February Follies, The Key to Athletic Prowess, and Exactly 1/300th Running

Is David Blaine a triathlete?

I only ask, because it seems like February is one big disappearing act.   Fitness gurus appear in the weeks after New Year’s and then… POOF!  Once February hits, it’s all over.  In the weeks immediately after New Years there are crowds in the gym.  In February, the gym now becomes virtually desolate by comparison.  The meticulous off-season weight program you started has now faded into the snowy darkness.  Now, I can understand dialing back your training.  I believe it’s even necessary for longevity.  However, too much of a good thing is rarely… well, a good thing.

And therein lies the key to athletic prowess:

Don’t stop.

That’s really it.  You just don’t stop.  You don’t try to necessarily start anything crazy, and you most definitely don't stay completely on the gas.  You just don’t stop.  I’m not sure if this is correct English, but I call it “consistency”.   If you’re consistent in the off-season, you will always be a better athlete than last year.  I guarantee it.  If not, there are plenty of excuses you can use to tell me I’m wrong.  There are a million and one excuses.  Here’s the thing: are just as many reasons to just do the work and keep going.  You just don’t stop.  It’s really that simple.  But it’s also complicated as all hell.

Ahh, it’s the “Off Season.”  …if there is such a thing.  I mean, there’s a part of the year where most of us single-hemisphere people don’t race triathlons.  But we’re busy doing plenty else.  Weather permitting of course.

Now that the “off season” is in full swing (or more appropriately, in “no-swing”, or “part-swing”) I’m looking critically at my first “off season” as a professional athlete.  It makes me also think about what the “off season” means to me in general, and how they have typically played out.  I have to qualify that by saying that I’m looking at it’s current meaning to me as a professional triathlete.  Because it might change as I go along.  Even it’s past meaning as an amateur triathlete has changed year to year.  And as a professional sports coach, I’ve seen lots of other athletes and how they utilize (or squander) it.  These different hats all allow various perspectives, from which to critique subtle differing challenges and outcomes.

Like my FDA colleagues when I was in industry, I have to add a disclaimer up front.  What you may read is my personal perspective, based on my current state as an athlete.  Basically, I guess I’m saying as an athlete I love to share what I do, which may include details on my training.  But, the coach in me is always a bit afraid that someone will feel obligated to replicate it and possibly end up injured.  (Not that what I do for training is all that crazy.)  I just hope that anyone who reads this (and frankly, I’m surprised if anyone does) they can extract some tidbits and ideas for application to themselves.  But I caution them not to full-on emulate.  Mostly, I hope my writing is entertainment.  If you want to train like me, I’m a coach.  Drop me a line and we’ll get on it.

Just know this… professional athletes train like mad men and women.  And it takes years of stepwise training, for that training to be sustainable without illness, injury, etc.  YEARS!  Not months.  Years.  I love reading this canned quote from the new professional triathletes when they are asked; “Now that you are a full-time professional, how has your training changed?”  Inevitably, they say: “Well, you know, uh, my training hasn’t really changed at all.  The biggest difference is that I have more time to recover between sessions.”

Total.

Horse.

Crap.

Reading that crap is almost as funny to me as when a pro triathlete says they eat nothing but 2 tablespoons of almond butter on a half piece of bagel for lunch.  Ganter calls BS.  I think Conrad Stoltz is the only athlete ballsy enough to say he eats red meat and mass quantities of food.  Yeah, he’s a bigger guy, but he’s no NFL lineman.  When you train a lot, you need to eat a lot.  It’s that simple.

Let’s just say for the sake of argument it’s not all horse crap.  Then I’m guessing Mr. or Ms. Rests-a-lot will probably get slaughtered when they toe the line as a pro on 15 hrs of training a week and fueled by a daily diet of sprouts and avocado on a half pita.   Oh, man, I just laughed so hard my 3^rd bowl of Golden Grahams nearly came out my nose.

Like I said in one of my first blog posts, I’m a case study of one.   And this off-season has been really eventful!

After what I call a successful final race of the season at Austin 70.3 in October, I was in no way at a loss for things to do or competitive focus. Once a triathlon season is over, I immediately ask myself what my weaknesses were during the year. This year it was (again) obvious at a high level: Swimming.  But if you dissect even further, what were the specific limiters?  Strength, for starters.  I just didn’t have the strength to hold pace through the 1.2 mi swim.  And if I was going to make a leap at some point to the Ironman distance, I’d better have plenty of strength.

So I devised a weight-training plan with the help of super-swimmer and celebrity swim coach Kevin Everett.  (Please look him up, he’s one of the best triathletes in the US and world, and one of the most genuine people I know.)  He’s like Bob Harper with no tattoos. Fitting in weight training is challenging.  Even for a professional.  Or maybe I should say especially for a professional?  I say that because after a fairly brief two weeks of down time, I was back on a pretty solid training schedule.  Fitting in two workouts a day plus weights, one can begin to feel like they live in the locker room.  Not only that, but it can be that one little workout that puts you over the fatigue edge at any given time.  So it was a dance.  Even with the challenges, I managed to lift regularly and was throwing good steel around in no time.  I think that lasted until New Years.   Because that’s when my training ramped back up.

In addition to weight training focused on my key weaknesses, Kevin agreed to continue to help me with my swim development.   He was in charge of my swimming for only a few months before Austin, but even so I was very well prepared.  I was pleased with how that training dynamic worked.  So we agreed to continue to work closely (daily) to make swimming at a pro level a reality for 2012 and beyond.  Or however long it takes.  So in December and January, we slowly moved my swim volume up close to 30,000 yds/week.  My specific weaknesses in the pool revolve around lack of engagement in my pecs and lats (technique) as well as rigid ankles (I have a very weak kick, but lots of dense leg mass).  Luckily, alternate stroke work helps these types of issues.  And it makes swimming a 5,000yd+ workout about as fun as staring at a black line can be!

Probably the biggest issue with my swimming (just IMHO) was my inability to swim aerobically.  Any interval over 100yds kind of scared me.  So with a long block of primarily aerobic swimming, I’m now to the point where a 400yd interval set is not a big deal.  At first, it was mentally tough to do 4-5,000 yd workouts with interval sets all done at aerobic pace.  Which for me was about 1:22-1:24/100yd.  That’s a lot of slow swimming.  But over time, perhaps 6-8 weeks, I realized that even during harder masters swim practices, I was relaxed during the entire workout.  I could focus on my form, my splits and just plain swimming.  The biggest problems would occur when I tried to swim “hard”.  I would go into oxygen debt, which was a familiar feeling.  However, now if it happens, I can relax and recover while swimming.  The best way I can describe the skill I gained is like this:  before I used to do X x 100yd repeats on 1:45 minutes at 1:15 pace.  This affords 30 seconds of rest.  Of course I could swim 1:15 pace.  Now, I can do the same X x 100yd set at 1:18 pace on 1:25.  Seven seconds rest.  No problem.  Just staying relaxed and swimming well.  And it feels much better.  This was a HUGE lesson to learn.  It feels like I’ve turned a corner with my swimming and from here it’s just time to work on getting faster at the same effort level, while still staying calm and relaxed.  The big challenge will be to make it translate to strong pro triathlon swims, with specific the pace changes.

Swimming 30,000yds/week or 9-10hrs/week in addition to maintaining riding and running fitness quickly causes weight training to take a back seat.  At first I was lifting twice a week.  Then once.  Then once every other week.  Then it kind of just became whenever I get the chance.  I recognize that this is not a desirable trend for long-term development.  But that’s the reality.

As if that’s not enough, by October, cyclocross season was already rolling along in Idaho.  So I couldn’t help but jump in!  I added a few weekend races during November and December, with the goal of climbing the category ladder.  I started the season with a Cat 4 (beginner) license and ended with a Cat 2.  I’m pretty stoked on this.  I know all that stuff cyclists say about “sandbaggers”, so I did not like being forced to be one by USA Cycling in my first few races.   I was really excited to get into Cat 1,2,3 races.  It was really hard and humbling.

I really can’t advocate cyclocross for triathletes enough.  If you can afford (or borrow) a CX bike, or Mt Bike to use, the skills you will gain will only help you with your racing going forward.  Firstly, CX can be many things.  Depending on the course and the conditions, it can be like a threshold event or a punchy anaerobic adventure.

Either way, the typical triathlete is going to get something out of it physically.  Your typical triathlete is training aerobically and at lactate threshold, so even if you avoid the initial hole-shot and subsequent jostling, you’re going to make up ground in the long haul.  And what’s more fun than staying relaxed and then picking off cyclists while their tongues hang down to their handlebar tape?  And even if the course is a leg burner with steep hills, sharp turns, and copious obstacles, you’re going to work on a system you rarely have to call upon.  You will get strong.  And believe me, like doing a marathon, when it’s over you’re going to quickly forget the pain and want to do it again.  …while drinking a beer, eating waffles, and watching someone else suffer.

-Because that’s how they do it in cyclocross.  It has something vaguely to do with Belgium.

I do not question it.

And as a triathlete, you’re like 1/3 runner anyway right?  And luckily cyclocross is exactly 1/300^th running.  So you’ve totally got that going for you.  Every time you come to an obstacle or a muddy run-up, you’re going to grin knowing you’re about to run right past everyone.  Real CX racers actually try to run train.  How cool is that?  You’ve been doing that all season.  You’re set there.

You know how when you first showed up to that roadie group ride, and they all freaked out at the sight of your triathlon handlebars?  Here’s a tip: it really wasn’t the handlebars they were afraid of.  It was your bike handling skills.  Cyclocross is a sink-or-swim bike-handling clinic.  You are basically on your road bike, with no road in sight.  Once the gun goes off, the terror on your face shows that you’ve learned immediately that all of the practice rides in the world did not prepare your bike handling skills for racing full speed on grass.

With 30 friends.

Then, almost as quickly as you learned what you don’t know, you learn what you need to know.  It’s like magic.  Soon, you’re diving through off-camber turns and clipping-in/clipping-out in stride.  And as the race goes on, you seem stronger than everyone else.  Because you pretty much are.  Your triathlon fitness has you going at the same pace you started, while everyone else seems to fade.

Oh, and you will crash.

Crashes are just a part of cyclocross.  You’re going to crash your bike eventually.  So why not just get it all out of the way on grass?  Besides, most of the crashes will be solo, so you have yourself to blame.   Typically they’re the kind of crashes where you laugh at yourself and just get back up and race.  Those are the best kind anyway.  You don’t want any other kind.  Trust me.

Then, as an added bonus… once you have a season of CX under your belt, you show up at that same group ride with a calm confidence knowing that you can handle your bike.  You know that it’s much easier to hold a line now that being back on asphalt feels like you have Velcro on your wheels.

Cyclocross season wrapped up (for me at least) on December 18^th.   But before that came around, I ran the local LifeTime Fitness Turkey Trot 5K in downtown Boise.   I hadn’t been doing any speed work since 70.3 Austin.  I was planning to run on purely residual fitness.  I had no idea what to expect, but was kind of excited that the race advertised no official times or results.  Sweet.  No one would see me blow a gasket.

The race was very well organized.  Right downtown Boise, with the start in front of Goldie’s diner (awesomeness) and finished in front of Bittercreek Brewery (pure awesomeness).   The urban course was completely closed to traffic and marked with markers every half mile and enormous orange arrows at every turn.  The weather could not have been better on Thanksgiving 2011 for a 5k!  Sunny, light variable winds, and a temperature I’d guess a brisk 65 degrees or so.  I lined up at the front, next to fellow pro triathlete Kevin Everett.  I had been coaching Kevin’s running during the Fall, so I knew he’d run about 15:50 on a good day.  This was a good day.  And a good course.  I also knew that in the off season, I ran a 16:00 last year on a challenging course.  So it was going to be close!  After the start, Kevin, who hasn’t run open 5k’s made a slightly rookie mistake.  He chased a high school runner through the first ½ mile.  I got a 2:32 split, and he was a few seconds up on me.  He quickly relaxed and eventually we were together at through the first mile.  We were shoulder to shoulder with him pushing the pace hard for pretty much the rest of the way until about 500m to go.  At that point, I was close to red lined.  As we were nearing a final few turns, I put in a kick.  Luckily, Kevin didn’t respond.  I was hoping he would.  Let it be known, this is the first time as an athlete that I was truely conflicted about beating someone.  I wanted to see it go straight to the line.   Regardless, I don’t give anything away, so I kept the gas on and finished in 15:30.  Now that was a fast course.  Looking back, it was a BLAZING fast course!  Slight up hill 1^st mile, slight downhill through 2^nd mile and then slightly step-wise to the finish.

My 2012 triathlon season officially starts at Xterra Western Championships in Las Vegas on April 14^th.  That leaves roughly about three months for consistent training and continued development.  So, since December, I’ve been working actively on eliminating my weaknesses and consistently training.  I’ve been very consistent.  And training at a whole new level.  As proof: When I was training as an amateur from 2005 to 2010, my biggest off-season week was 16 hours.  And that was in 2010, when I was technically a professional with a full time job.  My biggest in-season week was 20 hours of total training.  Again, it was in 2010.  When I was in 9 hour (flat) Ironman shape in 2009, my biggest week of training was 18 hours.  By comparison, during December 2011 and January 2012, my training volume has been steadily between 18-24hrs/week.  This is substantially more training than I’ve previously done.  And most importantly, I feel great.  From what I hear, real professionals train closer to 25-30hrs/week.  And I’ve heard some do even more than that.

Ahh… the “off-season”.