raceAthlete.com

Racing in the Heat: Dealing when the temperatures rise by Coach Mike Ricci

Across North America, racing in July, August and early September can be challenging due to the temperature. Racing during these months usually means you are performing in hot and humid conditions. If you train in this type of environment, that is optimal for conditioning your system to the stress. For those of us coming from a milder climate there are a few things we can do to prepare to race our best to race well.

The most important thing you can do is learn your sweat rate. Before you run, weigh yourself without any clothes. Then go run for one hour, take in whatever water you need, and then come back and re-weigh yourself. Your difference in weight, plus the addition of the water or fluid you drank will give you how many pounds you lost during your run. Divide that number by your starting weight and you will know your fluid loss per hour. If you start a log, figuring out percentage lost at what temperature will help you monitor your fluid intake much better. By doing this test regularly in different temps, you will start to see how your body reacts with varying temperatures. Knowing that on a hot day you lose 2% of your body weight would be a big advantage over others who don’t keep track. You will know you need to take in ‘x’ ounces of water, which will eliminate your chance of dehydration. Of course don’t drink too much as that can cause hypnotremia – and that can be deadly.

Another idea is to hit the sauna – after your swim practice or weights is good time. Just get in there two-three times per week and get used to the heat. I know athletes that ride their trainers in the sauna but I don’t think that is necessary. One more option is to train indoors, with a long sleeve shirt on, no fan and with the doors/windows closed. If you want to take it to the next level, throw some wet clothes in the dryer and viola you have humidity too. Training with the long sleeves is something I have done with success for a number of years.

Lastly, in order to prepare yourself to race in a hot and humid environment, make sure you are properly hydrated and even add a little salt to your meals to help you retain more water. You can train with salt tablets or electrolyte pills too – these have been used successfully for years by many athletes in longer, hotter races. Whatever you do, try it in training before you try it in a race.

Just like preparing for a hilly course, we train in the hills. So, to race well in a hot environment, we need to simulate those same conditions. Don’t get caught unprepared. Use the tips listed here to help you overcome the more extreme conditions you may be faced with racing in this season.

Michael Ricci is a USAT Level III certified coach. He can be reached for personal coaching at [email protected].

You'll never forget your second tri by Duane

Editor's Note: You may recall the end of last year when we introduced our teammate Duane with this story and video. Duane is about to tackle his second triathlon so we thought it only appropriate to wish him well on his next race. Rock the course Duane and have fun!

Download File

In less than 2 weeks I will be participating in my second triathlon, the Topeka Tinman in Kansas ( a mini-sprint). It has a 300 yard swim, an 8.26 mile bike, and a 5k. Quite a bit shorter than my first one but I get nervous at times thinking about it. It will be my first open water swim (except for fooling around in lakes in Arkansas when I was a kid). So today I was thinking that it seems like a lot of people panic on their open water swim. I’m thinking, okay, if I start to panic or hyperventilate, I can make it 300 yards hyperventilating or swimming on my back if need be, so I have decided that the swim should not be an issue.

What is sometimes an issue with me is being seen in my swim suit. I will just have to get accept it and hopefully I will inspire more people to make a change. I know at least 4-5 people have made huge changes or are going for their first tri because they saw my story. That really makes me feel good and is worth any embarressment I may feel June 16th! As Mary (who is totally awesome) shared with me: We must live our dreams in the bodies we have. We don't have to prove ANYTHING to anyone.

The bike is supposed to be pancake flat. I hope so, although some downhill action would sure be nice! My bike’s front derailleur is messed up and as much as I tinker with it I cannot get it to come out of the small chain ring without using both hands to press on the lever and then it only goes to the middle chain ring. I need to get that fixed and I am going to take off the tires with small nubs and replace them with slicks (I need any advantage I can get as I am slow as a turtle and I still have visions of the lady who must have been 60+ , blowing by me on last years tri and telling me to “Hang in there!” I laugh whenever I think about that! It really was pretty funny).

The 5k I will walk, I am hoping to do it under 1:20, but we’ll see. I will probably be last on the course again and I am fine with that, it is all about just finishing at this point.

3 weeks after Topeka is the Cornman Sprint in Iowa with a really killer hill and lots of “rollers”. I think the “rollers” will all seems like killer hills! I am going to bike up hills every time I get outside on my bike. I know I will probably not make it up the killer hill all the way without getting off my bike, but I want to make it up as far as I can and I want to make it further up the hill than at least one other person. Then I have 9 weeks of training before Glenwood Springs on September 9th. Then another 7 weeks until the SOMA Quarterman in AZ, in late October. 

Next week is a taper week with Monday and Thursday off all together, Tuesday is a bike of 30 minutes easy, some core on Wednesday, and on Friday a 10 minute walk and then a 10 minute bike to make sure everything is operational. Then Saturday is the race. Now that I see how little training I have left before the race, I’m getting nervous again (I’m so silly sometimes!)

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but again I have to say thanks to everyone for their encouragement and support. I have met some really great people here in blogland and am making some really good friendships. Over the course of this summer I am going to be able to meet 6-10 more bloggers in person and that will be great!

No...we really mean it and we'll prove it

Editorial Note: Early this week we introduced Donald of the Blog Running and Rambling as on of the newest members of team raceAthlete. Yesterday he posted this to his Blog;

· I joined Team RaceAthlete this week. For the time being, they’re pretending to be thrilled to have me (they even posted my profile pic!). It’s a very comprehensive site dedicated to all things triathlon, with multiple contributors, and a sponsored team of athletes who will compete at Ironman Wisconsin later this year (I’m not in that group).

Anyway, the site is definitely worth a visit. If you like what you see and want to be part of it, feel free to sign up for the team as well. All you have to do is fill in your name, e-mail address, and describe your blog in a couple of sentences. As far as selection processes go, it’s not exactly Harvard Law School - but the course material is a lot more enjoyable.

So Donald to prove that we are not "pretending" to be thrilled to have you on the team we are publishing your entire Wildflower race report below with just a few small edits...even though no computer know to modern man or women is large enough to display the report on one screen ;-)

But your writing is extremely entertaining and we are happy to have you as part of team raceAthlete. And yes, team we promise that this is the very last Wildflower race report.

Wildflower report: Now I know why

“And if your heart stops beating, I’ll be here wondering –
Did you get what you deserve?”
- My Chemical Romance, “Dead!”

This year was the 25th annual Wildflower festival of triathlons, and the slogan for the 2007 event – as seen in advertisements, the race program, and on participant t-shirts – is “Find Out Why.”

As in, find out why this race attracts more than 10,000 triathletes every year. Find out why these races (a half-IM, Olympic, and short course off-road) are almost unanimously regarded as the toughest races of their distance in America. Find out why Lake San Antonio and southern Monterey County are a picture-perfect setting for a spring triathlon.

Or in my case, find out why it’s extremely foolish to try the long course triathlon only 6 days after racing one of the most rugged road marathons in the country.

Another noteworthy attraction of this year’s race is that it served as a kind of Bloggapalooza, drawing a large number of running or tri-bloggers from all over the country. This turned out to be a very cool bonus feature, as I’ll explain at the end of the post. But for now, let’s move on to the report.

The short version of my race report is that Wildflower simply got the better of me. My legs hadn’t nearly recovered enough from the beating I gave them at Big Sur, and I paid the price in the later stages of the race. There’s an old saying that some days you’re the hammer, and some days you’re the nail. Well, I came to Wildflower thinking I’d try to be a hammer, but I ended up being a nail instead.

Actually, even that description isn’t quite accurate. You know how sometimes you’ll pound a nail in about two-thirds of the way, then it ends up going a little crooked, but it’s already too far into the wood to bother pulling out, so you just pound on it over and over again as hard as you can, and end up completely smashing and deforming the thing below the surface of the wood before finally letting it rest?

During the final miles of the race, that was me: Donald, the crooked nail, getting pummeled into oblivion about two-thirds of the way through Wildflower.

So it turns out that I’m not superhuman, after all – which even though I kind of suspected all along, I guess I needed to prove to myself, so I wouldn’t have any misconceptions during my buildup to an Ironman race this summer.

But just because Wildflower didn’t go as well as I hoped, that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a great time there. In fact, the whole day turned out to be very rewarding – which brings us to the long version of the report.

Featured Newbie

Today we are featuring one of the newest raceAthletes to join the team.

Her name is Sarah and in many ways her team application represents what we are all about.  As we grow both a virtual and real community of supportive endurance athletes that thrive on competition and enjoy the great benefits of supporting each other's personal journeys, we thought it approriate to introduce Sarah to team.

Welcome aboard Sarah. We are very glad to have your join the team.

From Sarah:

Hi!

I'm Sarah. Nice to meet you. I heard about RaceAthlete.com via Get Your Geek On. Though this is my first season of triathlon, my 2009 IronMan goal is always on my mental horizon. I'm so excited about this sport(!!), as it's something I feel like I was made to do -- and have wanted to do for a long time. (I learned to swim at my grandfather's cabin when I was less than a year old -- now I'm on a master's team. For my 12th birthday, I wanted bike gloves more than anything else.

Now I'm learning to ride aero. In high school, I ran through the snow while singing musical songs with my friends in winter track. Now I'm training for a marathon in September.)

I discovered triathlon during a literally "trying" time. In August I moved home to my parents' house after living in Boston for the past four years. I was devastated after I lost my publishing job, some of my best friends, and the city I loved. But I found trisaratops & IronWil's blogs right after IronMan Wisconsin 2006 and was reminded of the transformative power of physically working toward a goal. I ran my first road race a few months later -- a 15k up and down some of the biggest hills in the state. And I loved it.

The water and the road will never leave me, and I'm so glad I've found them. And along with them, I've found an amazing community of people who teach me so much about not only the sport -- but what it means to live life to it's fullest. The blogs here are my lifelines, and I've made some new friends in person too.

Thanks so much for all the help & comraderie already! I can't wait til I can give back to this community, and I'd love to be a part of the team in whatever capacity you'll have me.

All the best,
Sarah

Please visit Sarah at her new Blog by clicking HERE.

Welcome Aboard

We here at team raceAthlete central are always tickled to welcome new friends to our growing family of endurance sports athletes.

This week we've had a number of new athletes join and we just wanted to introduce them to the team.

From the lovely island of Great Britain please welcome Rav. He's a veteran of the sport of triathlon and his knowledge and expertise are a welcome addition to the team. You can meet him HERE.

From the U.S. of A we're happy to have the following athletes join team race Athlete:

Dave of the CalBeers Cycling Team

Donald of Running and Rambling

And welcome aboard to our newest new Newbie Tim and Rob of TRI-ROB'S TRI-BLOG and Susan who is now training for her first triathlon.

Finally from Australia, we're happy to welcome Jason of Go Hard Or Go Home.

Don't go home Jason. Stay with us a while, we know you'll like it here at team raceAthlete ;-)

Just in case you were wondering we now have almost 500 endurance athletes who have joined, or are following the team.

This is your team so please help us grow it into something great.

To join just click HERE and fill out the brief application and tell us a little about yourselves. The cost to join is zero, but the friendships you'll make are priceless. 

No Excuses by Duane and Jess

Sometimes a personal story is just so inspiring and amazing that words alone can not do it justice.

This is certainly the case for today's raceAthlete featured teammate.

Before you watch the video below (just click on the play tab or download the file), please read Duane's and Jess's story.

In many of ways it embodies the struggle that we all face when we set our sights on achieving that which is well beyond normal limits. Duane with the help of Jess has taken a huge first step toward his Ironman dream and we're proud to chronicle their journey.

Download File

At the beginning of the year I weighed 471 pounds and I was close to being dead and I was basically an invalid. I couldn't walk out my front to to my car in the driveway without being out of breath and my back hurting. Walking up a small flight of stairs was very hard.

How did I get this way? Lifestyle! Eating over stress, being bound to a desk 8-10 hours a day, and not exercising. My weight started to go up in my early 20's (I was a little chunky in my youth and loved to eat).

It just kind of sprialed out of control, slowy, yet steadily. You start settling for being out of shape a little, then wham, you're too tired or fat to work out. The you settle for a little less, on and on it went. I associated exercise with pain, when the reality is, not exercising equals pain! As I approched my 49th birthday which was in April, I realized I may not be around to see my daughters grow up.

I sought a trainer and found one I conected with, Jess Hogue of Shapeplus.com. He has a main message of "no excuses". One of the first things he has me do was write down all the things I wanted in life and wanted from working out. He noticed I wrote down that I wanted to be an Ironman (long time dream). He said we needed to start small and challenged me to commit to doing a sprint tri in September, the TriGlenwood race (www.triglenwood.com). So I made a public committment to my friends, family, and co-workers that I was going to do it! I had 7 1/2 months to get ready. I was 471 in January and when I started traiing with Jess I was 461.

I started with 35 days of cardio in a row to get things going. I did 45 minutes a day. I had to work up from 15 minutes 3 times a day to where I could do 45 minutes straight. I was also doing one hour of
weight training 3 nights a week with Jess. Then in March, Jess told me to get a pair of swim trunks and
start swimming. I thought he was insane, I wanted to lose a bunch of weight first as I did not want to be
seen in a swimsuit in public! I went to the gym and swam, did two laps and was exhaisted and seasick! As a kid I never could swim without nose plugs and I realized I needed swim lessons asap! I had 9 swim
lessons over the spring and summer and improved greatly. Now I like to swim.

My real fear at this point was the bike, I could just see me bending or breaking the frame or popping the tires! I worked on the statinary bike at the gym in July and in August found a sturdy mountain bike and
started riding. Man did my butt and arms get sore! The work on the exercise bike did not transfer over to a real bike very well. I started with 3 miles and worked my way up to 15 miles, but it was slow.

Finally, the date approached and I couldn't believe it was finally here but at the same time I couldn't believe that the race was already here! I was at 389 pounds, a loss of 82 pounds.

I worried about this race as I trained for it. Depending on what day it was, I worried about the swim, or the bike, or the run (walk for me). I started thinking I should worry about the transitions so I wouldn't miss out on anything! Silly, I know!

I got a decent nights sleep the night before the race and I was pumped up to say the least. The swim wave started and I took off and ended up swimming like a barge and did not swim like I had the last month of training. I did finish but took a 5 minute penalty.

I took my time in the transition and headed out on the bike. The first half was great as it was slightly down hill and I flew! Gravity was in my favor and I rode faster than I had since I was a teenager!

But of course the return trip was uphill and I moved at a snails pace. I had to laugh as a chubby woman about 60 blew by me on her bike! One of the things I have really come to love about this tri thing is that almost every person who sped by me had encouraging words! I finally came into the transition area and
headed out for my five mile walk.

I was feeling pretty good at this point and knew I would probably make it. I had started in the second wave of swimmers and by the time I was a mile into the walk most of the runners had passed me by. I was at the 3.3 mile point when the truck that picks up the signs was closing in opn me. But they stayed behind me and let me go on. They must have had a radio as they kept yelling my name and encouraging me to finish. My calves started to cramp up and I had to do a little stretching at mile 4, but I knew then that I was going to make it!

Finally the finish line appeared. Most people had gone, but my family, Jess, a few particpants, and the
race volunteers were still there waiting for me to finish. The last people to finish ahead of me had crossed the finish line about 15 minutes before me. I crossed the finish line and raised my hands in victory and let out a load whoop! I was a triathlete at last! My wife came over and we hugged and then I lost it, as you can see in the video.

I was totally overcome with emotion - elation, pride, excitement, and a whole lot of gratitiude. My wife, daughters, Jess, friends,co-workers,fellow bloggers, race volunteers, and the other athletes had been so supportive and encouraging during this journey. I love this sport and community and I am sitting here tearing up all over again.

Tomorrow I am going in to get fitted for a road bike and on the 20th, I am going in for a video swim analysis and lesson. I am starting my training for next summer when I will do a 1/2 ironman triathlon!

Man, I love this thing!

I plan on doing a couple Sprint tris in the spring and summer and for the 1/2 ironman I am looking at Soma AZ in late October but I may do the Longhorn Tri in late September.

Would you like to hear more from Duane? You can find him HERE.

Please let Duane and Jess know what you think about their story by commenting below. We will certainly pass along any kind words of encouragement to help them to their Ironman dream.

No Excuses by Duane and Jess

Sometimes a personal story is just so inspiring and amazing that words alone can not do it justice.

This is certainly the case for today's raceAthlete featured teammate.

Before you watch the video below (just click on the play tab or download the file), please read Duane's and Jess's story.

In many of ways it embodies the struggle that we all face when we set our sights on achieving that which is well beyond normal limits. Duane with the help of Jess has taken a huge first step toward his Ironman dream and we're proud to chronicle their journey.

Download File

At the beginning of the year I weighed 471 pounds and I was close to being dead and I was basically an invalid. I couldn't walk out my front to to my car in the driveway without being out of breath and my back hurting. Walking up a small flight of stairs was very hard.

How did I get this way? Lifestyle! Eating over stress, being bound to a desk 8-10 hours a day, and not exercising. My weight started to go up in my early 20's (I was a little chunky in my youth and loved to eat).

It just kind of sprialed out of control, slowy, yet steadily. You start settling for being out of shape a little, then wham, you're too tired or fat to work out. The you settle for a little less, on and on it went. I associated exercise with pain, when the reality is, not exercising equals pain! As I approched my 49th birthday which was in April, I realized I may not be around to see my daughters grow up.

I sought a trainer and found one I conected with, Jess Hogue of Shapeplus.com. He has a main message of "no excuses". One of the first things he has me do was write down all the things I wanted in life and wanted from working out. He noticed I wrote down that I wanted to be an Ironman (long time dream). He said we needed to start small and challenged me to commit to doing a sprint tri in September, the TriGlenwood race (www.triglenwood.com). So I made a public committment to my friends, family, and co-workers that I was going to do it! I had 7 1/2 months to get ready. I was 471 in January and when I started traiing with Jess I was 461.

I started with 35 days of cardio in a row to get things going. I did 45 minutes a day. I had to work up from 15 minutes 3 times a day to where I could do 45 minutes straight. I was also doing one hour of
weight training 3 nights a week with Jess. Then in March, Jess told me to get a pair of swim trunks and
start swimming. I thought he was insane, I wanted to lose a bunch of weight first as I did not want to be
seen in a swimsuit in public! I went to the gym and swam, did two laps and was exhaisted and seasick! As a kid I never could swim without nose plugs and I realized I needed swim lessons asap! I had 9 swim
lessons over the spring and summer and improved greatly. Now I like to swim.

My real fear at this point was the bike, I could just see me bending or breaking the frame or popping the tires! I worked on the statinary bike at the gym in July and in August found a sturdy mountain bike and
started riding. Man did my butt and arms get sore! The work on the exercise bike did not transfer over to a real bike very well. I started with 3 miles and worked my way up to 15 miles, but it was slow.

Finally, the date approached and I couldn't believe it was finally here but at the same time I couldn't believe that the race was already here! I was at 389 pounds, a loss of 82 pounds.

I worried about this race as I trained for it. Depending on what day it was, I worried about the swim, or the bike, or the run (walk for me). I started thinking I should worry about the transitions so I wouldn't miss out on anything! Silly, I know!

I got a decent nights sleep the night before the race and I was pumped up to say the least. The swim wave started and I took off and ended up swimming like a barge and did not swim like I had the last month of training. I did finish but took a 5 minute penalty.

I took my time in the transition and headed out on the bike. The first half was great as it was slightly down hill and I flew! Gravity was in my favor and I rode faster than I had since I was a teenager!

But of course the return trip was uphill and I moved at a snails pace. I had to laugh as a chubby woman about 60 blew by me on her bike! One of the things I have really come to love about this tri thing is that almost every person who sped by me had encouraging words! I finally came into the transition area and
headed out for my five mile walk.

I was feeling pretty good at this point and knew I would probably make it. I had started in the second wave of swimmers and by the time I was a mile into the walk most of the runners had passed me by. I was at the 3.3 mile point when the truck that picks up the signs was closing in opn me. But they stayed behind me and let me go on. They must have had a radio as they kept yelling my name and encouraging me to finish. My calves started to cramp up and I had to do a little stretching at mile 4, but I knew then that I was going to make it!

Finally the finish line appeared. Most people had gone, but my family, Jess, a few particpants, and the
race volunteers were still there waiting for me to finish. The last people to finish ahead of me had crossed the finish line about 15 minutes before me. I crossed the finish line and raised my hands in victory and let out a load whoop! I was a triathlete at last! My wife came over and we hugged and then I lost it, as you can see in the video.

I was totally overcome with emotion - elation, pride, excitement, and a whole lot of gratitiude. My wife, daughters, Jess, friends,co-workers,fellow bloggers, race volunteers, and the other athletes had been so supportive and encouraging during this journey. I love this sport and community and I am sitting here tearing up all over again.

Tomorrow I am going in to get fitted for a road bike and on the 20th, I am going in for a video swim analysis and lesson. I am starting my training for next summer when I will do a 1/2 ironman triathlon!

Man, I love this thing!

I plan on doing a couple Sprint tris in the spring and summer and for the 1/2 ironman I am looking at Soma AZ in late October but I may do the Longhorn Tri in late September.

Would you like to hear more from Duane? You can find him HERE.

Please let Duane and Jess know what you think about their story by commenting below. We will certainly pass along any kind words of encouragement to help them to their Ironman dream.

Meet the Team---Coach Mike Ricci

This week on raceAthlete we'll be getting to know each other.

As team raceAthlete gathers steam, we'd like to introduce you to some of the athletes that make up our team, as well as the people that helped create the team.

But before we get to the introductions take a moment to cast you vote for this week's race athlete poll. It's a question that resonates deeply through-out all of endurance sports...NOT.

In fact, it's just a bit of fun. Who has the best body swimmers, cyclist, runners, triathletes or bloggers? We're sure you'll recognize most of the professional athletes featured as worthy representative of their chosen sport. The blogger is of course a mystery man.

Once you vote, you'll immediately see the current vote totals, so vote away and see who has the best body according our very non scientific poll.

Also, please note that we are now updating this web site twice a day...at noon and midnight. We'll leave it to you to figure out in what time zone we operate. This week we'll be featuring some fantastic stories including a race video from a teammate who lost almost 100 pounds before his race, and another athlete who just filed a race report from the Berlin Marathon.

As is only fitting, we start today by featuring our team coach.

Meet Michael Ricci of D3multisport. You can contact Mike yourself by send an email to him at [email protected].

Mike has kindly agreed to answer any question a raceAthlete teammate may have. As an age-group athlete you can join the team for free and (here's the best part) potentially get sponsored. To join the team just click HERE.

Mike is a Level III USA Triathlon Certified Coach and has been coaching endurance athletes since 1989. Mike has coached multi-sport athletes, swimmers, and runners of all abilities from all over the world.
Mike is the Head Coach for Team D3 Multisport and has been the Track coach for the Boulder Triathlon Club since its inception. In the past four years, Mike has coached hundreds of athletes to their first triathlon and many more (over 60) who have earned the right to call themselves an IRONMAN.

In his own words:

I like to work with an athlete for a year, a season or a goal race. That way it gives me a better understanding of what the athlete's overall goal is. From here, I can break down the season into segments and then re-adjust the program as the athlete makes progress toward his/her goal.

My work with an athlete begins when I receive the Sign Up form in my in box. I carefully look over all the information the athlete has sent me and then I devise a program. I take into account how many hours a person works, what their family commitments are, how long they have been training, previous injuries, race goals, and many others.

The next step is to evaluate the athlete's current fitness level. There are a variety of ways of doing this but the one I like to use most often is by using a RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) scale. This is a simple scale from 1-10 (10 being the hardest) that tells me how hard the athlete is working during the scheduled workouts. It usually takes a few weeks to determine the correct heart rate training zones for athletes, so this takes a time commitment from the coach and the athlete. We will determine RPE and heart training zones for cycling and running as well swim pacing times.

Here are just a few of his race highlights from the previous three years:

Mike's Race Career Highlights

2005
Ironman Lake Placid, Lake Placid, NY • 11:01
Ironman New Zealand, Taupo, NZ • 10:57

2004
Great Floridian Half Iron, Clermont, FL • 3rd AG
Rattlesnake Sprint II Triathlon, Aurora, CO • 1st AG
USAT National Long Course Champs, AR • 10th AG, qualified for World Team
Big Fish Olympic Triathlon, Hadley Township, MI • 3rd Overall
Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon, Aurora, CO • 3rd AG
Spring Chill Sprint Triathlon, Loveland, CO • 7th overall, 1st AG

2003
Glenwood Springs Sprint Triathlon, Glenwood Springs, CO • 3rd overall, 1st AG
Great Buckeye Half Ironman • 16th overall
Escape from Alcatraz Sprint Tri, San Fancisco, CA • 14th AG
Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon, Aurora, CO • 3rd AG
Mrs. T's USAT Nationals, Shreveport, LA • 32nd AG

Meet the Team---Coach Mike Ricci

This week on raceAthlete we'll be getting to know each other.

As team raceAthlete gathers steam, we'd like to introduce you to some of the athletes that make up our team, as well as the people that helped create the team.

But before we get to the introductions take a moment to cast you vote for this week's race athlete poll. It's a question that resonates deeply through-out all of endurance sports...NOT.

In fact, it's just a bit of fun. Who has the best body swimmers, cyclist, runners, triathletes or bloggers? We're sure you'll recognize most of the professional athletes featured as worthy representative of their chosen sport. The blogger is of course a mystery man.

Once you vote, you'll immediately see the current vote totals, so vote away and see who has the best body according our very non scientific poll.

Also, please note that we are now updating this web site twice a day...at noon and midnight. We'll leave it to you to figure out in what time zone we operate. This week we'll be featuring some fantastic stories including a race video from a teammate who lost almost 100 pounds before his race, and another athlete who just filed a race report from the Berlin Marathon.

As is only fitting, we start today by featuring our team coach.

Meet Michael Ricci of D3multisport. You can contact Mike yourself by send an email to him at [email protected].

Mike has kindly agreed to answer any question a raceAthlete teammate may have. As an age-group athlete you can join the team for free and (here's the best part) potentially get sponsored. To join the team just click HERE.

Mike is a Level III USA Triathlon Certified Coach and has been coaching endurance athletes since 1989. Mike has coached multi-sport athletes, swimmers, and runners of all abilities from all over the world.
Mike is the Head Coach for Team D3 Multisport and has been the Track coach for the Boulder Triathlon Club since its inception. In the past four years, Mike has coached hundreds of athletes to their first triathlon and many more (over 60) who have earned the right to call themselves an IRONMAN.

In his own words:

I like to work with an athlete for a year, a season or a goal race. That way it gives me a better understanding of what the athlete's overall goal is. From here, I can break down the season into segments and then re-adjust the program as the athlete makes progress toward his/her goal.

My work with an athlete begins when I receive the Sign Up form in my in box. I carefully look over all the information the athlete has sent me and then I devise a program. I take into account how many hours a person works, what their family commitments are, how long they have been training, previous injuries, race goals, and many others.

The next step is to evaluate the athlete's current fitness level. There are a variety of ways of doing this but the one I like to use most often is by using a RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) scale. This is a simple scale from 1-10 (10 being the hardest) that tells me how hard the athlete is working during the scheduled workouts. It usually takes a few weeks to determine the correct heart rate training zones for athletes, so this takes a time commitment from the coach and the athlete. We will determine RPE and heart training zones for cycling and running as well swim pacing times.

Here are just a few of his race highlights from the previous three years:

Mike's Race Career Highlights

2005
Ironman Lake Placid, Lake Placid, NY • 11:01
Ironman New Zealand, Taupo, NZ • 10:57

2004
Great Floridian Half Iron, Clermont, FL • 3rd AG
Rattlesnake Sprint II Triathlon, Aurora, CO • 1st AG
USAT National Long Course Champs, AR • 10th AG, qualified for World Team
Big Fish Olympic Triathlon, Hadley Township, MI • 3rd Overall
Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon, Aurora, CO • 3rd AG
Spring Chill Sprint Triathlon, Loveland, CO • 7th overall, 1st AG

2003
Glenwood Springs Sprint Triathlon, Glenwood Springs, CO • 3rd overall, 1st AG
Great Buckeye Half Ironman • 16th overall
Escape from Alcatraz Sprint Tri, San Fancisco, CA • 14th AG
Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon, Aurora, CO • 3rd AG
Mrs. T's USAT Nationals, Shreveport, LA • 32nd AG