Endurance Nation | Online Triathlon Coaching & Community

As you know, we just released our Latest FREE eBook, the EN Introduction to Triathlon Training and Racing with Power. If you like this free eBook, you might also enjoy any one of our many other FREE resources:

• Long-Course Triathlon Training Manual (120+ pages) — Never buy another tri training book again!
• OutSeason Training Guide (Downloaded over 5,000 times!) — How to get FAST when it matters!
• Heart Rate Training eBook — How to make the most of your HRM for maximum fitness!
• Free 30-Day Coaching Trial — Get the Team EN experience for FREE, see if the same protocols that make our team of 425+ athletes faster can help you rock the tri scene in 2009!

Thanks and see you at the races!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Sitting on the tarmac at Logan Airport in Boston in seat 22D on a United Airlines jet with a 100% female crew (how awesome is that…my daughter Megan will get such a kick when she hears that!!!!), enroute to Kona/The Big Show, I figured I should share some tri-travel related advice. Here are my thoughts in no particular order…

• If flying with your bike, arrive 90′ early b/c you have to wait in line to pay the fee ($125 for me this time!)

• Bring lots and lots of snacks. Nothing is scarier than a fully-shaved, tapered trigeek with a growling tummy!

• Try to buy all your random race needs before you leave so expo shopping is fun, not a job!

• Have contact info/directions to local bike shops for quick repairs if needed (expo is always overwhelmed).

• If you are tavelling with your kids PLEASE bring something for them to do on the plane. Having nothing to do for hours as a kid is actually 10x worse than having to go to a job 5 days a week where someone else tells you what to do for hours. Seriously.

• Only 1 triathlon/ironman related item on display at a time please. Whether you realize it or not, the fact that you are over 30 and aren’t 30lbs overweight with that broken, “I live a meaningless existence stare” in your eyes ALREADY makes you stick out like a sore thumb.

• Wear comfy shoes (that don’t stink like mine).

• Don’t ty to get a workout in on the plane or at the next terminal. No joke I saw a doode running laps in a North Carolina terminal the other month…that has to be worse than actually not getting a workout done.

• Relax and smile! You are in a plane to a race, in this case the race of a lifetime…enjoy it. Smiling is contagious and this is a perfect time to practice for race day!

~Patrick

Popularity: 23% [?]

By coach Eric Kenney

Ahhhh… the big Taper. You finally get to relax. Skip the hill workout and the mega mileage brick on Saturday… Some people hate this time of training. I am one of them. It’s a scary time. The time when you can do very little to gain anything and do every thing to screw up months or even years of training. However it is necessary to achieve maximum potential.
First off I like to use the term “Peaking”. Tapering promotes the idea of doing less and less, and this is not the complete story. Tapering makes me think of something getting smaller and smaller, and that’s not what we are trying to do. Peaking is the process in which we achieve maximum physical and mental performance potential. This is a lot more detailed than just cutting back your mileage.
We will discuss this in general terms for a “race”. Peaking workouts and how much you do and do not do, can and will vary a lot depending on your event, duration, and skill level.

First off the peaking phase duration will vary depending on the duration of your event. The longer the event the longer the taper, ok there I said it. For Iron distance events, stage races, etc the longer the lead up of peaking. You might see up to a month of decreased volume in extreme cases.
In the weeks leading up to you’re A race the amount of aerobic fitness one can gain is minimal if any at all. So don’t kill your self! Skip the long ride and the “I’m not sure what to do today so I’ll ride to Sudbury and back as hard as I can” like you do every Thursday. As a general rule I like to decrease total volume by 40-60%. Endurance training can be cut back by the greater. For those doing shorter distances where you may have quite a bit of intensity training here are a few key things to note.

1. Make sure you are fully rested before a hard workout. We are looking for maximum speed and performance now, not beating our selves up. This will also build confidence. You’ll be amazed at how fast/far you go on your threshold intervals after only a 30’ warm up and taking the day before off instead of the 3 hour ride.

2. Work your strengths. You will be racing your strengths so focus on them. Use them, race them. This will build further confidence and hone your skills for race day.

3. Make your workouts simulate race conditions. Use the aero bars more/ race bike (if you haven’t been) wear the clothes and shoes for the run. Do a group swim in open water. Do a race sim day. Practice fueling and mental preparation. Make sure every thing works!

4. Race. Use a B race as prep. If your training for a long distance race a shorter race in the weeks leading up to it can really get the kinks out. It will allow you to use some racing strategy you are planning on in a consequence free environment. Does the elastic band holding the shoes on the bike trick really work? Or is it not worth it?

In general:
As we PEAK, decrease your overall volume. If you have been doing 3 hr rides and 4x 400 meters running on the track do 90 minutes in the saddle, and 2 or 3×300m intervals. You want to stay fresh and sharp but not worn down. Workouts should be short and sweet. They should burn but you should recover fast. By maintaining or even increasing your intensity your body thinks that training is still on full blast and your body will continue to adapt full blast. But… you have decreased the volume and by the time it realizes that you have actually done less your body has over compensated and your flying. Further hone this adaptation with race specific workouts in a race specific environment and you will be more ready on race day than you ever imagined.

While this decreased training time will be nice you should still treat your self well. Treat your self like your still training hard. Get that recovery drink even if you feel you don’t need it. Get plenty of sleep and keep up on stretching, etc…

The other item you will need to keep busy is your brain. Don’t think too much. Go over the race plan, make sure the tires on the bike are in good shape and just go. You have done this in training so you can do it in the race. Remember there is not much you can do to get faster in the week or three before the big race but you can do everything to blow it. So stay the course. Take care. Eat the extra pasta. Skip the morning swim if your feeling tired. And don’t be afraid to light it up a few times. Show your stuff, whether in a race or a short hard work out with the training partners. You have been looking at your heart Rate all season staying in “your zone”. Time to see how far you can push your self and start looking back the all the people your beating!

Coaching is not only Eric’s full-time job, it’s his pride and joy. “I take it personally. I am also a competitive triathlete and I am as careful with my athletes as I am with myself.” He coaches athletes of all levels in triathlon, cycling, mountain, biking, Cyclocross and is working with RAAm solo rider and team this year!

http://Erickenney.blogspot.com

Popularity: 22% [?]

With two new members joining Endurance Nation a day, we get a lot of questions about our coaching approach and how it could work for them. Aside from asking folks to read our radical manifesto, it’s important to take the time to make things a bit more personal. Here’s a letter right out of my inbox…

+++++++

Hello,

Couple questions…it seems like I am doing a lot of short workouts focusing on speed. I FULLY understand I need to improve my speed but will the workouts get longer as time goes on. Just concerned for getting in the longer distances I need. I am feeling very insecure with my training so far, that I am not doing enough to accomplish my goal. I don’t want to be last…I want to look “like an ironman competitor” not like a spectator.

No sweat on the speed vs distance thing. This is the standard reply that we hear once folks get inside the Endurance Nation house. Our primary goal as coaches is to give you the work you NEED to do to get fit, get faster, and get ready to race. The plan you are using is version 5.0, meaning it’s the latest iteration with 5 years of revisions. They only get better / tighter / more specific each year.

To give you perspective, your desire to go longer / do more is a function of what everyone else is doing / what you think is right for IM training. There are a LOT of people out there doing 6hour zone 1 rides to prepare for IM Florida..and it’s March right now. That, from our perspective, is a coaching cop-out…sure it’s easy to dump a 6 hour workout on someone, but it’s not what they need. We’d rather have you do 2-3h of good work and then do 6h with this new fitness. Inside EN, we build FAST, then put FAR on top of your FAST. Doing the go longer, then taper + get faster thing (like everyone else says to do for IM training) just doesn’t work. Normal folks can’t handle farther + faster @ the same time.

You might feel “behind” your peers now, but you will be “ahead” soon enough. A great IM race day is predicated on your knowledge of your fitness/capabilities and your ability to execute a race plan. Our methodology gives you intimate knowledge of your body + fitness, instead of having you spend countless hours on googlemaps in an attempt to find a 6h ride. This knowledge, combined with our insistence on planning (just search the forums for pre-IM procedures like we have going on for IMAZ right now) will help you to be ready to not only race to your fitness, but out-race fitter people as well. It’s a powerful combination.

Women + IM training is tough. Your bodies respond very differently to increased aerobic work / huge caloric demands. From my experience, most guys drop weight and women actually gain some. Case in point, I have coached 6 couples to IM finish lines — same coach, same schedule (for time, etc), same MEALS, totally different weight outcomes. I think a large part has to do with men having larger muscles, i.e. when I do 2h in Z2, my muscles require a lot of fuel — and will burn it. The same is not true for women.

Before we send you into the gym, remember that the workouts you are doing are also “work” as we have them laid out. They aren’t easy, so you should see an increase in calorie burning — this ain’t no “noodle around in zone 1″ plan! Second, make sure have nailed your “out of training” nutrition: see my Primer for Athlete’s Weight Management as well as the article Eat to Train vs Training to Eat. Let’s jump through these hoops first before we start adding more to your schedule.

That said, I am a huge fan of yoga, so I totally think you should put it into your program!

Keep me posted!!!

P

Popularity: 26% [?]

It’s that time of year when we all start to think about testing our training hours on the race course. For many of us these early season races are non- priority races or “training races”. There are a few different ideas as to what a training race is and how it should be done. Some people think that it just means you don’t taper and keep up with the training schedule right up til guntime.  This gives us a nice excuse for not doing well. While a training race is a prime opportunity to get some training, more importantly, it is a chance to test our self in the exact environment that we are training to excel in. Here are a few key points to consider when you are planning your early season races and race simulation workouts.

1. Its still a Race: A training race is NOT a time to waste entry fee dollars to swim, bike,and run around in a circle with a bunch of other spandex clad freaks for the heck of it! It is an opportunity to really test your training fitness in the field and against your peers and competitors. Aim for a specific, measurable goal with your early season races. While this training race will not require a 3 week peeking phase you should take the few days before to make sure you are well rested and ready for a good effort, physically, mentally and with all your equipment working 100%! You have committed the money, time, energy, and other sacrifices to be there. Make it worth while!

2. Make a goal: If you have been working hard on your cycling all winter and spring, your first low-priority event of the year might be a good opportunity to focus on the bike leg 100%. See how fast you can really go. How hard you can push your self, and how does that compare to your competition? If you know the course and/or the conditions are very similar to a race you had the previous season, see if you can beat that bike split of yours. Remember to stay within 2 inches of crazy Phil the ex-Belgian pro road racer. Yes, the Bike leg is only 1 part of the whole triathlon conundrum but one step at a time, it’s a “training race” remember… On the other hand you and your coach, might be working on your cycling but aren’t to the point where you want to throw down yet. So focusing on a solid effort in the swim and/or run coulc be a better option, while your bike leg will be time to focus on being efficient and not extending your self too far as opposed to trying to break the sound barrier on the fast decent coming into T2.

3.  Gain experience. A training race is a prime opportunity to learn about your self or about your competition, your preparation, your fueling plan, your equipment, your warm up (or there lack of), if you run well in the wind, on the hills or down hills? How did you feel afterwards. Like you just parted the seas? Or do you feel recovered after 15’ of hanging out by the kiddy pool of Powerade and table of bananas, thinking “man I could have gone way harder?” The list goes on. Come the big race day you can’t afford to be caught off guard by something silly. A cross wind hitting your fancy new disc wheel, your cool new PTS tank top and tri shorts fitting right in your aero position, and how big are those pockets? Do they fit 1 or 2 cliff bars? Gaining as much experience about your self, and how your body works in a race situation will have you better prepared come the big day. This may not have you breaking any records but when the going gets tough the prepared shine through. Anyone can post a personal best in their ideal conditions on their ideal terrain. You want a personal best in any conditions, on any terrain, on any decided day.

Coaching is not only Eric’s full-time job, it’s his pride and joy. “I take it personally. I am also a competitive triathlete and I am as careful with my athletes as I am with myself.” He coaches athletes of all levels in triathlon, cycling, mountain bike racing, cyclocross and is working with RAAm solo rider and team this year!

http://Erickenney.blogspot.com

Popularity: 32% [?]