Is Your Training Screwing Up Your Family?

NY Times writer, Abigail Lorge (an excellent runner in her own right, if my athlinks.com stalking is leading me to the right results), recently wrote an article on the toll marathon training takes on a person's family and coworkers, entitled "For Those not runnning, Training can be Just as Taxing."

The article is an unintentional a call to all endurance sports fanatics to marry someone with the same passion, or someone who doesn't mind having his/her guest room transformed into a garage/locker room hybrid, or not having enough money to buy a home because of all the cash shoveled out for equipment and race entry fees. (Two points lamented by a "marathoner widdow" in the article.)

And while coworkers don't need to be constantly reminded of your athletic prowess either, Lorge reports, they can't avoid it when you come to work sweaty, and saran wrap ice or frozen peas to your legs while at your desk.

These actions aren't normal?

There was a time when I was hyper conscious of my training and how my coworkers saw me because of it. There was no shower at work, but I'd still do Ironman training during lunch, and bike to and from the office. Stinky much? Yes. Did I try everything I could short of installing a camping shower in the bathroom to appear professional and unstinky? Yes. (Thanks, Action Wipes!)

But there comes a point, I believe, when endurance sports fanatics realize they're in it for the long haul, and thus begin to loose their grip on what appears normal to those around them.

I've reached that point.

Like John Cohen, the main subject in the article, I've made not just the guest room, but my entire apartment smell like a locker room. My living room is a bike garage. I'd rather clean my bikes' chains and cassettes than do the dishes, and my entire weekends are usually devoted to long rides.

But unlike John Cohen, I married someone with the same warped endurance sports mentality. Good move? From the apartment's standpoint, probably not; it's doubly as stinky and bike-filled. From the standpoint of my sanity and happiness, most definitely.

How many couples spend their weekends outside together riding bikes for 6 hours at a time, or running trails for hours on end? That time spent together is better than having a sparkling apartment. And Glade plug ins can make up for the stink.

Maybe John Cohen's next double-checked purchase should be a pair of running shoes for his wife, and an entry into the 2009 NYC Marathon.

XTERRA USA Moves to Utah--The End of an 8 Year Run in Incline Village, NV

If you're a Lake Tahoe junkie like me, the headline, "XTERRA USA Moves to Utah", part of a press release posted on Xterra's website on October 21st, might have gotten you all riled up.

Why wouldn't the race be held at Lake Tahoe? How could the national championships ever be rightfully called the national championships without a death-defying ride down the Flume trail?

I spoke with Trey Garman, VP of Team Unlimited/XTERRA for the lowdown. It seems the faltering US economy has struck Nevada.

Me: What prompted the move, after 8 years in Incline Village?

Trey: The Nevada Commission on Tourism was forced to cut their budget and as a result we lost our funding for the XTERRA USA Championship event, accompanying marketing, and one-hour television show.

Me: That totally sucks!

Trey: (didn't respond to that because it was in my head.)

Me: Will there be a race in Incline Village at all next year?

Trey: There is nothing scheduled in Incline right now. We are very grateful for the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe, the businesses in Incline Village, and to the State of Nevada for their support through the years. We’ve got eight years of history and heritage in Nevada, and the XTERRA USA Championship itself was born in Nevada back in 2001. Nevada holds a special place in the hearts of athletes from around the nation and world. As proof, athletes from 43 states and 14 countries raced in Incline Village this year. As the U.S. Championship was part of the XTERRA Global Tour, its impact is felt not only in the U.S., but also in the XTERRA international market that reaches into 15 countries.

Me: Will the USA race course be the same as the Mountain Championship course?

Trey: There will just be the one race, the USA Championship, up at Snowbasin. So in essence, the nationals replaces the Mountain Championship, however, there will still be another regional in the mountain area (site TBA), but not at Snowbasin.

So there you have it. Nevada has no moolah right now, but XTERRA will proudly continue the USA nationals race at Odgden, Utah's Snowbasin resort. For more information, read the press release here.

No wonder we haven't been seeing "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" TV commercials lately...

The Inside Triathlon Merger with Triathlete Magazine: Good or Bad for Triathlon?

With most of the world's mainstream media owned by a few corporations, it's not surprising that the same thing should happen to the relatively marginal world of endurance sports.

.

Private equity firm, Falconhead Capital, LLC. announced in January this year that Inside Communications, Inc., owner of Inside Triathlon and Velo News, would be merged with Falconhead-owned Competitor Group, Inc., owner of Triathlete Magazine, the regionally distributed Competitor magazines, and a host of other endurance-sports related ventures.

Will a monopoly on multisport news ruin the sport’s journalistic integrity?



With the same company publishing the only two triathlon magazines in existence, what would make an athlete want to subscribe to both? Competitor Group, Inc. (CGI) must present unique editorial viewpoints for each publication so that they will be seen as complementary, not competitive.

T.J. Murphy, formerly Editor in Chief of Triathlete Magazine now holds the same position at Inside Triathlon. He outlined the key differences between the two magazines as follows:

“Triathlete will continue to be an all-encompassing book, with a focus on how to train for and race triathlons… As far as IT, we are transforming it into a hybrid between a book and a magazine, a coffee-table publication, using higher quality paper, long-form journalism and heavy with large-format photography. Starting in 2009, Inside Triathlon will be published bi-monthly. Instead of focusing on the "how-to," IT will focus on the culture of the sport, using in-depth profiles and stories. The first issue using the new format will be the Jan/Feb issue, themed “Inside the Hawaii Ironman.”

The content in Inside Triathlon will assume the reader has a solid knowledge of the sport, and using this assumption as leverage, we will be able to steer features into more advanced and specific territories."

.

While it appears that the new editorial direction of Inside Triathlon will help produce a product that will be welcomed by seasoned triathletes (including myself), the death of competition in multisport magazine publishing leaves a lot of unchecked reporting responsibility in the hands of a few people.

.

Mark Crispin Miller, professor of Media Studies at NYU, described the convergence of the mainstream media in The Nation in 2001 as having a "corrosive effect on journalism." Will this endurance sports media merger enervate diversity of thought in the sport of triathlon?

The presence of a healthy amount of triathlon blogs, like this one, as well as Slowtwitch.com may allow this merger to be seen as a good thing---for now. In a niche sport like triathlon, perhaps CGI's publications along with blogs, and Slowtwitch.com are, in fact, enough to holistically, and responsibly, serve the multisport crowd.

CGI's acquisition of Inside Triathlon will provide more in-depth coverage of the sport where there was none before. As Triathlete Magazine editor, Brad Culp, points out, because triathlon is a niche sport, he’s “not sure that there's room for two magazines following the same formula…

“It's no secret that [Inside Triathlon] was suffering. If we continued to compete with one another, I doubt that IT would've been able to survive much longer. Now triathletes have two solid magazines to read. I think the reader response and circulation numbers will confirm that this was a good move.”

Also, as T.J. Murphy explains, "There is competition [between Triathlete Mag and IT]. Although the two staffs now exist under the same company banner, the intensity of competition between them will only increase. It's like being on a cross-country squad: sure, you race against other teams but there's also a fierce competition among team members...With a print publication, the costs are so high you either succeed or die a slow, painful death. So we have to bust ass or we die."

.

While the editors of both magazines make a good argument that the merger will actually increase the quality of their content, there is a bigger picture to consider: further vertical integration.

In a January interview with Dan Empfield, owner of Slowtwitch.com, David Moross, chairman and CEO of Falconhead Capital, LLC., said "the formation of Competitor Group, Inc. represents a significant opportunity for Falconhead to leverage CGI’s current assets into the number-one online destination/community for endurance athletes, incorporating authoritative 'insider' content, race results, merchandise and streaming video...We intend to build the world's premier endurance sports website."

.

The glossy Triathlete and Inside Triathlon magazines are only a small part of the picture. While the editors of these magazines might strive for the best content, continuing to compete against one another, an online aggregate of all of CGI's content might kill the little guys, who keep CGI's content in check, or swallow them up, creating a monopoly on endurance sports media. A one-stop shop is clearly attractive to advertisers, but it would kill consumer options for varied content.

.

Only time will tell if Mr. Moross's vision, as Dan Empfield phrased it, of "an integrated, vertical campaign that attacks the endurance sports participant demographic with opportunities in print, web, on-site and television," will come to life.

.

How does Slowtwitch.com creator, Dan Empfield, feel about this change in the multisport media landscape? We shall see...

Ironman World Championships 2008: Men's Fashion

A triathlon is the only forum where a hairless, greased-up man can wear a crop top and a speedo and still be revered as one of the manliest men on earth, by virtue of his athletic prowess. Case in point: Faris Al Sultan at this year's Ironman World Championships.

10 Do's and Don't's for Your First Road Triathlon

Sidelined from running due to continuous hambutt rage, I had the pleasure of cheering for some friends at the Hermosa Beach triathlon yesterday. The race, proclaimed the announcer, had 40% beginner participants--and it showed. But it didn't have to!

While it's true a baggy outfit and a mountain bike might give your newbie status away, these are not egregious errors. In fact, at a race like the Hermosa Beach triathlon, athletes wearing tri suits and aero helmets who are riding carbon fiber beasts with disc wheels are the minority, and look fairly ridiculous.

These guys, however, rarely make the following mistakes that would embarrass them--or even get them disqualified, a fate more embarrassing than the error committed in the first place.

1. DO NOT deck change. There is no need to wrap a towel around your waist and get butt naked in front of thousands of people to change out of your bathing suit and into your underwear. Slap some nylon pants over your suit if you don't want your thighs on display and get to it! (A lot more might be on display if that towel drops!)

(Do NOT do this!)

2. DO NOT wear tighty whities under your spandex shorts. You may think its strange not to wear underwear, but everyone else thinks its stranger to see your Hanes waistband bunched up cotton sticking out of your wet tri shorts. That can't be comfortable, or sanitary.

(Do NOT wear these!)

3. DO wear your helmet. You must have it buckled before you leave transition. If you do not, someone like coachubby might yell at you as you make your way out of transition, and you will have to take the ride of shame back to transition to get it (or get automatically DQed in a non-newbie friendly race...the Hermosa Beach tri is a bit scatterbrained organizationally, so your error might go unpenalized.)

4. DO NOT wear your helmet backwards. I wish I had a camera to take a picture of the girl with the adjustable part of her helmet slapped across her forehead. At least she remembered to put her helmet on!

(Do NOT do this!)

5. DO NOT run with your helmet. The man who crossed the finish line with his helmet in hand either was paranoid it would be stolen out of transition, or was so used to running with an iPod in his hand that he needed something to replace it. (iPods are illegal in triathlons!) Or he forgot to take it off of his head. So don't forget to take your helmet off before you run, unless you're tremendously accident prone.

6. DO ride to the right. Unless you're passing. If you don't, a spectacular collision with that show-off who's riding a carbon fiber, disc-wheeled rig awaits you. Especially at the Hermosa tri, where athletes are constantly siphoning onto the very narrow bike course, and crossing to exit all at the same intersection. Pay attention!

7. DO NOT be afraid to weld your own aerobars. One creative participant fashioned some spectacularly enormous aerobars that had him sitting straight up while keeping his arms in the aero position. Whatever's going to work for you and motivate you to do the race, do it! Unconventional? Yes. Ingenuity points? Definitely.

8. DO shout "On your left!" when passing. Its true that many newbie cyclists will then look left to see you and subsequently steer their bike that way. But it's courteous to let them know you're going to bomb by so they can brace themselves for the powerful gust of wind you'll surely create.

9. DO sprint to the finish. Especially if an opponent is running along side you. It's fun for spectators, and you never know if that other athlete is all that's separating you from a podium finish!

10. DO NOT knock anyone over in your sprint finish. Instead of making an exciting finish, you'll just look like a turd. If you two can't squeeze down the chute side by side, surge ahead, or make a flying leap for the finish line. A jazzy finish will make the crowd go wild.

(DO be like Chrissie Wellington!)

Have fun and don't worry too much! If you keep your wits about you and don't let race day jitters take over, you'll surely have a great first race!