Columbia Men’s Swimming and Diving took third at Ivy League Championships over the weekend. Harvard and Princeton have had a lock on the top two for the past 30 years, but Columbia took their fair share of events, including the 400 free relay (video below). Harvard had to win the last relay in order to beat Princeton, but Columbia crushed the field. This video makes me miss college swimming (it also makes me glad I was never in the stands listening to our parents – that would have made me WAY more nervous!). Also, my split on the 400 free relay my senior year (with a rolling start) was a 45 something, which would have been almost a second slower than anyone on this team. These guys are fast!

This is a “fun” little highlight video to start off the 2011 triathlon season. Get pumped.

This is the promo video that was made from the Super Sprint Triathlon Grand Prix – next year’s series will be amazing!

The race was really fun in Phoenix last weekend. This video says it all:

This is a video from TriCal TV which highlights the San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz men’s race (mainly my race) It was posted on the Tri-California website. I like that my coach does the commentary. Thanks Victor!

I’m ready for a break. A JAIL BREAK!!

Next week is the San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz, which will be among the most fun events of the season. I could write all about it, but Victor and Terry did a great interview (complete with Ben Collins shout out!) on Comcast Sportsnet (CSN). Check it out:

This is a series of interviews from before and after Saturday’s ITU Pan-America Cup Triathlon courtesy of TriCal TV.

This interview is reposted from the Zoom Performance website.

That’s part one.

And this is part two

After checking out of the vacation rental on the North Shore last week, Courtenay and I rode down to Honolulu while everyone else drove. It was raining, the roads were muddy, the drivers were in a bad mood, and the route sucked. The first ten miles took us part way up a portion of the highway called “pineapple hill” because at the summit is the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Right around there is when Courtenay decided to stop, eat, complain about something (Normally she can whine while riding, but this was a moaning session that went beyond either of our multitasking skills.), and wipe the dirt and water off her glasses so she could see again. It was me, however, who saw the big prize! As soon as we started riding again I saw a little green note plastered to the road with water – a FIFTY DOLLAR BILL!!!

[left: Courtenay during our B&M (bitch and moan) session on the side of the road]

Unfortunately, we still had two hours of awful, wet, dirty, dangerous riding left, and really all the $50 bill did was get me to start scanning all the litter on the side of the road (there was plenty), which was exhausting and likely unsafe.

The part of this event that is particularly funny (to me anyway) is that Courtenay’s brother and sister frequently comment on how captivating her story telling can be. They tell her that when she sees people falling asleep she should throw in, “and then I found $5” – just to reclaim attention. A few weeks ago, she did find a $5 bill laying in a parking lot (see the video below for our on-the-spot reenactment), but the story still left her siblings cloudy eyed.
“Maybe you need to find a bigger bill,” they told her. “Try $20, and if you still can’t make the story interesting, make it a $50 bill.”

So when we showed up at Courtenay’s brother’s apartment, we told the story of the $50 bill. Then we tried to tell them about the rest of the ride – like how we stopped at Jamba Juice because we ran out of the granola bars and PB&J we had packed – but once the money line had been revealed the story was no longer interesting. The punch line just came too early.

This video shows a routine I learned in college when we swam dual meets at schools without a warm-up pool. A lot of guys would jog back and forth on the pool deck and do jumping jacks, but I found these swimming specific motions to be quite a bit more effective in preparing for a swim race. For a triathlon I do this routine after I have finished my bike/run warm-up and have gotten my wetsuit half way on. The wetsuit is helpful because it keeps your muscles warm, which is the point.

I used this dry-land warm-up routine last week before the Kirkland Triathlon, when the police wouldn’t allow us to swim prior to the race start, and I’ve used it at races like Escape from Alcatraz and Treasure Island where even if you could get in for a warm-up, the water is so cold that it just doesn’t seem worth it. Some people bring bands and do many of the same motions. I find that’s a hassle and just one extra thing to pack. You can make up for a lack in resistance simply by increasing the speed of your swimming movements.