My favorite swim workouts end with breakouts. Breakouts to the shower, or better yet, if you have the means, the STEAM ROOM. It takes me back to swim team days when it was 40 degrees and raining at the outdoor pool and coach would announce that we were doing "breakouts". This normally means diving off the blocks and holding max speed for about 10 seconds. We developed our own version of the set.. When we jumped out of the water after the first rep, we would sprint for 10 seconds to the locker room and jump in the hot tub for 5 minutes. Bam! "Breakouts to the hot tub" was born.
Fortunately these days, workouts are no longer in 40 degree weather, but I still love a good hot tub, and now, the glorious steam room. Me and Philippe, one of the members of the Athletes Lounge pro triathlon team, had finished up a great 5000 meter swim workout with Austin Arguello, and Damian Hill (also a member) and were chatting in the steam room. We talked about ideas for how the pro team could be more profitable for the store and just business practices in general. It got me fired up to make a difference in the store and to get involved in the pro team for the same reason. Portland only has ONE triathlon store and I'm proud to be a part of it, but that's a responsibility that shouldn't be taken lightly.
Anyway, it's fun to brainstorm and dream up cool business plans, we'll see if any of them actually make enough sense to implement :) I just hope that as an employee of Portland's triathlon store and as a lover of the sport, I can people to have the best experience possible with triathlon so that they can come to love it as much as I do.
Come visit at the store or look for the pro team on the road, all of the guys love to talk about triathlon, whether it's how to set up a transition area or what cadence is optimal for maximum sustained power :)
-Eric
