References:

Click here to buy Swim Speed Secrets

Click here to pre-order Swim Speed Workouts

Grasshoppper Adventures (Vietnam Bike tour) http://grasshopperadventures.com/

New York Times article on the perfect swim stroke
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/delineating-the-perfect-swim-stroke/

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References:

My TriSlide video: http://www.triswimcoach.com/store/trislide/
Order TriSlide and Foggle: http://triswimgear.com
Order Tri-Swim Anti-Chlorine products: http://sbrsportsinc.com

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References:

Open Water Swim Success live online course: http://openwaterswimsuccess.com

Email me if you are interested: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast:

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References:

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast (I will read the new comments on the next podcast!):

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Lisa’s Before & After photos:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dive-in-and-make-a-splash-with-the-new-garmin-swimtm-2012-06-25

OLATHE, Kan., Jun 25, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. GRMN -0.43% , the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced Garmin Swim(TM) — its first training watch designed specifically for swimmers that lets users track stroke type, stroke count, distance, pace, lengths and much more. This stylish thin watch also allows swimmers to track their workouts and drills in real-time. Garmin Swim was announced in preparation for the U.S. Masters Swimming Championships in Omaha, Nebraska July 5-8 where it will be prominently displayed.

“Garmin Swim will quickly replace the log books and journals so many swimmers have come to rely on for tracking their progress,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “At a glance, swimmers will know their time, distance, pace and be able to wear this watch as an everyday timepiece, all without having to worry about charging it.”

Garmin Swim is ready to go right out of the box — swimmers need only to tell it the length of the pool they are swimming in and begin their workout. Its sleek profile allows it to cut right through the water, so it won’t cause drag or slow swimmers down. Garmin Swim’s battery lasts approximately one year and is easy to replace at home, so swimmers won’t have to send it away to stay powered. To see Garmin Swim in action go to: www.garmin.com/swim .

With Garmin Swim on the wrist, swimmers can focus on their technique instead of what lap they are on. Garmin Swim automatically knows the stroke swimmers are using and tracks their lengths, strokes, distance, pace and more. With a few button presses, swimmers can also log drills or start timed sets without constantly monitoring the pool clock. It even calculates swimmers’ swolf scores to help gauge efficiency, making it ideal for lap swimmers of all levels. The intuitive interface utilizes 6 buttons, so functions can be accessed quickly and easily.

Slim and attractive enough to be worn as a daily watch, Garmin Swim serves as a personal reminder of swimmers’ goals. To help swimmers stay motivated, it displays their weekly accumulated distance under the time of day. Watch features include dual time zones and alarm — so no more early morning excuses for not getting to the pool.

Upon completion of a workout, swimmers can upload their swim data to Garmin Connect(TM) ( http://connect.garmin.com ), a website for free online analysis. Here swimmers can quickly and easily view their workouts, track their totals, set goals, share workouts and data with coaches, friends and family and participate in an online fitness community of more than 80 million activities around the world. Through the magic of ANT+(TM) wireless technology and the USB stick that comes with the Garmin Swim, swimmers’ workout data automatically transfers to their computer when in range. Garmin Connect is Mac(R) and Windows(R) compatible.

Garmin Swim is available now and has a suggested retail price of $149.99. Garmin Swim is the latest solution from Garmin’s expanding fitness segment, which focuses on developing technologies and innovations to enhance users’ lives and promotes healthy and active lifestyles. Whether it’s running, cycling, or other athletic pursuits, Garmin fitness devices are becoming essential tools for athletes both amateur and elite. For more about features, pricing and availability, as well as information about Garmin’s other fitness products and services, go to www.garmin.com/intosports , www.garmin.blogs.com and http://twitter.com/garmin .

About Garmin International Inc.

Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. GRMN -0.43% , the global leader in satellite navigation. Since 1989, this group of companies has designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications — most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin’s products serve automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, marine, aviation, and OEM applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in Switzerland, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit Garmin’s virtual pressroom at www.garmin.com/pressroom or contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200. Garmin and Forerunner are registered trademarks and ANT+ and Garmin Connect are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.

All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Notice on Forward-Looking Statements:

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). A copy of such Form 10-K is available at www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html . No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

by Chris Hague

As a kid, summer meant one thing to me: camp. Whether the week was focused around merit badges, sports, or academics (yeah, I am a nerd and wanted to get ahead), I loved these weeks where I could spend countless hours outside, forget about work, make friends, learn new skills, push my limits, and eat plenty of s’mores. However, just because I have grown up does not mean I have abandoned summer camps and neither should you.

Summer camps are an ideal way for triathletes to boost fitness and gain an extra edge to your late season races. Taking off work for a week and doing a camp allows an athlete to focus solely on training without the stress of the office and family, improve on weaknesses (like swimming), emphasize recovery, and live the glorious life of a pro—all be it for a short period of time.

The easiest way to do a camp is to sign up for a commercial one, which I like to call the “deluxe option.” There are many camps, some in exotic places like Kona and Southern France, that provide week long experiences and full support with housing, SAG wagons on rides, planned workouts, coaching, and occasional afternoons off to do sight seeing. It turns the camp into more of a vacation and if you have a family this may be a great option since the family can go do their own thing while you train.

The one problem with these trips is that they are expensive. Most notably, there was one training camp in the week leading up to the Hawaii 70.3 that featured cameo appearances with Lance Armstrong, Chrissie Wellington, and Crowie Alexander, all for a mere $25,000.

For those of us who cannot or do not want to pay or travel to a camp, you can easily design your own. Here are some good tips to design your perfect Training Camp to remember:

-Pick a week that fits well into your work and family schedule as well as your training schedule. You do not want to schedule a heavy training week right before your “A” race or right after another hard week, so usually the third week of a build block is the best. Tell your family about what you are doing so that you can specifically set aside quality time without the pressure of heaving to drive Jimmy to little league or get that TPS report to Bob in payroll.

-Create a schedule: Some people like to plan each day to the minute of what they are going to do while others like to go more with the flow and see how they feel. I am of the latter group, so I like to schedule everything from exact yardage in the pool to my route to my caloric intake meticulously. Through an online log like TrainingPeaks, which gives you a planned stress load score and expected volumes, you can ensure that you are giving yourself an extra load but not ending up in the infirmary.

-Earn some merit badges: If you are struggling on one part of your training like the swim, use this camp as a way to focus specifically on that skill set. Include extra sets and make it a goal to earn that “high elbow” merit badge or the “open water swimming” award.

-Make new friends: Invite a few training buddies over for the whole camp or just specific workouts. The more the merrier!

-Go Exploring: Use this time to refresh your training with new routes. Go onto google maps or mapmyride.com to find challenging rides that you have never been before. Remember though to pack a cue sheet so that your camp counselor does not have to rescue you. Once there was this camper who got lost in the woods…

-Have fun! Make sure you do plan some social events and down time. With the added training, you will want and should include extra down time for naps, reading in a hammock, or sun bathing.

Whether in an exotic local or in your back yard a training camp is an awesome opportunity to get back to your childish roots. Just remember to pack the s’mores (with gluten-free graham crackers, dark chocolate, and organic marshmallows of course!)

Is your swim sick? Do you feel weak and fatigued even after the easiest of workouts? You may need a prescription from Dr. Drill, M.D. Like medications, there are many drills to chose from, so knowing which drill will cure your stroke is essential to getting well. So how do you know which one to choose?

When my coach allows me to chose a drill (dangerous ground), I usually go with drills that are the easiest, what I am good at, and what will get me through the drill set as quickly as possible so that I can get to the main set where all the “fun” is. I, therefore, end up rushing through the drills and consequently, ingrain bad habits instead of improving my weaknesses. What I should be doing is choose my drills to target my weakness. Here are some common swimming weaknesses and what you can do to “cure” yourself of these bad habits:

Have a weak pull? Try the fist drill. Make a tight fist and swim as you normally would. This forces you to make a paddle out of your forearm instead of just using your hands to pull you through the water. To prevent you from cheating and opening up your fist, which defeats the purpose, grip a tennis ball.

Timing off? Do catch-up the right way. Many swimmers do catch up from the stream line position which can be problematic since it may lead to crossing over. Instead hold a kickboard on each side so that you mimic your stroke more.

Crossing over? Tarzan to the rescue. Swim with your head completely out of the water. While this puts more stress on your shoulders and does not allow you to rotate, what it does allow you to do is become aware of where your hands enter the water. To improve body position and leg drag, focus also on keeping our legs up by arching your back a bit and pushing your hips towards the bottom of the pool

Low elbows? Zip it up. With each stroke keep your hand close to your body as if pulling an imaginary zipper up for body from your hips towards your head.

Low power? Do it Doggy style. This drill is tough but allows you to feel your hips snap as you power yourself through the water. Extend one arm out in front of you with the other by your side. Pull your extended arm a back as you would during swimming but bring the other arm up through the water. Neither arm should leave the water.

In your next workout, check your stroke for signs of sickness and then find the right drill antidote; take the drill 6-10 times a swim session (usually with water). Fortunately, you cannot overdose on these prescriptions.

http://t2coaching.blogspot.fr/2012/06/20-year-reflection.html

20 year reflection
This weekend, June 16th, marked 20 years since I did my first sprint-distance triathlon in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Great Lakes Sprint. An 800-meter lake swim, 12-mile bike then a 4.5-mile trail run. I had participated in this race the previous year as a member of a relay team, and completed the swim.

As I watched my teammates bike and run, I knew I was capable of completing the entire race. My tri training the next year kicked off in April and consisted of riding my $200 mountain bike around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, where I was a student at Eastern Michigan University, and running track workouts that I found in Runner’s World magazine. I continued to train like a swimmer, six days a week, since I was on a full-ride scholarship. I did not have a coach or mentor. I did not know anyone except my mom that did triathlons. I borrowed her bike helmet and used her tips to set up transition. Back then, we set out a bucket of water and a chair to sit on while we washed the sand off our feet before putting on socks and shoes after the swim. I wore a XL LaLaPolooza cotton t-shirt with cotton stretch pant shorts. I did not own a wetsuit. The first time I used clipless pedals and cleats was 11:00 p.m. the night before I raced my second triathlon in Benton Harbor, Michigan, on a borrowed road bike. I did not know how to clip in or change gears. I still managed to win my age group. A month later I purchase my first road bike, a Miele steel frame. It was deep purple, and I loved it.

My third race in Toledo, Ohio, was an Olympic distance, and I rode the entire 40k in my biggest gear. My legs were shot, though my heart and lungs felt great. A learning experience. I continued to race sprint- and Olympic-distance races my second year, and completed my first long course – the Springfield Endurothon – in Springfield, Illinois. I raced it because of the longer 1.5-mile swim, 45-mile bike and 10-mile run. I qualified for Kona Ironman at this race, and I did not even know what the Ironman was. I declined my slot, because I did not want triathlon training to interfere with college swimming. I was only 20 years old. I set my mind to qualifying for Kona again after I finished swimming for EMU and before I turned 25.

My first half ironman was in Muncie, Indiana, 1994, which is still run as the Muncie 70.3. My Miele road bike was stolen from my home five days before the race and I borrowed a friend’s bike. It was a 56 cm frame – way too big for me – with no aerobars. I just rode it to get though the event and won my age group. A few days later, though renters insurance, I was able to purchase a Litespeed Catalyst before moving to Fort Collins, Colorado in 1995.

The next two years, 1995 and 1996, I was plagued with injuries due to training without a purpose and over training. I trained for but missed my first marathon in Detroit due to a pulled groin. Then I had my first DNF at Age Group Nationals in Orange County, California, in 1996 due to a pulled hip flexor. In 1997 I met my goal of qualifying for Kona at the Desert Sun Half Ironman in Grand Junction, Colorado, at the age of 24. I drank 1/2 water bottle on the bike, consumed no calories during the race, and cramped at mile 11 on the run.

When it came to training for Kona, I was clueless. I swam, biked and ran a lot. I was in graduate school at Colorado State University and had tons of time to train. I did no periodization, I just went out and di what I felt like doing each day. That year in Kona, I finished 10th in my age group, eating my first energy gel at mile two of my first marathon, at the Ironman World Championships. Then I slipped into post-Ironman depression. Without a coach to guide me, I did not stop training after the Ironman. I was fit and did not want it to end.

Two months after the race I got very sick, with mono-like symptoms, although the doctors could not diagnose what plagued me. My resting heart rate was 70 bpm and would jump to 150 bpm when I stood up. I was exhausted 24/7 and had to stop all activity. My diet consisted of pastries and other “unhealthy” food. I spent three months trying to figure out what was wrong with me so I could get healthy. I read dozens of books on training and nutrition, Homeopathic and Naturopathic medicine. Rest was the best medicine, and I cleaned up my diet and started back training 8 months later, very slowly. I was so happy to be able to run three miles and ride for 30 minutes without fatigue. My purpose for training and competing became more wellness oriented and less competitive. I struggled though my 25-29 age group, and worked to figure out my strengths, weaknesses and limitations, including what distance to race and train for. I wanted to train like an Ironman athlete and race the shorter events. That type of training prevented me from reaching my potential when it came to strength and speed.

Ten years after my first event, in 2002, I started to understand what the books were telling me about training. I grasped the concept of periodization, and most importantly, the peak and taper phase and nutrition. I was tired of training hard and racing fatigued. This year I had a break though event at the 5430 Sports IronDistance event in Boulder, Colorado. Despite my first flat tire in an event, it felt close to being a perfect day, at least at that moment. Now, 10 years later, I still love to train and compete for me.

References:

Visit Kristi’s website at http://kristiontherun.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

**Please read, like, and share this article! http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/7-Excuses-Not-to-Use-at-Your-Next-Triathlon.htm

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My take: You definitely need to do both pool swimming and open water swimming to prepare for a race, unless of course your race takes place in a pool. There’s no good way to practice a lot of drills in the open water, and it’s tough to do interval training without walls. On the other side, there are many things you need to be aware of in the open water- and these can come as surprises on race day, something you want to cut down on.

Can you properly prepare for a triathlon without doing any open-water swimming?

Sara McLarty vs. Michael Collins

Ah, the comfort of a lap pool: calm water, walls to push off, lane lines to keep you swimming straight. The pool is the perfect place to focus on your stroke and work on speed, but when it comes to translating that to a successful triathlon swim, is pool practice enough? For this month’s debate, we put Sara McLarty up against Michael Collins, head coach of Orange County Multisport and Irvine Nova Masters program.

Michael: I love to swim in open water—when the conditions are nice. Super-windy, wild, choppy, cold water? No thanks. Threat of sea life that can bite or sting? No thanks. We rarely get into open water before the first few races of the season. Instead, we prepare in the pool with the following: Wetsuit Wednesdays (aka Club Rubber), drafting sets, eyes-closed 25s, fly/free combo swimming and POW (pool open water) practices with no lane lines and buoys in the water.

Sara: I completely understand that there are things that discourage even the most adventurous athletes from getting in the open water, but no one tells the jellyfish that they aren’t invited to the race! There are plenty of reasons why you should get in the open water prior to racing. One is getting used to the darkness—where you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face—which is a major factor for first timers. Even an “eyes-closed 25” is not going to replicate that feeling.

I like that you invite athletes to wear their wetsuits in the pool. It can give people an opportunity to get comfortable swimming in something that is constricting on the shoulder joints. But I doubt that the pool will ever drop to a chilling temperature comparable to many open-water events. Combine the claustrophobic feeling of being in a wetsuit with the shortness of breath caused by cold water and you have a dangerous combination.

Michael: You bring up good points about water temperature. Trying to hold your race pace in a wetsuit in cold water feels completely different than doing it in an 82-degree pool without one, as does swimming in a wetsuit-legal warm race. To address that overheated feeling, we do Wetsuit Wednesdays to teach athletes how to swim in hot water. They learn to tone it down when it’s warm, but that they’ll still go fast with decent technique (meaning arms and hips moving at the same speed in a connected fashion).

Sara: You gave lots of great tips for pool training. But if you have the ability to train in open water, embrace it! Gather a group of training partners and make a pact to meet once a month. These opportunities will allow you to try out new equipment and learn how to adjust your stroke for various conditions. At the least, get in the open water at the race site the day before. It will familiarize you with the temperature, the water visibility and the sighting points and buoys.

Triathlete Final Thoughts: Never swam in open water (or just fear it)? You need to suck it up and get in to alleviate some anxiety before your race. If you’re experienced but simply don’t like training in open water, try a local open-water race for a change of pace—it will give you a leg up on the competition.

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2012/06/training/saras-slam-is-open-water-swim-training-necessary_55313

Listen to part 1 of this interview here.

References:

Pick up Barbara’s book, An Unshakable Belief, at Amazon

Follow Barbara on her blog at http://barbaramockford.wordpress.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2012/06/secaucus_man_55_is_ready_to_co.html

Secaucus resident Howard Miller to compete in the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon in San Francisco

SECAUCUS — Howard Miller hadn’t made it 100 yards before finding himself helplessly clinging to a concrete pillar in the murky water of the Hudson River.

Gripped by a sudden and uncontrollable sense of panic, Miller was pulled from the river and inevitably disqualified from the race. The veteran of 16 New York City Marathons had his first biathlon cut short seemingly before it even started.

“That was my first, wonderful experience,” Miller recalled with a laugh.

Five years and 17 triathlons later, Miller has conquered his apprehension of the open water and can laughingly look back on that day in the Hudson. The Secaucus resident will set out to complete his latest test of endurance Sunday when he competes in the 32nd annual Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon in San Francisco.

Miller, 55, will be among 2,000 triathletes to swim a mile and a half across San Francisco Bay from Alcatraz Island to shore and then tackle an 18-mile bike race, followed by an 8-mile run.

“Because I’ve never been a swimmer, (it’s) really the biggest challenge for me,” Miller said. “Swimming in open water is really a unique challenge onto its own. There’s swimming in a pool and swimming in open water, and they don’t automatically translate.”

Miller took third place in the 55- to 59-year-old age group at last week’s Black Bear Sprint Triathlon in Pennsylvania’s Poconos. Having worked tirelessly at improving his swimming skills, he discovered a newfound level of comfort in the water last week.

“I realized that when I swam in this last race that I really had no awareness whatsoever of my breathing. I’ve gotten to the point where I can breathe so naturally, I don’t even have to think about it.”

But that swim was 750 meters — just under a half mile — across the serene surface of a Pocono lake. Sunday, he’ll plunge into the chilly 55-degree water of San Francisco Bay for the longest swim of any triathlon he has entered.

To train for that grueling distance, the Michigan native has swam 2 miles in the pool seven times and is ready for the daunting task that awaits him in Northern California.

Miller ran his first marathon in Moscow, Russia in 1988 to help raise money to fight hunger. His passion for the demanding feats of endurance snowballed from there, and it was his brother who got him interested in triathlons.

Miller, who works as a nutritionist for the West Caldwell-based Nutratech, has relied on his PADEL system — physical activity during everyday life — to help stay in shape.

From wearing leg weights to work to doing short exercises while he gets dressed in the morning, he finds time to work out even when he can’t hit the gym.

There’s no doubt he’s come a long away from his episode in the Hudson River five years ago.

“I was determined to conquer it,” he said.

“That was probably my motivation, to not be denied the ability to succeed at this.”

In the week leading up to a race, I begin to form a list of what I will need. When an item pops into my mind, I write it down and then go and put it aside in a specific corner of my training cave. Then two days before, I assemble everything and go through the race. I visualize the whole weekend from the moment I leave my door to the time I get back into my car after the race.

What will I need for the expo? USAT member card? Wallet (knowing my tendency to be a kid in the candy store at these events I conveniently tend to forget my wallet in my car)? What workouts am I going to do the day before and what will I need for them? What will my prerace meal be and should I pack my own food or is there a restaurant I can go to? If so, will it have my dietary wants/needs? On race day, what food am I going to eat for breakfast? Knowing the conditions and forecasts, what will I need for the swim/bike/run and the transitions between them? What nutrition do I need to pack? After the race, what am I going to change into and eat so that my body can recover fully?

Answering these questions will give you peace of mind and significantly reduce your stress levels in an already stressful week. Here is what I packed this past week for Eagleman 70.3:

Pre Race Gear:
• USAT membership card
• Wallet
• Cell phone/iPad
• iPod fully loaded with audio books, workout tunes, and podcasts
• Toiletries (Don’t forget the sun block!)
• Nutrition: Morning breakfast of sweet potatoes and whey, supplements and pills
• Workout clothes for the day before

Swim:
• Racing kit/jersey
• 2 pairs of goggles
• 2XU sleeveless wetsuit
• De Soto Lift foil speed suit (in case it was not wetsuit legal)
• Body glide
• Swim cap for the tune up swim the day before
• Nutrition: Clif Mocha Gel to take 20 minutes before the start

Bike:
• Garmin and Heart rate monitor
• Aero Helmet
• Water bottles
• Sunglasses
• Bike
• Shoes
• Multi-purpose tool for any tune ups that I need to do before check in
• CO2 cartridges
• Spare inner tube
• Tire wrenches
• Bike pump to pump up the tires the day before and the morning of (this is obviously optional since there are most likely going to be plenty of people who will bring them but I still like to have my own just in case. If you are flying you can pack this in your bike box.)
• Nutrition: 3 bonk breaker bars, 4 gels (3 to use, one for back up)
• De Soto Cooling skull cap (a must have for any hot race)

Run
• Garmin foot pod
• Racing flats
• Trainers for warm ups on race day when my racing flats are in transition
• Fuelbelt
• Visor
• Socks— If you wear them but I go sockless
• Nutrition: 1 pack Sports Beans

Transition:
• Towels
• Bike jacket (covers the bike the night before the race so that you do not have to wipe off morning dew)

Post race:
• Protein/recovery shake (better than the highly inflammatory foods that they usually serve)
• Water (usually provided)
• Flip flops
• Compression gear
• Change of clothes
• Action wipes

Miscellaneous
• Can do attitude
• Fun

As you can tell, it is not a lengthy list. When traveling, it is best to keep it simple. I see a lot of people who pack a steamer trunk the size of my bike box full of possible gear, but most of it is unnecessary. You do not need most of the stuff that you train in. I find that the less you pack the less you have to worry about. As I like to tell my athletes “Prepare to fail if you fail to prepare.”

It didn’t matter if I had a solid 8 hours of sleep, or just a few. It didn’t matter if the sun was shining or behind thick, dark clouds.

It didn’t matter if I had 10 million things that were going well, or if I just had a really great workout the day before, if I had a full to-do list or an empty one- the dread over my current state persisted each morning.

Logically, it made no sense. And I told myself that every day. Lots of things to be thrilled about, and really not much to be unhappy about. But somehow, my logical brain wasn’t in control, instead, my emotions set things up for me. How’s my business going to improve? How am I going to get a girlfriend? How am I going to fix this annoying shoulder tendonitis? What if someone is angry with me right now? What if the dollar plummets to zero? What if my tenants decide to stop paying rent?

All of these were legitimate concerns! All can also lead to a day full of anxiety, stress, worry, and bunch of other unhealthy states.

And in many ways, I have no reason to complain, no reason to worry, and compared to so many other people, my life would be considered easy! I just interviewed a woman who got cancer TWICE, and has had to live with rheumatoid arthritis for most of her life, and yet, has an upbeat spirit about her that is contagious!

But comparing yourself to others, giving yourself pep talks, and trying to reason your way out of it doesn’t work. Reading inspiring books and blog posts also doesn’t work. Neither does getting drunk, or even surrounding yourself with lots of friends.

What does “work”? How can you be free from your emotions? After all, if you’re trapped by your emotions, you are not free at all- no matter how much money you have, races you have won, or even how many people praise you on a daily basis. If your emotions are out of control, your training will suffer, as will many other things in your life. Here’s 5 ways you can gain control of your emotions and use them to your advantage in your next triathlon:

1. Write it down. Your emotions control you when you identify with them. Writing or journaling what is going on inside allows you to detach from your emotions, and get out of whatever state you are in. Mark Lindsay describes how this process works from a psychological standpoint in his excellent article called How To Achieve Emotional Control. In the past, when I have woke up worried about something, if I take the pen to the paper and just start writing it usually decreases my anxiety levels by at least 75-80% almost immediately. If I work in some Nathaniel Branden sentence completions, I can usually get rid of all or most of the rest of the stress and have a smooth and energetic day.

2. Move. Don’t even think of it as exercise, just move your body. I love walking. I also like to run the stairs, or just jog really slowly, ride my beach cruiser, do yoga, go for an easy swim, or if possible- play some volleyball or do some rock climbing. For me, all of the above can be a form of meditation. (some people even think of cleaning as a form of meditation, I have yet to enjoy it but maybe this will work for you!) Some triathletes can use their swim, bike, or run sessions as a form of therapy. When you’re moving, your mind will be focused on the activity at hand. If you are walking, you can focus on your breathing. Or count steps, or look for new paths or scenery. If you do think about your problems or worries, they will be easier to deal with as you move than if you’re just laying on your bed, or sitting on the couch with remote in hand. Studies are showing that high-intensity exercise is best for stress-relief, but all of it is beneficial and I say do what works for you.

3. Breathe deeply. I have found that deep breathing can help bring me out of worked up states. I use the 4-7-8 method I learned years ago from Dr. Andrew Weil. Basically, you breathe in through your nose to a count of 4, hold your breath for 7, and exhale to a count of 8. Start off with just doing this a couple of times and build up. If you do too many too soon, you will get dizzy and may pass out! But over time, increase it to about 10 rounds, do those in the morning and at night (and maybe a few in the day for good measure). This works great to settle yourself down right before your race (a couple of rounds) to calm the nerves and stay focused.

4. Interact with people. Talking to random people in your day can not only make you a more interesting person, it can put you in a good mood. In fact, for me, it is almost guaranteed to put me in a better mood! I’m talking about just striking up random conversations. In line at the coffee shop or super market. Waiting for the elevator. In public places. Most people are bored out of their minds and will be lifted by your gesture. I usually go with something simple, like “How’s your day going?” The trick is to default to starting these conversations to the point where it feels strange to not say anything! Don’t worry, only about 1% of people will think you’re deranged and will want to run away immediately. The small connections you make (and sometimes they may work into bigger connections) will get you out of your own head, cultivate empathy for people, and in time you will start to see your life improve with just this one thing.

5. Fall in love with objective reality. It’s easy to dream up lots of things that either you think are going wrong, or can potentially go wrong. One thing that really helps me to stay on an even keel emotionally is figuring out the facts around whatever it is I begin to worry about.
-”OMG I’m going broke!” If I ever think this, I will review all my finances and find out that it’s simply not the case.
-”OMG everyone is out to screw me!” I just think of the last 5 interactions and about 99% of the time, at least 4 of the 5 were pleasant. Therefore, everyone cannot be out to screw me!
-”OMG my swimming sucks!” This usually is concluded when comparing yourself to others. Everyone is at a different point of development, so it will be far more productive to focus on your own individual improvements. Even if your swim time got slower, some things probably went right in your race (like…how about your overall race?).
The more objective you can be about your situation, the more you will be in control of your life and your emotions.

In taking control of our emotions we start to form a clear path to personal freedom, and more energy overall. This can allow us to make much better decisions and set us up to maximize happiness, excelling at the things we love, and minimize wasted time worrying, sweating the small stuff, and having the feeling like the time is flying by like an Usain Bolt 100 meter dash!

References:

Pick up Barbara’s book, An Unshakable Belief, at Amazon

Follow Barbara on her blog at http://barbaramockford.wordpress.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast (I will read the new comments on the next podcast!):

Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Click here to open up itunes and add a rating/comment!

I work in a triathlon store and some days I feel like I have walked onto the set of “Sh*t triathletes say.”
I hear all the stereotypical lines like “Yeah today was just an easy 3 hour ride. I averaged about 300 watts but wasn’t wearing my compression socks so it naturally was a bit low,”

“Do you have any Gluten free, Wheat free, Soy Free and Agave nectar free protein bars? I am really trying to cut down to my racing weight before my A race in a month,”

“…going to get my VO2 max tested right after this next hard training block,”

“Should I shave my legs before my TT workout this afternoon or after?”

(note that I am NOT making any of this up! I have actually heard these lines).

To me, these lines, while hysterical especially considering that the athletes are serious, show a great deal of insecurity. Many athletes—especially triathletes for some reason—like to share their training and accomplishments with anyone who will listen or, thanks to Twitter and Facebook.

But many of these conversations, posts, and tweets derive from a fear that they are not doing enough and a sense that they need external validation to verify their personal accomplishments. If they do not justify or share what they are doing with others than their training is pointless. However, although I am not of fan of bragging about training regimens, I am a fan of tri-talk. As a coach, here is what triathletes should be saying:

“I don’t think I should workout today. My body is telling me I need an off day.”

“Hmmm, my legs are getting pretty hairy, maybe I ask my wife…”

Remember that these are not quotes you need to tell other people but rather tell yourself. With these phrases, you can become your own star of “Sh*t triathletes say.”

by Chris Hague

“Mission abort, mission abort…Houston I think we have a problem here…self destruct now!”

Red lights flashed across my brain as I frantically whirled my arms and raced (or tired to) across the once placid lake in a vain attempt to catch the lead pack of swimmers.

What am I going to do now?

They had gone out much faster than I had expected and left me choking down their surf.

Moreover, some inexperienced age grouper had elbowed me in the eye, making my goggles cut into the socket. In that moment just minutes into the race, I felt like the race was over, but then, like Obi Wan Kenobi coming to Luke in his time of need, my coach’s voice echoed out of the depths of the lake saying: “Just swim your race, Chris, Just swim your race.”

Instantly, my mental sirens calmed down, my heart rate dropped, my proverbial engines cooled, and I began to swim all the while thinking to myself: just swim your race, just swim your race. I repeated this mantra all the way to the shore where I emerged just seconds after the lead pack! Remarkably, by calming down and focusing on one little think, I regained my swim form and consequently my speed.

We have all been in a similar situation whether in training or racing when one thing, which at the time feels like an entire race breaker, goes wrong and you feel like you should throw in the towel. It is at these times that I rely upon my secret stash of mantras that I can rely upon to save me from these depths of these mental abysses. Here are some of my favorites:

• Just keep swimming…just keep swimming (Yes, I stole that from Finding Nemo)
• Run your race
• Left, right, breathe, repeat
• Control the controllables
• Keep smiling
• You can do this
• Nothing is over till I say its over
• Push it
• Feel the burn
• POWER!!!
• Do it, to it
• Keep it up

What are some of your favorite mantras?

Being too hot.

Being too cold.

Giving up Friday and/or Saturday nights.

Training before work.

These are some of the things that go along with triathlon.

So what’s the point?

Well, rather than go off on some philosophical diatribe about goals and accomplishments, I think this one is really simple and comes down to 3 things:

1. This is one part of life where there’s no subjectivity. You have a swim, bike, and run time. You finish in a specific place overall, and a another specific place in your age group. Even if you don’t finish, you have a result. For many people, this idea of getting a specific result is refreshing in a world where so many things are in that gray area.

2. Your mind needs to keep busy. Forget about the physical benefits of exercise. It’s the mental game that is important here. Sometimes it can be nice to sleep in, but there’s nothing like getting up early and getting things done. It becomes a mental boost to your overall happiness levels.

3. You can bond with others. There are so many reasons people got into the sport. One friend of mine said it got him off of alcohol and drugs. Another woman I’m interviewing next week had rheumatoid arthritis and cancer- and yet still entered an Ironman. Others may want to lose weight, or get in better shape, or win their age group…whatever it is, you’re around people with all kinds of goals that can lead to lifetime friendships
and connections.

What is your reason?

We are going to be doing a webinar, and/or chat on this topic in the near future, and I need your feedback!

What causes your race day anxiety? Try to picture yourself on the day of the race, 30 minutes to go before the gun goes off. What is going through your head? What are you doing to manage this anxiety? Then, if you have raced before, what happens at the start….does the anxiety vanish or last during the race?

Please leave your feedback in the comments below and we will announce when our chat is on the

It’s race day morning, and the sun is just peaking over the horizon.

The conditions are perfect with cool temperatures, a cloudless sky, and calm waters as far as the eye can see. Right after the cannon fires, marking the start of the pro wave, you wade into the water with your fellow competitors. Everything seems alright and fine. Then the horn goes off, and chaos descends. The water turns into a churning washer machine.

Bodies are everywhere, kicking you in the face and poking you in the ribs. You choke down water and panic. You flail and flap your arms but to no avail, and everything you learned in the pool goes out the window. You feel like your body is sinking, and with it your hopes of a good race…

Racing anxiety (especially before open water swims) is a common problem that everyone faces at some point. Fortunately, it can be easily overcome with some pre race and race day preparation.

Here is what I have found works really well:

• If you can preview the course the day before, definitely take advantage of that opportunity. You don’t even have to swim; just play around, splash overly serious triathletes, sit in the water and relax. Try to get a good feeling for the water and realize this is exactly like the pool but better!

• On race morning, see if you can warm up in the water. This is not allowed at some races but if you can hop in for a quick 5 minutes easy. If you cannot get in, spend some extra time visualizing the course and planning out your race day plan.

• Breath easy: Take a few deep breathes from the diaphragm to lower the heart rate before you get in the water

• Ease into the swim: unless you are gunning for the podium, take your time getting out of the starting gate. Let the speed demons go first and then go. Also start out to the side of the start line to avoid the washer machine chaos of the middle

• If the water gets choppy while you are swimming just go with the flow. Float for a little bit on your back. Think to yourself “you are going to be fine. There are safety crews ready to help me if I need to and every one else is dealing with the same conditions.

• Focus on one part of your swim: To keep your concentration pick one part of your stroke and focus just on that. I like to make focus on the pull or high elbow or the roll of the hips. This will help you take your mind off the conditions as well.

• Visualize! In the week leading up to the race, visualize the race and every possible situation then deal with them in this fantasy. “If “x” happens then I will do “y”"

The more you practice and get into the open water and into racing conditions, the better you will be and easier facing the open water will be.

Just relax and have fun!

First time triathlete? Try our beginner Sprint Training program at http://triathlonsprinttraining.net

Granted, if you are 5’3, your odds of making the NBA are pretty much zero (although, 5’3 Mugsy Bogues even proved this possibility several years ago as an NBA guard!).

And look at some examples in the sport of swimming. Was it likely that 5’2 Sheila Taormina would win a gold medal in swimming in the Olympics? Or compete in triathlon at that high level? Was it natural talent that led to Janet Evans setting world records with her unconventional stroke that went against what people thought was proper freestyle?

The idea of deep practice involves these concepts:

1. Practicing your new desired skill in chunks. The learning first needs to develop a vision of what that particular performance looks like- whether it’s learning to ski, learning a new song on the guitar, or going from a back of the pack swimmer to hitting a nice stride in the open water. From there, the learner needs to break the skill down into chunks, learning each segment at a time, gradually adding the pieces over time, then putting it together for a smooth performance. In the book, Coyle emphasizes that the skills should be practiced slowly, so that the learner fully understands each of the chunks and how they fit together and flow. (sound familiar with swimming??)

2. Rinse and repeat. In his best-selling book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the now-famous 10,000-hour rule. Simply, a person needs about 10,000 hours of practice to master a desired skill. The key is dedicating the time and energy to the deep practice that it will take to pay off. Individual, high intensity practice sessions will dramatically increase this skill acquisition. Since we don’t all have 10,000 hours to spend in the pool, we can spend less time on very specific drills, and use video to allow visualization to expedite learning (such as what I’ve put together in Tri Swim Secrets). The point here as it relates to swimming is that practicing often, and practicing correctly, will more quickly lead to your desired outcome- as opposed to simply swimming laps or reading books.

3. Really “feel” your mistakes. “Learning to learn” is the key here. What I mean is, the pros, experts, or Olympians were just as bad as the rest of us to begin with, however, they were able to first identify their mistakes, then correct them. (This is why I’m so in love with swim video critiques!). When this cycle is repeated over the course of time, mastery begins to develop.

Bringing these 3 elements together results in the learner finding a “sweet spot”- where a “flow” state is achieved, and each chunk or step of the way requires no thought to execute.

To bring this to swimming, you may see the pro triathletes, or Olympic level swimmers, or even some of your fellow masters or lap swimmers who make it look easy. And it’s very easy to be of the mindset that they were simply born with more talent than you were, or they have some genetic advantage that you were unlucky not to get.

Admittedly, it is harder to learn swimming as an adult than as a child. (Coyle would say this is because children have a higher level of “myellin”, or the material that forums around neurons as we execute deep practice). But this myellin does not even begin to decline until age 50, and even then it does not drop off rapidly.

And swimming is a perfect sport to test out the whole theory presented in the book.

If you are reading this article, you may be preparing for a triathlon and struggling with swimming. How can this information help you? Well, once you have done 10,000 hours of practice, come talk to me! Seriously, it comes down to this:

In order to get better at swimming, you must break it down into segments, or chunks. Then, you must practice each of those chunks for many hours in the pool, as well as understand how they fit together. Watching video, and watching live swimmers with good strokes can really help you along in this process. Finally, putting all the parts together and developing your stroke gradually, going back and fixing mistakes (or stroke flaws) by isolating them and practicing specific drills will result in personal success.

And by personal success, this doesn’t mean winning the swim, making the Olympic team, or even qualifying for the Ironman. You get to define what this is, and just letting go of all the thoughts and talk of natural talent will go a long way in getting you there.

What do you think? Has believing in the talent myth held back your swimming?

I stood upon the mountain as the rain beat upon my bearded face and lightning illuminated the stormy night sky. When suddenly the clouds parted, and my coach descended through the storm upon the mountain. “Chris, take these tablets and hold them sacred. Follow them and you shall obtain success, break them and feel the wrath of the triathlon Gods.” She then ascended back into the sky where she rejoined the pantheon of coaches, trainers and, racers. I looked down upon the two great tablets that she had given to me and inscribed upon them were the ten commandments of racing…

Ok so it did not happen exactly like that, but over the years, I have developed a set of my own rules of racing. Although they are mostly self imposed, I still follow them religiously because I know that if I break them then I will be penalized either in time, fitness, or place. Like Moses, I have come down from the mountain, to share them with the chosen people:

1. Thou shall follow the Race director’s rules and regulations- This one is obvious. Make sure you know them by heart before the race and always check with the race director about the specifics. Usually, there are rules about drafting, helmets, passing on the bike, wearing race numbers—all of which are aimed at keeping you and others safe so that you can live to race another day.

2. Honor thy training plan- In the week leading up to the race, follow your training plan. While you may feel that you are not doing enough or should be doing more, remember that there is not much you can do to improve your race performance but there is a lot you can do to hurt it. Sneaking in extra workouts because you do not feel prepared will only hurt you come race day.

3. Thou shall not covet other’s gear: When I arrive at T1, I am amazed and jealous at all the gorgeous bikes, which makes my trusty bike look like an old, rusty beach cruiser. However, I have to remind myself that while gear may help an athlete, it is the engine that makes her. No bike, Zipp wheel, Garmin, aero helmet, or speed suit will compensate for a lack of training or drive to win.

4. Your race plan shall not be the only race plan: No matter how detailed race plans are, they are still just plans and, therefore, rarely conform with reality. Races rarely go as well as you expect, so you need to be open to changing the plan to meet changing conditions. If the weather is hotter than expect, you may need to drink more water. If your heart rate is through the roof but your wattage is low, then you
obviously need to listen to your body and change your plan.

5. Thou shall always have a backup plan- You never know what will happen out on the race course, so have a back up plan in mind on what you should do. In the week leading up to the race, think about what you will do if your goggles get kicked off in the first 150 meters or if you get a flat on the bike or you get a blister at mile 12. Think about what could happen, and know what you will do to either prevent it or overcome it when it happens.

6. Thou shall not go out too fast-If you let your prerace nerves get to you and you blast the first 500 meters of the swim, then you are going to suffer later on. Keep your pace under control at first and remember that you have a long day of racing before you. Anyone can swim a fast .3 miles but it is the other 70 miles that count.

7. Thou shall thank volunteers- These races would not be possible without the generosity and commitment of the volunteers, so take 2 seconds to thank them.

8. Thou shall respect recovery-You may feel awesome the day after a race, but rushing back into training right after a race can lead to burn out and injury later on in the season. Let your body and mind recover, enjoy a day or two off, and then resume training. For elite athletes, post race recovery is particularly important since the next race most likely is only a week or two away, so if they skimp on the recovery then they will weaken their next performance.

9. Thou shall not let results go to ones head: Regardless of how you did in the race, do not let it inflate or deflate your ego. If you had an awesome race, then relish that feeling and celebrate, but remember to remain humble. Conversely, if you had a pathetic race, it may get you down, but learn from it and see it as an opportunity for growth. Either way do not tie your self worth to your results; just doing this
sport and toeing the start line make you a winner.

10.Thou shall have fun- regardless of what your goals are, the main reason we do this crazy sport is to have fun. You have invested too much time, money, and effort, not to have fun.

Good luck in your next race and I hope that these rules help.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

If you are like me and many triathletes, you hate off days. Whether out of fear of losing fitness or getting fat, I dread seeing that gap in the my training log with a friendly reminder from my coach to take it easy (her last note was “Chris, recovery means recovery: no elliptical, no easy spin—do nothing).

Recovery is essential to proper training; without it, we would get injured and burned out. In fact, recovery days should be approached with just as much care and consideration as a workout. Many athletes approach recovery in the wrong way by scheduling too much, not taking time off, and binging on junk food, all of which will put more stress on your body and undermine your recovery. Here are my top tips for planning the perfect recovery day so that you come back stronger and refreshed instead of feeling like a flat (and fat) tire.

1. Keep the day blank: Endurance athletes sacrifice a lot of time with family, friends, work, and other responsibilities/obligations to train. Consequently, when an off day rolls around, their “to do” list is pretty long. They then spend the day on their feet racing around with the kids, doing chores, and overbooking themselves. By the end of the day, they feel just as drained as when they woke up—hardly a true recovery day. Instead, try not scheduling anything in advance but let your mood sporadically decide what you want to do.

2. Focus on proper nutrition: While it is good to occasionally allow yourself a treat—and off days are perfect days for this—do not completely loose control. Recovery days are supposed to allow your body to repair so it is essential that you get the necessary antioxidants, protein, and nutrients that will build muscle and decrease inflammation. You can still keep your indulgence (Diet Coke anyone?), but emphasize healthy fats (coconut milk, almonds, and flax), vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, and beets), and of course plenty of water.

3. Detoxify the mind: Like lactic acid and muscular fatigue, lots of stress accumulates in the mind during training. It is therefore important to drain the mind of these “toxins.” Do some yoga, meditate, foam roller sore muscles, and maybe include nap.
If you have to do a workout on recovery days then make it easy and something that you usually do not do in training to give yourself a true day away from training. While you may feel lazy and unproductive on recovery days, these are just irrational fears; I can guarantee that one day off will not undermine your fitness, make you fat, or ruin your season. On the contrary, they will make you a better, stronger, and fresher athlete.

*From Coach Kevin: To listen to my podcast interview on the Athletes’ Guide to Recovery with author Sage Rountree, visit http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/interview-with-sage-rountree-author-of-the-athletes-guide-to-recovery/

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

There are few luddites in the athletic world who refuse to use technology from digital training logs to social media websites to iPods; they see it as a distraction from their enjoyment of the sport.

Personally, I love it. I splurge on the latest technology (whether I necessarily need it or not); I analyze my data down to the single watt; I religiously read the latest blogs; and, I pour over fellow athletes’ training logs, tweets, and blogs. I find that my technology and social media fix not only allows me to improve my own fitness but also stay connected to others. However, there is a limit to technology and a
breaking point where its use becomes more of a hindrance than a help.

When it comes to gizmos, there are enough options out there to turn you into the 6 million dollar man. My latest favorite tool/indulgence is the Garmin 910xt that recently came out. It has all a triathlete could dream of. It keeps track of pace, heart rate, pedal cadence, foot turnover, elevation gain/lost, stroke speed in the pool, swim efficacy, calories burned, and, if you hit a few buttons, the time of day
including sunset and rise.

One of the coolest features though that Garmin included in this model (compared to the 310xt) is the Training Effect (TE), which they adapted from Suunto. For those who are not familiar with this function, TE collects your data including watts, pace, heart rate, and fitness level, and crunches all those numbers through most likely complex algorithms to put out a score between 1 and 5 where 1 is an easy recovery workout after which you can recover quickly and 5 is an all out effort that leaves you quite drained for a few days.

The obvious benefit of having this number is that you can ensure how hard you hit a workout and not overdo your recovery effort (i.e. train in the gray zone) as many type A athletes tend to do. Moreover, this number can help you estimate how much recovery you need after a workout.

Doing two or three level 5 workouts a week most likely will not allow for proper recovery. However, this number can be perilous. While I and many others (Coach Brett Blankner of Zen and the Art of Triathlon also loves this feature in his own Suunto) have had great success with TE, I have to remind myself that only I can know how my body is feeling on that day. If I personally feel that I need maybe a few more hours of recovery or an extra day off, then I need to listen to my body—numbers be damned.

No matter how sophisticated the watch or the formula, I am training my body—NOT my watch.

Social media also offers a similar number trap. As an addict of twitter and Facebook, I like to see (borderline stalk) what my fellow TrainingPeaks ambassadors or Pros whom I idolize are doing as they train for their next events. An athlete cannot train in isolation but needs a strong support team to help him or her along and provide motivation. Moreover, I can get some good ideas about nutrition, workouts, or form while receiving feed back about my own training.

Once again, though I have to be very careful not to fall into the dangerous trap of feeling insufficient. When I look at another athlete’s data, I am sometimes amazed at the numbers, be it speed, power, or number of weekly training hours, that they are able to put out. This amazement though quickly turns to jealousy and a feeling of inadequacy.

“Why am I not doing that much? He ran 3 times in one day or did a 150-mile bike ride at race pace, so shouldn’t I? He only eats 1800 calories but I am eating 2800; maybe I should diet.” I then begin to lose confidence in my own training plan, a mindset that will destroy an athlete. Like my Garmin, I have to remind myself that I know my body best. If some other athlete is training more than me, good for him/her, but I have to follow my own path that I have worked out with my coach and further trust that the plan she lays down will get me to my goals; it has in the past and it will in the future.

Those other athletes are other athletes with sometimes much more experience than I have; therefore it is useless to compare myself to them. I have to be satisfied with where I am as an athlete and the plan that will make me grow individually.

Technology and social media definitely has its place in training and when used appropriately can have a great, positive affect on your training. However, like fire, it can be a dangerous tool that can leave you and your body badly burned if used incorrectly.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

There are not many laws in training. Nutrition plans, supplements, training regimens are all so individualized and personal that it is hard to find a sweeping truth. However, one fundamental fact about endurance athletics is “junk in, junk out.” It is pretty simple law that can be applied to any facet of training, yet many athletes reject or flat out deny it. Let us look at the evidence.

The basic premise behind my law is that if you put junk into your training whether it be food, millage, or recovery you are going to get junk out. This idea make sense. If I eat nothing but highly processed, refined, carbohydrate and omega-6 rich foods than my body is not going to recover properly, I am going to feel horrible, my mood and motivation will plummet, and my training will suffer.

Example A: I have coached several very good distance runners whose diet were horrendous; they ate plenty of sugary cereals (emmmm cookie crisp), fueled races with pizza and beer, and recovered with Dr. Pepper and pretzels. These were elite athletes who placed in the top fifteen collegiate runners at most races, and they saw that they had no need to change. However, one of them decided to clean up his diet to see what would happen.

He threw out the junk and replaced it with high octane fuel like vegetables, lean protein, fruit, and quality, organic dairy. He went from the back of the lead pack to the front. He was able to recover more quickly from workouts and therefore add in more millage without injury or illness. His mind too became sharper with better focus, sleep, and motivation. Unfortunately, his peers continued their junk habits and remained in the rear. While the sample size of this “study” is small, I can guarantee that any endurance athlete’s performance and health will improve with a cleaner diet.

The same law applies to training.

Many runners and triathletes whom I work with or train with put in a lot of junk miles. They either mindlessly and aimlessly train for hours on end without really raising their heart rates above zone 1 or remain in a constant gray zone that is not easy but at the same time not hard. Their workout plans have no direction or goal and therefore are, in my opinion, junk.

They may maintain their fitness, but they certainly will not improve it with this style of training. Moreover, by only training in zone 3 or the “gray zone” they run the risk of injury and overtraining since they never full recover. Once these athletes though clean up their training logs replacing the junk sessions with quality, goal specific intervals and recovery sessions, their speed, endurance,and overall strength will improve.

This week, look at your own diet and training. Are there foods or workouts that you can clean up? If so, “it’s time to take out the trash.”

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Dear Diary…

When I was young, I enjoyed keeping a diary. Throughout elementary school, I would race home after school and record every single juicy (at least in my mind) detail about the day. Reading over some of these page long monologues, they usually began with “Dear Diary…” and contained the stereotypical threads about my latest crush (the girl who sat in front of me in math, Lilly, was featured prominently), how boring some lecture was, excitement over a good grade, or general playground gossip.

It was the one thing that I knew I could entrust my secrets, fears, insecurities, successes, and goals in. It provided me with objective “feedback” on anything I wrote down by allowing me to reread what seemed so big at the time but in retrospect was insignificant. I could look back and see what I did wrong in a situation and then prevent it from happening again. It was truly my best friend. I have kept up this practice religiously now for the past 14 years, but now, my diary looks quite different from the one I kept back in the day.

It is no longer black, leather bound book stored underneath my mattress nor are my entries in colorful ink and signed with scratch and sniff sticker. No, today, my diary is my triathlon training log, and it is just as meaningful and important as it ever was.

The importance of a good training log to a triathlete or any athlete cannot be overemphasized. Competitor magazine just put out an article on how beneficial logging can be, and I could not agree more. I keep every little detail about my training in there from the time I worked out, to how I felt pre, during and post workout, to data (watts, heart rate, speed), and even weather conditions and nutrition.

I begin the day by logging my daily metrics like how may hours I slept, my daily weight, my mood, and stress levels. After workouts—even before I shower and stretch—I rush to my log and log my data and thoughts about the workouts. I then finish the day with an entry about how the day went, how I felt, whether or not I have recovered, and general thoughts for the future. While I may be a little too meticulous (psychologists out there, might classify this as borderline obsessive), I get as much benefit out as I do effort putting in.

With all my entries, I am able to track my progress and literally see my results. From week to week, month to month, and season to season, I can see if my power has increased or my resting heart rate has improved or if my swim splits have come down. I thus can make adjustments to my training plan to accommodate any changes in stress, workload, sleep, nutrition or illness and thus avoid over or undertraining and injuries. Moreover, it keeps my accountable and motivated.

I hate looking back over my log and seeing a gaping holes in the middle a week where I missed a key workout or only did half the workout without just cause. If I know that I will have to write down my splits for my coach or future self to see, I am more likely to do the workout in its entirety and to the best of my ability.

At the same time, when I see how much training time and effort I have invested, I feel a great sense of accomplishment and confidence. If I ever begin doubting whether I can hit a certain split or achieve a personal best leading up to a race, my training log shows me that I in fact am ready and can achieve not only the goals that I put down but also much more. If a race or workout does not go as planned, I can look back at my diary and see what I did before that could have influenced my results. Through not so careful analysis, the answer becomes quite clear, and I can spot trends like lack of sleep, low weight, dehydration, poor nutrition, or high stress.

Most importantly for both training and overall health, keeping my training diary forces me to become more in tune with my body and how it is reacting in the moment. Writing down every detail of a workout forces me to reflect upon what I was and am feeling. Instead of neglecting pains or denying emotions—especially fear, expressing them in a log legitimizes them and thus makes them more manageable.

Any type of diary is fine whether it be a pink binder with a heart shaped lock on the front or an online log. I have experimented with many online logs but have yet to find one better than TrainningPeaks, which allows me and my coach to do everything we need to in a convenient, steam lined, and sexy (yes, call my a tri geek, but I just called a piece of training equipment as sexy). Through their site, my coach can plan future workouts weeks in advance, modify them depending on the weather forecast, plan out my racing season, and evaluate my data, which I can easily upload from my Garmin forerunner, Powertap, and my Speedsense swim (by Finis).

While I love the nostalgia of hand written logs, it is tedious to add up weekly training hours, miles put on important, millage-sensitive training gear like running shoes and bike chains, or to objectively evaluate the stress of training, which TrainingPeaks has taken to a higher, better level of analysis. Unlike other online logs, TrainingPeaks has developed an ingenious algorithm that gives a score, TSS, to each workout depending on the stress it puts on my body (i.e. hard interval workouts would get a higher score than an easy spin), which it adds up and tracks so that you can modify your training to prevent yourself from overdoing it—a chronic problem for triathletes. I have barely touched the surface on what TrainingPeaks has to offer but I encourage you to look into their software.

Regardless of whether you use TrainingPeaks or not, the best log is the one that is most convenient for you. Hopefully, you too can make a new “best friend.”

(Disclaimer: I am a proud member of the TrainingPeaks ambassador program but was a devout user of their program and software long before I joined their team. They did not pay me to write this post nor do I receive any commission if you decide to use them. However, if you do find that TrainingPeaks is right for you, let me know and I can give you a discount code to get their premium membership, which has many more bells and whistles to take your training and racing to the next level.)

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Looking back on my first mini triathlon (also known as a sprint triathlon) in 1983 I can honestly say I didn’t have a clue. Of course the sport was so young then, very few people did. Training for a mini triathlon can be fun and rewarding, but a little preparation is crucial before you set out.

I knew triathlons entailed swimming, cycling and running but that was about it. And frankly, I wasn’t even sure about the order of the events. Made sense to me that the swim would be last (which it is in some events) because you’d have a chance to cool off after a hard bike ride and run!

I’ve learned a lot since then and of course there is lot more information available to “would-be” triathletes than there was then. So, how would I train for a mini triathlon now if I didn’t have any experience? Here are 4 tips that I recommend:

1. Since the swim is what worries most newbies perhaps the best place to start is either with swim lessons (if your swimming is terrible) or join a master’s swim group. Swimming, more than cycling and running, depends on good form so if you start with good form, you can build the strength and endurance easily.

2. While you see all kinds of bikes out on the course in local mini triathlons it’s really best to get a good one. Yes, you can spend upwards of $20,000 on a fully decked-out bike but it isn’t necessary. Go to your local bike shop and ask if they work with triathletes. If they do, ask them about bike brands and size for you. Scour the internet and get a good used bike. THEN, take your bike back to the same shop for a thorough tune-up.

3. Doing well on the bike is all about getting miles in your legs. Personally, I love my CompuTrainer, but a simple bike trainer can work well too. Do at least two sessions of at least 30 minutes on your trainer each week and one on the road – which should be your longest effort (between one and two hours).

4. Be careful doing too much or running with too much intensity in the beginning. This is where many triathletes get injured. Yes, you want to go out and tear up the world but there is a huge risk to this. Start easy if needed and walk/run if you have to – there’s no shame in it. As your running fitness improves slowly increase the intensity and distance. You don’t need to go long. 30 minutes to an hour and a half at an easy pace is quite enough.

Beyond that you should absorb lots of information. There’s a ton of it out there now whether it’s websites, magazines, or fellow triathletes. Talk to everyone. Volunteer at a local race. You’ll begin to build your own opinions, and confidence. Pretty soon race day will be here- and you’ll be ready to roll!

To find out more about mini triathlon training, visit http://triathlonsprinttraining.net

This is the final entry in my “Conquering the Mercury” Series in which I have given my advice on how to properly dress for any temperature range. In this part, I will cover running.

Extreme temperatures and meteorological conditions can sometimes leave runners sprinting to the treadmill. However, with the proper prep work, it is easy to remain outside on the roads year round. Compared to swimming and biking, running, in my opinion, is the easiest to prepare for when it comes to how to dress since, with running’s almost full body engagement, the majority of the body warms up after about 10 minutes. Nevertheless, there are some considerations to keep in mind so that your run becomes not just bearable but enjoyable.

Like the bike, wind and rain can play a crucial part in how we feel. The thermometer may read 65, which normally may feel balmy, but it feels icy when it is raining or when the wind is blowing straight in your face. Also like the bike, covering the extremities/limbs is more important than the core. In general, hands are the most perceptible to the cold since many runners tense their arms and shoulders when they run, reducing blood circulation and thus making them feel cold and turn that nice purple color. Proper head gear is also important both in the heat and in the cold. When the sun is beating down, a good hat or visor protects the head from the sun’s glare and thus allows cools the body down; moreover, they can be used to hold cold sponges or rags when racing. While in the cold, a good knit cap traps heat in prevents our ears from getting frost bite.

Regardless of the temperature, I hope the below general guidelines helps you break the treadmill chains to find freedom on the roads and trails.
80° and above: In this upper temperature bracket with little wind and the sun beating down in addition to heat radiating up for the ground, you do not need much covering but any clothing that you do wear make sure to opt for light, white, or neon colors instead of blacks and grays since the these absorb the heat instead of reflecting it. Arm coolers like those sold by De Soto may also be a good choice depending on how large you are; the larger the athlete the harder it is for the body to cool itself. Another option would be to wear an Under Armor Heat Gear shirt which absorbs the sweat better than most tight fitting or technical shirts and thus allows your body to cool more efficiently.

55°-80°: I find that this is the perfect temperature to run in and needs the least amount of thought and preparation. A male can just wear running shorts or a tri jammer, and, depending on your local nudity laws and your own security with your body image, a running t shirt. For women, a running bra, shirt, and shorts will do fine. If the temperature is on the lower end of this frame, it may feel uncomfortable or chilly to begin with but you will warm up shortly.

45°-55°: Typical for the Fall and early spring this brisk temperature range requires a few more clothes than the previous one but nothing extreme. I usually wear either short or ¾ tights (commonly referred to manprees), a long sleeve technical t shirt, a pair of light gloves (dollar store cotton gloves are great or, if you want to look more “professional” Brooks also makes a great pair), and a head band that covers my ears like that made by Nike.

35°-45°: Not too much changes from the previous attire except that I may wear a full on running hat, wear warmer gloves, and instead of just a long sleeve technical running shirt I wear an Under Armor Cold Gear compression shirt or a similar base layer shirt (many base layer clothing for skiers also works great for runners).

20°-35°: Here is when proper clothing choices makes a huge difference and is needed to prevent swelling and other unpleasantness. I typically wear long sleeve tights, a base layer shirt as described above, a running fleece, jacket, or pull over, mittens (warmer than gloves since your fingers stick together) and wool socks.

0°-20°: Follow the same procedure as above but add another pair of gloves (preferably wind bocking like ski gloves), a balaclava to cover the face, or a running scarf because when you breath the warm air will also warm your face instead of automatically dissipating. Depending on the wind, two layers of tights, although constricting and annoying, maybe wise.

Sub 0°: I have joined the polar bear club and run in sub 0 temperatures. It is doable but not recommended. Be careful though and ensure that you cover places like your fingers, toes, and ear lobes to prevent frost bite.

Although spring has unofficially sprung across most of the country, take advantage of this time to take advantage of some awesome deals on winter clothing and begin planning for the heat of summer. Stores are clearing our their winter inventories right now to make room for spring attire, so think ahead and save not only money but also your next season by being able to train outside year round regardless of what Mother Nature, Heat Henry, and Jack Frost throws at you.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Option “A” would be to tough out the initial colder temperatures and dress for the predicted temperatures, while option “B” would be to dress in layers. I usually like to go for option B since I never know how much the temperatures will rise or what the weather has in store for me.
Regardless of your approach, though, you generally want to cover your heat releasing extremities like your head (ear warmers, beanie, or wool cap for really cold rides), toes (toe covers or booties), and hands (multiple types of gloves) first and then worry about your core, and finally your legs, which should be the last to be covered since they are the only body parts moving and thus are warmer. Here is a quick guide that I follow for each bracket of mercury levels:

-75 and above: I am fine with a tri suit (go for lighter colors and stray away from blacks and grays since these absorb the heat), maybe a cooling shirt (like Under Armor Heat gear or De Soto’s line of cooling arm coolers, beanies, and shirts, which I love and high recommend for heavier and larger athletes), and a bandana to wipe away sweat. No need for gloves (they just intensify your tri tan), socks (unless your prefer to), or arm warmers.

-60-75: Not that cold but if there is wind it might be slightly nippy especially on the lower end of this temperature frame, so I may go with a light tight fitting long sleeved shirt like a regular Under Armor shirt which I can peel off after I warm up, do intervals or the sun comes out

-50-60: Here is where good planning becomes critical because you do not want to ruin a ride by overheating or loosing feeling in your fingers. In this range, I focus solely on my limbs and leave my core alone save a long sleeve tight fitting jersey. To cover my hands and keep the blood flowing, I wear two pairs of gloves: a cheap pair of cotton ones available at the Dollar store or CVS and then a good pair of medium thickness, wind blocking gloves on top. I then can peel away either layer depending on how the weather changes. I may add a pair of thermal or regular arm warmers too if it is not sunny and/or windy. For my toes, I use toe warmer that just cover the toes and slip over the front part of my cleats, allowing for some ventilation but also some warmth and wind blockage. Knee warmers instead of full leg warmers are better here unless it is extremely windy or raining since your legs warm up nicely at high cadences. A wind proof vest works nicely to add visibility in morning traffic or add in a bit of extra warmth or rain protection. All of these can be stripped away and stored in the back pocket of a jersey or vest.

-35-50: Not much changes from what I wear for the 50-60 range but I instead opt for leg warmers, full booties, and a jacket instead of a vest.

-15-35: This is where you have to be careful. When the mercury dips this low, riding outside can be down right miserable and dangerous if the wind chill makes it feel colder and can lead to frost bite. One of the benefits, though is that if it is this cold it will remain this cold so no need to layer. To keep me outside instead of chained to a trainer, I wear thermal bibs which are warmer than thermal pants, a warming light sleeved shirt (my favorite is the De Soto thermal jersey which comes with a built in hood and keeps me toasty even at 5 degrees—yes I have tested it at this temperature). I also go for a pair of old fashioned ski gloves that have a wind blocking outer layer and then a fleece inner layer, and a wind blocking jacket with a fleece underneath it. I recently bought a pair of “lobster” gloves, which work wonderfully, but they do inhibit the use of your hands and made it hard for me to open up a gel or take in nutrition without removing the gloves completely. On my feet, I wear booties in addition to wool socks. A thermal beanie covers my head and a balaclava to cover my face and nose. Since wind can get through the gap between the jacket and the balaclava I add on a neck warmer, which keeps the wind out nicely.

-Under 15: You may want to consider the trainer.

To take the chill off, a pair of toe and hand warming packets (available at any gas station) can be added but make sure you trap in the heat for them to work. If they are exposed to the elements they will not work. Next week I will finish up with my “fashionista” running tips.

Below, I have compiled a group of my temperature guidelines and weather tips that I follow to get me through any workout purple finger free and warm but not sweltering. In the first part of this three part series, I will talk about how to properly prepare for the swim both in and out of the pool.

Usually, most pools are between 78-85 degrees depending on if it is inside or out, heated, or used for competition versus recreational uses. Many swimmers are quite comfortable in this range with just a basic suit and a swim cap. If you get hot, then nix the cap. At some pools, especially ones that offer aqua-aerobics classes and cater to an older crowd, the temperature can be between 85 and 95. In these rare instances, make sure you hydrate very well before and during your workouts to prevent overheating and dehydration. It is hard to gauge sweat loss in the pool, so drink to thirst. This will keep your body cool and functioning properly as you reel off those hard intervals.

If you are like me and get uncomfortable with anything underneath hot tub level, then you may want adapt some open water swim tips like wearing a neoprene cap or double capping at least until I warm up. I also do a good, dry land warm up consisting of jumping jacks, a resistance circuit of bands, crunches/core work, med ball throws, and/or plyometrics, before getting in so my body is already warm and the cool water feels refreshing instead of unpleasant.

On occasion, the pool can dip below 70 degrees like when the heater breaks, a coach goes insane and wants to torture swimmers (it’s happened), or if the pool is outside and is unheated. In these situations, break out the wet suit. Also, keep moving and limit your time hanging onto the wall. Of course, a mug of hot chocolate is essential for when you hop or sprint out.

Open water swims are a different matter, and I opt for a wet suit more often than not. If the temperature is between 70-74°, I usually wear a sleeveless one while anything underneath 70 requires me to go full sleeved. (Note that in USAT and WTC races, when the temperature is above 76, age groupers who are aiming for the podium, cannot wear a wetsuit. Check with the race organizers or the USAT website for specific rules). Swimming in cold water presents some different challenges. If you plan on swimming in even colder temperatures, you may want to consider not only a long sleeve wet suit but also a thicker one. Other considerations include, wearing neoprene booties and gloves.

As you swim more in varying pools and open body of waters, you will get a good feel for what you specifically need in each temperature range. Next week I will discuss cycling with all of its many intricacies and tricks to keep you cycling through out the year and in all conditions, so stay tuned.

Have a great week of training!

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

As I have said before, I recommend the shorter fins like Hydrofinz while learning drills.

References:

Video on CrossFit:

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T.S. Elliot was full of shit; February is by far the cruelest month. At least in April, it is warm and sunny, but in February, for most of the U.S., the days are short, cold, wet, and dark, all of which makes training a little bit more exhausting. It is definitely harder when it is snowing outside to get out of bed, bundle up, and head out for a run, ride, or even just to go to the pool when all we really want to do is curl up in bed with our significant other (or, in my case, my large Speedo wearing teddy bear).

Moreover, it maybe even more tempting to cut our workouts short and head in early to the fire and a cup of soup or hop out of the pool halfway through the last swim set for a soak in the hot tub. However, February is when racing seasons are either made or broken. It might be easier to cut our workouts short, but since when has training ever been easy? If training was easy, everyone would be pros.

What sets apart the elite from the amateurs and the elite from the rest of the pros is not necessarily their physical abilities but their mental toughness. Those who can push themselves through these hard winter days of training, do the workouts in rain, sleet, snow, lethargy, sniffles, and early morning mental fog, are the ones who are going to be that much better when the first race arrives. They are the ones going to be able to push themselves through the dark valley of physical pain and summit the mental mountain come race day. Here are some tips to keep in mind when those winter demons of self-doubt and weakness come calling:

1. Remind yourself of your goals: Remember those goals you set down (and hopefully wrote down for yourself this season back in December and January)? Whip them out and refresh your mind about why you are training. Although your “A” race maybe months away, keeping the image of yourself crossing the finish line with a PR or making the podium will help boost your morale.

2. Make sure you take care of yourself: Usually, low motivation arises when you are under-fueled, dehydrated, or sleep deprived. Making sure you are adequately nourished (with clean, unprocessed food), hydrated, and well rested will help keep your motivation stoked.

3. Get some vitamin-D: Since winter days can be lacking in sun light, our stores of vitamin D naturally go down. Get out into the sunlight for a lunch time walk and even investigate supplementing with a pill or investing in a full spectrum light, which are just as effective.

4. “Fatten” up: Yes, I know, many of you want to slim down this winter season to get in peak racing shape, but cutting out the fat will not help and may even hinder yourself. Many studies (too many to site!) show that a diet rich in healthy fats will keep your muscles healthy and primed, your energy stoked, and your mood up. Consider including some extra fish (like salmon), olive oil, (both of these will help with your complexion too until you can begin working on your beach tan), and nuts/seeds. (and don’t worry about calories, you will likely lose weight on a high-fat diet!)

5. Look over your training log (or get one!): Looking back at tough workouts or how much training you have done can remind you of all the effort you have already put into this season. Moreover, writing down your workouts can keep you accountable since there is nothing more disappointing than writing down a skipped workout or a DNF. An online log like TrainingPeaks, which just added some awesome features, is one of the best especially since you can bring it anywhere using their mobile app.

Good luck in your training this week and remember these words from Christopher Robin (the great sage of all triathlon training of course): “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Back when I started racing cross country back in 2003, training seemed immensely complex. My coach would create these elaborate logarithms to calculate our exact LT, AT, Zone 1A through Zone 5B, pace charts, heart rate predictions, and our specific daily caloric needs depending on the type of training and Moreover, he even broke it down to exact nutrient profile.

When I started triathlon, training became even more complex with addition of two other sports, equipment, and longer training hours. My training log began to look like a Christmas tree with its multiple colors representing different types of workouts. My equipment closet filled up with various types of paddles, suits, fins, shoes, weights, and bands for all occasions.

Recently, however, I have noticed a well needed resurgence in simplicity from minimalist running shoes, to integrated bikes, advice like “drink when you are thirsty and eat when you are hungry,” and training based on feel. What a breath of fresh air! I feel that athletes—especially beginning triathletes—get overwhelmed by all the technicalities and science of training and forget the essentials like form, drills, and how their bodies are reacting to training.

Swimming is not immune to this phenomenon. Many beginners can drown in all the swim jargon coaches put into workouts and in all the potential equipment you can get. This is a shame since swimming is a pretty simple sport. You do not need the paddles, the boards, and the fins, just drive, humility, goggles, and, of course a speedo. Whether you are an elite athlete or just beginning, remember what one of my teachers told me: “Keep it simple, stupid, and when you do, you will no longer be stupid.”

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Unlike other sports like cycling, baseball, and track (at least the sprint events), triathlons, marathons, and swimming, for now, have escaped the taint of illicit, sports enhancing drugs. However, if we really look into these sports, illicit “drugs” run rampant. I doubt that any successful triathlete, distance runner, or swimmer has not taken some drug to boost their performance. Even Chrissie Wellington, who led the initiative to publish all drug tests, is guilty. I am of course not referring to the drugs that we see in the media such as EPO, steroids, über caffeine pills, beta blockers, and the like; I am talking about the much more potent, mind-altering “substances” that usually go unseen in sports.

Last year, I was looking for a boost in my training. My workouts had become flat; my body always seemed to be tired; I could not recover from workouts; and, my times had hit a plateau. With the race season approaching, I was desperate and needed change quickly, so I turned to drugs. Having come from a neuropsychology and chemistry background, I went into my basement, set up some stills, and began concocting some really powerful substances. I finally created the perfect cocktail of “pills:”

My first discovery, I called TripleZ, which is also known on the streets as 40 winks, the sandman, and shutter-I; chemically, it is called sleep, and would be classified as a depressant meaning that it lowers the heart rate. TripleZ is one of the best performance enhancing drugs out there. It allows the body to recover quickly from hard workouts, repairs muscles, keeps us motivated, alert, and focused. It does have some bad side effects though. Without it, we feel sluggish, irritable, inert, and clumsy.

Moreover, you have to be careful with this stuff since you can overdose, which can be almost as bad as taking too little. You have to try to limit yourself to 7.5-9 hours a night depending on your weight and activity level. Like other drugs though you have to make sure you get the highest quality. Many dealers will try to give you some cheap product that only lasts 20 minutes or 4 hours, which are quick fixes but will make you crash pretty quickly. Moreover, there are a lot of knockoffs like alcohol, power naps, Tylenol PM, Ambian, and Lunesta that swear it will take you to that same place. Unfortunately, they are not the same and will not give you the best “high.” To get the best, you really have to go into deep, dark underground of the “black” market where all lights, cell phones, email access, and cameras are banned. Many think that it is fairly expensive, but, in actuality, it is fairly cheap and definitely worth the investment.

Next, I experimented with hallucinogens and discovered a really potent mixture that I called PCP (chemically known as Pride, Competition, and Perception). Individually, these substances are pretty strong but when mixed together they get your body going! Pride gives you a feeling of success and “owning” your workouts, while competition motivates you to succeed. These two are pretty powerful stuff when taken alone, but can be really, really deadly if taken in excess. If you only take Pride and Competition then you will have illusions of grandeur and walk around with a swagger and your m-dot tattoo in full view. That is why I mixed it with a good healthy dose of perception to taper the effects of the other two. Without this last component, you truly go off on a “bad trip” also known as an “ego trip.” The purest form of perception helps keep you grounded, focused on the journey instead of just the result, mindful of both your strengths and weakness, but at the same time, realistic and eager for more. Since PCP is so dangerous when the proportions are off, I recommend my own patented formula with a 15:15:70 ratio of the three.

Lastly, I needed a stimulant—something that would really take my training and racing to the next level, so I began popping M&Ms (Memory and Motivation) like they were candy. Like PCP, these two must be taken together. Memory, if used alone, will leave you felling regretful or nostalgic so that you loose sight of the present. I discovered however, that when taken with Motivation, it could actually be used to your advantage. Chemically, Memories has a synergistic effect with Motivation. Memory provides the fuel that Motivation needs to make you aware of past successes and failures, while motivation makes you want to change them and improve—a very powerful combo.

These drugs are available all over, but choose your dealer carefully since there are a lot of sketchy suppliers out there. I find that the best and purest dealer is yourself. Fortunately, they do not come up on a urine test and are relatively cheap compared to steroids or blood doping.

These three maybe the gateway drug to your next PR.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

This past week, Chrissie Wellington, one of the greatest triathletes if not athletes of all time, announced
that she is taking a break from Ironman so that she can focus on other priorities in her life like her upcoming
book and her work with charities. While Wellington thankfully is by no means gone forever,
her “retirement” is a huge loss for the sport.

In my opinion, Wellington represented the true spirit of triathlons and a mindset that many athletes—both pro and age groupers alike—would be well to learn from.

For one, she always had a smile on her face. Whether she was being interviewed before a race, photographed during a race, or crossing the finish line (usually in first but regardless of place), she smiled. In one of my favorite ads for Brooks running shoes, she is shown training but always smiling; underneath these pictures, the ad reads “train happy.” This is an important message for athletes to receive and try to follow.

Even on the hardest of training days or the most draining of workouts, we should train happy and smile. Yes, the work is hard, but we are fortunate enough to be able to do it and thus, like Wellington, should smile. Even if we do not hit our splits or do not perform as well as we think we should have, there is much to be thankful for and to smile about like being injury free, having the time to be able to train, and living in an environment that allows us to train. So, when you feel like crud, be like Chrissie and just smile.

Wellington also embodied a selflessness that many ego centric, alpha personality, podium focused athletes lack. For one, she did not just focus on herself but rejoiced in the success of others. Two years ago, when she withdrew from the Ford Ironman World Championships in Kona because of illness, she nevertheless cheered on and rejoiced at the performances of Mirinda Carfrae and everyone else down to the last, just under 17-hour finisher. She acknowledged that Ironman is a tough event for everyone no matter what time you finish and therefore everyone should be commended.

A few years ago I “raced” against Wellington at the Columbia triathlon in Columbia, Maryland. When she finished in a respectable 5th place
overall, she did not go immediately to cool down or back to her trailer like some of the other elites but stuck around the finish line to present finishers with their medals including me (one of my best memories ever).

Moreover, she made sure that she thanked every single volunteer she met. Apparently, she did this at almost every race. This type of selflessness is important in sports and is often neglected. ALL athletes occasionally get too focused on themselves and on their own performances while neglecting the fact that this is a sport and should be enjoyed. Even if we do not perform well, others do and their victories should be celebrated even if it is just a high five or a pat on the ass. Furthermore, a lot of work goes into orchestrating a triathlon including
legions of volunteers, without whom racing would be impossible. Thanking them is the least we can and should do.

Underneath her smiling face and her thankful personality though was an unmatched grit, determination, and drive, qualities that truly set her apart from other athletes. In every single race, you could tell that she was giving all she had. This past year she competed at Kona having crashed on a bike ride just weeks before. Nevertheless, she stepped up to the starting line and raced—she also won. Many athletes would
have given up, gone back to their hotels, and sulked, but Wellington was able to put her accident behind her and race even though she knew she may not win. She challenged and raced against herself overcoming those mental demons.

While Wellington may have left the sport (hopefully not forever), I at least hope that her athletic and Ironman spirit lives on and triathletes continue to look to her as a model of the mentality that they should adopt during their own racing and training. I know I will.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Compared to their running and cycling brethren, triathletes certainly tend to have slightly more muscular shoulders. But when you actually look at a triathlon junkie from the side view, you’ll see a rather unsightly phenomenon: a hunched back, slouched shoulders, and ugly curvature in the upper spine.

These slumping triathlon shoulders (which can turn into a permanent fixture on your body) come from a combination of spending long hours hunched over the saddle of a bike, working the internal shoulder rotators during swimming, while neglecting the external rotators in the weight room, and often a job spent sitting at a desk or computer.

So how can you get nice shoulders and still be fast at triathlon? Here’s what to do:

How To Get Nice Shoulders Step #1: Stretch your chest muscles.

Tight chest muscles can come from sitting a desk for several hours with your hands on a keyboard, from riding a bike in the aero position, and from swimming. Once tight, and especially in the presence of weak external rotators, these muscles pull your forward into a slouch.

To stretch tight chest muscles, try a doorframe stretch, in which you reach for the top of a door frame, place your hands on it and lean forward as far as you can. If you can’t reach the top of a door frame, just place one hand over the other hand, and lean into a wall.

How To Get Nice Shoulders Step #2: Strengthen your external rotators.

Although the most popular exercise for “strengthening” the external rotators is to grab an elastic band and do dozens of repetitions of rotation for the shoulders, most of us don’t have time to stand around doing that. Bigger, multi-joint exercises like pull-ups and rows work far better, and have the added advantage of burning more calories and working your arm muscles.

I’ve personally installed a pull-up bar in the door of my office (it cost me about $25), and I try to do at least 25 pull-ups each day (usually one set of 5 whenever I walk under the bar). You can also include regular or assisted pull-ups as a weekly part of your gym routine. Also include lat pull-downs, seated rows, cable rows, and single arm dumbbell rows – focusing on squeezing your shoulder blades back and maintaining a tall, proud posture as you do each exercise.

How To Get Nice Shoulders Step #3: Work the core.

Blah, blah, blah, work the core. Sure, you’ve heard this before. But think about it this way: when you’re riding a bike, swimming, or sitting at your desk, there is one thing that has to happen before you begin to slouch: your core has to get tired first.
But if your core is strong, it takes a massive load off your shoulders, and allows you to maintain much better posture. I personally recommend planks as the best way to strengthen your core and shoulders at the same time.

Try this: get into a front plank position, hold for 3 deep breaths, then switch to a side plank position left side, hold for 3 more breaths, then side plank right side for 3 breaths, and finish by holding a full push-up position for 3 breaths. Do that entire sequence without your knees touching the ground. See how many rounds you can do before you core collapses. If you can get to 10 round (about 7-9 minutes of planking), you’ve got a solid core. Otherwise, do this routine once or twice per week until you can get to 10 rounds.

Now that you’ve learned the 3 easy steps to get nice shoulders, you can be one of those triathletes who swims fast, but also cuts an impressive figure, and doesn’t have that notorious slouch, especially when people look at you from the side.

If you want to learn more about how to swim, bike and run lightning fast, but also have a nice body, (and get access to the other 6 articles in this series) then head over to http://triswimcoach.com/ripped for a brand new approach to training for the ultimate triathlon body.

Transcript:

Triathletes out there, this is part 2 of my series on how to put on a wet suit and today we are going to tackle the tougher challenge which is the long sleeve wetsuit.

Now when do I wear a long sleeve? When do I wear a short sleeve? It’s personal preference. I personally tend to use the short sleeve for when the water is kind of on the brink of that 76 degree Fahrenheit cut off where you tend to wear a wetsuit, where I want some buoyancy, some warmth, and
more flexibility for in the water. I use a long sleeve most of the time though because most of the time I’m swimming in waters that are under 76 degrees or 74 degrees so temperatures. So temperatures pretty much between 68 all the way up to 74, I would use the long sleeve definitely, for sure. It gives you more buoyancy, you’re more hydro dynamic, and you go faster. Especially for lean athletes, a thick long sleeve wetsuit is especially helpful because you go faster with the buoyancy and your form is better.

Alright, so, first things first, just like in the short sleeve, we are going to fold it down right to the end of the zipper about waist high. Now one thing you want to make sure, make sure you don’t have your watch on. Take your rings off; it might help. But it will be easier if you have your watch off or any bracelets off to slide into the arms. So just like in the short sleeve we are going to put our left or right foot in and kind of slide it through to the bottom and now you’re kind of stuck here and you are going to take one leg at a time and pull up so the cuff is right above the ankle and we are going to do that for the other one. It helps if you get it all situated first on one leg and then go to the other leg.

Once again, cuffs should be right above the ankle and now you are going to pull it up, shimmy it up
all the way to your waist. To make sure it fits right, you want to make sure the crotch is aligned and
your waist is all set. There shouldn’t be any baggage or slack in the legs. It should pretty much be tight
against your quads, calves, and hamstrings.

And now the arms. So first things first, I’m going with my left arm first. I’m going to slide it in and grab
kind of grab the excess wetsuit and slide in pulling it up to your arms. There we go. And the wrist, your
wrist should pretty much be covered. You want to pull any excess up and you’re good to go. And now
for the other arm. And there we go. Change in the collar. The collar should be right at your collar bone
like so and pretty much all slack should be taken out of the arms.

And now to zip up. And once again, it helps to ask someone to zip it up for you, but if you’re solo this
is how you do it. Once again, hand at the bottom of the zipper; start it up and zip up making sure any
excess is tucked in. And there we are. You’re all set.

Go out into the water. Wade out. Do your workout. Do your race and you’re all good to go.

Now the tricky part is taking it off and in transition two once again if they have strippers definitely use
them because it will cut down your T2 times at least by a third if not more.

So once again we are going to take the zip off, take the zipper and pull down.

And now you want to deal with the collar. So one arm at a time, pull off; pull off. One arm you want to
pretty much grab at the wrist and slide your hand out like so; take the other arm, slide your hand out
and now it should be down to the waist.

Pull down so it’s right about, making sure that you don’t snag your trunks where it’s all in the wet suit
and pull your tri-shorts off at the same time. It does not make a pleasant situation and rather awkward
as well. And now you want to take both hands and shimmy it down to your legs and push all the way
down to your ankles.

Now take your hands and scoop in towards your ankles and pull off. Same for the right.

And it’s off.

Some people ask me what’s the best type of wetsuit. The best type of wetsuit is the type of wetsuit that
fits you the best obviously. It really should fit like a glove and if it doesn’t, you should get a new type of
wetsuit.

Brands I like. DeSota is obviously my top choice. I think they have the most flexible, the most, especially
in the arms and the shoulders the least chaffing. It feels like you are wearing a regular bathing suit.
Other brands if you don’t like them, Tuatoo makes a good one, Sirum makes a really good one.

Other things you might want to consider investing in when you get your wetsuit is Body Glide. Body
Glide comes in a little deodorant stick and you want to put it on the parts of the body that are prone to
chaffing; so right around the shoulder cuff, lather it on there; the neck definitely and for newer wetsuits
this is extremely important because it’s tight so it might chaff a little bit more. So on your shoulders,
some people like to put it on their wrists if you’re wearing a long sleeve. I don’t because I’ve never had
chaffing there but some people do.

Another question that I usually get is what do I wear underneath my wetsuit. I do with just basically tri-
shorts. Usually if I’m doing an Olympic, I will wear a speed suit and wear that under, but put whatever
you want to race in on your bike is what I wear under my wetsuit. Some people also like to wear their
compression tights but I’ve never experimented with that, but if you do it in training and you like it, then
do it in the race.

Well, that’s it and if you have any questions, you know my email address so feel free to contact me if
you have any.

For more information, contact Chris at triswimcoach.com.

References:

To get Tri-Ripped with the bonuses mentioned on this podcast, just visit http://triswimcoach.com/ripped

If you’re wanting to purchase after 1/11/12, make sure to email support@tri-ripped.com and include ‘triswimcoach’ in the subject line to get the bonuses.

The trailer video for Tri-Ripped:

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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So if you read some of the earlier articles in this series, then you’ve learned some tips on how to get yourself in top shape, inside and out.

But can you keep that amazing body and still do endurance sports…like triathlon? After all, it’s pretty typical among the triathlon crowd to have tiny arms, a thin neck, a stick-like midsection, a weak body frame and even a “skinny-fat” look, with a little bit of weight in the belly and waist.

Let’s face it, folks – that ain’t sexy. Even though triathlon is the fastest growing sport on the planet, and races sell out thousands of slots in just a few minutes, it can still be a bit depressing when you realize that traditional triathlon training doesn’t really give you a nice body – and just makes you either really skinny or skinny-fat.

And the fear of having that emaciated, marathoner-like appearance is a legitimate concern if having a nice body is important to you. I know that it was a big concern for me when I got into the sport of triathlon – I didn’t want to watch in the mirror as my lean, hard muscle wasted away and I ended up looking like a skinny weakling.

But the truth is, when you train for triathlon, you don’t have to lose precious muscle, get extremely skinny, or become a scrawny endurance athlete. You can actually train for triathlon while still adding incredibly functional muscle and athleticism. You can swim, bike and run fast – and still have an amazing body.

Here’s how, in five easy steps:

1. Lift Right

There are two styles of weight lifting that most triathletes do: 1) high-repetition, low-resistance endurance style lifting, such as a circuit of 20 reps of several different exercises; 2) heavy, slow, football-style lifting, like deadlifts, squats or benchpress. In reality, there is a third style of lifting that is neglected among endurance athletes, but a long-kept tradition of the bodybuilding industry: “hypertrophy” style training: multiple sets of 8-12 repetitions.

With hypertrophy training, you can add and define lean muscle very quickly. But the problem is that it is very easy with this bodybuilder-style training to build non-functional muscle that actually slows you down when you’re competing in a sport such as triathlon.

The solution to this issue is to still do the hypertrophy-style training, but to avoid single-joint exercises like biceps curls, and instead to choose full body, functional exercises while scattering in just enough explosive and heavy weightlifting to keep your muscles extremely functional and fast.

2. Eat right

This may be a bit of a news flash for you, but fat doesn’t make you fat. Instead, fat – the healthy variety, like olives, almonds, walnuts, fish and avocados – is a hormonal precursor and gives your body the building blocks it needs to develop lean, hard muscle, as well as competitive drive, mental energy, libido, and every other advantage that comes from adequate hormones.

On the flip side, carbohydrates, especially the type that are really favored by endurance athletes, like bagels, sports drinks, and cereal, give you that soft, pudgy look in the mid-section, accompanied by a complete inability to build impressive, defined arms and legs.

So here’s what to do about this: if you’re trying to be fast at triathlon and also have an amazing body, you should eat a diet comprised of a high amount of healthy fats (40-50% fat), add in moderate helpings of natural protein to keep amino acids elevated for your muscles and brain, and top it off with strategically timed carbohydrate doses when they really matter, such as before or after your exercise sessions.

3. Train right

For years, sports scientists have know that short, hard and intense intervals give you just as much fitness and performance benefit as long, slow, aerobic exercise. But like a mouse on a wheel, it is tempting and even addictive for an endurance athlete to continue plugging away hours pounding the pavement, turning the pedals, or swimming back and forth.

Not only does this long, slow aerobic training completely nullify any attempts to add lean muscle or get a nice, defined body, but it also depletes hormones, causes overtraining syndrome, and takes away precious time from family, career and other hobbies.

Instead, for the triathlete who wants to avoid the skinny-fat look and get an amazing, muscular body, the training plan should incorporate strategically targeted high-intensity bursts of energy, a moderate amount of slightly longer “tempo” work, and finally, a low amount of long aerobic training – saving long rides, runs or swims for times when they are completely necessary and crucial to the program.

4. Supplement right

Inadequate hormones are a big issue for both men and women, and especially physically active men and women. “Andropause”, the decline or imbalance in male hormones and “Menopause”, the decline or imbalance in female hormones can begin to occur when you’re as young as 27 years old – and only gets worse as you age. Although hormonal deficits are the biggest problem among endurance athletes, there is also a prevalence of nutrition deficiencies, mineral loss, and very low fatty acid and amino acid levels – all of which keep you from both getting fast and having an amazing body.

These deficits and imbalances can occur because the body simply needs extra help if you’re lifting, swimming, cycling, running and cross-training on a regular basis. This level of activity is just more than the human body can naturally handle! The extra help comes in the form of completely legal sports nutrition supplementation like digestive enzymes, fish oil, vitamin D, greens supplements, magnesium and Chinese adaptogenic herbs. While there are countless supplement ads in magazines and on websites, you really only need a few of these key supplements to have your body ready to both go fast and maintain muscle.

And yes, if you are pushing your body beyond it’s natural tendencies, then even in a situation where your diet is perfect, supplementation is a must if you want to be fast and also have an amazing body.

5. Live right

There are little hacks or tweaks you can make to your lifestyle to simplify this whole process of performing fantastic and looking good.

For example, you can sleep more deeply by using magnesium, melatonin and keeping your bedroom completely dark. You can de-stress at the beginning of the day with a very simple 5-10 minute yoga routine. You can keep bouncing back from your workouts day-after-day by using a ice, compression and foam roller. You can detoxify your body by making sure you aren’t using body-damaging chemicals to clean your house or cook your food.

These are just a few of the little lifestyle tweaks that you can make, but they’re incredibly important if you want to add muscle and athleticism while getting the body of your dreams and still being fast for triathlon.

If you want to learn more about how to swim, bike and run lightning fast, but also have a nice body that looks good, (and get access to the other 6 articles in this series) then head over to tri-ripped.com for a brand new approach to training for the ultimate triathlon body.

The t-shirt became popularized by sailors and Marines, and eventually found it’s way into pop culture during the 1950’s.

But it originally evolved from 19th century underwear.

So if you’re going to be walking around wearing your underwear, then you’d better know how to look good in a t-shirt. Using the five steps in this article, you’re guaranteed to look good in a t-shirt, cut an impressive figure and wear your wardrobe with confidence.

Step 1: Remember Your Back

Back when I was a bodybuilder, it was tempting to simply pay attention the front of the body: the shoulders, the chest, the abs, and the front of the arms. But I quickly learned that to look good, you also need to pay attention to your backside.

When you’re wearing a t-shirt, the most important part of your back to target is the part that makes those sleeves look good: the back of your arms (your triceps). Three of my favorite exercises for the back of your arms, which you can include each week, are:

1) Narrow Grip Pushups: Do a pushup in the regular or knee push-up position, but keep your hands closer together and make sure your elbows brush your ribcage as you lower yourself down and push yourself back up.

2) Tricep Pushdowns: At most gyms, you’ll find a cable apparatus with a rope or bar attached to it. This is perfect for triceps pushdowns, in which you start with your arms bent at 90 degrees and then extend them until they’re completely straight.

3) Dips: Begin by holding onto two bars and suspending your body in the air. You then lower yourself as far as you can–or until your elbows are at about 90 degrees–then push yourself back up.

Step 2: Work On Your “V”

Even if your chest, shoulders and arms are t-shirt ready, you simply won’t look good in a t-shirt if you are sporting muffin tops or a beer belly, or aren’t working your full spectrum of stomach muscles.

If you really want a tighter tummy, you need to incorporate exercises that create a belt of muscle around your entire mid-section. This belt serves to draw in the waist, keep the stomach flat, and keep your abs looking good in a t-shirt.

To work on all the stomach muscles, you need to include the following four movements:

1) Abdominal flexion, which will tighten the “rectus abdomonis”, or sheet of muscle tissue that is directly on the front of your stomach.

2) Rotation, which will work the internal and external oblique muscles that are on the sides of your stomach

3) Waist extension, which will incorporate the low back muscles to improve posture and allow you to keep your stomach sucked in

4) A planking exercise, which will allow you to tone each of the muscles listed above in one all-encompassing exercise.

Try to put together exercises from each category as a circuit, which you repeat 3-4x through with minimal rest.

Step 3: Target Your Traps

It can be unflattering if you have a skinny neck that sticks up out of your t-shirt, even if the rest of your body looks good. If you have a skinny neck, the trick is not to work the neck muscles, but rather to target your trapezius, or “traps” – since working these muscles will naturally give you a more muscular and defined neck.

The traps are primarily responsible for “shrugging the shoulders”, so you’ll want to include exercises such as dumbbell shoulder shrugs, dumbbell or barbell deadlifts, farmer’s walks, or walking lunges.

When you perform these exercises, make sure that you are allowing your shoulders to drop, but instead imagine the tops of your shoulders touching the bottom of your ear lobes, which will help you to keep your traps contracted.

Step 4: Squeeze Your Shoulders

If your shoulders are slouched or slumped forward, you might look just fine from the front, but a side shot of you in your t-shirt may look more like a hunchback. If you sit at your computer for long periods of time, ride a bicycle in a hunched over position, swim frequently, or have a combination of tight chest muscles and weak shoulder muscles, then you probably do have at least a slight upper back hump.

To address this issue, you need to include exercises that make you squeeze your shoulders back, such as seated rows, standing rows, pull-ups, pull-downs, and super-slow pushups (drop down for a 1-2-3 count, then push-up for a 1-2-3 count).

When you perform these exercises focus on keeping the shoulder blades aligned and the shoulder blade muscles contracted, the abs tight and “sucked in”, and the back straight. You can also improve posture by breathing in as you do the weight lifting portion of the exercise and then breathing out as you return the weight to the starting position.

Step 5: Get The Right T-Shirt

The final key to looking good in a t-shirt is to choose a style of shirt that actually looks good on you. Most people wear t-shirts that are either too large, or made of material such as polyester, a cotton/polyester blend, or synthetic nylon, which usually doesn’t hug the body in a way that brings out the figure you’re working so hard to develop.

First, you need to look for the word “fitted” or “muscle-fit” when you get your t-shirt. This is the best indication that it will form-fit your body in a way that flatters you. Even if the shirt is made of a cotton-polyester blend, this will still ensure that it fits you well.

If you can’t find a fit like that, at least try to choose a shirt that is a high quality cotton, such as 100% combed ringspun cotton or knitted fine cotton. This type of material is less likely to have a “pleated” appearance and more likely to form-fit your body.

That’s it!

Remember your back, work on your V, target your traps, squeeze your shoulders and choose the right shirt, and you’re guaranteed to look good in a t-shirt!

If you want to learn more about how to swim, bike and run lightning fast, but also have a nice body that looks good, (and get access to the other 6 articles in this series) then head over to www.tri-ripped.com for a brand new approach to training for the ultimate triathlon body.

We are officially one week into 2012! Congratulations! Have you all been “good” and stuck to your
resolutions?

If you are like the people who showed up at my gym on January 1st to clog up all the exercise
machines, dally around the pool, and chit chat in the weight room and whom I have yet to see since, you might
be getting off to a slow start.

Fear not!

In today’s blog, I am going to give you my 20.12 tips to help you get back on track and/or stick to those goals that you so fervently wanted to keep for the past week.

1) If you have already fallen off get back on: There are 365 days in a year (366 days since it is a leap
year). So you have plenty of time to get back on track to achieve your goals for the year. Just because
you had one slice of cake (or half a cake) does not mean that your resolution is a complete failure.
Realize your error, realize why it happened, and then make the necessary changes to prevent it for
happening again.

2) Reevaluate: Now that you have experienced a whole week of trying to change and all the difficulties
that arise when you start the process of long lasting change, you may realize that your goal was a
bit too lofty. While a goal should come with a good amount of challenge, make sure that it is still
achievable. If your goal was to qualify for 200 IM at this summer’s 2012 in London (I fantasized about
it) , but have not swum in over 3 months, you may have to scale down your short term ambitions.
Olympics 2016 is a different matter…

3) Write it down or, if you have already done so, reread it: Keep your goals fresh in your mind and
reread them often. This will help you make your goal a priority and remind what you specifically need
to do.

4) Remind yourself why you are doing it! Whether is be for your kids, because your Doctor told you so,
or because you want a healthier, faster, stronger you, knowing why you made your goals will refresh
your motivation especially during those hard days and workout sets.

5) Start small- It is only the beginning of the year, so keep in mind that success usually does not happen
over night but requires time, patience, vigilance, and diligence.

6) Surround yourself with positives: To keep your goal fresh in your mind and thus lessen your
likelihood of slipping surround yourself with reminders and positive affirmations. Whether it be a
computer desktop background with a motivational quote or picture, sticky notes on the fridge, or a
daily email, refresh your motivation daily. I personally have a picture of Craig Alexander winning
Kona on my computer in addition to daily motivational quotes from our own TSC, Kevin’s twitter
feed.

7) Enlist support: We cannot do everything on our own, so surround yourself with people and
communities like family, online forums, clubs, teams, and coaches, whom you know will support you
in your efforts and hold you accountable, giving you positive yet honest feed back
8) Focus on yourself: Your neighbor and you may have the same goal but focus on the achievements
that you have made. If he loses 5 lbs while you have only lost one, your own accomplishment is just
as important as his. Rejoice in your own small victories and forget if others are progressing at a faster
pace.

9) Rejoice in victories: Each small gain is important so do not belittle them as they come.

10) Look to the past: Is this a goal that you have made and failed at before? If so, look to your past
attempts and learn from them. Your past holds an abundance of information that can be revealing as to
why you did not succeed. Once you have found those reasons, work to change them.

11) Figure out your limiters: What is preventing your from accomplishing your goal? Is it that last 5lbs
that are preventing you from hitting a personal best? Or maybe it is your flexibility? Pinpoint what is
preventing you from being your best and then…

12) Make a plan: Make a plan about how you are going to overcome it and then…

13) Work it, baby!: Once you know your weaknesses and have a plan. you can work to fix them; trust me,
they will not go away on their own. Spend some extra time working on them each day or workout and
eventually they will not be your weakness but your strength.

14) Set a baseline: To figure out where you want to go, you have to figure out where you are now. If you
want to lose weight for example, step on the scale, take a picture, or figure out your waist size. If you
are trying to get faster in the pool, do a time trial to figure out your current speed. However, make sure
that you accept your starting point. Rejecting your current status will only set yourself for failure.

15) Record it, track it, measure it!: “What cannot be measured, cannot be improved.” Whether
daily, weekly, or monthly, make sure you track yourself. Keeping a record of your gains (and, yes,
occasional failures) will help you see in what direction you are going and make the appropriate
changes. If your goal is to swim 1600m in under 20 minutes, log your workouts on an online workout
log like TrainingPeaks, which can also be used to track weight, calorie intake blood pressure—
pretty much whatever you want to track you can. If you want to lose weight, track your weight either
daily or weekly. Studies show that people who weigh themselves at least once a week (no need to be
completely obsessive) to keep themselves accountable.

16) Realize that there are going to be bumps in the road: Not all progress is smooth and there will
be set backs. You may gain back a pound or have a workout where you get slower, but do not beat
yourself up. Accept it and move on.

17) Invest in your goal: Studies show that if you spend a little money on your goal like a gym
membership, a master’s swim class, or a new scale, you are more likely to succeed in your goals
because you are now financially invested in it.

18) Make small changes everyday: Change does not happen unless you, yourself, change, so make an
effort to change at least one thing everyday. When you (re)read or remind yourself of your goal in the
morning, figure out what you are going to change that day. It might be as small as doing 2 extra laps in
the pool, not having that diet soda, or cutting out desserts.

19) Make it a habit: Once you have made that small change, you know you can repeat it, so make it a
habit. If you want to make your goal like not smoking, eating healthier, or getting faster in the pool
permanent, you have to ingrain those actions in your mind and repeat them over and over and (third
time is a charm) over again.

20) Think small plan big: Instead of focusing on the large, overall goal, which can be overwhelming
and discouraging, focus on those smaller, micro goals that will get you there like that next pound or
clothing size, 2 seconds faster per lap, or the next race in the lead up to the final, “A” race.
.21) Get in the pool and do a 200 :O] Now that you have set your goal, here is that extra .12 that will get
you through the year: hop in the pool or get on the track and sprint 200m (.12 of a mile). It will clear
your mind and make you feel that you can conquer whatever goal you set even qualifying for the 2016
Olympics.

Good luck with those goals!

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

My friend Ben Greenfield has a system to help triathletes gain muscle the right way, which will help them to get “ripped”, without being bulky, get rid of the “skinny-fat” syndrome that plagues many of us, and even to slim down with the right weight training and diet. Here is an article he wrote on getting a flat stomach. Towards the end, he mentions the diet aspects to this, and I say this can’t be emphasized enough. You could have the perfect workout, but if you are still eating the wrong foods, you will never see those muscles shine through!

How to Get A Flat Stomach
by Ben Greenfield

Whether it’s a sign of health, beauty, virility, or movie star status, a flat stomach is something that many people all over the world crave. This is because a flat stomach is so hard to get, it can indicate full-body power or virility, and it is essential to powerful performance. In this article, you’ll learn how to get a flat stomach safely, effectively, and with zero liposuction involved.

How To Get A Flat Stomach

Despite what many folks appear to believe, six-pack abs are not six soda-can shaped muscles that sit under the skin of your stomach, somehow magically filling and emptying as you become more or less fit.

Instead, your stomach muscles are made up of four basic groups that, like most muscles, appear to be named by ancient Latin monks:

1) The rectus abdominis: The rectus abdominis is one big sheet of muscle tissue that runs from your breastbone down to your pelvis.

2) The external obliques: The external obliques run from your ribs to your hips in a forward direction.

3) The internal obliques: Theinternal obliques run from your ribs to your hips in a backwards direction

4) The transverses abdominis: The transverses abdominis is located deep in your abs, underneath the obliques.

The key to better abs, which most people neglect when trying to get a flat stomach, is a training program that targets each of these muscles, and not just one of them. You simply can’t train just one single muscle group of the stomach in isolation and expect for your abs to look fit, trim, toned, ripped or flat. Instead, you need to train all the stomach muscles in a functional, multi-muscle manner.

This is same reason why people who want nice arms can’t just do bicep curls, but also need to do pull-ups and deadlifts, and why people who want a better butt can’t just do lying hamstring curls, but also need to exercises do squats and lunges. The body responds best when we train entire muscle groups that surround our “trouble spot,” and not just the isolated trouble spot. So people who want a flat stomach can’t only do crunches.

So if this type of multi-muscle training is a goal, what would a flat stomach workout look like?

Flat Stomach Exercises

You should work your stomach muscles every 2-3 days, including abdominal exercise as part of a scheduled cardio workout or weight training workout. For your flat stomach training, you should include one exercise for each of the abdominal muscle groups, and also one exercise for your lower back. Here is a guide to choosing the proper exercises:

-Rectus abdominis: For your rectus abdominis, exercise choices include flexing motions of the spine, such as crunches and crunch variations, V-ups, sit-ups and sit-up variations, hanging leg raises, or knee-ups. Front planks are also quite good for this muscle group.

-External and internal obliques: Twisting and rotating motions are good exercises because they work both the external and internal oblique muscles. That is because if you rotate to your left, your left external oblique and your right internal oblique are doing the work, and vice versa. Twisting motions include Russian Twists, Cable Torso Twists, and the WoodChopper.

-Transverses abdominis: The transverses abdominis is an interesting muscle group, because it doesn’t really move you through a range of motion as much as support the stomach and the gut. So when you suck in your stomach, that’s the transverses abdominis muscles working. Although you can work this muscle group anywhere, such as sucking in your stomach while you’re driving in your car, sitting on an airplane, or standing in line at the grocery store, you can also make it work pretty hard with an exercise like front planks.

-Low back muscles: Finally, the low back muscles can be worked with a simple contraption at the gym that allows you to do low back extensions or, if you’re not at a gym, you can do back extensions on a stability ball, or from the floor by lying on your stomach and lifting all four limbs off the ground.

So during a typical flat stomach workout, you would include several sets of a flexing exercise, a twisting exercise, a planking exercise and an extending exercise.

Get Rid of Stomach Fat

No matter how well you’ve developed your stomach muscles, you need to get rid of layers of stomach fat that can cover up your abs. Here are three tips to get rid of that last little bit of flab around your waistline:

1) Be sure you’re using a well-rounded workout routine, which includes what I call the “3 Pillars of Exercise”:

Pillar 1: Weight Training

Pillar 2: High-Intensity Cardio Intervals

Pillar 3: Aerobic Fat-Burning Sessions

Weight training alone or cardio alone is often not enough to erase that last bit of storage fat, so use of the modes above in your training routine.

2) Control stress and get adequate sleep. Often, bloating and inflammation are a primary cause of a puffy stomach, or a little extra padding on the waistline. Use stress-reduction techniques, and try to sleep 7 to 8 hours each night whenever possible.

3) Eliminate or significantly moderate the big three belly fat triggers: high-sugar, starchy foods (yes, that includes wheat); processed, packaged foods; and alcohol. I’ve witnessed these simple changes produce visible stomach fat reduction in just 2 to 4 weeks.

Using the tips in this article, you can get the perfect musculature for a flat stomach, develop a functional core that gives you powerful physical performance, and lose belly fat.

If you want to learn more about how to swim, bike and run lightning fast, but also have a nice body, (and get access to the other 6 articles in this series) then head over to http://triswimcoach.com/ripped for a brand new approach to training for the ultimate triathlon body.

“He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; he who makes one is a fool. ~F.M. Knowles”

I am going to be honest, I hate New Years. It is one of the more annoying holidays, ranking between
Valentine’s day and national “Talk like a Pirate Day.” To me, New Years is extremely overrated and that is
partially why I do not celebrate it. My plans this year include doing a local, 4-mile road race (finish the year
with PR), make myself some dinner (I may have an extra, celebratory cocktail), snuggle up in bed with a good
book, and then fall asleep at my usual hour maybe a bit earlier because I have a morning workout. I know
what you are saying “How boring! Where is your holiday and New Year’s spirit?”

Yes, it is exciting and inspiring at New Years to feel like we are getting a clean slate. We like the
feeling that we can start over. At the stroke of midnight, our old selves with all our failures, vain attempts,
and tries, magically become buried in the past, and our new—the sexier, faster, leaner, and healthier—selves
suddenly become achievable.

I hate to break it to you though: there is nothing special or magical about New
Years; it is just like every other day with all the trials and tribulations. The obstacles that prevented you from
quitting smoking or losing weight are still going to be there in 2012 just like they were in 2011. All is not lost
however! Moreover, this is really good news. Although New Years may be just an ordinary day, this means
that the magical power to bury the past and start anew is present everyday of the year. We do not have to set
resolutions only on New Years but we can make them everyday.

Many people who fail in their resolutions to “stop smoking,” “lose weight,” or “eat better” do not realize this crucial fact. Ironically, they also fail because they make these resolutions.

Resolutions, as we know them, are inherently flawed: they are vague, unplanned, immeasurable, and
things that we do not truly want to do. That is why I do not make them this time of year either. Instead I set
goals, which are fundamentally different since they are 1) a challenge 2) has a set date 3) is measurable 4)
come with a plan 5) and most importantly is something that you want. Let me give you an example:

1. My resolution goal for 2012 is not only to qualify for Kona but to place in the top 10 in my age
group. Yes, that is a lofty goal but a good goal needs to be somewhat of a challenge. Without a
challenge, you would already be doing it. Make sure though that it your goal is not completely
out of reach. How can you tell difference? Look at your past, what others recommend, and
what others have done. For my goal, my past results and times are pretty competitive, so yes I
feel that I have the potential and the ability. My coach also recommended that this would be a
pretty good goal to have and one that she thinks would be healthy, achievable and one that we
can work towards. Moreover, others have achieved similar goals, so I believe that I can too. So
far, my goal seems like a good one.

2. Does it this have a set completion date? You bet: October 13th, 2012, a date that I have
ingrained in my mind, written down on my bulletin board and have a countdown clock going
on my iPod. With a date, you know how much time you have to get there and feel “pressured”
to remain in pursuit.

3. Is it measurable? Overall, no, but each individual component that I need to get me
there is measurable. Thus, when your goal is something semi-vague like mine or like “I want
to lose weight,” you need to break it down into measurable parts. In my example, To qualify,
I have set smaller goals that will help get me to Kona: swim an average pace of 1:20 100/yard,
bike an average pace of 23-22mph, and still have enough energy to hold a 6:45 marathon pace.
Each of those micro goals are measurable, which leads me to the next part of goal setting,
planning.

4. Unlike resolutions, which you just come out and say that you want to do something, when you
set goals, you make plans to follow up on them. For my goal, I am working with my coach on
a detailed (when it comes to goals, the more detailed the better) workout, nutrition, and race
schedule to get me there. Now that I have a plan I know exactly how to get to Kona and the
benchmarks I have to hit along the way.

5. My goal is looking pretty good but is it something that I want and can get excited about?
Hell Yeah! I say that this point is the most important part of goal setting because if you are
not motivated to achieve it, then you are setting your set up for failure. Most resolutions fail
because people do not want to attain them; they do not want change. The point of goals is
feeling the want and need for change and acting upon those urges.

So what are your goals? Spend some time now to think about what you would like to change, then start
making a plan. Once you have everything all set, written down, planned, and you are excited, go out and tell
the world! By telling others, you feel like you will have some accountability. People are going to want to
know how your goal is going. Remember though, if you fall off your plan to get that goal, all is not lost, every
day is a “New Years;” you only fail when you give up hope and resolve that change will never occur. Have a
good New Year!

Note from Kevin: Try chunking down goals. Instead of 1 year goals, think of adopting a new habit for 30 days. After that, it will likely become a lifetime habit! Over the course of a year, you could develop 12 new habits and really change your life. Happy swimming!
Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

To reach more people and teach them about swimming & internet business.
To travel to South East Asia in the spring.
To climb Mt Whitney in the early summer.
To get back into what I consider “swimming shape”- and do a couple of open water races.
To continue to learn & grow.
To move past hurdles that have held me back in the past.
To continue to increase my level of happiness.

What are some of your plans and ideas for the coming year?

What I see as missing in most plans are two things:
1. Structured workouts
2. Dryland training

Let’s focus on the first one today, structured workouts. What are you missing?

If you are training on your own, you are most likely just swimming laps, or maybe adding a few sprints or some basic interval training. But, do you know for sure that any of that is helping your swim? It could all just be spinning wheels, so to speak.

First, make sure you are doing drills. I have a ton of drills in my products, and throughout triswimcoachonline.com. Start with the basics and get your balance in order. Don’t worry about overdoing drills, most people don’t do enough, so spending a little extra time improving your stroke will usually pay off.

Second, be sure to do some interval training. This will improve your endurance and get you going a little faster when you have to make intervals. But don’t overdo it here. This is just part of your swim workout, and it’s not everything. Some days, it may be better to give yourself rest intervals (i.e. 10×100′s with :30 rest in between) and do some lengths at 90 or 100% (i.e. last 25 at 90%).

Third, don’t forget to have fun! Do what you can to make your swim workouts enjoyable, rather than just grinding out yards. Doing a lot of distance swimming won’t help you if you are doing it mindlessly and because you think you “should” be doing it. Ideas for fun: do strokes besides freestyle. Kick with a board and chat with your friends. Put on some fins and do some underwater kicking. Do some “deck ups”. Drink a beer after every 500 yards you complete. (Joking! Although, that would make things interesting. ;) ).

Next time, we’ll get into some dryland workouts that can not only make things fun, but can take your swim to the next level- and allow you to cut down on endless laps.

Head over to http://triathlonsprinttraining.com for free info on training for a sprint triathlon!

According to the news this morning, 91 million Americans are going to be traveling fifty miles or more this holiday season.

While the holidays can be a time when our work schedules settle down leaving more time for training and family, travel can not only eliminate this extra time but complicates our training and fitness schedules. In addition to taking us out of our normal routines, it puts us in “toxic” environments void of pools, bikes, tracks, and healthy food, and instead (since nature abhors a vacuum) filled with extra stress, calories, and (sometimes) laziness. We could throw in the towel and resign ourselves to taking two to three weeks off until life gets back to normal after New Years or we could rise above it all and maintain not only our fitness but our waist
lines, health, and happiness.

Here are a few tips that hopefully can get you through the holidays:

Use what you have: Theodore Roosevelt famously said: “Do what you can with what you have, where you are.” Chances are you most likely are not going to be able to get to a pool, use your bike trainer or run on a track while going to visit the in-laws or taking that week with your parents. However, look around you and use the resources available to you. You may be lucky enough to be near an aquatic center or gym where you can buy a day or week pass.

Some hotels even have partnerships with local gyms so that you can use the gym’s facilities during your stay. Hotel gyms are usually poorly equipped but make a point of calling ahead of time to find out what they have so that you can plan accordingly.
I myself have been away at a conference in Texas this past week, which was nice but threw a serious wrench into my training plans. Not only did I not have access to my normal training gizmos like my bike trainer, but I was also without a lap pool. Instead, I had to get by with a recumbent bike and a “lazy river” (one of those winding streams that normally people float down in an inner tube while working on their tans or drinking large margaritas.

This set up was far from perfect but I was able to turn it to my advantage. Since no one was in the lazy river early in the morning, I got in and got some quality “open water swim practice” by swimming against the current and working on drills like corkscrew and catch up in addition to a few kicking drills. Moreover, there was a wade in rive entrance similar to a beach, meaning I could practice my open water exits and mass beach starts (Yes, I looked dorky splashing in and out but oh well).

Be proactive instead of retroactive: Make sure you plan ahead if you know that you are going to be deprived of your normal resources. Pack bands if you there is no pool so that you can at least go through the motions of swimming and get a bit of high quality strength training in. You can also move your workouts around for the week so that you do the harder swims and/or rides before and after your trip, leaving the easier recovery miles and laps for your time away when you are supposed to be relaxing.

Planning ahead and being proactive is especially important when it comes to food and nutrition. Airports, like malls, are diet minefields. Instead of blowing large amount of cash on overpriced, nutritionally void, and prepackaged food at the airport, make sure you pack your own high quality foods like trail mixes, fresh fruit, and hard boiled eggs (they keep fairly well without refrigeration at least for a day). Also, pack a water bottle which you can fill up after you get through security.

To avoid the over priced, over sugared, and over caffeinated beverages at Starbucks, try packing your own tea bags or instant coffee then asking for a cup of hot water.

Eating can be even more of a concern, when you get to your destination. Staying with family, who may push the holiday treats upon you, can be problematic. You may feel bad or guilty by turning them down. (Who could pass on one of Grandma’s homemade, secret recipe cookies that she slaved over for hours? It would break her heart!) However, just explain to them that you are trying to lose or maintain your weight and/or fitness; if they really love you, then they should understand and let you be. If it becomes too big of
an issue, try changing the subject or even the environment by suggesting going for a walk to see the holiday lights or doing some other healthy activity away from the kitchen. (I will talk more about how to deal with the family next week).

Use the juice, the creative juice that is! There are unlimited possibilities to training on the road; you just have to be creative. Whether it is using gallon jugs for dumbbells, the emergency stair well at your hotel to do stair sprints, the kid’s pool and a really stiff resistance band (that got me some really weird looks) for intervals, you just have to shelve your pride, realize that training is important to you, and do it. Most of the time, what you come up with is a lot of fun.

Lastly, when all else fails, remember something is better than nothing. If you are in an absolute training wasteland, you can still get in some good abs circuits, body weight exercise (push ups, squats, lunges, etc), stretches, yoga, and visualization time. Try not to stress about it though. Training is supposed to be fun and not a stresser especially on vacation. The last thing you need this holiday season is to be called a Grinch.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Rivers- The center of the river moves the fastest. Watch for eddies near the shore. Back eddies will flow the opposite direction of the river, and the water is moving backwards.

Lakes- Can also have a current flow. Wind will affect movement. Keep in mind that the fresh water will feel slightly colder than ocean salt water at the same temperature. A 60 degree lake may feel more like 55 feels in the ocean.

Oceans- Tides, currents, and winds all affect an ocean swim. Learn to read tide charts and practice swims in the waves. Marine life is also out there. Even though everybody’s biggest fear is sharks, rarely is there an attack on a swimmer. In fact, to my knowledge there has never been a shark attack on a swimmer during any major open water competition or triathlon. Swimming in groups scares the sharks away. Jellyfish can be near the surface on sunny days. They are purple and white in color and their stings will leave a welt. In the 70′s, jellyfish were commonplace, but their population has declined more recently. The best way to deal with them is to adjust your stroke and avoid if you spot one.

Transcript:

Hey guys it’s Kevin here at Triswimcoach.com and I wanted to talk today about a question I had come up on podcast a few months ago where I had listeners send in questions and I answered them on the podcast. If you want to see that, it’s at triswimcoachonline.com and just click on the podcast menu tab up at the top. The question that came up over and over, and you can see it in the blog, is basically how do I get faster? It is kind of a general question, but a lot of people asked it in various ways like what should I do with the pull, how should I do the arm recovery, how should I kick and things like that, but it all led to how do I get faster?

There is one thing, one thing that you should be doing to get faster in freestyle, and this is something that a lot of people, most people don’t do, especially the triathletes and the beginner triathletes, are really not doing this in their stroke and I see this all the time. I’ll demonstrate it. It’s called the high-elbow catch and I’m sure a lot of you listening or watching out there have heard this term before but it doesn’t really make sense unless you see it. I’m not at a pool right now; I’m in my apartment as you can tell so I can’t demonstrate it in the water but I’ll show you just from a standing point, how the high elbow pull or the high elbow catch should look and then I’ll explain why this works better than, and this is the number one thing you should be doing.

Basically what you want to, if I’m coming towards you, let’s say in the water, I’m first, let’s start with head position, I’m going to have my head down. I’m looking down at the bottom of the pool. My hands going to come up here and I’m going to enter into the water and then I’m going to extend that arm so as you can see my arm is off a little bit to my right and then as soon as you extend you want to bend that elbow. Again on camera here, you want to bend that elbow right away. It should look something like this. Your head is down and your elbow is bent and then you are going to pull all the way back. You are pulling back to an extension point here right about at your hip or as far as your hand can go and then
you are going to lift your elbow out of the water again. The main point is extend that arm out in front and then bend the elbow and pull back.

It sounds simple and it may even look simple but when you try it in the water it’s a different ball game. It is something that you have to work on regularly. You have to practice it and it’s not going to come easy at first, but eventually you’ll get it.

The reason that that works is you’re getting the catch up there. You’re getting the most amount of water up here and that’s where you want to pull. A lot of people will extend their arm in the water and the elbow just drops so they’re not getting a lot of propulsion out of their pull.

That’s basically it. There you have the number one way to get faster in freestyle. It is a stroke technique tip, so we’ll talk about workouts down the road, but that’s something to start with from the very beginning if you are working on your freestyle.

Thanks for watching and go ahead and check out http://triswimcoach.com to get more tips on getting
faster and improving your freestyle for triathlon.

Thanks again and we’ll talk to you soon.

Getting me gifts is very easy but at the same time extremely challenging. Whenever someone asks me, “What
would you like me to get you?” I usually, if not always, reply anything triathlon related. However, since my
family are not triathletes nor are they familiar with the latest triathlon buzz, my reply leaves them even more
perplexed as to what to get me than they were before. If your spouse or family are usually left in the same fix,
I have made it easy for them and complied a list of ideas for them to really stuff your stalking.

Top Gear Pick:

There are numerous options when it comes to triathlon gear. However, I recommend the Garmin 310XT as
the most valuable training tool out there. This is a triathlete’s dream device with more functions than a Swiss
army knife. It goes well beyond the basic functions of overall time, mile splits, pace, and heart rate that most
fitness watches have. This Garmin can wirelessly link up with your bike’s powermeter and cadence monitor
and to a foot pod through ANT+ to give you valuable feed back as you train. You can easily switch from
running, to biking, and now, unlike earlier models, your swim since the watch is waterproof. While the GPS
will not work well in indoor pools or lap swimming, it accurately tracks your open water swims; nevertheless,
I still use it in the pool to track lap times. Outside, the GPS is very accurate and I have had only a few times
where the GPS did not receive reception within a few minutes. One of my favorite features is the ability to
create a workout in Garmin’s Training Center (available free and works for PC and Mac) and then download it
onto the watch. Compared to other GPS watches like Timex and Suunto, I find the Garmin more user friendly,
more reliable, and more compatible for triathletes’ training.

Top Online stores:

While a gift certificate may not be the most glamorous of gifts, it does allow the receiver the flexibility to
chose his/her gift when they want. I personally like the prices and customer service at swimoutlet.com. They
have a vast catalogue of swim specific options at bargain prices. Nashbar.com, although primarily a cycling
store, still has great deals on triathlon bike gear. Roadrunnersports.com while this is a great store for just
runners with a good variety of clothing, shoes, and running gear, they have a section on their website that
focuses just on triathlon with good prices and a decent variety. To do all your triathlon shopping in one place,
I also like nytro.com, who have great deals on not only swimming gear but also your bike, run, and the fourth
leg of triathlon, nutrition.

Top Charities:

It is the season of giving so why not give to these triathlon related charities:
1) The Challenged Athlete Foundation- The CAF helps physically challenged athletes achieve their
athletic goals.
2) Team in Training- Raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma foundation while providing
coaching for athletes training for centuries, triathlons and marathons. Bonus gift idea: Find someone
whom you know is doing a race for TNT and donate to his/her endeavors as a gift.
3) Tri and Give a Dam- James Laurence started this charity back in 2010 to originally help the Kenyan
government build over 1000 water retention systems for the Kenyan people all the while hoping
to break the World record by racing 22 70.3 races in 30 weeks. Now he is aiming at doing 30 full
Ironman events and has expanded his aims to also provide famine relief too. A little crazy? Yes. A
great charity? For sure.

I hope this simplifies your shopping a bit so that you can spend less time at the mall and more time in the
pool!

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

I hope you all have awakened from the Thanksgiving food coma, survived the Black Friday stampedes, and are now ready to start getting serious about training again.

Over the past week, you may have understandably eaten a bit too much (I definitely did this one), skipped a few workouts, and become “lazy” in your training, but that does not mean you should give up completely and leave your speedo on the hook.

The most important thing now is to get back in the water, hop on the bike, and re-lace those running shoes.
However, before you dive back in the go straight into heavy training by cranking out intense sets of 100s,
for now, I actually want you to slow down. Yes, you read correctly, I want you to slow down so that you
can focus on the last part of your “core,” core training. When I refer to core training, I am talking about the
foundation of your training as we build your strength and endurance leading up to your “A” race(s) in the
late spring and summer.

When it comes to swimming, this core is comprised of two equally important and dependent parts: drills and comfort in the water. Regardless of whether you have been swimming for one season or several, returning to these two components at the beginning of the season is essential. Without doing so and rushing straight into speed work, you will lose this valuable opportunity to become more efficient with your stroke and thus become faster later on when it really matters during your racing season. Unfortunately building your swimming core requires a lot of time, patience, and humility. Doing drills in the water does make you slow down, look slightly silly, and may not be as glamorous as cranking out 100’s on 1:20, but doing them and doing them correctly will make you a better swimmer so that you can those 100’s at a 1:10 base (eventually)! The important thing to remember is to perform them with complete concentration and focus on form.

Practice does not make perfect doing drills; rather, perfect practice makes perfect. Consistency is also key. I do drills every time I hop in the pool and do at least 500-1000 yards of them. On recovery days, I sometimes even dedicate whole practices to them. Even if you have only 10, 15, or 30 minutes free to workout, getting in the water to do drills is well worth it. Here are my top five favorite drills that I do almost every workout:

1. Finger tip drag
2. Fist
3. Side to side
4. Swim Golf
5. Tarzan

The second component of core training, comfort in the water, requires just as much patience, time, and commitment as doing drills, but it is much simpler to practice. All you have to do is dive in. Just by spending more time in the water, doing laps and drills, you will automatically become more comfortable with the feel of the water; your muscles will remember proper positioning as your brain “programs” itself with what to do and how to swim. However, this makes drills even more essential because if you program your stroke incorrectly, then you will have to go back, break the improper form and habits that you have practiced, and then reprogram it again.

Getting in once or twice a week may be enough to sustain and maintain gains but is not enough to develop a true feel. For beginners, I advise at least four times a week even for just 15 minutes or 500 yards but getting in as much as you can even if its just for a short time will optimize your chances of becoming a better swimmer. Just like when you were first learning to ride a bike, you may have felt wobbly, ungainly, and uncomfortable, but the more time you rode the better you got and the more enjoyable it was. The same goes
for swimming. Moreover, more time in the water will also help you overcome your fear of and sometimes dislike for the water. Many triathletes focus and spend a disproportionate amount of time and energy on running and/or biking because they are good at it and feel comfortable doing them while neglecting swimming because they are not. By improving your comfort in the water, you begin to see that swimming is not that bad and that there is nothing to fear. If you feel like a “fish out of water” when you first get in the pool, then
simply “get back in.”

You may get frustrated during this build phase or that you are not getting in a real workout, but realize that even the pros were once where you are. Everyone has to start somewhere, and there is no point in denying where you are or your current abilities. Swimming takes time and consistency but by creating a stronger core through drills and a better level of comfort you will inevitably become a better and stronger swimmer and triathlete later on.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

With Thanksgiving this Thursday, I figured it would be an appropriate time to address the next part of
my “core” series, core nutrition.

Now, I am not a nutritionist, nor do I play one on TV, however, I do know lot about it having experimented on myself, seen what has worked for the elite athletes, read numerous books, articles, research studies, as well as a fare share of fad diet books, and worked with several professional nutritionists. Most of these sources narrowly focus on a different, specific food or nutrient while demonizing another whether it be low-carb/high fat, low fat/high carb, all protein, Hollywood cookie, Zone, South Beach,
North Beach, or Long Beach. The problem is every diet seems to go against the other! Everyone seems to know what is best and what is worst and has “scientific” evidence to back it up too. Moreover his/her way is the only way to perfect health, longevity, elite performance, and abundant energy. So whom should we trust?

With all these opinions we may just want to throw our hands up and head to Dunkin’ Donuts, so I have come up with a list of what I like to call the “Core Diet”—a few general rules that the majority of elite nutritionists, athletes, and health practitioners can agree upon.

1. Eat your veggies: Regardless of what diet you follow (even in programs such as Nutrisystem), vegetables are usually the fundamental corner stone and they should be. Vegetables provide you with the essential vitamin and nutrients that you need to keep you healthy and functioning properly throughout the in and off season. Moreover they fill you up with fiber to keep you satisfied without adding inches to your waste line. Which vegetables you choose is your choice but go for variety and color as much as possible. “Paint a rainbow on your plate,” as my nutritionist used to say Moreover try to incorporate them into each meal—even breakfast (think pumpkin in oatmeal, mushrooms and spinach in eggs, etc.). While juices like V8 and Naked are easy to grab, eating the real thing is always better. My personal favorites are kale,red pepper, spinach, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, and cauliflower. One caveat to this rule is
starchy vegetables like potatoes and corn. Try to limit these to hard training days and before
hard workouts.

2. Go pure: With the exception of diets like the Hollywood cookie diet, the majority of diets espouse going pure when it comes to food. The shorter the ingredients list the better. Moreover, keep the list to stuff that you know and can pronounce. Even if you prefer a higher carb diet, try to stick to breads, cereals, and grains that are home prepared or “fresh” such as sprouted bread, plain steel cut oats, sweet potatoes, quinoa, and millet. Unlike Lucky Charms and Wheaties, these do not have the long list of coloring agents and preservatives that can reek havoc on your gut, diet, and training. All of these ingredients can increase inflammation,
preventing recovery, and making you feel and perform just like the food that they are in: junk.

3. Go Long: A diet should not be a one week or two week endeavor after which you can go back to your old ways of eating. Regardless of which diet you chose, a core value of any good diet is that it should be a maintainable, overall life style change. If your diet is only designed to last you two weeks during which you are in a permanent state of discomfort, hunger, or lethargy,
it may not be your best choice and needs to be modified slightly to ensure that you reach your weight loss and/or health goals for the long term.

Keep in mind that when it comes to diet and nutrition, everyone has his/her own individual needs; you are a case study of one. What works for Andy Potts or Michael Phelps may not work for you, so keep experimenting until you find the winning formula of calories, food, and nutrients. Incorporating these core principles into your diet will help you shed or keep off those few extra pounds and reveal your core.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Beyond the physical core, which I covered last week in part 1, a strong mental core is also essential to achieving your goals and having a successful season. Like the physical core, our mental core is not an individual muscle that can be pinpointed and trained with one exercise. Rather, it is a complex and integrated network made up of the beliefs, ideas, and principles that make us include swimming and triathlon into our lifestyle.

It is what drives us to make our morning practices, spend money and time away from our family and friends, go that extra 50 yards, and push ourselves beyond the limits of what we can or think we can do; moreover, it gives pleasure and meaning to all of this effort.

As we go into the winter season, which usually means short days, little sunlight, colder weather, increased holiday commitments, and no races till the spring, a strong mental core is essentially what we build our training, season, and success upon. If this mental core is weak than we will loose motivation, skip sets, falter in future races, and not be able to accomplish our goals. You can start to see why it is so important.

While it maybe easy to identify a weak physical core by an athlete’s build, it is harder to identify, at least superficially, a weak mental core, but in my opinion, it all comes down to one word: fear. Fear in its various forms—excuses, procrastination, half-hearted efforts, apathy, and giving up—hide a weak mental core very much like how layers of fat cover up your muscular core.

As a coach, I hear loads of excuses from clients and athletes about how they simply did not have time to do this key workout or fit in that weight lifting session. A few of my collegiate runners will look at the hard workout days on the calendar and conveniently have meetings with professors or get sick during them. While some of their reasons maybe actually be true, if their training and goals were important to them, then they would have found some time to fit it in. Overall though, if they dug deep into their conscious they will find fear. Thus the key to a stronger mental core is embracing, accepting, and dealing with this fear.

Where does this fear pop up? I experience it usually right before a hard workout or before I dive into the pool. I get that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I will not be able to hit my splits, that the water will be cold, that the old man in the lane next to me will pass me, that people will think I am not a triathlete because I swim so slowly, that I will not have improved from the last workout. All these thoughts buzz around my head and suck all the motivation out of me. I could just skip the workout and go home to my nice warm bed. I could put on my cycling shorts or running shoes and head out for a ride or run, where I know no one would criticize me. It is all very tempting, but then I remember that all of these fears are just that: fears—paper dragons that do not exist except in my own head.

If people pass me, so be it—that is out of my control. If I do not hit my splits but I give it my all, then the workout was a success. If people look at me and think that I am slow, then let them think that. Yes, this workout may hurt but if training was easy then everyone would be a pro. Looking at these fears and analyzing them, diminishes their power, and in turn strengthens the mental core.

The key to a strong mental core therefore is introspection and reflection. Next time when you are debating whether you should or can do a workout, see if you can spot the fears. Once you have spotted them you can then deal with them. Shoving them away will not help because they will come back with vengeance. Instead try to own them. Here is one helpful tip that I find is very effective in my mental core work: spot the fear, write it down on a piece of paper, then tear up the paper in throw it in the trash, where it belongs.

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

Now that many of you are in the “offseason”—I use that term loosely because is there really an offseason from triathlon?

Many of you do not want to look at another lane line, pull buoy, wetsuit, or speedo again for another good two to three months. After an intensive racing season that can last from April through November, it is important to get a mental break from organized training during which we do not have to worry about splits, morning practice, or cold water.

However, that does not mean we should abandon all training and sit around the couch eating doughnuts (even Gluten free ones). In fact, these weeks are the perfect time to reconnect with our “core.” In this series of blog posts I am going to focus on some of my “core values” of trainingstarting off with our actual physiological/muscular core.

What trainers and body builders refer to as our core is actually a bunch of muscles that span from under out pectoral muscles down to our knee. This network, therefore, includes more than just our “six pack” but also has the oblique muscles, lower back and lumbar muscles, hip flexors, IT band, hips, glutes (i.e. your butt), and upper hamstrings to name a few. Strengthening all of these muscles is extremely important for proper form in all disciplines of triathlon especially swimming. Without a strong core, our whole form falls apart adding to drag, fatigue, and potential injury.

First off, the core muscles ensure that we keep parallel and stream line in the water by keeping our legs from sinking. Secondly, they allow for a stronger and proper kick that is driven not from the knees but from the hips. Thirdly a strong core gives us a stronger and more controlled hip rotation that will not tire us as we swim. Lastly, with six pack abs, we will not fear putting on that speedo or walking down the pool deck. Need any more motivation to hit the floor and pound out some crunches?

Many old school proponents espouse that you should do 1000 crunches a day to really get a strong core and six pack abs, but the core muscles are just like every other muscle and need their rest and recovery to get stronger. Therefore, working them two or ideally three times a week should generate the wanted results.
Here is one of my favorite routines. Perform as a continuous circuit. Do each exercise for 30 seconds then smoothly transition to the next exercise without rest. Do the circuit twice and then build up to three:

1.Crunches**
2.Leg lifts
3.Plank
4.Supermans
5.Bicycle crunches**
6.Bridge
7.Scissor Kicks/flutter kicks
8.Alternating supermans
9.Side plank
10.Pushup plank
11.Side Plank
12.Reverse pushup plank

When this routine becomes too easy change it up: go for longer, add in another circuit, add in a medicine ball or extra weight, etc. It is important though to be consistent. Doing a core routine 5 times one week and then taking a week off will not help you. Usually, when we get into the thick of the season and hard and long swim/bike/run sessions add up, core and strength work are usually forgotten or pushed to the side, so the off season is a perfect time to get into the habit.

If you have any questions or your own routine, let me know. I am always looking for a way to strengthen my own core values.

**some argue that crunches put unnecessary strain on the back so if you have lower back problems nix the crunches and replace them with planks or leg extensions

Chris Hague is the assistant coach for triswimcoach.com and competitive triathlete in both the half and full Ironman distances. For more, check out http://triswimcoachonline.com/tri/about/

“We should not have a time schedule to attain the goal, for our attainment depends on how we progress in our practice based on our understanding and development of our [swimming and training] faculties. We must work diligently and mindfully toward the goal without setting any particular time schedule to reach it. When we are ready, we get there. All we have to do is to prepare ourselves for that attainment.”
Henepola Gunaratana, “Sitting Still” (I of course modified this quote by substituting swimming and training in for sitting)

I ran across this quote on a Buddhist website that I follow and at first I was taken aback and completely disagreed. What do you mean no time schedule? How am I going to be motivated to wake up for morning practice, hop in cold water, and push myself to the point of puking if I do not set a goal pace by my main race? Where is the pressure?

That is the point though. By not setting an unchangeable and rigid deadline to our goals, we are free to enjoy the journey rather than getting bogged down in the pressure involved in times and expectations. Saying I have to swim 1:20/100 yard pace by my main race and if I do not I am a failure will only lead to failure.

This easing of schedules and times cannot be more true than in swimming where perfecting form is the only way to reduce your splits efficiently. If we get distracted by our goal pace and consequently take our focus off our form and effort, our form falls to pieces and we end up going slower and being disappointed in our performance and ourselves. However if we focus on how we are in the present moment—how are form is, how we feel in the water, the timing of each breath—then the speed will come.

Now, I am not saying that we should not set goals. Goals are extremely important and essential to have (for more on goals read Matt Fitzgerald’s chapter on goals in “The Triathlete’s Training Bible”). These goals though are not set in stone. Yes, they should be quantifiable and measurable with a goal date to attain them, but we should realize that these goals are changeable.

If you find that your goal of swimming a 21 minute split in an Olympic triathlon is out of reach, change your goal to one that is more realistic like 25 minutes or 26 or to one that is not time based like swimming without having to switch to backstroke. As you think about this upcoming off season and start making race plans for next year, set a goal, write it down, and file it away, then return to focusing on the process and the journey of how you are going there—the drills, the hard sets, the core work, the bands, and actually getting to practice.

With this mindset, your goals are already in reach.

In the world of triathlon it is almost a given that serious triathletes have a plan and/or strategy for the season. It’s natural for a triathlete to have the whole year written out in detail so that they can prepare, train and execute – making adjustments along the way if necessary.

However, what about a mental strategy? Is that part of your plan? Sure, training your swim, bike and run is a given – but are you training your mind as well? Often triathletes prioritize their training based off of the distances in the race. Usually the bike will be the focus with run and swimming behind it. If you have a noticeable limiter, your focus may be improving that aspect of your training. Before you work on the bike or any other discipline, shouldn’t you being training your mind?

Some would argue that training your mind to cope with the mental and physical strain that your body demands is the single most important aspect of training for triathlon. So many newbies start right out of the gate in what I like to call the “honeymoon phase” and then a month later they are back on the couch. Nobody prepared them for how hard it can be and also (important) how fun it can be! For those of us that grew up doing endurance sports – whether it is on a team, a club or maybe just with your family; we’ve been conditioned on what to expect both mentally and physically. We know how to cope with pain, fatigue, injuries and the adversity that follows. With that in mind, even the experienced athletes are missing out on key elements in their mental game and strategy that could help elevate their performances for the next triathlon season. Here are a few tips in elevating your mental strategy:

• Make visualization a part of your daily routine. If you have a swim scheduled early in the morning, start visualizing yourself getting up, getting to the pool and doing the work. The more you visualize and convince your mind of something, the more likely it’s going to happen. Visualization is even more important in racing. Cut 15-20 minutes out of your day or before you go to bed, lie down and start putting your mind in a relaxed state. Once you are completely relaxed from head to toe – start playing in your mind the race. Imagine waking up, eating, driving to the course, seeing the big crowds, setting up transition, warming up…etc. Imagine every little detail of the race including executing your game plan and come time to race, you’ll feel like you’ve already done it.

• It’s important to welcome the pain once it sets in. Most likely at one point during the race you are going to start feeling fatigue and maybe even pain. A good way to handle it is to welcome the pain. Even talk to it. “Hey pain, I was wondering where you were, you’re finally here eh? Well you’re welcome to stay for a bit, but I’m going to overcome and beat you today!” Treat it as an unwelcomed visitor. Talk to it for a bit, work through it, but let it be known that it’s not welcome and that you’re going to have your way with it.

• Personal mantras. Come up with three different mantras that you can repeat to yourself throughout the race (or workout). I often use: Smooth, Strong & Confident. It reminds me to focus on a smooth form, generating power and being confident in my training and my ability. I suggest that you come up with three words that offer encouragement or a reminder and TRUST me, this builds mental toughness.

• Use the energy of the crowd and the energy of your competitors. This may sound a little too hippy for some of you but it can be extremely effective if you know how to use it. When you are racing imagine the energy of the crowd, volunteers and even your competitors being transferred over to your body. I often imagine a wave of energy flowing right into mine. Maybe even use high fives (like Ryan Hall does) to initiate the energy transfer.

Use your mind as a weapon in your training. Often times triathletes can be consumed with the latest gear and gizmos that they often forget that one of the most powerful weapons they have is their mind! When mapping out your training week, make an effort to devote some time in strengthening your mind!

There are so many more mental techniques and strategies you can use, including how to combat “race demons” or one of my favorites, the “Anchor & Trigger Technique”.

Have you tried any mental strategies for your workouts? If so, please comment below with your favorites!

About the Author

For more information or questions about mental strategies – feel free to contact: James Adams at ilovethehurt@gmail.com and visit his blog at http://lovethehurt.blogspot.com/

References:

To get the full interview including part 2, sign up for the Tri Swim Secrets 6-month Course at: http://www.triswimsecrets.com

To find out more about Chris Janzen and his coaching services and products, including the 8 1/2 steps ebook he mentioned, go to http://triathletemind.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast!

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References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Secrets 6-month Course at: http://www.triswimsecrets.com

Click here to order copy of Ingrid’s new book, Fearless Swimming For Triathletes

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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So what are Tabatas and how can they be used in swim workouts?

Tabata is an exercise program with extremely focused short burts using intervals.
Basically, it’s a set of 8 (or 16 or 32) 20 second all out sprints followed by 10 seconds of active recovery. The active recovery could consist of easy swimming or treading water.

These types of workouts can not only help you get faster in the water, but also allow you to burn more fat than in a typical long aerobic session.
You will burn more calories in a long aerobic training session, however, Tabatas will allow you to burn more fat. A recent study showed that subcutaneous fat loss was ninefold greater in the test group doing Tabata workouts vs. those doing longer aerobic workouts.

Keep in mind that if you have poor technique, there is no point in doing Tabatas for swimming. However, if you have worked on your technique but feel like you’ve hit a plateau in swimming, this could be a nice substitute for boring laps in the pool, giving you the ability to burn more fat and get faster in the water.

Have you tried doing Tabatas in any way? What is your experience?

References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Secrets 6-month Course at: http://www.triswimsecrets.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Secrets 6-month Course Giveaway Contest at: http://www.triswimsecrets.com/giveaway.html

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Thanks and have a great weekend!

References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Secrets 6-month Course Giveaway Contest at: http://www.triswimsecrets.com/giveaway.html

Brian MacKenzie’s website: http://crossfitendurance.com
Brian MacKenzie featured in Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Body trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIVmsIJyj3A

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimlessons.com

Order the DVD, Waterproof cards, and book at http://triswimcoach.com

Join the 6 month Tri Swim Secrets course at http://triswimsecrets.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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Here’s some highlights, interesting items, and things I learned:

1. I’ve only been swimming about 1000 meters twice a week for a while now. I thought I’d be way out of shape for this swim. But, I’ve been doing a yoga session 1-2x per week, and strength training 2x per week. I felt pretty good in the race (even though I got a late start since it wasn’t clear the race was actually starting!), and finished 5th out of the water (out of 150 people?), only a few seconds behind the leader (who was a guy on my Trans Tahoe team from 2 years ago!).

2. I also talked to one of the local tri coaches after the race. He mentioned that he is no longer doing masters swimming at all, and is doing less yards in the water, and going FASTER. After my performance I wasn’t surprised. The yoga and strength training can actually replace time spent in the water.

3. For the most part, even though I was just doing the swim and didn’t need to save anything for the rest of the race, my long strokes helped me to stay in the race the entire time. Once I got past the waves, I just focused on economy of strokes, and this seemed to work well. It’s easy to panic or try to compete with random other people in the race who you have no idea what level they are, but better to stick with your own race, and your own stroke.

4. There is an element of luck to ocean water swimming, but it can be minimized if you know what you’re doing. When coming back to shore, if you hit the waves just right you may be able to body surf your way to a faster time and higher in the standings. On the other hand, hitting it wrong you may be swimming in place and having the undertow pull you back out! But if you can get the timing of this down, you will know when to use energy to swim faster, and when to let the tide take you. Yesterday I was even. I got pulled under the first time but surfed the next wave in.

Next up, I’ll have to start running and do the entire aquathlon in 1 month. Anyone know of any running hacks or shortcuts? ;)

Excellent introduction on how to do a proper open water race entry. This video is provided by The Race Club. theraceclub.com

Please add your comment below!

References:

by Sage Rountree The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery: Rest, Relax, and Restore for Peak Performance(text only) [Paperback]2011

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimlessons.com

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References:

Jesse’s blog: http://kropelnicki.com

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimlessons.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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The underwater pull is a compromise between power and drag. In this week’s Secret Tip we find out why it is more important to reduce drag than it is to increase power during the underwater pull in Freestyle. The video is provided by the Race Club. theraceclub.com

Please add your comment below!

1. Sighting. It seems obvious, but most people don’t practice navigation and sighting before they jump into an open water swim race or triathlon. The thing to keep in mind is, navigation is a big part of the challenge. Even fast swimmers who don’t practice sighting are really hurting themselves by just “winging it” in this area, and will often get frustrated as they get lost on the course. There is nothing worse than to not know where you are going. When you practice swimming in the OW, start picking out objects in the distance (on shore) that can help guide you to where you are going. Eventually, you’ll get the hang of it and come race day, bright colored buoys will just be a bonus.

2. Treading water. This doesn’t get mentioned much in triathlon circles, but being able to tread water is going to make your life a lot easier in this sport! Sometimes the start of the race is from the water, but even more importantly, there are many instances during the race when you may need to pop up and tread water for a second- such as if you get lost, or if you get cut off around a buoy.

3. Breastroke. For some of the same reasons as treading water, breastroke can come in handy during an open water race. It is nice to be able to pop your head up and take a long look at where you are headed, without completely losing momentum. Learning this stroke can pay off and help your race.

4. Follow your friends. Get a group of training buddies together and practice following each other. In a race you will have to follow others, and it’s super important to know how to do it- getting the right angle for drafting, avoiding touching feet, and spotting the backs of heads. (It’s not always the best strategy to follow others in a race, but generally, it will help, especially if you find someone that’s about your same speed.

Please add your comment below!

We’re putting on another underwater/swim clinic! Here is your opportunity to see yourself swim from underwater- and discover how to make stroke corrections and what specific drills to focus on to optimize your open water swim. Great timing if you are looking to work on your swim stroke as the summer triathlon season approaches.

On Sunday, May 8th, Paton McClung, head coach of Wind N Sea Swim Team ( http://www.windnseaswimteam.com/patonlessons.html), and Kevin Koskella of Triswimcoachonline.com will be holding an underwater video swim clinic. We will tape each swimmer individually, review the tape and critique your stroke immediately after, and then, get back in the water for a personal 5 minute one-on-one session working on drills and stroke optimization with one of the coaches! Here’s what you can expect:

* Discover flaws in your stroke and what you can do to correct them

* Move past your swimming obstacles by seeing in your stroke what’s really going on

* Get over swimming plateaus for a faster freestyle and a smoother, more efficient stroke for the Open Water

* See your stroke on a 40-inch TV screen, and get your video emailed to you after the clinic

* Receive expert advice from 2 coaches with over 50 years combined competitive swimming and coaching experience- this time through video critique and personal coaching so you know exactly what to work on

The Details

Sunday, May 8th – 9:05 a.m. – 11:20 a.m. (approximately)

Location: Coggan Family Aquatic Center, La Jolla.

Cost: $87 per athlete – TCSD members & Tri Swim Coach subscribers get 10% off!

Limit: 12 athletes

Sign Up: Active.com
http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1955385

What to bring: Suit, towel, goggles, dry, warm clothes. Personal video clips will be available on triswimcoach.com within a few days of the completion of the clinic.

This is a popular clinic, so please RSVP through the Active link soon, as we are limiting this clinic to only 12 people!

Shoot me an email if you have any questions!
kevin at triswimcoach dot com

References:

Patrick’s website: http://endurancenation.us

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimlessons.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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References:

Mark’s website: http://swimcyclerunonline.com

Cure injuries at http://curemyinjuries.com

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimlessons.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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Just like the run or bike, you don’t want to burn yourself out that you can’t get to transition. You have either gone to fast or you used up too much energy in the swim. Solution? Pace yourself, well almost….

Swimming doesn’t really affect your legs as much, but it does affect your aerobic system. You can take bigger risks in the swim by going a tad faster and surging compared to running or biking. Remember, don’t go too hard where you dig yourself in a hole. Stay with someone who is slightly faster and you will guarantee a PR in your next race.

Warm-up and Get Ready

Warming up is great, but not all races allow it, or if they do you can’t go in the water because the lifeguards aren’t on duty yet. For an early season race with cold water you want to get your body acclimated to the temperature. As with all triathlons, warming up your arms and lungs will get you ready, have less fear of being in the water, and help you go full gas from the start of the race.

Get a coach

You can always hire me, but getting a local coach is a must to excel in swimming. Having someone help you with your stroke can be an invaluable asset to your arsenal of triathlon tools for race day. The better your technique is, the faster you are and the more efficient you become. Easier said then done right?…

Practice, Practice, Practice

Practicing skills, technique, and speed is still at the core of everything. If don’t put the time in at the pool, how can you expect a great result at a race? Practice not only in the water, but with a wetsuit, and sprinting out of the water to simulate T1. The more time in the water now, will help establish fitness that you can’t erase in the future.

Race

My last tip for you is to race. Getting faster in the water, getting comfortable and everything I said above is great advice, but the more you race the better you become. There is no way an Olympic triathlete only races a few times in their career to get where they are. They consistently practiced, prepared, and raced. They had failures and just as much success. Building on things you learn when you race can get you to that next level you might be seeking. Beginners should look for indoor pool swims to start out, then migrate to a lake or river, and then to the ocean. Find a race you like, train with your friends and race to have fun.

Don’t let your training partners or anyone else make you second guess your training. If you follow these rules, you’ll see benefits not only for this year, but will build fitness and strength for the future. Just remember, having a coach will help you through all of these steps and more.

Alan has been coaching triathletes since 2009, and has been coaching swimming since the age of 18. He primarily focuses on Sprint, Olympic and Half-Ironman athletes and coaches all running & cycling distances. Alan uses his expertise in swimming, running and physical fitness to create speed and motivation for his athletes. His website is http://triguycoaching.com

Please add your comment below!

References:

Hazen’s website: http://trinewbies.com

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimlessons.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

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Music:

Thievery Corporation- “Resolution”
Nickelback- “Breathe”

Sitting down to think about some great race day tips for new triathletes seems easy, but thinking about pre-race rituals and strategies I use made me realize so many things on race day that has become automatic. Below I have outline some race day secrets in hope that it helps you transition to the open water much easier.

1. Get Rid Of Your Fear And Just Do It

What nobody knows about me is I am afraid of open water because I can’t see the bottom. That fear doesn’t happen when racing or swimming in the ocean with other people. I have been stung by jellyfish, nipped at by crustaceans(SP?), and had a school of fish swim by. What is my advice to triathletes afraid of the water? Just don’t be when it comes time to race. Practicing in the open water helps, but triathletes have a fear of the unknown which can be mentally draining. If you aren’t sure what your fear is in swimming then why have fear at all? I am terrified sometimes by swimming in the ocean by myself so I try to avoid that when possible, but when it comes time to racing my mind goes blank and I focus on racing and nothing else. When you race, there are kayaks, lifeguards, and boats that will help you, but if the unknown strikes fear in you, focus on something positive and/or something funny to make light of your situation. Changing your thought patterns externally and internally could be performance you were looking for.

2. Start Away From The Group

Being color blind makes it very difficult for me to sight in the water, but I drift right. When racing, I will start all the way on the left and in the front because drifting right will let me head straight towards a buoy while passing everyone. Figure out how you drift and start on the opposite side. If you’re a weak swimmer, start in the back. It will be easier for you to draft and have a better idea which way the current is pushing you.

3. Have 2 Pairs Of Goggles – 1 Black & 1 Clear

Early morning races mean that you might have the sun in your face when starting or finishing your swim. Having a dark colored type of goggle will give you a chance to protect your eyes and allow you to see. However, with a clear goggle, you can wear them on a cloudy day and still see. Along with having two pairs of goggles, they are the one thing you don’t want to find out race day morning they were stepped or have the strap broken. Along with goggles I want to add my next point

4. No Need For Full Face Goggles

You see, a lot of triathletes use the Navy Seal type full face goggle which almost looks like a scuba mask. The argument for them is that you can see more around you, but why would you want to. If you are only concentrating on the people around you, your stroke starts to suffer and your hips will drop.

My second reason; since the mask is connected throughout, if it starts to leak the whole goggle leaks and can affect both eyes where as having a pair that separates the eyes will only affect one eye it’s a lot easier to clear the water out and go. If you can’t stop then you still have 1 eye to see out of.

Wear a full sleeve wetsuit when possible

There is always a huge debate that wearing a sleeveless wetsuit can be better for swimming since it doesn’t restrict your arms. Newer wetsuit “Technology” has begun to emerge allowing a bigger range of use for your arms. The only thing that might stop this from happening is you not putting your wetsuit on correctly. Get a full wetsuit, which will make you a bit more buoyant and faster in the water, learn how to correctly put it on and take it off. My recommended wetsuit brands are 2XU and Xterra.

Alan has been coaching triathletes since 2009, and has been coaching swimming since the age of 18. He primarily focuses on Sprint, Olympic and Half-Ironman athletes and coaches all running & cycling distances. Alan uses his expertise in swimming, running and physical fitness to create speed and motivation for his athletes. His website is http://triguycoaching.com

cont’d on Part 2

1. Close your fists and swim freestyle. This helps improve your stroke technique, even if it does feel strange at first. You’ll feel awkward and clumsy, but doing this forces you to use proper hip rotation as you move through the water. Do two laps with fists and two laps straight freestyle, alternating for the set.

2. Six kicks per stroke – take one stroke, extend your arm out, and then kick six times on your side. The take one stroke with the other arm and kick six times on the opposite side. This makes you stay on your side, and gets you used to doing so.

3. Three quarters catchup – start your hip rotation as soon as your hand slices into the water. Touch your ear with your thumb if you need to, on the way by in recovery. This will help you to signal a switch from one side to the other. This drill is similar to the catchup drill where you touch your hands in front of you with each stroke.

For more tips and workouts on training for a triathlon swim, and for 4 free triathlon swimming workouts, sign up for the newsletter at www.triswimcoach.com/newsletters.php

Answer: Yes!

Question: Is it a good idea?

Answer: Yes!

Most people (other than the leader) draft during the swim portion, whether they are aware of it or not. The trick is to get better at it. Here’s how:

1. Get directly behind another swimmer. If that person is just a little bit faster than you, you’ll get a nice ride for the duration.
2. Sometimes it’s easier to get a draft from the other person’s hip than from his or her feet. This way, you avoid touching his or her feet as well as the splashing.
3. If you’re drafting and start falling behind, continue your pace and find someone else you can swim behind, rather than trying to swim faster and potentially tiring yourself.

An article published in the Men’s Health Magazine regarding drafting: “After a series of lab tests, Portuguese scientists concluded that a swimmer who stays 2 feet behind another athlete’s foot kicks experiences 44 percent less drag through the water. What’s more, you can draft off another triathlete from as far back as 19 feet and still reduce your drag by 16 percent. ‘You’ll maintain an overall higher race pace, since you’ll be sparing energy,’ says Antonio Silva, Ph.D., the study’s lead author.”

Drafting can give you a huge advantage. Don’t think you have to be swimming with a large group, either – all it takes is one other person to swim in front. If you try drafting, you’ll be amazed at how much effort it will save you!

References:

Simon’s website: http://simongowen.com

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimcoach.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast!

Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Click here to open up itunes and add a rating/comment!

Music:

Nickelback- “Breathe”

Most triathletes want to know the secret of how natural swimmers can just, well, swim! Ask any Masters or Olympic swimmer what their swimming “secret” is and 99% of the time you will get the same answer: [FOLD OR BREAK HERE] They had joined a swim club or team at a young age and/or belong to a swim program currently. Below are the top five reasons why you should join a swim club.

Getting Faster

The best reason you should join a club is to swim faster. This outcome results from coached sessions, other athletes pushing you to your limit and a quality swim workout that isn’t the same as swimming by yourself. Getting up early for a swim practice can be daunting at times, but putting in the time and effort with a swimming club will pay huge dividends come race season, as well as helping out with reason #5.

Meet New Athletes

Triathletes, tend to train alone, which often means swim workout torture. When you don’t have anyone to talk to at the pool, you swimming starts to feel like a chore. Joining a Master’s practice will surely guarantee that you meet new athletes. Top college swimmers, All-Americans, and Olympic swimmers might just be in the next lane, but if you aren’t training together, how would you know? Going to practices will help you learn more about other athletes and might just score you training advice from a high-caliber swimmer for free.

Learn To Swim With Better Technique

Swimming programs will begin to increase the number of swim sessions you have during the week. With an increase in distance and speed, one thing that will start to improve drastically is your technique. With coached sessions and other athletes watching you, you’ll begin to identify areas of your swim technique that need improving. Paying for video analysis can be quite expensive, but receiving personal attention from a coach or a handful of athletes looking at you might just fix that terrible head position you have in the water.

Coaching And Accountability

5am swim practices are never fun. I never liked them and they only got harder when I joined the Navy. The one thing that always kept me coming back, though was my coach and accountability I felt to the my fellow rescue swimmers and team. After you meet a new coach and athletes, they tend to notice when you miss a practice or cut a warm-up or cool-down short. Do you want to let your new teammates or coach down? Do you want to make everyone wait on you in the morning before the practice starts? Having that accountability to your coach can help you become a better swimmer by forcing you to break out of old or bad habits.

Competing

When swimming with an adult program, there are actually meets in which you can compete. Running and road cycling races are easy to find with a quick online search, but how often do you hear about a mile or 500m swimming competition? This type of competition can give your season a new focus and provide you the confidence you need to crush your next race.

You Should Go And Join Now!!

In addition to these top five reasons above, there are plenty of other benefits from swimming with a group such as new friends, increase in stamina, and more. Don’t be left behind while your competition surges ahead of you during the swim. Take the extra time to find a program that suits you and just have fun! You never know what you may learn or discover.

Alan has been coaching triathletes since 2009, and has been coaching swimming since the age of 18. He primarily focuses on Sprint, Olympic and Half-Ironman athletes and coaches all running & cycling distances. Alan uses his expertise in swimming, running and physical fitness to create speed and motivation for his athletes. His website is http://triguycoaching.com

But since swimming is more about technique than anything, the best way to improve speed in the water is to play “Free Golf” in the water. If you’ve never played, here’s how:

Do a set of six or so 50s.
Count your stroke for each 50 and track your time.
Add these two numbers together to figure out your “score.”
Aim to lower your score on each round – decrease your time or stroke count, or both.
Make it a challenge for every 50 to beat your lowest score, until you can’t get it any lower.
Tip: make sure you focus on technique – hand extension, glide, and hip rotation – don’t just kick harder to try to lower your stroke count.

Depending on what level you swim at, there are many variations for this game. For beginner swimmers, and even intermediate, I might get them to do a set with Zoomer fins on, and a set with their hands in fists, followed by an unaided/regular straight swimming set.

What’s your lowest time?

For more tips and workouts on training for a triathlon swim, and for 4 free triathlon swimming workouts, sign up for the newsletter at www.triswimlessons.com

References:

Alan’s website: http://triguycoaching.com

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimcoach.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast!

Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Click here to open up itunes and add a rating/comment!

Music:

Nickelback- “Breathe”

Unfortunately, many pools in the U.S. are only 25 meters in length. Some (Olympic size) are 50 meters, but usually they are set up so swimmers swim across the width instead of using the full 50 meter length. This makes them only 25 meters. So you’re back to square one.

If you are lucky enough to have access to a 50 meter pool, that is your best option. The reasons why are:

1. You can do a lot more continuous swimming, with fewer wall turns. This simulates open-water swimming more so than a smaller pool.
2. With fewer interruptions (wall turns), you have more time to focus on technique and stroke.
3. Each length is twice as long, which offers slightly more challenge to your training. This results in more preparation for races or open-water swimming.

I used to really dislike 50 meter swim training, but I’ve found that it’s easy to get used to, and now I actually prefer long course training.

References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimcoach.com

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast!

Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Click here to open up itunes and add a rating/comment!

Music:

Nickelback- “Breathe”

Having said that, the amount of calories you burn during a swim (race or practice) all depend on several factors: stroke technique, type of workout, and even water temperature. The most important thing to remember is that efficiency is the ultimate goal. Train in your target heart rate. Keep your heart rate low during exercise will actually allow you to burn more fat than in a scenario where you do sprints and get your heart rate up high (into the cardio zone).

If you would like an idea of how many calories it takes to do certain workouts, take a look at this chart and input the duration of your workout to get an approximate calorie requirement:

http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

For the Complete Guide to Triathlon Swimming and the bonus book Burn More Fat, see:

www.triswimcoach.com/complete_guide.php

References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimsecrets.com/access

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Check out Sheila’s book Call the Suit at http://sheilat.com

Please comment on this podcast!

Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Click here to open up itunes and add a rating/comment!

Music:

Nickelback- “Breathe”

References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimsecrets.com/access

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast!

Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Click here to open up itunes and add a rating/comment!

Music:

Nickelback- “Breathe”

1. If there is an empty lane, use it. It’s annoying to swimmers if they have to share a lane when there is an open one available.

2. If you have to share a lane, pick one with swimmers closest to your own speed.

3. If you’re planning on jumping into a lane with someone, ask them first if you may share. Wait for him or her to stop on a wall and ask – 99% of the time they won’t have a problem with you joining in. Once you’re in, swim in a counter-clockwise rotation (or clockwise if you’re in Australia) and leave a minimum of 5-10 meters of space between yourself and any other swimmers.

4. Always pay attention to where you push off the wall, since you don’t want to collide with other circle swimmers in your lane, especially during flip turns.

5. Yield to the faster swimmer – let him or her pass. Stop on the wall to allow him or her to get ahead of you.

6. If it’s a very crowded lane, do not use a board or a long kicking set where people have to always be passing you. It’s annoying to the other swimmers.

7. Don’t touch the feet of swimmers in front of you. If you need to get around and you attempt to pass, they should follow these same etiquette rules and stop on a wall to let you pass.

References:

Sign up for the Tri Swim Coach 5-day Mini Course at: http://triswimsecrets.com/access

Email me with your comments: kevin at triswimcoach.com

Please comment on this podcast!

Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Click here to open up itunes and add a rating/comment!

Music:

Nickelback- “Breathe”

Many swimmers and coaches talk about “a three-beat kick” or beak kicks of some kind. This might work well for some swimmers, but not everyone. Here’s why:

1. Your priority when developing your freestyle swim is NOT how many kicks per stroke you are doing. You have many more important aspects on which to focus. Not to say that kicking isn’t important, but it’s nowhere near being the most important thing to worry about. Prioritize.
2. It’s much more important to find a comfortable kick than to conform to an expectation of a coach or yourself. It’s much more important that your kick helps with balance and hip rotation – it’s less about propulsion than some might think. Kicking powerfully is more important in a sprint than it is in triathlon or distance swims.
3. To determine how many kicks per stroke is most comfortable for you, start out with a six-kicks per stroke drill. Do a 50m of kicking six times each stroke. Repeat and decrease it to five strokes per kick, and every 40, reduce the kicks by one. You’ll find out which one feels most comfortable.

Don’t get obsessed with your kick count. This really isn’t a priority in your swimming technique – balance and efficiency is much more important, and you should delay worrying about your kick until after you have those technical aspects figured out.

I hope your new year is off to a healthy and productive start!

I can tell you first hand that injuries really suck! I had this hamstring strain for over a year, and it was one of those things that wasn’t so painful that it stopped me from running or training, but it was enough to be annoying and definitely slow me down.

I tried so many things to cure it, and nothing worked! I started with the foam roller, then did ART (Active Release Technique), then deep tissue massages. I was starting to spend a lot of money, and not getting any lasting results.

Then one day a couple of months ago, I saw this trainer in the gym using these self-massage type tools with her client. Sort of like the foam roller but more intense and specific. I asked her about it, and she told me all about it. It’s called Trigger Point Therapy. She diagnosed my hammy issue and I signed up for 4
sessions with her.

The sessions were filled with intensity- rolling over mostly quadriceps muscles, but also hitting up the piriformis and calves- with these 2 little dumbell-looking things and a ball that is soft on the outside and hard on the inside.

After just 2 sessions, my hamstring was loosening up! First time in over a year I felt this free! After 4 sessions, I had about a 75% improvement. So, I ordered a “Trigger Point Therapy Kit”, and now “work on myself” about every other day. I’m able to loosen up tight muscles, increase my flexibility, and prevent future injuries. This for me has gone far beyond the foam roller and even ART therapy!

Anyway I love these tools so much that I am endorsing the products.

If you have nagging injuries or tight muscles that just won’t go away or loosen up, I highly recommend one of the TP Therapy kits (which one will depend on what you are targeting and what your major activity is).

Check out what they have to offer here:

Heal Your Injuries

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!