above is a shot of a piece of my training ride the other day. I think this is a great example of the single most common aspect that rodies and tri geeks alike try to avoid. Fatigue. This is somthing that the Strong Heart Team will be training very hard to try and avoid or more likely just delay the onset of the major effects.

As you can see from the first major climb in today’s effort, highlighted. 8 minutes or so around 335 avg. wattage. It felt… like you would imagine for December ride 2 days after a hard weight room workout and 3+ hour yesterday, but I still had some juice left for 2 big Chipo like sprints, well... maybe when he was 15 years old. Moving on, a nice steady effort after that with some rolling hills. The last bit of visible data is the same climb. 8 minutes up the steep part of the climb. This time I pushed a bit harder, struggled more and averaged only 309 watts. Why? fatigue.

This is a small time example but worth noting. Weather you use a power meter or not. Race with one or not, to be effective come race day you need to know your body and know what it “feels” like. Whether your training for a 45 minute cyclocross race or an Ironman having a totally dialed in feel for your own body and all the different efforts that that you put it through is vital! So use that power meter the right way. Get involved in your training but don’t get too attached to all the data. Don’t just download all the ridicules numbers, norm power, TSS, IF, this, that, the other and ask questions on your favorite forum. these number do provide relevant data but don't get caught up! I see to many people living and by them. Find the one or 2 key things you are working on, note them make adjustments if need be and get ready for tomorrow.

Happy Holidays!!

Following is an article on planing during this time of year.Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Turkey day!! Your thinking “its Thanksgiving! What could I possibly do for training??? Turkey Carving is some of the best deltoid training there is! This will make you more stable on the bike and resist fatigue longer! Don’t miss the opportunity. Actually I am kidding. Thanksgiving marks the beginning on the holidays and the beginning of the long difficult road to start training again. I have fallen victim to the following scenario before. First its time to rest, then turkey day comes along, then Christmas, which slams full speed into new years. Throw some travel for work in there, a vacation and maybe a wedding (went to a new years wedding a few years back. Best time ever) and the next thing you know its February your turning 29. Again. And you are barely going to get in 6 weeks of base training before spring.What to do?Its time to plan. The answer here is this is not the time to stress about training but to plan ahead. And before we can plan one must look back at the past. Looking at your past year or more of racing and training can be the best thing you do in planning for the next season.Here are some steeps to get you on the road to success.
1. Write down your general goals. Things that you want to focus on in general. Ie. Become a stronger runner, spend more time training on the bike.
2. Then write down specific goals: these can be precisely measured. Increase threshold wattage to 300. Run sub 30:30 minute 10k.
3. Then write down your goal races, there dates and rank them in priority.Now you know where you want to go. From here you can look back and see where your coming from. Look at results, your notes from training and races. This is where you need to objectively look at your performance and figure were your weakness, limiters and strengths lye. This is something that should be done with your coach. Don’t have one? Get a consultation. If you have done your part, steeps 1 up to here, you can have a very useful 1 hour conversation with a certified coach. Money well spent. I just did this for my self!You will now be armed with essential tools for planning and training for your season.
1. You have you goal races down in the calendar.
2. You should know what key skill and abilities you will need to meet your goals at these events.
3. You should know what weakness match those needed skills (your limiters). After this planning you will know the most import things to know for a successful season. Like our old hero’s would say. “And knowing is have the battle” ~GI joe~
By Coach Eric Kenney

Silverman triathlon

below are two reports. one a training article on some my preperation for the Silverman 1/2 ironma and second the race report on how it actually worked.

The half I did a few years ago produced some good results and it was a killer time. lets see what happens this go round??The Silverman triathlon is almost upon us now. After a full season of skinny armed bike racing I am hardly worthy of a half ironman. Its always a fun and daunting challenge to take one on with the clock ticking. I always get questions about my training, so I will highlight some key aspects and focus points. I have some very weak weaknesses, some very strong strengths and mixing them with not nearly enough time to prepare makes for some unique and interesting training. I think this is a good topic to write a training focused article on because many athletes find them selves in a similar situation all the time.Coming into the race:I had a full season on road racing in me, almost too full of a season. I was tired, stressed out from running my own business, buying a home and plain old run down. A visit to the doctors and a few weeks of rest had me feeling some what better in the average Joe sense but not the in elite athlete sense. I was far from 100% and had a lot of careful work to do.Race Goals: With a $250 cash prize for the fastest swim, bike or run split I was instantly thinking “the bike is mine!” of course with Dave Scott and Chris “ironman man world champ” McCormick now racing its more like” I’m gona give it 100%”. Goal number two is to finish as best possible over all. This may sound contradictory but I can’t run fast. So if I were to… save it, for the run I really wouldn’t be “saving” much.Training:~Swim: With me now teaching spinning for the winter at Rally Sport in Boulder I have access to master swim classes and a great coach. My swim training will focus on building up some muscle in my skin and bones upper body and refining my technique to the point that swimming for 45’ is no large task. My speed will come from the bottom up. Meaning as my technique gets better and upper body stronger I will simply get faster for the same exertion level. This has worked well. Saturday morning swims have seen me put in a good 1hr with out to much trauma. One or two weeks I threw in 2 swims per week, fatigue was higher but still, I was able to complete the task. I have put in some serious time in the pool compared to the past. However, I think of my swim training not as getting faster but enabling me get to the bike in better shape and with more gas to burn in the hunt for my # 1 goal. Also a more efficient swim will help me get to the finish line strong which is inline with goal #2. The swim is not long in comparison, in any tri I realize, but swimming is tough! If you’re not up to a minimum level of efficiency you’ll come out of the water with far too much of a debt to pay.~Bike: My training here was a slow build up. With the fatigue of a long summer just wearing off I didn’t want to jump in too fast. Instead I focused on short frequent rides until my legs came around. These rides were mostly alone. It would have been ideal for me to get in a solid block of on-the-bike strength work as I had lost some muscle mass but there was no time. Instead I opted for specific intervals. Intervals at my goal race pace (wattage/P.E./ HR) on hilly terrain as the Silverman 1/2 has a very hilly bike course. These rides felt better each time and culminated with a 56 mile, 2.5 hr ride at pace. This ride was key as it helped me really dial in how my pacing “felt” and how much gas I would have in the last 10 miles to really pour the coals on the fire. In this case I did not have enough time to work my weakness and then move on to race specific training. Because my weakness was not race specific and having limited time I skipped that step.~Run: The last time I jumped into a half iron distance race I had even less time to train. 4 weeks, 3 really if you don’t count the week leading to the race. That time I focused on running as many times as possible before the race and not necessarily “long”. My 2 long runs that time were 1 hr. each. This worked well as I ran just as fast on race day as I did in training. I only really have 1 running speed. This time I abandoned the “long run” theory all together. Instead focusing on frequent quality runs. Running this time has felt much better, more control over exertion and less soreness after runs. And while I have not done one run up to an hour I have logged significantly more total running time, as well as many, many short bricks 10-30’ long. My theory here is that I have the fitness. Going hard for 5 hours is not the issue with this body, its being efficient at the 3 disciplines, or 2 really; Swimming and running. If you are looking to complete any type of event one must be technically sound in the movement it will require. With out this you are to paddling a row boat with you hands.


Race Report:
I have done a few tri’s in my day. And I have done even more through my clients. Learning every steep of the way. But sometimes I still get caught up with THE question, “are you a triathlete?”. I don’t label others or my self unless its absolute. Well now there is no question, the Silverman triathlon is the most beautiful and toughest course I have seen. If you are wondering if you should label your self as “Triathlete” or are maybe looking to redefine what you are capable of do this race!Race: At 5 am my eggs and rice didn’t taste so great but I got it down. A power bar, gel, lots of panicking and we were off! At first I felt no so good the my women’s med. wet suit wasn’t the best fit but after a few minutes I found my rhythm. No sooner than that we hit the windy part of the swim. The swells were… big. I have swam in the ocean, body surfed, played water polo, I have even been thrown off a horse. Swimming in the 2+ foot swells was worse. I was simply being tossed, I could hear the tri geek gods bellowing out in laughter. HAA, HAA, HAA, a road cyclist thinks he can simply run for a few weeks and do this race HHAAAAA!!! And for a few minutes I thought I might not make it! But after some wounded seal like swimming maneuvers I was into the tail wind then back to the cross wind but I was handling it a bit better. I could barely make out the buoys but still managed to swim pretty straight. People were all over the place. At first I tried to find a pair of feet to follow but one wave and they were gone. Up the chute to T1. pretty smooth. I bent over while sitting down to put my shoes on and my legs, both of them, seized. Ahhhh… “Ok I’ll just pretend that didn’t happen.” Out of the tent to my bike and ... a tail wind greeted me making the ridiculous climb out from the lake a bit easier. Bike: right away I was passed. A big guy came by, “now for the fun part”, he said. As I watched him pedal away I thought, to hard. He’s mine. It wasn’t long. 5’ or so before I had passed him. “OK EK keep it easy!” I did, just letting my legs fall. The HR was high but the legs felt good. I pushed on. Coming up the first turnaround, Maca was coming the other way, I checked my mileage. Holly crap! I thought. He is really far ahead of me. I began to think that my fasted bike split goal was no longer in the cards… ohh well stick to the plan. I counted the guys in front of me and I was now in the top ten. Nice! Turn around at mile 23, fast riding for a bit and I came into the second half on the course. Hills, big long head wind hills. I passed a few more riders, slower now. Yeah, I thought, I must be in the top ten these guys look good. On to the bike path, Yes a bike path! 3 short climbs back to back. The 3 sisters they are called and I would not want to meet mom or dad. They were biters at 18 percent. I simply “let” them be hard and then pushed as the path turned into the head wind and plowed upward at a low grade. 2% grade + 20mph head wind + 300 watts equals me going some where between 12-15 mph. It was not for the weak minded. I pushed, I caught one more. Boom! Out onto the main roads now more head winds and long gradual climbs. Some fast riding too, 47 mph fast! With 8 to go I was pretty cooked, with 6-5-4 to go I was really, really cooked. I kept stuffing fuel down my throat. I had no more acceleration, but I had enough to hold on.Into T2.I put the shoes on, grabbed my food, and was off. “heh, how far ahead is Maca?” I asked “peffff…. Ohh god… like 20 minutes I think?” “Yeah that sounds right”, said his side kick. I was in disbelief. Time to switch hats, or off with the “racing” helmet and on with the lets just finish, hat. Or no hat really, but new shades. The first mile is slightly down hill. Nice! I liked it. I could find my rhythm with out having to fight to hard. At just over 1 mile you turn right. And into the head wind and up a 2 mile climb. I looked at the profile in my head. I quickly came up with the plan of really keeping it in control as 90% of the up hill running was in the first half, then it was more down hill. I thought make sure I have enough in the tank so that I can “let my legs go” on the down hill. I was on pure feel now. My HR monitor watch had kicked it this past week and with no time I couldn’t even get a round about on my pace. At mile 7 I saw a sign for mile 6. ohh bummer. But half way so that good. wait, is that half way? How far am I running exactly? Ok there’s mile 7 this was right around the time the cramp in my gut started to concern me. I can handle pain, but if it got worse it would start to slow me down. I couldn’t think straight and I could really feel the swim now. My hands started to not work so well. Grabbing water became hard work, my arms felt like lead and at feed zones my response to “what do you need!” had gone from, HEH!! Thanks! umm I’ll have water and ohh are those Oranges, no thanks, water and a gel, thanks guys you rock!!” go Hilleary! To ahh ahh water, go Obama! To here a mile 7, “number 359 what do you need!” …. …. “hey what do you need! …. Are you OK? 3-5-9 are you.. watcoke!... …waaaqalk%$35… it was pretty bad. Then my race brain kicked in again. YO EK, get you s#*% together were barely past half way, your in 6th place! From here to the finish all I could think about is that scene in a football game, when a play goes bad, a fumble happens and some how the 350 lb line backer picks it up and starts running. He probably hasn’t touched a ball in a game in 5 years and looks like a wounded doe on ice trying to run. His teammates run up, and try to block for him. He thunders on, slowing now with every steep. I bet that guy isn’t even thinking End Zone! He’s just thinking, when I get hit by the 5 guys running 10mph faster than me, don’t drop the ball! Don’t drop the ball EK!Think! This is getting worse and your to far from the line to tough it out… number 359 wh… Pretzels!! I had been taking in my normal electrolyte levels and while it wasn’t hot we are in the dessert and energy usage was high. This combined with drinking water on the run (can’t do the Gatorade) was making my tummy low on salt. Or was it? I had to go for it. 1 mile later I was doing better and just in time as the down hills came. “great job 359 what ... COKE, AND WATER! The racing brain was back. Next set helpers “hey great job loo…! Water! Water!! “ahh we’re just cheering” “ohh sorry” The last 5 k was brutal. Things started popping into my head. Mostly a family friend who lost a long, long battle with cancer a few years back. Don’t know why I thought of her. Maybe she’s in Las Vegas? I was trying to pick up my pace, come on EK top ten top ten can’t get passed again!!,I put down another gel and finished her off. I could hear the announcer as I came down the chute the crowd was insane, Eric Kenney coming in from Boulder, CO. looking strong!! When I finished I was a bit over whelmed. Zach was there. And thank good. A volunteer came over, are you OK do you need the medical tent? Ahh… do I? I asked Zach. No, not yet anyway, food, recovery drink. I sat down, shock a few hands, and got a message. Everyone was talking about the water and the wind on the bike path! It was brutal. Everyone that had raced gave you this look. It was this look that said, wow dude, you made it too. Congratulations. You’re a Triathlete.

Early results and stats:
Swim: 29th, 37’ hard as hell.
Bike: 3rd, avg HR 176 (threshold 183-185)Estimated avg wattage 285-300
Run: ?, ?, ?, harder than hell.
6th over 2rd in age group.

Part 2

Cyclocross as cross training?

Cyclocross is huge. Once participated in as training in the fall and winter months for fun it is now a huge international spectacle. Athletes are now focusing their whole year on cyclocross. Even for us Tri geeks and hard core all road all the time people cyclocorss is luring.

The question is coming up more and more; will racing cyclocross be a good option for training in the fall and early winter?
First lets take a look at your year ahead and behind to answer a few questions.
Have you had enough time TOTALLY off after your last race/ training block? (I prescribe 2-6 weeks)
Will you have enough time to rest after your cross season and the start of Base training? (2 weeks)
How taxing was your summer season of racing and training?
How much other stressors will you encounter? ($$ for bike, race entry, travel, specific training, etc)
If you answer no and/or “pretty taxing to very taxing” I would seriously consider joining the yelling, full drinks in hand spectators on the side lines. Also, the last question, realize there are a lot of other factors that come into play with your race sch. There are only so many times you can go all out in one season. And while a cross race may be short in relation to road races and triathlons you normally train for they are hard. Really hard! One of the most important things to having a good training program that leads to a successful season is being rested, both physically and mentally. Be sure you can achieve enough total down time between your training phases.
If you feel after answering these questions you are in the clear move onto the next set of questions to ask yourself.

Does cyclocross address any of my weaknesses specific to my A race(s)?
Does cyclocross address any of my weaknesses not specific to my A race(s)?
Is you’re A race 7 months away or more after your last cyclocross race?

If cross addresses any of your weak areas it is worth considering. For some, like my self cross is every thing I am bad at on the road wrapped up into 1 hr with a punch in the jaw at the start! For athletes like me cross is a great and extremely fun way to train that weakness. (see my last article) However, and very importantly, the first set of questions are the most important. If you are to be at your best for your BIG event of the year being properly rested, having a good build up of systematic training trumps all. So consider your options carefully.
So now how do you use this “cross thing” to your advantage? Here are a few things to keep in mind.





The big picture: your a race is months and months away! Don’t get too caught up in your “cross training” this should be for fun! Leave the ego at home.
Focus your training on basic skills: You’re racing cyclocross because it is going to address some weak areas but don’t forget to spend time training the basics that got you to where you are now. For example, aerobic base, technique. and efficiency of movement in your primary sports, core strength and flexibility.
Check your mental state: Its early in the game for you. If you find yourself not pumped up for a muddy race or training ride in the cold rain stay home!! Like I said before being mentally rested and ready to go come time for the big day is the most important preparation you can do.

Eric is a full time Cycling and Triathlon coach and works with Endurance Nation and performance training systems. For more details on this plan and other transition period plans contact Eric at: eric@performancetrainingsystems.com

finding your weakness.

This is part one of a three part training seminar that I have been doing around the country. for more infor on my coaching or the strong heart team see links to the right.
enjoy.


It’s that time of year when we start to sit back and relax… sometimes. Many of you are probably already thinking about next year and starting to plan. That’s good, but before we can effectively plan out next year we have to take a look at this year. Reflect a bit and figure out how we are going to train more effectively. The first place to look is your weakness. However finding this can be harder than it seems. Here are a few methods for analyzing your season and finding your weakness to get you started right on 2008.

Step one: Analyze Your Season
Did you meet your racing goals and training objectives? Did you peak when you wanted to? Did you go as fast as you predicted? These should be pretty simple yes or no questions. Look then at your training objectives. These might be things like climb hill X in 30 minutes or less, raise FTP by 3%, etc. They should be measurable goals that are stair steps to you major goals. If you didn’t meet your major goals of the year the answer, or at least part of the answer, to why may be right there. As you keep looking into why you did or did not meet your goals look at everything: job, personal life, relationship, etc. Stress out side of the athletic world is the number cause of people under performing. If you’re a lawyer working 60+ hours a week and training 20 hours a week as well as being a mother or father, you may have been setting your goals a bit too high.
Note what worked for you and what did not. The things that worked you will want to keep in your bag of tricks as the things that will likely work again. The things that didn’t work, get rid of them! We’ll come up with something better!

Step two: Finding Your Weakness
There are 2 ways to look at this. A good starting point is finding your weakness by the numbers. On the bike, the easiest way to do this is test your power profile. Test your maximum power out put for 12 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes and your threshold power.
A power profile chart can show you where you are lacking. Is this written in stone? Is this the end of the road? No, but it is a good starting point. Even if you don’t “need” the areas you are weak in, for example, an Ironman triathlete having a weak 12 sec. and 1 minute power. They don’t need that ability but if it is weak enough it could be an area that is holding your other abilities back.

Part two of this is comparing your weakness to your competition? “But Eric I don’t race other people I race my self.” That’s fine and I applaud that self motivation but if you want to improve the best place to look is to the people that are better than you. For example, in your triathlon results if you’re coming in 50th on the swim 50th on the bike and 450th on the run time after time again working on your running would be a good place to start. If you’re getting dropped on short hills in bike races, short hills or 1 to 5 minute power outputs might be your weak point. Before you make the decision as to what your weakness is make sure you have more than one or two examples that show your weakness. Also look at this deeply. This is very important. Are you not running well because you’re and bad runner OR because your swim and bike are not up to par and you’re paying for it on the run at the end of the race? Are you getting dropped on the hills because you’re a bad climber or because the hills are at the end of the race and you have trouble there because your threshold power and endurance is not as good as your competition? Take some time with this, consult a coach and or trusted training partner or both.

All of this may look straight forward on paper but it’s harder to implement than it looks. Getting some one else to give you a good objective look at your self could be the best thing you do this fall. Now put it into action! Commit to getting out of your comfort zone. Don’t do the same old workouts, mix things up! Take a chance and train that weakness.

Eric is an associate coach with Endurance Nation and Performance Training Systems and coaches all abilities of Triathletes, Cyclist and other endurance athletes