Ok, some of you have probably been riding all winter, most likely less than normal, but at least your rear end is not completely out of practice. Others of you have blissfully forgotten that your bike exists. Regardless of what you did this winter, it is now time to start thinking about the season and the training you need to do to be ready for it.
Here are some quick tips to get your mind, body and soul back into the swing of things:
1: Make a plan: Not quite ready to clip in yet? That’s ok: Take this time to plan your season. What are your goal races or events? How much time do you have to get back into shape; are your goals realistic given this time frame (if not, revisit goals – it is important that they are achievable)? If you have taken a lot of time off, you need to give yourself a reasonable amount of time to get back into shape! What is your plan of attack? [Note for Team Sweat Equity members - the Training section of the TSE website is a great place to start!] Creating goals and a plan will help “pump you up” to get out on the bike!
2: Get a tune up: Whether you’ve been riding all winter or not, give your poor bike a tune up. It needs love too. If you are in need of some new components, there is no better time to invest! If you are not handy with the bike yourself, take it in to your favorite shop. You will be much more excited to ride when your machine is tuned up and ready to go.
3: Speaking of tune-ups, it’s a good time to reevaluate your eating habits:
Your first priority with Base Training is build your aerobic endurance. Your goal is to be able to ride and run longer distances and at faster speeds while maintaining aerobic heart rates. Training at lower effort levels early on allows for adaptations and improvement in you body’s ability to use fat for fuel, spare glycogen (carbohydrate), and develop a more efficient cardiovascular system; all benefits of improved aerobic function. Once your aerobic base is established and you can easily cruise around over varied terrain while maintaining aerobic heart rates, you can then begin to cruise at faster speeds, through aerobic intervals, to really maximize your aerobic speed as the second component of Base Training. The final piece of Base puzzle is strength. Developing sport-specific strength will allow you to apply more force to the pedals and ground to get you even faster, especially when you’re faced with greater resistance from headwinds and gravity. Once your aerobic function has improved enough to allow you to climb hills while maintaining aerobic heart rates, you then can begin to add sport-specific strength workouts to your training schedule to improve your muscular strength that will in turn increase your power output. READ MORE
Here is a tidbit from www.triathlon.competitor.com about pacing the swim leg of your race. I like it because it reinforces my beliefs of focusing on efficiency and using less energy in the swim, rather than throttling yourself with speed work in the pool, wearing yourself out with little to no gains. Get smooth, get long, get lower stroke counts, and you will use less energy in the water and be able to go faster on the bike! Here is the article:
Swimming is obviously an integral component of any triathlon, but being a hard, fast swimmer may not be much of an advantage in how quickly you cross the finish line.
A study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that racers who didn’t push as hard in the swim had better overall race performance.
Once you have a solid aerobic base developing through consistent aerobic training for several weeks and/or months you may be ready to begin to add a higher workload or even some speed to the mix. How do you know if you are ready for more? Well, when you first got back to training from your end of season break, you probably found it quite easy to get your HR up to your aerobic threshold (the HR zone of maximum aerobic development). In fact you may have even had to slow things down a bit (and even walk at times) to keep your HR under control. After several weeks of consistent training now, you might be noticing that you can cruise along much more easily at your aerobic HR’s and your speed is improving too. This improvement is called Fitness. Yeah!
Racing season is rapidly approaching. Our resident research pro Jason Hilgers compiled the following useful information for those of you planning to travel by air to races this year.
Southwest charges $50 if over 50 pounds and $50 if over 62 linear inches, but both fees can’t be charged for the same bag. $50 each way for an oversize bag as long as it weighs less than 100 lbs.
Frontier charges $75 each way if over 50 pounds and $75 each way if over 62 linear inches as separate fees. A single bike could cost you $150 each way.
United charges $100 each if over 50 pounds and $100 each way if over 62 linear inches as separate fees. A single bike could cost you $200 each way.
American charges $150 each way as long as it is less than 70 lbs and 126 linear inches.
Delta charges $200 each way. No mention of maximum weight or size requirements.
Continental charges $100 each way as long as it weighs less than 70 lbs. No mention of maximum size requirements.
Southwest Airlines seems to be the winner hands down. Not only are they bike fees reasonable, their airfare is often the lowest by far compared to all other airlines. My recommendation is to go with SW when ever you have the chance. Other tips to consider when making your travel plans include booking your flights early and when a good price comes up, book it! Don’t waste time when the time is right. You can often save some money by booking your car and/or hotel along with your flight. Pack your bike bag light so you avoid over-weight fees and and try to get everything else into a carry-on. Happy planning!
Great call tonight with Robert Kunz of First Endurance on the benefits of Multi-V and Pre-Race. I learned some things myself about Pre-Race that I am excited to put into use in my own training this spring. Listen to the call for yourself below.
Look for more conference calls in the near future from other product manufacturers, training discussions, and athlete interviews!
Last Wednesday we had our second installment of discussions with Robert Kunz of 1st Endurance. The topic was” Recovery & Stress Management.”. 1st Endurance has two products that really address these subjects, Ultragen and Optygen and Optygen HP. By clicking the link below you can listen to the call and learn a lot about what YOU need for recovery and balancing stress as well as about the two products FE offers that make big differences in these two areas of endurance training and racing. There is a 30 minute discussion followed by another 30 minutes of specific questions from listeners. Great Stuff!
I am a big fan of developing proper technique and reducing drag in your swim stroke before trying to increase the distance you swim (endurance) or the velocity you swim at (speed). As triathletes, we are are getting plenty of aerobic training on the bike and run. What limits the majority of triathlete swimmers is poor technique resulting in large amounts of drag that you must overcome. Good swimmers, those that have swam for a hefty part of their lives on swim teams, have developed great form and have little drag to fight in the water, resulting in a long smooth, powerful stroke that moves them at higher speeds. They are the lucky ones!
The rest of us “non-swimmers” have to constantly fight drag and worse yet, the faster you swim with bad form, the more drag increases and the harder you have to work!
