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Building New Technique

December 22, 2017

Building New Technique

-By Alun “Woody” Woodward – ironguides Coach, Austria.

Offseason is the ideal time to think about building new technique elements into your training plan. We can all improve on our existing swim/ bike/ run technique and even just the way we move in general but the actual process of change is not so easy and very hard to make any change a permanent change.

Why is it hard to change?

Any movement we make is controlled by our brain sending a series of messages to our muscles telling them to contract in a certain pattern in order to bring about movement – this is called a motor pattern. We as humans are made to learn and adapt – once we learn something it is remembered and very hard to unlearn or change, a great example of this is riding a bike, the simple process of learning to ride a bike we tend to learn as children, we can go a number of years without riding then and come back to it and have no problem riding again, our brain remembers the process and while maybe shaky at first the balance and process soon comes back. If we think as triathletes we are maybe performing swim / bike / run sessions several times per week then we are building a very deep muscle memory into our brains that is going to be very hard to rewire.

Making a change

If we want to make a change to technique then we want to at least make the motor patterns rusty by taking a little time away from a certain activity – if it’s run technique we want to change then a period of 3-4 weeks away from running would be wise before starting to think about change and then making sure several weeks are available with no fitness goals other than learning and in training the new technique.

So lets say a break has been taken and we want to get to it, now I like to break the technique down to smaller movements – so if we are looking at running we may want to run with a shorter stride landing under centre of gravity rather than the long loping stride many athletes have – this is very economical for a triathlete and what we should ideally be looking at. To make this change I would look at breaking the desired movement down into 3 sections and then going through these movements in isolation to start building the new movements into the brain without actually performing the full running action – this process only needs to be done for a few days before going into the activity again. I find using a mirror very important when performing drills to ensure we are actually doing what we want – what we think we are doing and what is actually happening can be very different at times. As an example with running we can look at what we want the foot to do after impact with the ground until it starts to move forward for the next stride

* so stand in a running stance
* lift one leg directly from the floor and pull under body
* ankle should stay inline with supporting leg all the way up
* allow gravity to bring leg back down to starting position
* hamstrings should be responsible for this movement
* repeat 30 times and then change legs

This process of building patterns can be done 2-3 times per day and will only take a few minutes – never do for prolonged periods as if fatigue sets in we will resort back to old patterns of movement. Performing these drills first thing in the morning and last thing at night will accelerate the learning process!

Putting the movements into full practice

Once we have gone several days of learning our new movements we can think about putting them into full activity – it is vital you start out slow with short periods of activity in order to maintain good technique and further build the movement into your brain and replace old patterns. Using running as an example this may be a series of 1 minute runs with 1min walks between – having someone watch you to make sure technique is as desired helps a lot at this time. As with the drills we want to stop before fatigue sets in or we risk reverting back to old technique. Slowly build up from this point and before long you will be back to full volume training with your new technique solidly set and ready for improved performance.

By Alun “Woody” Woodward – ironguides Coach, Austria

 

ironguides is the leading Lifestyle Facilitation company for athletes of all abilities. We provide coaching and training services, plans and programs, as well training education, health and fitness products to help you learn and live a healthy lifestyle. Come get fit with one of our monthly training subscriptions, event-specific training plans, coaching services, or a triathlon training camp in an exotic location! ironguides also provides Corporate Health services including Corporate Triathlons, Healthy Living retreats and speaking engagements. At ironguides, your best is our business!

–

Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching: Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

 

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Rest Days: Learn How to Read Your Body Before Taking One

December 18, 2017

Time for the next session—but you’re tired and unmotivated to head out of the door. You’re not sure if the fatigue comes from having had a stressful week at work, or if you went a bit too hard at those weekend sessions. You are a dedicated athlete who feels very guilty whenever you miss a session. At the same time, you know that training through fatigue or illness is bad for your health. So what to do?

For this scenario, The Method athletes are given a few simple guidelines to “test drive” their bodies to help decide if they ought to skip a training session on any given day.

The key? WHEN IN DOUBT …  try it out!

This does NOT mean that you train when you’re sick.

But on those days when you’re unsure whether your should train, or not, The Method encourage athletes to simply try out your body to see what it tells you. Start the session with a very, very easy 20 to 30 minutes before making that call.

If you feel better, continue your session as planned. If needed, back off and take it easy later in the set if you find that you’re deteriorating.

If after that initial 20-30mins you feel the same, i.e. neither much better nor much worse, modify the session so that it places less strain on your body. For example, if you’re to do a long endurance effort, cut the duration. See how you feel later in the session before deciding if you’ll carry on. If you’re to do a lactate-tolerance session, greatly moderate both the duration and the intensity of the efforts and give yourself a lot more rest between each effort. You still engage your high-end aerobic system and fast-twitch muscle fibres, helping to maintain your accumulated fitness gains until you feel strong again.

If you feel worse after testing your body for that very easy 20-30mins, pack it in and head home. Your body’s telling you that it’s not prepared to train today; you might be fighting an impending illness or simply need to recover. Heed the warning and take the day OFF.

A stitch in time saves nine—if you’re ill or fighting illness, having a few days of rest from training will prevent a prolonged forced break from training and racing.

Use these simple guidelines to judge the most appropriate response on days when you feel sluggish or off. Often, you’ll have a great training session on a day you might otherwise have written off.

And on days you feel great?! Go for it! Just remember, the goal is not to deliver hammer blows to the body, but to generate a long-term, consistent training stimulus.

Illness
Try as we might, there is simply no way to avoid getting sick once in awhile. For these times, The Method stipulates you take time off and recover. Remember: With The Method everything is relative. When you’re sick, the body is weakened and needs to recover from training. The goal is to achieve maximum, effective consistency.

Rest
With all that said, The Method doesn’t set in stone when you’re to take rest from training. Unfortunately, this heretical notion of The Method has led to more misinterpretation than any other of its principles.

Life has a funny way of throwing curve balls at us: work, family and community commitments often cause us to miss out on training. Rather than worrying about missed training when this happens, take comfort from the fact that you’ve been training consistently and diligently until then.  Your days off due to commitments elsewhere become your rest days from training, and are automatically suited to your life schedule since they come when you truly need the time elsewhere, rather than when a schedule hammers them out.

You can also look at it this way: No schedule can accurately predict what you’ll be doing each day for months down the road. Quite simply, what The Method tells an athlete is rest when you need it.
Many amateur athletes spend the better part of their day physically recovering from their training at a desk or otherwise in their daily work. The Method accepts that most amateur athletes do not have the luxury of a daily routine dedicated to sport alone.

For this reason, The Method distinguishes between mental rest and physical rest. For example, a stressful work-travel day on which you can’t train may cause you much mental fatigue while your physical training systems have been resting. Consequently, that stressful day counts as a rest day, even though you might be tired from it.

Keep in mind that everything is relative in The Method training. The hormonal context in which The Method places you determines how you ought to train subsequently. If the stressful travel day
comes on top of a lot of other stress in your life, it can create a significant catabolic experience for your body. In this situation, The Method’s approach advises you to avoid endurance work or excessive lactate-tolerance training immediately following or during this (or other) high-stress period.

After taking a day off, be smart when getting back into the training. If circumstances required you to rest, use these simple rules to get back on the plan:

* Add some volume to the start of the workout in order to kick start your body again before trying any intensity. You don’t want to go too hard while being too rested. Rather, add volume to tire yourself a little bit without pushing the intensity. Then do your intervals. For example, add 30 minutes of easy running before the main set.

* If you are a performance-oriented athlete, then take an easy day in each of the sports after your day off. The reason is that you probably needed the day off due to deep fatigue levels, and the extra bit of easy training will help you recover back to normal fatigue levels. Then you’re most likely good to go again!

Learn how to read your body and stay consistent to your plan!

Enjoy your training,
the ironguides team

 

ironguides is the leading Lifestyle Facilitation company for athletes of all abilities. We provide coaching and training services, plans and programs, as well training education, health and fitness products to help you learn and live a healthy lifestyle. Come get fit with one of our monthly training subscriptions, event-specific training plans, coaching services, or a triathlon training camp in an exotic location! ironguides also provides Corporate Health services including Corporate Triathlons, Healthy Living retreats and speaking engagements. At ironguides, your best is our business!

–

Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching: Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

 

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Trail Running 101

December 15, 2017

By Shem Leong, Coach in Singapore, ironguides.net

Running on trails is different from any other type of running. In Singapore (home of Coach Shem Leong), the call of the wild offers us a much needed escape from the din of the grey urban landscape. If the promise of getting a little muddy and filling your lungs with freshly oxygenated rain forest air strikes your sense of adventure then read on, this one’s for you…

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The Basics

No matter what level of runner you are, as long as you don’t suffer from chronic ankle, knee or back injuries, there is a trail out there with your name on it just waiting to be discovered.

Beginners should start with ‘easier’ trails of simple packed dirt or grass tracks to get a feel for the softer and less stable ground underfoot. The Green Corridor is a good place to start conditioning your knees and ankles for a bumpier ride. You would also be wise to aim for a conservative distance that you can complete with confidence. To the uninitiated, trail running is tough and a shorter distance can feel like the equivalent of a longer run on the road.

After a couple of goes, don’t be surprised if you’re seeking out the more challenging undulating trails in the rock and root covered terrain of Macritchie Reservoir.

The beauty of running trails is that you’re surrounded by nature so please stick with the programme and let the route dictate the run. Don’t worry about your pace or heart rate or stride rate or beating your previous best time, just let go and enjoy the crunch of gravel underfoot, the glorious sunbeams bursting through the canopy, the splash off a puddle on your calves, the sound of birdsong.

Checking your ‘data’ every 5 seconds takes away from the whole experience of navigating the twists and turns and fallen tree trunks in the road. Without the distractions of ‘keeping to your heart rate training zone’ or ‘sticking to race pace’ you will quickly learn how to dial in your own perceived effort levels as you become acutely more aware of your rate of breathing and how your legs feel moving over the humps and bumps in the road. This is by far the most valuable and underrated (and for some, the most difficult) lesson to grasp for all runners.

Just because you’re running without gadgets, it doesn’t mean you can switch off. Trail running requires more concentration and attention to your stride because you need to decide where every single foot-strike is going to land in order to avoid a twisted ankle or worse. Make it a habit to stay alert every single step of the way – literally. Scan the ground ahead of you by casting your gaze about 15 – 20 meters ahead and track your eyes backwards ( towards your feet) left to right continuously across your line of vision and look out for exactly where you are going to plant your next step.

Training for the trials.

You don’t need to be a super runner to enjoy the trails but the fitter and stronger you are, the more you will be able to enjoy the challenges of going off piste. Any form of structured training that makes you a better runner, will carry over to making you a better off roader too. For example, a 20 min programme of lunge and squat variations to build strength in yours quads and glutes performed twice a week will reap benefits across the board. However, there are some subtle differences between trail and road running that are worth mentioning and some specific tips to help you along:

1) Dodging roots and potholes, rocks and muddy puddles requires quick and reflexive lateral (side to side) micro adjustments to your standard pavement / treadmill running style. Multi-directional single leg hops are a great drill that will develop your ability to change directions quickly. They also strengthen the smaller supporting stabilizing muscles and connective tissue around the ankle and knee joint which can take a beating when running on the rougher stuff. Start by hopping on one leg backwards and forwards for 20 – 30 seconds at a time, Then progress to hopping in a “T” shape and finally hop on one leg in a square around a cone. Reverse directions and alternate legs.

2) Overcoming the little climbs on our local Singapore trails become easier if you’re able to put in some form of uphill running in the week. These are some of my favourite ways to throw some hills into the mix;

a. Short hard hill sprint repeats can be done after an easy 30 – 60 min run. Simply charge up a steep slope as hard as you can for 30 – 40 seconds and repeat 4 – 8 times.

b. Longer sustained uphill runs at moderate intensity can be done at Mt Faber/ Kent Ridge Park/ Rifle Range Road loops. Just plug into a steady moderate pace on the flat ground and work to maintain that pace all the way up the slope. Recover at an easier pace while descending.

3) Endurance junkies training for off- road ultra-marathons should do their long runs over 2 days back to back on consecutive days. This allows you an overnight recovery while still retaining the required mileage high. It reduces the risk of injury and leaves you fresher after the long run so that you are able to train more consistently.

4) Finally, there’s no better way to improve your trail running skills than to actually run on them. Experiment with using the trails creatively to mix the intensity of the runs. For example:

a. Measure out a 1 or 2km strip of trail and use this as an interval loop. For example 4 x 2km with 4 min recovery after each one. This translates to a solid 8km run. Using the same stretch, you could also finish a long easy 10km run with a hard 2 x 2 km at the end. This teaches your body how to start conservative in order to finish strong.

b. Instead of simply cruising your usual weekend long trail run you could run the second half as 1 min hard, 1 min easy to build strength.

5) Running in the trials in the rain is tremendous fun but if it is absolutely pouring and lightning is flashing across the sky (and landing close by) then it’s safer to head to the gym and get your running fix instead. Here how you can train specifically for the trails while indoors;

a. Do a random hills running set on the treadmill by using the ‘incline’ function instead of the ‘speed’ button. After a 20 min warm up try to complete the following sequence at the fastest pace that you can hold without changing the speed for the entire run. Advanced runnerS can aim for 2 rounds!

5 mins @ 0% gradient
1 min @ 8% gradient
5 mins @ 0% gradient
2 mins @ 6% gradient
5 mins @ 0% gradient
3 mins @ 4% gradient

b. Work on your core and functional strength with the help of Swiss Balls, TRX and Bosu Balls. Here are some exercises that you can try:
i. Single Leg lunges with a TRX
ii. Single/ double leg bridges on the Swiss Ball
iii. TRX planks with jackknifes
iv. Plyometric box jumps
v. Squats on the bosu balls

As more and more runners discover the joys of taking to the trails, the aim of this is article is to give them tips on how to enjoy the trails more fully and also to encourage the ‘roadies’ out there to head for the woods.

Trail Etiquette for Runners

It is such an awesome feeling to be charging down a trail that you barely notice the trees zipping by. You feel completely in control and utterly invincible. You feel like you own the trail… but hang on… you don’t!
Trails are public recreational spaces to be shared by everyone. Sure, they maybe your secret training spot for that half marathon PB that you are going to smash but remember that it’s also a family day out for the many young families and it’s also a romantic date spot for the teenagers and it’s also a treasure trove of wildlife pictures of for the amateur photographer.

1) Just because you’re going faster than the walkers and hikers doesn’t mean you have the right of way. Don’t charge down other members of the public that are enjoying nature at a slower pace and in a different manner than yourself. If you are overtaking slower moving traffic, slow down and call out “Trail’ or ‘On your right’ in a friendly non threatening manner – no barking out orders.

2) To reciprocate, slower runners/ hikers shouldn’t block the trail by running 2 or 3 abreast especially along the narrow points.

3) Runners be responsible for your bodily fluids. Watch where and how you clear your throat and send your snot rockets. When passing, leave a wide berth so you don’t spray others with your sweat.

4) Don’t spoil the peace and serenity by blasting music from your phones/ other audio devices. If you enjoy music on your runs, earphones are the best option.

5) Don’t litter. This is so obvious that it shouldn’t even be of this list but unfortunately not everyone seems to think so. Take your food wrappers, drink bottles and gel packs with you.

6) Don’t feed the animals because this will draw them out of their natural habitat and upset the food chain and the rainforest ecosystem. They will eventually get reliant on humans for food and lose the ability to fend for themselves.

In conclusion, be patient and share the trail with everyone else enjoying it and take responsibility to leave it as you found it.

Enjoy your running everyone!

– 

Train with ironguides!

 

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

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Shem Leong is our ironguides coach in Singapore. He has been hooked on triathlon ever since winning his age group in his first Olympic-distance race. Many top performances later, Shem still enjoys the challenges of training and racing at a high level, while balancing this with work and family. He is a firm believer in the benefits of an active lifestyle and loves being able to positively affect his athletes’ lives in this way. In the four years that Shem has worked as an ironguides coach so far, he has helped more than 60 athletes achieve their goals. They range from newbies hoping to complete their first sprint race, to 70.3 podium contenders, to seasoned Sub 10-hour Ironman athletes. Shem’s care for his athletes and his attention to detail set him apart. He completely understands the varied pull factors of life’s demands as well as the fiery motivations that drive everyday age groupers and is able to craft sustainable, effective training plans for their time-crunched schedules. An Honour’s Degree in Health Science has given Shem the knowledge to explain and expertly administer The Method. This, in turn, helps his athletes understand how each session contributes towards their ultimate goal; as a result, countless personal bests have been improved upon as his athletes continually get fitter and faster.

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Changing things up

December 11, 2017

We are heading to the end of the season now with only a few big races remaining for most athletes. This is a hard time of year to maintain hard training as both the body and brain are fatigued not only from training but the extra demands that come with racing. Another factor we don’t really link with the decreased motivation is the changing of seasons, we all go through a boost in motivation in spring as the days get longer and warmer but tend to blame other factors when the reverse happens in Autumn.

We see the same things happen to all athletes at this time of year and we can plan to change training protocols or add in elements to the training to make sure motivation is maintained and form continues to rise for important races.

Changing location of sessions is one big thing we can do to refresh the mind and make training more exciting again.

Moving a swim session from the pool to open water is a very easy way to do this, this time of year the open water should be at its warmest as the sun has been warming lakes and oceans all summer so the water should be inviting and will certanly provide a different and more specific session to pool swimming. Head to the open water and you can do the same session style as in the pool by simply converting 50m into say 30 strokes and using this to convert all distances into strokes.

On the bike think about changing your long ride from a TT bike session to a mountain bike session, this will give you access to new routes as you can vary both riding on road and trails, i’m sure many of you have been out riding and come across trails going off the road, now you can turn off and go explore. Not only does this give you an opportunity to explore it also offers a great way to develop riding technique. Riding on loose ground with a mountain bike requires a good smooth pedal action applying equal power all through the pedal stroke, if we only tend to push down and pull up what you will find is the wheels just spin and you stop moving. A few weeks of this work and you will notice a big difference in your riding on the road!!

An added benefit of mountain bike riding over road is that slower speeds for the same effort mean you do not suffer so much in the cooler weather. Riding can be unpleasant in the cold and wet on a road bike but quite enjoyable and most certainly warmer on the mountain bike.

Running can become very monotonous especially with lots of intervals in your program but try taking the intervals to a new environment to freshen your mind – head to a forested are or country park and try to find a loop that approximates your interval length – now take a number of weeks where you perform intervals on the new loop with no watch – you know distance is right so just get out and run to perceived effort and enjoy the new environment. You will be surprised what a month of this style of running will do to your performance level and motivation.

Not only can we change elements of training to get a boost to our performance we can also make a change to the way we race. Going into a race with a different goal and mindset can lead to a very different outcome and breakthrough performances.

RACE CHALLENGE

Change up your race plan and see what happens, for example instead of keeping things steady and consistent all day try looking at one of the sports and really pushing the effort above your normal levels and just seen at happens. For example if you see yourself as a strong runner and have always ridden conservatively to save energy for the run you could look to really push the bike to the point you think no way you will be able to run and just see what happens when you get off the bike, in my experience many runners really underestimate how hard they can push the bike and still be able to run.

Another classic change would be if your a good swimmer who normally leads from the front try holding back in the pack and getting out of the water fresh for the bike, you may find you swim 30s or so slower only despite the effort being much less than normal and as a result are able to access much more power on the bike and also run better off the bike. A great expanse of this tactic leading to a breakthrough was when Pete Jakob’s won Kona in 2012, Pete is arguably the best swimmer in the sport and had led the swim out at Kona with Andy Potts for several years holding a 30s plus advantage on the rest of the field. Pete has always then lost time on the bike and had a great run to run back into contention but not quite win the race. In 2012 Pete held back on the swim and then had a much stronger ride not only staying with the lead group but actually showing as one of the strongest riders towards the end of the bike and this put himself in a winning position heading into the run which he went on to dominate. So a small change in tactic led to a very big breakthrough!

If your feeling motivation slipping and your not performing as you want then take note of the changes above and see how they can fit into your training program, small changes especially just changing scenery can have a huge impact on your mental and physical well being. This could be all you need to take on your competition and head into winter with a big performance in your final race! A strong finish to the year can bode well for a successful winter raining program and an even better season to follow.

Enjoy your training.

 

Changing things up

By Alun “Woody” Woodward
–

Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

 

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Focus: Thinking about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it

December 8, 2017
This article is written for the obsessive competitive streak in all triathletes and runners- that little voice that tells us that, surely, we can go a little bit faster next time.

Every athlete putting in dedicated training to a well thought out plan will eventually approach their physical limits for that season of their athletic career. Getting this far along is very commendable, but having invested so much time into their pursuit of peak physical potential, many athletes begin to dream big about breaking through to their next level. It could be a sub 5 hr half ironman, 4’30 marathon, 2’30 Olympic Distance Triathlon- deep down, everyone has THAT time that they would love to beat.

In looking for that last 8- 10%, many make the mistake of hammering away at harder and higher training loads.  This would probably work if you have the luxury of ample training and recovery time, coupled with sound guidance from a good coach. For the majority of us, time-crunched athletes, the extra time required is simply not available and the “cherry on the cake” towards a truly satisfying race performance may feel so close yet so far away.
Think back to the last race that you raced a PB’d. You’ll need to run that race again- and then some! Where could you have pulled back precious minutes and seconds? Chances are that you could have made significant gains from handling the “low – energy” patches of the race better. The moment when you decided to ease up 3/4s the way through the run and it became a whole lot less painful, or when we couldn’t find it in our legs to keep up with the bunch that you had been riding with. Regardless of how fit you are, there comes a point in every race when we have to decide whether to bite down, suffer more or whether to ease up and “cruise for a bit”.
Between 2 identically trained and fit athletes or 2 versions of yourself, the one that is able to stay focused and push through the body’s signals of suffering is the one that will cross the line 1st. That sounds obvious because it is. Yet I often get this question from my athletes, “How do I tap into the mental edge.”

“Focus” is the uninterrupted connection between the athlete and their task; that trance like state of deep concentration, when you are aware only of the things relating to your performance; that sense of effortless control and a total absence of self consciousness, when the boundaries of self and task have melted away into one seamless activity. Some athletes refer to this as “flow” or being “in the zone”.

“Focus” should be practiced by tuning into your body and body movements while training and competing. This will result in an awareness of key feelings when things are going well. Think back to the last time that you were able to push hard, perform well and really enjoyed yourself. You may have experienced this for a few seconds or a few repetitions or if you have been practicing, for the whole training session. Yes- Focus can and definitely should be practiced whenever we are out there.

Practice controlling irrelevant and distracting thoughts (dissociative thinking) during training and competition. Replace them with task oriented and positive thoughts. Consider your form, breathing pattern, stride rate, hydration/ nutritional state, race strategy and redefine your perceived effort to perform more effortlessly. This is known as associative thinking and the tougher the going, the more it’s required to stay competitive.

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Here are a few tips to help you stay focused:

·         Relax. For the 10 – 15 mins before training, as you’re making your way to the track/ pool/ setting up your bike on the trainer, clear your mind of the daily distractions , You only have this slot in the day to get it done so make it count and put aside those first/ last few items your to do list. Meditate, on the coming task. How did you perform it last week? How could it have been improved? Remind yourself of what it feels like to swim/ bike/ run with good form. How your arms feel in the water catching a good pull, how you ride better turning perfect circles, what it’s like to run “tall” and “light”. Don’t simply rush through the warm up (or worse still, skip it) and charge headlong into the set thinking, “I’m going to smash myself/ this set.” Ask yourself what it the purpose of this set. Is the focus on strength building / Leg turn over/ spending time in threshold or just getting some volume distance in. Taking a step out of the “training tunnel” and studying the big picture for a while will help you align your training efforts with the intended purpose of the task at hand.
·         Have a mantra. Repeating choice words will direct your mind away from negative/ distractive thoughts towards a positive experience. An effective mantra addresses what you want to feel and not the adversity you want to overcome. Use short, positive and instructive words to transcend the suffering that you’re feeling. Choose one word from each column to create your own verse. Have a few favourites to get you through different sections of you race. I would love to hear what mantras you use ! : )
A
B
C
D
Run
Strong
Think
Power
Go
Smooth
Feel
Speed
Stride
Quick
Pull
Brave
Pedal
Light
Be
Steady
Be
Fierce
Hold
Courage
________
________
________
_______
·         Performance checklist. It is important that you are able to access how you’re doing in that moment, while on the go. Practice going through this list to make little adjustments to improve efficiency. While running- starting from the top down:

 

  •  Is my face relaxed? Try it. You will automatically feel a lot more relaxed.
  • Is my head bobbing around? Fix your eyes on the next point you are running too and hold a stedy gaze.
  • Are my shoulders relaxed? Drop your shoulders to save energy and release tension.
  • Are my arms swinging smoothly back and forwards? Try to minimise side to side rotation form the shoulders.
  • Breathing- Is it regular? Can I exhale a little deeper while still keeping a lid on it? Am I gasping for breath? Is it getting ragged? Am I breathing deep from my diaphragm?
  •  Form- Am I running tall and relaxed? Is my trunk engaged, pelvis stable, glutes firing nicely
  •   Stride Rate- If you don’t have a foot-pod device, take a count. Is it up there at 90 strides per minute
  • Foot strike- Am I striking under the hip? Are my strikes light and powerful, so that I am spending minimal time in contact with the ground?
  •  Pacing- How far am into my race?  How do I feel? How should I pace myself of the rest of the run? Does my perceived effort match my race strategy? How much futher before I can confidently “let the hammer drop” and I can push ALL OUT for the finish.
  • Nutrition and hydration- How long ago did I last take in some fluids? Do I need electrolytes or gel? How does the stomach feel?

 

What about swimming or biking? Maybe you could share with me what thoughts keep you focused while out there on the road and in the pool?
When the all the physical training is done, it’s the psychological factors that most affect our performance. Think about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

Enjoy your training.

Shem Leong

Shem Leong

– 

Train with ironguides!

Download our free e-Book “Triathlon Secrets” – Training methods of olympic medalist, ironman and world champions revealed

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

image-2132.jpgShem Leong is our ironguides coach in Singapore. He has been hooked on triathlon ever since winning his age group in his first Olympic-distance race. Many top performances later, Shem still enjoys the challenges of training and racing at a high level, while balancing this with work and family. He is a firm believer in the benefits of an active lifestyle and loves being able to positively affect his athletes’ lives in this way. In the four years that Shem has worked as an ironguides coach so far, he has helped more than 60 athletes achieve their goals. They range from newbies hoping to complete their first sprint race, to 70.3 podium contenders, to seasoned Sub 10-hour Ironman athletes. Shem’s care for his athletes and his attention to detail set him apart. He completely understands the varied pull factors of life’s demands as well as the fiery motivations that drive everyday age groupers and is able to craft sustainable, effective training plans for their time-crunched schedules. An Honour’s Degree in Health Science has given Shem the knowledge to explain and expertly administer The Method. This, in turn, helps his athletes understand how each session contributes towards their ultimate goal; as a result, countless personal bests have been improved upon as his athletes continually get fitter and faster.

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5 Off-Season Tips for a Stronger 2018

December 5, 2017

Follow these 5 Off-season rules to recover from your 2017 season and be a better athlete in 2018.

  1. Take a break from it all.

Forget structured training.  Forget looking at any training program.   Once you have done necessary transition from your last race of the season, consider taking 10-14 days off from any planned training workouts.   Take this opportunity to catch up with some tasks or maybe a social gathering with a friend or relative that you have passed up all year due to the demands of balancing work and training.

That does not mean that you would completely shy away from any form or exercise.   Feeling sluggish?  Do a short easy swim, bike, or run.   If you live near a trail, go off-road!   Or you might wanna visit your local gym for some needed functional strength training.   The point is, you relieve your mental state too of having to follow a structured plan.

Two weeks of break from any structured triathlon training routine is just the right amount of time that you will not lose too much fitness, but will rejuvenate your mental and physical well-being you endured during your race season.

When you are approaching the final stretch of this break, you may want to contemplate now and review what was your shortcoming and weakness in triathlon.  Which leads you to…

  1. Work on your weakest discipline.

If any of the swim, bike and run was your weakness, this is a perfect time to work on that discipline and focus on improving it.   Whatever it is, your off-season will be geared towards improving the techniques and efficiency of movement of that discipline.   Be careful not to confuse focusing on the discipline by just adding mileage.   Fix the weakness by focusing on drills that will improve your movement efficiency.

This means that drills and technique workouts should be relatively short and will not burden your off-season time.  For example, if running was your weakest discipline, allocate a twice a week drill and technique session which includes high steps, lunges and walking lunges, fast feet cadence drills, etc.   You may find this video helpful (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAiAvupFT6g).   Incorporate a short 5k time-trial if you wish and consider it the longest run of the week.   Or as a bonus, join a 5k park run or any 5k category from your local fun runs.

You improve your form, and at the same time, improve your speed in so little time.

  1. Go off-road.

If you live near trails, it is also a perfect time to go off-road and consider trail running, hiking or even mountain /cross country biking.  While it does not veer to much away from the usual triathlon disciplines, for most of us, we have not experienced what the off-road trails has to offer.   Aside from the spectacular view, depending on your location, trail running will improve and recruit muscle fibers that are not usually used when doing running on flat roads.

If you are inexperienced, go with a guide or a friend who can show you how to safely tackle off-roading activities.

  1. Get stronger.

The goal here is not to do body building, but to improve your functional strength in preparation for your next season.   Doing the work in the gym means you are building a stronger body that can withhold the triathlon training that you will do all season long.

This is the opportunity to increase the raw power from your large muscle groups.   When you are deep into your racing season, strength training usually takes a back seat, and  a program or your coach can only allot minimal time.

You might gain a few pounds, but mostly this will be muscle.  Don’t worry when you start your typical swim, bike, and run routine, you might feel heavy and sluggish.   But as the season goes along and you shed the weight, the power will remain, resulting to a better power-to-weight ratio.   This will be especially useful in your bike performance.

  1. Don’t always go Long and Easy. Think Short and intense.

One misconception in the off-season is the necessary rule to do easy and long sessions or long aerobic workouts. Instead of doing a marathon in January of February, why not focus on improving your 5k or 10k personal record?

Doing short but intense run or bike sessions will boost your lactate threshold and power output.

The drill and technique you mastered early in the off-season will be particularly useful when doing these short and fast workouts.  It is easy to hold on the form and technique when the sessions are short, instead of long workouts that when fatigue gets in the way, technique suffers the most.

Another bonus is that the time spent on this short workouts means more time to do something else in the off-season.

Enjoy your off-season!

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Ironman Performance – Treadmill Running

December 4, 2017

Performance in ironman almost always comes down to the run, a good or bad bike may mean a difference of 5 minutes but a good or bad run could see a difference of up to an hour or more. The run always brings up the most questions with athletes and coaches alike on how to train and perform come race day.

The run in ironman is not anything like a stand alone marathon and training for it the same way you would a marathon will not bring the desired results. The ironman marathon is starting for most athletes 6-7 hours into the race, so legs and body are anything but fresh at this point of the run.

To run well in ironman you need an efficient running style and good running economy. These 2 factors can both be addressed using a treadmill in your training to enhance performance.

Lets start with looking at an efficient running style, if you watch the top athletes run you will see the best runners make the run look easy, they run with a very high turnover and very little body movement.

When i say high turnover i am talking 180+ steps per minute – our body has an elastic response mechanism in our hamstrings that is designed to pull our foot up off the floor on impact. This response enables us to run and protects out muscles and joints from increased forces and injury. In order for this elastic response to work our foot needs to leave the ground 0.2 seconds maximum after impact – if the foot is on the ground too long then this response cannot be used and instead we have to switch to using muscle force to bring about the movement and absorb impact.

There are technique and equipment problems that we need to address to ensure we utilise this elastic response.

With technique we need to focus on a shorter stride and ensure our foot lands under our centre of gravity and not in front of the body – if we land in front of the body there is no way we are going to be able to pull the foot off the ground quickly as .2 seconds after impact the foot may well still be in front of the body.

Looking at footwear is also very important, for the the elastic response to occur our brain needs to be able to feel when we hit the ground immediately, if you are wearing thick soled shoes or soft shoes with too much cushioning then the brain have a delayed response to hitting the ground and the elastic response will not occur again leading to muscles and joints taking over.

So how can a treadmill help with this, a treadmill provides a great controlled environment in which to train, we can provide constant gradient and speed so our sole focus can turn to technique. Also running on a moving belt forces a faster cadence, you will find if your technique is not efficient that running on a treadmill is hard work, by this i mean your regular speeds from the road will feel much harder on a treadmill – if this is you then more time on the treadmill is going to have a big impact on your performance.

If we watch good runners in ironman you will see they seem to run flat – there is no bounce, by this i mean if you watch their heads they are always in the same position not moving up and down. On a treadmill position a mirror in front and you will be to see if you are moving up and down or staying flat. You will see some runners at the gym get on the treadmill and seem to be all over the treadmill and the treadmill is almost bouncing with them and creating a lot of noise, this is exactly what we don’t want – we should almost be seeking silence!

Developing an efficient run style takes time and should be a gradual process, make your treadmill runs interval workouts starting with small intervals with focus on technique and then as technique becomes solid start to increase interval length.

Once you have developed an efficient running style we can start to use the treadmill for developing run economy. Run economy is basically using as little energy as possible for the pace we are running. Ironman is at a performance level a challenge of fuel so by becoming more efficient at speed we are going to increase performance level.

If we look at pro athletes in ironman there is a prevalence of older athletes seeming to get faster and faster at an age we would expect decline. We know from numerous studies that as we age we see a decrease in maximal VO2 which has long been seen as one of the keys in endurance performance but what we are seeing is athletes running economy increases with age and this increase outweighs the loss of VO2 max. A good example of this is Cameron Brown winning events into his early 40’s.

To improve running economy we need to spend a lot of time running at our desired paces, treadmills are the perfect tool for this as we can set pace and we simply have to run. Trying to do this outside is not the same as we are faced with many more challenges such as weather, gradients, temperature, obstacles such as roads, traffic and if running with other athletes competitive nature really can mess with developing economy.

Running intervals at set paces on the treadmill is one of the most efficient ways to develop run economy and boost your ironman run performance.

Aside from running style and economy the treadmill has other benefits that can be utilised by an ironman athlete. It is widely held belief that you need to run at 1% gradient on the treadmill to simulate running outside – so running at 0% is like running on a slight decline. If we run at 0% on a treadmill we can run at a faster pace than on the road for the same cardiovascular stress and reduced impact stress – for an ironman athlete training on tired legs this is going to have a bog impact of run development and recovery that will enhance the consistency of your training!

One more benefit of the treadmill is in developing specificity, we can be extremely limited to terrain we run on due to location and this can lead to problems if we are racing on terrain significantly different to that which we train on, the treadmill with varying gradients gives us the ability to simulate the stresses we are going to face in any race. A lot of athletes will see this as the ability to run up hill but much more important is the ability to run downhill without smashing your legs – downhill running is extremely damaging to the legs due to increased range of motion and impact – modern treadmills do provide negative gradients so athletes can get used to running downhill if they happen to live in a flat geographical environment.

If you want to improve your run off the bike then its time to stop thinking like a runner and start thinking like an ironman athlete – get on the treadmill, improve your running style, improve your movement economy at set paces and you will see substantial performance increases in your next ironman.

Enjoy your training!

 

–

ironguides is the leading Lifestyle Facilitation company for athletes of all abilities. We provide coaching and training services, plans and programs, as well training education, health and fitness products to help you learn and live a healthy lifestyle. Come get fit with one of our monthly training subscriptions, event-specific training plans, coaching services, or a triathlon training camp in an exotic location! ironguides also provides Corporate Health services including Corporate Triathlons, Healthy Living retreats and speaking engagements. Atironguides, your best is our business!

More info at www.ironguides.net

– 

Train with ironguides!

Download our free e-Book “Triathlon Secrets” – Training methods of olympic medalist, ironman and world champions revealed

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

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The Secret Training Plan

November 28, 2017

Recently we had a new sign up for our monthly subscription training plan and on the same day, we received an email requesting a refund. The athlete said the reason was that he saw nothing special compared to previous training plans he had used before, the workouts were simple and therefore he was not satisfied.

It reminded me of another situation in which two of my athletes, who were friends, started training together but were having different results in terms of performance. The athlete who was not improving as much asked me if I had sent a special training plan to his buddy.

I often also get questioned about the type of training my high performance athletes are on. What’s so special about their training that makes them perform so well, win their age groups, qualify to the Ironman World Championships and so on.

What’s the secret training plan that these athletes are on?

This type of question or the attitude towards feeling that you are missing some secret recipe also means you are admitting that there are some special training sessions, a kind of secret training plan. Some athletes have the privilege to have access to that, making them faster.

But it is important to understand that if we want to improve our swimming, get stronger on the bike or have a more solid run, we need to pursue these improvements by increasing our training load, building a good consistency and getting the “right mix” of training. These are the best starting points and a balance of these things will guarantee your improvements. The truth is, there is no secret training plan, as they simply do not exist!

In 10 years of triathlon, I had the opportunity to meet many successful coaches and when I joined ironguides I came across a methodology somewhat controversial in our sport. Part of our training approach can be similar to some other coaches around the world, but certainly the most controversial is Australian Brett Sutton, coach of Olympic Champion Nicola Spirig, 4-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington among others. Brett is arguably the most successful trainer of triathlon in the history of this sport.

One of my colleagues and co-coach Vinnie Santana, was coached by Brett and says most of his strength is in the way he motivates his athletes. He makes them believe that what they are doing is the right thing and that there was no limit to what they could achieve. Brett has the skill to change how his athletes think. The training itself was certainly hard work, but it was very unsophisticated and repetitive based on some of the training plans Vinnie shared with me that included some of his own sub 9 hour Ironman performance and Team TBB Kona build (Chrissie’s first win). What I learned from this is that the belief in what you are doing is more important than what you are actually doing.

wagner-araujo25

Behind a victory in a race there are no secrets, but YEARS of consistent practice-Photo Leo Moreira 2011 Ironman Brazil champion in 9h05min, Leo has been an athlete for almost three decades.

Before Ironman 2014 I had many conversations with some top coaches to gather information on how I could improve my own marathon since it was my main limiting factor in races. In one of those conversations, I was told that increasing run volume while pulling back on intensity could be an option since I was recovering from a foot injury. I also had the opportunity to quickly talk to Ironman World champion Chris McCormack and asked him about this, he told me to decrease the intensity and avoid running on very hard surfaces. With these two ideas in mind I designed my new ten week program for the race. During this period, I saw some athletes doing and talking about different things, but I never questioned what I was doing or was annoyed. I had chosen a path and moved on. Pick and stick as they say. The result was that I was able to do my best Ironman marathon, fifteen minutes faster than my previous best time and this led me to my personal best time.

Despite comparing different realities of an age grouper triathlete and professionals, the message remains the same, the secret is having the knowledge and the understanding of why you are doing what you are doing. That’s the secret! Belief is essential in triathlon. Workouts or sets are only the second piece of the puzzle. When you find these key sessions, place them in your training program, work with a coach to do this, and most of all, try to understand why these sessions are important to you. When I think of all the sessions that I or any athlete of mine is doing, none is more important than the other, but I understand why we do each. All sessions that I, my athletes or professional athletes do, can be adopted by each of you, but when, where and how, is what is really important. Get the “right mix” is the key to better results over time. But we must be patient and understand that these results do not appear from night to day, instead, are built over months or years with a lot of consistency, discipline and hard work.

We never knowfor sure when we are getting enough when it comes to triathlon training. Be open to change and be prepared to try new things in your journey to become a better athlete. In this sport, it is not as difficult to improve as it seems. Often the biggest problems is not worrying about the process, but the result.

Enjoy your training!

Rodrigo Tosta

ironguides is the leading Lifestyle Facilitation company for athletes of all abilities. We provide coaching and training services, plans and programs, as well training education, health and fitness products to help you learn and live a healthy lifestyle. Come get fit with one of our monthly training subscriptions, event-specific training plans, coaching services, or a triathlon training camp in an exotic location! ironguides also provides Corporate Health services including Corporate Triathlons, Healthy Living retreats and speaking engagements. At ironguides, your best is our business!

Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

 

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Strength Training: Benefits for Endurance Athletes

November 20, 2017

By Alun Woodward, Online Triathlon Coach, ironguides.net

The topic of strength training in endurance sports is always a controversial one, with some coaches avoiding it at all costs and others praising it as the key to success. ironguides coach Alun “Woody” Woodward explains why and how strength training can be an extremely effective tool for endurance athletes.

The topic of strength training in endurance sports is always a controversial one, with some coaches avoiding it at all costs and others praising it as the key to success. Over the past few years strength training has really started to make a big comeback; almost every magazine dedicated to endurance sports will have a section on strength training. Articles in this section always relay the same message: functional exercises are the only type of strength work that will benefit endurance athletes.

Functional exercises are essentially movements that follow the movement patterns used in sport—they don’t work muscles in isolation. These typical articles predominantly look at exercises that involve the legs such as dead lifts, squats, split squats, one legged squats, and so on.

While these exercises are great, they are also extremely demanding and require a lot of recovery, which can significantly impact our sport-specific work.

This approach, I believe, is looking at strength training in the wrong way. Yes, we need strong legs to perform our sport but we must consider what we, as endurance athletes, need exactly from strength training in order to improve our performance.

The key things I am looking for when designing a strength program are:

  • Stressing the central nervous system to stimulate hormone release.
  • Improving core strength.
  • Recruiting muscle fibres.

These are the 3 main benefits of a strength program; I will go through each one in this article and show how it will bolster your training.

1 – STRESSING THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

When we perform strength training with heavy weights that force us to use a large amount of muscle mass and we also add an element of balance to activate our core, then we stress our central nervous system.

The load we have placed on the body is above normal, safe levels and the body does not like this. As a result, it tries to get stronger, which it does by releasing growth hormone and targeting strength in ALL the muscles activated.

This has numerous benefits for an endurance athlete, including that core strength is increased which I will go into more below.

The key, however, is the hormone release; our bodies are ruled by hormones. The more growth hormone we have circulating in our body, the more we can maintain or build muscle mass and burn fat. Reducing body fat is a great way to improve endurance performance.

Most athletes, though, will straight away fear lifting heavy weights, as we fear building muscle, and the associated weight gain. In reality, endurance athletes like us are never in such an anabolic (i.e. build-up) state that we’d be able to do this.

As endurance athletes, we use the increase in anabolic hormone production to counteract the negative catabolic (breakdown) effect of hard endurance training and to keep our bodies healthy and balanced.

Conventional wisdom tells us that endurance training will make us healthy and lean but the reality is that this alone is not the key. Watch any big-city marathon or major ironman event to see a fair proportion of athletes competing with excess body fat, despite extreme and hard endurance training.

The reason that larger endurance athletes remain heavy is almost always that the body is not balanced; adding some heavy conditioning training to their program would help them get leaner and improve body composition, and so performance.

wagner-araujo4

Exercises

While leg exercises may be the most effective for stimulating hormone response, they are also very damaging and can affect our endurance training consistency, as I mentioned above. I prefer exercises that focus on the upper body and core. My favourite exercises are:

  • Standing Military Press – Perform 3 x 5 reps at a weight you feel you would fail after 7 reps.
  • Chin Ups – Perform 5 sets to one chin up before failure would occur.
  • Bench Press – Perform 3x 5 reps at a weight you feel you would fail after 7 reps
  • Renegade Rows – 5 x 5 slow and controlled repetitions.

Next time you’re feeling drained and are really suffering in training, go to the gym to perform a routine such as the above—you will be amazed at how energized you feel the next day.

2 – IMPROVING CORE STRENGTH

Core strength has been a major topic for a while now and we have seen many fitness inventions come to the market claiming to increase core strength. Many people believe that core strength is about doing 100s of sit ups, crunches and balancing on gym balls—while, in fact, the opposite is true.

True core strength is the ability of the core muscles to hold your body in a strong stance protecting your spine and allowing your major muscles to work more effectively in performing their task. If we have a strong core, we will move very efficiently and so save energy for any given activity—this is the key to performance in endurance events.

If we watch videos of the greats in our sport, such as Craig Alexander, we notice that their movement looks so easy and relaxed despite the speed and effort they are putting out. This is all due to a strong core and, essentially, movement efficiency.

As endurance athletes we look at the likes of Alexander, Chrissie Wellington, and the great runner Haile Gebrselassie, and we believe that their huge training volume is the key to their success. We may focus on Gebrselassie running 200km a week but we don’t recognize the other work he is doing—the time he spends in the gym to ensure he can maintain his great technique when tired.

Wellington has commented many times on the strength and core conditioning work she does in the gym with Dave Scott and how important it has been to her continued development.

So what exercises are core strength exercises? Well, they are the same exercises I outlined above. The military press is one of my absolute favourite exercises because you need your full abdominal muscles and glutes to be tight and activated to perform it. You will notice after a few reps that it’s not really the shoulders that are giving out, it’s your core that starts shaking first!

Push ups are a great core exercise, again as you need your full abdominals activated. Most athletes, on completing push ups after a layoff, will notice stomach pain the next day, rather than chest and shoulder soreness.

Pull ups also are an amazing core exercise. It has been said that 90% of the population, and also many top athletes, are unable to do these. That’s because you need good body position to be able to get into position for the correct muscles to work to lift up the body and the only way to get into this position is by having an extremely strong core.

I do not believe in separate core routines as I think they should be part of the strength program. As endurance athletes we do not have the time to be in the gym four or five times a week so we should get everything we need with two visits per week.

I suggest going through the above routine once a week, and once a week I like to throw in kettlebell work with some body weight exercises. I like a set which I call the 50’s challenge

  • 50 pull ups – rest as needed to complete
  • 50 kettlebell swings – start with double arm and progress to single arm
  • 50 push up walk outs – from a push up position walk hands forwards and then back
  • 50 kettlebell clean and press OR 50 kettlebell snatches
  • 50 push ups

3- RECRUITING MUSCLE FIBRES

This is a key area where we can improve endurance performance. When we perform endurance exercise we tend to use a very, very small proportion of our muscle fibres. Typically we use as little as 20% of our quads, for example, when riding and we always use these same fibres every session. As a result, our other muscle fibres are not used to working and when our working fibres get fatigued, the body has nowhere to go and so we slow down.

One area of training that is coming to the fore now is working to improve muscle recruitment. Renato Canova, coach to top Kenyan runners, uses 100-metre max speed hill sprints at the end of easy runs in order to do this, In our ironguides programs we use ALL OUT sprints in the pool and on the bike regularly to do the same, i.e. using a larger proportion of our muscle fibres. By regularly training these muscles, the body has somewhere to go when our normal endurance-trained fibres start to fail.

While sport-specific work is good, I believe we can get an amazing training effect for these fibres in the gym by using isolated muscle machines! While most strength coaches try to avoid these machines at all costs, I think they do have their place in our training programs.

An example is the leg extension machine that isolates the quadriceps. This machine will have an endurance athlete in a lot of pain very quickly as the isolated movement and weight means all muscle fibres are activated straight away and after 8-10 repeats, your legs will be screaming! To get the most out of these exercises, it is important to make the weight heavy so that you can perform around 10-12 repeats before failure. Do not lift so much weight that you fail after 3-5 reps as this will place too much stress on your knee joint. The only machines I use for this work are the leg curl and leg extension.

Summary

Strength training can be an extremely effective tool in your endurance training. Just remember to lift heavy and be specific in what you’re looking to achieve, whether it be specific recovery work, core strength or muscle recruitment training.

Enjoy your training!

***

Alun Woodward, ironguides Online Coach 

Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)

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Off-season: Races are over, now what?

November 17, 2017

Your last race of the season is behind you and it is time to take that well deserved break. However you know how much work you put in to get to where you are right now, and if you would like to preserve most of your new fitness level, you should stay active in the off-season while you train certain things.

Approach it as a maintenance phase rather than aiming to improve. You know you will lose some fitness and that is part of the process as it will give your body a break and boost your motivation for next season, however, to stay fit you still need to do some work, especially if you are a beginner without a swimming background.  The list below will provide you a guideline on what you should do:

  • Swim often

Minimum once a week, ideally twice. Swimming is a very skilled sport that you lose the feel for it very fast, unlike cycling or running. Use a different pool or swim open water if you can to mix things up a little

You don’t need to swim for too long or too intensity, but just being in the water and do some laps will maintain your feel for it. Twenty minutes is enough.

  • Focus on strength and speed:

Whenever you are out, do a quick set of speed or strength in any of the disciplines, these are the core of your fitness and unlike endurance if you loose it, it takes longer to recover.

On the bike or run you can head to the hills and just let the course help you with your effort, ride it hard up and run it fast down. In the pool do some casual sprints across the pool.

  • Avoid longer sessions:Endurance comes and goes very easily. Let it go for now, a month or so of a good training plan once you are back and you will be fit as before.Another reason is to also let your hormonal system restore, staying away from long workouts will be beneficial to bring the “building” hormones such as growth hormone and testosterone up, and decrease the catabolic hormones like cortisol. Ideally keep sessions to shorter than forty minutes
  • Execise often:Note the word exercise rather than training. Just get the heart rate beating with other sports or activities. If swimbikerun, just head out for casual and unstructured sessions.Short, frequent and easy sessions boost your metabolism without draining your motivation and has no negative response on your endrocrine system. You will also feel more relaxed with a little bit of endorphin, another hormonal response that makes you feel good and relaxed
  • Get a mental breakAvoid the triathlon media or the internet to restore motivation. In terms of burnout, 99% of the causes are MENTAL/NEURAL. When we tap our entire being in one way without giving ourselves a break, we are in “always on” mode.Triathlon forums, websites, magazines, stores, people — this always-the-same-thing preoccupation, night and day, flattens us. Our entire nervous system breaks down. People burn out on non-physically demanding things like fly fishing.

It’s not just physical. Your challenge right now is not so much to recover physically as that you need to give yourself a rest from all things triathlon.

  • Be patient when back on the training planif you stayed fit in the offseason, you will be in decent shape once you get back to your training plan but still off your previous splits or paces. Don’t rush things. As a general rule, it takes as long to get back in shape to how long you were taking a break.Aim to build the consistency first, then add the volume and only after a couple weeks you add the intensity into the mix. You will be fresh, motivated and raring to go, this is a dangerous combination thay can potentially make you train too hard, wait until you have a decent level of fatigue before you push

Enjoy your training and have a great end of season!

Vinnie

ironguides is the leading Lifestyle Facilitation company for athletes of all abilities. We provide coaching and training services, plans and programs, as well training education, health and fitness products to help you learn and live a healthy lifestyle. Come get fit with one of our monthly training subscriptions, event-specific training plans, coaching services, or a triathlon training camp in an exotic location! ironguides also provides Corporate Health services including Corporate Triathlons, Healthy Living retreats and speaking engagements. At ironguides, your best is our business!

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