After a week of listening to him “trash-talk” about this ride, I finally had Dan Sinai where I wanted him – working so hard he could barely get words out.

 

No, I’m not the world’s meanest coach, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit of satisfaction as I saw Dan suffer.

 

After completing part of the ascent up the “back-side” of Lanzarote’s Mirador Del Haria earlier in the week, Dan Sinai had been making fun of me for trying to imply that the climb was “tough.”

 

My wife Sharon had got in on the act, too.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she told me after climbing from the town of Haria up to the summit of the “Mirador” with the same name. “That climb was a piece of cake.”

 

What Dan and Sharon didn’t realize, though, was that they had only completed about half of the real climb. When you started right from the coastal village of Arrieta you ascend for roughly twice as long. I promised them both that I would take them on the full climb, known as “Tabayesco,” later in the week.

 

“Bring it on,” Dan said. “A kid on a tricycle could do that climb.”

 

Let me offer a quick aside to give you some idea of how tough this climb truly is, and how much “crow” Dan would be eating:

 

If you go to Lanzarote with the goal of achieving some sort of fitness, you are best to find some German triathletes to train with. They seem to swarm to the island in droves in January and February, putting in some impressive “base” training to prepare for the upcoming season.

 

Last May I hooked up with Thomas Braun, a journeyman pro who also happens to be a training partner and friend of another famous Thomas, the one known as “hell-on-wheels.” (Hellriegel, for any of you triathlon newbies who weren’t addicted to the sport when he became the only German ever to win the Ironman Triathlon World Championship.)

 

Braun took me for a ride two days after Ironman Lanzarote … a simple 120km affair, I was told. The ride was spectacular. Along the way we followed parts of the Ironman course, which took us up Mirador Del Haria and down through all the switchbacks into the village of Haria, and then to the north part of the island up Mirador Del Rio, where I witnessed one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen from the top of the 479 meter climb and looked over the island of La Graciosa and the islet Montaña Clara.

 

That was followed by a long, long descent into Arrieta.

 

Which is where Braun stopped at a store, filled his water bottle with coke and two cans of Red Bull, and asked if I wanted to try Tabayesco. (For those of you not familiar with Red Bull, it is a European “energy drink” that contains enough caffeine to keep even a five-cup-a-day-cappuccino addict happy for a while. Some high schools have banned it in parts of the US because the kids were literally bouncing off the walls after having one.)

 

“Sure,” I said. “It can’t be that tough.”

 

As we rode towards the start of the climb, Braun told me how he was still recovering from a bike accident the previous week, so he wasn’t going to take the climb too hard.

 

“I’ve done it in 27 minutes,” he said. “Thomas Hellriegel has done it in 25. Today, I’m going to do it in about 34 minutes.”

 

All of which sounded very good to me. (I had just watched this man take in enough caffeine to bring a corpse back to life … what on earth was I thinking?!)

 

Let me fast forward to the end of the 10km climb. Braun dropped me like a bad habit at about the 6km point. I rode the climb in just over 28 minutes … and Thomas was waiting for me. If he had ridden 34 minutes, my watch must have stopped for a bit – possibly around the time the guys in the ambulance were yelling “Clear!”

 

Now, let me fast forward another seven months to good ol’ Dan as he worked his way up the Tabayesco climb.

 

Dan was part of a group of 11 athletes I had brought to Lanzarote for a training camp, so it was important that I brought him back alive. (The trip was a 40^th birthday present from his wife, so “kid-on-a-tricycle” comments or not, I couldn’t leave him on the side of the mountain.)

 

I completed the climb, turned around at the top, and rode back looking for him. When I did find him, he was working his way through the series of switchbacks that make up the final few kilometres of the ascent. I took a picture, and then joined him for the final push to the summit.

 

“This is my max,” he managed to get out at one point.

 

“Hang on,” I replied. “The kid on the trike looks like he’s coming by. You can draft off him.”

 

 

The awesome cycling is just a part of what makes Lanzarote such an incredible training spot. (I haven’t done the island justice by focussing on the northern “climbing” side – riding through the lava fields and “Fire Mountains” at Timanfaya or along the El Golfo coast is every bit as spectacular.)

 

Lanzarote is one of the Canary Islands, officially part of Spain, but positioned about 100 kilometers from the coast of Africa. The temperate climate is another major bonus. In January, the temperatures typically hover around 21 degrees celcius during the day, and go down to 13 or 14 degrees at night.

 

The weather and terrain are one draw, but there is another wonderful reason to train in Lanzarote … the incredible Club La Santa.

 

Built more than 20 years ago, Club La Santa is a popular training spot for many of Europe’s national teams (track, swimming, cycling, soccer, triathlon … you name it, they’re likely to have it!) It offers more than 30 different sports, and is truly “training heaven.” Nina Kraft, Katja Schumacher, Luc Van Lierde, Hellriegel, and last year’s second place finisher in Kona, Rutger Beke regularly go to Club La Santa to train.

  

The fully equipped track was swarming with Olympic and World champions when we were there in January, while the beautiful outdoor 50m pool had its share of world class swimmers in it, too. The soccer field played host to the Dutch National team for a few days, when it wasn’t being used by any of the four different rugby teams training there as well.

 

What makes Club La Santa such an excellent training haven is the fact that everything is right there, in one place. Once you get off the bus from the airport, the only time you ever have to leave is when you’re on your bike!

 

When you’re not training, La Santa’s impressive leisure pool is a great spot to relax, or if you’re more of a tourist type, you can check out some of the islands awesome sites, including the volcano at Timanfaya.

 

For an avid triathlete, though, there really isn’t any reason to do anything other than eat, sleep, and train. You won’t get distracted by television … most of the rooms don’t even have one. This is a spot where when you’re not training, you really are forced to relax.

 

Which is why you see so many of the world’s best triathletes doing just that every year.

 

Just ask Dan. The training is hard, but you go from hating it to loving it in no time. Within minutes of reaching the top of Haria, he was back to his old self.

 

“Tabayesco’s a piece of cake,” he said. “I don’t know how you can say that’s a tough climb.”

 

 

Bicycle technology in the Ironman was most influenced by a race that didn’t take place through the lava fields in Kona. It was at a qualifying event for the big show that took place in 1987.

 

As Andrew MacNaughton, a transplanted Canadian who lived in Los Angeles, racked his bike in the transition area of the “Crawfishman Triathlon” in Louisiana, people hardly noticed the radical handlebars he had on his bike. Next to his bike was a flashy looking time trial frame, and it didn’t take long before there was a large group of athletes eyeing what they thought was the ultimate in bike technology.

 

“You just watch,” MacNaughton said to a friend, “After the race they’ll all be staring at my bike.”

 

MacNaughton’s confidence came from the fact that he knew he was in great shape, and that his secret weapon, the Scott DH handlebars he’d received from a designer named Boone Lennon, would give him an added advantage that would make him untouchable on this day.

 

He’d found out about the DH bars from his friend and training partner Brad Kearns. Kearns had first seen the bars while riding with Race Across America competitor Johnny G. – yes, the same guy who started Spinning! Lennon had provided the aero bars to the RAAM competitors to use. Kearns figured he would try them out, and used them at the Desert Princess Duathlon early in 1987, where he finished fourth.

 

Lennon had come up with the aero bar concept while he was training on his bike for his “real” sport, downhill ski racing. (Hence the DH – Down Hill!) Knowing that skiers benefited from using  an aerodynamic tuck, he wondered why the same concept wouldn’t work on a bike.

 

He designed the bar, and sent a sample to Dave Scott, the undisputed king of the Ironman at that time. There’s some debate as to what happened to that first demonstrator set … one story has it that Lennon had forgotten to put arm rests on the bars, and they were so uncomfortable that Scott quickly got rid of them. A more realistic story is that Scott took one look at the radically curved bars and simply put them in his garage and forgot about them.

 

Which brings us back to MacNaughton, who arrived in New Orleans as the first man to use the Scott DH bars in a triathlon. Considered a “journeyman” pro at the time, MacNaughton blazed through the 40-mile bike course, beating Mike Pigg by no less than five minutes, and maintaining his lead through the run to record an impressive victory.

 

He was right. After the race, everyone was looking at his bike.

 

(I remember calling Boone Lennon a few days afterwards. MacNaughton, a high school friend, had told me to call the engineer from Scott USA weeks before his big win. I didn’t listen, and by the time I called, Lennon had been inundated with requests for the Scott DH bar. Mine arrived months afterwards!)

 

The Scott DH bar is the most revolutionary piece of equipment that we have seen in the 25 years of the Ironman. That one invention helped triathlon develop as a truly separate sporting endeavor.

 

Bike technology had changed very little for almost 50 years going into the mid-1980s, and during the sport’s formative years, triathletes had little to offer the bicycle industry. They puttered through the bike-leg of their races on whatever they could find to ride. Dave Scott won his first Ironman on a bike he used to as a “commuter” to get around Davis, California. He actually had his feet taped to the pedals for the race!

 

That all changed in 1985, when Scott Tinley arrived at the Ironman Triathlon World Championship with a bike that seemed “other-worldly” to the rest of the competitors.

 

Using every aerodynamic piece of equipment that the cycling world had come up with to that point, Tinley’s speed machine’s most striking feature were a set of specially built Aerolite “Time Trial” handlebars.

 

One year earlier Dave Scott had won the Ironman on a bike that had, as one pro put it, “cables everywhere.” Tinley’s bike featured not only the cool handlebars – it had cables that were “hidden” in the frame to make it even more aerodynamic. Tinley went so far as to wear “booties” over his cycling shoes to reduce wind resistance even further. The technology helped him set a new course record.

 

Tinley, ever the trendsetter in the sport, had begun a move towards the creation of a “triathlon bike,” but other than flashy colors, there weren’t too many radical changes to basic bike designs for the next couple of years.

 

Once Scott DH Bars, or “tri bars” as they were often referred to, became popular, it didn’t take long for Dan Empfield, who had created a triathlon specific company called Quintana Roo in 1986, to figure out that triathletes needed a specially designed bike built around the “tri bars.”

 

Empfield’s concept was radical in two ways … Quintana Roo bikes were built with a 78 degree seat tube angle (a regular road frame has a 73 to 74 degree seat tube angle) to reduce the stress on an athlete’s hip flexors and lower back while riding on “tri bars.” The QR bikes also featured both front and rear 26-inch wheels.

 

For the first time in almost a half-a-century, the bike industry began to really “think outside the box.” Bicycles started being made with different designs. At the same time, a move was beginning to utilize different materials in the construction of bike frames.

 

Once again, Andrew MacNaughton was central in yet another tri-bike innovation. After he had won with the DH handlebars (his win at the Crawfishman was followed with another win at Wildflower) he was approached by yet another innovative company, Kestrel. Formed in 1986, the engineers at Kestrel had come up with a way to manufacture “advanced pressure-molded carbon fiber bicycles,” and created the industry’s first all-carbon bike. Kestrel managed to get MacNaughton, and a few other pros, onto the first Kestrel 4000s by September of 1987. MacNaughton used the Kestrel to lead the way through bike portion of the Nice Triathlon that year.

 

It was the beginning of an experimental era for the industry that has dramatically shaped the bikes that we see on the market today.

 

At around the time Kestrel was mastering making bikes out of carbon fiber, a young man named David Linskey, who’s father worked for NASA, decided to try making a bike out of the same material they used for fighter planes and space ships. Linskey approached MacNaughton, and asked him to ride his titanium bike at the Ironman in 1987. MacNaughton had no interest in doing the Ironman, but he was more than happy to try the bike out over shorter races. He received the first “Litespeed” titanium bicycle in December 1987.

 

That was just a couple of months before a company called Merlin Metal Works began producing titanium frames, too.

 

By 1988, the bicycle industry was going through a dramatic “makeover.” Just 10-years-before, almost every bicycle on the market was made out of steel. Cannondale’s radical aluminum frames had just begun to gain acceptance after being introduced in 1983 (touring) and 1984 (racing and mountain bike). Now there were bikes being built out of carbon fiber and titanium, too!

 

The innovative materials were just one aspect of the development of the new triathlon bike. Once the new materials were perfected, companies like Merlin, Litespeed and Kestrel began to build bikes out of titanium and carbon fiber that featured Empfield’s steeper seat-tube, shorter chain stays, and smaller wheeled concept.

 

Ironman athletes were the perfect consumers for these high-end products. With annual incomes that had sponsors drooling, triathletes were a group that who could afford such expensive “toys.”

 

In 1989, there were two major developments that helped fuel even more innovation in the industry. The first was Greg Lemond’s dramatic come-from-behind victory in the Tour de France, where he overcame a seemingly insurmountable deficit in the final time trial by averaging more than 31-miles-per-hour. Why did it change the sport? He did it using a set of Scott DH bars. Suddenly even the cycling world had to admit that maybe us triathletes knew something about riding a bike that they didn’t.

 

The other was the result of a tough ride that left a couple of brothers uncomfortable. When Jim and Mike Allsop finished that particularly uncomfortable ride, they decided that bikes needed suspension – like every other wheeled vehicle on the planet.

 

The two created a company called Softride, and within a couple of years had developed the radical “boomerang-shaped” bike that Greg Welch would use to win the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in 1994, and that Jurgen Zack continues to use for his blazing bike splits.

 

As we get closer to celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship, bicycles continue to be modified and changed and … well, drooled over by tri-geeks like myself.

 

While the materials used in bicycles haven’t changed dramatically, the way those materials are being used has. Aerodynamics has become cycling’s latest mantra, and you can find aerodynamic bicycles made out of aluminum, titanium, carbon fiber, and combinations of the above.

 

Cervelo, a Canadian company started in 1995, makes one of the most aerodynamic bicycles on the planet (the P3) out of aluminum. Cannondale’s aluminum Ironman 5000 is a perfectly put-together Ironman racing machine that benefited from hours of wind-tunnel testing with Saeco’s professional cycling team.

 

Litespeed and Merlin now face lots of competition in the titanium market as other companies (including Quintana Roo) have started to use that material in their frames.

 

Kestrel continues to build carbon fiber frames, while Switzerland’s “Cat Carbon Bikes” has outfitted the women’s winner of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship for the last five years in a row – Lori Bowden  rode a “Cheetah” when she won in 1999, and Natascha Badmann has used one for all four of her victories. (Trek Bicycles are probably the best known Carbon Fiber bicycle manufacturer – Lance Armstrong has had a bit of success on their bikes, as has defending Ironman World Champion Tim DeBoom!)

 

While bikes have changed dramatically over the years, so, too, have the components that go on those bikes. Aerodynamic handlebars might retain the original concept from Boone Lennon’s design, but are now made out of Carbon Fiber for the most part, and feature aerodynamic designs, too. It is almost impossible to find a triathlon bike that doesn’t feature an aero, carbon fiber fork, too.

 

Steve Hed began tinkering with wheels in his garage in 1985, and now, eighteen years later, continues to be the innovation-leader when it comes to wheel design. In the second part of this “tech” story, we’ll talk more about wheel and other component design changes, which have seen every bit as much innovation over the years as bike frames.

 

So just in case you ever thought you were busy, let me provide you with a quick reality check.

 

Do you own a number of businesses that employ upwards of 400 people? Got any “Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the State of Florida” plaques hanging on your wall?

 

Have you performed more cataract eye surgeries than anyone else on the planet? Does the most commonly used cataract surgery happen to bear your name?

 

Have you endowed millions of dollars to colleges, charities and YMCA’s across the United States?

 

Do you have two incredibly successful children, who are now proving that you did the job right by bringing up their own gang of successful offspring (six at last count)?

 

In your “spare time” have you managed to publish over 180 medical articles, edited or authored eight medical textbooks, and authored or co-authored 15 books on Christian Living?

 

Got to any third world countries to build churches or perform free eye surgeries?

 

In your other batch of spare time, are you getting enough training done to compete in 46 marathons (including 18 of the Boston variety), 14 mountain terrain endurance events of 100 miles or more, and run in nearly 20 assorted races of 50 miles or more?

 

Forget the running part – how about your swim and bike training. Do you think you can fit enough swimming and biking in to become, like Dr. James Pitzer Gills II, the only man in the world to have completed six Double Iron Triathlons within the 36-hour maximum time frame, and completed five Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Championships?

 

“We waste a lot of time in our lives, but he doesn’t waste a lot of time,” says Heather Gills. She would know – she’s been married to Dr. Gills for 38-years. “He gets up at 5 o’clock every morning. He has book racks on all the equipment so he can read while he’s working out.”

 

Then, in a way that only a Gills could, she says, very simply, in her beautiful Georgia accent: “He makes the most of his time.”

 

Yep. No argument here. Dr. Gills does more in a year than the typical Ironmanlive writer manages to log into a lifetime’s worth of daytimers.

 

Here’s what is really annoying about all this: He wasn’t always this amazing. For a while … well, he was almost like the rest of us!

 

He likes to tell the story of his early years in medicine, when “his stomach obscured the view of his toes, and his temper was short.” His life was like everyone else’s: “frenetic, pressure-packed and just plain tough.” His family slipped from the top of his list of priorities, and before long he found himself on a “path to self-destruction.”

 

It was then that Dr. Gills “sought out and found the Lord,” and now, every aspect of his life is based on his faith. Before he heads off to work in the morning at St. Luke’s Cataract and Laser Institute (which he founded, in case you were wondering!), he takes care of his “Inner Temple” – he’s even written a book with that title – by getting his training done and spending quiet time with his wife. He prays and recites favorite passages while biking and running. Spiritual tapes play in the operating rooms of his clinic. Between surgeries he will often mount a stationery exercise bike and peruse his well-worn Bible. 

 

Along the way, all the training manifested itself in endurance events. (See the “Think You’re Busy” section above.) Then one day a friend of his told him about “a funny race out in Hawaii where you swim, bike, and run.”

 

“In 1982 I went to the February event not having biked in years,” Dr. Gills said in the only kind of interview he could ever have time for – I e-mailed the questions, he dictated the answers while working out. “I bought a Raleigh and built a lap pool in my backyard so I could swim at four in the morning before I went to work. At that time I didn’t use a car very often as I was biking and running everywhere. I ended up doing many of those fall Ironmans just with the training I had from running back and forth to work. Much of the time that I was doing the Ironman, my work schedule required 70 hours a week. I didn’t have much extra time at the events to enjoy the beauty of the Ironman itself as I was mostly just interested in the race.” 

 

“Interested” isn’t the best word to use when it comes to describing the relationship Dr. Gills has with the event he has owned since 1989. The event, and the man, are so perfect for each other it’s almost impossible to put it into words.

 

A successful Ironman athlete is, of course, dedicated. He or she must be incredibly organized in order to fit some semblance of life around training. He or she must be ready to persevere through the challenges that training for such an event will provide, and disciplined enough to stick with the training.

 

It’s the ultimate battle for balance in your life, this crazy sport we all love, and there aren’t too many people who have managed to achieve that balance as well as Dr. Gills.

 

“All of life is a balance, yet it is one of the greatest problems people have,” Dr. Gills says. “People need a balance between what they think, their inner peace and all the things which surround them. It is difficult to balance family, work, social commitments and the frustrations that arise from all three. To achieve balance, one needs to know his/her priorities, keep them first, and work hard to get the rest of one’s commitments accomplished.”

 

“When you talk about a guy who practices what he preaches, he’s it,” says Lew Friedland, the president of the World Triathlon Corporation, the company that owns the Ironman name. “He lives the life, and leads by example every day. He gets up every morning and exercises like crazy. He makes sure he hits his scripture and medical books before 7 o’clock, then he’s the first one in the office before 7 o’clock. He works hard all day, and takes care of his family at night. Nothing has changed with him in 19 years. He’s the absolute leader by example.”

 

Despite the fact that the boss happens to be one of the hardest working people on the planet, working around Dr. Gills isn’t intimidating, according to Friedland. There are lots of challenges, though, but those challenges come in a positive way.

 

It’s not unusual for Dr. Gills to finish a meeting by telling everyone to “do what’s right.” He says by saying that he is, in a way, “reversing delegation.”

 

“Doing what is right is different for all people,” Dr. Gills says. “If you tell them to do what is right, you give people greater responsibility and also greater inspiration because they are responsible for their particular job. As the owner of different companies, I have to do that in order to have time to do what is most important for me, mainly the practice of medicine. I told Lew Friedland, who runs the Ironman, and the other people who run the operations of the Ironman, to do what is right hoping that the confidence I showed in them will give them the confidence to do their job the right way.”

 

It’s worked. This year the Ironman celebrated its 25^th anniversary in style, and Ironman events continue to flourish around the world.

 

If the strength of the Ironman Corporation comes from the top, we’re in for a lot more years of “bumper crops.”

 

Dr. Gills and his two children Shea and Pit (actually James Pitzer Gills III) own the World Triathlon Corporation together, and all share a passion for the event.

 

“Dr. Gills’ acquisition of the Ironman in 1989 was to make sure that what Valerie had started could continue to grow,” Friedland says. “He dedicated some special employees from other areas, and dedicated a lot of his own personal resources to make sure that it was successful.”

 

“Successful” is a bit of an understatement. The Ironman name has grown in leaps and bounds over the last 14 years, and recent changes spurred on by the Gills have helped take the event to even higher levels.

 

 “This is a family business,” Friedland says. “Pit and Shea love Ironman with the same passion that their father and most everyone else in the sport does.”

 

After growing up doing endurance sports with their dad (Pit not only ran marathons when he was 11- and 12-years-old, he even competed in one 50-mile race!) both Pit and Shea have grown up with a similar sense of balance. Shea, a lawyer, has recently retired to take care of her four children. Pit has followed his father’s footsteps very closely – he graduated from Duke University’s School of Medicine in 1997, and now works side by side with his father at St. Lukes.

 

Like his dad, Pit managed to train for this year’s Ironman Triathlon World Championship by biking too and from work, running with his kids on the weekends (they go in the baby jogger), and fitting in a few swims when he can.

 

All of which seems to indicate that where one Gills left off, another is getting ready to take over. After two separate knee injuries over the last couple of years (one on a bike, one skiing), Dr. Gills says we won’t see him at the starting line in Kona to race again.

 

Which doesn’t seem to have slowed up that training regimen at all. Or the surgeries. Or the charity work …

 

That’s right … I forgot to finish off that reality check from earlier.

 

Face it. You’re not busy.

 

 

 

 

 

The Timex Body Link watch

 

More than 20 years ago a guy named Mario Sabatini, who happened to be a runner, and who also happened to work for Timex, asked Alberto Salazar and Mary Decker (America’s top runners of the time) what it was they wanted in a sports watch.

 

Their feedback would eventually become the “guts” of the Ironman Triathlon Watch, the world’s biggest selling sports watch.

 

Sabatini didn’t know it, but what he had started was a chase for the best way to measure speed over a given distance.

 

When Timex came up with the “Speed + Distance” System a year ago, they offered runners, cyclists and triathletes a remarkable training system that was pretty close to the final answer to every endurance athlete’s dream – a way to accurately measure how fast they were going and how far they had gone.

 

The release of the Timex Bodylink System earlier this year took “pretty close” to a whole new level. The chase is over… it would be hard to find a better way to measure your speed, your distance, and your effort, and then keep track of all that information.

 

When I reviewed the Timex Speed + Distance system last year, I raved about it. Which only makes it harder to come up with a way to explain the Timex Bodylink System – it contains everything I loved about the Speed + Distance system and Timex’s Heart Rate Monitor, and adds an ability to track all of that data (through the “soon-to-come-to-a-store-near-you” Timex Data Recorder), for a system that is, well … to put it bluntly, amazing.

 

So what makes the Timex Bodylink so great? Bear with me … this could take a while.

 

I should first go through the different components that make up the Bodylink system.

 

At it’s basic level, you have Timex’s Speed + Distance system and a Timex Heart Rate Monitor. (The Data Recorder is due out this fall, so I’ll save my comments on that part of the system for later.)

 

That means you get all the amazing feedback from a network of global positioning satellites to tell you exactly how fast, and how far, you’re going thanks to the GPS receiver that’s part of the Timex Speed + Distance system.

 

Then you add the ability to get the most out of your training thanks to the Timex Heart Rate monitor.

 

The Timex Bodylink System Monitor allows you to see all that information at once, which is a huge help. In the past, when I headed out for a bike or a run, I would have the GPS Speed + Distance sensor on my arm, the Digital Heart Rate sensor around my chest, and a watch on each wrist to provide information from each. (The term “Cyberman” has been used to describe me while out running more than often!)

 

Putting all that information into one watch provides much more than simple convenience. Now, at the same time, on the same screen, you can see your heart rate, your speed, and your distance. Or you can see your heart rate, your speed, and a split time. Or you can see your speed, your … I’ll stop before I get too carried away. Suffice it to say that you can set the watch to provide you pretty much any feedback you’d like.

 

Where things get really entertaining is when you start to train with the Timex Bodylink System, and begin to realize that it can help you in pretty much every aspect of your training.

 

Want to do an easy ride or run? You can preset a heart rate exercise zone that is appropriate for an easy effort.

 

Want to do a set of 400-meter intervals, but hate running on the track? Simple – the Timex Speed + Distance monitor can be set to beep after a given distance.

 

Do you hate having to hit the start/ stop button every time you stop biking or running in order to get an accurate time? Those days are over. The “Hands Free Operation” capabilities of the Timex Bodylink are truly amazing. You can set the watch to start and stop every time you do!

 

(Having forsaken my bike computer the day I got my first Timex Speed + Distance watch, the only thing I missed was the old “start/ stop” feature my bike computer used to provide. I miss it no longer – now I even enjoy that handy feature when I’m running!)

 

The “Hands Free Operation” does so much more, too. Splits can be taken automatically based on distance, speed, or time, and then data can be recalled once you’ve completed the workout.

 

Then, when you recall all those splits, you can get an amazing amount of information. For each interval you do in a workout, you can see how far you went, what your speed or pace was, and what your average heart rate was.

 

What more could you possibly want?

 

An alarm? It’s got five.

 

Multiple time-zone capabilities? Is two enough?

 

How about the ability to download all that information to a computer?

 

Did I mention the Timex Data Recorder?

 

The final piece of the ultimate personal performance tracking system will be with us soon. The Timex Data Recorder collects the information from your Digital Heart Rate Sensor and the Speed + Distance Sensor, and allows you to download all that information to your PC through a USB connection.

 

Timex hasn’t forgotten how crucial it would be to chart all this information, and bundles the Timex Bodylink System with the new Timex Trainer Software – an incredibly easy-to-use program that I’m sure will become almost everyone’s training log of choice.

 

I’ve always felt that what separates Timex from its competition is that Timex products are feature-rich but remain simple enough for anyone to use. It is hard to imagine a more technical piece of equipment than the Timex Bodylink System, yet it remains remarkably easy to operate. Once it’s set up, all you need to do to get an incredible amount of workout feedback is turn on the watch’s chronograph – it will do the rest!

 

Is there a down side to this great piece of equipment? Sure, it would be nice not to have to wear the GPS Receiver around your arm – someday I’m sure it will be part of the watch. That receiver runs on AAA batteries, which need to be changed every 12 hours.

 

The bottom line? I can live with it. I’m now so addicted to the information I get from the system that I’m happy to wear the arm-band and change the batteries.

 

The Timex Bodylink System has become yet-another-tool that is an invaluable part of my training equipment!

 

(The next part of this two-part feature will look at some specific examples of how the Timex Bodylink System can help you with your training.)

 

In His Day, Dave Scott Was Truly “The Man”
By Kevin Mackinnon for Ironmanlive.com on Tue, May 6th 2003 (11:46 AM).

He set the standard of greatness for all Ironman champions to follow. Despite his “unique” style of running, his relentless intensity carried him right to the pinnacle of triathlon.

Click for more photos

His nickname was simple: The Man.

No other athlete’s mere presence at the pier at Kailua-Kona made the rest of the field think about how good second place would be.

He was the first inductee to the Ironman Hall of Fame … putting another person in there ahead of Dave Scott would defy any sense of justice our sport might have.

Dave Scott’s storied career at the Ironman Triathlon World Championship is enough to justify the hagiographic way we tend to talk about him. But what truly makes him so popular in the sport is the fact that we can all relate to him in some way, while at the same time holding in awe the amazing feats of athleticism he gave us over a 17-year-stretch at the Ironman (really, a 22-year-stretch, but more on that later!)

Dave Scott is the Ironman triathlete we all would like to be. Never the most talented athlete in the field, Scott won a record six Ironman World Championships because he simply trained harder than everyone else, and when it came to race day in Hawaii, bore down with a relentless intensity that seemingly willed win after win.

Growing up in Davis, California, Scott was a “jock.” In junior high, he played basketball, football and water polo, swam, and was the junior champion at the local golf club.

Once he got to college, life began to revolve around swimming and water polo, and the incredible training drive that would eventually make him an Ironman World Champion really came to the fore.

“I was always working out harder and longer than everyone else,” he says. “I would get in before everyone else, and stay in after. I would get everyone to do bar dips and push-ups after class. “I was a workout machine.”

Augmenting all the swim training was lots of running. Davis is a biking town, so Scott, like just about everyone else, used his bike to get around.

(If there need be any proof how much time Scott spent in a pool, one only needs to find out where he met his wife, Anna. A swimmer of note herself, the two hooked up in the pool at UC Davis!)

These days, people like Scott find themselves gravitating towards triathlon. Back in the mid 70s, though, triathlon wasn’t where it is today.

There were multi-sport events, though, which is what led the train-a-holic Dave Scott to do a few swim/run events in 1975, leading up to his first triathlon. He would finish second in that inaugural event in Foster City . . . he actually thought he’d won until he saw the results and learned that some 15-year-old named Scott Molina had beaten him by four minutes!

His first foray into the sport simply whetted his appetite. Scott then ventured to a triathlon event in San Francisco. (An interview with Dave Scott is always amazing in terms of the details he remembers. As he recounts the story, he provides the exact date of the race … November 20^th.) His prize for winning the nine-mile bike, four-mile run and 1,500m swim race (in 53-degree water no less!) . . . a turkey.

Fast forward to 1980. Now a many-time winner of the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, Scott has participated in a few multi-sport events over the years, but his focus has remained on swimming – not only as an athlete but also as a coach.

“Back in 1974, I was coaching age-group kids, and a few of the parents asked me to coach them,” he recalls. “We went from eight to 25 participants in a couple of months, 25 to 60 in half a year, and over a hundred in a year. Four years into the program we had 400.”

He had heard about the Ironman while competing at the Waikiki swim, and figured the event might be an interesting challenge. He soon figured out it was going to be more of a challenge than he had originally thought.

“I thought it was a three-day event,” he says.

Scott embarked on an ambitious training plan to prepare for his first Ironman.

“It (the training) was heroic at that time, but a few years later everyone was doing that much,” he says. “I was swimming 4000 to 6000 meters a day, cycling 250 miles a week, and running 40 miles a week.

A few months before his debut Ironman, he did a “test.”

“I swam 5000 meters, did a 103-mile bike tour as a race, and ran 20 miles afterwards,” he says. “It was a really hot day in the summer, and I felt like I could keep going. I knew then it wasn’t going to be a survival skill, it was going to be a race.”

That one day’s revelation possibly changed the sport as we know it today.

After leading the swim, and making a wrong turn into the women’s change room, Scott’s friend Pat Feeney literally taped his feet to his pedals – “I hadn’t ever worn bike shoes, and they were terribly uncomfortable,” Scott says.

The discomfort from the shoes was nothing compared to the pain that began once the lack of circulation to his feet began to affect him! Scott maintained his lead, though, and began the run well ahead of the rest of his competition. Fearing he might have lost too much weight going into the 10-mile weigh station on the run and would be pulled from the race, Feeney handed Scott a huge bottle of water while he was on the scales. Despite all that, Scott put together an impressive 9:24:33 Ironman – which was almost two hours faster than Tom Warren the previous year!

That day the Ironman stopped being simply a test of endurance. It became a race … and we can all thank Dave Scott for the change!

It also marked the beginning of the “Dave Scott” era in the Ironman, which would encompass much of the 1980s.

He would win five more titles during that time frame. He would finish second in 1982. Then, along with Mark Allen, he ended the 80s by putting on the greatest show the sport has ever seen.

The “Ironwar” finally saw Mark Allen get the win that he had coveted for so many years. After being bested by Scott so many times, on this day, Allen was determined to simply shadow his nemesis for as long as he could. Scott would press relentlessly during the swim, while Allen hung on for dear life. Scott maintained an equally relentless pace on the bike, with Allen once again hanging on behind.

It was on the run that Scott wishes he had been a bit more aggressive.

“The way the Aid Stations are set up, if you’re running on the outside you have to slow down or speed up,” he remembers. “Mark was on the outside for first few aid stations, and then made an aggressive move to get the inside point.”

That left Scott with the task of surging to get back next to Allen at every aid station.

“When Mark made his move, could I have stayed with him if I hadn't done that?” Scott asks. “I don’t know, but if I could have done anything differently, that's what I would have changed.”

Both men would break Scott’s course record on that day, and to this day, Ironman enthusiasts remember that race as one of the greatest days in the sport.

Scott thinks that his performance in 1994 might be his best, though. That was another second place finish, but considering he was 40-years-old at the time, second place in the world was pretty amazing! Two years later, Scott would return to Kona once again, and finish an impressive fifth overall, despite a “poor swim and bike.” (His words, not ours!)

Five years later, there was one last foray into the Ironman. The 47-year-old Scott arrived in Kona as fit as ever in 2001. Back problems due to some last minute bike changes forced him out of the race, though, so we never got to see the top-10 finish so many had predicted.

Will he race the Ironman again? Scott says no.

“My biggest reservation is motivation,” he says. “My standards are pretty high, so I'd have to have a pretty long build up. I couldn't do it in just a couple of months. With two surgeries I'm not sure if my knee would hold up, either. Sometimes when I'm running it feels like my knee is going to shatter or break. I'm always aware of it.”

Seven months shy of his 50^th birthday, Scott is more than busy keeping up with his three children’s activities, too. Don’t count him completely out of the sport, though. He’s already up to two-hour-and-twenty-minute runs on that knee!

No wonder he’s called “The Man.”