IN-Tuning

The following comes to you by way of our Endurance Corner Forum, where -- get this -- forum members actually behave! And they behave nicely! I wrote it after the general trend of one of our threads (on tracking training) started to take too big a technological turn (in my opinion). Enjoy. Or not. Just behave!

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This is in regards to another thread here about tracking training stress (on software such as WKO+) and some of what Gordo mentioned within that thread...

(First off, I know nothing of WKO+ or any other training and tracking software, and am in no way knocking the product{s}. In fact, I'm currently attempting to learn how to use them and determine whether it will help me as a coach, or help those I sherpa for.)

I would, however, like to say that it's important to build a rapport with your body, a relationship that transcends numbers or graphs or plans. This is a greatly underrated consideration of training, since feelings have generally not been a part of any serious exercise discussion. We're taught to "suck it up" or "HTFU." But being able to precisely gauge one's effort over a specified amount of time is an ability that is the hallmark of all top athletes. These types can run (and ride and swim) the razor's edge, knowing exactly how to deliver their effort and energy to extract the best from their bodies on any given day.

Use WKO+ and whatnot, but be sure to hone in where it matters most, out there on the race course and on the roads and trails and in the water...not the computer screen.

In this vein I'll often prescribe what I call a "caveman day" or a feeling-based training bout, where the athlete is advised to get in tune with his or her inner frequencies, by ditching all electronic gadgetry and going "au naturel." The athlete can go as long as he or she'd like or as slow or fast as he or she might care to. And most the time, when I talk about the session afterward, all I hear is how great it was to run uninhibited. (Cavemen didn't have bikes, alas.)

Here's what the current Ironman World Champ, Chris McCormack, has to say about all this...

When I begin training for any distance in triathlon, the primary thing I am looking for is an ability to feel my way through the speed that I am focused on. I have never used a heart rate monitor and I never use power on the bike. I understand the science behind these tools and they are just that "tools," but I have always found that the key to incremental improvement in this sport is learning to trust your own pace and exertion across the three disciplines. If you ask me to go hard I know what hard is. Do I need to give you an exact number in power to justify that it was hard? No I don't. I can tell you by how it feels. What tends to happen with people who begin to become addicted to these gadgets and numbers is that they lose their ability to trust their own pace and perceived exertion and only trust what this "tool" tells them. As far as I am concerned this is a recipe for disaster. You lose your instinctive tunes that are your lifeline to racing. Training is about teaching yourself to understand your boundaries and then slowly pushing those boundaries up. You need to know how to feel those and where they are!

Now don't get me (or Macca) wrong here; I think tracking of effort and subsequent reaction is imperative and the tools we have today help us do this, no question about it. Moreover, we're no longer cavemen (or at least you aren't). But the most important analysis tool (and the one that will help you succeed the most) is the one between your ears, so long as it's engaged and in tune. And despite all our advances, plenty of scientists believe, as do I, that the cavemen used their brains more than we do today. Google is making us dumb!

Finally, recall that the reason we test our numbers is to update our "grades," to see where we're "at." So if you're comfortable using tests and software and other modern inventions to alter specific training "zones," then by all means use them, and often. These tools, of course, can be surprisingly simple or as complex as you care to make them. The Kenyon runners don't have personal computers, except those between their sunburned ears.

Keep in mind that ultimately we're on our own in competition, reliant on the clarity of communication between mind and body. This "inner coach" is the voice within that knows exactly what we need to do at any point in time to reach our potential. Whether it tells us to back off or pick it up, in retrospect it was always the right thing to do. As we learn to trust the inner coach over time, the clearer its voice will become.

The video below, featuring my main scientific go-to-guy, Dr. Allen Lim, touches on this important subject...

Caveman Guidelines

1) Eat lots of plants and animals
2) Drink plenty of water
3) Avoid toxic shit
4) Move at a conversational pace often (even when solo)
5) Sprint periodically
6) Lift heavy things; recruit as many muscles as possible
7) Get adequate sleep
8) Play often. Laugh. Smile.
9) Get adequate sunlight
10) Follow the sun's lead
11) Avoid mistakes
12) Engage your brain
13) Stand more often
14) Ask life's big mysteries
15) Digitally disconnect frequently
16) Find yourself in the forest
17) Carry a big stick

Yet More eBay

Please, will the winning bidder (and all others who bid) contact me about coaching. I currently have a "Kona Coaching eBay Special" going on RIGHT NOW and bidding starts at the low, low price of $2,500 per month* Protect your investment!!!

*Winning bidders are to pay ALL service fees, in full, in advance of any services rendered. Fees are for the time-frame between the time of your winning bid and the Hawaii Ironman but may extend beyond this period, as deemed necessary by my Nigerian bank accounts. Please note that no one loses their bidding war in this auction, as I will not refuse any offer above the opening bid amount! Phone calls, e-mails or any sort of person to person communication is not included as part of my normal coaching fees and will cost extra. Hand's-on training is also not provided. Nor is any sort of financial advice dispensed.

C Different

Just a couple weeks ago two of my already-Kona-qualified athletes asked if they could participate in Ironman Texas, which takes place tomorrow down in The Woodlands, near Houston---that hot, sticky place I had the fortune of visiting merely a month or so ago.

"Um, let me think about it for a sec-- NO. Besides, you'll never be able to enter this late. You two ought to know that! And I don't think they offer eBay slots!" (They didn't buy their way in to either this race or Kona, parenthetically.)

"You mean you want to go participate by watching, right?"

"No. We would like to guide a blind athlete and maybe bring a little more awareness to the C-different Foundation."

"Well then, of course."

Good luck to Patricia, Michelle and Sonja! Enjoy the experience.

(Patricia Walsh, race number 81)

An e-mail to a couple Young Guns I Guide

Below is a slightly modified/clarified e-mail I wrote yesterday morning to a couple young male pros I coach, before a hill repeat workout they were to do with one another. Each has been beset by illness a few times this year and each time sickness has struck we've taken a step back from our eventual summit attempt. It's important to learn and know how to balance the risk/benefit equation in life or any other endeavor, like for example, training. Take risks but be sure they'll be rewarding, whether they work out or not.

As evident by the photo (circa 1988) of my "cool guy" helmetless Olympic-level days, I too was once young and could rarely get the balance right. I only wish I knew the older, wiser version of myself back then! Nice hair, dude.

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...One of the hardest aspects in this sport is repeating workouts. Day in, day out. Week in, week out. Month in, month out. Year in, year out. Filling in all the future blank spots is the only truth that will have you closest to your ultimate potential. It ain't much more confusing than that. And the only way to speed the process is to remain consistent by removing the risks that might otherwise put even minor or temporary stops to such consistency. Too many inexperienced Ironman pros train too hard and then miss subsequent training due to illness and/or injury (i.e., their stupidity). Be calm and patient and wise. Enact, don't react. Take the edge off the hardest efforts (those above LT effort, and you should know exactly what this effort is, as it's the foundation of fitness, regardless of those who claim "there is no LT"...that matters not) and instead replace them with longer intervals or training bouts, rather than intensities that don't quite relate to Ironman competition. Specificity! The risks are way too high and the gains are minimal when compared to remaining just under this threshold intensity. So rope in any competitive craziness and then spend your time speeding recovery, not just speeding the workouts themselves.

Let me know how it goes. Be sure XXXX knows to ease into the first couple and measure the hill so he can use the same layout each time: the same start point, the same finish point. Power meters are great and all, but sometimes a clock and a predetermined distance work just as well. After all, time and competition (especially race day placing) are our ultimate measures, not output. And sometimes such simplicity is ideal.

The recovery between efforts is a light spin back down each time, with a minute of light spinning on the flatter terrain if the downhill doesn't enable you to move your legs while going down it. The first minute or two of each subsequent effort should feel like the worst of it, before your body gets the message again. That's okay; the goal isn't an hour straight at just below LT. It's an hour or so in all, with a total higher output by the end thanks to the rest between each effort. If you didn't rest you might sustain 350 watts for an hour of straight climbing. But by breaking this into interval format you can do a slightly higher output, say 360 watts. Ultimately, your body only remembers and responds to the work portion, not the amount of rest between. And that's why intervals work so well and why you're doing them, even though you have more available training time than the average Joe and could instead just pile in another tempo effort.

I'll tell you what...I've CC'd XXXX to simplify this, as all of it applies to the both of you. The way to rush your fitness isn't only to train harder; it's to hasten recovery. So rope this afternoon's efforts in enough to get through all ten or so in the same time/power/HR range and we'll then pile in another big day tomorrow, albeit more Ironman-like (huge ride, quick transition run, and the lake swim before or after it). We'll then use Thursday and Friday as recovery days before another big weekend.

Same as it ever was, ideally without interruption.

-Coach

Origins

It's been a long while since I've written anything here. Alas, the negative comments I tend to receive after doing so have left me wondering why I publish anything. The world is full of cynics and skeptics and unhappy people, but I never thought that the sport of triathlon was too. I have the utmost confidence in how---and why---I coach, more than most multisport coaches have in themselves I think, but it's hard to always feel like it's worth being on the defense. My skin is too thin for the Internet I fear, as I would never treat others how I'm often accosted, whether face-to-face or anonymously in electronic form. I can only imagine that those who direct such negativity and hatred at others are dissatisfied with their own circumstances and choices in life. I feel for them, if this is indeed the case.

I'm currently in Las Vegas, Nevada, having just watched the Leadman 250 Triathlon (and Angela and Jordan win convincingly). What an event! I'd venture to call it a race, but the only race I witnessed on Saturday was the one pitting each competitor against him or herself and the demons swirling inside each of their noggins. The course and the conditions were quite honestly the toughest I've ever seen in this sport, and it took me back to our sport's incredible origins. Somehow the sport has sadly evolved away from its roots, often opting for generic cookie-cutter courses plastered with rampant over-commercialization, multiple loops and slower and softer competitors. I miss when the hardest of athletes were the only ones crazy enough to enter or finish events, like the old Bakersfield Triathlon or the short-lived Redding (CA) Triathlon, where ropes were needed to assist participants on much of the "run" course. Thankfully, the Leadman 250 takes over where these types of events left off.

We shouldn't fear new or different events, or different ways of thinking, but as a society (and as a sport) it seems the trajectory we've decided to take. I find it depressing in a way, but thank goodness there will always be a few hardened folks to help incorporate some cross-fiber friction against the grain. And I'll be right there with them.

Ang: Distrust the value of things that come easily.

More eBay

I don't know what to say.

eBay