The Tri Town Times: 1/24/22

• Posted on 24 January 2022
• By Antonio Gonzalez
• Posted in the tri town times
• 0

Image: Last call to order your custom Tri Town training and racing kit.

This week: the specificity of fitness; suffering, sacrifice, and the characteristics of Olympic-caliber athletes; quote from Brunello Cucinelli on the things you cannot buy.

- Place your orders on our website before the end of today and receive a 20% discount (use discount code "TTKIT20%" at checkout. 

- Want to put half down, and the remainder upon delivery? Please call us (208-297-7943) or email [email protected] to do so. Only order kits online if you want to pre-pay for your kit in full.

- We have many pieces available now, and expect delivery of any out of stock items by late February.

- Made by Louis Garneau.

- You don't have to be a pro or elite athlete to wear our kits! 

- Any questions or concerns? There's nothing like talking to a real person... please give us a call at 208-297-7943 or stop by the shop. 

- I regularly hear from athletes that they are training "for a sprint triathlon" or a "half ironman" event. As if training for one distance is mutually exclusive from another. If this were the case, how would athletes like Lucy Charles be able to podium at a Super League sprint distance race one weekend, and win the 70.3 World Championships a couple months later? The same can be said with Kristian Blummefelt, who won the Olympic gold medal in under two hours, and only four months later set the fastest time ever for an Ironman in ~7.5 hours. The reality is that there are benefits in training for short AND long events, and we seem to be in a time where the world's best athletes are proving it by competing and winning at a variety of distances. This article from Alex Hutchinson (author of the excellent book Endure) explains that "...longer, slower efforts with less rest increase fitness through central adaptations, while shorter, faster efforts with more rest trigger peripheral adaptations. Of course, it’s not all or nothing. All types of training will produce both central and peripheral adaptations." Remember that being fit means you're not only able to go for hours on end, but you can also change speed and direction at the drop of a hat. As you approach your key event you may want to tune your fitness for a specific event, but avoid the trap of only working your aerobic or anaerobic system.

- Last week I touched on sacrifice as a key ingredient to success, and suffering as trainable. A key to 'suffering well' comes down to your mindset- essentially you can choose to make something of it and use it to your advantage, or you choose to be defeated by it. This interesting study looked at the characteristics of Olympic gold medal winning athletes, and found that 2 of the 7 key indicators of Olympic success came down to overcoming injury and/or loss. Possibly overcoming a major life hurdle helped give them the dogged determination and focus needed to practice for 21+ years (on average) before reaching the top of their respective sport.

- Calling all endurance athletes: female, male, young, old, amateur, professional. Help research on training and health characteristics of endurance athletes by taking this 10 minute survey.

- Electric mountain bikes are making videos of riders climbing impossible things as much fun as watching them descend it.