Victoria's Du

Beautiful day in Waterloo for a race! Once again a very well put on race at a new venue. I liked the trails at laurel park before, but the transition venue was good. Needed some extra porta poties though.

Huge compliment of Team Running Free members. Good to meet all of you guys.

DU's are painful. A real fast pace was set off. I started in the second wave for the first time. New AG and all. It was neat passing all of the first wave people. Kinda inspiring.

I started off at the front of my wave. Probably a bit too quick. 3:20 for the first 1km. Settled in for a 14:30 4km. Good time. What I was aiming for.

Tough transition. Had to try 4 times to get the helmet buckled. Don't know why. Then at the mounting line I got on my bike and pedaled once to break the elastics, and then a guy stopped dead infront of me. I had to get off the bike. Now my shoes were hanging, and it was a bit difficult to get my feet ontop of them again. Got it figured out though. I won't have this problem starting in the fast wave in the future. Everyone knows what they are doing.

They bike was hilly and fast! Felt real strong and put a bunch of time on the leaders. I had the 10th fastest bike split. 39:00 averaging 37.80km per hour.

good transition.

Felt pretty tired on the run, but it is only 4km so I gutted it out to a 15:15. Got passed by two people in my AG. Third to fifth position's were seperated by less than a minute. Tough!!! 57 people in my AG.

Finished 5th AG, and 17th overall. My highest ever placing. Good gauge of the fitness gains I have made over the winter. Time 1:10:15.

Can't wait to sink my teeth into a tri though.

2 weeks till Milton!
He He

It begins!!!

Well, this weekend is the first race of the season for me. It is a sprint duathlon, a much shorter distance than I have been training for.

It is a C race and I am training right through it, so why am I so bloody nervous about it?

I think it might have something to do with my goals, and how much I have been training. It is the first real test of my fitness for the season. Have all these hours added up to a real difference in my performance from last year? I don't know yet, I will find out monday!

I know I am faster, but will I be at the front of my AG where I want to be? Is this a realistic goal for a race like this? How will moving up an AG affect my results? Should I start in the second wave with my AG or ask to be moved up to the elite wave?

Too many bloody questions! I hate this time of year for this very reason. It is exciting and nerve racking. Especially this year with all the time and money invested in my training and gear I'm expecting to see results.

I know I shouldn't put too much stock in what happens this weekend because it is not my sort of race( too short, no swim) but I know I will. AGHHHH!

I just want to get it over with, and then I can focus more on having a solid tri season, with a strong result or two under my belt. Get the ol' confidence back.

So I guess I just wait and see, but it is definetely causing more stress that is necessary.

Here we go!

I can see it in my head . . . .

I used to be one of those people who didn't get the idea of an elite athlete spending so much time and money on the idea of visualization.

I've read the magazines, training books and web sites, but it all seemed a little to new agey touchy feely for me.

Picture your goal, imagine yourself achieving this goal blah blah blah. . . why don't we light some incense while we are at it!

Now that I think of it, I guess to some extent, I've always done this sort of visualization automatically. I've just never quite realized what I was doing.

So yesterday, fresh off of skimming a section on visualization in one of Joe Friels books, I was about 1/2 way through the 12km run of by 4hr brick. The body was hurting a bit, and I had obviously misjudged my nutrution a little as well. Not dying, just not having too much fun.

I decided to give the visualization thing a go. I started to think about what my ideal outcome of one of the races I am going to compete in this year would be. I mentally started on the swim start, and carried through to the run. I ended up finding myself racing a fellow competitor for an AG victory, and winning.

Now, I often daydream while running but this was a deliberate mental activity on my part. By the time I reached the end of my mental race, I started to realize what was happening in my body.

All the concerns that were building in my head were gone. The legs were feeling great, the tummy was a non issue. I felt awesome. Not too mention that I had just completed two sub 4 minute kms as well. I was able to maintain that momentum for the rest of the run.

The weirdest thing was that I actually found myself acting like I was racing. The adrenaline was up, and the thrill was there as well. Not just out for another long training session.

Now, I don't know how often this sort of thing will work for me, but I now realize what sort of benefit it can have.

You still won't find me in any YOGA class anytime soon, or humming some sort of mantra, but I do have a bit more respect for what the brain can do!


By Syd Trefiak

The March BLAH's!!!!

This is probably my least favourite time of the year. Yeah, it is nice that spring is coming and the snow is melting, but I always seem to get the blahs.

It is still too cold to go outside in shorts and a T , which means an extensive amount of time is required just to get prepared for any run or ride. How many layers do I need out there. Is it too cold to bike? Can I get away with just a hat or do I need the beeny as well. Will a bike ride today require hours of cleaning afterwards? exetera. . .

I also get a little tired of just training. The motivation takes a bit of a hit. It is still two months until the first du and almost 3 until the first tri. Add that to putting a lot of work in over the winter to keep yourself motivated and your tank starts running on empty. I could do the comentary for the Spinerval videos with the sound of, and I've caught up on all the movies from the video store that I have been wanting to see.

Sure I know the nice weather is probably only a month or less away, but it still sucks. I think my vitamin D must be lacking or something. Not enough sunlight.

Oh well, maybe in a few weeks things will warm up some more. Once April hits it will only be a month until the first race and I can start using the 'pit of doubt' to fuel me at that point.

It just always seems that March sucks the most!!

Syd

The Importance of the Taper

The taper is probably one of the most important, and often overlooked, parts of any training program. However, a well put together and effective taper can make a huge difference on race day.

The taper is the period of reduced training volume before a major race. This period allows the body to fully recover (without losing fitness), so that maximum performance can be achieved during an important race. One of the biggest mistakes triathletes make when tapering is to continue doing long/slow distance work while removing all moderate to high intensity workouts. What should happen is that over a 2 to 3 week period your volume should be reduced and intensity workouts should be maintained. Due to large reduction in volume during this period, higher intensity efforts will be short in length, and performed less often.
The part of the taper that I find most frustrating is the sluggish/lethargic feeling you can get during this period. Mentally your body is telling you that you are loosing fitness. In reality this is your body adjusting to the changes you are making in your training. Often athletes are tempted to �test themselves� and end up pushing harder and longer than their plan indicates. This is where the mental discipline comes in. You need to constantly confirm for yourself that this is what needs to happen for a peak performance during the race. There is a large amount of research on the subject proving the benefits.
Depending on the importance of a race, and phase of your training program etc., a taper will usually last for between 4 days and 4 weeks. A taper of 3 to 4 weeks is normal for an Iron distance event. A good rule of thumb with an Ironman taper is to reduce the volume of your Ironman schedule by 20% each week, starting 4 weeks out from the race. This will mean that in the week before the race, you are only performing 20% of your biggest volume week. Resist the temptation to do more, and don�t fill up the extra time with other physical activity.

The theory behind the taper is that it takes your body at least 2 weeks to gain the full benefit from any training you have done. So by the last two weeks before the race, your major focus should be to allow the body to fully recover and build up energy stores for you�re A race. The training you do during your taper to keep your fast twitch muscles (which get recruited nearing the end of an Ironman when your slow twitch fibres fatigue).

Another mistake that is quite common is that an athlete will take a rest day the day before the race. Take your rest day 2-3 days before that race (possibly on a travel day for an Ironman). On the day before the Ironman complete short/easy workouts in all 3 disciplines with some short sprints to keep those fast twitch muscles firing.

In shorter distance races(sprint/Olympic) athletes sometimes respond better to a more abrupt taper (60-90% in the last week). It is important at these distances to test out your taper at a minor race prior to you�re a race. Each athlete will respond differently.
If possible always test out any changes to your strategy (taper, nutrition) prior to implementing it at an A race. For Ironman distance competitors it may be feasible to test a shorter taper at a 70.3 (1/2 IM) event earlier in the season.

Best of luck training!
Syd

References
Mujika, Padilla, Pyne and Busso. Physiological changes associated with the pre-event taper in athletes. Sports Med. 34(13):901-927, 2004.
Mujika and Padilla. Scientific bases for pre-competition tapering strategies. Med. Sci. Sports Exercise 35(7):1182-1187, 2003.

Team Running Free

Woo Hoo!!!!
Just found out that I have been accepted to Team Running Free!

I'm so stoked! I'm really looking forward to racing in the team swag and getting involved with all the cool stuff they do!

I am so excited about being part of a team. It will be neat hanging out with all of my teammates at the races and other events. I love this sport, and now I have even more people to share it with!

Awesome!

Syd

160km on the trainer.

.
Well, for Xmas I got the Spinervals Hardcore 100. (I asked for it) Been slowly building up to the full 51/2 hrs it takes to finish it. Wholeheartedly ignoring "Coach Troy's" threat of letting the air out of my tires if I didn't do the full time.

The idea of spending 51/2 hrs on the trainer was daunting in itself. I know physically that I'm capable of it, but mentally that is a lot of time and energy spent on going nowhere in particular.

Now I am fully aware of the benefits of spending lots of time on the trainer in the winter, and have done so in the past, but I don't think I have gotten over 3 hrs. So it was with a bit of hesitation that I put that first DVD in this morning. Today, I was going to do the whole thing.

Anyone who has done a Spinervals DVD will know that they are an excellent training tool. The workouts are well designed and well delivered by "Coach Troy". This one is no exception.

I found that it was probably the easiest 51/2 hrs I have ever spent on a bike. Granted, I have only done a few rides as long or longer ever, but this didn't seem as much of slog as I thought it would be. I definitely feel like I have done something today. The sets are interesting enough that you don't get too bored but not so tough as to hurt you too badly (until the very end anyways).

I would recommend it as a good base building tool. He spends a lot of time focusing on cadence. You do this DVD a couple of times, and you will have little problems maintaining a 90plus cadence over the century distance. I will probably also be throwing this in a couple of times right before Ironman Florida, once the temps up here drop in October. It will be good since Florida is so flat!

Give this one a try sometime. I think you will be surprised.

Syd