Posted by: Joe Nuss
on Dec 24, 2010
Olivia Kayye
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on Jul 31, 2010
By Chuck Millsaps
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on May 26, 2010
Learn to Relax for an Efficient Stroke
By Dave Williams
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on Feb 04, 2010
Tagged in:
Triathlon ,
Swim ,
Run ,
Off Road ,
Lifestyle ,
Endurance Events ,
Elite ,
Duathlon ,
Cycling ,
Charity ,
Beginner
Our 2010 Event Guide is your road map for the upcoming season. From walks to ultramarathons to iron-distance triathlons and open water swims, we have packed more than 800 events into the current 2010 Endurance Magazine event guide. We thank all of those race directors who were able to submit their events to SPORToften.com to be listed in this guide. Not all events for 2010 are listed, as many race dates were still to be determined when we went to press with the print issue. Remember to watch for newly added events as well as possible date or location changes in upcoming issues of Endurance Magazine and at our event registration site SPORToften.com - the premiere regional event community resource.
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on Jan 14, 2010
By Joe Nuss
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on Jan 06, 2010
By Dr. Joshua Stevens
Usually, this time of year my wife, Kara, is getting ready to celebrate another successful fall 5K season. Unfortunately, she was injured late this year and it derailed her racing. Begrudgingly, she settled into a three-month routine of pool running to maintain her fitness. In spite of her initial distaste for pool running she persevered and even convinced my sister and I to join her for many of these sessions. We all had a great time pool running together and were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed these tough workouts. Seeing the value in this training and adding it to our own routine my sister, Dr. Angelina Stevens, and I have recommended it to several patients.
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on Jul 24, 2009
Jason Harloff, PT, MSPT, LAT, ATC
Every year about this time, we start to see the effects of improper stroke mechanics in our multisport athletes and swimmers. Improper stroke mechanics can result from a variety of sources. Once such source stems from the fact that the human body is extremely efficient and finds ways to compensate for joint and soft tissue restrictions. Another factor occurs when we force our bodies to move through less than optimal movement patterns and is especially common in the sport of swimming. Each stroke has its own common compensations. For the benefit of multisport athletes this article will address freestyle and the common problems associated with it.
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on May 24, 2009
By Marty Gaal, CSCS
If you haven't yet tried your hand at swimming, you'll soon find out that it's technique intensive and your best bet is to join a coached group or find a good technique coach. For the uninitiated, the world of swimming can be intimidating. If you join a master's group or are planning to download workouts from the internet you're going to need to know the definitions of a few key terms and formats that are specific to swim workouts:
- Pull - Means swim with a pull buoy and hand paddles. Some coaches may want you to use just a buoy, or just paddles, so hopefully the workout will specify that.
- Build - Means start the swim easy and build your effort into fast by the end. For example: 10 x 100 build on :15 (or "15) means swim ten times 100 yards starting each 100 easy and finishing each 100 fast, on a total of 15 seconds rest in between each 100.
- Descend - This usually means you'll do consecutive swims at a harder effort. For example: 9 x 100 descend 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 on :15 (or "15) means the first 100 is easy, rest 15 seconds, next 100 is moderate, rest 15 seconds, third 100 is fast...then rest 15 seconds and repeat that series two more times.
- Negative split - The second half of the swim is faster than the first. Example: 3 x 400 negative split on :30 (or "30) means swim 400 yards with the first 200 yards moderate effort and the next 200 yards at a harder effort, then rest thirty seconds before starting again.
Let's look at a sample workout. The highlighted lines are what would be written.
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on Apr 27, 2009
If you're looking for your first wetsuit or just a good suit to get you through the early season cold water races, the Orca S2 is the wetsuit for you. Orca is probably better known for their high-end wetsuits, selling for well over $500. Based in New Zealand, Orca has traditionally focused sponsorship on ITU and Olympic triathletes, most of them Australians, Kiwis, or Europeans. It is not surprising then that in the U.S., Orca is not as much a household name as Blue Seventy or Quintana Roo. However, their experience in making wetsuits dates back to the mid-1990s, and they sponsor athletes like Craig Alexander, who won the world 70.3 distance title using an Orca wetsuit during the swim.
Orca actually hit the U.S. market more than 10 years a
go, with sleek looking black wetsuits with some white patterns that resembled those of the killer whale by the same name. The suits performed well, but sizing and fitting were an issue: they seemed to be made only for the lean athlete with 3% body fat. The average age-group athlete had a horrible time getting one of those suits on. Distribution was also a problem, as the suits came from Southeast Asia and the U.S distributor never seemed to be able to fulfill orders in a timely way. Better knowledge of the U.S. market and new relationships has changed all that. The current Orca wetsuit sizes now fit age-group athletes even better than some U.S. competitors, and a distribution partnership with Orbea bikes has ensured prompt availability in the U.S.
The S2 builds on the success of Orca's S1 wetsuit but uses a lighter, more flexible neoprene. It is a no-frills suit, but incredibly functional. It offers all the basic features that are necessary for a swimming wetsuit to work without the gimmicks that are often found in other wetsuits.
The material used is a water-resistant neoprene with a smoothskin outer layer that is durable and yet flexible. Orca uses varying thicknesses in different parts of the suit to achieve the perfect balance between buoyancy and flexibility. Generally, the thicker the material, the more buoyancy it will provide. In turn, the thinner the material, the more flexible it will be. The 5 mm "HydroLift" panels are strategically used on the front and back of the legs as well as front torso to provide outstanding buoyancy and warmth. The 3-mm back offers more flexibility and helps prevent overheating. The 3-mm "Flexiseal" Neck provides flexibility and comfort in an area that can be troublesome for a lot of athletes. Finally, the 3-mm Speed Transition Calf Panel ensures a fast wetsuit removal in transition. This is a nice touch for an entry-level suit. Anyone who has ever watched a triathlon transition knows that it is the novices that have most trouble getting off their wetsuits.
Posted by: Joe Nuss
on Feb 05, 2009
There's nothing that quite matches the sense of accomplishment I get when I finish planning my upcoming season's race calendar because truth be told, I'm lazy. Had a publisher of a coach-potato oriented magazine approached me to edit it rather than a fitness magazine, I could have very well been writing this from my sofa with a Coke and an open bag of potato chips sitting next to me on the coffee table. Instead, I'm writing this as clearly and concisely and quickly as I can so I can go out and run 9 miles in preparation for the Uwharrie Mountain Run, which hopefully I will have set a new PR on by the time you read this!
Seriously, as someone with a family history of diabetes and heart problems, I made a decision a long time ago to take charge of my health and lead an active life, but I never quite knew how to define it. Then I signed up for an Ironman. Having completed only a handful of triathlons prior, it wasn't the best decision I ever made, but it roused a need to call a plan into action. As I pieced together my training to accomplish this goal, I started formulating a race schedule so I could run a few triathlons and road races as benchmarks prior to my big race. With the volume of training required for an Ironman, I soon realized that in order to be successful, I would have to structure not only my training, but my life.
As I put together my daunting training and race schedule, I was forced to consider family vacations and work obligations prior to making any race commitment. Surprisingly, those needs opened the doors to include a few "destination" events on my schedule. Without that "limitation" I would never have run the beautiful Boulder Backroads Half Marathon in Colorado and meet up with an online training friend preparing for the same Ironman race. I was also fortunate enough to travel to explore other cool locations, like White Lake, which my wife and I knew nothing about except that there was a race there. To this day, one of my fondest memories of training for Ironman Florida is cooling off in White Lake on our semi-private beach as my family played in the sand and splashed in the crystal clear water beneath the sleepy cypress tress on a beautiful spring day.
I consider that year of Ironman training as one of the most fulfilling years of my life. The race schedule I put together incorporated my personal goal of adventure, my need for a healthy lifestyle and my family's desire to experience new and exciting places. A good race schedule, I learned, incorporates not just your personal fitness goals, but your overall lifestyle goals as well. A good schedule can help you develop realistic goals for your training which can help you manage stress. A poor schedule, consequently, includes unrealistic goals for training that only generates more stress and leads to both yours and your family's dissatisfaction with your fitness-oriented lifestyle.
