Recently, Crowie took third ... Read more »]]> It’s no secret, but Craig “Crowie” Alexander is one amazing athlete. Born in Australia and now calling the mountains of Colorado home, Alexander has won the Ironman World Championship three times and is only the fourth man in the history of the event to win it two consecutive years.

Recently, Crowie took third in the Ironman Asia-Pacific event, racing just days after the birth of his daughter. That’s a medal-worthy accomplishment in itself!

Many people often wonder what kinds of gear athlete’s of Crowie’s ilk train in because of the competitive advantage they feel it would bring. So on his website, Alexander list his top 10 must haves when it comes to training and competition. We’ll give you three now, but head on over to his site to check out the rest!

1. BK Athletics Elite Athletic Tights - These compression tights (left) utilize Body Science’s patented technology known as “TARGETED COMPRESSION” to adapt to your muscles.Use this help enhance your performance, reduce muscle injury and aid recovery. They’re also great for a range of purposes from training, running to travel.
2. Oakley Radar Sunglasses - Be the coolest runner around! Featuring an interchangeable lens design Oakley has also included Hydrophobic™ coating combatting against water and skin oils, making sure nothing gets in your way.
3. Garneu Flow Run Shorts 2 - The extremely light construction is perfect for runners with an anti-static finish making sure you are comfortable at all times. Inner pocket is also available for your use.

*images courtesy of Oakley*

Marino Vanhoenacker (second place) and Eneko Llanos ... Read more »]]> Over the weekend, Craig “Crowie” Alexander, one of Core Power’s very own and original member of ‘The Crew’, competed in the Asia-Pacific Ironman Championship in Melbourne. After winning the event in 2012, he finished in third place this year, which is still an accomplishment in itself.

Marino Vanhoenacker (second place) and Eneko Llanos (first place) bested Crowie in the event.

Alexander finished with an overall time of 7:39:37. He completed the swimming leg of the race in 00:20:33, the biking leg in 4:29:03 and the run in 2:46:44. However, you can’t be mad at Crowie for being just a tad bit distracted this time around.

He and his wife Neri welcomed the newest addition to their family, Lani May Alexander, who was born just days before the race.

Crowie told Australian newspaper, the Herald Sun, “I thought about my new baby a lot. I have got no excuses. Everyone knew what day the race was. I think what happened on Tuesday this week was one of the best things that has ever happened in my life.”

Congrats to Crowie and his family on two amazing events in one week!

5x World Champion triathlete and Core Power aficionado Craig “Crowie” Alexander will be joining us again here in the Chicago office, this time for a book signing of his new book collaboration with renowned photographer Paul K. Robbins, “Read more »]]> Guess who’s flying thru the Windy City on December 11th…

5x World Champion triathlete and Core Power aficionado Craig “Crowie” Alexander will be joining us again here in the Chicago office, this time for a book signing of his new book collaboration with renowned photographer Paul K. Robbins, “As the Crow Flies: My Journey to Ironman World Champion.” Please join us at 5:30 pm on December 11 at 1001 West Adams in downtown Chicago for Core Power, snacks and a Q&A session with The Man, followed by a book signing. A limited number of copies of the book will be available for sale at the event, so please plan on getting here early to get yours!

For ALL details and to please RSVP, see our Facebook event page – THREE lucky people who sign up for the event on Facebook (and show up!) will win free copies of the book for Crowie to sign! Please feel free to share the event on Facebook and Twitter!

Not in the Chicago area, or won’t be in the Windy City on the 11th? Tell your friends about it! Core Power will send one signed copy of the book to an awesome Crowie fan who 1) shares the Facebook event with friends, 2) retweets this tweet, 3) asks Crowie a question on this blog post and 4) writes “AS THE CROW FLIES CHICAGO!” on our Facebook wall. (Whew, that’s ALOT! ) Winner selected and notified after the event.

See you there!

Video by Hawaiian photographer and videographer Shawn Pila, with ... Read more »]]> Here’s part two of our exclusive video interview with Craig Alexander, in which he talks about what he does to recover, and about his heading home to Australia to get back into his training. Enjoy!

After the World Championship Ironman Triathlon in Kona this last weekend, we caught up with Craig “Crowie” Alexander to get his take on the race, talk to him about his training and ask him about his new book, As the Crow Flies…

Here’s the first ... Read more »]]>

After the World Championship Ironman Triathlon in Kona this last weekend, we caught up with Craig “Crowie” Alexander to get his take on the race, talk to him about his training and ask him about his new book, As the Crow Flies…

Here’s the first of three videos, shot by Shawn Pila and with original music by Jordan Lopez and Luke Golden.

But Craig Alexander is hardly on ... Read more »]]> Crowie has been in Kona, Hawaii, for a couple weeks now. Lovely, peaceful, sun-kissed, relaxing Kona is a hot destination for people looking to step away from the hustle and bustle of it all and score themselves a little vacay. It’s pretty awesome out here.

But Craig Alexander is hardly on vacation.  And while he undoubtedly recognizes and appreciates the beauty of the surroundings, he may be less focused on how awesome the place is. Because this is Craig’s day job and he is hard at work. He is preparing his body for another tough day at the office – and Craig’s tough days have yours and mine beat by a landslide – a 140.6 mile landslide to be exact.

This weekend, world champion triathlete and Core Power ambassador Craig “Crowie” Alexander will be swimming, cycling and running all over Kona to defend the World Championship title and Kona course record that he set last year. The man is a true Ironman and he’s here to prove it. Again.

We caught up with the Core Power fan back in Boulder before he left for his intensive Kona warm up… “I’m really looking forward to racing there again – at my age (39) I can’t race as often as I used to! But I still race to try to win, of course. I think I’m in good shape, and I’ve done a lot of good work to get ready for my Kona return. Maybe a little less volume than in the past, but at a much higher intensity, I think. I’m ready.”

Crowie is back in the comfort of his Hawaiian home away from home, the Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay, where he’s come to know the staff and locals quite well do to his many return visits. As always, he is surrounded by his family – wife Neri, daughter Lucy and son Austin – who fondly reflect on Kona with smiles when it comes up in conversation – it’s been a huge part of their lives over the past few years.

But even though the positivity is contagious, it’s not all smiles, fun and games in Crowie’s Kona. This is serious business. It’s a battle, after all, and Crowie’s competition is tough. You have to be tough to even attempt what these guys do, that’s a given. He will face guys who are younger and guys who are yet to be discovered. He will knock elbows in the swim and swap places in the bike with guys he’s competed against for years. The world of elite triathletes is small, and they know each other pretty intimately. Many train together, eat together, play together and even have family outings together. But the mutual respect takes a break when the feet hit the water. Kona is serious business.

“Like all world championships, it’s going to be an unbelievable field. I try not to think too much about the other guys because there are a lot of great guys racing.” Some of the great guys Crowie is referring to? Andy Potts, Rasmus Henning, Jordan Rapp, Chris McCormack, Sebastian Kienle, Andreas Raelert, Greg Bennett, to name a few. Talk about a tough crowd.

Preparing for Kona is a bit different than training for other races – the location and the climate pose an interesting challenge: humidity and heat play a huge factor, so many competitors, Crowie included, get there early to acclimate. “I grew up in a hot, humid climate, so there’s no substitute for that. After 10 or 15 years of training in that kind of a climate, your body doesn’t forget the physiological demands that are required. But I think the main thing still is that they say it takes 10-14 days to acclimate to the humidity and weather. I go out to Kona two weeks before, and so I’m well adjusted to the climate now.”

Craig splits his time between Australia and Boulder, CO, the latter being popular with athletes because of the performance benefits gained when coming down to compete after training at high altitude. Crowie’s approach to Kona takes altitude training into consideration, but doesn’t single it out as being the end all solution.

“Kona is an interesting race, because I think it’s almost more important to be acclimated to the conditions than to have your top end fitness that you’d get coming down from altitude,” he says. “Most times coming down from altitude you want to come down as late as possible to have the full benefits of your altitude training, whereas I think that Kona is less about top end fitness than it is about your ability to adapt and perform in those conditions for a long period of time.”

And what exactly is a long period of time, you ask? Well, for Crowie, the 140.6 mile endeavor is just an eight hour work day.  He set the course record when he won last year, at 8 hours 3 minutes and 56 seconds. Feel free to do your own math, but my math tells me that Crowie is a machine. A high performance, Core Power fueled machine.

And what does Crowie do to keep his machine in tip top shape? “It’s funny but I don’t really track my diet like a lot of other athletes do. People look at me and tell me how skinny I look right now, and it’s funny but when you look at yourself in the mirror every day, you don’t see any changes. I think I look the same as I’ve always looked.”

“The last couple summers in Boulder have been very hot, and I think it’s hard to eat a lot when it’s hot, so I’ve been supplementing my calories with liquids, with fluids. I usually don’t eat huge portions for lunch or for dinner and so I end up supplementing the calories with Core Power. I’ll make some sort of shake, or I’ll put bananas in a blender with some Core Power and some honey. Since I’ve also increased my electrolyte level as I’ve increased my fluid calorie level, it’s helped me to recover a lot better and start sessions feeling a lot better.”

Crowie is a magnet everywhere he goes in Kona. Just a few days away from the event that he’s been training for since he left the island last year, he still takes the time to meet his fans and sign autographs. The line at the Newton tent on Tuesday stretched into the dark of the evening, and autographs finally had to cease so that he could make an escape to another appointment.

The start gun countdown has begun and the man of the hour has settled in, tapered down and begun focusing. Coming off a 2^nd place title at Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Vegas last month, he has a new book out about his 2011 journey to Kona and is in tip top shape, both physically and mentally. Despite the fervor of the world class event that surrounds him, he is cool and collected. In just a few days he’ll punch the clock and dive into the Kona surf to start another shift. But this will not be just another day at the office. This is just a little bit more than that.

A big exciting day on the horizon for Team Alexander, Core Power is proud to be Crowie’s choice when it comes to high protein post workout recovery drinks, and honored to have been so positively embraced by this legend, his family and his other amazing sponsors.

We’ll be updating Instagram, our blog, our Facebook page and our Twitter account with posts this week – live from Kona – pre race, during the race and post race – in order to keep you up to speed with the excitement of one of the most challenging and thrilling sporting events on the planet. Stay tuned.

And GOOD LUCK Crowie!

Want a chance to win a limited edition signed Craig Alexander illustration? ENTER HERE.

Tommy directed, choreographed, filmed and starred in this first of a two part series that gives ... Read more »]]> Two Core Power athletes hit the road this past week for a motor paced session outside of Boulder CO. Cyclist Tom Danielson took his camera along and recorded this exclusive footage of Craig Alexander training with trainer Mat Steinmetz.

Tommy directed, choreographed, filmed and starred in this first of a two part series that gives us a behind the scenes glimpse into a training ride with 2012 Kona Ironman Champion Craig Alexander. Enjoy and stay tuned for part two!

We can’t all be Crowie, Laura, Tommy or Tyler! You need to do what you need to do, what’s best for YOUR body… Jason ... Read more »]]>

We can’t all be Crowie, Laura, Tommy or Tyler! You need to do what you need to do, what’s best for YOUR body… Jason Bahamundi, of Cook Train Eat Race gives us this quick shout out about staying true to you:

Never compare your training volume to somebody else.  We all have different goals and YOU can only control your path to your goal!

Jason, thanks for this quick and easy tip!

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