Last weekend was awesome!  Raced in my first Ironman and ended up with an automatic qualification for Kona.  The plan that we had set out worked amazing.  So here’s how it went down.  

I arrived in Houston mid-day on Wednesday with Coach Mace and Coach Frost.  Coach Mace was there as support, Coach Frost was also racing.  We headed straight to IM village to pick up registration and get my bike and gear from TriBike Transport (if you’ve never used TBT, check it out, makes travel a whole lot easier), then to the hotel.  After checking in I headed out on a short ride (50min) and short run (20min).  During the ride it started raining and continued through my run.  After I got back to the hotel it really opened up and poured.  Rain would be the theme for the weekend, except for race day.

The next day we found a 50 meter pool less than a mile from the hotel and got in a short swim.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing and prepping my bike and run/bike gear bags.  I chose to put in everything I would need for the run and bike so I didn’t have to worry about adding things on race morning.  Friday was check in day and the only day we were allowed to swim on the course.  We headed down for a brief (20 min) swim.  The water temperature was 81 and very murky (couldn’t see your own out-stretched hand kind of murky), but the course was going to be great.  Then off to bike check in and to drop off bags.  The transition area was extremely wet and muddy and smelled like a port-o-potty.  Thankfully I had a good racking position, but had to change up my plan for putting on shoes and socks (so did everyone else.) 

After dropping off the bike it was time to relax.  Not sure why, but I was extremely relaxed.  I didn’t have any of the typical butterflies that I normally get with a race.  That evening I prepped my energy bites using the hotel ice bucket as a mixing bowl and prepped my bike and run special needs bag.  I didn’t put much in them, only bottles of Infinit in bike special needs and salt tabs and ibuprofen in run special needs.  I figured everything else I could grab on course if I needed it.  I knew because of the heat that my diet was going to be mostly liquid, so I tried to keep it as simple as possible.  Night before the race I slept really well.

Race day came early at 4:15am.  I prepped all of my bottles and had a simple breakfast of plain bagel with plain cream cheese and Noosa yogurt with a glass of water before heading to the transition area.  At T1 I dropped off the two bottles and energy bites on my bike and headed to my run bag to make sure my shoes had stayed dry through all the rain.  Everything was set. 

About 10 minutes before the start I lined up for the rolling start in the under 1 hour group.  Right at 6:40 we started rolling in the water.  The first few hundred yards of the swim was rough.  I intentionally headed right a little to get out of the madness.  The first ¾ mile of the swim to the turn buoy was uneventful, except I had to correct course a couple time.  I had chosen dark goggles, but it was overcast and I was having a hard time spotting the buoys.  After making the turn the water got a lot more choppy.  At about 1.75 miles there is a right turn to head up a narrow canal to transition.  The water in the canal was rough, but fun to have spectators on both side cheering you on.

Heading in to transition I felt good.  The swim was a few minutes slower than I wanted, but I knew it was going to be slow with no wetsuit.  I peeled off my swimskin and put on my racing kit and headed out.

 The bike course was through the city for the first few miles so there were quite a few turns.  Since I had come out of the water pretty early there wasn’t much traffic.  I noticed right away that I was already starting to sweat about 2 miles in to the bike.  The head and humidity could definitely be an issue, so I started to drink my Infinit right away.  I had been told by a friend that you would never feel dry after the swim.  I settled in to a good pace, right on where I wanted my power to be.  It felt pretty easy, but I knew not to go too hard in the beginning.  I started eating my energy bites at 45 minutes.  Each one had a salt capsule inside and I had intended on eating 4 throughout the bike course, but was only able to get 3 of them down, about an hour apart. The first 50 miles of the course seemed to go by really fast.  At mile 58 I grabbed my special needs bag with my second half bottles.  This is where the wind started to pick up.  For about the next 40 miles the wind was very gusty.  Around mile 70 I thought I had a flat tire.  I stopped at the next aid station and realized it wasn’t a flat, but my aero bar extensions were coming loose.  I decided just to ride with it.  If they came totally apart then I’d have a problem, but I wasn’t going to stop.  I had a good time going.

The last few miles of the ride were a blur.  I hit transition in just under 5 hours, a few minutes slower than I really wanted, but my legs never got fatigued on the ride.  That’s when I knew I might have something pretty good going.  Transition was relatively quick, aside from a stop to pee.  I’m one of the few people who just can’t seem to pee on my bike.  It’s not that I’m averse to it, I just can’t.

I hit the run and my legs felt pretty good.  Coach Mace hollered at me that I needed to make up about 5 minutes to run with the guys in contention of Kona.  I ran faster than planned the first 5 miles with the first 2 under 7 min and the next three just over.  At that point I knew I needed to dial it back.  I dropped back to around 7:30 and held it steady between 7:30 and 8 the rest of the way.  It was a 3 loop run course and the start of the 2nd loop was the worst part of the day for me.  It had started to really get warm and that is when a little bit of doubt started to creep in.  I thought there is no way I want to do this loop 2 more times.   Around mile 9, the start of the second loop, I decided to start walking part of each aid station to make sure I was getting enough electrolytes and fluid.  About mile 12 I grabbed my special needs run bag with salt tabs and ibuprofen.  It was also about that time that I started taking some Coke.  A few miles later my legs came alive again.  From there I had no doubt I’d finish, it was just how fast.

At the end of the second loop I heard from Coach Mace that I was running 8th and moving up.  I had started the run 16th.  Right after the start of the 3rd loop I passed 7th place in my age group.  I decided that I wanted to pass and make it stick, so I pushed the pace down around 7 for a short time.  When I looked back he was gone.  From there it was just trying to hang on.

The finish was special.  Hearing your name for the first time with the words “You are an Ironman” are unforgettable.  Finish time 9:32.  I’m most proud of the run in 3:22.  I had held pace pretty much right where I had wanted and I knew if I ran right I’d be in contention for a Kona qualification.

The next day was a game of wait and see.  When they announced that my age group had 8 slots for Kona it was unbelievable.  Can’t wait to hit "dig me" beach, but before that will be IM Boulder.  Thankfully, I can relax and use it as a training race.

In the end I only made two glaring mistakes.  Number one was forgetting my bike computer in my bag.  I realized it right before the swim.  Thankfully I had my watch and could get power readings from it too, so it didn’t bother me.  The other was having goggles that were too dark.  Thankfully the swim is the shortest part. 

Overall, nothing seemed to bother me all weekend.  It was by far the most calm I’ve been for any race.  Don’t know if it was because I knew I had put in the training or because I had great support with me.  Again I have to thank Coach Mace for setting up an unbelievable training plan and working it around my schedule.  And, huge thanks to my wife Lindsay who takes care of me and everything else while I’m training.

Recipe for Energy Bites:

1 cup Oats

½ cup ground flax seed

½ cup miniature chocolate chips

1 TBSP Chia seeds

½ cup Peanut butter (creamy)

1/3 cup maple syrup (real)

1 Tsp Vanilla extract

Mix everything together and roll in to bite size balls.  If they are too dry, add more syrup or peanut butter.  Refrigerate.  Should make about 15-18.  You can add a Tsp of salt if desired.

The title of this blog is something you should ask yourself at least weekly, if not daily.  Another question would be: Did I meet the intention of this workout?  Take a good look at the graph to the left and make a mental image never to be forgotten.  Your assignment...if you are using TrainingPeaks, go to your Dashboard and find one of the three graphs "Time in Heart Rate/Speed/Power Zones" depending on what type of zone training you are using.  Take a look at your graph and then let's talk about the 80/20 rule!  To simplify 80/20 for my athletes it's 80% of your volume should be in Z1-Z2 or recovery, low aerobic, up to moderate aerobic depending on your naming convention/# of zones and 20% should be Z3 on up or Tempo, sub/super threshold, VO2 max, speed, aerobic and anaerobic capacity.  The attached graph is for a one-month early season base period of just HR data (so no swimming).  The actual breakdown was 82/18...NAILED IT!  What does your data show?  Is it stair-stepping consistently downward? This pattern you see works for the majority of your Annual Training Plan but there are exceptions depending on the time of year as you get more Specificity leading up to Race Day!

In every workout description you should see the following key words: Easy, Moderate, Hard, Zone 2, Tempo, Threshold, Gray Zone 1, Recovery, Aerobic, Anaerobic... The list goes on and on and depending on your Coach and also what type of Zones you are using is what words you start becoming familiar.  No matter what the terminology and coach/athlete relationship...it is up to you as the athlete to know going into the workout at what pace/speed, HR zone, Power zone or Rate of Perceived Exertion you should be doing and for how long!  If you don't get fidelity in the workout description ask for it.  If your workout says 10 minutes in Z3 Tempo then you better know an EXACT range for your workout  goal for those 10 minutes or how to find it in your personal zones.  

Lastly, another common error I see is TOO TIGHT of a range of speeds, paces, or HR range in athlete's training.   Let's spread that Zone range out!  An example: if your threshold run pace is 8:30 min/mile then you should be running your easy Z2 runs at 10:15 - 10:50 pace and your FAST Zone 5 sprints sub 8:00.  A range of close to 2:30/mi.   Not 9:00 for easy pace and 8:00 for sprints with a range of 1:00.  Same goes for swimming and cycling.  Easy means EASY and fast means FAST.  Look up your range that fits you and if you don't have your zones up-to-date or have never been tested to determine your zones, ask your coach for more information!

- Coach Mace

The Information Superhighway buckled under the weight of thousands of triathletes on November 1st, and many of them were the athletes and coaches of MP Multisport.

While triathletes from across the nation were watching video and timing data from Florida’s popular long-distance triathlon, many of those same athletes were also overloading servers attempting to register on-line for California’s popular Vineman 70.3 or numerous other races to be held in the year 2015. 

Within minutes, the 2015 Vineman 70.3 was sold out for both its race and a 750-person wait list. For some, that certainly means that their 2015 triathlon season ended before it really started. Down the California coast in Oceanside, the popular half-distance triathlon for 2015 sold out its general entry participant field on the day that it opened registration, which was July 17. Certainly the 2015 full-distance race in Tempe, Arizona will quickly fill as well when it opens registration soon.

At MP Multisport, we’ve learned through experience that there is no off-season in triathlon, and even when the racing may be done or nearly done, the shape of the 2015 season often rests on success at the computer terminal on registration days which happen well before New Year’s Day for almost all of the highly popular events in the United States. October was a busy month for us, even though the Colorado race season had ended. (It was still busy without that business trip to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, which you’ll hear about in a future blog article.) MP Multisport athletes were engaged outside of Colorado in season-ending races, annual training plans for 2015 were being crafted and, in some cases, redrafted. Registrations for 2015 races have been made, in many cases after MP Multisport coaches counseled athletes to have their computers booted up and logged on. We celebrated great seasons in 2014 and then quickly moved onward. For MP Multisport athletes, the 2015 season is well underway!

November and December are great times for celebrating the holidays and getting in some needed recovery after a long season. But they are also fantastic opportunities to build the foundations for which great performances require. Athletes at MP Multisport are already taking advantage of this, progressing well ahead of those who still have New Year’s resolutions to make and attempt to carry out. As the popular Christmas jingle sings, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”

KONA AND BUST - A LESSON ABOUT DAMAGE CONTROL

Congratulations to this year’s Ironman World Champions, Sebastian Kienle and Mirinda Carfrae! They had near-perfect races under conditions that were significantly far from ideal. By the way, Sebastian and Mirinda were my picks to win, and maybe if I had announced my picks before the race, some of you would be treating me to some frosty adult beverages. But, I didn’t announce my picks beforehand, so I was no closer than most of you who found your pre-race favorites far off the podium.

It was just as challenging a day in Kona for most age group athletes, almost all of whom had qualified in highly-competitive circumstances with well-executed performances. Coach Mace is one example of an athlete (this was his first Kona race) who had unfulfilled expectations. Yet, I observed numerous fellow competitors, including phenomenal athletes that I have known for years, a few current and former pro triathletes, numerous past sub-10-hour performers…and almost all of them (specifically, all but one) had a cascade of misfortunes and miscalculations that led to difficult races and inflated race times. Many of you picked Timothy O’Donnell as a men’s favorite, and with good reason. He finished in 5th place the previous year, is extremely intelligent, not the type to succumb to pressure or commit errors, went to the Big Island early to prepare, and was being coached by six-time champion Mark Allen. Was it horrible misfortune, or horrible execution, that led Timothy to walk at times towards the finish line over an hour behind our expectations?

The takeaway from Kona this year, and even most years when the conditions are more benign, is that it is nearly impossible to have a “perfect” race in Kona. Kona is just too long, too windy, too hot, too wavy, too muggy, too crowded, and too competitive for anyone to have their race go perfectly for them. Something bad always happens in Kona and, often times for most of the athletes, the ones who make it to the finish line the fastest are the ones who succeed at “Damage Control”. Damage Control is the skill of alleviating a problem before it cascades into a bigger problem or multiple problems, that ultimately jeopardize a swift finish or just finishing.

One athlete I encountered at the top of Palani Road (11 miles into the run course) was U.S. Navy officer Cam Loos. Cam came into Kona with a leg injury, and had to manage that through 125 miles of headwinds, ocean swells and heat just to get to the base of Palani Hill. He told me atop Palani that he hadn’t “Given up the ship” yet, an apt reference to the battle cry of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. Aboard Navy ships, Damage Control drills are a frequent, everyday occurrence at sea. Fire and flooding are the two greatest emergencies aboard ship, and the Navy practices all the time how to contain fires before they engulf critical parts of the ship (such as the engine room or the electrical system), how to plug holes in the hull before they grow larger and flood multiple compartments, and how to contain a litany of subsidiary problems (such as toxic fumes, fuel spills, navigation system failures) from sinking the ship altogether.

Likewise, it might be time for us triathletes to consider doing some Damage Control training of our own. Most of the training that we do is focused on getting us physically fit enough to race the distance, and acclimatizing to the conditions that we expect to race under. But what happens when we get a flat tire, or get a penalty, or have the batteries of our power meter (or electronic shifters) die? Do you really have a plan if the winds are stronger than you expected, or if you can’t push the wattage or heart rate that you trained to hold? How do you deal with a damaged bicycle if it gets involved in a crash? While many focus on the though that Jan Frodeno should have (or could have) finished in 2nd place rather than 3rd if he didn’t get a flat tire and a penalty. what about the thought that Jan limited the damage that could have cascaded from those incidents, and finished 3rd when he could have finished 33rd?

Granted, our training time is limited and one can’t practice overcoming every potential malady. It’s often hard enough just to be able to come into your season-ending “A” race injury-free and in peak fitness and freshness. But consider taking some time before your next race to prepare for and practice the inevitable “Plan B”.

Congratulations to everyone who recently completed their race seasons, and especially to those who "Didn’t Give Up The Ship" in Kona. You are inspirational and your hard work should be rewarded.

BETTER RACERS MAKE BETTER RACES
PRODUCING TRIATHLON’S BIGGEST STAGE

Dan Frost, Associate Coach with MP Multisport

We have proven time and again that it only takes one person to swim, and bike, and run from one point to another. To produce a triathlon, however, takes more than just one set of hands and feet. We think as athletes that we know enough about the number of volunteers, dollars and equipment that it takes to put on a triathlon, and maybe we also think that we know how to organize and orchestrate all of those assets to produce a smooth event. (We who have negative or critical feedback to give after a race sure think that we know enough.)

Well, the sport of Triathlon isn’t little anymore. It’s now big business. I can truthfully say that after I spent six full days at the nerve center of Triathlon’s biggest international event. I can also unequivocally say after my six-day experience that no single person can understand, much less manage, everything that goes into putting on a triathlon event. It takes more than just a team. It takes teams of teams!

I was honored to be one of about 85 Technical Officials for the International Triathlon Union (ITU) assigned to work the Grand Final of ITU’s World Triathlon Series in Edmonton. Technical Officials for the ITU “conduct the competition”, meaning that our duties go beyond merely “enforcing the competitive rules”, blowing whistles and showing yellow and red cards. We inspect the course, inspect bicycles, inspect helmets, inspect uniforms. We also supervise all the stations on the course, such as the start and finish, the transition area, and all aid stations and penalty boxes. We are on foot, motorcycle and bicycle. We are everywhere.

And all of us in Edmonton were being coordinated through me. My job as the “Chief Venue Control Official” was to be the Technical Officials’ biggest set of eyes and ears, and to ensure that we were on schedule. I really needed to know everything that was or could impact the races, which is impossible. Realistically, I had to know as much as I could, and record as much as I saw and heard, but also to quickly find out the things that I didn’t know.

That’s why I spent most of six days in a Command Center, as a representative of the “team” of ITU officials, with representatives of the dozen other “teams” that also made the event a reality. Seated next to me was Shelia Findlay, Olympic mom to Paula (who was racing), and competition director for the Edmonton organizing committee. An event of this scope takes months of planning to decide every facet like when streets can be open and closed and where each volunteer needed to be placed and what their jobs were…and I think Shelia had led much of that planning and had all of that information memorized. Also represented in the Command Center were on-site medical and security, plus City of Edmonton police, traffic, fire, transit, EMS and special events. If needed, we had a direct line to the emergency operations center downtown with more agencies standing by on alert. We even had a “social media” representative who scoured the internet for trends across the city (i.e. “likes” and “dislikes”) that could indicate developing problems. (Because everyone’s a critic, right? Go back and read the first paragraph again.)

We ended up conducting 11 races in six days with over 3,000 athletes, including live worldwide television of the elite championship races. That meant “routinely” opening and closing roads and deploying volunteers 11 times. On top of that was managing each unscheduled crisis, from medical emergencies (everyone lived!) and civil disobedience (one arrest) to transportation (getting all the athletes in and out) and electricity (rush delivery of a replacement generator). I don’t know how many total people it took, or how many man-hours were expended…one could say that it was “countless” manpower going into supporting 3,000 athletes…but somehow we managed all of those people and resources from the Command Center.

The only team that wasn’t represented in the Command Center, though just as critical to the event’s success, was the core of the Edmonton organizing committee and the VIPs. While Shelia Findlay did much of the operational planning and execution, it took a large group of civic leaders in the organizing committee to raise the funds (This event has a budget over $8 million.) and obtain municipal, provincial and federal support. 

It was truly a team of teams that helped provide a showcase event for the world’s top triathletes, and our sport has grown to where we have numerous high-profile “A” races like Edmonton. They are increasingly complex to manage and not every detail can be addressed perfectly. For the most part, however, everyone connected to one of the larger-than-life events is truly trying to make the event succeed. Many of the “countless” numbers of volunteers and public service personnel supporting these mega-triathlons may never do a triathlon or fully understand the life of a triathlete, but they are impressed by the examples of excellence and perseverance personified by the athletes they are supporting, and that helps the volunteers be more eagerly supportive. 

Given that, better racers can help make better races.

Dan Frost - Associate Coach with MP Multisport

We’ve had an exciting last couple of weeks here in Northern Colorado that culminated in the inaugural running of Ironman Boulder last Sunday. By the way, next year’s Ironman Boulder, scheduled for August 2, 2015, still has open registration as of this writing (August 7th, 2014), and that led an athlete from this year’s race to ask me “OK, should I sign up for Boulder 2015 also?”

We hosted a pre-Ironman celebration and seminar (with the help of our good friends of Altitude Running which we started with a revealing icebreaker. I gave everyone a blank card and asked “How many years ago did Ironman first become an ambition of yours?” and they wrote that number down on their cards. I later revealed the cards to show that, while a couple people had an Ironman ambition that lasted over a decade, most of the cards had numbers less than three, and many had the number “0”, suggesting that Ironman is still a matter of curiosity for some.

But if there is anything that was revealed by that unscientific survey, It is that many triathletes are looking at Ironman and going, in a very short time span, from the point of curiosity to the point of commitment and the point of completion.

In my opinion, the vast majority of potential Ironman triathletes aren’t blissfully acting on impulse by registering for these races. However, many seem to me to be keeping their future vision inside the horizon of this rapidly changing world. When we think about doing a humongous thing like Ironman, we consider a number of factors like expenses, training time, career stability, race location, family stability, and personal fitness. Those factors can, and have, changed from month-to-month and year-to-year. If those factors are reasonably likely to be favorable for an Ironman next year, many of us think that we’d better click that registration link now because who knows if those factors will be as good beyond the horizon of 12 months.

While prudence demands that we consider all of those factors, I asked just one question of the athlete who asked me about signing up for IM Boulder 2015: “Are you willing to share with me what The One Thing is?”

The One Thing is whatever reason that you have for doing an Ironman. It’s the trump card that, when you are hurting and exhausted during the marathon run, is the reason why you don’t quit and walk away from the finish line. The One Thing is the most significant reason that motivates you to train the way you do, to make sacrifices, and to step into the water with over 140 miles of hope and destiny in front of you. The One Thing is uniquely personal…you are the only person that can decide what it is…but it is also uniquely essential. Before you can commit to an Ironman, you must be confident and faithful to The One Thing.

My hope is that you will dream big dreams, have One Thing (or more) that excites you about those dreams, and then you click that registration link and let us show you the best way to make the dreams come true.

I (@DanTheFrostyMan) admit that I am more than a casual fan of #autoracing, particularly @NASCAR. Racing cars are phenomenal works of #art and #engineering, and the things that make the car go fast (The #engineering i.e. the mechanical parts, tires, lubricants and fuels) are reflected in the #art of dozens of promotional stickers on the car’s exterior. Generally, it’s @HugeCorporateSponsor with the biggest hood logo who helps get the car entered into the race, but what gets a car to the finish line are the products made by @TheLittleGuys who cover every remaining square inch of car with #spam.
 
Triathlon and american auto racing seem to share both a dependence on equipment and a zaniness of promoting that equipment. Lacking a car body, triathletes instead doodle on #socialmedia by routinely butchering the #Queen’s English by posting, #tweeting or #blogging in the form of…
 
“Love my @FastBike. Couldn’t have won my AG at #SuperDuperTriathlon without it. Thanks to @TastyGel and @PurpleBrownie for the power to go fast! Can’t wait to wear my new @FastPants and @CoolShades on the podium!!!”
 
Personally, I think triathletes’ abuse of the #hashtag has gotten #freakin #outofcontrol, though I fully understand how this trend has evolved. Triathlon is a pricy, gear-driven sport to a significant degree, and any #sponsorship or #discount perceived as making this sport less pricy or more technologically-balanced is now praised by #athletes with a #hashtag. It becomes more of a vicious #CircleOfLife because things like #sponsorship, #charityracing and membership in the @TriathlonClub can also be symbols of #status that help validate why we do this challenging sport that, frankly, is still a bit on the #fringe of the mainstream. Hence, the never-ending flow of #hashtags!
 
But nearly all these things that we praise with a #hashtag are companies and products that, once the horn goes off, get us to the finish line faster…whether it is riding the @FastBike, getting cheers from @EliteTeamRacers or eating those delicious @PurpleBrownies.
 
Think…what actually helps get you to the starting line? It’s not #hashtags. It’s people! (not @People). And of all the people in the world, who are the ones most responsible for you being “here”? Who is your greatest @CorporateSponsor? Hopefully, the answer for you is both your mother and your father. If your father is like mine, he thinks “#” is a “pound sign”. (He also thinks “£“ is a “pound sign”, so at least we agree on that.) If your father is also like mine, he and my mom literally put you on the starting line.
 
Just remember, #hashtags help you to be competitive. Moms, dads, and people help you to be a competitor. Thank your #sponsors, but also thank your parents and remember your dad on Father’s Day (not #fathersday).

On a recent weekend in May, two of my coached athletes had terrifically great performances in their first significant races of the season. Both of them were racing in “B”-level events. One had a personal best time running a half-marathon in Afghanistan, and the other with a best-ever overall placing in his third attempt at a highly competitive multisport race. (A swim-cancelled triathlon turned into an Olympic-distance bike-and-run.)  Mere minutes passed between the times that finish lines were crossed when both essentially sent me messages asking “When you get a chance can we talk about the next phase of training strategy?”

That’s the common question on every athlete’s mind when the first race of the season is done. Now what??? And it’s a question frequently asked in May, when many athletes have competed in at least one event, and in the case of our collegiate athletes, they have already gone through a short season with an “A” race. So, how do you get from Race #1 to Race #2?

Whether it’s a runner in Afghanistan, a triathlete just starting the season or our collegiates who have another short season coming up when classes resume, I’ve always got a quick answer to the Now what??? question. The answer lies in the Annual Training Plan that we established.

Unless Race #1 results with a physical mishap, or some other significant life event intervenes, your performance in Race #1, whether it is good or bad, does not change your Annual Training Plan. While you were focused on training for Race #1, we had already drawn up a roadmap of what it would take, and when, to prepare for Race #2, and #3, and so on. We already had a concept that the weeks after your first race would include, for example, more volume, or a focus week on swimming, or maybe extra hill repeats to prepare for the next tough event.

What should change, based on your performance at Race #1, is the toolset of things we can apply to the ATP. The duathlete above recorded an Intensity Factor on his bike ride of 1.10, meaning in layman’s terms that he literally gave 110% effort. More likely, I had underestimated his bicycling capability, and now I have more tools at my disposal as a coach to apply to the duathlete’s ATP based on his demonstrated improvement. A different athlete of mine had muscle cramps during the run at the notoriously difficult course at St. George. From that experience, we’ve tailored his training to improve his resiliency to cramping for his Race #2, a similarly challenging iron-distance triathlon.

The key message is, to get to Race #2 from Race #1, you need a plan. What happens at Race #1 doesn’t create a plan to get you to the start line for Race #2. It only informs you about what you can do within the plan that should already exist. Whether you come away from Race #1 with nothing but smiles, or nothing but scars, having a solid plan is the foundation and the guide to make your next race 110% better than you’d expect.

Take a few minutes and think back 365 days ago to your 2013 New Year's Resolution(s).  How'd they go?  Awesome!?  Liar!  Anyone out there still on track? Doubtful...unless, of course you implemented the Art and Science of Goal Setting 101!

I've spent a few years teaching classes at Colorado State University in Air Force leadership and one of my favorite sections was Setting Goals.  I'm not going to bore you with the details, as I've been know to do on occasion.  But before we make the same mistakes in setting wasted resolutions we have to touch on a few basics.

Setting your goals first should follow the acronym S.M.A.R.T

SPECIFIC: Set Specific Goals!  Your goals should be very detailed and answers the 5 "Ws" Who? What? When? Where? Why?
MEASURABLE: Use numbers! The more objective the goal, the easier it is to comprehend, calculate, and perform.  An example of this is shared in Bailey's latest blog on her 2014 goals..."Sub 4:30 for a 70.3"  That's measurable.
ATTAINABLE: I'm all about setting lofty goals, but if they are so large that causes angst and loss of focus which then leads to quitting...then it was a poorly set goal.  One method I have my athletes put into practice is set three levels of the same goal.  First, is "ok...that would be an achievement if I accomplished but not going to break the bank".  Secondly, "AWESOME accomplishment, nailed it!"   Third, "Shoot for the moon, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could do such a thing!"
REALISTIC:  This bites us as athletes quite a bit.  I hear a lot from you guys... "I want to WIN my Age Group!!"  Well, we can't control that goal.  What if Chrissie Wellington showed up to your race unexpectedly...you could have the best race of your life, but you're not gonna win. 
TIMELY: This ties with Specific goals.  You should always have a timeline for your goals.  "By the end of 2014, I would like to lose 10lbs".  SMART!!!


Here's to an awesome 2014!!

Before I started graduate school for nutrition, I always viewed "rest” as a day off for coaches that resulted in a lucky break for their athletes. Sometimes those Sundays off couldn’t be lazy enough, and the 5:30 am Monday practices came much too soon; and other times I just couldn’t help but do a little bit of exercise during those days off  “to stay sane”. Yes, I knew that my muscles needed some rest, and I appreciated the mental break, but I never thought about the deeper impact rest has on our bodies.  
 
Hundreds of years ago, stress was only caused by the occasional threat of a large predator.  In order to survive, we had to run, and run fast!  Adrenaline kicked in: blood flow was pushed to our extremities, our heart beat faster, we took faster breaths, and our blood pressure rose.  This enabled us to act quickly and get out of the immediate danger.  Once safe, we went back to our normal calm state, and our stress response disappeared.   When
stress used to be an actual “fight or flight” response, it was beneficial and necessary; but in our fast-paced world today our stress has unfortunately become constant and harmful.  
 
Stress can be caused by everything from school deadlines, to personal relationships, to eating foods
that you are sensitive to, to exercise.  Yes, exercise is a very large stress that we place on our bodies.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE exercise, and in fact I often struggle taking a day off to rest. The benefits of exercise are plentiful, and most people don’t get enough, but some of us could benefit more from rest than from getting that 7th day of workouts in.  It is important to think about it this way: when our body is stressed, the blood is concentrated in our extremities meaning that it is not in our stomach digesting our foods.  When we don’t have the correct amount of food digestion, we can’t absorb ample nutrients to repair our broken down
muscles, tissues, and cells.  This is definitely a problem if we are trying to get bigger, faster and stronger!  Another problem with all of this is that since we don’t allow our body time to digest our food during the
day, it works in overdrive throughout the night to try and make up for the time lost throughout the day.  Sleep is supposed to be a time for resting and rebuilding, however we aren’t allowing our body to truly rest when it is forced to digest our leftover foods from the day.  Not only do we have trouble absorbing essential vitamins and minerals, fats, proteins and carbs, but we also slow down our metabolism, and often have trouble excreting our waste on a consistent basis.  When waste builds up in our colon, it allows more opportunity for toxins to be reabsorbed into our bodies rather than being excreted.  Sounds messy,
right? 

So how do we fix this vicious cycle… Well the first, and hopefully most obvious thing is to take a day once a week and rest.  Really rest. Do some deep breathing, eat your meals slowly with people you enjoy, think about things other than exercise, and enjoy every minute of the calm state that you are in.  If you feel sleepy, take a nap!  Hopefully by the end of the day you’ll feel rested and rejuvenated, and ready to train hard the following week.