You train your body to meet the physical demands of a race. You train your mind to handle the ups and downs you may experience on race-day. But how often do you practice the finer points of racing, like race pacing, nutritional planning and transition set-up. These all-to-often-forgotten elements can make the difference between a …
Archive for the ‘Racing Tips’ Category
Consequences of Ironman Pacing
I’m surprised at how often athletes with such great talent fail to pace themselves properly in a race. The argument for pacing during a Sprint is debatable, but for Olympic, 70.3 and Ironman events, the consequence of going anaerobic too early is significant and measurable. Let me share with you an example of poor pacing …
Thoughts on Final 3 Weeks Before a 70.3
By coincidence, I have 9 of my clients racing a half Ironman the week-ends of June 4-5 and June 11-12 (Switzerland, Mooseman, and Kansas). With so many racing a 70.3 in such a short period, I sent the following to all my clients racing those 2 week-ends, with thoughts on what to consider over the …
Draft-legal Race Plan
Draft-legal events are hard to find in the US, but very popular in other parts of the world. The strategy and intensity on the swim and bike for a draft-legal event is very different than non-drafting events, and I thought our readers would like to see a race plan I created for one of my …
Happy Valentines Day PowerTap
Is it love? Addiction? Obsession? I used to judge others who where this way, now I’m one of them. I thought I would never understand but now I don’t know how I ever lived without it. I’m talking about training with power. I got a rear wheel with a PowerTap sl+ and Joule 2.0 computer about …
Coach Keena: What Motivates You?!
I read a really great book this week titled: ”The Fearless Mind”. It is written by a local sports psychology consultant named Dr. Craig Manning. I liked his approach about how to overcome a struggle that most people deal with every day: Sabotaging our own greatness by allowing our insecurities and fears to rule our lives. How many of …
Coach Keena: Setting SMART Goals
Unbelievable…but, it is the last week of September, which means to me that we are officially entered into the FALL season! How fast our summer flew by! Hopefully you are all staying motivated and enthused to continue being fit and healthy by keeping an event in front of you or some other goal that will …
Sample Ironman Race Plan
I thought our PowerTri followers would be interested in seeing a sample race plan. Attached is one for one of my athletes who recently completed his first Ironman. This athlete had done a 70.3 event 2 months prior, and completely disregarded the plan because he felt so “good” for the first 20 miles, and went …
Optimal Training Environment
Fitness is not just about lactate threshold, VO2 max, and max heart rate. It also involves slow twitch muscles, fast twitch muscles, the ability to delay muscle fatigue, even the ability to deliver blood to those muscles through tiny, tiny capillaries that can take years of endurance training to fully develop, as well as ligament, …
The Performance Impact of Dehydration
It’s no secret that you need to stay hydrated when racing and training, not only for the performance benefit, but because serious medical complications can occur if you don’t. Let’s cover the basics of dehydration. According to a study by the University of Capetown, the average runner will lose 40 oz of fluid per hour …