I spent the morning at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine today to be with a new athlete joining the team as she did her running lactate threshold test.  She did a great job and reminded me of a very important strategy on pacing for endurance athletes.  I call it the boiling frog approach.  Here’s a little background……    I’ve noticed over the past few years of my training that I have some of my best workouts after putting in a different training session first followed by a small break.  For example, I often do one of my training runs early in the morning followed by a very short break to get a small bite to eat and then head to the pool for a swim set.  These have always been some of my absolute best swim workouts.  I’ve seen the same results with other combos as well……swim, small break, ride……etc.  When I first noticed this phenomenon, I remembered some research a coach brought up to me in college.  I can’t remember all the exact details but this track coach had a shortage of athletes at a track meet so, cruelly, he had a few of his throwing athletes, (Javelin, Shot…..), compete in the morning running races.  All of the athletes suffered through the runs and then went back to the hotel for a quick break.  About a half an hour later they came back to do their real events of discus, Javelin, and shot put.  Every single athlete broke their personal bests that day by huge amounts.  This of course caught the coaches attention and he traced it back to the running they did just before their events.  He was definitely on to something.  I still feel sorry for the shot putter out there trying to compete in a 400m dash!   Yet another example came to me when working with my coach, Neal Henderson, on pacing the marathon in an Ironman.  He instructed me to really hold back on the first 10km of the marathon.  “run as slow as you have to in order to feel relaxed and calm,” he told me.  Then at 10km very slowly raise the pace and hold it.  If possible very slowly raise it again at 20km.  I used his advice and broke my Ironman marathon record by almost 40minutes.  I have to mention here that my buddy and I used this same pacing technique on his mental breakthrough workout last week and he absolutely killed it!  The workout consisted of 3×10km done back to back with the first 10k in Z2, the second in mid Z3, and the 3^rd in high Z3 to low Z4.  He negative split each 10k, and ran the 3^rd 10k at a 3:05 marathon pace! Nice man!  So what the heck is going on here?…….The test with my athlete this morning kind of brought it all together for me.  Paul and I started her with her warm up at a relatively slow pace, but it was still clipping along.  After 20min we checked the lactate in her blood and noticed it was pretty high…..almost 3mmol.  Paul being the seasoned pro he is, brought her down to a walk for a few minutes and then started her back up again at a little bit slower pace.  After 4min her lactate had already dropped quite a bit.  Now she was just above 2mmol.  He decided he wanted to slow down just a little more.  Another 4 minutes and she was down to 1mmol and change.  At that point he started the test we all know and love with progressively faster paces and finger sticks.  After about 5 stages we were well passed the speed we originally started her at for her warm up, but the cool thing is that her lactate was still way below 3mmol.  If Paul wouldn’t have slowed her down and started again her body would have never caught up with the lactate production and she would have spiked her lactate way sooner than her true Lactate Threshold.    Okay…..I think I get it.  Basically there are two lessons here:  1. “if we start at a pace that is relatively too hard, we will never reach our true best pace later in the workout/race.”   Or another way to look at it is “slowly building lactate from a nice low amount will allow us to reach a much faster pace than spiking lactate and then trying to catch up.”    2.  “If we can rev up our bodies a bit and then back way off for long enough to let our bodies catch up with the lactate, when we go back to the hard pace we will usually start with a lower lactate and therefore be able to progress higher up the pace ladder before we reach threshold.”  Man…..that’s hard to put into words!  I hope that makes sense???????  Anyway, back to the boiling frog.  Legend has it that if you throw a frog into boiling water it will jump right out and you will go hungry.  But if you put the frog in cold water and let it get at home and then slowly crank up the heat it will be boiling before the frog realizes and jumps out……frog legs for you!  Thus, I now think of this as the boiling frog pacing strategy.                                                                                                                                      Until next time, shop at trisports.com using my discount code chowie-s, eat more powerbar, and tell your endurance family you love them.                                                                                                                                                                                  

The Trap:I just finished another bike LT test at the center this AM and once again I have been reminded of a lesson I swore I wouldn’t have to learn again……GRRRR!  The lesson goes like this:  Make your easy training easy and make your hard training hard!  Avoid gravitation to the middle!  The trap I run into is that I crave improvement so badly that I end up focusing on pace way too much instead of focusing on heart rate and or power.  For example, my Zone 2 on the bike is from 102bpm to 122bpm or in power, from 140watts to 200watts.  I head out for my long Z2 sets and I try to sit right at 112bpm and 170watts, but I keep glancing at my pace.  “Wow!,” I think to myself, “I’m really rolling today in Z2!  Man!…..I’m holding 36km/hr!  No wait!…….37km/hr!”  Then the dreaming starts.  If I hold this pace in Z2 for an Ironman I will go this fast…..etc…..etc.  BAM! my mind has shifted completely over to pace and I end up “cheating” a bit on heart rate and power to hold my hopeful pace.  When I finish the ride and look at the data I realize I actually spent the majority of the time in low or even middle Z3.  Sure, I will rationalize it by telling myself it “felt” like Z2, and sometimes this is valid, but even in this case, I was probably on the high end of Z2. Lesson Time:So there I sit with my very patient coach, Neal Henderson at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, and we look at the results of my LT test. While we both agree they are good, they could be even better if I can get better at polarizing my effort.  He pulled out some recent training done by one of the best runners the USA has seen in a long while.  (no names….sorry).  Just keep in mind that this guy runs low 28 for a 10k and recently ran a 2:10 marathon.  Holy #$%@!   We looked over a week he put in during a hard phase of training.  He basically had two hard days in the week…..Wed. and Fri.  One of the days he did a set of 10×1km repeats.  The other day he did a long drawn out Z4 set.  The other five days of the week were all low intensity with some small bouts of endurance work spread out over all of the Z2 runs and a few small VO2 max/Z5 efforts on one of the runs.  All together he put in about 110miles for the week.  Those two hard efforts amounted to about 14miles of hard running which is only about 12% of his total volume.  The really hard and short Z5 bouts he did amounted to about 2% of his total volume.  The Z3 work was only about 20% of his total volume.  This means 66% of his running was done in Z1 or Z2!!!!!   Eye Opener:Okay that makes sense.  I coach my athletes and myself with very similar percentages to the above athlete in the hard phases.  But here’s the eye opener for me………We looked in more detail at his easy running, (66% remember!), and he kept the effort no higher than the middle of Z2.  In fact, a huge amount of it was right on the line between Z1 and Z2!  Okay, his easy is definitely easy.  Then we looked at the hard days.  His 10km PR is right around 28:15.  This brakes down to 2:49 per kilometer.  Those 10×1k repeats he did……he ran them right at 2:50 per kilometer!  HARD! HARD! HARD!  His lactate threshold is right around 4:45 per mile.  The long drawn out Z4 set he did was right around 4:55 per mile.  Just barely under threshold!  And what do you know……this works out to right around 2:10 pace for a marathon!  His hard is definitely hard.  I so hope that writing this blog entry will help me to avoid having to learn this lesson again in the future.  It’s all about Polarization of the effort.  Until next time, shop at trisports.com using my discount code chowie-s, eat more powerbar, and tell your endurance family you love them.

I am absolutely 100% attached to my Finis Tempo Timer in my swimming sets lately.  There are so many things you can use it for.  The down side is that I use it so much I swear I can still hear the beeping in my sleep!  “No, it’s not a bomb.  It’s the TT beep that has been ingrained in your head!”  I figure the insanity is a small price to pay for the benefits of this little sucker though.  We are all crazy anyway right?  Here are a few ways I have been using it……………

TEMPO TIMER PROFILE:  For the bike and the run our whole team uses blood lactate profile tests performed at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine to mark and measure fitness.  I’ve always wanted to do the same test in swimming, but the logistics are a real pain.  I’ve come up with a pretty good substitute though using the Tempo Timer.  I just did this test recently so I will use myself as a model. The test consists of 20×100yds performed at a constant leave interval.  Each 100 is done at a progressively faster cadence dictated by the Tempo Timer.  I decided to use 1:45 for my leave time.  I chose this interval in hopes of getting somewhere from 20 to 30 seconds rest after each 100.  For the cadence setting I started at 1.09 and dropped down by .01 every 100 so that my last/20th 100 was done at a setting of 0.90.  I chose this range because I know I am pretty comfortable right around 1.00 so I tried to make that the middle of the range.  To keep precise splits I used a stop watch and here are the results:                             So this data and graph serves as a nice baseline.  I can follow the same protocol in the future and put the results right on top of each other to hopefully see improvement.  Just like the lactate curve in the blood lactate tests; my hope is to see the black line shift down.                                                                                                                                                                                                PUSHING THE CEILING: I try to spend at least a small piece of each swimming session pushing on my cadence ceiling.  In the test above I was really starting to lose my stroke as the cadence approached 0.90.  I’ve learned to embrace this though.  My swimming coach has taught me to go ahead and struggle with the higher cadences even though the stroke starts to break down.  The idea is to keep pushing the limit where you feel comfortable and that comfort range will get bigger.  One of my favorite tricks is to push the ceiling right before a big main set.  If 1.00 is feeling really comfortable, but I want to try to do the main set at 0.95, then I’ll put in some small 25s or 50s at 0.90.  Then when I go back to the 0.95 it feels much easier.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            PERFECT PRACTICE: The low end of your comfort range with the TT is really important too.  I think of it like learning a complicated piece of music.  My guitar teacher back in the day would set the metronome extremely slow for a complicated riff and have me play it over and over and over at this painfully slow click….click…..click…..The result was that the slow pace allowed me to play it perfectly and really groove it.  It’s the exact same deal with the swimming stroke.  I set it as low as 1.35 and methodically flow through the stroke trying to make every catch perfect right down to the last detail.  Then when I speed back up I feel much more sharp.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   KICK IT OUT:I hold the unpopular opinion that a good efficient kick is important even for triathletes.  So I use the TT to strengthen my kick.  I just use all of the same tricks mentioned above while using fins……stretching out the ceiling……working on perfect form……etc.  I’ve found that it really helps me to link up my kick with the rest of my stroke because doing it on the beep makes it very steady and rhythmic.  It’s just like doing the waltz……3 kicks per beep.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     BAND WORK: I do a lot of work with a gigantic rubber band made by a company called Stretch Cordz.  Basically this band attaches with a belt around your waist and you tie the other end to the blocks.  Then you swim against it.  It’s surprisingly difficult.  Not only does it provide strength work, but it helps you find “holes” in your stroke.  As the band stretches out and you get to the point that you are basically swimming in place, you have to hold constant pressure with each stroke or the band will snatch you back towards the wall and you end up bobbing back and forth.  I use the Tempo Timer with the Band to give me instant feedback on my stroke.  I set it at my comfortable cadence and swim out to the static point.  Then as I breathe, I take a glance at the some kind of marker, (life guard chair….tile on the wall…..etc), on the side of the pool to see how far I have made it.  The idea is to keep the cadence the same, but be able to stretch the chord out farther and farther before you hit the static point.  This definitely means you are catching the water better and better and eliminating dead spots/holes in your stroke because the Tempo Timer is keeping you from cheating by speed up your cadence.                                                                                                                                                                                                      Okay……I seriously rambled on this one.  Until next time, shop at trisports.com using my discount code chowie-s, eat more powerbar, and tell your endurance family you love them.   

Okay blog readers.  Prepare yourself because I’m about to get a little philosophical on you with this posting…….     

Last week I had a talk with one of my coaches, Neal Henderson, as I was warming up on a treadmill at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine and he said something to me that really hung on.  I haven’t been able to get it out of mind and it has really helped me since then in my training………  I had just finished a really hard bike interval set with one of my buddies in the centers fables “Pain Cave”, and I was warming up for another tough set on the treadmill.  To be honest I was really anxious about the set.  I was worked from the ride and struggling to keep my thoughts positive for the suffering ahead.  

Neal came over and I congratulated him on his recent success with Taylor Phinney.  Taylor, one of Neal’s athletes just earned a spot to Bejing in track cycling!  Awesome!!!!!  And he did it at the incredibly young age of 17!  What a high for both of them.  Then our conversation turned

to another one of Neal’s athletes, Jamie Whitmore.  I don’t want to betray the confidence of our discussion about Jamie so I won’t go into too much detail.  The bottom line is that Jamie, the amazing Xterra World Champion, is really struggling right now because of a recent surgery to remove a large tumor from her hip.  Talk about a roller coaster of emotions!     Neal is arguably one of the best endurance coaches this world has ever seen, and in my opinion the number one thing that makes him great is how much he cares for his athletes personally.  I tried to imagine myself dealing with the two completely opposite emotions of extreme elation and deep sadness at the same time with two of my athletes.  “How do you do it?”  I asked him.  He said, ”you put up a huge sail and you put down a very deep rudder.”     It didn’t sink in at first, but I had a long treadmill run in solitude to think it over.  My take on it…….you keep moving forward no matter what.  You keep striving for greatness.  You keep clawing for improvement.  When success comes, put up that big sail and ride it.  When setbacks come you depend on that deep rudder to stay right on course.  Thanks Neal.   If anyone reading wants to help Jamie out, you can find all the info at jamiewhitmore.com.  Huge congrats to Taylor! Until next time, shop at trisports.com using my discount code chowie-s, eat more powerbar, and tell your endurance family you love them.

I’m convinced that every improvement I make in this sport as an athlete and a coach is a result of constantly trying to learn from those around me.  I try to take all the bits of information in, no matter where it comes from and no matter how big or small, and put it all together into my own witches brew that fits my style.  Here are just a few examples that relate to the story of one of my runs last week…… The UNC Track and Cross country coach once told me that “you can’t drive a car fast if the brakes are on.” My awesome massage therapist and team mate, Jessica Gumkowski, taught me how to fall asleep easier by focusing methodically on relaxing my muscles from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. My good friend and training partner Craig Greenslit imagines that his legs are incredibly long.  “Your upper body is about 2 inches tall……you are just all legs.” My good friend and team mate Kristina Freisem explained to me how she runs down hill nice and relaxed letting gravity take over by imaging herself as being made of rubber band material.  “Run like a Rubber band Man!” One of my coaches, Neal Henderson, speaks of running in an almost meditative state by shutting the mind down.  “No thoughts…..just be right in the moment and tune out.” 

My swimming coach talks about finding a “calm center” like you are right in the eye of a hurricane.  “There may be chaos all around you, but you are relaxed and at peace in the middle of it all.”

THE RUN…..Last week I headed out the door for one of my overdistance runs.  I had really gone to the woodshed the day before with some monster intervals on the bike and the run so it would be an understatement to say I was cooked.  I started the run very slowly in Z1 as I always do and as usual my mind started doing the full body scan from head to toe to see how the things are running.  OUCH!  I was definitely getting some rough signals.  My chest and lungs felt tight, my neck and shoulders felt like I had been working at a computer for 8 hours….rightly so……my feet were sore, and my legs felt very heavy, sore and sluggish.  “okay,” I told myself, “these are the days when you really earn it.”  It’s times like these that I’ve learned to play a little mind game to try and get myself into the zone.  It’s fairly simple.  I just try to see how relaxed I can possibly be.  I started at the top of my head and slowly began relaxing every muscle from top down.  I realized I had been grimacing.  My eyes were squinted.  My mouth and lips were tight like I was about to yell at someone.  My shoulders were shrugged up like I was expecting a blow in a fight.  My hands were clenched.……the list goes on and on…….Slowly, I relaxed more and more.  I kept playing the game.  Can you relax more? Finally, I was most definitely in the zone.  My heart rate told me I was in Z2 but suddenly I was light, relaxed, and flying.  To anyone passing by, I probably looked like some kind of stoned zombie with a running death wish!  My eyes were glazed.  My jaw was slack. My upper body was so relaxed that my hands were bouncing around lifelessly off my chest.  No wonder people think I’m a weirdo!   

As I neared the end of my run I was sort of snapped back to reality as I realized it was time to cool down and jog the last kilometer.  Now I can see why the best endurance athletes in the world have that absent, stoic, slacked Jawed look as they fly by everyone.  What appears to be the ultimate in concentration is quite possibly the ultimate in relaxation. 

Until next time, shop at trisports.com using my discount code chowie-s, eat more powerbar, and tell your endurance family you love them.

Here we go with my first posting.  My number one goal with this blog is to drive improvement in our sport.  Hopefully you will find my thoughts interesting and please feel free to build on everything I post.

Recently my swimming coach, (Scott Obrian, the best swimming coach on the planet!), and I had a long discussion about visualization.  I think Swimming in particular requires a hightened sense of body awareness and feel for very precise movements.  In this case, being able to visualize these precise movements can be a huge help.  The question is, what exactly should we envision?  Coach Obrian listed off the best swimmers in the world and various movements that they all have in common.  Then he suggested that I watch film of these monsters and try to internalize it all.  Brilliant!  In our day and age with YouTube and other video access it was simple to find instant footage of the masters. 

The video that has stuck with me the most so far is the footage of Grant Hackett setting the 1500m world record.  Here is the link for it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6qIhkuzTx0&feature=related  Absolutely beautiful!  Can you imagine coming out of the water in an Olympic distance tri in 14minutes!

This naturally led me to seek out video of the worlds best on the bike and run as well.  As you can imagine, I am rapidly accumulating a huge list of what I am calling my Visualization links.  Here are my favorites for the bike and run.  I dare you to watch Deena Kastor take the bronze in the link below without shedding some tears!  WOW!  I have goosebumps just typing this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOQflZqzn_U&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AhEDEuPLCY&NR=1

I hope this helps everyone.  I think the bottom line is “see it and be it.”

Until next time, Shop at Trisports.com using my discount code chowie-s, eat more powerbar, and tell your endurance family you love them.    

Here’s my first post of many that will help you along in your triathlon training and racing.