Endurance Nation

By now you’ve likely heard about our Beginner Open House, coming in April. 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.

Endurance Nation presents the Four Keys of Ironman Execution Talk. Rich Strauss, head coach and founder of Endurance Nation, will share with you the race day execution tips and mental strategies that have created PR performances for thousands of athletes. Rich has delivered this talk, live, to over 1500 athletes at Ironman venues since 2003. [...]

Let’s begin by breaking the topic down into two major components: Running Potential and Running Success. Running Potential: “What CAN I run on race day, given current fitness, training, etc?” The best predictor of Running Potential on race day is your VDot score. Running Success: “Given my running potential, what WILL I run on race [...]

There is only one thing can think of that’s worse than training the same way, year after year. That would be doing the same training over and over again…but hoping for different results.

#1: Nutrition is key. Plan, pack and prepare your foods in advance. On your grocery days, set aside some time to wash, chop and bag fruits, veggies and prepare basic meals for the week. Chopped up veggies can become salad fixings, a healthy on the go snack or be incorporated with meat for a quick [...]

Question: What are the considerations for a Half Ironman race rehearsal? Rich Strauss: All of our long course training plans include two race rehearsal workouts, roughly at 6 and 3 weeks out from your race. These are, without a doubt, the most important individual training session in your schedule. You want to get these right, [...]

Question: If the prescribed intensity of a workout is just not happening, should I just go easy? Rich Strauss: Rather than going easy, don’t be afraid to just pull the plug, take a day off and not do anything, especially on the bike. We like to see our athletes get in 4-5 runs per week [...]

* Marathon training then creates some significant opportunity costs for the triathlete looking to become a faster triathlete

1. At some point marathon training begins to compromise get-faster-on-the-bike training.
2. Marathon training, in my experience, is not the best and most time efficient tool to make someone a faster runner, to lift their VDot. Stronger, more durable, can go longer…yes…but for me that’s what we do in the last 16wks or so before an IM. Before that we focus on making you faster.
3. The net is that you don’t really get that much faster at either: your marathon training isn’t super great cuz you’ve still got your triathlete hat on = riding a bike, etc. And your bike doesn’t get much faster because you’re having to compromise your bike training because of all the marathon running you’re doing.

This post is part of a new series of articles exploring core elements of the Endurance Nation team and training concept. With over 400 members from all walks of life and levels of experience, Endurance Nation has a veritable repository of triathlon training and racing experience. Our goal is to highlight common elements we all share as triathletes, as well as place the spotlight on some of our most powerful member groups such as our 50+ “boomer” clan and of course the incredibly powerful women’s vibe.