TrainingPeaks allows athletes and coaches to log and track numerous data points for every workout. But, as a coach, one of the most important data points I like to receive is your subjective feedback on how you felt during a workout. To solicit your subjective rating for workouts, I often provide a 5-point letter grade scale in the workout description. Just like a grade for … [Read more...]
How to Determine Your Heart Rate Training Zones
How do you determine your heart rate training zones for running and cycling? Read this guide to find out--excerpted from The Triathlete's Training Guide. One option you have for gauging your intensity during training is a heart rate monitor. Heart rate training is particularly useful for running and cycling. The more the terrain varies the less accurate pace is as an … [Read more...]
What Are Training Zones?
What do your training zones mean in terms of intensity levels and the types of training effects you are trying to achieve? Read this guide to find out--excerpted from The Triathlete's Training Guide. Your training zones are the target ranges (of heart rate, pace or perceived exertion) that will be used to prescribe workout intensities. It is important to recognize that there … [Read more...]
Train Smart with Triathlon Training Guide
Third Edition of Go-To Guide Now Available Now available through Amazon in both print and Kindle versions, the updated third edition of The Triathlete’s Training Guide provides you with everything you need to know to plan your season and implement your training. New to the sport and need some guidance to get started? A seasoned endurance athlete looking to take your … [Read more...]
Why Does Running in Cold Weather Make Me Pee More?
How to Cope with Cold-Induced Diuresis Let’s see if this sounds familiar. You decide to jump into a race during the winter as part of your training program. You prepare the same way you would for a summer race. But after you arrive at the race site in the morning and begin your warmup, you find yourself visiting the loo more often than usual—or, worse, you find yourself … [Read more...]
How to Dress for Cold Weather Training
Unless you’re vacationing on a tropical beach, the chill of winter can sometimes present a challenge to training as usual. But as long as you are prepared—and dress the part—winter can be an incredibly rewarding time of the year to train outside. Here are a few tips on how to dress appropriately for winter training. Despite cooler temperatures, the body still sweats when … [Read more...]
Gear Review: Rudy Project Synform Sunglasses
Sunglasses that fold up into the palm of your hand?! When I saw these new Rudy Project Synform sunglasses, I was immediately intrigued with the foldable design. My mind entertained thoughts of easy stowage in a pack while running or traveling. But how convenient would the sunglasses be in actual practice? And how well would they perform in their main job as eye protection … [Read more...]
Why Train with Data?
In a previous article, I discussed my list of the eight most valuable metrics for triathletes. In this article, I want to address a more fundamental question. What is the point of training with data? This question may not even seem worthy of discussion given the fact that training with data is something we simply do in the modern world. Of course we train with data. Why … [Read more...]
The 8 Most Valuable Metrics for Triathletes
In today’s world where big data reigns supreme and the Quantified Self movement promises self-knowledge through numbers, anything that can be measured often is. And if it can’t be measured today, the right technology is sure to be just around the corner. In many ways, athletes have been at the forefront of this drive to measure and collect data about the self—at least when … [Read more...]
Dealing with Jet Lag when Traveling to Race
Everyone has heard of the circadian clock that coordinates our biological activities around a daily cycle of roughly 24 hours. But recent studies have pointed to the idea that we actually have multiple clocks—different ones for different organs. So when you cross time zones, you do not simply disrupt a master circadian clock but all of these clocks. An important implication of … [Read more...]
