Breath Catching

My apologies!  The summer and early fall was busier than ever.  Summer was followed by "A" races for all of my athletes and myself.  USAT Youth Nationals, Ironman Louisville, Ironman Wisconsin, IronKids Nationals, Long Course Nationals and fall marathons - never a dull moment. 
It is a hectic time for a coach.  I spent many hours on the phone talking through the smallest details with every athlete.  At the end of the day, I didn't have much left for a blog. 
Aha!  But now it is the off season.  A few weeks of more sleep and less training have done us all good.  My goal is to post 2-3 times a week.  I can't wait! 

Race Tips for Young and Old and the Importance of having FUN

Tips for our Kids' Triathlon Team at races.  Not bad reminders for us older racers either.  The bottom line?  Don't let anyone ever convince you that you must be serious to win.  I have found that the athletes who are having FUN, are those most likely to perform to their potential. 
Here are the tips:

Day Before Race


• Attend the course clinic and scout out the course. Learn exactly where you will be swimming, biking and running. Pay special attention to the transition area.

• Lay out all of your equipment. Make sure that everything is in working order, especially your bike gears and brakes. Put your race numbers on. Do a little transition practice to check that you have everything.

• Eat nutritious foods that you know your stomach can handle well. Drink often to make sure that you are adequately hydrated.

• Put your feet up and relax a little more than usual today. Rest. Read a good book. Watch a funny movie.

• Look forward to tomorrow’s race! Remember that those pre-race butterflies will give you the energy to race faster. Remember how lucky you are to be able to participate in this race!


Race Day

• Eat your favorite pre-race breakfast about 2 hours before your race. If you race later in the day, eat breakfast and then another pre-race snack about 2 hours before your race.

• When transition opens, check your bike one more time. Are the tires filled? Are the brakes rubbing? Are you in the gear that will work best for you to get started?

• As you set up your transition area, keep it simple and compact. Don’t take up more than your fair share of space. Make sure that you have your bike and run gear set out. Take your goggles and cap with you to the swim start.

• Jog through all the transition area entrances and exits: swim-in, bike-out, bike-in, run-out. Know where the bike mount/dismount line is and what it means.

• Try to get in a short warm up jog within an hour of your race. At a minimum, jog for 5-10 minutes and do some strides to get your body ready to race.

• HAVE FUN!!!!!! No matter what, keep smiling today. It will make you race faster!

How to Peak for your "A" race - A Visual Representation

One more view of my WKO chart as I built fitness for IMSG, then tapered, then raced. 
Remember that the BLUE line represents my fitness.  The PINK line represents my fatigue.  The YELLOW line represents my "form" or my potential to have a great race. 
This chart shows clearly how I was able to build fitness almost continuously.  The exception occurred in late February when I did a mini-taper for the Birkie, then recovered from that effort.  I love how this shows how races can seriously interrupt fitness building!  Don't race too much this summer if you plan on an important "A" race in 3-4 months. 
I was able to build my fitness up to the low 120's.  This means that my average daily TSS (Training Stress Score) of my workouts was in the low 120's.  As I tapered, I was careful to not lose too much fitness.  Here, you can see that my blue line dipped by about 10 points or about 10-12%.  This is a reasonable amount of fitness to lose for an "A" race.  Simultaneously, you can see that my yellow "form" line climbed to its highest level of the year so far.  This means that I was "peaking" for this race.  And I did feel very strong on race day!  :)
When I coach, everything that I do is geared towards having my athlete's peak high for their most important races.  It is an art and a science to get that peak to happen on the right day - with a minimal loss of fitness. 
Best wishes for a magical peak for your 2010 "A" races!

Ironman St. George Re-Cap

Back to regular posting!  April was busy with a trip to Boston to watch my athletes, friends and husband run the marathon.  Then, off to St. George, Utah for the inaugural Ironman St. George.  Here is a taste of what that new race is all about.
The venue is gorgeous.  I've never seen a more beautiful area.  The red rocks, 11,000+ ft. Pine Mountain, the lava fields, Sand Hollow Reservoir, Snow Canyon State Park, ancient cinder cones - amazing views everywhere. 
The area people truly came out to support the race.  Spectators were enthusiastic and the volunteers seemed like veterans.  The race was run flawlessly as far as I could tell.  Even the shuttle buses seemed plentiful on race morning - when you don't need backups.
On a difficulty scale of 1-10, this Ironman ranks pretty highly.  First of all, the logistics are more complex with two transition areas and the need to use shuttle buses on race morning. 
Then, there was the water temperature.  Mike Reilly announced 58 degrees on race morning, but many cold water veterans speculated that the temperatures were in the mid-50s.  The cold water made my hands, wrists, feet and face numb.  Many athletes were hypothermic after the swim and needed to spend some time in warming tents before they could go on.  T1 times were very slow for the rest of us - who had to change out of wet clothes and put on arm warmers, vests, gloves and hats with numb hands before getting on our bikes.  The air temperatures were in the high 40s at that time, but the sun was out and we started to warm up quickly.  However, my feet were numb until about 40 miles into the bike.
Our cold, gloved hands made accessing gels and drinks more difficult for those first few biking miles and I think many people were pretty depleted on their nutrition early on in their bike rides. 
And the bike ride!  The first 22 miles of the "stick" were beautifully paved and fairly fast.  There were 3-4 significant climbs during this section, but we needed to warm up so they were welcome.
Then, we started the first loop into a headwind on much bumpier pavement.  Those who had speedometers saw lots of single digit numbers glaring up at them.  Over 30 miles, we gradually climbed up to Veyo at slow speeds with some very steep climbs:  the first up to Gunlock Lake, the second (steepest) after the town of Gunlock, and then "The Wall" an intimidating switchback climb of one mile up the side of a cinder cone.  These climbs were very steep - requiring granny gears and standing to get up them.  Where I was, no-one walked them, but I'm sure that everyone thought about it!
After Veyo, another long climb.  Here I passed a friendly racer who said, "I think we've climbed all the way up to heaven!"  Then, finally, the long downhill run back to St. George.  Here, the downhills were relentless and some were steep.  I bet those speedometers were showing 40s and maybe higher.  (I'm so glad I don't race with a speedometer!).  Gusty winds made the downhills a little precarious and I was hanging on to my bars tightly.  By the time I turned onto Snow Canyon Parkway, I was really ready to relax on some flats again.
Luckily, there are actually about 5 or so miles of gently rolling flats - and here is where you get to go through the lava fields and the enthusiastic town of Ivans -with hundreds of spectators.  Then, back onto the bumpier climb into the head wind at slow speeds. 
This was one of the many tough psychological moments of this race - knowing that all those climbs loomed ahead and a very difficult marathon awaited when I finally got off of the bike.  Times were slow - at this point, I think we all knew that we were in for a bike segment that was about an hour slower than the typical tough Ironman bike course - like Wisconsin.  It was important to be patient and non-judgemental here - otherwise it would have been very easy just to call it a day.  I kept the faith that everyone was feeling exactly the same as I was - all we had to do was to keep making steady forward progress and it would be a successful race - though not even close to a PR.
So, right-left-right-left I kept pedaling.  If anything, I felt stronger and more confident on the climbs and less nervous on the decents during that second loop.  One last "insult" of a climb - on Snow Canyon Parkway and I was flying down into St. George to T2.  Finally! 
So, my sacro-illiac (S-I) joint - has been very painful since I dared to shovel heavy snow in January.  It had severely limited my bike training all spring and it made it very difficult to bike on race day.  Lots of pain.  Now, at T2, I could not stand up.  My legs felt disconnected.  I hobbled into the changing tent.  I had a great volunteer who helped me and put BioFreeze all over my back.  I was able to straighten up and with strides of about 2 inches per leg, I started to run. 
The IMSG run goes straight uphill immediately to Diagonal St.  Then Diagnonal St. is a steady climb.  Turn right on Bluff and the climb steepens again.  Then, the short out-and-back up to the Elks Lodge - even steeper.  All in all, the run gets gradually steeper as you climb for the first 3.5 miles of the course.  I ran until the last, steepest grade and then power walked - as it was almost as fast and allowed a lower heartrate.  When my HR got high, I felt a little queezy at this point and therefore, Gatorade and gels were not working anymore.  So, I kept my HR low enough with this walking to settle everything down.  I also went for the life-giving chicken broth - always magical at bringing me back from a fog in Ironman races.  Cola helped too.  Before I knew it, I was running down a 2 mile downhill and feeling pretty good again.  My stride was lengthening out and things were looking up!  In and out of the Pioneer Park path - with many short, steep hills and down to the turn around.  Everytime I crossed a timing mat, I looked up at the sky and said, "Hi!" to all of my friends and family who were watching Ironmanlive back at home.  It was so nice to know that they cared!
Back up the 2 mile uphill with the Pioneer Park hills and down the 3.5 miles to the halfway point.  All was well - I was enjoying the beauty, had found my rhythm and knew I had this race in the bag at this point.  I could do that loop again.  Not easy, but I could do it!
So, I did.  And as in all six of my IM's, time seemed to bend into a different speed.  The miles clicked away - faster than they do on my easy run days back home.  The sunset was extraordinary. 
So, after my slowest IM since my first 96 degree IMWI, I crossed that finish line.  Mike Reilly was there.  A super nice volunteer got me to the food tent.  There, Meghan, Brian and Sue were waiting there for me - a nice surprise!
My immediate thoughts were that IMSG was the hardest race of my lifetime of races.  It was tough - partially because I was apprehensive about everything from how my back would feel to the cold water - to "The Wall."  At first, I didn't think I would ever be back to do it again.  Of course, that only lasted until about 3 days later.  I will go back and improve on my time.  I can't wait to see those hills and mountains again.
But, for a novice, it might not be the best choice.  There is a very real chance of DNF at this race.  Many that I knew - did not finish.  Either the cold swim or the tough bike forced them to abandon this race.  And, if the winds had been any stronger on race day, we would all have been in some serious trouble out there on the desert. 
If you choose to take on the extra challenge that this race will give you - go with the right attitude.  Ready for challenges and slow times, but also ready to soak up the beauty of the area and enjoy the finish line even a little more than usual!

An Objective View of Training

This is my own Performance Management Chart – charting my fitness, fatigue and “form” as I train for IMSG in 3.5 weeks. I do this for all of my athletes that upload accurately calibrated workout files from Powertaps, Garmins, certain Polars, etc. Mine is even more complete because I put in estimates for my swims and strength workouts as well.

There is a lot to learn about these charts, but here are some key points.

• The blue line tracks “fitness” and is based on the training stress from workouts over the last six weeks (for most people).

• The pink line tracks “fatigue” and is based on the training stress of the last week - as compared to my recent, typical training load.

• The yellow line tracks “form” or my potential to have great legs in a race if it should occur today.

As you can see, I’ve had a very consistent training season. I started with a week of cross country skiing followed by a week of bronchitis (go figure!) back in early January. But after that, I had six weeks of hard training leading – building my blue line and feeling very fatigued.

Then, you can see my taper for the Birkie – a wonderful week of rest that I needed both to race well at the Birkie but also to recover from my training in February (where I was training for skiing plus Ironman). Take a close look at that Birkie/taper week. You can see how it is necessary to lose fitness during a taper. But the benefits are greatly decreased fatigue and greatly enhanced form. (Important: if you schedule too many races during peak training season – your overall fitness will not build and your “A” race will suffer later in the season.) And finally, you can see the little bump up in fitness and fatigue from the race itself.

Then, I trained hard again for 2.5 weeks and rested a little leading up to the Half Marathon. (Not nearly a taper – just a little less volume. You can see clearly that I went into that race quite fatigued – but it was a training race – not important to me. I wanted the fitness building from it.

I then had my biggest volume training week and then last week was a little less volume.

Right now, I feel extremely fatigued and my graph shows it. But the good news is that my fitness is very high as well. My blue line has hit the 117 mark this week. I’ve got about ten more days to get my blue line up above the 120 mark. This has been where I’ve gotten in training for my two best Ironman races (I’ve got my charts from four out of five of my IM races). I’ve got the historical data to back up my plan and I know this fitness is about as high as I can handle.

So what does a blue line of 120 TSS/d mean? It means that I’ve averaged a training stress score of 120 per day over the last six weeks. To put that in perspective, a TSS score of 100 means that you have raced all out for an hour. If you were to do a 40km TT, you’d have a score of 100 for the day. I’ve averaged more than 100 by doing multiple workouts and some long, breakthrough workouts each week.

So, after I’ve reached my fitness high point, it will be time to taper. At that time, I must manage to lose fatigue without losing too much fitness – a tricky but fun part of my job as a coach. All the training in the world will not help an athlete who arrives at the starting line too fatigued to race well!

Coaching and training are an art and a science. This is more science. The art side is even more important. More on that later.

Good video on downhill and uphill running

Lots of hilly upcoming races for my athletes, friends and myself.  Time to practice hill running.  Here is a good video on proper technique for hill running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu2qocvfCzE&feature=player_embedded
If done right, you can save valuable energy with good up and down hill running technique.
If you have an upcoming hilly race, remember that running downhills are almost as important as including uphills in your training.  This is especially important for a race with early downhills such as the Boston Marathon. 

Goal Setting for Success

Want to have a successful season? You must set goals.


Here are some tips for goal setting:

• Goals should stretch you. Anything less will not properly motivate you to improve.

• Goals have to be balanced with other aspects of your life. It is easy to lose balance in our endurance world. No race achievement will mean anything if you lose your family in the process.

• Set training objectives for each training block – stepping stones that will lead you toward your seasonal goals. Every 4-6 week block should have mini-goals.

• Every day, act like you believe. When you set a goal, you may not honestly know that you can reach it. But you do have to pretend that you do. Act with your nutrition and sleep habits. Act with your approach to each training session. Act with your attention to the details that will matter on race day. And on race day, keep pretending – all the way to the finish line.

• Go to bed each night with no regrets. Ask yourself, “Did I do all that I can towards achieving my goals.” Make that answer a yes often. Race with no regrets as well.

• Surround yourself with training partners and friends who believe you can do it.

• Enlist a coach who knows that you can do it.

Best wishes for your best season yet!