ENDURANCEWORKS Triathlon Training and Racing Blog
Welcome to the ENDURANCEWORKS Blog
As service to the sport of triathlon and other endurance sports, we provide our clients and friends with articles that we feel will benefit them in their pursuit of personal excellence in triathlon, other endurance sports and life.
Make Your Last Triathlon Race the Best Race of Your Season
The triathlon racing season is winding down in North America. You have trained for months and months, raced a few (or many) times and have likely seen some success throughout the season. Congratulations! You've made it this far. Still racing? This time of year is the...
Four Quick Tips for a Successful Triathlon Race Day Experience
You've probably spent months and months training for your triathlon and suddenly it's race morning. You're at the swim start, looking around at all the other triathletes and waiting for the gun to go off while thinking, "How am I going to get through this race?" Yes,...
Tips for Pedaling More Efficiently While Riding Your Bicycle
Squares or circles? A choppy, inefficient pedal stroke is often called “pedaling squares.” When riding, we want to smooth out the pedal stroke – or “pedaling circles” – as Coach Krista Schultz, MEd, CSCS demonstrates in this short video:
How to Clean Your Bicycle with Dwayne
Just like you would clean and maintain your car to keep it looking new, running smoothly and lasting longer, you also need to clean your bicycle on regular basis. In this short video, master bike mechanic Dwayne Bergeron of LTD Cycleworx in Boulder, Colorado...
Introducing new Senior (55+) Training Plans for Half and Full IRONMAN® Triathlons
As athletes age, their bodies change and, consequently, their training needs to evolve. Athletes can offset the physical deterioration caused by aging and continue to perform at a high level through specific training interventions. We are excited to introduce our new...
Three Tips for Triathlon and Run Training in the Heat
The National Weather Service issued another heat advisory for us today in Southern California. High temperatures are forecasted to be above 100 F (37.8 C) through the end of this week. It's even warmer in places like Las Vegas and Phoenix. Other cities are...
Help! I’m Injured and Can’t Run. What Should I Do?
What are your changes of getting injured during triathlon training? Pretty good, actually... After my PR year of marathon and IRONMAN Triathlon in 2007 where I went 2:46 at Disney Marathon and 8:51 at Challenge Roth, I wanted to go faster in 2008 so I kept training...
Introducing New MINIMALIST Training Plans for Half and Full IRONMAN® Triathlons
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” — Johann Goethe Simultaneously for three different endurance sports is a daunting task by itself, but throw in other responsibilities like a job, family, travel, social life, pets and...
Three Simple Techniques to Minimize Negative Thoughts and Wandering Minds on Race Day
Learn These Three Simple Tools to Overcome...Yourself "You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself." - Arthur Ashe I love this quote by tennis great Arthur Ashe because it clearly describes the triathlon or marathon racing experience: you're...
Interview with Triathlete Caitlin Harty – ITU Worlds Qualifier and Doctor of Physical Therapy
I'm always curious about the triathlete's story: Why do triathlon? What makes you successful? How did you balance the training with everything else? What did you learn along the way? Etc. I had the opportunity to interview Caitlin Harty. She's a 25 year triathlete...
How to Train for an IRONMAN Triathlon While Working Full-Time
Yes, you can. Still, even after being in the sport of triathlon as an athlete, coach and race director for more than 20 years, I continue to be impressed by the triathletes who tackle an IRONMAN Triathlon® distance successfully in spite of everything else they have...
Preventing the “Bonk” by Fueling Properly During Endurance Exercise
Fueling During Exercise In my last blog post, I wrote about "bonking" ("hitting the wall" or "blowing up") during endurance exercise and how it's caused by low carbohydrate (glycogen) levels as the body uses up stored carbohydrates during exercise without adequate...
What Causes “Bonking” During Triathlon Training and Racing?
Understanding How Bonking Occurs Have you ever done a long bike or run training session or race and suddenly "hit the wall" or "blown up"? There's a sudden feeling of fatigue and low energy. Your legs feel heavy and your movement feels forced. You may feel...
Three Fundamental Preparation Tips for Your First (or Next) Triathlon
Triathlon Preparation Fundamentals You've signed up for your first triathlon. Now that you've committed, the race becomes real. It's no longer, "Some day..." When I entered my first sprint triathlon at Atlantic Beach in Florida in 1995, I had no idea what to expect on...
New Online Course Available for Coaches: The Business of Selling Training Plans
Can You Make a Living Selling Triathlon Training Plans? "You can't make money selling training plans," or so I thought in 2009 when I sold $420 in training plans that year. But, I was wrong. In 2013, I sold more than $100,000 in training plans that year and every year...
The Science and Art of Triathlon Training
There’s a lot that’s simple about training for the sport of triathlon on the surface. Swim. Bike. Run. However, in order to be truly successful for the long-term there’s a lot more to triathlon training than that. There’s both a science and an art to training for a...
5 Things Triathletes Should Not Do in the Triathlon Off-Season
This is a copy of an article about the triathlon off-season that I originally wrote last year for TrainingPeaks. It's worth posting again here. When I started training for IRONMAN triathlons in the late 90's in Virginia, I was jealous of all the triathletes who lived...
What Makes a Successful Triathlete Successful? Paying Attention.
What Distinguishes the Successful Triathletes from the Unsuccessful Triathletes? This is a question I've been pondering as the triathlon season ends in North America. Is it better genetics? The ability to train for as much time as needed? The ability to recover...
Fall Training Goals for Triathletes: What You Can Do Now to Make 2017 Better
What's Next After the Triathlon Racing Season is Over? As the triathlon season winds down for athletes in the northern hemisphere, the question I am asked most as a coach is, “What do I do now?” It's reasonable to assume that we all want to get better next year, not...
Ask a Coach: What to Wear When Racing a Triathlon in Cooler Weather
A triathlete emailed me the following question about his upcoming IRONMAN® race: I'm concerned about the expected weather temperature on race day: high of 68 and low of 48. It will be fine during the day but very cold on the start of the bike and could be...
How to Strategically Choose Races for Success in Triathlon
“If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” — Lawrence Peters I was at a charity fundraising event in early February many years ago where I ran into a friend who was also a triathlete. He told me he was training for IRONMAN New...
Triathlon Race Day Tip: Break Your Race into “Chunks”
"Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal." - Earl Nightingale It's triathlon race day and you're at the swim start line. When the gun goes off, you will swim then bike then run for a total of anywhere between 10 to 140.6 miles depending on the...
How to Estimate Run Lactate Threshold Heart Rate and Pace with a Field Test
A Run Field Test to Estimate Lactate Threshold “The body conforms and adapts to the intensities and directions it is habitually subjected to.”— Wolfe’s Law In triathlon and other endurance sports, training intensity – or how hard the effort is – is typically described...
Ask a Coach: How Do I Get to Top of My Age Group in an IRONMAN 70.3?
What advice would you have on getting to the top of my age group for a 70.3? A training plan client (let's call him "Rich") recently emailed me this question along with the following background information: I’m a couple of years away from working on doing a full...
