The Triple Layer Brick Sandwich

Tomorrow we have a big Brick planned. Why are they called "Bricks", anyway? Is it because your legs feel like Bricks when you start running or is it because you stack workouts on top of eachother like bricks...anyway, it doesn't really matter because tomorrow we are stacking a 12 mile ride on top of an 8 mile run on top of a 30 mile ride. We have done 3- 2 layer Bricks so far in our training with 20-30 mile rides on the bike and a 30 minute run following but this will be our first 30 mile ride-8 mile run-12 mile ride.

This triple layer brick is something new I am using this season with my training partner and I. The idea is that our run doesn't always get done when we are completely exhausted but instead we will be able to maintain our intensity for the entire Brick training our bodies to run fast consistantly. We will alternate each week, Run-Bike-Run, Bike-Run-Bike. For example, next week we will do 4 mile run- 30 mile bike- 4 mile run. Our intensity on the 4 mile run will be higher and we will be able to run faster than if we did 30 mile bike- 8 mile run. Alternating the Bike and Run on the outside of the Sandwich prioritizes a different one each week.

I am looking forward to our first Triple Layer Brick Sandwich! I'll let you know how it goes!

Because Dave Scott says so....

Yesterday our swim workout was 4x225m + 4x150m(or 4x4.5 laps and 4x3 laps), 1500m total. I had a great swim workout by the way, my flip turns were good and I felt like a "swimmer."

My training partner asked me, "Why are we doing 225m and not 250m? Why are we doing such a wierd distance?"

Well, to be honest of the 3 sports swimming is the one I have the least experience in and I am still learning a lot about swimming technique, workouts, etc. I can come up with a periodized 16 week strength training program no problem, but to come up with swim workouts for 16 weeks leading up to a Half Ironman is not my forte. I know periodization, so applying it to swimming shouldn't be too hard but I still have a hard time being creative with different swim workouts. But I am learning...So, last year I attended a Triathlon Coaching certification with Dave Scott. If you don't know who Dave Scott is, you should study up because he is one of the most well known and successful triathletes there is. He also gave an excellent coaching course and he mapped out swim workouts for 20 weeks leading up to each distance!

Why reinvent the wheel...if Dave Scott says this is how to do it, I believe him...He gave 20 weeks of marker sets, or sets to time yourself and watch your improvement. He alternated between shorter faster distances and longer endurance swims so every other week you swim a long endurance swim.

I have also realized that I learn by doing, as most athletes do. When I read a workout or concept I have to put it into practice before the concept sinks in, I have to experience it. So on our training plan I wrote out Dave Scott's 20 weeks of marker sets for us to follow. As we are progressing through it I understand the concept of alternating speed workouts with endurance workouts and building the volume, maintaining the pace. I have altered some of the workouts because of where we are at in our training plan(recovery week or peak week) but for the most part we are sticking to these marker sets each week. We are swimming 3 times a week so I will repeat the workout usually one more time and then we'll usually work on technique on our third swim.

Check out Dave Scott's 20 weeks of marker sets to a Half Ironman-
1- 24 x 50
2- 1200
3- 13 x 100
4- 1400
5-4x150, 5x100, 8x50
6- 1600m
7-3x250,3x200,3x150
8-1800
9-5x300,5x100
10-2000
11-40x50
12-2x1100
13-4x225,4x150
14- 2400(steady)
15-4 x 600
16- 2400(prog by 600)
17-14x150
18- 2500(race pace)
19-12x200(Desc 1-3)
20- 2500(race pace)

So in answer to the question, "Why are we doing 225m?" "Because Dave Scott says so..."

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

I love coffee! I love the way it tastes, smells and the buzz it gives me. I go in phases though. Right now I drink more than I used to. I will probably let myself drink this amount for another 4 weeks and then before my race I will make myself cut back. This way during my race I will have a better effect from using caffeine on my performance. Your body gets used to a certain amount of caffeine and eventually that amount of caffeine just gets you to "normal." You know the feeling- you drag yourself out of bed and over to the coffee pot and it isn't until you've had your first sip that your eyes open and you start to wake up. You don't want caffeine to just get you to "normal" on race day, you want to experience the ergogenic benefit...speaking of- what is the ergogenic benefit of caffeine?

For most of us, caffeine provides a stimulus for concentration or waking up. In an athletic event, however, it can be used to prolong endurance exercise and enhance power production.

Here's the research-
Initial studies(Med Sci Sports exerc 10,155) examining the effect of caffeine supplementation on endurance performance reported a 21-minute improvement in time to exhaustion while cycling at 80% of VO2max. Similarly, research done(J Sports Med Phys Fitness, 31, 425)on elite distance runners who consumed 10mg of caffeine per kg of body mass immediately before a treadmill run to exhaustion significantly improved their performance by 1.9% compared with controls. In another study(Can J Appl Physiol, 20, 168), competent distance swimmers consumed caffeine (6mg per kg of body mass) 2.5 hours before swimming 1500m and found that their split times improved significantly for each 500m of the swim, while average swim times were 1.9% faster than when carried out without the aid of caffeine.

A study(Int J Sports Med, 16, 225)on endurance cyclists looked at the effect on time to exhaustion of pre-exercise administration of each of the following:

* 5mg caffeine per kg body mass;
* 9mg/kg caffeine;
* 13mg/kg caffeine;
* placebo.

In a test carried out at 80% of their maximal power output, all the caffeine-supplemented cyclists showed a 24% improvement in time to exhaustion. However, no greater benefits were apparent with doses of caffeine higher than 5mg per kg of body mass.

What does all of this research mean for you?

1. Using small amounts of caffeine (as little as contained in one mug of coffee) have been shown to have a favourable impact on factors like decision-making and reaction time, while larger amounts (equal to 2-3mg per kg of body mass) have been shown to enhance exercise performance, particularly endurance.

2. Take a caffeine pill instead of coffee. Research has shown that the potential performance enhancing effects of caffeine taken in the form of coffee are lower than when taken as a capsule with water.

3. Consume additional fluid to offset the diuretic effects of caffeine when it is taken prior to exercise. Caffeine can act as a diuretic, which could lead to an unnecessary pre-exercise loss of fluid, with negative knock-on effects on thermal balance and exercise performance, particularly in hot environments. However, this diuretic effect is reduced when caffeine is consumed during exercise, which helps to explain why relying on gu's with added caffeine while racing will work.

4. Don't take too much! Dosages higher than 5mg per kg of body mass do not appear to elicit any greater performance effects; furthermore, they tend to raise the risk of unwanted side effects. Do not use more than 5mg/kg of body mass.

5. Take caffeine within 3 hours of your event starting and continue taking it every 3 hours. Caffeine is absorbed rapidly, with peak plasma concentration reached in around one hour. It also clears from the body fairly rapidly, taking about 3-6 hours for blood caffeine concentrations to decrease by one half.

6. Practice! As with any intervention, individual responses will vary, and athletes should rehearse their caffeine dosage strategy thoroughly before putting it to the test in a key event. Athletes who normally avoid caffeine may experience adverse effects. Many of these side effects are well known and include anxiety, gastrointestinal disturbances, restlessness, insomnia, tremors and heart arrhythmias. The scientific literature suggests that the risk of such side effects is increased if caffeine is taken in doses higher than 9mg per kg of body mass. I have a rule- "Nothing New on Race Day." Practice using whatever you are going to use on race day on a workout day. Don't wait until race day to try out a caffeine pill, you never know how you will feel from it.

7. Be aware that beneficial effects do not occur consistently in habitual caffeine users, because of a level of ‘caffeine tolerance’. If you are at the point where coffee gets you to "normal" you may not see an improvement in your performance with caffeine. One way round this may be for caffeine users to eliminate all caffeinated foods and drinks for a period of 4-6 days prior to the event in order to optimise its benefits.

Pacific Shores Marathon Recap

It feels so great to set yourself a goal and then accomplish it! My goal for the Pacific Shores Half was to first of all improve my time from last year which was 2:05 at a 9:33min/mile pace. My second goal was to do it in under 2 hours. I did both of these! I came in at 1:58:17 which came out to a 9:02 min/mile pace. So I took 7 minutes off of my time from last year. I felt great, 9 min/mile pace for me is just out of my comfort zone. I can comfortably run at a 9:30-9:45 pace but bumping it up to 9 min/mile is tough for me but I just kept making myself stay in that just uncomfortable zone. I wasn't much for conversation the whole race, I had my ipod on and I just stayed focused on keeping my pace the whole race, watching my forerunner for the pace and heart rate. My average heart rate was 167 with the highest being 182 right at the last mile when I pushed into the finish.

As for my training partner, she did awesome! She beat her PR by 5 minutes! She came in at 1:33 and a 7:09 min/mile pace which put her 8th out of 747 people in her age group! That is amazing she placed in the top 10 at a running event while training for a triathlon and without tapering! She is such an amazing athlete and inspires me!

The reason we did this race was as a test to see how our training is working and since she took 5 minutes off of her PR and I took 7 minutes off of mine we must be on the right track! We didn't taper at all for this race either. We have 8 weeks to go until the California Half Ironman so we will keep working in the same direction we have been since it is working so well. The only difference will be that we will start getting more specific- do more Bricks, practice transitions, nutrition, etc.

I am excited for our race March 31st. With tapering(taking rest the week before to let our body recover and rebuild to be 100% for the race) we should both have a great race!

My mom and sister came down and raced too. It was my sister's first half marathon. She ran her first 5K a year ago at this exact same race. She has come a long way in a year- she completed her first triathlon in March of last year and competed in 5 more triathlons since. She is training to do the LA Marathon in 1 month. I am so proud of her. My mom completed the 5K, her third 5K race. She had a good time and I am proud of her too! Our whole team(My training partner, my mom, my sis and me!)did awesome and had a great day!

The Pacific Shores Marathon is a great race! I recommend it if you are looking for a half or full marathon in So Cal next year! I'll probably be there again!

Week at a glance...

This past week was a pretty good week of training for me. I have 8 weeks until my Half Ironman and tomorrow is my Half Marathon. I didn't taper for this half marathon but hope to have improved since last year. It will be a good indicator of how my training is going.

In the past week from Friday to Friday I swam 4300m, with one workout being 40 x 50m on the 1:10min- Try this swim workout- it is tough! I want to do it again in 4 weeks and be able to do all 40 on the 1:00min. My training partner did them on the :45- she's fast! She swims a 50m in about 35 seconds, took 10 seconds rest and went again 40x.

I biked(counting 50 mi indoors)104 miles this week total and I ran 17 miles total.

On Thursday we did a really hard Brick where we climbed for 2600 feet! The ride was 24 miles total and I finished it with a run and was able to hold my 9 min/ mile for about a 3.5 mile run feeling like I could have kept going. Our race in March has the biggest climb of 800ft but in Lake Placid for my Ironman I will climb 1600 feet a couple times in the race. We have great places to train around where we live to be able to climb 2600 feet which will make 800 feet and 1600 feet feel like a breeze!

Good week of training...Wish me luck tomorrow, 8 weeks until my Half Ironman and 24 weeks until my Ironman!

Train hard and stay focused!

Strength Training for Triathlon

After sending out my newsletter yesterday I received a lot of questions asking...if Afterburn is not for inseason and only for offseason, what do you recommend triathletes do for their strength training leading up to a race?

I think many triathletes probably fall into the trap of using body builder routines in the gym. I just heard a competative triathlete the other day say, "I went to the gym and did deltoids and then 2 hours on the spin bike." Deltoids? This cracked me up- who has time, not that it is even beneficial, as a triathlete to train each muscle seperatley right down to deltoids getting their own day? Let alone WHY would you want to isolate your deltoid muscle- which sport in triathlon uses the deltoid all by itself without any other muscles working? Which sport in general? There isn't one! If you are splitting up your body parts you are following a bodybuilder program and it will make your triathlon performance worse. This type of program is what scares a lot of triathletes away from lifting weights, because they see that you get big, bulky and completely non functional by lifting weights. But it is a mistake to think that getting strong means getting huge, bulky muscles. Unless your goal is to have nice looking deltoids when you cross the finish line last do not split up your body parts and train like a body builder.

The goal with strength training for triathletes is to get strong without gaining any unwanted mass. Strength does not mean size. You need to improve your functional strength, which is a combination of stabilizing exercies and power exercises. Having functional strength will benefit your performance by giving you power and endurance and keeping you injury free.

You HAVE to train your body to work as one unit and use movements not muscles in the gym. Use full body routines. You use your full body in your sport, why wouldn't you train it in the gym the same?

So, if full body is the way to go- why wouldn't afterburn work during the season? Afterburn is too high in volume and burns way too many calories which is why it will get you so lean but when you are training for a race you need to save all of that energy for your other training. Use afterburn in the offseason when you don't have a race coming up to shed body fat.

Less is more. I have found, through using myself and my training partner as guinea pigs, using a routine that takes at most 30 minutes and can be performed right before we head out on our bikes or for a run or off to the pool works best. This routine is not so intense we have nothing left to give(Afterburn) our other workouts but instead it warms us up, switches on all the right muscles, strengthens the weaker muscles and lengthens the shorter muscles while increasing core strength, elastic power, balance and stability. It does not require a ton of recovery and wipe us out for the next day.

We have two different routines. We start both routines with movement prep which is dynamic exercises to warm up our joints and lengthen our muscles. This gets us warm, switches on our muscles and ready to train. We also have a seperate day that we spend 30-40 minutes foam rolling and stretching, a rejuvenation workout.

Routine One focuses on Strength and stability. Especially in our hips, core and shoulders which are extremely important in triathlon and need to be strong to deliver power and to decrease any potential for injuries. We do a circuit of 6 exercises for 10 reps each including core strengthening, hip strengthening and shoulder strengthening exercises. We do 2 rounds and we are done. So 12 sets total.

Routine Two focuses more on corrective exercises and Power. We start off with a circuit of 6 corrective exercises again strengthening the hips, core and shoulders for 10 reps each. We finish with a circuit of 4 power exercises to increase our elastic power, or our ability to store and release energy. These power exercises are all plyometric exercises bounding, hopping and jumping. So in this routine we end up with 2 sets of 6 exercises in the first circuit and 2 sets of 4 exercises in the second circuit so we do a total of 20 sets. It still takes us less than 30 minutes to get through. Anymore than that and you are doing too much!

Our routines were modeled after some of the routines in the book Core Performance Endurance. Mark Verstegen has two programs in the book that you can use similar to what I have been doing.

Act as if...

I have studied goal setting extensively, read a ton of books on the subject, gone to seminars and practiced setting goals and helping others set goals and making them come true. One of the rules that I learned in order for a goal to come true is you must "ACT AS If..." If your goal is to lose 30 pounds you have to act as if you have already lost the 30 pounds, have the behaviours you will have when you are 30 pounds lighter. Same with money if your goal is to have a certain amount of money you should act as if you already have that money. How would you act, what would your confidence be like? Acting as if eventually becomes your reality and you aren't acting anymore.

What does this have to do with my Ironman training? Everything, with triathlon you have to have mixed personalities...somedays you are a cyclist, other days you are a runner and then maybe within the same day you are a swimmer. I have learned that I seem to have more productive workouts if I dress for whichever sport I am doing and act as if that is the only sport I do. So when I head out on a run, I wear clothes a runner would wear(not baggy sweats I would wear in the gym), I put my running shoes on and I look like a runner and I act as if I am a marathon runner. When I head out for a ride I wear all of those silly spandex bright colored outfits you see cyclists wearing and I turn myself into Lance Armstrong and become a competitor in the Tour De France. Swimming is the hardest for me because I learned to swim for triathlon but when I get my head into it and believe that I am a swimmer and I am training to compete and picture myself doing perfect flip turns my swimming suddenly feels much more fluid and I actually feel like a swimmer. In the gym I am a weightlifter who is strong physically. This may sound silly but next time you head out for a run or show up at the gym get an image in your head of who you want to become and act as if you are already there and you'll see how different your workout will feel.

So, my point is, decide who you want to be and act as if...if you decide you want to run a marathon, guess what you have to become a marathon runner. That is who you are. Do not head out on a run with thoughts in your head of "I am not meant to run, I am so slow, this will take forever." But instead think about how you would act and feel if you were already an elite marathon runner. You'll enjoy the run so much more and you'll get more out of it!

Enjoy your workouts and act as if!