Training Planning Part 3: Icing on the Cake

In this article I am going to outline some components to training that are important adjuncts to a written training plan. Once you get that written plan you are not a hermit who goes to do the workouts on a deserted island. A training plan is important; but so is this stuff:

TRAINING GROUP: A training group can be something structured like a masters swim, STtrainer group, or spin class. Or it can be as informal as one or more friends that you like to train with. The important thing is the camaraderie that the group provides.

Training partners will push you when you need it, and if they are good they will hold you back when you are "champing at the bit." They also provide the emotional support it takes to get through the tough times, and the fun of socializing on a normal basis.

Comfort in numbers: Group open water swim.

You walk through the ring of fire together. Some of your most memorable friendships can arise from training partners.

TECHNIQUE INSTRUCTION: If you are going to reach your potential, developing good technique is essential. While simply putting in the time--following your training plan--will lead to improvements, there is always more to be gleaned from technique. Rarely does one develop ideal technique on accident, by figuring it out on your own.

A coach with a trained eye, or a training partner with experience, can point out flaws in your form. There is a controversy that some people develop their own unique style, that one-size-fits-all is a mistake. To be sure individual differences occur, but most of us--myself included--benefit greatly from the watchful eye and tutelage of an expert.
Seeing is believing: Run form videotape analysis.

Changes in form do not happen automatically or overnight. They take time and persistence to form into a habit. This is where your coach will devise a series of drills to ingrain the muscle memory, to make the new movements automatic. As a coach I will even start in the gym, using strength, flexibility, and posture training to build improved technique from fundamental movements.

And a coach will remind you when you slip back into old habits. You may not want to hear it from your friends.

PERSONAL CONNECTION WITH COACH: Anyone who has had a coach personally touch their life knows what I am talking about. A coach can carefully stoke that spark of desire in you until it becomes the flames of driven commitment to your goal. A coach inspires through what is said and what is not said; you hate to disappoint your coach and you love to impress them.

I cheered Bill P. on while he completed his first half irondistance.

When I coach someone I seek to understand their personality. This way I can know what their strengths and drivers are, but also what their "blind spots" are. This way I can give them specific advice that will help them avoid the mistakes that their personality is inclined towards. Competitive people need to learn patience. Methodical people need to learn pain tolerance.

And together we grow in our wisdom.

CONCLUSION
In parts 1 and 2 I've outlined some of the qualities that I think make a training plan effective. You may not agree and that is why there are many different effective styles of coaching. In any case, I hope you will take into consideration the adjunct ingredients described in this article. I would say they are at least as important as the written plan itself.

Desoto Sport T1 Wetsuits Review

Desoto T1 Wetsuits are awesome.

I am out getting my last open water swim in before Ironman Arizona. This was also my first swim in my new Firstwave wetsuit and it is 37 degrees.


I upgraded to a Firstwave from the Black Pearl model because I really want to do well in this race. To be honest both are awesome. The biggest difference I noticed is that I ordered a size 3 instead of size 4 top. Ironman training will burn off that extra upper body bulk. The new top fit skin-tight and was almost waterproof.




People ask about the benefits of the two-piece wetsuit. First of all Desoto Sport is the only company that makes a two piece wetsuit. I have swam in 5 different brands of wetsuit and raced in 3, and I can tell you that there are at least two ways that Desoto is way off the front of the pack:
1) T1 wetsuits feel the most natural. Whereas most other wetsuits constrict the shoulders and neck, when you swim in a T1 you can use your "normal stroke."
2) Far far easier to get off. I tested this at Memphis in May, where I raced on both Saturday and Sunday. Doubting myself, I wore my old wetsuit for the mountian bike tri on Saturday. Although I came out of the water with the leaders, my placing plummeted because it took me 1:30 to get that other wetsuit. On Sunday I flew thru the transition. Incedentally that was the day I went 1:59:53 for an Olympic distance.


There is no earthly reason not to try a Desoto T1 Wetsuit. They offer a 2-week, no questions asked, full refund return policy. This isn't a manufacturer warranty....this is a "Try it and you'll know its the best" promise. Emilio Desoto--whom I know personally--will gladly eat the restocking cost if you don't love it enough to keep it.

A couple other details:
Black Pearl is the mid-level model, Firstwave is the top tier. Like I said I own both and they are the two best wetsuit models I have ever used.

Mix and Match: You can pair a sleeveless or full sleeve top with whichever bottom you prefer. They also offer the Speed collection for warmer water, and the Smart collection if you are on a shoestring budget.

Read all about T1 wetsuits here.

Training Planning Part 2: Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

In part 1 of this 3-part series I listed some of the problems with a traditional calendar-style training plan. In this second part I want to describe an alternative that I call Dynamic Training Planning.

What is Dynamic Training Planning?

This approach to training planning puts more degrees of freedom in your training plan. The way I do it is to assign certain precisely designed workouts, called "Breakthrough Workouts." These are the most important sessions to do and do well. Examples are long runs for marathon, long rides for Ironman, and intensity workouts for sprint and olympic distance.

These are the essential ingredients for success. As opposed to traditional calendar plans, Dynamic Training emphasizes these breakthrough workouts and emphasizes that you do them well.

The rest of your training consists of moderate intensity volume and low intensity recovery days. Some would call this part of the plan the "Junk Miles." I disagree with that term....to a point. Overall training volume is a great predictor of results ("the more you train the better"), but only if you are still able to do your breakthrough workouts well. The Junk Miles should not interfere with the more important Breakthrough Workouts.

When I write a Dynamic Plan I assign weekly volume goals for each endurance discipline and strength/stretch. But I also make it very clear to PRIORITIZE what is most important in the plan. Whether a person should prioritize their swimming, biking, running, strength/stretch, or what have you, they will know. In a perfect week they will complete the Breakthrough Workouts and all the rest of those so-called Junk Miles. But when life interferes or energy dips, my clients know what to cut out and what to keep.

Dynamic Training vs. Traditional Calendar Plan

• Dynamic Training specifically emphasizes the most important workouts, and clearly identifies the "expendable stuff." Traditional Calendar plans are confusing as to which are the most important sessions.
  
• Dynamic Training believes that you should learn to read your body. Traditional Calendar plans believe the coach knows best and can predict how you will feel on a given day.
  
• You are far more likely to "complete" a week of a Dynamic training plan. Why would you purchase a plan that you are not expected to be able to follow?
  
• Dynamic Training believes that life can be unpredictable and you have to adapt work, family, and your own energy levels. Calendar plan is programmed well in advance.
  

Hopefully you get the idea.

Part 3: A Dynamic Training Plan is not the be-all and end-all. There are some other critical ingredients to achieving your best performance. A good coach will contribute much more than a printout of what workouts to do on what days. In part three I will describe some of these components.

Let Them Eat Cake: Problems with Traditional Training Plans

What is a Training Plan?

I frequently get requests to write training plans for triathlon, marathon, ironmans, etc. "Tell me what to do and I'll do it, " the e-mail reads. I, Stephen Taylor, *may* have a reputation for not liking to write training plans. The reason is that person is not exactly asking for what they need.

Traditional Calendar-Style Training Plan

One of the most common forms of "Coaching" is when a some "expert" writes you a schedule of workouts. This commonly takes the form of a calendar that says, 'do this workout on Monday, do this workout on Tuesday," and so on. It has the effect of reducing your anxiety in preparing for an event because someone who "in the know" is telling you what to do.

And, I would contend, it takes the very essence out of the most effective endurance training.

Problems with calendar-style training plans:

It is very rare that a coach is going to be able to exactly write a training plan that your life isn't going to somehow get in the way of. For example, "my coach wants me to do a 2 hour run on Wednesday, but I was up all night on call on Tuesday. What do I do?" The calendar approach doesn't give you any guidance into how to respond.

Sometimes a training plan is too hard or too easy. What if you have the ability to do extra, do you stop with the assigned workout? What if the training is too hard? Do you grind yourself down or fail trying to execute the plan? Lets say you are feeling great one day or feeling like crap the next...a calendar-style plan doesn't give any guidance on how to read your body, let alone adjust your workouts accordingly.

A training plan can be a one-way ticket to big problems. When it is too hard, an athlete can easily "dig oneself into a hole" towards injury or burnout. Compulsively following a pre-programmed plan, an athlete ignores the feedback your body is giving you. Even worse, when the first signs of an injury are evident, the "dilligent calendar-plan follower" keeps training until that injury gets much worse.

Finally, what happens when someone falls behind a written plan or they don't complete all the assigned workouts? They feel bad. I am here to tell you training rarely if ever goes according to plan, and stressing about your training plan adds nothing to the mix.

A mature athlete knows how to adjust their training and keep a positive, pragmatic point of view. And any coach who says they can tell you with certainty what workout to do 3 month from now--let alone 2 weeks--is exaggerating their expertise. Precisely adhering to a calendar is not what gets results, effective training and reading your body is the key.

In Summary:
Having all your workouts written out on a calendar is like trying to describe a delicious cake by reading the recipie on a dirty 3x5 note card. It may describe the ingredients that go into it, but it misses the very essence of what that thing is. While effective training planning will give you pretty good idea what the ingredients are, it is so much more than that.

Do not misinterpret that I am against written training plans. They can be tremendously instructive and motivating. But I have just as often seen people incorrectly utilize a plan or get themselves injured using one.

Big Spin

Here is a rundown of the first session of Big Spin, Saturday Nov 1. Also more info here.


There were 25 people in Big Spin this time....the room is bright and airy, the sound system is awesome. We can accomodate 40 or more in this class.


You can spin next to your friends, plenty of time to chat. Draw on the energy of spinning with a big group. Since it is November, we are focused on easy-moderate, aerobic base building.



During this session Fitnesswave did a demonstration of a VO2 test. I was the guinea pig...VO2 of 63! Big Spin will have interesting and informative presentations while you spin. Fitnesswave information here.




We include core strength and stretching in Big Spin. This is very important training and a perfect focus for this time of year.


ACME Multisport provides a "Pro Shop" at Big Spin. Sorry I didn't get a picture, but they had a cool table of gear set up. You can rent a trainer from them, and the $ is applied toward purchase of the trainer. If you need work done on your bike, they will take it on Saturday and bring it back the next week. They can also bring any items you request in advance, even bikes to test ride. Contact ACME here: ac@acmemultisports.com.

MORE BIG SPIN INFO HERE

Finer Strategic Points in Multisport Training: November

What are some hallmarks of a strategic training plan?



First, take a serious stock of your strengths and weaknesses. If you are training for a distance that is longer than you have ever run, then you need to build running minutes, not speed. Long runs and frequent short- or medium runs in the aerobic zone. Speed distracts from your endurance training. Sure, do some fartleks once in a while, but if you are going to the track and running hard intervals then you are working in a counter-productive manner. What does your goal call for in terms of targeted training?

I'm not opposed to intensity training. In fact my clients thrive on it. But speedwork is the icing on the cake, and many athletes go for the frosting before they have had any cake. The most ridiculous example of this is doing lots of high intensity spin classes and masters swims in the middle of winter. Please people, take time to build your base first! Anerobic sessions should account for no more than 1 or 2 sessions per week during base training.

If you have a weakness in multisport, address it with a single-sport season. Swim-bike-run...if any of these is a major limiter, build a schedule where you can spend 2-3 months really focusing on the one sport. Do not try to keep a balanced schedule. You will never see big improvement in your limiter sport if you try to "juggle" the other two sports.

Many adults enter the realm of fitness swimming, ahem, like a fish out of water. These people can't go back to childhood and join a youth swim league. But you can take a few months and really develop your swim stroke. Three months of intensive swimming(4-5 swims per week, 12-20K/week for age group triathletes) and you will be in good shape for the whole triathlon season.

Make time for strength and stretch. I subscribe to the point of view that an endurance athlete should spend 3-4 months per year really focusing on strength and flexibility training. I am talking about 4 times per week for 1 hour each time. This is because endurance training only develops a narrow slice of total fitness. You need to work the other areas as well. Training this way will result in better training and better race results the rest of the year. Once the base training kicks in and race season gets near you should scale this back to 2-3 x :30-45 minutes per week.

Why would an athlete resist these variations to "normal" training? Quite often success is accomplished through lots of endurance training with some speed work thrown in. There may be a mental laziness or insecurity to look at innovative ways to improve training. Your friends may meet at a certain time for a certain workout, and that is what you are used to. Or simply a fear that "I need to keep training or I will lose what I have worked so hard to gain. "

If it ain't broke don't fix it, right?

Research shows that the most effect training program changes over time. You need to shake up your program if you want to go beyond your current achievements. And this isn't just the "add more endurance and speed" model.

MY SUGGESTIONS:

1. Be willing to shake things up. Accept help from someone who can push you and provide innovative training ideas. Get out of your self-imposed rut.
   
2. Make sure that the coach is taking into account YOUR strengths and weaknesses. Don't accept a one-size-fits-all training plan.
3. Your training plan should prioritize strength/stretch for part of the season, for most people, right now.

Coach as Athlete: Ironman Blues

It happened...I got the Ironman blues. I am inside 3 weeks from Ironman Arizona and I just had a major case of "why am I doing this?"

I have been a triathlete for over 10 years. During that time I have achieved nearly every goal I ever set for myself. It took me a while to win a race, then I won 5 in a row, then a triathlon series in Iowa--2 years in a row. Moving to Missouri I shifted focus to Ironman distance. I won my very first attempt at Lake Geneva Extreme, then a year later I qualified for Kona at Ironman Wisconsin. Indeed I have been blessed in my hard work and successes.

I never seem to have problems meeting the next goal---after a few more ironmans, I focused on ultra-trail-running for 2 years and had competitive success and personal fulfillment there. Then I shifted back to a short course triathlon focus, made it to Worlds, and 2 hours for Olympic Distance.

Which leaves me with a very short list of t0-do's. My Ironman PR was set at Ironman Brazil at 9:37. I absolutely know I am capable of a sub 9:30 and possibliy a whole lot faster than that.

The only problem is I feel there is more to life than these goals. Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely not trade them for anything, but I am getting to the point where I am ready to start a family. I have a thriving fitness training business, but training to the elite level takes so much out of me. I want to put more effort into helping other people, giving to my partner, and feeling balanced again.

Sounds pretty convincing, right? Fortunately several people I shared my thoughts with each gave me a thoughtful, gentle, caring kick in the seat of the pants. I am three weeks out from Arizona and in AWESOME shape. The only thing that can stop me now is myself.

C'mon Steve. Keep it together for 3 more weeks. Then the off-season will be here.....