Transition Area Coaching

The 4x7 Endurance Core Workout

10/10/2016

If I were to boil down our approach at Transition Area, we want you to achieve the following:

TRAIN FEWER HOURS DAILY and PUT IN MORE WORK OVER A SEASON

As longtime TA athletes know, the foundation of your athletic development is consistency. Consistency gets you to that magic goal of training less per day, but training more quality hours over a season. How? A smart training plan, regular sleep and recovery, healthy nutrition and fueling.

To physically prepare your body, we need to activate a set of core muscles that lay dormant in most people. These specific core muscles are key to holding your hips and trunk tight as you swim, bike, and run. This minimizes injury and maximizes power transfer.

The program is pretty simple: seven workouts in less than 7 minutes, done four days a week. Each workout is a bodyweight exercise that doesn’t require equipment.

The 4x7 Endurance Core

To give you a flavor of what it takes, here's Day #1 of the workout:

Hip Mobility / Standing Flexion Extension 1x10 (each side)
Standing fire hydrants (forward) 1x10
Standing fire hydrants (reverse) 1x10
Side planks 1x10
Russian throw downs 1x50
Spider-Man pushups 3x12
Single leg squats 1x10

It’s up to you to figure out when / where to execute these workouts. But some examples are:

Right after getting up and before breakfast
10pm, a few hours after dinner and before bedtime
While watching a bit of TV
During the normal mid-afternoon lull at work, if you can get away.

YMMV. If you have a favorite time, write in and let me know.

Consistency is king. Enjoy folks.

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How to create a triathlon race plan

9/28/2016

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Originally posted 16 September 2013

Before every race, it's important to do a mental dry-run of your entire race day. This thought experiment ranges all the way from pre-race prep to course-specific planning to mental notes to cue on throughout the day. A Race Plan is these thoughts immortalized on a piece of paper.

The most important goal for a race plan is to focus your mind on the strategic process of endurance racing. For most age-groupers, the process leads to the proper pace, for you, on race day. This is important because chasing your goal splits or a Kona / Boston qualification time does you no good in the middle of the race. A solid race process leads to a solid race result. That race result is the best you could do on that day.

As an example, here is a sample race plan for my own personal A race in 2013: Ironman Lake Tahoe

Race Plan: Ironman Lake Tahoe 2013

Swim
Given expected near freezing air temperatures at race start, execute full warmup onshore with 20 minutes to go.
Stay warm with a fleece over wetsuit and gloves
Splash Lake Tahoe water on face with 5 minutes to go
Queue up in a slower than expected group (1:15) to not get over-excited at altitude
Settle into strong rhythm, with moderate stroke rate and good form.

T1
Focus on quick, but smooth transition
Put on pre-rolled arm coolers and warmers onto wrists
Make game-time decision on cycling vest
Put on socks, cycling shoes
Put on glasses, helmet

Bike
First 20 minutes: relax, consume first gel, and rehydrate. Focus on relaxing in aero position and rolling a smooth pedal stroke.
Maintain focus and controlled tempo in the slight downhills from Tahoe City to Truckee (~155 watts)
On both climbs, climb no harder than 185 watts while eating and drinking steadily. You have about 20-30s at the climb summits to top up nutrition and hydration.

T2
Make game-time decision on changing tri vs run shorts
Make game-time decision on cold weather gear (remember, you have a base layer waiting in special needs)

Run
Run first 1-2 miles super easy, no faster than 8:00 min / mi. Let the rabbits go.
Focus on form, nutrition, and staying cool to first turnaround, no faster than 7:50 min / mi.
Remember, race day will unfold as it unfolds. Listen to your body's cues, adjust accordingly. No faster than 7:40 min / mi
From last turnaround start trusting in training, pushing pace as possible. No faster than 7:30 min / mi till final miles
Finish STRONG, finish happy.

As it turns out, this was an epic adventure race masquerading as an Ironman triathlon.

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The Transition ARea SEtup

The 4x7 Endurance Core Workout

How to create a triathlon race plan

Transition Area Coaching