“Life got in the way.”

How many times have we used that excuse because we didn’t race the way we wanted to? Maybe we had a DNF or maybe even a DNS. We blame life for it. Let’s face it, you didn’t do the work. You made up flimsy excuses to skip a workout and as a result, you had an awful race. As a single woman, I have a lot of good excuses to get out of just about any situation, but it doesn’t help my ultimate goals.

“Life got in the way.”

How many times have we used that excuse because we didn’t race the way we wanted to? Maybe we had a DNF or maybe even a DNS. We blame life for it. Let’s face it, you didn’t do the work. You made up flimsy excuses to skip a workout and as a result, you had an awful race. As a single woman, I have a lot of good excuses to get out of just about any situation, but it doesn’t help my ultimate goals.

Find Your Weakness

I am going to ask you to look inside and see what you are avoiding or afraid of, but first, we need to find the weakness. Review your training data and find where you have been purposefully avoiding doing the work for the past 3-5 months.

Let me remind you that the avoidance of running won’t make your running better or stronger. Did you really want to walk the whole run portion of your triathlon? I can almost hear the time slipping away from you and your race happiness fleeting.

With enough scrutiny, you may find what type of workout you avoid most. Don’t forget to include your pre and post-race nutrition, rest, and recovery since they are critical to training and overall success.

Do you binge drink and eat a lot of high garbage calories after a training session or beforehand? Do you get enough sleep? How is your training/racing hydration and nutrition? There is no point in doing all the physical work to undo it all with poor nutrition and lack of adequate sleep.

Look Within and Make a Plan

Armed with some new information you have uncovered, I’m asking you to look inside yourself and see what is actually holding you back. A large percentage of the population sabotage themselves for fear of success, the fear of being good and some have just lost motivation. There is a multitude of reasons why but be honest with yourself. Let’s make some changes to achieve the goals we set for ourselves.

The last step in this journey is to make a plan. If the sport is what you truly love and want to give it your all, I suggest spending the first part of the offseason training for the love of the sport and leave the Garmin at home.

Just enjoy the feeling again. Find a new coach, join a masters swim club, take up trail running to reignite the passions. If you are feeling that your blockage is you that is keeping you from your goals, find a source of motivation.

There are several motivational biography books from incredible authors, find a mentor, or a training/accountability buddy. Reach out to me and I will be that buddy! As always, if you think you need the assistance of a professional to help you dig deeper please do so, thankfully that is something we can all do without the stigma attached.

The post Set Yourself Up for Your Best Race Season Yet appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I regretted my decision almost immediately after committing to five weeks of long-distance rowing; however, reflecting on the training experience and the half marathon itself, I learned important things about myself as an athlete and coach that I hope will benefit other strength athletes.

A basic tenant of Crossfit training is to “keep workouts short and intense.” Why, then, did I sign up for a full/half marathon row modeled off the recent Games event? Great question.

I regretted my decision almost immediately after committing to five weeks of long-distance rowing; however, reflecting on the training experience and the half marathon itself, I learned important things about myself as an athlete and coach that I hope will benefit other strength athletes.

Rowing Marathon Background

My Crossfit gym set up a rowing seminar with a collegiate rower turned college rowing coach to prep our small crew for five weeks of endurance training and the grand finale—21,098 meters for the half and 42,196 meters for the full marathon. During the seminar, we went over rowing technique, stroke rates, pacing, and other strategies for our marathon effort.

Over those five weeks, we had two rowing workouts, one done in interval style and one higher-volume day. It was also suggested that those participating in the row attend the long aerobic workout programmed for the rest of the gym each week. In total, we’d train high-volume aerobic work three times per week for four weeks, with the fifth and final training week including only one long conditioning piece as a taper before the main event.

Five Weeks of Conditioning

Part of my motivation for signing up for the marathon row was my deep disdain for all things endurance; I knew that I would never do something like this unless I had a coach, a plan, and a group to suffer alongside me.

Each Sunday, our coach sent out an email with the week’s upcoming conditioning pieces. The emails filled me with dread and foreboding. I spent the morning coaching my own training clients through their workouts with the thought of an hour spent on the rower hanging over my head like a dark and ominous storm cloud. When the time came to hop on the rower and knock out that day’s workout, I did so begrudgingly.

The surprising thing about long-distance rowing is that it didn’t suck after a little while. As long as I focused on the screen while matching my stroke rate and pace to the programming for that day, I fell into a steady rhythm of pull-catch, pull-catch, without really thinking about it. It’s as though I became part of the erg.

I guess that’s what runners are talking about when they try to convince me that running is relaxing. While I didn’t find the rowing workouts exactly relaxing, I did feel accomplished after finishing each piece. Something about dripping with sweat makes you feel like you did something with your time.

Lessons from Training

In the kick-off seminar, we established that form would be everything. Think about it you’re on the erg for about 1.5-2 hours to row a half marathon or 3-4 hours for the full. That’s 90 minutes on the low end up to 240 minutes on the high end. Even pulling a low stroke rate of 22 s/m means you’re doing 1,980 reps (best case) or 5,280 reps (worst case). That’s a lot of freaking repetitions and not a lot of room for sloppy movement.

While training, I focused intently on making each pull as close to “perfect” or as ideal as possible given the demands of the piece. That meant maintaining an upright posture (“chest up”) and pulling in the correct order: drive with your legs, lean back into hip extension, finish with the arms, and return to the catch leading with your hands. The hardest part was having the patience to return the handle before breaking at the hips and knees to enter the catch position.

The two different styles of training pieces (intervals and volume work) provided an awesome opportunity to learn the difference between stroke and pace and how each affected my performance on the rower.

For those not familiar, your stroke rate is shown on the erg display as “__s/m” or strokes per minute. Generally, shorter people have to pull more strokes to cover the same distance as a taller person pulling fewer strokes. A lower stroke rate also means you can preserve more energy across long distances because you’re not pulling as frequently.

Pace, on the other hand, indirectly measures the power of each individual pull. A faster pace means that pull “moved” your boat further, aka, you put more power into that stroke than someone pulling at a slower pace. (Yes, you can set the rower to display your wattage, which directly measures power, but that’s pretty irrelevant without context.)

Long story short, a stronger leg drive helped me pull a faster pace, while faster hands and less rest on the catch helped me pull a higher stroke rate. I came to think of it as pace:legs and stroke:arms. If my pace fell below my target, I’d put more power into driving with my legs. If my stroke rate didn’t match the day’s programming, I would adjust the speed with which I returned the handle after completing my pull.

This may sound weird, but I think learning to have faster hands on the pull and catch carried over to my barbell clean because I noticed in recent strength workouts that my elbow speed under the bar has improved. Totally anecdotal, of course, but it’s fun to notice carry over to other facets of Crossfit.

The final lesson that distance training taught me is how nice it feels to not get beat up in a workout. None of our training pieces left me gasping on the floor. None were designed for us to row at anywhere approaching our maximum effort (in fact, most of the pieces were written as 5-15 seconds under your estimated 2,000-meter pace).

During the five weeks of training, I continued strength training but dropped metcons to only once per week. Despite fewer Crossfit-style metcons, my endurance and aerobic capacity seemed to increase over the five weeks of conditioning, and my recovery improved.

As a strength coach, I appreciate the programming that gets results without destroying an athlete. As an athlete, I appreciated training that didn’t destroy me!

Preparing for Half Marathon Day

Okay, I already admitted to strongly disliking cardio, so it should come as no surprise that I signed up for the half marathon instead of the full. On game day, I’d start in the first heat and be followed by a partner, who would row the second half of the marathon. Our gym had nine teams splitting the marathon in half and five or six athletes commit to the full marathon. So at least I wasn’t the craziest one in the room that day.

The day before the race, I made sure I had everything I could possibly need during the event: the clothes I was going to wear to the gym, the clothes I’d wear on the rower, the squeeze top water bottle I’d sip on throughout the race, the BCAAs and snacks to fuel my row, and my (fully charged) Bluetooth headphones. Everything was ready to go the day before.

I made sure to hydrate throughout the entire day before the race and get to sleep around 10 pm the night before so that I could get a full 8-9 hours of sleep.

Going into the race, I had a plan of what stroke rate and pace I wanted to hold, when I would increase both, and when I was going to sip water. Some of the rowers planned to eat gummy bears, gels, or other quick sugars during the event, but I was going to rely solely on BCAAs and an electrolyte powder dissolved in my squeeze-top water bottle. I did pack a kid’s applesauce pouch just in case I needed more energy during the half marathon but didn’t plan to use it.

Competition Day

The morning of the full/half marathon, I woke up only an hour beforehand, knowing I wouldn’t need time to eat or do much of anything before heading to the gym. I wanted to save all of my energy for the 21,098-meter effort. I also didn’t want to feel sick on the rower. I’d save eating for afterward.

My game plan for the race was to start at around 20-22 s/m and ramp up my stroke rate every 3,000 meters until I settled into 26 s/m. I also wanted to hold between 2:20 and 2:30 pace for the duration of the row until going all-out on the final 500 meters.

To stay hydrated and energized, I would sip on electrolyte water every ten minutes for the first hour, then every five minutes in the second hour. To do so, I practiced rowing with one arm so that I could drink water without stopping. My goal was to complete the half marathon without a single break, mostly because I didn’t want to restart the erg’s fan and waste energy in the process.

The one nice thing about rowing a half marathon? You don’t have to warm up. You just sit down and start rowing—slowly at first, then picking up your pace as your body adjusts to the work you’re doing. My game plan was pretty conservative. I could have held a faster pace and finished sooner. (I won’t be testing that theory any time soon, though!)

The worst thing about rowing a half marathon? Well, there were two major negatives, if I’m being honest. First, it was boring as all heck. And secondly, my butt went numb after a while and was sore for days afterward. Bike shorts would have been nice. One of the athletes in my heat sat on an ab mat, which I thought was brilliant.

One of the weirdest parts of the whole experience was that the passage of time seemed to become meaningless. After the first nine minutes, I was feeling great. Around the thirty-minute mark, all I could think about was how much farther I had to go. I started playing games in my head. “Two minutes until your next water break” or “1,000 meters until you pick up your pace.” To say my train of thought became repetitive would be an understatement.

The best thing during the row was seeing the meter countdown drop from five digits (21,098m) to four digits—hello, 9,999 meters to go! I was just over halfway through the piece and wanted to start hauling ass to finish faster, but I had to remember to stick to my pacing because I still had about fifty minutes of rowing ahead of me.

You know how I said I didn’t plan to eat anything while I was on the rower? Just in case, I had placed a squeeze pack of applesauce on the floor next to my erg. Around 1.5 hours, I felt a headache come on, so I went for the applesauce. Total life saver! The sugar cured my headache instantly, and I felt like I had more energy for the final 5,000 meters.

My plan was to open up the throttle around the 1,500-meter mark, so I picked up my pace to a 2:15 split, which I held until 500m. From there, all bets were off. All I could think was “whatever you pull on the screen, that’s how much time until you can get off this thing!” I finished the final 500 meters with a 2:08 pace.

My quads felt like they were full of cement for the entire two minutes and ten seconds of all-out rowing. But I did it!

The Aftermath

Immediately following the half marathon, I felt strangely fine. I wasn’t especially tired or sore. I was thinking I should have pushed myself harder. Considering this was my first attempt at a distance event, I was happy with my finish time, though.

About twenty minutes after completing the half marathon, my legs started to feel like lead, and I realized how sore my butt had gotten from sitting on the plastic seat for nearly two hours. That was probably the worst part, and the soreness lasted a couple days.

About one hour after the event, I started feeling light-headed and generally exhausted. I knew I needed to eat, but I wasn’t hungry. I had expected to feel ravenous after the event. As it turns out, adrenaline from endurance events can suppress your body’s hunger signals. When you’re putting so much energy and effort into “just keep moving” for two hours, your body shuts down less essential functions, like your digestive system. Despite being in a severe calorie deficit from the two-hour workout, I felt no hunger whatsoever.

The rest of the day, I was simply tired. Napping didn’t help. I still felt tired the next day but experienced almost no soreness other than my butt from the plastic seat. If I had run a half marathon my body would’ve been destroyed.

Lessons from the Half Marathon Row

Upon reflection, I think long-distance events can be a valuable experience for Crossfitters because we’re not used to doing endurance training. Crossfit’s “keep workouts short and intense” philosophy is great for building strong, powerful athletes, but if we’re to continue claiming that the sport of fitness produces the “fittest people on earth,” we should all undertake some sort of endurance training at some point in our Crossfit careers.

The post Lessons Learned from Rowing a Half Marathon appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It was during this run, and an event a few weeks prior, that I realized my limiting factor was running. I can swing from monkey bars, carry sandbags (I am an Ultimate Sandbag Master Trainer, after all), use Atlas rocks, and nail rope climbs, but when it came to running, especially uphill, I realized that my basic muscle endurance over these longer distances was really quite poor.

What Makes Running Improve?

In the olden days, as my kids like to call them, I had run many half-marathons and 10k’s, not with any fantastic times, but usually with relative ease and comfort. Not these days. I have a generally good level of fitness and train myself in multiple heart rate zones during my workouts. Variance has translated into having a fairly good 5k race—I can trot out a 25 min run with little to no training purely because of my existing fitness, but when faced with longer runs I really don’t have any endurance.

How do I get back to building up my endurance while maintaining my strength? How do I get good at running again?

Here are some things I know to be true:

• Consistency is key. I have to be running on a regular basis to see improvements. Trotting out a 5k once a week will not help me improve. As a result, I have set myself a goal of three runs a week, with one of those being a long, slow run.
• Alternate intensities. I work mainly in the anaerobic zone when I do my HIIT workouts and other times towards 80-90% of my max heart rate, so this means I get out of breath quickly. Working in lower intensity zones is very beneficial.
• It gets better. Starting to run again can be deflating because it feels so hard, your breathing patterns are out of whack, and your body hates you. Cardiovascular conditioning improves, your breathing will regulate, and your runs will become more enjoyable. Trust me, I know. I have been there, and I intend to get back there again.

Born to Run

Typically, runners use their mouth to breathe to get the maximum amount of oxygen into their system, but I also know that if I use my mouth to breathe then I am working too hard. Today I tried running only using nose breathing. By breathing only through my nose, and keeping my breathing at a comfortable level, I was unable to run fast. As soon as I picked up the pace, I automatically started to breathe through my mouth. This indicates that something in my training needs to change.

Lately, one of my favorite books is Born To Run by Christopher McDougall. This book is a fascinating read about a hidden tribe of runners in Mexico called the Tarahumara. This group runs an average 60 miles per day even into their late 60’s, more than most mortal humans will ever run. It may seem crazy to imagine this, but we know that these exceptional runners only breathe in through their nose, although some use a technique of exhaling through a partially open mouth.

The biochemical benefits of the Tarahumara show that the runners are better able to utilize nasal nitric oxide, have lower oxygen levels (similar to the effects of altitude training), and have more CO2 in their lungs. The Tarahumara also breathe more slowly and deeply at rest than a non-runner. I am not trying to be a Tarahumara runner, but I do like the idea of experimenting with my training to see if this type of breathing will provide me with some benefits of improved endurance.

Take It Slow

For the record, my 10k was terrible today. I felt great, my pace was slow, and I ran double my usual distance, but my heart rate was averaging at 157 bpm. I know that by doing these long, slow runs, my heart rate will become more efficient and the runs will eventually become easier. That’s the plan, anyway. I would love to hear about your experiences while you attempt to improve your running efficiency and what techniques you have adopted in your training.

Coach Amanda Thebe is Breaking Muscle’s Expert Coach in Residence. If you are a woman who is over 40 years old and want Coach Thebe to cover a topic you are interested in, or would like her to address a specific issue you may have, email helpme@breakingmuscle.com. Put Coach Thebe in the subject line, and let us know what you need in your training.

The post How I Learned to Run Again appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Making the most of this time begins with adopting the right mental framework. This is why I prefer to talk in the terms of two phases:

1. The transition phase
2. The preparation phase

Discussing the off-season in these terms better prepares your mind for this time of year and helps you remain focused amid holiday distractions. Let’s take a look at each phase.

The Transition Phase

There comes a time every year where you are D.O.N.E., done. Your big events are in the books. Mentally and physically you are toast. You’re simply ready for a break. When you get to this point, it’s time to recharge and head into the transition phase.

What this phase looks like varies greatly from person to person. Typically you will step away from any specific training of any kind. You can be active if you want to, but there is no structure or obligation to do so.

How long your transition period lasts depends on a lot of things. I recommend somewhere between 1-6 weeks of time off, but the exact amount of time you need depends on:

• Past training volume
• Your personality
• How well you manage stress
• Family obligations

Ultimately you need to experiment to find your sweet spot. Personally, I try to stick to about 2-3 weeks. By the way, don’t forget to spend some time with your family during this period. They probably miss you.

The Preparation Phase

My favorite time of year comes next – the preparation phase. This is where the magic happens. Once your mind and body are back in the game, you can lay the foundation for a top-notch season.

A good training plan always moves from less specific to more specific as the season progresses. For example, if you’re training for an obstacle race, you’d move from building base mileage to workouts that incorporate obstacles or simulate race day scenarios.

The fun part of this phase is figuring out how to best prepare for the more specific workouts down the pipe. Here are a few suggestions.

#1: Keep it in Perspective – Have Fun

This bit of advice is the most crucial. You may be moving into more focused training, but remember to keep it in perspective. Most of us aren’t making a living doing this, so we might as well enjoy it, right? Have your key, non-negotiable workouts in place, keep your total training volume in check, but be flexible and relax, too. The sacrifices of race season will come all too soon.

#2: Address Injuries, Weaknesses, and Imbalances

The average endurance athlete is prone to overuse injuries. To some degree, it’s the nature of the beast. When you regularly exercise in a linear fashion (think just forward motion) your body makes specific compensations, which help you get better at your sport – temporarily. These compensations can also cause you to develop muscle imbalances and loss of mobility if you don’t stay on top of them. Left unchecked, they will lead to bigger injuries. For this reason, I advocate year-round strength and mobility sessions that focus on your weak areas.

The preparation period is the perfect time to evaluate any nagging issues you had throughout the past season. Fix these issues now so you don’t have to deal with them mid-season. I recommend working with a good coach or physical therapist to dig in and figure out the best plan of action. Be sure to ask these professionals for a plan to use during your preparation phase. A balanced, durable athlete will continue to improve year upon year.

#3: Establish or Redefine Your Limiters

The off-season is also a great time to have an honest look at what is holding you back, and adjust your focus accordingly. For example, let’s say you are a triathlete who raced well all season. In the past, you worked hard to get your bike up to snuff. This year, you look at your results and notice that the swim was consistently keeping you off the podium.

“The preparation period is the perfect time to evaluate any nagging issues you had throughout the past season. Fix these issues now so you don’t have to deal with them mid-season.”

Dig into that. Are your swim mechanics your limiter? Is it swim fitness? Do you lack speed? Endurance? Figure it out. Put your limiters on paper. Then focus on them, with a trusted friend or a coach if required. Once you’ve done that, test and retest throughout the preparation period as you strive to improve on these elements.

#4: Build Your Engine

There are two main training components that impact the success of your in-season training. Working on these components in the off-season helps you build a good engine later.

• Endurance: Working on endurance is like laying a firm foundation. The more you develop your aerobic system, the more efficiently you process energy. The more efficiently you process energy, the faster you can go before going anaerobic. Plus, you will recover faster and get more from your higher intensity workouts. A good base sets you up for all this. Spend time on it during your preparation phase.
• Threshold Output: There are many ways to skin the cat, but raising your output at lactic threshold gives you more work capacity to play with at the end of the day. For example, aerobic efforts are typically performed within a specific range (percentage) of your lactic threshold intensity. The higher your threshold, the higher your aerobic output will be. Work it good.

#5: Adjust Your Nutrition

Don’t try to maintain your race weight throughout transition and preparation. Gain some weight and take some stress off your body. It is often difficult to push the envelope of improving performance while cutting calories. That’s not to say it’s impossible – just difficult.

At the same time, don’t go too crazy. I’d recommend you stay within 2-4 percent of your peak race composition. Extra pounds take hard work to get off. Do yourself a favor and don’t make it harder than it has to be if you can help it.

Ready to crush your off-season? Good. Get after it.

You’ll also enjoy:

• Everybody Wants to Be a Lion
• Endurance Athletes: Add Strength to Up Your Game
• The 3 Most Common Endurance Sport Injuries and How to Treat Them
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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In a recent Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research paper, investigators examined the role of muscle size in running performance and injury prevention.

What the research says:

• Bone health was significantly improved in subjects with more lean muscle.
• Researchers recommended resistance training and plyometrics for runners.

Background

Endurance sports have a high degree of repetitive action that can wear on the joints and bones of the athletes. Running in particular is well known for this effect, due to the constant impact with the ground.

The flip side of this phenomenon is that the impact associated with running also improves bone density. The Journal study was interested in the interplay between muscle size, bone quality, and body composition in distance runners.

Study Design

36 Division I male and female cross country runners were examined for this study. Their stress fracture histories were taken, and their best performances were measured after the season was over. These values were compared to several measures taken in the lab. Bone density and composition were analyzed, as well as total lean mass, muscle size in the leg, and fat mass.

Results

The researchers discovered numerous physical correlations that we would expect. For example, more bodyweight corresponded with more lean muscle mass, and lean mass was positively correlated with improvements in bone mineral density and composition in both men and women. However, the number of correlations that yielded improvements in performance were few.

RELATED: Weight Training Basics for Runners

The researchers also noted the difference between genders. In the women, none of the studied variables correlated to performance. For the male runners, there were a few interesting relations between the data. Higher fat mass was positively correlated with performance in 10k races, and a higher percentage of body fat correlated to better performance in 5k races. More body fat wasn’t correlated with higher bodyweight in this study.

Recommendations

The results showed that bone health was significantly improved by larger and stronger muscles. Further, it takes physical preparation to achieve the level of the participants in the study, which is benefited by strength training. To that end, the researchers of this study recommended resistance training and plyometrics for runners.

LEARN MORE: Finding Your Ideal Weight: How Getting Leaner Kills Performance

References:

1. Erica Roelofs, et. al., “Muscle Size, Quality, and Body Composition: Characteristics of Division I Cross-Country Runners,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2014, DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000729

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Body Composition and Bone Density Trends in Distance Runners appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The off-season should be a time of less intensity, but for many triathletes it becomes another layer of stress. It can be hard after a year of intense training to adjust to the off-season mindset.

To all you athletes, you are done. You should be congratulating yourself on all the accomplishments you achieved this year. Maybe you didn’t actually cross all your goals off your list, but now that you don’t have any events on your immediate radar, it’s still time to sit back and relax.

But don’t think that being in the off-season means you entirely stop what you are doing. That is far from the truth.

Defining the Off-Season

The off-season means different things to different people, but the most widely used approach for endurance athletes is making it a time to work on their weakest sport. That approach isn’t necessarily wrong, but it doesn’t mean that if you are a weak swimmer you need to spend the next three months only swimming.

RELATED: 5 Essential Points of Preparation for Your Triathlon Swim

Working on your weakest sport means you need to get more specific training to improve on what has been bogging you down on race day. Maybe in running you have the endurance, but your form goes to crap halfway through your race. That would mean in the off-season you need to work on drills and strength, building your body to better meet the demands of the sport.

“Cross-training means finding sports that give you a mental break from swim/bike/run, but still benefit those sports and keep you in shape.”

Conversely, when I tell my athletes that it’s the off-season and they need to chill out with the intensity, it does not mean to be lazy and do nothing. It means to enjoy the time you’ve earned, but to move your intensity into something positive.

What athletes fail to recognize at times is that cross training in the off-season can have many more benefits than constantly working sport-specific skills. Cross training could include sports like rock climbing (which actually helps with swimming), cross-country skiing, or even water polo. Cross-training means finding sports that give you a mental break from swim/bike/run, but still benefit those sports and keep you in shape.

Off-Season Blues

My athletes don’t experience this because when off-season approaches for them, because I plant a seed about what to look for in the future. You see athletes get down more if they don’t have a support system. But if they have a family and friends they can surround themselves with, then you don’t see the off-season blues. So make sure your off-season includes the company and support of others.

“The family takes a big hit when training begins, so actively thanking them can do wonders for a relationship…. this could mean helping plan a meal, cooking dinner, or finding a nice place for a vacation.”

Off-Season Length

At minimum, your off-season should last two to three weeks, but how long it lasts depends on the date of your first A-race of the upcoming season. If athletes don’t have an A-race coming up, then the off-season may be slightly longer. But we still have some structured training thrown in, which is why I prefer to call the off-season a transition period.

Other Activities to Consider

Running races, cyclocross, hiking, yoga, and swim training (especially if the children are part of a swim team) are all possibilities. But my favorite activity for my athletes is to sit down and think about their season, their goals, and why they love the sport.

The other big activity I make a point to include is to connect back with their spouses, partners, or loved ones. The family takes a big hit when training begins, so actively thanking them can do wonders for a relationship. I sometimes send thank you cards to these loved ones because of how supportive they are. This could mean helping plan a meal, cooking dinner, or finding a nice place for a vacation. This list goes on and it’s an important activity to include in your off-season transition period.

RELATED: Speed Racer: How to Get Faster at Running, Cycling, and Swimming

Final Thoughts

An athlete needs to remember that the off-season is not just about letting the body recover. The off-season is about letting your mind take a break from the beat-down of the racing season.

Work on your weak sports, but focus also on cross training and having fun. Thank those in your life who make this activity possible for you. And remember again why you fell in love with the sport so you start your next season on the best path.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Create the Most Useful Triathlon Off-Season appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

From aerodynamic helmets to compression socks, triathletes leave no stone unturned when it comes to chasing the smallest improvement in speed. While power meters were actually popularized by cycling great Greg LeMond back in the 1990s, triathletes have jumped on the bandwagon in an effort to train better and find improved run performance in their races.

Why the Power Meter?

What is it about power meters that makes them useful when measuring training or racing performance? Why not just use heart rate or speed?

Heart rate (HR) is a well-understood parameter of training, having been studied for decades at this point. But the problem with heart rate is that it can be affected by many factors, from food intake and dehydration, to just your position on your bike, to maybe even a dog running out of someone’s gate and chasing you. For me, I have seen my heart rate change by as much as ten beats per minute at the same pace over a period of two hours simply due to dehydration. That can make calculating effort quite tricky. Do you adjust on the fly and drop your effort to stay in the same HR zone, or do you go by rate of perceived effort at that point instead, which makes having used HR in the first place a total waste of time?

In contrast, a power meter measures what is happening right now and is unaffected by anything other than how hard you’re pushing the pedals. In terms of giving you an instant awareness of exactly how hard you’re pushing, it is unmatched. Even though heart rate can show you how hard you’re working, it usually lags a little behind effort.

Have a think for what happens if you decide to do a sixty-second all out effort. You begin straining immediately, and a power meter (PM) would show that, but it will take some time for your HR to climb. According to your HR readings you weren’t working hard until perhaps the last thirty seconds of that interval, but the PM will show the reality of your effort right from the start.

How to Use the Power Meter Correctly

Like any tool, a PM is only as good as your understanding of how to use it. The first step to using a PM is what is called a functional threshold power (FTP) test. There are many ways to perform this test, but perhaps the easiest is the twenty-minute test:

The goal of the test is a sustained twenty-minute effort. This is as close to all-out as you can make it. I suggest performing this on a trainer to eliminate the risks of going all-out on open roads or having red lights mess up your test.

1. Warm up for ten to twenty minutes.
2. Perform 4 x one-minute hard efforts to prepare the body for the high intensity to come, resting three minutes between each.
3. Start the test at a sustainable pace, gradually building over the first five minutes.
4. With five minutes to go absolutely floor it, leaving nothing in the tank.

This test is actually slightly above your FTP as the full test is a sixty-minute effort. To use this test as your FTP number, multiply it by a factor of 92-95%. (Meaning that a result of 200W would give you an FTP of 184).

What Your Test Results Mean

For cyclists, knowing how much effort you can sustain for a given time is crucial when trying to decide whether to make a breakaway or not. But when cyclists cross the line, they are done and can go and have a massage. Triathletes need to change shoes and begin the final leg of the race at this point. So not only is FTP a good way to measure how hard you can sustainably ride, but it also helps you determine how hard you can ride and still run effectively afterward.

The basics for using FTP in long races is that an Ironman bike will be ridden at 70-80% of FTP for the fast biker (sub-five hours for the 180km/112mi ride), while a more mid-pack rider will ride at 60-70% (five to six-hour rides). Anything much over this and there will be a lot of walking during the marathon. For shorter races such as half-iron distance you can add anywhere from 5-8% to figure how hard you can go.

But there still needs to be a reality check. Top Ironman riders have been shown to ride an Ironman bike leg averaging around 280W, which puts their FTP at around 305W. So before you start figuring out what percentage of your FTP you should be riding at, have a look at what the top guys do, what their FTPs are, and then calculate what you expect your bike split to be. Doing this will make the day far more pleasant. I can’t count the number of people I passed during the last 45km of the Ironman bike leg or during the marathon as they simply fell to pieces from going too hard early on.

A Tool Is Only as Good as Its User

But simply having a power meter won’t help you go from mid pack to elite overnight. Like any tool it is only as good as your understanding of it, and how to maximize your potential with it. Simply having a readout on your handlebars won’t do anything on it’s own. Like with HR training, I’ve heard many cyclists say mid-ride that they were supposed to be on a recovery ride, with HR in a certain zone, only to find themselves in the middle of a sufferfest. Instead of pulling out of the ride and doing what they were supposed to, they continued to drive themselves into the ground and then wondered why their performance never improved.

Training with the power meter can be humbling. The readout doesn’t lie and will tell you in black and white exactly how hard you are working. But if you stick with it, and spend your time doing targeted, specific sessions, you will see fast improvement – versus just going out for a ride.

These days power meters are far more accessible as there are many brands on the market, and all are cheaper than only a few years ago. If you’re looking for an edge in your training and racing this will be money well spent.

Greg LeMond photo by Gocal83 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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As I’ve gotten older I’ve seen it time and time again. I train with everything I have and some guy who does half of what I’ve been doing waltzes past me and beats me to the line. Have you ever stopped to wonder why some people are just so much faster than you, despite otherwise seeming to be similar? How can two people who train the same, weigh roughly the same, and are roughly the same age perform so differently?

Say Hello to VO2 Max

I’m sure if you’ve hung out with any endurance aficionados you’ll have heard of the term VO2 max. The short explanation is that VO2 represents the body’s ability to use oxygen. It is measured in units of oxygen used per kilogram of bodyweight per minute (ml O2 per kg per min). Although typically, you’ll just see a simple figure attached to it without any identifying abbreviations after.

For instance, I’m a 57. You’ll see from the table below that for my age a 57 is pretty good. However, when you’ve got a friend who is a 71, it goes a long way toward explaining why you can’t keep up with him.

Table adapted from Wilmore and Costill.¹

To put these numbers in perspective check out the following table that estimates best running times based on VO2 scores:

Table modified from Daniels and Gilbert.²

My Score Sucks. Now What?

But it’s not all bad news if you have a low score. There are a few things you can do to get better:

First, run more. Or ride or swim, or row. Whatever your sport is, do it more. As you become better at it via repetition, you will become more economical and that will allow you to run, ride, or swim at a faster pace for the same effort.

Second, try losing some weight. I know that goes against everything most people think about in gym terms, especially the guys, but VO2 is a score relative to body weight. Simply dropping a few pounds will improve your ability to work. It will also help your economy. In fact, racing weight is so important that cyclist Tyler Hamilton has been quoted as saying if he had to choose between a three-point gain in his hematocrit from taking EPO versus a three-pound weight loss, he’d take the weight loss every time. It’s that important. There’s no need to become emaciated like many elite distance runners are, but let’s face it, most people could stand to drop a few.

Third, even though VO2 is said to be largely genetic, it can still be influenced by training – by as much 15%. Using me as an example, that would take me from a slightly above average 57 to an incredible 65.5 and potentially drop more than twenty minutes off my marathon.

Training for VO2

VO2 sessions are typically done at high intensities and typically only last for a short period of time. My two favorites are 60:60s and 3min:1min x 3.

If you choose to do the 60:60 option, you are going to work for 60 seconds hard and 60 seconds easy recovery. If you’re running, this will be faster than 5km race pace and then recovering at a lower pace. I’ve done as many as twenty of these in a session and it’s not pretty. Make sure to warm up for at least ten minutes with some faster strides if you’re running or do some big gear work if you’re riding to really fire up the body.

The 3:1 x 3 option is even worse. You’re going to work hard for 3 minutes and recover for 1, doing three rounds before a longer rest. A really solid beginner session using this format is as follows:

• Warm up – 10 minutes easy
• 3:1 x 3
• Recover for 5-10 minutes easy running or riding
• 3:1 x 3
• Cool down for 10 minutes

As you become more advanced, extend out the length of time you work so that you do either 4 or 5 minute efforts, but keep the total rounds the same.

I’ve seen all kinds of recommendations for target heart rate or power if you’re on a bike, but the reality is if you just set a pace for yourself that makes these efforts hard in the final half, then you’ve got it right. I prefer the three-minute efforts as it takes a while for the heart to get to the right point and be working hard enough. I often feel like the 60:60s don’t allow the heart to get high enough.

Don’t Overtrain – More Is Not Always Better

These workouts are really hard efforts and should be used sparingly – no more than once per week. One of the biggest benefits I found in doing these intervals was that even if VO2 never changed, I got used to running faster, which allowed me to push harder when doing my other runs or rides. But don’t mistake these for sprint work if you’re chasing distance – the intensity is too high for it to have any real carryover to your distance work. This is just hard running, but not all out sprinting.

References:

1. JH Wilmore and DL Costill, Physiology of Sport and Exercise: 3rd Edition (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2005).

2. J. Daniels and J.R. Gilbert, “Oxygen Power: Performance Tables for Distance Runners,” Oxygen Power, 1979

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Many people get confused over lifting for GPP versus lifting for performance as a competitive lifter. I think this is largely because most of the plans found on the Internet, such as the Smolov squat routine, are devised solely to increase competition lifts. And that’s one of the big things that GPP trainees never seem to get – you aren’t training for the biggest deadlift, squat, or snatch. You’re training to be a well-rounded human athlete.

A couple of years ago I had been fooled by marketing into believing that all I needed to do for my GPP was some maximal strength work and then get my conditioning via a few kettlebell swings or snatches. Now, don’t get me wrong, both of those things work, just not as well as what I had envisioned.

When I turned my hand to some endurance work, like riding 1000km in a week, or an Ironman, I didn’t do it to become the fastest endurance athlete around. I did it to find out exactly how “functional” my training really was. If your training really is functional, then you should be able to accomplish most base athletic tasks. What I discovered was that I had lost that ability. I was really, really good at standing still and lifting some weights, but a run around the block injured me. How is that a displaying a solid, all-round level of base athletic qualities?

So I started to ride, run, and swim my way to aerobic fitness. Along the way I had it graphically pointed out to me how unfit I really was when I would hang with people who came from the other end of the spectrum – the true endurance athletes. But in the same way that I had big gaps in my abilities, they did too. Many could barely do a few push ups or budge a bar with just their body weight on it.

Now, in their case, as much as I think they are setting themselves up for problems later on, I have to admit that they were in full sport-specific mode, and their abilities showed it. But mine didn’t. I was a fitness enthusiast without fitness. So I set to making sure I had the fitness – both aerobic and anaerobic – to match the strength training I had always done.

I believe many trainers kid themselves about their abilities. This gets proven graphically to me every week when we run our Training for Trainers sessions at my gym, RPT. These are closed-door sessions I run just for people who are personal trainers so they can learn while going through a session. Yet when it comes to anything beyond just lifting weights many are getting beaten by my regular clients. These are professional trainers in their twenties and thirties being beaten in physical challenges by my clients in their forties and fifties. What does that say about the effectiveness of their training versus what our clients are going through? These trainers are kidding themselves about exactly how hard they’re pushing and about how effective the work they’re doing really is.

One of the reasons I’ve spent so much time training and traveling over the last twelve months is to spend time with people who get it – people who understand the development of GPP and base athleticism, which includes actual endurance training. You’d think this would be easy to find in the “fitness” industry, but it’s much harder to find than you might believe. I mean, what if you’re training someone for the military and he or she needs fitness? Do you WOD this person into shape, or do you need to send him or her for five to six hour pack walks? And how many people do you know who will actually say to a client that they need that many hours of work per session, versus the “six minute abs” approach?

Check out this single day of training from the SEALFit preparation plan:

1. Warm up: 1 mile run, plus 21-15-9 of deadlifts and handstand push-ups (bar at 90lbs for men, 65lbs for women)
2. Strength: Weighted pull ups 5 x 5
3. Endurance: 20min hike with 25lb pack
4. Stamina: 100 pull ups, every time you come off the bar it’s 20 push-ups

And according to them, this is a “light” day to get the blood flowing. When was the last time you ran a mile, hiked two more, and still did resistance training on the same day? Or how about this day from the SAS (Special Air Service Regiment) Cadre Course preparation plan?

1. Weight circuit (I won’t go into details, but it takes roughly an hour with focus on strength endurance)
2. 10km run
3. Later in the day walk 2 hours non-stop wearing 25kg pack

That’s how you get real fitness. The combination of strength, strength endurance and endurance all in one workout, or day. A typical strength workout for me right now goes like this:

Warm up:

Stretch for 20-30mins

Single leg deadlifts s x 5 each leg, plus get ups x 1 each side

Repeat deadlifts and get ups for three rounds

Strength:

Double kettlebell clean and press plus weighted pull-ups 5 x 5

Barbell back squat 3 x 10

Leg circuit:

Step ups x 10 each leg, sled push x 30m, single leg curls on Swiss ball x 10 each leg

Repeat for three rounds.

Anaerobic fitness:

Ski erg – 4 x 30:30

Airdyne – 4 x 30:30

Row – 4 x 30:30

Later in the day I swim anywhere from 2500m to 3000m.

Compare that with the typical “fitness” plan handed out by most trainers that may have a few kettlebell swings or snatches for “cardio” or even a short ten minute WOD or metcon and you’ll realize those aren’t even close to delivering the same results as what I outlined. If your fitness training never exceeds these short periods of time then what will you do when you have to actually go for longer? One of the SEALs I know tells me that his missions are typically 48 hours. If his conditioning comes from ten-minute WODs, what is he supposed to rely on to keep him safe for the next 47 hours and fifty minutes?

My mindset goes like this – if you are genuinely fit then you should be able to tackle most athletic events with little special training needed. Certainly, if you can’t complete a Spartan Super or Olympic distance triathlon without special training then you are not fit. Not even close. These events provide a fantastic way to check on ourselves and validate what we do for training, both for ourselves and our clients.

GPP needs to cover mobility and stability. It needs to cover strength and strength endurance. But it also needs to cover real endurance over much longer sessions. The Gym Jones guys separate this into sessions of less than ninety minutes and more than ninety minutes. That’s probably a pretty good place to start, so make sure that your week has at least one, if not two ninety-plus-minute sessions to enhance that necessary component of GPP.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Brian MacKenzie could very well be the endurance community’s most hated antagonist and their truest savior all wrapped into one. With just one look at MacKenzie, one might expect to find a rebel underneath his heavily tattooed skin. “BMack” is the creator of a subculture called CrossFit Endurance, which combines the training protocols of CrossFit with an endurance sports focus. What’s interesting is that his “subculture” has methods and, most importantly, results that can’t be ignored by the masses.

MacKenzie’s book, Power Speed ENDURANCE, looks at endurance sports from the perspective that says better skills improve output. Especially in the world of endurance sports where the toll of bad positioning adds up over time, an athlete’s ability to hold advantageous body position is a component too critical to be left unexamined.

What I found in MacKenzie’s book was that though the conversation was most notably for endurance application, the fundamental concepts he outlines so clearly from cover to cover are universal. I’d even encourage non-endurance athletes to use this book as a resource.

The text begins with a critical overview of the CrossFit Endurance ethos. It maps out how MacKenzie arrived at the culmination of his life’s work with the concept of CrossFit Endurance. Then, the meat of the text is segmented across five skills: running, cycling, swimming, weight lifting, and mobility. The common theme throughout is efficiency by way of body position. Common faults and proper execution are thoroughly discussed for all the movements in each section. As an added bonus, Power Speed ENDURANCE includes programs to put MacKenzie’s skill-based theory into practice and train toward specific athletic achievements.

For the traditional long slow distance trainees, the efficiency drills and corrective positioning tools in this book may be enough to reel them in. I could also see runners and cyclists who maybe aren’t ready for high-intensity interval training have their interests piqued by the skill content. For other purists who are currently injured, the tools in this book could help them regain participation in the sport they love.

Myself, as more of a power athlete in practice, I found MacKenzie’s book extremely relevant. Outside of the cycling section and, in part, the swimming section, I feel like I’ll continue to look back through this text as a resource – both as a coach and an athlete. I’ll put Power Speed ENDURANCE on my bookshelf next to Greg Everett’s Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches and Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe.

The ideal consumer for this text need not be a strict endurance devotee. I think this text is more than the type of book you read through once. Its clear illustrations and unified theme makes moving through each skill section free and easy. The structure, however, may best support utilization as a reference piece. I, for example, will use it as a refresher course for movements I plan to teach when I coach. As an athlete, Power Speed ENDURANCE will stick around in my life as a resource for corrective drills as troubles come up in my performances.

Productivity is the name of the game in this world that we live in. If you’re concerned about your output with regards to physical activity, Brian MacKenzie should be able to help with this one. It’s my selfish hope that the endurance world grows to a universal appreciation for wholesome training like that outlined in Speed Power ENDURANCE.

“Power Speed ENDURANCE” is available on Amazon.com for $26.37.

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Journal Entry 18 – Calf Gone Silly Buggers

Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.” Perhaps it’s the relativity of time that makes everything seem to fly past these days, as my age advances more and more. Christmas no longer seems to take so long to come around each year and I watch amazed as my brother’s adorable kids get bigger.

But it always catches me by surprise when things change suddenly.

This time last week I was sitting here feeling particularly pleased with myself for another solid week of training without hurting myself. This week I’m off running for two more weeks because now my other calf has decided to play silly buggers. And it all happened without any warning at all.

With all the troubles I’ve been having with my left calf over the last few months I have been running scared every single time I go out. The last tear happened as I went from a sidewalk over the gutter and onto then road, and then stepped up a slight incline to get back onto the next part of the sidewalk. One step put me out for six weeks. So I’ve been performing non-stop assessments on myself every step of every run.

How are my calves feeling? Is that new tightness or just fatigue? Is it getting worse or is it the same? What did I just step up, is that going to hurt me?

But it had been weeks since any indication that anything was wrong – until Tuesday that is.

I run a regular 8km loop around my house that is essentially a square made by major roads. When I got to the diagonally opposite corner from my house, halfway almost exactly, my right calf just tightened up. I stopped running immediately and slowly walked for a few minutes to let it settle down. A quick rub, some gentle stretching to test, and a little practice trot to see what was happening and it was still there. So I walked some more and stretched a bit more and it became a bit better.

The odd part was the section I was running on is nearly perfectly flat and I wasn’t running hard. I’d run this exact same stretch the week before four times and had no problems. See how quickly the world can change? One second cruising along running easily the next I’m ready to be put down for being lame.

My super therapist, Matt Hopkinson of Glenferrie Sports Medicine, had a look at it the next day and confirmed what I already knew – slight tear needing two weeks off running. To make that worse he told me to stay off the bike as he didn’t want me out of the seat at all to help it heal faster.

So what does that leave in training terms? Swimming. I’ve swum every day for the last four days and done over 14km in those sessions. I promised myself I’d swim every day until I could run again and once I am able to ride I will add that back in, too.

One of the things that I don’t generally notice with my training is a build up of fatigue in upper or lower body. Because I structure my training to give my upper and lower body a rest on alternate days I generally don’t get any accumulated fatigue from session to session. With four swims in four days I have to be honest and say my swim yesterday was far from easy. My arms felt heavy throughout and I struggled to stick to my plan, as mentally I needed a break.

In true self-destructive style when I realized how weak I was being mentally I punished myself with some hard 200m sets of individual medley (IM). I did these as 25m butterfly, 25m backstroke, 25m breastroke, 25m freestyle, and then repeated it for 200m each rep. I did five of these with one-minute rest between each. I will admit to using fins as my butterfly is more like a moth than the graceful and beautiful butterfly I wish it looked like. They did the job and hardened me up enough that I no longer felt like I’d been slacking. While the Ironman swim is best done freestyle, all the strokes contribute to helping your feel in the water that ultimately is the thing that makes you faster. (This article describes it far better than I ever could.)

So while it’s been a bad week for running and injury (again) it hasn’t been all bad. Certainly the silver lining has been the bonus swim time and I’m back on the bike again this afternoon.

As always in life there’s a lesson here. Set backs are going to happen. You’re going to eat bad food every now and then or blow off training or even get hurt. But the faster you get over it and back to your plan, or as close to it as possible, the less damage will be done. I can honestly say that my body is as fatigued as it normally is at this point in a week and even though I’d love to be running I know I’m not losing fitness. Take the good with the bad, minimize the damage and get back to your plan as quickly as possible.

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Journal Entry 12 – The Secret of the Run/Walk

It may sound strange that someone who writes a training journal the entire world can read doesn’t like talking about himself, but it’s true.

I’ve been at this training game as a coach for almost twenty years now and I’ve never once made money based off anything I could do. Because the simple fact is that I can’t do anything physically well enough to do so. I make money off what I can get others to do. So most weeks when I sit down to write this journal I am bombarded by that little doubting bastard who lives inside all of our heads telling me that no one could possibly want to read whatever mediocre efforts I’ve made this week. Like I’m such a great athlete that the world is waiting desperately to read about my training week.

Except for this week. This week I may have actually learned something.

Last weekend I was in the United States for a lightning quick trip to a Primal Move workshop. This was a weird trip – I spent about thirty hours flying or in airports to be in the U.S. for only four days. I was expecting to be in all kinds of bad shape when I got home – jet lagged, stiff, sore, and likely still having problems with my calf. I do fly with my trusty 2XU compression socks on, but with the added injury I wasn’t sure how I’d be.

Imagine my surprise when I not only felt great when I landed, but after a few hours of catch up work I hit the pool and got in an easy swim – only 2000m, about half my usual distance, but not bad after an all-night flight and a weekend of exercise.

I went to bed early Wednesday night – after all I had been up for over twenty-four hours at this point, but woke feeling refreshed and surprisingly good on Thursday with none of the usual stiffness and lethargy I feel after normal overseas flights. I ran our 6:00am kettlebell training class at Hardstyle Physical Training as usual, then came home and geared up to go for a short test run.

Last time I ran I was sure I’d reinjured my calf and I was going to be off it for six weeks. However, some swift therapy from Matt Hopkinson at Glenferrie Physiotherapy soon had it sorted and the decision made to rest it while away but test it upon returning. As far as my running goes it was great, running easier than I can remember in a long time, which is a good indication that my fitness is there even if my running endurance may not be. However, close to home the calf started knotting up again and I feared that this whole project was about to go up in smoke.

So off I went to get treatment again and after a quick check Matt informed me that it wasn’t torn. I was able to hop on it, stretch it – all pain free – something that I wouldn’t have been able to do if torn.

His opinion was that my calf was feeling threatened by running. It was fine, fine, fine then instantly tight, but not painful. In essence my calf doesn’t feel threatened while running for a very short period of time, but has started to think that about fifteen minutes should be enough running for me. So it gives a little warning tug and reminds me to quit what I’m doing.

The body is amazing, huh?

So what’s the solution to go from here to running a marathon after an 180km (112mi) ride? The answer I found today was to take a couple of walk breaks while running. It seems so simple. I simply stopped and walked for about one hundred metres before starting running again. These little walk breaks allow my calf to relax and for my body to rest enough to make sure my form is perfect before starting running again.

Normally post-running my calves are tight, particularly in this stage I’m at now where I’m not really running frequently, but this afternoon they’re great.

So my lessons this week are two things:

All the focus on quality of movement at Primal Move really paid off. I spent a lot of time on hip and calf mobility as well as reflexive core stability and this pays off with any athletic endeavour.

As a beginner in this sport I need to constantly remind myself that I should train like one, regardless of my past. I always get people into running by using a walk/ run format and yet when it came to my own training I dropped the ball. Next week will confirm whether or not I’ve finally slain this beast of calf issues or not, but I’m confident that at last I can start moving forward again with my running.

Otherwise that marathon is going to suck.

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