Happy Valentines Day!

After a busy week last week I am catching up on the weekly word again. Some of the topics I wanted to go over:

1) Supplements
2) Avg. Speed on the bike
3) Swimming tight
4) Log details
5) Nutrition & Hydration during your training

I received a bunch of questions the last 2 weeks about supplements during our training & in our general diet. Let’s not forget, supplements mean exactly that: they are designed to ‘supplement’ our regular diet! They are not some magical power-boosting pill that will make your HR lower and your watts higher (yes – this is what some claim!…) Supplements are designed to fill in a blind spot of your current dietary needs. Remember – a good, well planned and thorough diet requires very little supplementation. This is a general guideline but quite effective and healthy for most of you. Of course, you all need to know your body well enough to know if you are low on any minerals…so if you are wondering, get tested. You will quickly get a good idea from your Dr. if you need to supplement your diet with anything – like iron, vitamin D, selenium etc. If so – then of course you supplement accordingly! Now, if you are getting into your main racing phase, and you want to supplement with some PROVEN ergogenic aids, then please talk to me – I might be able to provide some valuable insight – otherwise, please don’t fall prey to the usual $$ spent on advertising to convince you that product X ‘increases VO2Max and lowers your HR by 17%’…. Wanna supplement? Try some Beet Juice or increase your beta alanine by eating a healthy portion of fish – but then again this is already part of your regular healthy, well though thru diet…right?

Many of you share with me you average speed on the bike. Please know that this is the most arbitrary number in the sport of cycling. It means completely nothing! If your avg speed meant something, try riding 75 miles in Marin County, or Martin County in FL…or in Boulder…or in San Diego…Get my point? Please don’t base any of your training (and surely not racing!) on avg. speed. Terrain, weather, temps, wind, roads..everything mess with that value. Therefore it is not a value. Instead, tell me your HR you were observing, your watts, your cadences and general things you noticed, learned, thought of during your ride.

The past few weekends I have been coaching swim practices again and noticed that many of you are swimming too tight. Swimming is a very relaxed motion…same as in cycling you relax during your pedal stroke at some point, in running your stride loosens…then why would you pull through so tight under water and also stay tight during the recovery..? No wonder some of you are exhausted when swimming – relax! Bring the arms forward in a very relaxed motion: its because your other arm is currently pulling and the dropped shoulder & rotation of that pulling arm is automatically bringing your other arm forward in a relaxed way…right? Plop that hand back into the mailbox, and then begins the powerful pull through…

The log for many of you remains something so hard to embrace. Many of you still just tell me WHAT you trained. I know what you trained…I put it in there! Tell me how it felt! If you all saw how many comments I read that say: “did it”…”done”…or even tell me the intervals were “completed”…well that is nice…but how did the FEEL?

And finally – nutrition and hydration. I know many of you have heard this plenty: don’t fall into the “I gotta eat a lot” trap of the triathlon industry! here some clear points on nutrition and hydration:
YES – you need to eat and drink on the bike. But eat when hungry, drink when thirsty.
YES – this might catch you short or bonky at times – but make note of what you ate and drank and slightly adjust – observe, learn, apply, repeat!
NO – there is no magical formula – it is different for all of you but a good starting point is 150 cals/hour for ladies while training and 200 cals/hour for guys
DRINK – approx 16-20oz of fluids per hour. Water or electrolyte drinks.
EAT your calories – DRINK your fluids…try not to combine. We have been doing that for a couple 100,000 yrs and since we have been born. Why change while training?
WATCH: if you wait until your hungry to eat, most of you can eat solids…or chomps or chews…Why? Cause your hungry…
WATCH: if you eat just to meet some sorta calorie count per hour, i.e. stuff food in your mouth if not hungry yet or because you ‘feel you should be eating’ – you WILL get sick from solids!
WATCH: if you drink when thirsty, you won’t get bloated or burpy. Its sorta cool, but our body knows how to send the right signals!
TELL me what you observe. Train it, observe it, and let’s work through a strategy that works for YOU, and only YOU!
IF it doesn’t work in training, it surely won’t work in racing at higher HR’s.
If you have a powermeter: start at 30% of kJ burned (E for Energy on some meters) – and adjust from that! You’ll be surprised how good that feels!
EAT about 45 minutes after you start your ride. Most of you are working off breaky or food still in that time. If starting on an empty stomach, start a bit earlier, but remember – when hungry!

I leave for Tucson and our AIMP Spring Training Camp tomorrow. Have a great week, I’ll send plenty of updates via Twitter.

Have a great Holiday weekend. As always – send those questions my way!