Series News

Every month we lead off the newsletter with an overview of all of the Series news. If we have reviewed news in an early newsletter we will provide you with the news item and a link to the original posting. We hope that you find this information useful.

In this month's issue you will once again find a good cross-section of articles related to off-season training and preparation for this season. Thank you to all of the coaches and people who submitted articles this month. If you would like to submit something to a future edition please email us.

John Salt

The Race With HSBC Contest - Last Chance For The Early Bird Draws

Who are Jacqueline S., Will H., and Cate B.? They are all Ontario winners of the Race With HSBC contest’s June Early Bird Draw.

If you are looking for some new gear, be sure to enter the contest before July 31, 2007 as HSBC Bank Canada will draw four more early bird winners. The prize: exclusive athletic clothing from HSBC!

All entries are eligible to win one of three customized training packages worth $2,500 – courtesy HSBC!

Have you already entered the Race With HSBC contest? Don’t forget to refer friends to increase your odds of winning. Know someone who would be interested?!

Toronto Island Triathlon - Almost Sold-Out

We have already had two races (Gravenhurst and Bala Falls) sell out this year with quite a few people on a waiting list and disappointed that they could not race. Please make sure you enter as soon as possible for the Toronto Island races. As of July 28 there were less than 50 Give-It-A-Tri spots and less than 100 Triathlon spots.

Aquabike To Be Added To The Calabogie Peaks Weekend

At the request of some Ottawa area athletes we have decided to add an Aquabike event to the Calabogie race weekend. The Aquabike will be on Saturday and will become part of the MultiMan/SoloMan day. The Aquabike will be a 4km Swim and 120km Bike. Details will be on the website in the next week.

FREE Parking In Wasaga Beach This Year For All Race Participants

The Town of Wasaga Beach has decided to allow all Triathlon and Running participants free parking on both Saturday September 8 and Sunday September 9. In past years athletes have had to worry about parking outside of the race site and whether they had put enough money in the parking meter. This year you will only need to bring a handmade sign to put in the windshield of your car with "Triathlon Participant" or " Running Participant" and you will be given FREE Parking. Thanks to the Town of Wasaga Beach and Mayor Cal Patterson.

Wasaga Beach Now Has 6 Spots for Sprint World Championships in Vancouver in 2008

We are pleased to announce that Triathlon Canada has awarded the HSBC Triathlon Series with 6 age group qualifying spots for the Sprint Age Group World Championships in Vancouver June 14, 2008

Accommodations Added To Calabogie Peaks Web Page

We have had quite a few calls asking about accommodations for MultiMan Team Triathlon and the Triathlon, Duathlon, Off-Road Triathlons on Sunday. Here is the link. Wondering what last year's participants thought about MultiMan Team Triathlon? Here is what they said.

HSBC Triathlon Series Water Quality Guarantee and Five Splits For Every Race Distance

As far as we know we are the only series that has this guarantee. For the past four years we have been testing the water quality at all of our race sites. We do this to make sure you are well informed about the water quality when you race in an HSBC Triathlon Series race. To learn more about the HSBC Triathlon Series Water Quality Guarantee just click here.

We also offer five timing splits for every race and race distance including the Give-It-A-Tri.

Here are some of the topics we discussed in previous issues:

 

Athlete and Special Interest Stories

If you would like to contribute an article or story that you think others would find interesting please email us. This month we have three stories that we think will be of interest to many.

Joe’s Team – Realizes It's Goal

Mike and Megan Finley with their father Joe finishing the Sprint Triathlon

In 2004, Joe Finley began a difficult fight against cancer, a battle which he is still fighting today. Despite the physical and emotional toll of an extremely aggressive cancer treatment Joe fulfilled a life-long objective. In August 2006, he completed his first triathlon. In January I received a phone call from a friend of Joe Finley's, Scott Wilson. Scott told me that Joe and a group of individuals had decided to use Gravenhurst as a fundraiser for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and had created Joe's Team. Joe's Team would be a unique fund-raising initiative that was going to support cancer research with an aggressive goal of raising $500,00. During those early conversations with Scott the hope was that maybe 20 or 30 people would participate. By June Joe's Team had grown to over 100 individuals and 35 relay teams. On July 15th Joe Finley's dream was realized when several hundred participants, friends and family joined us at Gravenhurst. Joe's Team was represented in the Give-It-A-Tri, the Sprint Duathlon and in a special wave in the Sprint Triathlon. We would like to congratulate Joe Finley, Caitlin Kavander of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and all of the people who worked to make Joe's Team a success. As of July 23 Joe's Team had raised $460,000 with more donations still to come. It looks like more than $500,000 will be raised when all donations are in.

Joe's Team

The money raised by Joe's Team is earmarked for Translational Research, promising work that will help determine why cancer develops and stopping its growth at the cellular level, before tumors grow. This specific research will lead to more targeted and tailored treatments that are less toxic and invasive than traditional forms of therapy and will revolutionize the standard of care at Princess Margaret Hospital and around the world.

 

 

 

 

Race 4 Kids - $140,000 Raised

Last month Martin Evanoff wrote "As a member of the "Race 4 Kids" team, I'm really impressed with the leadership and cheerleading of our cause demonstrated by Richard Pady, as well as the enthusiasm of everyone on the team. So far we have raised over $62,000 towards our goal of $100,000 for the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario to help children with cancer and their families". Donations can be made by visiting www.race4kids.ca

We are happy to tell you that Richard Pady and the Race 4 Kids Team raised over $140,000. Congratulations to Richard and everyone who competed at ironman USA and especially everyone who donated.

 

 

 

The Ride To Conquer Cancer

Looking for a challenge? Join the thousands of cyclists gearing up for The Ride to Conquer Cancer. The 200 kilometre course from Toronto to Niagara Falls, approved by Olympic Silver Medalist and Tour de France yellow jersey rider Steve Bauer, is both fun and demanding. After completing the 2 day ride, all participants will relax and travel first class back to Toronto aboard the Via Rail Conquest Express.

2 out of 5 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer this year. Finding a cure is one of the biggest challenges we all face and this history-making event will raise much needed cancer research funding for Princess Margaret Hospital.

BE THE CAUSE FOR THE CURE.
Sign up today by calling 416.815.RIDE (7433)

Tips and Articles From Coaches

Our panel of coaches have once again submitted some great articles. Whether it be mental preparation or nutrition there is something for everyone.

Triathlon Swim Tips by Mike Flegel

Article courtesy of Enduro Sport

You've put in countless laps in the pool and now you're ready to hit the open water for the start of your triathlon. While the basics are the same (you're still doing that same freestyle stroke), open-water swimming and pool-swimming do have distinct differences.

First of all, make sure that you know the layout of the course - how many marker buoys do you go around? What direction are we going? Do we keep the buoys on our left or on our right? Know the location of the finish of the swim and try to envision what it will look like from the water. What's marking the water exit? Buoys? Some distinct colored matting? If the swim start and swim finish are in the same area, try to swim out a bit during your warm-up and look back at the shore to see what it looks like from the water.

If your body is used to doing a 10-minute warm-up prior to tackling the big sets, then just doing 20 strokes out and back probably isn't going to do it for you.

Once we're set on the layout of the course, it's warm-up time. The more you train endurance capability in your muscles, the more time it takes to get them functioning well aerobically. Take a look at how you swim in your training. If your body is used to doing a 10-minute warm-up prior to tackling the big sets, then just doing 20 strokes out and back probably isn't going to do it for you. Try to do at least 5 minutes of continuous swimming, but not going more than 50m or so from the start line (just in case. . . .). Throw in some backstroke swimming to open up your shoulders so that they're warm and stretched out in all directions.

With a wetsuit on, you should be able to float around in the water for a couple of minutes after warming up without your muscles cooling off too much.

Seed yourself so that you won't get run over by the aggressive-fast swimmers, and you won't get held up by the back-markers either.
While waiting for the start, seed yourself so that you won't get run over by the aggressive-fast swimmers, and you won't get held up by the back-markers either.

As a general rule, the best swimmers out there probably go about 1:10 per 100m (continuous swimming) in a pool; usually, each race has a relatively small number of these folks, and relatively few between that level and the 1:30 per 100m. The greatest concentration of swimmers is usually those between about 1:35 and 1:50 per 100m in a pool. So if you're a competitive swimmer, go to the front of the pack. If you're a 1:30 per 100 swimmer in the pool and you're at the front of the pack, be prepared to have a number of people swim over or through you - neither of which is very pleasant. If you're in the 1:40-1:50 range, somewhere in the middle of the pack should work well for you, and if you're in the 2:00+ per 100m zone, line up in the back of the pack somewhere.

When the start signal goes, RELAX. Most likely, you've got a two-hour-plus race ahead of you. If you were starting a marathon run, would you sprint like a crazy person over the first 400m? Probably not. You want to go out just a bit faster than the pace you'd like to hold throughout the course of the race, but not much more. If you feel yourself going anaerobic and you're having trouble catching your breath, just slow down and make sure you're taking deep breaths and FULLY EXHALING under the water. It's a common mistake that people make when they're totally pumped - they're breathing in tons, but not getting rid of enough air, which leads to stale air in the lungs, which means no oxygen-rich blood getting to the muscles.

Once things have settled down and you've established your swimming pace, you might notice that in a lake or ocean swim, there's no thick black line on the bottom to keep you going in a straight line. In fact, if the water is deep or a little murky, all you see when you're face is in the water is black nothingness! So you're going to need a strategy to make the distance that you swim as short as possible - taking the shortest distance between all of the buoys marking the course.

Follow the feet in front of you.

The first strategy is to follow the feet in front of you. This works great if the person in front of you is a bit faster than you (by staying close and drafting off them, you can go a bit faster than you normally would swimming on your own) and goes in a straight line. But if those feet decide to take the scenic route around the swim course, you could be in for a 2000m swim instead of the 1500m that you signed up for.

For this reason, it's a good idea to “sight” while you're swimming. Ideally, you should practice this in the pool occasionally. I would recommend getting a good visual reference of where you're going at least once every 25m. In the pool, then, on at least one set per workout, get a visual fix on something at the end of the pool at least once per length (twice if you're lucky enough to be training in a long course 50m pool). It's OK to take a bit longer on that stroke to make sure that you get your eyes on what you're looking for. Also, be prepared to not get a breath on this stroke. If you can, that's great, but most likely, you're going to get a face-full of water.

When doing the swim in the actual race, then, do the same thing. You should have an idea of how many strokes it takes you to do a 25 in the pool. Most likely, you'll be around 9-12 stroke cycles (both arms having pulled through the water) per 25m. So roughly once every 10 stroke cycles, take a look to make sure you're pointing in the direction that you want to be going.

When you come around a buoy and make the turn to start the next leg of the swim, take a couple of seconds doing head-up breastroke or something to get a firm visual on where the next buoy is.

Now, admittedly, the buoys that most races have marking the swim are huge when you're swimming right past them, but when it's 500 or more metres away and you're swimming through chop, it's like trying to pick out your “lucky number” our of the 49 balls in the lotto drum. So try to find something higher on the horizon that is in line with the buoy. Maybe there's a distinctive hill, tree, clearing, house, cabin, or whatever that's behind the buoy that you can fix on. Beware, though, that if you're using a big boat, they move sometimes.

When you come around a buoy and make the turn to start the next leg of the swim, take a couple of seconds doing head-up breastroke or something to get a firm visual on where the next buoy is. I'm usually one of the first out of the water, and at least two or three times in each swim, I'm treading water for a few strokes to get a good look at where I'm going - making sure that I'm not missing any buoys. This is where having a good knowledge of the course is vital. If you're making a wide circle marked by five large buoys (which you can easily see while standing on the beach prior to the start), make sure you go around five buoys prior to heading to the beach. I recently did a race where probably 50 people totally skipped the last buoy heading into finish, thus disqualifying themselves. After all your preparation, it's a shame to have your race over before you even get on your bike.

As you approach the finish, keep swimming at least until your hands start scraping the bottom. While it might look really shallow, it's really tough to run - in a wetsuit - through water that's any deeper than just below the knees. Running 50m through water that is up above your knees will drive your heart-rate through the roof - not the way you really want to start the bike.

Once you're out of the water, peel off that wetsuit as quickly as possible, pull on your helmet, grab your bike and start hammerin' those pedals.

Antioxidant Supplementation Will Shorten Your Life!

Well, that’s true… if you believe the headline of a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald that ominously proclaimed, "Vitamins Raise Death Risk: Study” (www.smh.com.au/news/health/vitamins-raise-death-risk-study/2007/02/27/1172338624454.html). But it’s not just the popular media. If you take stock in the latest supplement-bashing propaganda, read on for details about a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in February.

Every once in awhile, and it seems to be occurring on an uncomfortably increasing basis, you’ll come across a headline in a newspaper that lambastes the use of supplements. We needn’t discuss the reasons for the media’s propensity to publicize inconclusive or misleading studies. Needless to say, it happens. Perhaps you remember the vitamin E “studies” from not so long ago… the ones that suggested that high doses of vitamin E were not only unsafe, they contributed to potentially shortened life span. Well, like those “studies,” this current one regarding antioxidants is rife with numerous flaws.

First though, let’s take the word “study” out of the picture and replace it with the more appropriate term “meta-analysis,” which is what the vitamin E “studies” and this new antioxidant “study” really are. One nutritional scientist wrote, “A meta-analysis is not a new clinical study. It is rather a mathematical study that 'pools' or combines data from different trials in an attempt to draw statistically valid conclusions from the larger, combined set of data. In general, mathematicians believe that the larger the sample size of data (number of people studied), the more valid are the statistical conclusions drawn from such data."

One problem with statistical conclusions drawn from meta-analyses is that the data can be manipulated to produce whatever results you’re looking for. In the case of the vitamin E meta-analysis, one of the glaring problems was that if any of the people involved in any of the studies used in the meta-analysis died of unrelated causes (such as a car crash), they too were included in the "death due to vitamin E" category. Think about that. Even if the person died from causes not at all related to vitamin E, as part of the meta-analysis they were lumped in the category of “death due to vitamin E.” How can that fairly represent anything about vitamin E toxicity?

Another problem with meta-analyses is that the results derived are only as good as the studies used. In regards to the antioxidant meta-analysis, perhaps the most flagrant flaw is that the analysts used only 68 of 815 available studies. In other words, they ignored over 90% of the available studies, but still arrived at the startlingly frightening conclusion that antioxidants decrease life span. Interestingly (and most likely not coincidentally), nearly half of the 800+ studies were rejected because none of the subjects died. Therefore, if almost half of the studies aren’t even factored in to making a conclusion from a pool of statistics, especially studies that showed no mortality due to antioxidant supplementation, this seems to me like bending the rules so far as to arrive at meaningless conclusions.

It gets even more ridiculous.

On the second page of the Sydney Morning Herald article you’ll find written, “Balz Frei, director of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, said the study and the data studied were both flawed because more than two-thirds of the previous research that was examined involved people with heart disease, cancer or other risks who were being treated to see if the supplements worked. ‘This kind of approach does not work,’ he said. ‘Over the years it has become clear from these clinical trials that antioxidants don't work in disease treatment.’"

Look carefully at what he writes: over two-thirds of the people involved in these studies were already sick with heart disease, cancer, or other ailments... and guess what? Paraphrasing Frei, taking antioxidants didn't prevent them from dying, which really shouldn't come as a surprise as they (antioxidants) are not intended for treatment purposes but rather preventative purposes. Taking some vitamin E (or whatever) didn't cure a person dying from cancer. Antioxidant supplementation intends to prevent disease states that accrue from free-radical effects. It won’t cure the diseases anymore than spraying Rust-Oleum® on already rusted metal will restore the metal. To say that antioxidant supplementation potentially decreases life span, if one is not looking at it from a preventative perspective but rather a curative one, is grossly misleading. And to begin with, when the playing field isn't anywhere near being level – in this case meaning that when over two-thirds of the people involved in the studies were already very sick – how can negative results NOT occur?

There are several other flaws in the JAMA meta-analysis that contributed to the less-than-stellar results, all of which is nicely summarized by Frei: “All the new study really demonstrates is a bias toward identifying studies or research that show harm caused by antioxidants, and selective removal of research that shows benefits.”

A wealth of studies has accumulated over the past several years showing that antioxidant supplementation reduces free radicals, reduces the risk of serious disease, and improves health. Anecdotally, Linus Pauling, a pioneer in vitamin C research, lived to be 93 taking a daily dose of 12-18 grams of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Would the authors of the meta-analysis conclude that Pauling died prematurely at age 93 by taking ascorbic acid?

Using a wonderful analogy, Dr. Bill Misner writes, "The reason science often contradicts itself occurs early when the methodology is designed. They can prove that gravity does not exist if the study methodology measures the falling rate of a buoyant object floating in water. Now, think about that for a minute. Stand on a ladder and jump off, landing one time. Next, take the ladder and put it in 12 feet of water. Put on a full-length water floatation suit and then stand on the same step with your head just out of water. Jump off and float away, resulting in the first study ever to prove that gravity does not exist. Next thing you will learn is about all the simple souls who hear this on the evening news are dying from jumping off high places because they read a study that statistically proved (without a doubt) that gravity does not exist..."

We believe this antioxidant meta-analysis is seriously flawed, misleading science that should not influence your decision when it comes to antioxidant supplementation, especially given the tremendous research (some of which is listed below) that has shown the overwhelming benefits of antioxidant supplementation. All people—athletes and non-athletes alike—can benefit from daily antioxidant supplementation. It is a safe and health-promoting practice, period.

1: Zaidi SM, Al-Qirim TM, Banu N. Effects of antioxidant vitamins on glutathione depletion and lipid peroxidation induced by restraint stress in the rat liver. Drugs R D. 2005;6(3):157-65. PMID: 15869319 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

2: Alvarado C, Alvarez P, Puerto M, Gausseres N, Jimenez L, De la Fuente M. Dietary supplementation with antioxidants improves functions and decreases oxidative stress of leukocytes from prematurely aging mice. Nutrition. 2006 Jul-Aug;22(7-8):767-77. PMID: 16815491 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

3: Zaidi SM, Banu N. Antioxidant potential of vitamins A, E and C in modulating oxidative stress in rat brain. Clin Chim Acta. 2004 Feb;340(1-2):229-33. PMID: 14734217 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

4: Gultekin F, Delibas N, Yasar S, Kilinc I. In vivo changes in antioxidant systems and protective role of melatonin and a combination of vitamin C and vitamin E on oxidative damage in erythrocytes induced by chlorpyrifos-ethyl in rats. Arch Toxicol. 2001 Apr;75(2):88-96. PMID: 11354911 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

5: Vijayaraghavan R, Suribabu CS, Sekar B, Oommen PK, Kavithalakshmi SN, Madhusudhanan N, Panneerselvam C. Protective role of vitamin E on the oxidative stress in Hansen's disease (Leprosy) patients. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Oct;59(10):1121-8. PMID: 16015260 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

6: Choi SW, Benzie IF, Collins AR, Hannigan BM, Strain JJ. Vitamins C and E: acute interactive effects on biomarkers of antioxidant defence and oxidative stress. Mutat Res. 2004 Jul 13;551(1-2):109-17. PMID: 15225585 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

7: Meydani M, Lipman RD, Han SN, Wu D, Beharka A, Martin KR, Bronson R, Cao G, Smith D, Meydani SN. The effect of long-term dietary supplementation with antioxidants. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1998 Nov 20;854:352-60. Review. PMID: 9928443 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

More detailed information about proper fueling and all the Hammer Nutrition products can be found in The Endurance Athlete’s Guide To Success. You can download a free copy at www.hammernutrition.com/guide

© 2006, Endurance Marketing Group. This information is copyright protected. Please feel free to distribute this information as long as this copyright notice and EMG's phone number and/or URL are included. Content must remain unchanged and original authorship acknowledged.

 

New is Good, But Not on Race Day By Lance Watson

It’s the day before your triathlon and while browsing the expo you see a flashy new race suit. It fits and feels good. You start the swim the next morning feeling fast, but halfway through the run “ouch!” Who would have known that crotch seam could be so uncomfortable? By the end of the race you are chafed and not feeling so great about the new suit! Lesson learned: never try something new on race day. Always go with what you know, what you have done in training, and what you have used before.

If you get a great new bike wheel or racing outfit use it in a few workouts before you race. All wheels feel and brake differently in different conditions and clothing can cause bad chafing in the length of a marathon. Even a new pair of racing flats can cause a lot discomfort over the course of a race if you are not familiar with them. Shoes that were fine for that thirty minutes in training take on a life of their own after six miles in heat. If you are a short course athlete and you've planned on doing a race every couple of weeks through race season taking time to let blisters heal will force you to change your training and racing plans.

Proper preparation can help to avoid these discouraging mistakes and unplanned periods of "forced time off." If you introduce something new to your body, when you are about to push it to the limits, you run the risk of adverse effects.

Our bodies have been put to the test during training and have adapted to do the task under the circumstances that we train in. In other words it's not just swimming, biking and running at varying speeds that our bodies adapt to but also to the conditions in which we ask it to do those three things.

As an athlete, you train to race. You do specific workouts to train your body to get ready for certain distances and speeds and so it is with your equipment, nutrition and hydration. Make the conditions that you train in as similar as possible to race conditions. Especially for your longer endurance and faster tempo sessions, practicing for race day success is crucial. When you do want to make changes or add new equipment, practice the new aspects in training first to make sure they work for you.

Important Things to Practice Before Race Day:

Remember, once race day rolls around, the well prepared athlete is focused on swimming, biking and running well, and not on a sore back, upset stomach or the chafing wounds between their thighs. Training effectively includes considering all aspects of a race. A relaxed and prepared athlete knows what to eat, what to wear and can expect to feel great while racing.

LifeSport head coach Lance Watson has coached a number of Ironman, Olympic and age-group champions. He enjoys coaching athletes of all abilities who are passionate about sport and personal excellence.

Contact Lance at LifeSport: coach@LifeSport.ca or visit www.LifeSport.ca for coaching questions and inquiries.

What You Should Know About Stretching by Dr. Scott Howitt

It is generally accepted that increasing the flexibility of our muscles promotes better performance and decreases injuries

Over the past 30 years sports professionals have promoted stretching as a way to decrease the chance of injury, relieve pain associated with stiff or tight muscles, and improve sport performance. Despite the claims, new research has challenged some of these widely held concepts. Certainly, most of us can think of someone who is quite inflexible, who never seems to get injured, or someone who is very flexible yet seems to always have an injury.

Stretching exercises are regularly included in warm-up and cool down exercises, with the notion that decreased muscle stiffness allows for increased joint range of motion. Although there is an inclination to assume this would mean an increase in performance, this assumption does not hold true. A number of recent journal of strength and conditioning research studies using athletes in several sports suggest that pre-event static stretching may actually negatively impact the performance of maximal muscle strength, power, and in one study even balance and reaction time.

The research also suggests that stretching immediately before exercise does not prevent overuse or acute injuries (1). The scientific basis of stretching is that it increases the compliance of the muscle tissue for a short period of time. Unfortunately, increased compliance decreases the ability of the tissue to absorb energy and can potentially increase the chance of injury. I would also add that it is not beneficial to increase the range of motion beyond that needed for sport-specific movements, as this may too cause injury.

Stretching before or after exercising does not offer protection from muscle soreness caused by your work out. That may leave you wondering, why then you feel better after stretching? Again, the research suggests that stretching provides an increase in "stretch tolerance" whereby you feel less pain for the same force applied to a muscle. Increased stretch tolerance occurs immediately after stretching a muscle and is caused by a poorly understood analgesic effect (1,2).

Despite the shortcomings stretching still decreases pain, and may provide benefits if used under appropriate conditions. Inherently, we can all agree that stretching feels good, the problem remains on how to choose the appropriate stretching protocol.

The evidence appears to indicate that stretching increases range of a motion with a variety of different techniques, positions and durations. Static stretching may increase some muscle length for up to 24 hours, however the gains are the greatest immediately after the stretch and decline within 15 minutes (3). It is also interesting to note that both heat or ice and a warm-up, when combined with stretching increase flexibility more so than static stretching alone.

Longer hold times and more frequent stretching may increase or sustain the range of motion further; however, a review of the current literature suggests that static stretching of one repetition for 30 seconds, three days per week for six weeks is sufficient to improve flexibility (1,2). Unfortunately, as is often the case, there is no retention of range of motion four weeks after ceasing a stretching program.

Still, health and fitness professionals need to be cognizant of individual needs, as some muscles require more time or more stretches, not to mention the consideration necessary when a muscle is injured. The action of stretching is most often recommended to be: stretch until tension or a slight pulling is felt, but not outward pain. As the stretch is held, relaxation occurs, and the force on the muscle decreases causing the feeling of less tension, at which point the stretch can be performed again if necessary.

Stretching is very important in treating muscle strain injuries as it improves the effectiveness of the rehabilitation program, and over the long term may affect postural compensations when added to motor pattern retraining. Certainly many of the sedentary jobs that a majority of people have may lead to postural mal-adaptations and muscle imbalances which through repetitive movements cause overuse injuries. Depending in which athletic endeavors you partake in or the type of work you are employed in, it may be very important to be flexible, in which case stretching would be a vital part of your fitness routine. In addition to the circulatory benefits and overall well-being you feel when you are loose and limber, the long-term effect of stretching may in fact be a stretch induced hypertrophy resulting in an increase in tissue strength.

Still, before physical activity I recommend an active, dynamic warm-up in which you mimic the functional movements that you are about to perform. You should determine a strategy for yourself, but when it comes to athletic injury prevention and sports performance, remember that strength rather the stretch is the key.

Personally, I feel best when I am flexible and able to maintain a neutral posture. As such, I include stretching as part of my exercise routine - but this is after my workout or competition, or on a day unto itself. I also find mini breaks, or postural stretches useful throughout the day at work, as this helps to avoid postural imbalance and pain.

For more information or help with one of your other injuries contact one of the guys at SPC - Sports Performance Centres.
www.sportsperformancecentres.com

Dr. Scott D. Howitt - Director CK, CSCS, DC, FCCSS(C), FCCRS(C) Sports Specialist, Rehabilitation Specialist, Chiropractor, Acupuncture, Kinesiologist

The specialists at Sports Performance Centres will be onsite at many of our races this summer.

First Triathlon - Lessons Learned - by Kathleen Stewart

After watching my husband go from not being able to swim to completing Ironman Lake Placid in 2006, I decided to take the plunge and try triathlon. I'm pleased to say that I survived my first event - just barely. Here are some important lessons learned (just in case you decide to take on this lovely sport ).

1. There are actually four events in triathlon. The first event is called "Getting Into Your Wetsuit". There is no pretty or graceful way to get into a wet suit. Even the skinny, athletic looking gals need assistance to 'tuck' everything in. My favourite part was taking 15 minutes to get my legs in and bracing myself to pull the suit past my behind only to discover I was putting in on backwards and having to start all over again. I was almost ready to pack it in - no pun intended! (Final wet suit tip - make sure your well meaning, supportive spouse knows that he's putting his life on the line if he dares to snap a shot of you in your wetsuit!)

2. Inhaling lake water instead of air is inadvisable. If only someone had told me that. The swim was, in a word, challenging (a.k.a) horrific. After easily tackling 1.5 km in the pool (all front crawl) and thinking it would be a piece of cake, I struggled to do breast stroke 750 m. When the 50+ age group that began a few minutes behind my group started passing me, I knew I was in trouble.

3. Real triathletes don't worry about the sand between their toes when transitioning to the bike. (Did I mention there was no sand between my toes when I got on the bike?)

4. Listening to the volunteers on the bike course is more important than looking good as you pass by them on your bike. So when someone yells "speed bump", it's not a cute pet name for you but rather a stern warning that you're about to hit a speed bump and should lift your behind ever so slightly off of your saddle. Fortunately, I got the message after the first speed bump because there were three more as I was exiting the conservation area.

It was a good and humbling experience and despite deciding 2 minutes into the swim that I was never doing another triathlon as long as I lived, I am scheduled to tackle another one in August!

Kathleen Stewart is an age group athlete who decided to send us an article. If you would like to send us something please email us.

Coaches, Camps and Clinics

Here is a link to a number of camps that are being offered by NRG Performance Training, Healthy Results Training and Wildrock. There is something for everyone and every budget with destinations such as Florida, Lake Placid, Italy and Mallorca. The Camps and Clinics web page are part of our new Training Resources section on the website.

Club Training Camps

We are happy to publish information for any club whether it is an overview of the club on the Clubs Page. If you are a member of a club please take a moments and read about our Club's Reward Program.

The HSBC Triathlon Series Race Day Awards - You Get To Personalize Your Award

After much discussion with the athletes and crew of the HSBC series, we have formulated a new and exciting system for the race day photo awards for the 2007 season. In the past, a photo has been printed by default for every age group award recipient. This practice has led to thousands of wasted photos over the past 3 seasons that were never picked up, please see below. Storage, handling and management of these photos reached a critical level this year and many photos went missing and still the thousands of left over photos remained. A new format for awards was required to alleviate this problem and we took the task very seriously. It is of the utmost importance both to the HSBC series and Mike Cheliak Photography that this fun and unique award be maintained for all the loyal HSBC athletes. The following information will outline the procedure for this season. If at any time you have questions about this, please feel free to contact MultiSport at admin@multisportcanada.com or Mike Cheliak at info@mikecheliak.com.

1. Each award recipient will be identified both at the event awards presentation and on the MultiSport results page online.

2. All recipients will use the following procedure to claim their award:

   • You will visit the www.mikecheliak.com website

   • You will locate the photo you would like used for your award from the event gallery

   • You will provide the photo details to info@mikecheliak.com and will include your name, race, placement, age group and finish time

Once you have supplied this information to Mike Cheliak you will have the following options:

1. You can elect to have your print emailed to you in digital print ready format at no cost

2. You can elect to have your print mailed to you at a cost of $6.00 payable via PayPal invoice

3. You can have your award printed and picked up at the following race. If you are unable to collect your photo at the following race, it will be returned to Mike Cheliak and you will need to pay the $6 shipping and handling to collect the award.

No awards will remain on site after the following event. All photo awards from the previous seasons will be available for pick up until after the Welland Triathlon in July. Once that event has passed, all awards will be destroyed and no longer available.

While this change is a fairly drastic move from the previous years, it is also very exciting. As an athlete you can now pick and choose from a large selection of great photos from your run, swim or bike portion of the race and not just the finish line shots that were used in previous years. We all hope this new system will be more beneficial to all the athletes.

Series Awards

Race Day Awards - Please Arrange To Claim Your Race Day Awards From 2005 & 2006

There are still a number of athletes who have not claimed Series Awards or individual Race Day Awards, some from 2005. The 2006 Series Award Winners receive a personalized 8x10 custom designed photo collage Series Winner Picture. You will get to choose up to 3 of your favourite photos from the past season. If you are a series winner you can go to Mike Cheliak's website to pick out the three pictures you would like to appear on your Series Award. Once you have done that please email Mike Cheliak and he will take it from there.

There are also several 2005 Series Award Winners who have not claimed their award. The Series Award winners are listed here and their pictures are here. If you were a winner of a Series Award please email Mike Cheliak at mike@mikecheliak.com to arrange for shipping.

Race Day Awards were awarded as follows. For races with over 150 registered two (2) weeks prior to race day there were medals and pictures for the top three (3) finishers in 5 year age categories. Races with under 150 registered two (2) weeks prior to race day had medals and pictures for the top three (3) finishers in 10 year age categories.

If you have an unclaimed award please email us and make arrangements for delivery.

Here is a sample of the personalized Race Day Picture Award.

Click on the image for a larger version

Here are two of the 2006 Series Award winners and their picture selections.

Here are the Series Points for 2006.

If you would like to download the mpeg version of the slide show prepared by Mike Cheliak for the 2005 Series Slide Show please right click here and save target as. The 2006 Series Slide Show should be ready for the next newsletter.