I’m suffocating. Somehow air will not fill my lungs. With each gasping attempt at swallowing oxygen it seems less enters. I have this strap wrapped around, no rather a boulder with its enormous size slowly compressing my chest as it collapses under its unfathomable weight.

The disorientation from the sudden onset dizziness could have been from the lack of oxygen or maybe I was unknowingly clocked in the head because remember, there’s a big boulder on my chest. Is this a panic attack? They do reside in the family history. Wait, what is that? I now hear a high-pitched whistling noise. A bird? Asthma? That’d be unusual for I have never experienced an asthma episode in my decades on this earth. I’m sure as shit suffocating.

“TOO. DAMN. HARD,” my pap bellows as he draws out each syllable with a sly grin. Expelled with a smugness where you know he’s right but at the same time you just want to smack him. My pap was a career steelworker. Born and raised in Weirton, WV, he started at a young age at the industrial giant known as Weirton Steel.

Later, he was transferred to an area we Hoosiers like to dub “da region” which is settled in the upper northwest corner of the state. Life is different in da region when compared to the rest of the state. The Crossroads of America is mostly rural rolling hills vast with farmland whereas da region is mostly flat and industrial, claiming our parcel as a suburb of Chicago.

Many years before I was born my pap realized he was on the wrong path, or maybe he simply did not like the path he was on. A man of the steel mill, over-weight, over-worked, under-slept, with a healthy smoking habit to boot.

He once told me he woke up one day and decided to start running. As he jetted off early that morning, with each stride came a huff and a puff and some pain. He couldn’t make it a quarter mile. Four decades of blue-collar life and a quarter mile later he’s walking back home.

The next day he went a little further. The next a little further. Fast forward a few years and he’s running marathons. A man in his near 60’s averaging 50 miles of running per week.

My aunt is also a marathon runner. My sister is a collegiate distance runner. My dad just ran his 30th marathon this spring at 58 years of age (started in his early 40’s). This spring, my step-mom qualified and ran in the Boston Marathon which was the final state in a conquest to complete a marathon in all 50 states. And then there’s me—who I would affectionately classify as “husky.”

Catching Your Breath

The cowboy is on the side of the road in Connecticut. No longer on his bike, rather hunched over on all fours. Heavy head bows to the earth, bathed in sweat and now tears. It’s all come to a screeching halt.

The weight of his self-chosen task, the negativity of all the experts behind their keyboards, and the undeniable damage and fatigue his body has endured the previous 29 days. James Lawrence, also known as the Iron Cowboy, is a triathlete. An Ironman many times over. A world record holding endurance athlete who has set out on a quest. 50 Ironmans. 50 states. 50 days.

Roughly 8 years prior his wife, Sunny, signed him up for a fun run—a 4 mile run that absolutely crushed him. That performance lead her to signing him up for a marathon, which he reluctantly completed.

He then found the bike and the rest has led to day 30 of 50—29 Ironman distance triathlons in the bag. He’s overcome logistical nightmares, hurricanes, a wreck in Tennessee because get this, he fell asleep on the bike. He fell asleep on his bike!

But here we are on day 30 on the side of the road, dismounted from the bike and conceding “I just don’t want to ride my bike anymore,” and assumed his position in the grass, head buried in calloused hands. It all has just become too damn hard.

I should stop. It’s the wetsuit. My wetsuit has instantaneously shrunk and is now entrapping my chest to the point of suffocation all the while being surrounded by a few hundred strangers. There’s a buoy over there.

I’ll just wade over and unzip my death trap. I’m just going to quit. It’s a beautiful Saturday morning in June. The air is crisp, on the brink of warm with the sun rising in the sky as I feel its sensation on my shoulders. While the weather and environment were co-operating the list of things going right ends there.

The night before, being the naïve newbie triathlete, I decided to make adjustments to my bike. I’m fairly proficient in mechanical matters, fixing what was once broken. Learning from books and manuals and applying that knowledge to my DIY repertoire but one thing I have not mastered is tightening a damn screw or bolt without stripping the sucker.

I did it to both of my children’s cribs, changing tables, and now I have done so irreparably to a stem bolt affixing my handlebars to my CAAD 8 Cannondale bike that I bought for a steal at $300, popping the bolt head right off. Go figure. I’ll just wake up at 4am so I can be at the Indy Speedway Lowe’s hardware store when it opened at 6am to, I dunno, buy some tools to remove said broken bolt.

I arrive at the race venue, forgetting of course the athlete parking pass my wife printed off the day before, and decided to scrap any attempt to rescue my stem. I tighten the other three stem bolts to the point of stripping and pray I don’t lose my handlebars at 30+ mph.

While coming to this conclusion I’ve also discovered that during my repair misadventure the night previous I had dropped my CO2 cartridges from my saddle bag. Every rider at one point or another will experience flats out on a ride. You swear loudly, live in denial for a moment, dismount your ride and proceed to fix the flat.

One of the steps in the repair of a flat is the use of a CO2 cartridge. Replace the tube and pop one of those in a tire and bam you’re back at it on the road. I now had a total of zero, the ones that escaped my bag now sitting idly in my garage 90 minutes away.

So, let’s add hoping I don’t nail a pothole at high speed only to blow out a tube to that pre-race prayer. Just put on your wetsuit and let it go, swimming has been going well for you in training up to this point.

Wanna live freely, why isn’t it so easy?
I should read a book, but I keep watching this TV
And I know this lifestyle doesn’t really feed me
I just tune out to the voice inside that’s speaking

All my little problems keep on building up and building up
All my good intentions just ain’t good enough to find the love
So I smoke until my lungs are full
Drink until I lose my cool
Apology’s my middle name and one day, I will change
But I’m okay with who I am today
I’m okay with who I, who I am today

– Macklemore, Intentions

Congratulations on Your Upcoming Pain and Struggle

In 1992, Scent of a Woman hit theatres earning $130 million+ despite a $31 million dollar budget. It was nominated for numerous Academy Awards, winning Best Performance by an actor.

That actor was Al Pacino. Portraying the retired Army Ranger Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a blind alcoholic and overall toxic individual. A young man named Charlie, who attends the local private preparatory Baird School, is hired to watch over Slade while his family leaves for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Charlie is unlike his other classmates. He comes from more modest means than his counterparts. He has to earn his way by his work and effort rather than his last name. Early in the movie Charlie and a fellow student with a well-established last name, George, witness a few classmates prank the school’s headmaster.

He and George are ordered to inform on their fellow classmates or face discipline themselves. Initially they both agree to stay quiet and are given the Thanksgiving break to re-examine their position of silence and in turn Charlie’s chances of acceptance to Harvard.

Enter Slade and his infinite wisdom and his own agenda. Slade leads Charlie on a coming-of-age adventure in nearby New York City. From the blind Slade zipping through the cobble-stone streets of Brooklyn in a Ferrari to the tango with a young and elegant stranger.

The two begin to learn each other and their respective places in life. Charlie uncertain and scared of his future should he remain silent, and Slade annoyed and fatigued with his past and his pre-meditated plan to end it all, not before advising Charlie to inform on his fellow classmates and move on to Harvard.

After a struggle and Charlie convincing Slade to continue on living they return from New York. They part and Charlie attends a formal inquiry back at school. He maintains his silence as George has cowered behind his last name and weasels out of responsibility.

Return Slade to Charlie’s side. He interrupts the formal proceeding brashly and passionately in defense of Charlie’s position. During this rousing speech he goes on to say the words that have been ingrained into my brain by my pap:

“Now I have come to the crossroads in my life. I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew. But I never took it. You know why? It was too damn hard. Now here’s Charlie. He’s come to the crossroads. He has chosen a path. It’s the right path. It’s a path made of principle—that leads to character.”

When I clicked submit on my registration back in December I was angry for a week. Not scared, f-ing pissed. I knew it as soon as I clicked submit and was redirected to the congratulations page. Congratulations on signing on for months of pain and friction and struggle, not to mention the enormous time commitment. Because of that anger I knew I had found the lifestyle alteration I had been wanting—no, needing.

Like my pap, I may not have been on the wrong path, I just knew I wasn’t fulfilled by the current path I was on. I’m an experienced strength coach at a Big Ten university. I’ve worked with a diverse collection of coaches and athletes in my career. Individuals who have succeeded and failed based on their drive, effort, and passion.

The same qualities that I have tried to pour into my own career. So, I knew when I signed up for this particular race I could play the story of the next 6+ months in my mind. There would be good days and inevitably bad days.

Early on I’ll be excited and motivated because the realness of the quest is too far into the future.As I go along my body will scream, my mind will be challenged, and my resolve, my discipline, and my “why” will be in question. There will be more days like one I encountered in April.

Getting Past the Feeling of Empty

Come on Chris, no more f-ing around! What up, heart? Why you pounding in my chest like a kick drum? I can feel you beat in my throat. This is a damn recovery swim, bro. This is effed. 6 more laps. I can’t do this anymore. 4 more laps. Why am I in this water? 2 more laps. I could just quit. Damn, another set, time to push off the wall again. Ugghhhh, eff this. No wait, you got this or just quit and be done.

Sound familiar? That was the long conversation in my head that particular training day in April. The burden of a restless mind, I guess. Similar long conversations had been piling up lately. So much so that later that day I texted the wife, apologizing to her if my stress, anxiety, and depression had been spilling onto her. Just me being “soft,” am I right?

Plodding around the Indiana University natatorium pondering quitting, bathed in depression and doubt all the while I catch a glimpse of a few Rio 2016 gold medalists training out of the corner of my foggy TYR goggles. I was a strength coach just feeling sorry for himself. I’ve always felt I had a high threshold for pain, strong in mind. A mind I believed I was able to always control. This was different.

Tyson Fury, World Champion Boxer, has been in the news recently for reasons good and bad but some have also touched on his battle with depression and purpose. He had this to say on the subject, “I didn’t have motivation to do it, zero motivation to do anything. Zero motivation to have a shave, zero to brush your teeth, even to have a shower…nothing.

I can’t tell you in words how I felt, how down I was. When you lose control of your own mind, you’re in a bad place, AND IT’S A SILENT KILLER. I got my tracksuit on in the morning and I was going to run 2 miles. I went about 200 yards and stopped. And I felt like I can’t run. I’ve run all my life; I’ve always been a very good runner, And I got 200 yards and I was totally gone. I could feel it in my belly. It wasn’t like a fat jelly; it was a solid brick. It was a horrible feeling.”

I’m a coach. I’m trained. I’m strong. I’m experienced. I entered into this business willingly. I always had a love for the behind-the-scenes nature of coaching. The feeling of an empty assembly hall still gets me every time I walk through to get to where I’m going. Every now and then I’ll go in there and just sit on the bench. Attendance = 1 in a 17k+ capacity arena.

You’re with these incredible young individuals when the cameras are off and no one is watching. The work that leads to the highlights you see on ESPN. If you’re worth a shit you’re in it for them, those that show up with a healthy combination of fear and dreams. The opportunity to live alongside these athletes, learn what makes them tick, smile, cry.

Those on the outside don’t see nor understand much of what makes up our/their normal routine. While we’re in it and working, I’m all over them. As soon as someone from the “outside” chimes in on what they think these kids go through I shut that shit down.

Strength coaches especially are often misunderstood, some of that being earned because of what outsiders see some do on tv and say in interviews. I could care less about the x’s and o’s of it all. That shit is pretty simple.

Sometimes when explaining what it is I believe we do here, I channel my inner Tom Smykowski from the classic movie Office Space, “Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to! I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can’t you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people!?”

Back to James Lawrence, the Iron Cowboy, an endurance world record holder and he’s on the side of the road in Connecticut because he just doesn’t want to be on his bike anymore. On his reflection of this moment of the 50.50.50 he had this to say:

“Massive struggle, massively trying to figure things out and incredible amounts of trauma. Day 30 I’m in Connecticut. I’m 80 miles into the bike ride and I literally pull off to the side of the road, I chuck my bike and I curl into a ball and I start crying.

And I had to start focusing on all the reasons and why’s I was out there. And by themselves one reason was not enough for me to get back on my bike and do 20 more Ironmans. But as I started going through the list of everything that I was doing and why I was doing it…its interesting because I would gather them all together and I’d focus on this (his hands in the shape of a round container) big ball and I would bring it in close to me and as soon as I focused on that I started to experience a rebirth.

Because now I was focusing on the very very next moment that I had control over. And everything that I was trying to accomplish and why I was there. And I call this process now looking back on it both a rebirth and putting on my uniform which was the alter ego and my uniform was those yellow sunglasses you seen me wear in some of my pictures.

And when I put those glasses on that’s when the Iron Cowboy comes out. And that dude is a bad bad man. When you discover that and how to flip that switch that’s when nothing gets in your way and that’s where you shift focus and you realize what your purpose is.

And I knew if I had the courage to get back on my bike and finish that day and then do the 20 more my life would be different. And this whole process was about 8 minutes. The whole thing from complete meltdown to breaking all of the purposes and whys down to the realization and the rebirth and getting back on and going.

It can happen that quick and we’re moments away every day from a decision that’s going to completely change our life. Every single moment of every single day has a massive impact on where you ultimately end up.

And so that was a huge turning point but it was all the decisions before and after that lead to that moment. If the journey you’re on is big enough, and is going to have enough impact and change your life and others people’s lives, one reason is not going to be big enough.”

You’re not going to grab on to the bouy, dude. You’re not going to flag down a kayaker nor are you going to take off your wetsuit. Lift your head out of the water and just breathe. Keep moving forward. It’s going to slow you down but it will not stop you.

Finish the swim and move on to the bike. Don’t worry that a mile into the ride your chain will pop off its ring during shifting. Finish the race, because it’s what you said you were going to do, and re-evaluate and adapt to what you have in front of you. Six months of training has lead to a miserable dress-rehearsal for Steelhead 70.3 but there’s three weeks left and you’ve snow-balled a huge amount of whys.

Facing the Crossroads

One thing Lietenant Colonel Frank Slade failed to mention about the crossroads is that it’s less of a big fork in the road and rather an uphill rocky path with many smooth paved exits along the way.

Comfort is all around us. I used to choose it on many of occasions. I do a little less now. I’m a good father but I want to be a great father to my kids. I’m a good coach but I want to be a great coach for my athletes. An example in which they can look up to and confide in because they know you’re keeping up your end of the deal.

You feel anxiety and depression not from comfort but from friction and action and you overcome. One stroke at a time, one step at a time, one breath at a time. David Goggins, former Navy Seal and ultra-endurance athlete, said it best, “without friction there is no growth.” Hard is living a life of comfort. Hard is living life unchallenged, knowing we once did that stuff when we were young.

Too damn hard is an excavation of self and purpose rather than just the intention to. Too damn hard is a life of voluntary friction. Friction that leads to growth. A path worthy only to those who choose it.

I had this vision of my death
Surrounded by people I love and respect
And a baby blue Cadillac hearse
Pulling me ’round the block that I rep
The greatest fear that I’ve ever kept is dying with regrets
Like was I just alive for success
Or did I leave a better life for the rest?
My greatest achievement isn’t the dollars
My greatest achievement isn’t the followers
My greatest achievement isn’t the accolades
My greatest achievement is my daughter
Waking up in the morning, being a father
Watching the light kiss her eyelids
Hearing her sing along to Chance
And being like, yeah, that’s my kid

– Macklemore, Excavate

The post Too Damn Hard appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Photography by Bev Childress of Fort Worth, Texas

Running involves more than just the legs and in fact, doing it regularly can lead to many injuries. These injuries may happen because of biomechanical irregularities, specifically, imbalanced hips, weak or tight muscles, or inactive glutes. Incorporating exercises to prevent injury is necessary for all runners.

When running, muscles in the hips, the glutes, and the core are used. When these areas are weak, then the runner’s form is also off. Some runners tend to favor one side of the body more than the other, while some use other muscles in order to make up for weak muscles. Both of these ways will lead to injuries due to overuse. Thus, doing exercises that strengthen weak muscles and stabilize any imbalance will lead to less injury.

Beyond that, those who incorporate injury prevention exercises in their routines perform better, running faster than those who do not exercise. This is because, according to experts with physiotherapy and exercises, the form is improved and they are running more effectively, meaning farther and faster.

Best Injury Prevention Exercises For Runners

These exercises can be done 2-3 times weekly to get the most out of them but to simply reduce injury risk, once a week is also enough. These exercises also do not require a gym membership, as you will simply use your body weight.

However, others looking to build their strength can add weights or resistance bands after they master these exercises.

1. Reverse Lunge

This exercise will make your core, glutes, quads, and calves stronger. As opposed to a squat, lunges will work your legs separately, so that it will also work on your stability.

First, you need to stand with the feet hip-wide apart. Take a step back with the right foot and go down into a lunge while keeping the left knee bent at a 90-degree angle and above the left ankle. It is important to also engage the core and keep the back flat with an upright posture. Take a step back to complete the rep, and then repeat with the left leg. Do 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps with each leg. To make the exercise harder, you can hold a dumbbell in each hand.

2. Single Leg Deadlift

This is one of the most valuable exercises runners can do. The hinging motion in this exercise will make the back, hips, glutes, and hamstrings stronger. Doing this single leg exercise will improve stability and remove any imbalance in the glutes and hips.

Stand with the feet hip-wide apart. Raise the left leg out backward and shift the weight to the right leg. Hinge at your hips in order to bend forward while stretching the leg behind you, until your body almost looks like a T. Make sure your back is flat and the abs are engaged. Pause and then go back to the starting position. Complete all the reps on one leg before switching legs. Aim for 2-3 sets or 10-12 reps each leg. For more complexity, hold a medicine ball or a kettlebell.

3. Bird Dog

This exercise improves balance while strengthening the core, back, and glutes. Go down on all fours, keeping in mind that your back should always be flat and the core should be engaged. Extend your right arm and the left leg straight out until they are parallel to the floor. Pause, then go back. Repeat with the left arm and right leg for one rep. Do 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps.

4. Side Plank

This variation of the plank will engage the glutes, core, hips, and back. Make sure you engage the abs by pulling in the navel towards the spine.

Lie on the right side then raise yourself up on the right forearm, keeping the elbow directly below the shoulder. Raise your hips up until only the feet and forearm are on the ground. Make sure your body is in a straight line from head to toe. Hold the position for 30 to 45 seconds and do 2-3 repetitions.

5. Clamshells

This exercise works out your adductor muscles, glutes, and hips.

Lie on one side with bent knees and the elbows, knees, hips, and feet stacked. You may prop the head in your hand or let it rest on your arm. Raise your knee up by rotating it and making sure to keep the feet together. Pause, then lower the knee back down to complete the rep. Do 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps each side, finishing one side before switching.

Ensure Your Running Vitality

Running can be a taxing exercise for the body, which is why it is vital to ensure the body is conditioned enough for it. Doing these exercises will keep the important muscles strong and stable so that you will be able to run faster than before and at the same time, avoid any common running-related injury.

The post Prevent Running Injuries with the Right Conditioning appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of running training plans out there. There are plans for every event from the 40-yard dash to ultramarathons, and all of them, to some degree, are effective.

You can choose from plans that include three days of running per week or six; plans that include track work, trail runs, barefoot sessions, and every imaginable type of cross-training and drills. There are almost more training plans than runners to follow them, and thanks to the nature of the digital age, most of them are available for free.

But this leads to more consternation than enlightenment for most runners. In a sea of options, which plan is right for you? It’s all fine and well for a coach to tell you to “just pick one and stick with it,” but sometimes that means investing six months of your life and not a few dollars into something that might blow up in your face (or your shins, knees, or hips).

Then there’s the part where life gets in the way. Helmuth von Moltke, a 19th century Prussian general, famously observed that “no plan survives contact with the enemy.”

Likewise, no training program survives first contact with cancelled babysitters, unexpected business trips, and minor injuries. The shiny new plan you started off with in the spring will be a tattered, marked-up, charred shell of itself by the time you toe the line in the fall, no matter how noble your intentions.

All of this means that the best running program is the one that’s built for you. It will adapt to your lifestyle, your goals, your previous experience, your injury history, and the dozens of other variables that make your training life unique. It will bend without breaking, have room for error and recovery, and allow you to do things for fun, without throwing the whole plan off the rails.

That all sounds like I just made a complicated task even more complicated, but this is something that I do for every runner who comes to me asking for a training plan.

Today I want to share the general principles I use to construct those plans, so you can use them to build your own, or adapt an existing plan to better fit between your goals and your life.

Work Backwards

Start by defining your start and end points. If you want to run a marathon (and you should), pick the event you’d like to do, and set that date as your endpoint.

This is the first of several reality checks: if you currently can’t run from your door to the car if it’s storming, and the marathon is in two months, pick a different marathon.

Your start point has two important elements: your current level of fitness, and the number of weeks until the endpoint. A lot of people ask me how long it would take me to train them for a marathon, but that answer is different for everyone.

If you’re already comfortable running half marathons in a reasonable time, I will probably feel good sending you a 12-week plan to get you to the finish line. If you’ve never run before and you’re 80lb overweight, we might take a couple years.

For most busy adults with a little running experience, who can currently trot out a 5k without undue suffering, I like to take about six months to build to a full marathon.

We can often get it done faster, but the purpose is to allow you to get to the starting line prepared, healthy, rested, and confident, and with plenty of slop time built into the overall plan for the curveballs life throws. That means if you’re eyeballing an October marathon, you should start putting your plan together in March, so you can roll in hot in April.

Once you’ve picked your race, study it and take notes. Learn about the course conditions, typical weather, and any hills you might encounter. These are the things you’ll need to simulate in your training in order to be as prepared as possible.

I can always tell the runners who’ve trained for hills from the ones who haven’t by how quickly I pass them once the climbing starts. Don’t be that guy.

The last step before I start building the training plan itself is to map out your life between your start and end dates. This will include travel (for work or pleasure), weddings, other races or events, birthdays, family gatherings, the works.

Your training shouldn’t make you an intractable jerk, so I’m not going to schedule a 10k time trial for the morning of your daughter’s birthday party.

Accumulated Fatigue

There are dozens of complex physiological mechanisms at work when you create a large change in your overall fitness.

But as an endurance coach, the one I pay the most attention to is accumulated fatigue. Going for a 10-mile run when your legs are fresh from four days of rest is a whole lot different than, say, going out for 10 miles in the evening after work, when you’ve already run three days this week.

Accumulated fatigue is a very handy concept if you have a full schedule and lots of training to get done. If I need 14 miles out of you on a given day, the training effect is similar if you run six in the morning and eight at night, as if you’d run all 14 together.

You’ll spend some additional time in the shower that day (pro-tip: hang two towels for yourself), but you’ll also be around to put the kids on the bus in the morning and make them dinner at night.

The plans that I write are, in essence, the careful manipulation of certain types and levels of fatigue to produce a desired physical adaptation.

I want to push your body enough to make it think that this is the new normal, but not so hard that it starts to break down. The variable I watch when creating the plan is overall volume, which can be measured in either distance or time.

It’s Not the Miles, It’s the Time

I prefer to mediate volume by time since there is such a huge variation in training paces and levels of difficulty.

If I ask you to go run five miles at your marathon pace +30sec, that’s a whole different animal than five miles of hill repeats or track intervals. An even better metric would be time in specific levels of exertion, but that gets too convoluted to track, for most people.

Tracking by time also allows me to create realistic workouts for the work week, and then vary the long runs (usually on a weekend) to modulate the overall volume.

If I write a workout that’s two hours long for a Tuesday night, chances are you won’t finish it. So I write workouts that you can reasonably accomplish in the time you have, and clean up loose ends if you can find time elsewhere.

All that said, writing your training plans according to time makes picking routes a little finicky. If I have you scheduled for a 90-minute long run at an easy pace, you have to figure out ahead of time what that easy pace is going to be, then how many miles you could cover in that time, then find a route that is that many miles. It’s a couple steps more work than just saying “go run 10 miles at an easy pace,” but I’ve found it produces more reliable outcomes.

Programming for time also allows you to adapt to circumstances like the weather. If you get a freakishly hot morning and you have 14 miles on the schedule, you’re likely to slog it out until it’s a death march, or else push yourself into a higher level of exertion than I prescribed.

Either way, the desired training stimulus is compromised. If I told you to go run for 120 minutes, as soon as that watch beeps you can knock it off.

Step Up, Step Back

Deload weeks are common in many training environments, and I find them particularly useful for runners.

In my own training, I’ve found a 4:1 ratio of build weeks to deload weeks to work pretty well. This pattern is also called a microcycle. I’ve also written programs that included 2:1 microcycles, or even 6:1 microcycles, based on the athlete’s schedule, needs, and natural tolerance for accumulated fatigue.

To go back to our 5k-to-marathon runner above, the long runs in their program might follow a pattern like this, in their first couple cycles:

There are two critical things happening here. First, the volume builds gradually, so it doesn’t overwhelm the runner. Second, the step-back (or deload) weeks allow them to recover physically and mentally.

That five-mile run in week 10 is going to feel a lot easier than the one in week three, and that’s an important piece of positive feedback. I think deload weeks are so important that I’m much more likely if the plan becomes compromised, to accelerate the increase in mileage, rather than eliminate a deload week.

Tangent to this concept is the taper. I like to taper runners about 10 days out from a half marathon, and 2-3 weeks out from a full marathon—shorter races require a week or less.

Theories abound on what a proper taper should include, but the general concept is to sharply reduce the overall weekly volume to allow your body to recover and consolidate the gains of your last training cycle.

The most important part of the taper is simply to not screw it up by trying to squeeze in a few last-chance workouts. When the taper comes, let off the throttle, no matter how nervous you are about the upcoming race.

Hit the Track

Crafting track workouts is an art unto itself, but the most important thing is that you’re doing them. The simple truth is that running slow will not teach you to run faster, and I’ve never met a runner who wasn’t interested in going faster.

No matter what distance your eventual goal race is, you’ll benefit from spending at least one day per week on the track.

In general, I keep track intervals to a mile (1600m, or four laps of a standard track) or less. Any more than that and they start to feel like drudgery, and frankly, I have a hard time counting past four while sucking wind at the same time.

The track is the place to work on your running mechanics and efficiency (also called running economy), increase cardiovascular capacity (VO2 max), and test new, more minimal footwear.

I adore doing track workouts in spikes, because they’re impossibly light, make me feel much faster than I probably am and most important, help strengthen my feet, calves, and ankles.

There are dozens of different ways to build a track workout. If you’re new to the track, to get your feet wet, I suggest picking a reasonable 5k goal time, then running sets of 200m repeats at just under that goal pace, with 50m recovery.

When you can do a dozen of them without your form starting to break down, move to 300m repeats with 100m recovery. Then move to 10 sets of 400m/100m, 9 sets of 600m/100m, and 8 sets of 800m/200m.

If you can finish that last workout at goal pace, go get your new 5k PR! In the meantime, every other distance you want to run just got easier.

Hit the Trails

This is one area where I sometimes get pushback from my road runners. For reasons I don’t quite understand, the risk-averse among them are intimidated by running trails, even while they continually suffer injuries pounding out road miles.

Trail running is one of the secret weapons in my training program arsenal. They teach your body to handle varying surfaces, relieve boredom, reconnect you with nature, and remind you that running is supposed to be fun, or even beautiful.

Regularly putting in an hour or so of trail running, once every week or so, will make you more resistant to injury, improve your stride and foot-strike mechanics, and make you a better person.

The trails are one area that I encourage athletes to leave their watches in the car, or at least in their back pocket. The pace you run on the trails matters very little. Go out there, find some flow, run happy, and let your body and nature do the work.

Most trails are too variable to stay in a certain physiological zone anyway, so just don’t sweat it. Run by feel. There’s no reason to ruin a perfectly good trail run with meaningless data.

Get Under a Barbell

There’s a whole lot of science out there to back this up, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Runners who start lifting weights with purpose and intensity get faster, last longer, and suffer fewer injuries.

It’s happened for every single athlete that I’ve managed to convince to get under a heavy barbell. Squats, deadlifts, cleans, loaded carries, and kettlebell work are all your friends, especially in the offseason.

Most runners are also tragically misinformed about lifting technique, so I encourage you to find a coach to teach you. Lift hard, lift heavy, and don’t sweat all that 1970s nonsense about weights making you slow. All it will make you is stronger, more resilient, and better looking.

Less Is More

You will not successfully run a half or full marathon without running quite a lot of miles in training.

That much is fact. But there are diminishing returns to just pounding out miles, and your risk of injury increases as the miles stack up. I have become a huge proponent of plans that include only 3-4 days a week of focused running, coupled with 2-3 days of rigorous cross-training.

This approach often results in longer training programs before a goal race, but I don’t view that as a drawback. Gradual progress is more sustainable, and less taxing psychologically and physically.

Speaking of diminishing returns, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests training efforts longer than about 2 ½ hours aren’t really worth it. Past that duration, you get very little in the way of adaptation, and your risk of repetitive stress injury goes way up.

With that in mind, your last few long runs in a marathon training program might not exceed 16 or 18 miles, depending on your pace. Don’t let that worry you on race day, though. The adrenaline of the event and the fresh legs from your taper weeks will give you the extra gas you need to make it to the finish.

All of this comes together in a plan that has you doing a long run on the weekend and at least one track workout during the week.

Your third run is a “wildcard,” and will be either trail, hills, or tempo, depending on your goal race and where we are in the overall program. I tend to use hills to build strength in the earlier portion of the program, and tempo (or race-pace) runs in the latter stages to build confidence running at speed.

Employ the Principles

Those are the general principles I use when I build plans for myself or my runners.

I encourage you to try them out for yourself in your next training cycle or discuss them with your coach. If you find all that overwhelming and would rather somebody else do the engineering for you, I’d be happy to work with you.

The post Behind the Scenes of Your Running Program appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Uttered in disgust on and off for the previous few decades, “LSD” is usually repeated in conversations vilifying its use. After which the exoneration of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) will be thrown out much like the sweat thrown from the brow of a southern Baptist preacher at one of those Midwestern “super” churches. His organ player will hit the crescendo and we are all expected to fall from our proverbial wheelchairs as we realise the sin of going too far for too long.

Yes, we have all been told that intensity is our salvation, and that going hard is both the way and the only way to godliness. But this argument of HIIT versus LSD has been waged for the previous century. It’s just now that the same confrontation might be occurring in the organisation that most recently helped popularise the “train till we puke” mentality.

CrossFit’s Message

This has been at least the perception with which myself and many others view CrossFit. When looking back, this shift is fairly easy to see, as far back as the early 2000s the majority of CrossFit’s training championed the benefits of anaerobic training and demonised anything that pertained to long slow distance. There was almost an apologetic feel when prescribing recovery work at an easy pace, backed frequently by statements to detour: “At CrossFit we are only interested in the first two waves of adaptive response (lactate threshold and VO2 max). The third comes at great cost to your overall physical capacity. (Aerobic)

“[W]e have all been told that intensity is our salvation, and that going hard is both the way and the only way to godliness.”

The message became clear, and not just in the worshipping of the anaerobic system, but the specific demonising of its closely regarded cousin. To be fair the era of the “fat burning zone” was at its peak then, and this likely influenced the conception of CrossFit to begin with, having to overwrite the sloths in crowded globo-gyms, naively sweating away on the elliptical while reading The Daily Mail.

With this followers began their embrace of efforts of the short-sucky nature, consuming unquestioningly everything the CrossFit main site recommended. This was in large part because application of intense exercise to off-the-couch populations or perpetual endurance junkies can radically change fitness levels. This change could have been why it looks like CrossFit has correlated endurance training negatively. The downsides pertaining to endurance training are even listed in the CrossFit Level 1 manual. Some apologists of CrossFit now claim indifference to LSD, but this is in total opposition to the basic description of CrossFit often used as a tagline: “Constantly varied, high intensity, functional movement.” A description that for all intents and purposes negates the action of the long and relatively slow.

The Rise of CrossFit Endurance

Whether due to financial motivation or inspired by the natural blend found in military requirements, CrossFit eventually answered the demand by their athletes wanting to participate in endurance events. Their answer was a controversial methodology headed by Brian MacKenzie in what is now known as CrossFit Endurance. Much like the endurance community’s battle of appealing to the “time-crunched” by the likes of cyclist and triathlete Chris Carmichael, the goal for CrossFit was to appeal to those with an ADD sporting mentality. “Don’t go longer, just go faster.” For the majority of recreational athletes this model works well. The problem lies in believing you can replace distance with intensity in world-class athletic preparation.

The CrossFit Games: A New Story

Enter the CrossFit Games. A few years ago we saw the emergence and need to develop the aerobic system to a higher level as the Games introduced a version of a sprint distance triathlon and then subsequently the half marathon row. Each year they upped the ante, coming closer to what some might actually consider a test of endurance.

“It seems from a marketing standpoint, that CrossFit, Inc. specifically denotes no difference in the training and preparation for life and the training and preparation for sport.”

This year we saw a forty-plus-minute ocean event, and a forty-plus-minute “Murph” variation executed in blistering heat. The tests are still well under the ninety minute mark – the usual marker for endurance as an energy system, as the aerobic system must be aided by additional hydration and glycogen – but the inclusion of longer events, more frequently brings the aerobic system into center focus, and puts this problem in front of many of the sports’ best.

Jason Khalipa famously employed the help of Chris Hinshaw, a former Ironman championship podium-finisher and all-around knowledgeable endurance coach. Aside from enabling Jason the ability to win a few of the “endurance” events as one of the more muscular and heavier athletes, Hinshaw has gone on to work with a large number of games competitors. In a recent interview, he spoke about his methodology and the successes he has had through the use of LSD and the building of the aerobic system in even four-time champion Rich Froning, a statement that went a little under the radar, especially considering CrossFit’s relationship with endurance training.

A Difference in Degree?

This conflict leads to another question – whether or not the sport and the methodology are different? It seems from a marketing standpoint, that CrossFit, Inc. specifically denotes no difference in the training and preparation for life and the training and preparation for sport. As they have mentioned multiple times in the idioms of Greg Glassman, “Your needs and the Olympic athlete’s differ by degree not kind.”

“Fitness evangelism is the death of progress. Those who know this will sit silently by in contempt of their peers as they feel the overwhelming power of belief dissuade others from truth.”

This philosophy would actually all but excuse the use of LSD training had not CrossFit spent the first decade of their existence disparaging its use. How and what will happen when this trend at the top level reaches other spectrums of CrossFit participants? My guess is that it will be a very positive thing. In part because of my love of the sport of CrossFit, my hope for its development, and because we have seen similar evolutions in CrossFit’s past.

When CrossFIt increased the frequency of heavy Olympic lifts, the need to develop the associated strength, coordination, and speed heavily influenced what pretty much any person and/or gym associated with the brand did concerning programming. This move increased the number of top-end Olympic weightlifting athletes and coaches involved in CrossFit, as well. It was so influential that it reinvigorated the weightlifting shoe industry and revived what looked to be a dying sport. Now most programs for even the everyday CrossFit participant piggyback weightlifting-specific programs with some added conditioning. What occurred at the top level affected those not only at the middle, but those who were just starting in the sport.

Change Is Coming

If Hinshaw’s success is any indication, then we should expect to see an explosion of endurance methodology being integrated into not only the training of the top athletes and their respective followers, but also showing up on the CrossFit main site. Like everything before it, the programming will be overdone at first. I imagine the best in the sport will set precedence by posting training metrics that others will try to match. In them doing so, we will see what we experienced with the Olympic lifts in CF, as we saw with a social media fueled snatch competition between high level games athletes prior to the Games. But eventually, the additional time spent developing the lift took away other abilities and the “arms race” neutralized as the athletes experienced a point of diminishing returns, which appeared to be just over the 135 kilo mark with the snatch.

“Admitting that something works at the highest level will surely influence what happens at the lowest.”

Change is upon those who follow the sport and the basic practice of CrossFit. It is seen even with hardline advocates of the short and the intense like Brian MacKenzie. I reached out to Brian to get his thoughts on the evolution of endurance training in CrossFit. I was mostly curious about a recent interview he had done with Barbell Shrugged, in which he described finding problems with the aerobic capacity in athletes. This can be seen as fluctuations in heart rate during a staged ramp test or a prolonged efficiency test. This is known to the endurance world as cardiac drift, for which the fix is the addition of volume or more LSD.

Brian has not reformed completely, as he and I both agree the application needs context. But he is recognizing the need for a more developed aerobic ability and the benefits that go along with it, especially at the level of athletes in the Games. The amount of skill work involved with those he coaches does, in fact, add up to a similar pattern we see when applying LSD to elite training – 70-80% of training volume will be less than 80% effort. This rule of thumb becomes very supportive of the intense effort required for greater fitness and happens to be very well researched.

End Fitness Evangelism

It seems now that the fight shouldn’t be what CrossFit is or what it isn’t, or what they have said and what was once believed. What it should be is what works and what doesn’t. Admitting that something works at the highest level will surely influence what happens at the lowest.

As Brian candidly proposed, the problem lies in choosing a side, in being a true believer, in not being open to ideas. Fitness evangelism is the death of progress. Those who know this will sit silently by in contempt of their peers as they feel the overwhelming power of belief dissuade others from truth.

We are all here for the same reason, to experience performance or an exhibition of it. The difference is in distilling the magic, in accounting for the differences between speaking in tongues, the proselytising by faith, and that of a reality-based approach that uses logic, not belief, to enhance a training effect.

More Like This:

• Run Further, But Hurt Less?
• Steady State Cardio Is Not Dumb (If You Do It Right)
• Impact Forces, Lazy Feet, and How Shoes Can Lead to Injury
• New on Breaking Muscle UK Today

References:

1. Seiler, S. and Tonnesson, E. “Intervals, Thresholds, and Long Slow Distance: The Role of Intensity and Duration in Endurance Training.” Sportscience, 13, 32-53. 2009.

Photo 1 courtesy of Robert Gonda (Athlete: Danielle Lee).

All other photos courtesy of Michael Blevins.

The post Endurance Is Not a Dirty Word appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Money Dilemma

These days, entering even a running race can cost upward of $60-100, especially if we are talking about some of the trendier runs. You also see obstacle races closer to the $150-200 price point, yet these races still sell out.

“With the average monthly fee being $160, it’s tough to justify paying for coaching when you are just starting out.”

As a coach, I hate seeing this because it means less disposable income available for individuals to purchase better or faster gear or pay for coaching. In 2012, Training Peaks sent a survey out to all its coaches. With just over 600 responses, these coaches reported the average cost to train with them as $162 per month. My fee is only $129. I refuse to raise my fees at this point in time because I believe it isn’t fair to that thirty percent of individuals who may not make anywhere close to $126,000 a year.

Save Money on Event Expenses

Typically, Ironman races cost anywhere from $500-1,000 to enter, and that doesn’t include the cost to travel to these races. Students probably can’t afford that, yet they are the future of endurance athletes.

To bring down event costs, consider racing locally or making up your own races with friends. Let’s be honest, that does sound fun, right? For my local athletes, I set aside a day to run a mock triathlon. I even drive them from the pool to the “transition”(normally their house). But they get to race.

Save Money on Gear Expenses

The cost of equipment can be steep, but if you spend wisely, it won’t be as much as you’d think. A regular road bike, basic wetsuit, and decent running shoes should only cost around $1,500-2,000. While that sounds like a lot, the most expensive purchase will be your bike, bike shoes, running shoes, and tri-suit. If you have all the other gear or get used gear then the overall cost comes down significantly.

ADD IT ALL UP: The Hidden Costs of Pursuing a Passion

Purchasing used gear or beginner gear will enable you to stretch your dollar, but I have an additional secret that most don’t ever consider. If you want to do a triathlon, consider participating with a friend or training partner in a relay and doing the swimming and running portions. If you compete this way, you get the experience of racing an endurance event without the need to invest in a bike.

Save Money on Coaching Expenses

Of course, the last expense involved with triathlon training is coaching. Coaching fees increase year after year. And while the endurance coaching market becomes saturated with mediocre coaches with no educational background, paying for a coach becomes much harder.

My fee is $129 per month for online coaching and higher for in-person coaching. I have restrained myself from raising these rates because I don’t want to exclude someone from the sport just because he or she can’t afford a coach. With the average monthly fee being $160, it’s tough to justify paying for coaching when you are just starting out.

RELATED: 5 Things to Ask Yourself Before Hiring a Coach

To save on a coach, look into group coaching or joining a bike club. Also look for a local masters swimming program. These are much cheaper ways to get coaching, though not as effective or personal as having your own coach. But they are still effective when it comes to what you are trying to achieve, which is participating in the sport of triathlon and bettering yourself and your performance.

These are just a few suggestions on how to bring down the price of endurance sports. But this is not a complete list. I am sure there are tons of nuggets I left out or don’t know about. How have you found ways to save money when it comes to running, swimming, and cycling? Post your ideas to the comments below.

References:

1. USA Triathlon, 2013 Membership Report, June 2014.

2. USA Triathlon, & TribeGroup, LLC. The Mind of the Triathlete Market Research Report. June 2014.

3. Training Peaks. Report on the State of Endurance Coaching, 2013.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Save Money on Endurance Events, Gear, and Coaching appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Don’t Try Anything New

While some athletes actually say don’t try anything new, I completely agree, but I always think that you end up trying something new anyway. But really don’t try something new at a big race. If what you were planning doesn’t go as planned, it can derail your mind and screw up the entire day. And this is all because you should have known better to not try something new on race day.

Don’t Go to A Race With No Plan

Racing plans have a purpose, just like new parents have a birthing plan. It’s a schedule of exactly how you want the day to go. A good racing plan has contingencies included regarding problems that may or may not occur on the event day.

If the plan is written down, you can continually rehearse and refine it so you know it by memory. We do this in the military by having a briefing before a mission so that everyone is on the same page. A coach should help develop your plan, but you should never go to a race without one. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure

Don’t Train Too Much

Don’t give in to the voices telling you to get in more training the week of your race because you don’t feel ready. I have to constantly remind my athletes to stay relaxed and convince them that the training has been accomplished and it will all play out on race day. It’s not that they aren’t actually ready, but they feel unready usually due to their friends or training partners continuing to train hard before the same or different race.

An athlete can be his or her own worst enemy, and doing tough workouts the week of your big race can completely ruin everything you have worked for. Tapering is a challenge for most athletes, so you’re not alone. But knowing you should try to focus on not training too much the week of your race is key. I constantly tell my athletes that it is better to be 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained. You can make up that 10% on race day, but once you are overtrained, it takes time to recover back to your normal self.

Don’t Think You Can Race Well Without Warming Up

Some athletes think they can just show up and do well. Wrong. You need to warm up if you expect to do well. I realize you may not be able to swim prior to your race, but bringing stretch cords is a way to mimic the swimming motion. If you feel that you don’t have time, doing some dynamic stretches ahead of time is a great and quick to get the blood moving.

Getting your muscles ready for race day can help get you great results. That means warming up when you are running anything from a 5km to a marathon-distance race. Your marathon warm up may not be long, but it’s better than feeling stiff, slow, and sluggish when you start. If you don’t warm up for your race, then you can expect crappy results.

Don’t Quit

You may be having of the worst days of your athletic career, but if you aren’t being carried off on a stretcher or your bike isn’t completely broken in half, there isn’t any real reason to quit a race early. Even for you professional athletes, all endurance events should be finished even if you have to walk to the finish.

You’d be surprised what you can learn about yourself, about others, and more when you take a different perspective on a day that you just want to quit. I am guilty of this and it wouldn’t be right of me if I didn’t say that I haven’t quit, because I have. At the event in question, I was sick with food poisoning and made it through the swim and bike, but I was just three miles into the run when I quit. Looking back I regret that decision. I wish I had stuck it out and to this day I still think about it.

So don’t just quit unless you have some serious reason as to why you can’t continue. It’s the tough days at your race that will help define your character and motivate you in the future to push through the temporary pain.

These are my essentials to not do prior to your race, but this can’t be an all-encompassing list, so I challenge you, the reader. I want you to comment or repost this article with some of your pre-race don’ts. I know I missed some, so let me know your thoughts.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post What Not to Do Before Your Triathlon Race appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

1. Wake Up Early

It’s been said that some of the most successful people wake up early. I feel like this is certainly true, but mostly due to the fact you are up before everyone else and can accomplish a lot. Waking up early also allows you to train early. Morning runs or swims are my favorite to give to athletes or to participate in myself. There is something refreshing about training in the morning that can invigorate the rest of your day.

2. Schedule Training Around Your Life

Family, work, friends, and life obligations get in the way of training, but you already knew that. To be able to stay successful at your sport or to prepare to enter the endurance sports, you must face one of the biggest challenges – finding balance between your training and the rest of your life. Because there are only so many hours within the day, you know that you have to get your training and work done at certain times. This in turn causes you to be more focused at the task at hand, leading you to get more done during the allotted time. So, getting your training in and fitting it into your schedule is another way to balance your life and increase productivity.

3. Work Smarter and Harder, But Not Longer

Long slow distance works when you have time, but we all feel like we never have time. When endurance athletes start training, having a good base is key to long-term success and injury prevention. That advice is vital for beginners to the sport, as well. I can’t stress enough how important endurance and aerobic sessions are when first getting into the sport, or even if you don’t have one or two years of solid training under your belt. However, for the rest of us, aerobic endurance sessions can detract from the long-term goal. If you are training for an Ironman or marathon, a long run has its part in your training. But I have seen that strength workouts such as hills and fartlek training build up the capacity for a longer race, while also giving you the mental strength needed for your event. So, instead of going out for a sixty-minute slow run, try going out for a forty-minute hilly run. It will do more for your training than running slowly if you just don’t have the time for a long run.

4. Training Partners Make a Difference

You are sitting at work and you have to finish a report, but you are rushing to do so since you have three other training partners waiting on you. A non-athlete may just call it a day and take the work home and finish it there. But because you have training partners, you have others who are counting on you to show up – and in turn, they are showing up since you are counting on them.

5. Forced Recovery Means More Time at Home

The last thing we learn in triathlon training that actually increases our productivity involves the recovery that athletes need to take. Some athletes take a recovery day on Sunday, Monday, or Friday. Whichever day works for you that would allow you a day off is the right day. The stress not only of training, but also of daily life can lead to serious burnout for anyone. Burnout in training can start to affect your work and your balance of life at home. Stress is constant in our lives, but exercise allows us to reduce it, but too much exercise stress breaks down the body and can make your life hell. If you are trying to recover form overuse injuries because you didn’t take time to rest and recover, your productivity is going to suffer. But on the flip side, taking a recovery day can help you increase productivity in other areas of your life.

As you can see, triathlon and endurance sports (we can even say exercise in general) can easily force you to be more productive. Getting out there and meeting new people could even lead to some big things in your career, but you won’t know until you lace up those shoes, pump up those tires, or put on some goggles and go out your front door.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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While the effects of static stretching on strength are well known, it is only recently that researchers have begun focusing on how it may impact endurance performance. Part of the reason strength and power decrease after static stretching is that it relaxes the muscles and associated tendons. This relaxation reduces the stretch response. Because a muscle and its tendons store energy when being rapidly stretched (often called a countermovement), reducing this stretch response weakens the athlete.

During a run, the relaxation of the muscle and tendons may similarly affect the phase in which you push off of the ground. As your foot makes contact with the ground, it stores energy, which it then uses to drive you into the air. This is why at fast speeds, running is more efficient than walking.

The primary difference in energy output when running is in ground contact time. In all sports that involve running, it’s well known that contact time with the ground limits performance. If the ability to push off the ground is reduced by stretching, then it stands to reason that static stretching might also hinder endurance performance, specifically by decreasing running economy. Essentially, running after static stretching will requires more energy.

The researchers in this study noted that running economy is likely affected by static stretching, but only at the start of endurance exercise, after which the body acclimates and economy improves. They looked at performance over a short run of one mile. The mile test was at a five percent uphill grade, which increased the strength component required to maintain a low contact time. The researchers measured more than just the time it took to complete the mile. If there was a difference in performance, they wanted to know why. So they also looked at ground contact time and also muscle activation via electromyography (EMG).

When the runners stretched, they were indeed slower at running the mile by a full thirteen seconds, which is quite a long time in a one-mile run. The researchers found that muscle activity and ground contact both increased after stretching, indicating it took more effort to complete the run which resulted in the slower times. The researchers did find that flexibility was greater after stretching, which came as no surprise.

This study demonstrated that static stretching does, in fact, reduce endurance performance, at least at the beginning of a run. The effect is probably caused by a reduction in running economy, and while it seems to fade over the course of a long run, it’s significant at the beginning of a run. Enough so that static stretching should be avoided even in long distance runners.

References:

1. Ryan Lowery, et. al., “Effects of Static Stretching on 1-Mile Uphill Run Performance,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 28(1), 2013.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Static Stretching Decreases Running Performance Too appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Our legs are very good at pushing down using the large quadriceps muscle group, calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus), and gluteal muscle groups. However, the muscles that perform the actions to pull backwards and up (hamstrings group, hip flexors, and anterior tibialis) are a lot weaker.

If we were to plot the force applied to the pedals as they rotate through a full circle, we get a diagram that looks like this:

The chart (produced on a Computrainer) shows the amount of torque applied to the rear wheel as the pedals rotate.

The top of the diagram represents the right pedal at top, the bottom is for the right pedal at the bottom and the three o’clock position is for the right pedal horizontal forwards. We can see that the maximum torque is applied when the pedals are nearing horizontal and the downward force from the legs is near right angles to the pedal crank. When the pedal has reached the bottom of the stroke, the large force to push down on the pedals has no benefit since at that point the pedals need to move backwards. If you have stronger legs that can push hard at the horizontal pedal position, a high torque can be applied and then more power can be transmitted to the wheels, and you go faster.

The advice to smoothly pedal in circles, makes the reasonable assertion that by deploying a range of muscle groups to apply force for the full pedal rotation (push down, pull back, pull up, push forwards) more energy can be applied – or more efficiently applied – than simply pushing the pedals down. From a qualitative perspective based on my own experience and that of those I coach, trying to apply a more circular pedalling pattern certainly seems to increase speed. Although I have been unable so far to find much independent research that would support the efficacy of a more circular pedalling style.

So, this year I thought I would put some numbers on this in a personal trial. My hypothesis is that if I could “improve” my pedal stroke, this could be shown by being more efficient at a fixed power and cadence. Over the next few weeks I will be trying to improve my pedal stroke expecting to see some greater efficiency. Initially, I analyzed my pedal stroke after a warm-up during a five-minute session holding 200 watts at a cadence of 90rpm. I then repeated this test while attempting to pedal in a more circular manner, and again at the end of a 45-minute interval set.

The first picture (above) was from my first session. It shows that my maximum pedal force is a little late, as the pedal has already passed the horizontal position. Both legs are similar, producing equal amounts of power, but the left leg has a slightly better ratio of peak to mean power (59 vs. 56). My end heart rate was 142 beats per minute.

This next picture is from my attempt at pedalling more effectively:

The diagram looks slightly more rounded and the peak to average torque ratios are slightly higher (58 vs. 62). I did find this required significant concentration and it did feel harder as muscles were recruited in a slightly different manner. This is also reflected in a higher heart rate.

The test at the end of the interval set was very similar to the first test.

It takes several thousands of repetitions to recruit muscles in a slightly different way and so I was not expecting an immediate improvement. While it may subjectively allow me to create more power out on the road, trying to pedal in an unnatural, more circular pattern than normal was actually less efficient for me as exhibited by the higher heart rate. It takes several thousand repetitions to acquire a new motor skill, and up to 91 days according to research by Philippa Lally, so I should only be expecting a natural improvement by practicing over a significant time. Thus, I will be practicing this over the next few weeks and report back in another article.

A lot more information can be obtained from a pedal stroke analysis and I will be looking at that next time. Have you experimented with your pedal stroke? What has your experience been? Post to the comments below.

References:

1. P. Lally, et al, “How are habits formed: Modeling habit formation in the real world,” European Journal of Social Psychology, (2009) 1009, 998-1009.

2. Stig Leirdal and Gertjan Ettema, “Pedaling Technique and Energy Cost in Cycling,” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, (April 2011) 43:4, 701-705

3. EF Coyle EF, et al, “Physiological and biomechanical factors associated with elite endurance cycling performance,” Med Sci Sports Exerc. (Jan 1991) 23(1):93-107.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Triathlons are one of the fastest growing sports out there. And we know this in part because you’ve been telling us you wish we had triathlon workouts! Well, guess what? The wait is over! Starting today we will be sharing with you a comprehensive, seven-day-per-week plan to prepare you for your first sprint-length triathlon. Programs to follow will focus on other lengths of triathlon events.

Our official triathlon workout programmer is expert coach Jeff Kline. Jeff has been working with runners and triathletes since 1999 and has made it his life’s mission to help people of all abilities achieve their goals. In addition to coaching, Jeff was an Ironman Lake Placid finisher, multiple 70.3 and Olympic distance finisher, and two-time Boston Marathon finisher.

Completing a triathlon takes strength, speed, endurance, and flexibility. Triathlon training is balanced, whole-body training. In other sports you may wind up building strength in some areas, while accruing weaknesses in others. Triathletes get body benefits from running, cycling, and swimming, and as a result are lean and fit from head to toe.

A great goal for a new triathlete is the sprint-distance event. If that’s your goal, then this comprehensive program is for you. This program is designed for the individual who has a busy life with a full-time job, a family, or other responsibilities. Just follow the workouts on a daily basis to get you to the starting line, fit, confident, and ready to have a successful and fun experience.

Requirements: You should be able to swim two lengths of the pool (50 yards), bike at least thirty minutes, and run or run/walk thirty minutes. The schedule consists of two to three workouts per week in each sport, as well as one to two days of strength training and core work. The maximum volume is around 5.5 hours and some of the easier weeks are around three hours.

With that in mind, completing this easy-to-follow training plan to your first sprint triathlon requires three simple things: passion, commitment, and consistency. Be healthy, train smart, and have fun!

Click Here to Start Our Free Triathlon Training Program

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Before going further, let’s define fatigue, since it’s an ambiguous term. Fatigue in the technical sense means something a bit different than how we might mean it in conversation. When we say fatigue, we often mean perceived exertion. We describe fatigue based on how it feels, because that’s usually the best measurement tool we have in training besides performance itself. To be precise, however, fatigue is defined by science as the point when you can no longer maintain a given output of force. For a lot of sports, maintaining force output is the name of the game. When fatigue sets in, you have to either slow down or crank out all your effort just to maintain your pace.

In this study, the researchers compared the effects of four conditions on cyclists:

• 80% of VO2 max at 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius)
• 100% of VO2 max at 100 degrees Fahrenheit
• 80% of VO2 max at 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius)
• 100% of VO2 max at 50 degrees Fahrenheit

These are fast paces, especially on a bike. In each condition, the participants rode to exhaustion while the researchers took their blood and their temperatures for analysis.

The researchers chose these four conditions due to the nature of fatigue. There are many proposed causes of fatigue, from neurological to mechanical. But the truth is, fatigue is a product of many factors. The researchers hoped to get an idea of what the fatigue-causing mechanisms might be in each of these conditions, particularly because most research to date looked at slightly less intense cardio.

Unsurprisingly, the intensity of the exercise seemed to be a more significant factor than the temperatures used in the study. Both of the 100% VO2 max groups tired faster than the 80% groups. The 100% groups all performed at about the same ability, regardless of the temperature. In the 80% groups, however, temperature was a significant factor. The 80% group that rode in the cool room performed better than the 80% group in the hot room. In fact, despite the same VO2 max in the lower intensity groups, the time to exhaustion was doubled in the cooler room. That’s a huge difference.

The higher intensity groups had more acidic blood at exhaustion, whereas the lower intensity groups had higher body temperatures at exhaustion. These two facts alone point to the different possible causes of fatigue. The researchers hypothesized that metabolic factors played a major role in fatigue at 100% VO2 max, while body temperature played the biggest role at 80% VO2 max.

The researchers didn’t examine neural sources of fatigue in this study, and they noted that their findings indicate neural factors probably played an additional unquantifiable role in the results. Although more study is needed, this study sheds some light on possible fatigue-reducing strategies at each of these intensities.

References:

1. Joel B. Mitchell, et. al., “Fatigue during high intensity endurance exercise: the interaction between metabolic factors and thermal stress,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000319

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post What Causes Fatigue In High-Intensity Endurance Sports? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

With the proliferation of mountains of carbon parts and other go-faster gear, a triathlete could end up very broke very fast if they tried to keep up in the arms race of chasing speed though spending. And it’s here that Jim Gourley’s book, Faster: Demystifying the Science of Triathlon Speed, steps in. Gourley has a pretty interesting background – he’s literally a rocket scientist. Since helping launch a satellite into space he’s gone on to write for many well-known triathlon magazines including Lava, Inside Triathlon and Triathlete. His new book is a look at the actual science involved in going faster and points out some of the biggest fallacies regarding bikes and expensive parts, run technique, and even overall pacing strategies, all based on scientific research of racers.

The book begins with a short review of some of the physics mentioned in the book, and I have to say I had nearly exhausted my entire understanding of the subject by page five. That left me wondering just how much more complicated it was going to get. Gourley’s an intelligent guy, and the companies involved in bike and wheel manufacture are using similar guys to build and market their products, so I knew it was going to get even more detailed. But I needn’t have worried – at no point did I feel overwhelmed by the science being discussed. One of the great signs of someone who truly understands their subject is their ability to explain it succinctly and simply. Gourley does that throughout this entire book, discussing concepts like different types of drag, coefficients of friction, and even power production and heat management.

Part 1: The Swim

After the short introduction chapter on basic science, the book starts where all races start – the swim. Gourley begins talking about concepts like drag and explains how various shapes make us more streamlined in the water. There are two massive standouts in this chapter for me. The first is that while a fish is 80% efficient moving through water, an elite swimmer is 61%, and a triathlete is only 44% efficient. What that says to me is that the biggest gains in swim speed for a triathlete will come from focusing on technique.

That ties into the second standout point for me – swimming the start of a race at over 85% of your maximum for that distance will lead to a blow out later on, irrespective of distance. Studies show that as intensity on the swim increases, not only does power output on the bike decrease, but that athletes who swam at 80-85% had an overall race time 1:45 faster over the course of a sprint triathlon. (750m swim, 20km ride, 5km run). Expanded over an Ironman distance event, that gap grows massively and could well be the difference between qualifying for Kona and just missing out. Gourley suggests the best way to achieve this reduction in effort is to drag off another swimmer. The best position is about one meter to the side of another swimmer in a position so that your extended hand comes level with their shoulder as it enters the water.

Part 2: The Bike

Any triathlete will salivate over the prospect of getting some insider science tips on how to go faster on the bike. In any race you will spend more time on the bike than on the other two portions. Improving your performance by a few percent here makes a bigger time difference than it will anywhere else. In a sport filled with carbon bits and pieces, deep rim and disc wheels, aerodynamic helmets, and any other piece of go-faster kit you can imagine, it’s natural that a newcomer wouldn’t know what is a worthwhile investment and what isn’t.

Gourley fixes that succinctly by naming the power meter as the single best piece of kit you can buy for your bike. His reason, as it is all through the book, is based on common sense. A bike alone is not fast. Without a human being pedalling, there would be no movement at all. So what makes a bike fast is the rider. He likens a bike on its own as being like a Ferrari without an engine – you are the engine. The bike typically makes up about 30% of the total aerodynamic resistance while moving, and less than 15% of the total mass of the rider-bike combination.

The reason that a power meter is so important then is that it allows you to precisely train at specific efforts as well as paces during a race. As far as value for money goes, the power meter is an item that can be used in every training session, as opposed to expensive carbon wheels you will only pull out for races. And speaking of those wheels how much of a saving can you expect to get from them?

Gourley’s basic rule for whether or not an item will be a worthy investment is if it saves you ten watts or more – measured, of course, by your power meter. A ten watt saving is worth up to a minute over the ride of an Olympic-distance race (25mi or 40km). As an example, he compares an aluminium bike to one decked out in all kinds of carbon goodness. The total weight saved is about 1.5kg or 3.2lbs. To get to the point where a ten-watt difference becomes apparent, you need to be riding up a hill above ten-percent gradient and producing in excess of 400 watts. (For the record, the winner of the ironman World Championships last year averaged 281 watts, and peaked at 645 watts during a move to the front of the pack and at the start of the climb to the bike turnaround. But that’s the best guy in the world, and on a road much less than a ten percent grade. So how much do you need a lighter bike versus a more powerful engine?)

Along with the discussion on power and how you should be using it all the time, the next biggest revelation regarding the bike was on aerodynamics. A rider on a time trial bike, who stays in the aerodynamic position, saves 15% effort over a rider in a typical road bike position. So after a power meter the second thing you need to buy is a good bike fitting session to ensure you can stay aero for the entire bike leg. After that a good aerodynamic helmet will save you far more than an expensive set of wheels. Yes, even more than an uber-sexy disc. And when you look at the costs involved, the wheels cost far more yet give far less benefit. Much better to spend money on a power meter, bike fit, and decent helmet in terms of speed for dollars.

Part 3: The Run

Finally, onto the run. In this section the biggest thing I learned was that the majority of forces I have to struggle with while running are not horizontal, despite the fact that I am running forwards. The majority of forces are vertical. Studies done on elite runners show that their vertical displacement is less than 7.5cm from the ground on each stride. That’s about three inches. Next time you go run, take a note of how high you step each time, and then realize that for every little bit higher you step, you are forced to deal with far more force on the return to earth. That means you’re going to tire your legs out more and more and that will increase the amount of contact time on the ground. And this final part is very important – the higher you go in the air, the more energy you need to expend landing, decelerating, accelerating, and taking off from the ground again.

The solution to this is to run at a cadence of 180-190 steps per minute. Studies on this show that it decreases contact time on the ground by 32%, reduces vertical force displacement by 76%, and increases leg stiffness (how efficiently your legs are working in terms of absorbing and then redirecting the energy to keep you moving forward) by 100%.

The takeaway from the entire book is that pacing becomes important from the moment you get in the water. Swim too fast and risk slower times on the bike and run. Ride too fast and risk tired legs on the run. The use of a power meter at all distances beyond a sprint race will help to ensure you leave T2 as fresh as possible.

Overall, I thought Faster was a great read. It’s given me a lot to think about in terms of my own training. I think that any triathlete who is either racing for a front of the pack finish or just working to be the best they can be would enjoy this book immensely. It puts complicated science in terms that are easy to understand and then links it back to purchasing decisions. This is probably the best thing about the entire book. Triathlon can be an expensive sport, and people often feel like they need the latest and greatest to compete, but that isn’t the case as the Gourley explains quite clearly via research and science. Not only that but he has a great sense of humour and takes the boringness out of what could be an incredibly dry topic.

“Faster: Demystifying the Science of Triathlon Speed” is available for $14.60 at Amazon.com.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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