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TRAINING
RESOURCES
BIKE COURSE: Many athletes like to train
on the exceptional bike courses of the area
beforehand. Many of the courses are marked
plus we have provided detailed maps and route
descriptions for you to use. Simply click here
to view and download.
TRAINING MAPS Don't hesitate to
contact us at
info@thegrandcolumbian.com if you have
any questions before you go to Grand coulee
area. For things to do in the area
(check out
http://www.grandcouleedam.org/ or
http://www.grandcouleedam.com/ )
TRAINING WEEKEND:
May 16 & 17. Hosted by Robin Abrams and Toby
Taylor, who have participated in both the Iron
and Half Iron Grand Columbian distances. They
will be coming with a group from the WAC
athletic club in Seattle. You will have a choice
of distances and the course will be marked. See
maps link above. Hydration and gels will be
provided before your set out and on the course.
A group lunch will be arranged after your
workout at La Presa Mexican Restaurant (they
have provided the post race food for the last
two years). Plan to run on Sunday. The new
run course will be marked for 10K and Half
Marathon distances. Hydration and gels will be
available. For more information call: (206)
499-1903
Cost $15:
You will be considered registered upon payment.
This helps us to know how may will be
participating.
If you have
previously done the Grand Columbian you will be
on our email list. All new registered
athletes are added to our email newsletter. Sign
up for our newsletter by emailing us at
info@thegrandcolumbian.com
Long Distance Triathlon Training Suggestions
Preparing for a long distance triathlon can be an intimidating task, but it doesn't have to be. The following suggestions, which were written by Paul Fritzsche of TriMyBest Triathlon Coaching and Jonathan Hoskins of Total Health Events, are designed to help you make the most out of the time you spend training and help you gain the physical fitness and confidence that will help you achieve your racing goals.
The importance of planning ahead: Many triathletes hire coaches to help them plan ahead and to ensure that each workout they do plays a role towards achieving their goals. See the "Choosing a Coach" article on this website for some additional information. For athletes who are new to the long course challenge, it is highly recommended that you consider creating a relationship with a coach, or at least a group of like-minded triathletes, to help you shape an overall strategy for getting to the start line healthily and adequately prepared for the event.
If you decide to "go it alone", you should definitely take the time to establish at least a rough plan for your training. At the very least, your plan should map out the dates of your races on a calendar and include a few notes to help you remember to include the appropriate workouts, as discussed below, for each week. Writing down the number of training hours you intend to complete each week (or at least the duration of your longest bike ride or run) would be a good next step. If you really want to be thorough, you could plan your specific workouts for each day of the week, but don’t do this too far ahead of time because it is difficult to anticipate sickness, weather, and other personal or work commitments.
Knowledge is essential to establishing a good plan, and the following books are terrific resources:
Triathlon Training Bible by Joe Friel
Going Long by Gordo Byrns & Joe Friel
Traithlon 101 by John M Mora
Triathlon Training Basics by Gale Bernhardt
After reviewing these books and talking to a qualified coach, you will find that there is mostly common agreement on some fundamental principals of training, such as:
Building a solid base [training to train]: Long distance endurance is best developed through long duration, easy or moderate training sessions in each of the disciplines. However, the ability to do long training sessions requires a decent physical capacity to build upon. Getting to the truly long workouts that approximate the racing distances of Iron
or Half-Iron is a gradual building process. Since you will need to increase duration slowly, it is essential to start building your base at least 4 - 5 months prior to your race date. Building a base means acclimating your body, mind, and routine to meeting the ever-increasing training demands.
Before trying to do any exceptionally long training sessions, spend at least a few weeks just working on training consistently. This will help you learn to organize your workouts, acclimate your body to doing a variety of workouts on consecutive days (or even same day), and build core strength and fitness in swimming, biking, running. Instead of suddenly trying to do long workouts, it is important that you consistently increase your abilities by doing focused shorter strength and capacity building workouts to help prepare your body for the longer workouts and lessen your chances of injury. When you're ready to begin adding duration to your routine, you should start by increasing the length of your longest bike and run sessions (which will likely be on the weekends). Many pundits recommend no more than a 10% to 15% increase in each of the weeks as you build. This is where developing a good plan based on some research will be important. When you reach the meat of your training, in the 2-3 months before the Grand Columbian, a good weekly routine would likely include one long bike ride (up to 5-6 hours) and one long run (up to 2.5 hours), as well a couple shorter tempo/interval bike rides and runs and two-three swimming workouts.
Swimming specific tips: Training for swimming differs from training for biking and running for several reasons. Swimming requires constant attention to technique and form, so most swimmers break all their workouts into intervals to help themselves stay focused. Especially during the early part of your season, you should include form drills into every swim workout. You could develop endurance through long, steady swims, but you can get the same effect by doing some intervals of 400 - 1000 yds each with short rest between them, and it will be much easier to maintain good form. Shorter intervals (50-200 yds) with longer rest are very effective for developing speed and power. You will likely want to mix both kinds of intervals into each workout, and you can easily vary the overall focus of the workout by altering the ration of long vs. short intervals.
Developing functional strength: Some of the best strength training exercises develop strength and power through functional movements. These often include the use of a medicine ball, fit ball, stretch cords, and/or body weight instead of conventional weight lifting equipment. Functional strength training can easily be done at home, and it has the added advantage of developing your core strength simultaneously while you strengthen your arms and legs. You should ask a trainer or coach to show you proper way to do functional strength training, but you can find some great (free) examples of functional exercises in the "Training Zone" section on http://www.performbetter.com/. Some indispensable exercises include "one-legged squats" and "figure-8's" with a medicine ball and "bridges" and "shoulder roll-outs" with a fit ball.
Interval training: It is important to note that when you are training for long distance events, endurance training does NOT end when you begin doing intervals. You should continue doing your longest bike rides and runs, but gradually start working interval training into your shorter rides and runs. Intervals are important, however, because they will help you develop power and speed and teach you how to perform at various intensities. While going fast may not be high on your priorities when preparing for a long-distance triathlon, consider this: If you do all your bike training at 16 miles per hour, then when you ride 16 mph on race day, you will be riding at 100% of your fastest pace. However, if you’ve included intervals where you were going 20-22 mph (albeit for a shorter time), then 16 mph is only 73-80 % of your fastest pace.
Below you will find general descriptions and examples of the 4 basic types of intervals, as well as recommendations for when to do each of them in relation to your main event:
- "Fartleks" (when running) or "Jumps" (when biking): These are short bursts (10-15 seconds) of fast running or biking randomly inserted into a longer workout. They will help your long, slow training pace from becoming stale, prepare your body to handle the effort and stress of longer intervals, and they are short enough that they don't have a significant effect on your heart rate. You can include these almost as soon as you begin your base training, and continue them until you eventually replace them with the other, longer intervals described below. Example: Do a 1 hour run with 6 fartlek efforts (at approximately 5k pace) inserted randomly during the second half-hour.
- "SFR" (slow-frequency resistance): This is a cycling-specific type of interval, often done on a moderate incline in a high gear at a cadence of about 55-65 RPM. SFR intervals usually last between 30 sec and 5 min, and they help you develop leg (and core) strength in exactly the same position in which you ride. You should begin doing these about 9-10 weeks prior to your race, and continue them for 3-4 weeks (doing them once per week during one of your shorter rides). Example: Warm up 15 minutes, ride 10x 1 min SFR intervals with 2 min recovery between each, Cool down 15 min.
- Threshold intervals: Threshold intervals are fairly short (30 sec - 3 min) efforts done at (or slightly above) your lactate threshold pace (approximately 10k run race pace or 40k bike race pace). Your rest between each interval should be approximately twice as long as the duration of the interval. Maintain a high cadence throughout each interval, and try to recover actively (by spinning in an easy gear or jogging) instead of just stopping and standing around between intervals. Begin doing these once a week (during your shorter workouts), beginning about 8 weeks prior to your race, and continue doing them for about 5 weeks. In cycling, you can alternate weekly between these and the SFR intervals. Example: Warm up 15 min, run 8x 800 at threshold pace, recover with a very easy 400 jog between each.
- Tempo efforts: Once your body has some practice doing threshold intervals, you will be ready to start including tempo efforts into your routine. These are relatively longer (usually 20 - 40 minutes) intervals performed at (or slightly below) your lactate threshold pace. Since these intervals are fairly long, you usually only include one or two in a workout. Some of your lower-priority races can also double as excellent tempo workouts. Example: Warm up 20 min, bike 20 min at threshold pace, recover 10 min in an easy gear, bike 20 min at threshold pace, cool down 20 min.
Injury Prevention: Training for a long-distance event will undoubtedly create more wear-and-tear on your body, but by being proactive, you can avoid letting injuries prevent you from achieving your goals. Start by ensuring that you your bike fits you properly. Also, try to remember to replace running shoes before your old ones are completely worn out. Try to stretch daily, but only do so once your muscles are warmed up (stretching at the end of a workout is often safer than stretching cold muscles beforehand). If you can fit it in your schedule, incorporate a yoga or pilates routine into your lesser workout days and weeks. You should consider building recovery weeks into your training plan (perhaps once every 4 weeks) to help keep you from becoming over
trained, injured, and mentally burnt out. Train on soft surfaces, such as trails, whenever possible, and always be mindful of traffic when you are biking or running on the roads. If you start to feel an injury coming on, don't try to ignore it! If rest and ice don't make the pain go away quickly, make an appointment to visit a physical therapist before the problem worsens.
Tapering for your event: Approximately 2-3 weeks before your race, you should begin to cut back your training to allow you body to be well-rested by race day. Research your taper by using the research methods mentioned. Tapering does not mean that you should stop working out completely, but rather shorten your workouts’ duration become more focused on speed recovery. While tapering you should try to avoid doing any workouts that are overly-demanding, especially from an endurance perspective. Shorten the duration of your long bike rides and runs by about 50%, and continue to include some intervals, but reduce both the number of intervals and the length of each one.
Nutritional Considerations: Almost all athletes arrive at the race prepared physically to complete the race. Without question, the majority of DNF's among age-group athletes usually relate to nutrition and hydration issues, which many consider to be "triathlon's fourth event". In a long distance triathlon, you will likely be racing from 6 to 17 hours, burning up 450 calories or more per hour. With some simple calculations, you can see that there is a significant nutrition management component to a successful race. To finish a long-distance triathlon, you will need to consume plenty of carbohydrates and liquids. See the "10 Essentials of Nutrition" article in the nutritional section of the Grand Columbian website. Developing and practicing a good nutritional strategy in your training will help you prepare for a successful race day. Your exact nutritional demands may vary, but a good starting point is to use the nutrition and hydration products that you intend to use on race day. It is highly recommended to acclimate yourself to the products that will be on the course unless you are planning on carrying your own. Think in terms or steady replacement strategies. You will need to consume at least 1 pint/quart of water/rehydrant every hour on the bike and run. Electrolytes will also need to be replaced, usually through a combination of sports drinks, gels, and pills. To meet your caloric demands, you will need to consume between 200-350 calories of easily absorbed carbohydrates per hour, usually through a combination of gels, hydration drink, and energy bars (on the bike)click
here to access a Nutrition Coach.
Be sure to test out your fueling strategy during your training sessions to find what works for you.
During your race, try to stick with the same routine that worked well for you in training. One thing many athletes overlook when racing is that energy bars and gels are generally meant to be consumed with water, so washing down a bar or gel with a sports drink often leads to an upset stomach. During the final week before your race, you should make sure that you are eating plenty of carbohydrates. "Carbo-loading" is a process that happens over several days, so don’t rely on one big spaghetti dinner to get you through your race.
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