It's been awhile. Almost 2 years exactly, since Amy and I lined up at the same race. Or lined up for any race, besides life, for that matter. Calgary 70.3 2014 was the last time we raced the same race. I would finish 3rd with a kind of wonky calf that would feel like it was going to take me out of IM Wisconsin a couple of months later. It didn't, and I finished 2nd at IM Wisconsin. Amy would finish 5th at Calgary, not quite high enough to garner her a spot to Kona that year. She would race a sprint race in October of that year knowing something just wasn't "right".

70.3 Texas is this weekend. New Orelans 70.3 the next. And many local races to follow. Ironman Texas is in a bit over a month.

Here are a couple of general documents that might help you on race day. They aren't specific to any one race nor are they all encompassing, but you might find some value in them. We'll be posting this type of info along the way this season.

Good luck if you're racing this weekend!

I admit it. I am a troll. I troll, sometimes comment, on a couple of triathlon forums. Next to what tires should I get to race on, and what is the best multisport car, swimming is a favorite topic of discussion. It's seldom that I get drawn into the discussions. If I have something that I think might be of help, I'll post it.

One of the things that we talked about at our early season swim clinic and recent small-group IMTX camp was knowing your paces. And pace stretches to basically include 'data'. Watts. Swim paces in the pool. Run paces with and without a GPS. When I say that I mean that you can develop an internal GPS for almost everything. Watts and perceived exertion. Run pace and perceived exertion.

The swim is a bit more difficult, but it helps to know what your swim paces 'should' be in the pool to swim what you 'want' to swim in your race. In this case, we are talking about an Ironman swim. 2.4 miles. 3,863 meters. 4,224 yards.

Do you know what swim pace a 1:10 swim is? 90 minutes for an Ironman swim? How fast is that? Is there a difference in your open water swimming and your pool swim...yes. How much difference is hard to quantify. For simplicity sake, let's say your open water swim pace is 10% slower than your pool pace. At the faster end of the swim it might be a bit closer. At the slower end, it might be a bit slower than 10%.

Are you tired of the generic red, white, black, or blue kit? For 2016, we have re-designed our Team Marsh kits. You'll see our coached athletes racing in them.

These kits are designed and made by Zoca Gear out of California. They are made in the USA. A size chart is here.

Act quickly as we're going to place the order within a week. You can purchase both the top and shorts, or a single piece either the top or the shorts. For women, we will order women specific shorts unless men specific shorts are desired since some women prefer the longer leg style.

We have been wearing Zoca kits since 2013. They are very comfortable and well made.

We will be hosting our first ever camp for age group athletes in The Woodlands March 17 - March 19. Please see the flyer below for more details.

The cost is $300. Included in the cost:

- 3 meals

- 2 coached swim sessions in an indoor pool

- Group run session

- Group ride session

- Sponsor Swag

- Open access to 2 former professional triathletes who have extensive coaching and racing experience! (Amy and me!)

We are limiting this camp to 16 total athletes. A sign up link is provided below. Accommodations are not included for this first camp. Please also fee free to email with any questions you may have.

Last week we headed back to Houston. It was a 2-fer. 1-fer was for another MD Anderson appointment. The 2-fer was that I met with one of my athletes down there. We wanted to look at the fit on her bike. More precisely, she had 2 bikes, one that she could ride all day and her 'race' bike which was uncomfortable after 90 minutes or so.

I thought that a follow-up post on bikes and fit and such was in order. This isn't a post to tell you how to fit your bikes nor is it a post to tell you what 'system' is best. In the coaching world, it is common to have athletes in different cities and states. It is common for athletes in the same city to go to a different shop or bike fitter. When possible, I like to look at the fit of my athletes in person.

My advice to you is to seek out the nearest qualified fitter. Ask around to see who is recommended. A 'computerized' fit is typically only as good as the fitter behind the computer...

This particular athlete has 3 bikes: one that stays on the trainer, one that was raced last season, and one that was raced previously but will be used in 2016. All three bikes were tri/TT bikes. As someone who has ridden multiple bikes in the past, I am leery when an athlete of mine has more than one bike. Leery because, more often that not, I find one or more of the following occurs:

Amy and I headed down to New Braunfels a few weeks ago for a Saturday and Sunday set of swim clinics. It was a little bit of a new offering for us in that we were out of the 1-1 or 'team' setting that we are typically used to when it came to on deck coaching. We had a group of 8 on Saturday and a group of 8 on Sunday. The focus was to provide each group and each swimmer something to work on. Something to build on. We'll likely head back down there for a follow-up.

The structure for each day was the same:

• 45-60 minutes of swim and instruction
• 45-60 minutes of QA covering just about anything. This was gold, we should have recorded it!
• 45-60 minutes back in the water for swim and instruction

With 16 age group swimmers in the water, we saw a range of abilities. We also saw a few things that were almost universal to the swimmers. The time suck known as the internet is full of swim discussions. Generally it consists of someone asking how they can get better with as little work as possible. I can appreciate that, but generally there are no easy ways in swimming. Add this post to the list. And, I (Brandon) get pulled in at times. Not because the information is bad or wrong, but because the reader will leave with a my way or the highway view, and it is important to speak in a way that a wide swath of athletes will understand.

We are not succeeding in posting "more" frequently. This will be a not quite year end update.

'Team-Marsh' had 2 athletes at Ironman Florida last weekend. Both had very good races given their respective seasons and lead ins. It was a very process vs. outcome type of day. Each of them had a detailed race-day plan and process. They focused on their race day process rather than the specific outcome of the race. Process = controlling the controllables. Outcome = placing or Kona qualification, etc.

For one of our athletes in particular, the weeks and months leading in to the race seemed to have a focus on 'Kona'. Ironman has, in Kona, a real crown jewel. Every athlete of every ability wants to compete in Kona at the Ironman World Championships. And, because of the qualification set-up it seems as if 'Kona' is in the grasp of every competitor.

As is typical in the weeks preceding an 'A' race, I talk at length with my athletes who are racing. I would group athletes generally into 3 categories when it comes to qualifying for Kona: no chance at Kona, possible to qualify for Kona given the right scenario, and almost certain to qualify for Kona given no mishaps. A particularly difficult situation is the athlete who is 'on the bubble' for Kona qualification. For one of our athletes...TrainingPeaks updates as well as social media posts indicated that there was a lot of Kona, Kona, Kona talk. Yes athletes, your coaches do sometimes follow your social media posts.

We are certainly overdue for an update to the Triathlon Page!! If you have been following the front page, you know what has transpired.

What might not surprise you is that our small group athletes continue to plug along. We wanted to highlight a little bit of the summer. As we look to the end of the season, a look back at how the season has gone is in order. It is a common misconception that by being an ex-elite athlete, that we only coach 'fast' athletes. We have a varied range of athletes that we coach. It is just as rewarding to get an athlete off the couch and through their first triathlon as it is to get an athlete to a World championship race.

Fast or not as fast, we focus on the race day performance for that athlete. Not in relation to anyone else that was on the starting line. Our goal is to get our athletes to the starting line healthy and prepared to have a good race. A good race that might be a Kona Qualifying performance for some, and 'just' a well rounded well put together race with no mistakes for others.

Bobby both earned some well deserved rest after a cold and wet race at IM Whistler. Many described the conditions as some of the toughest. He's wrapping up the season at a couple more local events.

Another Thursday blog brought to you by our 2014 title Sponsor...Ashworth Awards.

Day 1– Don’t try in a race what you haven’t tried in training. Race as you train...to avoid a negative statement.

Day 2 – Meet a new person at each race. You’ll likely see them again, and it is always good to have people to hang out with after races. Some of our better friends that we've made through triathlons are those that we met at some of our earliest races.

Day 3 – Train with faster people. Whether it is swimming, biking, or running, faster people will push you to new limits. It doesn’t have to be an all time thing, but as a some time thing it can definitely help.

Day 4 – A focused off season working on your weakness might be just what you need to limit that weakness. It likely will remain a bit of a weakness, but it will make you more of a well rounded athlete.

Day 5 – Help out with a training group or mentor another athlete. It can really help you reflect on why you train and race the way you do or at least let you share your experience with a new athlete. Technique tips are not limited to the swim…run and bike cadence as well as pedaling technique are two other common areas that triathletes can work on.

This will wrap up our keep it simple series of posts, another one of our Ashworth Awards Thursday blogs. We'll switch to another topic in a couple of weeks...suggestions are welcome!

Lather, Rinse, Repeat...

We coach athletes, and enjoy it, but there is a lot of missing the forest for the trees going on in training today. There is no quick fix or magic bullet. It’s easy to read a pros blog and see what they are doing and try to copy it. Pick up the latest issue of any tri- or run- mag out there and find ‘3-steps to your best 5k’ or ‘6-weeks to an Ironman’ and follow that. You can also buy any one of the myriad of books out there and read up on training theory and setting up a schedule...or you can borrow ours.

Spend a bit of your time laying out your entire season. Plan a schedule and commit to it. Barring injury or other emergency stick to it without to many additions or subtractions. If you spend more time worrying about how many of what type of interval you should do than just getting out there and doing something every day, you are missing the forest for the trees.

So, particularly if you are a new triathlete, take a little bit of time to plan out your races for next season. Then, take a look at your non-triathlon related activities and fit in your workouts around those. Find a general week that you can repeat for 40 weeks of the year and DO IT. Wake up on Monday and Friday morning and swim just like you did last week. Tuesday and Thursday morning get up and run and do a gym workout in the evening. Do a solid weekday ride on Wednesday. Keep your really long stuff for the weekends.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner we thought our next post about nutrition would be appropriate. Again, brought to you by Ashworth Awards.

Nutrition:

Atkins, South Beach, Paleo, Primal, Low-Fat but High-Carb, Grapefruit, Vegan, Raw Foods, Mediterranean, Zone, Macrobiotic, Weight Watchers. Sound familiar? We're not going to dispense with concrete nutritional advice here.

Do you want to lose a few or at least start to get down to your race weight? A ‘diet’ like those above is just a band aid or a patch. They are relatively quick fixes to get you headed in the right direction weight-wise, but they aren’t long term solutions if you can’t maintain them. New go-fast equipment doesn't do you any good if you don't train. A 'diet' does you no good if you can't maintain it or have it be sustainable.

Want to lose a few pounds? Eat a little bit less or at least change some of the foods that you eat. When it comes to being an athlete and worrying about nutrition, we try to remember that our pre- and post-workout nutrition helps us to recover from and prepare for our workouts. A food log might seem over the top, but after keeping one just out of curiosity for a week or so, it has been pretty eye opening as to what you might think you are eating vs. what you are really eating.

Note the author. He's a mustached, deep voiced, actor who lately does the Dodge Ram commercials.

Anyway, it's the month that Amy loves to hate. It's November, also known as Movember for more than a few men who grow a mustache in an effort to promote men's health issues. Breast Cancer has its own month. Now men's health issues get theirs.

I have joined the 'Men of Triathlon' again this year. Last year, it was an effort to raise money as a team after we all individually failed. I have not done a good job of promoting myself this year, so I will promote the team. Here is my donation page:

https://www.movember.com/us/donate/payment/member_id/618250/

So, there you go. We aren't quite half way through with the month yet. Today at Master's it was suggested that I keep the mustache through the entire winter. I'm pretty sure Amy would NOT go for that.

Sponsors, I'm tagging you now. We've got a world class (literally) team of athletes assembled. How about it Ashworth Awards, Cervelo, Cobb Cycling, First Endurance, Roka...can we get a donation?!

It’s been another year already, and we find ourselves trying to figure out the best way to close out the season for you. Since it’s the giving season, and people are putting together gift lists, we thought that we'd write indirectly about ‘stuff.’ Triathletes love ‘stuff.’

We're going to do a short series on "Seeing the forest for the trees" or maybe “Can’t see the forest for the trees.”

“An expression used of someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole”

How many times have we lost sight of the situation as a whole? We worry or think daily about what shoes to wear, what foods to eat, what workouts to do. Maybe we should just focus on keeping it simple.

Today we touch on gear.

We have a swim bag with suits, goggles, swim caps, paddles, pull buoys, fins, kickboards, tempo trainers, and you name it. We have bikes, wheels for training AND racing, powermeters, cyclo computers, GPS, bike shorts, bike shoes, jerseys, winter gear, summer gear, rainy day gear and cold gear. We also have run bags with shorts, shoes, tops, socks, hats, tights, and a myriad of other things. As triathletes we have other stuff like gels, electrolyte replacement drinks, salt tablets, recovery drinks, body glide, sunscreen, and more. And let’s not forget about the bike racks, stationary trainers, race results books, race memorabilia, awards, and everything else.

I'm putting a bow on the 2014 season. A bow in that it is wrapped up. This might end up being a 2 part blog lest this one becomes even more TLDR. Seemingly there is a lot to cover here. It wasn't actually a difficult decision for me.

I have withdrawn from IM Arizona. I blogged last week that I had a knee issue that surfaced a couple of weeks into my return to training after IM Wisconsin which I think was the result of a combo of things...an aggressive return to a build, and thinking it was kind of normal tightness when clearly it was NOT. I am pretty sure that it is on the way out. I am also pretty sure that I could get to the line for IM Arizona healthy and ready to race. Amy and I have a great support network in Austin. Between Performance Wellness and Airrosti, I'm pretty good to go. I found though that I just didn't necessarily want to 'go'.

I'm tired. I was very tired physically and mentally as I started the build for Arizona. I am not planning on Kona for 2015. With 8-deep prize money, and a field that is likely to be relatively deep...lining up for my 3rd full of the season felt daunting.

Honestly I didn't "watch" any of Kona. I saw some of the pre-race interviews and such, but on race day I was out of town. Neck deep in an IM build, and I had a knee niggle that turned into something really grumpy. I was tired and overly frustrated. So, I headed out of town to get away from it all for a bit. That it was Kona weekend made it 'easier'.

The title...see the picture!? That is Amy at the start of the 2013 Ironman World Championships. She would have a less than ideal day and finish 17th. Me, 22nd in the pro field. Neither of us was on the Island this year. See the blog from last week for the explanation. Almost famous? That was the header picture on the live coverage for the 2014 Ironman World Championships all day!!

But Kona is won and done. Congrats to Sebastian for a great race. Big congrats to Ben Hoffman for bringing home 2nd. Jan Frodeno rounded out the podium. A shout out to Andy Potts as well for his 4th place finish. We got to hang out with Andy in Calgary, and he's a great guy as well. For the women as we all know it was Rinny with another spectacular come from behind run. Rachel Joyce, a fellow Cervelo athlete, and Daniela Ryf rounded out the women's podium.

The picture was posted to twitter by Declan Doyle. Kind of funny. Kind of true. Kona is where even the pros feel out of shape.

NO I AM NOT RACING.

NO AMY IS NOT RACING.

It was not in my plans for the year. I am neck deep in my last IM build of the season. Ironman Arizona. I will toe the line with probably 50+ of my closest friends who are throwing up a hail mary pass for the end of their seasons. Some will have f-ed up Kona and show up at AZ. Others might not have and will show up. All will be hoping for points for next years Kona race.

Amy is NOT racing Kona this year either. It WAS in her plan if she qualified. Long story short she was 5th at the regional in Germany in a decent but not great season. That put her a few spots out of making the first round of qualifying. She raced Calgary 3 weeks later knowing that she would need a win to get to Kona. She was 5th. She did not make the first cut and even without racing in August missed the 2nd one by about 5 spots. No Kona, no chasing points. And, somewhere along the way she had a case of shingles show up. So, even had she qualified...she might have turned down her spot since it would have been overly questionable if she would have been able to start. #GrumpyMarsh.

Absent a cool video or trying to be someone I'm not, race reports can be seemingly mundane. This one will be no different. It's taken longer than normal to post. Not for any reason other than procrastination. In fact, procrastination might as well be the theme of my race to a degree. It wasn't overly difficult to say that I had a good race. It isn't overly difficult to say that I placed 2nd to a better athlete on the day. I just procrastinated. I went dove hunting and camping instead of writing a race report!

If you consider the fact that I set a 'PR' on the IMWI course by over 40 minutes...it might be a bit more interesting. If you consider the fact that I was 2nd at IMWI 2014 like I was at IM Mont Tremblant in 2013...it might be a bit more interesting. If you consider the fact that I was once again first out of the swim like I have been for my previous 5 or so IMs inclucing 2013 Kona...it might be more interesting. Likewise, if you consider the fact that I was under the IMWI course record...it might be more interesting.

But I was 2nd by 63 seconds, and a first place finish would have been infinitely better and the report infinitely more interesting. Congrats to Daniel Bretscher, who after a 2nd place finish at IMWI in 2013, crossed the line in first on September 7 at Ironman Wisconsin.

If you're keeping up here, one of our loyal readers, you know that I (Brandon) called an audible on racing Calgary. I am actually really pleased that we did. Calgary is a really nice place. Actually the whole of Canada seems like a great place. Tim Horton's is good stuff. I'm still not really sure what Poutine is all about.

In the picture shown, Will Clarke is to the right. Will was 2nd across the line, but won the race to pop the top on the champagne. Andy Potts is in the middle. He was 1st across the line and 2nd in the champagne contest. I am on the left. I was 3rd in both contests. But, at one point I wasn't even sure I was going to be in the hunt for anything.

That point happened about 20 seconds into the race start. My beach/running start was terrible. I was last 50m into the race. Two things were going through my mind. First was that I hoped Amy would not start where I did. Second was that I should have gone to Ohio after all. I would end up following Andy out of the swim by about 30 seconds and the main group was within a minute or so behind me.

Jordan took control of the bike. He didn't want to relinquish the lead. I got dropped at 40k. Made a heroic effort to get back on. Rapp hit the gas at mile 40, Will got dropped as did I. I went around Will for the last 5-10 miles and we started the run...Rapp, then Potts, with Will and me about 1 minute back.

Buffalo Springs is a race that I love, seriously. It's a race that I hate, it's hard. I love to hate it. The race, not the 70.3 race, but the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon directed by Mike and Marti Greer celebrated its 25th year this year. I have been racing for 25 years. I was trying to sort out, with help from Mike and his wall of race tees, the first year that I headed west to Lubbock. I think that it was about 1991 or 1992. Certainly in 1993 I raced the race after winning the Texas State Championship in Dallas a month earlier. It was an Olympic distance then. Anyway, I actually like Lubbock.

Anyway, the race happened. That's my report. Not bad, not good. Just kind of 'meh' for me. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

Prior to that, we were back in Flagstaff, AZ for about 3.5 weeks. That was 2 weeks after Ironman TX. Altitude, recovery. As Paulo said "We go to Flagstaff because it's hard." I could live there. Training there is challenging. But, it was good to be with the Triathlon Squad for a few weeks. I find myself the caboose on most of the runs with the guys. It's good to take a break not necessarily from 'Austin', but from the routine of home.

Time for a little update...

-St. George 70.3 happened. I was always told if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.

-Raced Raleigh 70.3 last weekend and got the W! After a DNF at Galveston and then a sub-par 12th place at St. George, it felt really good to win Raleigh. My last 70.3 win was way back in 2009 at Buffalo Springs 70.3. It was a nice little tune up race before IM Frankfurt in just 5 weeks time. Click below on a quick recap...

Race recap

First Endurance Nutrition- Bike: 3 bottles with 200 calories of EFS in each and 1/2 bottle of Perform (~700 calories). Run: 1 Vanilla Liquid Shot Flask finished by 10 miles into the run (400 calories).

-While in Raleigh, Herbert from Slowtwitch stopped by my home stays house to take some detailed photos of my P5. Check them out here...

P5 photos

-After Raleigh I made the long trek to Flagstaff where we will be for the month of June. Some altitude training for a few weeks before I head over to Germany. Looking forward to training with The Triathlon Squad and having Paulo here to get the best out of us.

I figured I'd get this one up before I let things settle too much, maybe catch a bit of emotion. I was 8th at IMTX. I wanted to win. I trained to do better than I finished. At any level, and I repeat it to the athletes that I coach, IM is a day of small choices. As a professional athlete racing to win it is extremely important to make as many correct choices as the day goes along. To say that I am happy with 8th would be lying. Getting paid is better than not, but, I'm not satisfied with my performance. And some of this might come off as sounding a bit harsh or 'hard on myself', but that is the way athletics are, especially IM racing at this level. For as good as parts of the day were, the result is what mattered, and I failed on race day. It would have taken, for me, a more heroic effort to have won the race, but I was better prepared than an 8th place.

I had a very good build going in to this race. I had a mental hiccup in late-March before 70.3 Galveston. I was tired, grumpy, and uninspired with the schedule that I had laid out. I wanted to win IMTX, and I said so to Paulo at the end of 2013. But as I settled on my 2014 schedule I said "well what if I DON'T win". And, that became my focus. I figured rather than race and give my self a chance to win, I would just NOT race. I set up a schedule that was relatively (very) uninspiring for me. And, that affected my approach, my sessions were good but my head wasn't fully committed. After a pointed email exchange with Paulo, I committed to this race. I felt that things changed nearly overnight.

We are happy to announce that Ashworth Awards is our Title Sponsor for 2014. Ashworth Awards is a leading manufacturer and supplier of custom awards, medals, trophies and more. They have provided a number of awards to high level endurance events most notably the Boston Marathon and Ironman World Championships.

We have to thank Lars Finanger for introducing us to Ashworth Awards earlier this year. We have known Lars for many years and he is heavily involved in the triathlon community and industry.

We will be providing content for Ashworth Awards bi-monthly on various sports/fitness related topics. Feel free to e-mail or post on our blog any topics that you would like to be discussed.

Dan and Kim Ashworth are both active triathletes and we are excited to partner with two people who are as passionate about triathlon as we are.

I've been meaning to post this up for quite a while. Several people from athletes to retailers to coaches have asked me about the Roka wetsuits. Specifically what is the difference in the Maverick Elite and Maverick Pro. In all of 2013 I wore the Maverick Elite, mainly because when we came on board with Roka that is what they had in my size...good suits sell quickly!! Men's and Women's versions.

I stayed in the suit at Ironman Mont Tremblant and could have upgraded right after. Knowing that my next race was Kona, and that I wouldn't be wearing a wetsuit I waited until 2014 to upgrade. Now that I have raced and swam/swum/whatever in both suits, I can give some honest feedback of the differences.

The Pro is made of the more flexible 40 series rubber in the sleeve/chest/back vs. the Elite in 39 series rubber. For the layperson, that means that the Pro is more flexible BUT it is also more fragile. Fingernail cuts are more likely in the Pro unless you are careful. This is typical of almost all suits, the higher end suits use 40 series Yamamoto rubber, while the mid range generally use 39 series.

The written word, how boring. First off thanks to the race organizers and local race directors for having a triathlon!! I was in grumpy-Marsh mode on Saturday because I'd heard that there was not going to be a swim on Sunday. So, instead of sitting in the pro meeting being 'ho-hum whatever' like most pros, I tried to at least ask a few questions, but not annoying ones, about whether or not we'd have a swim on Sunday. They didn't answer them. We did, and I have to say that it was a very tough swim. Kudos to all the athletes who finished on a tough day.

Summary. 2nd out of the water, 2nd off the bike, 2nd across the finish line. Groomsman not the groom...is that right? Suffice to say this has been my best 70.3 finish. To do it just 45 or so miles from where I grew up was nice. The win would have been much nicer. It was an expensive 15 seconds. It was great seeing some of the first folks that I met in this sport out at the race cheering.

I shared the podium with Richie Cunnigham (1st) and Leon Griffin (3rd), two great competitors and super guys. Richie has been 'on fire' for like 10 years at this distance. He is a seasoned racer who can never be counted out. Leon is another great guy who is sure to keep everyone on their toes. Rounding out the top-5 were Chris "Big Sexy" McDonald and new Canadian pro Cody Beals.

As Brandon has been on a blog roll lately, I've been busy with this parody account @therealstarky. Keeping it a secret has been tiring and it's also been quite time consuming but here are the facts:

I (Amy) am @therealstarky. Wow, that feels good to finally say.

Brandon has been getting e-mails asking if he's the @therealstarky or if he knows who the @therealstarky is and it cracks me up. Has he helped me create this parody? No. Just like my surprise 30th birthday party he kept from me and his parents surprise 40th wedding anniversary that he kept from them, I have been able to keep this a secret from him until now. Let me just say tensions have been high in the Marsh household!

I've been nicknamed 'The Truth' from an industry insider because I tell him like it is. He's even given me some good content for my tweets in some of our conversations. No holding back. But like I said in the Slowtwitch interview "Today in triathlon, pros seem overly concerned with being liked and spoken about positively in forums like Slowtwitch". So true. My coach now calls me Silent Marsh as I don't say anything publicly.

As for the Sutton comments? Well, I spent two years on TeamTBB with the Doc. So, I've had many days to listen to his ranting and ravings in Austranglish. Translating his tweets is no problem and I know what makes him tick.

We were asked via our Facebook page what swim drills we do or what swim drills we suggest for our athletes. Because Amy and I grew up swimming, we don't do many swim drills at all. I would actually say that the main time that we do drills are when we swim Masters workouts and the workout has non-free or IM work. If that is the case, we do a fair amount of 1 arm butterfly or breaststroke with dolphin kick.

1 arm butterfly is, by the way, a good freestyle drill. In fact, I think that working on other strokes can enhance your freestyle but mainly because the encourage you to be more comfortable or more aware in the water.

OK, great thanks for nothing Brandon. What drills do you suggest? It sounds weird to just tell you again to know what you are doing, but paying attention is one of the best drills. And, with no video examples here, it's even tougher.

Catch-up freestyle is sometimes a good one. It helps with enabling you to watch or focus on each arm pull. It's not a good one because it can encourage leaving the leading arm out too long. From catch up freestyle transition to one arm freestyle with one hand out front. In this one, focus on reducing the pause/glide/whatever with the stroking arm. Breathe to the stroking side. One arm free with one arm at your side breathing opposite the stroking arm is common, but we find that swimmers focus more on not drowning than swimming.

Goggles are necessary, at least we think so. Like every other piece of equipment some people are very passionate about them. Currently, we wear whatever we like. Roka, our swim sponsor, does not make goggles. They're currently focused on making the best swimskins and wetsuits, and they do that very well.

So, we pick and choose our goggles. And, we like having new goggles. Jumping in the pool with new unscratched lenses is great. Since both of us come from a swim background, we have worn a LOT of different styles. What we wear now that triathlons are our main gig is different than what we wore as swimmers. But, some triathletes stick to the same goggles that they wore as swimmers. In the past, we both raced and trained in the hard plastic no gasket 'Swedish' style goggles. Now, we both wear larger, soft plastic goggles with a double strap.

Neither one of us particularly like the goggles that have a buckle style adjustment on the side of each eyepiece. Amy wears her goggles OVER her swim cap during training and UNDER her cap during races. Brandon wears his goggles UNDER his swim cap, even while training. That is personal preference. Some people have had bad experiences one way or the other, so they stick with what has worked.

With the season starting soon, we thought we'd get to some more of the equipment part of swimming. We've answered a lot of questions on speedsuits, mostly locally at the bike shop, etc, but forums have even more questions. Essentially it goes like this "Should/shouldn't I get a speedsuit?" or "Is speedsuit A/B/C better than speedsuit D/E/F?" So, we'll give our answers and yeah they will be a bit biased towards the end.

Truthfully, you don't NEED a lot of the equipment that you have for a race, but most of it does help make things 'easier' and make you faster. There, said it!

You should wear a speedsuit if a) wetsuits are not allowed 2) you want to wear your 2 piece tri-kit or 1 piece with pockets during the swim. You do not need a speedsuit if 1) your budget does not allow the purchase b) you are going to swim in shorts only or shorts/bratop or swimsuit only 3) the swim is wetsuit legal d) you swim in an ITU style onezie. That is the shortest summary we could come up with on when speedsuits are 'needed'.

The how-to of a speedsuit. It goes OVER your tri-kit. You generally remove it before you start the bike leg of the race though there have been more than a few athletes, pros included, who forgot to remove them after the swim. You can ride in them, but most people do not. For a sprint or Olympic I might wear just my speedsuit if I didn't have an ITU style tri-kit. If I did that, I might wear a speedo or tri-shorts under the speedsuit for extra coverage.They need to be TIGHT, almost uncomfortably so. The purpose here is to reduce drag in the water so the suit needs to be tight to cover up the wrinkles, pockets, or gaps in your tri kit. It is also for convenience.

This is not a sponsored post. It is not a paid advertisement. It is, as promised, a short blog post about some of the gear that we use. It will be longer than 1 paragraph, maybe longer than 2, but they will be short. This gear we bought at our LBS Austin Tri-Cyclist. They are the Finis Agility Paddles. We have mediums and larges.

There are no straps. They have a thumb hole. Traditional paddles have straps, you can be lazy with them, even if you take the wrist strap off. Previously we used the TYR Catalysts (Brandon) and Strokemakers (Amy). These Finish paddles have taken some getting used to. So what do they help with?

They help keep your stroke more 'continuous'. They seem to reduce the pause or glide out front that has become common. They also seem to help keep your hand in a position that provides propulsion (forward movement). If your hand is in the wrong position, they will come off.

I (Brandon) have had a pretty smooth transition to them. Amy has had to work a bit more and finds herself using her thumb to keep the paddles on, but it is becoming more natural for her. See the Marsh Madness comment about your hands and knowing what they are doing. Get the size that allows your hand to fill up the channel between the ridges. Bigger is not necessarily better. Try to keep your normal stroke rate. That's all, have a great weekend.

I'm going to keep this to a few short paragraphs. This one will be the intro paragraph. We're going with the goal of being prolific bloggers at least through March. And, we'll try to keep them short and to the point. March is going to be swimming. Some tips, tools we use, goggles we like, etc.

Right now, there are article and forum posts galore about swimming and the how to of it...EVF, High Elbow, Anchors, WTF, ETC. Simply put, it is really difficult to learn to swim from a forum post. It is difficult to learn to swim watching Michael Phelps (commonly referenced) or Grant Hackett (also commonly referenced). You can take something positive away, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Today isn't a how to swim post. It is more of a do you know what YOU look like when you swim or what your arms, hands, legs are doing? Have you been video-ed? Or better yet, do you actually pay attention to what your hands and forearms are doing under water? I do. I make sure my hand and forearm are strongly connected so that my wrist doesn't 'break'. I keep my hand relaxed but strong, not worrying about some space between my fingers and not 'cupped'. I can see my pull under me when I'm swimming. My arm seems more straight than bent. There's very little pause or glide out front. Do your feet touch sometimes when kicking? That is a good way to keep them out of the way if your kick isn't good.

That's a picture of 'Grumpy Marsh'. Well, sort of. Michael Lovato...IM Commentator, Pro-Triathlete, Dad extraordinaire tweeted out for pros to get their schedules posted so that they can be promoted. The grumpy in me wants all pros to do the same thing. And, it was a reminder that I had not posted my schedule either. Seeing how no one reads blogs with the advent of the 140 character blogsphere called twitter, here it is.

I have wrestled with, or rasseled with as we'd say in Texas, with my 2014 schedule. If there has been one thing that has eluded me as well as a host of other professionals, it's a win. I also like to do races that I enjoy. Seemingly those two things seem to have been mutually exclusive given the fields at the races that I have selected and my performances at said races. If you're a pro, just go anywhere except for the races that I've scheduled as they usually seem to attract a good field.

So, this year, the goal is the same make money, race to win. IMMT 2013 was one move on the bike away from a win. I had a really good race and finished 2nd. California was a good race as well, 5th in a big field. Quassy, big field penalty, 10th. Vineman, big field good race, 7th no money. So, for 2014 race to win, race to make money.

This is a test blog. Leave a comment. Preferably a polite one.

And yes, since every blog needs a picture or a video, there is a picture.

And this is paragraph 3. If you were here last week, you know what I'm talking about.

For some reason our Instagram feed is not updating. Must be the polar apocalypse.

We have been informed of a couple of key points. And, we will keep these in mind for our first blog on the new site of the new year and new season. Point #1 blogging is 'so 2008'. Point #2 is to keep the written word at between 4 and 6 paragraphs. Otherwise, with the short attention span of people in the digital age, you will lose your audience. We might attempt video and sound later.

Paragraph #2 since you are counting. We have all of the same sponsors, minus our title sponsor from the last 2 years. We are in search of a title sponsor to replace them, but it has been tough. Thankfully all of our 2013 sponsors and suppliers are back on board. We have posted them to our sponsors page, please patronize them...in the good way. Don't be patronizing. No day by day summary here. They make great products. We would buy them if we weren't sponsored by them...in a few cases we used them before the sponsorship.

Paragraph #3 which means we are between 1/2 and 2/3 of the way done. We have posted our schedules...or at least Amy has posted her schedule. After a couple of traumatic years of racing in Europe, she is planning to return to Germany to race the European IM Championships in Frankfurt. Her goal, once again this year, is to compete at 70.3 Worlds and the IM World Championships. Yes compete, there are no training races. Brandon is still working on his schedule. His main goal is IM Texas in The Woodlands in May. Who doesn't love Texas in May! He grew up just an hour or so south of The Woodlands, so he always enjoys racing there.

It's been almost 5 weeks since Kona (although it feels much longer) and we have been non-stop since we arrived home. Read on to see what we've been up to...

I never did get a Kona race report up but did an interview with TriZone Women that pretty much sums up how my race went. You can read the interview here. I was looking to improve on my 10th place finish from last year but it wasn't to be and I ended up a disappointing 17th. The goal for 2014 will be to get back to Kona to take care of some unfinished business!

I blogged before that I might likely be one and one after Kona 2013. I still stand by that...with conditions to be evaluated before writing them. It's been about 4 days since I crossed the finish line in Kona. Read on to see how it went.

We left Flagstaff late to Kona...the Wednesday before. We were coming fromm 7,000 feet and it was either 3 days or 3 weeks, we went with 3 days. It's an easy travel day from Flag to Kona and only 3 hours time change. Again we stayed with a friend I met over 15 years ago who has a place on Alii drive. It was convenient and familiar from last year.

We returned from Vineman 70.3 a couple of days ago. For the last few years, we have stayed a night in Sedona sometime during the year. So, this year it was on the way back from Vineman. A bit of a getaway and relaxation a bit. Definitely a splurge. Put simply, I needed to be 1 better at Vineman. 1 better place to get a paycheck. It wasn't to be, but I did have a good race against some of the best. I was 7th in just a shade over 3 hours and 50 minutes.

This is my follow-up on the Pro Draft Rules Tutorial. And, like I said about racing the Rev3 Quassy event vs. any number of non-Rev races that same weekend...I am about triathlon. I am not anti-USAT or anti-WTC or pro-WTC or pro-USAT. I'm about triathlon. And, if PROTA or the USAT AAC want to say that they are here to help the professionals, then they should stand up and do that. Likewise, pros need to voice their opinions either in pro meetings, via emails to board members or race directors. Or via somewhat well informed or well intentioned posts. That's what I am trying to accomplish or provide here. And, if you don't like what I have to say...here's a picture for you.

Now, you might read this and think...that's good Brandon why don't you run for office? I'll tell you. a) I'm still racing, b) I have coaching that I am doing, and c) A and B would prevent me from doing my best job at being a representative right now.

Here's another graphic, this one is also to scale.

I wrote this while Amy was driving. I was trying to use cars on a freeway to explain the drafting/position rules. A couple of comments, one on the previous blog and one by one of the leaders of a PRO organization lead me to think that not everyone really knows the way things work...

Read on for an explanation of the main drafting/position rules that generally affect the outcomes of professional races. And, before I add anymore of my commentary...I think that the status quo is generally meant to be changed. So, again...read this and before I post any quotes or comments, decide for yourself what's the better way.

Here is a graphical representation of three different race scenarios. The first two are USAT non-drafting race scenarios, much like I described previously at Rev3 Quassy. The third is a WTC race scenario that you will find at any 70.3 and full distance race 'governed' by WTC/Ironman. There is one key point to note in each...that is that there is 1 rider guilty of a position/drafting violation.