The new blog address for Practical Triathlon:
http://practicaltriathlon.wordpress.com/

I was reminded this week of two athletes that completed their first Ironman races last year.  An excerpt from a recent note:

...I wanted to thank you for the training plan last year to prepare me for my first Ironman, Ironman Florida on Nov.1 2008.  I had never even run a marathon prior to IM Florida let alone do a full IM.  Your plan was easy to follow and prepared me perfectly despite the fact that I developed a knee injury about a month prior to the ironman.  Because I was so well prepared from months of training the knee injury really didn’t sideline me for long.  If anything, it just gave me a little more forced rest time.  I went into the race with no real expectations of time goals but was hoping to finish under 13 hours.  To my (and most all of my training partners) surprise I completed IM Florida in 11:18.  It turned out to be an awesome day.  The swim was relaxed despite a leg cramp early on.  I finished it in 1:10, about 5 to 10 min ahead of what I expected.  The bike leg was painful on my lower back but my legs were just ready to go and I averaged nearly 21 mph for 112 to split around 5:30.  Finally, the marathon was a total surprise especially with a hurt knee and never actually having completed one before.  I had a great run-walk strategy that carried me to a 4:13 marathon split – I was even getting faster as the day was going.  I finished on such a high, it was great.  I enjoyed every aspect of the race and the whole experience.  Thanks for helping me prepare.

Shortly after receiving this note I received another note from an athlete who reported a recent long-course race success and reminded me of his first Ironman race last September that he completed in 12 hours.

My reason for posting these two examples is to remind all of you beginner triathletes, or triathletes-to-be, that the goal of an Ironman can be acheived.  I work with athletes each day that find a way to acheive their goals while still balancing all of their otherimportant life roles.  You can make it happen!

It's that time of the year when many triathletes are starting to wonder if all of that base training has paid off.  How can you know that you've achieved adequate base aerobic fitness and you're ready to start building toward your race peaks?

David Warden at tri-talk posted an excellent podcast on this topic about a year ago and if you haven't listened to the audio or read the transcript, I'd highly recommend it.  Here's a little excerpt on how to determine base aerobic preparedness using heart rate and output:

There is a method to determine if you have a sufficient aerobic base, and I want to thank Joe Friel of TrainingBible coaching for providing me with this information.

This test protocol simply compares your power or speed with heart rate over an endurance ride or run. There is some research to indicate that when aerobic endurance improves there is reduced heart rate drift relative to constant power or constant speed. And, of course, the reverse of this is that when heart rate is held steady during extensive endurance training, output may be expected to drift downward.

For example, the next time you download a workout from your training device, you probably have the ability to graph HR and power or speed on the same chart. In a perfect endurance ride, where there were no intervals or significant intensity, just a nice long Zone 2 ride, these two lines would run relatively parallel to each other.

However, you may have noticed that on some of these long rides, your HR tends to drift up even when output remains the same. Or, if you are trying to maintain a Zone 2 effort, you may notice that when you look at the graph that even though HR remained the same, out (power or speed) went slowly down. In those cases, the lines on the graph representing HR and output no longer run parallel, but begin to drift apart.

The parallel relationship between heart rate and output (power or speed) is referred to as “coupling.” When they are no longer parallel in a workout they have “decoupled.” Excessive decoupling would indicate a lack of aerobic endurance fitness.

But how much is excessive? There is an acceptable amount of decoupling that can take place and still indicate a solid aerobic base. A good indication that a base fitness has been met is less than a 5% decoupling over a Zone 2 workout.

READ MORE...

With Ironman NZ going on this weekend it's a good time to revel in one of the most exciting finishes in Ironman history.  The picture says it all...

(Image source: Ironman.com)

From IronmanLife:

I was there in 1989 when Dave Scott and Mark Allen waged the Ironwar. I was there two years ago in Frankfurt, when Nicole Leder and Andrea Brede ran stride for stride for 35 km and then sprinted for the line in front of about 10,000 screaming fans and a live, nationwide television audience. I wasn't in New Zealand 19 years ago to witness Ken Glah and Pauli Kiuru put together the most incredible finish our sport has ever seen. I sure wish I had been!

Officially the difference goes down as one second – that’s the way timing works in an Ironman. In reality, it was tenths, possibly even hundredths...read more...

Is the weather outside less than desirable?  Does it feel like you have plenty of time to skip workouts and still get on track in time for your summer "A" races?

Every missed day and every skipped workout is an opportunity that has been wasted.  An opportunity to progress toward your personal best performance this year.

During the off-season it's important to constantly remind yourself of the pay off that your hard work will afford.  Stay committed to your goals.

Endless cold mornings, racking up the treadmill miles, cycling in the basement...it's all worth it!

In my opinion, Ironman France is one of the best destinations for an Ironman event.  If you sign up just remember that you might want to come to the race with your drops, clip-ons, and climbing chainrings for the ride through the alps.

Ironman France 2009 Quick Facts:

Race date: June 28th, 2009

3.8 km SWIM
180 km BIKE
42.195 km RUN
 
50 slots for the Ford Ironman World Championship 2009 in Hawaii

Entry fees:

entry deadline: December 31st, 2008
regular entry fee:                   € 350,- + € 10,- online handling fee
offline entry fee:                    € 350,- + € 20,- offline handling fee

late entry: from January 1st until April 28nd, 2009
late entry fee:                       € 400,- + € 10,- online handling fee
offline late entry fee:              € 400,- + € 20,- offline handling fee

You just can't beat holiday cards and calendars at TriSanta.com!

Over the last two weeks I've had a wave of new athletes and current athletes signing on and getting their 2009 triathlon training plan and goals in order.  I don't know that I've been this busy in November over the last 8 years that I've been coaching online.  I guess something has everyone energized and ready for big results in 2009!

Just 10 more days until Olympian triathletes will be crowned.  Click here to read more about the men's and women's fields.

(Photo source: Triathlon.org)

Olympic Triathlon Event – Women
Monday August 18, 2008

10am local Beijing time (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Vancouver/L.A – 7pm on Sunday August 17

New York/Toronto – 10pm on Sunday August 17

Dublin/London – 3am on Monday August 18

Madrid/Berlin – 4am on Monday August 18

Moscow – 6am on Monday August 18

Tokyo/Seoul – 11am on Monday August 18

Sydney – 12pm on Monday August 18

Auckland – 2pm on Monday August 18

Olympic Triathlon Event – Men
Tuesday August 19, 2008

10am local Beijing time (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Vancouver/L.A – 7pm on Monday August 18

New York/Toronto – 10pm on Monday August 18

Dublin/London – 3am on Tuesday August 19

Madrid/Berlin – 4am on Tuesday August 19

Moscow – 6am on Tuesday August 19

Tokyo/Seoul – 11am on Tuesday August 19

Sydney – 12pm on Tuesday August 19

Auckland – 2pm on Tuesday August 19

(Source: Triathlon.org)