Yo! Good to see how sparse the messaging has been this wknd.
Means that everyone's out riding...
Multi-IronMan winner Mark Allen gives out sage advice and I
found his comments on "five mistakes made in training" to be
excellent.
Since I'm shamelessly nabbing his comments, let me give a
plug to his site: www.markallenonline.com. (not much there,
all of it is pay...)
I've done a lot of running, swimming and biking over the
years and I really like these and much of it is already in
vogue, and many of us use it instinctively anyway.:
Synopsis: Establishing "Base Training" (aerobic base)
Transition, esp Bike to Run tip Nutritional Strategy
(training carbs vs race carbs) Mental Approach (race day
mental rough spots vs physical rough spots) Tapering
Strategies.
1. Not establishing enough of a training base, and putting
too much emphasis on speed. Going over your HRM can take
you out of the aerobic 'zone' and require up to 9 hours
to recover. He gives a neat way for older riders to calc
their HRM:
a. Subtract age from 180.
b. From this # subtract if recovering from major surgery
c. No change if training 2-3 days/week over the past year
d. Plus 5 if training > 3 days per week consistently
over last year
e. Plus 10 if training > 3 days/wk over past 5 years,
plus no signs of overtraining (colds, injuries,
stress probs)
f. Plus 5 if > 55 y.o. / < 25 y.o.& active / training
reg.for past year
This rate should be what you do in your base training.
Typically for 35 y.o. to 50 y.o. should be 135 to 140 bpm
and maybe at 145 to 155 for > 55y.o. if training over last 5
years, good health, training >3 days/wk. IOW, if you're mid
50s and have been training well for past 5 years and all
other factors optimal, they have a really good base
established.
2. Poor 'Brick' training. This refers to the bike to run
transition, and mentions that many try to train 3-4 hours
on the bike and then run too much fast distance (say 40
min at fast pace running).
He says, consider doing over-distance on the bike and then
running at comfortable pace for only 20 minutes, but
starting running no sooner than 15 min after dismounting.
Even if you feel 'cooked' after the long ride, a short
recovery plus quality 20minutes running will be optimal.
IOW, if the bike portion is 30 miles, train overdistance to
say 40-50miles, and then run 20 min at comfortable pace w/in
15minutes.
3. Poor Nutritional Strategy. Here he talks about awareness
that in training what you eat after a ride might not
matter, stopping for pop and cookies at the 7-11, but on
race day, your gastro-intestinal system will not be
happy. Carbs should be easy to digest, often liquid form.
Many racers in great shape have had stomach problems, or
intestinal problems that results in DNF. (we've all been
there, eh? Cramps, bloating, diarrhea)
4.Poor Mental Strategy. This is a good one. Think about what
gets you through those mentally tough sessions - what kind
of 'self-talk' do you do? (Badger: a mentally tough
session is different than a physically tough session)
Rehearse what kind of 'soothing or inspirational talk'
you're going to do
if/when you reach a mental rough spot. Then get through it
and keep going.
One strategy if problems mentally is to just go to the 'no
talk zone' and think nothing...i.e. avoid negative thoughts
is more important, and being 'quiet' mentally is one place.
Just see the beauty of nature, monitor your systems (feet
ok, eating on the move ok, water consumption ok, etc.)
5. Poor Tapering. If you're doing short course racing, then
a week of taper where you reduce training load at least
25% from normal load could be fine. If you're doing
IronMan level, take at least 4 weeks prior to race and
reduce load, stay healthy, heal up any injuries is best.
He talks about the "Drop Dead Taper" which is good to know
as a fall-back if you haven't been able to taper:
a. Three days needed to do the DDT - day 1 and 2 just
sleep and eat modestly, and do nothing else.
b. Day three do a little training on the three legs,
swim, bike, run just enough to get the muscle cues /
muscle memory awake.
c. Day four - Race day.
Hope this helps everyone - I think the ideas are applicable
even if you're not training for a race, but you do a 'max
out' distance day, for example, and even if you're not
swimming or running, or if b/c of an injury you can't run
much, but want to do a little to compliment the biking.
Happy Training -Badger