Once Inspired

Posts Tagged ‘Triathlon’

So it’s been a little longer than usual. I’ve just hit the refresh button and taking a while to boot up again. I just felt it was time to clear the mind and the body of everything competitive, everything training and everything triathlon. So I’ve really been surfing and reassessing my life as an athlete. I have still not come to a conclusion just yet, but let’s not get too carried away. I know how you lot can start/spread rumours. (Laughs… laugh with me).

Now I don’t usually post much personal stuff but today I’ll mix it up a little for you.

The new TYR Hurricane Freak of Nature. 100% 40 cell Yamamoto rubber.

“An incredibly innovative and forward looking design. No other wetsuit in the world has that.” – Chrissie Wellington

To read more please click here.

Limits will fall.

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…

The 25^th Clanwilliam Fitness Festival has come and gone and Grant (Fatty) Fillmore is now 30. It was slightly cooler than past years but the racing was as hot ever. A cool breeze kept the mornings on the chilly side, warming up slightly as the day went on, but the clouds were really making a huge effort at keeping the sunshine at bay. The water temperature was also 2 to a few degrees colder.

As always, the days racing kicked off with the long swims. I participated in the 1.5km swim finishing as the 2^nd open male. Phil Emslie claimed the 3km swim by miles, dry and dozing as second place crossed the line.

When people ask me what the name of my blog is and I tell them “Once Inspired”, they usually comment and say something along the lines of “Only once but never again?” What they clearly don’t realize is that Once Inspired is actually a “complete this sentence” phrase.

Racing at world champs was an unparalleled experience. Beijing is a beautiful (and massive) place. The race venue was the same as the 2008 Olympic Games. The privilege of running down the blue mat and finishing under the Dextro Energy Triathlon, ITU World Championship, Beijing banner was probably the pinnacle moment.

On the Finish Line

Ready to go for world triathlon champs in Beijing my preparation has been good. There are areas where I could have worked more, but being an age group racer with a full time job, it is difficult.

As lucky as I am to be in a position to be able to afford some of the best equipment and have more time than most, there is a very good reason why there is such a huge gap between the pros and the rest. Pros get time to train, time to rest and time to eat properly.  Not to mention being sponsored the majority of equipment required.

Below is the extended weather forecast from one of the best websites around; http://www.timeanddate.com. You can also see solar and lunar height, distance and angle.

	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon
	30 Aug	31 Aug	1 Sep	2 Sep	3 Sep	4 Sep	5 Sep
Weather:
Description:	Partly cloudy. Warm.	Tstorms late. A mixture of sun and clouds. Warm.	Showers early. Decreasing cloudiness. Mild.	Morning clouds. Warm.	Showers late. Afternoon clouds. Mild.	Heavy rain. Breaks of sun late. Cool.	Scattered showers. Mostly cloudy. Cool.
High temperature:	31 °C	33 °C	24 °C	30 °C	25 °C	21 °C	22 °C
Low temperature:	18 °C	20 °C	19 °C	15 °C	16 °C	19 °C	17 °C

Xtenex (indeXed-TENsioning-nEXus) is a worldwide patented elastic lace technology that produces adjustable tensioning between shoe eyelets. Xtenex laces have an elastic core and a series of knots along the entire length of the lace at consistent length intervals. Stretch the lace and the knots disappear, allowing you to thread the lace through the eyelets. Release the tension and the knots reappear. More knots between eyelets lessens the tension; fewer knots between eyelets increases tension.

Currently, most laces are not able to provide variable tension as laces are tied by creating a knot at the top end of a shoe. The problem with this way of lacing is that all of the tension sits around the ankle area and that results in a restriction of blood flow and circulation. The problem is compounded by people creating a double knot so as to avoid their laces coming undone.

After a horrid run at South African National Triathlon Champs I was lucky to make it into the SA team and represent my country in Beijing, China for the World Triathlon Championships. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to represent my country at an international event and now I have the opportunity of doing just that.

Kicking is quite a debatable issue and sometimes a sore point amongst coaches and swimmers alike. Some swimmers simply cannot kick and trying to get a swimmer to kick as a coach is not often as easy as one may think. There are a number of reasons why some swimmers have a strong kick and why others simply don’t move when doing kicking drills.

In triathlon there is quite a debate regarding how necessary the kick really is. Many believe that using a kick simply as a means of balance and having a short fast arm stroke is the answer. Whilst this is true in some cases, this is not applicable to every athlete.