Jive SBS Syndication Feed

No word yet on IM H2O temps

Gale Bernhardt — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:38:51 GMT

An update for inquiring IM racers. I have not heard back from IM yet on the water temperature question. I don't know if they don't plan to have any guidelines, are working on it, have not seen my requests (to two sources now) or what. As soon as I know anything, I'll post it here.

70 degrees yesterday, 5-10 inches of snow tomorrow

Gale Bernhardt — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:02:48 GMT

Yesterday was the first time I was on the mountain bike, on the trails, since November. Rocks the size of my fist looked enormous. Technical sections I could easily navigate last fall freaked me out and caused walking. Ridiculous.

My skills did improve by the end of the ride, as did the weather. It’s been a tough winter in Colorado. It’s the first time in years that we’ve had snow on the ground from November through March. Yesterday many locations along the Front Range hit the 70-degree mark.

The trail was packed with people. It was more like a Saturday crowd rather than a typical Wednesday light day. Everyone has a bit of cabin fever and wanted to enjoy that warm sun…before the snow comes again.

Today we’ll eek into the low 60s before the bottom drops out. At midnight the snow begins and tomorrow’s high temperatures will barely get to the low 30s. We’re predicted to get 5 to 10 inches of heavy, wet spring snow.

Ah, Colorado ~

Ironman water temperature rules - too cold?

Gale Bernhardt — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:39:38 GMT

I've had questions about Ironman St. George's water temperature and if there is a chance the swim could be canceled or modified. I've looked at rule sets for USAT and cannot find guidelines for minimum temps. There are ITU guidelines posted (see pages 14-15) but I'm not sure these rules apply to Ironman. If anyone out there knows the minimum temperature rules for IM, let me know. I'll do some more digging too.

ITU Adds to World Championship Roster with Sprint Events

Gale Bernhardt — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:55:59 GMT

ITU to host Elite Sprint and Team World Championship in Lausanne

(Vancouver, Canada - 2 March, 2010) - The International Triathlon Union is pleased to announce the addition of the inaugural ITU Elite Sprint Triathlon World Championship to its 2010 race calendar, to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland on August 21. Additionally, Lausanne will host the ITU Team Triathlon World Championship on August 22. These two events will replace the Lausanne ITU Triathlon World Cup event, previously scheduled for the same weekend. There will be $100,000 in prize money on offer over the weekend's racing. The weekend festival of racing will also contain an age-group competition that is expected to attract a large number of competitors.

"We are very excited to host the ITU Elite Sprint Triathlon World Championship and the ITU Team Triathlon World Championship in Lausanne, a city with a history of great sporting events," said ITU President Marisol Casado. "The distances are short, exciting and we think the spectators and viewers will enjoy watching our athletes race at such a high intensity. The shorter-distances present a great opportunity for our younger athletes to compete in the sport in a sustainable way."

Competitors in the ITU Elite Sprint Triathlon World Championship will complete a 750-meter swim, 20-km bike and 5-km run. Each of the four athletes in the ITU Team Triathlon World Championship will complete a 275-meter swim; 6 km bike and 1.5-km run.Each team will be comprised of two men and two women, racing in the order of female-male-female-male. After each athlete finishes his or her swim-bike-run segment he or she will tag the next athlete in the relay for the exchange.

The 2009 ITU Team Triathlon World Championship was hosted by Hy-Vee in Des Moines, Iowa, alongside the prestigious Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon Elite Cup, with the Swiss Team taking home top honours, topping Australia by only eight seconds. Team Canada rounded out the podium.

A sprint-distance triathlon and a 4 x mixed relay triathlon will be on the programme for the first-ever Youth Olympic Games, set for Singapore on August 14-26, 2010. For more information on the Youth Olympic Games visit www.singapore2010.sg.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Side Note: As with the Cross World Championships, holding a sprint world championship event is one of the steps on the checklist for inclusion into the Olympic Games.

Follow-up on the Gander story

Gale Bernhardt — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:03:28 GMT

I wrote a short blog about a story that NBC's Tom Brokaw did about the Gander airport. I've received multiple requests to let people know if I get information about when the story will run again. Due to the overwhelming number of requests for follow-up information, I dropped NBC a note and asked when the story might run again or how to access the video to show at civic group functions and in the classroom.

I sent the note to NBC moments ago. It may take them awhile to get back to me. If and when I hear anything, I'll post it here ASAP.

Thanks for reading and have a great day ~

ITU Honorary President Les McDonald Awarded Olympic Order

Gale Bernhardt — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:52:44 GMT

Vancouver, Canada (28 February 2010) - Les McDonald, founding president of International Triathlon Union, was honoured with an Olympic Order on the final day of the 122nd IOC Session held during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in ITU's hometown of Vancouver. The Olympic Order is the highest award presented by the IOC and is given to individuals who demonstrate distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement.

McDonald, who served as President of the ITU from its inception in 1989 until 2008, is largely credited with the inclusion of triathlon in the Olympic Programme, which made its debut at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

"Receiving Olympic Order is a tremendous honour and I would like to thank all of those who gave their support," McDonald said. "With this, and the election of ITU President Marisol Casado to the IOC, it has been a historical past few weeks for the sport."

ITU President Casado, who was elected as an IOC member in Vancouver on February 12, was on hand at the Session to congratulate her predecessor.

"On behalf of the ITU and the entire triathlon community I would like to congratulate Les for this honour. His tireless work ethic was vital in growing the sport of triathlon and on its inclusion in the Olympic Programme," Casado said. "We look forward to carrying this momentum through 2010 and beyond as we push for triathlon's continued growth, particularly among youth."

~~~~~~~~~~~

The press release was issued by the ITU.

For more on the inclusion of triathlon into the Olympic program, see this three-part story.

Gander, Newfoundland story by Tom Brokaw

Gale Bernhardt — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:41:29 GMT

One of the most uplifting human interest stories I’ve seen during the Olympic Games coverage was the piece on the Gander International Airport that ran on February 27^th, done by NBC’s Tom Brokaw.

The Gander airport (as well as my others in Newfoundland and mainland Canada) played critical roles during the September 11, 2001 attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. When the U.S.A. closed its airspace, transatlantic flights had to be rerouted. Some were turned back to their origination airport; but others were too far westbound to turn back.

I believe Brokaw said that the population of Gander was 10,000 people and the town had two law enforcement officers. The town did an astounding job of opening their resources, homes and hearts to over 6,000 travelers (I think Brokaw said 6,600?) unable to make it to their U.S.A. destinations. Imagine a volume of people that equals about 65% of your total city population, appearing unexpectedly on your doorstep one day. Could your city handle the job?

I’ve searched the NBC site to see if they plan to post or rerun the story. I haven’t found anything yet. When I do, I’ll let you know.

It is well worth watching high-quality, good people in action.

Halfway through #JOD twelve weeks

Gale Bernhardt — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:09:28 GMT

Sunday marks the half-way point for the JOD process. I’m trying to gauge if this process is working for people. Does it have value?

The only way for me to know what is working, what adds value and what does not – is for you to give me feedback. It is important for me to know where to put my time and focus my energy.

Please post feedback here to let me know what part, if any, of the JOD process helps you or what you like about it.

First ever ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships

Gale Bernhardt — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:42:16 GMT

Today I happened to read in the ITU newsletter that the first ever ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships has been scheduled on 30th April 2011 in Extremadura, Spain.

What is Cross Triathlon?

From the ITU Competition Rules download document:

18. CROSS TRIATHLON AND DUATHLON:

18.1. General:

a.) Cross Triathlon consists of swimming, mountain biking (MTB) and cross country

running.

b.) Cross Duathlon consists of cross country running, mountain biking (MTB) and cross

country running.

When I did my research for the three-part column outlining a brief triathlon history and how the sport made it into the Olympic Games, I found out that one of the check-list items critical to becoming an Olympic sport is conducting a World Championship event. Within this requirement is the requirement for qualification events so that athletes from individual countries can qualify for the World Championship event. As you know, space on the Olympic start line is limited and any single country cannot send an unlimited number of athletes.

As more information on this new racing series unfolds, I’ll keep you posted.

Bald eagle photo - finally

Gale Bernhardt — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:45:14 GMT

Several weeks ago, I told you that bald eagles migrate to a lake near my house each winter. They show up when the lake freezes and shop for geeze that hang around the open water. (I'm always happy for goose-patrol, control.) Most years the lake has several open water spots; but, this year the only open water is near the bubblers that people run near their docks. I went for a run this afternoon in the fast-approaching snow storm and spotted this eagle in the neighbor's tree. I managed to snap a shot before it took off. I never get tired of seeing magificant wildlife, nor do I take it for granted.

Absolutely magestic creature ~

Olympics and ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships

Gale Bernhardt — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:54:33 GMT

This weekend is big. BIG, I tell you.

Friday February 12 is the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The Games, of course, are in Vancouver British Columbia. Here are a few resource links:

Team USA Opening Ceremony Uniform

NBC television schedule, by zip code at the top of the page

My first Olympic love was the Winter Games. I can hardly wait for the action to begin. As you might expect, several of the athletes on the US Olympic Team are from Colorado. It never hurts to root for the home-state gang.

I did see on the news this morning that Lindsey Vonn (said to be the Michel Phelps of the Winter Games) has an injured shin. May this highly-talented skier heal quickly.

In addition to the Olympic Games, this weekend is the ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships in Norway . Recall I’ve told you in past postings that the ITU is looking to get the sport of winter triathlon into the Olympic Games. Information on Worlds is found on both the ITU website and the official World Championship website.

Let the Games begin!

Share good things – JOD

Gale Bernhardt — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:56:56 GMT

For those following the JOD process, you are now through three weeks. For the people that decided to do the journaling, you should be seeing results by now. If you haven’t seen some results or leads, you should see them within the next week.

What do results, leads look like? They are new things that have crossed your opportunity path that did not exist before you began the journaling process. These things are directly related to one or more items on your “Dreams to Reality, My Goals” list. It might be a new acquaintance that can help you, a new opportunity, a new connection or result that gets you closer to one or more of your goals.

If you have seen results, please let me know. I realize that some of these things are very personal, so if you don’t want to be specific, just write something like “two new things have crossed my path, bringing me closer to my goals” or something similar. For those of you that are willing to be more specific, let us know your dream goal and what thing(s) has happened in the last three weeks to bring you just one (or more) step closer to your goal(s).

You can share here on my Active blog (which would be nice for non-Facebook participants) or you can share on Facebook too.

Is the process working for you?

Are you over-rewarding yourself for exercise?

Gale Bernhardt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:40:07 GMT

Last week I was doing some stationary cycling before lifting weights. Next to me were two people chatting away while riding stationary bikes. It’s great that they are using the buddy system to stay fit; but, I couldn’t help but notice there was a lot more chatting than sweating.

They finished their 30-minute ride and when they got off the bikes, they planned to treat themselves to a café mocha and a scone. The indication was that they burned enough calories pedaling the bikes to be a fair trade-off for a scone and mocha.

I don’t know where they planned to dine, but taking the calorie content from the Starbuck’s site, I found a Café Mocha (grande, with whip) to have 360 calories. A blueberry scone has 460 calories. Their treat total is 820 calories.

Let's compare that to the calories they burned on the stationary bikes. For calorie burn, below is a handy chart from Nutristrategy:

Calories burned per hour of bike riding

Type of Riding	Body weight of 140 lbs	Body weight of 195 lbs	Calories burned per pound of body weight
Bicycling, 10-11.9 mph, light effort	381	531	2.72
Bicycling, 12-13.9 mph, moderate effort	508	708	3.63
Bicycling, 14-15.9 mph, vigorous effort	636	885	4.54
Bicycling, 16-19 mph, very fast, racing	763	1062	5.45
Bicycling, >20 mph, racing	1017	1416	7.26
Bicycling, Mountain or BMX	540	753	3.86
Bicycling, stationary, general	318	443	2.27
Bicycling, stationary, very light effort	191	266	1.36
Bicycling, stationary, light effort	330	487	2.50
Bicycling, stationary, moderate effort	445	627	3.22
Bicycling, stationary, vigorous effort	667	930	4.77
Bicycling, stationary, very vigorous effort	795	1107	5.68

The people riding were probably in the 140-150 pound range for body weight. At only 30 minutes of a very light effort, they burned around 95 to 100 calories. Assuming they did nothing else for exercise and the coffee/bakery treat was a reward for exercise, they might be heading the wrong direction. At an extra 720 calories per day, and assuming they did this every day, in just five days they would pack on an extra pound of body weight (3600 calories per pound). It wouldn't take long for their exercise reward program to pack on several pounds.

Are you over-rewarding yourself for exercise?

Ironman St. George - preparation info.

Gale Bernhardt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:25:25 GMT

For all the athletes training for Ironman St. George, I’ve had numerous reports that the both the bike and the run courses are hilly. Some believe it is the toughest course on the circuit. One person told me that Paula Newby Fraser said it was the toughest run course for sure. What can you do to ease the pain?

Those of you using the 13-week training plan (or any of my other ready-to-use plans) need to include hills in your long run and long ride workouts. Begin with gentle hills early in the program and then work your way to tougher hills as the plan progresses.

For the weeks where there is an interval workout assigned to work on lactate threshold tolerance for either the run or the bike, you can use a hill if you have one close to you. Because the rest interval is so short, you may be best served using a treadmill or an indoor trainer for the intervals. Use an incline of around 4 percent.

A few words of caution…begin with a hill workout once per week in each sport (running and cycling). If you are recovering from the workouts quickly and feeling like you can tolerate a higher load, alternate doing two hill workouts in cycling and one in running one week with doing two hill workouts in running and one in cycling the next week.

Depending on your strengths and weaknesses, take a hard look at the gears you are running on your bike. Select gears (or a compact crank) that will allow you to spin up the hills. Those of you insisting on running big gears like you are riding a flat course will suffer on the run because your legs will be trashed.

Start working on any equipment changes now.

Get your head wrapped around the expectations of a hilly bike and run course.

Know that everyone at the race does the same course, so those that are prepared will suffer less.

Just One Day – how does the journal relate to tweets?

Gale Bernhardt — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:56:49 GMT

For all those doing the 12-week JOD process, I received a good question and thought it was worth posting the Q&A:

Q. Gale, I have written my resolutions, and have begun writing my perfect day. I am still a little confused to the over outline of the project. I guess I am a little type A and am looking for a little more information as to where the journal is going. Also, about the tweets - serving of steamed vegetables, a handful of nuts, do aerobic exercise 20-30 min, do one thing for career knowledge, etc. Are we supposed to be writing these down in the journal as completed or not completed?

Just want to make sure that I am following what you intend the journal to be. Thanks, L.

A. Great question. The short of it is that journaling helps people clarify what they want. I believe it is the simple act of writing things down that has the most power. Once you are aware of what you want, it is easier to sort out opportunities. Not only new opportunities that come your way to help you move toward something you want - but - the clarity to say "no thank you" to opportunities that waste your time and energy.

At some point you can set the journal aside and review it only occasionally. Or, you can write in the journal on a regular basis - clarifying goals and accomplishments.

For the daily tweets - I try to make them a mix of all the items I think it takes to live a healthy and productive lifestyle. The JOD posts are only the tip of the iceberg - but because the iceberg is overwhelming, just one small step or doing something for just one day moves people in the right direction.

In addition to the description in the previous paragraph, I believe that if we think of things differently or do something we don't normally do - that it triggers our brains to open up to new possibilities. Perhaps there is a different way to solve a problem that is ailing us? Maybe we were so focused on doing things one way, we ignored another, better choice.

You could easily assign yourself these tweet-tasks, but people seldom do. Also, I believe there is power in belonging to a group where everyone is attempting to do the same thing – make positive change.

I know it might sound hoaky, but I think it is worth giving the journaling process a shot. And for what it's worth - I'm definitely classified as type-A-analytical person. So this process isn't as cut-and-dried scientific as my BS degree prefers, but I know it works.

Hope this helps.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

For today’s JOD task, write down one thing you will do tomorrow to move you closer to one of your goals. Write down one more thing you will do before the end of the week.

For the journal itself, we are finished with the major tasks. I like to keep two journals, the “annual review” journal that we’ve just worked on and a journal that I write in some 1-3 times per week. Others prefer to do the annual review journaling in the same book as all daily journal comments for the year. It’s up to you what you think works best.

Sneak peek: By the end of week three, some of you will be seeing progress toward your goals. Others, it will take up to six weeks – but you should see progress. We’ll start sharing some successes in about a week.