The Ironman is tomorrow - to celebrate I found a photo of me wearing one of the first tri-suits!

This photo was taken when Julie Moss, Scott Tinley, Mark Allen were racing. In other words I found it bubbling up in the tar at the famous La Brea Tar Pitts in West L.A.. I think I even raced Ahelee that day as well and I believe she rode a pink bicycle. If it was her and you have to know, she handed me my ass.

This particular race took place in Long Beach along the Belmont Shores and we all cheated and got to draft in a glorious peloton like they do in the Tour de France. It was epic.

I am also wearing one of the first "tri-suits" and look at those real "neato," Saucony shoes. I loved those shoes.

Here s a link to a site TYR put up so you can follow race online:

Tracer Sayonara™ Swimskin Online Giveaway This Weekend

Huntington Beach – TYR prepares for the 2009 Ironman World Championships this Saturday, October 10th with the launch of an exclusive online site, www.tyr.com/kona, with pre-race and race day coverage.

The site features biographies, a photo gallery, and live video blogging of TYR’s sponsored triathletes including two-time defending world champion Chrissie Wellington, Ironman 70.3 world champion Andy Potts, and Eagleman Ironman 70.3 champion TJ Tollakson.

In addition, viewers have the opportunity to win a Tracer Sayonara, an elite swimskin made with Titanium alloy to be worn by the top competitors at Kona Ironman World Championships.

Visit www.tyr.com/kona for complete details.

Now pay attention and see which tech suit is first out of the water: blueseventy, TYR, and maybe we will see a Jaked?

Redemption for Eddie Freas: replacing an unhealthy addiction with a better one!

CNN brings us a story about athletic redemption: Eddie Freas, a raging alcoholic addicted to both pot and cocaine as well hit bottom after a three-day binge.

While lamenting his situation in tears, he did what most losers do, he turns on the TV to "Oz-out" the hangover. Luckily enough the channel was set to ESPN who was doing a story on a guy named Todd Crandell who liked doing this fringe sport called the triathlon. Doing this sport also got him off drugs.

In fact, this particular sport got Crandell who had a drug problem like Freas, completely off drugs. From CNN:

"His whole story seemed like mine," Freas said. "That's why it hit me so much. It was my story but it happened to somebody else. I knew I had to get back into fitness."

He took a bus to Racing for Recovery's office in Sylvania, Ohio. There, Freas said he learned to "stay clean and use other things -- fitness, instead of drugs." On his first day, Freas pushed himself to run 10 miles.

"It killed me," Freas said. "I was just motivated. I was sore for a week and I gradually got into it. As soon as I started including fitness into my everyday lifestyle, it made it so much easier. It kept me busy and because of the physical fitness, it was making me feel better about myself."

He pushed himself to run farther and raced in his first Ironman competition in 2008.

[Link]

Of course CNN has to wreck it and states that exercise has antidepressant effects hence his recvovery but I think they miss the obvious. Isn't "having fun" an antidepressant?

OK, a show of hands: Who did a triathlon after seeing Julie Moss crawl accross the finish line in the 1981 Ironman Triathlon on Wild World of Sports.

Triathlons are biased towards runners and biased against swimmers

I did the the Ironman in 1983 in Kona, Hawaii; (Thank you Julie Moss). After the race, Valerie Silk, the official Ironman race founder, told me that the first ever Ironman was a race between friends to settle a bet as to which athlete was the most superior: The swimmer, the cyclist or runner? (the swimmer won.) With that concept in mind or keeping with the spirit of the race, the distances in a triathlon should be calculated in terms of time/distance for fairness.

A fair triathlon would have the following distances or distances determined by using these proportions: 1.5 kilometer swim (1 mile), 25 Kilometer bike (15 miles), 5 Kilometer run (3.2 miles)

An elite athlete in any of these events could finish in a time of around 15 minutes. Ergo the race would require all around athletes rather than running and biking specialists. This to me would improve the sport of triathlon greatly. It would be a fair race and make the finishes much more exciting with racers much closer together throughout a competition. It would also determine which sport produces the greater athlete. But readers of this blog all ready know the answer to that: The swimmer would win.

THE BELL SHAPE CURVE OF SCAQ SWIMMING - BY CLAY EVANS

How about a politically incorrect "bell shape curve". How good a swimmer are you? SCAQ has about 1,000 swimmers and this is a break down of where I think they fit. (* These are yard times. For meter conversions add 10% if you have lousy turns and 12% if you have good flip turns). [Hey Clay, I bet $200 to Children's hospital that Scott Hubbard and Dan Wegner could do 10 x 100s on a minute.]

10 x 100 Yards in a short course pool
0 swimmers @ 1:00
10 swimmers @ 1:05 top 10
20 swimmers @ 1:10 top 30 / 1000
40 swimmers @ 1:15 top 70 / 1000
80 swimmers @ 1:20 top 150 / 1000
100 swimmers @ 1:25 top 250 / 1000
150 swimmers @ 1:30 top 400 / 1000
150 swimmers @ 1:35
150 swimmers @ 1:40
150 swimmers @ 1:45
100 swimmers @ 1:50
80 swimmers @ 1:55
70 swimmers @ 2:00
60 swimmers @ 2:05
50 swimmers @ 2:10
40 swimmers @ 2:15
30 swimmers @ 2:20
20 swimmers @ 2:25

Many will be discouraged with these statistics. I think you should realize how good our SCAQ swimmers are. Even to swim 10 x 100 on 2 minutes is quite an accomplishment and would put you in the middle of the pack of most triathlons.

Most triathlons do not have coach potatoes. They are vigorous people intent on their health and fitness. Anyone in the 1:20s and above most likely had a competitive swim background. The reason I put this out there is to get swimmers a sense of accomplishment and to help you in goal setting. You want to keep an eye on the clock and an eye on your times for the main goal: staying in the water and enjoying a little effort at being healthy.

Now, if you want to make a jump to the next tier on the bell-curve you have several options: You can add an extra workout per work, ask your coach for stroke correction, or if you feel your technique, or the lack thereof, may be holding you back, click here to sign up for a swim clinic of your choice.