Latest
News - October 2005
The season is hotting up in Australia with events
now taking place each week and even though the northern
hemisphere season is drawing to a close it doesen't
mean that we don't get treated to world class performances
here down under on a regular basis.
The Australian performances across the board recently
have been sensational - from the TWC in Hawaii for
the age groupers, preceded by the pros in Japan to
the Aussie results at the Hawaii Ironman, there has
not been too many years in recent memory where such
a domination has taken place. It's great for the sport
down under and as a coach it's great motivation for
athletes to see country men and women do so well,
especially when you may know that person on the podium
as is the case with many of the MSC squad members
based in Noosa in reference to Kate Majors 3rd place
finish at the Ironman to back up last years 3rd place.
An almighty effort (for Michellie as well) and perhaps
just a matter of time before we get that first Aussie
female winning another IM World Championship to stand
alongside Greg Welches 1994 effort.
Never Give Up
Nick
Latest
News
With so much happening this month we held the monthly
newsletter back so we could include the Hawaii IM
results.
Gold Coast Half Ironman
A great day for most MSC athletes at Coomera on October
the 2nd earlier in the month. A couple of age group
wins, a second, fourth and sixth plus PB's for most
who took in the IMOZ Qualifier.
MSC Results
Steve Pratt - 17h Pro - 4.24
Marty Leahy - 2nd 35-39 PB - 4.25
Justin Hunter - 6th 30-34 - 4.27
James Hinchiliffe - 1st 40-44 - 4.27
Jason Cheshire - 4.36 - 30-34 - 4.36
Daniel Darcy - 4.50 - (PB 11min)
Leonie Pedrazzini - 4th 40-44 - (PB 8min)
Steve Buth - 5.33 - (PB 15min)
Sue Stevenson 1st 55-59 - 6.47
Team - Tim De Vries and Paul Dwyer - 2nd open men's
teams - (Noosa's own Laurel and Hardy mixing with
the top guns!)
Life Stream Triathlon Mackay
Once again the chance to race direct this great event
took me to Mackay on the 8th October. Now in it's
third year it has become one of North QLD's premier
events with just over 200 participants. All proceeds
raised go to the Life Stream Foundations initiatives
in the Mackay region - helping people with intellectual
disabilities become more active. A big thanks to Peter
Nimmo from Accelerade for his support of the event.
Junior Training at Noosa
Three weeks in now and it's great to see our Juniors
numbers increase to the limit of 20. The Junior Noosa
Tri is on Saturday 5th November and most of our new
recruits are yet to do a tri so it's all about doing
the skills and getting them ready for the big day
in just over 2 weeks. Training is on Wednesdays and
Noosa Lions Park from 3.30 to 5pm.
DWC
Tom Mewing - 2.24 - 35th in 35-39
Peter Brown - 2.41 - 30th in 50-54
well done guys
TWC
Adrienne Willing - 56th in Female 25-29 in 2.27
Mike Dunstan - 74th Male 50-54 in 2.24
Not a great day for Adrienne and Mike. Adrienne was
in the top 15 when she punctured a few KM to the finish
of the bike and tired to ride it in but had to get
off to walk around some of the tight turns where 10min
or so was lost. Mike got on the plane with the flu
which turned into pneumonia in the days leading into
the race. Well done and courageous effort from both
of you.
Hawaii Ironman
Last weekend the Hawaii Ironman took place and with
3 of 4 the athletes who qualified under MSC coaching
earlier in the year lining up
Kate Major 3rd Pro Female in 9.12 - only 3 minutes
from the win and fastest marathon of the day for the
girls in 3.02.
Even though Kate and I mutually decided it was about
as far as we could go via long distance coaching in
July this year - (seeing Kate is now in the Tri Hub
of Southern California for 10 months of the year)
we here at MSC still support Kate 100 percent and
are proud of achieving 2 International Ironman wins
and 3rd place in Hawaii in 2004 and well as 3rd at
Forster 2004, 2nd Forster 2003 and winner and still
world record holder for 20-24 female age group in
Hawaii in 2002
Other MSC qualifiers at Hawaii
were
Alan Moustoukas - Fist Hawaii - 10.24 in 40-44 men
Gary Turner - first Hawaii - 11.38 / 16th in 55-59
men
Bredan Stanford - 9.38 / 45th in 30-34 men
www.ironmanlive.com
has wrap up of the day
The 2005 SlowTwitch.com Bike Count at Hawaii
1. Cervelo 195
2. Trek 166
3. Litespeed 115
4. Kestrel 104
5. Quintana Roo 90
6. Cannondale 88
7. Giant 68
8. Kuota 66
9. LOOK 43
10. Principia 43
11. Softride 40
12. Specialized 38
13. Felt 35
While industry credos typically say Profile has
as overwhelming lead in the aero bar count, with
the more expensive Syntace a distant second, the
count proved us wrong. In our poll, the German-based
Syntace was a mere 56 bars off San Diego, California-based
Profile.
2005 Kona Pier Inside Triathlon Aero Bar Count
1. Profile-Design 38%
2. Syntace 34%
3. Vision 9%
T4. Hed 4%
T4. Oval Concepts 4%
T4. Easton 4%
T7. Deda 2%
T7. 3T 2%
Others (1% or less): Bontrager, Cinelli, Kuips,
Linear-Components, Scott, ITM
Q-Daily
Since my total colectomy I have searched long and
hard to find a supplement that I could absorb that
was not going to cause digestive problems and actually
assit in maintaining good health while continuing
to train and put the body under stress. I am so
impressed with this product that I am now officially
endorsing it.
Q-daily® is serves of fruits and vegetables
- a healthy supplement to help you to have a balanced
diet full of natural nutrition.
Q-daily is a 100% natural, nutritional food product
that provides serves of fruits and vegetables. It
is packed full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants
and phytochemicals and is suitable for anybody who
does not get enough daily serves of fruits and vegetables
in their diet.
It is real food, and the nutrients are in a natural
form that are recognised and absorbed by your body.
It contains no artificial additives, colours, flavours
or preservatives. It has no added sugar, no gluten
and is suitable for vegans and vegetarians.
Q-Daily has been part of my daily supplementation
now for 8 weeks and is certainly one of the best
innovative ways I have come across to supplement
your diet - Q-Daily will have a stand at the Noosa
Tri Expo doing give a ways and samples. I'll see
you there!
NC
go to www.qdaily.com.au
for more info
Upcoming Events
Port Macquarie Half Ironman - 23/10
Rebecca Brown, Nick Croft
Bribie Island Triathlon Series race # 1 - 23/10
Noosa Triathlon 6/11
Marty Leahy, Zeglar Fergus, Dallas Blacklaw. Peter
Degnian, David Coulter, Marc Withnall, Michael Michell,
Paul Lakey, Peter Nimmo, Carl Schmidt, Justin Hunter,
Daniel Darcy, Yolanda Brady, Jan Croft, Lisbeth
Veijby, Jane Foreman, Steve Buth, Peter Crockett,
Brian and Angelika Hannon, Daniel O'Rourke, Mark
Botsford, Shane Vivian, Steve Pratt, Brad Allen
Ironman WA - 27/11
Justin Hunter, Jason Cheshire, Marty Leahy, Steve
Pratt, Sue Stevenson, Daniel Darcy, Peter Seldon
Canberra Half Ironman 13/12
Brad Allen
How To Determine your sweat rate -
...so you know how much to drink and whenBecause
individuals are just that - individuals - it is
important to figure out your own sweat rate. Published
recommendations may not fit your needs, and over-hydrating
increases chances of hyponatremia (too little sodium
in the blood, which may be fatal). On the other
hand, too little hydration may cause heat illness.
Remember that conditions affect people differently,
too. Douglas Casa, Ph.D., ATC, FACSM, at the University
of Connecticut explains how to figure out exactly
what you're losing.
1. Empty yourself as much as possible (bowels and
bladder)
"The best time to do this is early in the morning,"
said Casa.
2. Get completely naked (and dry) and weigh yourself
"Use kilos when marking your weight. It's easier
to convert later on."
3. Exercise at race-pace for 30 minutes
Since running is when we typically get dehydrated
the most, go and run for that time, don't go for
a swim or jump on the bike.
4. Do not hydrate or urinate during or after activity
5. Get completely dry again, toweling off sweat
(don't forget your hair)
6. While naked, weigh yourself one more time
7. Subtract post-exercise weight (step 6) from
pre-exercise weight (step 2)
If you don't have a scale that marks kilos, multiply
your weight (in pounds) by .45 to convert to kilograms.
8. Multiply that number by 2 to determine sweat
rate per hour
"This number, in liters, is what you need to
take in every hour during exercise just to keep
up with sweat loss," says Casa.
Example: 174.3-lb subject pre-workout weighs 172.1-lbs
postworkout. His loss was 2.2lbs (x .45), or .99
kilograms. This means his total loss over an hour
would be 1.98 kilograms.
Result: This subject needs to take in 1.98L of
fluid each hour (or .49L every 15 minutes) to keep
up with sweat loss.
Originally printed in Inside Triathlon, April 2005
Periodization in Strenth Training
Strength training can provide huge benefits …
with the right kind of planning. Reece Haettich
has some suggestions on how to help yourself plan
your strength training properly.
Macrocycles, microcycles, mesocycles, inverted performance
relationships, law of diminished returns …
no it’s not Keynesian Economic Theory –
these words and others like it are used to describe
periodized phases of training during any given athletes
season.
“Periodization” is a commonly used word
for a frequently misunderstood and misused concept.
Periodization simply means a portion of time broken
down into phases of training. Specificity of each
sport has a lot to do with how the program design
is structured. The performance goals and program
blueprint of a 1500 meter rower is vastly different
from that of a power lifter, but, what they do share
is the paradigm of periodization. What I’m
going to accomplish with this article is the alliance
of strength training protocols and endurance training
(of the swimming, biking, and running variety).
If you do not believe the two can coexist, throw
this article away because you do not want to get
better!
I’m also going to condense most of the applicable
information concerning this topic for purpose of
sanity (namely mine!). The challenge of triathletes
is that they must train for three different sports,
logging mile after mile in diverse disciplines.
If your goal is continual improvement and longevity,
meaning training or competing for 10, 20, even 30
years, you should embrace strength training as your
ally.
Briefly, the cross-pollinated benefits of strength/endurance
training are:
1) It makes you stronger, (stating the obvious)
2) Helps prevent injury, (increases joint integrity)
3) Assists in developing the body’s energy
systems, (anaerobic, aerobic, and lactate)
4) It may or may not make you biomechanically efficient.
I say may or may not, because if you currently suffer
from movement aberrations during swimming, biking,
or running prior to strength training, and plenty
do, an improper strength exercise prescription may
exacerbate the problem. (The solution? Find a qualified
individual who knows how to recognize structural
or muscular imbalances and who knows how to correct
them.)
The first issue that we have to address when designing
a macrocycle (for the purpose of this article, the
term macrocycle will denote one training year) is
when you want the culmination of your efforts to
peak. Can you have more than one peak during a season?
Cautiously I say of course, because you have a finite
number of great performances over the span of a
year. If you’re a race promoter’s dream,
entering every race that comes along, you unfortunately
may not enjoy PR’s every time you compete.
This seemingly is a hard concept for most triathletes
to grasp. I consistently observe athletes who erroneously
participate in one or two Ironmans, one or two half
Ironmans, a couple of Olympics, and then try to
squeeze in a few sprints during the course of a
racing season. I use the word participate because
of what usually happens somewhere around mid-season
with this kind of schedule. A litany of injuries,
inability to complete the event, lack of desire,
and various other signs overtraining follow these
individuals more closely than the wheel behind you
in a group ride. Without specific goals and an educated
plan designed for your abilities, you are wasting
money and decreasing potential.
I’m going to chronicle a season that considers
November, the epoch of the “Off- Season”,
with April through October being the “Race
Season”. I always suggest to those who are
wise to take 1-2 weeks at the end of their season
to rest, recover, and reflect. Rest means abstain
from physical activity that is strenuous especially
of the swimming, biking, and running nature. Recover
means the healing process your body will go through
upon resting. Reflect means reviewing the past seasons
highs and lows while looking forward to the year
to come, a mental refreshing. This is also a good
time to convince spouses, children, relatives, and
friends that you are normal and not suffering from
exercise induced insanity.
Our macrocycle is divided into 3 mesocycles and
will look as follows: Flexibility/Stability Phase
covering 8-10 weeks, Strength/Power phase covering
10-12 weeks, and finally the maintenance phase covering
the remainder of your year.
The flexibility/stability phase is the foundation
upon which your “performance house”
will be built. Exercises used during this cycle
are designed to strengthen tendons and ligaments,
prehab/rehab injury prone areas, and will serve
as the genesis of your core strength. During this
time, a healthy serving of static/dynamic stretches
are introduced that will lengthen tight musculature
and allow exercises to be performed with full ranges
of motion.
The Strength phase focuses on the development of
sport-functional muscle while avoiding useless hypertrophy.
As joint integrity is established the accompanying
musculature is prepared for increased intensity.
Exercises here are multi-joint and employ larger
muscle groups. The last four weeks of the strength
phase I consider a microcycle with the application
of explosive/plyometric movements that will transition
your new found strength into record breaking performances
for the up coming season.
The final mesocycle is the maintenance phase. This
cycle aligns itself with the beginning of your sport
specific endurance training and preserves prior
cycle gains throughout the entire season. Manipulation
of the maintenance phase can be achieved with the
use of well-timed microcycles to ensure more than
one peak during the season. This of course depends
on the number of races, amount of recovery time,
and your goals.
Contact Nick if you would
like to include some specific strength training
into your program.
