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Nailing Race Day Nutrition

May 25, 2018

Home, Nutrition

ironguides coach Alun ‘Woody’ Woodward looks into the importance, and ways, of getting your race day nutrition right.

Race performance is not only about the fitness you have gained through training but it is also about nutrition on the day. Nutrition plays a significant role—get it wrong and all the fitness in the world won’t result in a good race.

Nutrition seems to be a major stumbling block for many athletes come race day, yet is rarely a problem in training. Considering how much we train and how many of our sessions are race specific, it is crazy that nutritional problems are so common in races.

One of the major reasons is that athletes don’t have a plan or, the worst-case scenario, athletes read about some new super product in race week and decide to try it out on race day. There are so many claims and studies out there showing why certain products are better and how they will significantly enhance your performance that we all fall for it and make major changes leading into races.

We need to always take statements about the effectiveness of certain products with a pinch of salt. Looking back over the years, we can see some of the world’s leading nutritional experts claiming one product is the greatest and the result of 20 years of research, before they are working for a new company the following year and are promoting something completely different.

The same goes with following the examples of pro athletes; remember the athletes are sponsored and so are going to promote their sponsors as the greatest and most effective products available to enhance performance. It would be interesting to actually see what they are drinking and eating on race day compared to what they promote!

First steps to making nutrition a non-issue

If all is working well in training, then stick with it and DO NOT CHANGE. Stop reading about nutrition products and articles claiming to know how to get more sugar into your body—the end result of this experimenting is going to be you blowing your race and you’ll be throwing up by the side of the road.

If you always seem to get stomach problems on race day, it’s time to look for a new strategy. One of the big factors in stomach problems seems to be fructose content of sports nutrition products. While studies have shown that a combination of fructose and sucrose in drinks leads to greater quantities of carb absorption and improved results, remember that lab results do not always transfer to race day.

The sole fact that so many athletes are seen throwing up and in stomach distress during races shows quite clearly that manufacturers are not getting this right and there is a lot of bad information out there. We are all different and we all react differently to different products and foods—I believe this comes from genetics, general nutrition through life, and also race intensity.

If you always seem to suffer on race day then firstly consider looking for sports products that contain no fructose and see how you get on. It could be that all your problems are simply coming from the way your body reacts to fructose. Signs to look for include:

* bloating
* nausea
* hunger

There are now numerous products without fructose coming to market and athletes are getting on much better with them in races, so try them out and see how they work for you.

SOLID OR LIQUID

This is a big topic and one that I see as totally individual; some athletes can race well on liquid calories alone and others will blow up no matter how many liquid calories they consume. This is something you need to be practicing in training so that you will know how you are going to respond on race day. Personally I prefer to move from solid food to liquid food as the race progresses.

PROTEIN

Protein content in drinks can make a big difference for some athletes. If you are an athlete who always seems to blow up in longer rides or has a large muscle mass, then having protein in your drinks might make a big difference. Experiment with levels up to a 50/50 split and see how you feel—you may not be getting the recommended sugar content but you may feel way better and performance will increase!

Meal replacement drinks

This is one product that I feel is underused in triathlon. Meal replacement drinks have been developed for people suffering nutritional deficiencies, dieters, and also for use in medical circumstances when solid food cannot be taken. A lot of research has gone into these products and the end result can be very useful for triathletes!

Ensure plus is one such drink; it is widely available in the USA and around the world, and I have used it extensively with my athletes. This is a calorie-dense drink but the amount of liquid is small so it’s easy to take on board—works great as a breakfast drink on race day when athletes tend to be too nervous to eat.

Also I have found that having this as the primary drink for the first hour in races makes a big difference to athletes’ performances. Looking at the nutritional information, the calories from sugar are way below that in normal sports drinks and what we would expect to see, but the simple fact is it works and works well!

We tend to forget that races can start out cold and while liquid is not important, calories are. A drink like Ensure will have you topped up with calories while not bloating your system with excess liquid. Later in the race as things heat up and your body has lost more liquid then a traditional sports drink may be more useful.

REAL FOOD

All the sports-specific food on the market is overwhelming and we tend to think it must be the best for us on race day but in reality real natural food can be the best! There seems to be a movement towards creating your own bars and race-day nutrition that is running down from nutrition used by pro teams in major bike races such as the Tour de France.

Examples of this are your own oat cakes or rice cakes, homemade brownies etc. This is especially going to be appealing for athletes who have certain food allergies or are sensitive to preservatives in pre-packaged products.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

It’s an old saying but one that rings true in triathlon! Make sure you make a plan, spend some time to write down your plan and then practice it over some sessions to see how your body reacts—fine tune as you go and by the time you come to race day you will be set and have no nagging doubts in the back of your mind!

Alun ‘Woody’ Woodward, Certified ironguides Coach

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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)

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

Video: Triathlon’s most efficient running workout – 4 benefits in 1 quick session

May 23, 2018

Home, Running

A good training plan has the right mix of workouts, specific to the your race, while still developing your general weakness, race day strategy and technique.

Triathlon running can be very different to road racing, when you start your run you are already at a very fatigued level and with an increased heart rate. The technique and training intensity you do when training for a triathlon is different to stand alone training.

I’m typically against very intense run workouts for age groupers, the risks of injury are exponential the faster you go, while the benefits are limited especially for beginner athletes who are barely shuffling on race day.

The below workout, which we call leg speed intervals, is one of my favorites for all levels and what I recommend as still very safe yet intense workout for beginner athletes.

It’s best done on a fast treadmill at 0% grade (learn more about the benefits of a treadmill here) but can also be done at the track or on any flat road.

After a 10-20min build warm up, do

*30 seconds FAST
*30 seconds recovery

Repeat the above 10 to 30 times (depending on your ability and targeted race). Then finish off with a 5-10min cool down

Instructions:

* Build into it. Start with your 10k speed focusing on technique first, then increase it in 0.5kph increments until you reach a point where it becomes very challenging, stay there. Expect some soreness on your hip flexors 24 hours to 48 hours after you are done

*If doing on the road, do a similar approach, start with a conservative intensity, then eventually fatigue will kick in and you will find your rhytm.

*Count your steps, for the 30sec repeats aim for at least 50 steps cycles (one side). Stay as relaxed as you can, engage your core and let the legs do the work

Benefits

* Time efficient: If done along it takes anywhere in between 30 to 50min. This is also one of our suggested workouts when traveling to stay in shape with limited time

* Improves technique: especially if done off the bike or day after the long bike: it doesnt let the fatigue from the bike slow your cadence down. The equation of triathlon is low cadence on the bike, high cadence on the run.

* Aerobic conditioning: This has a 1:1 work:rest ration which means intensity is near VO2max, the highest possible aerobic intensity you can handle.

* Hormonal balance: The high intensity nature of the session will help mitigate the catabolic effects of the long bike if this run is done off the bike or the day after a long bike ride. Running sprints have been used for decades in the fitness industry to increase the release of testosterone and growth hormone

All in all, other than endurance, it works all the important systems of your fitness and specific running technique: speed, technique, aerobic conditioning.

Enjoy your training.
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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)

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

7 Tips for a Better Iron-Distance Taper

May 16, 2018

Home, Race prep, recovery, Training

When triathletes reach the taper period of their training plan, their eyes light up as finally, the days of long and hard workouts are behind them. But ask any triathlete about their plan, most of them will have that deer caught in the headlights look.
Am I resting enough? Or am I doing too much? That is the most common lingering question on taper weeks for most age-groupers. For many weeks of long workouts, coupled with high intensity work, it is truly an unfamiliar ground to break it off, especially when you feel you have peaked.
To keep it in perspective, the primary goal of a taper period is to shed and regain. Sounds ironic? It is to shed fatigue, and regain proper form. Fatigue and form usually doesn’t go along well. When your muscles are fatigued, they are tight and usually do not function in their full range of motion. That is why form suffers when you are in the tail-end of any endurance event.
But shedding fatigue and sharpening form has its strategy. You do not suddenly turn-off a tuned engine for three weeks then expect it to run perfectly on raceday.
Here are the tips for a better Iron-Distance Taper:

1. Reduce length and volume. This is a no-brainer, but the rule of thumb is a 25% training volume reduction in the 1st week of 3-week taper. Fifty percent in the next week, and a 75% reduction in race-week. Again, this is a template. A consistent, solid, fitter triathlete will need lesser training volume reduction as mentioned.

2. Do not catch-up on missed workouts! Any age-grouper will miss training, due to work, family time, or even sickness. Catching up with the hard and long workouts and ultimately lessening your taper period will not improve your fitness anymore. One pro triathlete said it best; “there is not a lot you can do inside three weeks to help your race, but there is a lot you can do to shipwreck it.”

3. Too much Easy/Recovery sessions. Reducing the training load does not mean you will ultimately forget high-intensity sessions. Inadequate high-intensity training in the last 3 weeks ultimately leads to a flat race, wherein you feel you cannot exert the power and intensity you gained in your peak period. Just remember to keep your sessions short and at ironman-specific pace…or just a tad-faster. This will keep your body in vroom-vroom mode until raceday, just making it remember you are one fine-tuned athlete.

4. Maintain the regular training schedule/number of sessions in a week. Again, if you mess up with a schedule that you have been regularly doing the past 16-20 weeks or so, this will again lead you to overdoing the “rest”part of the taper, leading again to a flat race. It is important to keep the routine but with less volume. Mentally, that will benefit you greatly as you stay focused on the plan.

5. Reward your body. The build and peak period has made your body one high-fitness machine. During this time, we bet that there was little time devoted to non-swim bike and run recovery sessions. With time and volume decreased in this taper period, you can accelerate healing your body with flexibility/stretching sessions, foam rolling and sports massage. This sessions will help regain proper form, improving your swim, bike and run economy. A repaired and rebuilt body will have maximum potential for power on raceday. Just a warning though, never do a hard, sports massage too close to the race. It will do more harm than good.

6. Not the time to reward yourself by overeating. The race isn’t over yet. The hard work is done, but this is not the time to celebrate by over-indulging with food..or even drinks (alcohol). Maintain your nutrition/meal plan you executed on your build and peak periods. This is also not the time to experiment on what type of nutrition you will need on race-day.

7. Stay sharp mentally. With more time on your hands, this is the perfect time to review and assess what have gone right and wrong on your iron-distance training. Remind yourself your strengths and implement them on your race strategy. This is also not the time to correct whatever weakness you discovered in your training. Instead, work around your weakness and hopefully hide it on your race plan. Review your travel plans, make your packing and gear checklist. Also, this is very important: review the race maps and information guide. An informed triathlete is always the faster triathlete.

Iron-Distance Performance- ENDURANCE BLOCKS

May 14, 2018

Home, ironman

Finally after months of preparation the big ironman events of the summer are looming and its time for that final event preparation. Assuming you have followed your plan and trained consistently over the last few months you will be ready for the final endurance boost to take you into your race.

While of course you will have been doing endurance training in your plan i like to plan for special endurance blocks in the final weeks leading into the race, normally 2 blocks of between 3 and 4 days depending on the athlete and positioned in the final 6 weeks leading into your race. The vast majority of athletes can’t commit to spending hours training every weekend as thats too much time away from family and other commitments but planning 2 long weekend in an ironman build when friends and family know you will be unavailable does work out much better than not being around for weeks on end leading up to your race.

The purpose of these endurance blocks is twofold – both to build confidence and show the athlete they have nothing to fear from ironman and the other is to get a big boost to your endurance capacity leading into the race.

Also knowing these blocks are coming allows the athlete more confidence to follow their plan which may appear light on endurance work in the lead up – most of us believe we need to be training a lot more than we really do.

CONFIDENCE

A lot of athletes like to have covered the distance before the event, this is very understandable but from a training perspective we do not want to cover a whole ironman in training during a day as it is just too much to recover from and would have a serious impact on training consistency, even the individual events in a day can be too much for some athletes so i like the endurance blocks as it gives a concentrated time period when the athletes will go above and beyond normal training for a short period with planned recovery following.

With the 2 endurance blocks i would typically look for an athlete to cover their normal weekly training load plus a little extra in just 3-4 days – not really looking at intensity in this period just spending the duration training! For example if your normally weekly training load is 12 hours then an endurance block may look to cover 12-16 hours over a 4 day period.

3-4 days works really well for most athletes, it is not long enough to overload the body to a point it will effect your regular training, it is a time frame that is acceptable to get away from work and family commitments, and also its a short enough period for most to tolerate the increased food lead that needs to accompany these blocks. Never forget its not always the training that is the struggle its fuelling enough to get through them and come through the other end in one piece – while almost everyone can get the work on very little calories the difference is if you do not load up enough you will take a lot longer to recover and return to normal – this is why a lot of athletes who go away for week long camps have great training but then take weeks before they return to normal training levels as their body is smoked from the volume of training one and the lack of calories consumed.

So in terms of confidence we want to address the main issues

SWIM

* Cover the distance – 1 swim during the weekend should be at race distance or over.

BIKE

Cover the distance at least one – aim for a long ride of 180-200km on day 1

RUN

Can you still run after a long TT effort – aim for a 120km ride with at least 80km of this at race pace and include some race pace run intervals off the bike – no more than 16km
I will not have athletes ever run 42km in training – rather look to complete 42km during the 4 days

My aim is always to have athletes finish their endurance weekend knowing that they are going to have no issues covering the distance on race day – this is very calming for the athlete and also allows the focus to be maintained on training over the final weeks rather than stressing over their ability to complete the course.

ENDURANCE BOOST

There are 2 sides to endurance training i like to look at, the physiological adaptions that occur with endurance training sessions such as ATP development – this is a long slow process and is why we have our weekly long swim, ride and run in our programs – to get these adaptions does not require epic endurance sessions more just a case of regular endurance work anywhere from 60min to 2 hours on the swim and run and 2-4 hours on the bike.

The other side of endurance adaption is how the body burns fuel – this is very interesting and one of the main reasons the endurance weekends work so well for ironman performance. In order to perform well in ironman we need to move fast but efficiently – by this i mean we need to go as fast as we can while using as little energy as possible – to do this we need to burn fat efficiently as fuel and this is what the endurance weekends teach the body to do very well.

A good way to look at this is if your not at all fit and decide to just go out and ride 4 hours hard – its not going to be pretty – you will more than likely end up in pieces after 2-2.5 hours if you even make it that far. Now following this ride if you were to repeat one week later you would find you could go much further at the same intensity without any problems experienced in your first attempt. In one week you have not gained any measurable fitness – its too short of a time frame but your body will have learned how to use its fuel more efficiently to allow you to cover the distance.

This neat trick of the body can be used to our advantage with ironman training and is why we get such a huge endurance boosting effect form the endurance weekends. This adaption or learning from the body starts to disappear after 2-3 weeks to its important that we have an endurance weekend or at least 2 days of good volume in the final 2 weeks before the race!

As you enter your final weeks of preparation now is the time for your final endurance boost leading into your race – make the most of all your hard work with these focussed weekends and make sure your confidence is soaring for race day.

Enjoy your training
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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)

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

Sick? Don’t panic – Here’s a cure

May 7, 2018

Home, various

Training hard, your chances of getting sick are relatively high. ironguides Coach Alun “Woody” Woodward has the cure that will help get you back on your feet as fit and fast as possible.

Sickness seems to be hitting plenty of athletes right now with the very changeable weather this spring. Training hard in the final weeks before the main races of the season start, your chances of catching an illness are high.

If you’re unlucky enough to pick something up, what should be the protocol with training?

Firstly, maintaining your level of training as normal when you’re sick is not wise and can do a lot of damage to your body. It can also prolong, or increase the intensity of, the illness. As soon as you start to display any sign of illness, you need to move away from your planned training and into recovery mode.

How you approach the next days really depends on the symptoms and the intensity of the infection. The main workouts that need to be stopped are any that stress the cardio system, which means anything that raises the heart rate significantly and increases breathing rate above a comfortable level.

Fever

If you have a fever, then training is a no go—you need rest until the fever has passed. In this situation, normally your body is going to tell you quite clearly it does not want to train and all you have to do is listen, which is harder to do than to say, I know.

As with all our training at ironguides, we really want to teach athletes to better listen to their body.

Once the fever has gone, and you are feeling better and motivated to train again, then I like to set 2 easy aerobic days with some power work on the bike, before resuming your regular training.

Power training on the bike is going to activate muscle fibres helping to maintain fitness while ensuring your heart rate remains low and does not stress your cardio system.

Common cold

The illness to strike most frequently is the common cold. The intensity of the cold is always different and affects different people in different ways. The main point though is that it usually hits an individual with the same symptoms so you know how it is going to affect you. Again, the main thing is to listen to your body; if it says you shouldn’t train then rest.

If you still feel like training, then keep workouts lower-end aerobic and keep your heart rate from climbing above walking-pace level. I would advise that training be limited to cycling at this time as it is much easier to maintain heart rate in the lower levels on the bike.

The same power training I mentioned above can be used during these bike sessions in order to help maintain fitness. Once you feel good enough to resume training as normal then take 2 more easy aerobic days but this time in all 3 sports.

Chesty cough

The chesty cough can be your only symptom or it can follow after a cold. Regardless, as soon as that cough moves to the chest then it’s time to rest and go to see the doctor. I find a lot of confusion with this one in terms of where the cough is coming from.

Sometimes when you have had a blocked nose that starts releasing, it will drain downwards into your throat which will lead to coughing up mucus. This is not a chesty cough that would require rest.

A chesty cough tends to be dry and very deep in the chest, almost producing a rattle when you breathe.

When resuming training following this illness, I would always recommend one full easy week of aerobic work at normal training volume before you start to train with intensity.

Resuming full training

The time it takes to fall back into your full training plan depends on the period you have been sick. If the illness has lasted less than a week, then 2 days of easy aerobic training at normal daily training volume should see you able to resume your pre-sickness training schedule.

If the sickness has lasted 7-10 days, then I would set the easy training duration to 4 days, again at your normal daily training volume but keeping the intensity way down.

If the sickness has persisted for any longer than 10 days, then a full week of easy training is advisable before you jump back into full intensity.

Tricks to maintain fitness

As I mentioned above, power training on the bike helps maintain fitness while sick.

When I say power training I am talking about riding with a low cadence and pushing against a high resistance; you are going to feel more muscular fatigue building than cardio stress. This is a great way to train while sick as it helps maintain neuromuscular pathways, making it much easier and faster to get back to normal training speeds and feeling once healthy again.

On the run we can also use tricks to maintain fitness. One of the things we don’t want to lose with running is leg speed as this can take a long time to build up.

We can do a short treadmill session that is designed to maintain leg speed without placing stress on the cardio system. Warm up on a bike at a very low intensity and then head over to the treadmill and set it to your 5km speed; now perform 10 x 10-second runs at this speed and take 50 seconds complete recovery between the efforts. After this session, it will not feel like you have done anything, but when you come back to full training it will seem like you had no time away.

Summary

Nobody has the perfect solution for training when sick as we are all very different. The above are a good set of guidelines to follow but the most important thing is to listen to your body’s signals. We all panic when we get sick and imagine we will lose all our fitness. This is not really going to happen unless we are out for more than 10 days and even then we still only see a slow rate of decline. Follow the tricks I have outlined in this article and you will find yourself back to normal much faster than you believed possible.

Enjoy your training!

–

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)

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

Alun ‘Woody’ Woodward, Certified ironguides Coach – UK/Hungary
http://www.ironguides.net

* * * Your best is our business.™ * * *

Performing on Race Day

May 4, 2018

Home, various

By Alun Woodward, Online Triathlon Coach, ironguides.net

ironguides coach Alun ‘Woody’ Woodward looks at some crucial elements of triathlon preparation that will ensure you get to enjoy your fitness in a goal race.

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At the very heart of race season, we are looking to be in the best shape possible for our goal races; the training has been done and now the key is getting to the start line healthy and mentally ready to tackle the day.

In 2005 I was watching ironman Austria and saw Marino Vanhoenacker before the start of the race – he was incredibly calm and seemed lazy in all his movements. During a pre-race interview Marino was asked if he was nervous, and he replied simply, No. The work had been done and he knew he was ready! This is exactly the mindset we need to be taking into race day in order to maximize performance.

We all head into the race differently, though rarely in a completely perfect scenario: we may be a kilogram heavier than we would like, have missed one long run or long bike, taken too little rest or did too much travel. There is always something but come race day we all need to realize there is nothing we can do to change our current circumstances.

On race day we have to be content with our preparations and realize we can only do what our body is capable of. I have a saying on race day that is simply: “Enjoy your fitness.”

Practice

Unfortunately in ironman, fitness is not the only element to a successful race but it is the area where we spend most time preparing. Other factors are present on race day, and those can very easily derail all your training and lead to a bad performance.

These factors are transitions, equipment, nutrition and weather. If we want to enjoy our fitness in our goal race, we must have prepared in all areas to get the most out of our day.

Practicing your race plan

One thing I find is lacking in most athletes’ preparations is practicing race plans. Most athletes have a race plan and know how many and what type of calories they will take during the event, what drinks and what concentrations of liquids they will have during the race, and so on.

But the main element to a successful plan is missing and that is practice: you need to practice your race plan in training.

We want everything to run smoothly on race day and to achieve this we must have practiced everything thoroughly including transitions, removing the wetsuit, eating on the bike and at high intensity – it’s amazing how different an energy bar can taste and how hard it is to eat at race pace, compared with the way does at easy training intensity.

When training for Ironman on The Method system, you are going to have some sessions that are very similar to race day in the final weeks leading up to your goal event, and it is during these sessions that you should be practicing everything for race day.

Let’s look at some things to consider for your race-day practice.

Equipment

* If you have race wheels, then use them for this session. This will allow you to know how the wheel feels when riding, braking, descending and climbing.

* Mount your aero bottle on the tri bars. Use this set-up in training so you’re familiar with drinking from the aero bottle and with refilling it while moving.

* Practice aid stations. Get a friend to hand you water as you ride past so you know how it feels. Taking a bottle from a stationary person when you’re going at 30km/hour is not easy.

* Transitions bags: use these in training so you are familiar with the process. On your brick session, have a run bag ready at home, so that when you change from the bike to the run in training you go through the same procedure as you will on race day in T2.

Nutrition

Problems with nutrition on race day are among the biggest complaints of triathletes. This is typically due to not having practiced in training. If you usually drink 500ml of fluid every hour when training, then suddenly taking on 1 litre per hour during a race is going to be unfamiliar for your body and it will not react kindly.

Also, taking on nutrition at different intensities is important as it is harder to consume calories when going hard. For example, you might have a 30-minute hard bike effort in training. Most athletes would do the 30 minutes hard without fuel, and then drink or eat after, but in fact this hard 30-minute session is the perfect time to practice your race nutrition.

It’s amazing how easy it may be to eat a Powerbar during an easy ride, but becomes impossible to take in at high intensity. If you do not try in training, you cannot know what will happen on race day.

Weather also plays a part in choosing nutrition. Don’t count on chocolate bars for fuel if you’re going to be racing in extreme heat as everything will melt, making it impossible to eat them. At the same time planning something like a Powerbar in a cold race is not ideal either as these become almost impossible to chew in low temperatures.

So you can see that fitness is not the only element to performance on race day. There are several other factors at play and if we attend to these in training, it will make our race day experience more routine and we can expect to carry our fitness to the line successfully.

We have all heard the saying, ‘Practice makes perfect,’ and in Ironman it’s the practice of the little things that make a big, big difference on race day! Don’t be fooled by watching the pros race and see that everything looks so easy – you forget that the pros race 10 to 20 times per year, and every race is practice. If you only compete once or twice a year in major races, then you need to practice your routines in 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)

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

The Complete Guide for Triathlon Running – How to Train and Race

April 30, 2018

Home, Running

The run leg of a triathlon is generally seen as a relationship of “love or hate” by athletes. For a large number of triathletes with a running background and some experience in the discipline, it can be their favorite leg of a race, but there is also the second group, those originating from swimming and cycling, who are faced with a new challenge in the race, and the run leg can be the Achilles heel within the sport.
The article is a guide for both the experienced or beginner runner. You will learn about the main running workouts within a specific training schedule for triathlon and you will also learn the best race day strategy according to your background, body type and swim/ bike fitness.

Types of Workouts

Transition/Bricks

These sessions are crucial and very specific to triathletes. We have two types of brick run sessions:

Cycling + Running: It is the most traditional and challenging as you carry leg fatigue from one discipline to the next. Brick training requires some care, for example an experienced athlete must work several training systems as you will learn below, but make sure that the goal of the workout will not be hindered by the fact that you will be too fatigued. A speed workout with a good technique has to be done when rested rather than when fatigued after a bike session. Another precaution is to avoid doing extremely long run workouts after cycling sessions. This generates an exponential increase in recovery time and injury risk, which will hinder your consistency within your training plan which should be the main goal.

Swimming + Running: A less traditional but important transition is to run after a swim workout. It is not traditional because people consider only local muscle fatigue and the most obvious combination is bike run, but forget that triathlon is three sports and not only one. A low swim training load and skipping this transition training can translate into a very negative result on race day as thefatigue you carry to the bike and run, does not disappear during the race. This type of training is especially important for runners with little experience in swimming, because they will be forced to get used to the fatigue that comes from swimming

Lactate Threshold (Tolerance)

Lactate tolerance is perhaps the most misunderstood system at work in the human body. Largely this lies with the popular misconception that “anaerobic” training begins at the “lactate threshold” level of performance.

In reality, nothing is further from the truth. Anaerobic refers to exertion in the absence of oxygen: A 100m sprint on the track or a 50m all-out swim is truly an aerobic performance. In triathlon, almost none of our training is anaerobic – it is all at varying degrees, aerobic conditioning. No one in triathlon is capable of swimming an anaerobic 100m freestyle effort, for example.

A general rule to achieve the goal of this type of workout is to do sets that are 25-40 minutes long and preferably broken down in shorter intervals so you can achieve the desired intensity even if fatigued and do that while still using good technique.

Work with the ratio 3: 1 or 2: 1 for the work:rest relationship. For example:

10×2 min hard/1 min rest
20×90 sec hard/30 sec rest
5×6 min hard/ 2min rest

Your training plan should highlight lactate tolerance training-both in importance but also on the impact it has on the athlete’s body. A training program is structured to maximize the recovery of this draining type of workout, without compromising consistency or improvement. You need to understand that some athletes are subject to a greater negative response of lactate tolerance training, thus needing more recovery time, and those who need less recovery (since they cannot smash themselves in training) can train this system more often and generally train harder with a higher load.This balance is an individual thing and varies according to gender, age, experience, weight, body type and body composition.

Technique and neuromuscular coordination

Motor coordination is a key element in the race. Have you ever noticed how a good triathlete or marathoner can maintain an impeccable technique in the final kilometers of the race? Even after 90 minutes of running they look as rested as early in the race.

Your goal when racing a triathlon is: TECHNIQUE UNDER DURESS – The use of a movement, or a technique, is only valid if you can apply it under pressure. In sports, pressure means intensity and fatigue. When you think you can least hold a decent technique, is the most important time to do it. In triathlon it means run with a high cadence and good posture even in the last third of the race.

Some key observations and training to develop a good technique and neuromuscular coordination:

*Run cadence always above 90steps per minute (count one side), preferably 96

*Add a neuromuscular and skill set to your run programme, for example 15-30 minutes (depending on experience) with 30 seconds fast @ a high cadence) /30 seconds rest.

*Use the treadmill at 0% incline to help you with your stride rate

*Increase the stride rate in the final third of your long run

Other benefits of these workouts is that you will get aerobic conditioning while training your neuromuscular system, which is usually ignored.

Endurance

Endurance training, is key to the success of a triathlete, but comes with a big dose of hormonal stimuli in its most negative form (increased cortisol, decreased testosterone), so avoid structuring endurance workouts in excess, and mix in speed or strength workouts in your training plan so that the negative effects of endurance training are minimized. By marrying endurance training with efforts that release compensatory stimuli such as speed and strength training, your system will not be overloaded.

It is important that you use some simple principles to ensure that the favorite type of training of a long-distance triathletes do not compromise training consistency.

Some guidelines for your training plan:
* Do not do more than one long session per discipline per week
* If possible space out your long run, swim and long bike by a couple days
* Compensate your long workouts with a speed and strength training session the next day

Speed

Speed work on your run workouts should be planned with extreme care, as excess speed work has a negative return rate, since it requires a lot of recovery time and breaks training consistency.

But to develop your full potential and overcome stagnation in your performances, it is essential that you incorporate some sort of speed work into your training. The guidelines below will help you:

*Keep the repeats short, so you do not overload your aerobic system – 15 to 60 seconds is sufficient
*Use the treadmill or mild descents for increased speed with a lower aerobic load
*Your technique (cadence) is a priority over speed
*Try to do some sets, even if quick, for maintenance, in all weeks of the year

Putting it All Together – The Right Mix

Each type of training comes with a different hormonal response in your body, and each response occurs at different levels depending on aspects such as recovery, duration and intensity of training, diet, sleep, stress and other factors. Understand that the order and structure of your training is a priority as you are training hormonal responses, and must follow a certain order defined by your coach, that way you can train with maximum efficiency(for your situation) while optimizing recovery.

When structured correctly, while you are training a system, another system is resting! This way you are able to train more often, with more consistency and higher quality, reducing the risk of injury.

How to build your training plan:

1) Define with your coach the primary and secondary goal of that training block, and schedule sessions accordingly.
2) If you do two sessions a day, schedule the second workout to train a different system than the first, that way you will not overload yourself negatively and you can train both sessions with a decent intensity and technique.
3) Add technique and neuromuscularwork in your training plan, you can combine it with most other training systems. For example, this can be at the end of a long session or during a speed workout.
4) If your goal is to improve your run leg, take some of the load off your training in the water and on the bike, it is important to run relatively fresh, motivated and ready to push a higher intensity with a good technique. Do not think you can improve a lot at all disciplines at once.

Part 2: Race Day Strategy Understanding the Triathlon Equation: SWIMBIKERUN

Before we discuss the details of how your run will be on race day, you need to understand the strategy you used on the swim and bike and its impact on the run leg.

There are basically three types of triathletes:

Swimmer+Runner: Likely a former swimmer with light body type. However, often due to lack of experience and training time, hasn’t developed enough cycling specific strength.

Swimmer+Biker: Another type with some sort of swimming background, similar to the type mentioned above, but the main difference comes in body type. The swimmer biker is a heavier and generally more powerful athlete, which is great to push big gears on the bike and ride fast, but too heavy to run efficiently and fast.

Biker+Runner: Generally from a running background, has a huge aerobic engine and high power to weight ratio. However it is likely that this athlete has not had swimming lessons as a child and results in a disadvantage in that discipline. The typical thinking when you see them in a race is “if that athlete could swim, he would be unbeatable in triathlons”

Which is the best strategy for each of these types?

Option1–Walk+Run:
Structuring walk breaks during your race (and in training!), is a great option for beginner athletes in shorter events, or intermediate athletes in longer races.

The main benefit is motivation, since to complete anywhere from 5k to 42k without taking a break can be close to impossible to a large number of athletes. However, these athletes will still give it a go and see if they can manage the challenge, only to realize it was indeed not possible and they are forced to a walk. Once forced to walk in a race, that will come partially as a failure, that you are just not fit enough and that your perfect race day is out of the window at that moment, your goal from now is only to finish the event and cover the distance.

Alternatively, if you aren’t completely sure you can cover the run leg without a break, consider taking small walk breaks during the race.The most used strategy for beginners is taking a one minute walk for every ten minutes of running. Intermediate athletes may structure their walk breaks by walking all stations that are usually 2km apart which is just over ten minutes of running.

When you structure breaks, walking is still part of your perfect day, even how you walk would be different to the “just want to finish” type of walk. A confident, faster walk, chin up, as opposed to a heads down, slow slog. Mentally, it is also easier to break a big task into small steps, you only need to focus on running the next ten minutes instead of running the entire length of the course which can be mentally very challenging.

Another benefit of this strategy is a better opportunity for hydration and calorie intake during aid stations as it is easier to drink or eat while you are walking rather than running.

In training, including walking breaks means you will be running faster and with a better technique as compared to a run only strategy, as once you start to fatigue, you lose your technique and slow down, as opposed to taking a break every once in a while then resuming running fresher again. The main benefit of this strategy in training is that you reduce chances of injury due to the better technique and faster stride rate.

The biggest challenge of this walk:run strategy is to overcome your own ego and that it is acceptable to walk in a triathlon race. Make sure you also ignore spectators that will be encouraging you to get back to running if they see you walking, just switch off the noise and focus on your own race. Once that happens and you apply this strategy in your races, you will start to see faster run splits.

Option 2 – Negative Split:

The term “negative split” means the second part of your race or training, is faster than the first.

One of the biggest benefits of running with the negative part is feeling very good and strong towards the end of a race while all athletes around you are slowing down. Mentally, this can mask some of the pain you are going through and make you go faster

In physiology terms, you have a limited amount of kilometers that you can go hard, once that number is reached (sudden increase of lactic acid inyour system), you can’t recover from that effort fast enough, thus forcing you to slow down. Save your highest effort for the final kilometers of the race.

This is a strategy that should also be used in training, as now you create the habit of always finishing stronger than you started, but you will also go hard when fatigued, thus creating an ‘insurance’ that you won’t be able to run extremely fast, which for most athletes is not specific enough for their races and the benefits come with a lot of drawbacks, mainly related to recovery timeand injuries. A hard run on fatigued legs is like having an insurance policy that you will stay consistent in training.

Option 3 –Positive Split:

Having a positive split is something that only a minority of triathletes should do and won’t apply for 99% of the readers of this article, but as a ‘Complete Guide’ to running is important to explain this possibility as it will also help you to not to aim for such.

The positive split, as the name suggests, is exactly the opposite of the negative split. The first half of the run leg is done faster than the second. The main benefit of this strategy is a combination of positioning yourself ahead of your usual competitors or your goal, thus creating a scenario where you will be so motivated to hold that advantage that you will motivate yourself to a new level and will also help you handle fatigue and pain for longer and at a higher intensity.

Visualize a high performance age grouper starting the run of an Olympic Distance race with 1h20min, this athlete has never been able to break the forty minute mark in a 10k run, but this time he decides to take a risk and goes through the first 5k in 19min30sec, that way he has created a cushion of 30 seconds to break two hours for the race and also to break forty minutes on the ten kilometer run leg.

That margin will fade away as the pace was stronger than he should have done, but he may be ableto dig a little deeper than the usual due to the opportunity of a breakthrough performance in his overall time and run leg split.

Another example commonly practiced by professional or high performance triathletes is to exit the transition at a much stronger pace than is planned to hold for the rest of the race, that way the top athletes of the race will drop the weaker athletes and not allow them to take advantage of running in a group or pace themselves from the faster athletes. Just like in cycling, at a very high level of running, to position yourself in the middle of a group will make running easier as your effort shifts from setting your own pace which can be mentally draining, to only have to ‘sit in’ the pack. There is also a marginal gain with less wind resistance.

I believe that most readers of this article will have better performance using options 1 and 2. Option 3 requires a high level of fitness (semi-professional or professional). You can also discuss with your coach the possibility to participate in smaller events and to try various strategies and test what works best for your goal.
Enjoy your training,

Vinnie Santana

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Iron-Distance Performance – Preparation Races and Training through a Race

April 27, 2018

Home, ironman

By Alun Woodward, Online Triathlon Coach, ironguides.net

Spring has most certainly arrived and those first races of the season are just around the corner. For most of you targeting a major ironman race you will be coming into the final 2-3 months of your program and endurance should be ramping up now in preparation.

While training is ramping up and the focus must be on following your program training races are also of great importance at this time. One of the mistakes a lot of people make at this time is thinking they need to do lots of endurance events as practice, i believe the complete opposite to be true. An endurance event such as a half ironman is very demanding on the body and will cause a major disruption to your training plan both before and significantly after the event. We all know consistency in training to be the key to performance so we need to choose events that give us the practice we need while not interrupting the consistency of our program.

Ideally if we are looking for training races they should be shorter in duration such as sprint distance or possibly Olympic distance triathlons. When choosing our races we need to look at our preparation and training hours, if you have been consistently hitting 12 hours a week then an olympic distance event should be easy to bounce back from, but if your weekly hours are more in the 6 hour range at this point then a sprint would be the wise choice in order to not over stress the body as endurance is also starting to increase in training.

Remember here this is personal and we need to get out of the habit of looking at what the pro’s do, a typical pro can be training anywhere from 20-30+ hours a week and with that training volume a olympic distance race or even a half ironman can actually be easier than a typical training day so will not create any disruption to their training program. Also a pro is making a living from the sport and has to go where to certain races for sponsors and of course prize money.

So lets say we have looked at training volume and decided upon some training races to include in our program, how do we now go about fitting these in so as not to disrupt training.

First step is forgetting about the taper, there is an obsession in endurance sport with tapering and freshening up for events but very little evidence this actually improves performance. So often athletes well feel great during training but terrible in races after reducing training into the event, your body is used to performing under a certain level of fatigue and things go wrong when we take that base level of fatigue away.

Going out to fast in a race is one of the biggest stumbling blocks many athletes face to achieving their best results – go out too fast and you just won’t be able to recover enough to do yourself justice – the result is the event hurts a lot more than it should and speeds can be lower than training speeds which is very frustrating. Taking fatigue from training into an event provides an insurance policy against this problem, if we are tired we loose that top end speed and are forced to start a little slower than we might want too but the end result is we can progress through the race and perform at or above our training paces and get a great result.

Don’t forget the taper was designed for anaerobic sports, sports lasting under 10 minutes not for endurance sports than are based around aerobic performance.

So looking at fatigue in a more positive light we can go into our training races without really changing the program, i have seen time and time again athletes hitting best ever performances in olympic distance events the day following a long endurance ride and carrying a lot of fatigue.

So if we train as normal into a race do we then just carry on training as normal after the race, this is where things need to change a little.

The training program may well need to change a touch for the first 2-3 days post race depending on the athlete and how the race goes. Firstly we need to look at immediately after the race. If the race was held on a Sunday and this was an athletes long run day then i may have the athlete complete a long cool down run to ensure we still get an endurance run into the program as this is essential at this stage of the year building towards our ironman event. For example if the athlete has completed a sprint distance race in 75minutes and would normally do a 2 hour run on this day i would send them for a 45-60min easy cool down run immediately following the race.

In the 2 days following the race we want to make sure we touch on the systems we would normally be training while reducing the total load to reflect any fatigue or soreness that may be present from the race. For example if you normally have a interval run session on the Tuesday of say 6x1km hard efforts you would not jump into this session as you will have hit a similar intensity on Sunday during your race, instead we just want to touch on the leg speed we would have experienced in this session but not have the same cardiovascular stress put on the body. To do this we could change the session to 6x400m, running at the same pace as we would for the 1km efforts and add in a little extra recovery.

If an athlete has raced a longer event or had a bad run and not really touched on any speed during the race then the Tuesday run may change all together to be a pure leg speed session to make sure the athlete does not go too many days without any speed stimulus but also the session reflects the body is under stress so is not stressful to the cardiovascular system. An example of such a session could be 6x200m very fast with 400m very easy jog between.

Once the athlete hits 3 days after the race they should be good to resume their normal training program.

Within this final 2-3 months before your main event training consistency and endurance should be your priority but following the guidelines above you can easily jump into some training races and not have them impact on your overall training program.

Enjoy your training.

***

Alun Woodward, ironguides Online Coach

–

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Navigating the Ups and Downs of Ironman Training

April 24, 2018

Home, ironman

Navigating the Ups and Downs of Ironman Training –

INTRODUCTION

If you have ever trained or are in training for an Ironman, you will know that it is an experience like no other, especially if you are an ironguides coached athlete on a daily dose of The Method training programme.

Whether you are an Ironman veteran signing up for your 7^th tour of duty, a top 70.3 age – grouper stepping up to race with the “big boys”, or a (relative) brand newbie that’s caught the bug and wants to get one under your belt (“What’s all the fuss is about?)- The demands of Ironman training will stretch you to your physical, emotional, psychological limits.

The Ironman training cycle is a crazy rollercoaster ride that can take you from good days, filled with hope and confidence to nightmare “off” days that will leave even the fittest athlete discouraged and questioning their ability to even cross the finish line.

This article offers advice on how to spot the patterns of overtraining and how to minimise the “down” days for a more balanced, manageable and effective training cycle.

OVERTRAINING

If you are forcing yourself to get your sessions done for fear of losing fitness and you find yourself half-heartedly “going through the motions”, while getting more tired and desperate as your performance drops, listen up!

The most common presenting symptom of an athlete who is over-trained is not “Coach, I am so tired, I need a break”. Rather, it is, “Coach, I’ve been training hard but I am not improving, I think I need to do more.” The athlete’s drive to excel is so strong that they end up burning the candle at both ends, giving up personal “down time”, recovery and sleep to maintain high levels of work, family and triathlon training commitment. From my personal experience, the most tell tale signs that an athlete is overdone are:

Malaise and constant fatigue
Immune-compromised state
Unhealthy obsession with (lack of) improvement
Loss of enjoyment of the sport
Loss of trust and faith in their training programme
Continual weight loss
Decreased motivation
Flat/ jaded personality
Refusal to admit that they are over-done.

Without timely and well considered guidance, this athlete is headed for trouble.

I find that the risk of overtraining is especially high in the last 6 weeks pre-race. You’ve been working hard for the last 4 – 6 months and now you’re in the middle of the final loading phase- the big push before you wind down and rest up for the big day. Several factors make this last month and a half a tricky patch to navigate:

1) You’re consistency has paid off and your fitness is at a high level. You’ve been getting just enough rest and you feel invincible. The temptation is to push even harder through the “home stretch” looking for that last 5%. ** (If you are feeling good at this stage keep up the good work and don’t go “hardcore”. Aim to finish each session feeling great, keeping something in the tank for the next day. Aside from getting more rest- don’t change a thing!)

2) You only have a handful of weeks left before you need to taper. Your insecurities are surfacing and you want to hammer these last few weeks to squeeze in what you can to make up for those missed sessions earlier on.

3) Your body’s immune system, normally used to fight daily germs and bacteria, has been working overtime to regulate muscle and tissue recovery and repair instead. As a result, you fall into an immune-compromised state and pick up colds and flus that don’t go away.

If any of these situations sound familiar to you, let your coach know immediately. It will make the difference between “getting though the race” and arriving at the start line, fresh, focused and full of energy. The sooner you speak to your coach, the quicker he can get you back on track rested and refocused on the end goal- a stellar performance on the big day.

COMMUNICATION

A coach’s job should extend much further than dishing out training plan after training plan. Don’t wait until you are a burnt-out zombie, shell-of-a-human-being before approaching your coach for help. Timeliness is key.

Your coach’s role is to get you as fit as possible for race day. At times, this might involve a gentle nudge or cracking the whip- at other times, his job is to rein you in from the edge of burnout. A good coach will know: and be able to tweak

Your personality/ lifestyle
Your current training load
How far along the training cycle you are
The current stressors on your life

At times, it can be difficult to consider all these factors from inside the Ironman bubble so make the effort to elaborate on how your training has been going. Together with the usual training parameters and assessment of your current perceived level of fitness, some feedback on your feelings and emotional state will provide your coach with a good insight into how you are coping.

A good coach will not judge you on what training you have/ or have not completed. Stay open to your coach’s inquiries and suggestions and share openly with him your goals and motivations. If you nip it in the bud, all that maybe required is a weekend off or a few days/ week of unloading to get refreshed. But keep these things to yourself and you run the risk of digging yourself deeper into the lonely hole of overtraining.

Finish the race – well

ENVIRONMENT – Setting yourself up for success

Even before you sign up for an Ironman, there are a few simple steps to tip the scales in your favour.

The majority of age–groupers today work a demanding 10 hr/ day, many are married/ with a long term partner and have young families. Before jumping online at 4am to wait for registration to go live, examine your calendar 6 months before race day. Are you getting married/ having a child/ moving house/ country/ changing jobs/ starting a new business/ going to be involved in other big “life” situations? All these things will factor into your training, recovery and performance, especially the 2 months before race day. You will enjoy a much more balanced journey if the forecast of life’s big stressors and events reads relatively “normal” and “boring”. Of course there is no way to predict the future, but an uneventful half year window is a good place to start your Ironman dreams.

Secondly, have that chat with your partner/ wife – The one that starts with “Baby/ Dear/ Darling, I am thinking of doing an Ironman next year…”

It is of utmost importance that you have buy-in from your loved one because, as much as you think you’re doing all the hard work, they will be the ones playing a major supporting role. Extra understanding and support could make or break your race preparation.

Explain what is an Ironman, why you want to do one (or another one) and most importantly what kind of training hours are involved. This will help them to appreciate what you will be putting yourself through and why. Your coach can advise you on the different time commitments required for the different phases a typical Ironman training cycle.

By including them into your decision making process, you are giving your partner a time frame so that they can appreciate and be mentally prepared for those days/ weeks when you could do without the extra distractions and social gatherings and when you will be more tired than usual. In all fairness, it also allows them to look forward to when they can have a fully present and energetic partner back in their lives!

It is a good idea to take it a step further to roughly plan out your allocated training hours with them. As daily duties and responsibilities surface, together you will be able to discern much more clearly which are the most convenient tasks for you to stay engaged in to pull your weight.

CONCLUSION

I hope this article has given you some insights into some of the common pitfalls surrounding Ironman training. In order to do well, training is not all a bed of roses – and it should not be viewed as an excuse for unlimited swimming, biking and running. To get it right and nail it on race day requires a delicate balance of training and recovery guided by a close working relationship with your coach and an understanding and supportive home base from which to launch your adventures and live your dreams.

Shem Leong.

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

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Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

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