 For those of you that train and race with a power-meter, you may have thought about holding a specific average power for your given event. There is a lot of talk about trying to eliminate power spikes and hold a steady wattage throughout your race. It makes sense to use your power meter to keep yourself in check if you tend to blow yourself up early on, or are insensitive to how the legs feel when you are pushing too hard. It seems, though, that some folks are taking this to the extreme and really looking to hold the same wattage on a downhill as they are on an uphill, no matter the course. This may work for a flat or slightly rolling type of course (i.e. Kona), but if you’ve got some actual climbing and fast descents to contend with, it’s not the most efficient way of getting the job done.
An example: if your goal is to hold 200 watts you would be far better off riding upwards of 220-240 watts on the uphills and keeping the power output down around 150 watts for the downhills. A 5% increase in output will net you far closer to a 5% increase in speed on a climb than it will on a decent. Say you’re going 60 km/hr on a decent, it would be much harder to go 63 km/hr (5%), than it would be to go from 15 km/hr to 15.75 km/hr (5%) on a climb. At higher speeds you’ve got more forces working against you – friction and wind resistance especially, so the speed gains from higher power output are less.
Continue reading Power Averages
 The last week of before a big race can be one of the hardest for a triathlete to bare. You’ve done all the work, your training volume is way down and you may feel lethargic and antsy all at the same time. This is a perfect time to sit down and spend some time writing mental training notes for your big day. Sometimes we are super prepared on every other front, but we forget to have a concrete set of form cues and positive affirmations ingrained in our brains for easy access on race day. Writing things down in a journal before each race can help calm you down and give you concrete focus points. It is also great to go back and look over what you’ve written post race to see where you may have missed something or where you really succeeded mentally/strategically now that your performance is in the books.
Continue reading Pre Race Mental Prep
 Over the past winter and spring we’ve been playing around with a gluten free diet: going completely gluten free for a few weeks then consuming gluten to see if it really makes a difference. The answer: Yes, but more so in some cases than in others. Turns out that Heather is quite sensitive to gluten and instantly notices basic discomfort from increased bloating, gastric distress, and diarrhea. Those symptoms indicate a lack of nutrient absorption as well and she feels more energetic on a gluten free diet. Trevor, however, isn’t that sensitive to gluten but likes to avoid it race week to limit any potential affects that it may have on his digestion.
If you have any un-explained GI issues, or even just find that you have to take bathroom breaks rather frequently during or right after long runs, it can be useful to try going gluten free. Try two weeks without gluten (you’ll be surprised how frequently it crops up), and then re-introduce pastas and breads (basically anything at all to do with wheat) in the third week. Make some notes in a food log about how you feel and see if there are any changes in your digestion when you consume gluten again. If it doesn’t bother you, then great, but if it does, you can take steps to eliminate a dietary stress to your system. Training and racing is hard on your body – the food you eat shouldn’t be!
Continue reading Gluten Free
 This winter has been the winter of a complete nutrition revamp for us (Heather and Trevor Wurtele – coauthors of all posts on the IMTT site). Some race issues that were slowly becoming a trend (in a bad way) had to be changed.
This post is not about all the factors that affect your race nutrition, just the nutrition itself. Specifically, the concentration and dilution of your carbohydrate intake. Okay, we’ll mention a couple issues first. Adequate training being the number one concern – if you haven’t done the work you will fall apart before the finish line, regardless of what you eat. Issue number 2: Pacing. Simply put, know your limits. 50% of the ‘nutrition’ issues in a race are actually pacing issues. You’ve gone too hard on the bike in order to keep up with stronger cyclists, then blow up half way through the run. There’s a reason why more men fall apart at the end of race than do women…and it’s not because woman are tougher, it’s because most are better at controlling their ego on the bike.
Continue reading Cabohydrates and Endurance Sport
 This tip is for all your family members, and admittedly we may need some help with this one so feel free to comment if you’ve got a tried and true method for spectating.
Items required for spectating:
Lawn chair, blanket, pillow – something to sit on or lie down on
Laptop, iPhone, netbook, other smart phone – something to get online with
Food and water
Money for buying beer, food, coffee, water
Camera
Map of the course
Start list with numbers
A book to read
Binoculars
Noise making device – bell or something to smash together
Flag and sign to cheer on your crew!!
Sunscreen
Stop watch
Skateboard, rollerblades, bike – something to navigate the run course effectively and watch from multiple locations.
Continue reading How to spectate an Ironman
One of the most efficient and safest ways to get your race week riding done is to do so on the trainer. Especially those last couple rides before the big day that are simply to keep the blood flowing. For one thing, you can get a quality ride in with no stopping or [...]
 We always look forward to the latest edition of our favorite sports magazine. Whether it be Triathlete, VeloNews, or the monthly edition of Guns and Knives. But, with 3 weeks to go until an important race…stay away. Nothing good is going to come of the latest and greatest advice on how to ride fast, swim faster, and outrun your competition. Have confidence in the work you’ve done and avoid the last minute trap of doubting your training by reading how others do it.
Forums are another MAJOR problem for pre-race doubts. If you’d like to confuse yourself and start doubting the work you’ve done, then head on over to a triathlon forum. Otherwise, find some other reading material for the last few weeks til race day. This will help keep your head screwed on straight and your motivation ready to go for the big show.
Continue reading Stay out of the Mags
 So the big day is done, you’re feeling sore but satisfied with the way things turned out. Your next step is to get your body recovered and ready to train again. If you’re done for the year, well I guess you could just work your way into the off season and enjoy your free time. But, if you’re looking to race again within a couple months you’d best get going on that recovery. A few things to keep in mind are your need for good calories, your need for fluid, and your need for rest. The good calories are easy, get your fat and salt craving out of the way if you must, but get back on the wholesome food bandwagon as soon as you can. Your body is most likely severly damaged and the only way to bring it around is with good quality nutrients.
Continue reading Ironman Recovery
 An Ironman is a long day, that is for sure. Even the best are out there for at least 8hrs. Most seem to come in around 10-14, then the survival group, out there exercising for 15+ hours. It’s next to impossible to account for everything that’s going to happen on race day when you’re dealing with that amount of time. Even 8 hours is a ridiculously long training day. Here are some things to ponder.
Hunger at mile 90 of the bike, what should I do? Getting hungry at mile 90 of the bike is not a good sign, it generally means you’ve undershot your calorie intake and have some catching up to do. How are you going to do that before getting off your bike and running a marathon? Answer: slow down so your heart rate lowers and you can digest properly, take in a bunch of food and gradually get the pace back up. Ideally you would catch that problem before mile 90 as it can often be hard to eat at that point of a race.
Continue reading Think your way through it
Those of you who follow Chuckie V’s blog know that he advocates walking as part of your training – time on your feet equals time in the training log. You’ll help strengthen your feet, and if you think about proper form you can also engage your glutes and back muscles much like a run [...]
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