As I mentioned yesterday, my friend Laura and her roommate Katie visited New York City this weekend for the Tri-Mania Expo.
Remember back during the Hurricane Sandy era when I ran with New York Runners in Support of Staten Island? Dr. Jordan Metzel who organized the initiative spearheaded yesterday’s event, so I knew it would be legitimate and worthwhile. Anyway, after completing a morning swim with some of my Full Throttle Endurance teammates, I went uptown to Columbia University for a day of trigeeking out.
The seminars fell into four general themes: Optimizing Your Life in the Water; Optimizing Your Life on Land: Maximizing Your Run Performance; Triathlon Topics: Some Nuts and Bolts; and Hot Topics in the World of Triathlon. After each the final presentation in each category, the experts participated in a panel discussion and answered audience questions. The agenda also included a coaches roundtable and interviews with some reputable and high-profile individuals (most notably Amby Burfoot, winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon and Editor-at-Large of Runner’s World), plus a keynote presentation from Dave Scott, a six-time Ironman World Champion.
I arrived a little late from the pool, so I missed the first speaker. My favorite presentation of the day was probably from Dr. Paul Weiss who addressed how to master open-water swimming anxiety. He had me laughing out loud!
He also relayed some helpful tips like doing the catch-up drill to prevent being kicked in the head while in the open water.
Between sessions, we explored the vendor area (no pictures, my bad!) and trigeeked out big time.
Can’t beat being on the cover of Triathlete magazine!
Other random tidbits of information I found interesting:
-During an Ironman (2.4-mi. swim, 112-mi. bike, 26.2-mi. run), triathletes burn 8,000-11,000 calories.
-Although it’s important to be flexible (especially in terms of riding in aero), it’s more crucial to be strong, aka triathletes need to strength train on a regular basis.
-Triathletes should train to run, not run to train.
-When riding in the saddle, the engine must be in the right place to maximize power and efficiency, aka triathletes need to get a professional bike fit.
During his keynote speech, Dave Scott talked about defining success.
His point about enjoying and relishing in the journey of training really resonated with me. According to Scott, triathletes spend 95 percent of their time training and five percent racing. We train to compete, and in order to swim, bike, and run at the level we desire (keep in mind triathlon draws perfectionists/type-A people), we log a lot of time to prepare our races. If you don’t love it—truly love it—those laps in the pool, hours on the trainer, and minutes on the ‘mill will seem absolutely miserable.
I obviously love racing, and since moving to New York City, I’ve really fallen in love with the triathlon lifestyle. Most mornings, I wake up before my alarm (that’s set for a time most would consider ungodly early) because I’m so excited to swim, bike, or run. I’m also lucky enough to train with teammates who feel the same way: we embrace our early bedtimes, and most of look forward to hitting the hay because we’ve been awake since 4:30 a.m. we’re so pumped to get after it the next day. (So guilty, so not sorry.) And above all, we support each other because we get it.
Even though we have different strengths, weaknesses, and race schedules, we’re friends, teammates, and each other’s biggest fans—so spectating the NYC Half on Sunday was a no-brainer. Two of my teammates raced (one of whom PR’ed!), and three of us decided to cheer them on. Hey, if you can’t run as fast as they can, then you can at least watch, right?
The race began at 7:30 a.m. with one loop through Central Park before the course headed south along the West Side Highway and finished at South Street Seaport. Kudos to everyone who ran—the temperature hovered around 30 degrees!
My teammates and I planned to see the start and then make our way downtown and stop at several mile markers so we could see our runners multiple times. That didn’t exactly happen, though. We grabbed breakfast and plenty of coffee at Whole Foods, and by the time we arrived at the mile 12-13.1-area, one of our teammates had finished. Fail. (On the bright side, we’ll have a chance to redeem ourselves as spectators at the Brooklyn Half!) At that point, we hung out at the finish and waited for the others to come in.
And I just realized how sappy part of this post sounds–whoops! Hopefully some of you understand what I mean. And if not, then please don’t make fun of me–ha!
Have you attended a sport-related seminar or expo? What did you think? Do you prefer racing or spectating?
I never make time to go see speakers at expos…I need to!
The speakers were really cool–can’t wait to go next year! Although it did feel like I was back in school.
I’ve just been to the expos related to the race I’m running. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of tri or random running expos in Northeast Ohio area. I’ve only spectated a couple races but I’ve enjoyed it. Much less taxing than running them lol. Not going to lie, kinda envious that you were able to hear Dave Scott.
That’s one of the reasons why I love living in NYC–it’s a huge hot-spot for tons of fitness-related things. Dave Scott did a great job! Throughout the weekend, he also hosted workshops with athletes and gave feedback/input on their running form.
So fun! I’ve never been a spectator at a race before (sounds nuts but none of my friends race) but I think it’d be so much fun. Shame that you missed your teammate’s finish, but that’s great too kind of since it means they were probably super speedy!
Spectating was a lot of fun! And yeah, he totally killed it! Maybe I’ll run it next year.
Sounds like an awesome expo!
It was a lot of fun, and I felt like I was back in school–listening to speakers and taking notes.
I haven’t spectated that many races but I think it is always tough to watch races. You struggle to pick out the runners you know and find them at the right spots.
Especially when it comes to bigger races, it can be so tough to spot your friends. Beforehand, we talked to our teammates and figured out what they would be wearing, but that still didn’t help much!
Wow that sounds so interesting and I would love to go to something like that. I’ve been to some health conferences which were somewhat similar but nothing like that. Seeing how much you can burn in a race makes me cringe and want to just eat LOL.
Isn’t that nuts?! I was so hungry all day, so I blame that stat, lol.
I didn’t have the energy to head into the city to see the race, but I was volunteering at the Expo on Saturday! It made me soo jealous of all those runners! I can’t wait for my next race!!
Awesome! I’ve volunteered for a local race expo, and it was a lot of fun! It’s so easy to talk to runners and shoot the breeze.
I haven’t spectated much, so I guess racing wins by default! Sounds like that seminar was awesome by the way. You were in my neck of the woods! And by woods I mean city
I love it up there! It’s much different from the Midtown concrete jungle, which is definitely a good thing.
Aw, this is so nice! I’m glad that you had a good time and got a chance to catch up with friends.
Also, that “open water is scary” slide totally cracked me up!
I was on the floor laughing! A little dramatic, but it’s definitely accurate.
Both events look like a lot of fun! I’ve never been to a sports related conference, but I would like to go. I love racing and spectating, as long as there is running/triathlons involved I’m game for anything!
Jamie, you would’ve *loved* this expo!
I so wanted to go to the Boston expo Saturday but it didn’t work out. I heard second-hand how it went from a teammate.
You didn’t buy a bunch of stuff!?
You would’ve loved it! Surprisingly, no–zero damage on the credit card front.
I looked around a bit, but nothing was super impressive that I absolutely *needed.*