Once in awhile you have to leave your devices at home. Forget the GPS, forget the heart rate monitor, forget the power, forget your interval timer and portable lactate measuring kit. Who cares how far you ride, who cares how long it takes you to run your normal route. Heck, don’t even count your laps in the pool.
All this stuff is great, and don’t get us wrong, we use them (maybe not the lactate thing). But, on more than one workout during a week we will forget all the numbers and just go workout. We look at the clock when we leave, and look at it when we come back. Sometimes not even that.
This gets you in tune with your body and allows you to really enjoy the training and realize the purpose of it -simply to make you feel good and improve yourself physically. Do you really need to know that your avg HR was only 140 for that 5 mile stretch? Yes, on some occasions you do, but once in awhile it does not matter. We would even be willing to say that MOST of the time it does not matter.
When you’ve got a long day of training on tap, one involving all three sports, consider basing yourself out of your car or gym locker for the day. It’s a great way to speed up the switch from one sport to the next, and it eliminates any temptation to sit on the couch for 10 minutes (which can turn into a couple of hours). You’ll also find that it:
Helps teach you what works well nutritionally on a long day
Helps your body adapt to the changes from one sport to the next
Gets your training day over with sooner
Is easy to co-ordinate a day like that with your training partners, if they do the same
Helps your race day organizational skills (there’s a lot of equipment and food to deal with)
Keeps you from skipping the last workout in favor of that comfy couch!!
Depending on how your winter training schedule is coming along, you may be getting close to some of your early season races and you might want to think about incorporating some speed work (or change up your current speed focus days). Treadmills are very handy for speed work, but there has to be a balance between indoor sessions and outdoor sessions if you truly want to see gains on the open road.
The limitation behind a treadmill is that you are really just trying to keep up instead of propelling your body mass forward. You do work very similar muscles, but it is harder to gain real-world speed. A treadmill is excellent for helping you work on quick leg turnover, and it can be a great tool when you are lacking motivation to push the pace outside, but if you really want to be able to maintain that leg speed during a race you need some outside time on a 400m track, long dirt trails, or smooth open road with no distractions. That said, getting inside for some speed workouts can limit risk of injury. In general, most treadmills offer more shock absorption than the open road (though we’ve been on a couple that feel worse) and you can easily fine tune your pace.
An excellent way to loosen up the ol’ bod from the day’s previous activities is to swim in the evening for recovery. Even if you feel wasted from a hard workout, it is amazing how much better you feel after a dip in the pool to revel at the joy of buoyancy and kick out the legs (if your pool has a good hot-tub, with powerful jets for a leg massage – you’re golden!). If you approach it as a a technique/relaxation session, instead of more training where you pound out the miles with your eye on the clock, you may be surprised at just how fast 2000m flies by and how both your weekly swim volume and your psyche get a boost. Use the time to play, feel the water, and think about your form. Work on those pesky elbows that tend to drop at the catch by doing some sculling; make yourself breath to your non-dominant side if you aren’t a perfect bi-lateral breather; do some double arm back stroke to open up those pecs from hours in the aero position or at your desk; dolphin kick on your back to strengthen your core; work on your butterfly because it’s FUN… the options are endless.
As triathletes we’re very devoted to freestyle swimming. That, combined with hours in the aero position can lead to some extremely tight pecs, lats, and triceps, at the same time leaving your back and upper shoulder muscles relatively unused. If you continue in this manor without strengthening the opposing muscles, and stretching the freestyle specific muscles, you will more than likely run in to some shoulder pains that will leave you out of the pool nursing an injury.
If you’re reading this tip – you’re lucky. I would consider it one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned as triathletes.
As promised in the last tip about avoiding orthotics, here’s some great ideas to get you going on strengthening your feet. Having strong feet will help eliminate the need to throw corrective support into your shoes, and help you get rid of those lingering injuries. Essentially, what you’re doing with orthotics, is making up for something that’s missing (or wrongly thought to be missing) in your basic foot structure. Pronation or is not necessarily a bad thing, it is your body’s way of cushioning some of the blow from the impact of a run stride. You simply have to have strong feet and ankles to keep from getting injured. A great way to see this is to walk bare foot. If you’re pronating while walking bare foot – why try to correct it with supportive insoles? If anything, orthotics or supportive insoles are a band-aid. They’ll help the problem for a while, but then that part of your body will get even weaker and further problems will arise. We’ve personally had issues with this. We have high arches and assumed we needed some sort of support underneath. What this did was make them weak from under-use (an arch after all is a structure that gets stronger when pressed on from above), and we both developed some annoying pains in our heels and toes. Thankfully we caught it quickly and didn’t simply upgrade to the next most supportive insole.
If you look back into the 70′s when marathons were taking off and most of North America was running WAAAAAYYYY faster than they are now – then you look at the injury rate and the shoes they were wearing – you’ll bring up some puzzling questions. Plantar Fasciitis: quite possibly non-existent until the advent of the well supported, well cushioned running shoe. NOT TO SAY supportive and cushioned shoes are bad, they have their place. Stress fractures are bad. We’ve simply forgotten how to keep our feet strong in today’s ‘latest and greatest do-dad’ shoe market. The well supportive shoe also brings up issues of poor run stride. I.e. They allow you to run with poor form because you’re no longer concerned about how hard you hit the ground with each stride.
As triathletes we tend to forget the importance of keeping our core and lateral leg muscles strong. By doing the exercises in the video you engage a range of run- specific stabilizer muscles. This can help prevent injury – namely hip, knee, and ankle injury (provided you don’t over do them when just starting out!) - and give you that much needed structure for finishing strong in the last 10 kilometers of a long distance triathlon.
Staying injury free is key to a successful season, and to progressing year after year as an athlete. Taking care of the little things, and doing core stability exercises will help save you a few painful trips to physio 4 months from now.
Watch the video to take a look at this exercise. You’ll want to start on the ground and move up to the Bosu Ball once you’re comfortable. It is generally best to do this in front of a static object like a wall or tree so you can have something to focus on. It will help your balance in a big way.
#1. Start with both legs, just like a squat.
#2. Move to one leg at a time, same motion as a squat, keeping your hands out in front.
#3. Bring your free leg and your opposing arm up. Just like a run stride. Then go through the motions of a run stride (or semblance thereof).
#4. Repeat on a Bosu Ball. You will definitely want to master a simple double leg squat on a Bosu Ball before trying it one legged. Doing the two legged squat without shaking or wobbling will let you know when you’ve got it – focus on engaging the muscles in your lower abdomen and pelvis if you find that you shake a lot. It will help.
#5. BE CAREFUL. You are putting your knees at risk with this exercise, especially on the Bosu. Best to start within the framework of a squat rack until you know your knees won’t give out on you. Hold on to a rail and master the balance before squatting low.
You’ve probably heard of the benefits to running uphill. No doubt they’re true and no doubt hill repeats will help make you faster, stronger, and more resiliant. If you don’t enjoy running up and down the same hill over and over again, simply try and make some of your runs in hillier terrain. It will work wonders.
As far as intervals go, you could serve up a multitude of different lengths, grades, and efforts. All of which have certain benefits depending on the type of training you’re doing. With limited time in your day, we found the greatest gains for the Ironman marathon were to be had by the 5-8minute repeats up a very steep hill. Keep the HR low (High Aerobic Range) on the way up (you may even need to do a fast hike if the hill is steep enough) and watch the tendons and knees on your way down. Start with one or two and see how you feel the next day. If you’re looking for a longer steadier run, you could also slog your way uphill for an hour or more. Running down that far, however, can be a bit overkill so having a friend or coach at the top to give you a lift down is a great option. Keep in mind consistency is your number one friend when it comes to improvement in triathlon, killing yourself on any one day is of limited benefit. Build up to it.
Today’s tip is brought to you by the letters C and V. As in Coach Chuckie V.
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Here’s one of my favorite exercises to do in the gym or at home. They’re called side steps. I’ve always tried to describe these in the written form but always struggled to do so. No more of that nonsense!
This is probably the hardest thing to learn to do well, everyone struggles with it. Letting go of your ego and the thought that “the bike is my strength, I need to make up time” is important. If the bike is your strength, then know by going the same pace as your competitors (or perhaps slightly faster) you are going to come off the bike feeling far better than they will.
Learning to pace yourself in training is the best place to start. Find a 3 or 4 lap route in your area where the total distance ads up to ~180km. You could even make it a 2 x 90km loop. Your only goal for that long ride is to have each lap faster than the last. Don’t make it easy on yourself by lallygagging the first lap or two, pick an approximate HR or effort at which you think you may want to race an Ironman. Once you’ve got your numbers, think back to where you may have gone wrong or where you could go faster. Can you still run off the bike? Did you take in enough calories? Try doing this ride 3 times before your next Ironman and you’ll learn some valuable lessons BEFORE race day.
Once in awhile you have to leave your devices at home. Forget the GPS, forget the heart rate monitor, forget the power, forget your interval timer and portable lactate measuring kit. Who cares how far you ride, who cares how long it takes you to run your normal route. Heck, don’t even count your laps in the pool.
When you’ve got a long day of training on tap, one involving all three sports, consider basing yourself out of your car or gym locker for the day. It’s a great way to speed up the switch from one sport to the next, and it eliminates any temptation to sit on the couch for 10 minutes (which can turn into a couple of hours). You’ll also find that it:
Depending on how your winter training schedule is coming along, you may be getting close to some of your early season races and you might want to think about incorporating some speed work (or change up your current speed focus days). Treadmills are very handy for speed work, but there has to be a balance between indoor sessions and outdoor sessions if you truly want to see gains on the open road.
An excellent way to loosen up the ol’ bod from the day’s previous activities is to swim in the evening for recovery. Even if you feel wasted from a hard workout, it is amazing how much better you feel after a dip in the pool to revel at the joy of buoyancy and kick out the legs (if your pool has a good hot-tub, with powerful jets for a leg massage – you’re golden!). If you approach it as a a technique/relaxation session, instead of more training where you pound out the miles with your eye on the clock, you may be surprised at just how fast 2000m flies by and how both your weekly swim volume and your psyche get a boost. Use the time to play, feel the water, and think about your form. Work on those pesky elbows that tend to drop at the catch by doing some sculling; make yourself breath to your non-dominant side if you aren’t a perfect bi-lateral breather; do some double arm back stroke to open up those pecs from hours in the aero position or at your desk; dolphin kick on your back to strengthen your core; work on your butterfly because it’s FUN… the options are endless.
This is probably the hardest thing to learn to do well, everyone struggles with it. Letting go of your ego and the thought that “the bike is my strength, I need to make up time” is important. If the bike is your strength, then know by going the same pace as your competitors (or perhaps slightly faster) you are going to come off the bike feeling far better than they will.
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