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.
This workout is similar to big gear work on the bike or paddles in the pool. Strength.
After a few months of daily tips we’re going to move to a more managable weekly tips site. This will give us some time to put together a couple videos, as well as put a bit more detail into each tip.
A lot of athletes that are new to the sport of triathlon, have a bad run in with a snobby bike store guy, a know-it-all swimmer, or a self proclaimed hardcore runner – and become afraid of asking questions and looking stupid. While figuring things out the hard way is a sure fire way to learn lessons for life, a lot of time and effort can be spared by probing a little and asking questions. If someone starts talking about a great track workout, ask why they do it. How many repeats? What is the goal? Don’t know what the difference between SRM and SRAM? How exactly does one do 7/8’s catch up drill? Ask Ironmantriathlontips! You may be pleasantly surprised by how wiling people are to help you out.
We’ve created a new page (see tab above), please leave a comment with any questions or tips that you would like to share. You can leave your comments either on this post, or on the page itself.
If you have a deep end in your pool, a great way to work on your kick is to do some vertical kicking. Keep your body nice and straight and move your feet as your would normally – there is a tendency to increase knee bend too much while vertical kicking. A good set is to do 10 x 1 min vertical kicking, with 20 sec rest – e.x. treading water (eggbeater) in between each. Then do 100m regular board kick, and end with 10×10 sec as many kicks as you can manage in that time (try for at least 20), with 10 sec easy between each. As you get better you can try moving your hands from your sides, to having your wrists at the surface of the water, to having your arms above your head – try it!! The great thing about this drill, is that if your kick is weak you sink! It is a great way to play around with kick efficiency, mix things up a little and give those hip flexors a great workout.
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!
A few things regarding these…
1) Resistance is determined by the weight in each hand or by the height of the platform., or by both. You might even work up to wearing ten-pound ankle weights while carrying a giraffe on your back, for more resistance. I suggest sparing us all from the bravado and starting with just the movement at first, with the platform at a mid-shin level. Your knees may not take to these straight away (i.e., you’re weak).
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.
Ironman is not about riding fast (in most cases). It’s about riding as fast as you can while still being able to run the remaining 42 km’s. How many times have you heard – “If only I didn’t fall apart on the run!!”. Guaranteed 90% of those situations could have been avoided by riding smart.
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.
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.
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.
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.
