As the days grow shorter and cooler, and the leaves start to drop, most of our competitive seasons have come to a close for 2010. While a few late season marathons or warm-weather triathlons remain, most of you have recently completed your last target race of the year. After a full year of training and racing, you likely have some of your best fitness, but you may be mentally burnt out and 2011 is just too far off to start training for. So what to do now?

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Pumpkins, ghosts and ghouls - oh my! Fall is a great time of the year to run a local road race. They tend to be festive whether it's a pumpkin race, turkey trot or jingle bell run. Everyone arrives decked out in their best holiday garb. At the finish line awaits Oktoberfest beer, a plate filled with turkey and mashed potatoes or a splitting headache from listening to 10,000 jingle bells for the past hour. Families come out to cheer, kids run in costume and the weather is gorgeous.

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 What happens when you throw an elite road racer into a triathlon? On short notice, Russ Langley, CycleLife sales team member and long time bike racer, jumped headlong into the world of triathlon and raced the Nation’s Triathlon in Washington DC. To anyone who’s spent hours / months / years training for triathlons, Russ’ answers just might make you want to punch him. But you’ve got to remember … the guy has spent over a decade racing and training at an elite level.

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So, a week and a half ago, I rolled out of CycleLife with my bike in a box and ready for another racing adventure! But this one was different -- it was my first race as a professional triathlete!

I’ve definitely come a long way since doing my very first triathlon last year, but even still, I knew that Chicago was going to be a tough race, especially with a pretty stacked field of some very talented athletes. I must admit, that was a bit intimidating, but also really exciting. And not having any expectations was definitely part of the fun!

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Swimming is often the most challenging triathlon discipline to master, and open water swimming can be downright intimidating. Uncertainty abounds – Am I swimming in the right direction? Am I going to get kicked, dunked, punched by other swimmers? What was that you just bumped your hand into? Having the opportunity to practice in a non-competitive environment can go a long way toward minimizing that intimidation. And even if one is finally ready to practice, there are very few places in the area with public access to lakes or rivers where one can do so.

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CycleLife sponsored elite female triathlete Michelle Harburg is a true ambassador of the sport. While we were aware of Achieve Kids Tri, it was Michelle who truly spearheaded our involvement in the camp. Recently, we asked Michelle to tell us the story of how she became involved in the program ... 

 I started training for triathlons in 2007 when I realized that my knees could use a break from running and I wanted some cross training. I immediately fell in love with the sport. During the summer of 2008 I joined as a coach at new camp called ACHIEVE Kids Tri. I loved the program and so was pleased to be asked to come on board as year-round staff to help develop the program and increase awareness for the mission, which is to promote healthier lifestyles through the sport of triathlon.

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Colin Shah (Director of Fitness and Member Services): After success in NCAA basketball and business... What inspired you to get into cycling?

Sterling Crockett: Inspiration came from a dare and an early failure. Talking to a business partner about cycling, he mentioned a charity ride he signed up for so I asked “how far do you go?” He said it was about 70 miles and, boys being boys, I pipe up with “oh, I can do that.” The next thing you know, we all run out and buy ill fitted bikes and so forth and head out on the American Cancer Society ride. Following that ride, it was after last year’s Livestrong Challenge in Philadelphia when I started to become very serious about cycling. Unfortunately, I had an accident but it became the foundation for me to learn more about cycling. So, my inspiration really came out of a dare and an early failure.

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 I knew it was going to be another typical day at the Columbia Triathlon when I heard the thunder and rain outside my window at 4am. For some reason, this particular late-May race is plagued with bad weather. The rain makes for cautious cycling and sloppy transition areas. That's triathlon sometimes. I was expecting it. What I wasn't expecting was to set a personal best time on that course...a time that was attained six years ago (when it was sunny and nice). Yes, you can get faster as you get older.

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 The age old debate between endurance athletes of all disciplines and those just wanting to slim down wages on... To not lift weights at all vs. lifting light weights many, many times in a set. New research suggests both are wrong.

"Subjects lifting more weight fewer times burned more energy and had a greater metabolic boost after exercise." An April article in the New York Times Science section recently summarized these new studies.

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