Endurance Nation | Online Triathlon Coaching & Community

Every OutSeason we spice things up with a schedule of monthly challenges designed to get you motivated and help you connect to your peers. These challenges will be new and improved for 2010, and will allow members and non-members alike to participate. See the full schedule on the camps page and start recruiting!

Comments from Coach Patrick

Popularity: 6% [?]

Please visit our Tour of California Training Camp page for complete details, including our convenient layaway plan: secure your camp spot for as little as $500 down and $229/mo!

The Amgen Tour of California announced some big news yesterday:

1. Tour moves to May for 2010.
2. Tour gains ProTour status for 2011.

Item #1 promises MUCH improved weather, opens up tons of routes in the Sierras (mountain top finish?), and will likely DOUBLE the spectator support on the course. Our 2009 training camp experienced packed KOM and intermediate sprints in pooring rain and cold…we can only imagine the crowds in the perfect Cali weather in May!

Item #2  = legit status for the Tour of California, as it joins the ranks of the Giro, TdF, Vuelta, and other ProTour events. This is huge for the long term outlook of the sport in the US.

What does this mean for our Tour of California 2010 Training Camp?

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Popularity: 25% [?]

Endurance Nation Ironman Race Execution Survey

Endurance Nation is expanding the focus of our successful Four Keys DVD to include resources on how to race every Ironman ™ in North America. Products will include:

• Triathlon Race Execution Radio: A weekly talk show, hosted online by Rich and Patrick, focused on race execution and anything else related to your big day.
• North American Tour of IM Events: Rich & Patrick deliver the Four Keys Pre-Race Talk at YOUR race!
• Interactive Race Guide Movies: We outline all the critical details for your next big event!
• Racing with Power and Pace eBooks: Dial in the proper effort and maximize your results!

We are asking for your input to help us make these the most useful and compelling race execution-specific products on the market, available on a triathlon race-specific website launching on 5/1/2009.

Please go here to take our survey, entering your email address at the end for a chance to win a Fuelbelt!

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Popularity: 19% [?]

The Endurance Nation Bike Fit Book, presented by TTBikeFit.com, contains everything you need to learn about proper triathlon bike fit, race day setup, where to spend your money to yield the greatest speed return and much more! The ebook includes 45′ of audio and a 30′ minutes of video analysis by Todd Kenyon.

There’s More!!

Click below to view a 5′ screencasted preview of the actual bike fit webinar, complete with video analysis of top pro and age grouper positions by Todd Kenyon of TTBikeFit.com

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Popularity: 100% [?]

Every Tuesday my buddy Marvin rolls up to my house at 7:10. We ride easy 16′ to the base of Chantry Flats, a 3.2 mile, 6% climb. I tell him what cheesy 80’s song is in my head, threatening to start singing it to put it in his, and then we do our repeats up the hill: 2x, first one is sorta warmup, at your pace. Second is a handicapped TT. I give him a head start of between 2-3′, based on the results from last week. I try to catch him, he tries to stay away, we both kill ourselves.

Last week: 303w and 20:30 for the last repeat. This was an 18wk jump from the previous session. I had not ridden in about 4 days, having spent the weekend in the desert riding my dirtbike instead. This ride was about a 9 out of 10, where 10 is total TT effort.

This week: 303w and 20:03 for the last repeat. Hard rides through Saturday, Sunday off as I drove back from a clinic in NorCal, solid ride on Monday with Marvin, with 1 x 22′ at just above FTP and the remainder just lots of work. Ride was about a 9.5 out of 10. I was definitely working hard on this one!

So, how can I ride the same watts but go 27″ faster?

• This week I’m about 1.5lb lighter than last week. I also didn’t carry a water bottle on the second repeat this week. Or rather, I drank half on the descent after the first repeat, drank a bit more while resting, and dumped the rest.
• I was smarter about where I spent my watts this week. I purposely negative split my effort (higher avg watts for the second half) so I was able to drill it at the end. I also did a better job of keeping my watts up on any grade decreases, places where I got lazy last week but this week was able to gain some speed and time.
• There is probably some variability within my powermeter, or any powermeter, from ride to ride. In other words, no powermeter is going to 100% consistent, to the watt, between rides.

Still, I’ll take a 27″ improvement! That’s 56″ in the last two weeks and a sign that w/kg are moving in the direction we want! More important, I noticed I’m getting the “disassociative mojo” back:  my head checks out from my body, separating itself from the pain and instead focuses the watts and the effort. Every now and then my head would check in and notice how hard I was breathing, how much it hurt, but in general I was able to detach myself from the pain. I can do this on a climb or a hard pull with a group. Much harder solo on a flat but I’ll get it back.

Rich Strauss

Popularity: 16% [?]