Triathlete Magazine

Too much exercise can kill you. The Haywire Heart is the first book to examine heart conditions in athletes. Intended for anyone who competes in endurance sports like cycling, triathlon, running races of all distances, and cross-country skiing, The Haywire Heart presents the evidence that going too hard or too long can damage your heart forever. You’ll find what to watch out for, what to do about it, and how to protect your heart so you can enjoy the sports you love for years to come. The Haywire Heart shares the developing research into a group of conditions known as “athlete’s heart”, starting with a wide-ranging look at the warning signs, symptoms, and how to recognize your potential risk. Leading cardiac electrophysiologist and masters athlete Dr. John Mandrola explores the prevention and treatment of heart conditions in athletes like arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation and flutter, tachycardia, hypertrophy, and coronary artery disease. He reviews new research about exercise intensity and duration, recovery, inflammation and calcification, and the ways athletes inflict lasting harm. These heart problems are appearing with alarming frequency among masters athletes who are pushing their bodies harder than ever in the hope that exercise will keep them healthy and strong into their senior years. The book is complete with gripping case studies of elite and age-group athletes from journalist Chris Case―like the scary condition that nearly killed cyclist and coauthor Lennard Zinn―and includes a frank discussion of exercise addiction and the mental habits that prevent athletes from seeking medical help when they need it. Dr. Mandrola explains why many doctors misdiagnose heart conditions in athletes and offers an invaluable guide on how to talk with your doctor about your condition and its proven treatments. He covers known heart irritants, training and rest modifications, effective medicines, and safe supplements that can reduce the likelihood of heart damage from exercise. Heart conditions affect hardcore athletes as well as those who take up sports seeking better health and weight loss. The Haywire Heart is a groundbreaking and critically important guide to heart care for athletes. By protecting your heart now and watching for the warning signs, you can avoid crippling heart conditions and continue to exercise and compete for years to come.

Stronger muscles last longer. Stronger triathletes bring more power, speed, lean mass, and muscular endurance to race day. Strength Training for Triathletes is a comprehensive strength training program for triathletes to build power, speed, and muscular endurance for faster racing over any race distance. While time is a precious commodity for every triathlete, every bit of time spent strength training pays off so you can become a stronger, faster, and more resilient athlete. Certified USA Triathlon coach and NSCA Personal Trainer of the Year Patrick Hagerman’s focused, triathlon-specific strength training program enables triathletes to push harder during training and on the racecourse. Triathletes who master this progressive strength training program will also become more resistant to injury, meaning fewer missed workouts. The sport-specic exercises make it easy to target your training for improved performance in any or all of the three events. In as little as 90 minutes a week: Improve endurance, build muscle, or increase strength and powerFocus your training on one event, or build an all-around programTarget imbalances with exercises for specific muscle groupsCreate workouts for home and travel using minimal equipmentFind the perfect mix of core, upper-body, and lower-body exercises for total body strengthBuild more powerful, longer-lasting muscles that resist fatigue and injuryDevelop body composition with stronger, leaner muscle massPerform better without added bulk.Hagerman will help you design a personalized strength training program that does exactly what you need it to do—whether that be improving your speed, addressing a muscular imbalance, or overcoming a weak area. Strength Training for Triathletes features 75 of the most effective strength training exercises for triathlon swimming, cycling, and running as well as core strength and general conditioning. Every exercise is clearly explained and fully illustrated, taking the guesswork out of good technique, and exercises are grouped so athletes can focus on their own individual performance limiters. In addition, Hagerman clearly explains the science underlying strength training, offering easy-to-follow guidelines on resistance and reps that will make triathletes stronger through every phase of the season. New in this second edition are sample strength training programs for the most popular triathlon race distances and for each of triathlon’s three sports, photographs showing detailed body positions for each exercise, several new exercises, new indexes that specify body-weight exercises and weighted exercises to improve usability, and an exercise log template to track your goal weights. Strength training often separates the top performers in triathlon from the middle of the pack. Even small improvements in muscle strength can add up to big race results. Strength Training for Triathletes is the ultimate guide to take your training and your race to the next level.

Swim better and faster in all four strokes with 4-time Olympian and gold medalist Sheila Taormina. In her bestselling book Swim Speed Secrets, Taormina revealed the freestyle swimming technique used by the world's fastest swimmers. Now in Swim Speed Strokes, she shows swimmers and triathletes how to swim their best in all four strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. Using crystal-clear photographs and her engaging, straightforward style, Coach Taormina explains the science behind power and speed in the water, explores the elements common to every stroke, and examines the technique of each stroke. Over the course of 4 Olympic Games and throughout her career as a world champion triathlete, Taormina refined her exceptional technique as a student of the sport, studying the world’s best swimmers using underwater photographs and video analysis. From Johnny Weissmuller to Michael Phelps, the world’s fastest swimmers share two common elements: high stroke rate and a high-elbow underwater pull. Swim Speed Strokes goes deep into the fastest swimming techniques and breaks down the pull, kick, core movement, and timing of 13 elite swimmers and Olympians including Peter Vanderkaay, Rebecca Soni, Aaron Peirsol, Rowdy Gaines, Ashley Whitney, Vlad Morozov, Ariana Kukors, Andrew Gemmell, Laura Sogar, Nicolas Fink, Elizabeth Beisel, Doug Reynolds, and Melanie Margalis. From the catch through the curvilinear path and diagonal phase to the power-packed finish phase, Taormina explores the pull patterns to show how any swimmer can improve their own swimming. Whether you want to master every stroke or simply improve on your best one, Swim Speed Strokes will show you how to become the strongest swimmer you can be.

The 1989 Ironman World Championship was the greatest race ever in endurance sports. In a spectacular duel that became known as the Iron War, the world's two strongest athletes raced side by side at world-record pace for a grueling 139 miles. Driven by one of the fiercest rivalries in triathlon, Dave Scott and Mark Allen raced shoulder to shoulder through Ironman's 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike race, and 26.2-mile marathon. After 8 punishing hours, both men would demolish the previous record--and cross the finish line a mere 58 seconds apart. In his new book Iron War, sports journalist Matt Fitzgerald writes a riveting epic about how Allen and Scott drove themselves and each other through the most awe-inspiring race in sports history. Iron War goes beyond the pulse-pounding race story to offer a fascinating exploration of the lives of the world's two toughest men and their unquenchable desire to succeed. Weaving an examination of mental resolve into a gripping tale of athletic adventure, Iron War is a soaring narrative of two champions and the paths that led to their stunning final showdown.

In The Well-Built Triathlete, elite triathlon coach Matt Dixon reveals the approach he has used to turn age-group triathletes into elite professionals. Instead of focusing narrowly on training and workouts, Dixon reveals a more comprehensive approach that considers the whole athlete. Dixon details the four pillars of performance that form the foundation of his highly successful purplepatch fitness program, showing triathletes of all abilities how they can become well-built triathletes and perform better year after year, and considers the demands of career and family and the ways different personality types prefer to approach training. The Well-Built Triathlete includes:Guidelines and protocols to improve training consistency and recoveryNo-nonsense advice on triathlon nutrition, fueling, and hydrationFunctional strength tests and exercises to launch a program that builds resiliencyTwo-week sample training blocks for every phase of training as well as race prep for Olympic, Half Ironman, and Ironman eventsWorkout sessions to evolve swimming, cycling, and running fitnessThe Well-Built Triathlete helps triathletes apply Dixon’s approach to their season and training plan. Chapters on swimming, cycling, and running explain the most effective ways to train for each. A purplepatch section shows how triathletes can peak their fitness for long streaks of high performance. Dixon’s holistic, whole-body approach to triathlon will help triathletes become greater than the sum of their workouts. By becoming better all-around athletes, well-built triathletes will train and race faster than ever.