Breaking down the barriers to tri

Jason and I recently finished Ironman California. We were asked to do a podcast episode of our experience and answer some of the FAQs we have been getting. I think many runners and endurance athletes have a bucket list goal of doing a tri or an ironman, and we wanted to shed some light on what it might look like to take the dive. I did my first ever tri less than 3 months before the ironman and learned how to swim as an adult. If I can do it, I am confident others can too!

1. At what point in the last year did you decide you wanted to train for an ironman?

   1. Do you think you will do another one?

   2. Why did you not share the training on social media?

2. What is the time limit for each event and the whole thing?

   1. Did you listen to music?

3. How did you learn how to swim as an adult?

4. How did you fuel for the event?

5. What is the hardest part?

6. Biking: did you do most inside or outside?

   1. What is a tri bike vs a road bike

   2. How do you prevent butt from hurting?

7. How many hours per week did you train?

8. How was sleeping after? How sore were you?

261. ASK THE COACHES

1. Muscle cramps at 38k. How much sodium an hour should I be taking? Only drank water and 1000mg of sodium in gels

2. Best snacks during carboloading & traveling

3. My HR zones and different in training peaks vs Garmin: which is accurate?

https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017420092-Zones-Calculator-Overview

4. What are your personal favorite gel brands to use?

https://www.cranksports.com/comparisons/gu-energy-gel/

5. How to ideally pace a 5k. I struggle to nail negative splits!

You may have heard the phrase the ‘reverse taper’ lately. It can be all the rage on social media to use the term, but what does it really mean? I personally don’t love to use this term because after a goal race you don’t literally reverse the taper. If you did literally reverse the taper, you would probably end up injured and burnt out. The idea behind the reverse taper is that you would gradually get back into training slowly. It is important to take time off after a goal race. Sometimes athletes will experience a ‘come down’ or ‘post race blues’ after a goal race because the endorphins all start to wear off and the building towards that big goal has stopped. It can feel like a strange time, but this is a great time to start planning for your future and not get lost in the post race blues

1. Have you ever had ‘post race blues’

   1. Using the reflection time as a place where you can find ways to improve for next season

   2. Come up with a plan for the next 6-18 months blueprint

   3. Sign up for or research your next race

2. What if you don’t feel like running after the first 1-2 weeks off?

   1. This is a normal feeling 

   2. Sometimes you need to take more time off but sometimes you do just need to ACT before you get the ‘feeling back’

3. Seasonal changes can make you feel weird during an already weird time

   1. Don’t focus too much on how you ‘feel’ during this time of year

   2. Consistency is the key to success

4. Don’t do too much too soon

   1. A reverse taper is not a literal thing

   2. You want to take time off then rebuild mileage back to 50-70% of peak marathon mileage

   3. Workouts should be 1 month after race and very short like 6x 1 min ‘effort based’ pick ups

5. Don’t focus too much on comparing

   1. Don’t look at your marathon training cycle through rose colored glasses

   2. You can’t peak forever

Intentional training is key to success. We all know this in regards to marathon training or half marathon training. We will try to find the perfect plan leading up to our goal race. We stick with it, we train with a purpose! We practiced our fueling. We hit the mileage. We run the workouts… But marathon training blocks are usually only 12-20 weeks long. What are we doing the other 40-32 weeks out of the calender year? Those weeks add up and they matter! A lot of athletes as we head into the offseason or winter months will throw in the towel on following a plan and instead just do what feels good or run when they want to. As a runner, you may find improvements doing this approach in the early years of your running journey, but if you are inching towards wanting to reach your potential in the sport, the law of diminishing returns will come in. You will be to be more intentional about how you train during the MAJORITY of the year not just the 16 week marathon block

1. How many miles should you be running year round?

   1. MORE MILES = improved running efficiency and body adapts to the load

   2. We all know this intuitively, we think people who have been running for a long time have an ‘advantage’

2. Is it appropriate to run workouts year round?

   1. The types of workouts matter

   2. Let's say peak training for a marathon you run 6x 1 mi workout.. During offseason this may be 3-4x 1 mile

3. What are some of the key workouts you want to keep year round?

   1. Threshold

   2. Top End speed/strides

   3. Medium Longer runs 90-120 min

4. Setting & defining goals

   1. If you don’t know what your goals are with running, you can’t actually structure training

   2. You have to know the direction you want to go in

With fall marathons occurring soon, we are right around the corner to offseason training. If you follow runners on social media you will notice a few trends… Either there are the athletes who take time off after their goals races and then there are those athletes who appear to continue to train and put in some serious mileage even after 2 back to back marathons this fall. Why do some people appear to never take an offseason? Can you get away with that? Is it helpful or harmful in the long run?

Today we are going to give you the guidelines to perfect your offseason and avoid any burn out or injuries in the future. We always take a little bit more of a conservative approach for this reason. Whenever we talk about any topic in running it’s important to remember out background is to help you stay in the sport of running for decades and reach your potential along the way.

1. What is the typical protocol for the offseason after a 5k, half & full marathon

   1. Depends on how long the cycle was

   2. How does athlete feel?

   3. When was last time off?

2. How long do you need to take completely off?

   1. 1-2 weeks is typical

   2. Can get away with less 

3. Forces you to take the time before you ‘need it’

   1. It is uncomfortable

   2. Helps you get used to not doing the same thing constantly/avoid black and white thinking

4. What is a reverse taper?

   1. What is sounds like

   2. Spread out over more time than a taper

   3. No workouts for a few weeks

5. How much mileage should you run during the offseason

   1. 50-80% of peak mileage

6. How long should your long runs be?

   1. Not very long

   2. Less than 50% of your peak mileage long runs

7. What if you have a spring marathon or another goal coming up with a deadline?

   1. Doesn’t matter

   2. Plan better

8. What happens if you feel good and want to keep training at a high level without an offseason?

9. Why do some people appear to never take an offseason but yet still crush it?

10. When should I reintroduce workouts again?

11. What is it normal to feel like?

12. Should you strength train?

Pacing properly in a race is key to actually racing to your potential and being able to run a time that is reflective of your fitness. The biggest mistake more athletes make is going out ‘too fast’ in a race. There can also be the mentality of holding back too much or starting too slow, but they are rare. We want to aim for our races to be even split or even a slight negative split. In recent years, we see more elites and pros positive splitting races and some even setting records doing so, but historically the way that MOST world records were set was from negative splits. This means starting a little slower than you finish. In a marathon it might look like a 3:59 marathon splitting 2:00 the first half then 1:59 the second half. It doesn’t have to be drastic. 

The biggest barrier to pacing is not necessarily knowing where your fitness is at going into the race, but it is more the execution of the pacing plan. We need to remember that you are NOT a robot. Pacers and pace bands are a great idea in theory but today we are doing to do a deeper dive as to why it may not be the best approach

1. Does your watch help or hurt?

2. Should you use a pace band

3. Are pacers a good or bad thing

4. What if you are following the pacing plan and you feel good or you feel bad

5. How can you learn to listen to your body more?

256. HELPING WITH RACE NERVES

Worrying is suffering twice :) We have all been there. We all get nervous on race day to an extent. Some suffer from more race day anxiety than others. We care about our performances. We put a lot of time and energy into our training, and we hope that it all pays off on race day. It is good to care about your running, but we don’t want to be so nervous for a race that it makes us miserable! Today we are going to be chatting about ways to find zen and peace in the days and weeks leading up to race day!I like to find what my triggers are and things that really make the race day anxiety worse.

• Imposter Syndrome: You don’t have to run a certain time

• PRESSURE on ourselves

• Running FOR YOURSELF & NOT OTHERS

• You aren’t alone in feeling nervous

• What are some things that make race day anxiety worse for you?

• What are the ultimate fears associated with anxiety. Sometimes it’s the same 1-3 ‘what ifs’ that we continue to circle back to in our mind. If we are able to isolate what exactly we are worried 

may happen, we can then ask ourselves ‘realistically, if this did happen, would you be okay?”

1.More confidence

2. Experience racing when things go wrong

• Taking the scary monster out of the dark and exposing it

• Don’t put pressure on yourself by talking up big goals or oversharing. Some people love pressure: others do not!

• Journaling

• Talking with someone

• Meditation

• Trusting your process: you did the work. This is what you do every day

• Putting your running in perspective: it is a hobby

• Remembering other people are nervous too!

A lot of our content on the podcast and social media is about running marathons. Naturally many people want to improve their running which is sometimes measured in running your ‘fastest times’. This podcast episode is going to be talking about all the ways you can run your fastest marathon time. We won’t limit this episode to just ‘training tips’ but we will also add ways you can select a fast course, fast shoes & fueling optimization to get the best performance you possibly can. Why would someone opt for the fast shoes and a fast course? If you have a specific time goal you want to run to qualify for Boston or something, this is going to help you shave the most time off. Remember: revel races are BQ races. Not everyone ‘agrees’ with that, but Boston is the one who makes the rules, not us!

1. How to train to run your fastest marathon

   1. Base mileage

   2. You have to WANT IT- you have to be ready to RACE IT- it’s going to be uncomfortable

   3. A, B, C races

   4. Specific training

   5. Long runs & threshold workouts

   6. Fast half

2. Find the fastest possible course & refuse to race in insanely hot temps

   1. Summer, spring & early fall marathons all have the potential to be hot. It’s just simple math that you will NOT run as fast in 70 degrees as you would in 50 degrees. You want to consider having a few races to select from and not be tied down to one specific race because if it’s 80, time goal is likely out the window. Why waste your training?

   2. Go for courses that are FAST. Downhill or pancake flat. Hilly races will be more challenging and will lead to slower times

3. Fueling

   1. Carb Loading increases your performance 

   2. Fueling DURING

4. Super shoes

   1. Carbon plated shoes can lead to an increased performance

As we get closer to fall races, more athletes are getting ready to run their fall races. As we get closer to these races, it is good to talk about one of the most important parts of your training plan: the taper! What exactly is the taper? It’s not exactly a time to kick back and relax/do nothing. The taper is going to give you a chance to peak for your race at the right time. If you do too short of a taper, you run the risk of feeling heavy legs on race day. If you do too long or extreme of a taper, you might feel out of the swing of things when the gun goes off on race day. We will be tapering by reducing the volume but keeping in some intensity so that your legs still have the bounce in them. During the taper, you may feel worse because your body is in recovery mode. This might cause athletes to freak out mentally, but don’t worry! This is all apart of the process.

1. How long should the taper be for a marathon or half marathon?

   1. Marathon

      1. 2 weeks vs 3-4 weeks

   2. Half Marathon

      1. 2 weeks

2. Should you taper for all races or just A races?

   1. What are your goals?

   2. B races are most of your races

   3. Tapering & recovery is a bit of a waste of time

3. What % of weekly mileage should you be running during the taper

   1. First week 70-80% of peak miles

   2. Second week 70-80% of previous week

   3. Third Week 70-80% of that prior week but it’s race week so it might be more

4. What should you eat?

5. What should your sleep look like?

6. Is it okay to go faster on your easy days?

7. What if you feel like crap?

   1. Phantom pains

8. What if you feel really good and want to test your fitness?

We focus a lot on setting time based goals. Round numbers always sound and look cool, but what else is there when it comes to setting goals? Did you know there are other ways to measure progress?

Non-time based goals can be great for all athletes because they allow us to measure progress against

Most athletes are on a quest to improve. People like to see progress and no one wants to see that their hard work is actually moving them in the opposite direction of where they want to go. However, when there is not enough recovery in your training program, your body is not able to recover from the stressload of training. If you cannot recover from the stress of training, you will not be able to make adaptations that will make you a better athlete. Instead of improving, you will end up frustrated and sometimes injured as the stress continues to pile up. OR there is also the athlete who isn’t pushing hard enough. They may be stuck in their comfort zone doing the same workouts or training for the same. There are warning signs that this process has begun and that you may want to consider backing off. Today we will chat about the signs that you may be flatlining and how to stop it from happening

MORE ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER TRAP

• What do you think is more common: athletes who are doing too much or athletes who are not doing enough

• “I felt good”---> your body is so used to not feeling good that you have forgotten what feeling good actually feels like

• Stress variables actually make you feel really good→ fight or flight mode for too long is not great

• Cut back weeks

• Mileage

• Workouts & easy runs

• What is a sign that someone has too much stress in their training?

  • How will your workouts go

  • How will your resting HR be impacted

  • How will your races go

  • Will female athletes lose period

  • How long does it take to start to see these things

What are signs someone is not working hard enough

• Not doing workouts 20% hard running

• Easy running can only get you so far

• You need new stimuli

• Need more directions & specificity 

• Cannot do the same training/workouts over and over and expect different results.

What are signs YOU ARE IN A SWEET SPOT

• Making steady improvements in workouts

• Adapting to the load… maybe 1 year ago 40 miles a week was out of reach but now you do it regularly

• Adaptations happen over time so you need to look back 2-3+ months. This becomes harder when we are constantly in a marathon training cycle or recovering from our latest event. Are we racing and recovering or are we able to train consistently?