Triathlete Friends and Family Day!

That's right! They've put up with you all year. So why not make a resolution to take the time out from your psycho training and recognize the people who keep you happy and strong. Even if it's only for an hour before you lift tonight.

Here are just some of the many things your closest buds have done for you time and again. They deserve something for their efforts. A foot massage? A home-cooked meal? A trip to the mall? You decide. Just make sure it isn't something like, say, a partner stretching session or something sneakily tri-training related.

• they nurse us when we're sick, even though they know we've been training through the sickness, and prolonging the phlegm and cough attacks. They still make us the extra vats of noodle soup and start buying Robitussin in bulk, though they know we've brought it on ourselves.


• They cheer wildly at all of our races, and run around for up to 17 hours straight, trying to document our athletic feats and photograph us at different angles in every section of the event.


• They console us when we get down about our day jobs cutting into valuable training time...even though we might have never even placed in our age group. They understand we're athletes at heart.


• They watch us eat extraordinary amounts of food and control the urge to comment on our gluttony.


• They recognize 4:30am as a viable time to wake up and don't mind the disturbance.


• They hold us accountable and keep us on track to reach our goals. Through sickness, bad weather, moodiness, and hurt feelings, they push us to achieve what we never though possible and keep us mentally sane.

So hug your biggest fans and make today about them. Without them, we'd all be a lonely tri-geeks, wandering into work in spandex, rapidly loosing touch with the real world.

How To Train for the Triathlon Start

Cliff Bar did a kick arse commercial about training for a triathlon--in particular the kicking, pulling, pushing, and general butt kicking that goes on in the beginning of the swim. Never before has this segment of the race been so perfectly demonstrated. If you haven't already seen this clip, check it out now! It'll make your day.

Watch it HERE!

Happy Training!

Cycling Satan--Funny Tri Photo of the Day

Beware of this guy! While many an athlete might hallucinate and believe they see Satan toward the end of their IM bike leg, it looks like that rascally devil really did come out for this race...to cheer?

Perhaps he'll feel right at home at IMAZ...let's pray it won't be that hot...

Happy Training!

The Coachancé - What it Is and Why it's Beneficial to Your Training

coachancé(e) - (n.) a coach who also happens to be your fiancé(e). This person might have been your coach first, then your fiancé, or vice versa. He/She is still referred to as a coachancé as opposed to a foach if the latter situation is true.

hoach / woach - (n.) related to the coachancé(e). A husband or wife who is also your coach.

The benefits of being engaged (or married) to your coach:

1. When you say "Not tonight, honey, I'm tired," he/she knows you mean it. You did work out for 9 hours. And because he/she created that killer 9 hour workout, he/she can be partly to blame for your complete exhaustion.

2. He/She knows if you skipped a workout, are eating too much chocolate cake, or are getting too much / too little rest and can adjust accordingly and on the fly. (As opposed to an e-coach, or one of those coaches who prints out your workouts per month and doesn't know your ITs have made your bum so sore you can't sit down.)

3. He/She can train with you. So you have a perma-fantastic training partner who is always there to encourage and push you. Plus you get to spend a lot of quality time together that work (or sleep in the rest of the population's case--they're not getting up at 4:30am to go swimming with their significant other!) otherwise takes away.

Yes, the coachancé (or foach/woach) is a marvelous thing. It is a relationship that has worked for many of the world's most accomplished triathletes (Barb Lindquist + hoach Loren; Michellie Jones + hoach Pete Colson...) It may just work for you.

But before you go off proposing to your coach this afternoon, make sure to think about other things as well. The bond of triathlon is strong, but it's important you both have your own lives and different personal interests as well. For example, if you like to read mystery novels in your spare time, and he/she has something completely different they like to do--like fishing-- you're probably well on your way to the romance of your life.

Happy Coach Dating!

Open Water Swimming

If you're like TriDiva, no matter how many times you swim in the ocean, it still scares the crap out of you. That shadow lurking just below you. AH! That slimy stuff you just put your hand in. And oh my goodness! You get so spread out from your friends. You know you look like the "weak" fish some big animal is going to have to taste for breakfast. You're not alone. And you're not the only one with a hyperactive ocean-swimming imagination:

Try not to freak yourself out. The chances of this happening, we've been told, are something around 1 in a billion. And the sharks are smarter in Australia.

Happy Open Water Swim Training!