The Wolf is Saturday, but rookies say their triathlon journey is only beginning

They’ve been training for months, including hours of running, cycling and — at least until the weather warmed — staring at the bottom of the pool as they swam laps at The Wellness Complex. Whether The Daily Sun’s 2023 Rookies are ready or not, here comes the weekend of The Wolf Triathlon.

Who are the rookies? They’re Lauren Howard, 50, of Laconia, and Jeremy Hart, 43, of Gilford, neither of whom has attempted a triathlon before. In the middle of the winter, when this coming weekend seemed like a somewhat distant future, they both accepted the challenge of competing in The Wolf, taking place on Saturday, July 29, in Wolfeboro. They both are registered for the Olympic distance, which entails a 0.9-mile swim in Lake Wentworth, a 19.5-mile bike ride, and then a 6.2-mile run concluding on the track at the park known as The Nick.

Since the torrential rains of the recent weeks, though, organizers have had to map out a new bike course, as the scenic byways originally prescribed have since become treacherous for road bikes. The new course is a bit shorter, but has more elevation gain, than the original.

As part of The Daily Sun’s Rookie Academy, the two athletes have been provided with most of the material needs required for their training and competition. Bootlegger’s provided a pair of running shoes. MC Cycle & Sport made sure they had bikes for training and competition. Fit Focus and The Wellness Complex provided access to their workout facilities. The app Fuelin gave them subscriptions so they could see what, how much, and when they should eat to power their bodies. Tri-Tek Events, which hosts the race, waived entry fees. And elite multisport coach Colin Cook, of Peak Triathlon Coaching, has given them each a bespoke training plan to put them in the best position for success.

All that was left for the rookies to do was to train, train and train. Their plans, especially in recent weeks, have them exercising for an hour or more each day, often working on two of the three disciplines. They’ve both put in the hours, they’ve both greatly expanded their athletic capabilities and, as they toe the starting line Saturday, they can both call themselves triathletes.

One of them has a decision to make, though. Howard, who was inspired last year by volunteering in support of the now-defunct IRONMAN 70.3 Timberman race, which was held in Laconia, stepped up to the challenge despite starting at a basic level of fitness and technique, particularly with regards to the swim and the bike portions. She’s made tremendous progress in the water — it’s now her strongest of the disciplines — but to her surprise, the work she did on an indoor training bike hasn’t translated into confidence on the road. And her running pace has taken a mysterious turn.

“I thought I’d be faster by now,” Howard said, less than a week prior to the event. “I’m actually a slower runner than I was when I started it.” She’s not so much concerned about finishing at the back; she’s worried that she might not finish prior to the cutoff time. She has an option, which is to move from the Olympic distance to the Sprint, which offers shorter distances in all three disciplines, but she’s hesitant to step away from her original commitment to herself.

Whatever happens on Saturday, both Howard and Hart say this is only the beginning of their triathlon experience. Howard is already signed up to participate in a triathlon in Massachusetts with a group of friends, and Hart is eyeing the market of 70.3-mile triathlons — sometimes called “half-IRONMAN” events — for his next challenge.

“If I do the Sprint this time, and I do the next Sprint, maybe I can do an Olympic in the fall,” Howard mused, still unsure of her final decision. Race organizers have told her that she has right up to the morning of the race to change her mind.

Howard, a nurse who is soon to become a nurse practitioner, called the challenge of preparing for her first triathlon a “life-changing process.” She’s found ways to fit many hours of training each week into an already busy schedule. An added benefit is that her daughter has been watching her, and seems curious about what her mom is up to.

Hart said he’s found the experience similarly rewarding. “I’ve learned so much about myself,” he said. “You get stuck doing the same old same old, until something comes up to make a change. This has put me on the path, looking for a half-IRONMAN, full IRONMAN. My son has seen me and he wants to do some races. It’s spreading out.

“I can’t believe we’re here now,” Hart said.

“Yikes,” Howard added.

Fueling athletes

There’s a lot for triathletes to think about — which gear is necessary, what training plan to follow, how to improve their techniques — that they often fail to consider what might be one of the most important things: their nutrition.

Scott Tindal, one of the founders of Fuelin, said he and his co-founder launched their company out of a motivation to provide a nutrition tool that could be accessed by mainstream athletes. The idea came after Tindal was hired by an elite triathlete to give her a detailed eating plan that included the mix of macronutrients she should eat as well as the timing of her meals, that was integrated with her training regimen.

“I was using Google Sheets," he said. "It was very effective but very time consuming.” It took him about four to five hours of work each week to create her plan. It worked, though. After a year of using his plan, the client started finishing each event she entered on the podium.

Tindal’s nutritional background had been previously focused on high-intensity sports, such as rugby, ice hockey and competitive sailing; sports which had bursts of activity, unlike the “long, slow grind” of triathlon. He saw that most amateur triathletes were drawn to the sport for health reasons, yet he also saw they really didn’t know how to eat properly, which can lead to a condition known as “relative energy deficiency in sport,” caused by a lack of proper nutrition coupled with the kind of long-term energy output seen in triathlon training.

Tindal connected with Jonathan Lee, currently chief executive officer of Fuelin, and they created an algorithm Tindal called a “spiderweb” of decision-making, based on the user’s current condition, training plan and desired outcome. The result is what they call “the world’s first training-based nutrition app,” which syncs with common training apps to provide nutrition recommendations. Fuelin is simplified using a red, yellow or green color code system to guide users toward, or away from, different types of food.

Tindal said people tend to want to solve their problems through a purchase, and triathletes will sometimes spend thousands of dollars on something like carbon race wheels, which will really only save them a few minutes and won’t provide any health benefits. But proper nutrition during training can make an athlete faster in all disciplines, and healthier.

“The problem is, it’s not a package that you can open up and swallow. You’ve got to look at it, think about it, and go and eat those meals,” Tindal said. “A lot of athletes dissociate training and eating. If you get those two together your results are going to be far superior.”

The first version of the app launched about 18 months ago, and current clients include a broad range of athletes, from elite to middle-of-the-pack athletes, 21-year-olds to septuagenarians. It’s mostly been targeted at triathletes, but further developments are broadening the scope to include cyclists, marathon runners and ultra endurance athletes.