The Queen of Kona reveals the secrets of triathlon success.

Seven-time Ironman Champion Paula Newby-Fraser found herself in a curious position at last year's Ironman finish line: in first place, but physically unable to continue the last 100 yards.

Her body was depleted of glycogen, so much so that she became extremely disoriented. Much to the astonishment of the huge crowd and television crew, she veered off the running course, sat down on a curbside, took her shoes off and began sobbing.

"The best way to describe it was that I fainted, even though technically, I was still conscious," says Newby-Fraser, who eventually walked in to finish fourth. "It was terrible."

Paula Newby-Fraser, the woman Time Magazine once called "The Iron Lady," has experienced such heartbreaking discouragement many times over. Nevertheless, she has clearly remained triathlon's leading lady, stealing the limelight from the more talented, though less consistent. An ability to go beyond momentary up and downs, the unforeseeable challenges in life, makes her a fascinating case study on human perseverance. Yet, more than just an ability to persevere lies a far greater quality. Through it all, bottom line, she's thrived.

And although she was not able to garner what would have been a record-breaking eighth Ironman victory, Newby-Fraser takes it all in stride. With this one glitch in a long career as the most dominating female Ironman-distance triathlete in the world, she has learned the true meaning of the word endurance.

With triathlon season in full stride and the multi-sport's biggest event coming to Chicago, we thought it would be a good idea to pick the brain of the sport's leading lady. The result is some practical tips and sage advice, triathlon gems from which any multi-sport athlete can greatly benefit...

Tip #1: Be Flexible
When she talks about flexibility, Paula Newby-Fraser sees the characteristic as more than just elasticity of the joints. Like most things in here life, she sees a meaning beyond the pure physical.

"Not only is it important to have a flexible body, you have to have a flexible mind too," she says in her unique accent that some have described as a hybrid of English and Bostonian intertwined with Southern Californian lingo. "People who have a more open and flexible attitude towards life and the inevitable conflicts they face, usually are able to move forward through the inevitable ups and downs of triathlon training."

But though philosophical, Paula doesn't ignore the importance of physical flexibility; when she talks about flexibility, she also means body and joint elasticity. "

Several years ago, I took up stretching as a vital and fundamental part of my training program. It has become as important to my training regimen as swimming, biking running and strength-training."

In her new book, Peak Fitness for Women, Paula constantly refers to something she calls the Peak Fitness Triangle. Each side of the triangle represents a vital aspect of training: cardiovascular conditioning, strength training and flexibility. Although one might expect an endurance athlete of her caliber to emphasize cardiovascular conditioning over the other anything else, she insists that her success is the result of a balanced combination of all three components of the Peak Fitness Triangle.

She admits, though, that this lesson has not come easy: "As an endurance athlete, it took me a long time before I was ready to accept the importance of flexibility and strength training. My entire fitness program used to be based on cardiovascular conditioning. Eventually my body broke down and I sustained a stress fracture in my ankle in June of '93. But instead of giving up on the Ironman that year, I focused on what I could do: lots of stretching, strength training and swimming with some cycling.

"I ended up winning the Ironman that year, even though I really wasn't in great cardiovascular shape. When I look back and question what got me through the run, I realize now that besides a lot of heart-it was the strong and flexible muscles in my legs that helped me to keep moving through those last difficult miles."

Paula's stretching routine was taught to her by Dr. Morris Mann, an expert in a flexibility technique called Pilates. This stretching technique is advanced and is taught and performed in Pilates studios with certified instructors. However, in her book, she provides descriptions and illustrations of ten static stretching exercises designed for overall body flexibility.

Tip #2: Strength Train
If you haven't guessed yet, strength training is a major component of Paula Newby-Fraser's regimen. She follows a five-stage strength-training program (illustrated in Peak Fitness for Women) which was designed by Diane Buchta, a certified fitness specialist and strength-training guru from La Jolla, California.

Paula argues that endurance athletes, particularly triathletes, have many preconceived notions about strength training that keeps them from jumping into it: "A fallacy involving strength training is that it will make you muscle bound. Some think strength training will lead to a loss of coordination and flexibility, and an increase in muscle mass. Nothing can be further from the truth."

Newby-Fraser feels if more triathletes knew the many benefits of strength training, they would devote a good chunk of training time to resistance exercises. Among the many benefits she says come from strength training are:
• Strength training, when done correctly, can improve your flexibility. This happens by strengthening and moving joints through their full range of motion.
• A well-chosen sequence of weight exercises done regularly over a period of time can improve your strength, endurance, and power. * Strength training contributes to a strong musculoskeletal system, increasing bone density and strengthening the connective tissue surrounding joints. This is especially important to female masters athletes. Strength training also may help prevent osteoporosis.
• Strength training is particularly helpful to the person who is physically underdeveloped.
• Strength training routines can be easily adapted to individual needs and capacities. Progress usually occurs in a relatively short time.
• There are many psychological benefits to strength training. It can enhance your poise, self-discipline, self-confidence and self-esteem.
• You can improve your performance in endurance sports through strength training. Muscles release energy and originate movement, so strengthening your muscles will make you faster and more powerful.
• A strong muscular system provides protection against injury no matter what your sport. If you do any activity often enough or long enough, you end up putting a lot of wear and tear on the same muscles and joints.

Tip #3: Work on Your Mental Conditioning
Professional endurance athletes have to be not only physically tough, mental toughness is just as-if not more important to success. The "Iron Lady" spends a great deal of time preparing for important events, and feels that mental preparation is one of the keys to her success.

"I focus on feelings of strength and think of all the great workouts and past performances I've had in the last few months in the days before an event. It is at those times that I am more relaxed in the days prior to a race."

"During a race, I am totally focused on my body and constantly checking every technical aspect of my performance, the efficiency of my swim stroke, my rpm's during cycling, my leg turnover on the run, my nutritional requirements. In a race like the Ironman, you can't do too long before running out of fuel, so I'm constantly checking monitoring my fluid and food intake."

Newby-Fraser contends that there are many "mental traps" that triathletes fall into. One of the most prevalent, she calls the "expectation trap."

"I try not to go into an event with a preconceived expectation. Expectations can drain you mentally ruin your concentration, especially in the heat of competition. When you create an expectation about the physical outcome of a race, you put a lot of pressure on yourself to perform."

Again, like many things in her life, she's learned this lesson by experience. In 1993, as she was training for the prestigious Zofinger Duathlon in Switzerland, she uncharacteristically proclaimed during a television interview that she would win the event hands-down.

"My training was going so well and I felt so strong, I created this expectation within myself, and then in the public as a result of that interview. It was a big mistake."

In the weeks after the interview, Paula began to over train, the expectation she had created snowballing into stress and worry. By the time she was at the starting line in Zofinger, she was burnt out and ended up having one of the worst races of her career, ending a dismal fourth.

Now she takes a much more "low-key" attitude, focusing her attention on mental conditioning techniques such as affirmations and visualization.

Tip #4: Learn to Balance Your Training (and Your Life)
As triathletes, one of the most formidable challenges of both training and living is staying balanced. When it comes to training, we know that we need to constantly be monitoring our bodies for excessive wear and tear. Although cross-training should-in theory-reduce the likelihood of injury, most anything can be overdone.

It's another lesson that Paula Newby-Fraser has learned, and learned well. Among one of the many things she teaches through her book and as an instructor in the Multi-Sport School of Champions training seminars is a balanced approach to training.

"It took me many years to become comfortable with my training program," says Newby-Fraser. "The trick was to constantly make adjustments and integrate new ideas that applied to me and my training goals."

To help keep your training program and your life balanced, Paula offers these practical tips:
• Keep to your priorities: Don't sacrifice your family or career for your fitness goals.
• Change things up now and then: Don't do the same thing, year in and year out--try new things and more challenges.
• Don't overestimate your available time: Overestimating time to train can lead to feeling rushed and frustrated, which will turn your workouts into more of a chore than something you enjoy doing.
• Adapt to unforeseen circumstances: Don't be so rigid in executing your training at the expense of your health or your priorities; be flexible and adjust your schedule when you need to.
• Build in rest and recovery into your schedule: Working at the same intensity day after day, week after week, will only ensure that you remain at the same fitness level, or more likely, slide down.
• Go with what works for you: Find out what kind of training works for you and go with it, even if it's different than the way everybody else trains.


John M. Mora is freelance writer and advertising copywriter, triathlete and co-author of Paula Newby-Fraser's Peak Fitness for Women. He lives in Plainfield, where he trains among the corn stalks.