Preseason - Hammer Nutrition

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one of the best swimmers; he usually comes out of the water in
the top 20 overall. Stan shoveled snow off roofs one winter to
pay for his first bike. In his first triathlon, he really struggled
in the half-mile swim and thought he was going to drown for
sure. He had a bag of food on the front of his bike and, after
24 miles, had not eaten any of it. He suffered on the run and
coined the phrase, “Triathlon: Swim, Bike, Die.”
I started doing triathlons about two years later. It was kind
of a boring sport to watch, so I wanted to participate. I have
never regretted that decision. I love the sport, and I love being
able to work out and compete with Stan. When I started, there
were only about eight women in Utah competing in triathlons.
I often took 1st in my age category because I was the only one
in my age category. I coined the phrase, “You must be present
to win.” I still say that today.
The power of “we”
In the last 25 years we’ve competed in over 300 triathlons,
qualifying and competing in USAT Nationals several times.
We qualified for worlds
in Germany,
Canada, New
Zealand, and
Switzerland.
We were able
to travel to
Switzerland
in 2006 and
compete in the
triathlon and
aquathlon. We
both took silver
medals; it was so
exciting.
Clockwise from top: Stan and Marti celebrate
the completion of yet another triathlon. Marti
finds a spot for a little post-race relaxation.
Stan shows off his fuel of choice.
Photos : Stephanie Anderson
We like to train
early, usually 4:45
a.m. This is a time
when other life
responsibilities
don’t get in
the way, and
allows us the time to
still be parents and
grandparents. We
usually workout about
12-15 hours a week,
depending on our upcoming races. Recovery days are few and
far between. We don’t work out on Sunday—plus we love the
taper weeks!
The buddy system is powerful when it comes to training and
success. It helps you get up in the morning, swim intervals in
the pool, ride 100 miles on a hot day, and run the dark streets
early in the morning. Your best friend is your spouse and your
training partner.
Our advice to other husband-wife teams? Train together,
workout hard, and always make it work for both partners. We
look for adventures so that we can create memories, rather
than check off workouts. We listen to each other’s concerns and
try to help each other with different techniques and aspects
of the training and the sport. Make sure you are having fun,
and be competitive. You go to win, not just finish! We plan our
races at the beginning of the year together, and we sometimes
do races that the other partner really loves, but we aren’t so
fond of—we compromise. We get excited to race together, and
we celebrate each other’s accomplishments. We are grateful for
each other.
Fueling the early days of triathlon
Stan met Brian Frank at the Heritage International Triathlon
in Provo, Utah in 1988. Brian was promoting his product and
told Stan that it had a money-back guarantee. Stan was very
interested with that promise and felt he could not lose by
trying it. It was the early days of triathlon, and nutrition was
something you did by trial and error or by the seat of your
pants. Each race was an experiment.
Stan was always looking for something that he could take
during a race and not suffer for it. E-Caps products (now
Hammer Nutrition) became the key to that success. We have
never had to worry about the quality of the product or whether
or not it was the best thing of the times. Many products have
come on the market since then, and everyone claims their
product is the best, but we never felt like we needed to change
to something else. We have always been completely satisfied
with Hammer Nutrition products.
Our favorite product is Sustained Energy, and we use it on
every bike ride. Mixed with two servings of Hammer Gel,
we can go 4-5 hours on it. We will sometimes carry bags of it
in our jersey pockets to mix up later in the day. We ran the
Grand Canyon once from rim to rim. It was a 14-hour grueling
day, and we fueled on Sustained Energy and other Hammer
Nutrition products. We knew it would lead to our success that
day.
Premium Insurance Caps is also a favorite. Those help to
keep us from getting sick during the winter months. We can’t
remember being sick since we have been taking them and
never go a day without them. Espresso Hammer Gel is also
terrific and gives us both a boost when we need it. Recoverite is
a must to be able to get up and go the next day.
The story continues . . .
We are both retiring from our jobs this year, so this is going to
be quite different for us. We look forward to training and then
resting, and then training and resting some more! Recovery
will be the key to our new success. We want to improve
our times, and each year we will get faster by training and
recovering properly together. We want to travel more and will
pick a couple of races that will take us someplace new and
exciting. We will probably do 12-15 races this summer. With
Hammer Nutrition fuels and supplements, we will be going
strong for a long time to come.
We are looking forward to many more experiences,
opportunities to help others in the sport, and finding out what
we are really capable of doing. We are addicted to triathlon!
Thanks to Hammer Nutrition and especially thanks to Brian
Frank for helping us along the way. We couldn’t have done it
with you. HN
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