Triathlon Geek Blogs

Personal Transformation Through Triathlons

One of my passions in coaching and leadership is Transformation.  When I work with athletes, I am often always rewarded by witnessing the process of a person becoming healthier, happier, accomplished, energized and aware. What's also encouraging is that I see the athletes circle of friends and love ones also transforming to become a healthier person. 

It is in difficult or challenging times that people transform the most.  In Triathlon training, this may come from obtaining a new personal record in a race, a podium win in a difficult race or just by completing a hard workout that you may not have ever imagined doing.  

In "triathloning" or the sport of triathlons, many athletes grow from their expertise in the 3  disciplines of swimming, biking and running, to a new realization of what true health and well being is about.  While their bodies were changing, getting leaner and stronger, the real transformation takes place inside - they become more aware of their true potential in life and career, their nature and purpose in life.

If you have done several triathlons, you may know what I'm talking about. I hope you get to experience a life transformation in 2015 by taking up a new challenge in triathlon racing or perhaps something completely different. ​

Live life without limits. 

Coach JD

​Triathlon Geek

Training Strategies at TriathlonGeek.com

 

For a limited time, take US$10 off all training plans. 

Use discount code: TriForGreatness2015

2015 Triathlon Training Plans

Hello athletes, 

Our 2015 triathlon training plans are now published on Triathlon Geek.

Here are the products available:

Sprint Distance - Available for Free  is a 12 week Training Plan.  Click Here

Olympic Distance - 14 week training plan at US$14.95  Click Here

Long Course - 18 week training plan is suitable for Half Ironman races - US$19.95 Click Here

Ultra Distance - 37 week training plan is suitable for Ironman or Iron distance races - US$34.95 Click Here

Bundles and international plans for non-US athletes are also available.

Have a great training season in 2015 and live life without limits.

Coach JD
Triathlon Geek

TriathlonGeek.com

 

How to gain race confidence

Race confidence comes with proper preparation.  Confidence is earned by the athlete through thoughtful training sessions.  

 

Confidence is not given. Even for those with gifted athleticism, one will still have to train effectively to perform well.

 

Training is what makes athletes strong, both mentally and physically. As you work conscientiously on training your body, you will also be training your mind. It’s what will give you the confidence and competitive edge you need. “I hated every minute of training,” said Muhammad Ali, “but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'” And a champion he became.

 

We all know the story of Ali, the American professional boxer now considered one of the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport.  It was his commitment to training that gave him the edge. “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses,” he said, “behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” Nicknamed “The Greatest,” Ali remains the only three-time lineal World Heavyweight Champion, winning the title three times in fifteen years.

 

As an athlete, even one who is blessed with an innate talent, it is the training that propels you forward. Through training you will find the confidence you need to shine. Only with the confidence that comes from training can you not only out-perform your competitors, but perform in a manner that makes you the top competitor in your event.

 

Training to be the best goes beyond a combination of isolated factors. As you condition, you develop the skills and strategies which control your performance, mentally and physically. As you prepare your body to compete, you also prepare your mind. This is the way in which you can take responsibility for your performance, with honed physical skills and a mindset of confidence. With due diligence in your training, you will be ready to face the competition. There will be no anxiety or fear; there will only be determined self-assurance.

 

American professional tennis player Sloan Stephen, recently ranked twelfth in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association, said, “When you have confidence, you can do anything.”

 

Starting tennis at the age of nine and then choosing to do her studies through an online home-schooling program to allow herself more time on the tennis court, Stephens knows the importance of training. She trained hard, gained confidence and ended 2013 ranked eleventh in the world. She is the only woman ranked in the top thirty who is under the age of twenty-two.

 

Thanks to her efforts and to her understanding of the importance of spending the time to train that she needed, Stephens is taking the tennis world by storm.

 

You, too, can take the world by storm. If you dedicate yourself to the training required, you will rise to the top. It doesn’t matter how long it takes because anything worth doing is worth doing well. And anything worth doing well is worth the time it takes to do it. Your confidence will come. Spend the time you need. Work the routines. Do what you need to do. And you will become triumphant.

 

In Health, 

 

Coach JD

www.TriathlonGeek.com

 

Redefine Yourself

From 30 Thoughts for a Victorius Triathlete - Redefine Yourself

If you’re saying to yourself “I can’t do that”, it’s time to re-invent your identity. Change your physiological state that will change your identity. Change the way you carry yourself, the way you train, the way you dress. You are an athlete. Change your identity to someone who can ac­complish a triathlon goal. It’s a powerful force.

This topic, “Redefine Yourself” causes most experienced triathlete’s to immediately dredge up thoughts of their own beginnings. Yes, even tri legends like Dave Scott, Mark Allen, and Chrissie Wellington were beginners at one time. Hard as it may be to imagine, these three were very different, both physically and mentally, prior to their triathlon careers. Mark Allen was a biology student at U.C. San Diego. Scott’s athletic roots in high school were in water polo. Wellington was an advisor for the British government. Three different world class athletes all coming from a non-triathon background, and you can be sure that even they had to redefine themselves once they found themselves at mile 1 in the ocean with a pack of flailing arms and legs ready to beat them down. So exactly how does one redefine oneself?

Verbal Inspiration

If you are one of the many triathlete’s who still have the phrase “I can’t do that” reverberating in your head, start with finding some inspiration. One of the best quotes you can start with comes from author Marianne Williamson -    "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?”

Role Models

You can also look for inspiration in such triathlete role models like Scott Rigsby (www.scottrigsby.com) to help you redefine yourself as a triathlete. Rigsby lost both of his legs in a traffic accident while he was an adolescent, only to go on to complete the Iron Man World Championships on two high tech prosthesis! Talk about having to redefine himself! If Rigsby, seemingly an invalid, can recreate himself as an Iron Man triathlete, can you on two healthy legs?

A Natural Metamorphosis

One thing that will help redefine yourself as a triathlete is that the process is a natural metamorphosis. That is, as you consistently direct the time, effort, and energy into becoming a competent triathlete, you will slowly but surely notice not only a beautiful, healthy, fit change in your physiology, but also in how you carry yourself and think with more focus and confidence, and as the above quote states, “That is a powerful force!”

SPEAKING POSITIVELY BOOSTS YOUR TRI

Never let your ears hear anything negative from your lips. Speaking a negative thought out loud and hearing it in your own ears reinforces a nega­tive belief by two folds. Never say “I’m a slow swimmer, a slower biker or terrible runner” to anyone. It’s a bad habit and you don’t need anyone or yourself to materialize a negative belief.

Speaking and thinking positively about your abilities as a triathlete can and do have very real effects and results. As noted in the “Speak Positively” thought above, avoiding any kind of negative reinforcement about your swimming, biking, or running is a good place to start. Instead, say “I am a good swimmer! I am a powerful biker! I am a great runner!” Remember, like attracts like, and as your thoughts and words dwell in the realm of the positive, positive results in your tri training result. 

Repeating your positive statements regarding your triathlon abilities, training, and racing can and will produce positive results! If you have spent most of your life being trained to think and speak negatively by society, and the people that surround you, then those paradigms run deep within you. This is why, once you flip the positivity switch, repetition is key. As you continue your positive reps, slowly the negativity ingrained in you is replaced with a rock solid positive foundation, and your negative beliefs vanish.

Think of your emotions as the fuel of your positive statements and thoughts, just as that energy gel or that top secret carbohydrate elixir you use to boost your energy and performance as a triathlete. If you repeat your positive affirmations with very real enthusiasm and belief, there is great energy and power in this process that will create positive thoughts and actions much more quickly. No passion, feeling, and belief in your affirmations equals no, or long-in-coming, positive results.

 

Triathlon Geek
http://www.TriathlonGeek.com

 

AN ATHLETE’S SPIRITUAL CONDITIONING

Condition Spiritually -“Without mental and spiritual conditioning, even the best conditioned athlete will be limited in his or her performance. Training, rest and nutrition can only take us so far. You need mental, moral and spiritual conditioning to determine and maintain a balanced lifestyle.”

This is perhaps one of most under considered aspects of training by most triathletes. How is it that spiritual conditioning can enhance your overall effort and career as a triathlete? To understand this better, lets look closer at the three key elements. 

Mental, Moral & Spiritual

Ok, so you’ve done you last brick workout, your physique is at its peak, and you’re ready to race – but are you? How many of us, and this may include you, have been exactly in this same place – ready to “rock ‘n roll” in an upcoming race, because you know you’ve done everything possible – physically – yet come race day you race poorly or even DNF’ed. Most likely the answer lies in the fact that you forgot, or even didn’t consider, the mental, moral, and spiritual aspects of your training and racing.  

In reality, these three elements fall under the same umbrella, right-minded thinking. If there is an imbalance somewhere in your being in even one of these elements, it can be like the proverbial “crack in the dam”, and it usually lies below the surface in your subconscious.  A damaged or undeveloped mentality (i.e. triathloning for the wrong reasons), morality (i.e. cheating during the race, poor sportsmanship) and spirituality (i.e. a connectedness to a Higher Power that results in faith and confidence) can undermine your physical preparedness almost every time.

How To Develop It

You busted your butt in training your body to be ready to swim, bike, and run, because you had a plan and a coach, but you can also create a realistic strategy to develop your mental, moral, and spiritual strength, too. It all begins with your own mind.

Find time to regularly get in a quiet place (you can even do this on a long solo run or ride), and just contemplate what these elements mean to you perhaps through meditation.  You certainly don’t have to be religious to connect with your Source – the true power of your being. It will take more than a one-time effort, especially if you’ve never even considered these aspects in your training, but with consistent practice you will develop these building blocks of the mental, moral, and spiritual.

When mental and spiritual conditioning is combined with your physical preparation for your next event, you really will be ready to rock ‘n roll, because of you now have a very real, rock solid foundation.

 Triathlon Geek.
www.TriathlonGeek.com

 

KEEPING A TRAINING JOURNAL

 From 30 Thoughts for a Victorious Triathlete: “A training journal helps build confidence and mo­tivation. It also helps you feel a sense of accom­plishment. When you’ve completed your workout in accordance to a training plan for the day, it will feel great to log your training. Log how you feel both physically and mentally after each training day. Journaling helps you fig­ure out what works and what doesn’t. Try it for 7 days.” 

Journaling all of your workouts helps you see what works and what doesn’t. While there are multiple multisport journals for triathlete’s available, don’t stress over it. Just choose one that you can simply record your daily training and racing thoughts, nutrition, statistics, weather conditions, and even emotions.   A free training log is available for download from Triathlon Geeks’ website. 

 

Clarity

The key to keeping a training and racing journal is that, over time, it becomes clear whether you are improving and becoming a better triathlete. Review each week of training to see what it was that you did that seemed to make a difference, positively or negatively. Once you note the key factors, you then are motivated and inspired to make the necessary changes needed, or to maintain and build on what is working well.

Example: Recording your heart rate – Whether you’re just starting or rebuilding, you may notice that your heart rate is fairly high, but as you stay consistent, and slowly and intelligently increase your pace and effort, you will see via your heart rate monitoring that your cardiovascular fitness level is steadily increasing.  If you are running a 6 mile run at 8:00 per mile pace with an average heart rate of 158, and after a week or two of consistently doing this (and maybe throwing in some harder strides and tempos), you will more than likely see your average heart rate drop to maybe 148 at the same pace and distance – and because you recorded it all, it’s there in black and white for your  review.

Dividends

This is just one example of how keeping a journal of your daily workouts in a journal can pay dividends in your training, and understanding just what works or doesn’t work. Even recording your rest and fatigue levels can help you to focus on what will improve your swimming, biking, running, an strength training. So get a multisport training journal, then train, record, review, and tri.

Get your free training log here.

Triathlon Geek
Training strategies at: www.TriathlonGeek.com

Have Faith Triathloning

You can do absolutely everything right in training – proper technique,  nutrition, recovery, having a good coach, etc., but you simply may not make it to the finish line if you don’t have faith. While all of these qualities are pretty concrete, faith is more in the realm of the abstract.

How would you develope faith as an integral part of your triathlon training?

There are three key elements you can easily use to develop faith:

1. Visualize it – Most, if not all, successful athletes will tell you to see yourself in your mind’s eye performing exactly how you want things to be. Literally see yourself in high definition, coming across the finish line of your race with a big smile on your face, with the crowd cheering you on.  See the finish line clock with the exact time of your goal finishing time. Think about this, all actions and achievements were nothing but thoughts before they were transformed into their physical equivalent. 

2. Speak it – This is another powerful element of creating real faith that you will achieve your triathlon goals. As with visualizing, speaking your intentions and goals out loud adds another aspect of energy in solidifying into physical reality what it is you wish to create and achieve with your triathlon goals. Visualizing plus speaking it out loud with strong emotion and purpose will amp-up the power of real faith.

3. Act out loud - Turn visualization into action by acting out your finish line crossing.  When I coach triathletes in track, I do a mock race finish line moment with athletes gathered around a finishing line ribbon cheering each person on as he or she enters the finish line shoot with arms held up high.  The feeling is phenomenal and quite real. Finishing the race now feels like a reality.

When it comes to the subject of faith, it doesn’t have to be complex or abstract. As a matter of fact, it’s best to make it simple.

Have faith that by having a training strategy in place and executing your train plan, you will cross the finish line and perhaps accomplish one of the hardest endurance challenge in your life.

Coach JD
TriathlonGeek.com

WHY TRY TRI?

Many of the triathlete’s we know were at one time exclusively a runner, a cyclist, or a swimmer – even some focused only on weight lifting! Then  one day a light bulb goes off in their athletic brain, and out of inspiration or even boredom, they somehow gravitate to triathlon. A good example of this was a recent article about a famous television chef known worldwide, who was doing strictly running when he chanced upon a triathlon going on during his run. He was instantly mesmerized and inspired! Next thing he knew he was the proud owner of a wet suit, and had enlisted the help of a personal triathlon coach. Fast-forward a couple years, and the next thing you know he was competing in the World Championship in Kona!

So why does this happen, and what exactly is the appeal of tri? Who in their right mind wants to pound themselves silly doing swimming, biking, and running back-to-back-to-back? Evidently a lot of people – hundreds of thousands worldwide, as a matter of fact! Triathlons, especially half and full Ironman competitions sell-out within hours! Expensive entry fees are no deterrent either. Most races could almost charge whatever they want, and they would still sell out.

So exactly what is the appeal?

The Challenge – There can be no doubt about it, combining three different sports into one athletic event simply appeals not only to long time athletes, but also beginner athletes! Bring it on!

The Next Level – As previously mentioned, those athletes who had focused on strictly one sport quickly realize that triathlon represents taking it to the next level of athletic performance. 

Fitness & Health Results – There can be no denying that triathletes are some of the fittest people in the world, especially cardiovascular and aerobic wise, with low body fat, and a very high endurance factor. These factors almost always translate into a healthier, happier lifestyle plus a nice probable increase in longevity of life because of the positive fitness and health results. 

It’s Cheaper Than Therapy – If there isn’t a bumper sticker that says, “Triathlon is cheaper than therapy” there should be! This is because the exertion and effort you put into it is a great stress equalizer, and health and well-being builder.  Stress is simply burned off by channeling it into your workouts, and other unexpected benefits subsequently pop up, too. There is a natural tendency to eat healthier, plus becoming more patient and focused in everything you do. Finally there’s the beautiful compensation that your triathlon accomplishments become an inspiration to others, and thereby bringing them into the sport.

So if you are looking for a new challenge that offers an increase in your health and wellbeing with challenges galore – try tri! And if you are still unsure, just head to your next local triathlon race and volunteer or just be a spectator, and before you know it you will find yourself in the local tri store trying on wetsuits!

Visit TriathlonGeek.com for training strategies.

 

 

OFF-SEASON: REST, RECUPERATE, FINE-TUNE

If you are a triathlete who lives in a cold climate, then this time of year can be pretty tough. It’s tough on your body because you simply are not training and racing at the same intensity and duration you would be during a warmer time of the year. Less physical effort means less calories burned, and your body weight and body fat can increase.

Increase body fat isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Off-season body fat gain can actually help during in-season training. So, don’t worry too much about it if you are going into a 2014 training season in a couple of weeks or months.

Let’s look at what most any triathlete can do to stay on top of her game in the off-season:

Bike Maintenance  

-         Clean off the mixture of caked on sport drink, chain lube, energy gel, mud, and sweat! Make sure to lube the crank, chain, stem, and anything else that has been creaking and groaning.

-         True the wheels. The beating those expensive carbon fiber race wheels took a beating during the season, and can knock them out of alignment. This is not an expensive service , and can be provided at your local bike store.

-         Get a professional fitting. Having your bike set up to your body statue by the pro at your local bike shop can save you much pain from those long rides.

 

Swim Tune Up

• Off-season is the time to get in the pool with your coach to work on form, technique, and efficiency. All three components can save you precious time and effort come race day.
  
  
• Check out the local tri group swim or individual classes with a certified, respected swim coach.

Run Maintenance

Running lends itself to any weather, any time, anywhere, but be prepared with the right clothing and gear.

• Strap on traction devices are readily available so ice and snow cause you to miss a workout.
  
  
• Polyester clothing is perfect because of its wicking quality to help keep you warm.
  
  
• Stay hydrated! Just because its cold out doesn’t mean you will not sweat. Loss of body fluid means decreased performance.
  
  
• Too cold out to run? Then find a treadmill to do those intervals on. While a treadmill can be boring, it is well-suited for doing excellent, well-controlled speed and interval reps.  Our Non-competitive training plan contains treadmill-run speed workouts.

Cold weather-dwelling triathletes no longer have an excuse to slack off during the off-season. You can enjoy it, rest, and recuperate, but use this time of year to keep your gear, and yourself ready to rock ‘n roll when the new race season hits. 

The off-season training plan allows you to do your training indoors (except for the swim).  This is a 10 week training plan that allows you to condition and maintain your base level fitness during the cold season. 

All the best in your 2014 Training Season.

Live life without limit.

Coach JD
Triathlon Geek
www.TriathlonGeek.com