Tag Archives: triathlon training

IT Band Issues With Runners Simplified

Running is a popular sport and while most programs are modified to the beginner runner, more and more people are signing up for races as short as a mile and as long as a marathon. According to Running USA there were nearly 9 million road race finishers in 2007, a 5% increase from 2002. Unfortunately, with an increased numbers of athletes, there are also an increased number of injuries, mainly due to overtraining and lack of strengthening and stretching exercises.

As a massage therapist I often treated clients who complain that their “IT band is tight. They pointed to the outside of their knee and described a dull, sometimes sharp, pain when they walked or ran for long distances. I told them that “IT band is supposed to be tight because it provides stability to the lateral knee. However, it is not supposed to hurt.

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Power Training Basics and Terminology

Before we get into how to use a power meter, let?s talk about how to establish a baseline Functional Threshold Power (FTP).

Establishing an FTP:

According to the ?Racing and Training with Power? by Coggan and Allen, a 20 minute all out time trial would determine FTP. From the 20 minute test you multiply your FTP by 95%. For example, if you ride an all out 20 minute time trial and end up averaging 300 watts, taking 95% of that would give you an FTP of 285 watts. Personally, I think a 30 (THIRTY) minute time trial multiplied times 95% would give you a more accurate measure of FTP.
Another option for establishing your FTP would be to ride a 40k Time Trial. Riding this 40k solo would be tough, but in an organized event chasing and being chased by other riders would give you the motivation to generate a true FTP.

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“How To Start Training For A Triathlon” – FREE Audio Download

In this free audio download, open to both Rock Star Triathlete Academy members and also the general public, Ben Greenfield and Kerry Sullivan teach a Triathlon 101 seminar: “How To Start Training For Triathlon”. During the call, Ben & Kerry discuss how to start training for triathlon, how to structure your triathlon training week, how to fuel for triathlon, how often to swim, bike and run, common triathlon injuries and more!

[powerpress]

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FIxing your Stroke!

What do all these stroke flaws have in common? :

* 

pushing down and wide

 *collapsing arm 

 
*scissor kick and crossover *scissor kick and over-rotation 

 
*straight arm push down *crossover

If you said “breathing”, then you’re correct. In fact most stroke flaws happen during or immediately following breathing because you’re simply thinking “give me that air!” and not focusing on the rest of your stroke.

Breathing is such a distraction and interruption to the freestyle stroke that it even disrupts an elite swimmer’s rhythm and efficiency. This is why 50m sprinters minimise the number of breaths they take – often only taking one or two during their 50m dash. As distance swimmers we have to breathe much more often than once or twice per lap but this highlights the significant challenge to our stroke technique when breathing.

What can we do to minimise this problem? Firstly, try and avoid always breathing to the same side every two strokes. If you do this then some very critical areas of your stroke never get any of your attention and are very likely to be major weak points in your technique. For instance, if you breathe only to your right every two strokes then your left hand catch never gets any attention because you’re always breathing simultaneously with it. Such a swimmer will tend to develop bad habits on that side, such as pressing down on the water or dropping their elbow, greatly harming their speed and efficiency in the water.

Switching to breathing every three strokes (bilateral breathing) greatly helps you because two out of three left arm strokes are now non-breathing strokes and can get your full attention. When it comes to the one in three that are during a breath, your stroke will stand a very good chance of holding together nicely:

Bilateral breathing helps Mel perfectly maintain her stroke when breathing

Breathing every three strokes is about the right interval for most swimmers when they’ve developed good exhalation into the water. Very tall swimmers who’ve tried to overly lengthen their stroke may find bilateral breathing a challenge because their stroke rate is simply too slow and the time between breaths too long. Conversely, shorter swimmers with naturally faster stroke rates often settle happily into a pattern of breathing every five strokes.

If you have worked on your exhalation into the water and still find bilateral breathing hard then consider your body roll at this point of the stroke. If you’re flat in the water to your non-dominant side then that will make breathing very challenging. Think about extending and rotating to this off-side and breathing to it will start to feel much easier.

Coaches: have you noticed that a swimmer’s breathing technique often looks much better to the non-dominant side? This is because bad habits such as lifting or over-rotating the head have never developed on that side. If you see this with a swimmer then feed that back to them to give them encouragement to get over the ‘bilateral hump’, which normally lasts about 6 sessions.

Next week on the blog we’re going to look at tactical situations in races when breathing to one side is advantageous, explaining why we see many elite swimmers breathing just to one side on TV.

Swim Smooth!

Check out the swim smooth master catch DVD right here

 

Creating Key Cycling Workouts With a Power Meter

In creating a plan for season, identifying your goal races is the first step. From there, you need to plan for proper base, build, taper and peak phases. Of these phases, the base and build are the most critical. 10 to 6 weeks out from your A priority race is a very crucial time in your training. It is the point where you start to transition from a base phase into a build phase. The base phase is spent getting in miles at a more aerobic effort and gaining endurance. In the build phase you introduce more time in the tempo and functional threshold zones. Being able to accurately monitor your time in these zones is crucial. That is where your power meter comes in to play.

First you need to perform a test to determine your power zones. I prefer the CP 12, or Critical Power 12 test. It is basically a 12 minute steady time trial that will give you CP values for several intervals from 5 seconds to 1 hour. From that data you can determine what your recovery, endurance, tempo, LT, VO2 max and anaerobic capacity power zones are. Make sure the test is repeatable as you will want to re-test yourself every 4 to 6 weeks to see your gains and adjust your zones accordingly. Armed with that data you can start to dial in each bike workout to ensure you are in the right zones for the right amount of time. From the CP 12 we can extrapolate the power training zones.

Let?s start with the long course athletes first. 10 weeks out from a long course event, half ironman or longer, you need to be getting longer miles on the bike. Your weekend ride for a half should be 60-75 miles, and for an IM, 80-100 miles or more is needed. The key here is that there is some, but not much intensity. You can use your power meter to monitor the intensity of your ride by noting the IF, or Intensity Factor, during the ride. That number should be around .65 to .75 for a base oriented ride. That number means that you were basically at 65 to 75 % of your threshold, which is what you want for a base oriented ride. During that ride you can still throw in some steady intervals, but the overall ride needs to be relatively moderate. These rides are fairly basic in that you want to stay steady and put most of your time in at your endurance wattage zone. You can throw in some 10-20 minute sections at a tempo wattage, but no more than 20% of your total ride time should be in that zone.

As you move into the build phase about 8 weeks out, you need to start incorporating more intensity into your rides, including your long ride of the week. Again, use the IF number to moderate where you are. At this point you want to start seeing some .75 to .85 IF numbers. To do this, add in periods of 30 to 60 minutes of riding at differing wattages. An example would be riding 30? warm up at your recovery wattage, then move to 40? at your endurance wattage, 20? at your tempo wattage, 30? at endurance wattage, 20? at tempo done with a lower cadence, then do 2 x 15? at LT wattage with 10? at recovery wattage between, finish the ride with 30-60? at endurance watts to give you a 3:30 to 4 hour ride.

For short course athletes the same principles apply, the numbers just need to be adjusted. Your long base oriented miles will be shorter, but a bit more intense. Short course athletes should see an IF of .7 to .8 on their longer rides. These rides really need to be 50-60 miles. Again, you can spend some time pushing the watts up, but you don?t need to see your LT wattage during this type of ride.

Getting closer to the race you need to simulate the high intensity demands of a hard 40k time trial. Approximately 8 weeks out from your goal race start to add in hard intervals that will teach your body how to deal with the physiological demands of these shorter but intense races. During this phase your IF number should be higher during these rides with .85 to .95 being a good range. A good ride might look like this 20 minute warm up at recovery wattage, then 4 x 2 minutes at VO2 max wattage with 3 minute at recovery wattage between, 15 minutes at endurance wattage, 2 x 20 minutes at tempo wattage with 10 minutes at endurance wattage between, 10 minutes at recovery wattage, 2 x 10 minute at LT with 4 minutea at recovery wattage, add in endurance or recovery watts and you have a hard 2:30 bike ride that incorporates tempo, LT and endurance. You can also do a ride as simple as warm up for 20 minutes then do 2×10 minutes at LT wattage with 3 minutes recovery and a short cool down to get an effective ride in about an hour.

A quick review, start with a power test that you feel comfortable with and determine your recovery, endurance, tempo, LT and VO2 max power zones. Then check your calendar and determine how many weeks out you are from your A priority race. As you are nearing the end of your base phase you still want to get in the longer miles, but start to test the higher end wattages a little. Monitor your intensity by checking the IF number. Long course athletes should see a .6 to .75 while short course athletes want it a little higher at .7 to .85. Moving closer to the race, you start to add what would be considered race wattage in to the program. Long course athletes should do so with longer periods spent at tempo and some LT, while short course should spend shorter amounts of time up in the LT and VO2 max zone.

You have an awesome tool at your disposal in the power meter. Take the time to learn all of its functions so you can unlock its full potential. In doing so, you will help yourself reach your full potential. Power UP!

Coach AJ Johnson http://www.D3Multisport.com

Head Position When Swimming

have to crane your head up high to reach air? This year we’ve received more questions about this problem than perhaps any other. It can even be a problem for advanced level swimmers when they become tired. Here’s our advice: 

When your head travels through the water it creates a bow-wave around it, with a slight increase in the water height in front of your head but a large drop in height as it passes your head and neck:

When we breathe in freestyle we need to keep our head as low as possible because lifting your head causes your legs to sink. Great breathing technique involves breathing into the trough by the side of your head to keep it as low as possible:

Take a close look at the shape of the bow wave and how it’s dropping quite steeply as it passes your head:

The correct place to aim your mouth is into position A but swimmers who struggle with their breathing are often trying to breathe slightly forwards into position B. The bow wave isn’t very deep or well formed there and it will be a real struggle to reliably take on air:

To get the position of your breathing right it may feel like you’re breathing very slightly behind you – you should just be able to see your arm-pit as you do this. This will only feel like a slight adjustment – you don’t want to breathe too far backwards (position C) as this will twist your body and drag your lead arm across the centre line:

The next time you swim, experiment a little with your breathing position and try and find that sweet-spot where you can reliably find the bow wave trough but not breathe too far behind you and lose your alignment in the water.
Two other quick tips: Aim to keep your lower goggle underwater when you breathe and experiment with angling your mouth towards the surface like Popeye chews his spinach:


Photo taken from swim smooth Box DVD Set
Do you struggle with your breathing when swimming? Have you tried this tip? Let us know how it works for you on the comments section:

Swim Smooth!

For more awesome swim advice check out the the Swim Smooth Box DVD Set

 

Dry Land Training For Swimmers “Training the Core”

Swim coaches have traditionally focused their dryland program on the use of resistance training machines, free weights, various types of swim benches and stretch cords. Most of the machine exercises are single joint, bodybuilding type exercises that are not specific to the movements of swimming. The exercises that are commonly performed on the swim bench and with stretch cords seem to resemble the movements of swimming but do not focus on strengthening the core, in fact using a swim bench almost eliminates all core work When a coach is designing a dryland program he or she must first identify the movements and muscles involved in swimming and make them a priority of their dryland program. IHPSWIM has developed the LAPS Training system which identifies

all the specific movements of a swimmer and the exercises that train these movements. Our LAPS Functional Dryland Training DVD includes our favorite exercises that are specific to the movements in swimming.

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Race Strategy For An Ironman

You train hard for your next Ironman and are doing all the things you’re supposed to be doing. But have you sorted out the details for your race day strategy? It’s a good idea to begin planning now so you know what you need to know and consider what you need to consider in your effort to perform to your maximum potential on race day. Consider the following:
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How To Implement Rest Days

Time for the next session—but you’re tired and unmotivated to head out of the door. You’re not sure if the fatigue comes from having had a stressful week at work, or if you went a bit too hard at those weekend sessions. You are a dedicated athlete who feels very guilty whenever you miss a session. At the same time, you know that training through fatigue or illness is bad for your health. So what to do?
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How To Rock Out the Transition in A Triathlon

Rock Star Triathlete coach Ben Greenfield Teaches you how to have great transitions in your next triathlon