For those of you who make a habit of Triathlon’ing and competing at events we believe you deserve a little support and recognition! Go for it and you will receive 15% off the events when you sign up for all 3. Run a Sprint, and Olympic and a Half with RaceTri and you can be eligible for the Triple Play!!!

To participate in RaceTri’s Triple Play Series complete all three events and you’ll be eligible for a special award presented at the end of the Series at the UTAH HALF.

• Salem Spring Sprint
• Rock Cliff Triathlon (Olympic)
• Utah Half Ironman

 In addition your name will be immortalized on a special webpage dedicated for TRIPLE PLAY finishers. Preferred parking permits for the Salem race will go to the first 15 TRIPLE PLAY sign ups.

To participate in RaceTri’s Grand Slam Series. Complete all four events and you’ll be eligible for a special award presented at the end of the Series at Yuba.

• Salem Spring Sprint
• Rock Cliff Triathlon (Sprint or Olympic)
• Escape from Black Ridge – Herriman Triathlon
• Camp Yuba (Sprint or Olympic)

Register through the website and when you’ve got all four races in your cart input the code: “GS2012″ to receive a 15% discount and be eligible for the Grand Salem Award.

Completing the sprint or olympic distance in the Rock Cliff or Camp Yuba races has no effect on your standing to receive the Award. In addition your name will be immortalized on a special webpage dedicated for Grand Slam finishers. Preferred parking permits for the Salem race will go to the first 15 Grand Slam sign ups.

Heath Thurston with an 3 Minute lead out of the water at the Utah Half Ironman 2010

Winner of the 2011 Salem Spring Triathlon, Heath Thurston will be hosting an open water Swim Clinic at the Pleasent Grove Res. Heath is an expert multisport athlete. While he excels in all the disciplines of triathlon he will be the first to admit that “THE SWIM” is his strong point. Almost always the first one out of the water Heath has perfected the discipline of open water competition. On Tuesday night Heath will review the swim course, open water techniques and race day strategies. Bring your wetsuit and goggles, its your chance to have your stroke analyzed by a Pro. You do not want to miss it! For those who attend the clinic they may pick up their race packets afterwards. You may also pick up your race packet for the UTAH HALF IRONMAN at SBR in Orem on Thursday, Friday night from 6-8pm or on Saturday race morning before 6AM.

When asked what he does Heath responded “I train as a Professional Triathlete myself then I coach other athletes as well, mostly in the swim. My wife and I also have a corporate wellness program that we do for businesses in the [Utah] valley. I love doing Triathlons and coaching other people to see their potential in the sport and get them to have confidence in swimming biking and running to do there first Tri.

We are happy to report that Winder Farms will be at the swim clinic to offer a chocolate milk recovery drink after your swim workout. Furthermore a special offer for the Utah Half Ironman participants only. You are going to love it!

 Like the bike course, the run had its share of hills. It was a single loop course which is what I usually prefer. For some odd reason the two loop and out-n-back layouts are mentally tough for me. I enjoyed the run with all the curves it threw at me.

All in all, I had a great time at the Black Ridge Triathlon and would readily recommend it to anyone who asks about it. The open water swim is much less intimidating than others in which I have participated. The bike course had a great climb with a long rewarding descent. The run had hills and some great flats for chasing. I definitely plan on racing again next year.

Christopher Hoerter finished 8th place overall with a time of 1:14:22.7

Herriman BlackRidge Triathlon July 30, 2011

More information about the ESCAPE from BLACK RIDGE TRI

See more photos from the BLACK RIDGE TRI 2011

Heath Thurston with an 3 Minute lead out of the water at the Utah Half Ironman 2010

Winner of the 2011 Salem Spring Triathlon, Heath Thurston will be hosting an open water Swim Clinic at Black Ridge. Heath is an expert multisport athlete. While he excels in all the disciplines of triathlon he will be the first to admit that “THE SWIM” is his strong point. Almost always the first one out of the water Heath has perfected the discipline of open water competition. On Tuesday night Heath will review the swim course, open water techniques and race day strategies. Bring your wetsuit and goggles, its your chance to have your stroke analyzed by a Pro. you do not want to miss it! For those who attend the clinic they may pick up their race packets afterwards. You may also pick up your race packet for the Herriman Tri at SBR in Orem on Thursday night.

When asked what he does Heath responded “I train as a Professional Triathlete myself then I coach other athletes as well, mostly in the swim. My wife and I also have a corporate wellness program that we do for businesses in the [Utah] valley. I love doing Triathlons and coaching other people to see their potential in the sport and get them to have confidence in swimming biking and running to do there first Tri.

                Out of all the injuries I see, this is the most common among runners and non-runners alike.  For some it is a short-term problem and others it is a life-long struggle.  Runner’s Knee is usually associated with an increase in activity.  This can be increased mileage, increased hills, or just over-doing it on one particular day.  Pain is often worse after exercise.  The pain can be felt on any side of the knee, but most often on the front.  Pain is worse after getting up from rest, with sitting for a while with your knees bent (the Theatre Sign), or with going down stairs. 

                So what causes it?  The answer is really in the name- Patellofemoral (meaning knee cap and thigh bone) Syndrome.  It is essentially a problem with alignment.  A good comparison is that of a rope in a pulley.  If the rope stays in the center of the pulley then everything runs smoothly, but if the rope is pulled off to the side then there can be uneven wear and fraying of the rope.  The knee is just the same.  There is a groove in the bottom of the thigh bone that acts like a pulley.  The knee cap, its tendons, and the quadriceps muscle act as the rope.  So, if the alignment of the knee is off, then there is uneven wear under the knee cap, causing inflammation and pain.

                There are a variety of things that can contribute to runner’s knee.  Some of these issues cannot be changed like the bone anatomy, the tightness of ligaments, and how ‘knock-kneed’ you are.  Others can be influenced like muscle strength, foot arch, and pelvic alignment. 

                The mainstay of initial treatment is relative rest, strengthening of the thigh and hip muscles, and anti-inflammatory medications.    Other treatments of benefit are bracing, taping, and pelvic adjustment.  Rarely, is surgery a considered option.  So, if this sounds like something that you may be dealing with I would suggest taking a step back on your training and search the web for ‘Patellofemoral exercises’.  It will take 2-4 weeks to see improvement with these exercises.  If these are not helpful, pay your friendly neighborhood sports medicine doctor a visit.

Matt Evans, MD

Dr. Matt Evans is a sports medicine doctor practicing with Utah Valley Orthopedics & Sports Medicine. He lends his expertise at RACETRI events by patching up road rash, helping athletes overcome hypothermia, dehydration and with his team runs overall triage at the race. More than a medical expert Dr. Evans is an athlete who has completed triathlons. Do you have an injury or sports medicine question? Find Dr. Evans near the finish line for an exam & expert advice.

See his Full Bio by clicking here

Schedule an appointment by calling the number here

I knew that if I wanted to win this thing, I needed to push the swim a little harder than usual. There were some great bikers and fast runners in the field and my best chance to win was to lead from start to finish. That was my goal. I felt good on the swim and found myself pretty much alone after the turn-around buoy. I was hoping this meant that I passed a few guys rather than that everybody was way ahead of me. 

T1 was rather uneventful although surprisingly slow. Not sure what I was doing in there for so long. I noticed that most bikes were still on the racks, which tends to be a good sign. I tried to keep a steady yet fast pace on the bike. This was a sprint after all and there was no need for pacing. I kept trying to convince myself that this is supposed to hurt the whole time. It is always fun to get passed by a bunch of the fast guys, knowing that I beat them out of the water. If only I could hold on a little longer…

I was happy to make it off the bike still in 1st place.

I was having some trouble in T2 trying to stay balanced while putting my running shoes on. Maybe having Chris Black, the awesome photographer that shot all of these pictures, right in my face was making me nervous.

The run was actually really lonely. The fast guys were all pretty much out of sight and I did not see any other runner until one flew by me right before the finish. Luckily, it was not a girl. Staying focused is a little difficult when it does not feel like you are actually racing but knowing that Jeanette and Kara were catching up scared me enough to keep up the pace.

It was great to see so many friends and family at the finish line. Thank you for all your support and love. It means a lot to me.

Huge congrats to all the other finishers out there. It is a pleasure and honor to be racing with you all. Special congrats to my great friend, Jen Wilson, who survived her first open-water swim and then blazed through the bike/run and finished in the Top 10. You are my hero!

A big thank you to RaceTri for a fantastic event, PowerTri, and HT Training. I could not be doing it without your help!

Sarah Jarvis holds on to her title as “Queen of Salem” … who will come and challenge her next year? Will it be you? Win, lose, or draw by the end of it all Sarah will certainly learn your name and call you friend; Good Form Sarah – We are honored to have you come race Salem.

When I was initially told about the bacteria problem, I was told that measurements taken after rainstorms were likely to produce higher numbers and be more contaminated than normal because of all the runoff from peoples yards and just general muck.

So when I heard that the state would be testing the water again yesterday, I was kind of nervous about it due to all the rainfall, but then I go the results.

The triathlon community in Utah is vibrant and as athletes you have a ton of choices regarding what events you can choose to compete in. Perhaps, we just got this race on everyone’s calendar a little late. We are not ready to throw in the towel yet and call it off for 2011, but, it’s getting close to the point in time where we are going to have to make a call one way or another.

After losing BAM this year I don’t think our Utah Triathletes want to lose another race as well. If we can get enough athletes by the weekend of the Salem Spring to support Rock Cliff, we’ll keep it on the schedule. Otherwise we’ll cancel this year’s event and reboot for next year.

UPDATE 5/20/2011: With the cancellation of 5i50 on the same day as the Rock Cliff event we are offering a special discount code for the next week or so for anyone who wants to enter Rock Cliff. With the 5i50 being cancelled, I think we’ll have enough cross-overs from that event to keep Rock Cliff going in 2011 and on into the future in 2012. Email us at info@racetri.com to get the code.

All the staff here at Swim Smooth are triathletes or open water swimmers. We understand the different preparation required to race in open water versus the pool and the need to balance out your training between the three disciplines.

If you are new to triathlon, here are some important pointers to maximise your performance in the water during your triathlon season:

Your Individual Stroke Technique

One of the differences between being a pure swimmer and a triathlete is that your training time is split between the three disciplines so you have time less available form swimming. As a ‘time poor’ triathlete it’s very important to understand what you need to work on for your individual stroke so you make the best you of your available time in the water.

If you have a coach at your pool or club, seek out their help and get some advice on your stroke and how to go about improving it. Also, it’s worthwhile asking what is naturally good about your stroke too (be brave!) as this will help you simplify things. There are all manner of drills and techniques you can work on with your swimming and it can be quite overwhelming – try and simplify things down to your individual needs wherever possible and you’ll make much quicker progress.

Training As Well As Technique

As a distance swimmer, one of the biggest mistakes you can make with your swimming preparation is to solely focus on your technique, swimming only 50 or 100m at a time. Becoming a ‘technique hermit’ is bad for your swimming because as a distance swimmer you need to be able to maintain your technique over longer distances. By only ever swimming short drill sets you tend to develop a technique that overloads the smaller muscle groups of the shoulder which quickly tire beyond 100m.

Drill work is a great for your swimming but also incorporate continuous swims of 200m, 400m and even 800m into your sessions so that you develop a stroke that you can maintain over longer race distances. You may find this results in a slightly shorter stroke that is more rhythmical to you, such strokes are often more efficient over longer distances.

Include A Distance Focused Swim Once A week

Many pure swimmers come from a sprint (50/100m) or middle distance (200/400m) background and so masters swim groups often focus on short fast sets with lots of recovery. However, triathlon is a true distance event in that you will be racing for at least an hour and as such you need a distance focus to your swim training. We recommend that once a week you put in a longer distance swim at steady pace. If you’re doing Sprint or Olympic distance then building up to 1500m of steady swimming will build the necessary endurance for your race. You can swim this continuously or if you prefer break it down into a set with short recoveries – e.g. 3x500m with 30 seconds rest between each 500m.

If you are training for Ironman then you have a 3800m swim ahead of you in the race and because of the longer distance, your weekly long swim arguably becomes the most important session of your swim week. If you can, build up your long swim so you reach 4000m a few weeks before the race and you’ll be all set for a fantastic Ironman swim leg.

If you train with a club or masters group that never does any longer distance sets it’s well worth missing one of the club sessions, replacing it with a session of your own focusing on steady distance pace.

Developing Your Pacing Skills

As a distance swimmer your ability to pace your swimming correctly is critical. With any swim that you do, be it in training or a race, it’s extremely easy to start off quickly and then slow dramatically after 100m or 200m. In a race situation you might not realise this is happening because everybody else is starting too fast around you and doing the same thing!

When you swim your sets in training, keep an eye on the times you swim for each repetition. If you can, also monitor your splits within each set – so if you’re swimming 200m, monitor each 25 or 50m split. Not all of us are analytical or numbers people but asking a coach or friend to check this regularly is very worthwhile to develop your pacing skills and so improve your performances in races.

If you are interested in investing in a gadget to improve this area of your swimming then we would highly recommend a Wetronome to you. You can program it to a certain time per length and then place it under your swim cap where it will beep to you at the time you should be turning each lap. It’s fascinating how easy it is to get ahead of the beep over the first 25 or 50m and then how the beep catches up with you as you slow down. It’s a bit like the red-line they show on the Olympic swimming coverage!

Practise Open Water Skills (even during the winter)

If we told you that by focusing on a particular drill or training method you would take several minutes off your triathlon swim split, you’d jump at the chance right? Well, you really can save several minutes by optimising your drafting and navigation skills for open water swimming.

When you swim behind, or to the side and slightly behind another swimmer you save up to 25% of your energy expenditure – or put another way, swim much faster for the same effort. This sounds easy but is actually very skilful to perfect as you have to swim very close to other swimmers to get maximum benefit. If you are not used to doing this it can be slightly unsettling at first – you need to practise this in the pool with some friends or with your training squad:

Your ability to swim straight in open water is also critical as it’s easy to lose large chunks of time by swimming off course. We’ve recently been equipping some triathletes with GPS tracking devices and seeing how straight they swim in open water – the answer is not very straight at all! It’s easy to lose anywhere between one and ten minutes by swimming off course. Our twin blog posts on this subject make fascinating reading:

Open Water Navigation

Swimming Straighter In Open Water

The key is to practise your sighting skills in the pool so that come the race you are entirely comfortable raising you head slightly to look forwards without excess effort or ruining the rhythm of your stroke. The easier and more natural sighting feels the straighter you will end up swimming!

Quick tip: Don’t try and sight forward and breathe at the same time – this will mean lifting your head too far above the surface which will sink your legs. Instead, time your sighting to happen just before you’re going to take a breath. Lift your eyes out of the water by pressing down lightly on the water with your lead arm (in this example your right arm). Only lift up enough to get your eyes just out of the water:

Your left arm will have now started recovering over the water, as it does so, turn your head to the right with your body to breathe. As you do so, let your head drop down in the water to a normal breathing position.

Putting It All Together

After reading the above you’re probably thinking “OK, how do I fit all that in?”. If we were designing your swim training, and you were swimming three times per week, we’d structure it something like this:

Session 1: A stroke technique focused warm-up followed by threshold pace work at race pace. See CSS Training

Session 2: A longer steady paced swim building up to race distance. We might split this into a set with short recoveries with a focus on good pacing.

Session 3: A stroke technique focused warm-up followed by a fun open water skills session in the pool with some friends. This would include group drafting work and sighting skills. (This is great fun and in the Swim Smooth squads in Perth is the most popular session of the week!)

improve your swimming with Swim Smooth!

Swim Smooth is an innovate swimming coaching company famed for its straightforward approach to stroke correction. Visit our website for plenty more fascinating articles to improve your swimming. Don’t miss our amazing new DVD Catch Masterclass featuring incredible underwater video of champion swimmers in action. Also see our other swimming DVDs, training plans and training tools in our swim shop. Last but not least don’t miss our animated swimmer “Mr Smooth” showing you a great freestyle stroke in super-high detail. Unmissable! :

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Article © Swim Smooth 2011