Triathlete.com» Balance

Training: Improving Your Run Training

Liz Hichens — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:17:24 +0000

It is hard to resist the temptation to spend the most time on your best sport. Photo: John Segesta

Tim Mickleborough addresses the dilemma many athletes face when it comes to balancing all three sports: How much time should be devoted to the sport that needs the most work?

Written by: Tim Mickleborough, PhD

Dear Speed Lab,

I compete mostly in Olympic-distance triathlons. My athletic background is in swimming and biking. I am finding that my run is a problem; in training and actual races my run is sub-par. I am wondering if I am spending too much time training in my stronger sports and not devoting enough time to running. I would say I average about 12 to 15 miles of running per week. The athletes I train with think that my run mileage is way too low. What do you think?

Robert Galway
Santa Rosa, Calif.

Dear Robert,

It is important to remember that the purpose of training is to stress the body so that when you rest it, it will grow stronger and more tolerant of the demands of triathlon. Unfortunately, endurance athletes often forget that you can train too hard or allow too little rest, which over-stresses the body and allows no opportunity for growth.

Some years ago, David Costill at Ball State University studied two marathon runners following a six-month break from running when they were at different stages in their reconditioning. As they gradually increased their weekly mileage, they underwent muscle biopsies and VO2max tests. As would be expected, the tests showed dramatic improvements in aerobic capacity after running only 25 miles per week. The runners eventually increased their weekly mileage to 50 and then to 75 miles per week. Beyond that level of training, the laboratory tests showed no additional gains in endurance. Indeed, during a one-month period, they even ran 225 miles per week with no improvement in endurance.
The take-home message is that there is a point of optimal distance that will cause the body to adapt to its full aerobic capacity. However, there is also a point of diminishing return, a point at which you can increase weekly mileage but see little or no improvement in performance.

Your current run mileage is rather low, so there are physiological advantages to be gained from additional mileage, but you need to be careful to not increase your mileage too quickly. The body is capable of tolerating slightly greater amounts of stress, but taking on too much too fast can lead to breakdown. You should increase your weekly mileage by 5 percent to 10 percent per week to avoid becoming chronically fatigued.

Your training program should allow for adequate recovery. Most athletes attempt to train hard every day, with the idea that the more they do, the better they will be. Running at the same pace each day does not allow you to inject any quality or speed into your running program. It is important to note that the rate at which the body adapts to a training stimulus is relatively slow. You may not see the benefits gained from a given workout for several weeks. The training regimen should be planned over a three- to four-week period, rather than day by day or week by week.

Balance the Imbalance – Part VII: Pace Your Race

Liz Hichens — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:05:05 +0000

Written by: Mark Allen

Over the next few days Mark Allen will explain the best way to balance the task of maintaining a high level at your strongest sport, while also improving in your weaker sports. In this edition, Allen explains why not going all out in your strongest sport can benefit your weaker sports.

There is one strategy that tends to get the lion’s share of attention from those who are quite strong in one sport but weak in another. They tend to really push their strength, feeling they have to make up as much time as possible in their key discipline to compensate for a weakness that might cost them the place or time they are hoping to achieve. One classic example is strong cyclists who are weak runners. They tend to push the bike leg way beyond what would be considered smart pacing in order to have a head start on the run. But they do this simply because they don’t believe that conserving some energy on the bike will afford them a better run.

Instead, try this strategy: Hold back just a little bit of your effort in your strongest discipline so that you can maximize a weaker sport that may follow. Holding back 1 to 3 percent on the bike may result in your running 10 to 15 percent better. Use your strength to conserve energy rather than use all the energy that you have and then hang on with only hope in the tank. When you do hold back just a bit, you may find that the weakness wasn’t really so much a weakness but rather a poor choice in pacing the earlier legs.
There you have it: seven keys to bringing all three sports up to the same level. Want them again? Here they are:

1.    Mechanics
2.    Range of Motion
3.    Overcompensate
4.    Get Stronger
5.    Core Movement
6.    Positive Attitude
7.    Pace Your Race
See you at the races!

Mark Allen is the six-time winner of the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii and is available for speaking engagements worldwide. For further information about Mark’s speaking availability, please call 1-800-994-5306. Based in Santa Cruz, Calif., Mark has a state-of-the-art online triathlon-training program at www.markallenonline.com. In addition, Mark co-teaches a workshop titled Fit Soul, Fit Body with Brant Secunda, a shaman, healer and ceremonial leader in the Huichol Indian tradition. They have recently released a book by this same name that you can find at bookstores near you or on Amazon.com (Fit Soul, Fit Body-9 Keys to a Healthier, Happier You).

Balance the Imbalance – Part VII: Positive Image

Liz Hichens — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:58:39 +0000

Written by: Mark Allen

Over the next few days Mark Allen will explain the best way to balance the task of maintaining a high level at your strongest sport, while also improving in your weaker sports. In this edition, Allen explains the benefits of simply replacing negative statements with positive ones.

Just because you may not have been proficient in a specific sport in the past doesn’t mean that you can never become good at it. Make a shift in self-image. Replace negative statements with positive ones. Replace “I can’t run like a runner” with “I can run like a runner.” Also tell yourself, “I can swim in even the roughest water. I can cut through the wind and still be strong on the bike.” Whatever you may have believed that you were not, it’s time to put that in the Dumpster and become comfortable with a new and more positive experience of your abilities. Take the time to reinforce your belief in your abilities over and over again. Old habits die hard, so it will most likely take more than one day of telling yourself that you can run strong through the entire race for it to become who you are on a consistent basis. Thought precedes form. Right now is the moment to begin making that shift and start the transformation from weakness to proficiency.

The second part of having a positive self-image is having an idea in your mind of what someone looks like who is extremely proficient at the sport that you are trying to improve in the most. The easiest way to do this is to watch footage of events where the world’s best are competing. It could be a world championship or the Olympics. It might be a marathon or the Tour de France. Look at how the best in the world move through space. Imagine how it feels to do what they are doing. Look at it with that part of you that is aware of your body’s orientation in space. Imprint it in your brain. Then, when you are out there training in that sport, replicate their movements with your body. See them, but feel your body doing what they do in the way they do it. It doesn’t matter if you are going as fast, but you should begin to feel their motion inside you.

Next up, Allen explains why not going all out in your strongest sport can benefit your weaker sports.

Balance the Imbalance – Part VI: Core Movement

Liz Hichens — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:50:31 +0000

Written by: Mark Allen

Over the next few days Mark Allen will explain the best way to balance the task of maintaining a high level at your strongest sport, while also improving in your weaker sports. In this edition, Allen explains how focusing on your core can improve your performance in all three sports.

I just mentioned this in the last paragraph, but it really needs its own section. All of the most powerful movements originate from your core. The least effective way to generate force is from your extremities. Whether you are trying to catch someone’s feet in the swim, hang on over the top of a hill on the bike, or pull away from a competitor on the run, if you have learned to generate power and speed from your core, your body will be better able to do what you ask of it in races.

You probably engage your core already when you are working in your strongest sport, and that is why you are good at it. But if you watch someone who has a noticeably weak sport, you will probably observe that that the athlete moves more from the extremities than from the core of the body.

There are lots of ways to actively move from your core. Pilates is one of the best tools to strengthen your core, and doing core work with a trainer is also helpful. But you can just as easily develop an awareness of the area that begins inside your abs and extends downward to your glutes (for cycling especially) and up to just below your ribcage (the roll in your swim) on your own.

Next up, Allen explains the benefits of simply replacing negative statements with positive ones.

Balance the Imbalance – Part V: Get Stronger

Liz Hichens — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:43:51 +0000

Written by: Mark Allen

Over the next few days Mark Allen will explain the best way to balance the task of maintaining a high level at your strongest sport, while also improving in your weaker sports. In this edition, Allen explains why you should strengthen the muscles that are used most in your weakest sport.

Overcoming a sport weakness is sometimes as simple as just strengthening the muscles that are used most in your weakest discipline. If your weak discipline is swimming, you should work your lats, traps and triceps. For biking, some good quad work should do the trick. And for running, you should work your hamstrings and calves, and for longer races your quads are also important.

The one area that is used in all three sports, if your speed and power are generated correctly, is your core. Abdominal work and other core and balance work will really go a long way toward helping you find new speed in the same old body.

Next up, Allen explains how focusing on your core can improve your performance in all three sports.

Balance the Imbalance – Part IV: Overcompensate

Liz Hichens — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:31:18 +0000

Written by: Mark Allen

Over the next few days Mark Allen will explain the best way to balance the task of maintaining a high level at your strongest sport, while also improving in your weaker sports. In this edition, Allen explains why you shouldn’t be afraid to overcompensate in your weaker sport.

Overcompensation means that you devote more time and effort to your weaker sport. In other words, add a few extra workouts. These should not be considered true hardcore training workouts but more like putting time into your athletic bank account. Part of what creates efficiency and ultimately speed is developing the pathways between your brain and the rest of your body, doing a specific motion over and over until it becomes second nature. It’s like deepening a groove.

When you add an extra workout into your training, it should be short to moderate in length with an easy to moderate intensity. The key to reaping the benefits of this session is making sure that the entire workout is done with the utmost attention placed on your mechanics. That means that you should use the best form possible for this additional session. Make sure that swim strokes, running and cycling cadences, and bike positioning are executed as closely as possible to how you would execute them in a race. The speed doesn’t have to be race pace, but everything else should be race-like. So even if you are, for example, biking at a slow speed, keep your cadence at 90 to 95 rpm. If you train at slow paces with slow turnover, that is the pattern that you will fall into automatically. But that is not what you want. Use your added sessions to develop the high cadence and efficient movement patterns you need on race day.

Next up, Allen explains why you should strengthen the muscles that are used most in your weakest sport.

Balance the Imbalance – Part III: Range Of Motion

Liz Hichens — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:10:06 +0000

Over the next few days Mark Allen will explain the best way to balance the task of maintaining a high level at your strongest sport, while also improving in your weaker sports. In this edition, Allen the importance of understanding the ranges of motion your body goes through in each sport.

All three sports have ranges of motion your body needs to go through to create your swim stroke, bike pedal stroke and full running stride. Efficiency comes when your flexibility matches those ranges of motion. If your muscles are fully stretched before you reach your full extension during one of these movement patterns, your body then becomes a hindrance to efficiency. This shows that you need to work on your flexibility.

Shoulder flexibility helps with swimming, glutes are the main muscles you need for the bike, and you need your hamstrings, hip abductors and psoas for the run. But a good overall stretching routine will keep everything humming along without resistance, especially when there is a big shift in your training such as occurs at the beginning of the year when you start and then also when you add in speedwork.

Next up, Allen explains why you shouldn’t be afraid to overcompensate in your weaker sport.

Balance the Imbalance – Part II: Mechanics

Liz Hichens — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:30:32 +0000

Written by: Mark Allen

Over the next few days Mark Allen will explain the best way to balance the task of maintaining a high level at your strongest sport, while also improving in your weaker sports. In this edition, Allen explains the importance of knowing the mechanics behind each sport.

Proficiency in any sport is part fitness and part efficient biomechanics. We all know how that works. You can take a world-class runner and throw him in the pool and that person will sink. Start with the mechanics. Build your efficiency of motion in each sport separately so that the training you undertake has a chance of being 100 percent effective.

Swim Mechanics: There are a few keys to think about in each and every swim stroke you take. First, power is generated through the roll of your hips from side to side and not specifically by pulling hard with the arms. You can gain a physical understanding of this concept by using only one arm for a length and then using the other one when you come back. The only way you will do more than a flop across the pool is if you generate power by rolling or whipping the hips as you pull underwater.

The next consideration is the position of the arms relative to each other at the beginning of the pull. Today’s top swimmers are doing what is called a half-catch-up stroke. In this, you leave your extended hand out in front until the hand of the recovering arm is about in line with your head. At that point the pulling arm goes into action. If this is a tough skill for you to master, you can get it by first doing a complete catch-up stroke where you do not start your pull until the recovery arm taps your extended hand. From there you can gradually reduce the amount of time you wait until you figure out the half-catch-up.

Pull efficiency: What happens underwater is the most important element affecting swim efficiency. Dropping your elbows or creating bubbles around your hands leads to a pull that just doesn’t generate much power. To supercharge your underwater efficiency, do a few laps with your hands clenched in fists. At first you will feel as if you are swimming with an infant’s arms attached to your body, but you will eventually get the hang of it. And then, when you open your hands again … watch out, Michael Phelps!

Bike Mechanics: Nothing develops your pedaling mechanics and spin efficiency like spending time on a stationary trainer. Make sure you use your tri bike with aerobars and a trainer with resistance. Start with your normal warm-up and then get into the aero position. Gradually increase the gears while keeping your cadence at the ideal training cadence of 90 to 95 rpm. If you don’t have a cadence monitor on your bike, get one now! This can help you improve your efficiency more than any other device you could put on your bike. Raise the gears every five minutes, but keep your cadence constant (don’t let it drop) until you cannot go into a bigger gear without the cadence falling. And don’t feel bad when your cadence does fall: The big gear always wins!

After 15 to 30 minutes of regular riding, it’s time for your real efficiency drill. Pedal with one leg at a time for five to 10 minutes. Stabilize your other foot on a box or chair. Do this drill in the aero position. If you have big issues with your pedal stroke, they will come up here but will also get corrected. Make sure to pedal normally for five to 10 minutes with both legs at the end to remind your brain that you have two sides that need to work in tandem.
Running Mechanics. Triathletes as a whole are over-striders. In short, fast races, this issue may not show up visually. But in a longer race, when fatigue really sets in, each time your foot hits the ground heel first, it’s like your body’s brakes are put on until your center of gravity moves forward of the midfoot and you can finally hit the gas again.

There is a very easy way to correct this problem: Run barefoot. Go to a track, take your shoes and socks off and run a lap or two. You will immediately notice that you land right about at your midfoot, which is ideal. You will also feel how you land lighter on your feet and spend less time on the ground, getting off your foot more quickly. When you put your shoes back on, try to recall these sensations and run the same way with your shoes on. You can practice this drill a couple of times a week until the correct stride and foot-strike placement become second nature.

Next up, Allen explains the importance of understanding the ranges of motion your body goes through in each sport.

Balance the Imbalance—Part I: Intro

Liz Hichens — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:50:34 +0000

Written by: Mark Allen

We have all seen what happens to the first swimmers out of the water in Kona: They enjoy a brief moment of glory off the front of the field on their bikes and then get swallowed up and disappear. With few exceptions, athletes with a fairly balanced diet of swim, bike and run skills turn in the best performances. Of course there will always be exceptions, but rarely is one extraordinary strength enough to make up for weaknesses in the other disciplines. Some might be lightning-fast on the bike but can only barely hang on during the run. And that, as we all know, is not what one would call a really satisfying experience.

Every athlete has both strengths and weaknesses. The trick in training is to figure out how to maintain your strengths while also improving in your weaker sports. There are many ways to look at this situation. A good swimmer might spend hours working on his or her strength but leave the donkey tied to the barn when he or she exits the water because that person didn’t bring his or her bike and run to match the strong swim. What if we could maintain our strengths and also bring our weaker events up to their fullest potential? Over the next few days, I will provide seven strategies to do just that.

Next up, Allen explains the importance of knowing the mechanics behind each sport.

Triathlete’s Beginner’s Guide: Learning To Balance All Three Sports

Triathlete.com — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:34:08 +0000

Written by: Matt Fitzgerald

Over the next few weeks we will introduce a variety of articles aimed at helping beginner’s to learn more about the sport of Triathlon. First, Senior Editor Matt Fitzgerald explains why the surest way to improve as a beginner is to become more balanced in all three sports.

There aren’t many triathletes who are more or less equally competent in swimming, cycling and running, but there are some. Michellie Jones comes to mind. Balance is the formula that has driven Jones, the legendary Australian, to two ITU World Championship titles, an Olympic silver medal and an Ironman World Championship victory. She has always been among the best swimmers, cyclists and runners in the sport but has never the best in any single discipline. Consider Jones’ victorious performance in the 2006 Ironman World Championship. She recorded the fifth-fastest swim, the sixth-fastest bike and the fourth-fastest run of the day. How’s that for balance?

Some triathletes have achieved a very high level of success without balance. Jimmy Riccitello was all about the bike. His mediocre swim forced him to play catch-up in most races, and his mediocre run caused him to get caught in many others. But his cycling prowess was so great that he still managed to win some big events, including the St. Croix International Triathlon and the Buffalo Springs Half-Ironman. Australia’s Mirinda Carfrae is just the opposite. Her bike leg is weak compared to that of other female long-distance triathletes on her level, but she swims well and crushes the run. That’s enough to make her first at finish lines in races such as the 2007 Ironman World Championship 70.3.

It would be a mistake, however, to look at athletes like Riccitello and Carfrae, who succeed despite a clearly weak discipline, and assume that you can do the same. First, weakness is relative. U.S. Olympian Matt Reed’s run is weak compared to his swim and bike, but he still runs a 32:30 10K split in World Cup races. Your weak discipline represents your greatest opportunity to improve as a triathlete. You can only improve your splits in your best triathlon leg so much. The real opportunity to shave minutes off your overall finish time lies in becoming a more balanced triathlete by shoring up your greatest weakness. Even if your weakness never becomes a true strength, you stand to become a higher-performing triathlete by elevating your weak discipline from an embarrassment to a non-liability. You may never win races in your weak leg, but at least you can stop losing them there.

There’s no secret to shoring up a weakness. You just have to work hard at it. But, of course, this is exactly what most triathletes don’t do. If you asked a roomful of other triathletes to first name their weakest discipline, then name the discipline they least enjoy training in, and then name the discipline they spend the least time training in, most of them would speak the same word three times. It is human nature to enjoy what one does well and avoid doing what one does not do well. But indulging this facet of human nature leads triathletes into stagnation. If you really want to bolster your weak discipline, sooner or later you have to suck it up and work hard on it.Some coaches advise triathletes to spend the most time on their weakest discipline. I see nothing wrong with maintaining this sort of strategic imbalance-called a single-sport focus period-for relatively short stretches of time, but in the long term, triathletes who take this approach tend to lose fitness in their strongest discipline, which is also undesirable. By doing a roughly equal number of workouts in all three disciplines, you get something close to the best of both worlds: You do enough to get stronger in each discipline and weaker in none.

Next up Fitzgerald explains how to incorporate single-sport focus periods into a training plan.