Women are not small men. Some of you may be familiar with this phrase as made famous by Dr. Stacy Sims, a leading researcher on female physiology and endurance. This statement could not be more true. Though some women may train just the same as their male counterparts, the truth is our physiology differs...
With the advent of accurate, reliable smart trainers like the KICKR and SNAP, more athletes are taking advantage of the benefits of training with power. With that comes a greater focus on metrics like Functional Threshold Power (FTP). For the uninitiated, FTP is typically defined as the highest power output you can maintain for...
For most individuals who begin dipping their toes in triathlon, the goal seems to always end with one word: Kona. Qualifying and competing in the Ironman World Championships is a bucket list event for many triathletes. Ironman-distance triathlons are the equivalent of completing a marathon in the world of running or a century in...
Setting goals can be scary. Setting big goals can even be frightening. What if you don’t reach them? What if you encounter a setback? What if you’re not good enough? These what-ifs can cloud our judgment and decision processes. There are a thousand what-ifs that accompany any dream or goal we set. The reality...
We have all been there at one point or another: the fear that begins to creep in when we have to take a day off from training. Whether this is due to energy levels, family/life obligations, or injury prevention, a day can feel like an eternity for most endurance athletes. What would happen if...
Many training programs include a day, or even a few days dedicated to drill work. Before a track session, runners will perform a routine of warm-up drills and activation to prepare themselves for the task ahead. Swimmers perform drills almost every single practice during warm-up to make sure that their form is set up...
While we all imagine executing our training to a T, rarely is this the case. More often than not, the path to success resembles more of a wet noodle than that of a straight line. The bottom line is: that’s okay. Even more so, it is to be expected. We can’t always be at...
It happens to all of us: we wake up feeling under the weather or perhaps we had a terrible night of sleep, BUT you have a workout on the schedule for today: so what do you do? If you work with a coach it can be reassuring to hear the words, “it’s okay to...
It can begin with a simple idea that doing one more training session can help improve your performance. Perhaps one more interval, or one more mile, and this leads you down a rabbit hole of constant doubt if what you’re doing is enough. Working hard is an excellent attribute to possess, but when overworking (and...
What does the perfect running form look like? The short answer is: it depends. All runners are not built the same. You will not look like or run like every training partner you have, or every individual you line up on the start line against, and you shouldn’t! We are all built differently. Some...
Training is a time to work on our weaknesses, increase our strengths, and really test our limits of performance in a low-risk environment. The inevitable desire to make every single session a PR gradually creeps into your mind as you progress with training and begin to see fitness gains. Soon enough you find yourself...
Age is just a number, or is it? While we should not fear getting older, we must also face the facts that our bodies at 65 do not function as they did at 25. Though we tend to discover new creaks and cracks in our joints throughout our life, this does not mean that...