How Should the Long Distance Endurance Athlete Pace Workouts

After many years of racing marathons and shorter triathlons, 2006 was the year I finally stepped up to the Ironman distance. I knew I couldn't do it on my own and I hired Coach to train me for the race. I knew what I knew, and at that point I knew that I didn't know how to prepare for 140.6 miles. I put my trust in the one person I personally knew who could get me to the start line prepared.

We sat down on January 2, 2006 to go over the big picture of what I would be doing for the next seven months as well as discuss the first few weeks of training. That morning I ran 8 miles before work. After work, before getting together, I swam. After 10 minutes with Coach I felt like I was already behind in my training. Ironman training, like any plan for a long race, is A LOT of volume. I think I may have peed a little when I saw what the first 10 weeks looked like.

While I cannot remember all of the specifics of what we discussed that evening there are two things that stick out in my mind, and stay with me to this day. To start, I had it in my mind that I would follow along with the plan until I inevitably hurt myself with what I thought was a massive load of swim/bike/run. Once I went down for the count I figured we would see where I was and adjust as needed. Mind you, I don't have an extensive history of injury, I just assumed something would happen.

The second thing I remember is being told that in order to get through the first 10 weeks, which by design would be run intensive, I would have to run many, many miles at a pace "that would feel embarrassingly slow, to the point of you feeling like people are driving by and laughing at how slow you are running." The only way to increase my mileage to the point we were planning on would require me to spend many a morning just getting in the miles.

Being the good student I was, I followed the plan - lots of volume, most of it at a slow, aerobic pace. Was I embarrassed at the pace? No. Hard days were hard and, truth be told, the total volume was so high relative to what I had previously done, I had no choice but to slow down when I wasn't going fast. Hell, there were days I had trouble actually getting to an aerobic pace.

In the end the plan worked. My body got stronger and more resilient over the 7 months of training. I was able to adequately recover between hard sessions. I made it to the start line fit and ready to go.

The moral of the story is simple - properly pacing my workouts allowed me to build fitness without breaking the body down. 

But what is proper pacing? 

This is going to depend on how you are training. If you are training based on heart rate (MAF training for example) and are looking for higher volume training it is going to be quite different than if you are using a more traditional plan based on interval training. I have personally used both styles of training and have experience in success and failure with both. I have definite opinions on what is necessary to get to the start line injury-free and feeling good.

Pacing for the Heart Rate Training (MAF) Athlete

MAF stand for Maximum Aerobic Function. For the person who is training in this style you are training to build aerobic capacity. I have found much success in training in this matter as it has allowed me to avoid injury, both small and large, for a very long time. It is less exciting than a set of 12 x 400 on the track or working your FTP on the bike. With this form of training you will be getting in miles at a set heart rate range. You will do this day after day. Depending on how you feel (and the conditions) your pace can/will vary on a day-to-day basis, but should trend faster as you get more fit.

For example, if your MAF zone is 140-150 bpm and you can run an 8:00/mi pace, you can reasonably expect to see days where you are faster as well as days you are slower, depending on how you feel/how recovered you are on a given day. If you are doing things right you will see a gradual increase in pace that would be confirmed when you periodically test at the track or on a repeatable course.

Eventually you will hit a peak and gains will level off. This could happen in a few months or it can happen in a year or more. It all just depends. Everyone has a different level of volume the body can absorb as well as having only a limited amount of time to actually train. Once you do see a peak happening you will need to change things up for a period of time. Until that point pacing is simple - stay within your training zone.

One issue some people have is with the intensity of the training. At the beginning many people find this type of training to be rather easy. A 3:30 marathoner might find that when they start training based on their MAF that their aerobic pace is closer to 9:00/mile or maybe even 10:00/mile. Hills might even reduce you to a walk. In such a case the training will feel easy ... very easy ... maybe even easy to the point of being unsure you are getting benefit from the work. That is more than likely a result of working really hard in the past and not even realizing it. The point of this training is to develop your ability to work at your MAF and not stroke your ego. Going too hard - well above your specific heart rate zone - defeats the purpose of training in this style.

The other side of the coin is when one gets extremely fit and the MAF pace is very fast. It is not unusual for a fit athlete to run at MAF heart rate in the 6:xx or 5:xx/mile range. Do this day after day and it can become very taxing on the body. At this point one would start to do intervals at MAF and the recovery periods would be at lower heart rates. This is a problem that happens a lot on the bike as well.

Specifically, once you start getting into doing interval training you will want follow these guidelines for proper pacing:

- train in your specific range most of the time
- interval work should be dictated by heart rate, not pace
- intervals are in your aerobic zone when your muscular system isn't as strong as your cardio system

For more information on this style of training I suggest you pick up either The Maffetone Method or The Endurance Handbook, both by Dr. Phil Maffetone.

Pacing for Traditional Periodization Training

If you take a more traditional approach to your training your weekly workload would have a combination of hard interval work, easy recovery days, and some tempo work thrown in to the mix. Over the course of a training cycle you will move from general fitness building to more specific work that is geared toward your "A" race for the season or year. There are a number of different ways to go about this and a lot of books available to you for reference. Here are two great examples:

Going Long by Joe Friel and Gordo Byrn

Daniel's Running Formula by Dr. Jack Daniels

Unlike MAF training which is focused on one energy system - aerobic capacity - training in this style will have you doing a variety of workouts designed to work specific energy systems. One day you may do some short, high intensity bike intervals to work the anaerobic system then do a long run the following day that is designed to work your aerobic system. It is important to make sure you are training at a proper pace for each workout or you risk not accomplishing what the workout is designed to do.

The first problem I have seen people make is over-estimating one's fitness. And I get it. Not only do I get it, but I have made this mistake myself. We all think we are better than we really are, right? We have all, at some point, justified a "poor" performance on poor nutrition/ dehydration/ lousy pacing/ a bad night's sleep/ or some other justification. Whatever. Unless you got hit by a bus while racing it is safe to say you are only as good as your last race or test in training.

So as an athlete it is important to put your ego on ice and take a realistic look at where your actual fitness level is at the start of your plan. Yes, your goal may be to run a 3:15 marathon or an 11 hour Ironman, but if you ran a 3:34 marathon or a 13 hour Ironman last November that is a much better indicator of where you are now than your ultimate goal time, and that is what your training paces need to be based on.

Yes, you read that correctly, the paces you run in training should be based on where you are at now and not what you thing you might be able to do on your best day in perfect racing conditions.

Once you have decided on what your actual fitness level is, the second problem I see people make with this style of training is pushing the pace in the given workouts. In my experience this seems to happen more with the run than the bike. Here are two examples of what I'm taking about:

• Sally has a track session planned for 12 x 400 at 1:40 with a 1 minute rest interval. The pace is hard but doable. After hitting pace in the first few intervals Sally starts to run a bit faster, now crossing the line in 1:35 for each 400. Because faster is better. 
• Joe has an aerobic run on the schedule that his plan dictates should be run at an 8:00/mile pace. After a few mile warm up Joe settles into a 7:35/mile pace for the rest of his run. Because, again, faster is better.

No. Faster is NOT better. The track workout is designed to work a specific energy system and the faster pace has compromised what the main purpose of the workout happened to be for that day. And while running a general aerobic run at a faster pace than prescribed seems makes sense, it is over-stressing the body. That extra stress might not show up that day or that week, but eventually it will show up in your training in a negative way. Maybe you become over-tired or maybe you get an injury.

While we are all attached to our digital devices and obsessed with pace, the body knows effort, it doesn't know pace. I repeat, the body knows effort, it doesn't know pace. Workouts are designed in a way to get you to work work at a certain effort, pace (or watts on the bike) are just the manner in which your coach can convey the effort level required.

(side note: Is it just me or do the majority of triathletes seem to want to put a ton of effort into their run training but not so much effort on the bike? I like running fast and hard, don't get me wrong, but pushing the pedals is so, so much fun. Sorry for the detour ...)

Training at the wrong effort/pace is not always about going too hard. Sometimes it is about the third pacing mistake - training in the grey zone. This happens when one runs the hard workouts too easy and the easy workouts too hard. Basically when you train in the grey zone you are kinda, sorta, working your different energy systems but not really. You aren't going hard enough to have an affect on your anaerobic system or your Vo2Max, but harder than necessary to efficiently work your aerobic capacity. This level of effort will tire you out but not give you great results. It is the worst of all worlds.

How does one go about making sure they don't make these mistakes:

• If a workout comes with set paces, stick with them. Your body knows effort and the prescribed pace is the vocalization of the necessary effort
• Remember Rule #1 - Hard is hard, easy is easy
• Set your training up based on what you CAN do, not what you think you can do
• Periodically test your fitness either in training or with a race, then adjust pacing in training as needed

Final Thoughts

Effort in your training is important to athletic success. Some people would interpret that to mean that you always need to "work hard." For the Type-A  athlete this makes total and complete sense - outwork the competition. When it comes to real world application, however, the outwork the competition model by pushing your limits in training on a daily will more than likely lead you down the wrong path.

Proper training requires you to properly pace your workouts to accomplish the training goals for that workout. A recovery spin should not turn into a throw-down with your buddies in the final 3 miles of the ride. Likewise, an aerobic run should be run at an aerobic pace, not slightly faster or a whole lot slower. If you stick with the plan and hit your proper training intensities you give yourself the best chance of staying healthy and racing successfully.

As always, thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Ironman Lake Placid Training: January, 2016

As we entered the new year my training had just started to get more structured in nature. After taking some real downtime, December was about getting workouts in on a consistent basis, making sure I would be ready to get back on the straight and narrow path with my training. With an Ironman on the race schedule it is important for me to get fit enough to do the training necessary to get in Ironman shape. If I'm not "ready to train" by April 4 I have basically no chance of reaching my goals come race day.

A few years ago I started to think of my training over the course of a month as opposed to just thinking about what each particular week was about. The change in focus has allowed me to back off when the legs feel a bit spent without the guilt of missing or having a poor workout. If that long run gets bounced from Saturday to next Tuesday, no big deal.

For the month of January the main goal was to start the process of rebuilding my fitness. Over the 31 days of January the goal was to get my training back up to full capacity, building volume and workload over the course of the month. Strength and muscular endurance were an overriding theme.

In general I achieved these goals. Training volume was consistent from week to week, averaging 12+ hours consistently. The final week of the month was scheduled for recovery. After the Lehigh Valley was hit with 32 inches of snow on January 23, I decided to move the recovery week up a few days. By making such a switch I took any internally produced pressure I may have had to run long on a treadmill out of the equation. Plus, shoveling and snow blowing all that snow was an added bit of work not. Having monthly goals made the funny looking weekly workloads OK!!!

Here's how it all broke down:

Swim: The goal here was to get in the pool on a consistent basis, build up total volume as well as yardage per session, and start working on my pathetic kick. All of that happens. I was in the pool 4x each week, increasing my weekly yards from roughly 10k the first week to 12k the last week. I added a kick set to 3 workouts each week, with the exception of week 2 due to time constraints. I did a 1k test at the end of the month, swimming it in 14:10. Not great, but a good place for me at the end of January.

Sometimes a run outside is just not an option ...

Bike: The major goal for the month here was two-fold: first I needed to get my winter volume up after taking a few months essentially off from riding; and, two, start the (hopefully) two month process of rebuilding my FTP. Most of the mileage/hours were done solo on the trainer as Bethlehem in January is not conducive to early morning riding. Weekend weather did allow for a few rides outside, which gave me a nice break. Overall I would call the month a success as I was seeing better numbers during intervals while not destroying my body for days after. Not back quite yet, but another month of consistent saddle time should do the trick.

Run: As I stated last month, of the three disciplines this is the one that requires the most care. After two years of low run volume/frequency, it is a process to get me back to where I need to be come July 24th. This month the concern was frequency, making sure the body can handle the pounding of running on a regular basis again. Total volume was less of a concern with no real target for weekly mileage. I did not want to put a number in my head that I "had" to reach. More important to see the gradual increase than hurt myself right out of the box.

After 31 days and 21 runs I enter February feeling much, much better when I run. Overall mileage has been trending up while average pace has been trending slightly lower. Just as important running feels easier than it did in December and I feel like I am starting to get my legs back under me.

Strength and Mobility: This was an easy success for me in January. After a few months of consistent focus in this area I have continued forward in a consistent manner. Even as my swim/bike/run have started to increase I continue to get stronger on the major lifts. Mobility training has been positive as well.

Racing: No racing this month. Sometimes you just have to train.

Overall: December turned out to be a good month. The workload was not unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination, but slowly built over the 4 1/2 weeks. I started the new year feeling fresh and fit enough to start the base training period on January 4.

What's Happening in February? Once again there are no races on the schedule, just steady training. In the pool I will continue to work my kick, extend my longer swim sessions, and work the high end. By the end of the month I expect to be hitting the same FTP numbers on the bike I held at the end of my 2015 racing. Assuming the weather cooperates my weekend long rides will get a bit longer, but nowhere near long. I enjoy riding outside in the winter, but I do not believe in putting in overly long rides before it is necessary. Mentally I will be better come April if I keep these on the (relatively) short side. And if weekends are for $h!t, I'll stay inside and get less volume as a result. On the run the goal is to continue to build muscular endurance and durability. After "just running" in January, February will feature hill work during the week. Strength and Mobility work is about continuing to build on the work I have done these past few months.

Thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Anatomy for Runners by Jay Dicharry

Over the course of a year I read quite a few books on a range of issues. Some are related to my day job and would be of little interest to many of those who have found this post. Those that are related to my triathlon obsession will get streaky in the topics I choose. Sometimes I read a lot on cycling, or injury prevention, or diet, or whatever I have on my mind for a period of time. At other times I just go randomly from subject to subject. Lately my reading has been more diverse.

Anatomy for Runners by Jay Dicharry, MPT, SCS is a book about running that is about more than just running. What you won't find here are training plans or how to reach your marathon goals in 16 weeks. Instead what you get is a book that the runner or triathlete can use to avoid being a part of the 75% of us who get sidelined with an injury each year. Anatomy for Runners is the book you can use to keep you out there running on a consistent basis.

The author states very clearly that the "book's aim is to reveal how the musculoskeletal system responds to running and how to optimize this relationship." He does this by taking you through the real basics of running - physics, anatomy, mobility, biomechanics, footwear and the runner's gait. While you could skip along and just go to the assessment and corrective exercises, having an understanding of what could be wrong (and figuring out what is more correct for your body) is an important step for long-term success.

After getting through the background information, Chapter 9 (Assessment) is where you start to find out what might need to be corrected. There are ten tests - 5 focused on mobility, 5 dealing with stability. Dicharry believes the best time to take these tests is, in his own words, "Now!"

If you are suffering from injury or not, he believes it is important to figure out what underlying issues you may have and correct them asap. Because "if you fix the factors driving your problem, you not only help your current problem, you also decrease your chances of getting another injury related to the same cause. Imbalances that take our body away from the norm cause problems, and these problems are usually present well before you have pain." With each test you get some suggestions on how you can improve what is being tested.

In Chapter 10 (Corrective Exercises) you get the exercises needed to fix your underlying issues. For each exercise you get a picture or to as well as an explanation of what you are doing and why you are doing it. Very easy to understand.

I took myself through the tests and found an interesting little connection to an ongoing thing I have had going on with (I thought) my hips. Really what has been an issue appears to resonate from my glutes, and can be fixed in about 2-3 minutes per day. To simply integrate it into my life I do my have two exercises with my normal warm up routine. Since I don't miss my warm ups I don't miss my prehab exercises.

Who Should Read Anatomy for Runners?

Everyone who runs and doesn't want to get hurt doing it. This book is written for everyone from the beginner training for her first 5k or the grizzled veteran going for Boston Marathon number 10. The novice triathlete or the Ironman world champion will be able to utilize the information presented.

Running is simple yet it can be so destructive to the human body. The most effective way to get faster is to train consistently combining long runs, tempo efforts and speed work. But consistency is the key. If you get hurt, even just a "nick" or a "little niggle," you will interrupt your training plan. Taking some time out to read a book, take a few simple tests and then do a few basic exercises on a regular basis seems worth it to me. It should for you as well.

I know more than a few bicycle enthusiasts who started off as runners or triathletes who eventually either wore something out due to poor biomechanics or got tired of getting injured all the time. Running should be enjoyable. When you are constantly coming back or running hurt the fun just goes right out the window. If this sounds like you, or feel that it cold be you someday, pick up a copy of Anatomy for Runners.


Bottom line: I recommend this book to anyone who runs and wants to continue to run for a long, long time.

Thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Training Review: December 2015

If you've been following me for a while you know that I have become very comfortable looking at my training on a monthly basis, having an agenda that extends for roughly 30 days at a time. Back when I was a coached athlete I had trouble with the weekly nature of the focus. The problem wasn't the plan, but me. If it was on the paper I would do it, regardless of how I might have been feeling that day. Pushing through worked for a while, eventually leading to tired legs and sub-optimal performances.

Winter has finally arrived.

December was a transition month from the restfulness of the off-season into the day-to-day grind of Ironman training. Looking back at my training journal November was a month of little training volume and virtually no intensity in any of the three disciplines. This I expected. October, while I did train for and race in the Philadelphia R&R 1/2 Marathon, was much more relaxed than I remembered. I continued to run, even increasing mileage in mid-month as part of my prep. where I surprised myself was the lack of swimming and biking. For the most part I had taken October off from both.

Needless to say, I entered December with a dropped level of fitness.

Fortunately, this is exactly what I was going for. In order to get better you need to sometimes take a step backwards, allowing the body and mind to heal. Taking time away from training (but still exercising) brings back the desire to train and train hard.

My goals for December were simple. Over the 31 days I needed to just be consistent, slowly building volume over the month.

Swim: Started out the month with a few easy swims and gradually built up the total time per week each week, with the exception of Christmas week, which schedule just didn't allow me to get to the pool as much as I may have wanted to. Or not. It's the holidays and there were things more important than trying to squeeze in a swim workout just to get some yards. By the end of the month I was feeling better in the pool and swimming a reasonable amount.

Bike: After pretty much taking the previous two months off, December was very consistent. The good weather helped, giving me time outside every week, including a Christmas Eve ride in shorts and a short sleeved jersey in 70 degree weather!!! Not being exclusively stuck in the basement and/or riding in extreme cold weather is big motivation. Still, reality is no matter how warm the weather is for December, riding at 6 am requires me to embrace the trainer. The volume this time of year is always low. Power gradually started to come back to a respectable level, but not where it eventually will be.

Run: Of the three disciplines this is the one that requires the most care. My mileage has been low for two years now, averaging under 20 mile per week over that time. With Ironman on the agenda, December started the slow process of rebuilding run specific fitness and muscular endurance. It's a big project that will take months. December was a good start. I did run a 5 mile race (see below for some details) as well as my annual NYE South Mountain Run.

Strength and Mobility: For the first time in years I managed to not slack on strength and mobility work during the Summer and Fall. Turns out that is helpful when you get to the off season as you don't have a rebuilding process. I ended the month stronger than I have been in years.

Racing: I did actually do a race in December. I ran hard but didn't truly race it. Every year since 1998 I have done the XMas City 5 Mile Run in Bethlehem, PA. It is held on the second Saturday of December and is a great excuse to hang out with friends, grabbing a post-race meal with anyone who can come. Once again Rick did a great job, putting on an excellent race, selling out early with what had to be a record number of participants. I ran a 33:32, which was fine. More important, I enjoyed myself doing the only speed work for the month.

Overall: December turned out to be a good month. The workload was not unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination, but slowly built over the 4 1/2 weeks. I started the new year feeling fresh and fit enough to start the base training period on January 4.

What's Happening in January? There are no races on the schedule, just steady training. In all three disciplines I intend to be at full winter volume by the end of the month. In the pool I will be working on my weak kick. On the bike it is about building strength and getting the wattage back up to where I was at at the end of last season. Running is all about building muscular endurance.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Why I Run Over South Mountain Every New Year's Eve

A long standing tradition of mine has been a fun out-and-back 10 mile run on the last day of the year that just happens to go over South Mountain in my adopted hometown of Bethlehem, PA. In the beginning it would be just me and Jack who would make the treck. Over the years I have been joined by as many as 10 and as few as one other person in my personal end of year ritual. And while the weather was favorable for the 2015 edition, weather conditions can add an additional challenge beyond the 1200+ ft of climb.

Last Thursday me and three of my regular training partners got together for my annual trek. With a 2:30 start time we had good daylight, the warmth of the day (for December) with a 10 mph wind from the North. The best New Year's Eve running weather we have had in a few years.

As for the run it went well. The warm up - from Sand Island Park to the corner of 4th and Hayes St. - was a bit faster than I would have liked. The climb from there to the mountain's peak at Lehigh University's Mountain Top Campus felt hard but good, while the backside decline was a nice relief on the legs.

Apparently we color coordinated beforehand.

After regrouping at the turnaround point, which is just past Stabler Arena, we started the trek back to Mountain Drive South for the final 2 mile climb at a moderate pace. My goal this year was to make it to the top without stopping to walk after blowing up spectacularly the year before. As we started the climb I settled into what I felt would be a sustainable effort level, not concerning myself with who was in front of me and who was behind.

While the front side (north) of the mountain is steeper to start and flattens out in the final quarter mile, the backside (south) is a sustained climb that gradually gets steeper as you go up. My preference has always been the front side and I almost always struggle on the backside.

Almost.

This year I successfully ran the final assent without a walk break or major blow up.

After regrouping at the top we eventually made our way back to the cars

Not a bad view while kicking your own arse!

But why? Why do I run this same route every year instead of running the NYE Peeps Run, or the trails, or just take the day off?

After taking some downtime at the end of racing triathlons and running races this is a hard run that I am never ready to do. Which is exactly the point. Jack and I didn't start running this because we could run it fast or to prove we could do it or boost our egos going into the new year. What got this run started as a tradition was that it would kick our asses every single year.

Every. Single. Year.

Some years that comes in the form of walking a portion of climb number two. Many years it comes with sore legs during the first few days of the new year. Every year it is a good reality check on where the fitness level is and what needs to be done in the coming months. A reminder that fitness can come and go.

Over the years there are people who have come and gone from this run for a variety of reasons. Some have moved, others have moved on from running, as others haven't really connected with the value I find in doing this run. Others have been invited but never showed up. The one steady presence over the past 16 years has been me.

And come December 31, 2016 it is a good bet that at some point during the day you can find me running over the mountain, getting a lesson in just how fit or unfit I will enter 2017.

If interested you can find the exact route we run here .

Thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Swim Training is Important for the Ironman Athlete. Here's Why.

When I was trying to come up with a catchy title for this post I had a number of thoughts. The experts will tell you that is what you need to do. Well, if you know me, you know my initial thought was exactly what you might expect to come out of my mouth, and was basically this: "Shut the f$*k up and get your a$$ in the pool."

I was so sure that wouldn't cut it I continued to think it through. Eventually I came up with the much more PC title you see above. Sounds very diplomatic, right? Swimming is important for the triathlete. Let me tell you why.

But seriously, it IS important. Swimming is a part of triathlon. If you don't want to swim become a duathlete ... or a runner ... or a cyclist.

Look, I'm a good but not great swimmer. Like many of us I came late to the swimming game. Yes, I learned how to swim when I was a kid, but swimming back then involved jumping in the local lake and having a good time. I only starting to swim laps when I was 33 years old. That puts me a big disadvantage to the person who started to swim at age four.

Now that we have established that I am no Andy Potts, I'm not bad. On a fair course (one that is pretty close to accurate with normal conditions) I can go 22ish for the Olympic distance, 30ish at a 70.3 and have a 1:05 best time at the 2.4 mile Ironman-distance swim. Like I said, good but not great.

I put this out there to you not to boost my ego but to show you what can come from putting in the pool time. When I started out in triathlon I had been in the pool swimming laps for a few years as cross training for my annual marathon prep. I attended a masters class once a week at a local college with friends. I was impressed with myself because I could swim a mile broken up into intervals over the course of 45 minutes ... Seriously.

Once I started to get serious about triathlon I began to get more serious about the swim for one basic reason - swimming is a part of triathlon. Yes it is the "shortest" part of any race, but it is part of triathlon. Maybe its because I started basically training for this sport alone, but I never really thought about blowing off the swim. Now that I have been around the scene for many years I have seen the other side.

Ask yourself this question: How many triathletes do you know who have a "reason" for blowing off their swim training in favor of  other training or no training at all? A lot of very good swimmers will tell you they don't have to do it because of their background while the bad swimmers, usually out of fear, will say they are just looking to survive the swim so they don't need to "waste all that time" in the pool. More bang for the buck spinning or running, or so they say.

Whatever the excuse you (or someone you may know) has for not taking swim training serious, I'm here to call bulls$!t. Especially if you race long distance. Here are five reason why every triathlete should take swim training serious:

Swimming develops aerobic fitness without negatively effecting your joints - Triathlon is an aerobic sport at its core. Just to make the distance you need a huge about aerobic capacity. You need sport specific endurance, for sure, but aerobic capacity developed in any of the three disciplines has a direct effect on the size of your overall aerobic engine. This is why single-sport athletes cross train.The beauty of swimming is it is non-impact and can build your capacity without breaking down your legs.

Low swim fitness has a big impact on your bike and run - You know that feeling of not having your legs under you on the run after you have blown yourself up on the bike (I know this way to well)? Now imagine that feeling at mile 35 of 112 on the bike? If you don't have the swim fitness you will not only take more time getting through the first part of your day, but you will have also burned a lot of energy that could have been useful over the next 9 to 15 hours. Does it make sense to log all those hours biking and running to not be able to express your fitness on race day because you slacked off on your swim training?

If you go anaerobic on the swim you have screwed yourself. Your eating plan is useless - This goes hand in hand with my previous point. If your swim-specific fitness is low, if your technique is for crap, you will work harder than the swim-fit athlete who gets out of the water right next to you. If your low level of fitness causes you to go anaerobic in the water I can almost guarantee the rest of your day will not go as you dreamed it would. I don't care how much visualization you have done or what a bad-ass runner you happen to be, once you go anaerobic you are screwed. After spending 60 or 90 or 120 minutes burning through your glycogen your energy systems are too out of wack to recover from. Don't believe me? Try this: Go run a marathon, but instead of even pacing it, go out 30 seconds per mile faster for the first two miles before settling into you race pace. That horrible feeling/slowing down over the final 10k ... That's what happens if you go anaerobic early on.

Long course racing is about fighting through fatigue - We train to keep the body going and going. The swim is only one to two hours of a very long day but the energy you expend here directly effects the energy you have for the bike and run. With just a minimum of 3 hours per week you can keep this from happening. Do you really want to be exhausted by 8am?

Swimming builds upper body and core strength - Swimming is a full body exercise and when done correctly can be physically taxing. Take a look at a swimmer's body and you will notice the muscular size of their backs and shoulders. And those core muscles are insanely strong. All that strength helps maintain form when you are is the saddle for six hours or running for another four or five.

Are you still with me or have you moved on to some other blog? If you are still with me I hope I have convinced you to take the swim a bit more serious than you may have in the past. For some reason it bothers me when I see triathletes not taking the swim seriously. Sometimes it's the excuses. Other times it is watching someone in the next lane just wasting their time while I'm busting my a$$ to get through a set of 200s. I don't know exactly why it bothers me like it does. It just does.

Triathlon consists of three disciplines - swimming, cycling, and running - and one of them is swimming. If you do not like to swim or don't want to train the swim, fine, become a duathlete.

Thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Related Posts:

Why Swim Training is Important for Triathletes - What I had to say about this in early 2014

Rule #5 - That's right, I said it. Harden the f@$k up!

Rule #2 - Want to get better in the drink? Can't happen if you aren't consistent.

Off-Season Cycling - A Different Kind of Plan

The other week I stumbled upon, and joined, the Ironman Lake Placid 2016 Group on Facebook. I figured what the heck, a little voyeurism might be fun, as I am always interested to see what others are doing. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. Worse case I simply ignore it. What I did find has been interesting.

For those of you who might not know, IMLP is a July event, meaning we are 9 months from race day. If you have read any of my recent posts you know that I have been doing more exercise than training for more than a month now. Realistically, my only goal these days is to get in good enough shape to start training on January 4th without fear of injuring myself. The bar has not been set very high around these parts.

Back to the Facebook group. What I have found is an interesting group of people who appear to be training much different than I am right now. For example, On Sunday I saw a post from someone who did a 90 minute session on his bike trainer. This morning I read from more than one person who ran outside, pre-dawn, in the rain. And while I have no idea where the rain runners are located, for December I find that to be pretty darn hardcore and worthy of a Rule #7 shout out.

(For the record, it was raining and 38 degrees when I woke up this morning. I did workout. Inside. One of my long standing rules is I will not run outside in the rain in December when I am training for nothing. Running this time of year is purely for pleasure.)

For the past 8 weeks (and the next 5) I have been following what has become my fairly simple off-season bicycle protocol. I came to this about the time I started to get serious about triathlon based on two simple conclusions. First, I quickly recognized that being able to have a better than average bike split without over cooking the legs was one of the keys to putting up fast times. Our sport is swim/bike/run, not swimming and biking and running. Nobody gets a trophy for the best swim split or the fastest mile run. You get a trophy for crossing the finish line faster than the next guy.

The other conclusion I have come to is you cannot just go full throttle year round. On the bike I dial it back after my last triathlon of the season, then take a month or so of very little riding.

So here's how it has laid out on the back half of 2015:

October - My last "real" ride of the year was with the LWM Monday Night A-ride on September 28. I had planned on making it out to Kenny's last ride of the year the following week but work obligations kept that from being possible. The rest of the month consisted of five rides outside and a few short, easy spins on the trainer, mostly to just loosen up the legs. In a very real sense October was an off month.

November - The weather was warmer than normal this year allowing me to get outside to ride every weekend. The longest ride was 23 miles and I stayed on flat terrain and kept the heart rate low. Riding outside had more to do with enjoyment of being on two wheels not gaining fitness. What differed from October is the number of times I jumped on my trainer. After two weeks of almost no exercise at all, the final two weeks of the month saw me not only on the trainer, but actually putting in some work. A nice transition to what I have planned for December.

I have a number of go to workouts and decided to use the 10 x (1 min hard + 1 min recovery) as the perfect transitional workout to getting back into training again. Just enough work to feel like I did something, but not so much to kill my mojo. Best of all, with warm up and cool down the workouts were only 40 minutes long!!!

December - This month is really about getting some bike fitness back into my legs. Weekends will be spent outside (weather permitting) on either the road bike or the mountain bike with the simple goal of logging saddle time. One day a week - then eventually twice a week - I will get a short, high intensity session in on the trainer. The goal here is to start rebuilding my high end during the week as I regain some of my endurance base on the weekends.

Like I said, pretty simple but very different from what I have done in the past. After months of hard riding the body needs a break as does the mind. With early fall running races on my schedule I backed off the bike, riding for pleasure and recovery, before taking some real downtime from triathlon training. From there I am/will be slowly rebuilding bike fitness and strength in a way that keeps me from burning out or spending too many mind-numbing hours on the trainer.

Thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon