Keep this one handy ’cause it will save you a trip to the bike store before and after every race. Swapping your cog set from a training wheel to a racing wheel and back again is super easy and something you can do on your own. You’ll need 3 tools and 2.5 minutes. 5 minutes if you want to clean your cog set at the same time.
You can pick two of these tools up at most bike stores. The other is your standard Vice Grip or Monkey wrench.
 Tool #1. Chain Whip – Used to hold your cogset in place while you unscrew the lock ring.
Continue reading Change your cog set
Getting adequate sleep is crucially important for your recovery and general quality of waking life. Some people would argue that a good coffee is also crucially important for the quality of waking life! A lot of us get trapped in a caffeine cycle where we have too much coffee throughout the day, have trouble falling asleep at night with our minds spinning about the day and all that we have to do the next, and then we need more coffee in the morning to get our butts in gear. This cycle tends to lead to energy lows mid afternoon that we often try to stave off with bad snacks or more coffee. It is probably better for your health to avoid the stuff all together: it makes you more sensitive to your REAL levels of fatigue in training, and gets rid of unnecessary stress on the nervous and digestive system (coffee is acidifying). But if your love of the stuff is too great to even consider it, here are some things to think about. 1) Don’t drink coffee with/right-after meals. Caffeine blocks the absorption of all sorts of minerals and nutrients, especially iron. 2) Limit the calories that you add. If you can only tolerate it with loads of cream and sugar, why bother? 3) Don’t drink it in the afternoon/ within 7 hrs of bedtime. Here is a good primer on coffee and sleep.
 Swimming with one arm is a common drill, but there are some modifications that you can make to spice up your life and work on your form more efficiently. The most common version of this drill is to have one arm out in front with the other doing the pulling for 25 or 50m. Often people tend to flatten out on top of the water when they do this. It is important to think about being on your side instead of being a surf board. Holding on to the bottom of a kick board with your non-pulling arm, can help you stay on your side (and give you a nice scapula/shoulder muscle stretch too). It also makes the whole kicking and breathing thing easier if you are a beginner – you can actually focus on your form instead of not drowning. Think about having that pulling hand enter the water first, fingers towards the black line and not allowing your forearm to hit the surface of the water before your hand does. Having good shoulder rotation and recovering with your arm up your side instead of way out over the water helps this.
Another, more advanced, variation is to ditch the board completely and have your non-swimming arm at your side. You will naturally breathe to the side of the nonworking arm and it will make you hyper aware of your roll and body position. Concentrate on the catch, initiating body rotation with the core muscles. You can do boring old 25 or 50m one arm drill sets with normal swim in between (to actually apply what you are drilling to your full stroke), or you can be creative and mix drill into longer steady sets like say this: 5 x 200m on your goal time as 50m drill 150m swim.
Continue reading One arm swimming
 Ironman race day brings with it a ton of excitement. Often times you get so focused on the race that you forget to take care of your body. Head down, riding for 5-7hrs, it is very easy to forget to drink or eat food when you need it most. Take a moment or two throughout the race to take stock of you body’s needs. Really think about what has happened over the last 1-2 hrs. Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Do you need electrolytes? Have you been riding harder than you planned? Are you getting sun burnt? “How am I doing as a whole. Is there something I need to fix before it becomes a problem 3 hours from now.”
During your training, be sensitive to the cues that your body gives you. A lesson that we’ve learned over the past few years (from long rides as a couple) is that irrational anger is a distinct symptom of needing more electrolytes! On longs runs, get to know how you feel when you need more calories and get used to doing something about it before you bonk. During your race – take in calories and water when you’re feeling good and don’t think you need them (but don’t go overboard, because you’ll do more harm than good). Remember, jsut because gels come in single servings, you are not obligated to down the whole thing at once!
 Studying pictures is a great way to improve your own form. Find someone who does it well and compare your own photos or video. They don’t have to be triathlon specific.
What does Michael Phelps or Inge De Bruijn do that you don’t? Or, what COULD you do that Michael Phelps does?
What does Norman Stadler look like on the bike?
What do Paula Radcliffe and Haile Gebreselassie have in common?
Try to mimic their good points in your own form. Imagining yourself doing what they do, and emulating the (mental and physical) strengths of champions in your training can really help you improve. Pick one aspect of their form and try to copy it. Once you get that down, pick another. Beyond being in shape and mentally ready for race day, keeping good mechanics by copying the best performers in your sport will enhance your ability to meet your goals and expectations.
 When going for your long rides it’s a good idea to limit your sugary drink intake ’til after the first hour. Staying with water for that period, or longer, will help teach your body to burn stored fuel in place of going directly to the readily available sugars. This also helps simulate the first hour or so of your Ironman – in the water with no access to your glucose drink.
GasX is an Ironman race saver. Take one before the race starts, have another couple at your disposal on the bike, and force some down on the run. Keeping your digestion moving is a big part of having a successful race day experience. A bloated belly is a sure fire way to make you not want to consume needed calories, and the alkaline calcium phospahte contained within can help your electrolyte balance. It’s best not to wait until the problem starts. Pop a few of these throughout the day – they even have dissolvable strips for that minty fresh breath. I would stick with the chewables, however, they seem to work faster.
 Swimming fast is all about technique so drills should be incorporated into all workouts, even if just in your warm up or cool down. A good drill for those of us with imperfect catches is to swim with clenched fists. By decreasing the surface area of your hand you become much more aware of where you lose water during the catch. A common problem is to drop the elbow, especially on the arm opposite the breathing side, to prop yourself up. It may help you get a breath but it is a great way to lose forward momentum and slow yourself down. Clenched fists will force you to use your forearms to pull, and you have to keep your elbows high to do this. The trick is to still rotate your body and keep your length. You will likely feel slow and awkward and crappy doing this drill for the first few times and this can make you want to rush thru it. DON’T. Focus on your form and don’t cheat by opening your hand tiger-crane style! Try adding this steady set, with drill incorporated, next time you are in the pool: 800m steady with 25m 7/8 catch-up on the 2nd 25 of each 100m, fist swim on the 3rd 25m of each 100 and a gradual build on the 4th 25 m. Re-adjusting your muscle memory can be tricky but a strong catch is key to going fast.
Continue reading Swim with your fists – no tiger crane style!
 Okay, we’ve all heard this before, but it is good to be reminded. Dark green leafy vegetables, calorie for calorie, are one of the most nutrient-dense foods available. They are an excellent source of several minerals, including iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium as well as vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins. In addition, leafy greens provide a number of phytonutrients including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin and also contain small amounts of good fatty acids. They are also high in protein (there was a reason Popeye ate spinach!) they taste yummy and go with pretty much everything. Light steaming can make some of the nutrients more bio-available but raw is okay too. Variety is important so if you find that you only ever eat spinach or romaine lettuce, get adventurous in the produce section next time you go shopping. Try using elephant (aka big) kale as the wrap part of a wrap, steam some swiss chard and top with a bit of balsamic vinegar, pick dandelion leaves from your (pesticide free!) backyard and sauté them with garlic, red pepper, salt and top with a little cider vinegar. Dark leafy greens are excellent additions to smoothies, blended soups and even homemade humus. A healthy diet containing lots of green leafies will really help you recover and build your body up for more Ironman triathlon training!
 Pumping up your tires is an important part of a training ride or race. The appropriate pressure will limit flats and give you a comfortable ride. Don’t dwell on higher PSI, it’s not always better. The only case an extremely hard tire would be beneficial is on a completely smooth Velodrome. For your day to day riding, and pretty much every triathlon or Ironman out there, you’ll be hitting some rougher stuff. If your tire is too hard it won’t absorb the little bumps inherent in most paved roads. Small bumps send micro vibrations up your bike frame, wasting forward momentum into the vertical vibrations. It’s a small amount of forward moving energy that is wasted, but over 180 kilometers you can bet it will add up. Time aside, your body will thank you with the slightly decreased pressure and reduced vibrations. You can, however, go too low. Not enough air pressure in your tires leaves you open to flat tires and a higher rolling resistance.
So, no matter what type of tire you’re running, if you’re on a normal road (one that has not been paved in the United Arab Emirates within the last 5 years), max out the pressure at 130 PSI and don’t go lower than 110 PSI. That’s the perfect range for speed and comfort – keeping in mind that going to 160 PSI does not equal less rolling resistance nor a faster bike. Have you ever heard that guy’s tire blow up in transition? PSI was probably through the roof.
Continue reading Tire Pressure
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