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The Importance of Off-Season

9/26/2016

Its easy to work hard as endurance athletes. When the season is young and hopes are high, anybody can find the motivation to get out the door and go put in some long miles and hard efforts. The building process will often take you through a 6-10 month window of focused training that is meant to make you faster and stronger. However, while you spend the majority of your season looking to get faster, you also must understand the importance of off-season and the purpose it serves. There are three key topics that should be focused on in the off-season which can be seen below.

Balance

One of the key things to focus on in the off-season is balance. Not only with your body, but with your life as well. As amateurs, sometimes I see athletes thinking they need to build through the off-season to get even faster for next year. I’ll be the first to tell you that this often leads to peak form in the Winter/early season and a burned out athlete by mid-season of the following year. We should all take a page out of professional athletics here and see that even pro’s take an off-season to recover. During the season your muscles go through so much that you often create unbalanced muscles that may present themselves as tight legs or strained muscles. The off-season should be spent working to re-balance those muscles for optimal training and racing the following year. Beyond just your muscles though, we often neglect other important areas of our lives during the season. The off-season gives us extra time to focus on other responsibilities and get our life back into a balance that allows for our success as an individual.

Mentality

I gave you an example in the last section about an athlete that wants to continually build through the off-season. This athlete I have found will do 1 of 2 things. Either A) they will burn out half way through the next year because they can’t handle the constant focus or B) they will fall into a rut of doing the same training everyday and completely neglect specifics when it is time. What many forget to realize is that athletic performance is made up of two factors. Those factors are the psychological side of athletics and the physical side. Just like we rest and rebuild our physical side for optimal performance, we also much rest and rebuild our mentality during the off-season. The best way to do this is to get away from specifics for a while and just relax mentally! Let me repeat that last point… relax!

Goals and Maintenance

I’ve preached taking time off mentally and rebuilding your muscles/life balance. While its critical to get some rest, we also don’t want to start next year at absolute zero again. This is where a coach comes in for optimal balance of time and maintenance of some fitness. During your off-season you should be having a conversation with your coach to discuss the season and the goals of the next year. All we want to think about is just very generalized ideas of goals and targets to shoot for. While its fantastic to make SMART goals, remember that you’re giving yourself some relaxation time mentally so these goals right now just need to be ideas. Its the coaches job to put things in place as they should be, its the athletes job to trust the coach and spend the rest of the off-season relaxing. SMART goals come into play during the pre-season when motivation is building again and the body is ready to start the build for the next year.
Once the coach and athlete have talked in general terms of goals for the following year, then the coach must work to maintain a base level of fitness but get the athlete away from specifics as much as possible. A great way to do this is to mix in 2-3 solid training days a week to maintain, but the rest of the week should be made up of physical activity that is good for the athletes state of being. An example of this is hiking in the rockies or cross-country skiing in the winter or playing soccer/hockey with a club team. We are trying to maintain some fitness, but to not sweat the little things like a missed days workout or going to play hockey instead of riding a bike.

Conclusion

I’ve come to find that the off-season may be one of the best times to have a coach or invest in a coach. Whether you’re the athlete that wants to keep building or the athlete that wants to cut everything, the coach is there to keep things in balance and direct your path. You need to get away from some things but you want to maintain others. You need to rest your mind but you want to have a long term idea of things to come. You want to re-balance your muscles but you don’t want to bulk up. The off-season is what sets you up for your fastest season yet. Let your coach do all of the thinking and allow yourself to relax and re-find your balance as an athlete.

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How to Destroy Personal Records

9/19/2016

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   As a coach, I’m in a unique position to see all of my athletes daily training that often goes un-noticed. What everyone looks at is race day performances and how they stack up against competition when it matters. While I love to see athletes crushing their PR’s, I often go back to their training leading up to the event or conversations we’ve had and see very similar characteristics. This blog is to highlight the characteristics that many of my athletes share and could be a foundation for your continued success as well.

Consistency
   While I’ve blogged before on the importance of consistency, intensity, and volume (fitness fundamentals) I really want to focus again on consistency. It’s that important. When I go look at an athlete that has made a huge jump in fitness and race day results, almost every time I will see that they rarely miss a workout. What i want the reader to understand from this point though is that every athlete I work with has a busy life. In todays day and age, we are all busy! However, what these athletes have is an ability to schedule in 1-2 hours a day to get in their workouts. Some of these athletes are Surgeons with crazy schedules, a 5 restaurant owner with 2 kids, An Electrician who was in school with 2 kids, an MBA student/full-time worker with a toddler, an Engineer who drives often across the state with two kids, etc etc etc. I can go on and on about how amazing some of these individuals are, but where they all truly excel is in scheduling time for themselves (often 4 AM wake ups) where they make their training and success as an athlete a priority. With these busy schedules, its inevitable that a training session will be missed, but for the most part, all of these athletes are getting in 5-6 days a week of focused training.

Knowledge
   One of the best things of being a coach in this field is that I often become a teacher to athletes. What I’ve found as a coach is the more educated an athlete becomes, the faster they become. There is something to be said for having a coach and letting them do all the thinking for you, but the more you understand about power, pacing, recovery, training stress, etc… the more focused your training will become. As my athletes start to become students and learn as they train, they often take a big step up in their abilities as an athlete. When I go back and look at all of the great performances by athletes recently, I notice that they all have taken a large step in understanding principles of training this year or years past and understand data analysis at a level that at least allows them to make good decisions on the fly. For any athlete that is serious about setting PR’s and becoming competitive, a big key to that is talking with your coach on a continuous level to learn the focus of workouts and how to judge if progress is happening.

Time in the Sport
   Nothing pains me more than having someone who wants to be great, but only dedicates one year to the goal. If I start to look at some of my athletes that had the best performances in 2016, its often my athletes that have been on with me for 2, 3, or even 4 years. This is because endurance athletics has a cumulative effect as the years add up. Your muscles become more efficient going through the movements and your body becomes more efficient at utilizing oxygen through these movements. While many athletes want to come into the sport and be great, they often make the mistake of wanting too much too soon! This thought process can leave them discouraged after their first year, but often if athletes can stick with the consistency over the years, they will start achieving those high goals they had originally set in place. This is one of the fundamental characteristics to top level success by each individual.

Conclusion
   A lot of individuals look for a secret recipe to get fast or a quick fix. Some athletes may come up to me and say, so… How do I get fast? They often think their will be an elaborate answer that has been passed down from some wizard or other force. However, its quite simple. Start to become consistent in your training, start to pay attention and learn what you are doing, and stay in the sport for multiple years. If you can focus on those three cues then you are going to excel as an endurance athlete. While the day-to-day is important and what the coach is there for, endurance athletics is all about the consistent years and building both your physical abilities, but mental ones as well.

For more information, Jeremy Brown of Mind Right MultiSport will host a live chat on this topic on Wednesday Sept 21.

For questions or comments please email me at ddalzell@dalzellcoaching.com

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Race Selection Based on Strengths

9/12/2016

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   As you get into athletics, surely its just about being in competition and getting your feet wet. However as you start to advance, it quickly becomes evident that you need to play to your strengths if you truly want to excel. This is true in any sport as you aim for that top level. Just as everyone in baseball may want to be shortstop or centerfield, for some individuals you are just much stronger at another position. In endurance events, the same thing happens. In cycling at lower levels you will without a doubt find individuals that want to be an “all-arounder” or win every race. This is often not possible and leaves cyclists feeling defeated even though they were set up for defeat. This blog will look at how to select races to find yourself in better positions to win or advance within the sport you love.

Fast-Twitch vs Slow-Twitch
   We watch the olympics and see different swimmers in the 1500m vs the 50m. For some reason as amateurs, this seems completely reasonable when watching on T.V but if we were to go to the pool, we would want to beat our friends in both the 50 and 1500. As amateur individuals we feel that if we practice enough, we can be good at everything. While you will make advancements (hence why coaching is important), you will naturally be better at one event vs the other. This is because when you were born you were born with a certain ratio of slow-twitch or fast-twitch muscle fibers. Depending on what you have more of will determine which event you would be better at!

   Now, just because you were born with a certain ratio doesn’t mean you can’t convert some fibers. There are fibers that can go back and forth between fast and slow (trainable fibers), but you will still be at an advantage over other athletes based on your genetic background.

   This becomes evident quickly if you were to spend 4 weeks training, and then go through some test sets. You will either have a natural ability to put out power instantly, or sustain power for longer amounts of time but never reach the same maximal output as your fast-twitch friend.

   By understanding which one you are, you can start to understand what you are better at as an athlete and use this as one of your first ways to select a race

Weight
   Weight in endurance events is a huge factor in overall performance. While there is a point at which you can be too light to sustain effort, generally speaking the athlete that weighs less will do better over a long day due to not having to exert as much force and not requiring as much energy to cool themselves as their overall mass is lower.

   When we start to look at cycling, weight comes into play when possibly selecting a flat vs mountainous race. If we know what your threshold is in watts, we can divide that by your weight (kilograms) and make a very calculated decision on if you should race in the mountains or find flatter road races. For someone with a low watts/kg but a high ability to put out maximum watts, it would make no sense to go race in the mountains. Understanding your watts/kg in cycling can play a huge factor in selection of races.

   And finally for our triathletes. All of this comes into play for you. Are you good at cooling off in hot weather? Are you a strong cyclist or strong runner? If you are looking to qualify for Kona one day or just looking to have the race of your life, it would be wise to pick a race that suits your strengths. There are Ironman’s with cooler temps and those that are notorious for hot temperatures. There are Ironman’s with difficult bikes and those that are pancake flat. If you plan on spending nearly a year focusing on a big event like Ironman, then it would be wise to select a race that will give you the best chance at maximizing your abilities.

Height
   While this is a generalized statement, its often that taller athletes are better fit for aerobic endurance than anaerobic power. This is because V02 is related to the amount of surface area you have. Also, athletes that are leaner tend to have higher V02’s as well. Therefore, the taller you are and the leaner you are, the more likely you are to have a high V02. With these athletes selecting events that are a function of v02 and threshold tend to suit them well (think Time Trials or 10k running).

   The smaller you are the more likely you are to have condensed fibers that are great for powerful motions and better suited for sprinting. Now, while I type this its good to understand there are outliers (Usain Bolt), but the only way you will know for sure is to test.

Conclusion
   You can be the best sprinter in the world, but you will get destroyed in a long distance race. Rather than try to be above average in all races, why not focus on becoming the best at the race where your strength is represented. All endurance sports have differing distances, terrain, time of the year (weather), etc. Before you go into your next season you should realize where your strengths and weaknesses are and plan your season accordingly. Don’t put yourself at a disadvantage because you’re negligent in your scheduling. Understand your strengths and have your best season yet!

To hear more, tune in Wednesday as Jeremy Brown of Mind Right Multi-Sport and I host a coaches chat.

For questions or comments, please email me at ddalzell@dalzellcoaching.com

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Specific Training = Best Results

9/6/2016

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   When getting ready for any athletic season, (cycling, running, football, baseball, etc) there should be a method to the madness of developing your practice/training schedule. What every athlete/coach should understand is the principle of specificity and what it means. To put it in the simplest terms, if you want to get better at one thing, then you train that discipline. While it seems like common sense, athletes often get lost in this simple idea and look to do too much.

Train Specifically for Your discipline
   Again, if you want to get better at something, then you must train for it. To put this into an example, if a cyclist wants to get faster at riding a bike, then they should be riding their bike. This athlete may get into trouble like many do by thinking they will get faster by being in the weight room or out on the XC ski track. While each of these do have benefits in different ways, the absolute best way to get faster on the bike for this athlete is to ride the bike.
   Now, once you get into the sport itself, then any cyclist will tell you that its just as important to be specific to their event as it is their sport. A great example of this would be a sprinter who puts out 100% energy for 15 seconds vs a time trialist who puts out 100% effort for 60 minutes. Sure there can be some benefit every now and then for a time trialist to do sprints or vice versa, but the overall structure of their training should follow what their goals are within the sport.

Periodization of Specifics
   Part of the principle of specificity is that you should start basic and get more specific as the season ramps up. This is a great topic to discuss because it shows that a base level of fitness is key to overall success, and that the entire year doesn’t need to be specialized in any athletes discipline. For athletes, this is normally where the cross-training style of workouts come in. So for a summer baseball player they may play football in the fall, or for a competitive runner they may mix in swimming/cycling to maintain fitness but not be overly specific during their low points of the year.
   This portion of the year (base fitness) is important for the overall process because it will build the athletes generalized fitness but also not put too much wear and tear physically or mentally on the athletes specific muscles/focus for season events. The main purpose of this base fitness phase is only to get to the pre-season with enough fitness that they can peak in-season when they go into their specific training.
   As you progress into the season, this is where the specifics needs to ramp up and you need to train your body for the actions required. If you are a 4km pursuit cyclist on the track, then you need to be putting in some hard efforts that simulate 4km intensity. If you are training for an Ironman, then you need to put in some long volume to build muscular endurance. The best thing you can do is break down what the race/event will demand and start to structure your training in the same way.
   Once the season is over, you will enter your off-season. This is the time when the body should be given rest and your need to recover. While you are recovering from your specifics though, you can still maintain some base fitness and this is often where athletes will get back in the weight room. This time away from specifics can be great for the mind and body and allow you to slowly get back into your base training mode.

Weight Lifting and Its Purpose
   Its important to understand what weight lifting is on a basic level. Weight Lifting is a form of anaerobic training used to increase muscle mass/power/endurance. Often times I hear endurance athletes speaking on how they are going to get into the weight room and improve their cycling/running performances the next year. While they may in fact improve their performances, it may not be for the reasons they actually think. What weight lifting will do for an endurance athlete is balance their muscles which helps in injury prevention. To put this in other words, the only way your squat/leg press gains are going to help your cycling/running is if you’re an anaerobic athlete in these disciplines (100-400 meter sprinter, track sprinter). Even then, this would be the most basic form of your season and you would go into your specific training later on before your event. Weight lifting is naturally an anaerobic exercise and endurance events are all aerobic in nature.
   This being said, endurance athletes need to understand that they can get in the weight room in the off-season to re-balance muscles and help with injury prevention, but our goal isn’t to build your squat or bench press to olympic levels… its simply to help re-balance your muscles so we can train hard again without an injury due to muscular imbalance.

Conclusion
   There are many people out there that are simply seeking general health and fitness. They want to look good and feel good about themselves which is a great thing for many. This blog doesn’t talk about these individuals because general wellness and high level athletics using specificity of training is completely different. As an athlete seeking high level athletic performance, the best thing you can understand is the principle of specificity. While it seems so simple on the surface, often times athletes/coaches disregard it and end up missing improvements from year to year. The best way you can get better at your discipline is by training it specifically. Remember to go from general to specific as the year progresses and you’ll start to have better performances than you’ve ever had in the past.

To hear more on the topic, tune in Wednesday as Jeremy Brown of Mind Right Multisport and I discuss the blog each week. Links can be found on the Mind Right or Dalzell Coaching Facebook page.

For questions or comments reach out to me at ddalzell@dalzellcoaching.com

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The Importance of Off-Season

How to Destroy Personal Records

Race Selection Based on Strengths

Specific Training = Best Results

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