 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.
Continue reading Pacing an Ironman bike
 Quality sleep is one of the most important, yet often neglected, aspects of triathlon training. It is the time where that nasty stress hormone cortisol finally stops getting produced, human growth hormone is released and your body repairs itself. It can definitely be difficult to get enough of the shut eye with work, family and a dedicated training schedule – but a few tricks can help you fall asleep easier at night. First, turn down the lights. Circadian rythms respond to light levels and you can get your body prepared for bed (release melatonin) with low light like candle light. Light stretching or yoga before bed (with some quality diaphragm breathing, and poses where your head is below your heart) can also help you relax. A warm drink like herbal sleepy tea and some soothing music can also work wonders. If you are lying in bed and your thoughts are spinning imagine putting them in a box, closing the lid and putting the box away – under your bed. Sweet dreams.
 It is great to have big goals and to push yourself hard to reach them but it is important not to dwell on your shortcomings. As an athlete it pays to develop a selective memory. Learn from your mistakes, but remember the good stuff. It is easy to leave the pool frustrated that you didn’t make your split times, without any nod of appreciation to the fact that you got in a solid 4000 m of swimming. Instead of thinking, “that run sucked” or “man, I was a hurtin’ unit on that ride” think about what you did to overcome the pain and pat yourself on the back for making in thru even though you could barely turn the peddles over at the end. Of course, you want to figure out why things go wrong – did you pace yourself poorly, starting out way too hard? Did you forget to hydrate or fuel properly? Bad sleep last night? Target what you need to improve, plan to do things better next time and get on with it. Worrying about what-ifs and repeatedly berating yourself over a sub-par performance just adds stress and negativity won’t help you in the long run.
 Does it feel like you don’t have enough time in the day to get the training you want done? Try keeping a log of everything you do during a week. Keep track of how long it took you to do a typical activity, and I guarantee you’ll find something that surprises you. For me, it was computer time. I thought I wasted about an hour or so a day reading some blogs and writing emails, but it ended up being closer to 2 or 3. Time just slipped by, then I was always rushing around and having to cut workouts short to get to work on time. Maybe for you it’s commuting – are you spending 2 hours a day getting to and from work? Find a way to make that part of your training a couple times per week. Do you spend 2 hours cooking intricate meals every night? Food is important, but now and again you may need to forgo the three-course meal and just down a smoothie and a bowl of cereal. The point is, you don’t have to cut back every day. Maybe once or twice a week you say to yourself – today is my day to focus on training and that’s it
 This tip is geared towards a self coached athlete who works full time. Assuming you’re setting some weekly mileage or time goals for your training, use Sunday as your mileage count day. Don’t plan any workouts for that day ahead of time, instead add up your weekly volume on Saturday evening and plan the following day accordingly. Within reason of course, if you’ve left yourself with 10 hours of riding to meet your weekly goal then don’t necessarily head out the door for a 10 hour ride. Look back at the week and either see what went wrong, or adjust your following week accordingly. We’ve found that Sunday usually ends up being a pretty tough day when you do this, but once you’ve got the time/mileage in you’ll be that much more satisfied with yourself, and confident come race day.
 Proper recovery starts as soon as your workout begins. Often we don’t maximise the quality of our training because we haven’t been thoughtful enough in planning our nutrition for the day. As a busy triathlete, having healthy energy bars (Raw Food Bars, Lara bars, VEL bars etc.), bananas, apples, trail mix… stashed away in the pockets of your swim bag; hidden by that bush on your long run route; jammed in your cycling pockets – is critical. If you get to a point in your workout where you feel light headed and “desperately in need of calories” you are getting close to that edge – the edge where you start to hinder your ability to recover properly from your training and to get ready for the next workout. It is important to fuel immediately after (and during) a big workout and not to let yourself get too hungry.
 A lot of us have grown up on peanut butter and if you love the stuff, it probably gets slathered on toast, apples, celery… as post training recovery food. As with all foods, variety is the spice of life, and it is good to mix things up so that you don’t get exposed to toxins from pure volume (a lot of peanut products have traces of aflatoxin – and many people have low level peanut allergies). There are all sorts of nut butters out there: almond, cashew, sunflower seed, hazelnut, macadamia… so give some others a try. You might find a new love.
 We all have weaknesses somewhere. You may not think your weakness is swimming, biking, or running. You could be right, perhaps your weekness lies elsewhere. Is it your discipline? Is it your core strength or mental stamina? Take a moment to think about what really may be holding you back from reaching a goal or taking your fitness to the next level. Perhaps you need a friend or coach to give you some constructive criticism, but once you’ve identified that weak link, start working on it.
 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
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