What is a Swim Parka?

Lots of triathletes aren't familiar with a classic piece of swim training equipment - the Swim Parka.  Well, here it is!

Podcast - Marathon Swimmer Bruckner Chase and 29er Mountain Biking

Click HERE to listen.

Hey there, Tri-studs and studettes!  First off, I need to mention that 6th place Ultraman finisher Rich Roll will be training and teaching with us at ZenTri Triathlon Base and Nutrition Camp in January.  If you haven't signed up, you better do it quickly because there's limited space.  Don't wait!

This episode has a great interview with a tremendous athlete - Open ocean marathon swimmer Bruckner Chase.  We talk at length about what's really to fear in the ocean and how to deal with cold water.  I follow that up with some mountain biking on a 29er on ice and Zen thoughts on how to react to difficult people.  It's a great show, so don't miss it!

Shownotes - 

• Rich Roll is now an instructor at ZenTri Base Camp!  www.zentriathlon.com
• Interview with Bruckner Chase about how to swim open ocean.
• Mountain biking on ice.
• 29er performance.
• How to surf people's words instead of having to respond to everything they say.

Click HERE to listen

Podcast - Night Running

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Hey there, tri-studs and studettes!  Join me for a moonlit run as I talk about running form, interview Emily about her own running form, and cover a variety of other topics.  It's another great show that was lots of fun to put together for everybody.  Enjoy!

Shownotes:

• Out running at night after Thanksgiving dinner.
• Evolution of running.
• Interview with Emily about fixing her running form.
• Jumped by a scary hillbilly.
• Emily can't stand losing.
• Cindy Crawford is hot.
• Great winter cycling staying warm trick.
• How to quit caffeine.
• How to swim the English Channel.
• The Republic by Plato - Get it delivered chapter by chapter to your email.
• Zentri Base and Nutrition Camp is coming up soon!

Click HERE to listen

SwiMP3 First Impressions

I should write a book on how much listening to music you like improves
your workout effort. Ever since I started listening to Pandora on my
iPhone while biking and running, my whole world has changed for the
better. I go harder and faster and enjoy the heck out of it.

Time to take it to the pool!

The SwiMP3 couldn't be easier to set up. I just plugged it into the
USB port on my PC and it started charging and also shows up as an
external drive. I made a playlist in iTunes and then just dragged and
dropped the files onto the device. Done.

At the pool, I told my coach I was swimming on the other side without
the swim team so I could try out this new device. The earphones clip
to the goggles and they went on easily. Raised buttons on the side do
all of the typical player functions, including shuffling.

Above the water, they sound pretty bad. But that's not the point. Go
under and the transformation begins. They sound pretty good! Swim
slow and deep and the sound is excellent. Go fast on the surface and
the quality diminishes just a little with the water splashing in and
out of your ears. But that's one of the cool things... You can still
hear what's going on around you, which is vital in a pool. I'm a
former lifeguard and you need swimmers to be able to hear you for
their own safety.

I asked another swimmer that was in the lane next to me if my music
was bothering him and he said he never heard it.

Now for the good stuff. Listening to music I liked made the workout
fly by! I swam hard for over an hour and never looked at the time
until I was almost done. I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR YEARS! I've
been swimming competively since I was nine years old. I do math, plan
out my day, sing to myself, whatever it takes to make lap time go by.
Honestly, it's almost maddening. Music? Music makes it fun!

I finished my swim and told the head coach I was leaving.  He asked how much I had done.  I said, "500 warmup, 20x100s on a 1:30 interval, 500 cooldown."  He looked at me and smiled.  "20x100s on a 1:30, huh?  Good job!"  Heck yeah, it was!

So, first impression is a big thumbs up. The device works, is SIMPLE,
and makes swimming hard so much more enjoyable than before. More
details later as I keep using it.