Triathlon Coaching

After my performance at the Hy-Vee triathlon I have finally decided to take on a professional swim, bike and run coach to prepare me for the 2013 season. I have spoken with numerous coaches in the area and have decided to go with Bill and Anne Wilson of Camelback coaching.

Both have years of experience racing and coaching. I sat down with Bill and truly had a great experience and knew that we were on the same page. There are plenty of reasons to have a coach or trainer in any aspect of health and wellness. Bill and Anne understood the science side of performance training as well as came across as being truly interested in my well-being and my success. I can not stress enough that anyone about to undertake any type of assisted training from a professional should do their research.

I will be starting with a long base-training phase to build cardio respiratory pathways that will enable my body to utilize oxygen for energy more efficiently at higher intensities and train my body to properly process lactate to minimize fatigue and loss of performace. Simply put I will be able to go faster for longer duration without losing speed or performance. Base training is a big part of any type of training protocol and should never be skipped.

I will be doing all of my initial training using heart rate zones. Utilizing a heart rate monitor in the early stages of base training keeps an athlete honest on where they should be for their training. Often times most athletes will want to go faster or longer then their bodies are trained for, which limits aerobic gains and proper oxygen utilization that will be needed in future months for proper race training.

I will undergo two lactate threshold tests for the bike and run to properly find my designated heart rate zones as well as a run and bike analysis that will show ineffeciences in both my run gait and bike setup. After performing both of these tests I will have my swim stroke video taped and analyzed. We will be looking for excess drag, proper catch and pull of the water and body placement. I have not had formal or proper swim intruction so I am very excited for this. Wish me luck and I'll post my results and findings after the tests.

Hy-Vee Triathlon Sept. 2

The 5150 Hy-Vee Triathlon took place Sunday September 2, 2012 and it was a rough day. I flew back home to Iowa to visit family and race the event. What started as a cool morning, turned into a hot and very humid day for all racers.

I had a great swim and was heading into my bike feeling good, but little did I know how long of a day this would become. About 5 miles into my bike I started cramping, and they didn't go away. I was cramping in my legs and my feet for the remainder of the 26 mile bike and was feeling pretty lousy heading into my 6.2 mile run. At this point in the race I knew I just had to gut it out and finish. Not everyday or every race can be a perfect "A" race. I was a little beat down both mentally and physically, but I garnered what I had left and hit the pavement. I was able to manage 7:00 miles the entire 6.2 miles and felt pretty good at the end.

I took what small wins I could from the race and learned a lot of valuable lessons. I wasn't happy with my overall time of 2:31:00 even though it was a PR. I had been training and planning to be at or under 2:15:00. Everyday is a new day, and its back to Arizona to regroup and continue my training.