 Going back to the topic of consistency with this short tip. A good rule of thumb is to never let three days go by where you haven’t trained one of the three sports. Being consistent in training as whole is great, but being consistent across swimming, biking, and running is also very important. Keeping the 3 day rule in mind, even during a bike focus week, will help hold on to any gains you’ve made in the other two sports. Haven’t been in the water in a couple days? Get to the pool! Bailed on that ride becuase there was black ice, and couldn’t commute to work for whatever reason? Hop on the trainer.
Sticking to the 3 day rule definitely help your performance over the long run.
 Coaches are important and many athletes have one…sometimes even two that work together. They help take you to new levels and they help see your weaknesses from a different perspective.
Generally, a coach is not only giving you a training plan, but they’ll also be following up with how each particular day or week progressed, making further adjustments as needed. The key here is to be 100% honest in your training log. Your coaches daily plan is a guide, but if you couldn’t finish the workout, don’t keep the full workout in your log. It’s not shameful to tell your coach you couldn’t finish a workout, it’s important to tell them why you didn’t finish the workout and how much of it you actually did. At the other end, perhaps things feel too easy and you want train harder. Well don’t go out and double the workout or throw in 3 extra intervals because you felt good. Ask your coach about it, maybe next week is going to be killer and you need to be ready by training a bit easier this week. The most important thing is to have open, guilt free, lines of communication. You have to be honest or you’re leaving your coach in the dark. If your coach isn’t taking your input to heart or simply dismissing your thoughts, they aren’t doing their job properly.
It is also good to note that coaches are not necessary. Particularly because Ironmantriathlontips.com is around!!! haha. Only joking. But seriously, don’t worry too much if you can’t afford a coach or don’t feel comfortable following a set plan. There’s a lot to be said for having the freedom to wake up and train the sport you want to train on a particular day. You’re supposed to be having fun after all. If you decide to coach yourself, you’ve got learn quickly from your mistakes, and you have to be highly motivated to push yourself with no one else to care about what you’ve done (perhaps a friend to brag/ be accountable to would be good). You’ve got to learn how hard is too hard and how little is too little. You’ve got to learn when fatigue is worth training through and you’ve got to learn when that fatigue is a sign that you need to back off. Find your limits.
What is your underlying motivation for doing well in triathlon? Material aspects of competition, such as prizes, trophies, money? More immaterial, egocentric aspects of competitive events, such as recognition and respect from peers? Or how about the desire for self-development, and to challenge yourself?
Sports psychology studies emphasize that athletes should be encouraged to improve performance using intrinsic (within yourself) rather than extrinsic (outside yourself) motivators. This is because, with extrinsic rewards, your self-confidence and overall satisfaction with training and performance are defined by external factors, which are out of your control.
For example, if you place poorly in a race, despite having performed above personal expectations, you may be very self-critical and get depressed, and this may affect future performance. If performance is evaluated by external factors, such as what other people may think of you, your objectivity goes out the window. You need this objectivity to learn from failures, and face personal challenges that may be inhibiting your further development.
Continue reading Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
Your first transition is usually the most hectic and crowded. Depending on what you’re trying to get out of the race you can attack T1 two different ways. Go through with the intent of getting out as quickly as possible, or use it as a chance to regroup and get ready for the long ride ahead. This tip relates to trying to get you through quickly.
Like anything, practicing transitions in training is important. Visualizing the transition frequently before the race and the morning of the race is also important. Know what you’re going to do. With about 2 minutes left in your swim, it’s also a good idea to start thinking about what you’ll be doing in transition. All this will help you get through smoothly.
If you have a race where all your transition gear is situated in one place right beside your bike then everything is pretty simple. Unzip your wetsuit as you run out of the water, then take off the cap and goggles. When you get to your spot, whip the suit down to your calves and stand on it to pull the rest of your legs out as you put on your bike helmet. Number belt, bikes shoes, galsses and off you go. Try not to be too frantic. Quick but calm. We all know how things can take way longer when you are all stressed rushing out the door to get to work!
Continue reading Transition Zone 1 – A.K.A. T1
 Your feet are a very important but generally neglected part of your body. We may get leg massages but often don’t do a thing to loosen up our feet. Achy heels in the morning can be the initial signs of plantar fasciitis, and you want to do all that you can to avoid that.
First start by walking around in bare feet as much as you can to get all those feet muscles working. Wiggle your toes around while you are eating breakfast, try to move your pinkie toes independently. Roll the underside of your feet out on a golf ball or a full water bottle that has been frozen.
An excellent thing to do after your runs, while your are stretching, is to use toe spreaders (those things that women use to paint their toenails) to separate your toes and help stretch your feet. They feel really odd and rather uncomfortable at first, but they can really help loosen up your whole posterior chain (the fascia that run from the underside of your feet to the top of your head). One exercise is to stand with the toe spreaders on and, with your heels and big toe still on the ground, try to raise your big toe knuckle as high as you can, repeat.
A great thing for recovery in general is to get your legs up in the air. If you do this with toe spreaders on (toes pulled towards your head), your butt as close to the wall as it can go to get a comfortable hamstring stretch, your back neutral and your arms out above your head with wrists cocked (palms up, fingers pointed away from your body) this will loosen you up nicely – from your head to your spread toes.
 This drill is from Matt Fitzgerald’s ‘Brain Training for Runners‘. A great book.
Lace the fingers of your two hands together and make a big circle with your arms at shoulder level, like you are simulating a basketball hoop for someone else to toss a ball through. Run 100m at a moderately fast temp with your arms in this position. Jog slowly and normally back to your starting position and repreat. This drill will force you to activate your deep abdominal muscles and to maintain an upright posture and therby teach you how to activate these muscles with running. It will also help eliminate rotational asymmetries by taking away your ability to compensate for these rotations with shoulder movements.
 Swim cords are a great tool to help work swim specific muscles out of the water, and they can help your mental game tremendously when you can’t get in the pool because your schedule doesn’t mesh with lane swim times. Just loop them around a pole, tree, stair banister, shut the middle part in a doorway… and have at it. Gordo has some nice pictures illustrating a few swim cord exercises here. I would also recommend lying face down on a bench or (using a ball for even more of a core stability challenge) because this lets you feel bit more like you do in the water and this can help with muscle memory. Remember, you want to have a strong, high elbow catch, without totally losing your roll.
Swim cords can be a great tool for arm position awareness – just be sure to check yourself out in a mirror, or have a friend critique you, the first few times you do them to make sure you are keeping your elbows nice and high, and not putting unnecessary strain on your low back. A great thing to do is to use them on deck before jumping into the water, then try to mimic that feeling once in the water. Use your lats to pull the cord back with your forearm vertical - learn to engage your major muscles groups. They can also be good to use after swimming as a substitute for weights. Get your back muscles, pecs etc. in order to help balance your swimming muscles and prevent injury.
Continue reading Swim Cords
 As is the case with your Pre Race Dinner - practice in training to make sure you won’t run in to difficulties on race day. It’s extremely hard (impossible actually) to simulate the nervous stomach and anxiety of race day in training. But finding a simple breakfast that sits extremely well with you on a day to day basis will help ease those race morning nerves. Ultimately, it will come down to trying a few different things on race day before you dial it in perfectly.
Keep it simple. Your aim on race morning is not to pack back a ton of hard to digest calories. The less you have to digest, the better. But you’ve got to try and take in some food to top up your reserves.
Continue reading Pre race breakfast
Today’s post comes to you from Chris Brown and Sara Gross. If you’ve thought about, but have yet to try a training camp, here’s some motivation to make it happen.
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Why Camp?
For many of us, it’s that time of year when we are putting in some miles on the three T’s; trainer, treadmill and track. I recently spent 3 ½ weeks in Calgary, Canada… burr…. I have to admit, I have become soft when it comes to cold weather. I forgot what its like to have your lungs burn on a long run when it’s -25! Enter the perfect solution: the warm weather training camp.
Taking part in a warm weather training camp is not only fun, but can help us get a competitive edge for the season. Here’s my list of top 5 reasons for attending a training camp:
5. Coaching: A good camp should have a variety of good coaches on hand to help you improve technically in all 3 sports… So much can be accomplished in a week dedicated solely to training.
Continue reading Benefits Of A Training Camp
 Anytime of year, but especially winter, is a great time to jump on to the treadmill. Unless you are lucky enough to live somewhere with warm weather or an indoor track, many runs are happening on the treadmill. In our observational surveys of treadmill users it seems that very few people ever adjust the incline. Treadmills can be great tools for speed work because you can precisely control the pace, but they are wonderful tools for hill training too. Be sure to throw on your HR monitor and adjust the speed in response the the incline and your desired HR targets. You can make your training session mimic a run on undulating terrain (10min at 1%, 5 min at 3%, 5 at 6 %, 5 at 0%, 10 at 10%…), you can do hill repeats like none found in nature (e.x. up and down a 6% incline, -2% decline), you can do a steady uphill run forever. The options are endless.
If you are going to do a long, steady, flat run it is good to have the treadmill at 1%. There is debate about whether there is a slight decrease in energy expenditure when running on a treadmill because of the lack of wind resistance and because the treadmill belt does propel you along a bit. It has been suggested that to make your treadmill workout closer to outdoor exercise, simply raise the treadmill incline to 1% and you will expend as many calories as if you were running on flat pavement outdoors. Whether or not this is true, do it anyway. You won’t even notice and the point is to improve your fitness so…
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About this site:
These triathlon and endurance sport related tips have been compiled by Heather and Trevor Wurtele over the years of their progression from working age-groupers to full time professional triathletes. Heather is now a 4 time Ironman Champion and top 10 World Championship finisher. Trevor has an Ironman PR of 8:22 and a 2:51 Ironman marathon.
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Going back to the topic of consistency with this short tip. A good rule of thumb is to never let three days go by where you haven’t trained one of the three sports. Being consistent in training as whole is great, but being consistent across swimming, biking, and running is also very important. Keeping the 3 day rule in mind, even during a bike focus week, will help hold on to any gains you’ve made in the other two sports. Haven’t been in the water in a couple days? Get to the pool! Bailed on that ride becuase there was black ice, and couldn’t commute to work for whatever reason? Hop on the trainer.
