The Most Underrated Part of Training


In order to train hard, you have to adapt and recover even harder.  Or . . . you’ll stay the same. Same athlete. Same issues. Same speed.

Your lifecycle as a triathlete doesn’t end on the day of your A Race.  It lasts as long as you want . . . until you quit.  Recovery is the most underrated aspect of training and life.

Discipline to recovery takes focus, energy, and dedication. It means we are confident to take a day off when we’re exhausted. There’s no reason to put today ahead of your race, or your long-term goals as a triathlete.

Today we hit all these topics and more in our podcast.

• Nailing your training starts with nailing your recovery.
• Adjusting your recovery cycle to your body and lifestyle
• Reigning in a high-octane athlete
• Why (and how) your coach should adjust to you
• What are the best signs that you’re overtraining?
• How coffee affects your recovery
• Mentally and emotionally guiding your recovery
• What cravings for sugar, caffeine, and pizza really mean
• How being tired and being tempted work together
• The most underrated recovery tools on the market
• Why mental stress = physical stress
• How your fascia can affect your brain
• A surefire way to remain the same speed
• The magic of active recovery

Be sure to check out our awesome training plans here 
We have 13 training plans for everything from Olympic to Full Ironman, plus, Swimming and a few custom designed for certain races.
Leave us a comment and subscribe on iTunes
Email: [email protected]
www.crushingiron.com

 

 

He's Got Running Down To A Science

By Mike Tarrolly

The day before my first Ironman, I was a nervous wreck.  I’d feared the mass swim start almost every day for the previous year.  In less than 24 hours I’d be in the scrum with 2700 other swimmers and I was still searching for ways to relax.

I could hardly sleep the night before, but as stood on the cool concrete staring at the water on race morning, an extreme sense of calm washed over me.  Every ounce of fear and doubt was gone.  But why?

That experience has happened many times in my my life, especially with sports, and makes me of the saying “90% of life is just showing up.”  I’ve always liked that logic, but always wondered why that is the case?

Today, on our podcast, I learned the answer from Steve Magness, who has has a website called “The Science of Running,” and will soon release his new book, “Peak Performance” with Brad Stulberg.

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“I have a theory for everything.” – Steve Magness

Steve is the head coach for the University of Houston Cross Country team and also works with several professional runners.  His writing, philosophies, and podcasts have established him as one the most sought after minds in the endurance world.

To say Magness is passionate about sport physiology and psychology is an understatement.  He dove into our questions with childlike enthusiasm that rekindled my fire for sport, and frankly made me feel better about always wanting to know “why.”

He’s a cool guy, too.  Due to conflicts on our end we had to move the interview several times and he just rolled with the changes.  Then, 30 minutes before the podcast I was stuck in traffic, so Robbie started without me and Steve wound up recording the podcast for us.  I joined after 10 minutes.

Here are a few of the topics we cover today, but there is a lot more and we could have talked for five hours.

– Accepting anxiety in order to boost performance
– How and why training gets overcomplicated
– Why he think a lot of us would be better off leaving our Garmin’s at home
– Why coaching is usually more mental and emotional than physical
– Why we sometimes perform best when we feel bad
– Our bodies survival skills at work when we race our best
– The breakdown on Steve’s new book “Peak Performance”
– We ask about the differences between his college and professional athletes
– Biggest differences between coaching women and men
– The best piece of advice Steve’s ever gotten from a coach
– His take on the Sub 2 Marathon Hour Project
– His favorite runner of all time
Please subscribe and comment on the Crushing Iron Podcast on iTunes.

Running Slow To Get Fast: Hard Evidence

By Coach Robbie
[email protected] 

I have been strictly focused on training for the Leadville Trail 100 for about 10 full weeks now. I originally had this blog post tagged for just a typical update. Leadville this. Leadville that. Why I cannot understand everyone’s obsession with running in a flat bill trucker hat…. etc. The fact of the matter is, the only real “update” I have is that I have just been doing a ton of running. 🙂 My typical week has had 2 “recovery” runs, 2 quality sessions split between speed and hill work with 1 long run per week. I have also committed to serious strength training and injury prevention sessions to compliment my running. Ultimately what this blog is going to be about is how I was able to take off over 1:30 in my 5k in just 10 weeks by doing the old “long slow training.” I have included a lot of data/graphs/charts to hopefully better explain how I was able to achieve this. It is a lengthier blog so I put this carrot at the front in hopes you will read the entire article and apply it to your training.

Test results (10 week span)

Jan 10 – 5k test – 20:58 (6:46 pace) Avg HR – 178 , Max 185

Mar 13 – 5k Test – 19:22 (6:15 pace) Avg HR – 174, Max 184

If you have listened to our podcast called “Running slow to get faster” (embedded below) you already know why I am such a huge fan of this approach. It might not be “fancy” and FB worthy every day but it works and getting faster is the only thing I am concerned with. The chart below will show you some good data on how I have sprinkled in my runs the last 90 days. Even before signing up for Leadville and doing my initial 5k run test  I was already accumulating some pretty good frequency. As shown in the chart you can see that outside of a few “recovery” gaps my runs have all stayed quite frequent but have just gotten longer in both duration and time. Before taking my first big recovery cycle this last week I had built up to a long run duration of 2:40 and a long run distance of 19 miles. You will see in the early March block that immediately preceded my recovery cycle I had 2 really long runs fairly close together. For the record, I do not recommend placing them so close together but I gambled and did it because of family obligations that weekend. I ended up accumulating a little over 54 miles in a 5 day span so my recovery block was a welcome rest period.

Overall Run Summary for last 90 days:Running Peaks

Established HR Zones for chart below:

Z1- 118-151 – Recovery 

Z2 – 152- 161 – Endurance 

Z3- 162 – 170 – Tempo

Z4 – 171- 177 – Threshold 

Z5- 178 + – Aerobic CapacityScreen Shot 2017-03-13 at 11.51.04 AM

As you can see I spent the majority of my time in both Zone 1 and 2. To be exact I spent 39.5% in my recovery zone and 43.6% in my endurance zone for a total of 83.1% of overall training. That came out to about 54 hours of the 58 hours I spent running strictly focused on my Z1 and Z2 work. 

Established Pace Ranges for chart below:

Z1 – 8:44 and slower – Recovery

Z2 – 7:43-8:43 – Endurance 

Z3 -7:10- 7:42 – Tempo

Z4 – 6:46- 7:09 – Threshold 

Z5 – 6:45 – faster  – Aerobic Capacity Screen Shot 2017-03-13 at 11.52.38 AM

Again, as you can see here as well, most of my time in pace zones was directed towards Z1 and Z2 totaling about 86.1% of my overall training. There will always be some discrepancy in time allotted to each specific HR and corresponding Pace zone due to wind, temp, terrain, etc. 

Ultimately, what I hope you take from the pace/speed graph is that while I was able to go from running a 6:47 to a 6:15 pace for my 5k test I only spent a VERY small percentage of time even below or at threshold (less than 6% under 6:45 pace). In order to run fast, or run FASTER you do NOT need to spend all of your time running fast and doing endless amounts of interval work. Too much fast doesn’t beget fast. FAST BE GETS YOU INJURED! The right dose of easy and endurance running combined with the appropriate amount of speed work can really produce some solid benefits. So far I have been able to perform better, for longer in my endurance runs AND as shown, I am also increasing my top end speed. It is a delicate balance but incredibly important.

Sometimes the hardest thing is to not change when others are changing around you. I made this mistake a few years ago when “high intensity – HIIT” became trendy. Combine that with Strava and Garmin Connect and you have a recipe for disaster. The daily training temptations are always there and it can be hard to convince yourself that running slower is both safe AND beneficial in becoming a faster runner. So next time you are tempted to go out for a home-run workout ask yourself “is it worth it?”

RUNNING SLOW TO GET FAST (Subscribe on iTunes)

Swim Anxiety, Building Confidence, and Silencing Critics

I used to be the poster-child for swim anxiety.  Every time I got out of the water in a race, I felt like my chest would explode.  Then I’d spend the first 5 miles of the bike getting back to normal.

This went on for a few years, then I discovered the power of frequency.

Before Ironman Louisville I spent nearly 3 weeks swimming every day.  Not terribly long, but usually 1500 or so.

Two things happened:
– I got very comfortable and relaxed in the water
– I got faster

I’m a firm believer the latter is deeply connected to the former, and I think this holds true for all three disciplines in triathlon.

The more you do it, the more comfortable you are.

I swam a 1:06 that day in Louisville, by far my fastest Ironman swim.  The main thing I remember was how patient I was in the water.  I wasn’t trying to “race” but stay in my box and relax.

Frequent swimming gave me the confidence I needed to get out of the water fresh.  I still remember the feeling I had running to my bike after that swim. I had a genuine bounce to my step.

Now, what happened after that swim on a scorching hot summer day in Louisville is a different story, but that had more to do with neglecting the bike and run in training.  Hence the eternal dilemma of triathlon and why it’s so difficult to build confidence in all three sports.

On our latest podcast we take a deeper dive into swim and cycling anxiety, building overall triathlon confidence and silencing the critics who can seem threatened by your growth.

We appreciate all the email to [email protected] and the great reviews on iTunes.  Thanks for listening.

Dog Cast #1

We are very unexcited to announce our first Dog Cast.  It’s basically Mike droning on about some of his dog’s quirky habits.  There’s already been positive feedback, but hopefully this is a one-time event.

In fact, since the release of this Dog Cast we have hit our listener email goal, so we may be releasing an actual triathlon podcast later today or tomorrow morning.  Thanks for listening to the Crushing Iron podcast . . . and Dog Cast!