In a world which preaches HTFU around every corner I am a guy who likes to preach STFD (come on you`re smart, work it out) for most athletes. Just this week I have started working with a new athlete who dismally wrote me an email to say he had to walk some of the flat pieces of his run to keep his heart rate in the right zone. This happens a lot when I start working with new athletes, especially on the run.

They are also very irritated with me for the first few weeks of working together. Why do I have to walk the uphills? Why do I have to go so slow on the uphills on the bike? Why so many short runs?

Management of intensity and workload is something that you accumulate over time. The volume of work I can deal with now compared to even a year ago is different. You have to start small to create consistency. 2 years ago I could manage a few weeks of 12-14 hours a week of training. Now I am able to easily cope with 20+ hours a week if I had the time. Its taken me ages (lots of walking to start, lots of slow hill riding) to get this going but really the effects now are plain to see and for all the funny looks I got in the middle, it was totally worth it.

Athletes have large variability in their tolerance for both workload and relative intensity. Over the years I have had this explained to me as:

Constitution – some athletes have superior constitutions… they can just handle it.

Experience – athletes have been racing fast, or training strong, since they were young kids… they can just handle it.

Mental Strength – the athletes that can’t handle it are mentally weak. They could do it if they would harden up. You need to buckle down, toughen up and just handle it.

Part of the reason why I dislike HTFU is the philosophy points many athletes in COMPLETELY the wrong direction. STFD is more appropriate for the majority of people that I coach, perhaps Steady … … Up (STFU).

All of the above make intuitive sense but may fall apart when we take into account Survivor Bias.

Survivor Bias is when the result is skewed by the fact that many participants died, or quit, or went bankrupt… along the way. The results are skewed because you are only left with survivors to analyze. The victors get to write history.

As a new athlete, you aren’t (yet) a survivor. So basing your approach to what works for the survivors could end up being anywhere from great to disastrous. If it is a disaster then you’ll probably fade out of the sport and we’ll never hear from you again. If it is great then you’ll reaffirm the bias that is already built into the data.

How many of you have used these excuses?

…I’ve always had a high heart rate
…I can handle a high heart rate
…it’s just the way I am
…I barely move when I train at a low heart rate

Something Mark Allen taught us all is that heart rate could be a more accurate measure of stress, than work. Mark’s program is as much about capping stress as it is about building bottom-end endurance. Many athletes are stress-limited in their athletic lives (under recovery being a lot more common than over training).

Something I learned from swimming is that smaller (especially female) athletes can handle a lot more stress than larger (especially male) athletes. We saw it this year in the Cape Epic where the smaller guys do far better on consecutive days, whereas the “bigger” pro’s can smash out the watts for one or two days but tend to fade towards the end of the race faster than the 60kg whippets.

When I cap my athletes (and my own) heart rates around AeT they cannot understand it. They feel cheated, like they are not working hard enough. Which is great in the first hour. When they are HUUUUUUURTING to hold that same heart rate 4 hours into their 5 hour ride, they get a better grasp of where we are headed with the mileage and the intensities.

Many of them get it wrong in that they believe they are paying me make them swim, bike and run. I believe they pay me to optimise recovery and correct intensities. That is why I don’t ask for training logs and I dont babysit my guys and girls. They are responsible for themselves and what I do for them is teach their bodies to recover, session to session, more progressively over time, so that they too can deal better with cumulative body and mind stress over extended periods of time.

So that when everybody else is fading, 8 hours into the day at Ironman, they are just rock solid and just keep ticking along like the little train that could…

running slow...

Most athletes competing in Ironman South Africa are going through a fear of the run phase right now. In fact, I bet about 80% of them are. I know they each feel their problem is unique, but it isnt. I get asked alot about my run philisophy and even managed to have an argument with someone this week about it. So I thought to put it out there. To show how I went from a 3:34 runner to a 3:15 in the space of about 4 months. That first jump when you do things right is huge, and I am hoping to improve 5-10min this entire year, but this is how I intend doing it.

blurbs and extracts from Gordo, Friel & my own experiences.

Run Training

Training for the run leg of an ironman-distance race is very different from traditional marathon training. A review of the run splits at any long course race will show that most athletes are operating far, far below their open run fitness. In fact, most athletes average in-race paces that are slower than their ‘easy’ run pace in training.

What I always try and consider:

1. How fast is the athlete going to be running in the race?

2. What are the requirements of being able to run that fast?

3. What are the things that can prevent the athlete from being able to run that fast?

4. Is the athlete’s program adequately addressing the above points?

What are the key factors that can derail an athlete’s run leg?

1. Cramps

2. Poor race nutrition

3. Attitude

4. Improper race hydration

5. Weak pacing

6. Equipment problems (inappropriate bike position, uncomfortable clothes, poor shoe selection)
7. Straight up fatigue

The two main reasons for marathon problems are improper early race pacing and an overall endurance limiter. Outstanding run splits are achieved by a training protocol, and race strategy, that keeps the following in mind:

1. durability dominates speed – this is most effectively built through high frequency running (running very often, more than running very fast or running very long); you guys are all running4-5 days a week (or supposed to be doing that). Even if its 20min in a day, its frequency that counts.

2. outstanding race specific cycling muscular endurance is required to enable an athlete to access their existing run fitness – “race specific” is important to bear in mind – we are seeking to create superior muscular endurance across 112 miles, not sprint- or Olympic-distance racing; So its not about the run? DAMN RIGHT.

3. athletes will be running a marathon when fatigued – run training must prepare the athlete’s body for running a marathon with tired legs BUT shelling our athletes with killer runs after long rides (mega bricks) will most often lead to biomechanical breakdown and injury; In your taper you will be doing a brick every 72 hours, and I will have you running on tired legs to get the body used to that. But more on that next week…

4. sane race pacing – swim and bike leg pacing must be guided by effort and based on a realistic view of an athlete’s current fitness level. Experienced athletes that have disappointing run splits should slow their first two race legs until they are able to run in line with training performance. This requires a level of humility and maturity that many athletes will never achieve. The performance benefits of moving well at the end of a race are significant – most importantly in terms of pain tolerance and mental toughness.

A well paced ironman-distance race will nearly always be characterized by the athlete reporting that they could have ridden harder.

Bear in mind that the purpose of the taper/freshening/peak period is to enable the athlete to run a marathon after a sane bike leg, not to enable bike performance above that which was achieved in training.

Given that most athletes come to me with sufficient ‘speed’ to achieve their run goals, the optimal training protocol will give them the overall endurance, durability and mental toughness to hold an ‘easy’ training pace on race day.

So what’s the optimal protocol? I like to keep it simple:

1. frequency – gradually, safely, build running frequency – this will take many seasons;

2. nutritional quality – give your athletes the knowledge and emotional support to address their 3. personal nutritional limiters. Encourage them to nurture themselves with high quality fuel for superior performance.

4. hills – perform the bulk of long runs in rolling hills to build all around leg strength.

5. steady-state flat running – insert blocks of steady flat running into the week – most athletes will only have the time and ability to handle one or two of these sessions. (i.e. strides)

6. get tired the right way – remember the keys to a superior run leg – generate the bulk of training fatigue from the sessions that most directly impact overall race performance. (bike sessions and the long run)

Once the athlete is coping with their run frequency and the rest of their training plan, you can creep the overall steady-state running volume up.

If there was any doubt to why you are all biking so well…… this is why! At the moment all my athletes are complaining that they feel slow on the run, and super fast on the bike.

Its not about the run, in essence. Its why your training runs feel slow. They are slow. On raceday, you will be able to hold that pace after a “easy” bike. That “slow” pace is a freaking good Ironman pace.

If I have to use my own example, I have to run 4:45/km to run 3:10-3:15 on raceday. 4:45/km for me is super slow when I am fit. But on raceday I am flying at that pace. I feel like superman and everyone around me is slower. I have to slow myself down for the first 14km, then its easy to run the right speed for the next 14km, and the last 14km its stupid hard work to get to that pace. My HR is sky high and I am running in essence, quite slowly.

Work is out:

3:45 marathon is 5min21 per km

4:00 marathon is 5min43 per km

4:30 marathon is 6min25 per km

5:00 marathon is 7min09 per km

Choose your pace and work out on your runs how that feels… in the next few weeks you should be running that pace in training. It should feel stupid easy. But remember, thats about as FAST as you can run in the last 12km on raceday, guaranteed.

mad love.

I would like to think that there isn’t a story like this and that I am taking the credit for creating this tale…

“There was once a man who made the best peach jam in the world. His jam was famous for its depth, colour and taste. He crafted it from normal peaches, but it was his method of creating the jam which led to his incredible result.

Along came a man with a bucket of the finest, ripest, best strawberries in the world and asked the peach man to make him strawberry jam, the finest in the world. The peach jam man said he could not make the jam for the strawberry man, as his formula worked only with peaches, and that he would more than likely ruin the strawberries if he applied the peach jam formula to them. He also told him he didn’t have the know how to make strawberry jam.

The strawberry man was devastated and used a popular, tried and tested peach jam method (substituting strawberries for peaches) and created his own jam. It was very average.”

Now, before you call the local authorities, I have to claim that this story came to me while on the bike (suprise suprise) yesterday riding with the Urban Angel. She is going through her first real, proper base phase as she prepares to tackle an Ironman next year. My good influence I hope. She is finding it really trying to keep going to slow, but she is still keeping the bigger picture in mind. Well done baby! Keep it up. You’ll only get faster. I guarantee you that you are going to surprise yourself.

Now, if you haven’t worked it out, Peaches are Endurance, and Strawberries are Speed. Marilu has a bucket full of the finest strawberries. Added to her ability to push herself to the point of collapse, she is a danger to herself when it comes to making Peach Jam (a great endurance base). She has to hold herself back in every session right now. She knows how to hammer with the best of them. But she has no real endurance base.

As a coach, I cant create the perfect peach jam from strawberries. I first need to make sure you have peaches to work with. I can coach speedy short distance athletes just as well as I can coach the Ironman guys and girls, but I cant turn you from 1 to the other overnight. Also, they don’t need to be perfect peaches, or in other words, I don’t need you to come to me with years of base in your body. I can help you create a well balanced base in around 12 weeks, but if you have the patience for it, or the willingness to push your ego into the cupboard for that time frame, is up to you. You have to have the base.

Without a base of good endurance at the right intensities, you can forget about ever reaching your potential. Unfortunately, endurance events demand that you spend time honing your skill. I am lucky enough to come from a swimming background, so I know all about spending time staring at the black line, all whilst creating an engine.

So, if you want to succeed at endurance events (over 5 hours), you need to be packing your basket full of peaches. My parameters for that are:

1. 10 hours a week of training at AeT minimum.
2. NO speedwork
3. Cutting sugars, alcohol and refined carbs as much as possible from your diet. This will get your metabolism up and your weight to optimum.
4. Regular sleep.
5. Planned recovery phases.

If you can put 12 weeks of good behaviour in those departments together, I guarantee you that you’ll have the right peaches to create some pretty awesome peach jam.

So, once we have those peaches, we can put in the key weeks which create peach jam. Peach Jam gives you that out of body raceday experience. I believe its normal, that when you have that day, you are just well prepared and that its not “racing above yourself”. You are merely doing your preparation justice. Without peaches, I guarantee you will never have a great day out there, feeling energetic and supercharged, smiling the whole way. You will always have excuses, and not be able to get over your problems on race day. A bucket full of strawberries on Ironman raceday spells that terrible 7 letter word….

W A L K I N G

So, who wants to comment?

PS: This theory works in reverse too…