Training Tip Tuesday #12- The Twelve Days of Christmas: Triathlete Style

In the spirit of Christmas and holiday cheer, I present a triathlete's rendition of the 12 days of Christmas for your reading and viewing pleasure.

On the first day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
An Ironman registration FREE!

On the second day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
2 times compression and,
an Ironman registration FREE!

On the third day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman registration FREE!

On the fourth day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman registration FREE!

On the fifth day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
fi-ive In-su-lated bottles…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman Registration FREE!

On the sixth day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
6 mile repeats,
fi-ive In-su-lated bottles…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman Registration FREE!

On the seventh day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
7 saddle sores
6 mile repeats,
fi-ive In-su-lated bottles…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman Registration FREE!

On the eighth day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
8 cups of coffee
7 saddle sores
6 mile repeats,
fi-ive In-su-lated bottles…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman Registration FREE!

On the ninth day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
9… 10 Garmin XT
8 cups of coffee
7 saddle sores
6 mile repeats,
fi-ive In-su-lated bottles…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman Registration FREE!

On the tenth day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
10 x 100's free
9… 10 Garmin XT
8 cups of coffee
7 saddle sores
6 mile repeats,
fi-ive In-su-lated bottles…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman Registration FREE!

On the eleventh day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
11 energy gels
10 x 100's free
9… 10 Garmin XT
8 cups of coffee
7 saddle sores
6 mile repeats,
fi-ive In-su-lated bottles…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman Registration FREE!






On the twelfth day of Christmas my coach gave to me…
12 salt capsules
11 energy gels
10 x 100's free
9… 10 Garmin XT
8 cups of coffee
7 saddle sores
6 mile repeats,
fi-ive In-su-lated bottles…
4 hour ride,
3 stress fractures,
2 times compression and,
an Ironman Registration FREE!

Training Tip Tuesday #11- Swim Fast to Swim Fast

A big issue I see with many triathletes is that they don't swim fast enough. "It's not my fault I can't swim fast," you may say. "I'm not a professional at this." I'm not talking about fast in an absolute sense but rather a relative one. Whatever is fast for you is fast. To put it another way- most triathletes don't swim HARD often enough. Now, I don't like using the word "hard" to describe any form of swimming because swimming harder doesn't necessarily mean swimming faster. BUT, to get better at swimming you do need to swim hard. And fast. And figure out how to swim hard quickly and fast easily. Makes sense right?

The problem with swimming fast is that it's more painful than swimming slow. The problem with swimming slow is that you swim slow if you swim slow. Most triathletes get in the pool 2 or 3 times a week. They'll do a nice long warm up, some kicking with fins, plenty of catch up, finger tip drag and fist drill work then maybe slap on a pair of huge, oversized paddles and knock out 5x200 of pulling. Don't be ashamed if this is you. It's me as well. Now, drills and paddles have their place but they are not a replacement for hard work. The beauty (and curse) of swimming is that it's non-impact and so we can push ourselves much harder without the danger of breaking down. If you are swimming four times a week or less I'd argue that EVERY time you swim you should have some sort of fast swimming involved. It may look different every time but it should be there. Your stroke will improve and you will swim faster for it.

Yes, you need some endurance work to swim an Ironman or even a half. But for most people it's not the endurance that is their limiting factor, it's their speed.

Ways to swim fast

1) Join a masters group
I'm a huge fan of swimming in a group. Having a coach on deck screaming at you and hurling pull buoys is a phenomenal way to get motivated. Swimming with other people is much more fun and you will automatically work harder without thinking about it. You usually spend all your time trying to catch the feet in front of you that you forget your heart is pounding and your lungs feel like they may explode. If your masters group does mainly sprint work don't utterly neglect the aerobic stuff. You can easily get that in on a weekend or an extra swim on your own. San Antonio has a great masters group led by a very knowledgeable coach, Susan Ingraham. A good coach knows when to break down your stroke and work on technique, and when to give you the evil eye and make you shut up and swim. Susan can do both of these + own you in a straight up 100 free.

2) Swim with fins
And no, I don't mean just for kick sets. I mean do some swim sets occasionally with fins. If 1:30 pace is your normal race pace and you slap a pair of fins on, all of a sudden 1:20's feel just as easy. This will teach you how to feel and pull the water while moving at a greater velocity so that when you go back to swimming 1:25's or 1:28's it feels much slower and more comfortable.

3) Sprint as hard as you can
Whether it be a 50, 100 or a 200. Test yourself occasionally and see how fast you can go if you go all out. One set we did with masters last year that was a lot of fun (and a lot of lactic acid) was 6x100 on a 6 minute send off. Sounds like a sissy set doesn't it? Well each 100 was an all out sprint and let me tell you- by the time we were starting #3, 6 minutes was nowhere near a long enough interval. It was pain. Fortunately, I'd only drank 8 oz of chocolate milk before the workout instead of my normal pint so there weren't too many chunks floating in the pool when I was done. Yes, you may feel like you're going to throw up. Yes, your whole body will start to tie up like your swimming through a bowl of jello. Yes, you may taste pennies in your mouth but those are all good signs that you're going as hard as you absolutely can.

Remember,

"It never gets easier, you just go faster."

This is hard swimming. The legendary "Auburn puke session"

Watch more video of 2008 - Top 10 Floswimming Videos on www.floswimming.org

Completely unrelated video I made of some cyclocross racing I did last weekend in Fredericksburg.


Toughcross2013 from Mark Saroni on Vimeo.

Training Tip Tuesday #10- Camp Cobb

The weekend following thanksgiving I organized a small training camp in Tyler, Tx for a small group of pro triathletes. John Cobb and Jeremy Brown at Cobb Cycling were kind enough to help facilitate some of the camp activities and provide us with some meals and a location to base our rides from. It was a low key way for many of us to start easing back into training. We weren't too worried about intervals or splits, just getting some miles in and enjoying spending time with friends. Training camps are a great opportunity to get a focused block of training in without the distractions of work and life. More than just added training, I think one of the biggest benefits of doing a camp is being able to focus more on recovery. We didn't start our activities until 8am most days and the only thing we did between workouts was eat and watch football. As busy triathletes, our days are normally jam packed from dawn to dusk and I always find it refreshing to be able to relax between training sessions without scurrying around.

We had 10 athletes attend the camp. Jeremy Brown, Seth Cooke and Clay Emge our local, Tyler residents. Natalie Bach drove in from Longview for the weekend. The out of towers included Robbie Wade, my wife Jessica and I from San Antonio, Lauren Lewis and Scott Wilkinson from College Station and Ben Hall from the countr- errrr... state, of Louisiana.

We kicked things off on Saturday morning with an easy 3 mile jog and a 1 mile prediction run at the track. The way the prediction run works is everyone tries to guess what time they will run for a mile and no one gets to wear a watch. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that we all started together and no one knew what the scrawny guy in compression socks next to him had put down for a time. As you can see from the picture below, Robbie is basically a human garmin. Maybe he could get a job testing their watches for them. Scott won the award for most horrible pacing abilities.

Next we headed over to Cobb Cycling to change and head out for a bike ride. Clay was kind enough to  tell me the original route I had planned was complete trash and led us on some of the most pleasant, smoothest roads in all of Tyler. We also managed to find a hill or two. Namely the beast-

This sign wasn't there for us but we still received a warm welcome 

You can get a taste of the beast yourself if you care to give "Texas' Hardest Half" a good old-fashioned tri. Steve Farris does an excellent job putting the race on and it is indeed quite challenging. You'll get to see the beauty of East Texas in full force though and there is also a sprint and olympic for the faint of heart and weak of quadricep. www.tritylerhalf.com

We were all pretty horribly out of shape so the originally planned 80 miles quickly turned into 67 and everyone was perfectly ok with that. We adjourned for the afternoon before meeting up for a pizza dinner and watching one of the craziest plays in college football.

Sunday morning kicked off with a 10 mile trail run that quickly turned from easy to steady to hard to balls-to-the-wall-flying-over-rocks-and-roots. I swear I was close to pr'ing my 5k those last 3.1 miles. Fortunately I only rolled my ankle twice and was quickly on my feet before the pack could run me over and disappear into the brush.

Some breakfast and the compulsory chocolate milk had us refueled and ready to hit the pool. Most of us knocked out a good set of-

While Robbie and Seth kept the hot tub bubbling for us.

Finally it was off to Cobb Cycling again for an easy spin. John was kind enough to tell some of us all the things we were doing horribly wrong on our bikes,

and Ben provided the scenery...

Glutes and calves like this are what 2:10 70.3 bike splits are made of

We wrapped up at Jason's deli where John entertained us with some stories from his early days and gave some excellent advice to all the young pro's on how to conduct ourselves as true professionals.

Most of the crew had to head out after that because of school, work or… actually school and work were the only reasons. Ben Hall stuck around with me for a couple more days so we could practice taking our shirts off and eating large amounts of ice cream.

Monday morning we slept in, lazed around Cobb Cycling and bribed them with starbucks coffee for use of their internet. We hit up a noon swim at UT Tyler with the illustrious Bob Hepler of UT Tyler. Bob was my cross country coach in college and has been my mentor and role model for many years.

After our swim we kitted up and jumped on the bikes for a cruisy 3 hour ride around Tyler. I got to examine Ben's glutes for much of this ride and am still very impressed by their strength.

Another plus from this ride was I found out how inept I am at operating a GoPro. We staged many dramatic attacking and pacelining scenes that were apparently never captured and will be forever buried in the annals of history.

We finished things off on Tuesday morning with an easy 8 mile run with Bob. Well, it was easy for us at least...

Now you know why the UT Tyler XC team is so successful.
They have this angry mammal chasing them in every workout.

An easy 2k swim and we were done! Coming out of a camp is always a bit depressing as you have to return to the reality of normal life but I always find myself much more motivated to stay consistent with my training. Getting to spend time with friends and seeing how hard they work every day motivates me to keep working hard so I can wipe the pavement with their faces on race day.

A huge thanks to John and Jeremy at Cobb Cycling for making this weekend possible and for capturing all the media footage. A big thanks is also owed to our home stays, Summer Brenneman and Karen Brown for letting a bunch of smelly triathletes crash their house for the weekend. And finally thanks to UT Tyler for letting us use their pool.

Word on the street is that more camps are in the works and will be offered to the general public in 2014 so stay tuned for more details!!

Training Tip Tuesday #9- A Look at Running Economy: Part 3

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and has had some time to work off that delicious turkey, gravy, dressing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie! Actually, I contend that thanksgiving food is relatively healthy if it weren't for the enormous quantity we feel compelled to consume. How is meat, potatoes, maybe a salad and some rolls bad for you? It's the sheer volume of food that does us in and lays waste to our ambitious holiday goals of staving off the ever reproducing lipids appearing about our torso. Oh well, whatever you ate for thanksgiving I hope it was delicious and enjoyed with friends and family!

To continue our discussion of running economy I will finally divulge what Saunders et al., concluded can actually be done to improve RE. 

1) Altitude exposure

There are various mechanisms that researchers believe may play a role in lowering RE with altitude exposure. However one thing is for sure- numerous studies have found a lower VO2 (oxygen) during a steady state test in athletes following 3 weeks at altitude. The performance gains are well proven but exactly WHY or HOW isn't as conclusive. Studies have shown that Kenyan runners (living and training at altitude) did not "accumulate lactate during running until near very high or peak exercises intensities, and had much lower lactate both at altitude and sea level at high relative exercise intensities." This was in comparison to Scandinavian runners who lived and trained at sea level. One of the reasons for this is thought to be the greater skeletal muscle oxidative enzyme capacity exhibited in Kenyan runners which shifts their metabolism from anaerobic to aerobic. Easier said than done altitude training obviously has it's benefits but the expense and length of time you must remain at altitude doesn't make it a viable option for most of us to improve our RE.

2) Training in the Heat

Slightly easier to attain for those of us living in Texas, a mildly elevated core temperature is thought to increase RE by "increasing the efficient of the working muscle." Heat training promotes an increase in plasma volume and decreased blood viscosity. Another adaptation is the ability to run at a given speed with lower heart rate and core temperature following a period of heat training. For most of us, heat training isn't a choice in the summer and I don't recommend post-poning your runs until 3:00 pm during a warm July day just to accomplish this benefit. The article doesn't state what temperature constituted "heat" training but I'd be willing to guess it isn't 110 degrees that is relatively common for a Texas summer day.

3) Strength Training

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO… I can nearly hear the moans emitting from my laptop speakers. For the most part, us triathlete HATE strength training. And I totally understand and can sympathize with the time-crunched triathlete who is having a hard enough time fitting in three sports a week much less a fourth. Well, the studies are in and other than helping injury prevention (another benefit I think strength training has), strength training can and WILL help you run faster. I apologize for the slightly wordy quotation but I think Saunders et al., summarizes things much more nicely and intelligently than I can-

"Endurance athletes must be able to sustain a high average running velocity for the duration of a race." (That's called going as fast as we can for a long time) "This emphasizes the role of neuromuscular characteristics in voluntary and reflex neural activation, muscle force and elasticity, running mechanics, and the anaerobic capacities in elite endurance runners.” (Helps your brain and sympathetic nervous system fire muscles quickly so you can go fast).

This strength training can be either in the form of heavy-weight training or plyometric type explosive-training. Both have their place and their advantages.

Heavy-weight strength training was shown to enhance RE in well trained triathletes (average VO2max of 69 mL/kg/min, which is very high). If it’s benefitting very high level athletes who are already operating further towards the ceiling of their performance capabilities then chances are it can benefit you as well. A great example of someone promoting this in our local San Antonio community is Jen Rulon, of Endurance-Fit. I highly discourage jumping into deadlifts and deep squats if you don’t have a personal trainer or someone who can coach you in the proper technique.

Plyometric training is very popular with sprinters, throwers, football players and other power athletes but it also has its place in the endurance community. By enhancing the muscles ability to generate power and promoting storage and use of elastic energy plyometric training can help a runner produce more force “without a proportionate increase in metabolic energy requirement.” Basically, you can push off the ground harder and faster without using more oxygen. A good thing! Plyometric training is a little easier to do on your own or with a coach because all you need is some space and lots of sweat. Here are a few basic, introductory drills and plyometrics for runners.

The area of strength training is one I think triathletes and runners have the most room for improvement. If strength training can elicit significant performance gains from elite athletes who are at the very tip of the their ability than it will definitely help beginner, intermediate and advanced triathletes as well. 

Training Tip Tuesday #8- A Look at Running Economy: Part 2

Last week we discussed what (the deuce) running economy is and why it is an important marker for endurance performance. Being able to use our precious oxygen in the most economical way possible is extremely advantageous whether we be racing sprint triathlons or Ironman. Originally I was going to talk about how we can improve RE this week but after further review of the material I've decided to extend this discussion one more week. This week I'll be covering some of the various biomechanical, physiological and anthropometric characteristics that effect RE. This doesn't necessarily mean you should start employing an intervention method to enhance RE. It's simply a sampling of variables that effect RE. NEXT week I'll talk about specific interventions that might help you improve yours. There is one in particular that is easy to implement and carries a host of benefits. Below, I've highlighted a few of the interesting and relevant factors effecting RE. Once again, the Saunders article is my primary source along with some confirmation from various other articles.



Anthropometric Characteristics

I'll place my bet on skinny calves all day long

Since none of us have control over how tall we are, how wide our pelvis is or the size of our feet I'll brush over these factors relatively quickly. The biggest take away is that less body mass on the extremities is conducive to better RE. Small calves are better than big calves when it comes to running fast. This is also part of the reason we wear lighter weight shoes in racing. Less mass at the extremities means less effort to move that mass and less oxygen required.

Physiological Factors

It's generally accepted that a higher percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers is associated with better RE. We'll touch on this more next week when we discuss specific interventions to improve RE but more running results in an increase in oxidative mechanisms and enzymes. From the Saunders et al., article- "An increase in the respiratory capacity of skeletal muscle permits trained runners to use less oxygen per mitochondrial respiratory chain a given sub maximal running speed." Quite a mouthful I know but the takeaway is this- improving our aerobic energy system makes us more economical.

Stride length

Research has shown that RE is best with a self-selected stride length during running. That is, RE gets worse when subjects consciously tried to shorten or lengthen their stride different from how they normally stride when running. I don't think this has to mean that we should never try to adjust our stride. Most of these studies were done on well trained individuals running at a speed of 8-10 mph (7:30-6:00 min/mile pace. For a well trained runner that is a fairly relaxed pace and they have undoubtedly run hundreds and hundreds of miles at that pace and become very economical. Below we'll discuss the difference between over striding and heel striking. I believe that correcting over striding is a good thing. There is also a difference in whether our stride length comes from in front of us or behind us. If you aren't already running sub 7:00 or 6:00 min/mile pace for a half marathon than don't completely throw the idea of adjusting stride length out the window.

Footstrike

Oddly enough, HEEL STRIKERS were found to have better RE than forefoot strikers! Utterly shocking and utterly conflicting with what is the current day trend of forefoot running. Personally, I don't think HOW the foot hits is the ground is quite as important as WHERE it hits the ground in relation to our center of mass. I will try not to climb on too much of a soap box here but I definitely think this point deserves note. There is a difference between heel striking and over striding. Over striding is bad, heel striking isn't necessarily bad.  I don't think the issue of over striding should be fixed by focusing on what part of our foot touches the ground first but where the foot touches the ground. Many elite runners are known to be heel strikers and I know of at least one extremely successful triathlon coach who actually tries to coach his athletes to become heel strikers.  It's a point worth considering anyways.

Flexibility

No consensus was found on this issue. Some studies found that improved hip flexion and extension resulted in improvement in RE. Many others have found that poor flexibility actually resulted in better RE. This is thought to be due to better elastic return of energy because of stiffer joints, muscles and tendons. My personal belief is that there is an appropriate level of flexibility and that each person is different. Some people are naturally quite flexible and don't need specific stretching exercises to stay that way. Others, I think, can benefit from stretching muscles around the hip that allow them to have full range of motion during their running stride. If tight hip flexors are preventing you from extending fully at the toe off phase of your run stride then you might benefit from stretching your hip flexors.


I want to be careful in mentioning these various variables that coerce to generate running economy. Many of them might seem contradictory. For instance- if a self selected stride length is best then why might flexibility and increased hip extension improve my RE? None of what I've outlined above are interventions that should be taken to augment RE. I will cover that next week. In the meantime I wanted to paint a broader picture of the issue in hopes of eliciting better understanding. Another confounding is that each individual is different with a different physiological, anthropometrical (I just feel really smart typing that word) and biomechanics make up. Even among elite runners there is a wide discrepancy in stride mechanics, muscle fiber type and flexibility. My goal is to educate and elicit thought.

ipsa scientia potestas est

Knowledge itself is power

Training Tip Tuesday #7- A Look at Running Economy: Part 1

Ahhh running economy. That elusive, mystic enigmatic variable we have heard reference to but aren't quite sure exactly what it means. We shall attempt to delve into the intricacies of this nebulous term and hopefully come out better informed and wiser on the other side. In this post I will do my best to explain the definition of running economy, what it measures and the implications thereof.

Much of the information on running economy I will present today comes from a review article titled, "Factors Affecting Running Economy in Trained Distance Runners (Saunders, Pyne, Telford & Hawley 2004)." In their article, Saunders et al., summarizes the information on running economy gathered from over 100 pieces of literature. For the purposes of this post I will be mainly referring to the Saunders, piece. If you have questions about the other sources and references please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to provide the references for you.

What the deuce is running economy, you ask? Well, allow me- "Running economy (RE) is typically defined as the energy demand for a given velocity of sub maximal running." Say whaaa???? To put it more simply, running economy is essentially how much oxygen we use to run at a given speed. RE is measured at a much lower speed than maximal intensity because it's not very applicable to see how efficient we are with oxygen while sprinting. The reasons for this are 1) because sprinting 100m has little to do with the aerobic energy system and 2) because we don't sprint a 5k, 10k or marathon off the bike. It is much more applicable to find out how efficient we are with oxygen while running 10k pace or half marathon pace than running 4:00 minute pace for 200 meters.

An example protocol for testing RE would be to have all subjects perform a 10min run at 8 mph (7:30 pace). During this run the subjects VO2 and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) would be measured. (RER shows what percentage of fat versus carbohydrate our body is using for fuel. An RER of 1.00 reflects 100% carbohydrate utilization to fuel the working muscles). Having better running economy basically means that we need less oxygen to run at a given intensity. I don't know about you but I'm all for conserving every spare O2 molecule I have when I'm racing hard trying to beat the fellow next to me.

This helpful little graph from the Saunders paper shows how two elite level runners can have nearly identical values for their VO2max but have drastically different running economy (and different 10k times).

With RE it isn't about how fast or how far you can go, or how high your VO2max is, It's about how efficiently you can use the resources (oxygen) you have while running at a given intensity.

This is important because racing is all about efficiency. The goal of a race is to get to the finish line as fast as we can. Now, if we can conserve energy by being more… dare I say economical? This will allow us to go faster at the same level of effort.

To put it another way- lets say my "threshold" intensity is 50 mL of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (mL/kg/min) and I can run 7:30 pace at this intensity. If I can improve my running economy so that I only have to use 45 mL/kg/min of oxygen to go 7:30 pace, that means that I can now bump my intensity back up to 50 mL/kg/min (my threshold) but I'm now running 7:15 pace instead of 7:30 pace. I'm running at the same intensity but my pace is faster at that intensity because I'm more economical That means I'm going faster and more likely to beat you!!

Hopefully this exiguous attempt at analyzing running economy was somewhat enlightening and didn't confuse the issue more. Next week I'll discuss ways we can improve running economy. In the meantime feel free to chime in with comments, questions, complaints or disagreements you may have.

Until next time!

Saunders, P. U., Pyne, D. B., Telford, R. D., & Hawley, J. A. (2004). Factors affecting running economy in trained distance runners. Sports Medicine, 34(7), 465-485.

Training Tip Tuesday #6- It's About the Process

We'll keep it short and sweet this week. Here's a little anecdote to chew on and decide what it means for you.


"It’s about the process. It doesn’t matter what you do tomorrow and it doesn’t matter what you did yesterday. It’s about today and making today count. That’s especially true in training but that’s the same mentality I carry into racing. Focus on the task at hand, not on the finish line or the next part of the race, but what it is that is right in front of you at the moment.” 

                 - Jordan Rapp (6x Ironman Champion)


Focus on the task at hand. Balance and consistency is key.