For the Total Newb: Beginning your Triathlon Training

So, you’ve decided that you want to do a triathlon. GREAT!! Only problem is, you can’t even run a 5k (or maybe you don’t even know what that is either). No problem! I’m here to help you get started on your journey to do your first triathlon.

Why do I call it a journey?! Because triathlon is not about a race at the end of a long program but rather the journey you take to get there. You will learn so much about yourself during your training and will push yourself farther than you ever thought possible. Like I am learning now, life is not about reaching a destination but rather the journey you take to get there.

Awesome sunrise at Nova Masters

One of the first things that people do when they commit to a particular race is search the internet to find some sort of training plan for beginners. If you’ve already done this, I’m sure that most of them tell you to pick a race X numbers of weeks out and to use their plan to train yourself to survive the race. They probably start you out at a low mileage and increase the mileage to a certain point close to your race distance and then ease up the week before your race. And that is exactly how I (along with most top triathletes) structure my training during the season. That must mean that is what you should do…..right?!

WRONG!!!! This structure of training is for those that already have a strong base of fitness and speed. The goal of this sort of training program is to slowly add endurance to the speed that is built in the off-season and increase the ability to hold that speed for the desired race length. But if you have no fitness and speed, what will you be building?! Well, you will be building a painfully slow and drawn out version of what is supposed to be quick and easy.

Now, I am not talking about riding your bike at 25 mph or 5-minute mile running pace here (that is what the pros will do for race). My idea of speed for a new triathlete is to set a goal of 2 hours or better for a sprint race and be able to do the individual distances at a pace that will result in that time. Why 2 hours?! First off, training for a 2 hour race is much easier than training for a  3 hour race (think about long runs of only 40 minutes instead of an hour). Also, after about 2 hours of moderate exercise, nutrition begins to become a big factor in a race and you don’t want to be dealing with that just yet. (Trust me, this is where the dreaded, and controversial, ‘bonk’ begins to lurk and you don’t want to deal with that monster just yet.)

So, what kind of speed am I talking about then. Well lets break it down using the ITU sprint distance (not sure what that is, check this post out) and say that you want to do this sprint race in 2 hours.  This would break down to about a 20-minute 750-meter swim, 1-hour 12.5-mile bike, and 36 minute 5-kilometer run (with 2-minutes in each transition). That’s a 2:45/100-meter swim pace, 12.5 mph bike ride, and  12-minute/mile pace. If you have no idea what these mean, don’t worry; we’ll do a little fitness test and you’ll learn very quickly what they all mean.

You may be thinking to yourself, “This guy is nuts! I can’t even run one mile in 12-minutes let alone 3 in a row. How does he expect me to do that?!” Well, I’m glad you asked. We are going to use a method similar to what the pros use by first, training your body to move at the faster speed and then building the endurance to hold the speed for the distance race you want to achieve.

Now, stay tuned because this is just the beginning of my blog series that is going to take you through 4-weeks of speed building and prepare you to start building the endurance you’ll need to achieve your goals. And trust me, this will put you in a much better spot to finish this race and several others without the bonk that is so dreaded throughout the sport.

For the Total Newb: Triathlon Distances Explained

Often times when I tell people that I do triathlons, they respond with something like “Oh, so you’ve been to Hawaii?!” or “I could never do that, don’t you have to run like a marathon or something?” I then have to explain to them that no, I’ve never been to Kona and no, I have never even done a marathon.

Most people don’t realize that there are triathletes of all ages and abilities and not all of us are crazy endurance freaks like you might see on TV. Whether you’re new to the sport, just curious about this crazy three legged race, or you’re a veteran who just can’t seem to recall those pesky miles, I’m going to explain the different distances that triathlon has to offer.

There are four classifications of distance in triathlon: Sprint, Olympic (or International), Half (or 70.3 or Half Ironman®), and Full (or 140.6 or Ironman®). First I’ll start with the Full because this is the one that everyone thinks of when they think triathlon. The Full triathlon is a total of 140.6 miles (hence the nickname) and consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run (or a marathon). The top racers in the world will do this race in about 8-9 hours while the rest of us will be in around the 12-14 hour mark.

Most people think of the Full distance and of Hawaii because of the Ironman® World Championships that are held there every year. This is a very popular race and has brought great attention to the sport but I would venture to say that less than 1% of triathletes will ever participate in the race in Kona. I would even go out on a limb and say that less than 10% of all triathletes will ever do a Full distance triathlon.

Next is the Half and, as you can imagine, it is half the distance of the Full or 70.3 miles. That would make the swim 1.2 miles, the bike 56 miles, and the run 13.1 miles. This distance is very popular among the Ironman® (or Mdot because of the logo) brand as well. The Half distance race is much more achievable at 6-7 hours for a well trained athlete while the pros will break 4 hours in most races.

After that comes the Olympic, or International, distance race and kind of goes astray with kilometers so bear with me. This race is made up of a 1500 meter swim (about a mile), 40 kilometer bike (~25 miles), and a 10 kilometer run (6.25 mile). This is  distance is probably the most raced around the world and is the distance that is at the Olympics, the ITU (International Triathlon Union) World Championships, and many different international race series. The top racers in the World are easily breaking 2 hours for this distance while age groupers will be looking at something more like 3 hours.

Lastly is the sprint; which, if you are reading this page is probably what you are looking for to start. The sprint distance is the only distance that isn’t well defined and tends to vary from venue to venue. The ITU sprint format is half of the Olympic distance or 750m swim, 20km bike, and 5km run. Most “sprint” races are going to be around this distance. However, I have seen swims as long as 1000m and as short as 250m, bikes that ranged from 9 miles to 15+ miles, and runs that ranged from 2 miles to 5 miles. So the distances will vary and you will want to double check them before you sign up for a particular race.

NOTE: Sometimes the shortest of the races will be called a Super Sprint. This is also inconsistent among races so I have just lumped them in with the sprint.

Typically, a new racer will be looking at a 1 to 2 hour race for the Sprint distance. That may seem daunting but think about it as 3 separate 20-45 minute exercises with a little break in between during the transition, if you need it. Breaking it down into smaller, single sport goals has always helped me mentally get through the race and push to the next leg or better yet, the finish. It will also help you to figure out how much training you will need to do for each sport.

Here is a table that summarizes the different distances and times you can expect.

Now, get out there and give one of the distances a tri!!! You can check out my Newb blog series for tips on how to get started and conquer whatever distance race you want.

The Importance of Having a Program

Every few months or so I decide that I am tired of the regimented schedule I made up for myself and that I am going to set myself free and make it up as I go for a little while. I am a motivated guy, surely I can keep myself on track with whatever workout I want to do for the day. WRONG!!! Even with years of following routines and programs, I’m not able to just ‘wing it’ and make progress.

All of my triathlon friends are the same way. You’d think we’d be able to just do it on our own but we all need something to drive us out of bed each the morning. Why is it that we can’t just wake up each day and do what we need to do? I mean, most of us make up our own schedules weeks ahead of times anyway. Why can’t we make it up on the spot?! Here’s why we as people NEED to have a plan laid out for us even if it is our own plan:

1)We’re lazy. Yes, believe it or not we all tend to become lazy when we haven’t committed ourselves to something like a fitness program or helping other people reach their goals.

This is how I feel when I know I should workout when all I really want is to sit around all day.

2) We constantly battle with ourselves. When we have to decide what to do each day, we sit there and mull over what we should do (if anything at all). After it’s all said and done, we spend more time contemplating on what to do rather than just doing it.

3) We have something to believe in. Believing and committing yourself to something is probably the most powerful force in our lives. Having a schedule that you believe in will drive you to improve with every workout and commit you to getting up to do that workout every morning.

That’s really where  a scheduled program comes into action. There is no thinking or contemplating; all of the decisions have been made ahead of time and all that is left is action. Much like an emergency checklist for an airplane. When a propeller stops spinning or an engine catches fire is no time to sit and think about what needs to be done; it is time to take action. When you are sore and tired is no time to make decisions about your workouts; these need to be made ahead of time. This way you can spend your energy battling through the workout; not battling with your motivation to get going.

If you need help putting your program together contact me using the form below. Whether you are looking to improve your triathlon times this off-season or just need to start doing SOMETHING to change your life, I can help you create a schedule, find great workouts, and get you started on the path to a better you.

Sometimes You Just Have to Believe

My Fitness Strategy for the Rest of 2015

Ok, the wedding is over (what a party!!!), we are home from our honeymoon (super bummer but so much FUN!!), and I am getting back into the swing of things just in time….for the triathlon season to start. :p What a bummer!!!

I have been so busy planning a wedding, getting my flight stuff done, and getting married that I haven’t put any (zilch, zero, nadda) thought into what races I am going to do this year let alone started any specific training. Not to say I am out of shape, I have been doing my P90X3 and saw some pretty good results but I’m nowhere near to being on track for a 4-hour half ironman.

So what am I to do with a triathlon season quickly approaching upon me with little to no base?!?! (it’s all about that BASTE…mo’ butter; sorry going ADD over here) I know exactly what to do with a short season and that is do short races. Yea, I’m talking back to basics, less than one hour, push as hard as you can races that make your lungs want to explode.

That goes the same for my workouts too. No long runs or rides. No more long swim sets that lull you to sleep. My motto for 2015 is gonna be: Short and Sweet.

I don’t want to make it sound like it will be easy. On the contrary, the shortest workouts are usually the hardest; that’s why they’re short. My year is going to be full of short explosive bike intervals, laps around the track that will make my lungs want to explode, and swim intervals that will make my arms feel like jelly.

So here’s my schedule for the week:
Monday: swim (mid distance); strength with Tony (p90x3)
Tuesday: swim (test set Tuesday); hill repeats or crit ride
Wednesday: solo trainer ride; group track workout
Thursday: group trainer ride; solo track workout
Friday: swim (fast Fridays); strength with Tony
Saturday: swim
Sunday: ride/run combo on track or similar
With the liberty of adding in x yoga or dynamix as I wish to balance things out.

I’ll try and post some of my workouts so you can all get some ideas for speed workouts if you want. It’s important to incorporate them into your routine even if you’re doing longer distances but that’s a whole nother post.

Einstein Would’ve Been a Triathlete: Part 4

Welcome back for the final installation into the theories and thoughts that Albert Einstein is so famous for and why, in today’s culture, he would have been drawn to the multisport world and would have done well among its citizens. If you missed the first three parts, you missed a wild ride through the U.S. patent office, some exciting space travel, and a little bit of crazy talk. I suggest you get yourself caught up and check out the first three editions or even re-read them if you dare.

The last part of Einstein’s thoughts that we will explore for now is another quote that he has been attributed to have made. Einstein was very familiar with the powers present in the universe including electromagnetism, gravity, and other very powerful forces that are present in nature. With all of this knowledge, he still proclaimed that “compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.”

While most people look at this in terms of money, Einstein would have looked at this with a physical mindset. Let me explain how with another space ship analogy. Given a space ship millions of miles from any significant body (aka star or planet), it would be pretty close to being in a vacuum (no air drag, friction, gravity, etc. to slow it down or alter its course).  For the ease of numbers, we will set our space ship going 100 mph. Now we have two choices on how to burn your fuel and gain speed while we go.

Option 1, you go all out and burn all of your fuel in one day once a week (let’s say your fuel is replenished by solar power). Let’s say that burn will last you 5 hours and you get a 5% gain in speed each time. After the first day you are now going 105 mph, a month (30 days) later its up to 127.6 mph, and after a year of this you are going 1264.3 mph. That’s a pretty good gain.

Option 2, you do a little every day and, make smaller gains but your fuel is able to replenish each day. This time you only turn the boosters on for one hour and that increases your speed by 1%. If you start at 100 mph, after the first day you would only be at 101 mph, 102.1 mph the second, and 103.03 mph the third. After a month (30 days) your speed would be 133.45 mph, big woop. But after a year…you would be going 3,740.93 mph!!! Now that’s impressive. You would have made gained almost 3 times more speed than in option 1.

Now let’s say the space ship is you and your “burns” are you workouts. Which option would you take?  No brainer!!! Unfortunately for us we do not live in a vacuum (maybe under a rock…but not a vacuum) and we must deal with resistive forces like drag, injuries, or the off season which can impede with our progression. Einstein, being the intelligent man he was, would have taken this knowledge to heart and would have compounded his “interest” daily by making small “deposits” and soon he would have been leaps and bounds ahead of where he started.

The key thing to take from this is that with any gains a slow progression made during years of hard work can never be out done by the quick gains of bursting effort especially in endurance sports more than anything else. This means you have to get out there every day and make that small deposit into your endurance bank. Some days will be harder than others, mentally and physically, but the key to success is consistently training smart, recovering hard, and repeating the process. Don’t be fooled because the path to greatness cannot be achieved by trying to make big leaps because your setbacks will end up being greater than your leaps forward.

Check out this recent Facebook post by Mark Allen on this topic. DISCLAIMER: I am not linking this to spread Mark’s feeling about any certain type of training. I just wanted to point out his comment about health gains. 🙂

Weekly Review 02/17-02/23

Week 5 of the TriDot training in the books. I felt better after the lighter assessment week and was ready to hit the training hard again. I did every workout but my heart rate monitor seems to be a little fritzy. It’s probably time to change out the battery and see if that will help. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a call to Garmin to see if they can help me out.

I had a bit of an epiphany on my Saturday ride/run. My legs have been extremely tired and fatigued since I started the TriDot training and I was trying to figure it out. It finally hit me that I was probably low on electrolytes and slightly dehydrated. I know it is winter (even though it’s not cold here in SoCal) but I have been doing more trainer rides and I sweat ALOT during those rides. After my workout on Saturday I proceeded to take an Endurolyte pill and drink a second bottle of HEED. It seems to have helped but I will be sure to share more in the future.

All in all it was a pretty uneventful week. We did start a new DIY project that I will be sure to share when we get it finished this week. Also, check out the next Live Event from Triathlon Research. They are doing a seminar on “To be Coached, or Self-Coached: How to Plan your 2014 Season.” They are also having a drawing for some free coaching, TriSports gift cards, and free Endurance Films Videos. It is Thursday night at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST but they record it an you have a week to claim the prize. Sign up for it here if you’re interested.

Remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 9,900 yards/3 hours
Bike: 70.7 miles/3.75 hours
Run: 24.0 miles/3 hours
Strength: 0 hours

Einstein Would’ve Been a Triathlete: Part 3

If you’re new here and wondering how the theoretical physicist from the early 1900’s has anything to do with triathlon then I suggest you do some reading and get caught up!! (Part 1 and Part 2) For those of you returning for some mind bending talk about theories and space travel, welcome back and strap yourself in for a good ride. (Don’t be scared…no more NERD ALERTS, I promise!)

For those of you too lazy to read my previous posts or those who have had a bit too much hypoxic training in the pool, here’s a little recap of what has been covered so far. 1) In today’s world, Albert would’ve started his career in the patent office seeing developments of the carbon fiber bike, wetsuit, and shoe designs coming through and would have been the first to know about all the new crazes. 2) Einstein’s theory of relativity would have explained why those speed intervals seemed to take forever to complete and he would have done every interval with pride knowing that he was slowing time down with his own power.

The next thing that Einstein figured out would have helped him enormously in his training. It would have allowed him to repeatedly progress in his training and taken him to a new level with every race and training session. It is not another physical theory or phenomenon but an idea about humanity. The idea I am referring to is Einstein’s definition of insanity. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it but it goes something like this:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Why is it that some people do the same training over and over and expect to perform better on race day than previously? Einstein would’ve known this idea to be insane and would have changed up his training to continually improve himself. It could have been phasing his annual training plan to trying to push a slightly faster pace or more weight during the next workout. He would have known that any change in his training would create different results and he would have tried to hone in on the changes that created positive gains.

http://triathlonhumor.com/cant-burn-crazy/

Too many of us do the same thing year after year and expect each race to be better than the year before. We may see improvement throughout the race season because we are getting BACK into shape after taking the winter off. That tends to cloud your perspective because you feel yourself getting faster and feeling better. But if you were to look at the year to year results you would most likely find that your “improvements” are minimal or in the noise of the conditions of the day.

Do yourself a favor and save a trip to the looney bin by changing things up in your training if you are looking for improvements. There are certainly things you can do that would be a detriment to your racing (look at the holidays when training tends to lag and nutrition goes out the window…that’s change right?) but there are more things you can do to mix it up to keep yourself mentally fresh and constantly improve. Just remember it is rare to put in more effort and get less out of it so don’t be afraid to switch from long sets to short, high intensity sets and anywhere between (and back again). Just remember your race schedule and try to find that perfect mixture of endurance and speed that will get you that PR on race day. Oh, and don’t forget to recover hard.

Einstein Would’ve Been a Triathlete Part 2

In my last post I started in why I think that Albert Einstein would’ve been a triathlete in our current day and age. Yes, that Einstein; the Nobel Prize winner and theoretical physicist that everyone knows about. If you missed the first post, check it out and get caught up because the rest of these are sure to be a fun ride.

Now that Albert has his latest and greatest wetsuit, bike, and running equipment, it is time for him to hit the streets and workout. Now we all know (or have heard of) Einstein’s greatest physical theory: The Theory of Relativity. You don’t know it you say? Well what if I state it like this: E=mc². Now that you know what I am talking about, let’s get to know this theory a little better.

Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory

One part of Einstein’s theory (and believe it or not this is linked to the equation above) is the phenomenon known as time dilation. In laymen’s terms, this states that time for a moving object moves slower than time for an object at rest. This means if you synchronize a watch on Earth and keep it still (well, relative to the Earth’s motion which we’ll assume is zero) with a watch that is going to be moving really fast (like…half the speed of light), time will move slower for the watch in motion and therefore tick slower than the watch at rest.

Since we are the cool scientists, we will run an experiment by getting on a spaceship with the watch and leave at midnight on Jan 1^st already going our speed. We travel around space for a year, training hard to keep ourselves occupied, and we return at exactly midnight on Jan 1^st, according to our watch. We have aged a year, our training plan for the year is done, we set a bunch of new PRs (on the trainer and treadmill :/), and we are ready to do our New Year’s marathon we missed last year. When we land, we look at the watch we left here on Earth and it says Feb 25, 11:10 am. WTF?!?!?! These watches were perfectly synched and were proven to keep time perfectly!!! What happened?

NERD ALERT: I had to pull out my Modern Physics for a little review but I will try to simplify it as best I can…mostly for my sake. (Yep, got a C in that class….barely!!)

Time dilation is what happened. According to theory, the time difference between a stationary object and a moving object is:   Δt’ = Δt / √(1-(v²/c²)) where Δt’ is the change in time for the stationary object and Δt and v are the change in time and velocity for the moving object, respectively. Since speed is in the denominator, the faster the speed of an object the slower time goes.

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT……back to English and triathlon.

What does this mean to triathlon and how would Einstein have used it to his advantage? It means that when you are doing that REALLY  fast interval and you look down at your watch and the seconds seem to just stick and laugh at you before ticking again, it is partly due to time dilation. That’s the same reason why those slow rest intervals seem to just fly by…time is ACTUALLY moving faster for you when you’re going slow!!!

Einstein would have known this through his research and he wouldn’t have gotten discouraged or scared by those intervals that tended to linger on. He would have kept his motivation up by thinking “Man this interval seems really long, I must be going SOOO FAST!!!” and he would have never skipped an interval again!! By doing all of his intervals, he would have been able to get faster than those that got discouraged and shortened, or even skipped, their speed work.

NOTE: The speed of light is roughly 670,616,629 mph. If you spent your entire life on a Boeing 747 at max speed (604 mph) and lived for 100 years exactly (to the second according to your watch), you would actually be 100 years and 0.00128 seconds according to a watch that was stationary. But when you’re in zone 5, an extra 1E-21 second seems like an eternity. 😉

P.S. This is the last of the nerdy ones for this series so if I lost you, don’t be afraid of the next ones.

Weekly Review 02/02 to 02/09

So this week started out on a rough note following the Super Bowl. Not because I was hung over but because I ended up going to bed at about 8:30 after having maybe one too many drinks. I ended up waking up around 1 am, wide awake and couldn’t get back to sleep. After tossing and turning for a little bit I decided to get on the computer and fly the flight simulator mission I had been working on (Africa Relief mission if anyone does FSX). I finally passed the mission and decided to lie back down around 3:30. That made my 5:15 alarm seem way too early and I ended up dozing off and missing swim practice. Oops!!

The rest of the week went pretty much perfectly to my TriDot training plan. I am really starting to feel the fatigue in my muscles after 3 weeks of high heart rate work though. My Saturday bike ride consisted of some zone 4 intervals and I was barely able to break into it even though I was climbing and pushing hard.

As I was climbing my last hill (about an 8 minute climb), my watch showed 160 and climbing and then seemed to freeze right at 166 (my Z4 starts at 167). I just stared at it while I pushed harder and harder, trying to get it to crack into the next zone. Finally after what seemed like forever, it cracked 167. Wooh!! Now hold this for 3 more minutes….nope. I ended up hitting 168 about 30 seconds later and then cracked and it dropped back down to 164ish. I guess I am pretty fatigued to be unable to get my heart rate up that high.

I am realizing that I really need to get back into rolling my legs out daily. This is a good recovery technique and will allow me to be able to push my muscles to drive the heart rates I am shooting for. It is very hard to roll them out though because it can be uncomfortable and all I want to do at the end of the day is go to sleep. But like I said before, recovery can actually be the hardest part of training.

Until next time, remember to Train Smart and Recover Hard.

Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 6,350 yards/2 hours
Bike: 73.8 miles/3.5 hours
Run: 23.7 miles/2.75 hours
Strength: 0 hours