You know you’re a triathlete when…

1. The first three items on your grocery list are Gatorade, power bars, and gels.
2. When you floss at night, it’s to get the bugs out of your teeth.
3. Your legs move in a cycling motion while you are asleep.
4. You see a drop of blood, your first reaction is that you spilled some red Gatorade.
5. You know how far you biked and ran last year, to one-tenth of a kilometer.
6. You think the ultimate form of wallpaper is about 64 racing bibs.
7. The 19-year old kid who works in a bicycle shop knows more about you than your next-door neighbor.
8. You have a vanity license plate with the word “Kona” in it. (or TRI WGON)
9. About half the shirts you own have at least a dozen logos on the back of them.
10. You don’t find the word “Fartlek” in the least bit amusing.
11. You refer to your “partner”, you don’t mean your significant other but the person you run or bike with three times a week.
12. You shave your legs more for a competition than a date. 
13. It doesn’t feel right that you can’t “clip ” in and out of the pedals in your car.
14. There is a group of people in your life about whom you are more likely to know how fast they can swim 100 meters than their surnames or occupations.
15. There’s a separate load of laundry every week that is just your workout clothes.
16. One of your goals this year is to be faster at getting out of your wetsuit (or not to exceed your HR ceiling).
17. You failed high school chemistry but you could teach a course on lactic acid.
18. All you want for Christmas is something called a carbon crank set.
19. You have to have completely separate meals from your friends because they are all on low-carb diets.
20. Your bicycle is in your living room.
21. You have stocked up on a brand of cereal because it has a coupon that will save you money on your next two pairs of running shoes.
22. A car follows too closely behind you, you accuse the driver of “drafting” (or you “draft” behind the car in front of you)
23. Your friends cried during The Notebook; you cried during the television coverage of the Hawaii Ironman.
24. Your boyfriend is looking forward to the day when you will slow down and just run marathons.
25. You see no issue with talking about treatments for chafing or saddle rash at the dinner table.
26. You recently asked your boyfriend out for dinner by asking if he wanted to “fuel up” together.
27. The magazine secretly tucked under your mattress has pictures of really expensive bicycles in it.

Endurance Training

Are you looking for a competitive edge? This month, we’re devoted to giving you tips on training for your first (or fifth!) endurance event safely & successfully.

What Are You Getting Into?
What is “endurance?” Simply put, endurance is your body’s ability to maintain uninterrupted exercise – involving your heart & your muscles. The higher your level of endurance, the easier it is for you to keep going at the same speed or intensity. Most sports have different levels of intensity and sometimes have breaks in between bouts of exercise. Running, cycling, and swimming and triathlon require that you maintain the same movements without stopping until you reach the finish line.

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Maritza Correia – first African-American Olympic swimmer

In 2004, Maritza Correia became the first African-American woman to be on the U.S. Olympic swim team and first African-American woman ever to set an American record in swimming (50 y free).

A silver medalist in 400m free relay at the Athens Olympics, Correia is known for her ability to anchor relays with great success and run down opponents – “As soon as I dive in, my goal is to catch as many people as I can,” Correia said.

After a disappointing performance at the 2000 Olympic Trials, Correia almost quit the sport. However, with her teammates, coaches and her mother, Correia was convinced to give it another shot in 2004. “Looking back at 2000, I was a very inexperienced international swimmer, and changes needed to be made,” Correia said. “I knew that I had to make more national teams and more trips and gain some experience, which would help my confidence. ” She went on to break numerous SEC records, NCAA records, American records, and was continuously one of the top swimmers in her events.

Born two days before Christmas in 1983 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Correia began swimming  at age seven when her doctor recommended swimming as therapy for her severe scoliosis. The next year, her family moved to Tampa, Florida.  Correia attended the University of Georgia as a pre-medicine major and graduated in 2003, with a degree in “Exercise and Sports Science”.  She was a member of the Lady Bulldogs Swim Team.

Correia is featured in the film Parting the Waters - a documentary about a new generation of competitive black and Latino swimmers – and is prepping for the Beijing Olympics.  She also plans to do swim clinics in inner cities and deliver motivational lectures. Correia hopes that providing young minority girls with a swimming role model will be a key step in bringing the sport to their communities.

Coughlin takes IM gold medal

Oct. 28 2007: After winning three events at the FINA World Cup in Singapore, Natalie Coughlin broke her own world record in the 100 meter backstroke, lowering the world mark by 0.2 seconds. Coughlin finished the race with a time of 56.51. Less than an hour later, she took gold in the Individual Medley, just shy of a second world record.

You Know You’re a Swimmer When:

• You have permanent goggle marks and suit hickies
• You go through the economy size bottle of lotion weekly
• Chlorine is your perfume
• The word taper is a godsend
• You live on a diet of Gatorade and Powerbars
• Sleeping in means waking up at 7
• Boys in speedos is absolutely nothing weird (in fact its hot)
• IM doesn’t mean instant messenger
• You can tell your coach’s whistle apart from all the other coach’s whistles
• Seeing people with green hair doesn’t shock you
• Your favorite words are “warm down” “get a kickboard” “100 easy” and “TAPER”
• Hearing other sports team complain about how “hard” their sport is makes you laugh

Life in the fast lane – Natalie Coughlin profile

During the 2004 Olympics, Americans ruled the pool, winning 12 golds and 28 medals overall. While the focus was often on Michael Phelps, our spotlight was on Natalie Coughlin.Perhaps the most versatile swimmer in the world and one of the most dominant, Coughlin won five medals in Athens, equaling the most by an American female swimmer at one game.

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