Karen Buxton has been competing in triathlons for 18 years and has her own online business, www.coachbuxton.com, coaching endurance athletes across the United States. She works with athletes of all levels to help them reach their competitive goals. “I feel very fortunate to have been able to blend two of my passions - competing and coaching - into a successful business,” she explains. Karen also wrote the book, “The Triathlete’s Guide to Off-Season Training.”
Motivated by the idea of getting back into shape after her pregnancy, Karen did her first triathlon when her daughter was 8 months old. A high school and college athlete, Karen swam, biked and ran to prepare for team sports, so competing in triathlons seemed like the perfect way to get started again. After competing the sprint, she was hooked, and progressed from a mid-packer to representing Team USA 10 times: 4 times in triathlon and 6 times in duathlon.
In 2000, Karen changed her racing focus to long course, and this year finished her 8th Iron-distance race in Cozumel, finishing 6th in her age group. She was a member of a four-woman team that finished the 2002 Race Across America - a cycling race from Portland, OR to Pensacola, FL and also competed in and finished the 2004 Ironman World Championship. In 2007, Karen won a silver medal at the Long Course World Championships.
This season, Karen plans to take a break from Iron-distance racing to focus on shorter events, with her “A” races being Short Duathlon Nationals, Triathlon Nationals and the Long Distance Triathlon Nationals. She plans to race more Iron-distances in the future, however, and hopes to qualify for and compete in the Ironman World Championships again.
Karen is a firm believer in Infinit products and explains, “I try to keep my nutritional choices for training and running as simple as possible - this means my major source of calories and electrolytes come from Infinit. I also carry additional water and bananas on the bike, and pretzels, for the crunch, during the run.”
Karen uses two custom formulas - “Long Course”, at 300 calories per serving, which she uses for half and full Iron-distance racing and for long distance cycling; and “Short Course” at 150 calories, which she uses for most other events. “Generally, I consume two bottles for a half, and four bottles for a full on the bike. For the run in full, I have a bottle in my special needs bag and sip on that through the later part of the race. Ten minutes before my swim starts I take in 8 to 10 ounces of my LC formula to top off my tank. The product tastes good - lemon lime is my favorite - and keeps me well fueled throughout the race. I have never had any nutritional problems during a race. The majority of the athletes I coach use Infinit now for long distance training and racing. Once they try it, they love it!”
In fact, Karen’s only suggestion for Infinit is that we start to offer more flavors. Well, Karen… watch this space!
You can keep up with Karen's thoughts and ideas on training and racing at her blog.
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