We've concluded our triathlon and duathlon events for the 2023 season! Thank you to all who participated and volunteered to make each of our events a success!

Continue to check our Facebook Group for any additional get-togethers that may be happening.

Please join us again next year! Membership is annual, beginning in March. Next year's membership begins on March 1, 2024!

Also check our Facebook Group for locals who are training in town or down at Lake Mead. Post your workouts!

Thanks everyone!

The New Triathlete

"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you."

This is one of my favorite quotes from 3-time Ironman Age Group World Champion, Rick Simpson. There’s a lot more in this quote than you may realize. One of the most wonderful aspects of new triathletes is their desire and drive to learn and improve, and when it comes to learning, experience is the best teacher. Early triathlons are loaded with learnings – learnings that many people erroneously call ‘mistakes’ – but when learning happens, we are not making mistakes, we are gaining experience.

All new experiences are challenges, challenges we need in order to learn and improve, so I encourage you to embrace them and seek them out. Granted, challenges can be scary and fraught with fear, but most often the fear we feel isn’t due to inherent danger, it’s due to the uncertainty of the outcome – we simply don’t know what to expect. Most often, when we have finished a new experience that frightened us at first, we thought, “That wasn’t so bad!” So again, I encourage you to seek out new challenges and embrace them. Not only that, but realize that courage is a virtue, and courage is defined as action in the face of fear; courage can’t exist without it.

~ Bob Gamble

Past President

The Horror of Hormones

With "challenges” being our theme this month, I thought of my old nemesis, hormones. Men think they have it rough during training, but women can outshine them with challenges. You are going for your biggest race of the year and suddenly your time of the month shows up. You feel achy, moody, fatigued, and you get to consider racing for countless hours while bleeding and how to handle that.

In 2016 I was able to participate in the National Championship. I had a solid race and as I came triumphantly into the finish line, I looked down to see blood draining down my leg. It looked like I was peeing blood. It was shocking. That same day I got results back from donating blood. Basically, “Hey, thanks for donating blood, but get your ferritin levels checked. Your level registered at a 4.” I later learned “normal” was 100-250. I had to undergo quite a few medical tests to make sure I didn’t have cancer or anything nefarious. I was clear on everything and learned some women just over produce estrogen. Like, a lot of us (600,000 hysterectomies are performed every year. Not all of them are a result of this situation, but many are). The problem then becomes the other hormones can’t keep up with the estrogen and you find yourself with constant periods or excessive bleeding, which draws from your ferritin or your iron levels. Very active people have iron deficiencies anyway, so this can exacerbate an already taxed system. The doctor recommended a surgery that destroyed the lining on my uterus. The theory is if the estrogen can’t be deposited, my body would just reabsorb it. Didn’t work. The doctor then said it was a quality of life issue and scheduled me for a partial hysterectomy. It became a race against the clock to build iron while I was losing so much. Rebuilding iron is such a slow process. It took me over a year, post hysterectomy, to build back to the normal range taking medical grade supplements everyday. 

The moral of the story is, you might end up with a hormone challenge. Women estrogen, men testosterone. It can really undermine all your training and be very frustrating, but with the help of your doctor, there is hope. I’ve read training plans that are tailored to your fluctuating hormones. Reduce your training intensity while going through a hormone surge. Your body is fighting something bigger, don’t overwhelm it and demand a high level of performance. 

Just remember, Linda Howard said,

“Hormones are as potent as whiskey, and twice as sneaky.”



~Shawna Glasser

Coach's Corner:

Conquering Individual Challenges

In 2021, I conquered my sixth Ironman in Coeur d’Alene, enduring scorching 100° weather. Driving back to Las Vegas, I had a pivotal conversation with my husband. Memories of past races plagued me with negative thoughts that had marred my experience. I decided against competing my next race, Ironman Arizona.

Yet, fall arrived, and I joined a friend to race Ironman Arizona. During the event, my focus wavered, and quitting often crossed my mind. Embarrassing to say, tears streamed my face as I encountered supportive friends, admitting my current struggles. That night crossing the finish line didn't yield any satisfaction completing my seventh Ironman. In 2022, I had a long-sought out race on my schedule which I knew was demanding mental preparation.

During my triathlon training program, I collaborated with a coach to cultivate mental endurance. She designed exercises to challenge me, enhancing my resilience. Race day was nerve-wracking; echoes of Arizona loomed. On the bike leg, I encountered an athlete grappling with a flat tire. In assisting her, my own derailleur bent. Stranded, I reframed my outlook. Instead of conceding defeat, I planned my comeback strategy, prioritizing nutrition and recalibrating my run plan.

Crossing the finish line, it felt akin to my first Ironman achievement. The exhilaration was undeniable, a testament to my resilience and determination.

My journey reminds me that every challenge is deeply personal. We each battle our own doubts, hurdles and uncertainties. While external factors may test our limits, it’s the strength within that propels us forward. The victory over our inner struggles, the transformation from doubt to determination, and the resilience that blooms from adversity – these are the rewards that make our individual triumphs all the more remarkable. 

As you pursue your own aspirations, remember that your path is uniquely yours, and your victories, no matter how big or small, are a testament to your unwavering spirit.

~Hilary Mauch

Have you met these Coaches?

Triathlon race season is here. Do you have a coach? Are you looking for one? Well, the Las Vegas Triathlon Club is going to try to help make some connections.

Earlier this year, we sent out a google form to try to capture our local coaching expertise. We had a number of coaches (all are members of Las Vegas Triathlon Club) respond and we have featured them on this webpage: https://lvtriclub.com/coaches/

We are going to continue to highlight coaches on our web page – if you would like to be part of that, please fill out the form: https://forms.gle/yEbcByPPVfHCb7A67

Prez Corner:

Challenges

. . . the why

Why did you sign up for your first triathlon?

Why sign up for another one?! From the inception of triathlon, there has always been a sense that you take on triathlon for a challenge. In our Las Vegas Triathlon Club Member Spotlights, I always like to get a sense of why someone made the decision to start triathlon.

What amazes me are the unique stories each person has – and it also amazes me the challenges that people are overcoming or the challenges that they set their sights on achieving.

For me, I remember signing up for that first event (back in 1985!) because I thought it would be a cool challenge to swim-bike-run … I was on a collegiate swim team (Division III) and enjoyed doing the occasional 5K or 10K race. I also found myself biking up the Queen’s Highway to Niagara Falls (I was living in Buffalo, NY at the time) and thought it would be really cool to see what it would be like to do all three sports. Wow … I was hooked! At that point, I challenged myself to see how fast I could get in triathlon.

In the later phase of my triathlon journey, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. At that point, I had left the sport but after being diagnosed, I wanted to come back and prove “I was tougher than the disease” by completing an iron-distance event.

Every one of us has challenges that we are faced with – and we train and race to overcome those challenges. Some of the challenges are performance based … some of them are health based … and some of them are simply personal challenges.

Know that your challenge is important – and know when you look at the other athletes on the start line, they are each facing their own personal challenge. Crossing that finish line is often the sign that we met that challenge, or we overcame some challenge. Crossing that finish line is such a wonderful experience!

#thatsthevegasway

#enjoythejourney

#thrive

#timetothrive

#LVtrifamily 

~John Mercer

The Pro Perspective

Chasing Bigger Challenges for Bigger Rewards

If you're in LV Tri Club, you’re likely already up for big challenges... The thing that brings me back to triathlon over and over is the process of setting a huge goal that I’m not sure I can quite achieve, putting everything I have into it, and then enjoying the incredible satisfaction from finally achieving it. Here are 3 things to consider when setting bigger goals for yourself to earn an even greater reward. 

1. Time-Based Goals - A Great Place to Start

Setting a difficult time-based goal is a great way to set up an individual challenge for yourself. Having a specific time to beat for no other reason than “because you want to” is an individual pursuit unlike no other. Nobody else cares if you achieve that goal - but you do. Whether it’s a goal of cracking 6 hours or 4 hours in a 70.3 race, it doesn’t matter. The feeling of achievement is there, and guess what… once you hit that goal, there’s always a faster one to set :) Individual time based goals for swim, bike, and run legs of each race are also great goals to set, but are of course dependent on the course.

2. Tackling Longer Distances - Half & Full Ironman

Now, let's talk distance. Triathlons come in all shapes and sizes, but the full Ironman gets a lot of hype. Starting off small with a sprint or olympic is almost always the best path to take as you get into the sport, but sooner or later, it’s time to take on a new endurance challenge and push yourself to the limit. Racing both your first half ironman and full ironman are two experiences that you will take with you for the rest of your life, and completion of one brings a feeling of life long achievement. I’ll never forget my first 70.3 in 2016… just 6 weeks of training, a rented road bike, bloody nipples, and a lot of walking! And my first full Ironman, which was uniquely at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, where I did my first ever 14 mile run, which happened to be the marathon portion during the Ironman… brutal! Two experiences that are some of the proudest moments in my triathlon career.

When considering “upping the distance” for a 70.3 or a full Ironman, ensure that you are properly prepared, confident that you’ll finish in the allocated time - and if you need some more training or a few more sprint or olympic distance races under your belt first, that’s perfectly fine! The longer the race, the more you learn about pacing, nutrition, and mental toughness - and the more each of those things start to matter. The risks are greater, the pain is greater, but the reward is greater.

3. Picking Races with the Best Competition

This one is a bit unique as you progress in the sport, but is often on my mind as a rookie pro triathlete. There are lots of racing options as a pro - some that attract the very best, and some that are for “the mid packers” like myself, where the best guys are known to not show up due to smaller $ prize purses. But, if you're aiming for the big leagues, you gotta pick races that'll push you to your limits against the best of the best. As an amateur, I got pretty comfortable with winning, but now as a pro, I’m pretty comfortable getting my butt kicked! Racing against the best isn't about beating them, but instead it's about using them to elevate my game to become the best athlete I can be. At this time, I’m finding a balance between challenging myself against the very best in the world (Oceanside, St. George, Indian Wells) while also planning to tackle some races where I can race for the pro podium if I have a good day (70.3 Cozumel or Challenge Santa Marta, my next two races!) With that said, I can’t imagine the emotional reward that will come if I am ever to win a professional Ironman branded event of any kind.

I highly encourage all amateur athletes, even “mid to back of the pack” amateurs, to pay attention to how you place within your age group. 150th out of 300? Then in your next race, perhaps set a goal to crack into the top 40% instead of top 50%. You'll find yourself digging deeper and going harder, for every person that you run by in that run portion of the race. I also think one should consider racing a World Championship event if you are ever able to qualify. It’s a great event to participate in to be inspired by the best in the world, and qualifying for the 70.3 World Championship is a more achievable goal than you might imagine.

~Justin Riele

LVTC Member Spotlight

Get to know our club members as our President sits down with the following members to talk about tris and life.

• Brian Workman

https://youtu.be/faFQ5VaFFdw

• Eric Scott

https://youtu.be/3gBq8yUoMK0

• Damarius Mercer

https://youtu.be/mNY2EN1yp0I

The Evidence-Based Triathlete

• Chain rings

https://youtu.be/IrqRY1X-TLk

• Endurance Physiology with Dr. Brent Ruby

https://youtu.be/QWc_UwhIBeA

• Guest host: Dr. Jim Martin

https://youtu.be/lTtXgGzju80

Where in the World Has Our TRI Club Raced?

Check out the map below to see where our athletes have raced!