Consistency and Routines

I tried the new wetsuit this morning with the first open water swim of the season. I took a thermometer along and was surprised to find the lake water already at 70 degrees. The wetsuit felt good and performed well. I still had trouble catching my breath with the water being about 13 degrees cooler than the pool and with me again getting use to the wetsuit confinement. All was well after about 10 minutes of swimming, which leads me into consistency and routines.

I talked to Julia last week and she was all excited about meeting and listening to Olympic triathlete, Jarrod Shoemaker, in Cohasset a couple of weeks ago. One of th things she came away with was the importance of keeping to routines on race day and NEVER trying anything new during the race, or the final days leading up to it, for that matter. The time to try your race drinks and gels is during training. Likewise, your eating habits before training should be developed during training weeks, and then go with tried and true meals the night before and morning of the race. Or, it may be that you are best to start out skipping a morning meal and having a gel pack and water 5 or 10 minutes before the race.

You should also lock in your equipment and go with the familiar on race day. For example, don't try adding aero bars to your bike a day or two before the race. If you think you may want to go aero, be doing it now, so you become accustomed to the bars and safely confident going aero.

Be consistent in training. Practice good techniques. Keep to your plan and schedule as well as you can. Start practicing some transitions. Do exactly what you plan to do on race day when practicing. It may help to write it out. Get familiar with your routines so they become second nature. You will have a lot of things to think about. Having routines down pat will leave you in a better position to deal with those unexpected events that always seem to "complicate" your race. Be ready for calm problem solving as the race unfolds. Take problems in stride and just deal with them. Your consistency and routines will make problems less likely and your ability to resolve them easier.

So, this mornings swim was good for me. I learned that I need to find a colder lake to practice in and that I should plan one of my three swims each week needs to be in the open water to get ever more comfortable with the wetsuit, cool open water, and BREATHING.

By the way, I took a bottle of hot tap water along and poured it down my wetsuit as I waded into the lake. That was a first, and may have taken away a little of the initial cold water shock as lake water entered the wet suit. I think I liked it!

Have you been training yet today?

Tom

Wet Suit Arrived!

It was Christmas in April today. My new wet suit arrived and it fits like a glove! I tried it out and I immediately remembered how much I dislike the constricted feeling around my neck. As before, I need to get into the lake and get accustomed to the feel and try to get somewhat comfortable with breathing. I'm thinking about 4 or 5 swims will do it - increasing distance with each swim. The first time trying out a triathlon wet suit, I nearly panicked and only swam about 50 yards. It does take some getting use to, so give it a shot first chance you get. Also, avoid chlorinated water.

Tomorrow, or soon, I'll discuss consistency and routines. The other night, Julia brought up the importance of not changing anything on race day. More to come on that.

Any action images to post?

Hows the training coming? Be consistent.

67 days 'til Cohasset

Tom

Cold Water Tips

I found a thread on Active.com Tri forum dealing with cold water. I summarized some of the cold water tips that may be helpful for Cohasset. I don’t know for sure the average water temp for that time of year, but I’m guessing low 60s.

Remember your head! Most of your heat escapes there. Wear a silicone swim cap if you can... or at least another cap underneath the race cap that you will receive. The silicone will help keep the heat in your body better than latex will. Neoprene is the best for keeping the heat in, but it will cost you $$$.

Jog for a while before the start, maybe 5 – 10 minutes slow and even, then pull on the wetsuit, and keep moving. If the air temp is already quite warm, delay putting on the wet suit. Three minutes before the start get in & swim, easy, but with full attention to form. Let the water get into your wetsuit & warm up. Then hit that first 100 yards pretty steady, but not too hard to get your body temp up, and hang on. Getting the water inside the suit warm is the purpose of the wetsuit, so do anything you can to get it in & heated up before the gun off. A more comfortable way to get water into the wetsuit and warm is to take a thermos of very warm water and pour it into your wetsuit before getting into the water. If you're in a wave start that has you waiting a while, pour more warm water into your wetsuit as you wait.

If the air temp is cool when you get out, put on a heavy insulated hooded jacket and keep moving to keep your body warm. Wear old socks until getting into the water for the start, and ditch them at the waters edge.

Whether the water is cold or not, remember to BREATHE! This may be the most important tip. Be sure and completely exhale on your breathing. Cold water makes your body naturally want to hold on to oxygen. If you don't expel all of the air in your lungs, you will be taking shorter breaths during each stroke, causing you to become more oxygen deprived and thus causing hypothermia symptoms. Be sure to take full breaths in, and then completely exhale in the water.

Lastly, take it easy. Your heart rate will naturally be higher automatically given the water temperature. Slow down and relax. Have a good swim!

Swim Work-out Ideas

Another from Active Tri Weekly... All I have been doing so far are 500 to 1000-meter swims. The following gives me some swim training ideas for my weakest leg of the tri.

Active.com > Triathlon > 4 Weeks to Increased Power in the Water
4 Weeks to Increased Power in the Water

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By Colin Izzard and Jim Rutberg Triathlete magazine
After a winter of diligently staring at the black line at the bottom of the pool, you're finally getting ready to break out of the natatorium and get into competition.
But do you have any speed, or are you just a slow and steady diesel engine this early in the year? Even though you might not be peaking for your first event of the season, we can guarantee it'll be a lot more fun if you have a bit of sprinting power.
Sometimes in races you need to be able to produce a good burst of speed. It's necessary for getting a good start as hundreds of bodies surge into the water, and then later in the swim leg when you have to get around a slower swimmer or move out of a cluster of flailing arms and legs.
Fortunately, you can develop the speed and power you need without disrupting your long-range training progression, and as an added bonus, incorporating the following workouts into your program can actually lead to faster pace-per-hundred performance (a common measure of maximum sustainable swimming pace).
How It Works
Intensity is the key to making the Power Burst workout effective. Many triathletes are accustomed to swimming at a quick yet sustainable pace, but not at an all-out, gut-busting, lung-scorching intensity. However, that's what it's going to take to inject a significant amount of speed into your swimming with a relatively small number of workouts.
At the same time, you have to be careful not to forsake the foundations of a solid swim leg for some added power. This workout should not be an additional session in the water but, rather, should replace an existing one. If you're swimming twice a week, be sure to focus on doing drill work during your warm-up and cool-down, and your other session in the water should include an endurance/pace set focused on building your aerobic engine and maximum sustainable swimming pace.
If you swim three times a week, it's important to take the intensity of the power-burst workout into consideration. Consequently, your third swim of the week should be a very light workout that incorporates drills and recovery swimming.
The Power Burst Workout
Warm-up for all weeks
200 to 400 yards warm-upMix this up with 50 percent drilling and 50 percent swimming
Week 1
8 x 25 yards all-outRest is equal to the time it takes you to swim the 25 yards100 yards easy as 25 drill/25 swim

Week 2
4 x 50 yards all-outRest is equal to the time it takes you to swim the 50 yards100 yards easy as 25 drill/25 swim

Week 3
2 x 100 yards all-outRest is equal to the time it takes you to swim the 100 yards100 yards easy as 25 drill/25 swim

Week 4
2 x 100 yards all-outRest is equal to the time it takes you to swim the 100 yards100 yards easy as 25 drill/25 swim
4 x 50 yards all-outRest is equal to the time it takes you to swim the 50 yards100 yards easy as 25 drill/25 swim
8 x 25 yards all-outRest is equal to the time it takes you to swim the 25 yards100 yards easy as 25 drill/25 swim

Depending on your level of experience/fitness go back up the ladder.So, the entire main set would consist of: 2 x 100, 4 x 50, 8 x 25, 4 x 50, 2 x 100
Cool-down for all workouts
200 to 400 yards cool-down, easy swimming

Make It a Double
When it comes to integrating the Power Burst workout into your overall training program, it's a good idea to schedule it for the same day as a hard running or cycling workout. One of the challenges triathletes face is finding enough time for recovery between hard efforts—a problem that is complicated by adding more intensity.

However, we've found that even though the Power Burst workout is strenuous, athletes are typically able to complete a high-quality running or cycling workout—including intervals at and even above their maximum sustainable pace or lactate threshold—on the same day. Combining these workout tasks should open up space in your schedule for more complete rest or active recovery the following day.

The final question that needs to be answered is when to start incorporating this four-week progression of workouts into your training schedule. The kind of swimming speed and power you're building develops relatively quickly. But at the beginning of the competition season, most triathletes lack the deep fitness necessary to support it for more than a few weeks.
In other words, these four swim sessions will give you a boost, but it will be short-lived, so you'd better use it while it lasts. Start the power-burst workout progression five weeks out from an event you'd like to have some added speed for, leaving one week for recovery before your race.

Training Tips and the "Plan"

From Active Tri Wekly:


8 Tri-Training Tips to Help Plan Your Season

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By Gale Bernhardt For Active.com
Have you been daydreaming, looking forward to the summer racing season? If you are a new triathlete, you might be asking, "How can I get in shape for a triathlon?"
If you raced last season, your dreamy thoughts may ask: "What should I do different this season? How can I get faster? How can I go farther?"
If these questions are on your mind, know that the same training principles guide the plans for addressing either question, whether you're a beginner or seasoned triathlete.
The deeper we look into a training plan for an individual sport, we'll find further refinements of the training principles. For example, the details of the plan for an athlete doing his or her first triathlon are different from the details of the plan for an experienced athlete trying to get faster.
The plan for a beginning triathlete is different if the athlete is fit, compared to the plan used by a currently hibernating athlete. Of course, the training plan for an Ironman-distance event is different than for an Olympic-distance event.
The old saying "The devil is in the details" holds true for training plans. When working with the devil in your training plan, keep in mind the following training principles:
1. Individual and progressive overload must be applied to achieve physiological improvement and bring about a training change. A widely accepted rule of thumb is to increase annual training hours or annual volume by 10 percent or less.
2. Training volume can be defined as the combination of frequency and duration. When assembling your training plan, annual training volume is one piece of the puzzle. Broken down, the monthly, weekly and daily training volumes are as important as annual volume. Establishing your personal training volume based on what "the pros do" is faulty logic. Your personal training volume, to bring about physiological improvement for you, should be based on your personal profile, past training volume, current lifestyle, goals, the number of weeks you have to train before your key event, and your response to training.
3. The duration of your longest workout may or may not be the length of your goal race. It is common for beginning and intermediate sprint and Olympic-distance triathletes to include a bike ride in their training that totals the length of time estimated for them to complete their event. This is seldom the case for Ironman-distance athletes.
4. Depending on your current fitness, race goals and available training time, the frequency of workouts scheduled will vary. Some athletes will work out only once per day while others workout twice or more times per day. Frequency also applies to the number of workouts per week. Not only is workout frequency important, but so is frequency of rest.
5. Individual response to training does vary. Given the same training plan, individuals using that plan can make improvements at different rates and can have varying gains in overall fitness. This means there is not a single magic-bullet training plan that is right for everyone.
6. The duration and frequency of workouts vary with each particular training block and with the intensity of individual workouts. Intensity can be measured as heart rate, pace per 100 yards, pace per mile, miles per hour, power output and rating of perceived exertion, to name a few methods. The appropriate training intensity minimizes the risk of injury while achieving the goal pace on race day.
7. The mode of training becomes more important as race day approaches. For athletes utilizing a year-round approach to training for triathlon, aerobic cross-training in the early training blocks is appropriate. For example, northern-latitude triathletes often use cross-country skiing workouts to bolster endurance. As the athlete approaches triathlon race day, training that is specific to the triathlon (swimming, cycling and running) becomes more important than generalized training. In other words, the specificity of training becomes more important.
8. Goal-oriented triathletes must consider rest and recovery as critical training components. Performance gains are made when the body has a chance to repair and absorb the training workload.
Whether you are looking to do your first triathlon or improve your results from last season, if you haven't mapped your plan for success, now is a good time to get rolling.
In your design, consider the training principles outlined in this column. Haphazard training brings hit and miss results.
While a carefully thought-out and executed training plan does not guarantee a personal best this season, the chances for a well-timed peak performance are much better with a plan than without.
Gale Bernhardt was the 2003 USA Triathlon Pan American Games and 2004 USA Triathlon Olympic coach for both the men's and women's teams. Her first Olympic experience was as a personal cycling coach at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Thousands of athletes have had successful training and racing experiences using Gale's pre-built, easy-to-follow training plans. For more information, click here. Let Gale and Active Trainer help you succeed.
Related Articles:
10 Easy Steps to Designing a Training Plan
Get Ready to Race: Tips for that First Race of the Year
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