What Success takes Dirk Friel

Around a month ago I got the chance to sit down with Dirk Friel Co- founder of Training Peaks.

Many of us who were racing bikes in the early 2000's know him better as the guy who just crushed any hope of a win today.  In this interview we discuss what brought him and Training peaks to be one of the top 50 companies to work for in the country.  Similar questions as when we interview Savas about his first Ironman race and Will Kelsey about what it take to be a professional X-terra Triathlete



A few things that really stuck out as Dirk and I talked:
 ~"You have to believe its going to work"  Dirk thought of his growth with Training Peaks as an athlete thinks of his progressing of fitness.   "Will these 5 hour rides pay off? you have to believe you know..." 
~ Consistency is the most important"  (I've heard that some where before)
~ When I asked him if he ever through he would fail? "No."  no elaboration. 
~ "Hire people who are smarter than you"  
~ When I asked him if he was happy with where T.P. was he said, "well... you never rest on your laurels"  and gave a grin that seemed to say "I know something you don't know..."  A similar grin as many saw racing against the former pro cyclist.

            Full Video Here:

4 keys to Winter Training

Our latest training article as seen on training peaks recently.

Consistency

Being consistent is so important. It is better to do 6 x 45-minute trainer rides before you do 1 x 5-hour ride and nothing else all week. Think of your weekly training as a set of intervals. You rarely go out to do a threshold workout as 1-hour, all-out effort. You break it up into 10- or 20-minute intervals. Same thing here. Plan ahead and “pay it forward” a bit by saving some energy (both physical and mental) on Wednesday so you can get in another session on Thursday or Friday. It’s not the training you do this week; rather it’s what you do for this 3-4 months.

Here, EK Endurance Coaching training pyramid shows you consistency is the foundation for EVERYTHING. This is not to say you have to train as long or as often as you might in spring or summer but you do need to find a manageable workload you can consistently complete.

Structured Endurance Training

Something many people don’t realize is that if you are working at your lactate threshold or below, you are getting the same adaptations as you do from doing long slow distance (LSD) training. What’s the catch? Well of course, the harder you ride the less time you can hold that effort for. But it’s winter and you are reading this because you don’t want to spend three hours on your trainer on Tuesday morning. So the old adage of “if you only have a short amount of time go hammer!” is sort of true in this case. However, do it with purpose and structure. Our Hour Of Power cycling workout library is designed for just this. Quality training that keeps you focused (distracted) while still having fun and getting your workout in.

A solid standard trainer set might look like this. This one isn’t the most exciting but it gets the job done:

Warm up:

• 15 minutes easy

Main Set:

• 10’ Zone 3-upper Zone 3 
• 8’ higher power than last interval
• 6’ higher power than last interval
• 4’ higher power than last interval
• 2’ higher power than last interval
• Take 2’ rest between all intervals

Cool Down:

• 5- 10 minutes and you’ve done a nice hard, aerobic descending interval set that goes by quite quickly and can be done in 1 hour.

Weakness Training

I have been talking about and practicing this in my coaching since I began working with athletes over a decade ago. If you want to improve, you must discover your weak areas and bring them up to par for your goals.

I have done webinars, written articles on our blog, and had teams hire me to instruct them on the ways to find what your true weak area is and then how to train it. What you need here is:

Numbers:

They don’t lie. I have seen this many times with athletes, including myself. We think we are good at something we want to be good at, when in reality, we are not. Get a power meter and do the proper field testing.

An objective view:

This is where a coach can be critical but it doesn’t necessarily have to come from a coach. A trusted, experienced teammate or training partner can help an enormous amount.

Work without ego:

I have quoted GI Joe before in regards to training. “Knowing is half the battle”. Now it’s time for the other half. The WORK! I always say to my athletes “You have to train with what you have, not what you want to have”. Be patient, improvement won’t happen overnight—but it will happen if you keep at it.

When training your weakness in the winter, break it down to its most raw element. I had a conversation with a road cyclist in the winter of 2008- 2009. I determined he had weak neuromuscular power. He had trouble with high-speed crits and repeated accelerations in races. So are we going to have him do jumps and sprints with short rest and mimic crits on the trainer doing lactic acid bath workouts? No. We are going to focus on that maximum power. Different types of short, maximal efforts with long rests. Over the course of six weeks that winter we improved his 5-second power by 14%. From 1250 to over 1400 watts. That year he upgraded to Category 1, getting good results in hilly road races, TT’s and short crits.

Flexibility and Rest

Rest is very important—maybe the most important part of your training. Just because you are not logging 3-hour rides doesn’t mean you don’t need off days, recovery rides and stretching. Often I see more tightness and injuries in winter than in summer. Why? I feel it’s because athletes don’t take the time to cool down as much and stretch/recover properly. When their last interval is done, all they can think is, “Please get me off this thing!”. They grab some water and food and then are off to wherever. Stretch! Cool down after hard sessions! That extra five minutes now will pay you back the next time you throw your leg over the bike.

Be flexible. If the weather turns nice, bag the structured trainer workout and get outside! Not feeling the mojo today? Save it for tomorrow’s session. Be dynamic and flexible this winter. Think long-term. It’s not the training you get in this week, it’s about the all the training you get in these 3-4 months.

The fact is that riding the trainer can be like getting out of bed. It’s rough! But the act of starting is often the worst part. Get on, warm up, just spin, and after a few minutes images of racing, working hard for teammates and making the winning break will soon fill your head. Do this over and over again, and you will be on your way to having the best season ever. 

Want to learn more about winter training? Watch Eric’s webinar from last year, “Methods and Tools for Training in the Winter” where he goes into this topic in detail as well as shares specific workouts and tools for making improvements with limited time.

What success takes. Pro Triathlete Will Kelsay

Wana know what it takes to be a pro and keep on being one? well the answers here are not what you would expect. they seem more like what your mother might say... except they actuality work and have been working for Will since 2007.   Now don't let all the positive talk fool you, while almost all athletes in Boulder can spot Will's wild blond hair and huge smile a mile away he is smart and tough. I have been told of insane 6500 yard session is the pool finishing with impossible send off times, Mtn bike rides farther than I like to drive and track workouts that would make your hamstrings lock up just hearing about it. 

But whats the real secret? what's the glue that holds everything together? Lets say will has extremely good "Balance". 

Will Kelsay is known for embarking on epic triathlon based adventures. In 2007, he traveled the USA in an old RV for 3 months racing every weekend. In 2011, he circled the entire globe doing 6 races in 6 weeks in 6 different countries. This coming year Will is adding to his list of once in a lifetime adventures by hopping over the pond and spending 5 months zigzagging around Europe to compete in 10 XTERRA off-road triathlons and 1 Ultra Marathon (100k).

1.     What drove you to do this?  

Will:     My career as a professional triathlete and avid adventure seeker all came about after a realization I had late one night in a college computer lab. I had been working away on a school project when a random back spasm threw me from my chair and left me wallowing in pain on the floor. From that day on, I knew that sitting at a desk at a “normal job” was just to painful for me. I continually followed my heart (and my gut) from that point on. If it sounded fun, I perused it. If it sounded… well… not fun, I reminded myself that life was to short to waste. I wanted a career where I was continuously active. Hence, pro triathlete. I wanted to continue to have the amazing memories of traveling that I had as a child. Hence, avid adventure seeker.

2.     What other priorities do you have in life, aside from this? 

Will:     Aside from racing/training, and looking for the next interesting endeavor, I’m continually focused on doing things I enjoy. If there is a job or task at hand that is intriguing and stimulating, I’m focused on that. It’s all about staying passionate about the things you’re doing. At the moment, I’m working for Friction Facts (www.FrictionFacts.com) doing marketing and social media. They are a testing laboratory that analyzes all the rotating components on a bicycle for frictional losses. It may sound geeky, but the engineer/triathlete/geek in me is absolutely loving it. So that is my focus.

3.     What were your goals at the onset of this?

Will:    Every time I have come up with one of my ‘adventures’, I would simply ask myself, what is the first thing that comes to mind? My heart hasn't led me astray yet, so if I keep listening to it, I think I’ll be right on track.  Creating memories and stories that will last a lifetime has been the driving force behind all of this. I often think of the Abraham Lincoln quote “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

4.     What challenges did you face in preparation for this?

Will     The first trip was a total shot in the dark. I was flying by the seat of my pants from start to finish. I literally just made it up as I went along. Complete inexperience was my #1 obstacle. Finances were definitely the 2^nd factor in getting all of these things going, but by always staying positive and focused, I have always seemed to find a way. Surprisingly, logistics of the trip have been one of the easiest parts. I have been so passionate and excited about these trips that figuring out the logistics flies by and doesn't even seem like work. Subsequently, each next idea that I come up with gets a little easier to put together (or at least it feels that way).

5.     What were the keys to over coming this challenge? How did you succeed? 

Will:   The number one, ultimate supreme key factor to overcoming all of the challenges that I have faced along the way, has been to stay positive. Always tell yourself that it will work, that you will find a way, that failure is not acceptable, and it has somehow all worked out. I have definitely surprised even myself on many occasions when I use this mentality.

6.     What was it like when you got to the moment? Was it like you imagined?

Will:   At the start of my first two trips, both seemed surreal. I had planned and planned and planned for months, so it has somewhat hard to believe that it was actually happening when I stepped out the door. I think one of the things that made those trips so wonderful is that even though I planned an enormous amount, I left a lot of things open. By allowing myself to step into the unknown and not try to control everything, amazing things started happening. I met so many wonderful new people who had heard of my adventures and wanted to take part. And I was able to take parts in some pretty unexpected experiences by being completely open to whatever happened. It always turned out better than I had expected.

  

7.     What was an unexpected thing that happened to you in your prep? 

Will:  I had a bit of an epiphany while starting to plan my upcoming European trip – monotony will kill you. My 2013 season was so similar to so many of my previous race seasons (doing mostly races that I had done before, not much new), that I started to lose my normal “spark for life.” I was still doing what I loved, but I didn’t feel as motivated, excited, or passionate about what I was doing. That’s when it really hit me – I have to always be seeking new, challenging, stimulating adventures. Without those new goals, new experiences, and all around thrill of the unknown, life can get pretty boring (even for a pro athlete). I realized that we can all get stuck in a bit of a rut some times, but we have to break free and keep living life to the fullest. Make your years count!  

you can keep with Will and his journeys here: http://www.willkelsay.com/ at his web site. Trust me this will be easier than trying to keep up with him on the trails. 

What Greatness Takes

We will be doing a new series of interviews. hoping to get some on video. The theme of these interviews will be a discovery of what make people successful. in life and in sport. We will be interviewing first timers to professional greats. 

Our first interview is an athlete of ours, Savas Gunduz, who did his first ironman, Ironman Lake Placid.  Savas's story is a common one but with some very uncommon common aspects. 

Savas only trained an average of 6.9 hours per week preparing for the race. While he has a athletic build at 165 lbs standing 5,11 and his past high school soccer and college rowing endervers surely shaped some of his ability he is no Olympic athlete in disguise. Personally I feel he could be a fantastic athlete. Qualify for Kona material but his lack of consistency over the years has been the biggest issue for him (as it is for most people). 

Despite this lack of consistent training over the years and less than 7 hr's of training a week he accomplished what many people fall short off.  a near perfect IM race and his first nonetheless. 

I have highlighted some he said at the end of his question 5 answer. This is something i have heard and seen form almost every successful person ever. I am sure it will be a recurring theme

1. whats drove you to do this event. IM lake placid. 

Answer:  A Subaru.  Just kidding.  The real impetus was the fact that two of my best friends and former rowing teammates were going to sign up. I got a 4-page email from one of them, JR, stating something to the fact that we aren't getting younger, and this would be a great challenge, and on and on and on and on.  His disertation was summarized by the simple question, "So, you in?", to which I answered his lengthy email with the one-word answer, "Yep".  Therefore it was a combination of some very positive peer-pressure, with the fact that if I were ever to do an Ironman, that Lake Placid was one of the toughest, most iconic, and admittedly closest ones to me.

2. what other priorities do you have in your life Savas?  aside form this race?

Answer:  Pretty much everything else, except for clean socks.  Ie. Family, Job, Training, and then clean socks - in that order.   My wife and I had a 6 month old daughter when I decided to do the race, and we had another child during my training - so my kids were 2 and 6 months when I did IMLP.  They were definitely a priority in my life.  Following that, my job was very intense.  While I sometimes worked from home - those were 12 hour days, and I often had to travel during the week.   Behind those two things, came training.  Ahead of clean laundry, mind-you. 

3. what were your goals for this race? 

Answer: I had 2 goals - (1) to finish the race upright and feeling good.  (2) to break 12 hours, even though my coach said time and time again that "time doesn't matter".   I  knew what he was saying, that the weather could be rainy and thus the bike decents would be slower than normal.  Or the course could be windy, which would slow down times.  Or I could have a great race, but have a mechanical on the bike which would affect my time.  But still - I wanted to finish in sub-12.

4. what challenges did you face in preparation for achieving these goals? 

Answer:  The biggest challenge I faced was time available to train, plain and simple.  I had very, very limited windows of time, and those windows were constantly moving based on my work schedule/travel, or the kids' nap schedules, or other commitments (see priorities above).   I was never able to say "Every morning from 6-8am I'll swim/bike/run", or "Saturday's will always be my long rides and brick runs", because my wife could have needed help with the kids some mornings, or my work schedule would shift.

5. what were the keys to over coming these challenges? how did you succeed? 

Answer: I got a coach.  My coach was key for not just race tactics an workouts. But most importantly he was a "Time Management Expert".  I would talk to him every Sunday night and present my schedule for the coming week.  He would then tailor my workouts accordingly, for example making my work travel days my "running days" where I could simply pack my shoes.  He would help me to restructure my week's worth of training if my job suddenly shifted, or the kids got sick and I had to miss a long ride, etc.   As a result, I was able to be very consistent with my training from day one, and while it wasn't quantity, my training was definitely quality.  One other key is that I made each and every training session count.  I would be 100% mentally focused on my task at hand, and block out everything else.  Then when I was done with my training I would focus 100% on the other priorities in my life.

6 what was race day like?  this was your first IM how did it compare to what you expected/ what your training was like? 

Answer:  Race day was magical.  Thanks to the preparation from my coach of my physical abilities in the months leading up to the race, combined with the mental preparation from my coach in the days leading up to the race I had no surprises on race day itself.  It was just a matter of executing on my strategy of heartrate management, fueling, and enjoying the day.  I had a better than expected run, but that could have been because I was a bit too conservative on the bike.  But if I was more aggressive on the bike I could have potentially blown up on the run - so all-in-all it was a perfectly executed day.

7. what was the most unexpected thing that happened to you on race or in your preparation. 

Answer: The timing clock at the finish line flashed 12:01 for my time as I crossed.  And while the first person that I saw was the lady who handed out the finisher medals, the second person that I saw as I crossed the finish line was my coach, who had snuck back into the area after his own race to greet me.  That alone was unexpected, but even better was his smile when he told me that I broke 12 hours.  "Huh, how?" I asked in that post-race fog that we all experience.  "Since this was a rolling swim start this year, you actually started 5 minutes after the official time - so your real time is 11:56."   While unexpected at the time, in hindsight it made sense.  I had done the most with my training that I could  - blending consistency with quality.  I listened to ever trick that my coach told me in terms of mental preparation, and I executed my race to the best of my abilities.  The result was my hitting both of my goals - a great race where I finished upright and strong, and breaking 12 hours.

First timer Ironman race report - Savas Gunduz

 

It was 3:30am on July 28th, 2013. I had already been lying awake in bed for 40 minutes when my alarm went off. 18 months ago, two of my best friends, EK and JR told me that they were going to do Ironman Lake Placid, and JR specifically wrote me a lengthy 4-page email detailing the reasons why I should join them, summarizing his magnum dissertation with the question - So, you in? My one-word email response, "Yep", set in motion the next year-and-a-half of buying a tri-bike, hiring EK as my coach (more on that later), training more hours than my work or family life was comfortable with, but both accepted, all leading up to this point. 3 hours from the start of the biggest athletic achievement of my life.


I have been an athlete my whole life. Soccer from the moments that I could walk. Then rowing in college, and a weak attempt at the US Rowing National Team in the years to follow college. Some minor stints as a Cat 5 cyclist, winning 2 local crits, but nothing more, and then some local triathlons where I consistently finished in the middle of the pack. Top 3rd would be a good race. But now, as I walked down the stairs of the rented house in Lake Placid at 3:32am, my athletic life would culminate in a race that everyone knew of....athletes and non-athletes alike. My co-workers, my friend, heck even my Mom knew that "Ironman Lake Placid" held a special place in the heart and soul of any person who has elevated their heart rate for the sake of competitions.


3:42am - I'm standing in the kitchen with EK and JR, coffee in hand, eggs and rice on plates....eating and drinking enough calories and energy to be fueled up, but not over-full that we don't digest.


3:51am - we're done eating. Water bottles are already filled with our special caloric mixes on the counter. Bikes have already been checked in the day before (or earlier that day? Hard to tell), and all of our transition and special needs bags have been packed, and re-packed. And then checked and re-packed again. Nothing else to do but sit in the pre-dawn darkness, EK, JR and I, and talk about anything other than the impending day that we have before us. We talked about rowing races we had won and lost in the past. We talked about cross-country skiiing training weekends in -9 degree temperatures in New Hampshire, where when we opened the door to our cheap-ass Motel 3, the heat and humidity from the motel room's shower colliding with the sub-arctic temps outside to literally form a cloud in our door-way. We talked about the good old days when we roomed together, rowed together, partied together, suffered together, and all of the good things that 3 friends talk about when miles have separated them in their adult lives, but memories bring them back closer than ever before.


Before long, the sky turned a light shade of grey, and without formally acknowledging it to each other, we each knew that it was time to walk down to Mirror Lake, to the start of the race. We filled our bags with our water bottle, slung our bags over our shoulders, and marched down in the cloud-covered grey dawn to get body marked, suited up in our wetsuits, and plow into the water with 3,000 of our new closest friends.


Mirror lake:

The first doubts grabbed me at the 1/4 point of the swim. Just as I rounded the first turnaround, I was getting pounded, kicked, smacked and otherwise beaten down by my 3,000 "friends", I realized that it was not my day. I hadn't trained enough with work and family. I could always come back another year and do it right. No shame in tapping out, and as I looked frantically for a boat to latch on to, I decided to just take 2 more strokes. Then 2 more strokes. Then 2 more strokes (where's that damn boat?!?). Then 2 more strokes. Then 2 more strokes. After a while I realized a couple of things. (1) that boat was no where near me and (2) I was actually finding a rhythm with my 2-strokes at a time. I finished the first lap feeling good, and headed into my second lap latched into the draft of someone's feet. Not someone speedy, mind you, but someone my speed. Before knew it, I was 200 years from the finish of the 2.4 mile swim, and even if my goggles got kicked off my head I knew that I would finish the swim. Things just got better from there.


56x2

The bike started off slow, but steady. My Coach, EK, had told JR and I "People should be passing you on the first 5 mile climb. If not, then you're going too fast." Well, if that's the case, then I'm doing it right. First the guys passed me. Then the fat guys. Then the women. Then the....well....you get the point. But I kept it under control, crested the hill, and descended 6 miles in the rain and on wet roads into the town of Keene. From there, I again found a rhythm to my stroke, enjoyed the moment and rode intelligently...for me. Starting the climb out of the valley, back up to Whiteface and Lake Placid I started to real in the same people that passed me on the initial ascent. Aid stations were there when I needed them, and I rolled thru each one perfectly, grabbing water and Gel's and continuing on my march. I climbed the last 3 climbs (Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Papa Bear) without breaking a sweat, especially since our Coach had told us about them on the pre-race ride the day before, and rolled back into the town of Lake Placid to begin my second lap. I felt great. Perhaps too great? Should I speed up and go harder on the bike? No....you have a plan to break 12 hours, you're on plan, don't get greedy. The second lap went by without a mistake...which again were words of wisdom from Coach. "Just don't make a mistake". No crashes, no mechanicals, no missing any fueling opportunities, and most importantly - no burning any matches. I rolled into T2 feeling like the worst was behind me, and the only thing between myself and the finish line were my own legs. Not getting kicked in the swim, or crashing on the bike. Those were behind me. It was just me for the next 26.2 miles.

"Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast" was the mantra that my Coach had told us the day before and what ran thru my head in transition. Don't forget anything, don't make a mistake, and be smooth. I did a check of my watch and realized that my goal of sub-12 hours was seriously in jeopardy. I wanted to do a 1:15 swim. A 6:15 bike. 15 minutes total for transition and then a 4:15 run....finding 1 second somewhere to be able to come in at 11:59.59. But my swim took 1:17, my bike took 6:20, and my transitions, while smooth, were not "fast". Shit. I had to run nearly a 4-hour marathon to be able to break the 12 hour mark. My fastest, and admittedly only, other marathon to date was a 4:09 in Boston in '06. I was supposed to now run faster than that, after 2.4 miles on my shoulders, and 112 miles on my legs?!? Yeup. Let's do it.


26.2 what?!
My first 13.1 mile lap had me at 1:58.30 pace. Great, I had 90 seconds to play with for lap two. I held off the goblins for the first 6 miles, but then the goblins started to grab my toes. I would later find out that one of my toes was rubbing against my shoes and I would lose my toenail. But I pressed on. The goblins tried again to grab my hamstrings, but again I shook them off. They then tried to give me a cramp in my quads, but I beat them back with a banana at a feed zone. I ran thru another aid station at mile 21 and went to grab another banana, but it slipped out of my hands and fell to the ground behind me. A volunteer, a kid, perhaps 15 or 16 said "Keep running...I'll bring it to you". By then my mind was a bit blurry. "How will he bring it to me, what should I do. I need that banana". What seemed like an eternity, but what was probably only 20 yards, the kid came sprinting alongside me (mind you, I say "sprinting", but I wasn't moving that fast to begin with") and handed me another banana as I ran. He even had the composure to say "Do you need anything else?" I shook my head "no", thanked him, and he drifted on back behind me to rejoin the ranks of the other absolutely amazing volunteers who would do anything to make our lives just a little bit better in those moments of pain.


I decided to walk thru the next feed station so that I didn't make another mistake. And the next feed station. And the next hill. And then I ran past where my beautiful wife was cheering for me with my 5 month old son at mile 23. She told me that our 2-year old daughter was with her Uncle, my Brother, at the finish line. I ran as hard as I could for the last 3 miles....not so much to finish the race, or to break 12 hours, but rather to make my daughter proud as she watched her Dad finish the Ironman. If she was going to be at the finish line, Goddamnit, I was, too. My GPS watch died with 1 mile to go so I didn't know my time, didn't know my pace. I knew that I slowed down a lot in the 2nd half of the run, and that a 12-hour race was slipping away. All I could do was run. I ran past JR and EK's families - both of those guys had long since finished, but their families were like my families and they stayed out on the course to cheer me on in the last mile. I entered the Olympic circle, and saw my daughter waving at her Dad. I touched her hand as I ran by, and floated the last hundred yards to the finish.


12:01:16 said the clock above me as I crossed the finish line. But I didn't care. I had finished an Ironman. Without a doubt the hardest athletic achievement of my, or most anyone's else's, life. The first person I saw as I crossed the finish line was the woman who handed out medals. The second person was my Coach, EK who had been waiting for me (after his own race, mind you) right at the finish line. He who told me relentlessly for the past 18 months that "time doesn't matter", told me with a smile that I broke 12 hours. Huh? With the rolling start time, I actually entered the water 5 minutes after the gun went off, and my official time was 11:56. I gave EK a hug, as I couldn't have achieved what I did without him.


Will I do it again? Who's to say. I don't need to right now, as the experience I had was absolutely perfect. Given the time commitment that I had to train with work, a 2 year old, and 5 month old at home....I couldn't have asked for a better race. I executed on my plan, achieved my meager little goal, and have a lifetime of stories to tell all wrapped up in one 12 hour (11:56) day. But the future is unpredictable, and I wouldn't rule out anything. Beside, I think that I could break 11:30 some day with just a bit more training. :)