We're upon the holiday season, which means it's time to start making our triathlete Christmas list. I'm pretty confident I won't get anything off this list, but a guy can dream, right?
1. PowerTap Power Meter - Of all the potential accessories you can get for a bike, this is going to give you the best benefit, hands down. With the many variables of outdoor riding a PowerMeter will tell you your wattage and give you a true representation of your effort.
2. Zipp 808 Wheelset - This has to be 2nd on my list because of the added benefit of speed they add, specifically on the courses I will ride this year, Wildflower Long Course and IM CDA.
3. Swim partner - while I enjoy swimming, anything after 2000 yards of laps I tend to lose interest pretty quick. Having someone to swim with would make those laps go by much faster.
4. Forerunner 310TX - This is the ultimate triathletes watch - tracks all the good stuff, and can even connect with your power meter via ANT+.
5. Arms warmers - I will probably need these for my early spring rides and possibly early races. I'm a huge wuss when it comes to cold weather
6. Pre-made meals. A friend of mine, Vince Matteo, is an awesome triathlete and great cook. All his meals are extremely healthy and taste great.
7. A winter home in Southern California. Mountains to your east, ocean to your west, and warm weather. Seriously, can't beat that setup. I don't think the girl's grandparents would ever let us leave though :)
8. New bike trainer, preferably this one. I've got a bike trainer now, but it sounds like a train going through my basement, which forces me to turn up the TV louder, thus angering others in the house. I think that's reason enough, don't you?
9. Garmin Edge 800 - I'll have some long rides this summer and I'm directionally challenged and have known to get lost. The Edge 800 will allow this not to happen.
10. Camps - I'd love to attend a training camp in March/April but I don't think my wife would be to happy leaving her behind with the girls while I'm in warm weather training to my heart's content.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Passion
What is passion?
- Passion surpasses the infatuation
- Passion outlives the new and shiny
- Passion is staying up late, and waking up early
- Passion is seeing the red, but envisioning the black
- Passion is turning the dream into a reality
- Passion is stronger than raw talent
- Passion can see the horizon over the hurdles
- Passion picks you up even when you can't
- Passion embraces the challenges
- Passion burst one's comfort zones
- Passion is the backbone of success
Have you found your passion?
- Passion surpasses the infatuation
- Passion outlives the new and shiny
- Passion is staying up late, and waking up early
- Passion is seeing the red, but envisioning the black
- Passion is turning the dream into a reality
- Passion is stronger than raw talent
- Passion can see the horizon over the hurdles
- Passion picks you up even when you can't
- Passion embraces the challenges
- Passion burst one's comfort zones
- Passion is the backbone of success
Have you found your passion?
Monday, November 8, 2010
Off Season Strength Training
As we enter into the off-season, it is important to begin to incorporate weight training into your routine. Strength training will increase your power on the bike and swim. Strength training also reduces your risk of injuries and can mitigate unwanted weight gain during the off-season. Strength training and its benefits to endurance sports is a controversial subject, some people see it as an instrumental part of training, while others disregard it and think it will hinder performance. While you may be a bit slower on the bike and swim initially, be patient. The strength gains will catch up and you’ll definitely notice the positive effects it has on your performance. Some things to consider with weight training.
- Focus on sport specific training – doing biceps curls to impress your significant other won’t transfer over to the sport
- Consider a periodized schedule – in the off-season focus on high reps and lower weight and as you get closer to the season focus on low reps and high weight
- If you have time constraints, choose endurance training over weight training
- Weight training is used to complement to your training, not a replacement for swimming, biking, and running
- Don’t spend more than 30-45 minutes for weight training – anything more is overkill
- Focus a good portion on core exercises – core strength is heavily utilized in all sports
A few exercises to focus on are leg extensions, squats, tricep extensions, leg curl, leg press, and planks
- Focus on sport specific training – doing biceps curls to impress your significant other won’t transfer over to the sport
- Consider a periodized schedule – in the off-season focus on high reps and lower weight and as you get closer to the season focus on low reps and high weight
- If you have time constraints, choose endurance training over weight training
- Weight training is used to complement to your training, not a replacement for swimming, biking, and running
- Don’t spend more than 30-45 minutes for weight training – anything more is overkill
- Focus a good portion on core exercises – core strength is heavily utilized in all sports
A few exercises to focus on are leg extensions, squats, tricep extensions, leg curl, leg press, and planks
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Stengths and Opportunities for Improvement
As the endurance season winds down, now is a great time to evaluate your season and what you consider your opportunities for improvement and what your strengths were the past season. The off-season is a great time to focus on that weakness while continuing maintenance on your strengths.
Generally we tend to know our strengths and weaknesses. From a triathlon perspective, ask a HS swimmer and they'll say the bike and/or run are their weak points or ask a seasoned cyclist and they'll say swim and/or run. I'm sure you get the idea. It's pretty easy to be subjective about your weakness, but it's better to look at your race data for the past year and race courses for which you performed on while keeping in mind your upcoming goals for next year.
So, let's say an athlete did a Olympic triathlon with a hilly bike course and flat run and had the following results:
12/50 place in age group - swim
45/50 place in age group - bike
9/50 place in age group - run
Based on this data, it's pretty apparent that the weakness here is bike speed, particularly on hills. The athlete was able to get off the bike and do well on the run so I don't necessarily think it would be an endurance issue. We'd have to delve into the specifics of the race and the athlete's perspective. The more data we have, the more specific we can get - i.e. heart rate monitor, powermeter, mile splits, GPS....but that's another topic for another day. Let's take another example:
same athlete as above but on a half-ironman flat course as above:
10/50 - swim
45/50 - bike
45/50 - swim
Based on the previous race data and the above data, I would say this athlete is lacking endurance and speed on the bike and possible lacking endurance on the run. Due to the run time being slower compared to the above I would venture to guess the athlete hit a proverbial wall on the bike and it made their run an absolute sufferfest. In the off-season this athlete would need to build their base on the bike, and work on bike speed and drills.
As always, the data doesn't lie - use it to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses this off-season. Once you have identified your weakness, spend time working on speed, technique, and base training so you can improve and turn that weakness into a strength.
Generally we tend to know our strengths and weaknesses. From a triathlon perspective, ask a HS swimmer and they'll say the bike and/or run are their weak points or ask a seasoned cyclist and they'll say swim and/or run. I'm sure you get the idea. It's pretty easy to be subjective about your weakness, but it's better to look at your race data for the past year and race courses for which you performed on while keeping in mind your upcoming goals for next year.
So, let's say an athlete did a Olympic triathlon with a hilly bike course and flat run and had the following results:
12/50 place in age group - swim
45/50 place in age group - bike
9/50 place in age group - run
Based on this data, it's pretty apparent that the weakness here is bike speed, particularly on hills. The athlete was able to get off the bike and do well on the run so I don't necessarily think it would be an endurance issue. We'd have to delve into the specifics of the race and the athlete's perspective. The more data we have, the more specific we can get - i.e. heart rate monitor, powermeter, mile splits, GPS....but that's another topic for another day. Let's take another example:
same athlete as above but on a half-ironman flat course as above:
10/50 - swim
45/50 - bike
45/50 - swim
Based on the previous race data and the above data, I would say this athlete is lacking endurance and speed on the bike and possible lacking endurance on the run. Due to the run time being slower compared to the above I would venture to guess the athlete hit a proverbial wall on the bike and it made their run an absolute sufferfest. In the off-season this athlete would need to build their base on the bike, and work on bike speed and drills.
As always, the data doesn't lie - use it to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses this off-season. Once you have identified your weakness, spend time working on speed, technique, and base training so you can improve and turn that weakness into a strength.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Prep Phase
As I eluded to in my last post, Getting Back into the Groove, I wanted to walk through each phase of my plan and give a little context as to what they mean. The first phase that my IM plan takes me through is Prep1 and Prep2. These phases last 4 weeks each and will probably not have a recovery week built in because generally the volume is low, with a medium frequency, and low intensity. Essentially these phases are designed to train your body to get ready to train.
I would compare it to Dead Week in college, or at least what I did during Dead Week. It's the time where you start to study, but don't do too much of it. You get your schedule down of when your finals are, plan when you're going to study, and get in the mind frame of cramming all the information into your brain. Not the best metaphor, but I think you get the idea.
With a family, work, PT and endurance clients, this is the time where I figure out from a scheduling perspective what works and what needs to be re-arranged to find a happy medium. For me, it's going to be early morning training and later evening training and a heavier dose on the weekends with my 'long' and BT (break through) workouts scheduled at least 2 days apart for efficient recovery.
Prep time is also the time to get back into the pool, lace up the running shoes, and hop back on the bike. These training sessions shouldn't be very long or very intense. Just enough to reacquaint yourself back to each discipline and start to work on building up your base. This is also an excellent time to work on form. Spend a lot of time working on swim drills, running form, and biking form so that you can hit the ground running when you begin "official" training. Prep phase is also a great time to get your nutrition back on track with whole foods, adequate caloric intake, and many smaller meals throughout the day.
I would compare it to Dead Week in college, or at least what I did during Dead Week. It's the time where you start to study, but don't do too much of it. You get your schedule down of when your finals are, plan when you're going to study, and get in the mind frame of cramming all the information into your brain. Not the best metaphor, but I think you get the idea.
With a family, work, PT and endurance clients, this is the time where I figure out from a scheduling perspective what works and what needs to be re-arranged to find a happy medium. For me, it's going to be early morning training and later evening training and a heavier dose on the weekends with my 'long' and BT (break through) workouts scheduled at least 2 days apart for efficient recovery.
Prep time is also the time to get back into the pool, lace up the running shoes, and hop back on the bike. These training sessions shouldn't be very long or very intense. Just enough to reacquaint yourself back to each discipline and start to work on building up your base. This is also an excellent time to work on form. Spend a lot of time working on swim drills, running form, and biking form so that you can hit the ground running when you begin "official" training. Prep phase is also a great time to get your nutrition back on track with whole foods, adequate caloric intake, and many smaller meals throughout the day.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Getting Back in the Groove
I unofficially started my Ironman training on Monday, getting re-acclimated to the pool and bike and continuing to build my running volume for the Des Moines Half Marathon in mid October. My official training won't start until 1 week after the half Mary, but I am getting back into the groove with a routine to make sure it will fit into my family's schedule and so I have some momentum going into training and can handle the training load without being completely wiped out after the first week. I've already built a skeleton that includes:
Prep1 - 4 weeks
Prep2 - 4 weeks
Base1 - 4 weeks
Base2- 4 weeks
Base3 - 4 weeks
Build1 - 4 weeks
Build2 - 4 weeks
Wildflower 1/2
Recovery - 1 week
Build3 - 4 weeks
Peak - 2 weeks
IM CDA
Each block constitutes 3 weeks on and 1 week recovery with a reduction of volume by 25-35% to allow the body to heal and to rejuvenate yourself for the next block. As I mentioned above this is a skeleton and will probably change based on how training progresses. I'll delve into what each of these blocks represent in my next blog. Thanks for reading
Prep1 - 4 weeks
Prep2 - 4 weeks
Base1 - 4 weeks
Base2- 4 weeks
Base3 - 4 weeks
Build1 - 4 weeks
Build2 - 4 weeks
Wildflower 1/2
Recovery - 1 week
Build3 - 4 weeks
Peak - 2 weeks
IM CDA
Each block constitutes 3 weeks on and 1 week recovery with a reduction of volume by 25-35% to allow the body to heal and to rejuvenate yourself for the next block. As I mentioned above this is a skeleton and will probably change based on how training progresses. I'll delve into what each of these blocks represent in my next blog. Thanks for reading
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Consistency
When you look at people you admire, whether it be great athletes, inspirational business people, or those at the top of their game, one thing that they have in common is consistency. They come to work with a proverbial hard hat and lunch pale every day, and in line with their goals, accomplish what they need to get done. What separates them from the rest of the pack is they consistent every day.
From an athletic perspective, in order to get better you have to be consistent in training. I'm sure this isn't a shocker that jumps out of the page at you. Nevertheless, I believe that this is one of the biggest thing that the majority of the novice athletes need to improve. Understandably, life obligations gets in the way of training due to family, kids, social obligations, and football season :).
I've got a full plate now with a family, full time job, endurance athletes/personal training clients, and trying to fit in my own training time. I've prioritized what's important to me and if I want to do well at IM CDA next year, then I'm going to have to be consistent in building up my endurance, improve my weakest link, and maximize my strongest asset. Ironman training demands consistent training - without it, it's going to make for a long day and a performance that won't leave you satisfied at the end of the day. In order to be consistent in my training I have get it done early in the morning and late at night. This works best for me because it doesn't adversely effect family time, work, and my clients.
You need to find what works best for you on a consistent basis. Here are some tips to get started:
1) Plan your week ahead of time so you can be proactive in working around things that come up
2) Create a rough draft of what your average week looks like and find times that make sense for training
3) Make a schedule for the week and stick to it
4) If the schedule doesn't work, make adjustements so it makes sense
5) Prioritize - what is more important, watching 'The Office' or getting your run done for the day
6) Some train in the morning, others at night - find out what works best for you.
Apply these principles to your goals and you'll get the results you want!
From an athletic perspective, in order to get better you have to be consistent in training. I'm sure this isn't a shocker that jumps out of the page at you. Nevertheless, I believe that this is one of the biggest thing that the majority of the novice athletes need to improve. Understandably, life obligations gets in the way of training due to family, kids, social obligations, and football season :).
I've got a full plate now with a family, full time job, endurance athletes/personal training clients, and trying to fit in my own training time. I've prioritized what's important to me and if I want to do well at IM CDA next year, then I'm going to have to be consistent in building up my endurance, improve my weakest link, and maximize my strongest asset. Ironman training demands consistent training - without it, it's going to make for a long day and a performance that won't leave you satisfied at the end of the day. In order to be consistent in my training I have get it done early in the morning and late at night. This works best for me because it doesn't adversely effect family time, work, and my clients.
You need to find what works best for you on a consistent basis. Here are some tips to get started:
1) Plan your week ahead of time so you can be proactive in working around things that come up
2) Create a rough draft of what your average week looks like and find times that make sense for training
3) Make a schedule for the week and stick to it
4) If the schedule doesn't work, make adjustements so it makes sense
5) Prioritize - what is more important, watching 'The Office' or getting your run done for the day
6) Some train in the morning, others at night - find out what works best for you.
Apply these principles to your goals and you'll get the results you want!
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