Present Time Conscienceness

The title of this post was something I used to hear in school all the time. I guess I started to think about it this week when a friend/client of mine where talking about living in the present. Most people know what I am talking about because you hear others refer to this idea when it comes to life and how to approach daily living. But before we started talking I was evaluating my training approach and how my sessions where going this year to this point. What I noticed is that I was executing a basic week pretty religiously for about 4 weeks. I guess I didn't even realize it because I was taking one session at a time and trying to execute it to the best of my ability.

What I am getting at is that most are so pre-occupied with the end result that we forget about the journey. We almost rush training sessions just to get to the next one. I definately know I have done it and still do from time to time. The difference is I am aware of it now and make an effort to make every session count. It also helps to have a plan you believe in.

So I guess my point is that you are better off getting quality sessions in rather than rushing through the week to get quantity.

On another note, we have new kits for 2009. They are pretty sweet. There is a mock up on the website. http://www.trainwithpupose.us/ under the team link. We have a fit kit and are doing a fitting this sat. next tues. and thurs. If interested just let send me a message and I will give you details.

Train safe,

RT

Shedding Fatigue

This topic has been on my mind a lot lately. I guess it started about a week ago when I caught a cold and was just having a hard time getting out of bed, let alone getting out the door for training sessions. I started to get upset, thinking what the heck is going on, I am well rested and ready to get going building for next year. Finally, I happened to look at the date. I was exactly one month out from my last "A" race. Normally, one month after a HIM I am fine, but what I didn't take into account is the cumulative effect of 11 months of constant training. My season started last Jan. at Epic camp 1 IM, 3 HIM's, and 12+ other races.

So I decided to take a couple days off and figure out how to shed this fatigue I was obviously feeling. Alan Couzens does a great job explaining the science behind what I was feeling. http://alancouzens.blogspot.com/

I have a great advantage to seeing how athletes react to the triathlon off season. I made a conscience effort this year to ask all my patients how they are planning to recover from the long triathlon season. Seeing as most are in my office due to some kind of injury, the answers are very interesting.

The answer I hear the most.... "I am going to work on my run by training for a marathon..." Now keep in mind they are already in my office because the are already having some kind of biomechanical issue. (Let me back up a bit..... Most average age groupers end up walking in the marathon portion of the Ironman, so they feel that they need to work on their run, when in fact they are very inefficient in the swim and the bike. Instead of working on the run they should put their efforts in building an efficient swim, and proper bike pacing. But anyway, that is for another post.) Back to fatigue.... So the athlete has a long triathlon season, and they are going to jump right into training for a marathon or hard run training, never giving the body a chance to fully recover. Which is exactly why they are in my office at some point. I have even seen a few people repeat this pattern on a yearly basis.

Some advanced athletes can get away with this for a couple years, but at some point it is going to come crashing down. Fatigue accumulates, while not allowing you to gain that much fitness to make the breakthroughs you are looking for. And if you read Alan's blog you will see that he talks about fatigue being stripped away at a faster rate than a decline in fitness. Even though mentally we feel the need to feed our training obsession, sometimes the best training we can do for a break though 2009 is to rest.

Like a mentioned in a previous post, rest doesn't mean sitting on the couch doing nothing for 4 weeks. This year I am incorporating the same principles that apply to training after a huge "A" race. Active Recovery. But instead of it being for 7 to 10 days I am extending that time frame. The time is different for everyone. The difference between active recovery and doing nothing, is that you are still keeping your metabolism firing. You are allowing you tendons, muscles, and ligaments to maintain tone. But you aren't pushing hard enough to stress the system. One thing I look for after these sessions is that I feel energized after the training session and not tired. I always want to be left with the feeling of wanting to do more.

That's it for now. Hopefully, within the next month or so I can be more specific about protocol, and share some of the things that worked for me.

Newsletter

I am copying an article I did for the North Texas Peformance Coaching newsletter. If you are interested in being added to our mailing list, just send me a message and I will add you. I hope the newsletter becomes a source of good information for the multisport community.

Off Season

by Coach Ron

I tend to think the term "Off Season" is used frequently to mean time off to eat poorly and sit on the couch. If you have ever had a conversation with me about training, the word "consistency" comes up quite a bit. If you consistently do anything over a period of time, you are going to get more proficient in whatever the task. That also applies to endurance sports. Now there is something to be said for some time off, and I don't what to make this article about training philosophy, but rather offer some tips on how to approach the so called "Off Season".

1. Get an extra hour of sleep at night. During sleep we heal and recover. You can train as much as you want but if you aren't getting adequate sleep, you are not recovering, thus not absorbing your workouts. This leads to injury and mental fatigue.

2. Come up with a plan for 2009. Your annual training plan is important to keep you on track the entire year. If your plan is unclear then your training tends to follow an unorganized path. Train with purpose.

3. Focus on your limiters. Many of us tend to do what we are good at and enjoy doing the most, and neglect what we need to work on the most. The winter is a good time to focus on diet, strength training, biomechanics, etc.

4. Limit the intensity of your sessions. Now is the time to build the engine you are going to have to rely on throughout 2009. You can't build the engine if you are always out smacking it with your training partners.

I hope these tips help you this "Off Season". Enjoy this time of not having any race stress, but remember, what you do now is what you will be six months from now.

Train safe,

Ron

Blog title change

It has been awhile since I have been on my blog. No other reason that I have been pretty busy with business and training. I changed the title of this blog. I went with the tag line from my coaching business, since that is pretty much what I have been saying to myself on all my sessions lately. I have been really trying to cut out all the junk and focus on the workout I am doing. Not looking to future workouts or races, just keeping a present time conscience about training.

The year is going by fast and it has been pretty successful. I am getting ready for the 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater. I am healthy and looking forward to all my training sessions. All my athletes are having great years. I am in the process of designing some pretty sweet kits for the coaching bis. Proofs should be up on the website soon with the ability to order directionly from the web. www.trainwithpurpose.us

Thats it for now. Hopefully I will be able to get back writing on more useful info on multisport soon.

Cheers,
RT

Learning what it means to hurt....

It has been the topic with me and my clients for a couple months now. Hurt has a very different meaning to everyone. For some hurt may be a 9 hour IM or a 15 hour IM. It doesn't really matter the pace. It is about getting the most out of your body on any given day.

Some aren't in these races to push the limit. They are there to finish and enjoy the day. There is nothing wrong with that. I do it for some different reasons, I am not going into them here, but I do race to push myself as hard as I can. When you are able to hurt in a race and give it everything you got, you will never have a bad race. I decided to talk about this before giving a brief race report because some may think for me AZ was a sub par performance. Maybe because I didnt qualify for Kona, or I didn't break 10 hours, whatever the case racing IM is way bigger than that for me. All I know is that I "hurt" from the time the gun went off till I crossed the line. I gave it all I had on that day. For me that is a good day. It wasn't good enough to accomplish some goals I set for myself, but none the less, I can sleep at night because the effort was there.

The picture above is after the finish. It is just a reminder to myself that I did give it my all. That is definately my "Shelled face". It is easy to say after you recover a bit, that you could have got harder or faster. I just look at this picture and it reminds me that I did what my body could on that day.

Cheers,
Ron

Quick Note....

I will be back with a full race report from IMAZ. I am currectly struggling with a case of Girardia. So my thoughts are kinda scrambled right now. Started the medication yesterday so I should be back soon.

Later Ron

I take it back about Epic being mostly mental and not that physical.

It still was a very mental experience, but I am feeling what it did to my body on this rainy Texas morning. I finally got a good night sleep last night. I just haven't been sleeping well since I got back from NZ. Kinda glad I am getting rained out right now.
Well this week I have taken down the volume a bit and added mild spurts of intensity.

Everything was fine until I went to the track on Thurs. I had a great session but have now been so sore for two days. I was having this talk with my dad on the phone yesterday. I was telling him how my track session went. How surprisingly fast it was considering I have been doing long slow stuff. He was telling me how when he was running his life best, he was doing massive volume, and when done right he was getting faster on the track. He used to do alot of steady state stuff. Stuff like 4x5 mile intervals trying to hold even splits. 18x1 mile repeats. Just crazy stuff. Now he didn't do this over night, he bascially was building the physiology needed to complete these sessions over years of volume. I know some will tend to disagree, but without that volume(when I say volume I mean high volume on an individual basis, what that individual can absorb. Not just going out there and smacking it when you aren't ready.), and laying down the physiological infrastructure, how could be possibly be fast in an ultradistance event?

I truly believe this is why last year I used to fade around 10 mile mark of the run in a half Ironman. It wasn't because of improper pacing, poor nutrition, etc. It was because I could not hold that steady state pace for an extented period of time.

Now tieing this babble together. I think that I really got the benefit of epic and made some physiological changes. Two years ago I wouldn't have, epic would have just shelled me. One thing that I noticed from the guys at the front at Epic. They had the ability to hold a very high intensity for very long periods of time. I had the ability to do work for a long period of time.

Yes, I think for the average age grouper you can get away with learning how to race, training to race, learning technique, and have a very successful outcome. To get it to another level requires consistently doing work over an extented period of time. Well anyway, take it for what it is worth. Just my opinion. Time to get on the trainer for a couple hours.

Cheers,
RT