Being Careful

It’s really getting to the business end of my World Champs preparation now. I developed a good, solid base of fitness, increased my strength and now I am working on some speed before adding in some more race specificity. However, I have been tinkering with my final training plan, for the next 5 weeks, before flying out 8 days before the event on September 7.

I have felt the need to re-arrange my training as I have noticed some signs of overtraining such as; general feel of lacking some energy, a slight head cold a couple of weeks ago and, now, another infection which has affected my chest and sinuses but almost gone, feeling poor during some sessions and not feeling properly rested after my normal amount of sleep.

My plan to combat this while ensuring I complete desired sessions before flying out, will be to have an extra recovery day between my hard rides and runs. This simply means that instead of performing two hard rides and a weights session each week, this will be spaced out over about 10 days. This will be similar for my running. My swimming will be focussed on the days where I don’t have any hard rides or runs and a couple of easier swims on the harder days. I will continue with easy riding and running for active recovery on easy days, also.

An example of this new layout will look something like this:-

·         Day 1: Ride 3 – 4 hours with several 8 – 10 minute hill repeats and an easy 2 – 3km swim.

·         Day 2: 60 minutes easy spin and Run 2 hours – long endurance run with a few above race pace efforts in the last half an hour. Core strength.

·         Day 3: Ride to and from the pool (approx. 90 minutes total) and swim 4km with a strength focus.

·         Day 4: Ride 90 minutes – 2 hours with a lot of short, high cadence efforts. Then, a leg weights and core strength session.

·         Day 5: Ride to and from the pool and swim 3km with a speed focus.

·         Day 6: Ride 60 minutes easy. Track run session working above race pace for various length intervals building the speed throughout the workout. Core strength.

·         Day 7: Run 45 minutes easy with some drills. Swim 3km with race pace focus and practice sighting.

·         Day 8: Ride 4 – 6 hours with the last 2 hours practicing race pace over extended periods and simulating race day nutrition. Run up to 30 minutes off the bike at race pace.

·         Day 9: Ride to and from the pool and swim 3km using drills and focussing on technique and kicking.

·         Day 10: Ride 60 minutes easy and run 60 minutes easy. Core strength.

The aim of spacing out my key sessions further is to ensure I am well rested prior to key workouts in an effort to produce the best possible sessions. Also, to prevent the possibility of overtraining so close to my goal race, I will take extra rest on non-key workout days where necessary by excluding a swim, light ride or easy run and ensure adequate sleep is not sacrificed.

With only 4 and half weeks of training left before leaving and beginning my taper, I will be more focussed than ever at ensuring I am in peak condition.

Be sure to follow me on Strava and check out some of the longer sessions I have done and will do from now on.

Happy training folks.

Lincoln.

Race Weight - Timing is Everything

I am 179cm tall and currently weigh 76kg. 5 months ago, at Ironman 70.3 Geelong, I raced at 75kg. I was hoping I would trim down further for the World Championships in order to be faster. However, I have not seen my weight go below about 75.5kg for the entire time I have been preparing since April.

I feel fitter and stronger than before, my training results and numbers suggest this, so I am not worried about being slow on race day but I don’t know how much effect my weight will have on performance compared to other athletes on the undulating Mont-Tremblant course.

First of all, now is not the time to try and lose weight. With only 8 weeks until the race, trying to lose weight would do more harm than good. By cutting calories, I would not be able to train as hard because my energy and recovery would be compromised, leaving me at risk of illness and poor training output. There is simply no room to let up in the quality of my training at this point.

Also, the best time to try and reduce weight would have been in the initial phases of my preparation, approximately 3 – 5 months before race day. Unfortunately, I didn’t focus as much on my diet during that time, so, although my body began to lose a little body fat and gain some lean muscle mass, I didn’t lose any weight.

In these final two months, I am going to be as strict as I have ever been. I am going to cut out any sugary snacks which I was treating myself too previously. Except, in the event that I require something quickly after a hard workout and am desperate. I am now going to focus particular hard on consuming more vegetables and using fruit for snacks if necessary, on top of those that I already eat on a daily basis.

The objective behind this is to hope that I will lose a little excess body fat and become lighter because of it. Therefore, not sacrificing lean muscle mass or energy and supporting my immune system better with the important nutrients in the extra vegetables and fruit.

I’m sure some of you are wondering what difference this will really make.

In comparison to the top long course triathletes in the world, like those who will be competing for overall honours in Mont-Tremblant, they tend to be a lot lighter than me. For example, a top pro athlete of similar height will weigh somewhere between 68 – 72kg.

Jan Frodeno, 2008 Olympic Gold medallist, and arguably the best 70.3 athlete in the world at the moment, is 194cm tall and weighs in at 76kg. He is full of lean muscle mass and has very little body fat and after winning several major 70.3 events this year with half marathon run splits of 1 hour 12 minutes or faster, along with matching it with the best cyclists in the sport, he is a terrific example of an all-round athlete. Let’s not forget his incredible full Ironman debut recently at the Ironman European Championships, in Frankfurt, where he had the fastest marathon run split, at 2 hours 43 minutes. This was after leading out of the swim, experiencing 3 flat tyres on the bike leg, falling 17 minutes behind the leaders, struggling with cramps during his first ever marathon and gaining back over 10 places to finish 3^rd.

But how will I benefit from being lighter?

It’s a lot to do with power-to-weight ratio on the bike, whereby, if I can produce the same amount of power at 74kg, as I did when weighing 76kg, I could go faster with the same energy expenditure OR use less energy to go the same speed.

With running, carrying less weight produces less stress on your joints and less muscular energy is needed to produce the same speed. Each step would have greater responsiveness off the ground and reduce the contact time of your foot on the ground, which is one of the major points of improving run speed.

Some people would suggest to me that I don’t need to lose weight and from a health perspective, this is very true. However, I assure you, this has nothing to do with the way I look or to improve any aspect of my health. I truly want to make it to the top ranks of triathlon and I believe my weight is one aspect which will contribute to helping reach that goal. Also, when done right, it shouldn’t have any negative effects on my health.

The Ironman 70.3 World Championships will give me a much better indication of how close I am to an ideal race weight. I will closely assess my performance afterwards to determine what I will look to do to continue my progression. However, as my next race will be Ironman 70.3 Ballarat, just 10 weeks after the World Champs, it is unlikely I will make many changes during that period.

Tell me, when have you tried to drop down to a lighter race weight? How did you do it and did it help?

I look forward to your stories.

Lincoln.

Changing Things Up

I have reassessed my training format and made some significant adjustments which I started last week. This was prompted by the continuous inability to train properly while working early shift, as well as a need for separating key sessions better for more effective training output.

Previously, I had worked on a 3:1 training weeks to recovery week ratio. I would build up over 3 weeks before having a significantly lighter training week to absorb the hard work and refresh the body, regardless of what shifts I was working. However, during my most recent week of early shifts, I was increasingly frustrated with the inability to get to sleep early enough, the constant state of grumpiness and the illusion that, I didn’t have enough time to complete all of the desired sessions, this caused.

I have now changed my approach to a 2:1 training/recovery week ratio. My early shifts, which come around every three weeks, will now be considered my recovery week. The 14 days of hard training, which actually starts on a Wednesday for me, then takes place on days of late shift and days off only. I find I can get my 8 – 9 hours sleep consistently during those two weeks and I feel much better when training in the morning, before work.

Also, with only having two weeks to build up before recovery week, I now add extra volume to the last 4 days, of the 14, by doing the following:

Day 11: Add an extra swim after my regular long Saturday 5 hour ride/30 minute run session.

Day 13: An extra 4 hour ride with hill repeats in place of my leg weights session, and;

Day 14: An extra 2 hours of easy riding and a swim to add to my 2 hour, long aerobic run.

The other adjustment I have made is to the general layout of key sessions. Previously, I was performing a 2 – 3 hour strength ride on Tuesdays, a 90 minute+ high cadence ride on Thursday which preceded my leg weights session and a long ride on Saturday. These were my key bike workouts. However, I was finding myself being too sore from the weights on Thursday to have a good ride on Saturday.

As I am now extending my long rides to 5 hours and adding in some key efforts in those rides, I want to go into them as fresh as possible. Therefore, I will now do my leg weights on Monday and push even harder. On Wednesday, I will do a 3 hour+ strength ride using really big gears and staying around 60RPM. This will leave 3 days to recover before my long ride on Saturday. I will still ride another 2 – 4 times per week but for commuting purposes or as warm-ups and active recovery.

My running has taken a similar adjustment as I have three key sessions. Long run on Tuesdays pushing up to 2 hours and using some inclines. My new addition is a track session on Thursdays where I am currently doing 8 x 800m at approximately my theoretical 5km race pace, with a 400m jog in between. This pace currently equates to 3:20-3:30mins/km and I am hoping to be on sub 4:00mins/km pace during the run in Mont-Tremblant.

Finally, I do a tempo (race pace) run on Sundays. Previously, I was running tempo for 40 minutes but I have now pushed this up to 60 minutes. I did my first 60 minute tempo this past Sunday and was very happy to average about 3:55mins/km while maintaining a very consistent 92 – 94 RPM leg turnover.

Other runs will include short 20 – 30 minute runs off the two main bike sessions and I do plenty of drills during warm-ups for the key run workouts.

My swimming structure remains the same with attempting to get in the pool 4 – 5 times per week. However, I am starting to up the volume and I’m now seeing some good aerobic fitness in water.

I feel much more comfortable with this new approach. I feel I can train even harder during the two training weeks and stress less during the recovery week. All aspects are improving and that’s very important as the world champs are now less than 10 weeks away.

Are you ready for the world champs? Tell me below.

A Big Month Ahead

I have begun a big phase of focused strength building in my training. In doing this, I will be looking to increase overall volume while being smart with how I break down my sessions to get the most out of each key workout.

This week and next week have an all-round focus on volume for each discipline. Following these initial two weeks will be 9 days of focus on bike and run strength endurance. In those final 9 days, swimming will be backed off to allow for harder work to be completed on the bike and run as well as trying to fit in some extra recovery work, including, essential chiropractic sessions with Dr David Riordan at Holistique Health + Spa (http://www.holistiquehealth.com.au/), in Ballarat.

I have a particular tendency to get very tight hamstrings, glutes and lower back through lots of hard riding in the aero position, among other things, and Dr David puts those areas back in working condition very nicely. Holistique Heath + Spa are tremendous supporters of my triathlon endeavours and I’m very grateful for their services.

One interesting change to my bike training during this phase will be reducing my ‘key’ bike workouts to 2 per week, down from 3. I will perform one long ride up to 5 hours in length with some hill work and race pace efforts. The other session will be 3 hours of predominantly low cadence strength work. I will still ride another 2 – 4 times each week but only at low intensities and mainly for commuting purposes. This will allow me to recover better and put greater emphasis on those key workouts. Not forgetting my weekly leg weights session which is, essentially, like a third key bike workout.

My run training will follow a similar tone with greater emphasis put on key workouts and extra sessions being about active recovery and technique. My key workouts will now be a long run of 90mins+, a 40 – 60min negative split tempo run and, new for me, a track session. The track session is going to focus on 7 – 8 x 800m repeats, above race pace, with a 400m jog recovery in between. I tried it out for the first time on Wednesday and was hitting 2:40-2:45mins per 800. That is about 3:20-3:30min/km pace but I will be looking to get my 800m splits down to around 2:30mins over the next few weeks.

One important factor, I will need to keep an eye on during this phase, is my recovery through nutrition and sleep. Sometimes I get lazy and don’t take in enough protein, fruit and vegetables or good carbohydrates. Or, I procrastinate too much meaning I miss out on valuable hours of sleep. As I draw closer to the race, in September, I must continue to improve each of these areas.

I know I can be smarter with my recovery nutrition, so I went and visited my supporters at Evelyn Faye Nutrition (http://www.completehealth.com.au/) in Bourke St. Melbourne, where I had the opportunity to have a great discussion with one of the resident Sports Nutritionists. I provided an outline of my usual diet and mentioned my recent fluctuating energy and periods of extended lethargy, so, it was suggested to me to increase my protein and complex carbohydrate intake. Other aspects of my diet, including, fruit and vegetable intake, meat sources and supplementation all seem good but as my training increases further, so will the need for protein and energy consumption. I will now try to use my protein powder at least twice a day and eat a sizeable portion of rice every day instead of a couple of times per week.

I’m looking forward to putting all of the above training and nutritional changes into action and anticipate seeing some improvements in overall strength and endurance at the end of this phase. Having that improvement in the bank will put me in a great position going into the next phase where I’ll be training my power and speed.

Please comment below and tell me how your diet changes during different periods of training.

Holistique Health + Spa http://www.holistiquehealth.com.au/ - located at 10 Errard St. North, BALLARAT.

Evelyn Faye Nutrition http://www.completehealth.com.au/ - located at 360 Bourke St. MELBOURNE. 

Weight Train To Improve Performance

I’m quickly finding my feet in each aspect of my training and seeing some good signs as I approach my first recovery week. The last 2 weeks, I have been gradually building the volume as my body adapts.

My favourite workout, during that time, has been the weights session I performed this past Thursday. The previous week, I didn’t have enough time to do as many leg exercises as I wanted to. However, on Thursday, I decided to just do leg weights as my upper body was quite fatigued from the extra swimming I had done in the days prior.

My leg workout looked like this:-

Ø  Deadlifts – 4 sets. First 2 sets as warm-up and the next two as hard efforts for 10 reps. Strict form and focus on ensuring my glutes are highly engaged for maximum force.

Ø  Single-Leg Squats – 3 sets of just 6 reps each leg. Core stability is essential for balance and, again, focusing on the engagement of my glutes. I try to go as low as possible which is about 90 degrees at the knee bend.

Ø  Walking Lunges – 3 sets of 10 steps each leg. Holding a total of 25kg. This was my favourite exercise of the entire workout because I really felt the benefits of working in such a high range of movement. My glutes and quads worked particularly hard and I can tell how beneficial this exercise is going to be to developing my cycling and running.

Ø  Swiss Ball, Single-Leg Hamstring Curls – 2 sets of 20 reps per leg. Isolating my hamstrings and using my core and glutes/hips to stabilise my body while performing the movement.

Ø  Single-Leg Calf Raises – 2 sets of 20 reps per leg. Isolating the calves to strengthen those areas that get really hammered while running.

I had done weights on an irregular basis in the lead up to my races at Geelong and Shepparton last season but, without doing them properly and regularly, I didn’t get the full benefit. By doing these high quality weight sessions on a weekly basis, the effects will translate into greater power and endurance on the bike and run.

Over the next 2 months, I will gradually build my strength in these types of exercises before incorporating a greater explosive power element to the workouts during the final 2 months before the World Champs.

I have a history of weight training in the gym from my days as a personal trainer. From 2004-2007, I spent many hours doing weights for purposes of bodybuilding and strength. In that time, I gained approximately 10kg. Some of that muscle mass has stuck with me in my transfer to endurance sport and that gave me a good base to work from when I took up cycling. As I learn how to train better I am now starting to really take advantage of that strength.

I am 100% confident in seeing great improvements, particularly in my cycling, from doing regular and consistent weights, in conjunction with my other training. It will be that extra element in my program which was missing previously, that could be the difference between winning and not getting on the podium.

I hope you all do weights to complement your swimming, cycling and running. I’d love to hear what you do. Let me know in the comments section.

Training Frequency - Every Little Bit Counts.

My first week back in training has been a good one. It is a great feeling to be active again, eating how I like to and getting good quality sleep. I have completed 5 rides, 4 swims and 3 runs, along with one all over body strength session and 2 core workouts. I didn’t do everything I had planned to, partly based on time restraints and partly on how I was feeling. I didn’t push myself much but got a good feel for the activities again.

Riding was enjoyable. The majority was done at an easy pace with a couple of sessions incorporating some efforts. Running was limited and the legs showed their vulnerability in these early stages with a lack of ability to turnover with any great speed. Swimming was interesting, as I cut all of my sessions short because my poor core strength and lack of muscular endurance showed through, deeming it pointless to push on too far at the moment. I concentrated on technique and simply logging some base mileage.

Just one week is enough to get me pondering about my current plan for the months ahead. Is it planned well and do I have the right spread of sessions to yield dramatic improvement?

I have been looking closely at my program over the past couple of days and, combined with assessing my weaknesses, I have concluded that a high training frequency in swim, bike, run and core is a major key to unleashing my potential.

Previously, in peak training periods, I have performed 5 rides, 5 runs, 3 swims and just 1 core session per week, where sessions covered necessary training elements of speed, strength and endurance across workouts of varying length. This may seem like enough and it has been until now, which is why my performance improved greatly this past season and enabled me to qualify for the World Champs. However, to go those extra couple of steps, and compete for first place, I must change something.

One particular area which I firmly believe will be improved, by increasing the number of sessions per week, is my swimming. In races, my shoulders and core tend to fatigue very quickly causing a laboured and inefficient stroke. My arm turnover decreases rapidly and I am losing 5 or more minutes to the leaders of my age-group in a half-ironman. I intend to rectify this issue by increasing my swimming to 5 sessions per week. The important thing to remember is that not every session is hard. A couple of the workouts will be just about spending more time performing that exercise and engraining those movements into my muscle memory. The others will have greater specificity and intensity. This is where ‘every little bit counts’. Some days I might only be able to do 30mins in the water but even performing three 30 minute sessions along with a couple of 45 minutes sessions per week is far greater than 3 one hour workouts.

The shorter sessions have the added benefit of producing less fatigue, whereby, I can swim without losing form from being too tired to do things right, and provide good quality training. This is priceless while building other aspects around it, such as, core strength and overall aerobic fitness.

Core strength is another area where I will be increasing the frequency of sessions greatly. 3 or 4 sessions per week are essential. This is not just abs. Your core encompasses the complete abdominal system, lower back and muscles surrounding the hips. A large repertoire of exercises is very useful for targeting all of those muscles but not essential and some solid basic exercises might be all you need.

Again, they don’t have to be huge workouts every time, just doing them more often and with great form will ensure greater swimming ability and should assist running and cycling just as much. So much focus is on your core muscles throughout an entire triathlon without even realising it. Therefore, it must have a great deal of emphasis placed on it during a training schedule to reap the benefits.

The above examples of frequency will be present in my riding and running too. I will be aiming for 6 rides and 6 runs per week, after I have completed my initial 4 weeks of base training. Not all 6 sessions are hard. Some are short but provide much needed mileage and general frequency of performing the activity. For example, you could add a 20 minute run after a hard ride or a 40 minute spin on the bike before a hard run session.

In a training week totalling approximately 20 hours, there is purpose in every minute but those purposes can vary greatly. If you are a triathlete struggling to find enough time to train long sessions each week, I suggest looking at performing a higher number of workouts, with shorter timeframes, for each discipline. Training more frequently for the same total weekly volume will be just as, if not more, effective.

Tell me in the comments below when you have experienced an improvement simply by increasing your training frequency.

Cheers, Lincoln.

Back to Square One

It has been 5 weeks since my last post and what a five weeks it has been.

I married the most wonderful person on earth and our wedding day couldn’t have gone better. Everything fell into place perfectly, including the weather, and it was the happiest day of my life by a long, long way.

We then had a wonderful 2-week honeymoon in Singapore and Thailand which consisted of some sightseeing but mainly relaxing by the pool and enjoying some reading material. Reading material for me was several triathlon magazines. Despite a few short trips to the gym, at our Phuket resort, it was my end of season break from training which has perfectly preceded the beginning of my build up to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.

After returning on an overnight flight just 6 days ago, with very little sleep, I reluctantly returned to work the very next day. It has taken the entire last 6 days to recover from the jet lag and I have the added bonus of a stomach bug making me feel quite queasy at times. The bug seems to be working its way through my system, so, fingers crossed it has moved on in another few days so I can get stuck into some proper base training.

I have attempted a couple of light sessions in the past two days, a light 1 hour 20 minute indoor cycle, a casual 30 minute jog with a few drills followed by some chin-ups and push-ups and a 60 minute steady run. Felt ok on the bike but the running was a little tough. It showed that my joints can lose conditioning quite easily, particularly ankles and hips, and I need to ease back into things after not running for 3 weeks.

I can tell by how my body feels that I have taken an adequate amount of time off training to freshen up but not lose all of my fitness. I am confident that once I complete an initial 4 weeks of base training, I will be feeling primed to start getting into hard, specific sessions. However, I would say now that I don’t tend to like having one long (3 or more weeks) off training at one point of the year and I will look at having a couple of 1 – 2 week breaks a couple of times a year, in the future.

I feel like I’m back at square one for the reason that I am starting a fresh program. It is the beginning of 4 and ½ months of preparation for the biggest race of my life, to date. I must pay close attention to how hard I push myself in the initial stages. I will be focused on technique and general strength across all disciplines while preparing my body prior to the final 8 - 12 week push into the race.

My weekly plan for this first 4-week base phase will be as follows:-

Monday –

·         Swim 3km with mixed strokes and drills.

·         Easy run 30mins with drills.

·         30mins upper body weights.

Tuesday –

·         Ride 2 hours easy/steady to feel.

·         Swim 2km easy with extra kicking laps.

·         Leg weights and core.

Wednesday –

·         Ride 60mins easy.

·         Swim 3km with a few fast 25 metre efforts and strength work with paddles.

·         Run 60mins steady.

Thursday –

·         Ride 90mins with single-leg work and high cadence efforts.

·         Run 30mins with a series of run throughs building the pace.

Friday –

·         Swim 3km with a series of 100 metre freestyle efforts, 3 – 4 at race pace and good rest periods in between.

·         Ride 60mins easy.

·         Core exercises.

Saturday –

·         Ride 3 hours steady.

·         Run 30mins off the bike at steady pace.

Sunday –

·         Ride 30 – 60 mins easy.

·        Run 45mins off the bike with 8 x 1km efforts at Tempo with plenty of rest between each.

It is not essential for me to complete every session each week. It is a desired amount but completely flexible to how my body is feeling and how I manage my recovery. The rest periods between efforts in workouts is very important at this stage, to ensure I am not overdoing it but beginning to ingrain some good work into my nervous system.

It’s an exciting time!

For those fortunate enough to be training for the 70.3 World Champs, how are you going to prepare?