1. Training 101 Triad Triathlon Team October 10 th, 2014

2. Why do you Train? Weight Loss? Better Health? Injury Prevention? Enjoy Exercise? Social Experience? To be faster than your friend/sibling/spouse? To overcome a personal challenge? To win? 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

3. What is Training? Training is purposeful – Training without purpose is called working out – Turn your wishes into goals by being specific and honest with yourself: How much? How fast? 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

4. What is Training? Training is a Science – Sports Science is continuously evolving Training is an Art – Learning to better understand yourself as an individual through training. 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

5. Principles of Training These are derived from science and are generally accepted in athletics. Progressive Overload – Body responds to stress. Too much and you get injured Too little and you don’t maximize improvement 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

6. Principles of Training Fitness is Specific – Training needs to be specific to the goal. You can’t achieve peak triathlon performance by cross country skiing. Training should simulate conditions of goal race 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

7. Principles of Training Fitness is Reversible – Fitness is constantly fluctuating – Repetitive patterns or interruptions can have negative impact on fitness. – Return to previous fitness levels will take ~2x as long as the duration of the interruption. 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

8. Principles of Training Training is Unique to the Individual – Different people respond differently to same stimulus. 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

9. Training Stress Your body only improves when recovering from stress. Stress can be induced by varying 3 elements of training: Frequency, Duration, Intensity 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

10. Training Stress Frequency: How often you train Duration: Measured in units of time or distance. Intensity: A critical aspect of training requiring close attention. Volume: Frequency x Duration Workload: A combination of frequency, duration, and intensity. Best used for relative comparison of an individual athletes training blocks. 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

11. Fatigue Fitness is the ability to minimize onset of fatigue Fatigue is caused by – Build up of Hydrogen ions: Lactate Threshold – Depletion of muscle fuel sources: Carb’s & Fat – Failure of muscles: Failure to contract/relax 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

12. Intensity Thresholds Lactate Threshold – Lactate is a by-product of the glucose used by your muscles. Exits muscle through blood stream. – Occurs when lactate is produced faster than it can be cleared out of the muscle. Linked to that “burning” sensation in your muscles Aerobic Threshold – Lower than LT, marked by slight increase in breathing effort. Significant part of long-distance triathlon training. 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

13. Measuring Intensity Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) – Requires subjective self quantification. – Valuable tool when used in conjunction with other methods. Heart Rate (HR) – Uses Heart Rate Monitor to read heart rate during exercise. – Has become the benchmark for athletes – Has some of the same limitations as RPE Power – Primarily applies to cycling. Although perhaps analogous to training by pace when running. – Removes all variability introduced by the human body/mind 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

14. Training Zones Zones – Based on a percentage of Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR) or Maximum Heart Rate – Z1 (Easy/Recovery) Used for recovery workouts or rest periods between hard intervals – Z2 (Aerobic Endurance) Maintained effort well below LT. Used extensively during long course efforts (HIM, IM) Promotes development of slow-twitch muscles and improves muscles ability to use oxygen – Z3 (Anaerobic Endurance) No mans land zone sometimes effective for medium length race efforts – Z4 (Threshold) Critical training zone. Helps increase LT Very hard effort. Can only maintain this intensity for short period (<1 hr) – Z5 (Anaerobic / Power) Extreme effort. Promotes speed through development of fast-twitch muscles and ability to process lactate 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

15. Training Zones 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team

16. Training Lessons Learned Believe in yourself! Recover, Recover, Recover Train the mental aspects Be honest with yourself Use proper technique. Develop Skill Have a well defined goal Develop a plan and measure progress Do only what is necessary to achieve your goal 10/10/2014Triad Triathlon Team