Jason during the swim in Maui

The swim was a triangle course through the rough ocean waters in Kamaole Beach Park, which started around 9:30am.  What would normally take Rich roughly 52 minutes to swim took about an 1-hour and 20-mintues, Jason came in shortly after ready to re-fuel and start the ride.  With crazy cross-winds,  dirt swirls that I like to refer to as “tornados” (everything gets exaggerated when you’re sleep deprived!), and the dark night roads, the bike course was a challenge to say the least.  As night fell, we attached their bike lights and did the best we could to light the course and protect them from crazy drivers.  Jason kept warning Rich to be very careful of the “boulders” (aka rocks) in the road – as I said before; everything is exaggerated when you’re sleep deprived!  I’m positive he’ll look back and laugh at that one!  They toughed it out and finished the difficult bike course.

Jason and Rich toughing it out on the bike

Beautiful bike scenery

The marathon was not a welcome event by that point, but in true Jason/Rich fashion, they pushed forward and made the best of the situation.  This was my favorite leg of the Epic 5 so far because I joined them for “a lot” (again, an exaggeration) of the run.   There is an amazing energy you get from being part of their journey, and to be out there toughing it out with them in the wee hours of the morning was exhilarating! Their spirits where high and they were cracking jokes for most of the time.  Deer, snakes (aka large centipedes), roosters, frogs, sprinklers, horrid smells, smoke and ash, and stories from Paul (the amazing ultra-runner who did a great job crewing in Maui) kept us amused for most of the night.  When that wasn’t enough, Jason would drop and do some crunches while Rich re-fueled.  5am was the official finish time of the marathon, then we had to pack-up, drive to the hotel, eat dinner, shower, and sleep all before the 11am wake-up call.  The Epic 5 isn’t about being easy, it’s about being EPIC!

Rich, Jason, and Paul running in Maui

Jason doing crunches - he's hard core!

Kona is the 5^th and final site of the Epic 5.  Jason and Rich will follow the Ironman World Championship course, which is tough enough on its own, let alone after 4 other ironmen in the same week.  It’s going to be EPIC!

Off to Kona...

Because of the late start in Oahu, Jason and Rich made the decision to get “more” sleep (4 hours is considered “more”) and push their flights back later in the day on Friday.  By the time they arrived in Molokai, they reevaluated and chose to start Molokai on Saturday morning.  Coffees of Hawaii hosted Jason and Rich in on of their plantation homes where a fully prepared vegan lunch was waiting, and a home cooked vegan chef treated them to amazing dinner later that night.

Ready for a fresh start – as fresh as you can be after doing 2 iron-distance triathlons on not much more than 10 hours of sleep over three days – Jason and Rich got an early start on Molokai.  The swim was their “easiest” so far and the bike was done by 8:15pm.  The marathon that followed was great!  It’s always nice for them to have the local runners come out to keep them company and be a part of their journey.  Molokai runners came out in full-force!  Local cross-country team members, a 6 year-old boy, a 9^th grader who ran about half of the marathon with them, and the list continues.  Nice work Molokai!  Thanks for your support.

As their journey continues, please don’t forget that they are doing this to raise money for the Never Stop Foundation whose mission is dedicated to using athletics as a tool to encourage youth to have a chance to achieve their dreams.  Check out www.neverstopfoundation.org for more information.

Next up, Maui!

Beautiful Kauai

Yesterday started at 3:45am with a 26.2-mile run, an awesome start to what would soon become a long grueling day.

Rich and Jason on the run, as they pass George Clooney's movie set.

At the swim start in Hanalei, it appeared to be perfect calm conditions for a 2.4-mile swim.  Locals where out in full-force ready to swim and paddle board alongside Jason and Rich.   Rich was in and out of the water in no time flat (it pays to be a world-ranked swimmer)!  Jason on the other hand, who mind you is doing this with the use of ONE arm, got caught in a “treadmill current “ (thanks to my local friends I have a lot of new lingo!), wasting energy fighting hard to get out for over 20 minutes.  Fully exhausted after the swim, Jason fueled briefly and set out on the extremely hilly 112-mile bike course.

Hanalei Swim - Jason

The highs and lows of the bike ride where pretty extreme.  The fueling support is a full-time job, not to mention the packing and organizing for the next day (great job Rebecca!).  It took 4 of us to make sure they both had their fuel (3+ drinks per hour, avocado sandwiches, almond butter sandwiches, Vega bars, green drink concoction, sweet potatoes, and chips), where following the correct course, and help with any issues that might arise.  Speaking of issues, if you consider a broken shifter an issue, then Rich had a major issue on the bike.  He rode 30+ miles stuck in a hard gear due the inability to switch gears.  Thanks to Jason from Kauai Bikes for driving over an hour out to help Rich fix his bike!  Locals to the rescue

Jason from Kauai Bikes - thanks Jason!

The course was rather difficult with lots of big climbs, small climbs, and after running a marathon and swimming, their bodies were tired!  Questions of what they were doing and why they are doing this popped in their mind quite often, but at the end of the day, raising money and awareness for the Never Stop Foundation didn’t allow them to quit.  The bike started to get even more difficult when they began to push to make their 7:45pm flight.  Getting to the airport in time wasn’t the issue, it was packing the bikes, nutrition, gear, etc. so they could do this all again in Oahu.

Jason on the difficult bike course

End of Day 1 in Kauai - EPIC 5

The crew! We were exhausted!

Day 1 of the EPIC 5 is complete!  Great job Jason and Rich!  Thank you to all of the people of Kauai, it wouldn’t have been possible without your help!

I’ll be joining them again in Maui and Kona.

Schedule:

Oahu – Thursday

Molokai – Friday

Maui – Saturday

Kona – Sunday

To check out more pictures and to follow Jason and Rich, check out these sites:

www.facebook.com/zootsports

http://twitter.com/zootsports

http://epic5.com/live/

Follow all the action:

http://twitter.com/zootsports

http://zootsports.com/blog/

http://epic5.com/live/

Last year Jason Lester competed in the Ultraman Canada Championship, Ironman World Championship, and Ultraman World Championship…all with the use of only one arm!  His arm became paralyzed from the shoulder down after being hit by a car while riding his bike at the age of 12.
In 2009 Jason was awarded the very prestigious ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete With a Disability, a phenomenal achievement to say the least!
As the founder of The Never Stop Foundation, whose primary focus is on encouraging youth to achieve their full potential through athletics, Jason is an incredible youth advocate, motivation speaker, and coach.  The goal of The Never Stop Foundation is to help those in their formative years find their own true voice, help them build their confidence, improve their communication skills and learn the values of discipline, trust, compassion, self-reliance, and respect.  Proceeds from this and all future EPIC5 events will fund The Never Stop Foundation’s vision of developing a Performance Center in Kailua-Kona.

Rich Roll was named one of the “25 Fittest Men in the World” by Men’s Fitness Magazine (an award won by Usain Bolt, Rafael Nadal, Shani Davis, and LeBron James to name a few). Not bad!  Rich was a world-ranked swimmer from Stanford University and continues to push his body and spirit beyond imaginable limits.  Last year at the Ultraman World Championships, Rich swam the fastest swim split (6th all-time fastest) and kept his lead on the 90-mile bike to win day 1 by 10 minutes!  An injured knee and shoulder from a bike crash on day 2 didn’t hold Rich back, on day 3 Rich ran a 7:51 double marathon for a 6th place overall finish at the Ultraman World Championships!  As a husband, father, entertainment attorney, writer, filmmaker, plant-base nutrition advocate, and coach, being an ultra-endurance athlete is just one aspect of Rich’s life.

Did I mention these two ultra-endurance athletes are vegans?   Their plant-based diet will fuel them on this journey  - 12 mile Swim / 560 mile Bike / 131 mile Run…this is going to be a EPIC!

Zoot is a very proud sponsor of Jason Lester and Rich Roll, these two athletes are truly inspirational.  Over the next week I have the privilege of documenting the EPIC5 and giving you behind the scenes photos and videos of Jason Lester and Rich Roll as they conquer 12 miles of swimming, 560 miles of biking, and 131 miles of running.  Join me in watching their journey unfold:
http://twitter.com/zootsports
http://zootsports.com/blog/
http://epic5.com/live/

Greetings.  So I’m back – the ‘Every Guy/Girl’ training for an Ironman.  Last month I kicked off my blog entries with a bit of an introduction to my early morning workout routine.  This month, I’m going to focus on nutrition.  I say that word loosely.  Nutrition sounds so scientific.  Truth be told I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s with a mother who taught Home Economics.  Back then Home Economics included topics like sex education, sewing, health, and cooking.  It was a pretty simple time.  So my take on nutrition has been quite simple, but it works.

I grew up in time where there were 4 food groups.  There was no food pyramid or whatever the latest craze the FDA has dreamed up.  There was food, then there was junk food.  Pretty simple, right?  Then in my teen years, this wild stuff called ‘health-food’ came out.  Health food was radical stuff like granola and tofu.  Since then, there have been countless diets, recommendations, fads, books, programs brought to us by doctors, psychologists, exercise physiologists, therapists, and even the federal government.  There are even those concerned with people’s ‘relationships’ with food.  Let me start with full disclosure here.  I have a relationship with food.  Its quite simple.  I eat food.   I eat food that tastes good and that is good for me; most of the time.   Like I said, pretty simple.

I do not believe that partially hydrogenated vegetable oil should be spread on toast. I do not know what gluten is, so I do not avoid it.  Evidently, I’ve been eating it all my life, so I continue to eat it.  I believe that humans are on the top of the food chain.  I believe that we have incisor and canine teeth for the purpose of eating meat.  I believe that we have the knowledge to grow food, so we do.  I have never, and do not plan to ever give up eating, chocolate, beer, wine, red meat, butter, etc.  Like I said – it is food, and I eat it.  That said, the key to my nutrition is eating well.  All the TV commercials for candy-coated cereal used to have a disclaimer that said something about ‘part of this well balanced diet’.  Now, if you actually believed those TV commercials, you probably have some other significant issues in your life.  But if you thought about the bigger picture and focused on your own well balanced diet, you most likely eat well.  Let me outline a pretty basic day’s food intake for me:

6:00am – protein shake (25 gm protein, 150 calories, 1500 mg amino acids)
6:30am – breakfast – 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup granola, 1/2 cup berries, 2 cups coffee, glass of OJ, and vitamins (omega, multivitamin, Motrin, glucosamine)
9:30am – hard boiled egg
10:30am – peanut butter and jelly sandwich on unbleached flour white bread
12:30pm – carne assada (beef) burrito and salad
3:30pm – banana
5:30pm – dinner (chicken breast, broccoli, pasta)
7:30pm – 1/2 cup red wine and 1/4 of a pumpkin pie with whipped cream

In my mind, that’s a pretty normal diet for a pretty normal day.  The only change would be if my morning workout was a long ride, I would be using CarboPro (2 scoops per hour) as a nutritional supplement.

I can fill in some details that might strike you as strange.

• Protein shakes.  I don’t pay crazy money for any designer protein mix.  I use an off brand 100% whey protein with a ton of branch chain amino acids.
• Coffee – I don’t subscribe to cutting out coffee or taking extra caffeine on race day.  I like coffee, so I drink coffee.
• PB&J – yes there is fat in peanut butter, but also good protein. AS for my bread choice, as a family when we can’t tell the difference between healthy and regular, we buy healthy.
• Lunch – on occasion, I’ll bring leftovers from the prior night’s dinner.  Other than that, I alternate between beef and fish burritos
• Dinner – I’m really lucky.  My wife is a great cook.  We typically have salmon, beef, chicken, pork, or ham as a meat; broccoli, carrots, asparagus, or cauliflower as a vegetable; and pasta or rice as a starch.
• Wine – I have at least a glass of wine each night.  On weeknights, I keep it to 1/2 cup.  On weekends – let’s just say we don’t measure at all.
• Snack at night, if I don’t find a baked good, I’ll have yogurt, granola and fresh berries

My diet or nutrition never really change much.  The quantity of food will change with my workout volume.  For me, weight management is really quite simple.  I subscribe to the basic concept that weight management comes down to calories; NOT fat, and NOT carbohydrates, but calories.  If you take in less than you burn, you WILL lean down.  If you take in more than you burn, you will GAIN weight.  Any thought that I give to my snacks or desserts are guided by quality of calorie, but that’s really all the thought I give to it.  As a disclaimer, I can say that I’ve always been pretty lean.  I’ve been 165 pounds and 5’ 11” for about 20 years.  In 2008, I topped 177 pounds for the first time ever.  That was after Ironman Florida in November.  I finished Ironman and continued to eat like I was training.  I went right through the Holiday Season and kept eating; and I gained weight.  I was surprised, as I had never before been over 165 pounds.  In hindsight, there is nothing that really should have surprised me.  I was eating a lot, and not working out much after Ironman.

Remember, I’m the ‘Every Guy/Girl’.  I don’t have a coach.  I don’t have time to do much other than work, spend time with my family, and work out.   Its all that I can do to get a training program together – that takes enough time as it is.  The last thing I have time for is to scientifically evaluate and create a nutritional plan.  Occasionally, I have wondered what life would be like without a job, and with endless funds, and endless time to train, be coached, and have someone tell me what to eat.  I wonder how fit I could get.  How fast could I be?  But alas, that is not my life.  I’ll gladly take the life I have, and feel super fortunate for everything and everyone in it.  I’ll wrap this up and tell you that I’m going to pour my wife and I a glass of wine, and sit on the couch…. for I am the ‘Every Guy’.  Tomorrow morning begins at 4:30 am for a 10k run and 2400 yards in the pool – home by 6am for a shake, a shower, and it all begins again……

From Sam…
Winter training in Tucson used to be our little secret. All the fancy triathletes went to San Diego, or more recently, Boulder. Now T-town seems to be the new hotbed of triathletes in the US. The city is full of skinny people in tri suits. The Shootout is huge, the pools are full and the trails packed on Sunday mornings. We locals are happy to share – just remember to keep the swimsuits in the pool and not riding up and down Speedway Blvd. And try not to show up on the Shootout with aerobars…TJ Tollakson, American Badass and all round good guy is the only one who can get away with that. And that’s cause he’s so darn fast he just rides off the front of the pack, earning some serious local roadie respect for us triathletes.

Training here in March might be my favorite thing about triathlon. The novelty of outdoor swimming in the spectacular U of A pool in March never wears off for this Canadian. The weather is sunny and 75 degrees and fast training partners seem to arrive daily to kick my butt around the roads and trails. The CEC Elite camp in February here was some of the hardest training I have done. My house was packed with fast chicks – Kim Loefller, Amanda Lovato and the Wassner twins all bunked down chez McGlone for the month and we smashed each other daily in training. The girls know how to have a little fun too – at the end of the training week we hit the best burgers and beer in town at Zinburger and the odd BTO run.

I kicked off the season with a win at the Desert Classic Duathlon in Phoenix – one of my fave races because of the trail runs and awesome scenery. It also doesn’t hurt that I can drive to the race from Tucson – always a treat. The race was stacked with fast girls: Leanda Cave, Michellie Jones and Lindsay Corbin to name a few so it was a solid hit out in February.

The AbuDhabi International Triathlon was next on the schedule and while my race did not go as planned, it was cool to travel to the UAE – my first time there. The race was amazing for a first year event and Julie Dibens was equally impressive as she took home the win and the big payday. We donned burkas to enter the largest mosque in the UAE and (window) shopped at all the high-end boutiques in a city of seemingly unlimited wealth and resources. No economic crisis in this oil rich nation!

Back in the US, I am getting ready to hit the road to Oceanside for the 70.   Another stacked field, the race is sure to be a good one.

see you on the flipside,
sam

Adventure racing, broken arms, stitches, racing and training that has been the start of 2010 here in Melbourne Australia. It all sounds quite dramatic however things are not always as bad as they sound. With a couple of Adventure races and a return to speed over an Olympic distance the only downer was a short stint being uncomfortable with a couple of broken elbows after a spill over the bars superman style in a cycling crash with a couple of Pro riders. Between a Pro Tour rider an Olympic medalist and myself, you would think we could keep the rubber side down!
Melbourne is one of the cycling hot spots during the summer months with Tour boys returning home, Triathlete’s and Pro teams taking up training early in the year.  With many a bunch to hook up with and hammer yourself inside out.  Training has been rolling along quite nicely in prep for Ironman Utah and the up and coming season.
Unlike Aaron’s day, mine does not begin in the wee hours of the morning, it has been nice to slip out of be hit the coffee machine slam down a bit of chow and hit the roads once the morning traffic has died down.
In the middle of it all Lucy and I have managed to slip away to get a little bit of outback training and camping.

Remember the way to roll is rubber side down!
Luke Bell

In the coming months and throughout the triathlon season, you’ll be treated to a group of blogs and video updates from Zoot Sports’ athletes.  Two of these bloggers are professional triathletes Luke Bell and Samantha McGlone.  There will be other segments that highlight triathlon teams or inspirational triathletes.

So why did I open this with a video from Sesame Street?  I would be  ‘the one that is not like the others’.  That is to say, I am far from a professional Triathlete.  In this blog series, I represent the ‘every guy (girl)’ in our sport.  I’m the guy with that does not employ a coach.  I’m the guy with a family and a full-time job.  I am your age group triathlete.    I competed in my first triathlon in September of 2006, the Westchester/Jarden Olympic triathlon.  I had never swam in the open salt water, I rode on a borrowed 30 year old DeRosa steel road bike with a neon green Dave Scott aero bars.  It must have weighed in at close to 30 pounds.  I put my Shimano SPD mountain bike pedals in it, as they were the only things that would work with the only pair of cycling shoes I had.  I remember hurting very badly on the run – wondering when it would ever end.  I finished well into the bottom half – age group, gender, and overall – well into the bottom half.

I have since raced about 16 other races over the years.  Only one is a full Ironman; Florida in 2008.  Others have been 6 races at the 70.3 distance, and then a Olympic and Sprit distances make up the rest.  I am training for Ironman Coeur d’Alene.  I’ve got about 18 weeks to go.  As I said, I don’t have a coach.  I instead have a few friends who have helped me put together and modify a training program.

Let me share my standard training week with you.  Like I said, I’m the ‘every-guy’ Triathlete.  My family is my number one priority, thus I don’t train on the weekends.  You might ask, “how do you train for an ironman without doing all your long distance work on the weekends?”  Well, I’m sure if you read Triathlete magazine, you’ve read about triathlon widows in any number of columns and letters.  The tone of some of those articles is ‘something’s gotta give’.    Well, what gives for me is sleep.  I’ve always been a morning person, so I’ve put together a program that leaves my weekends free for family time and capitalizes on mornings, early mornings.  In the early 4-6 weeks of training, I’m logging about 12 hours a week.  8 of those hours are done before 6:30am.

Monday – 6am  – Masters Swim – about 4000 yards

Monday – lunch – easy 1 hour run

Tuesday – 4am – 2 hour ride + 30 minute run

Wednesday – 4:30am – 13 mile run, or swim 2400 and run 6 miles

Thursday – 5am – 1 hour hard bike

Friday – 5am – fast 1 hour run – 2400 yard swim

Check out this video from my morning workout the other day -

As training distances grow, the long Tuesday morning rides will start inside, on the trainer and then continue outside.  I will take a few hours off work each Tuesday to finish my longer rides.  Long runs on Wednesday mornings will eventually begin at 3am when I have to get 20+ miles under my belt before the kids wake up.  Saturdays are the fun days.  My wife and I take the kids to the local Y where we get good hour lift in.

There you have it.  Every day except Monday and Tuesday, I’m home and showered by 6:30 am, ready for kid duty.    I take the kids to school at 7:40am, and then head to work.  Family dinner is at 5:45pm.  We get the kids to bed by 7:30pm, and hit the couch with a glass of wine.  The natural question is “When do you go to bed?”  Early!  I head to bed shortly after 9pm and I’m lucky to catch the 10 o’clock news headlines.  5 – 6 solid hours of sleep, and we’re ready to do it again.

In up coming blogs, I’ll keep you updated on my training.  What is going well, and what is going not so well.  Next up, I’ll talk a bit about the ‘every guys’ nutrition plan, in both training and racing.

-Aaron