Real Swimming for Triathletes Video: Top 5 Don'ts at Masters Swimming

 My good friend Roman Mica over at Everymantri.com has graciously offered his time and stellar camera and editing skills to help launch a new series of swim videos with myself and my training buddy Brandon del Campo. The videos, Real Swimming for Triathletes, are designed to give triathletes some important swim information in a concise and hopefully humorous way. These videos are short -- they are not meant to be the final word in any of the topics we cover. We hope you enjoy the videos and if you have any particular topics you would like to see covered, let us know!

The Wetsuit Effect

 A few months ago, my niece called me and asked me to help her devise a science fair project. Research is my thing, but I am not very well versed in the nuances of 8th grade assignments. I asked Dr. Google for some ideas, but nothing seemed original or interesting, and if I wasn’t interested, there is no way my 14 year old niece would be interested. Then, in a flash of shear genius (if I don’t pat myself on the back, nobody will) I had an idea. How about formally testing the wetsuit effect?  You know, the notion that non-swimmers benefit more from a wetsuit than swimmers.

My niece is a swimmer, so she immediately embraced the proposal. The final plan was to get about 20 masters swimmers of varying abilities and have them swim 200 yards with a wetsuit and without a wetsuit. Her hypothesis was the faster swimmers would have less of a time difference than the less fast swimmers (how PC is that? I didn’t call them “slower” swimmers).

Now, all of you are saying to yourselves, “Duh. We all already know that faster swimmers have less advantage than slower swimmers when wearing a wetsuit.” Only one has examined this issue and it was way back in 1996. The subjects were 18-20 years old, so they were much younger than the typical triathlete. This was an opportunity to get a concrete time difference in older triathletes and master’s swimmers.

Given that this is an 8th grade project, the methodology and execution of this little experiment are basic, so no grousing about the crude nature of this investigation. There was no controlling for the type of wetsuit, how often a person had worn a wetsuit previously, the temperature of the water, and many other variables. However, I think the results are still interesting, and I would venture to guess that a larger, more advanced study would yield very similar findings.

Twenty-one suckers, I mean people, agreed to participate in the study.  The average age of the swimmers was 47. There were 6 females and 15 males. Participants were randomly assigned to wearing the wetsuit first or second. The average swim time without a wetsuit was 2:34.6 and with a wetsuit was 2:25.9, meaning for the entire sample, there was about a 9 second improvement over 200 yards when wearing a wetsuit.

The results that were the most applicable to triathletes were when the participants were divided into sub-groups depending on when they started swimming. Ten of the participants started swimming as adults; the remaining 11 began swimming as children. The participants who started swimming as adults swam an average of 2:54.9 without a wetsuit and 2:40.9 with a wetsuit. That is a whopping 14 second improvement over 200 yards! The participants who started swimming as children swam an average of 2:16.1 without a wetsuit and 2:12.3 with a wetsuit, a meager 3.8 second improvement. As you can see, the group that started swimming as adults was slower overall on both the wetsuit and non-wetsuit trials by a large margin.

Being the extreme statistical nerd that I am, I did a t-test on these data and even with 21 subjects the results were statistically significant at the p<0.01 level. Just for more kicks, I did a regression analysis which was also significant. Don’t worry, the extra analyses were for my own interest and are not part of the science fair.

What does this mean in practical terms, aside from the fact that if you started swimming as an adult you are basically screwed? Here’s a cute little table that explains it all.

 This table represents the most conservative estimates of swim improvement for the “non-swimmers”. I think the improvement will actually be more the longer the distances due to cumulative fatigue and the increased reliance on the wetsuit for buoyancy, a condition that is not as pronounced in the swimmers.

The bottom line: the wetsuit effect is real.

8 reasons athletes don’t achieve success

“Greatness is never rewarded to the stupid.” This quote was texted to me by a good friend on the heels of a discussion we had about athletes who have a bad race and decide they have to go home and train harder. It got me thinking about all of “stupid” things we do as athletes that hinder our ability to be great, or at least be the best we can be.

1.   Training with insecurity
I put this one first because I believe this is the biggest impediment to improvement. Athletes who lack confidence in their training make detrimental mistakes, such as logging too many miles, going too hard, and deviating from their plan. It is the gateway to all of the other things that prevent athletes from success.

2.    Never taking a rest day
Look, I hate taking a zero as much as anyone. However, rest days are imperative for mental and physical restoration. And, sometimes you just need to get other stuff done.

3.    Keeping up with Joneses
Social media has given everyone the opportunity to post their workouts; pros and amateurs bombard Twitter, Facebook and blog sites with intricate tales of miles logged and meters swum. It is very intimidating realizing your competition is training 50 hours a week with a full time job and a family. My advice: cut it all in half and then lop off a few more hours. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. Stick to your own plan.

4.  Training beyond your means
If your goal run pace is a 7 minute mile, should you really be on the track hammering out mile repeats at 5:50? Enough said.

5.  Unrealistic expectations
I would love to run a sub 2:30 marathon. How cool would that be? Alas, even if I was 10 years younger, that is not a pace I am capable of running. Athletes often have expectations that exceed their ability. Before you lambast me on this, let me explain. I am all about setting goals and reaching for the stars; it is, to me, the cornerstone of training and racing. But, we all have our limitations and those need to be recognized.

6.  Doing the same thing and hoping for different results
It is easy to get stuck in a training rut. Long sessions on the weekend. Group rides on certain evenings. Long steady distance. Intervals all the time. Going too hard. Going too easy. Training that worked for you a few years ago may not work anymore. Plateaus happen. Take a close look at how you are training. There are probably ways to change things up that will boost you to the next level.  You can start training with power on the bike. Running different types of intervals – how about 1K repeats instead of mile repeats? Challenge yourself in the pool by swimming in a swim meet.

7.  Ignoring the little things that are really big things
Triathletes are very focused on swim, bike run. Training takes up a lot of time leaving little room for things like strength training, massage, focusing on technique and eating better. I always tell the athletes I coach, it is better to miss a recovery workout and go to the gym to lift than to skip the gym altogether. Swim, bike, run is predicated on having a healthy body and this can only be achieved by doing things that are not necessarily swim, bike, run.

8. Chasing races
You missed your goal in a race so you turn around and sign up for another. You miss your goal in that race so you turn around and sign up for another. And so on. Sometimes a bad race is just a bad race. Most of the time, though, there is a reason. Take a close look at what happened and rectify the problem before rushing into another race.

I have fallen victim to each and every one of these mistakes in my years of racing. Fortunately, I have spaced them out and not incorporated them into my regime all at once. Thankfully, the passage of time has made me a smarter athlete and less vulnerable to the blunders listed above. I hope.

Impatience and Memory Loss

As a coach, I get to see a perspective on training and racing very different from my own since I am privy to the diverse outlooks of my athletes. Despite their varying ages, abilities, goals and time in the sport they all have two things in common: impatience and short-term memory loss.

Impatience 

There are two parts to the impatience. The first is a question I get asked a lot this time of year, “Why can’t I do more?” I gently explain that in January and February one cannot and should not train as much as during the summer. Most of the important races are later in the year and it is hard to stay fresh for those races if the training load is too high too early. Winter offers a natural break in the training cycle with unpredictable weather and less daylight. A progression needs to occur so the body adapts, does not break down and absorbs the training load.

The second part to the impatience is this statement, “I want to get faster. Now.” This is a real problem with all athletes, myself included. Our desire for success and improvement is what compels us to keep training year after year. We set goals for ourselves giving us a very good idea of where we would like to be. But, it does not, should not and cannot happen overnight.

Making improvements in sports must be approached systematically. Training paces or watts must be advanced in a manner that keeps an athlete from getting injured or overtrained. Pushing the limits week after week and setting PRs in training on a regular basis is not necessarily ideal. I always know when a top athlete is headed for destruction when I hear them say, “I just put in the best training of my life”.  Not infrequently, they are injured the next day.

Those who make slow and steady improvements in training are generally the athletes that are able to show up on race day. It is not about crushing it, hammering, or flogging oneself. You should always leave a little left because it is never about any single workout; it is about consistency over the long haul.

Now, I am not saying that athletes shouldn’t push themselves or try to find their limits. I regularly test my athletes by giving them workouts that are on the edge of what they are capable of handling. I  share their enthusiasm when they accomplish that workout. What I am saying is that those types of workouts cannot occur all the time. Getting faster is not something that happens “now”. It is something that happens over time with hard work and patience.

Short term memory loss

Here is where the short term memory loss comes in. If you recall, the first part of impatience was the desire to do more. Very often, the same athletes that are begging to do more are the same ones who, several months down the road, are begging for a week off or looking forward to tapering for the big event. In February, they forget about the grind of training for a key race and how hard it was fitting in all of the workouts around a busy life.

There is also short term memory loss when it comes to workouts. Just today I got a call from an athlete incredibly frustrated over a dreadful swim. I reminded him that for the last few weeks he has been making progress with his swim and most of them had been quite good. “That’s true. I kind of forgot about that” was his response. How easily we overlook the good workouts in the face of a bad one or two. Write down your successes so you can go back and look them over during a rough patch. It helps.

Field Filler: 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon

The 2012 marathon Olympic trials in Houston are a mere 10 days away. I thought this would be a good time to address a question my good friend Lara raised to me over the summer, “What do the Olympic trials mean to you?”

Each Olympic trials event has offered me an opportunity to compete against America’s best. Not even a National championship garners such a competitive field. I have borne witness to the nervous excitement of my fellow competitors, relished the undertones of “it could possibly be me making the team”. I have seen (and been) the walking wounded. Everyone is there riding on the coattails of hard work, heart ache, and supreme dedication. 

The Olympic trials are a spectacle, qualifying is an honor, competing is exhilarating. Like any sporting event, there are pre-race predictions, athletes are hyped, and experts pontificate on how the races will unfold. The beauty of sport, and the reason why races are contested, is that nobody has a crystal ball and ultimately surprises happen on the big day. I love being a part of all of that.

My own experiences at the Olympic trials have been varied – the purposes of each race have been different, yet each one has helped me grow as an athlete.

When I competed in the swimming trials in 1988, my motivation was to gain national experience and observe firsthand the inner workings of making an Olympic team. I had no illusions that I would place in the top 2 of my events; I was there solely as field filler. If it were a ballet, I would be in the company. If it were a movie, I would be an extra. My role at the trials was an important one; certainly nobody wants to attend a swim meet with 10 people in each event. Hence, the majority of the field is there to round out the events. And in typical American dream fashion, perhaps a field filler athlete would defy the odds and catapult onto the world stage by making the Olympic team.

I viewed the 2000 marathon Olympic trials as a dress rehearsal for the triathlon Olympic trials which were 3 months later. It was a chance to shake off the cobwebs and learn from the mistakes of the top contenders. While I was intent on running a personal best, there was no pressure. I lapped up the enthusiasm of the spectators, riling up the troops that were lining the section of the race that went through Fort Jackson by getting them to cheer me on. And, on this occasion, a field filler athlete won the event, toppling the pre-race favorites.

I competed in three triathlon Olympic trials. They could not have panned out more differently. In 2000, I improbably qualified for the Sydney Olympics. I hobbled into the 2004 trials with an ongoing back injury. I ended up pulling out during the bike. After a 2 year hiatus from ITU-style racing, I decided to make one final attempt at qualifying for the Olympics in triathlon in 2008. While I missed the team, I finally got the needed closure from that style of racing and later that year I won the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, softening the blow of not competing in the Olympics.

And that brings me to the 2012 marathon Olympic trials. Once again, my role is that of field filler. A record number of women qualified for these trials, a testimony to the growing long distance running talent in the US. And, for the first time ever, the men and women will be competing on the same course on the same day. The Houston marathon and half marathon take place the day after trials – built in spectators? The looped course makes viewing the race friendly (although all too easy to step off if the day goes awry). 

My two objectives for the race are simple: 1. run the best race I possibly can on the day and 2. savor the moment, because you never know if you get another chance.

5 Tenets of Racing

 Managing a race is like putting together a puzzle; the pieces have to fit together just so for a perfect day. Rarely, if ever, do the pieces coincide in such a manner during a race which always leaves me with a feeling that things can be better next time, that if I can change “x” than I can have that elusive perfect day. The problem is that once I think I have learned it all, a new “x” pops up and throws me for a loop and I am therefore enticed to the start line to fix that problem. You can see how this cycle repeats itself time and again, continuously beckoning me back to the races. Hence, the puzzle is never completed.

I have learned, though, that there are certain givens in racing, the so-called “tenets of racing”. If you learn these, you can at least eliminate some potential problems, which of course, leaves room for any number of new problems that will leave your puzzle forever incomplete.

1.    What feels easy at the start feels hard at the end
Having just run a marathon, this tenet is fresh in my mind. The first few miles of the race I was amiably chatting and joking with the competitors around me. By mile 20, I was solemn, not noticing or caring about those in my vicinity. The pace in the first 20 miles felt like jogging, but by the end it was arduous and instead of holding steady my pace was bouncing around like a ping pong ball. Proper pacing is essential; do not be deceived by the relative ease at the beginning, which brings me to point 2.

2.    Don’t go out too hard
The feeling of comfort at the start of a race lures people into a false sense of what they can achieve. An athlete I coach recently competed in an Ironman. He went through the first half of the bike 10 minutes faster than any half Ironman he had done. The result? A DNF. I asked him why he went so fast in the beginning and he replied that it felt really good. Going out too hard is not necessarily a subjective measure – you cannot rely on how you feel, because you should feel good.  You need to preset a pace, wattage, or heart rate, all of which are objective measures, to dictate how you will execute the early stages of your races. I always tell my athletes before an Ironman, nobody ever finishes an Ironman and says, “I wish I had gone harder on the first loop of the bike.”

3.    Training never lies
When deciding race goals and strategies, look to your training. What wattage did you hold on your long rides? What pace did you run your intervals? Were you consistent in your workouts over a long period of time, or were you hampered by injury or illness? All of these parameters will guide you toward making the right decisions in race execution. Leading into the Twin Cities marathon I had many workouts that indicated I was ready to run a PR. But, I also had many workouts hampered by my rib injury signifying I was ready for a DNF. I ran the race hoping for the best. My training told me I should expect the worst, and so when I was unable to finish the race due to rib pain it was not a shock. Conversely, my training leading up to CIM was much smoother and I did not miss any workouts due to the injury. My race pace and finish time mirrored my training paces.

4.    It is hard to imagine things going wrong when things are going so right
Races often start off spectacularly. The execution is perfect, the weather stunning, the day unfolding according to plan. Then, suddenly, you get a flat tire. Or, your stomach starts to rebel. Or, your bottle with your nutrition falls off your bike. Or, your legs start to cramp. Or, you get dizzy. Or, you go off course. Or, a recurring injury flares up. Or, your body just falls apart. Or, … Any number of things can happen during a race ending a seemingly ideal day . The most you can do is manage the problem if possible or call it a day if your health is at risk (or if your bike is unrideable).

5.    Have fun
This is the single, most important tenet of racing. If it isn’t fun you should find another hobby. Success in sport is difficult and requires time, patience, perseverance, and heart ache. Ultimately, there must be an element of enjoyment to make it all worth it, to balance out the negatives. I distinctly recall, at mile 16 of the marathon two weeks ago, thinking to myself, “Wow, I am really enjoying this race.” The crowd support was motivating, my body was cooperating, the course was suited to me, and I had people to run with. I truly took some time to enjoy the moment.

I realize that these 5 tenets represent a mere fraction of the overall “tenets of racing.” I have many more and I am sure you do as well. But, I cannot spill all my secrets at once, can I?

Time for Change

The triathlon season is winding down. This is a perfect time to reflect on goals attained, missed opportunities, the fun, the grind. Most importantly, the break from the normal regime is a chance to ask yourself this question:  What next?

I find that athletes often get stuck in a rut. Why?

• They do not vary their training.
• They do the same races every year.
• They train with the same people.
• They make the same mistakes.
• They train too hard or train too easy.
• They do not stick to a plan.

Now is the time to break out of the “sameness” and try something new, something that will progress you to the next level. Athletes are afraid of change. Routine is like a security blanket that athletes are unwilling to part with, no matter how tattered and stinky. Let 2012 be the year you leave the sameness behind and rekindle your love for the sport and perhaps even set a few PR’s in the process.

Here are some suggestions for building the foundation to a better season next year:

• Find new training partners to complement the ones you already have. New training partners can   help give new perspective, new stories, and new jokes.
• Incorporate intervals into your training that you do not normally do. If you like short, fast intervals challenge yourself with longer repeats. If you are an aficionado of mile repeats, try some 400's instead. And, vary you workouts so you aren't doing the same exact thing every week.
• Seek the help of a trainer at the gym and get strong. A trainer will show you the right way to do the exercises and can give you a plan targeted to your weaknesses.
• Take enough time away from swim, bike, run that you really miss it. Believe me, I know first hand. After 16 months without riding, I really miss it!
• Sign up for new races or race distances that you would not normally do. This year I ran cross-country, 10k races and races in new venues. It was a blast.
• Run a 5k. Look, we can all use a good dose of speed.
• Take care of nagging injuries. Self explanatory!
• Perfect your form in all three disciplines. This will make you more efficient and may prevent injuries.
• Working with a coach may help you achieve many of these things

I hope that you can find some things to take your training and racing to the next level in 2012.

The never ending season

Is it time for the off-season yet?

When I first started racing triathlons the US season kicked off with the St. Anthony’s triathlon in late April and concluded with the Hawaii Ironman in October. Then I started racing ITU, and the season started a little earlier and end a little later. Now, WTC, Rev3 and other series added races very early in the year. These new races beckon with Kona slots or mid-winter respites from the cold. Fall races offer a chance to milk a season of training and perhaps qualify for Kona almost a year in advance. Suddenly, one can race virtually all 12 months without leaving the Northern Hemisphere, something unheard of only a few years ago.

In the past, the shorter racing season lent itself to a natural off-season; a time to rest and restore, embark on other activities, rectify weaknesses, spend time with family, catch up at work. The winter was meant for base training, sitting on the couch, or snow sports. Without the lure of races in February, there was no need to get in shape quickly.

Once races started populating the schedule, though, the temptation for training and racing obsessed athletes was too great. People started signing up for races in what was once considered the off-season requiring a healthy dose of training early or late in the year (much of it, perhaps, indoors).

I am not saying I am opposed to the longer season. I am not. The multitude of racing options available are astounding and showcase the incredible growth of our beloved sport. I fear, however, that without careful planning, the risk of burnout, illness or injury is increased significantly. I am not just talking about seasonal afflictions. I am also referring to career ending setbacks. 

The continued cycle of racing almost year round will eventually take a mental and physical toll. With the next race on the horizon, there will be less time to take care of muscle imbalances and nagging pre-injuries. A year-round dose of extremely early mornings of training will eventually render an athlete weary and ready to toss out the alarm clock. 

This is where careful planning becomes important. If you are racing early in the season and have a key race late in the season, take some downtime in the middle of the season. This will keep you fresh and rejuvenated. And here is a key piece of wisdom. Get a pencil and paper and write this down: You cannot be in top fitness all year. Should I repeat that? You cannot be in top fitness all year. It’s true. The fitter you are, the harder it is to maintain that fitness. You must allow yourself, not only between seasons but within a season, a period of time to rest.

Likewise, it is unwise to race a long schedule year after year. Alternate a long racing season with a shorter racing season. This will allow you to race happy and healthy for a longer period of time.

Go ahead. Allow yourself some time to be lazy. You deserve it.

One year later

 It has been one year since I last competed in a triathlon. It is hard to believe how slowly and how quickly time has passed. My last race was Lake Stevens 70.3. It was not a banner day. Despite the pain from my rib injury, I hobbled through the race. I knew at the time that it would be my last triathlon for a long while, so I decided that I would finish slowly rather than not finish at all. After the race, I spent a month on the couch recovering both mentally and physically before beginning a long journey of doctor visits and physical therapy.


This past year has been one of change, introspection, patience and flexibility. I have altered my expectations as an athlete and redefined my role in the sport of triathlon.

No longer a triathlon competitor, I continue a very active involvement in the sport as a coach, writer, and educator. I avidly peruse results, stay up to date on technology, learn about new races, and keep informed about rules changes. I take my job as a coach very seriously so I continue to be a student of the sport; athletes look to me to achieve success and I do not want to fail them. As well, with my long history of ailments, I can almost always find a solution to an athlete’s problems. Cheering from the sidelines is not as hard as I anticipated.

In terms of training and racing, my year has taken a very interesting turn. I am a Masters runner with a very concrete goal of qualifying for the marathon Olympic Trials. Training has changed markedly. I run with the Running Republic of Boulder. In the past, I ran mostly alone, whereas now, I almost always have a run buddy (especially since if I cannot find a human, Diesel the dog, is always a willing and able partner). The workouts are completely different than anything I have done in the past – they are longer, harder, and far more taxing. Indeed, in the beginning I was getting a touch of workout anxiety, wondering if I could complete such rigorous training. My confidence in running has grown tremendously this year, although I still worry about getting dropped on the long runs. And, I am continually humbled by the ageless 47 year old Colleen DeReuck who kicks my butt on a regular basis (how on earth can she get that far ahead of me in just 60 seconds???).  I have toed the line at races I would have balked at in the past, and have a lot of fun doing so.

Flexibility and patience. I have been notoriously poor at both. My rib injury still plagues me and so, in order to train at the level I aim for, I have made certain modifications. For instance, I have gotten out early for more swim workouts this year than in my entire career previously. I learned that if my rib hurts in the pool, I must get out lest I make it worse. I cut run workouts short. I take unexpected days off to let a rib flare up calm down. I manage the pain most of the time, but it takes a lot of effort to do so and I cannot relent on physical therapy, stretching and gym work. I am "patiently" waiting for this injury to finally go away.

It is never easy to redefine yourself, especially when something has characterized you for many years. I realized that finding other tangible goals has eased the transition. We are always evolving; it is up to us to keep up.

Boulder 70.3

Yesterday I volunteered at the Boulder 70.3. This is totally unremarkable, except for two things: 1. I had never worked at a triathlon prior to yesterday and 2. I was pressured into working the aid station by Coach Darren, as I was not feeling up to the task of attending a triathlon. I had serious trepidations about going to the race. I did not think I was emotionally ready to watch a triathlon. 

My initial fears about my mental status were unfounded. I had fun handing out ice and water and hanging out with my running group. I actually felt somewhat like a hero, giving the athletes much needed relief from the heat of the day. Their downtrodden faces lit up when I yelled “Ice” and they eagerly came over to grab a cup, or have it dumped into a hat or shirt.

Working the aid station allowed me a whole new perspective on the racing scene.

1. When I first started racing, there were very few options in attire. Mostly, people wore bathing suits. I remember one particular race in which the run went through a quiet neighborhood. I recall thinking to myself, “Wow, we really look ridiculous running down the street half naked in our bathing suits.” The men, especially, in the just their Speedos. Nowadays, the clothing options are plentiful and that was abundantly clear yesterday. Most athletes were wearing colorful tri tops with tri shorts, many sporting their club logos. Lots of people wore arm coolers. Except for two women who were kickin’ it old school and wore a standard bathing suit.
2. People were so incredibly polite. I heard “thank you” and “thanks for being here” more times than I can count. The athletes were orderly at the aid station when they came through in groups. I did not see a single discourteous person the entire time I was there. 
3.  Triathlon truly has a “finish or die” attitude. I arrived at the aid station around 11 am. The athletes coming through were mostly walking and they were on their first loop. They still had 7 miles to go! The people who gutted out the heat or lack of fitness or poor nutrition, I say kudos. To the individual who walked the entire run with a boot on her foot, I ask, “why?” As someone pointed out at the aid station, it’s not like this race comes around every four years!
4. Speaking of nutrition, it is very clear that most people do not take enough salt. I saw hundreds of uniforms mottled with salt stains. People were gray in the face, cramping, hunched over, and looking pretty bad. 
5. We went through a tremendous number of cups, bags of ice, bottles of water, Gatorade and cola, bananas, gels, bars and pretzels. One racer even asked for a piece of pizza that was provided for the volunteers. Of course, we obliged him. Triathlons truly are a moving feast.

Who doesn't love pizza and Gatorade 12 miles into a 70.3?

On another note, I rode a friend’s mountain bike to race. It was my first time on a bike in 6 months. On the way down, I thought to myself, “This isn’t too bad. Maybe I will start riding again.” On the way back, I thought to myself, “This really sucks. I can already feel my ribs and I am getting very uncomfortable.” So, it looks like my hiatus from riding will extend even further.

Congrats to everyone who raced yesterday. 

Ironman Addiction

I wrote a post last year about exercise addiction. One thing was very clear from the responses to that post; many of us are exercise addicts. I believe there is a special subset in that group, those who are not only addicted to exercise in general, but to Ironman specifically. Year after year, in spite of the time commitments, financial burden, and physical and emotional toll, athletes clamor to sign up for Ironman races.

A recent conversation with an athlete I coach centered on this very issue. She has raced Ironman every year for the past many years. Next year, work obligations will not allow her the time to train the same number of hours and so she questioned her ability to appropriately train for Ironman. I offered her a very radical suggestion: Take a year off from Ironman and focus on the other distances. She was incredulous at the very notion, she had not thought about not doing Ironman. When we talked it though, though, she became excited at the prospect of doing shorter races and honing her speed.

My last Ironman was in 2008. My gut shut down yet again, rendering me dizzy, depleted and unable to finish the race. I decided that it would be my last Ironman for a very long time. It seemed silly to continually damage my body doing a distance it seemingly rejected, especially with so many other racing options.

Triathlon is very Ironman-centric and I, too, was heavily on the band wagon. I could not imagine planning an Ironman-less season. I anticipated that my training and racing would be unfulfilling in some way, that I would be less of a triathlete. I could not have been more wrong.

My training evolved to fit my racing goals. I substituted much of the long distance training for shorter and more intense workouts. I began to really enjoy the training format. I did not miss Ironman after all. I originally thought I could not be satisfied without that smug feeling of contented exhaustion from training all day. But, I was.

It has been 11 months since I raced my last triathlon. I have not ridden my bike for almost as long. I have again been surprised that after the initial feeling of loss, I am not discontent. Just as the transition out of the Ironman realm was relatively seamless, so has been my transition to running.

I have realized that I don’t need to log the endless training hours to quell my addiction. I need to have concrete training and racing goals, and if those are met (or almost met), I am satisfied. I am still able to push myself in training and see the fruits of my labor on the race course. That is what my addiction craves.

Triathletes have trouble breaking their Ironman addiction, even if their bodies are shattered or their personal lives unable to handle the strain, because there is a belief that the high from training for Ironman cannot be replicated by training for other events. Or, there is a fear that training fewer hours will result in being less fit. Perhaps, there is a sense that anything less than Ironman is unsatisfactory. Yes, there is a certain pride in telling others that you have finished a gazillion Ironman races.And, of course, there is the Kona carrot beckoning year after year.

Take a break from Ironman for a while. Recharge your batteries. Get faster. Experiment with other races. Change up your training. Work on your weaknesses. Try to qualify for a World Championships at another distance. Ironman will still be there when you are ready to revisit the distance, only this time you will be renewed, faster and raring to go.

Lessons from Golf

Triathlon on TV. That statement is contradictory. Twice a year triathlon hits the big time and can be viewed on NBC. Repeats of various Kona races are shown on Universal Sports and here and there a race shows up on Vs. The claim: triathlon is not spectator friendly and people do not have the attention span to sit through races that last as long as an Ironman (or even a 70.3). I believe that claim is erroneous. I, along with millions of Americans, watched the final round of the Masters Golf tournament. Golf, seriously?