When we engage in training, our body undergoes specific adaptations in the hope of improving the body’s efficiency and capacity. Athletes train in specific zones to apply a measured amount of intensity to improve targeted areas of their physiology. When training with power on the bike, we use:
It’s hard for many athletes to know when to bump up or bump down their FTP used in determining power training zones. Many factors can impact fluctuations in your power training zones, such as improved fitness, injury, a busy work schedule, or time away from training. One mistake that many athletes make is establishing power training zones and never adjusting them to match their current state of fitness.
The traditional method of establishing your power-based training zones is to complete a functional threshold power test (FTP). When Dr. Andy Coggan developed the FTP performance metrics, he originally defined FTP as “the highest power a rider can maintain in a quasi-study state without fatiguing for approximately one hour.” Many of the metrics in Training Peaks, such as TSS, are calculated using FTP at one hour in the formula. Within the past few years, Dr. Coggan has redefined the definition of FTP to “the highest power a rider can maintain in a quasi-study state without fatiguing” and included the metric of Time to Exhaustion (TTE). Dr. Coggan defines TTE as “the maximum duration for which a power equal to model-derived Functional Threshold Power can be maintained.
When Training and Racing with a Power Meter (Allen & Coggan, 2010) was published, one testing protocol established was the 20-minute test. The test is based on 20 minutes to produce the highest average wattage over the entire period minus 5%. I predominantly use the 20 min test for athletes without past training experience or other underlying issues such as joint health. I currently use a testing protocol starting with a 30-minute test and often extending to 60 minutes using the highest average wattage over the entire period to establish FTP. I will set the duration of the test using data molding available in Training Peaks WKO that generally correlates to the athlete’s TTE, giving me the data to understand better the athlete’s sustained power output and resistance to fatigue.
We now have two essential metrics we can use to formulate our training. For many athletes improving TTE shows more significant performance benefits than a higher FTP number alone. When I see improvements in an athlete’s TTE at threshold, we often see a correlation to longer durations of sustained power outputs in other power zones. I regularly prescribe workouts with a focus on extending TTE to improve fatigue resistance. If an athlete has a current TTE of 37 minutes, a workout may be specified at 40 -45 minutes @ 95 to 105% of their current FTP. However, a gain of thirty seconds should be considered beneficial. Below is a graph of an athlete’s Power duration curve from Training Peaks WKO. We can see the point of sustained degradation or no longer holding their FTP at the thirty-seven-minute mark. Using the TTE model, if you cannot hold your current FTP for 30 minutes, then the chances are your FTP is set too high. Conversely, if you can hold your current FTP for over an hour, your FTP is probably set to low.
Back to that common mistake of many athletes make not updating their power training zones regularly. What is meant by regular is every thirty days or after a significant event that limits training time like an injury or time away from the sport. We can conduct FTP tests in several ways outside of formal testing.
Many athletes have an aversion to testing, so a few alternatives are a local TT or a local crit or cyclocross race. Also, there is no rule against group FTP tests; get a group of friends or team together and do a TT and use the results to set your FTP and TTE. You can also go for a hard ride at the highest power you can maintain for 30 to 60 minutes. Often the results will match your current FTP or perhaps even be higher, but if your FTP has fallen, then repeat the effort in a week or two and adjust your zones accordingly.
If your FTP has dropped, the cause could be the result of many reasons, don’t panic. You may need to change your training plan, or in some cases, it may be time for a good rest. Whatever the outcome, don’t let your ego dictate your power training zones. Test regularly and use FTP and TTE as benchmarks to gauge your current state of fitness. Hard work does pay off.
Coach Geroge Epley has a passion for knowledge and believes it’s the key to maximizing your potential. He keeps abreast of the latest scientific studies, always trying to find more efficient and validated means of coaching his athletes. Knowledge in the form of communication is just as important. The more he know about his athletes and the sooner he know of changes in circumstances, lifestyle or training, the greater resource he can be.
Coach George's Certifications:
Whether you love nature or just want to challenge yourself with something new, many triathletes often eventually try their hand at off-road events. It often comes as a shock, however, that their hard-earned fitness at road triathlons doesn’t always translate to success in off-road events. This realization is due to the fundamental differences in both the biking and running techniques unique to each type of event as well as the different types of training required to specialize for each event.
Practice Techniques
MOUNTAIN BIKING
Very similar to doing drills at swimming, great gains can be made in mountain biking by practicing techniques specific to mountain biking. Bikers call this “sessioning.” You pick a technique to practice and you do it over and over again until you feel more comfortable with the skill. It would be a good idea to either commit time at the beginning of every workout or one full practice session a week to practice these skills. While this may be different from what you are used to with road riding, you will save MUCH more time in a race if you can master these skills than if you have one extra day of fitness training. A year's worth of aerobic training will not help you if you ride your brakes the whole way down a steep descent, can’t rapidly dismount, and remount to carry your bike over an obstacle or crash because you hit a rock instead of lifting your front wheel over it.
Below is a (starting) list of skills to begin working on and why it is important.
TRAIL RUNNING
While you may not have to dedicate a separate running session per week to trail running techniques, there are a few skills that are worth incorporating into your sessions.
Fitness Training
While overall base fitness is important in both road and off-road triathlons, off-road triathlons tend to differ in that on the bike they often require explosive power with quick/short recovery periods. A thing that many road triathletes don’t train that often. In short, there is a much larger premium placed on anaerobic work when you need to get up a very steep climb or put out large efforts to make it over obstacles. Additionally, steep, varying terrain on the runs can emphasize the same type of anaerobic training.
Here are a bike and run workout to try to help improve your ability to put out explosive power and then actively recover before the next big push.
MTB Workout - Key points. Must be able to build up a tolerance to going anaerobic and then recover while still pushing.
Workout Details
Trail Run Workout
On a non-technical trail with rolling hills complete the following: Using RPE for trail runs is usually a good idea because variable terrain can make training using a specific pace difficult.
An RPE of 7-8 should not feel comfortable but you should be able to maintain the pace for the entire rep. Don’t stop after the rep, just run slowly for the recovery.
Up-Tempo Trail Ladder
Coach Bill Ledden knows that true success in the world of triathlon isn’t simply about crossing the finish line. It’s about the process of setting goals, being determined to reach them, and most importantly, the learning that takes place along the way.
Bill is a both a USA Triathlon and USA Track and Field Certified Coach.
Your nutrition choices are driven by frequency, intensity, duration, and the types of training you are doing. The choices you make affect your performance and recovery between sessions. It’s ideal to eat something before your workout sessions to get the most out of them, especially as a triathlete because there may be days with more than one workout. Since it’s the middle of prime race season, recovery between workouts can make all the difference.
Tips for Pre-Workout Nutrition:
Tips for Post-Workout Nutrition:
Post workout nutrition is key for your recovery and will help to set you up for your next workout (that day, or even the next). If your workout is high intensity you may benefit from liquid nutrition like a recovery drink or your own homemade smoothie. Here are some other examples of post-workout meals:
For shorter workouts or workouts that are less intense, you likely can wait until your next meal to eat. Always remember to stay hydrated though.
Train smart and fuel smarter. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as overtraining, just under recovered.
Megan Dopp is D3's go-to nutritionist. She helps athletes orient their nutrition to support their training and racing. She specializes in athletes, wellness and is passionate about getting to the root cause of specific problems. Meg is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner with over 14 years of experience.
I would be surprised if there was any competitive athlete, of any age, who was not worrying in January that their fitness had taken a hit and it would be hard to get back to a normal season of racing. I hope to show in this D3 Athlete Case Study that for one athlete this was not as bad as it might have been when Determination was part of the plan. But first let me digress off-topic a bit.
Throughout human history there have been challenges that exceed the one we have been in for the past 18 months and are, I think, on the road to resolving. The flu of 1918 killed a far higher percentage of the population and going further back to things like the Black Plague worse still. That’s not to minimize the Covid Pandemic. Far too many lost lives and lost loved ones. By comparison, worrying about fitness loss seems to me at times to be rather selfish. But for those of us bitten by the bug of endurance training, it is part of our life making life fun and fulfilling. So perhaps it is not selfish if put in the right perspective.
Even without Covid we all face challenges from time to time where our individual personal lives are disrupted, and the training is put on the back burner. Combining such individual disruptions with Covid just compounds the challenge to the athletes.
Towards the end of last year, most of you were rolling the dice and signing up for races this year. We did not know what to expect, and things are still a bit uncertain, but we started training as if 2021 would be somewhat close to a normal race season. Mary Peebles was no different.
Mary’s plan was to race the Des Moines 70.3, June 19, Nationals in August, and IM 70.3 in New Zealand near the end of the year. Training challenges were, in January, limited to limited swim time in the pools.
Progress was reasonable up into March when a family problem started to interrupt training and in early April training had to stop for almost a week as can be seen in the graph above and below. The worry was, of course, how much fitness would she lose. Training time was limited through much of April with most of it indoors, even on nice days, then gradually, she started to build again. While the weekly duration did not and could no, be increased we focused on quality work, some LT and Aerobic Capacity training cycling, and running.
After three weeks back at almost full training, we decided to run some tests to see what had happened to Mary’s FTP, Run Swim Pace at LT. From some of her workouts, I was reasonably sure she had not lost much fitness if any. The results of the testing confirmed my hunch and had some icing on the cake.
Here is what I said to Mary in an email summing up the tests.
Mary: Your running speed is not as bad as you think (she had expressed that thought a few days before we ran the tests). Your test came up with a 10:55 pace for 5k and that translates to an LT pace of 11:31, about 30 sec faster per mile than I had set for you in March. In real terms for your training this does not change things much because, for example, you were already running at that pace in some runs recently that called for LT pace and lasting 15 min or more.
Your 20 min average power in the bike test was 112 watts. I noticed you got slowed up or perhaps stopped at some intersections, so I did a rough calculation of the avg. power was without them, it came to 115w. That raises your Threshold power to 107 from 100. That may not seem like much but it’s a 7% gain, a great number considering what you have been going through lately.
The bike power number might even be a bit low based on your aerobic capacity workout yesterday. There you averaged 107w for 20 min of the intervals with peaks above the new power numbers suggesting that you might be able to hold a bit more power in a test not interrupted by road conditions.
As for the swim test, it looks like the zones I have set for you are what they should be, in other words, swimming shows no improvement but also no fall off. Again, great considering.
I hope this makes the case that some time off does not necessarily mean a loss in fitness if it is not too long and you can focus on quality workouts. Mary is not at the same level at this time of year compared to prior years. Des Moines had to be put off for another race (TBD) but Nationals is still on and there is time to build some more in the next 7 weeks and have a good day in Milwaukee. We look forward to what’s ahead for Mary.
Coach Simon Butterworth believes that the key ingredients in a good coach/athlete relationship are regular and open communication, mutual respect, and keeping it fun for the athlete and their family. His training programs are developed with those ideas in the forefront.
Fast running with a fast, delicious recovery. Your total running breakdown is as follows: 2 mile warm-up, 1 mile of fast running, and a 1 mile cool down = 4 miles total as follows:
Warm-Up:
Main Workout:
8x200 meters with EQUAL rest.
You can do this on a track, flat path, or trail. Give yourself some room to run 200 meters at your best effort. The idea here is to max out the 200 meters each time, not falling off by more than 3 seconds per 200 meters repeat. Most time athletes will start too fast. By the time you give this a few go-rounds, I’m confident you will have it dialed in.
Cool Down:
After your 8x 200 meters repeats, run an easy mile to cool down.
Now the best Part: RECOVERY
In a blender or Bullet add-in:
Mix until your desired consistency and enjoy! I learned this recipe through my plant-based diet journey and thank Rich Roll for his creativity with it. This drink has become a staple in my training and recovery, and it satisfies my sweet tooth as well.
D3 Head Coach Mike Ricci likes to mix up the workouts he shares with athletes. This one is no exception. Coach Mike is a USAT Level III Certified Coach and his coaching style is ‘process focused’ vs. ‘results focused.’ When working with an athlete, their understanding of how and why they are improving is always going to take precedence over any race result.
Bike Block for Solid FTP Gains
As David Glugla was considering winter training plans that would prepare him for his 2021 Wisconsin IM race, he chose to focus on improving his bike power. He also wanted to dial back his training hours to a more manageable 9 hours/week. With these parameters in mind, he decided to add an additional key bike workout per week while working to maintain his running. Another consideration was the restrictions on swimming so he chose to focus on (swim) cord and strength training.
Following those guidelines from September 2020 through March 2021 David increased his bike power from a FTP of 270 to 307 watts (13.7%) while maintaining his run pace. These gains were measured with a 30 minute bike FTP test. Additionally he didn’t retest until he could hold his current FTP for 3x20 minutes with only 1 minute rest (easy spin) in between sets. This tough standard not only showed he could maintain his FTP gains over longer durations but also prepared him mentally for the next test.
When breaking down his training a few key points are worth noting. In the pie chart below it can be seen that he did ALL of his bike workouts while even adding in an additional 55 hours of biking. A lot of these extra hours were added during the nice weather of the fall in Colorado when riding outside was an option. As a whole, he hit well above 90% of his planned workouts and if he was going to miss, he made sure he got his key workouts done.
Another point to notice is that these gains came even though his “CTL”(fitness measure) in TrainingPeaks was going down (as seen in the fitness chart below.) It is worth noting this point to remind athletes that CTL does not take FTP gains/adjustments into account. As he begins his ramp for IM Wisconsin he now will begin with a much higher FTP.
A final piece of the puzzle for David was tracking his sleep in Training Peaks. Tracking sleep did two things for David. Many times when he struggled with a hard workout we were able to go back and look at a series of “poor” sleep nights prior. Second, since he had to enter it every day it worked as a reminder to prioritize sleep.
By adding a dedicated bike block into his winter training, David is now ready for a much faster IM Wisconsin this coming September.
Coach Bill Ledden knows that true success in the world of triathlon isn’t simply about crossing the finish line. It’s about the process of setting goals, being determined to reach them and most importantly, the learning that takes place along the way.
Bill is a both a USA Triathlon and USA Track and Field Certified Coach.
In recent weeks we have seen numerous races taking place across the United States. As a coach, it has been very refreshing to be able to have the familiar pre-race conversations about race day execution and strategy. It has been far too long to not have this kind of dialogue! I am optimistic about races taking place this season but recognize there continue to be some uncertainties surrounding COVID. Will races get kicked down the road and rescheduled like we saw last year? Will they be canceled? If they do occur, what kind of race day modifications will be in place, and can my family members attend? Will there be post-race food? C’mon, we all know everyone does triathlon so they can pack away several slices of pizza at the end of a hard race.
One thing I have encouraged my athletes to do, especially when dealing with uncertainties about races, is to have a “firefighter’s mindset”. Just as firefighters do not know when the alarm will sound, we may not know exactly when we will find ourselves toeing the line at our first race back since COVID landed. It is important that we be ready to respond with confidence when we have the opportunity to be back in the mix of racing. Here are four strategies to ensure you are prepared to the best of your ability when you receive that “call” to resume racing.
On a daily basis firefighters stand at the ready. Ultimately you want to feel prepared and confident as races resume. Having a firefighter’s mentality and applying these strategies will keep you sharp and race ready for when that call comes in.
Train Well,
Coach Brad
D3 Coach Brad Seng knows that challenging days and subpar workouts are inevitably a part of the triathlon landscape, as are the times when you’re feeling great and everything clicks. He believes there are lessons to be learned from experiencing both. Sometimes having to fight for a workout is just what’s needed to achieve an important breakthrough in mental conditioning.
Coach Brad’s credentials include:
As racing calls us back to the start line, it's important to remember your fueling strategies for race day. It's important to give yourself time throughout your training to test your planned strategies because you never want to sabotage your race with a new fueling idea the morning of the event. Following are five reminders that are key to your race day fueling success.
An effective fueling strategy can be as easy as recording your experience during training with the different variations you try and basic math calculations. We know you've got this!
Nick Suffredin is an expert in fueling strategies for athletes, and we are proud he is a resource for D3 athletes. Nick is a former scientist at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) where his primary responsibility was to support the GSSI physiology research program. As part of the innovation team, Nick supported research to help improve athlete recovery and performance.
The goal of working with our race day fueling expert is to help you go the distance without bonking during a training session or on race day. Every athlete is unique and has different fueling requirements, and as such, you can expect to have an initial consultation with our race day fueling expert, complete a detailed intake and evaluation form that will explore sweat rate, caloric needs, current products, opportunities in training for trials with correct amounts of fluids, electrolytes, and other fueling strategies. Learn more here.
Spring has sprung and we are now embarking on a potential summer of racing! Some races have already taken place and we are waiting to see if the rest will happen. It can be tough to form a training plan when your race schedule is up in the air. The good thing about the D3 coaches is that they have a number of tools in their toolbox to make sure you are always race-ready. One of those tools is your nutrition. So much has happened with our eating habits over the past year, and as we begin to ramp up training, it's imperative to reestablish your nutrition priorities so you can stay in step with your training and be race-ready. Let’s dive into these four tips and learn how nutrition can play a key role in your success this year.
ONE
COVID NUTRITION RESET
TWO
PRE-RACE CONSIDERATIONS
Summertime means warmer weather, increased sweat rates, and the need for more electrolytes. As races approach keep in mind that the two main things that help us absorb water are carbohydrates and sodium. Knowing this, the week before a race try eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Also, add more salt to your food to make sure you are topping off your electrolyte and hydration needs. It’s always a good idea to add lean proteins and healthy fats to carbohydrates especially at mealtime.
Also, make sure to use a sports drink for workouts and try to never fall behind on your hydration. If you are dehydrated you are more likely to eat too much, our thirst and hunger mechanisms in the brain are highly correlated. Stay hydrated to feel satisfied and full. If races get canceled nothing is lost, you will be set to have a great weekend workout regimen with full glycogen stores and hydration.
THREE
Testing
As training ramps up, the need for various nutrients goes up. For example, we produce more free radicals when we exercise so getting more antioxidants is important, especially from different colors of foods. Additionally, B vitamins and iron levels get used up more rapidly when our body endures stress. Getting your iron levels checked early in the season and again partway through is always a good idea.
Check for Iron binding capacity, ferritin (stored iron), Hemoglobin (Hgb), Hematocrit (Hct), MCV, and homocysteine. MCV checks for macrocytic anemia which is driven by a deficiency of B12 and folate. If homocysteine levels are high, B12, B6, and folate can help bring the number back into a better range, high homocysteine is not good for the heart and is a helpful indicator of B vitamin status. Pernicious anemia is primarily diagnosed when hemoglobin is low, this is driven by a B12 deficiency primarily.
Other things to check would be for absorption issues including stomach acid balance. If iron deficient, one of the better forms of iron to take is bis-glycinate, you don’t have to take as much and it’s more gentle on the stomach. Keep in mind that Vitamin C helps absorb iron and calcium competes with its absorption.
FOUR
Fuel your training load
As we look ahead and plan for races, we all know how our training is supposed to go. Some weeks are build weeks which will have more intensity and duration, and some weeks will have less time and intensity. As your training ebbs and flows, it is important to adjust your food intake.
Megan Dopp is a certified nutritionist who understands athletes. She is an endurance athlete who has personally struggled and persevered with nutrition concerns. Her career began working in a heart clinic all the while pursuing her passion for sports nutrition. She continued to refine her interest working with professional athletes to improve their nutrition for performance. Megan currently has a diverse array of clientele including people suffering from autoimmune conditions, gastrointestinal distress, heart disease, allergies, cancer, diabetes, professional cycling teams, runners, triathletes and more.
Making It Work.
One of the things I enjoy most about coaching is creating a training plan around the various nuances of an individual athlete’s work and life demands. Training Peaks becomes my creative canvas. Over the years I have coached people who have unique work schedules such as ER physicians and nurses who may work three to four consecutive night shifts and then have several days off from work. I think all of us as athletes have found creative ways to maintain fitness and uphold a training regimen when dealing with certain life demands, limited resources and equipment, traveling, returning from an illness or injury, and so on.
And then there is Kyle O’Leary.
We have been working together since last May. Kyle’s current work schedule as an engineer in the oil industry has him doing 28 days on, then 28 days off an oil rig located 150 miles offshore. His commute to and from the rig is done via a helicopter. Prior to making this every other monthly trek, he is required to spend 5 days quarantining at a hotel as part of COVID protocol.
His goal races are 70.3 Boulder in August and 70.3 Waco in October. He is getting married at the end of April and timing the honeymoon between his races later this season.
Having no swim access for basically a month at a time, despite being surrounded by water, does present some challenges. Fortunately, he is super disciplined and embraces the training process. During his time on the rig he has been able to settle into a routine as though he were living at home.
For the most recent stint on the rig, he had a Wahoo Kickr bike shipped out to it so he could maintain his cycling. This has been a huge asset and combined with a treadmill and gym on the rig we have been able to maintain good consistency. With each monthly rotation, we are learning and making adjustments to maximize his training with the available resources.
D3 Coach Brad Seng knows that challenging days and subpar workouts are inevitably a part of the triathlon landscape, as are the times when you’re feeling great and everything clicks. He believes there are lessons to be learned from experiencing both. Sometimes having to fight for a workout is just what’s needed to achieve an important breakthrough in mental conditioning.
Coach Brad’s credentials include:
As I once again watched a few athletes run an extra couple of blocks because “we want to get to eight miles”, Coach Brad and I exchanged grins as we coached the workout.
I’ll admit to planning my route home on long bike days so as not to finish at 99 miles, but I’ve never soft-pedaled around the block just to hit a distance. Riding to a full kilometer while cooling down on Zwift to get 20 more XP points? You bet--I’m playing the game (I tell myself).
But when I reach the end of my workout, my workout is over. There’s no training benefit in hitting round numbers--especially by shuffling along just to get the digital odometer to tick over one more click.
There is a real debate out there about the value of “quality miles” vs. “junk miles” or quality vs. quantity in general. Additionally, the value of a good warmup and cooldown is widely accepted sport science. But that’s not the topic of this little article. The true value in ending on a round number is mental--does it give you extra satisfaction having “completed” your workout this way?
There’s no real harm in making sure your workouts round up--I’ll concede that point. I’ve just never seen the benefit. And if someone had asked me how far I went on my 9.96 mile run last month, I would have told them “almost ten miles”. I don’t feel any shame for not having gone ten.
Maybe this is the multisport athlete version of the gold/white or black/blue dress on Facebook several years ago.
Do you circle the block?
Coach Dave Sheanin believes with expert guidance, focused training and experience – our minds as well as our bodies adapt and we develop new capabilities. As our fitness increases and we expand our knowledge, the bar of maximum potential is raised!
Dave’s Coaching Certifications include:
USA Triathlon Certified Coach
Training Peaks Certified Coach
We are proud to feature Team D3 Athlete Kevin Hester who hails from Oshawa, Canada. Kevin wears two hats with D3. He is an active Team D3 athlete training under the direction of D3 Head Coach Mike Ricci, and he is our Web Guru supporting D3 with his magical tech skills.
This video conversation between Coach Mike and Kevin will take you on a journey revealing the secret sauce ... consistency is what yields improvement!
The upcoming summer months of high temperatures and poor air quality pose a threat to an athlete’s endurance performance. When evaluating an upcoming racecourse, proper assessment of the potential race day environmental conditions is critical to maximizing race day performance. The athlete should consider ambient temperature, humidity, wind velocity, and radiant heat generated from the racecourse surface. These factors can play a significant role in heat stress imposed on the athlete. The athlete’s ability to cope with environmental heat stress on race day is critical for performance.
The athlete’s physiology, hydration levels, and race kit all play an important role in thermoregulation on race day. High levels of aerobic fitness achieved through endurance training improve the athlete’s ability to cope with the heat and enhance the body’s thermoregulation. One key factor that can decrease performance, particularly in the heat, is dehydration. An appropriate hydration strategy that correlates to environmental conditions is imperative to maximize the competitive athlete’s performance. The research indicates that the human body does not adapt to dehydration, so train hydrated, and race hydrated.
One important race day strategy to improve performance and heat tolerance is a heat acclimatization protocol. Training periods in the heat and humidity to replicate the race day environment is the most effective method for heat acclimatization. Studies have shown that training at or near your threshold for an hour per week, in the temps and humidity in which you will be racing, will increase your ability to acclimate for race day. As such, endurance training needs to be associated with significant increases in core temperature to improve the athlete’s heat tolerance. For both dry and humid heat environments, ideally, your acclimatization should begin 6 to 8 weeks prior to the race. If time is limited, some performance improvements can be seen in as little as four to six days before an event. Your complete heat acclimatization will occur between seven and ten days after you begin.
If your training occurs in a cooler environment, then the race and scheduling limitations prevent heat acclimation from happening at the race location. The heat acclimatization protocols should be established before traveling to the event. These may include time on the trainer or treadmill with room temperatures and humidity to match the race’s environmental conditions. A standalone heater and a few humidifiers can replicate the environment of a hot and humid racecourse. Overdressing during workouts or training in the midday heat instead of early morning or evening training can help with acclimatization. When you arrive at the race location, make every effort to adapt to your race location’s environmental conditions to maximize your race-day performance.
Good luck this season, and stay healthy.
Coach George Epley has a passion for knowledge and believes it’s the key to maximizing your potential. "I keep abreast of the latest scientific studies, always trying to find more efficient and validated means of coaching my athletes."
George's Coaching Credentials Include:
Several years ago when Zwift was new, I did a one-week trial and decided that it was interesting, but not for me. I do my fair share of indoor training and had been pretty satisfied with my “serious” indoor tools over the past decades--at first a CompuTrainer then a Kickr with software including PerfPro. I could get my workouts in without distractions. I’ve never understood the social sharing side of training logs (I’m looking at you, Strava) and I rarely train in groups in the “real world” anyhow. I didn’t feel a need for entertainment value from watching an avatar so I never bought a subscription.
Fast-forward to the current day and Zwift has exploded in popularity and has added functionality. Most of the athletes I coach ride workouts on Zwift and the global pandemic has made indoor training all the rage. When D3 coach Jim Halberg suggested some group Zwift rides during our January coach meeting, I figured it was time for me to dust off my trial account and buy a subscription.
My first ride consisted of me peppering Jim over Discord with an hour’s worth of questions and some general complaining about Zwift vs. “serious” training tools. But it was fun in its own way and I decided that I’d commit myself to at least a few months of learning the environment by doing all of my indoor training on the platform.
Perhaps this article is a waste of time because I’m so late to the party and anyone who might read this is already on Zwift, but I thought it might be useful to share my thoughts as a Zwift beginner but an experienced coach.
Zwift is both a powerful training platform as well as a game. Jim told me several times during that first ride together that “it’s a game”. You don’t have to play the game in order to use it as a training tool, but it’s very important to understand that gameplay underlies everything that happens in the Zwift world.
If you’re simply looking for a platform on which to import your structured workouts from your coach, Zwift will do that for you. This handy little help article on the Training Peaks blog includes instructions. Even if you don’t want to play the game, but need a place to import rideable workouts, Zwift will definitely work well (but it’s probably not the most cost-effective option).
As far as metrics, numbers like your speed within the game are reminiscent, but not perfectly reflective, of outdoor riding. The response you feel on your smart trainer as you go uphill can be adjusted within Zwift’s settings so it’s difficult to say that climbing is really climbing. As a coach, all that I can really rely on is time at power. And as a training tool, this is enough.
If you want to play the game, here are a few tips that I picked up along the way.
You start with some basic equipment but can upgrade as you reach certain levels and earn “drops”--currency in the game. The better and more appropriate your equipment choices are, the faster you’ll ride within the game. (Remember that from a training standpoint, your speed within the game doesn’t really matter.) You earn drops by riding your bike with multiplier bonuses for riding harder, climbing hills, and receiving “ride ons” from other players. You can spend your drops on faster bikes and wheels, along with fashion changes like kits and socks for your avatar.
To move up through the levels you earn XP points which are primarily awarded for riding distance. There are several opportunities to earn XP bonuses to help you move through the levels faster. See the following list for details.
Drops are completely separate from XP points.
If you want to make the most of the gaming experience as you train, here’s a top-ten list of “things I’ve learned” over the past couple of months.
Coach Dave Sheanin believes with expert guidance, focused training and experience – our minds as well as our bodies adapt and we develop new capabilities. As our fitness increases and we expand our knowledge, the bar of maximum potential is raised!
Dave's Coaching Certifications include:
Looking out my window onto the Coal Creek Trail (have been running and biking on it a lot this past year) I would say the good news is that the general health of our population has taken an uptick. More people are out on the trail, running, biking (a huge increase), and walking. Most are not thinking of doing a triathlon but perhaps some were. Either way, health improvement is one of the good things going on and I hope it has got some couch potatoes permanently outside.
During the warm weather, it was clear that the uptick in bike use was also on the roads. And with regards to swimming, my sense is pool use is down. Some of that is forced on us with the limitations on lane use but on most days that I swim not all the lanes are in use. This has become even more so as winter has taken over.
This racing stat may come as a surprise to some (those who sensibly wrote off 2020 by early March), we have only had two Ironman races in North America since the beginning of 2020 and they were Florida and Cozumel in November. There were three more worldwide. There were three 70.3 races. Local races suffered the same fate, there were only two or three in my neck of the woods, the Colorado Front Range. There were of course some virtual races, some outdoors, and some on trainers but if racing was your motivation last year, it was a bad year.
Keep all this in mind as you read on.
So, what’s in store for us in 2021. This time last year it was fast becoming clear that we would not be racing much. Some pessimism is still in order so that we don’t get too disappointed again, but I think it’s time to plan to get back to racing.
If an IM or 70.3 event is something you want to do badly, I hope you anticipated what has happened. Most NA races filled up before the end of the year. However, if you did not anticipate that, know there is still some hope, you can sign up to be on a waitlist. My guess is that they are expecting some of those who transferred from last year's canceled race to bow out in time to let others in. I hope this becomes permanent; it will make it a bit easier to get into races.
I was personally not taking any chances and when the race I had targeted, Coeur d’Alene opened up. I registered that day. Last week I put myself on the waiting list for two other races after Cd’ A as possible insurance. Even if you don’t have a definite reservation for an IM but want to do one getting on a waitlist or two makes sense, and it costs nothing. The other option for IM obsessed athletes is to sign up for a non-IM branded race, it’s cheaper and you will be very welcome, I'm sure.
An alternative for the IM obsessed and the rest of you is just focusing on shorter, local races. Work on your speed. Giving up on the idea of an IM this year could be a great strategy too. Get faster over shorter distances and come back to IM in 2022 setting a PR or perhaps a Kona slot. Warning: those of you who have been IM obsessed might find the short stuff more fun and stick with it.
So, what should a “Normal” spring training look like? Unfortunately, there is no longer a simple answer to the question, and it will depend on what you have been doing these past 12 months and the last 3 years.
Let me start by saying that if you have a coach you should always at the end of the day take their advice. After all, if you don’t, why have a coach? For those who are coached what I have to say should help with the discussions with your coach. Those of you on your own, please don’t simply take my word, do some research on your own, there is a mountain of advice out there.
The challenge with preparing for a summer of racing, even when things are normal, is there is no longer one recommended way. The Old School approach, which I still think has its place, as do many other coaches, is to first build endurance, aka Base Training, then start to build the strength and intensity of workouts in a Build Phase and finally training in a way that is specific to the racing you are anticipating.
There are coaches who now advocate an early development of speed and strength leaving the building of endurance to late spring and early summer and then finishing up with race-specific training. The exact timing of this depends of course on the date of your first A race. This alternative also can work nicely in climates like ours where it is cold and miserable this time of year and not conducive to long rides or runs.
There is a very good chance this spring will not be normal as you have not been doing exactly what you normally do through the winter, and all of 2020.
I am still somewhat old school, as regards to what to be doing on the back of a normal year. I do readily accept the idea that for someone who has been very consistent for a number of years with their training that abandoning the traditional approach is fine. Your aerobic engine will be in fine order and able to accept an early jump to intense workouts, with some appropriate build. What is an appropriate build depends on age, how active you have been over the offseason, and your history of injury. Ramping up the intensity too fast on a weak frame is inviting trouble.
This spring's training will also need to consider what - if any - races you have coming up before mid-summer. If you are signed up for an early-season race and you have been working towards that over the winter, then even with the uncertainty you should assume the best and keep going.
This is my personal plan for Cd’ A. I have been building back some endurance after an easy fall. Now I will be building in more intensity for a couple of months and then working on race-specific training. Based on what we heard recently from the CEO of Ironman, they are not going to postpone races until given no choice, which could be at very short notice. If that happens with Cd’ A I will back off the training to what I would call maintenance. How long that will last will depend on what might be next, but if I am peaking for Cd’ A at that point it will be at least a week, probably two. Then I will pick back up based on what’s next and how soon it is. Hopefully, that will mean one of my waitlist IM races. If the postponement happens sooner, it will be easier to adjust the plan and get in some recovery time from the level I have reached so far. One idea rattling around in my head is doing a solo IM if Cd’A gets canceled a week or two before the event. I might not run a full marathon but for sure do the swim and bike and at least 2 hrs of running (something I never do normally).
I wrote a little less than a year ago about taking advantage of the downtime to work on technique and pursue different sports. I wish this article about the benefits of ballet training in other sports had been published back then. One of the friends I have made in Hawaii spent her early career in ballet and is one of three women who have finished Ultraman in their 60’s.
Another sport that seems to work well for success in triathlon is ice hockey. A hockey semi-pro athlete won his first-time Ironman in the amateur ranks in Florida, 2003. Extending your cross-country skiing might be another good choice.
If you are thinking of sitting out another year, or only getting back to racing at the end of this season for sure you should be focused on technique and maintaining fitness for at least two or more months.
Depending on what happens with races through mid-summer another approach might work well. Another of my Ultraman friends takes a week or two off from aerobic exercise periodically throughout the year and focuses on strength and mobility. That might just be the right change of pace if things don’t get back to normal as fast as we would like (might be a good idea anyway).
There is a reason I cite Ultraman success as an indicator of extreme fitness. Developing the strength of all the core and supporting muscles to complete any triathlon is critical to a fast performance as the distance goes up it becomes critical to just finishing. Those of you who have done an IM know what happens when you try to run off the bike. Even if you get comfortable with that after the first few miles chances are you have experienced the dreaded shuffle that slows you down later on. You have to put that feeling off for much longer in three days of swimming cycling and running (double marathon) and the only way is to have strength and stamina in the stability muscles.
I have some family history that helps me put the past year and the next one in some perspective (I have, I know, talked about this elsewhere). On October 29, 1918, my paternal grandmother died of the flu in the last worldwide pandemic. I don’t know if my grandfather had returned from the trenches of WWI but probably not since the war ended November 11. What he went through in the last days of the war is hard to imagine. In those days a single father raising children was not often heard of. Children, when they lost their mum, were farmed out to relatives. Such was the case with my dad and his three sisters, one of them was collected by family from San Francisco to see her siblings only once after that (they were all born in England, as I was).
There are now more of those kinds of sad stories 100 years on. Perhaps even soldiers returning from our longest war to a family death from Covid. So, worrying and getting upset about racing and the lack thereof needs to be put in perspective. In all aspects of life, I think we should now be planning for a better time. It may take a bit longer than we would wish but we are at least on the right trajectory.
Coach Simon Butterworth works with athletes to develop both short-term and long-term objectives that work well within the context of the other things they have going on in their life. He encourages them to ask questions, look for clarification, and to challenge them where appropriate.
He holds credentials from:
Riley is a hard-working and dedicated athlete willing to put in the work to achieve his goals and is a pleasure to coach. He recently moved from Boston to Bend, Oregon. I started working with Riley in February of 2020 and began diagnosing his physiology from past training logs. As a coach, it is essential to go into the diagnosis process with an open mind, and with no preconceived interpretations of the athlete’s training.
One of the first things I noticed was a significant amount of high-intensity training on his calendar that began shortly after a long racing season. I also noticed that his power duration curve dropped significantly after 40 minutes, I thought this could be the result of the lack of volume on his calendar or other underlying issues. Testing would need to be completed in the coming weeks to better understand Riley's physiology.
During the first few weeks of working together in February of 2020, I placed several workouts on his calendar to establish training zones. They included a 2K swim time trial, functional threshold power (FTP) test, and a run test to set his run lactic threshold (LT). Additional testing was conducted to establish his functional reserve capacity (FRC) or the time he could spend above threshold. The following week Riley put a note in his calendar that said, “super tired and cranky. I slept through my alarm this morning and got the test swim in. ” The next day during a run workout, Riley wrote, “developed sharp knee pain during the run, had to stop after fifteen minutes." It became apparent that Riley’s body needed a break.
Riley made doctor appointments to determine the extent of the injury. We pulled runs off his calendar, dropped the intensity on the bike. However, after several weeks it was necessary to pull the plug on all training and take a break to allow Riley to completely recover from his injury. The good news was the doctors determined there were no major underlying issues with his knee. For any athlete, an injury is often difficult to accept, but for a motivated elite athlete, injury can be emotionally devastating. With the disrupted racing calendar in 2020 due to Covid-19, time was on our side, and Riley remained positive throughout his injury.
When Riley started training again after several weeks of rest, the primary focus was to improve fatigue resistance on the bike, work on run economy and swim when he could. Riley's swim workouts were limited to local lakes in the Boston area due to pool resections resulting from Covid-19. Even though Riley has a power to weight ratio of 4.6 W/kg, his fatigue resistance dropped 20% after 1k kilojoules of energy output. Several factors can contribute, and they include nutrition and muscle fatigue. With the injury only a few weeks behind us, this period became a positive because it gave us the time to build a considerable base keeping training between 56 -76% of FTP on the bike and HR zone two on the run.
After several months of low-intensity training, Riley’s power duration curve has flattened out to 3.5 hours. His fatigue resistance has improved from -20% after 1K kilojoules to -8%, and his run times are improving with long runs out to 15 miles. Riley is training hard for 70.3 St. George on May 1, 2021. He recently gained access to a 25-yard private pool to spend the next eight weeks working on his swim times.
Injury can be stressful for an athlete, but Riley’s positive attitude and willingness to turn a negative into a positive has made him a more resilient athlete.
Please join me in wishing Riley good luck in his 2021 racing season. I’m very proud to be called his coach and admire his Desire, Determination, and Discipline.
Coach George Epley's first commitment to an athlete is to optimize through customization. He strives to understand what makes you unique, and then finds the best way to fit those elements together to help you reach your full potential.
Coaching Credentials:
Athletes who come to triathlons from sports other than running can often see major benefits from improving small, but intricate parts of their running form. This includes cadence, stride length, overall speed, foot speed, and ground contact time. While the use of agility hurdles won’t necessarily make you faster, it can help you improve several aspects of running that relate to speed.
To get started, you will need to either purchase or make your own set of agility hurdles. See the photo below. And, if neither is an option, know that cones will work too, but you must run over the cone. The major difference with most substitutes is that you can "go around" the cone, not directly over. One of the main benefits of using ability hurdles is to get the leg lift over the hurdle.
In short, agility hurdles are ideal, but you can use any "item" about 6 inches high. But if you use a substitute, make sure to go "over" the item and not to the side. This will insure proper leg knee lift when going over the item.
Two examples of when and how to use agility hurdles are as follows:
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Example exercises you can do with agility hurdles:
*Remember to EASE into the drills.
*Begin with only doing one pass-through of each exercise.
Most distance athletes spend very little time doing true speed work and this drill will get you up on your toes more than you are used to. Failure to build into the full routine over several workouts will result in VERY sore calves.
For set up: Space your hurdles 3 feet apart. Place a cone 12 yards from the last hurdle. After each pass through the hurdles, accelerate for 3 yards past the last hurdle and then run out the remaining 12 yards. That is one set.
1. One Step between each hurdle. Run through 2x, once leading with the right foot, and then once leading with the left foot.
2. Two steps between each hurdle. Run through 2x, once leading with the right foot, and then once leading with the left foot.
3. Two foot Hop over each hurdle. The goal here is for quick ground contact time, NOT height over the hurdle. You should be quick, quick, quick.
4. Two foot hop over 3 hurdles and then run out of the remaining hurdles all the way to the cone.
5. Side Running. 2X facing right and 2X facing left: Turn perpendicular to the hurdle and run over sideways. DO NOT cross feet. MAKE SURE you remain 90 degrees to the hurdles. DO NOT face hips forward. If you find yourself facing forward, a good thing to focus on is to turn hips slightly MORE than 90 degrees. You don't have to accelerate after the last hurdle but DO run out to the cone.
6. Three steps in between each hurdle. Run through 2x, once leading with the right foot, and then once leading with the left foot.
This video is a good visual reference for some of the drills above.
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One final note about the drills above. The important point is to be QUICK off the ground. There is a tendency to want to "hop" high over the hurdle. While that may be useful for sprinters, jumpers, or power sports, for the purposes of these drills, focus on being quick.
With continued practice, you should begin to see improvements in your running form and speed.
At the end of the outgoing year and beginning of the next, tradition tells us to make commitments and plans to improve in the new year. It’s a new year, with new opportunities and new possibilities to make ourselves better.
Write down your goals.
Identify what you want to accomplish. Select a race, for example (even if we are not sure it’s going to happen) so that you have something on the calendar to drive your training program.
Identify who you want to be. Set a goal to rise to a challenge (e.g. by doing your high-intensity intervals), or gain more consistency (e.g. by starting on 90% of your workouts). “I’m the kind of person who gets things done…”. Putting your goals down on paper in a place where you can see them daily will help.
Set down a program.
Write down the steps you will take to achieve your goals. This list of items should have only those things that will result in the goal, not everything you can think of.
Stick with your program.
When events present challenges to your program, remember that every day is a new day, a chance to step back, just like you did at new years day, and recommit to your goals. Then, move forward.
While your annual goals guide your long-term actions, every new day is a new opportunity to renew and refresh and make one day’s progress toward your annual goal.
Onward.
Mental Skills Performance Coach Will Murray often hears triathletes saying that the sport is at least 50% mental and 50% physical, but I’ve come to notice that they spend very little (if any) time doing mental training. Fortunately, it’s easy and fast to train-up your mind to help you achieve your triathlon goals. I’ve been lucky enough to bring these mental conditioning techniques to first-time athletes and Olympians, kids and seniors, triathletes who want to finish the race and those who are gunning to win.
Will is a USA Triathlon Certified Coach and holds a Practitioner’s certificate with more than 100 hours of advanced training in Neuro-Lingustic Programming.
Creative Training Yields Great Results in this D3 Athlete Case Study about Karen Rice
We know that training in 2020 looked different for everyone, and as a coach, I had to reinvent the training game plan for each of the athletes I work with. What I tried to emphasise was: find the fun, do what makes you happy, keep moving and stay healthy. As we take a look at D3 athlete Karen Rice, she found a whole lot of opportunities that made her happy!
Karen is an athlete in the 40-45 age group. She ran a Boston Marathon qualifying time last December at 3:38! She is a lifelong athlete, and her background includes competitive college softball, she loves skiing, and finding her limitless limits in triathlon.
This past year through mountain biking and trail running she found her outlet. And why not? It’s a fantastic crossover for triathlon. As long as you don't crash, trip, or stumble!
Below is a 2 year review of Karen’s training PMC chart that reflects nice builds and valleys. The difference from PEAK CTL in 2019 to 2020 was an 18% gain! In this case study we are going to specifically look more closely at her last peak from October 2020 and how she made such incredible gains.
In the second image, you can see things a bit closer. Karen took a bit of a break for some personal time and when she returned to steady training decided to take time off from training on the roads. With the realization that all of her intended IRONMAN races in 2020 were not going to happen, she focused on having fun with trail runs and mountain biking.
As a coach, I notice that athletes can get frustrated by the transition between road to trail in that their pace or speed is so much slower on a trail, and they get deflated. But I remind them, the work, even just focusing to stay on task on a trail is significant! Trail running can be mentally and physically exhausting. Your focus and your small muscle groups, tendons and ligaments are worked! We noticed some of those changes with Karen’s training too.
In a 4 week block, she spent between 17, 27 , 23 and 19 hrs on training. Half running on trails and on her mountain biking and the other half on road running/cycling. She had just a few interval specific sessions in her training. There was no power meter to gauge effort during the mountain biking and so much of her training was by feel. She recovered very well and was able to repeat. She found herself sleeping over 12 hours on some nights! This is training similar to a single week long D3 camp, but she did it for four consecutive weeks! Due to restrictions of pool access, swimming was the limiter, but that didn’t hold her back.
We decided to allow the terrain she was using to determine the effort and outcome. Her gravel rides became recovery rides and whatever the trails delivered, that dictated things. We incorporated traditional ‘race’ pace and ‘tempo’ efforts, but Karen was able to decide when and where to apply those efforts and for how long depending on the terrain. I would often give her an amount of time for an RPE (for example: get 45 minutes of RPE 7-8 effort during the entire workout); and she would get it done on rolling or hilly terrain for as long as the terrain or she dictated the effort to be. So while it was mixed up throughout the ride or run it still achieved the workout objective.
By November, Karen was pretty excited and just knew she was the fittest she had ever been. We can see this growth in fitness from her training CTL as above, However, this does not reflect improvement in power or pace, as again most of her training was done off-road. And that brings me to an important point. By disconnecting from your training data, you become more in tune to your personal intensity levels and are able to adapt accordingly, even your nutrition. By letting go of the data, you can simply run where you can run and hike when you need to hike. Karen shared, “all the hiking helped my tissue resiliency.” And this strategy paid dividends for her.
Karen signed up for a 50-mile trail run and placed 6th overall! This was not a planned race for her, but a huge reward for the creative training she did and for having the fortitude to adapt to everything 2020 threw at her.
Coach Jim Hallberg believes that every one of us has the capacity to improve our efficiency, get stronger and run, bike or swim faster. Sure, it takes time, dedication and discipline but it’s possible. Working with an experienced coach can make sure that your efforts are targeted in the right areas to make sure you reach those goals!
Coach Jim's Credentials include:
For the 20 years we’ve lived in our current house, I’ve had a small but functional pain cave set up in a dark corner of the basement. Over the years, I’ve tinkered and added equipment but it has remained a small, unfinished space that I have logged many hours in--but I would never have called it “inviting”. Our garden-level basement is about one-third finished (with my home office) and the remaining two-thirds unfinished space was largely unorganized storage plus my little pain cave.
Enter Covid stay-at-home/safer-at-home orders and suddenly the whole family was skipping the gym and looking for home options for working out. There wasn’t much enthusiasm for my little space and we began making plans for an expanded workout area.
In early December, we purchased a cable/weight machine and I found some fun blue floor tiles on Amazon to put under it. This was to be the extent of the project but then my wife said, “It would be nice if we could do something to cover up the insulation”. What followed was the dictionary definition of mission creep! A two-week long project to clean out and partially finish a whole new pain cave in our basement.
I didn’t want to spend a ton of money and I definitely didn’t want to deal with having to pull permits so an actual finish was not in the plan. Instead, I designed and installed a more modular “partial” finish using galvanized roofing panels on most of the walls and soundboard/hardboard on the ceiling (and one wall). I left the concrete foundation walls and drain pipes exposed. The result is a space with a pretty industrial feel, but definitely highly functional and inviting. Thumbs up from the whole family!
The total cost of the project was just under $10 per square foot (not including the existing equipment--trainers, treadmill, Vasa bench, etc.). This is a fraction of the cost of a traditional basement finish.
A few tips from what I learned along the way.
The original pain cave (in a different area of our basement than the new pain cave).
THE NEW AND IMPROVED PAIN CAVE!
Coach Dave Sheanin's experience has shown him that athletes get the best results when they are both physically fit and technically excellent – yet it can be challenging to slow down enough to work on form. An impatient person can learn anything in a hurry, but they will learn incorrectly. As a swim coach the most common question he hears after a workout is “How many yards was that?”. His favorite answer is “Why does it matter?” Yes, volume certainly has it’s place in training, and so does intensity. But ultimately there is a point in all three disciplines where to get faster you need to improve your technique.
Coach Dave's Credentials Include:
