Triathlon Training with Fire
by Chris Hague
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/
Triathlon Training Log: How important is it?
by Chris Hague
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/
Creative Triathlon Training in February
by Chris Hague
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/
Triathlon Training & Travel
by Chris Hague 
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/
Swimming for Triathlon: The #1 Thing You Need For a Faster Freestyle
Here’s a short video I did a couple weeks ago.
Next one will be out by the pool!
Triathlon Psychology: Improve Your Mental Game with Chris Janzen Part 1 – Podcast #49
On this podcast, I interview triathlon mindset and inner game and triathlon psychology expert Chris Janzen on one of the most important parts of the sport. 
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!
Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Click here to open up itunes and add a rating/comment!
3 Swimming Drills You Should Master Before Your Next Triathlon
3 Swimming drills to master for your next triathlon:
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
Should you warm down at the end of your swim workout?
Whether it’s swimming, running, or biking, make sure you are doing a proper warm down. Most masters swim teams I have been on do a lousy job implementing a warm down into workouts. It’s especially important after you have done sprints and large-effort swims to do at least a few lengths of easy swimming before you leave the pool. In these workouts, you will actually be building up more lactic acid and taxing your muscles more than doing longer distances.
A solid warm down after a workout or race is essential to continuing success in the swim. This will keep your energy up for your next workout, reduce the lactic acid in your bloodstream, and help to keep you injury-free. Typically, 200 yards or so will be enough, but the key here is listening to your body!
Underwater view of my stroke in the Endless Pool
This was from my experience swimming at the Endless Pool at Triathica Academy Triathlon Training Center in Irvine last month. Check it out! For southern California locals I highly recommend checking out the training center and getting videoed.
Play Free Golf for a better, faster freestyle
Open water swimmers and triathletes are often confused on how to get faster. Often, they think that they need to swim fast to go fast. In other words, just train harder and do sprints at workouts.
Since swimming is so technique-focused, the fastest way to getting faster in the water is to play a game called “Free Golf”.
If you haven’t learned it yet, here are the basics:
Do a set of 50′s, around 6 is good.
Count your strokes on each 50 and get your time.
Add these two numbers together to get your “score”.
Lower your score each round by decreasing your stroke count, decreasing your time, or a combination of both.
Keep going until you can’t go any lower.
Hint: Make sure you are not just kicking harder to get your stroke count down. Focus on hip rotation, hand extension, and glide (distance per stroke.
There are several variations of this depending on what level swimmer you are. For many of my beginner and intermediate-level swimmers, I may have them do a set with Zoomers fins on, and a set with hands in fists, followed by a straight swimming set.
How low can you go?
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
