- [Taren] What's up, Trainiacs!
Lionel Sanders winning and indoor triathlon,
wearing nothing but a Speedo,
Gwen Jorgensen running for her life,
and apparently,
professional triathlon teams is now a thing.
Let's try doin' some triathlon news today.
(upbeat techno music)
Let's start by getting this off,
but there is so much going on
in the world of triathlon that's interesting,
even now,
still in the middle of the winter,
that I figure,
why not try doing a triathlon News Tuesday?
Triathlon Newsday!
As always happens in the world of triathlon,
let's lead it off with Iron Man
and the first race really to happen
with Iron Man,
as they expand into South Asia,
happened this weekend in Iron Man 70.3 Colombo.
There wasn't a pro race in this,
but the men's race was won
in a blistering time of 04:06:06
by Olivier Godart,
who last year,
actually just finished barely off the podium
in Kona,
so he's a phenomenal age group athlete.
He spent the last 15 years in Dubai,
and decided, over the last bunch of years,
"You know what?
I just woke up one day
and said I'm going to do a triathlon!"
Turns out, that's a very good way to get fast.
On the women's side,
Ling Er Choo went from...
Ling Er Choo,
from Singapore,
won the women's race in 04:43.
Now Ling Er Choo is a four-time Kona finisher
and she actually had a near-fatal bike crash
back in 2009.
She's got a bunch of titanium pins
and bolts in her leg,
keepin' her together,
so apparently titanium makes you even faster
than an orange kickboard,
and she seems like fun.
Also recently,
Gwen Jorgensen has started a YouTube channel
documenting her pursuit of the goal
of getting Olympic gold
in the next Olympics in 2020,
and she's done this with the help of
a new buddy of mine,
Talbot Cox.
Funny story about this,
Talbot messaged me a couple of weeks ago,
and he said.
"Dude, I just spent the last week
with Gwen and her hubby Pat,
and their new kid, Stanley,
and I think that she can do it."
I was like,
"Oh man, really?
I did a video on her
saying that I didn't think she has the guns for it."
He responded with
"Yeah, they saw that video."
They hate me now.
Hopefully not,
because I liked her YouTube channel.
For the last couple of weeks,
Lionel Sanders has been
doing really well in made-up races
all over the place.
A couple of weeks ago,
he actually won the Indoor Ontario Triathlon Championship,
which is a really neat format.
There aren't distances,
there's times.
It was a 15 minute swim,
a 15 minute bike,
and a 15 minute run,
and in those,
he had some of the fastest swim times
that he's ever done.
He swam 1525 meters in 15 minutes,
see "really frickin' fast",
he put out 419 average watts
over the course of 15 minutes on the bike,
and then he went into the run,
and wearing nothing but a Speedo,
which I totally approve of,
he basically ran a 15 minute 5K.
That is crazy fast!
And then,
just this past weekend,
Zwift had their national championships
all around the world.
Of course,
Lionel went into it
and placed fourth in Canada,
in what seemed like an absolute bloodbath of watts.
Of course,
Lionel Sanders does well in indoor tri championships
and on Zwift.
He would be my pick.
A couple of new things
comin' out of USAT,
the USA triathlon organization,
compression gear sponsor 2XU
has confirmed that they
are signed on again,
and they are going to be
the official bike gear sponsor
of USAT and,
this was kinda announced when I was at
the Triathlon Business International Conference
a couple of weeks ago,
that mytimetotri.com is now alive
and provides fantastic resource...
Frankly, it's good competition for me...
Of video content
to help triathletes out,
so you should check that out.
And, the Major League Triathlon Series
announce their pro teams.
I had no idea that this even existed.
There are eight pro teams,
and they will race in a series of races
in the Major League Triathlon Series,
and those races are
Atlantic City,
Avon, Colorado,
Tempe,
big fan Tempe,
and Charlotte, North Carolina.
This is a really cool idea.
They've got athletes like
Ben Kanute coming in
for the Carolina Gliders,
that sounds tough,
fellow emerging YouTube sensation
Eric Lagerstrom is playing for the San Diego Stingrays,
and fellow Canadian Paul Findlay
is steppin' it up for the Colorado Peaks.
I'm personally a fan
of the Toronto Freeze.
They get points for accuracy on that name.
What I'd also like to do
in these Newsday Tuesdays
is share a story from the Trainiac community,
because this is more about you
than it is me.
I kinda just lead the charge
of sharing my triathlon journey,
but a bigger thing is that
all of you are going through
an equally awesome triathlon journey,
so I want to share that,
and I think that this is a good forum
to do it.
Let's talk about my man,
Steven Bellam.
I'm gonna read you an email that we got,
and this is like...
I've cried twice reading this.
"Let's go back
to the start of 2016.
I was 155 kilograms,
I struggled with weight
all my life.
Our oldest had just started school
about 750 meters away from where we lived.
This day,
I walked him to school,
and I needed to sit down at the school,
to rest after walking just the 750 meters,
then after walking home,
I needed to even sit down again.
I went in to see my regular doctor
for my six month checkup,
and he said that I needed
to increase my blood pressure tablet strength
again for the fourth time in just three years.
After chatting with my doctor
about what I had been doing,
Weight Watchers,
low sugar diets,
ready-made meals,
et cetera,
we decided that
we were running out of options.
I just turned 40,
and I was not sure
that I would make 50.
My doctor recommended that
I investigate weight loss surgery ,
and I ended up having it in June 2016.
My goal weight with the surgery
was to get to 110 Kg,
but my personal goal was
to get into triathlon.
In July 2016,
while recovering,
I found your YouTube channel."
See, this is where I get all emotional, you guys!
"I was so excited to find somewhere
that I could watch
and develop my knowledge
about this amazing sport.
I started watching your weekly videos,
and then even while watching
some of the old A Race videos...
Jeez, some of them were rough."
They were really bad, Steve.
"I started slowly walking around the block,
jogging from one house to the next,
and then,
gradually a little bit more running,
then started doing a little bit of swimming and cycling.
In December 2016,
after I'd lost 50 Kg,
I did my first sprint training session.
It was also the six month anniversary
of my surgery,
and in January 2017,
I did my first sprint race.
That race was an int..."
(weeping) (thumps microphone) You guys...
"I'm now two races down for the 2017
and 28 season.
Two sprint races,
and guess what?
I'm now completed one of my season goals,
01:22:45 for the sprint.
I also achieved something
that I never thought was possible
in that race.
I got a podium finish in my age group.
I will not tell you how many there was
in my age group,
but I will just say
it was less than four.
I also..."
This is where he got me.
This is where you got me, Steve!
Dammit, Steve!
"I also had my first DNF last weekend,
when I smashed up my back derailleur,
so it was not all rosy when it did happen,
but the thing that went through my head was,
what would Taran..."
Fuck..
"what would Taran and Coach Pat
say to me now.
They would say to me, just go out and do the run twice.
So that's what I did.
I've now gone on to drop 62 Kg.
I've gone from wearing 5XL to size medium shirts.
Some who don't know me would say
that it's because of the surgery,
but after seeing my surgeon last week,
I'm achieving things
that even he did not expect.
As I said earlier,
he was expecting me to get to 110 Kg,
well I'm another 17 below that,
and I'm down to 93 Kg."
(vocalizes)
See,
when I say that you guys motivate me,
I am not kidding here.
Steve,
thank you very much for sharing that.
Please,
if any of you all want to see more
sobbing Taran,
send me a message at taran@triathlontaran.com
with your triathlon story,
and it doesn't have to be
about how I've changed it ,
or our podcasts have changed your triathlon story,
but I want to hear about your triathlon stories,
the stories that you would see
on Iron Man once a year,
that's what originally got me into this sport,
and we need to share more of that
every single week.
So, let's do it on triathlon Newsday Tuesday.
This coming week,
just tomorrow,
hours from now,
Mel and I are going to be heading
to Clermont, Florida,
to do a bunch of coverage
from Jesse Kropelnicki's QT2 pro triathlon team,
so follow along!
We're gonna be vlogging it up.
Thank you for watching this very first
Newsday Tuesday,
and if you aren't already subscribed,
hit that subscribe button below,
and if you are subscribed,
obviously, this is a very new format,
and might just be the first and only
Newsday Tuesday,
but if you like it,
hit that Like button and comment below
with what you think about it.
I'm not crying, you're crying.