FEATURES
Keys to Your Best Season...
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Monday, 02 March 2015 00:10
Gain fitness and have fun doing it this year
By Jason Gootman and Will Kirousis (usatriathlon.org)
Are you using awesome training principles? Or just logging lots of miles? These are the ways the best triathletes in the world train. And you can adopt them today! Are you ready to stop just logging miles and really get fast?
Swim, ride and run enough to stimulate adaptation, not to fill all available time.
One of the first areas we investigate with a new athlete we’re starting to coach, and that we monitor in an ongoing sense for the athletes we coach, is how much time they have available for workouts. Highly motivated athletes often look at their day and suspect that any time not taken up by work, chores and family/friends can and should be used for swimming, riding and running.
This approach results in no down time, no real rest and greatly impedes recovery. Without strong recovery, plateaus are inevitable. You will train and train and train — and stay the same. Poor recovery also makes you more susceptible to injuries. And when you’re injured, you can’t do any of this fun stuff. And not taking any downtime is a road paved to burnout. When you are always pushing forward and always need to be...
Cheese, Chocolate & Matterhorns...
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Saturday, 28 February 2015 06:10
By Cathy Yndestad (trigirlcathy.blogspot.com)
Unfortunately I don’t have much for creative story telling or inspiring words, but I wanted to share a few random updates from our first few weeks. I promised to post often so here’s the latest rundown:
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost four weeks since we moved to Switzerland. The days and weeks are flying by as we’ve been busy figuring out how to live thrive in our new world.
We love our new apartment - We’re in a modern high rise nested in the heart of the city and I’m loving the proximity to the daily essentials. Walking to the market, gym, train station etc. is such a delightful novelty since I was deep in suburbia the last few years. When the sky is clear, I have mountain views from my apt/office windows which always brings me joy. I’m not sure what it is, but I’m so grateful for the power and beauty of the mountains.
As you can imagine, the food has been pretty delightful. There’s been no shortage of cheese and chocolate consumed, and of course, the breads… ummm, delicious! Let’s just say this is not the place to be gluten, dairy and/or sugar free....
Dreadmill Benefits...
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Friday, 27 February 2015 00:10
Coach Brett Sutton calls the treadmill the number one improvement tool for weak runners and shares a staple workout to try.
By Brett Sutton (triathlon.competitor.com)
When it comes to treadmill training it seems that people are split into two camps with no grey area in between. You either love it or you hate it. I have trained people from both sides of the fence.
So while the treadmill was used sparingly for an athlete like Chrissie Wellington, I have used it intensively for nearly every Olympic-distance triathlete’s preparation since 1997: Siri Lindley, Jackie Gallagher, Emma Snowsill and Loretta Harrop are all names that spring to mind, with Loretta doing almost all of her work exclusively on the treadmill.
This week I put the current Olympic champion, Nicola Spirig, through her paces on the treadmill using the exact same set that I used with the men’s bronze medalist, Jan Rehula, at the Sydney Olympics 15 years ago....
Futural Tri Innovations...
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Thursday, 26 February 2015 00:10
This sport has always been at the forefront of gear innovation. But there’s room for even bigger thinking.
By Jesse Thomas * (triathlon.competitor.com)
Despite somehow snaking my way through two Stanford mechanical engineering degrees, I always considered myself half an engineer. I loved the “big picture” phase of problem identification and initial design. But my interest waned in the nitty-gritty detailed analysis and manufacturing optimization required to actually bring a product to market. I could survive the numbers, but I was a lot better at the pictures.
So when I joined my first startup out of college with a few friends, I kept myself mostly on the pictures side—and let the guys that handed me my ass in thermodynamics do the real engineering. Until one unfortunate day, I overheard a conversation about a “pump problem on the hydrogen generator,” and had an idea....
Marathon Before Ironman? Jen Says 'No'....
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Wednesday, 25 February 2015 00:10
By Jen Rulon (jenrulon.com)
It is December and it is off-season triathlon training. A lot of athletes will do a variety of activities during their off-season: mountain biking, lift weights (YES!), yoga, mobility work and run a marathon. Here is a conversation between a coach and their athlete, who is doing their 1st Ironman:
Athlete: “I am going to do a marathon before I do my Ironman.”
Coach: ”OK. Why?”
Athlete: “I want to see how fast I can go and run the distance.”
Coach: “Do you think you can run your best alone marathon time after you swam and bike in your Ironman? I don’t believe Christian Bustos* did that in Kona in 1992.” ...
