 Today’s tip is brought to you by a registered massage therepist, Adrienne Stedford. She runs her practice, Hungry Triathlete, out of Penticton BC and is a therapist for various training camps. If you’re a planning a training trip on the Ironman Canada course – you know who to call.
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Continue reading Massage Tip
 Aero helmets are a popular piece of fancy gear that long course triathletes often obsess over. IMtriathlontips.com been down in the A2 wind tunnel care of Blue Competition Cycles to measure their exact aerodynamic advantage. What we learned is that aerodynamics are extremely personal. Helmets that had the longest taper at the back and seemed the most sleek and “aero” sat differently with the natural taper of each riders back. We saw a decrease in wind resistance with a helmet that had a shorter tail on one rider, but the same helmet didn’t work quite as well for another. There’s also the issue of position and what you can hold for an entire 180 kilometers. All in all, it’s very personal. It depends on YOU and how you sit on your bike and hold your head.
Continue reading Aero Helmets
 We’re back, but with somewhat limited internet access. We’re committed to keeping the daily tips going and adding some video tips as well. We appreciate your patience as we get settled down in California.
This tip is about patience and about staying present. Do you find yourself rushing through your morning swim workout, to rush to work? Rushing thru meals to get to other activities? Worrying about workout number two in the midst of workout number one? If so you are falling into the mental trap of anticipation and likely detracting from the quality of your current activity. The more you are able to focus on what you are doing – keeping your catch strong in the pool, savoring that yummy meal so important for your recovery, posture and leg turnover during your run – the more enjoyable these activities will be and the more you will benefit. Learning to stay in the present is also critical for race day success. Continue reading Being Present
 Well, Ironman Triathlon Tips is going to be on hold for a bit. H and T will be starting their full time effort in the sport of long course triathlon and driving south to California. We’ll get going on the Internet connection as soon as possible and get back on the daily tips right away. A few minor details to work out but it should be good. If you sign up for the email feed you’ll start getting emails again once the tips start coming. We’re hoping to incorporate a video section as well.
On that note – today’s tip is about driving to your race.
With the cost of air travel – plus the need to pack your bike, driving to a race can be a great option. If you need to power-drive be sure to get in plenty of rest stops. And not just a quick ‘out of the car and pee’ rest stop either, take the time for a good 10-15 minute jog every few hours. Playing hacky sack is another great way to get the muscles and joints moving. Hacky Sack will loosen up the tight driving muscles. Hip flexors in particular. Kick a soccer ball or lie on the grass and stretch. Anything to shake out the legs every few hours.
Continue reading Driving to a race
 The next time you’re out riding or running, play a little game and try to guess your heart rate every 15 minutes or so. Pay attention to how your legs feel, how hard you’re breathing, and what kind of terrain you’re in. The more you do this the better you’ll get at predicting your HR based on those feelings. This will help weed out those ‘off’ days when you feel like you’re working hard but that commuter comes ripping by you wearing a back pack and helmet mirror. When you’re good at it you’ll know that your HR should be sitting at 150 for a given effort. Then have a look at your HR monitor, if you see something way off -like 135 ish - and your legs feel like your normal 150 effort, you’ll know it could be good to start thinking about a day off. Especially if it happens regularily over the course of a couple training sessions. This ‘low HR to high leg pain’ usually occurs on the bike when you’re tired. We’ve found the opposite to be true when running. Honestly we don’t have a good explanation as to why that is, perhaps someone would like to share. It most likely varies from person to person. When we’re getting really tired and the training load has been somewhat large, we often find that the aerobic running HR is higher than normal for a given effort in the aerobic zone.
 This will take some experimenting and I can almost guarantee your eyes will betray your stomach. Those pieces of pizza look oh so good, but they’ll make you keel over 30 minutes later. Perhaps not, your stomach may be made of iron and you can handle such things, but it is probably best to avoid cheezy, meaty, greasy options either way. You’ll be hungry, and rightly so, but start slow and only eat a few bites of simple foods for the first 30 minutes. After that you should have a good idea of how hungry you really are and whether or not your stomach can handle the junk foods you are lusting after. Focus more on getting your hydration back in check as this is generally the source of potential problems. V8 is an excellent recovery drink, as is Ultragen from First Endurance. Both are packed with electrolytes and all sorts of good nutrients. Ultragen contains high doses of Amino Acids(broken down protein for easy digestion), Glucose to quickly replace lost reserves. If you are super organized the night before you can make yourself a recovery smoothy with good fats and easily digestible protein. Keep in mind you just had the hardest workout of your year so why fill your body with crappy food right away. Give your muscles what they need to recover…then reward yourself later in the night or the following morning. That 3:00 am desire to get to IHOP or Denny’s is not worth fighting!!
 Don’t plan a day off, take it when you need it.
Like we’ve mentioned in several tips, consistency is your best friend when it comes to improvement in triathlon. A great way to ensure consistent training is to avoid planning a regular day off. Let your motivation and fatigue decide that day, not a planned schedule.
There is no reason you can’t train 10 days in a row if you feel like training 10 days in a row. Why settle on Monday as your day off when that day could be a perfect day for a bike ride? This is especially true in the winter or rainy season when weather can interfere with your plans. Don’t pass up the nice day because you have a planned day off (unless you have a coach and he/she says so). If your coach is planning a weekly schedule, then stick to the plan – or at least or be sure to communicate if you simply MUST ride because it’s the first sunny day in a month. If you’re doing your own thing, and feeling good, then it is just fine to train all the time until you really need that day off. Learn to listen to your body and don’t ignore it when you are feeling run down.
Continue reading Triathlon training and taking a day off
 For this tip we’ re going to send you over to Gordo Byrn. It’s a great tip and worth reading the whole thing. Here’s an excerpt to wet your appetite – pun intended.
Your fastest race weight will always be slightly higher than you think optimal. When you are “just right”, you have gone too far.
Be strong to go fast.
So, here is what I do when I want to have my body running optimally.
- -I eliminate dairy from my diet. Personally, I love dairy products, but I have found that my digestion and body composition respond favorably to removing dairy.
- -Beers? Bad news, I’m afraid. I have found that alcohol slows my recovery and, I suspect, my metabolic rate. When I want to be firing on all cylinders, I drop it.
- -I eliminate as many processed foods as possible and base the majority of my nutrition on fresh fruits, veggies and lean protein. It’s pretty easy to do this if you only shop around the outside of the supermarket. When I venture up the aisles, it is only to purchase “recovery” foods.
- -During and following my long training sessions, I use a range of moderate to highly glycemic carbohydrate sources to provide the energy necessary for reloading my muscles. Examples of these sources are brown rice, quinoa, potatoes and wholegrain breads.
- -Within my main food groups (fruits, veggies and lean protein), I eat as wide a range of items as possible. I buy the highest quality ingredients that I can afford.
- -I eliminate all trans- and hydrogenated fats from my diet…read the full article at Gordo’s site.
 Most of us can benefit from going to the weight room at least once a week, especially during the winter months when you may be backing off the longer rides. I say ‘most’ because some people are naturally strong and time in the weight room would simply bulk them up more than a triathlete would want. It has also been reported that once you get into your late 30’s you can start to lose 1 pound of muscle per year for the rest of your life. To us that seems like a lot, we certainly don’t have any basis to argue that, but pumping some iron can’t hurt!
Building muscle can also help burn your fat stores. More muscle = more energy use = more potential for fat consumption. That extra muscle, which should be sport specific, will also help propel you forward that much faster (and seeing as you’ll have less fat you’ll be even speedier). A great recommendation is to do your lower body weight room work with one leg at a time to help even out any imbalances.
Continue reading Use the weight room
 This is probably old news, but if nothing else take it as a reminder for the next time you travel to your race. Putting all that time in for Ironman race day only to catch a silly bug druing race week happens all the time. Hard training suppresses your immune system so you need to be extra diligent about doing all you can to avoid germs.
Hand washing is the number one way to prevent catching and spreading bugs. Keep a litte container of gel hand sanitizer on your person at all times and use liberally after touching surfaces. Try to avoind touching your face. If you have to travel by plane to your race, the re-circulated air of a plane is the perfect breding ground for nasties. Also the dry air can decrease the effectiveness of your natural defense mechanisms by drying out your mucus membranes. It is unfortunate that North Americans tend to get freaked out when people choose to wear face masks on planes. I think that it is great and more people should do it. Protect yourself from germs and don’t give your cold to anyone else.
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