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Archive for August, 2007

Endurance Nation Training Groups (ENGroups)

Posted by admin On August - 21 - 2007

There has been a lot of talk in the forums and emails in our inboxes re: off-season training options, when will the resources of EN be made available, etc. Patrick and I are also at that time of year where we review what we’ve learned this season and consider how to improve the training of our athletes for next season. Add to that the transition to Endurance Nation and you have the perfect conditions for a paradigm shift in the coaching world. We would like to use this momentum to offer to you a unique training opportunity…

ENGroups: Off-Season ’07-’08

Dates: Oct 8, 2007 thru Feb 3, 2008 (~18 weeks)
Cost: $189 (~$10/wk)
Register: Email Patrick

How will it work?

  • We will publish the schedule to the group 4-weeks at a time, as a shared Google Spreadsheet or Calendar (TBD).
  • Support will be provided via a private forum at Endurance Nation. This is where we will answer questions, issue guidance, and collaborate with you all to tweak each subsequent block of training. In other words, as the group gives us feedback on how things are working, we will incorporate this feedback into the next training block.
  • Likewise, as we learn from your and our own training and have valuable discussions with other coaches and clients, we will push information to you via the forum. In fact, we will be right along side of you, virtually, doing the training ourselves and pushing our feedback to you.

The Coaching Method?
Very simple: if you want to bike/run fast, you need to bike/run fast. Wherever possible, we will write workouts according to an evidence-based coaching philosophy: (1) you will test, (2) we’ll determine pace or wattage results, and (3) together we use those results to frame your training. Want to ride 21 mph in your next race? Spend a lot of time at 22-23mph. Want to push 250 watts? See where you are now and frame your training in reference to your current and goal strength on the bike. Do you run 8:30 pace for a 10k? Use that to determine your optimum pacing for endurance and tempo runs. This is not rocket science.

Ability levels?
Intermediate and Advanced. If you have a season of consistent training under your belt, for any distance, you’re good. However, this is not a “get in shape” plan. A relatively early off-season start means that you’ve maybe taken a few easy weeks at the end of the season but you’re not a complete physical wreck. :-)

Volume?
No thank you! All training will be extremely time-efficient, incorporating only the training you need to achieve your fastest shape ever by early February. The workouts will be delivered as the Main Set of the workout. For example, the Main Set for your Tuesday interval bike session might be 2 x 15′ (3′) @ L4 (for now, don’t worry about what that means!). That’s it, that’s the workout. What you do around that set, as warmup, cool down, whatever, is entirely up to you as a function of the time you have available to train. This is how real coaches train real people in the real world. That said, the run training will be focused on a half marathon PR so you an expect a 1:30-2hr long run. But that’s about the only volume goal that we – as coaches – have for you.

Testing?
In line with this evidence-based coaching philosophy, we will measure and record metrics whenever possible. For example, the dates of the program are chosen as bracket events that Rich will use for his own training, below. You will be required to duplicate similar events on your own.

  1. 9 mile climbing time trial on Oct 13 followed by a 10k run on the 14th, to establish a w/kg and time baseline for the bike and a pace/hr baseline for the run. If you don’t have a local hill like this, all you’ll need is a trainer or a stretch of road where you can get about 20′ of continuous hammer time, times 2.
  2. Repeat of the climbing TT (end of January) and a half marathon on Feb 2.
  3. Baselines for weight, pullups, pushups, crunches, etc, with testing repeated when you exit the training program.
  4. You will be strongly encouraged to enter your metrics into a public document / info sheet. This will help to keep you accountable and will help us keep track of your progress.

Equipment?
Heart rate monitor at a minimum, though we will push you to break out of the box of heart rate based training. A powermeter and GPS device are HIGHLY recommended. In fact, we will use the training group as a tool to bring your knowledge of how to train and race with these devices several years up the learning curve. If you don’t have either of these, you will need a track or measured road for testing. Measured run courses for training would be great, so you can determine average paces. Again, we will resolve this with you once you are “inside” the Group.

Required reading?
Everyone: Scientific Training for Triathletes, Jack Daniels Running Formula, Off-Season Training, The Perfect Season
Powermeter Users: Must have a copy of CyclingPeaks, must read Training and Racing with a Powermeter.

Results?
In the last 12 months over 500 athletes have trained with our training plans. We’ve had many HIM and IM podium finishes and Kona qualifiers with a $150 training solution, but our athletes speak for themselves:

Ready to step up, do the work, and lay the foundation for a breakthrough 2008 racing season?
Email Patrick today!

Additional Questions

Tri-Club Discounts?
We feel this could be a valuable opportunity for your tri clubs: to get many people training on the same schedule together over the off-season. Here is what we are prepared to offer your clubs:

  • Your club members register individually at $189/person.
  • Have your club leadership email us the list of who has signed up.
  • If 10 or more people from your club register, we will refund $25 to each of these participants, making the cost of the program $164 for your members.
  • If you or club leadership have any questions, please have them Patrick at pjm@performancetrainingsystems.com

How will ENGroups be different from the other training plans already offered? The training methods we will use will be cutting-edge stuff that has not yet made it into the training plans featured on TrainingPeaks. We don’t want to confine ourselves to the tools available through TP.com. We see ENGroups as a pilot program to explore the possibilities of a completely new and unique service tier within Endurance Nation: training groups with a specific start and end date, efficient support provided through a dedicated forum, podcasts, etc, using simple tools that allows us to collaborate with the participants to continually improve the training plan and training process. In short, if you have a CF Off-Season training plan, for example, it’s an excellent solution. This is just a completely different service and product.

How is this different from ENCoach?
ENCoach is a customized training plan: your goals, your fitness, your schedule, your races, your everything, all incorporated into your individual training plan. Your relationship with your ENCoach is continually evolving, with feedback flowing both directions. The ENGroups Off-Season program is very different: no individual customization, no direct feedback or exchange with a coach, clearly defined start/exit dates, etc…However:

  1. The methods we use and the lessons we learn with this group model will be used in your training.
  2. ENCoach athletes will be allowed to participate in the closed Group Training forum.

Will I need a Google Account to access the training plans?
Yes, you will. If you already have a Gmail or other Google Service related account, you will easily be able to add the training resources to your gLife (or whatever you want to call it!). Folks who have not be Google-ified yet can easily sign up for a FREE basic account here: www.google.com/accounts/

Where can I track my daily workouts?
ENGroups is not a workout log (at least not yet!). As this is the off-season, there is no need to go crazy tracking everything you do. That said, data-conscious athletes are strongly encouraged to track their daily metrics using a desktop tool such as CyclingPeaks or by using another online solution (there are many quality free programs out there).

Is ENGroups: Off-Season ’07-’08 only for long-course athletes?
Not at all. The off-season training focus is on speed and fitness – qualities applicable to triathletes looking to improve racing abilities at any distance. Note: The only distance requirement will be a half-marathon test in February.

I won’t sign up until after 10/8/2007…will my plan shift accordingly?
Nope. The plan runs as is. If you want to mix the dates around on your end, that’s fine. This set up is applicable for 95% of the folks our there, save for those racing Kona, Clearwater, or IM Florida. And if you are racing, all you have to do is rest up for a bit and you’ll be fitter than most of us in the group!

I won’t sign up until after 10/8/2007…will the cost be adjusted?
Nope – the registration is for full access to the plan.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Training

EN Coach Rich Strauss to deliver FREE pre-race talk at IM Louisville

Posted by admin On August - 19 - 2007

When: Friday, 9am
Where: meet at the inflatable Gatorade bottle at the swim start area.

Rich will discuss the mental, pacing, and nutrition skills he’s used to help Ironman athletes have successful race days. Rich has delivered his talks at almost a dozen Ironman events to hundreds of athletes.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Training

Endurance Nation Ironman Webinar Schedule

Posted by admin On August - 15 - 2007

Next weekend is a big one on the North American Ironman calendar, with IMLouisvile and IMCanada both next Sunday, August 26. Not too shortly afterward will be Ironman Wisconsin on Sept 9. You may recall our last Ironman webinar for IMLP. We had a great turnout, however, Patrick and I felt the session was too long and unweildy. So we’ve decided to split this up into two parts. Here is a quick run down of what we have going on for you.

Please note time zones below

Part I: Monday, Aug 20, 8:00pm EST: Endurance Nation Ironman Pre-Race Talk
This talk is and not course-specific. Please tell ALL of your Ironman and Half Ironman friends and training partners to join us.

Part II: Endurance Nation Course Chalk-Talk, using Google Earth

Note:

  • All talks are FREE
  • All times are Eastern time zone.
  • Please subscribe to the Endurance Nation Blog for updates.
  • Finally, if you’re not tired of listening to me run my mouth, I will be at IMKY and IMWI to deliver these talks again. Expect 9am, Friday, at the swim start area but check the blog to be sure. Even if you are tired of me, please stop by and say hello :-)

Thanks!

Rich Strauss
Endurance Nation
Crucible Fitness
Ergomo Coaching Center
IronCamp

Popularity: 9% [?]

Training

Pedaling Technique Summary and Drills

Posted by admin On August - 15 - 2007
  1. The bike goes faster because you apply more watts to rear wheel, period. The rear wheel doesn’t care in what manner that power is generated at or applied to the pedals. What matters is what that power is when it reaches the wheel.
  2. Your feet are attached to the pedals, attached to straight cranks, attached to circular chain rings and a round axle or bottom bracket. You have no choice other than to pedal in a circle. All you are really in control of is what muscles you fire when as your legs spin through this circular trajectory.
  3. Your legs have been engineered to apply the most power most efficiently by pushing against the ground (running, jumping, walking), not by pulling up (activating the hip flexor). Contrary to product claims, there has been no evidence to suggest that the “way” to pedal a bike is by applying power in pretty little circles.
  4. If you are thinking about this or that area of the pedal stroke and firing/relaxing different muscles at different times, but the power at the rear wheel is the same or less, you haven’t accomplished anything. If you are doing all of this AND applying more watts, then we can talk, but my next question is how long can you sustain this? Another point in here is that nothing is free. If you’re applying more watts to the bike, that work has to come from somewhere. It is not gained by efficiency, energy savings, etc. You must do more work in order to output more work. Period.

So how should I pedal a bike?
What I’ll now discuss is how you should apply your leg power to the pedals as they trace the circle of a pedal stroke. Divide the pedal revolution into hours of the clock, as seen from the right side of the bike, and into four sectors of three hours each:

  • 11-2pm: Imagine you are “rolling a barrel” under your foot. At 11pm you begin to push forward across the top of the pedal stroke/clock face until your foot is in the 2pm position.
  • 2-5pm: The power phase of the pedal stroke. You’re pushing relatively straight down on the pedals, in the manner your legs have been design to apply force most efficiently. Most beginner cyclists pedal straight up and down, like pistons, applying power to the pedals from 2-5pm. I feel they are missing the opportunity to apply that leg strength across more hours of the clock face.
  • 5-8pm: Imagine you are “scraping mud” from the bottom of your shoe. We transition from pedaling down to following through, activating the hamstring and pulling our foot rearward.
  • 8-11pm: When your right leg is at 8pm your left leg is at the beginning of the power phase, 2pm. We want 100% of the power applied by the left leg to be transferred to the rear wheel and move the bike forward. However, if your right leg, at 8pm, is “dead” on the pedal, then a percentage of your left leg power is not applied to the rear wheel but instead is used to lift the right leg. Now, this lifting effect is probably less than you think, as your right leg, spinning at 90+ rpm, does have a significant amount of momentum to “throw” it over the top of the pedal stroke. Instead, from 8-11pm we want to “un-weight” the pedal, applying just enough lifting force to make our foot weigh zero on the pedal, so 100% of the work performed by the opposite leg is used to propel the bike forward. Notice that I’m not counseling you to activate the hip flexor and apply power on the upward phase of the pedal stroke.

Why not?
In my opinion, it goes back to how our legs are designed. They are engineered to apply a great downwards force and comparatively little upwards force. Why waste energy trying to put a relatively small muscle to work (hip flexor) doing something it isn’t really designed to do anyway: apply a great deal of power upwards. My experience has been that your leg realizes it is getting worked on the upstroke and compensates by resting, or producing less power, on the downstroke. The result can be a net decrease of power to the rear wheel.

I call all of this Clock Face Awareness: by performing the drills below you become more aware of where you are applying power through the clock face and can therefore choose to emphasize one area/muscle group while deemphasizing another.

Isolated Leg Drills

Purpose: To divide the clock face into sectors, focus on them one at a time, and increase your awareness of what you’re doing in each sector. ILD’s increase your awareness of these sectors, enabling you to choose to do or not do “something” with each sector.

Drill: After a good warm up and a couple short, hard efforts to loosen up the legs, transition to ILD’s:

  • Right Leg, Over the Barrel: Shift to a lower gear, lowering your cadence, and unclip your left leg. Pedaling only with the right leg, think “rolling the barrel” as your foot traces 11-2pm. Begin at lower cadence and increase your speed/cadence. At some cadence you’ll experience a ratcheting of the pedal. Work to eliminate this ratcheting so that it occurs at higher and higher cadences. Do this for 30-60″ seconds or stop when fatigue becomes to compromise your ability to perform the drill correctly. These are skills drills, we’re not worried about your fitness here. Clip in, recover, spinning easily.
  • Left Leg, Over the Barrel: same drill, pedaling with left leg. After 30-60″, clip in, recover.
  • Right Leg, Scrape Mud: same drill, thinking about scraping mud from the sole of our shoe from 5-8pm on the clock face. Again, start a lower cadence, increase until you experience the ratcheting effect, then try to eliminate. Over time, try to increase the cadence at which ratcheting occurs. After 30-60″, clip in, recover.
  • Left Leg, Scrape Mud: same drill, left leg.

Focus Boxes

Purpose: To transfer the awareness of the sectors above into the entire pedaling action.

Drill: Perform immediately after ILD’s. Divide the pedal stroke into four sides of a box. Then, while pedaling at a normal cadence, focus on one side of one box at a time for about 30″. A sample focus progression might be: Right Top, Left Top, Right Bottom, Left Bottom, Right Up, Left Up, etc. The sides of the boxes are:

Top = 11-2pm
Down = 2-5pm
Bottom = 5-8pm
Up = 8-11pm

Spin Ups

Purpose: Increase the coordination of muscle groups through the pedaling circle.

As you do ILDs and Focus Boxes, it quickly becomes apparent that cadence plays a role. Specifically, what is easy to do at low cadence becomes more difficult at higher cadences. Pedaling requires Muscles A and B to contract and relax in a coordinated fashion: A contracts exactly as B relaxes. Your muscles can achieve this coordination when the movement is relatively slow, at lower cadences. However, at higher cadences your muscles can no longer fake the funk. A contracts before B relaxes. The result is often seen as a bouncing in the saddle at high cadence: your leg is trying to push down past 6pm, lifting you a bit from the saddle. SpinUps simply take you to this bouncing point and make you sit there for a bit, forcing your muscles to learn how to work together in a more coordinated fashion.

Drill: Do these at a low speed or resistance. It should feel as if your cranks are not even connected to the rear wheel through the chain. Again, this is a skills drill, not a fitness session.

  • Shift to an easy gear and increase cadence to where you begin to bounce in the saddle (usually 100-110rpm). Then back your cadence down a hair and spin there for 30-60. You’ll notice that in addition to your legs feeling like they’re spinning out of control, they also feel rather tense, like something is still contracted when it should be relaxed. This is exactly the point we are trying to take your body to.
  • Recover by shifting to lower cadence gear.
  • Repeat several times, trying to take the cadence up a bit higher each time.
  • 4-6 SpinUps is usually ideal.

After the drill just ride the bike at whatever cadence feels comfortable for you. You’ll notice that this self-selected cadence has likely increased a good bit, just from this simple drill. You should also feel much smoother.

In summary, the bike goes faster when you put more watts to the rear wheel. You do this by pedaling the bike in a circular trajectory at the cranks. By becoming more aware of your pedal stroke you can choose to manipulate where and how you activate your leg muscles as your foot traces this circle.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Training

Ergomo Coaching Center, powered by Crucible Fitness and Endurance Nation

Posted by admin On August - 13 - 2007

Elite triathlon coaches Rich Strauss and Patrick McCrann launch the Ergomo Coaching Center, powered by Crucible Fitness and Endurance Nation. The site will offer sales and support to Ergomo customers via a library of technical videos, podcasts and a live customer service chat window. In addition, the Ergomo Coaching Center will host power-training resources as Rich and Patrick develop these products for their Endurance Nation members.

The Ergomo Coaching Center is an official, fully stocked Ergomo Dealer offering same day shipping on all Ergomo products. Every Ergomo purchase from the Ergomo Coaching Center also includes:

Questions? Ready to order? Contact us or visit the Ergomo Coaching Center today!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Training