way, if Fabian Cancellara trusts him shouldn’t you?

“Thanks Jono”

Jono Rumbelo, Certified ironguides Method Coach – South Africa

If you ever wanted to see exactly how the pros set their bikes up this is the video to do that. Perfect

In one of the greatest races of all time (in my opinion) Chris Lieto gave everything he could, but could not hold off one of the most perfectly run Ironman marathons ever. Craig Alexander ran the perfect race. Here’s an interview with Chris Lieto, 2009 runner up.

“Chris Lieto’s Score to Settle” – TriEurope

“Craig Alexander’s pass on Chris Lieto at the 2009 Ironman World Championships produced one of the great triathlon photos. It said it all. While Alexander was picking people off on the run, Lieto was wearing his heart on his sleeve giving it everything he had. In 2009, he only just came up short. Can he do it in 2010? Susan Grant chatted to one of the most popular triathletes in the world about Kona, running and that score to settle.

Photo: Chris Orwig

You were inspired to compete in triathlon after reading an article in Outside magazine about Mark Allen. He went on to become your first triathlon coach. What did you learn from him?

I was inspired to do triathlon originally after watching the Ironman on television. Also, Wendy Ingraham lived in my area and so I met her at school and watched her do the Ironman on television. During this same period of time I saw the magazine article with Mark, and there was a sample 16-week plan on training for your first triathlon, so I followed that plan. That’s how I got started. After that, Wendy helped me in my training and Mark came along and coached me for a year after that. I learned a lot from him. Professional athletes who become coaches bring their own experiences as athletes to the table, including their own trials and errors. But everyone is different, so you have to figure out what works best for you, especially as you get older.

During the last decade you’ve had three top-10 finishes at the Hawaii Ironman. You’ve said in the past that one of your goals as a pro was to become one of the top Americans in the sport. With your top-American finish in 2009, do you feel like you have achieved your goal?

There’s definitely more left out there for me to do. One of the goals I set for myself when I got involved in the sport in 1999 was to be in the top one percentage in the world as far as ranking. I’ve accomplished that, as well as winning several other races that I set out to win. The last thing on my list is really to win Kona. I’ve come closer every year, so it’s still out there for me to finish first. This year I will be out there to win.

How does your goal of winning Kona affect the rest of your 2010 season?

For the last couple years, my focus has really been winning Ironman Hawaii above all else. Every race I go to I have the goal in mind that I want to win, but ultimately my goal for the whole year is winning Hawaii. There are sacrifices I make throughout the year in terms of the races I choose to do and in my training so that I can be as fit as possible come October.

That said, even if I’m not as fit because of where I am in my yearly training plan, no matter what race I line up for, I shoot for winning and for giving my all and racing all out and challenging myself.

It’s always exciting to see what I have in me at any given moment in a race. It’s also beneficial to race closely against somebody else because it teaches you about yourself both physically and emotionally. I will take all the things I learn in every race that I do this year and try to adapt them to how I approach my race in Kona.

You are currently coached by Matt Dixon, founder of Purple Patch Fitness based in the San Francisco Bay area. Dixon is a proponent of rest and recovery rather than logging huge miles all the time. You’ve always been vocal about the importance of rest, but even you have admitted that it’s easier for someone to make time for recovery when training is their only full-time job. What advice do you have for age-group athletes on recovery?

To be honest, 99 percent of age-groupers train too much. I’ve learned a lot more of that from Matt Dixon. In the past, some coaches really overloaded me, and they just had a philosophy that training that hard is what you have to do, although it is more of a philosophy people believed 15 years ago.

Matt incorporates a lot of rest and recovery into my training program and it works really well for me, especially as I get older. I believe you really need to take at least one day off weekly. It’s hard to do mentally sometimes, but people would be amazed at the relatively small amount of training you can do and still have an incredible race.

Craig Alexander passes Chris Lieto at Kona. Photo: John Segesta

You spent six weeks leading up to Kona in 2009 training at altitude—roughly 8,000 feet—in Mammoth with marathoners Ryan Hall and Josh Cox, among others. What was the most profound change in your running during your time there, and how did it help you in Kona?

The time I spent up there was a great time, and being up that high works really well for me. It doesn’t always work well for people, so I was glad I enjoyed it and it helped me. I will be going back this year, although I will have to monitor when and how long I’m up there because what works once may not work the next time.

It was a chance to focus on my training for Hawaii, although usually I do training camps on Maui before the Ironman. This past year, I wanted to stay closer to home. It was more about a destination to get clarity and focus and to find balance in my training and myself.

Also, the surroundings were so beautiful and the people were so great to run with and learn from. Running with my friends Ryan Hall and Josh Cox and getting to know Deena Kastor and her husband and Meb [Keflezighi] was really a great experience.

It was good to be able to run with people at a high level.They are elite athletes at the top of their sport and we have mutual respect for each other and what it takes to be an athlete.

But there wasn’t any of that cloudiness of the sport of triathlon crowding my mind up there.

I’ve never really spent time at training camps in the traditional triathlon environment, for instance, going up to Boulder or wherever else other triathletes go. I’d rather train either with elite athletes I can learn from or just by myself. It was a time for me to challenge myself. There were times when I was more nervous about a track session with Ryan Hall and Josh Cox and all the Mammoth track team than lining up for a race. The running was great, I got a lot of good quality runs in while staying injury free, and it was just a great time overall.

In 1998 a friend accidentally ran over your foot, breaking it in more than 50 places. You were told you would never run again. Did you place a call after your Kona finish to the doctor who gave you your diagnosis and rub it in?

It’s funny you mentioned that. I did a talk with a triathlon club at a fitness club in my area and at the end of my talk it turns out the doctor who had worked on me after my injury was in the audience. He came up and talked to me after I finished my presentation and congratulated me. He was really impressed, and we’ve actually talked a few times since.

Doctors always give you the worst-case scenario with injuries like that based on the data that they have available to them. However, I am still dealing with the injury even today. I notice it in how my foot reacts to my run training, the soreness and the inflexibility in my ankle. I have some scar tissue in my foot even still. You just deal with it.

Thinking back to when you were healing from that injury, do you think it made you an even more driven athlete than you would have been otherwise?

In the beginning for sure it did. That first year, it was very much a driving force for me to rehab and get healed up. I was doing more on a rehab basis than they would have liked because I was so motivated. I would show up at the rehab place and they would tell me to warm up on the bike and I would have to explain to them that I just got done riding for two hours on the trainer. They basically kicked me out of physical therapy because I was doing enough on my own.

I was very proactive. As soon as I could get out of bed I did, as soon as I could ride a bike I did. Even with the cast on I would do activity. I pushed for a cast that would allow me to get in the water and I did a lot of aqua jogging. I never gave it time to rest and that was the key to my recovery.

A lot of times when people have surgery or injury issues they sit and let the recovery happen without being active, and that is when the scar tissue builds up. I really kept my foot and ankle moving and although I have some scar tissue it is so much less than I would have had otherwise.

You are one of the strongest cyclists in the sport, if not the strongest. Chris McCormack said that he thought you would be able to out-split Lance Armstrong if you had the chance. Do you think that you could?

I have no idea! I doubt it. Lance is a phenomenal athlete and he has the ability to excel at anything he puts his mind to. He is a mentor for me—someone I look up to. If he races in Kona this year or whenever and I’m out there racing too, I’ll do my best to keep up with him and hopefully I won’t let him go anywhere. I have no doubt that in the end he would probably smoke me though.

Prior to the 2009 Ironman World Championship, it was rumored that you were considering retiring from the sport. Was this true, and if so why?

I’ve gone through different stages in regards to retirement. In 2004, I thought about retiring and then I was able to have a good race at Ironman Canada and at that time I was thinking that it might be my last race. It goes to show how important your mindset is going into a race. At Ironman Canada I had no pressure on me; I just went out there and tried to have the best race I could have. I also held strongly to the belief that I had it in me to win the race, and so believing that I was able to win.

I learned from that experience that you always have to have that type of mindset where you are positive and you have big goals, but at the same time you don’t put pressure on yourself in an unhealthy way. You have to show up to your events, or whatever else you have to do in your life, with a relaxed, confident attitude, and that is how I really have approached the rest of my career since then.

Did I think about retiring last year? Well, no, but I’m always thinking about my exit and how I will handle that. I will be turning 38 this year so I’m not a young pup anymore, but every year I feel like I’m still getting better. Last year at Kona my fitness was really there and I think that this year it will be even more. I will continue to race as long as I feel like my fitness is improving or until something else comes along that really inspires me to put everything into it.”

A new line of Ironman-branded premium sports drinks developed by the sports nutrition experts at PowerBar® is being launched today. Ironman® PERFORM™ sports drink features PowerBar’s state-of-the-art C2MAX carbohydrate blend, found to deliver 20 to 50 percent more energy to muscles and improve endurance performance by eight percent.

Designed for athletes who take part in intense workouts, or who exercise in the heat or humidity and experience significant fluid and electrolyte loss, the new Ironman PERFORM sports drink also enhances performance by delivering essential electrolytes, including 190 mg of sodium per serving, to replenish what athletes lose in sweat and to help avoid skeletal muscle cramps and dehydration. The convenient ready-to-drink beverage is also made with natural flavors and without the use of high fructose corn syrup.

“I have been testing out the new Ironman PERFORM sports drink in training and it has a light taste and was easy on my stomach,” said Ironman champion Samantha McGlone. “Ironman PERFORM is the most convenient way to meet all my hydration and nutrition needs during hard racing and training. It will be key for me to now have its performance-enhancing formula on course when it counts this season.”

Nestlé Performance Nutrition and its PowerBar® brand, along with the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), are working together on the new line of Ironman-branded sports drinks, an extension of PowerBar’s longstanding global partnership with Ironman and its role as the official global energy bar and energy gel supplier of all Ironman and 70.3 events.

“We have a fundamental goal and shared mission with Ironman, which is to help athletes perform at their best,” said Phil Annett, Global Business Head at Nestlé Performance Nutrition. “Applying the latest sports science to get the right balance of performance benefits, taste and stomach comfort in the new Ironman PERFORM sports drink was a long yet essential development process designed to help athletes achieve optimum performance.”
Groundbreaking Research

C2MAX, the unique, high-octane carbohydrate formulation found in new Ironman PERFORM sports drink, was developed based on groundbreaking research published in the February 2008 issue of Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. The study showed that consuming an optimized blend of glucose and fructose carbohydrates allowed athletes to perform better, increase fluid delivery and experience less perceived exertion following exercise. PowerBar, through the Nestlé Research Center, continues to support a series of follow-up carbohydrate performance field trials with lead research author Dr. Asker Jeukendrup and his team at the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Birmingham. The aim of these trials is to apply this breakthrough science to the development of new sports nutrition tools, such as new Ironman PERFORM sports drink, for endurance athletes.

“Ironman is the pinnacle of endurance sports and we believe in having the latest tools available for our athletes,” says Ben Fertic, President and CEO of Ironman. “As Ironman celebrates its 32nd anniversary, we are excited to offer the world’s top athletes a new product that is designed to enhance their training and race day experience.”

Through the new agreement, Ironman PERFORM will be the official sports drink for the following events in 2010: Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island, Ironman 70.3 Racine, Rohto Ironman 70.3 Miami, Ford Ironman Lake Placid, Ford Ironman Louisville, Ford Ironman Wisconsin, Ford Ironman Florida and Ford Ironman Arizona. Additionally, both the 2010 Ford Ironman World Championship and Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 events will include Ironman PERFORM on-course, and the product will be on course at upcoming Aflac Iron Girl events throughout the 2010 season.

PowerBar’s heritage with the sport of triathlon traces back to the company’s beginning, and triathletes worldwide have come to rely on PowerBar’s sports nutrition products for top-level training and competition. Through the company’s Team Elite™ ambassador program, Ironman and 70.3 athletes have contributed to PowerBar’s product development programs for elite athletes, and this new sponsorship and licensing agreement is a natural extension of the long-standing relationship.

The Ironman brand has become a sports icon around the globe as more and more athletes continue to take on Ironman and 70.3 events each year. Additionally, while Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-marathon, it symbolizes passion, performance and the aspiration to challenge yourself to the fullest.