When Jack Nunn returned home from Orlando, Fla. in February of this year, the Manhattan Beach resident was exhausted. And understandably so. He had just competed in the Ultraman Florida triathlon, a grueling, long-distance race where he had to swim, bike and run 321.6 miles. He was looking forward to recuperating. That was until he got an email inviting him to embark on yet another physical challenge: the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. “I was very excited but I was like this is going to be really tough,” Nunn explained, adding the turnaround time between the races was particularly challenging. “Doing this on top of Ultraman…this has been a big year. The biggest.” The race, set for Oct. 12, will combine three of the toughest endurance races in Hawaii, bringing together more than 2,000 of the world’s best athletes to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles.
Jack Nunn is the son of John Nunn, who won the bronze Olympic medal in 1968 with his partner Bill Maher in the double sculls rowing event. I sat down with Jack this week to ask him if he felt like he grew up in his dad’s shadow.
Jack, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today? My whole life revolves around fitness. My father, John Nunn, won an Olympic Bronze Medal in rowing in 1968 at the Mexico City Olympic Games, and he was the Olympic Men’s rowing coach in 1976 at the Montreal Summer Olympic Games. I always grew up playing sports and ended up rowing in 1996 for Long Beach Juniors and the next year where I qualified for the 1997 Junior National Team Selection Rowing Camp.
From there, I went on to star for four years at UC Berkeley with a full scholarship, winning four Pac ten championships and three IRA National Championships. I was a member of the US National Rowing Team from 2001-2006 winning a silver medal at the World Championships Eight Rowing event in Linz, Austria in 2001. When I’m not rowing or teaching on average 15 hours of classes per week, I love to compete in triathlons, marathons, cycling, and Ironman events. So far, I’ve completed fourteen full Ironman competitions and seven half Ironman’s. My motto is: “fight to the finish and do the best you can. What’s possible is what you think is possible.”
In 2017, I completed the most grueling Ironman in the World in Norway called the Norseman Extreme Ironman distance triathlon. The Isklar Norseman Xtreme Triathlon is probably one of the craziest things an individual can put themselves through. This race bills itself as, ‘simply the ultimate triathlon on planet Earth’ and they are right. It’s a total of 226km spread over a freezing cold swim, a brutal ride and a seemingly impossible marathon footrace up a mountain. This is not your everyday ocean swim. You’ll find yourself taken by boat to the middle of a Glacier near the town of Eidfjord, Norway. You are then required to jump into chilly waters off the back of a car ferry and then swim against the current over 2 miles back to shore. The bike ride consists of 10-percent grades uphill with five different mountain peaks and a total of 15,000 feet of climbing over 112 miles. The 26.2-mile marathon at the end of the competition consists of the ascent of Mount Gaustatoppen which is 6,000 feet high. This is where the make or break really happens. By now you’re exhausted, cold, and probably wondering why on earth you thought this was a good idea. This is undoubtedly one of the world’s toughest races. The combination of extreme conditions and unenviable ascents make sure to deter only the most severe or craziest of competitors. This year, I’m taking my challenge to a whole new level and currently training for the Ultraman Extreme endurance race Feb. 15-17, 2019 in Orlando, Florida. I’m doing this race to honor my father’s Olympic Bronze medal that he won at the Mexico City Summer Olympic Games just over 50 years ago. Ultraman Florida in Orlando is a three-day athletic endeavor guaranteed to test an athlete’s physical and mental limits. The race covers a total distance of 322 miles, around central Florida and it is more than a double ironman. It requires that each participant completes a 6.2-mile swim plus a 92-mile bike ride the first day, a 171-mile bike ride the second, and a 52-mile run on the final day. This will be my most difficult challenge yet, and I’m now training 25 plus hours a week for the past several months in order to prepare for this strenuous competition.
An Ironman and Triathlon champion—and U.S. National Rowing Team Medalist—shares tips on how to stay motivated
Rowing classes are on fire at exercise studios around the country. A full-body workout, rowing burns up to 800 calories per hour, it’s low-impact and it’s fun. We asked Jack Nunn, an international rowing, triathlon and Ironman champion, and founder of Roworx (roworx.com) to share workout tips and ways to stay motivated.
OSM: What does it take to train for an Ironman? How do you stay motivated?
JN: Consistency, time, patience and determination. Hiring a coach to hold yourself accountable is very important. It really is all about the hours of endurance and strength training that you are consistently putting in every week. To finish an Ironman takes an average of 10 hours a week of training; combining running, swimming and biking into your weekly routine for at least six months before racing. The pros are putting in upwards of 30 hours a week of fitness training every week, which comes out to nearly five hours a day of running, biking and swimming.
Your top diet tips and advice for first-time Ironman/triathlon athletes?
1. Drink more water and less alcohol. Cut out processed foods, especially fast food.
2. Cut back on dairy and red meat. Almond milk, raw fruits and vegetables, fish, turkey, brown rice, grains and egg whites are a great alternative.
3. Try and eat the same foods every day and eat smaller meals more often throughout the day to speed up your metabolism.
4. Consume more protein and fiber to help curb your appetite so you stay away from taking in too many empty calories.
5. I have been using Juice Plus for over six years and it has proven to be an essential part of my daily nutrition routine. I have hardly been sick, have sustained energy throughout the day and notice better endurance and strength gains when I’m taking the product.
6. Have patience. Try not to use the weight scale to measure success. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat so you need to use pant or dress size and energy levels in order to really be inspired to live a healthier lifestyle. I weigh 220 pounds and some people don’t believe it, but again, muscle weighs more than fat.
What are the most important things to consider when training for a triathlon or Ironman?
1. Time Make time for training and plan ahead. Make a schedule of your training and nutrition plan and stick to it. Talk to friends, family and employers to make sure everyone is on board and supporting what you will be doing for the next six months.
2.Safety Obviously when you cycle you will need to get on the road to practice while getting in those hours on the bike, but know that nearly 70 percent of all Ironman training injuries come from the bike. Cars and pedestrians are not always aware of what is around them and cyclists are a target for accidents and injuries while training on the road. Map out your ride to take the path least traveled by cars and people. Use indoor classes and workouts like rowing and/or cycling, and be inspired while working out with group classes.
3. Location Pick Ironman races closer to home and evaluate various courses in order to decide which race you would like. Don’t make the same mistake I did and sign up for your first Ironman in Nice where you have to climb and descend mountains that are included in one of the stages of le Tour de France. Take into account flat vs. hilly courses, the weather (heat and cold) for Ironman races, and location for vacation (after the race!) to enjoy a bit. Ironman Arizona, Lake Placid and Florida are some of the “easiest” Ironman courses in the world and can provide for a good vacation for sightseeing after the event takes place.
How did you get into sports and fitness, and why did you decide to make it a career?
My father, John Nunn, is an Olympian who won the bronze medal in Rowing in 1968, at the Mexico City Olympic Games, and he was the U.S. Olympic Men’s team rowing coach in 1976, Montreal Olympic Games. He got us all interested in sports growing up. I have four older sisters, and he coached all of our teams: soccer, baseball, softball and ice hockey. Both of my grandfathers played professional football and my great-grandfather was a rower at Columbia University in the early 1900s. I guess you could say it’s in my genetic makeup to be destined to be an athlete and or rower.
Since I can remember I have always wanted to either make the Olympic team and or compete and finish a full Ironman. In 2008, one of my best friends suggested that we train for our first Ironman together. I immediately said yes and signed up for my first Ironman in Nice, France. I would later find out that it was– and still is–one of the most grueling Ironman courses in the world. The bike portion of that particular Ironman travels 112 miles through the Pyrenees Mountains, which was insanely hard, especially since it was 95 degrees on race day. Upon completing Ironman France, I was hungry for more and knew that it was just the start of another chapter of fitness in my life. Since 2008 I have gone on to finish six full Ironmans around the world. This year I plan on doing three more full Ironman competitions in Napa Valley, Vineman CA, Kalmar, Sweden, and Vichy, France.
What do you love most about competing and/or your job as a professional athlete?
I love the challenge and the thrill of competition, seeing how far you can push the body and the human spirit to its limits. There something about the thought of racing with thousands of other people and watching them race beside you that really is addictive and keeps you moving and pushing through to the finish line.
What is your proudest athletic achievement and why?
My proudest achievement would have to be winning the silver medal at the world championship with the US National Team in 2001. I worked incredibly hard for six straight years of rowing and won my first international medal continuing down the road to one step closer to making it to the Olympics. The feeling of being one of the best athletes in the world in my sport was amazing while having my father watching the race.
Another proud achievement is unexpected but it has gotten me to where I am today. I entered to what would have been my 3rd and at the time I thought my last Full Ironman in Houston, Texas back in 2010 but before the race I had food poisoning and decided to race anyway coming within 8 miles from the finish line I had to drop out due to severe dehydration and shock to the body. That race broke me and broke my soul but it’s also because of that race that I came back with a vengeance into the triathlon world by finishing 4 more Full Ironmans and more to come.
What is a typical day like for you? How many hours a day do you train?
I took up a University coaching position as the Head coach for the Men’s Rowing team at Loyola Marymount University in LA so I’m currently working 4 jobs at the moment. Rowing coach at LMU, Roworx Fitness Owner where I teach most of the fitness classes and run all operations for the business, Spin instructor, and I am an Ironman/triathlon coach.
5 a.m Wake up
6-8 a.m Coach the Men’s Rowing Team at LMU in Marina Del Rey
9:15 a.m-10:15 a.m Teach Roworx Rowing Class In Long Beach
Noon-1 p.m Teach Roworx Rowing Class In Long Beach
3-5 p.m Run 6 miles and or swim laps in the pool
7 p.m Teach a Spin/Cycling Class
9 p.m in bed trying to get at least 8 hours sleep a night
I average about 3-4 hours of endurance training with rowing, biking, running, and swimming everyday with Sunday being a rest day. Lately I have been racing every Sunday so I try to get in more rest during the week.
Olympic reminders surround Jack Nunn, all the way down to his weekly workload. “Every day when I teach a indoor rowing class at Roworx Fitness I’m looking out on the water in Long Beach Marine Stadium,” Nunn says. “That’s where my Alma mater won the gold.” But Nunn isn’t talking about swimming. He jokes that he was cut from the junior high water polo team, a team that didn’t have mandatory roster trimming. Instead, Nunn comes to the multi-sport world from crew, and the waves of Alamitos Bay, near Los Angeles, reflect his family’s past and present.
John Nunn, Jack’s father, moved to southern California in the mid 1960’s to train for the Olympics at a world-class facility, the famed Long Beach Marine Stadium, which was built for the 1932 Games. John earned an Olympic Bronze medal in 1968 in Mexico City, and he subsequently raised his family in the Los Angeles area. Jack picked up the oars in the same bay where his father practiced.
“That changed my whole life,” he says.”That’s my identity. I started rowing in 1996 for the junior national team right there in Marine Stadium. I would go to Long Beach every day in high school and throughout my college career to train.” He won multiple Pac-10 Conference championships at the University of California Berkeley. The Bears represented Team USA on their home water in 1932 and edged Italy by .2 of a second to secure Olympic gold. Nunn, 40, teaches classes at Roworx, the indoor rowing center he owns situated next to the rectangular block of water that constitutes Marine Stadium.
“If you’re a strong rower, you can turn it into being a strong cyclist with the legs and lungs,” he says. Nunn estimates that 70 percent of the multi-sport training comes from his rowing workouts at Roworx Fitness in Long Beach. Part of that philosophy originates from the practical realities of operating a gym. His job, like most age-groupers, requires a significant portion of his time. In his case, the longer hours of a small business owner mean more opportunities for fitness.
“My dad told me growing up, ‘if you want to get better at something, you have to do that thing,’ Nunn said. “The argument is yes, you will improve if you do the actual sport, but with rowing you can get close.” Nunn has raced more than 100 triathlons since diving into his first race, a 2008 Ironman event in Nice, France known for it’s difficult cycling course that features a segment of the Tour de France route. Even as he progressed down the distance ladder to shorter events in recent years, Nunn focuses on rowing as the main component of his training. “I’m a bigger guy. The longer [a race] goes, the worse I get,” he says with a laugh. “My favorite distance is the sprint.” He registered for the inaugural Legacy Triathlon as part of the 2019 schedule. USA Triathlon launched the new event in Long Beach and will continue it each year leading into the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in LA. Nunn earned the bronze medal for his age group in the sprint distance. “It’s cool to race in your hometown at a big USA Triathlon event,” Nunn says. “There was no doubt I was going to do it. I like to compete on that formal level, but it’s an individual sport, which I love. It’s you against you.”
Nunn says he understands skeptics who push for more discipline-specific swim, bike, run workouts, but he also sees plenty of people who dismiss rowing too easily or only use a rowing machine as a warm-up for something else. Five minutes here. Ten minutes there. Nunn points to those early exists as missed opportunities. “Try rowing for an hour,” he says. “Try to get some intervals going for 30 minutes. Everyone
wants the greatest full body low impact workout – rowing will give it to you.”
I came across an article in the L.A. Times recently that covered a cycling studio that uses weights while on the Indoor bike. I began to wonder how far we will go with indoor cycling to make it so different and unique that it suddenly becomes unsafe and dangerous. Indoor cycling is an amazing cardiovascular workout and is extremely popular among all fitness classes offered around the world. However, as with all group fitness classes, there is concern that instructors try new and ‘exciting’ ways to do certain exercises on the indoor bike and some of these moves can cause injury. Along with Jillian Michael’s on The Biggest Loser as well as doing certain cycling techniques more often than not less is more when it comes to new ways to try and re-invent certain indoor cycling techniques. Many instructors use moves that may be dangerous in the name of creativity. Indoor cycling can be very safe, but make sure you are aware of the following top 10 mistakes that instructors make while teaching class or while using your indoor bike at home. Overall when it comes to designing and planning an indoor cycling workout: Less Is More! Focus on the beats of the music and try to keep it a simple cycling routine so that everyone in class can follow no matter what level you are. 🙂 Check out our classes at Roworx for more information about cycling classes!
The EVO Indoor Cycling Bike is very unique from the rest of the indoor bikes on the market in that it engages the whole body while cycling in and out of the seat while riding just as a real outdoor bike experience would be on the open road. Some cyclists would say that the less sway the better, however, the act of throwing every ounce of leverage, weight, and power into the pedals and movement side to side is the visible result of trying that hard to move forward when riding outdoors. If you could stay absolutely still, and input the same amount of force to the pedal, then more of that energy would go to moving forward, but it’s physiologically it is very difficult. It’s a matter of balance and leverage. Further, there is a mechanical advantage to be had in terms of body mechanics by swaying the bike and it lets the cyclist apply a bit more force than if the bike remained straight. The swaying motion from side to side will allow the cyclist to use more of his arm strength than would otherwise be the case. Being able to use your full body weight in a sprint has its advantages, and that’s one reason they shift the bike back and forth under them to ‘throw’ their body weight down on alternate legs side to side creates momentum and speed. They quite simply must sway the bike back and forth because of the mechanical reality of the situation. It’s not even really a conscious act and if a rider didn’t do this, the bike would fall out from under them. Sometimes you will actually see someone move a traditional indoor cycling bike off the ground from side to side and hop around the floor in class. These riders are applying extreme power to each pedal. Since the pedals are not centered laterally, applying a large force to the right pedal for instance will apply a rotational force that pushes the top of the bike to the right and the bottom of the bike to the left. Without this counterbalancing motion, they would quite literally kick the wheel to the side out from under them. By ‘swaying’ the bike in the opposite direction, they increase the amount of force on the legs and core that can be applied to the pedals without crashing. It is an intuitive motion that happens completely automatically to any rider from novice to advanced. For a quick mental picture, imagine somebody swaying in the same direction as the pedal being pushed. For instance, somebody leaning the bike to the right while they apply a large force to the right pedal. The rotational force would rotate the bicycle clockwise, lifting the wheel off the ground. Not something you want to happen, especially at sprinting speeds and especially in a classroom setting. For a great example how this technique comes into play in real road cycling watch any Tour De France finish line approach. It’s incredibly intense and you can see how hard everyone sprints and works the whole body in order to get through the finish first. Legs, lungs, muscle endurance, and core play a massive role in the use of the Evo Bike!
Indoor cycling classes are an ideal place to work on the proper cycling technique and provide a traffic-free environment that can go a long way toward replacing the on-the-road experience. It’s a great place for cycling novices to improve at least ten aspects of cycling that will quickly make them a better rider. Indoor cycling is also a great place for the veteran cyclists to refresh their technique as long as they remember not to ride an indoor bike the same way they do their outdoor bikes. Whether you are training for an Ironman competition or just trying to stay in great shape be sure to incorporate indoor cycling into your weekly workout routine in order to improve muscle endurance and cardiovascular health. Tons of calories can be burned in just one cycling class and the best part is you can do it anytime anywhere.
USA Triathlon Magazine Winter Issue January 2020
“That changed my whole life,” he says.”That’s my identity. I started rowing in 1996 for the junior national team right there in Marine Stadium. I would go to Long Beach every day in high school and throughout my college career to train.” He won multiple Pac-10 Conference championships at the University of California Berkeley. The Bears represented Team USA on their home water in 1932 and edged Italy by .2 of a second to secure Olympic gold. Nunn, 40, teaches classes at 
“My dad told me growing up, ‘if you want to get better at something, you have to do that thing,’ Nunn said. “The argument is yes, you will improve if you do the actual 
age group in the sprint distance. “It’s cool to race in your hometown at a big USA Triathlon event,” Nunn says. “There was no doubt I was going to do it. I like to compete on that formal level, but it’s an individual sport, which I love. It’s you against you.”
