A really Easy Way to Measure Training Progress

I’ve found that a really easy way to measure the progress we’re making in our training is to look at the input/output ratio that’s being generated by each workout. I thank Joe Friel for writing about this in his recent blogs, especially since it’s a relatively simple and “low tech” method. I’ve been using this myself in my recent training and find it pretty valuable, but as with everything, it has its limitations.

How does this work? I've posted an easy guide to using this system on my website, so click here to read the short article.

Depressed after finishing your Ironman? Here's what might help!

Ahhhhh, PIDS (Post Ironman Depression Syndrome)! So common. In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who does not experience this. You've trained hundreds of hours, have had support from every sphere of your life (Family, Friends, Co-Workers, etc.), you've built up to a huge day of racing and you then experienced an incredible day with thousands of people along the course cheering you on. Then, within 48 hours, the banners are down, Ironman Village is turned back into a vacant skating oval and the "Welcome Can-Am" signs are up, welcoming the "next" group to come into town. What's not to get depressed about?

What my suggestion is: Go back and relive your day. Think about all of the great (and all of the painful) moments of the day and what you were experiencing at the moment. "Revel in the Glory" so to speak. You deserve it. That will help. Tell your friends about your experience, but try not to kill them off with hours of Ironman tales. And finally, write your game plan for next year: what  were the strengths and weaknesses of this year's training and racing? What would you change for next year? What specific weakness would you spend time developing? It doesn't matter if you're doing another IM in 2012 or not. You're likely to be planning SOME event, so make plans around that. I think you'll find that the internal (but written) debrief process and forward thinking will get you out of the depression and into an inspired state, motivated to move on to an even better 2012.

At least, that's what works for me and what I suggest to my athletes!

Ironman message to my Team in Training Gang

Team- You may notice that there is nothing scheduled as a group training event for next weekend. That's because several of our past & present coaches and TNT participants are racing at the Ironman in Lake Placid. It's hard not to point out that every single one of them were once in your shoes, doing their first triathlon with Team in Training and looking at the event (in most cases a sprint distance race) as a huge undertaking. Well, they  fell in love with the sport (like many of you will) and continued to race and step up their game to where they are now at the Ironman level.

Now, I'm a coach who views Ironman as an event that's not meant for everyone. Some people excel at shorter distance events. Many, many have very busy lives with careers, family, social obligations and schedules that just don't permit the commitment to training for the Ironman distance. Some, just love racing sprints and Olympic Distance events. And that makes them no less of a Triathlete. For me, when I first started racing triathlon, having come from a running and cycling background, there was only one Ironman event in the world and it was still a relatively small group of people on the lunatic fringe. But I came to love the sport and got myself into an excellent state of fitness racing mostly Olympic distance events. It's not the distance of the event that gets you in amazing shape, it's the commitment to train for your chosen distance.

Our bodies are amazing machines (it's well known that "God doesn't make junk"). We gradually increase our riding, running and swimming and our bodies respond by making physiological changes to adapt to a higher level of performance (which reflects the type of training we're doing). Like scar tissue, the body rebuilds muscle fiber stronger to avoid the cellular level damage that's done while training, to avoid having that damage repeated the next time. We train differently for short events than we do for long events. The specific training that we do determines how the body responds so we can become very fast at shorter distances, or in the alternate, get to where we can go very far without fatiguing. The key ingredients to whatever type of training you're doing is commitment and consistency. Without both of these in place, not much will happen.

As for our coaches and Team in Training alumni who are racing next weekend...these guys have worked really hard over the past year to be ready. Wish them a wonderful day and an experience that will produce a warm glow for a lifetime. And if you have any possibility at all and you want to see an Inspired Performance to where you're ready to explode, come to Lake Placid next weekend to support them and cheer them on...and for bonus points, be at the finish line at midnight to see the entire town of Lake Placid plus all of it's visitors come out to support the last finishers in what is likely to be the best party you'll be part of for years to come.

Chuck

Peaking v. Tapering!

Going into the final few weeks before a key race (particularly long course or ultra) is not about tapering! Tradition has referred to the taper just as it has called for a pre-race carbo loading pasta dinner! Many of my friends and athletes are putting the final touches on their training for Ironman Lake Placid. For those that I'm coaching, the mantra that they're hearing is that they are not in their taper. There's still important work to do that the image of a taper would not conger up.

The last 2 weeks prior to race week is more accurately referred to as a peak period. I stress the distinction between the terms Taper and Peaking for a couple of reasons I think are very important. First, there's a huge psychological reaction to what you do when you're tapering. You tend to take training less seriously.  You focus on resting (important) and no longer feel the necessity of completing every workout. Secondly, tapering as most people see it, is a significant drop in training volume. While that's true in the peak period, it's only half of the equation. So here's what happens when an athlete is "tapering" as opposed to following a Peak Training Phase.

1. The commitment level goes down. If you're tired during a taper, you tend to blow off the workout and just rest and relax.
2. Your training volume and enthusiasm for training goes down. You'll go out for a ride or a run and make it more of a social event than a workout in preparation for an event that you've been training for over the past year. As a result, your pacing will get slower and you'll likely start feeling "stodgy"  which becomes a vicious cycle.
3. Your weight starts to climb. It's likely that your appetite will not go down at the rate your training volume does. The pounds (that you really don't need to carry around on race day) start to mount.
4. As a result, your race will not be optimum or reflect the work that you've put in.

A Peak Period, however, differs in this sense:

1. You push through the temptation to slow down, but understand the importance of rest between workouts.
2. The training volume you're doing goes down, but your intensity goes up. You train at a higher heart rate or power zone and do "mini-races" at race pace and above. You'll continue to feel the fatigue for several days after you reduce volume, but before very long, you'll start to catch up and feel much more rested and refreshed. Your pace will be fine tuned and you'll start to feel very sharp in your training.
3. One of your key focuses will need to be on nutrition. Volume of Calories has to be proportionate to volume of training. The quality of those Calories also needs to be watched carefully. You may have "gotten away  with" eating anything during your high volume ramp- up, but that's not likely to continue now. Carbohydrate holds three times its weight in water so the more starch you put in your system, the more you'll weigh and it's not linear given the water retaining quality of CHO.
4. Some of you are aware of, or are using the Performance Management Chart on Training Peaks. If you are, you know that you are looking for the "Yellow Line" or Training Stress Balance to come up to zero, while the other lines (Acute Training Load and Chronic Training Load) to come down. For those not familiar with this valuable tool, the key is that you need to rest, but too much rest is damaging just as too little rest is. The balance is in following a good 2 week peak period that consists of race-like intervals at lower volume than you've been training at, getting good sleep and rest when not training, and watching your nutrition very carefully.

The final week (Race Week) is looks almost like a third Peak Week, but with volume (again) reduced substantially and work being short but fast. Again, rest when not training is critical and a good nutrition plan (normal eating, not feasting) is paramount to your success.

Wishing all of my Inspired Performance Coaching Athletes and friends great success in your upcoming race, and as I always say: "Follow the Plan!" and Have Fun.

Camp Sold Out!

Our Triathlon Training Camp at Lake Placid™ is SOLD OUT. Twenty- Five athletes ranging from Sprint and Olympic distance people to experienced Ironman competitors will be at training with us beginning on Thursday evening, June 23^rd. A Welcome Reception will get everyone acquainted on Thursday and training will start early on Friday morning,  with campers meeting at lakeside ready to swim at 6:30 AM.

We appreciate the support and thank our sponsors who include Infinit Nutrition, Computrainer, Excel Orthopedic Rehab, Wicked Fast Nutrition and Clif Bar. Our camp is conducted by Inspired Performance Coaching and Training Bible Coaching and co-directed by Chuck Graziano and Tom Manzi, both USA Triathlon Certified Coaches and Training Bible Elite Level Coaches.

Congratulations Quassy Competitors!

Congratulations to Inspired Performance Athletes Elliott Albirt and Rich Kiser for great performances at the Rev3 Quassy half. And congratulations also to all the Team in Training coaches and alumni who raced as well. What a great group of people. Dinner for 40 at Maggie McFly's? What a great time. Now back to training and preparation for the next big race on the schedule for this season.

Massage Therapist at Camp

Just arranged today for a massage therapist to be set up at the Northwoods Inn for us during camp. We'll have an advance sign up for appointments during some down time that we've built into the schedule

We're close to filled. If you know anyone who is interested in coming up to camp, have them sign up now while we still have a couple of slots open! Sign up here.

Training Camp Itinerary is up!

We're getting really excited about the way our Training Camp at Lake Placid is shaping up. There is a detailed preliminary itinerary now posted at the Inspired Performance Coaching website. Please take a look if you're registered for the camp to see what's in store. If you're not yet registered for the camp, take a look to see if this is something that would help you in your training and racing. We have just a few slots left before registration closes, so please sign up if you'd like to participate! Remember that there are a limited number of rooms at the Northwoods Inn that offer a special rate for our camp. Information on how to get the special package will be sent to you once you register.

A Terrible Thing and What to do about it!

Today many of us learned of the passing of Gretta Waitz, the champion runner from Norway (and honorary member of the NY community) who won the NYC marathon 9 times! It was so sad to hear, but we (especially those of us with active, athletic lifestyles) should once again be reminded that there is no running away from cancer. As much of a champion as Gretta was, her 6 year battle was lost to a debilitating disease that I'm confident nobody reading this blog has not been touched by.

So, what's our take away? It does us no good to mire in the sadness of her passing, or for that matter, anyone's passing from the disease. And we can consider ourselves at the effect of the disease (maybe it will get us too). But for me, I recommend we take up the battle where Gretta left off and fight the disease with everything we've got. It may not have stricken us individually, but it certainly has personally. The challenge is not to be a victim or at the effect of the disease, but to be at the cause of doing something about it. Of course, as one person, it seems such a miniscule thing that I can do. Like a grain of sand on the beach. But as a world we can come together and create that beach, composed of the uncountable grains of sand all fighting for the same thing: A world that is cancer free. It's not important (in my way of thinking) that we direct our energies at raising money and awareness for breast cancer, prostrate cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, blood borne cancers or you name it. It's important that we do something!

Personally, I've been a member (and a coach for people who were members) of Fred's Team (for those of you who remember Fred LeBow, founder of the NYC marathon who passed away from brain cancer) and for the past 11 years have coached or The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. I've seen Team in Training pass the $1 Billion mark in fund raising! There's also Livestrong (which organization has been rated among the best in terms of percentages of fund raising that actually goes to the cause- in the Livestrong case-81%!). And there are so many more. It's your choice.

The important message is: don't just read this, say "oh, that's a nice idea, maybe I'll do a Susan B. Komen walk" and then go back to life. Make a commitment to give something of yourself in the vision of you (and your children) living in a world without cancer! And then take the first step: make a call, do an internet search, take action. If we all just give a little bit of time on a regular basis, we can make this happen!

What do you think about Aquabike?

The USAT Age Group Committee is working on the promotion of Aquabike as a sport to be included in more and more events across the country. This is a sport (swimming and cycling) that is growing and in fact has now been established in two regional championships: the Northeast Regional Championship and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship. The benefits of including this event include:

• Opening up the multisports world to people who may be daunted by all three events of Triathlon
• Creating more opportunity for market exposure for sponsors (and therefore their participation at more events)
• Making it possible for aging and/or injured athletes to continue in their multisports participation despite injuries or degenerative conditions.

What do you think? Please post your comments!

Are Athletes Really More Focused Thinkers?

Here's an interesting article from the New York Times on a study that shows how athletes my be more focused thinkers than non-athletes. Seems to me that there may be a lot of reasons for this, and my personal experience is that after training, I'm particularly focused but that's certainly not empirical. Click here to read the article.

Quality Recovery

Many of you are starting to ramp up your training for the season. As you do, recovering quickly from your workouts becomes more important. As your body recovers, it needs to restore amino acids that are used in training. Restoring leucine, isoleucine, valine and glutamine after exercise helps to rebuild the muscle fiber that is damaged in training, helps prevent muscle soreness and aids in the production of growth hormone.

As I did last year, I just ordered a fresh supply of RecoverEase! I don't sell supplements for a living, but when I find a product that is especially good, I try to pass it along to those I know might benefit from it. This is a recovery product that I've found works better than anything I've tried in over 25 years of training and racing. As my own case study, when I first started using RecoverEase, I cycled from my home to Long Beach Island, NJ (154 miles) on a Friday. I took RecoverEase that night and the next morning and did a strong 10 mile run on Sunday without significant fatigue or soreness!

The key ingredients include essential amino acids including (especially) L-Glutamine which you may recognize as an amino acid that many athletes load with prior to a race. The contents are very similar to Endurox R4, but RecoverEase has twice the amino acid potency without the calories. Because I ordered in bulk, I can offer friends and athletes I coach a 25% discount from the price offered by the manufacturer. Bottles of 120 capsules are available for $29.99. If you're interested follow the link below!

Triathlon Camp at Lake Placid- Almost Filled

Our June camp at Lake Placid is very close to being "sold out". We're very happy with that news because it (we hope) speaks to the reputation of the coaches who manage this camp, myself and my good friend and colleague, Tom Manzi.

We intend to run a 1st class camp. We don't coach any other way. It is our intention to be sure that everyone has a great time and gets some individual attention and so to insure this, we limit the number of people we register. And those registered so far span the spectrum of Triathlete from sprint and Olympic distance people to those intending on racing at Ironman USA this year. We've charted out rides from 10 to 112 miles (and more if you wish). We're putting together some workshops on varied and (we think) interesting topics ranging from how to calculate your Training Stress Score for your three sports to race day strategies for Ironman.

We're excited about this year's camp (as we have been each year that we've done it). Tom and I have done almost 500 tris between us and the thrill of the starting line has never changed for either one of us so we can identify with the excitement of our campers. We'd love to have you along, but as I mentioned, we do limit the size of our camp and we're thrilled that we'll likely sell out in the next week or so. So if you're interested, or have questions, shoot me an email or give me a call and we can address any thoughts that you might have...but do it soon!

Triathlon Training Camp- Register now if you want to come to camp

Registration for our Annual Triathlon Training Camp at Lake Placid is going very well. As of today, we have about 7 slots remaining available until camp is "sold out". We're very happy with that news because it (we hope) speaks to the reputation of the coaches who manage this camp, myself and my good friend and colleague, Tom Manzi.

We intend to run a 1st class camp. We don't coach any other way. That's why we limit the number of people who we have in our camp. It's our expectation that everyone who attends will get individual attention and some actual coaching. The people registered so far span the spectrum of Triathlete from sprint and Olympic distance people to those intending on racing at Ironman USA this year. We've charted out rides from 10 to 112 miles (and more if you wish). We're putting together some workshops on varied and (we think) interesting topics ranging from how to calculate your Training Stress Score for your three sports to race day strategies for Ironman.

We're excited about this year's camp (as we have been each year that we've done it). Tom and I have done almost 500 tris between us and the thrill of the starting line has never changed for either one of us so we can identify with the excitement of our campers. We'd love to have you along, but as I mentioned, we do limit the size of our camp and we're thrilled that we'll likely sell out in the next week or so. So if you're interested, or have questions, shoot me an email or give me a call and we can address any thoughts that you might have...but do it soon!

Chuck

Some Early Season Dos and Donts | Inspired Performance Coaching

During the early part of the training season, your focus should be on much more than just getting back to training. You should create a broad-brush picture of what your training will look like (your Annual Training Plan) and then set out to accomplish the specific goals you've set for this early part of the year. In this article, I give you my take on what your goals should focus on.

Some Early Season Dos and Donts | Inspired Performance Coaching