Russell, Matt

First I want to say that I am not a nutritionist.  I did take some nutrition classes in college (University of New Hampshire) as I have always been interested in nutrition.  What I write below are my personal findings from an endurance athlete.

A lot of people assume that since I am an athlete that I must eat really clean.  Long story short, that's not always the case at all.  I do try to make healthy decisions but I defiantly splurge at times.  Probably more often than what I should but... Читать дальше...

2016 was a busy year. I raced a lot and I traveled more than I ever have in a year.  I got married and bought my first house.  I was self coached like almost every single year since I started triathlon back in 2010.  I trained less hours this year vs. last year (2015) and surprisingly I had my best year yet.  Most people would automatically think that I increased my training intensity this year but it's just the opposite.  I trained with a lot less intensity this year vs. last year.  I think a lot of people train too hard and do too much speed.

Prior to race day I told my wife Gillian that I thought I could go 10 min faster at Ironman Cozumel. Last year I finished 2nd in 8:14.  At Ironman World Championships I was happy with my performance (12th place) but I was not 100% happy with my fitness. Six weeks before racing Kona I had purchased my first house.  With the move and all house projects, my training wasn't ideal to say the least. Therefore, leading into Ironman Cozumel I was hungry to do well. I had roughly... Читать дальше...

      Time really flew by leading into 2016 Ironman World Championships.  I've traveled more this year than any other year since I did my first triathlon back in 2010. This year I got married, I bought a house 6-8 weeks ago and moved all of our belongings to our new location in Sarasota, FL.  The last several weeks my training hasn't been ideal. I think I've put more time in house projects than my training. 

Raleigh 70.3 was my 4th race in the last 6 weeks (Wildflower Half, Ironman Texas and Chattanooga 70.3).  That being said,  I felt like I could still preform well even though I've been racing a lot.  Two weeks ago I race Chattanooga where it was more of a sub par race but for a good reason.  I had raced Ironman Texas the weekend before and I was still recovering from Ironman Texas.  Racing Chattanooga wasn't probably the smartest thing to do but I'm glad I raced it.  My power at Ironman Chattanooga... Читать дальше...

Swim:

The male pros started off at 6:25am so I jumped in the water at 6:15 to get in a good 10 minute warm up.  My body felt good warming up. The water was 81 degrees so it was non wetsuit legal.  I was calm and prepared to have a good swim in a rather large field of 50 guys.  I had a decent start and found myself surround by a large pack.  That large pack dwindled to about a group of 7-8 guys.  The water was murky and was difficult to draft. I tried to swim in the group but felt like I was... Читать дальше...

Swim:  The swim was delayed by 15 minutes due to the high winds blowing the buoys off course.  Eventually the boats had to anchor and hold onto the buoys so the wind wouldn't blow them off course.  Due to the winds being very strong, Lake Wanaka looked like it was an ocean with the waves.  The start was a beach start with the men and women combined. Thankfully I was with the main swim pack of about 5 other guys and 3-4 other women.  We all exited the water in 54 minutes which was nearly 11 minutes behind the strongest swimmer in the sport... Читать дальше...

It's always great to end the year on a high note and racing Ironman Cozumel was certainly the right race for me.  This year has been the year of experimenting with training/racing and I feel like I finally nailed that combination at the last race of the year.  In beginning of the year I feel like I took a step back but it was really important because I learned a ton and was able to finally able to take two steps forward.

Leading up to this race for about 6 weeks I was training solo for 100% of my workout in Northern NY. Читать дальше...

Ironman Coeur d'Alene
Swim: For the first time in history it was a non wetsuit swim because it was so hot.  I ended up swimming or drafting behind Trevor Wuertle and I had my best swim to date for an Ironman.  I was 6:30 back of Andy Potts.
Bike:  I felt pretty good the first lap and then on the second lap I wasn't as strong. I still had a decent bike split as I geared up for the run.
Run: I started out ok but things started going downhill.  With the temps hitting 106 degrees I was doing everything I could to stay cool. Читать дальше...