#Gear #Running #Triathlon #TrainSmarterNotHarder I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear. While it is important to have gear that keeps you cool and protects you from sunburn in the summer, good cold weather gear is even more critical. Even in places that normally experience relatively mild winters there are days that are brutal. And if we don’t have the right gear we have a couple of stark options. We can either: a) ski

#TrainSmarterNotHarder #LittleThingsMatter #Recovery #TrainingPhilosophy #EarnYourMiles #CrossTraining #Running #Triathlon We all know how important it is to warm up, cool down, stretch, ice, cross train, do our drills, and get the core work in. But who has time for all that, right? I mean, we run/Tri because we like to run, bike, and swim. Quite honestly, even if we had infinite amounts of time, we still wouldn’t WANT to do all those little things. But if we want to be able

#TrainingPhilosophy #Running #Triathlon #ExercisePhysiology #TrainSmarterNotHarder For any given workout, we should be trying to get a specific result. We may be working on our lactate threshold, our coordination, our top end speed, or the ability to buffer our blood pH, whatever. We’re also often working multiple things into the same workout. From a theoretical perspective, the more time we spend working hard enough to go over the minimum threshold required to improve, the m

#TrainingPhilosophy #InjuryPrevention #TrainSmarterNotHarder #Running #Triathlon #Progression #MilesMatter Note: This post assumes that you’ve been training. If you’re just starting out then it’s impossible to not increase your intensity and volume at the same time. This is why it’s extra important to be cautious when starting an exercise program. Listen to your body, know that the first couple of weeks are going to be a little rough, and don’t be afraid to pull the plug on a

#TrainSmarterNotHarder #TrainingPhilosophy #Running #Triathlon Our bodies like routine and repetition. They don’t like having the daily cycle thrown out of whack all the time. That’s part of the reason why it’s so hard to wake up early, and why we start to drift off at the same time most evenings. It’s why we get hungry at the same time, and why consistency is the most important part of any training plan. There are lots of ways that we can think of the phrase “Live like a clo

#TrainingPhilosophy #TrainingConcepts #Running #Triathlon Strap in folks. We’re getting theoretical today! *Note: I'll be updating this later today or tomorrow with images to help show what we're talking about. I often tell people that I tend to think of fitness as an N-dimensional space. And if the person I’m talking to doesn’t have a strong statistical or math background, their eyes often glaze over at this point because they have no idea what I’m talking about. Hang with m

#TrainingPhilosophy #LifeHappens #Running #Triathlon #Priorities Not all of us are slaves to our training plans. But most endurance athletes I’ve met over the years can get a bit… grumpy… when life gets in the way of training. It could be a bad weather event. It could be a family emergency. It could be that you got called into work to cover for someone who got in a wreck on the way in today. Fundamentally, life happens and sometimes there isn’t any way around it. The question

#Excellence #TrainingPhilosophy #Running #Triathlon #Endurance A few weeks back I wrote a blog post about the concept of excellence. I didn't quite have the space to really say everything that I wanted to, so we're doubling back around for part 2. It's a bit longer than I was expecting, and I have a feeling that it's something we'll be coming back to in the future as well. So what does the pursuit of excellence mean? Well, quite frankly I think it probably depends on the pe

#Running #Triathlon #Recovery #TrainingPhilosophy When it comes to improving as an endurance athlete, consistency is king. Obviously getting out the door and actually doing the work is the first part of that. The second part is being able to do it. If we get hurt, or we haven’t recovered from the last hard effort, we aren’t going to be able to do the “quality” work. Without recovery there is no progress. We don’t actually get fitter while doing our harder or longer quality wo

#Hydration #Running #Triathlon #TrainSmarterNotHarder Summer is here. It’s hot. It’s humid. And we’re all losing buckets of sweat every time we go for a workout. Even “easy” and recovery days are costing us lots of sweat. So how do we keep track of how much we need to hydrate, and how do we do it most effectively? The first thing is to figure out how much water we’re actually losing during a workout. Even an easy recovery day is enough to get our heart rates up and the sweat

#TrainingPhilosophy #Running #Triathlon #TrainSmarterNotHarder The time required to get the right training in to get better is often the biggest linchpin in the whole process for most of us. We only have so much time available to spend training because we have other priorities and responsibilities that we need to take care of as well. Most of us can’t ditch work early every day to get a workout in. Nor can we just ignore making dinner for our kids. Quite frankly, most of us h

#Training #Running #Triathlon #CoachingPhilosophy #Goals We’ve all seen the Instagram and Facebook posts about achieving your goals. Some are in the “make your fitness goals your number one priority and to hell with the rest” vein, some are more in the touchy-feely-believe-in-yourself realm. And a lot of them are somewhere in between. Most of them are some kind of kind of generic quote on a stock photo background that doesn’t actually tell us what a goal is, let alone how to

#Training #Recovery #Injury #TrainSmarterNotHarder #Running #Triathlon #Marathon Something like 80% of runners suffer some kind of injury each year. Most of these are pretty minor, but sometimes they can take us out of commission for more than a few days. Hopefully this doesn’t happen to you, but if it does, be careful when you start easing back into your normal training routine. Here’s the general guidelines I give to athletes when they ask me about how to get back to where

#TrainSmarterNotHarder #TrainingPhilosophy #TrainingPlans #Marathon #Triathlon #Running There are two basic approaches to putting together training cycles: designing the training plan starting from the targeted race date vs. starting where you are and working on the weakest link in the chain in a logical progression. A lot of endurance athletes tend use the “A-race” season model, constantly training for the next race. We might put some little races in the training block, but

#TrainSmarterNotHarder #Training #Recovery #NoDaysOff #Running #Triathlon Jerry Rice was once asked if he ever takes a day off. His answer was a very resounding NO. He didn’t take days off, because recovery was an integral part of his overall training plan. There is the image in our heads of the athlete working HARD in the gym, at practice, or wherever they get their workouts in. And it is important to work hard. But it is important to remember what the goal of a workout is.

#TrainSmarterNotHarder #NoDaysOff #Consistency #Endurance #Running #Triathlon When it comes to fitness and endurance athletics, consistency in training is the single most important factor for success. It doesn’t matter if you can crush a workout or run your guts out when you race. If you want to improve, you have to consistently put in the work. So what does it mean to consistently put in the work? It means frequently and regularly doing the work that forces your body to adap