Celebrate the small successes. Never stop pursuing excellence. (TTT #16)

There are many small victories on the way to achieving your goals. Make sure and acknowledge them, celebrate them. They will encourage and inspire you.

Never stop looking forward and trying to improve.

Never "settle."

Yesterday I did the hour swim and had a performance that was extremely gratifying and validating of the kind of shape I believe I'm in. I'm excited, encouraged.

But I want more.

One of the things that makes an athlete great is, to borrow Simon Whitfield's mantra- "the relentless pursuit of excellence."

Never stop pursuing excellence. In life or in sport.

Training Tip Tuesday #15- The Run Workout Edition

Last week we talked about running. This week the discussion continues with some of my favorite, and I think, most beneficial running workouts. Each run has a time and place of the year that it is most appropriate but that differs for each athlete and what race they are preparing for.

Overspeed
Purpose: neurological firing, turnover and fiber recruitment
Interval: 30, 40 or 60 seconds.
Pace: Roughly 1 mile race pace or even faster
Recovery: Equal rest to the work interval. So- :30 on/:30 off, :40/:40, etc. Though sometimes I may change up the recovery as an athlete gets more fit.
Reps: 10-20
Summary: These are best done on a treadmill but a track can also be used. If you're using a treadmill then make sure and set it at 1.5% grade to offset for wind resistance. I like to leave the treadmill belt running and just hop off and straddle the side.
DISCLAIMER: Be careful hopping on and off the treadmill. You don't want this to be you-


Long Tempo
Purpose: Both mental and physical strength, aerobic conditioning
Interval: 30-60 minutes
Pace: Roughly 20-45sec slower than your open half marathon pace.
Recovery: There is none
Reps: 1
Summary: This is a long, aerobic tempo run to help you develop stamina and practice maintaining a strong pace for a long time. It's mentally challenging as much as it is physical. I usually warm up 10-20minutes, do a few drills and strides then get down to business. This can also be done as part of a long  as you usually accumulate a good amount of mileage during this workout. Don't try to race this workout. The point isn't to run as fast as you can it's to run an extended time at a hard but sustainable effort.

800's
Purpose: Anaerobic tolerance
Interval: 800 (or a distance that gets you roughly 2:30-4minutes of running)
Pace: Hard. Ok, actually like 5k pace
Recovery: 1-2min between reps
Reps: 4-8
Summary: I associate these workouts with pain. Pure, un-adultured pain. In this case pain leads to faster running though so I'm all for it. This is the kind of workout you do as you are approaching a key sprint or Olympic distance race. It teaches your body to tolerate (or possibly reject) large amounts of lactate which we need to do for running a hard 5k or 10k off the bike.
DISCLAIMER: Not responsible for any vomiting, wrenching, soiling of ones pants or accidental urination.

Hills
Purpose: To make you stronger and create more suffering
Interval: 100m (20sec) all the way up to 1mile or around 5-6minutes.
Pace: Whatever gets you to the top
Recovery: To the bottom
Reps: 4-12
Summary: Short ones, tall ones, steep ones, long ones. Hills are good for you. Most people don't like them but I actually love hill repeats! They are excellent for building strength and a secret way to get speed work in without the same risk of injury as running on the track. Triathlon isn't so much about pure speed when running it's about strength running on tired legs. Depending on the time of year and the races coming up I'll do anywhere from 20sec hill repeats to 4ish minutes. A grade of 6-8% is ideal but you can also use a treadmill. Hill sprints are similar to overspeed and long ones can be similar to mile repeats or 1200's. The difference is that you usually have a full recovery because of the jog to the bottom. This makes longer hill reps a VO2max type workout. Many people run hills on their long runs and think they're getting the benefit but it's not the same as truly running as hard as you can to the top of something tall, turning around and doing it again. Maybe you could do something like this-



These are just a few of the workouts I do throughout the year but all of them have a place in my program and in those of the athletes I coach. Please feel free to ask me if you have any questions about how to execute any of these workouts properly. Run strong!

Training Tip Tuesday #14- Once a Runner

Winter is an excellent time to work on your running. While biking on ice and snow isn't particularly safe and sitting on the trainer for 4 hours isn't especially appealing, it's relatively easy to pop out the door for a 30 minute run even with snow on the ground and sub freezing temperatures. For myself, I absolutely love running during this time of year. Here in Texas, the mornings are often just cool enough for a long sleeve and gloves. The cold crisp air is so refreshing and nothing starts the day right like a good run as the sun starts to peak over the horizon.

I think a lot of time we take the wrong approach to running during this time of year. In this post give some pointers on how to structure your run training to lead to a better, faster, healthier run in 2014. I've come up with a few basic guidelines that I follow during my winter running.

Increase frequency before duration
Running is a skill. Just like anything in life, if you want to get better at doing something you need to do it more. But running MORE doesn't have to mean running longer. In fact, as Matt Dixon talks about in this article- http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2014/01/07/winter-miles-summer-smiles there is a lot of fatigue and musculoskeletal stress that comes with completing a "long run" year round. I'd encourage you to read Matt's article as he is one of the best coach's in the business and knows his stuff. If you are already running three times a week for 30 minutes then instead of increasing to 40 minutes each run try to add a 4th run of 30 minutes on a different day. More advanced athletes may run twice a day some days. Two runs of 45 minutes each still equals 90 minutes of running in a day but you stay fresher and run with better form and quality. One thing I do with some some of my high school runners who are prepping for track season is have them do an easy "shakeout" run in the morning of 20-30minutes. This run is very, very easy and I'll often have them do some light drills and strides to open up their hips and prepare their body for a hard workout in the evening. This is a common practice with many cross country programs.

Emphasize technique
Many people don't realize how important technique is in running. We know it's important in the pool because we see that 50 year old, overweight, former collegiate swimmer jump in the lane next to us and start knocking out 1:05 100's. Coach's have come up with all sorts of catch phrases over the year to cue their athletes into certain aspects of running technique- "run tall," "hips forward," "pump your arms." Ever heard those before? It's easy to forget technique though when you're at mile 24 of the marathon and you just want a hamburger and something soft to lay down on. This time of year is the time to work on technique so that it becomes habit and you don't HAVE to think about it when you're grinding out 20 milers in the death of summer. I like to have my athletes do lots of drill work during this time of year. I have a few different videos I've found that give good instruction on how to properly perform a variety of drills. I've shared the one with Lauren Fleshman before which you can see in my top 10 tips to supercharge your offseason. Here's another one I like to use also from another well known runner.




Most of these drills are fairly basic and if you find yourself struggling to complete them then… you know what to work on! As we run we want to have a  quick ground reaction time and running drills will help you feel light and bouncy. Plus, you may learn some sweet moves you can break out on the dance floor.

Run really, really fast
Similar to the plyometric training we talked about with running economy, running very fast for a short duration can help you run more efficiently. Short sprints of 10-30 seconds in length with a full recovery aren't long enough to accumulate lactate or cause your form to break down because of fatigue. Instead they will engage your neurological system and help you recruit all sorts of lovely muscle fibers. You can do these sprints on the track, a grass field, the road or a treadmill. You can do them on flat, up a hill or even down hill. A simple set of 10x :30 on/:30 off will do wonders for your leg speed and turn over.. Just make sure you are fully warmed up and build into the efforts before you try to lay down some mad 100m speed. I learned my lesson last year when I got a bit carried away on some 100's (I love sprinting) and left my calves in knots for weeks. (On a side note- I've discovered that my calves are much less susceptible to getting tight when I am strength training regularly. I believe this to be because my core and hips are most stable while running so I'm not putting as much stress on my lower legs).

Run really, really slow
No, I'm not contradicting myself here. I recommend that the vast majority of your running during this time be done at a very slow pace. If you're not doing drills, strides or specific overspeed work then keep the runs easy and at a conversational pace. Like Matt talks about- think about our form while running and don't have any "bad footsteps." Many, many people I see get carried away while running and every run ends up being a tempo. They don't realize it but they want to "get a good workout in" and so they slowly ramp up the pace every run and end it breathing hard and feeling accomplished. The problem is they may have just sacrificed their form and not really accomplished anything. It may be a struggle because your overall training volume is lower and you're not fatigued from hard workouts. That's ok. Enjoy the feeling of running easy and feeling fresh. It's ok to pick it up occasionally if you're feeling especially frisky but don't turn every run into a Z2/Z3 tempo run.

It will be time to start running some hard workouts soon enough so enjoy this time of year to increase your frequency, work on your technique and get some pop in your step. I'll be happy to challenge anyone in a dance-off consisting as long as it consists only of running drills

Training Tip Tuesday #13: The 6 Million Dollar Year

It's a new year. That means new plans, new goals, new ambitions. Here in America we are really, really good at goal setting. We love to make plans about how we're going to improve, what we're going to do better and the incredible new breakthroughs we're going to have! The problem is that the actual work required to reach those goals isn't as fun and grandiose as the idea is. Before you think I'm pointing fingers here I'll be the first to admit that I struggle with this as much as the next person. The process of coming up with ideas and planning new things is FUN. No work is required yet! It's the working at it that sucks.

Many of us are told from a very young age to "dream big," "shoot for the stars," that we can be "anything we want to be." Others of us maybe didn't receive such encouragement as youths but we've developed big goals and dreams for ourselves along the way. We always want improve and make ourselves into a better version of ourselves, that's the whole goal of triathlon right? To get better, stronger, faster than before. I mean… we HAVE the technology.



The Ironman motto is- "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE," and we try to embody that in our every day lives by constantly attempting the impossible. (Then immediately blogging about it and instagraming all the photos we took).

Well I'm not here to discount that or rain on any parade. However, as we think about next year and begin planning our season I want to explore the idea that maybe we don't need to do anything incredible or drastically different to get better. Maybe we don't have to have 1700 followers on twitter or 89 likes on our Facebook post to be a success. Maybe we don't need to take our training to a whole new level or do anything radically different.

Success in endurance sport is usually marked by quiet, consistent hard work. Whether you're a fan of WWE wrestling or not (I'll come right out and say it- I'm not), this quote by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson sums up the point I'm trying to get across quite nicely-

"Success isn't always about "greatness,' it's about consistency. Consistent, hard work garners success. Greatness will come."

My goal this year is to be the best triathlete I can be. I want to be successful. I have big goals, big dreams and big aspirations. But one thing I've realized is that success in triathlon doesn't come from one incredible workout or one amazing session. It comes from consistent and quiet dedication to the task at hand. I don't need to do anything crazy. I just need to show up, day in and day out.

So my goal for this next year isn't just to win races or qualify for the world championship. It's to be consistent, maybe quiet at times, but to get the work done.

A Bible verse that I've been reflecting on a lot lately is 1st Thessalonians 4:11-

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands…"

I don't really like minding my own business or being quiet but maybe it's something I should work on.

So here's to 2014. Here's to big dreams and a strong work ethic. Here's to quiet, unassuming dedication to excellence. Here's to your best season yet and the fruition of your labor. Nothing crazy, nothing new. Here's to getting the work done.