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National Honorees - 2012 - 2018...

 

Hihlheadshot.pngstorically, Minnesotans have been prominent among the USA Triathlon's post-season honorees. In 2015, for instance, eleven of our state's best multisporters earned 12 honors. Granted, that was a special year, owing no doubt to the fact that Duathlon Nationals were staged in St. Paul. USAT leans heavily on it's own championship races, as well as larger events that are sanctioned by the Federation, when determining their "Athlete of the Year" selections. 

We respect their criteria, though it differs from MMH rationale, which favors head-to-head results, and gives full weight to performances in non-sanctiond races. 

Today we are listing Minnesota's honorees during the period between 2012 and 2018, though not before we drop some names of Minnesota athletes that were honored prior to that period: Cathy Yndestad, David Thompson, Brian Bich, Devon Palmer, Tony Schiller, Jan Guenther, Kevin O'Connor...

Noting that Minnesotans were not well-repped in 2017 and 2018, we are optimistic that when the 2019 AOYs are announced, four of our state's athletes will be featured. We contend that that foursome fulfilled USAT's criteria, and we would be shocked if any of them were overlooked. We will feature those athletes in our next post....

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Happy New Year From MTN!

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Acari Bowls, Manta Rays and Handfuls of Vaseline....

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By David Koppel(davidkoppeltriathlon.blogspot.com)

Kelsie and I traveled to the IRONMAN World Championships on the Big Island of Hawaii on Tuesday, October 8th, 2019, with no kids! The race was on Saturday, so it gave me three full days to get all ready and acclimate a bit with the heat I’d be racing in. We also enjoyed some touristy stuff in the days leading up, as I didn’t want to make every single minute about my race. Kelsie sacrificed plenty for me to be able to qualify for Kona and we both wanted to have a relaxing trip in paradise. If you want to just hear about the vacation, read the days leading up to the race and the days following!

The cliff notes version of the race is: Swim went as expected even with choppy conditions, bike was slow and legs were not feeling strong, and run was a mess for 2 hours until I pulled it together a bit for the last 14 miles. Slowest and hardest Ironman by 70 minutes, but an amazing experience that I’ll never forget.

Since this is a long post, I’ll start by thanking my wife, Kelsie, for her unconditional support with training and racing across the US. She didn’t hesitate when we found out I had a slot to Kona and said I had to take it! My in-laws were also...

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Treadmill Versus Outdoor Running....

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By Bethany Mavis (triathlete.com)

Think treadmill running is just a climate-controlled version of road running? Wrong. It’s a completely different beast. But treat it right, and it can become your best friend.

Running on the treadmill is not typically an athlete’s first choice—you got into triathlon to enjoy the outdoors, not stare at a wall. But a treadmill is a godsend for keeping your training on track when you’re facing adverse weather conditions or have a limited workout window. Just make sure you don’t expect a treadmill run to be the equivalent of a road run, says Richard Diaz, endurance sports coach and founder of California-based Diaz Human Performance. An important distinction between running inside and outside is that treadmill running is “rate independent—the treadmill is going to do what it’s going to do, and you’re just trying to keep up with it,” he says. “When you’re outside, you’re not going anywhere unless you push or pull yourself through space.” ...

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"Life Outside Triathlon Exists..."

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By Erin Weiler (sweetsweatlife.com)

TCM Race Report - Racing’s taken a backseat this year – more on the season of travel and fun later – but I knew I had to do something. So after my hammie (mostly) healed and I was home long enough to string together some consistent weeks of training, I signed up for my second ever 26.2: Twin Cities Marathon.

Not gonna lie, it was weird dialing back the swim and bike volume and keeping the run volume the same as an ironman build. And there was fomo as Nick hopped on his bike for seven-hour Sundays. But like anything, I adjusted and found the time back in my week pretty fantastic. Life outside of triathlon exists, and it’s been pretty fun to find it again (don’t worry, I still love triathlon! It’s just been refreshing to step back for a bit).

Anyway, my build was a bit shorter than coach and I would have liked – my longest run was 17 miles – but unlike the past couple years of training, I thoroughly enjoyed almost every training mile. Sure, there were weeks I didn’t wanna run...

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