Endurance Nation | Online Triathlon Coaching & Community

photo credit: Andrew Stawarz

Triathlon is an incredibly socially-motivated sport. The values and input of our peers play a significant role in terms of how we as triathletes train and race…almost to a fault. There’s nothing wrong with trying to keep up with Mr. or Mrs. Jones, but if you are going to be a successful triathlete, you’ll need to find your own path.

Look at it this way: if your training partner showed up at your workplace and started talking about how he works and what has made him successful, you’d probably tell him to get lost. But put that same conversation on a bike, and focus the topic on your next race…and you soak the words up like gospel.

A large part of your triathlon journey is about constructing your own unique story. Like any good writer, this story will be flavored by who you know, and the context within which you live. But at the same time, everything needs to have your own unique spin on it.

Here are some things to consider as you continue your triathlon evolution:

• Becoming confident at re-mixing the lessons learned from other folks is equally important as experimenting with what you consider to be immutable.
• Your hunger to learn should be as strong as your desire to train.
• Nothing “works” until you have actually done it yourself in training or racing, preferably in training first!
• What sounds too good to be true, probably is.
• The longer you play the triathlon game, the better you’ll become. Seek gains, but not at the expense of long-term progress.
• Successful racing and successful training are two entirely different things; mastering both is incredibly difficult.
• Encourage and facilitate changes in your fitness…don’t force it.
• If everything you are doing isn’t working, then you need to try something else.

What other big picture pieces of advice would you offer to a new long-course triathlete? Please post them in the comments below!

Popularity: 7% [?]

Do You Know What It Takes???

By now you’ve likely heard about our Beginner Open House, this April 13-18, 2010. We’re excited to have you come inside our Team to check out our resources, support, and especially our members. We’d like to take a few minutes here to discuss what TeamEN has to offer the beginner Ironman athlete.

You have a lot of time and money invested in your Ironman, and you have a LOT at stake in this once-in-a-lifetime, life-changing event. You paid over five bills, a year ago, to register. Factor in $$$$ spent on gear, plane tickets, bike shipping, hotels, etc. To this, add the dollar amount to your training time: X hours per week for months and months (How much is your time worth, anyway?). Lastly, don’t forget to add the time cost of your family. They’ve done a LOT to support you, and your training time has been spent away from them. What was the cost of being late to that soccer game or waking up at 4am to run so you could get the kids to school?

Triathlon is expensive in many, many ways. Here is what Endurance Nation brings to the table to help beginner triathletes…

TeamEN Training Plans vs the Others
Our training plans are the foundation of our coaching. These plans are in their seventh generation of continuous improvement, honed through the experiences, results, and feedback of over 3000 athletes. When you compare us to the other guys, ask yourself:

• Do I even know who wrote this plan? When? Has it been touched or revisited, applying the lessons-learned from the athletes who have used it…or the increased knowledge of the coach?
• What results have the users of this plan achieved? Can I find any testimonials?

Rich Strauss & Patrick McCrann vs Other Coaches
Perhaps you want a bit more than a training plan and are looking to hire a personal coach, maybe even a coach local to you. We have been coaching half and full Ironman age-group athletes exclusively since 2001 and 2003 respectively, with over 600 individual Ironman finishers — first-timers, podium, age group winners and Kona qualifiers — between us. Over 3000 athletes have used our training plans. We ourselves have nearly 25 Ironman finishes between us, including Kona.  Google us and you’ll find our training articles featured on Active.com, Xtri, TriFuel and many others. Over 8000 athletes subscribe to our newsletter to receive quality, Ironman-specific training and racing tips.

In short, we challenge you to find two more experienced, Ironman-specific coaches working together in the tri-space. And, yes, Ironman coaching is most definitely a specialty in the field of triathlon coaching, significantly different from coaching local athletes to sprints and Olympic distance races.

When you compare us to other coaches, ask yourself:

• How does this coach’s Ironman coaching and racing experience compare with Rich and Patrick?
• Where are the results and testimonials of his/her athletes? Can I talk to them about the coach?
• Has the coach produced any content (written, audio, or video) that allows me to learn more about their coaching knowledge, the instruction style, etc?
• Will my coach teach me how to race Ironman? See our DVD, Four Keys eBook, and IM Course Talks.
• Finally, what is my monthly fee? TeamEN athletes pay, at most, $99/mo for membership. What does your coach offer to command a 200 to 400% markup?  Our athletes save $3600/yr vs paying for a one-on-one coach. That’s a new bike…a powermeter…a family vacation…you get the idea.

Support and Community
Perhaps you’re considering using an inexpensive training plan and a free forum as support. The training plans used by our team on our proprietary platform are accompanied by nearly a dozen ebooks, dozens of instructional videos, over 100 podcasts and a living online resource wiki. Ask a training or racing question in our forums and you’ll receive an answer from the Team in minutes; from the coaches, in threads we have created for exclusive athlete-to-coach feedback, within 24 hours. Most importantly, EN is a paid community led by experienced Ironman coaches. Everyone has skin in the game of creating value for the community, by providing each other with quality, correct, and polite feedback.

Most importantly, this support and these resources are provided within the framework of a unified coaching methodology. In short, you won’t have to wade through incorrect, conflicting advice in our forums to get the help you need.

When you compare TeamEN to other internet resources:

• Are members paying to be there? We’ve found that the dollar is a pretty powerful filter for weeding out people not willing to contribute.
• Are members required to use their real names? TeamEN athletes are First Name, Last Name, period, no exceptions. No hiding online, and besides, when we meet at a race or a free camp, it’s just better to know who you are!
• Post a question. How good and how prompt is the feedback? Do you receive consistent feedback or does your thread become a debate, with you as the referee to decide who is correct and what advice to use?
• Will the forum have a presence at your race? Rich and Patrick go to EVERY US Ironman. TeamEN will have 35-40 athletes at EVERY race. Our Team dinners are attended by 50+ athletes, friends and family. What’s it worth to introduce your wife and 3 kids to another family and have them taken care of by the team while you race?
• Is there a training camp on your course? Uniforms? Options for your family to hang out while you race?

In summary, the quality of our training plans and the experience, support, and knowledge of the coaches and Team will bring you several years up the learning curve. You’ll do everything right, the first time, without wading through several years and messed up races as you try to figure it out on your own.

Popularity: 18% [?]

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: 9% [?]

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: 12% [?]

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: 30% [?]