a little sneakpeak at the swim tips we filmed in Calgary on the weekend.

Simon Swim from Michael Clarke on Vimeo.

I was kinda shocked to read this online but yes, a master piece.

I'm a HUGE Crowie fan and equally HUGE Macca fan.


that being said, a master piece.

stolen from www.firstoffthebike.com 

Macca - How the race was won

Top Gun- Chris McCormack
“I’ll put on the brakes and he’ll fly right by,” Maverick tells an astonished Goose during a dog-fight in the 80’s classic Top Gun. Mav seemed to be in a losing position, front running while the Russian Mig has a missile lock. Maverick then displays outstanding tactical awareness, decelerating unexpectedly. The Mig is outwitted, shot down and Mav goes home the hero. Sound familiar?

Macca pulled out a very similar arsenal of tactics in his high-speed battle for Kona supremacy in 2010. Just replace Russian Mig with German Mike, and he almost orchestrated the same series of manouvers. The Top Gun producers are going to claim part of the winnings if they ever find out! Let’s take it from the start though. (MMS - Macca Master Stroke)

• MMS #1 one: Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. Chris knew the Raelerts. He knew them personally. Knew them intimately. Befriended and lauded them publicly. He was Tom Cruise on the couch with Oprah back in June after Ironman Frankfurt, jumping up and down with love for Michael and Andreas Raelert. Andreas had just done him by 10 minutes, and Macca had recognised the threat. He assumed the role as loving mentor, taking a dominant position. This paid off in spades running on the Queen K.
• MMS #2: For the best part of two years, Macca has been publicly announcing that the best way to beat Crowie, was to do it on the bike. He shouted it from the roof tops. He told anyone who would listen. Hell, he published smack-downs on youtube. It’s an open secret in triathlon that these two two-timing Kona Champions fell out many years ago. The seeds of spite are often the best for milling a great rivalry. So when Macca took off after the Germans/Belgique connections with Raynard Tissink on Hawi, Crowie would not have been surprised. He had weathered two years of Macca lip, and won the battle both times, why would this year be any different?
  
  Bad luck, bad patches and maybe an angry Madame Pele had intervened to smote Macca’s chances over the last two years. His well-documented cable breakage had left him unable to defend in 08, then a poor swim seeded the mother of all sugar-blows on the Queen K ending his victory chances in 09. Maybe these two events had lulled Crowie into a false sense of security- for he did not make chase when the Tissink/McCormack challenge went up the road. Those 8 minutes were the difference between 1st and 4th. The defending champion was out of the running (in Macca’s mind, this would have been for certain).
• MMS #3: optimising his swim. This meant he could conserve his attack for when it really mattered, rather than having to chase down the pack with that burst of valuable glycogen. Macca got out with the leaders in 2010.
• MMS #4: Attacking the run when he felt good between miles 5 and 10, then conserving while Raelert made the effort to get to the front between 15-20. While Raelert was anteloping to Macca at top pace to close down the gap, the latter was running conservatively, managing his nutrition. He’d pulled on the brakes and Raelert aka ‘the Mig’ thought he’d fly right by. This left Macca able to think through scenarios and plan for success while all Raelert could think about was catching and passing his quarry. He was running faster than Macca, why wouldn’t he run past?
• MMS #5: “The hand shake”. When Raelert caught Macca, Macca immediately assumed the dominant role. He greeted Raelert. He ran a half pace ahead. They spoke a few words at Macca’s discretion. He even told Raelert they needed to keep the pace high because Vanhoenacker was running strong only a couple of minutes down- now they were working as a partner ship for a common goal! The hand shake was truly great- it made the German think his mentor had accepted him as an equal. Really Macca had taken full control.
• MMS #6: Attacking the aid station. With the trap set, the attack was unexpected for Raelert- he would have assumed it to come later. They were still trying to stay away from the Belgian together weren’t they? But Macca had a full belly of nutrition and was ready to hurt the Mig. The German had to respond to cover the gap while he was trying to cool down and replenish his resources. Macca was dominating his prey… again.
• MMS#7: Attacking on a down Palani. The hardest place to run strong with quad’s that are shot is a down hill. The eccentric contraction strains the muscles and hurts more than any other type of running. Macca’s bigger legs were always going to be good for a sprint, but the long lever’s of Raelert made that a risk.
  As soon as Raelert lost some ground with some tentative steps, Macca had gone into full gas. Raelert didn’t have the muscle mass to respond to the hurt. Macca had made the gap and the celebration had started in his mind- he was already dumping those sponges!
  
  When you look at the finish line footage without sound- superimpose in your mind the Maverick and Goose whoops and hoots of delight, it’s eerily familiar! Onya Macca- you beat the German (that old WW2 story line) and provided near perfect American television. The only slight imperfection for the producers is that your nationality reads AUS, not US! Chris McCormack- All Australian Hero!
  
  Text: firstoffthebike.com Staffer

------




P.S. in my opinion (sqw) Crowie showed that he's an true champion with his monster effort on the day, he never gave up, ran his way into 4th and went down swinging. Macca said the same "the man is an absolute champion, he simply got out played on one day".

S

I'm headed back down to Specialized in mid November to see Scott, can't wait.

interesting post on my favorite nutrition blog www.marksdailyapple.com

12 OCT

How Bad is Rice, Really?

The cereal grain family prides itself on its powerful, expansive arsenal of lectins, phytates, gluten, and other antinutrients. A single seed of its patriarch, wheat, can punch holes in gut linings with ease, and cousin oat has managed to obtain official recognition as being good for the heart even as it doses you with gluten. As healthy whole grains, they hide their armaments in plain sight; they cloak their puny bodies in the very poisons for which they are lauded and applauded. We Primals have got a heated feud going with the family as a whole, but should we paint all its members with the same brush?

to read the rest click here

maybe our sports most "professional" athlete and a heck of a nice guy. Could this be his year in Kona?

Chris Lieto is one of the best athletes in the sport, he's an incredibly hard worker and one most professional athletes I've ever met. He must have 30hrs in his day because I have no idea how he balances it all. Between that and being coached by one of the premier coaches in the sport (the meteoric rise of Matt Dixon's www.purplepatch.com), saturdays Hawaii Ironman is going to be an exciting race and we know he'll be charging hard at the front,

Chris will be racing for MORE THEN SPORT

a very interesting read.

www.blogmaverick.com

Are You a 1 Hit Wonder or a Meal Ticket ?

Oct 6th 2010 9:40PM

This is a post about content that I wish I had written.  Props to Peter Kim for recognizing an emerging trend among content creators.  They are giving up. They are narrowing their audience scope to where they can make money or have the most impact. Or, they are selling out. (See TechCrunch).  Im not sure where I read it, but I believe Michael Arrington of TechCrunch said it was the exhaustion of the grind that led him to sell more than anything else.

Its the grind. Here we are years into social media. Blogging.  Vertical Social Networks (see Ning). Content creators have been grinding it out chasing the ability to make a living and possibly put some money away for the better part of a decade with little or no success. Rather than continue to 6am to midnight grind, they are revamping or selling. You can’t blame them. At some point every business has to become not only a labor of love, but one that can pay off your credit card dreams as well.

No one wants to live in the content ghetto forever. Below is an article I wrote 4 years ago. its as valid today in concept  as it was back then.

Is the Internet A Long Tail Ghetto ?

Oct 28th 2006 5:38AM

Chris Anderson did a masterful job of identifying and defining The Long Tail back in 2004 in a Wired Article. What i havent seen yet is a definition of when content crosses over from being part of the long tail, and onto the Vert Ramp (The perfect term to steal from skateboarding).

to keep reading click here