When you extend your body beyond your center of gravity, you risk injury.
Keeping your body balanced and supported is the best way to make effective movements and remain injury free.
This applies not only to sport but most activities that you complete on a daily basis just doing life. So, we need to apply these principals in our sport, triathlon. Over reaching while swimming, biking, and running, is the fast track to becoming injured. Muscles do not like to be stretched out; it makes them weak. Repetition of this type of activity fatigues the body unnecessarily and early when competing. This becomes critical, especially when racing long (70.3 and Ironman). Keep all movements close to your general center of gravity (GCG). This will allow muscles to function at their highest possible capacity.
For more information contact me with questions. I am here to help.
Many of my athletes tend to get a little unsure about what they should be doing once the season ends. You need to keep training; only differently.
*Strength training
~ The longer you have gone this past season, the more important it is to rebuild the muscle that you’ve lost. Endurance sports reduces muscle so get back at the weights and get stronger.
*Keep moving
~You need to keep moving and there are so many different ways to move your body. Mix up your muscle usage and enjoy the simple things again.
*Slow down
~ You just finished racing and going fast. The off season is a time to reflect and regain energy for the next season. Save your faster times for the Spring, prior to race season.
*Avoid eating at night
~ The worst thing you can do for your weight maintenance is to eat at nighttime and then watch tv or worse, go to bed. The body will turn the insulin into fat which of course is not what you want.
*Goals
~ Scour the internet race calendars (or check out our Races and Events page) for events that will challenge and test you. Short races for speed, longer races for endurance. Registering for a race will keep you committed to reaching the goal.
*Heal your body.
~ Rest or sleep is a time when your body heals the best. Be sure to catch up on rest during the winter darkness so that your body has the energy it needs to thrive in the Spring and Summer.
Admittedly, this is the time of year when eating lots of calories is associated with family, fun, and holidays. And, there is nothing wrong with that; in fact, eating builds muscle and that’s a good thing. However, carbohydrates tend to dominate our eating habits this time of year (I am sure we don’t need to create a list of the obvious carbs I am talking about). So, what do you do? Everything possible! Splitting wood, going on walks, extended swim sessions, group workouts, skiing, shoveling snow, even the local basketball pick up game during the week. All of these and any others that are available to you should be utilized as additional ways to continue burning calories and maintaining an appropriate body weight for this time of year. And, for the record, I am all for 5 – 10lb weight gain by choice and thoughtful consideration. Again, gaining muscle is a good thing in addition to body fat. Most bodies don’t like being at low body fat percentages all year long; and peaking all year long is impossible as well. I liken this to a garden; you don’t get carrots, peaches or green beans all year round. Gardens need a dormant period when it doesn’t seem like much is happening but the truth is it’s gaining energy for production at the appropriate time of year. It’s the same for our bodies. So, eat up and don’t be shy about putting calories into your body at this time of year. Build strength and energy but keep moving to keep your metabolism awake so that you are ready to begin more serious workouts once the new year arrives. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Strength training is critical during the off-season months because it prepares the body for the rigors of intensity and volume in racing during the season. It is the time of year to build and repair muscle that has been neglected while racing and recovering. Usually, there is less volume during the winter months which will give individuals the time needed to rebuild strength and stamina. Certainly, at least one day is recommended however two to three times per week is suggested. The amount of weight and reps and sets an individual should do is so personal and should be determined by a professional who understands strength load, technique and stresses. When in doubt, do less when you are beginning a program; the important factor is literally doing something and getting started. Just like in endurance training regarding mileage you should never increase the weight too quickly. Make changes to your plan slowly and map out your progress anywhere from 2 to 4 months. It is good to set weight lifting goals however, it’s important to follow your body’s performance and recovery. Blend strength training in with your endurance training. If, you have to miss a workout, now is the time to miss an endurance workout and plug in the strength training. Have fun and stay strong.
One of the most popular work outs to do in multi-sport is the “brick”. This is in reference to doing two sports back to back, swim-bike, swim-run, and the most popular, bike-run. Whether you are preparing for a sprint, olympic, half or ironman, the brick is an important component that offers insight on one’s fitness, endurance, and mental fortitude. Most sprint triathlons can last up to an hour and thirty minutes, olympic distance up to 3-4 hours, half 6-8 hours and the full 12-16 hours. The purpose of the bike-run brick at any distance is to prepare your body to move either distance or time equalling what you are anticipating your experience to be. So, doing a four hour bike ride followed by a two hour run is an example of someone attempting to break 6 hours at a half Ironman. You might wonder, “why do I have to go that long prior to the race”. There are three reasons: improve fitness, test nutrition, test race apparel. If you have never worked out for 6 hours you don’t want race day to be the first time that you have gone 6 hours. You want to eliminate as many surprises as possible before race day. You don’t know what it’s like to move your body for that kind of time frame or what you are going to feel like or what you are going to think about. And, then there is the dreaded flat or other mechanical mishaps. You need to train your mind to handle this as much as you do your body. Just because you can rip off a 1:06 sprint with your local club doesn’t mean that you are prepared physically and mentally for the rigors of a half or full.
The second part, nutrition, is critical to the success of your race. A machine without fuel doesn’t work. So, sugar, water and salt taken in steady doses frequently will keep you performing at a level you’d expect from yourself. However, you have to test this in real life by going longer. Again, equalling the total time you’d expect to finish. Also, types of nutrition that your body wants can change with several factors (weather, terrain, duration and of course intensity). Nutrition has to be tested at least 3 or 4 times during these longer bricks in order to get dialed in and yet there is no guarantee that what you have practiced will actually work on race day; but at least you will have gained some experience using certain products in advance. So, gaining as much direct experience with nutritional options is super important to see how your body responds.
Number three, apparel is the final part in perfecting your day. Incredibly, every year I see people buying race apparel the night before their event because it has nice colors, text or brand name on it and it literally can ruin your day. It’s more beneficial for you to wear that worn out equipment and race suit that you have been wearing for months than it is to wear the brand new Tri suit that you see on the rack after receiving your packet at the expo. Please stick with what you’ve been using and save that shiny new suit for the next race.
The long brick is your friend. It will teach you stuff that your coach can never teach you about yourself. You will learn how to deal with adversity. Stay calm and overcome it; so, you will be ready to deal with it on race day in the heat of the moment. Best of success.
Hills
As one of my client’s 5 year old has stated “think of the hills as rainbows, Mommy”. Truly, hills are your best opportunity at creating excellent fitness; no frills, no fanfare, no glory. Just you and the hill and the occasional wildlife to keep you company. In fact, it can be down right meditative; listening to your breathing, feeling your heartbeat, and calming your thoughts as you begin to doubt whether or not you should be doing this workout. That’s the good news! The bad news is that most people will never experience this and never reach their highest athletic potential. And even worse, they will never know themselves. If you don’t know who you are as an athlete in training then you will never know who you are in races so setting goals is practically impossible and unrealistic.
The essence of hill work is to create speed thru strength building and patience. Climbing hills, whether it is running or cycling builds tremendous core strength to your body. Regarding patience, slow down while climbing and let the hill teach you and build you up. This will take time (at least in your mind) but this is the fastest way to become a better, stronger and faster athlete. Most people don’t have the courage, the discipline and humility to face the training it takes to reach their goals. When in doubt, slow down. When in doubt, do more hills; and wait for the results. Even if you never did any speed workouts on the track for running or time trials for cycling you will still be faster when it comes to race time. So, please don’t believe me; go to the hills, put in the work, and relish in the knowledge that your friends will wonder what you have been doing for the past two or three months to get so fast.
One of the things that concerns me about our country is the lack of movement among all age groups, men and women. It doesn’t take much, in fact you don’t even have to be an Ironman, to live a healthy and fulfilling life. However, you do have to move somewhat on a daily basis in some way, shape or fashion for a period of 60 minutes. It can be walking the dogs, swimming in a lake, playing horseshoes or badminton with family members not to mention riding or running in your favorite part of the neighborhood. Movement is actually fun! Movement is a fundamental and necessary need for our happiness. It’s fulfilling in and of itself; it’s in our DNA.
This morning after completing a training session with some children in preparation for the Cassadaga Kids Triathlon I stumbled upon a local 5K that was a fundraiser for the Midget Football Team. Instantly I registered to support this group as memories of playing football as a child rushed into my head, in fact, I played against this team as a child and remember how tough they were. So it thrills me to see these types of groups in our community thriving. The fortunate and unfortunate part about my experience in this event today was that I won the race outright! This is very disturbing to me; that someone who is using an AARP card and getting discounts in honor of my old age can win a 5K at a local race and, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for the win. Who doesn’t like that? For me, the issue is that there were only 20 people in the event. Number 1, where are all the runners? Where are all the walkers? And where is the support for these types of groups? Number 2, and where were all the players, cheerleaders and family members? I realize that part of the issue was purely marketing and getting the word out can be challenging especially in the summer months when families have multiple options available to them keeping them extremely busy. So, I am taking this as professional challenge. To get people excited about movement again. To help them remember what it is like to move, simply for the pure joy that one receives and the bonds and friendships and memories that are built. For instance, my wife and I recently “crashed” a class reunion of friends and athletes that we hung out with as kids. The memories we all shared will be burned into my mind as some of the greatest times of my life and it had to do with this exact thing, the joy of movement. No one ever questioned how far we went, how long we were going to play, how hard it was going to be or if we were going to hurt tomorrow…we just played.
The key is to get outside. Get away from your computer, get away from your tv and get away from your refrigerator. Please understand, I love those things and enjoy them with all my heart but that cannot replace daily exercise which would uproot your very basic health and well-being.
Be an inspiration for yourself, your spouse, your family, your friends, your co-workers, your extended family and anyone who sees you out there. I used to love the commercials by the Army; “Be all you can be” and “We do more before 9 o’clock than most people do all day”. What this means to me is, they get their ass out of bed and do something to make themselves a more fulfilled individual. 😉 Now granted, having a big scary guy over the top of you screaming “MOVE” most definitely helps but we MUST find a way to awaken that inner sergeant and tell ourselves – move. If you don’t know how to do this find someone who can help. It doesn’t have to be me but please find someone who can help you reconnect with one fo the greatest joys you have available to you. Become a child again and do what you can do from where you are at. I love you, and I will see you out there.
Nutrition – Nutrition is the biggest mystery in long endurance sports but it doesn’t have to be. I have seen people run the gamut on the food at an Ironman event from pancakes, oatmeal, Spam, PB &J, Big Mac’s, Ensure, raw meat and the usual gels and gummy blocks on the market today. And, there is no doubt that one needs to eat and receive calories during such a long athletic event as Ironman. Hopefully, the calories that one consumes and digests works with an elevated heart rate, cold/heat, excessive fatigue and overall bodily confusion.
The night prior to the Ironman is critical for the success of the next day. My advise to the athletes I coach is to eat and drink as normal as possible. For instance, if you have beer and pizza on most Saturday nights and you are usually done with that by 7pm then that is exactly what you should be having the night before your Ironman if it’s on a Sunday. If everyone is going out for an ice cream on Saturday night after dinner and you never have ice cream, please do NOT get ice cream. You can have plenty of ice cream when you are finished with your race and it won’t matter what happens to your intestines. So, if you are not used to eating a salad or bread or scallops or tofu please do not eat these the night before your race even it means cooking your own meal. Assuming that you’ve done this properly your bodily functions will be as close to normal the next morning. Now, the morning of the race. If you are used to eating breakfast please have the same, even though your nerves may not let you eat a lot. Do your best to fuel with exactly what you would on any given day. The reason why is, you want to keep everything as normal as possible. Your body doesn’t want any surprises while performing at Ironman; it doesn’t need any extra stress. Leaner athletes are recommended to eat more than stockier built athletes mainly because there is more body to burn. And toping off the tank for a lean athlete is needed.
The main goal is to keep water, sugar and electrolyte levels steady. You want to encourage your body to burn at a slow rate. So, feeding it with two much volume at one time can be detrimental just as not feeding it much very seldom can be detrimental too. So, providing small amounts often will ensure a healthier flow of nutrition in to a performing body. This is why excessive outputs of energy are dangerous. The same goes for excessive input or lack of input of nutrition. Signs that are evidence of a need for nutrition are as follows; fatigue, feeling emotional, twitching of muscles, a poor performance, and irritability. Incredibly suppling your body with two to three swigs of water, a gel and some electrolyte powder makes you feel like a million bucks. Thats the good news. The bad news is you now have to keep doing this every 20-30 minutes. The worst news is if you don’t all of the signs that I mentioned above will begin to compound and eventually put your body in to the shut down mode. At this point, literally, your body is in an emergency state. You can recover from this but you can kiss your PR good-bye. It ain’t happening today. A perfectly fueled body, along with proper pacing, can appear to be super human and blast through to new heights. All has to be in perfect alignment which is a rare but relished day when it occurs.
Pacing – I remember a quote from Mark Allen, he said “At Ironman, the race begins at mile 18 of the run” Now, for us mere mortals the race is about pacing; when in doubt slow down. It is such a long day! If you are like most people and don’t have all day to train, eat, sleep, massage and then eat again; you have to make the training work for you and still have a work life, family life and not to mention social life. When you are racing Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons you can pretty much go all out for the race; it hurts like hell but you know it’s not going to last for very long and you can take the intensity and pain that those distances require. When racing Ironman it’s a completely different animal. In fact, many professional triathletes and elite ametures are accused of being loners due to the volume and solitude that training for an Ironman requires when done properly. So, how does one know what the right pace is for them and how to set up the training to maximize success on race day?
The swim is literally the warm up of the day. Even a well trained and fast swimmer who is attempting to qualify for Kona would not go all out on the swim knowing what lies ahead. There’s no such thing as a spiked heart rate in your Ironman plan on race day. Easier said than done when you are surrounded by 2500 other nut jobs screaming, hooting and hollering as if they are on the set of Braveheart causing your heart rate to sky rocket and adrenaline pumping in to your bloodstream. LOL You have to stay relaxed, calm, focused and quiet. Once you start the race, get in to your flow as soon as possible. Again, this flow happens to be way lower than your maximum effort. You will not win the race in the swim, but you could lose it there. Slow down, stay relaxed and avoid aggressive swimmers looking for some drama. Think about it, what good is a fist fight going to do you, especially a broken nose, before you exit the water. Hopefully, your heart rate will be extremely low and your emotions will be steady and your body will feel good knowing that you have paced it right and you’ve got a good day ahead.
Now, on to the bike. The bike leg is probably the most important when it comes to Ironman race day. You have to know yourself. You have to know what is excessive cycling for your skills and fitness level. Assuming you survive T1 and haven’t crashed trying to pull off a flying mount, your main goal is to get away as smoothly and efficiently as possible and on to the course. Obviously, you must train according to the terrain at the race you are competing in. Otherwise, it will be very difficult competing on a course that is not suited to the types of training you have done. I will talk about nutrition in another segment, but truly it is critical. In regards to pacing, you MUST stay under your max effort on the bike at all times. When in doubt, slow down. The way you ride in your group back home is not how you should ride at Ironman. The intensity and pace you hold on your hill climbs and intervals at home is NOT how you should pace at Ironman. The pace and the exertion level that you hold for time trials back home is NOT what you should be attempting to hold at Ironman. So, very much like the swim your effort should be smooth, consistent, steady, measured, thoughtful and painless. Certainly, your goal should be to negative split this ride. Meaning three hours on the first loop, 2:59 on the second. If you do this you will be one of 10 people on the planet that have done it, LOL. Not many people have the patience or the discipline to make it happen; including myself. However; this should be your goal and if you succeed even somewhat close for instance 3 hours and 3:05 you have done very very well. Some of the signs of going to hard on the Ironman bike course is heavy or excessive breathing, heart rate or power meter numbers higher than you’ve seen in training or worse, you’re slowing to a crawl. The bottom line is that you have to wait. You have to wait for the bike to end, you cannot rush the race. Certainly not on the bike. If you are unable to hold a conversation comfortably with yourself or a nearby competitor you are simply going to hard. Please slow down for better results.
Next up, the marathon. If you have never run a good marathon during an Ironman it is most likely due to fact that you have gone too hard on the bike and suffered the consequences. And remember, a good marathon means approximately 30 minutes slower than you could have run a straight marathon event that day. And, let’s assume that you did well and that you were patient on the bike, now what? The plan stays the same. No rushing out of transition area to catch your buddy or spouse, SLOW DOWN! You have to discover and assess what damage has occurred and where is your body in this moment. What does it need? What should you do? And, running the first three miles at your 5K race pace is not very friendly to a body that has serious needs. So; back off on the pace for the first 5 miles and establish where your current nutritional needs are and what body parts need to recover. If you take the time to do this, it means that you are more likely to succeed and finish the race on your terms. If you neglect this the day will punish you by shutting your body down and that’s just no fun. So, be reasonable, as reasonable as one can be after having been moving for 8 – 10 hours so far and attend to your body’s request by feeding it and letting it run at a pace that is 2 minutes slower per mile until you feel like a runner again. Assuming you feel good and are wondering where you should pick up the pace, well, you may have heard this saying “the 20 mile mark is the half way point in the marathon”. So you really shouldn’t be picking up anything and get yourself through mile 20, 22, 24 and then maybe begin to pick it up. Because if you have ever experienced an Ironman cramp , giggle giggle, it is quite debilitating and can take you down, literally. Be wise and maintain your pace until you are absolutely sure that you will be able to hold this pace right through the finish line. In summary; give yourself a gift and allow your body’s pace to unfold with the day. Which in other words means to start slow and finish fast.
The swim…
By most peoples standards, I had a “good” swim at Lake Placid, 1:17 and change. By my standards and my competitors standards, it’s pathetic. However, I literally swam 4 times prior to the Ironman in Lake Placid and only one of those times was beyond a mile. I did this on purpose. Knowing that my swim would only be 10 to 13% of my overall time. I didn’t want to commit so much travel and training to a portion of the race that was going to be the smallest. And as a result, the swim performance was lack luster. So good for me, I reached my goal. But it doesn’t make me happy. It doesn’t make me happy to think that perhaps I COULD swim under 1 hour and be 17 minutes off of that time. I wanted to use the least amount of energy as possible and simply get through the swim without “sweating” and save energy for the bike and run. Which was over 10 more hours to go. I used all of the tools I had to save and minimize energy expenditure knowing that I hadn’t put in the time to prepare my body for a competitive Ironman swim…and, it worked.
Let’s get one thing straight, cold water doesn’t appeal to me. Cold pools even less. That being said, it is inevitable that one must get into this medium in order to compete in triathlon. And, open water swimming is truly a wonderful experience that I have enjoyed in many locations around the country. Like most sports, technique is critical and swimming is no exception. Changing one’s self or others’ technique in swimming can be a challenge, especially when one is resisting getting into the water. I know a company called “Go Swim” and this is probably the most important directive you can give anyone who is interested in becoming a swimmer. For instance, children swim on teams or at parks and recreation centers for hours, some with technique driven programs, others driven by mileage programs and both tend to create kids who can swim. I am not suggesting that one is worse or better than the other, I am just stating the fact that in order to become a swimmer you MUST go swim. So, I have begun the process of becoming a swimmer again by going to swim. I avoided it this season as much as possible and built fitness around the cycling and running (mostly the cycling) and my plan went well, as my results have shown. However, in order to be a champion in triathlon one needs to be a champion at all three sports.
There are so many great coaches and programs for swimming in the U.S. I have worked with a handful of them; Doug Stern, Terry Laughlin, and Dr. Nicholas Romanov. What I have learned from them is that flexibility, specificity, efficiency, and technique are the foundations of a great swimmer. Yet, each athletic body has to be considered when evaluating and applying these perimeters. For instance, I do not have the flexibility of a great swimmer so I have to do the best I can with what I’ve got. Training prep for a specific event is not difficult for me to do, so that isn’t tricky at all. Efficiency is developed from massive repetition and once it is in you, it sticks pretty well. The technique of swimming in accordance to the POSE Method is where I am today. I have decided to commit to perfect movement in the water which is something I have not done in the past. Practically, it’s about creating support with your hand and body and then breaking that support every stroke by unweighting the support hip. The next step is to repeat this movement over and over and over again until I fatigue which is the time to stop…in basketball, always end on a swish.
Bottom line, my goal is to do what I haven’t done yet…become a swimmer. Of course, this is a difficult challenge since I am now 50 and it is virtually impossible to put in the yardage and experiences that some of my competitors have had in college or earlier. So, I will have to do it with the current engine available and knowledge available that I have learned in the past 20 years of being in the sport. I will swim 3 days a week for about 2500 yards each, which I know makes any “true” swimmer laugh because that is the kind of mileage they would do on any given morning with another session at night. Regardless, I will unify all of my thoughts and energy to this task and see how it turns out by the end of next year.