This is what we do.
As the ground thaws and the birds start chirping, the distances get longer. That’s right, people: it’s marathon season! While you can find a marathon during any time of this year, the spring and fall seasons have many, many options. Marathons involve a long-term commitment to training – ideally four months of training focused specifically[…]
[Note: Road Noise provided John and I with road noise vests for our review. We agreed to review the vests and provide our honest assessment.] After months of riding indoors, the weather broke two weekends ago for a slight instant – just long enough for a 4-hour outside jaunt. Outside, people! It’s been an especially[…]
Many of us have come to recognize fitness or threshold testing as 20-60 minutes of pure burning hell. It typically involves a lot of drooling, cussing, burning sensations, and squirrely-feeling body parts. For some, vomit may be involved. These assessments are not simply meant as terrible torture devices. They provide important information regarding our functional[…]
If you care about getting faster, chances are you also care about how much you weigh. And, that’s with good reason. Weight plays a key role in our performance as runners and cyclists. Some studies have shown that each additional pound has the potential to slow runners down by as much as 3 seconds per[…]
In our third and final part of the the mental fitness series, we look at some specific mental toughness strategies you can use in training and racing. Part one looked the role of our motivations, while part two considered the ways in which our thoughts influence our behaviors. In this part, we look at how[…]
In the first segment of this 3-part series of mental fitness, we discussed the role of motivation in endurance sport. But, motivation is only one part of mental toughness and fitness. In this post, we look at the ways in which our mind can help or hinder our physical performance. No doubt many of you have set significant[…]
“It is the brain, not the heart or lungs, that is the critical organ; it’s the brain” ~Sir Roger Bannister In a previous post, we talked about developing and writing goals for the coming season. While physical training is an important part of achieving these goals, it is just one element to achieving your season goals.[…]
John qualified for the 2012 Ironman World Championships at Ironman Cozumel in November, 2011. In the year leading up to that race, he wrote down his goals and posted them in our home office, as well as on his desk at work. Those sheets of paper were daily reminders of what he was working toward. They[…]
When I was a kid, I remember going out to dinner, and seeing this curly green stuff lining the plate. Presumably, it was placed there as a basic garnish, to fill the plate out. I never realized that it was possible to eat the stuff. The “stuff” I’m talking about is kale. For the past[…]
There is a progression of goals in triathlon that usually revolves around two questions: How fast can I go? How far can I go? Since we’ve covered the first question in a previous post, let’s think about the second question, specifically as it relates to an ironman triathlon. If you are a triathlete, this question is[…]
