Marcus Barton

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What Shoes Will YOU Be Wearing?

Friday, October 15th, 2010

When mentioning to co-workers, friends and relatives that I qualified for XTERRA Worlds and will be out of town next week, many of them come up with some kooky questions. Yeah, you get the usual questions. How far do you race? Will you be swimming in the ocean? Are you worried about sharks? Of course, they’re usually answered with something just as kooky in return, such as: As far as my legs will take me. No, we’ll be swimming in a cenote. No, because I will be wearing chainmail. We love joking around like that.

But when fellow XTERRA triathletes or trail runners hear about racing in Maui, the most common question I get is: What shoes will you be wearing? My answer: I’m not sure yet.

You see, back at the beginning of the year, I managed to get my hand on two different pairs of shoes, both from Avia. At first glance, these two pairs of shoes have very distinct, different usages.

The first pair is a pair of Avia Avi-Stoltz trail shoes. If a great road shoe and a great trail shoe were to have children, they might just be twins to the Avi-Stoltz. Included in the team of designers was two time Olympian and three time Xterra World Champion Conrad Stoltz (hence the shoe name). I’ve raced in all kinds of trail shoes. Most of my complaints have been around the fact that most trail shoes are unusually bulky which equates to being unusually heavy. I like a rugged shoe and all, but they don’t need to be as heavy as combat boots. I had enough of those when I was in the Air Force.

The Avi-Stoltz are as light as road-running shoes. They have a very light, airy upper that drains as well as it ventilates. The toe box has decent protection up front and the heel (as well as the tongue) features long, rubbery finger grabs making it easy to slip on in transition, even with wet hands. Couple them with a pair of black, Nathan Velocity Laces and you’re all set to race.

The sole features serrated edges for great grip on a variety of terrain. I’ve raced in them on numerous trails in numerous races including XTERRA triathlons and XTERRA trail runs. Below you will see (from left to right), XTERRA Panther Creek, XTERRA Francis Beatty Trail Run, and XTERRA Canada Nationals. These are but a few of the races I’ve ran in them. Combine that with the COUNTLESS hours I’ve been wearing them in training and you have a pair of shoes that just about ready to be retired.

Click here for more info about the Avia Avi-Stoltz

The other pair of shoes that I have had the pleasure to wear while training and racing is a pair of Avia Av-Bolt II. At 8.5 ounces, this is one of the lightest shoes I’ve used to date. These shoes were made for triathlons. Whether it’s the speed laces or easy to grab heel and tongue (same features as the Avi-Stoltz), you’re sure to be quicker in these shoes.

Since I don’t race a whole ton of road events, I wasn’t sure how much use I would get out of them. One such race was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k in Charlotte, NC where I came in 6th overall out of about 1500. These shoes definitely allowed me to run better, faster & stronger.

However, after some poking and prodding by Coach Mel, I have been talked into trying the Avi-Bolt II shoes out trail running. I know they’re made for the road (I used that excuse with her), but they are just as fast on the trail. Granted, if you are going to be in some really gnarly trails, mud or anything that requires some extra grip, these may not be the ones to choose (instead, go with the Avi-Stoltz). Read Mel’s post about Nationals and you’ll see what I mean. However, if you’re mountain bike will have tires specific to the course, why wouldn’t you choose shoes in the same manner? Aren’t shoes the tires for your feet?

Click here for more info about the Avia Avi-Bolt II

Through numerous hours and miles of training on the trail lately, I have been running in both the Avi-Stoltz and the Avi-Bolt II shoes. It really depends on the terrain and the conditions. I can say that both of these shoes rock!

So which one will I choose to run the XTERRA Worlds course in Maui?

To be continued…

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Tags: Avia, Nathan, Susan G. Komen, XTERRA, XTERRA Canada National Championships, XTERRA Panther Creek
Posted in Athlete Blog, Equipment, Marcus Barton, Product Reviews | No Comments »

Jumping on the Nutrition Bandwagon

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

by Marcus Barton

Many of my MelRad teammates have blogged about nutrition and how important good nutritional habits are vitally important to your sport of choice, especially triathlons. Well, I’m jumping on the bandwagon with this post and catching the proverbial piggy-back ride of my teammates.

Leading into a race weekend, we all think about every aspect of our training. Did I put in enough quality miles? Did I swim enough? Did yesterday’s run really feel that bad? Did I eat the right foods?

As you can see, like my teammates, nutrition ranks right up there with every other aspect of training and race preparation. However, I’m not here to drone on about lean proteins, quality carbohydrates and healthy fats. You’ve already done your research on all of that, right? Don’t look at your computer monitor with that strange look. You know what you need to do there. Put down the sweets, quit eating those refined carbos, and stay away from that deep fried, chocolate-covered bacon on a stick.

Instead, I want to talk about vitamin supplements. We, as triathletes, burn lots and lots of calories during our training regimens. This results in us eating lots of food to restore those burnt cals. Even though you may be eating well (as mentioned previously), you may still be missing some key nutrients in your diet. This is especially true for those of you that are using your triathlon “kick” as a ride on the weight-loss train. If you’re training to also lose weight, then you are probably cutting calories in an effort to burn more than you consume. You, my friend, are in DIRE need of nutritional supplementation.

Digging through my stash of magazines in my bath… uh… reading room, I came across an excellent article in Bicycle Magazine. It mentioned “15 Proven Ways to Get Faster.” In that article, number 9 was:

“Recent research suggests that active people who are low in B vitamins such as B6, B12, folate and riboflavin don’t perform their best and may have trouble building muscle and producing oxygen—carrying red blood cells. During hard training, load up on B nutrients, which are essential for converting protein and carbs to energy and for repairing cells, by eating plenty of whole grains, dark-green veggies and low-fat dairy. Pop a daily multivitamin or start the day with a fortified cereal for extra insurance.”

Yet another article in another issue also mentions Vitamin D and Antioxidants. These are only but a few of the very important things that should also be part of your diet. Even though I only mention these two articles, there are plenty of reliable sources of information that will back it up.

So how and what should you be looking for in a good supplementation to your diet? My personal recommendation is USANA’s HealthPak. Here’s a couple of reasons why:

First, it’s easy. The HealthPak comes presorted with the right nutrients in individual packets. The packets also come with an AM and PM packet neatly attached. For someone on the go like me, it makes it pretty easy to toss a packet in my pocket on my way to work or a bunch when heading out of town (like this weekend). No fuss, no muss.

Second, it’s easy. Yep, I said it again. No guesswork about which multi-viatamins, antioxidant, or other supplement to buy. Ever been to one of those vitamin shops with walls and walls of vitamins? Which do you choose? With the HealthPak, they’re chosen, presorted, and pre-packed for me.

Lastly, it’s the right nutrition. Each packet comes with the following supplements:

2 Mega Antioxidants
2 Chelated Minerals
1 Active Calcium
1 AO Booster

Each pack contains the following vitamins: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D , Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Folate, Biotin, Pantothenic Acid, Calcium, Iodine, Magnesium, Zinc, Selenium, Copper, & Manganese. (see this detailed list of vitamins and quantities).

Although vitamins are no substitute for healthy eating habits, they can take your nutrition (and your racing) to the next level. So even if you already have healthy eating habits, you should try USANA. If you don’t already have healthy eating habits, get with the program, chump. (grin)

Just a note of caution: You know your own dietary needs. Even though I’m not a dietician, I am a triathlete like you with a goal of being the best that I can. So in the process of doing so, I have researched nutrition quite a bit myself, including recommendations from a licensed dietician. I implore you to do you’re own research to find out what nutrition is right for you and/or speak to a registered dietician.

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Tags: Nutrition, USANA, Vitamins
Posted in Athlete Blog, Marcus Barton, Nutrition, Product Reviews | No Comments »

What’s green and full of energy?

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Big news from GU:

Drum roll please….Watermelon Chomps are a bright NEW addition to the existing lineup of chewable GU. The watermelon flavor is subtle and very appropriate for hot weather. Or when you are dreaming of hot weather. And it’s not caffeinated - you’ll have to get your fix somewhere else but there’s still plenty of power in there to keep you going. Watermelon Chomps will be available starting October 1st!

Posted in Athlete Blog, Marcus Barton, Nutrition | No Comments »

XTERRA Canada Nationals aka XTERRA Whistler aka best damn trails anywhere

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

By Marcus Barton

I love, love, love, the outstanding, awesome, excellent, bombtastic, sweet, superb, wonderful, fabulous, magnificent, beautiful, and technical trails at Whistler!

Thank you, Melanie, for talking me into this race.

Anyone who has seen my Facebook page has already seen the tons of pictures that we took during this trip. For those of you that haven’t, I’ll share a smidgen of them here.

After a long flight from the east coast to west, we hooked up with teammate Tim Holland and took the drive up from Seattle to Whistler. What was supposed to be a 4ish hour drive turned into 6 or so with all of the traffic. There was great debate if we should have flown into Vancouver instead.

The next morning, Tim, Dan, Danny and I headed out to the trails to get a quick preview of the course. For the race, it would be a two-lap bike and pseudo-two-lap run. Our initial plans were to ride one lap of the bike and run one lap of the run course as a preview. As soon as we arrived at the trailhead, we met up with Conrad Stoltz who was on his second lap. We all dove into the trailhead and started the first climb. I tried my best to stick to Conrad’s wheel as he easily climbed up the hill (of course). He waited at the top of each climb for me to catch up after which we bombed down the descents. This happened two or three times through the first section of the course before dumping out onto pavement. What a blast.

Side-by-side, we rode up the road chatting about the course, the venue and the upcoming race. Before diving into the single-track again, Conrad stated he would ride the second lap non-stop since he stopped at each technical section on the first lap. We decided in our best interests (reserving our legs) and not to hold Conrad back, that it would be best if he went on without us. In a cloud of dust, Conrad sped up the next climb.

Rather than create a lengthy, lengthy post, let me just say that this is THE most technical XTERRA course I have raced to date. Conrad, in his blog post, said it best, “For sure the hairiest, most scary, most technical XTERRA course I’ve seen. I walked some of the most hectic sections to check them out, then get on the bike, motivate and attack. Felt the rush of adrenaline, realized I forgot to breathe. What a rush. The riding here is in a class of its own”. ‘Nuf said. Couldn’t have said it better myself. So instead of rehashing, here’s a few pics. Click on them for larger versions.

View Full Album

After our fun preride, we realized that we didn’t have time for the preview of the run course. Instead, we headed back to the Nita Lake Lodge to attend the Q&A with the pros and the pre-race briefing. We listened in as questions were answered by Conrad Stoltz, our own Melanie McQuaid, Danielle Kabush and Mike Vine. It was a great session and many tips were thrown out to the crowd of athletes. If you’re ever attending one of the championship races, you should definitely make it a point to attend one of these Q&A’s. I pick up something from every one of them, regardless of how many I sit through.

On to Race Day

Race morning, it was a balmy 45 degrees. Heading to the race start, we found a bit of fog and chilly air while we setup for transition.

Since I couldn’t take any C02 or Big Air on the plane, Alexia hooked me up with one of her cans of Big Air. When you buy Big Air in the store, it comes in a green can. Genuine Innovations hooked our team up with special cans, blue for the guys and pink for the girls. You guessed it. I rocked one of Alexia’s pink cans! Both Tim and I had tire-related issues on the pre-ride, so the Big Air he was carrying came in quite handy to get us riding quickly. We donned the Profile Design Gold Cell wetsuits and headed for the water.

In classic XTERRA fashion, the swim consisted of two, 750 meter laps with a short beach run between.

The bike leg was, again, a BLAST. There were some great climbs, technical, rocky drops and downhills. And just to make things even more interesting, they threw in some ladder bridges to boot. One minute, you’re doing a technical, climb, and the next, you’re going around a man-made switchback consisting of a u-shaped ladder bridge with a 10 foot drop on one side. A two-lap course, we were able to hit all of the great terrain twice, totalling around 13 miles.

The run course was equally as fun. Again, a multi-lap course totalling about 5 miles, it was a great, technical challenge. Throw in a few more bridges, log hops and a grueling climb that you had to climb TWICE and you have XTERRA Canada. Finish up the race with about 2k of road running, through a neighborhood and you finish up at the Nita Lake lodge.

My age group (40-44) was the largest age group in the race, filled with some very talented folks and a speckling of guys who used to race pro. The top 3 guys in our age group finished ahead of pro men and I managed to keep an 8th place in the division at 2:56. Full Results.

Knowing that we would want to hit more trails, we all stayed an extra couple of days to take in more hiking and biking. Alba and I decided went to the top of Whistler, saw a bear and went to Rainbow Falls. We also went to Southside Diner and had a burger with fried egg and bacon. The poutine was excellent, too.

Check out even more pictures in this album. ALSO, check out the highlight video.

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Tags: Avia, Canada, GU, mountain biking, Nathan, triathalon, Whistler, XTERRA
Posted in Alexia Droz, Athlete Blog, Marcus Barton, Race Reports, Tim Holland, Uncategorized | No Comments »

XTERRA Panther Creek

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

by Marcus Barton

I raced the XTERRA Panther Creek Tri back on August 1st. I know, I know. That was 4 weeks ago. After some pestering from a few of my buddies who wanted the low-down, I figured I would post it anyhow. Plus, with going into my next race, I have been thinking a lot about Panther Creek, as any racer should. What went right? What went wrong? What changes should I make to improve? You get the idea. So since it’s been on my mind lately, it does make it easier to throw it on paper. Well, uh, not really paper, but again, you get the idea.

For the second year in a row, it was a wet course. It was on and off raining in the area the 24 hours leading up to the race. I wasn’t overly nervous about it, as I had a pretty good race there last year and it was muddy as all get-out.

Fred and I had chatted a couple of times leading into the race and we hooked up on race morning to talk strategy among miscellaneous small talk. It was still on-and-off misting as you could tell from the foggy camera lens in the picture below.

Like last year, the bike course was modified slightly to prevent the racers from going through a slick boulder and bridge section. It’s a fun, fun section when it’s dry, but could be very, very sketchy when wet. Here’s a dry picture of the section that was cutout.

After getting transition all laid out and things ready for the race, Fred, Dan, and I decided to head out on the course for a little quick pre-race warmup. This also gave us an opportunity to check out the course and to see if my decision to go gloveless would work given the wet conditions. It was slick as expected with every wet root acting like a gremlin to throw your wheels out from under you. The ESI Grips worked well, even wet and even without gloves. I was pleasantly surprised as I knew that going gloveless could save me time in transition, especially if it continued to rain. Have you ever tried putting on wet gloves?

On a second lap of the section we decided to pre-ride, I opted to push things just a little too hard. Inevitably, I crashed. Not only did I crash, but I did so twice. The second time down, my decision to go without gloves bit me. While hitting the dirt, I tried to catch myself and both of my hands scraped across sharp, pea-sized gravel. The result were cuts and scrapes to both of my palms. The pic below was from post-race while cleaning the wounds. Can you imagine what they looked like bloody?

Getting back to transition, I grabbed my Bellwether Scout gloves from my transition bag and placed them in their appropriate spot. There was no way I was going through that twice. I headed down to the water for a warm-up swim. During the swim, as soon as I took off, the first couple of strokes were painful. I expected the cuts to sting, but that wasn’t the problem. The real pain came from the fact that my right palm was not only cut, but bruised quite a bit. Matter of fact, it had already begun to swell and discolor. “This is not going to be fun on the bike,” I thought. After my warmup swim and RIGHT before the race start, I ran back up to transition and swapped my Scout gloves for a pair of the Bellwether Supreme gloves. I normally reserve these for road biking because I favor full-fingered gloves on the mountain bike. My decision to use them was based up the fact that they have a padded palm. They ended up being saviors on the bike course.

The swim consisted of a 400 meter course of which we would have to two laps. On the first lap I attempted to keep a strong, fast pace to stay ahead of the main pack. I knew I couldn’t keep up with Fred’s super-fast pace, so rather than blow up trying, I just kept him in sight and settled into my own pace. I was in 6th place coming out of the water and couple of minutes behind Fred (pretty significant on such a short swim).

My transition went super smooth and I entered the trail in 4th place. I passed another racer very early in the bike which put me into 3rd. I held 3rd place for a good portion of the first (of two) laps. That’s when my friend Dan caught up to me. “Abracadabra,’ he says as he passes me. We stuck together into the second lap. About a third of the way through, I crashed again on slick roots, hitting more sharp gravel, taking a huge chunk out of my tri suit and my arse with it. I shook it off quickly and kept on trucking. About the time I caught back up to Dan, I heard Ryan Oconner behind us and I informed Dan that we had a tail. Ryan kept his pursuit and eventually passes me once the trail widened. Shortly after his pass, I tried to pick up my pace in an effort to keep on his tail. It wasn’t long before the conditions took over and I crashed, AGAIN. Same side, same area, leaving more arse on trail. This allowed both Dan and Ryan to get out of sight. I continued my pursuit to both catch the guys in front and to ward off anyone trying to catch up. As I was about to finish up the bike leg of the race, Bence Roemer catches up and takes a pass.

Sore and beat up, I entered T2 and ditched the bike gear as quickly as possible. It went pretty smooth and I went into the run in 6th place overall.

After about a mile or so of technical single-track, the run course opened up onto a gravel fire-road. I could see Bence in the distance and tried my best to reel him in. Once we entered into a lolly-pop loop section of the course, I wouldn’t see him again. Matter of fact, I didn’t see or hear anyone for the rest of the run. I spent it all alone till the end of the race.

Since the conditions were quite muddy, I was a little concerned that the Avia Avi-Stoltz shoes would get clogged up and lose grip. Only in the most extreme, greasy mud did this happen (which any shoe would have had trouble). The rest of the time, they worked like champs. I held 6th place overall and first in my age group.

Great race and good times!

Congrats to teammate Fred Smith for taking 1st place overall!!!

Full results: http://www.xterraplanet.com/races/view_results.cfm?race_id=1088

Be a Warrior!

Marcus

Tags: Racing, triathlon, XTERRA
Posted in Athlete Blog, Marcus Barton, Race Reports | No Comments »