Being Related to a Coach is Amazing!

 

Hey y'all! Sorry about the lack of posts, I've been busy what with the holidays and all! So today was a training cram! Besides being an Ironman triathlete, my father-in law is also a USAT certified level 1 coach. So this morning, we went to the local rec center while my wife and I stay over for a couple days as part of our Christmas split plan! And I learned quite a bit to correct my stroke. I also went and ran a half-marathon earlier but that's just icing on the cake. So here's what I was doing wrong to help those like me! 

1. I was lifting my shoulders and head to breathe. 

This is a big no-no. Your head should sit in the bow wave created by your swim cap, effectively helping you split the water. You should barely roll your neck to the side to breathe and one goggle should never leave the water. It's a weird feeling but it worked wonders on helping me need less rests. 

2. I cross when I kick. 

I never realized I was doing this but when I perform my flutter kick I cross sides every few beats when I roll to breathe. Which tangles my legs and makes the kick virtually useless. The best drill my father-in law knows is a pull buoy drill in which the buoy is held between the thighs and the kick is kept small. This forces your body to hold your legs apart. And it works wonders. 

3. I spread my legs to breathe. 

Another major no-no but one that most people do naturally. Your body tries to splay your legs during breaths to keep floating and make breathing more comfortable; however, this works like a drag chute and slows your entire stroke down, forcing you to expend more energy to get back up to speed. Only to slow down again ad finitum. The pull buoy drill is the fix. 

4. I need to do more drills. 

Most new triathletes are guilty of this sin against Masters's Swim classes. We don't like drills. The mentality of the new triathlete is focused almost entirely on distance, endurance, and speed. And that's why until they find a coach, most new triathletes are bad habit swimmers. Drills are the cornerstone of swim workouts. Drills train specific motions of the body to become muscle-memory. And when your in a mass start ocean swim and you've sucked down a lungful of salt-water, your body looks to muscle memory to know what to do. So drills are brutally important. 

So after that awesome experience, I'm just looking forward to the next time I hit the pool to keep perfecting the little errors that most of us have in our strokes! Also, if you haven't taken my advice yet, go out and buy a pair of Swiftwick high-digit socks. My personal favorites are Aspire Twelves, but mine are working wonders right now on my calves after the half-marathon! Happy training!

Need for Speed

Hey y'all it's been awhile! So a quick check-in, yesterday was my first brick workout since I've officially started Ironman training! We're still building base mileage, so it was a 1 hour trainer ride followed by a 1 hour run. It actually went really well, I PR'ed over the first 5k and had my average pace a full 30 seconds faster than I intend to run the Ironman! So we're doing good so far! I'm currently building my race schedule for 2014 (including the possible insanity of attempting the Leadville 100 or at least the 50-miler) and the honey and I have been Christmas shopping like crazy! 

Thanks to the generosity of the wife, I have been using my trainer most of the month since a massive cold front hit Colorado and I've been discovering the goods and bads about indoor training. I do virtually all of my rides on the trainer currently and since it effectively doubles as a bike stand, I've been doing some tune-ups and adjustments to my bike and riding position. Since I've been spending so much time doing this, I've been trying to find some ways to raise my average speed for the Ironman! So without further ado, here's 5 ways you can raise your average speed this off-season! 

1. Lighten your bike.

As someone who rides a 30 lbs. bike, I should know, it's hard to push that much weight at higher speeds. So one of the easiest ways to gain speed is to lose the excess weight which is often stored in unthinkable areas such as tires or even your seat post! 

2. Lighten your arse

Losing a few kilos is much less expensive than lightening your bike and it's one of the more efficient ways to make yourself faster. One of the biggest differences between a Tour De France rider and you is your strength to weight ratio. Increase that by decreasing your excess body fat and you'll get much better both on hills and the flat lands! 

3. Aerobic fitness, aerobic fitness, aerobic fitness! 

Contrary to what you probably think, raising your lactate threshold and anaerobic strength is only half the equation and it really only helps for hard efforts on hills and sprints. You need a huge amount of aerobic fitness to keep up with the pros speeds. So doing a lot of miles in the aerobic zone will give you a much deeper strength well to draw on when the going gets tough. 

4. Figure out your nutrition

You need to figure out your nutrition plan if you want to sustain higher speeds. If you do great for the first three hours but start to have issues after that, you probably are botching your fueling! Figure out something that works for you and stick with it to blow by your weekly club rides!

5. Train hard, Rest harder

You spend all day, 7 days a week training and you wonder why you aren't getting anywhere. Your body needs time to rest and adapt to your workload, otherwise you won't succeed in your regimen. Try to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep every night (the pros sleep 10+ hours a day) and take rest days during which you do no activity. But also mix in rest days during which you put in miles in your recovery zone. Called active recovery, this helps to flush the lactic acid out of your muscles and promotes healing. 

Getting faster takes time but anyone can do it! The true trick is training smarter, not training harder!

It's About the Heart

Hey y'all! So my wife took this picture when I wasn't looking during my long ride on the trainer the other day! (We just had a major cold front move in and it's pretty much miserable to ride outside right now, not to mention dangerous.) She thought it was cute that I was reading while cycling (hey you've got to get through a two-hour aerobic ride somehow!) but this post is actually about the book I was reading.

It's called It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong.

Now Lance has taken a ton of heat in the past year for admitting to using performance enhancing drugs (granted, so was every other athlete, they just didn't get caught) but that doesn't change the fact that he is still a phenomenal cyclist and a great triathlete! So, always being a huge fan of Lance's training, I picked up this book at my local library. You might expect the book to primarily be about training (for that see his other book, The Lance Armstrong Performance Program.)
But it's not. It's primarily about his battle with cancer.

 

Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 25. The book chronicles his life from his childhood bike racing to his early professional career, but especially focuses on his battle with cancer and the aftermath. Armstrong underwent chemotherapy, brain surgery, and aggressive treatments, and still survived to win the Tour De France 7 times in a row.

Nobody realizes exactly how hard that was. Armstrong reveals in his book how he came close to being administered a chemotherapy medication that would have destroyed his lungs and made his comeback impossible. He got a different drug at the last minute but still talks about struggling to bike down the block due to a low hematocrit count after the chemo. He talks about the grueling training that brought him back from the brink and his struggles with sponsors who failed to believe in him.

It's an absolutely inspiring read. Besides the cancer and struggle bits, Armstrong also talks race strategy and shows his mindset during his first Tour win. The book is full of team member banter and race reviews, enough to keep people who don't care so much about the inspirational parts interested.

I liked to read it while on the trainer just because it felt right. But that's just me. I started reading and two hours later finished both the book and my ride. And I've got two sore spots on my sit bones to prove it. (I had to sit straight back on my saddle to read it) Check it out and see what inspiration does for you!

Triathlete Mag Deal Frenzy

So just a quick recommendation! While getting ready to do an hour-log training run at the in-laws this weekend on the treadmill, I realized I needed some reading material for the workout! So since I was at REI anyway, I picked up the latest copy of Triathlete magazine!

This issue is jam packed with excellent material, my personal favorite being the play by play breakdowns of the Ironman Kona 2013 race! Along with some excellent holiday guides and training ideas and the always excellent product reviews, this issue also comes with an exclusive and rather amazing deal!

Give the gift of Triathlete magazine to your favorite triathlete for $35, and receive a 10 oz. Fuelbelt Palm Holder for free! It's a great deal if you know someone who likes the magazine, but it also comes with a deal for single buyers, get 12 issues of Triathlete for $30. I'll be dropping my card in the mail soon!

You Gotta Log Life

So up until this point, I've been using Beginner Triathlete for my training log and evaluation. And it was bearable. When I originally started, I loved their layout and format and I was blissfully happy as I struggled to run 5k and bike 10 miles! (Nobody ever misses those days!) In May, they retooled their layout and I hated it. But the log itself worked the same and so I continued to use it, I just had to push past the dislike of the decor. However, a few days ago, I attempted to add a run I did on the treadmill to the log 3 DIFFERENT TIMES AT 3 DIFFERENT TIMES! And it never worked! So therefore, I went questing for a new training log.

I found the perfect one on Ironman's website! Training Peaks is the officially endorsed training log of Ironman triathlons. And it is amazing!

First off, it's completely free to sign up for, so at least give it a try! I've been using it for 3 days and I'm already addicted. Before Training Peaks, I'd had to use DailyBurn calorie tracker to track my nutrition and the default Android app for Beginner Triathlete barely worked well enough to show me past workouts. No longer.

Training Peaks is the most effective software I've used and I'm never going back! It has more built-in functionality then any age-grouper will ever need (especially flat-broke starting ironmen!) It's true that if you want full functionality then you'll have to subscribe to unlock Premium content, but I have yet to seen a reason I'd have need too.

My favorite things about it? I can track my calories, which then show up in the calender view alongside my workouts. It auto-calculates the calories I've burned based on my profile and compares that to the calories I've taken in, making it easy to determine weight maintenance. It supports integration and downloads from dozens of HRM, power monitors, and cyclometers and has the ability to export your logs so that you don't lose your data!

Then it gets better.

The Dashboard function shows off my workouts, macro-nutrients, and pacing all in a series of graphs and charts that make it easy to determine overall fitness. You do have to subscribe to add more charts to your Dashboard but I have yet to find a need to do so.

The biggest bummer?

You have to subscribe to log future workouts. Which costs around $20 per month. That's a little steep but since it's designed for professional triathletes, it can be worth it if you have need of the added functionality. But for now, I'm perfectly content with a free account.

Need a log and don't want to use pen and paper? Go ahead and sign up for Training Peaks. You won't regret it. 

 http://home.trainingpeaks.com/

A Beautiful Morning Run

Went up to the in-laws for a late Thanksgiving since I was on duty. 7 miles never looked so good and in beautiful 50 degree weather too!

The Most Thankful Training Tool

Hey y'all it's been awhile! So Thanksgiving just passed (All triathletes get on your knees and pray to the anti-weight gain gods) and I got to thinking about things that I'm thankful for. And I came up with one thing that has been one of my most useful training tools ever since I started triathlon!

My Timex Ironman watch.

It was a birthday gift from my wife right after we got engaged and I fell in love with it! A lot of people have tried Ironman watches with varying results (the father-in-law prefers Garmin for its GPS) but I have always loved my entry-level $40 Target watch.

Ironman watches have a lot going for them. For one thing, if you grab one with a water-resistance of 100-meters, they're virtually water-proof. I can vouch, I take mine in the pool every time I swim to time my splits. Which is probably the watches most amazing function. (Quick tip here: Don't submerge the Ironman watch while you press the buttons; most people who encounter watch failures do so because of ignoring this. The watch doesn't have internal gaskets to protect the components from water penetration so make sure your wrist is out of the water before you go mashing buttons!)

Mine is an excellent Blue-Orange coloring that matches my race kit and looks fairly stylish too! So here's everything you need to know in quick-bullet format about the watch, Good and Bad.

1. If you don't press the buttons underwater, it's virtually water-proof. I've taken mine in the pool countless times and timed countless splits in an effort to improve my abilities and it's never failed me. Ever. Never fogged, never sputtered. As a firefighter, I rely on my watch to time pulses and let me know how long I've been in, and this thing has survived extreme temperatures and had thousands of gallons of tank water dumped on it and it's still kicking. I've gotten grease and oil all over it, buttons still function even when a tad grimy. I've dropped it from ridiculous heights. I have yet to break it. Which is a miracle.

2. The screen has decent scratch-resistance. For all I've put it through, I've never scratched the display. Also phenomenal as my last watch scratched on it's first trial run (a generic Wal-Mart brand.)

3. The biggest complaint you hear is that the strap breaks down from chlorine. Knowing this, I rinse my watch after every swim to get off any excess chlorine and I've never had a problem with the strap. It still looks new with no issues.

4. The next thing you hear is that the battery craps out as soon as you buy it. I've had mine almost a year and the battery is just as good as the day I bought it. Maybe I'm a lucky one, but I have a hard time believing that a company like Timex would make a watch that died so quickly after purchase.

5. The watch does have Indiglo (essential for night-runs) and the stopwatch, splits, and recall functions work great. In races like Ironman, where the course is usually lapped, you can time each lap and bring the data back up later for logging and evaluation.

6. The only downside I can personally say is the expense. $40 is a bit steep for a watch, especially for a blog about triathlon budgets, but you pay for what you get. It's more like an investment than a purchase.

If you can't tell, I love my Timex Ironman. Personally, I use it as a backup for my Strava data for those rare occasions when Strava malfunctions and I lose my times for a run or ride. I've never had any problems with it in any condition and I highly recommend it for anyone needing rugged performance out of their equipment without loss of functionality.