As you may already know, the wildly popular Wildflower triathlon festival kicks off on May 3 – just a couple of weeks away.
And a special feature new to this year is Wildflower Squared (WF2) – the ultimate, slightly insane challenge of completing the long distance triathlon (1.2 m swim, 56 m bike, 13.1 m run ) followed by the Olympic distance triathlon (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run) on Sunday, May 5.
From an exercise science standpoint, it’s well-known that stand-alone events such as a marathon or an Ironman triathlon can create a metabolic firestorm in the body that results in long term oxidative stress, inflammation, immune system deficits, and joint damage that persists for up to several weeks after a extreme endurance effort (check out studies like this and this to see just how much stress these events can create).
In other words, these type of sufferfests aren’t exactly healthy, but they sure as heck can be fun, challenging, and a great way to get extreme bragging rights.
But what about taking it to the next level and not just settling for one hard event, but doing back-to-back tough triathlons like WF2? Are you curious what happens to the human body when put through such a rigorous one-two-punch protocol?
