Triathlon Europe

How to be motivated from within

At this time of year as a coach I'm busy planning, periodising and poring over people's race plans to put together a 'master' plan for the season ahead. Increasingly I've noticed some confusion in the conversations that go along with this process, over two key elements - motivation and goals.

I've heard and read many instances where athletes and (possibly novice) coaches use principles from their working lives for goal setting and then try to use this to define their motivation in their life as a triathlete. When people generalise that motivation being 'goal' or 'process' orientated, they are utilising an extrinsic model best suited to setting goals in a corporate world where essentially the objective is making money and keeping employees focused on that task to pay their wages! As an athlete, motivation needs to be sourced from intrinsic factors, for longevity and autonomy. This is essentially realising and developing your potential, which simply put is having a desire to be the best that you can be.

'We don't stop training because we grow old. We grow old because we stop training'

I have to thank a very talented trainer and coach for these wise words. Dobo. My running coach almost a decade ago who facilitated my improvement from good-for-age marathon runner, to running a championship qualifying time (sub 3:15 for women). We met yesterday for a long overdue catch up, over tea at the Royal Exchange cafe, discussing athletes past and present and a great era of training in the heart of East London.

Dobo is a rare master technician when it comes to running mechanics. He will watch an athlete jog over to the group preparing to begin the track session and instantly observe how their basic movement can be improved through perfection of drills, dialling in awareness of body alignment and strengthening key muscles required for the job. His skills in this area extend to night vision as well, given that many a dark, wintery, often raining Monday night was spent at the pre-Olympic 2012 makeover Mile End track! These sessions were dedicated to getting the best out of oneself against the clock and gravity, applying equally in speed terms as well as mechanics and movement. Dobo's army background and working with talented athletes of the calibre of Kelly Holmes ensured only the best would do, and the quality of the session was consistently high.

What I learned back then, which forms a core part of my own coaching philosophy now, particularly having utilised this as an athlete, is that improvement gained by focusing on intrinsic factors is the most powerful form of motivation. It's the sort of motivation that has you unquestionably turning up to train in all weathers, silly o'clock before or after work, working consistently on small but significant technical improvements and progressing your training correctly to avoid injuries. The 'worth its weight in gold' aspect of having intrinsic motivation is ultimately the confidence it gives you to perform well on race day. As an athlete and coach, I see fellow athletes who suffer from self imposed stress and anxiety due to choosing extrinsic motivational factors (competing against team mates, glory chasing etc) and there is nothing more detrimental to long term performance.

So, back to Dobo and his work with one of his athletes... Someone who struggled to do a particular drill/ exercise on the first day at the track, who 3-4 weeks later was perfoming it competently, autonomously and bringing strength to their running as a result. Dobo has a great analogy to explain the phenomenon of physiological development, going on internally within the body as a team of tiny workmen. It's utterly brilliant :)

The coach's role is to help the athlete find the right key to unlock their potenital, in doing this they realise the only boundaries imposed on what they can achieve are extrinsic ones. By looking at your natural strengths and weaknesses to focus improvement, working on the technical aspects and training progressively you will be a confident athlete, find your best performances and keep improving.

Right, back to those master plans....

Coach Fi

 

 

You look Mah-velous: Cycling style ettiquette

Enjoy this aptly amusing guide to cycling style etiquette written by fellow coach and Pro cyclist Josh Horowitz. A highly entertaining guide as well as highlighting reasons why many cyclists are not overly enamoured with triathletes joining their group rides.... Enjoy, and if you're short on time cut straight to the paragraph about the Friday ride hero and Group riding ettiquette :)

------------------------------------------------------------------

You Look Mah-velous: Cycling Style Etiquette

You could fill a library with all the rules in the unwritten book of cycling etiquette. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that bike racers don’t hit their prime until their mid 30’s. It takes that long to learn all the rules before you can really concentrate on riding strong! With the summer months and group rides aplenty, it’s time to take a scientifically-proven but tongue-in-cheek look at looking good on the bike… Billy Crystal and his alter ego Fernando Llamas said it best when he mugged, “It is better to look good than to feel good, dah-ling.” The cyclist’s version goes something like, “It is better to look good than to ride good.” We can’t all be world champions or even win the sprint on the local club ride, but at least we can look cool going off the back. Although I couldn’t possibly sum up every unwritten rule of cycling etiquette in just one article, below are the 13 most important rules to remember. Some will actually improve your riding, others will simply make you look good and the rest are just down right snobbish.

 Helmets. Face it, helmets just aren’t cool. Nothing looks more pro than the tour rider cruising down the boulevard wearing nothing but a broken-in cycling cap. However, concussions and drooling out the side of your mouth are really lame, so wear your helmet. But for heaven’s sake, take it off when you walk into the coffee shop! Are you afraid of slipping and hitting your head on the counter? When worn, the helmet should be tilted as far forward on your head as possible and never at an angle. Cockeyed helmets are a sure sign of an amateur. To look cool, take off the helmet and slip on your cycling cap the moment you arrive at your destination. To look Euro-cool, make sure to always wear your sunglasses on the outside of your helmet straps so the television cameras can see the brand logo on the ear pieces. And please, no neon colored helmets! White is the only acceptable helmet color.

Legs. We’ve all been asked a million times, why do cyclists shave their legs? Our answers range from aerodynamics to massage to wound care. But we all know the real reason. It makes us look smooth (in more way than one)! So whip out the shaving cream and the Bic and mow the lawn. For the ultimate in cool, roll up the cuffs of your shorts for that extra 1/4 inch of tanning space. To look Euro-cool, always wear a pair of the ultra-cool Pez cycling socks. And please, no gym socks!

The Kit. Your jersey must match your shorts, which must match your arm warmers, which must match your socks. But under no circumstances should a replica pro team kit or a national/world champion kit be worn unless you’ve earned it. The only acceptable team kit is your own club kit. Retro wool kits are sometimes acceptable, but even that is iffy. To look cool if you don’t belong to a club or a team, wear a stock Castelli or Assos kit but don’t mix and match. To be Euro-cool, wear the kit of an obscure European amateur team, but only if you have a story about how you spent the winter riding with them in Majorca to go along with it. Please, no century jerseys (I’m going to take some heat on that one), nothing with cartoon characters on it and never, under any circumstances, go jersey-less. Especially if you are wearing bibs. * And a special note for women. As much as the guys on the group ride might like it, a jog-bra is not an acceptable substitute for a jersey. Wear the bra, but please throw a jersey on over it. It’s hot. You’re hot. But shorts and a jog-bra is just not.

iPods. I should say MP3 players, but let’s face it, an iPod is the only cool on-board music system. Of course legally, I have to recommend against wearing headphones out on the road, but since you’re going to do it anyway, here are a few guidelines. Never wear headphones on a group ride. Headphones on a group ride say two things. 1) You people are good enough to ride with, but not good enough to talk to or even listen to and 2) I’m not concerned with my own safety and I’m even less concerned with YOUR safety. There’s no faster way to become disliked by a group of cyclist than by showing up on a group ride with headphones, even if the music is off. To look cool, remember that the smaller the headphone, the better. No 1985 walkman ear muff headphones please. Ear buds are the only acceptable iPod accessory. To look Euro-cool, make sure you are listening to an obscure independent British punk rocker or electronic group. And please, no Kraftwerk!

Clipping out. Hard to believe, but this one actually deserves its own paragraph. One of the easiest ways to determine the experience level of a cyclist is to see how early they clip out before coming to a stop. A novice rider will clip out as much as a block before a stop sign or red light. A real beginner will clip out a block before a green light, just on the off chance that it might turn red by the time they get to it. To look cool, let the bike come to a full stop before clipping out. To look Eurocool, never clip out. Track stands are the only acceptable way to wait at a red light. And please, no basket-clips and no mountain bike shoes on the road bike! Wearing sneakers or mountain bike shoes on the road indicates that you intend to spend more time with your feet on the ground than in the pedals. You’re a cyclist, darn it, not a pedestrian!

The Friday Ride Hero. Although getting dropped on the hard Saturday group ride isn’t cool, there are actually more ways to look un-cool on the easy Friday recovery ride. The best way to look un-cool is by pushing the pace over 19 mph or by doing your intervals off the front of the ride. Friday rides are for recovery and socializing. You’re not going to impress anyone by ramping up the pace. Unfortunately, messing up the pace is just as easy to do on the hard group ride and this is where things get really complicated. Sprinting at the wrong moment, setting the wrong pace up a climb or pushing the tempo at the wrong time can draw just as much scorn as pushing the pace on a recovery ride. Get to know the etiquette of a group ride by doing it at least two or three times before even thinking about getting to the front. To look cool, show up to the Friday ride with a cup of coffee from an independent bohemian coffee shop and sip on it throughout the ride. To look Euro-cool, skip the coffee and blueberry muffin after the ride in favor of an espresso and a croissant. And please, never order any drink that has whip cream spilling out over the top of the cup. You didn’t ride hard enough to burn off 20 grams of fat and 600 calories.

Group Ride Etiquette. Have you ever seen a pro team on a training ride? Side by side, shoulder to shoulder, quietly zipping along. Then, there is the club ride. You actually hear it before you see it. Slowing! Right Side! Stopping! Rolling! Hole! Then you see it. 25 riders spread out over an entire city block, three, sometimes four, wide. Weaving, swarming cars, running stop signs. Keep your group ride cool with the following four rules of thumb. 1) Never ride more than two abreast. 2) Never allow more than six inches distance between your front wheel to the rear wheel of the rider in front of you. 3) Maintain a distance, no more than 12 inches from your shoulder to the shoulder of the rider next to you. 4) It only takes one person to call things out. This should be the person at the front of the pack. Ideally, a little point of the hand is all it takes to indicate obstructions or turns. It shouldn’t take two dozen people yelling at the top of their lungs to make a ride run smoothly. To look cool, keep the group tight, wheel to wheel and shoulder to shoulder. To look Euro-cool, only ride with other cyclist wearing the exact same kit. If this is not possible, make sure there are no more than three different kits in the pack and that there are at least three riders wearing each kit. And please, never swarm cars at stop lights or steer a large group of riders through a red light. It’s just not cool.

Carbon Wheels. Carbon wheels are for racing! Never under any circumstances should they be brought out on a training ride. Training wheels should be strong and heavy with lots and lots of spokes. Carbon wheels say to the group, I’m not strong enough to do this ride without my $2,000 feather weight wheels. If you have the money to tear up a carbon wheel set on the road, then you’d be better off spending it on a coach who will get you fit enough to keep up with the group ride on regular training wheels. To be cool, ride with Bontrager flat proof tubes. They’re about four-times as heavy as regular tubes and they just about double your rolling resistance. To be Euro-cool, don’t tell anyone you’re riding with them. It’s enough to know for yourself that you can keep up with those weenies even on a 22-pound bike. And please, no deep dish carbon clinchers. Carbon wheels are race wheels and clinchers are for training. Tubulars are the only way to go on your carbons.

Ornaments and Accessories. This one is simple. No stuffed animals or figurines mounted to your handlebars no matter what it signifies to you. No mirrors on your helmet or your glasses. No reflector strips taped to your bike. No giant flashing lights (LEDs are ok). To look cool, ride without a saddle bag. Put one small tube, a tiny pump and a tire lever in your middle back pocket. To look Euro-cool, ride without a saddle bag and with nothing in your pockets. This is cool because it means you must have a team car following you with all your supplies. And please, don’t plaster the stickers that came with your shoes or your glasses all over your bike unless your sponsorship contract with those companies specifically dictates that you must.

Cat 4 Marks. Otherwise known as a chain tattoo, this is what we called them back in the day before Category 5 existed. Nothing gives away a rookie faster than a black streak of grease on their calf. The experienced rider can actually get through an entire ride without rubbing up and down on their dirty chain. To look cool, CLEAN YOUR CHAIN! To look Euro-cool, take your chain off once a week and soak it in degreaser along with the bearings from your bottom bracket and your headset (you old timers know what I’m talking about). And please, it’s one thing to get grease on your leg. It’s another thing to get it on your hands, your jersey, your face!

Shorts. MEN: there are many rules regarding shorts. First of all, they don’t exist. Forget about them. The only acceptable garments to wear are bibs, no exceptions. But please, throw out your bibs when they start to wear out. Enough anatomy is revealed by the skin tight Lycra, we don’t need to see a transparent butt panel. And this may seem obvious, but the jersey goes over the bibs! To look cool, wear bibs, enough said. To look Euro cool, wear bib knickers or even bib tights. And please, don’t wear underwear under your shorts!

How to Dress for Weather. If the temperature is below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, you must wear knees or better yet, full leg warmers. If you go out of the house in 50 degree weather with bare legs, it doesn’t mean you’re tough, it just means you’re an idiot. In the summer, no matter how hot it gets, you must never wear a sleeveless jersey. Tan lines are the proud mark of a real cyclist. If you must get some additional ventilation, cut a vertical line along the inside seam of your sleeve with a pair of scissors. Not only will this help you stay cool, but it says, “my sponsors give me so many jerseys, I don’t mind wrecking one.” To look cool, if you need to keep the sweat out of your eyes, wear a cycling cap, not a sweat band or a bandana. To look Euro-cool, just don’t sweat. And please, no arm warmers with a sleeveless jersey!

When to Dress. Believe it or not there are a whole bunch of rules regarding when to get dressed for a race or a ride. In general, the less time you spend in your chamois, the cooler. If you are riding to the start, you should get dressed just before you leave the house. Don’t eat breakfast or walk the dog in the morning in your full kit! The neighbours think you’re goofy enough for cycling as it is! If you are driving to the start and it is less than a 45 minute trip, it is ok to wear your bibs under a pair of regular shorts, but not your jersey or your gloves and especially not your helmet. Also, make sure the suspenders on your bibs are hanging down, (preferably on the outside of your street shorts) and not over your shoulders. If it is longer than a 45 minute drive to the start, you must bring all your cycling gear in a cycling specific duffle bag such as a Specialized or Rudy Project bag. Brown paper bags or shopping bags are never acceptable. To look cool, wrap a towel around your waist when you change. Changing skirts are practical, but not very cool. To look Euro-cool, make sure it’s a white, thread bare towel taken from the cheap motel room that you and five teammates crammed into at your last stage race. And please, no bare butts in the parking lot. Once again, we see enough through the skin tight Lycra.

One last time, if you can’t ride good, you might as well look good. And please remember, I don’t write these rules, I only live by them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Josh's original article can be found on his blog, linked here

Being disciplined!

  

Discipline: To educate; to develop by instruction and exercise; to train. Or have the whip cracked in your vicinity?!

To achieve your goals as a triathlete..... What does being disciplined really mean?
 
Planning – identifying high priority 'A' category races with performance goals, in combination with races for enjoyment, and a few 'B' races to test out pacing or nutrition strategies. This far into the season it is best to stick to your overall plan and race schedule, in order to maintain the planned progression towards the goals you have identified. If you allow yourself to become side tracked by other people's race plans, then you need to manage your own expectations so you're not disappointed when your recovery, or worse still injury or illness, compromises important training for your 'A' race. Plan time available to train each week, remind yourself of your goals for the season and why you are doing the sport. Discipline is easier to maintain if you can stay focussed on these things!
 
Training – completing your planned/ scheduled sessions consistently which means executing your sessions correctly at the prescribed intensity and duration. Being impulsive with your training is one of the most common cause of injury. Athletes who throw in an extra long run home from work 'because the weather is nice' or to 'get in some extra training before x event' ultimately end up paying their dues being sidelined with injury. If you experience frustration at not being able to train regularly or at a level you desire, then you need to self-reflect on how much of your training is based on impulse rather than a progressive approach. Avoid false economy by playing catch up with sessions, or 'stacking' sessions toward the end of the week, as this greatly impacts on the training - recovery cycle. Eventually this will lead to underperformance in sessions, injury or illness. It is best to address the cause of the problem and look at more creative ways of scheduling your training, and ways to optimise your time so that you can maintain a consistent approach each week! Yes, it's boring having to stick to the plan but remember - there are NO short cuts if you have high expectations of doing your best. Different if you're just doing this sport to 'complete' or for 'a laugh' rather than to 'compete'. Let's face it - nothing worthwhile is ever easy!

Rest - ensuring you have regular rest or planned recovery days. Understanding how much recovery you need as an individual during a given training or race phase, making temporary sacrifices to obtain greater levels of sleep and rest when you need it. Try to listen to your body rather than ignore the signs of fatigue based on the assumption that you can 'normally' manage on 5 hours sleep / night. Working full-time and maintaining a regular training schedule will mean that the body's recovery priorities will eventually catch up with you! Be disciplined about taking you rest days, even if you don't feel you need it on that particular day, make the most of it. Schedule your sports massage to assist the recovery process and check in with your body to identify tightness which could potentially become an issue, enjoy some quality 'down time'
 
Food – Eating a varied and balanced diet, based on unprocessed wholefoods. Ensuring you have adequate protein intake to assist recovery from sessions, regular carbohydrates and hydration methods. Adopting a disciplined approach by regarding all food and fluid as quality fuel, and only eating and drinking what is going to make your body fitter and faster.
 
Feedback – regularly recording your training provides excellent reference data for future training to identify what works well for you as an individual. It can be as simple or as sophisticated a system as you like! Regular recording allows you or your coach to adapt your training accordingly and make adjustments if required, in the short and longer term. The following specifics are useful for feedback after sessions: MHR/ AHR, distance, time, power/ watts, perceived effort, RHR in the morning, weight, general feeling, level of enjoyment and fatigue or stress levels. It takes application to set aside time to record training feedback regularly, many athletes neglect what is essentially a 2 minute admin task which could add significantly more value to the time investment in their training! Who was it who defined insanity as 'doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'? (Albert Einstein) 
 
Review – think about where you started from before the season, prior performances and strengths and weaknesses. It's important to be disciplined and maintain your expectations for performance centred around what you can do on race day or in training, rather than what other people do. You can only control what you do, not others! Make improvement plans based on developing your weakest areas, comparison of your performances, distance preferences, course profiles, training sessions and most importantly enjoyment! Try to identify what works best for you and what doesn't, and use this readily on any occasion your discipline levels are challenged when training and racing.

As you start to feel the effects of your Spring training and early races, it's easy to allow impulsive training or lack of focus to cause potential issues. There is a cause and effect to everything you do, so make the right decisions as you get closer to your 'A' races this season. Most importantly enjoy your training and racing, and value having discipline in your approach if you want to do well :)

Coach Fi

 

Pacing

This is a great topic to blog about at this time of year! Pacing, pace judgement, ability to adapt how fast/ hard/ you should be training on any given session. How do you know you are training with the right level of intensity?

Your weekly training should include a balanced amount of aerobic endurance sessions, tempo sessions slightly below your identified race pace and importantly, the specific 'quality' workouts where you push yourself for short intervals at or above your threshold, depending on the progression of your overall plan. If you choose to train each of these above the desired intensity, particularly the endurance/ distance sessions, then it's very likely your aerobic capacity will be limited going forward into the race season. Has anyone experienced difficulty finishing strongly in races before, or negative splitting?

This time of year is critical for developing pace judgement by noting the prescribed intensity for each session, learning to listen to your body and interpret its 'gears', and using your training tools intelligently (HRM's, powermeters etc) if you have them. Regular testing, paced sets and time trials all help enormously to discover where your maximum effort levels are, from this you can derive what 'endurance' (easy), 'tempo' (brisk) and 'interval' (fast)pace feels like accordingly.

It all takes time to develop, so be encouraged that it's not always possible to get it right. As long as you are consistently trying to, that is a very good start!

'Good judgement is the result of experience, experience is the result of bad judgment' -Mark Twain

Go well!

Coach Fi

Ability, motivation or attitude - which do you need most to improve?

I love this quote...

'Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it' (Lou Holtz)

Most of you are making good inroads into your winter training, perhaps following a new structured program, incorporating some overall strength and conditioning or working on 'less favourite' areas to provide a new dimension to your 2010 racing. Regardless of your natural ability, you can improve what were born with or have developed so far, with consistent, progressive and varied training. Make sure you have entered your races already and planned your goals for the season. This will provide you with the motivation to get through the last of the winter and ensure your training remains on track when you'd rather go home, chill out on the sofa or head to the pub! Check in with your attitude from time to time and make sure it's aligned with the amount of effort you're putting in, especially if those expected results or improvements aren't happening as quickly as you'd like. From experience, it's perfectly normal to feel like nothing is improving when you're in the middle of a sustained block of training, or indeed you might start to worry you're going backwards! The best thing you can do if you're in a 'plateau', is give yourself a short break/ rest week or a few days completely off. Resume your training with a slightly different attitude and approach, and you'll be surprised to experience that breakthrough or 'ding' moment when it all starts to come togther.

Happy training :-)

Coach Fi

How do I go about getting a PB?

Here's this weeks inspiration....

'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit'
Aristotle

Congratulations to Angela who set herself a new 10k running personal best on Sunday

Consistency is king, it is that simple! Of course there are considerations such as the quality and quantity of training. This is where your coach comes in to advise you and set sessions based on a range of individual information and feedback.

How far did you run in your 15 minute run test?

What average wattage, speed, and HR did you manage this time on the TT?

What is your resting HR first thing in the morning now?

How are you feeling running those mile reps at 6:30 pace? Could you manage another one and hold the same pace?

Are you able to hold -2 seconds on your average swim pace per 100?

No rocket science here, but plenty of data to inform smart training. Which then just needs to be continually executed well. Sound easy? Well ask the PB kings among the Triathlon Europe team.

I'll leave you with Jonno's stormer of a PB season in 2008. His blog page tells it all!

Go well
Coach Fi :-)

 

 

 

 

 

World Aquathlon Championships 2006

A good time to be setting a 5k PB 16:58

Focus

Goal + sacrifice + focus = optimum race performance

The question is.... How badly do you really, really, really want it?

Ok - so you 'want' to improve on your performances of the past, maybe achieve a sub 'whatever' hour Ironman or 70.3 or sub 'whatever' Olympic performance. Maybe even to qualify for a European or World Championship and then go on to perform well at this level. Based on realistic expectations, this is what you are working towards and sometimes it seems more challenging than actually executing the race itself!

Here's some ideas to focus your efforts....

Focus your training on specificity to your goal. Stick to the planned sessions, execute them well, recover and progress to the next stage/ phase. Make speed & strength gains specific to your racing rather than dragging yourself around half-tired or bordering on injury, knocking out mileage for the sake of it!

Focus your nutrition and daily diet on quality fuel. Reward your body and refuel your engine with unrefined and fresh foods. Make sure you are eating quality protein sources after demanding sessions to replenish and repair muscles. Keep carbohydrate stores topped up by eating little and often. Biscuits? No. Pastries? No. Fast/ fried foods? No.

Focus your preparation on taking care of all the little aspects that bring together a 'perfect' race - transitions, equipment, timing, strategies, coping with adverse situations, knowing how to change a tyre or tub (!). Quote from a multiple Ironman World Champion after winning Kona again, of her preparation 'I was collecting little stones for a wonderful mosaic on race day...' (Natascha Badmann 2006)

Focus on recovery. It's as important as your training! Age-group athletes are bordering on super-human most days in order to juggle demands from all sides and perform well, so make those recovery days work for you. Schedule your massage the night before or in the morning to allow plenty of time for the effects to work magic on tired muscles. Make sure you enjoy some quality down-time and switch off for a mental as well as physical break. 

We're all starting to build towards our goals this month, so keep focussed knowing how much you really want to achieve as optimum a performance as you are capable of on race day....

Go well!

Coach Fi

Goals and finding gold

This weeks' gem....

Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts. -Dan Gable

Bear this in mind when you're out there after work in the dark running around a freezing track with your stopwatch for company. Or when you really think you can't quite manage to push through the last turbo interval you know have to do, and sustain that super strong effort.

These are the sessions that count. Every week. Just keep doing them and you'll be on that finish line clutching the goal in your hands that you've had in your head all along :-)

Go well

Fi

Epic rides

"My best advice is to just ride. Ride consistently. Uphill. Downhill. Level ground. Push yourself. It's better for fitness. Better for the long term. Don't stop, then start. You want to stop? Have some caffeine. Then have some more. Don't concentrate so much on your time. Focus more on your frequency. Oh, and of course, have fun.
Still here? What did I just say? Go. Get out and ride."
- Lance Armstrong

This kept me going at the weekend... 

2 days of riding over Yorkshire moors at the team Training weekend

 

 

Top of 'Chimney Bank' climb 33% gradient

When it's tough dig in. It WILL generally get easier or better. Maybe not that day, but a week, month or training phase on you will feel stronger and faster. Go well this week all of you!

Coach Fi  ;-)

  
           

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Motivation

Ok here's a little tip to pick you up if you're on your 'rest and test' week

'Get lots of sleep, back off the training, eat lightly, drink plenty of fluids, & go like hell...'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever wondered why those early morning sessions are not quite 'on the money' compared with similar turbo, run or swims in the evening? Well if you caught the Horizon program last night (24 Feb 09), it shed some insight into how your natural biorhythms affect your performance, training and even racing!

Catch up with the findings if it's still on bbc iplayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hxtwc/b00j59gx/Horizon_20082009_The_Secret_Life_of_Your_Bodyclock/

And, try scheduling your quality sessions or swim, bike, run tests (!) in the late afternoon. See if it works as well for you as it did for Chris Boardman. His 3 attempts at the world hour record on the bike were all carried out in the late afternoon/ early evening, due to him identifying this as the most likely timeframe for him to achieve a peak performance. Imagine that eh? Holding that max effort 2 x 3 mile/ 8 minute bike test for an HOUR. Mmmm - those of us in the lab last week can ponder the numbers....

Back to more anecdotal evidence. I can identify similar 'best' performances in this later period of the day having raced in the 4-6pm window many times - mainly in France and Switzerland. Lining up at 4pm on the start pontoon on Lake Geneva at Lausanne Worlds in 2006 affected a very different approach to race day preparation, as did racing Alpe D'Huex triathlon at 2pm. So the take home message here really is to be as in tune with your body as you can, in order to understand when you are most likely to perform best. Training sessions are a great way to explore these limits and boundaries. Note how and if the time of day affects your perceived effort, ability to hold higher efforts/ watts/ speed. From these notes and observations (obviously somewhere in your FJ!) we can start to plan how to best prepare you for, say a 3am start on Ironman day! Especially if you're not great in the mornings.

With a few of you (Tamsyn in particular) I have discussed the phenomena of low HR/ increased PE with early training pre-work (ie: 6am) turbo sessions vs evening post-work (eg: 6pm) sessions. Same or similar sessions on paper but very different outcomes. Remember it's the quality ones that make the difference to your progression and ultimately race day performances! So think about when you plan your sessions where you have the luxury of flexibility in your day around work. It may be worth doing things a little bit differently to get better results. Don't just go through the motions, go well....

Fi

:-)