A great little routine to start in the new year is to take your morning resting heart rate. Yes, it can be a bit annoying to reach out from under those warm blankets and put the cold plastic monitor to your chest, but the benefits to knowing what that [...]
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If you’re diligent about keeping track of your workouts you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how this simple tool not only helps keep your motivation high (by allowing you to set weekly goals, and trying to out-do last month), but it will also allow you to train more effectively in future months and years. The magic really starts to happen once you’ve got a full year’s worth of data. It’s more than likely that you have a vague recollection of what you did last January, but imagine if you knew exactly what you did – it would be so simple to improve on that program and make the upcoming year even more succesful. This works on a month-to-month basis as well. Keeping track of progressing run volume is one of the best ways to avoid getting injured while pushing yourself to make gains. “Ok, you ran 200km in January, can you get to 220km in February?” If you’re a social person, most of the online training logs also allow you to share your workouts with the training community. Some like this option, some don’t…you can always turn the privacy settings on.
This tip has to do with your shammy - relative to your saddle height on race day (not the amount of time you spend sitting around in it). Most of us as triathletes will race in a tri-short with a small shammy that doesn’t soak up a gallon of water from the swim, and doesn’t feel like a diaper during the run. However, we often train in a normal cycling shorts with those nice thick pads that ease the bumps and bruises on our skinny butts. The difference between the two is relatively minor, but, it does make a difference on race day if your legs and back are used to having that extra ~5mm of height. So how do you solve this? We tend not to like adjusting our physical saddle height to compensate, but, if you want to be extreme you could certainly do this. Rather, we simply make sure to train in our Tri-shorts a couple times per week, and every single ride for the 2-3 weeks before race day. The difference really is small, but, with ~5000 revolutions of the pedals every hour on the bike, those little differences are worth paying attention to. Congratulations to our two contest winners in the draw for a pair of new AVIA running shoes. Our mens winner is Josh (email ends with knaconsulting.com). Our female winner is Jessica (with an email address that ends in roadrunner.com). Please contact us directly from the email address you used [...]
Beer contains 150 calories. The key is having ‘A’ beer, as in one! Or perhaps choosing a non-alcoholic variety like O’douls. The time to avoid the brewskie is when you’re dehydrated, need to stay hydrated, or looking to lose weight. Though beer has no fat, it is one of the most readily available fuels that your body could use as energy, therefore causing your body to convert and store all the other carbohydrates in your system as fat!
These 5 simple exercises are perfect for balancing your back and shoulder muscles, helping to prevent needless injury in the pool. Each exercise is done immediately following the previous, no rest, and about 10 reps per arm for each exercise. Twice through. Choose a very light weight, the first two exercises will feel extremely easy, by the time you finish the 3rd and 4th the burn will set in making the 5th very hard. You are not looking to bulk up with this exercise, it is more than enough to keep the weight light and focus on higher reps. Your shoulders and swim times will love you!!
Want to break 1 hr for your next Ironman swim? Be specific – “Swim 59:45 at Ironman”. Or, “Come top 10 in my age group at ….”. Whatever your goal is, let your mind know you can do it. On a similar note, Chuckie V put up a great post over on his blog today – we put the meat and potatoes below. If you haven’t been to his site, we strongly recommend it. He’s got some amazing posts to help you as a triathlete. Some things to keep in mind, care of ChuckieV
Items required for spectating: A book to read Aside from watching your friend or family member come across the finish line, you definitely have to watch the swim start. Don’t even think of sleeping in, 2000 people throwing themselves into the water at the sound of the gun is something that will spark your adrenaline and get you going no matter how tired you are. Getting a good vantage point is hard, though, so stake your spot early and have some binoculars handy.
What better place to test this stuff out then on the lava fields of Hawaii – so that’s what we’ve done. A few different trials and we’ve found the perfect answer. It’s extremely breathable, extremely water proof, and claims to be anti-aging (which by blocking UV and preventing skin damage is actually reasonable). The key ingredient is 3% Zinc Oxide in a product called Hawaiian Blend Sport Sunblock SPF50. We tried a couple others – Bullfrog works great, but not for long. Similar findings for Coppertone Sport. The worst was made by Banana Boat, even the sport sunscreen was very un-breathable and it makes you sweat from every pore. It also didn’t do much to block the sun after any time in the water. Something with Zinc Oxide is by far your best bet. 3% is a good level, anything higher and you’ll be a white monster as it doesn’t rub in very well. If you have a hairy body you may want to look for something with a bit less zinc for that very reason. However, anything without it and it’ll be gone a few hours into the bike.
Test #1 – A flat out 5km (3mile) run test keeping track of heart rate. For the athlete concerned with speed – Olympic distance, Sprint distance type stuff. As easy as it sounds, warm up really well, then giver!! Keep track of your time and Avg HR. In future tests you’ll be able to compare those two numbers and see where you stand. It doesn’t have to be exactly 5km either. Perhaps you have a favorite run route with no stop lights, doing the test there works just as well. Test #2 – Low HR run test. Sometimes called MAF (Max Aerobic Frequency) tests. These are key for Ironman and Half Ironman athletes. The longer you can run at a lower HR, the better off you’ll be over the course of a long distance event. First step is to know your MAF – here’s a link for that calculation. Once you’ve got that down, you can get on with the test. It is best to do this test on a track to limit variables between tests. Warm up really well, at least 15 minutes. Then peg your HR at your MAF and keep track of your mile splits as well as your average HR for each split. Aim for at least 5 miles and as many as 12 miles if your splits are staying fairly steady. If you see a drop off of more than 20% from your 2nd interval you can stop the test as you’ll be running REALLY slow by then. |
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