Coaching

So in the time it takes to turn on the electric blanket, brew a mug of hot chocolate, and wait for the first intermission to conclude, let's take a moment to ponder some thoughts for the off-season.

“Buy now and avoid the Christmas rush”. Imagine – in June, I actually saw a sign proposing that people start thinking about Christmas. I am fully a believer in “advance planning and preparation” but to me, even that was a stretch.

One area in which advance planning and preparation will pay dividends (whether you've been naughty or nice!) is in getting yourself ready to prepare for marathon training. The Austin marathon is in February, and many of you have probably just gotten to the point of having defrosted from this year's Freeze-scale Marathon (apologies to Freescale – but this Canadian still found it COLD). Yet here I am proposing that you start thinking about it now.

But it's only June, you reply.

I am about to get another year older. I find that every so often, something during the day will trigger a myriad of flashbacks from days of yore. Case in point - do you remember the TV game show “The $10,000 Pyramid”? In it, a team member would give clues to his/her partner to describe a topic or phrase. The goal of the partner was to guess the topic. If you worked your way up the pyramid, you could win $10,000. Ahhh yes , the things that we remember ...

Before we go any further, I can guarantee you that $10,000 isn't at stake in this article! But, today I present to you “The Triathlete's Pyramid” - and I will be your host. Who needs Dick Clark anyways?

In the first round, your partner shouts out - “aerobic system, maximum VO2, heart rate monitor ...”.

Physics. For many people, just the mention of the word gives them high school flashbacks – or nightmares. Love it or hate it, physics provides us with the foundations for our understanding of the world – even the world of the endurance athlete. 

Let's take a common discussion topic. Athlete A, a relative newcomer to the sport, has done a few sprint triathlons and now wants to do an Olympic distance event. Athlete B, a seasoned triathlete, is finally ready to go after that first Ironman. How do either of these athletes “move up” and “go longer” successfully?

Before we get our emotions involved, get our mitochondria in a knot, and start the heated debate about lactate threshold, heart rate monitors, and the need for aerobic training, let's look to physics for a guiding light. If it is good enough to define nature, it's probably good enough for your neighborhood triathlete. Maybe, with any luck, Newton was a triathlete ...