30-20-10 Workout

There is a new running workout in town, increase your gains from normal runs and reduce your volume by over 50%. Great if you only have limited time during the day for training, i.e. in your lunch break. Here’s how to do a 30-20-10 workout.

1. Warm up with easy jogging for about a mile. (The studied runners warmed up for just ¾ mile.)

2. Jog for 30 seconds, run normal training pace for 20 seconds, and sprint for 10 seconds. Immediately repeat this cycle four more times, producing one continuous five-minute repeat.

3. Jog for two minutes. Then repeat step 2 two or three more times. (The subjects in the JAP study did 3 x 5-minutes for the first four weeks, and 4 x 5-minutes for the next three weeks.)

4. (Optional) Cool down with easy jogging for about a mile. (The studied runners apparently did no cool-down)

It really is just a gloried Fartlek training, but the results are solid. Nice to add a variety to your runs. Here is the article from Applied Physiology Journal:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22556401

The Corkscrew Open Water Turn

If you are looking to excel in the triathlon swim leg then you need to regularly practise your turns. Every open water turn gives you the opportunity to save a few seconds or lose that pesky swimmer drafting you.

In this post we're going to look at an advanced way of turning called a corkscrew turn. It's a fast and tight way to cut round a buoy and a very useful skill to have in your locker. Even if you are not an advanced swimmer give this a try in training, it's a lot of fun and makes turns a lot easier when you need to cut a tight line at a turn buoy.

The Corkscrew Turn

Take a look at the following image sequence of Paul Newsome demonstrating this turn:

Paul approaches at full speed (1) and slides his arm closest to the buoy (2) past it, note at this point he has his back to the buoy and can't see it. He then flips onto his back (3) and his recovering arm comes over the top as in backstroke, enters the water at the front (4) and continues the body rotation back onto his front again (5). Setting off on his new heading he quickly gets back up to speed using good stroke rhythm and a healthy burst of leg kick (6).

Turning left (as shown above) you slide your left hand past the buoy to rotate onto your back, whilst turning right you slide your right arm past. Make sure you practise both! In a particularly tight turn you might not be able to turn sufficiently in a single corkscrew, in which case perform two in a row, one immediately followed by another.

If you are relatively new to swimming then this may look like an advanced skill but it is not actually that hard when you get the feel and timing of it.

Turns And Strategy

A conventional turn bends you through a wide arc as you stay on your front and you gradually stroke around the turn (blue line below) :

That's fine but if the wider path is blocked by slow swimmers you are going to be held up without the ability to perform a corkscrew turn which is much tighter (red). In relation to other swimmers drafting you, if they can't perform a tight turn themselves then you have a golden opportunity to shake them off your toes.

Practise In Training

There's very little chance of turning up on race day and performing a good corkscrew turn without practising them beforehand. Get together with some friends in open water, or in an open area of your pool, and work on getting the feel and rhythm of them. It's a lot of fun and like all open water skills can make a huge difference to your performance on race day, so much so that you should practise these skills all year round either in open water or in the pool.

Swim Smooth!

Article taken from: http://www.feelforthewater.com/2012/06/corkscrew-open-water-turn.html 

Great website for swimming tips and technique advice.

I killed Overstriding With Hill Sprints

Hill sprints; build leg muscle, increase endurance, improve running economy, fat loss... if done correctly its the perfect exercise. It will benefit any distance triathlete.

Hill sprints builds leg strength and improve running economy, it's basically like doing a series of one-legged squats one after the other. It can be used as replacement for the boring old weights room, to get some fresh air. Its easier on the knees, hips and ankles too.

Find a nearby hill with a decent incline, steep the incline the harder the workout. Make sure you warm up well with a ten minute run and perhaps some dynamic stretches too.
there are many variations to a good hill sprint session:

• short sprints: Start at the base of the hill, sprint all out at 95% effort up the hill, find a marker up the hill you can make the finish line, so you can time you runs, you want to be sprinting for about 30seconds. when you have reached the top, start walking down slowly, this is your rest period (or alternatively, rest at the top for 30 seconds and jog down to start).
• long sprints: Starting at the base of the hill you want to be sprinting for at least a minute and half to get your aerobic systems working. Starting easy, accelerate to top speed, work at about 80% effort. Rest at the finish and jog down to the start.
• mixed: look for a tree-lined hill or a hill with many lampposts, sprint to the first tree/lamppost and jog back down to the start. now sprint to the second tree/lamppost and jog down, and so on...

How many sets? Start small, hill sprints are taxing for the body, I suggest no more than two sessions a week with rest days between. Start with six sets at first, trust me you will feel it. As you feel comfortable, add more sets and alternate distance. You can even incorporate onto the end of short runs, however, make sure the hill sprint is the focus of the session. a good way to know that you have done enough is time your sprints, if your times drop by more than ten seconds, you have done enough.

Technique is important: 

• face relaxed, no crazy pain faces, head up
• chest up and shoulders down
• no side rotation of trunk or pelvis
• arms must not cross infront of the body, they must swing by your sides, 90degree bend in elbow, pump the arms hard, arms do the work in the shorter sprints
• relaxed hands, like you are holding an egg in each (weird i know)
• keep hips forward
• high knees
• footstrikes directly below the body, landing on forefoot, minimal impact, shouldnt be pounding the ground, should be light and fast footstrikes, floating on the air

Benefits:

improved running economy and mechanics, strength and power increase of all the right muscles, improve sprint speed and top speed, elimination of over striding, fat loss (its a high calorie workout), faster workout doesn't take too long, safety you can't achieve maximum limb speed that causes lots of injuries, nice butt (ladies), social with friends lots of chatting time during recoveries. 

Variations:
Sand dune hill sprints, it's hard work!
Can use steps and staircases too.
Downhill sprinting, different benefits, very good exercise for improving running cadence and economy, technique very important during these and also a good warmup.
Incorporation of  squats, pressups, ab exercises at the end of each sprint.

KAUPPINEN, T. (2007) How hill sprints make you run faster. Brian Mackenzie's Successful Coaching, (ISSN 1745-7513/ 39/ February), p. 11-12. http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni39a6.htm [accessed may 31st 2012]

Open and Close the Door With One Arm Catch ups

Should really start putting more swimming related stuff on my blog, so why not start by posting about my favourite swimming drill.

Catch Ups:

What are the benefits? Increase swim stroke length, correct problem of entering water too early, can concentrate on pull phase of stroke, improves pull phase mechanics.

How is it done? Can be done with or without a pull buoy, I suggest a pull buoy for amateurs and first timers. Swim freestyle as normal, but during each stroke keep your lead arm outstretched in-front, tight against your head as your other arms takes the stroke. As you finish the stroke exit with your thumb brushing your thigh and don't let your hand touch the water until it has tapped the top of your lead hand. The whole point is to get your hand tapping on the back of the  lead hand. The tapping hand now become the lead arm and so on.

Additional points: 
Breath as normal during the stroke
arm bent at 90degrees as you pull through the water, allowing the forearm to catch the water.
try and hold both arms outstretched in-front together for a second after the tap.
concentrate on the mechanics of your pulling arm, having the other arm frozen in-front helps you.
8x 50m is my usual routine. feel free to mix it up, make sure you incorporate kick drills after if you are using the pull buoy often.

Variations: 
no lead arm single arm swimming, (one arm kept pressed against side)
single sided catchups, (eg. only using left arm or right arm)

Problems:
people tend to eliminate their shoulder roll when doing this drill too often, don;t forget to roll your shoulders (not head, head should be fixed at the neck)

This picture illustrates the drill well and also helps explain the correct shoulder movement:

What You Need To Know About Recovery Days

Question: Why are recovery days so essential? What happens to the body on a recovery day? What’s the best way to plan a recovery day?

Answer: I tell athletes that the hard training days only create the potential for fitness. They don’t result in fitness improvements unless there is rest. For it’s during short-term rest that the body adapts to the stresses of exercise. Muscle strength and endurance improves. The heart’s stroke volume (amount of blood pumped per beat) increases. Capillary beds in muscles grow allowing the heart to deliver more oxygen. Aerobic enzymes increase. Blood volume increases further enhancing oxygen delivery. Glycogen stores are restocked allowing for harder workouts in the following days. And these are only some of the physical changes that result from recovery.

Recovery days come in two forms: days of complete rest ("passive" recovery) and days with light exercise ("active" recovery). Passive recovery is generally best for novices. If they take the day off from exercise the day after a workout they will improve greatly. For the pure novice any form of training may very well be too stressful. As fitness improves, the recovery days are better spent doing some very light exercise. For the novice this could be light cross training in a sport such as swimming or cycling. Novice runners should never run on a recovery day. It's simply too stressful even for somewhat advanced novices.

The advanced, experienced athlete is best advised to train lightly on a recovery day as this maintains some of the most basic gains made in previous, harder sessions, especially economy of movement and aerobic endurance. Given the advanced athlete's high level of fitness, such a light training session is not stressful. But it must be easy. Making these sessions too hard is the most common mistake in training at this level. 

Regardless of one’s level of experience or fitness, the harder the hard workouts, the easier one’s recovery days should be.

(thanks to Joe Friel @ http://www.joefrielsblog.com/)

A Few Tips To Control Your Weight

My room-mate at the moment is currently starting some freakish new diet, after reading as  many articles as he could find on the internet. Living off soup and bread is not my idea of a balanced diet though here are a few SIMPLE things I do to control my weight

• Big breakfast, small dinner. Most people have a tiny breakfast or no breakfast at all and in the evenings a massive dinner, try flip-flopping this. By having a decent breakfast you are giving your metabolism for the day a huge kickstart. Added benefits include: increased energy levels during the day. My current breakfast is: Porridge with honey and raisins, Banana, Yogurt and a Poached egg on wholemeal bread. The motto: "breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper"
• Green tea, or in my case Rooibos tea (South African red bush tea). Green tea's give your metabolism a huge boost too, drink in the morning for better effect. Added benefits include: extra antioxidants for your body to boost your immune system. 
• Leg weights often. Your legs are the largest groups of muscles in the body, after a heavy weights session all the many tired muscle fibres contained in them will need copious amounts of energy to repair and fuel the recovery. You will be burning extra calories for at least 48 hours after a legs weights session. By often I mean at least once a week (twice in my case). Squats is the be all and end all of leg exercises, master the squat! Added benefits include: stronger legs and increased endurance running and cycling.
• MORE TO COME........

Triathlon Newbies Must-Know Race Rules

Found this simple but great article on Mens Health for all the Triathlon newbies, some must-know rules for when you are competing:

ALL STAGES

RULE 1: Unplug your iPod. For safety's sake, you can't blast "Born to Run"—or any music—during the race. So if you're accustomed to jogging with your tunes on full-blast, get used to the silence. "As a coach, one of my laws of triathlons is nothing new on race day," Murray says. "You have a chance to try everything in training. You might need a workout or two where you don't use to the music in order to find the groove and the motivation without it."

RULE 2: Keep it clean. Long story short, keep your garbage to yourself. You'll get docked serious minutes if you're caught tossing any of those gel packs or Power Bar wrappers to the street. The problem: "Lots of triathlon shorts and shirts have a very small pocket," Murray says. The solution: "Take your gel tab or your wrapper and either tuck it underneath the leg or in the pocket of your race suit."

RULE 3: Fly solo. Your family, your friends, and your lady can cheer all they want from the sidelines, but they can't do a thing that might help you gain even a miniscule advantage. "You can't have a family member or a friend or even a stranger hand you something during the event," Murray says. "You can only get race-provided support." And there should be plenty of that: Aid stations are typically well supplied with water and sports drinks like Gatorade.

RULE 4: Keep your own pace. Just in case rule three didn't make it clear enough, your friends can't even shout your time. We know—lighten up, right? They also can't run along with you for a few feet, Rocky-style, to help buoy your spirits. "You have to do it all yourself," Murray says. "Officials cruise around the course looking for these infractions and they can give you a penalty—a 2- or 3-minute infraction—which in a short race can mean the difference between third and twelfth."

STAGE ONE: SWIMMING

RULE 5: Swim around the buoy. Sounds obvious, but not always as easy to follow as it sounds. Rookies might want to stick to the outside of the turn where the flailing limbs tend to be less concentrated and the confusion factor runs high. "People liken it to a washing machine," says Mike Ricci, head coach of the University of Colorado's national champion triathlon team. "Everybody's gravitating toward the same space."

TRANSITION 1: SWIMMING TO BIKING

RULE 6: Don't ride in the transition area. Once you're out of the water, you'll be hustling to get your bike. Then you'll walk—or run—to the mount line where you can finally start pedaling. Tempting as it might be, don't hop onboard until you reach that line. Normally it's too chaotic to gain any real momentum, anyway. "Some of Chicago's races have 8,000 people," says Ricci. "It's like the biggest parking lot you've ever seen. Sometimes you run for half a mile."

RULE 7: Buckle your helmet. Yes, officials are this fixated on the details, and they could penalize you even if you're caught fiddling with the strap as you start the second leg of the race. Put your helmet on completely before you swing your leg over the bike, Ricci says.

STAGE TWO: BIKING

RULE 8: Don't draft. If you remember one rule, make it this one. "Imagine a rectangular box around every cyclist. It starts at the front wheel, extends 1 meter to the left and right, and 7 meters behind," Murray says. Enter that space, and you've got 15 seconds to pass the guy in front of you. Otherwise, stay at least 7 meters behind—about three bike-lengths. Riding any closer means you're putting in about 30 percent less effort—letting the dude in front of you battle the wind while you cruise in his wake. That's a hugely unfair advantage in a sport that's all about individual achievement.

RULE 9: Stay to the right. Unless you're passing, that is. Remember: If you enter that invisible box surrounding the guy in front of you, the shot clock starts at 15 seconds. Pass the guy on the left. Then immediately move back to the right. "You can't just lollygag," Murray says. "You have to get back over." Overstay your welcome in the left lane, and you'll get flagged for blocking. Worse, you'll expose yourself as a rookie.

TRANSITION 2: BIKING TO RUNNING

RULE 10: Don't ride to the rack. While it's tempting, don't just cruise past the dismount line—even if you figure you can get away with a few more feet. "Run or walk with your bike after that line," Murray says. "Take your helmet off. Put your running shoes on. And off you go."

STAGE 3: RUNNING

RULE 11: Run to the finish line. Seriously—that's about it. "You can't cut the course," Murray says. "Otherwise, just run it as it's marked."

Thanks to Mike Darling.
Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/11-triathlon-rules#ixzz1w6guyt6Y