Mistakes to Avoid the Day Before Your Race

In the realm of sports and fitness, one crucial aspect of an athlete's life includes the menstrual cycle and should be an integral part of the athletic dialogue.

Organizational effectiveness, which includes planning and structure, brings all the elements together and is the key to high performance in any field.

Do you Warm Up And Cool Down When You Do Your Swim Workouts?

Many of us just hop in the pool and swim a few hundred easy yards of freestyle before starting into their main set. Is there a better way to approach your swim sessions? Try a double arm backstroke with or without fins for your warm up and cool down and see if you notice a difference

Shorter Races. Why They Are Good For You.

Throughout the year, there are countless IRONMAN and 70.3 events, ultra-marathons and ultra-long cycling events to choose from and it’s easy to get caught in a routine of competing at long distances only. However, we would encourage you to add a couple of shorter races during your season—even if your “A” races are at IRONMAN or 70.3 distances, marathons/ultramarathons or alike.

Supplementation. Is it really worth it?

A search on the internet or a quick look through a fitness magazine will showcase some supplement or another claiming to boost your performance and recovery. Cod liver oil, co-enzyme Q10, Glucosamine, Vitamin D, Vitamin B complex, whey protein, the examples could go on and on. What do they have in common? They have all made the list. The main difference between branded and real-food options is the ingredients list and the way in which they are marketed. The question here though is how many of these are actually useful to us? Do we actually need additional supplementation as an endurance athlete?

Why body composition matters more than you think…

Interpreting lactate values the right way:

When using VO2max and VLamax as markers for aerobic and glycolytic performance, it is important to differentiate and account them for a specific body composition.

Travel Snacks

In In today’s society, many are impacted by high-pressure environments (self-created, or not, is not the topic here). Chronic stress, as well as competition, can have a negative impact on your mental and physical health, resulting in poor performance and outcomes.

How to Maximize the Athlete & Coach Relationship to Achieve Your Fitness/Race Goals

Athletes hire a coach to make lifer easier and to allow fitness gains to come more readily. However, most athletes make the process far more difficult on themselves and it usually results in not achieving their full potential. A coach is supposed to take the guess work out of your training and racing program for the entire season and blend your everyday life with the workouts and races, so you can have more free time and arrive at your goal event feeling fresh, fit and confident. In the following paragraphs I’ll lay out how every athlete can maximize their fitness potential by maximizing the relationship with their coach & the training plan that is developed specifically for you.

Holiday Parties and maintaining weight – Is that possible?

There are a few holiday parties coming up and I’m worried that it’s going to derail my current eating habits and potentially put on weight. My goal is to avoid that state and come out of the holiday season strong and ready for next year. What do I do and what is the best approach during the weeks ahead?

Potential Performance Effects with a Vegan Diet

We received several questions from people about a vegan diet and the impact on performance in endurance sports. We understand and respect that some people decide to implement a vegan nutritional approach for ethical reasons & you will not hear an argument from us. However, if you are considering becoming a vegan purely for overall health and fitness reasons, then we recommend keeping an open mind to alternate options, so you do not compromise performance and recovery at critical times. Here are some tips on how to optimize your diet for improving fitness and also advice should you still choose a 100% vegan diet.

Your wetsuit and the right fit

In triathlon, the swim oftentimes does not get enough attention. Some simple basics can make a positive experience during your race or a brick workout that begins with an open water swim. For some, the next bullet points are known fundamentals, feel free to move on with your day. Others may think this information is beneficial and should continue reading.

Small steps (sometimes with obstacles ...) for big fitness gains

In sports, as in other areas of life, one of the best ways to achieve big results is with small and incremental gains over time. Instead of trying to achieve an epic outcome, channel your focus on daily improvements. After weeks, months, years, you will be astonished that these initial small progressions result in significant gains....

Hot Temperatures - Should You Adjust Your Power On The Bike?

One of the biggest opponents athletes have is heat, no matter if it is during training or on race day…it can be equally challenging. According to research conducted by Stanford University, humans achieve only 20-30% mechanical efficiency cycling with the majority of the energy being produced being lost as heat. Taking this a step further, anaerobic threshold power output declines as air temperature increases. Putting this into perspective, how does this information impact training and racing approaches? We provide you with two options including additional insight.

General Nutrition & Hydration Guidelines

Below we have assembled some genericbullet points to keep your nutrition and hydration on track. The first section is specific to your training sessions, while the second section references your daily nutrition that supports the physiological adaptations that your hard work contributes to creating. If either training, or daily nutrition are not optimized, or worse ignored, then the gains in fitness that you seek will not be fully realized. This requires that you put some thought into your plans for fueling yourself during workouts/races and during the remaining parts of each day.

Timing Your Post-Workout Nutrition

Many recreational triathlete, cyclist, or runner are limited on spare time, with approximately 8-15 hours to train (depending on your race goals) and have a host of other family, work and life commitments. Sound familiar?

Why EASY workouts are so important & why you should do more of them

Having been an endurance coach for 16 years now, by far the most difficult aspect of my job has been to convince athletes that you get faster by going slower. The athletes that fully buy into this concept are the ones that have much more long term success from sprint triathlons to ultra-marathons and IRONMAN.

Fat Combustion...The Bottleneck of Endurance Performance

Fat burning has long been a common term within endurance athlete circles. What is “fat burning”? Is it important, and, if so, how can it best be achieved?

Become A Better Athlete During Post Season - Part III

Training Niggles:

As we go through each training season we can develop niggling injuries such as little hotspots in our knee, hip, feet, low back, shoulder etc. We tend to ignore those symptoms and adapt to deal with them even though we are not at 100%. Use the post season to resolve injuries and be diligent about your treatment.

Become a Better Athlete During Post Season - II

The holiday season is upon us and many athletes are looking forward to a few days of vacation and spending time with family and friends. While this time of the year is delightful it also can be a challenging one to balance training, downtime & diet.