In case you didn't notice, it's "Heat Month" here at Endurance Corner. While our columnists have shared a lot of information about how to train and race in the heat, our team still has a few more tips to share.

by Marilyn McDonald

I am Canadian, which means I grew up in the winters. I also grew up in northern Alberta, so I experienced real cold. But despite growing up with cold weather, I never really got to like it.

But heat is a different story. When it comes to heat training and racing I have had some good success and hopefully have some good advice to share.

by Mimi Winsberg, M.D.

Pumping milk in the front seat of her car is not Tina Pretre’s typical pre-race routine. But as the new mom prepared to dive into the 58-degree San Francisco Bay waters to race in an olympic distance triathlon, she found herself doing exactly that. To her surprise, she was not alone. A competitor next to her was also breastfeeding her baby.

Despite the unusual warm-up, Pretre went on to place fourth in her age group. Her daughter was among the spectators at the finish line. She was eight weeks old.

by Gordo Byrn

It’s been a strange summer for me. I have a goal of being “fast” in October/November so have not put a lot of pressure on myself in training or nutrition. Like my buddy Slater, my main goal is to hit each sport at least once every three days.

That said, I’ve noticed that my fitness is quite good and was thinking that I might as well “use” some of it outside of my masters swim workouts! Dropping $1000 (entry, hotel, airtix, car rental) to race a marquee event away from home seems like a waste of time and money.

So what to do?

Race different.

Gordo shares ideas on building your own aquathons.

by Larry Creswell, M.D.

One topic of discussion that comes up frequently among my athlete friends is the issue of laboratory testing -- specifically, blood testing -- for seemingly healthy athletes. This is an area where there are conflicting opinions among sports medicine and other physicians who care for athletes, but I thought I’d share some of my thoughts. I’ll try to keep things practical.

by Bob Albright, D.O.

Not to worry, elections are still two years away… I still plan to give you all my usual upbeat, perhaps overly glib effort.

Today’s subject is one most all of us have encountered, chronic tendon injuries and whether eccentric exercises are a major part of the solution. I hope to also discuss their effectiveness and perhaps how they may work.

Loosely defined, a tendon injury which goes on for months (or years -- anyone?) with associated tenderness, limitation to range of motion and overall function may be determined to be a tendinosis. Tendinosis implies the tendon is no longer actively inflamed, but instead its tissue has entered a static phase characterized by fibrous tissue replacing healthy tendon. The situation may even be made worse by anti-inflammatory medications.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

In a recent article, I went through a brief case study concerning some of the steps I go through in troubleshooting a painful or uncomfortable bike position. In this series I’m going to expand on that by taking you, the rider, through the process of measuring yourself up and selecting an appropriate ride for your dimensions and range of motion limitations. In my opinion, this process of fitting the machine to the man is far preferable to the standard process of fitting the man to the machine, that is, selecting a stock frame that looks cool or weighs in as the lightest on the market then attempting to contort your body to "make it work."

by Sue Aquila

This has been the summer of business crisis management-- actually, it’s been more like the summer of how not to manage a crisis! We have had Toyota blaming crashes on floor mats, BP leaving every trace in the Gulf, and Apple instructing us how to hold our cell phones.

In triathlon, our crisis management is often weather related. Usually our concerns revolve around how hot it will be during the race. Lately, it seems like every race is “damn hot” and ridiculously humid. In the beginning of my triathlon career, I had a horrible time learning how to overcome the crisis of weather. Over time, I have learned to “adapt and improvise!”

by Gordo Byrn

Reading between the lines last week, you might have picked up my point that you’ve got what you’ve got when it comes to training time. In a limited time situation there will always be the temptation to do every session as fast as you can.

The trouble with this strategy is understanding the specific speed requirements for our event

by Jeff Shilt, M.D.

I've written in the past regarding the benefits of eccentric exercises for rehabilitation of a variety of overuse injuries. I also feel strongly that eccentric leg exercises are very valuable in strength training for runners who may have biomechanical limitations in regard to training volume.

by Marilyn McDonald

A key session that should be a staple in your final prep for your key event is the long ride with quality sets. This ride is shorter than your longer, easier distance sets, but the amount of quality work within the ride should be greater.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

In my last article on the benefits of different courses for different size “horses,” I illustrated how different course types may play out for two morphologically very different athletes -- a smaller thoroughbred and a large, powerful, draft horse.

However, as my buddy Alex pointed out, I didn’t really give a good indication of how to go about determining which stable you belong in. In other words, are you a thoroughbred or a draft horse?

John Cobb, bike fit and aerodynamics expert, recently took the time to answer Endurance Corner team member questions. We're sharing his responses as part of a series throughout the summer. In this installment, John answers some questions about equipment selection.

by Gordo Byrn

I was extremely fortunate to spend the last week in Aspen with three very speedy guys (pictured right after an epic run). They've all managed to qualify for Kona this October and will be dueling in the Mens 40-44.

I used to think that my peer group was unique but as I get to know more uber-vets I have realized that there are a lot of triathletes going big! Spending time with the guys reminded me how hard the top athletes in our sport are working towards their goals.

There are lessons that we can learn from watching how the best amateurs organize their lives. Before I get into that, here’s a summary of what we did.

by Chuckie V

Training camps provide an opportunity for elevated fitness levels, but the camps themselves aren't what makes us fitter -- that's where diligent recovery comes in.

by Jonas Colting

They say that diligence is a virtue. I don´t know who coined that expression but he was probably not that great of an athlete.

Any successful endurance athlete knows that, on the contrary, excess is a virtue. And it’s something to prefer... to exaggerate to the point of going overboard.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

As a follow up to my previous series on race selection and in accordance with this month’s theme of heat training I want to chat a little today about some of the factors that come into play to determine how different athletes will perform on different types of race courses.

Hopefully you will be able to use this information to select race courses that give you (and your bodytype) the greatest chance of success.

by Justin Daerr

I started triathlon when I lived in south Texas in 2000 and I did not even know what it was like to race in cool temperate conditions until I did my first race outside the state a couple years down the road. I thought it was perfectly normal to expect bathtub water at the start and sauna-like conditions at the end.

Here are some tips I've learned.

There's a lot of excitement and anxious energy building the day before a big race. We asked some of our extended writing and coaching team what they do on race day minus one.

by Bob Albright, D.O.

Let me do my best to explain a central physiologic concept near and dear to all our hearts (and brains, muscles and other non-beating organs): osmolality and how it relates to the need to drink, prevention of dehydration and maintenance of general health (thus avoiding the Ancient Mariner’s fate).

by Mimi Winsberg, M.D.

I often joke that the endurance sports community is rife with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is defined as an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors and rituals aimed at reducing anxiety.

Nowhere is this more manifest than in athletes' pre-race rituals and superstitions. As an important race looms, triathletes find themselves needing to eat specific foods, wear lucky clothes, look for significance in their race number, groom in particular ways (shave, paint nails, braid hair), listen to certain music, and do ritualized pre-race workouts and warm-ups. Some athletes need to carry a family photo or lucky charm on race day.

John Cobb, bike fit and aerodynamics expert, recently took the time to answer Endurance Corner team member questions. We're sharing his responses as part of a series throughout the summer. In this second part, John provides answers to questions about hilly courses.

by Gordo Byrn

This past week, we hosted our annual Boulder Summer Camp and I was very fortunate to be able to line up the following folks to assist us:

• World Champions - Chrissie Wellington and Craig Alexander
• Olympians - Laura & Greg Bennett and Matt Reed
• Ironman Champions - Chuckie V and Marilyn McDonald
• US National Road and TT Champion - Kimberly Baldwin
• Olympic Gold Medalist Coach - Bobby McGee
• Pro Tour Cycling Coach - Dirk Friel

This week I am going to share ideas, some unconventional, that caught my attention as we rolled through camp.

by Larry Creswell

I’ve noticed that my triathlete friends often give short shrift to some of the warning signs of potentially worrisome problems -- problems that stem from the heart or vascular system. This is particularly true for my male athlete friends! Young “healthy” men just don’t like to go to the doctor. I think that athletes like to believe they’re invincible, ignoring serious warning signs until they just simply can’t be ignored any longer. But just like plantar fasciitis, for example, it’s always best to recognize and deal with any serious heart-related problem earlier rather than later.

by Sue Aquila

Here is what I have learned about tapering in the last 10 years.

It works. Being fit with less fatigue is huge.

There are more ways to taper than there our races. I have tried virtually all of them: the no taper, the step taper, the swim taper, the gradual taper and the do nothing taper. Each works to varying degrees and results.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

As long course athletes, we have some unique fitness requirements when it comes to race day performance -- requirements that may or may not be accurately expressed by the plethora of short duration fitness tests that fill the popular training literature: Functional Threshold Tests (that we abridge because the full 60 minutes hurts too much J), CP5s, VO2max tests, VDOTS, Lactate Threshold tests, etc, etc. While these tests are a good indicator of how fast an athlete is, they don’t deal very well with the other element of the ironman performance equation -- endurance. Put another way, how long can the athlete hold a given speed/percentage of his or her max fitness?

by Gordo Byrn

Where I think many of us go "wrong" is our interpretation of what it takes to appropriately train our minds. Most people train capacity to absorb pain and "be hard" -- in fact, performance is about being fluid, rather than being hard.

Are you training the mental skills required to perform... or spending mental mojo on pain tolerance... or simply adding stress/fatigue to your life?

Here at Endurance Corner, a lot of our team members have a wide variety of talents beyond triathlon. Vince Matteo, an EC athlete from California, gives us his recipe for Four Alarm Chili -- just because the temperature is heating up for most of North America doesn't mean it's a bad time for chili!