My One Chance to legitimately spend time at triathlon at work - help wanted
I got invited to give an Honors College seminar/salon/colloquium/whatever on "triathlon". Apparently there is a chemistry major in the honors college who knows that I do them and they have a series of guest speakers on various topics of interest.
I told them my title would be "Triathlon - A game of Sweat and Science"
I figure I'll spend a little time showing pictures and just talking about triathlon in general, and then I'll spend a bit more time on topics of basic academic interest, like hydrodynamics/aerodynamics and the strategies we use to reduce them, etc. I'll bring in my road and Tri bikes to show how the fit differs, etc.
If you were an 18-20 year old college student, what would you like to hear/see a middle aged chemistry professor tell you about triathlons?
Comments
Sounds like a fun topic. Don't forget to tell them about sweat tests and peeing on the bike.
Give the talk in your tri kit...or in a Speedo. That will get their attention
For kicks, I'll bring in two bikes and trainers just to show different bike positions. These days, the received wisdom is activity = good, lecture = bad.
Power (measured in watts), related to speed (factoring in weight/kg and aerodynamics) obviously interesting to physics types. Biology and chemistry types might be interested in the nutrition aspects of long course triathlon (sodium loss/replacement, maintaining blood glucose, fatigue/stress followed by recovery leading to muscle building, mitochondria increases with fitness, adaptation in strategy heat/humidity, etc.).
Pictures of hot/handsome triathletes in spandex interspersed frequently of course!
Even basic stuff like small cogs in back = faster, vs. small chainring = slower (my wife still doesn't get this!). Carbon advantages over steel or aluminum.
Sounds fun actually. I teach med students and residents frequently, and find that asking them questions tends to keep interest better than just "lecturing".
Let us know what you end up doing, how it goes, etc. This is cool.
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Hmmm......Interesting.
I would like to hear about the simple challenge and accomplishment of finishing a Triathlon especially an Ironman
I think a simple history/key events/figures in the sport would be a good addition. A short video or the Julie Moss Clip would be the best.
From a techy view.....showing the bikes and how they differ is good, but also show how development and design has been going into the bikes/equipment and the iterations over the years to get where we are now. Throwing in the fact companies are teaming with Auto Companies (McClaren, Lambo, ETC) to
Honestly, I am just stupid. If he simply said "You Suffer for Fun." I would be all in.....just my mindset. Maybe he should show that Tris are not just for Alpha Alpha Males (Yes, I used 2 Alphas on purpose.), but a challenge for any and everyone.
Those are my 2 cents at the moment......If I think of a few other things, I will let you know.
Nice input. I'm not sure how good my audio will be, but I'll look for a video I can have in my pocket if it's good. I don't know what the Julie Moss clip is but I'll do a search and see what's out there.
If I were teaching a Weeklong series, I'd have more time for things like bike evolution...but you can't cram a ton of stuff into a single presentation...I think that may be a little much for one session.
But just showing them your bikes will probably blow them away. Don't forget your aero helmet.
I agree with the Julie Moss historical impact. For more info, here is a not-so-brief article on Ironman from the Sports Illustrated vault.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/va.../index.htm
I'd like to see the multiple bikes, hear about the high-level training requirements and focuses (foci?) for short course vs long course (hours, miles, etc). Maybe tri in Olympics (since it's coming around again) and Iron War too!
I think it might be interesting to discuss the demographics of the average triathlete as well as the pointy end of the AG fields:
...or not, because when I was in college I thought everyone older than about 28 was basically dead or completely invisible to me
I have a point showing rough volumes for high caliber high school and/or "ordinary" collegiate athlete in single sports vs. the recreational and serious triathlete.
Rich - good suggestion (demographics). After I finish out what I have now in my head, I'm going to do that as a module and see how much time I have.
As it happens, there is a very active triathlon club on campus that even puts on an indoor tri, a regular sprint tri in the fall, and a "fun run" 5K... so one part of that message will surely be that it doesn't take a lot to just get started if you want to play at the sprint level.
In thinking about this, one of the points I want to make is that there's a huge range of levels of participation. If you can get across the pool, own a commuter mountain bike and can finish a 5K, you can play in the recreational sprint triathlon game, and you'll be doing something good for yourself... but that there is also this huge underlying science in exercise phys, fluid dynamics, nutrition, etc etc etc that lets you get as deep as you want. I think Rich's point about demographics is also eye-opening...from the same kind of perspective...there's everything from the entry level sprint participant to the wealthy middle aged dood burning 5 figures a year or more.
I've given many "Intro to Triathlon" talks over the years to complete noobs, usually at tri club meetings.
This is my schtick, maybe work this in there:
Triathlon is very simple: first you swim, then bike, then you run. Between each you take some stuff off and put other stuff on.
You only need three things to do a triathlon: a bike, a helmet, and something to cover your naughty parts.
But most importantly, when you go to work on Monday and people ask you what you did, just say you did a triathlon, smugly. They'll naturally think you did an Ironman and are a complete badass. While you'll know the truth, that you didn't do an IM and it wasn't as hard as you thought it would be, we, the card carrying members of the Bad Ass Triathlete Club demand that you don't dispel that notion that we're badasses.
The truth is that there are very few things left in the modern world that are widely recognized to be within the realm of badassery. Triathlon is one of those. Chicks and doodes dig a badass and that's pretty much the only reason you need to do anything in this world so get off your ass and be a badass...but you gotta keep our secret that it's really not that hard
I was fortunate enough to have a guy just about my size in the audience, so I could mount him on my road and TT bikes for some good visuals. Honestly, the talk seemed to go over very well. I tried to use photos of myself and my kids to illustrate a few things on a keynote presentation. They seemed to dig using a few equations they have seen (I even used PV=nRT, for anyone who remembers gen chem....)
Anyway, word got out about it, and now I'm doing a follow up lecture. The college's triathlon club runs a winter clinic and indoor tri this weekend, and they invited me to speak. The rest of the people are going to be more "standard": a certified coach, a nutritionist, a running expert, etc etc etc. They asked me to give a geek talk, so I gave them a title of "Statistics and Significant Figures: Being smart about training, racing, and spending" Unfortunately, now I have to write the talk! Anyway, this will be a different group of people...almost all members of college triathlon clubs from ISU and other regional colleges.
My wife thought that the geek title I gave was better than the other one I could have used to cover most of the same material - "You are not special." :-)
Sounds cool, glad it worked out! Three requests for the next presentation:
Not sure exactly how it would go over to give a talk wearing a singlet or a cycling jersey. :-)
Tri short, singlet, cycling shoes, aerohelmet...you'll have their attention
Don't forget compression socks, arm coolers, and a road ID. I think you'll leave an impression