Author: Iron Rogue

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Winter Running Tips and Reality Checks

If you’re near the 49th parallel or North of there, you probably have a better idea of what real cold is, and all the extra challenges that come from it.

With the holidays I had a chance to take my eldest son (2 years old, and will be known from here on out as ‘Shark Boy’) out in the Chariot on a run.  It was pretty cold, so precautions needed to be taken.  Around this time of year there are plenty of articles about how to accommodate the colder temperatures, and most of them repeat a lot of the same good advice.  I’ll take this one from Active.com and look at some of the tips while adding what they really entail:

  • Gear Up: Wear trail shoes or a traction device like Yak Trax. They will give you better traction and stability in the snow.  The problem with this advice is that traction devices work best when there is ice and snow, but that isn’t the case for 100% of your run.  Sometimes the sidewalks are clear due to diligent neighbours, so wearing your traction devices on concrete is uncomfortable and you’re better off without them… until you hit that patch of snow/ice than hasn’t been cleared.  The best option I’ve found is to be able to take them off or put them on as needed.  When you’re not using them, you have to be able to carry them: run a belt through them or stick them in a pack you’re carrying.
  • Take Extra Time To Warm Up: Your body will warm up more slowly in cold weather, especially if you run in the morning. Take at least five minutes to walk briskly before you start to run.  It’s especially true if it’s been a while since you ran and you need to get used to extra pounds you’ve put on from the holidays, or simply the different equipment you might be wearing/carrying due to the season.  Don’t rush, take your time (this will come up again).
  • Accessorize: Having the right apparel makes all the difference in the world. Layering is the key to avoiding over- or under-dressing.  Putting on all that extra gear takes extra time; you’ve got to integrate it with your iPod/phone/whatever and any other running accessories.  Same thing when you’re done, it takes that much longer to strip and hit the shower so budget for that extra time.  It will probably come out of your time to actually run, when you take real life into account.
  • Run During Light and Warmer Times of Day: If possible, run during daylight hours so you can absorb that needed sunshine we rarely get in the winter.  Sure, this works great if you have the day off like I did on the 27th.  Otherwise, that might mean running at lunch, where time is already way too limited.  You will probably run in the dark.
  • Hydrate: It is just as important to drink fluids in your winter runs as it is in the summer. Bring a bottle of water along with you, especially if you’re like me and the only drink you had before dashing out was a cup of coffee (which dehydrates).

For all that extra time and effort, I’d still rather be out there than on a treadmill; I want the 2012 Winter season to have as much running as I can fit in!

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Back to the Pool Part 2

I finally made it back to the pool today.  The last Back to the Pool post should have made it clear that my swim workouts are not entirely unstructured, just mostly so.  I picked up some kicking drills from an online source, and I figured that when I get too frustrated by the fast lane not being fast enough or too many collisions or whatever, I could move over to the medium lane and do those drills.

It turns out, December 28th is a good day to go for a swim workout, as the lanes were a lot less busy.  I warmed up with 10×25; and for once I remembered to take it easy on the warm up so I could keep my technique clean and have plenty of gas for the main set.

I decided on a little experiment before moving to the kick drills.  I did two sets of 100m (4x25m):

  • On the first set, I simply timed the 100m swim.  I came in at 1:46 which sounded good, but comparing it to race paces of over 2 minutes doesn’t make a lot of sense, since I’m going a lot longer in those cases.  Still, I wanted it for reference.
  • The next set, I counted the number of strokes it took me to complete one length, and averaged out over 4 lengths (stroke count is considered an important measure of your efficiency in the water).  It came out to 24 strokes to complete 25m which surprised me; I’d never had a stroke count less than 25 before.  

Due to the lack of traffic and according to the average pace in the lane, I was able to do my kick drills (12x25m) in the fast lane.  Doing drills like this was a little tedious at first, but once I felt I was getting the hang of it, the lengths started ticking off faster, it seemed.

I re-did the two sets of 100m coming in with a time of 1:42 and a stroke count of 23.  That looks like improvement , though it’s not entirely conclusive since I ended up really sprinting the last timed length to pass a swimmer and avoid a traffic jam in the middle of the pool.

 I’m encouraged by the potential of technical drills, especially ones based around my kick.  From what I’ve read, off-season is ideal for technical work, since the cold weather takes time away from doing more serious distance/volume (even in pool swimming, as the winter drive to/from the pool eats up more time than it would).  I’m also hoping that any improvements in kick strength/power/efficiency pay dividends into my cycling and running due to stronger legs and core.

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Back to the Pool Part 2

I finally made it back to the pool today.  The last Back to the Pool post should have made it clear that my swim workouts are not entirely unstructured, just mostly so.  I picked up some kicking drills from an online source, and I figured that when I get too frustrated by the fast lane not being fast enough or too many collisions or whatever, I could move over to the medium lane and do those drills.

It turns out, December 28th is a good day to go for a swim workout, as the lanes were a lot less busy.  I warmed up with 10×25; and for once I remembered to take it easy on the warm up so I could keep my technique clean and have plenty of gas for the main set.

I decided on a little experiment before moving to the kick drills.  I did two sets of 100m (4x25m):

  • On the first set, I simply timed the 100m swim.  I came in at 1:46 which sounded good, but comparing it to race paces of over 2 minutes doesn’t make a lot of sense, since I’m going a lot longer in those cases.  Still, I wanted it for reference.
  • The next set, I counted the number of strokes it took me to complete one length, and averaged out over 4 lengths (stroke count is considered an important measure of your efficiency in the water).  It came out to 24 strokes to complete 25m which surprised me; I’d never had a stroke count less than 25 before.  

Due to the lack of traffic and according to the average pace in the lane, I was able to do my kick drills (12x25m) in the fast lane.  Doing drills like this was a little tedious at first, but once I felt I was getting the hang of it, the lengths started ticking off faster, it seemed.

I re-did the two sets of 100m coming in with a time of 1:42 and a stroke count of 23.  That looks like improvement , though it’s not entirely conclusive since I ended up really sprinting the last timed length to pass a swimmer and avoid a traffic jam in the middle of the pool.

 I’m encouraged by the potential of technical drills, especially ones based around my kick.  From what I’ve read, off-season is ideal for technical work, since the cold weather takes time away from doing more serious distance/volume (even in pool swimming, as the winter drive to/from the pool eats up more time than it would).  I’m also hoping that any improvements in kick strength/power/efficiency pay dividends into my cycling and running due to stronger legs and core.

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Grab/Santa’s Bag of Stuff from the Web

With End-of-Year crunch and Christmas time gatherings, I don’t seem to have time for training or proper blog posts, but here’s a couple of discoveries from the web that I love and wanted to highlight with more than just a tweet.

My favourite triathlon blogger is Swim Bike Mom; a ‘regular jane’ with a job and family who also happens to be a half Ironman.  Her posts are always heartfelt and funny, but this one took the cake (I was actually jealous that I didn’t come up with the idea myself): Triathletes Are Babies.

My other big find was TriMuskoka:  a newly developed advocacy club for endurance athletes and endurance sport tourism in Huntsville and Lake of Bays, Muskoka. We are committed to athlete development and support for both local and visiting athletes. Our priority is to ensure that every club member achieves his or her goals.  

This area has been home to multiple triathlons in recent years, and I’ve noticed a steep increase in the number of people running and biking out on the roads (I’m sure people are swimming in the lakes too, I just haven’t spotted as many).  I’m really excited to see a formal club/community spring up from all the local enthusiasm, and the icing is that not only is the old Muskoka Chase Triathlon converting to an official WTC 5150 race, but Element Racing is putting on an off-road Triathlon called ‘The Grind’.

A final note: I’ve added an ‘About’ Page for quicker way to introduce myself to new readers.  I’m looking at making some more cosmetic changes on the blog (can’t wait till Blogger’s Dynamic Views allows widgets), I hope they aren’t detrimental.

Happy Holidays and/or Merry Christmas! 

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Back to the Pool Part 1

I feel bad for neglecting swim training sometimes since I really honestly enjoy being in the water.  Just about everyone under-emphasizes their swim since it’s the discipline that least impacts race time.  In my case this is compounded, since I do better on the swim compared to my age group – I should be trying to get my bike and run times up to the middle of  the pack like my swim often is.  Still, ‘use it or lose it’ so I went back in the pool for the first time in a long while last week.

I’ve found trying to learn better swim technique to be very frustrating.  Joining a Master’s Swim Club is not for me as making it to classes for a set time often doesn’t work for me, and I don’t really like the expense of it either.  When I try to learn on my own through reading and research, I come across articles like this one from Triathlon Magazine Canada.  It’s an example where the total mileage of a swim workout far exceeds what I would do in a race, and some of the technical stuff confuses (note my question at the bottom of the article that has gone unanswered as of this writing), to say nothing of how impractical the idea of using a parachute would be while sharing the lanes with other swimmers.

Here’s an example of a description of how to do a kicking drill:

  • With your hips rotated to the side, and your  shoulders parallel, keep your head still and continue looking at the bottom of the pool.
  • Extend one arm out in front.
  • When you need air, rotate all the way onto
     your back, take a few good breaths, and repeat.
 This makes no sense to me; if I’m lying sideways in the water, wouldn’t my head be facing sideways too?  Is ‘in front’ towards the direction of my swim, in front of my face, in front of my body?
Here’s a list of the things I actually do during swim workouts that are generally recommended.
  • Warm-up.  I usually do 10 25m lengths just to get my pace and breathing down, warm up my muscles and generally ‘get in the groove’.
  • Have a main body of the workout that is broken into ‘sets’.  I usually do sets of 100m with approximately 1 minute rests.
  • Use paddles and a pull-buoy (see photo).  The gloves put more load on my arms so I figure I’m strengthening, and putting the buoy between my legs lets me focus on my stroke a little more.  I try to hold the buoy somewhere between my knees and ankles which forces me to engage my core more.  Sometimes I use them both at the same time.
My paddle gloves and pull-buoy.
  • Do sets at different speeds; though usually I don’t have room in the workout to do both technical work with the equipment and speed/tempo work.
  • Count my strokes per length.  This one I do rarely and I’ve never been able to track much improvement.  I average 25-26 strokes per 25m, and at least one source I’ve seen says I should be getting in less than 18 strokes per 25 yards otherwise I’m categorized a ‘Practice Swimmer’, i.e. a beginner.

Of course, the other part of reality that makes implementing drills so hard is the fact that at public pools, there is basically no such thing as Lane Etiquette, in spite of  a sign explaining it at the entrance to the pool. 
My favourite is people doing kick drills (without fins, mind you) in the ‘Fast’ lane; not even Michael Phelps would be fast if he was merely kicking with a flutter board.

Still I don’t give up that easily, and I’m hoping to implement a few technical drills and improve my stroke so that this post will have a part 2, where I report a better swimming experience.

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Race Bucket List

Bucket lists seem to be all the rage these days, but I’ve always found the idea daunting – how could I list everything I ever wanted to do?  My list would be something like: 1.) Live Forever and do everything.  Yet, if I focus on the idea that there are endurance/athletic events I would like to participate in, then maybe I can come up with something.

These races will be in the ‘Bucket List’/Pipe Dream category for one or more of the following reasons (in increasing order of likelihood):

  1. Conditioning.  I’m too far out of the shape I’d need to be in to complete
  2. Skill/Equipment.  One or more of the disciplines involves a skill I don’t know how to do
  3. Geography/Logistics:  Getting there with equipment won’t work while taking care of my family at the same time

All of these are fixable or will change with time, and so will the list as I find out new possibilities and opportunities… so let’s get started!

    • Pentathlon Des Neiges.  I was going to put the Ottawa Winterlude Triathlon here but I just happened to stumble across this event in IMPACT magazine. Both events include skating, cross-country skiing, and running, but the Pentathlon des Neiges adds snow-shoeing and cycling.  The latter discipline can be done with mountain or cyclo-cross bikes and actually takes place first (followed by a run, then ski, then skate, then snow-shoe).  There are short (9+4+6+6+4=29km) and long (15+6+9+9+6=45) distance races and it all takes place on the historic Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.

    • Men’s Health Urbanathlon What I like about this obstacle course is it seems focused on the fitness aspects needed to complete while leaving out the fear factor/bravado and quite frankly, mud involved in mud runs, Warrior Dashes and Spartan Races and the like.  If they bring one to the Toronto area, I’m as good as signed up, but I wouldn’t mind travelling to one of the fine cities that are currently offered when my schedule would allow it.
      • Ski 2 Sea what if a race included even more of the Canadian Multi-sport experience, enough to span all seasons?  And what if it was a journey with an end destination that was far away from the start?  What if you started on top of a mountain, downhill skied 2km, switched to cross-county skis for another 8km, jumped on a mountain bike and rode 28km out of the mountains only to hit the road with your road bike for 36km.  Now jump off the bike and run for nearly 15km and get in your canoe/kayak so you don’t get wet because there’s another 8km before the finish line.  It’s a lot of distance to cover, and the logistics are quite intimidating so people often do this as a team relay, but it seems like such a dream journey (and it is a net downhill, after all) that I can’t help but be tempted by this one.

        • Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket Thailand  I’m a little wary of iron or half-iron distance racing and it’s not only the daunting training schedule and training volume.  Races with the Ironman brand don’t exist in everybody’s back yard, and most people who have done one turn it into a trip with overnight accomodation, meals and maybe a little vacation time… if you’re going to drop that kind of cash and time, why not make it a more once-in-a-lifetime experience?  I love Thailand (from having honeymooned there) and I can’t picture a better destination for a ‘destination race’ than the land of smiles.  So far, you don’t even have to qualify!  This race took place this past Sunday, in fact.

        • Berlin Marathon   My wife and I both have a lot of friends and family in Germany, and Berlin has become a bit of a home away from home for us.  The Berlin marathon is also considered the fastest course there is so there’s my motivation to beat my previous, pitiful marathon time.  What really put this marathon into my dream file was a conversation I had with a gentleman who had done more than 50 marathons all over the world, but when I asked him his favourite, he said it was the Berlin Marathon, during the year of German re-unification.  He had run through part of the city that were inaccessible to him growing up, and attempting to leave those parts in the East had gotten people shot and killed over the course of the Cold War.  By the time he ran through the Brandenburg Gate (below), he was blind with tears in his eyes and needed the guidance of a friend simply to find his way through the pillars.  So many Big City Marathons have a lot of historical draw, but none like this, at least not to me.
        Runners going through the Brandenburg Gate
        • XTERRA Canada (Canadian Open Championship) I already like taking my running “off-road”,  and it’s my honest intention to get a mountain-bike for cross-training purposes and to participate in some non-navigational adventure races (like Logs, Rocks and Steel) and off-road triathlons.  From the latter category, XTERRA is pretty much the biggest and baddest.  This race takes place in beautiful Whistler, BC which only adds to the draw.  Until that time, maybe I’ll get to do the Mine Over Matter as my introduction to off-road tris…

        This list is long enough for now, but I’m always up for recommendations… dream big!

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          Gear Corner: Running Wirelessly

          Usual disclaimer: I don’t get any compensation or consideration for writing this; all products were purchased with my own money.

          I started running seriously (i.e. more than 2 miles at a time) sometime in 2004. As I got built up to Half-Marathon distance I accrued more and more technology to support my runs.

          Shortly before the September race I was doing, a friend spotted me with sunglasses, a Garmin Forerunner 205 strapped to my wrist, and a Palm Treo (one of the first smartphones) on my arm – he referred to me as ‘Robocop’; I found it both cool and funny.  The phone was playing MP3s to a wired headset; it was nice to listen to music but people would get a little scared when I answered the phone huffing and puffing.

          Nowadays, smartphones are more commonplace and since both my Garmin (I now use the Forerunner 305) and iPod Touch seem to be lost or missing, it’s as good a time as any to write about running with a Smartphone.

          With an iPhone, Android, or even Blackberry you can track and share your workout activity – including distance for many sports using an app.  I use Endomondo (I’ve tracked running, cycling, inline skating, walking, cross-country and downhill skiing and kayaking so far), but there’s Adidas miCoach and many others including Daily Mile and RunKeeper.  It’s a lot simpler when you can combine device functionality like this.

          To me, one of the big pains of running to music is dealing with the headphone wires; I either snag it with my hands and yank the headphones out or I have to deal with stringing it under my clothes and through the neck, sleeve or whatever.

          I experimented with Bluetooth solutions.  I used to have the Oakley ROKR sunglasses.  These were nice for killing two birds with one stone, as I would have both my headphone and sunglasses needs taken care of.

          The problem was that music would skip, almost as if I was running with one of those old portable CD players (remember those?).  It got very aggravating.  I also got reliant on them to be my actual sunglasses, so I had hands-free when driving, and was better able to take phone calls on bike rides (I wouldn’t listen to music, but if a call came in, I could stop, stick an ear-bud in and push a button more easily than fumbling through a pocket), but when racing, they became unusable since earphones are not allowed.  Ultimately, I dropped them on the ground once, and that was the end of them.

          Nowadays I use a Bluetooth headset (without shades): the Motorola S9.  I’ve used it with an iPod and my Blackberry and no skipping – now let me tell you why I love using a Bluetooth headset for music.  It actually feels more natural (oddly enough considering it’s a more high-tech option than regular headphones), and I can store the player (iPod/cellphone) in whatever pocket I like once the devices are paired and the connection is made.  It feels like the music is simply present in myears (the S9 seems to grip to my head quite nicely) as I move, and it stays with me even when I’m jumping around or dropping into push-ups.

          Bluetooth headsets have a few drawbacks:

          1. They need to be charged.  If you’re forgetful about this sort of thing, you’re going to be left in the lurch when you want to have music to listen to, and the headset battery is dead.  Don’t lose the charger, or find one that can be charged by USB
          2. Pairing challenges.  Getting Bluetooth devices to talk to one another should be straightforward, and usually when you’ve done it once, the devices remember each other like old friends (my car and Blackberry seem to have little spats from time to time, though).  In my experience, if you can’t get them to connect, there seems to be very little troubleshooting you can do with most devices.
          3. Standards confusion.  There’s several different versions of the standard from 1.0 to 4.0.  According to Wikipedia: “Users who need a stereo-music playing Bluetooth headset should look for a headset with the A2DP profile.”  This is less of a problem nowadays, as music playing is pretty standard in a lot of devices, but still it’s worth double-checking before putting your money down.
          4. Breakability.  You already know what happened to the Oakley’s… now look at my S9 headset:

          And yet I still prefer it to these Adidas/Sennheiser OMX 680 headphones which were recommended as being one of the best running headphones – in spite of being able to ‘mold’ and adjust the ear-clips to fit, they still pop out when my run gets too bouncy, or I sweat too much.

          And if you’re wondering, my #1 favourite running song is Wild Hearted Son  by The Cult.

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          Multi-sport mind: Cyclo-Cross

          “Cyclo-cross (‘cross) mixes the best of road, mountain, cross-country running, steeplechase and endurance cycling.” from the Midweek Cycling Club’s Cyclo-Cross 101 Handbook.

           
           As soon as autumn rolls around, triathlon training in most of Canada gets more difficult.  I think this is most felt in cycling, since it is the most time consuming of the three disciplines, and you feel the cold more when your zooming along that fast.  Somebody came up with the sport of cyclo-cross as a kind of end of season training for road and mountain bike cyclists.

          At first glance, you might have trouble telling the difference between Cyclo-cross and mountain biking (at least, I did).  Indeed they both involve getting muddy – in fact, Cyclo-cross can be performed with a mountain bike.  While I’m no expert, I don’t think mountain bikers dismount and carry their bikes over obstacles in most circumstances, whereas this is fundamentally part of Cyclo-cross.  Overall, it struck me as a little less ‘extreme’ and more friendly to novices since even an old road bike would have been acceptable (though a little tricky).  I’m getting ahead of myself by giving my impressions, first I want to tell you the story of how I ended up trying this out.

          A Cyclo-Crosser jumps a barricade, carrying his bike.  I have a bunch of photos like this.  I have a lot to learn about settings on my camera – especially those dealing with low-light and action photography.

          In spite of (or perhaps because of) a local climate (both physical and cultural) that isn’t the most bike friendly in the world, there is a strong local community of Cyclo-cross enthusiasts.  It wasn’t too hard to track down some riders from the Midweek Cycling Club at Centennial Park one Tuesday to check it out.

          What I saw was a course sketched out with police tape and little flags that went up, down and alongside the less steep parts of the ski-hill and some 40cm barriers to be hopped over.  I apologize for the poor quality of pictures; photography is not my strong suit, and never will be. 

          I spoke briefly with Craig, who was directing the cross riders on how many laps they still had before quitting time, and got a feel for whether I would even be able to attempt this thing.  It sounded like my old mountain bike would be alright, if less than perfect for gripping and steering under some circumstances.  At any rate, I resolved to show up a week later ready to go.

          One week later, I pulled into the parking lot wearing my cycling gear, with a helmet, and an old Cateye light that drew a few laughs from more hard-core cyclists I had to purchase a one-day licence from The Ontario Cycling Association and once my admission for the night was paid, they suggested I hook up with one of the more experienced riders for tips on how to navigate the course.  The usual format for the evening is to spend time at each station in a kind of ‘lesson-circuit’ before participating in a race to finish a certain number of laps of the mile-long course, but they opted to forgo that since it was near the end of season, I suppose.

          I approached a man named Pierre and asked him to show me the ropes.  After a few jokes about how this would turn into a new obsession which would threaten my marriage, he gave my bike (an old hybrid that I use for commutes and more recreational riding with my son) the once over.

          The ‘Before’ shot… even if it is technically an ‘after cleaning’ shot.

          Then we were off on the course.  As we rode, Pierre gave me general tips on bike handling that allowed me to get traction going uphill and around the sharper turns, of which there were plenty.  Every few hundred meters he’d have us stop so he could point out specifics that I was maybe doing wrong, or specifics of the course to watch out for.  In particular, he identified a way of looking where you’re going (not where you are) that helps you balance and set up your turns.  There was one hairpin turn I didn’t make all night – it was set up in such a way as to purposely slow riders down so that they wouldn’t accidentally hit a pipe from the ski hill’s snow making equipment.

          One of the most unique features of Cyclo-cross is barricades, where you dismount, pick up the bike, and hurdle over a 40cm (a little over a foot) barrier (or two).  Apparently I’m not the first beginner to find this aspect the most exciting; good technique however, requires calm grace and not holding your breath as you hop over.

          After a couple of laps, Pierre left me to give it a try on my own, which not only amped up the adrenaline factor, but also took a bigger toll on my cardio-vascular endurance; without the pointer sessions to catch my breath, I could really feel each and every lap.

          The ‘After’ shot.  Notice the mud and grass caked everywhere.

          I found Cyclo-cross to be very different than most of my training rides that I do for triathlon.  The twists and turns demand a lot more mental attention; no more ‘zoning out’.  In fact, bike handing is much more of a priority overall as it becomes a struggle just to stay on the bike.  The slippery grass and mud keep you in the lower gears and higher cadences, while the up-and-down of hills (and the bursts of strength you use to pick your bike up and jump the barriers) make it more of an interval workout than I’ve had in a long time.

          Here’s a video from my last lap (I had my camera helmet-mounted); it’s a little dark and shaky – rest assured I could see fine.

          Describing a cyclo-cross ride in short is easy: it’s the way you used to ride your bike when you were a kid:  Without consideration for destination, appropriate terrain, keeping clean or anything but having fun.  Despite how much fun I had, and my desire to do it again soon, cyclo-cross isn’t threatening to become an obsession to me.  After all, in the multi-sport mind, everything is just cross training for something else!

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          Yoga For Triathletes

          This post is going to be a bit of a rave again. I’m going to talk about the Flexible Warrior Yoga for Triathletes DVD series.  I don’t get any compensation for this review, and I purchased these products myself.

          You’re already having to fit in time to swim, bike and run. Then there are bricks to consider, and if you’re really good you have some strength cross-training in there. Maybe you even work in transition skills, or emergency bike repair practice (I haven’t done that last one). And now you’re supposed to fit in Yoga?!?!

          Yes! And here’s why:

          1. Stretching. You have to do this anyway, you might as well do it through proven, Eastern, thousand year old techniques.
          2. Strength. Done right, a Yoga workout can be a strength workout only more functional than lifting weights or using machines. Holding a pose is more about muscular endurance than raw power and that’s very important to the endurance athlete.
          3. Balance and core. These can be a little weak in endurance athletes so it’s good to shore them up, especially for…
          4. Injury Prevention. When you get injured, you can’t train, so given that Yoga is a low impact form of cross-training, time spent doing it is like an insurance policy. When I get those little aches and pains, I find it really helps to do a little Yoga.
          5. Days off. It can be inclement weather, the aforementioned aches and pains (or even injury) or even just the chaos of everyday life that keeps you from getting outside and working out. When that happens, having a Yoga DVD handy and knowing it will do you some good can take the edge off the disappointment you feel at having to scrap the original workout.

          This DVD series is created and hosted by Karen Dubs. Karen has a lot of familiarity with endurance athletes (stemming from, I believe, an affiliation with Spinnervals’ Troy Jacobsen) and it shows in the videos. The people demonstrating are triathletes of a variety of levels, the sequences are designed to address the issues that triathletes have, and she even forgives athlete’s for the tight calves, hamstrings and hips that might keep them from perfect technique. Karen’s instructions are clear in illustrating what’s important to the technique, while her laid-back attitude keeps you from getting frustrated by any mistakes you might make (e.g. “As long as you’re breathing, I’m happy”).

          Volume 1 has 3 different workouts or sequences, each lasting 20-25 minutes. They are titled: Energy, Power, and Flexibility. They can be performed in that order if you have about an hour to devote to your Yoga workout, or you can do them separately.

          Energy is a sequence that can be used as a full body warm up before the other sequences or even other workouts. It also includes some core work. The beauty of this one is that it can be performed when your muscles and joints are cold, i.e. first thing in the morning. You don’t need a warm up – it is the warm up! I can tell you that it does indeed energize you and makes it easier to start your day.

          The Power sequence may be the most challenging; it certainly is for me, especially since I seem to get the least opportunities to practice it – which is a shame, as some of the poses involve technique and balance that need to improve through practice.  You need to be warmed up to perform it, but when you get through, you’ve broken a real sweat and know you’ve had a workout.

          I like to use the Flexibility sequence as a post-workout stretch session when I have the time.  This is the reason Power is the least used: I can do Energy first thing in the morning, and Flexibility post-workout, but Power needs its own timeslot to be a workout unto itself.  The Flexibility sequences poses stretch all the important ones for triathletes, notably opening up the hips, elongating the hamstrings and calves.

          I also own Volume 2 of the Flexible Warrior series.  I’ve spent less time with it, so I have less to say about it.  This one has shorter sequences, but more of them, with slightly tweaked goals.  Energy is similar to Volume 1’s version (warm-up).  I’ll make you guess which muscles the Core sequences is designed to address.  The Cross-train sequence is for “total body strength, stability, and endurance for upper and lower body”, while the  Balance and Recovery replaces the Volume 1 Flexibility routine, albeit with more technical poses that work on your balance.

          If you’re looking for a small sample of how Yoga can help your triathlon training here’s a link to the article that orignally got my attention.  I have that sequence pretty much memorized, and use it as my bare minimum post run/ride stretch routine. There is even a Flexible Warrior YouTube channel. 

          An honourable mention goes to Sage Rountree who also does Yoga for Endurance Athletes.

          Posted on

          100 Pushups

          Family demands continue to outweigh both training and blogging, but I did find enough time to discover the 100 pushup program.  I’m sure consistency is key, but it looks like several sets of pushups (with 1 minute breaks) 3 times a week.

          I did the initial test today and I can do 32 push-ups; that sounds about right.  I’m sure I used to be able to do more than 40, but I’ve been away from exercise for a few weeks, and away from strength and push-up based exercise for longer.  It may not seem triathlon-centric, but Steve Speirs, the program’s creator is a triathlete and ultra-runner (and dad!) so I’m game too.

          I’ll log and tweet my progress, and if I get to 100, I’ll be sporting the ‘I did 100’ badge here at Iron Rogue.

          UPDATE: Things haven’t been going well, and I’m not keeping up with the workouts.  I’m not going to quit, but I ‘ll have to restart from Week 3 Day 1.