Client report

EN Coaching client, Stuart McFarren nailed his ½ ironman Cancun with a 4th place in his age group which earned him a spot the 70.3 world championships in Florida! Nice job Stuart!! Stay tuned for more on his world championship race!

Fall Transition: part 1

Part one of a three part series that I am doing on the fall transition of training and racing. My first article encompasses most of my seminar that I have been doing around the country, well... Eastern and Mountain times zones anyway. Enjoy...

• It’s that time of year when we start to sit back and relax… sometimes. most of the time not enough! Many of you are probably already thinking about next year and starting to plan. That’s good, but before we can effectively plan out next year we have to take a look at this year. Reflect a bit and figure out how we are going to train more effectively. The first place to look is your weakness. However finding this can be harder than it seems. Here are a few methods for analyzing your season and finding your weakness to get you started right on 2008.
  
  Step one: Analyze Your Season
  Did you meet your racing goals and training objectives? Did you peak when you wanted to? Did you go as fast as you predicted? These should be pretty simple yes or no questions. Look then at your training objectives. These might be things like climb hill X in 30 minutes or less, raise FTP by 3%, etc. They should be measurable goals that are stair steps to you major goals. If you didn’t meet your major goals of the year the answer, or at least part of the answer, to why may be right there. As you keep looking into why you did or did not meet your goals look at everything: job, personal life, relationship, etc. Stress out side of the athletic world is the number cause of people under performing. If you’re a lawyer working 60+ hours a week and training 20 hours a week as well as being a mother or father, you may have been setting your goals a bit too high.
  Note what worked for you and what did not. The things that worked you will want to keep in your bag of tricks as the things that will likely work again. The things that didn’t work, get rid of them! We’ll come up with something better!
  
  Step two: Finding Your Weakness
  There are 2 ways to look at this. A good starting point is finding your weakness by the numbers. On the bike, the easiest way to do this is test your power profile. Test your maximum power out put for 12 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes and your threshold power.
  A power profile chart can show you where you are lacking. Is this written in stone? Is this the end of the road? No, but it is a good starting point. Even if you don’t “need” the areas you are weak in, for example, an Ironman triathlete having a weak 12 sec. and 1 minute power. They don’t need that ability but if it is weak enough it could be an area that is holding your other abilities back.
  
  Part two of this is comparing your weakness to your competition? “But Eric I don’t race other people I race my self.” That’s fine and I applaud that self motivation but if you want to improve the best place to look is to the people that are better than you. For example, in your triathlon results if you’re coming in 50th on the swim 50th on the bike and 450th on the run time after time again working on your running would be a good place to start. If you’re getting dropped on short hills in bike races, short hills or 1 to 5 minute power outputs might be your weak point. Before you make the decision as to what your weakness is make sure you have more than one or two examples that show your weakness. Also look at this deeply. This is very important. Are you not running well because you’re and bad runner OR because your swim and bike are not up to par and you’re paying for it on the run at the end of the race? Are you getting dropped on the hills because you’re a bad climber or because the hills are at the end of the race and you have trouble there because your threshold power and endurance is not as good as your competition? Take some time with this, consult a coach and or trusted training partner or both.
  
  All of this may look straight forward on paper but it’s harder to implement than it looks. Getting some one else to give you a good objective look at your self could be the best thing you do this fall. Now put it into action! Commit to getting out of your comfort zone. Don’t do the same old workouts, mix things up! Take a chance and train that weakness.
  
  Eric is an associate coach with Endurance Nation and Performance Training Systems and coaches all abilities of Triathletes, Cyclist and other endurance athletes.

Client Report

After a long hard season client David Smallwood not only road a very strong Green Mt stage race but went on to place 8^th in the Topsfield crit the following weekend! Nice job David!!

The crit lasted over an hour and boasted strong fields in every category.

Client Race...

Client Andrew Graziano and his team came in a very solid second place in the 24 hours of triathlon in Boulder, CO. he and his team raced well with all members riding solid splits. It was Andy’s early fast and steady running that set them apart from most of the competition. Nice Job Guys!! This was a fun time for all and a solid block of training for Andy as he continues his preparation for Ironman Florida.

Coaching seminar #1 complete

Thanks to all who attended and to those who wanted to but couldn't come. It was a huge success! We had around 10 people attend the east coast edition. A good group yet still intimate enough where we all got to learn a little from each others experiences.

2 more coming up in CO!! If you are interested in coming and haven't received any info on them you can contact me HERE.

here is an out line of the topics I cover in this clinic.

Preparing for next year (find and train your weakness)


1. Analyze your season
a. did you meet your racing goals? Why/ why not.
b. did you meet your training objectives? Why/ why not?
c. how to analyze your goals…

2. how to find your strengths:
a. compared to the numbers
b. compared to your competition**

3. how to find your weakness:
a. by the numbers
b. compared to competition***

4. how to Plan for next season
Periodization, AND adding elements to train your weakness…
Setting race goals.
Setting t training objectives that align with your race goals.
Rest

Putting it all together.

"Bridge to Engine Room...

"Scotty I need more POWER!!!!"

"Captain, your to tired! you've got no more to give!!"


That was pretty much the dialog between brain and body at the circuit race. I was acutely racing well for a bit. I found what looked like a good break but we were brought back. From there on out things got desperate and stayed that way. The legs and body, just empty.
There are a few clients that I have stressed to “you need to know where your limits are” even if your race doesn’t take you there you need to know where they are. Well, this season I found some new limits for myself.

35 races+ 3 peaks+ growing business+ part time job+ buying new house= Too Much!
Looks obvious but some times its hard to see the forest through the trees.

I knew I was pushing things coming to this race but I had to try. I regrouped after the race and figured the death march RR would be better, I would be better, not attacking early, etc…
But, after a sleepless night and significant time in the bathroom, I had to concede. GMSR, you win.


Here is a pic of me trying to figure out how I became a shadow of my normal self and some friends trying to talk some sence into me.

GMSR stage 1. How much do you love your sport?

stage 1 race repot up. Its not pretty.