XRCEL: What did your post-baby racing career look like to you before and after you had your baby?

I chose to have my first baby right at the height of my career and over the last five years, I have had two more children.  In between each of the kids I’ve been able to return to peak fitness, but not for very long before becoming pregnant again. The result has been that I’ve done more races with less than ideal preparation or before my body was back to normal. That’s made for some frustrating times, but also some nice surprises. Either way, my number one goal has always remained the same, which was to get the best out of myself each race.

What was your approach to exercise after the baby and what did you feel like in those first few weeks?

My approach to exercise after having Lizzy was to let my body dictate when to resume first exercising, and later, training. The first several weeks of exercise was not even a consideration. My top priority was to let myself heal from major surgery and make sure my baby was getting proper nourishment. Lizzy got the flu when she was seven weeks old, so I spent a few weeks, literally, nursing her back to health.

At what point did you decide to start properly training again?

Lizzy was born on January 5th and I started a very basic training program on April 1^st. Up until that point, I was focused on feeding Lizzy and figuring out a schedule of when I’d be able to get out of the house to work out. From April to the end of June, I focused on waking up my muscles after such a long layoff by just doing easy swims, bikes, and runs. Running was difficult because every time I ran, a different body part hurt. I’d have to take a few days off to readjust and then try again. On July 1st I started adding more training volume with a little bit of intensity mixed in. The half Ironman in Ireland was my first “real” workout.

What were the biggest differences you noticed about training pre-baby vs. post-baby?

The biggest difference is scheduling and child care. I can’t just go out for a bike ride without figuring out the logistics of who is going to watch everyone. Time is more limited now too, but it has forced me to become more efficient. Also, I’m still waiting for a full night of sleep. I’m hopeful, but I realize with three kids and a dog, that may never happen!

Were there ever moments where doubt about returning to triathlon would sneak in and how did you handle those moments?

The third day after Lizzy was born was my low point. I definitely questioned if I was going to recover and, if I did, how I was ever going to take care of three kids and train. However, things improved once I got home and settled and was able to see how much support I have. There were also days at the pool when I thought I was ready to swim with other people again, but I would blow up after the warm-up. I had to remind myself that despite feeling like the slowest one around, my natural talent and ability as an athlete did not disappear. The changes that your body has to deal with after having a baby are a real thing and not just an excuse for having a bad workout.

What’s been the hardest part about juggling motherhood with being a professional triathlete?

These first few races have been hard because I’m coming into things right when my competitors are gearing up for their end of season races. I was nine months pregnant and haven’t exercised in months when most people started their seasons. It usually takes me a few races to remember what it takes to push myself, so I’ll catch up soon!

At what point after having the baby did you feel you were ready to race again?

I started feeling mentally ready to toe the line at about five months post-baby, but my body wasn’t quite there yet. I know from my previous comebacks that it’s taken me between eight and nine months to be back in fighting shape.

Why did you pick Ironman 70.3 Ireland as your comeback race?

I chose to do this race because I’ve always wanted to race in Ireland, I’m half Irish, and it was an easier race to get to. I’ve been in New Paltz all summer and our local airport, Stewart Newburgh, just started direct service to Dublin. I found a cheap ticket and decided to go. I traveled with a friend from NYC, rookie pro triathlete Nicole Falcaro and we supported each other throughout the weekend. Nicole had a great race, just missing the podium. I’m so glad I got to be out on the course with her and witness her success because I’ve seen the work she’s put in and the progress she’s made over the last year.

How do you feel your first race back from having a baby went and where will you go from here?

Any time I cross the finish line in one of these long races, it’s a win no matter what place I’m in. For this race, overall I’m happy with it. I had a great swim and was first out of the water by two minutes. I handled the cold water and the chop easily, which was a surprise. The bike threw me for a loop as it was one of the hardest courses I’ve experienced second to ISRAMAN. I hadn’t done any rides over 40 miles and only a few truly hilly rides.  I ran exactly what I thought I was capable of based on my training. I hadn’t run more than eight and a half miles before the race, so I took the first nine miles at a comfortable pace and then tried to build the last four. I zoomed through the last lap! I just needed a few more weeks to be ready to tackle the Wicklow mountains in the rainy fog. I’ve now resumed training and am continuing to build a base of miles.

How did you use XRCEL throughout your race and what do you feel are the biggest benefits of using XRCEL during a fast 70.3?

I had an XRCEL 15 minutes before the race start and continued to drink XRCEL every 45 minutes throughout the bike. I grabbed an XRCEL in T2 and drank it in transition before starting the half marathon. I felt amazing on the run and I was in the mindset to push myself the whole way. I finished the race and immediately thought “wow! XRCEL really works!”

Last month I traveled to Manta, Ecuador to race the Ecuador 70.3 triathlon.  I finished on the podium in 2nd place.  I am very happy with my performance, and especially how I successfully executed my race plan.  A large part of that was due to proper fueling.  I believe it is always good to have a plan – which I write down in my journal. I make notes of exactly when I should take my fuel (sips of XRCEL) and drink water throughout the race and rehearse it in my mind the night before the race.  The key is to know the plan, BUT also to be flexible and be able to adapt when things don’t go perfectly.

My plan was: 4 bottles of XRCEL in my water bottle on my bike and sports drink in the bottle between my aerobars. I alternated sips of drinks with large swallows of XRCEL every 35 minutes.  All went perfectly until 40 miles into the 56 mile bike ride when I grabbed my bottle and simultaneously came upon a very rough stretch of pavement. I was so afraid of dropping my precious XRCEL (knowing I needed that last 1/4 bottle for energy for the run), that I held on to it rather than steer my bike! A few seconds later I realized I definitely needed both hands on my bars and realized it was either me or the bottle…so the bottle rolled to the side of the road.  I momentarily panicked about not having my trusty fuel, but I reminded myself that XRCEL is time released, that I already had gotten a lot in, and that I could supplement with the nutrition they provide on the run course. Instead of getting down about it, or distracted, I just carried on.  It wasn’t ideal and I probably didn’t have the pep in my step I might have had, but I was still able to finish very strong with the fastest half marathon of the day.

It’s important to have a plan, but also to be able to come up with a plan B if you need to.

In addition to fueling properly on race day, it is equally important to eat the right things in the days leading up to the race.  Everyone is different, but for me that means extra carbs, mostly in the form of rice. However, in Ecuador, a staple food is plantains, which was also a great way to fuel.  I had all sorts of plantains: mashed, chips, in the form of a “bolon”.

Fortunately, I had many new Ecuadorian friends to translate the menus for me and help me pick out the local specialties.

Manta is known for tuna fishing and has a giant fish market we ran and rode by.  Another memorable meal was the freshest tuna (served seared with steamed veggies) I have ever had. This combination worked and I felt great on race day.

Having a plan, and also being able adaptable is the key to executing a successful race. Next time, I’ll look ahead on the road to make sure the pavement is smooth before taking a drink!

I’ve always been fascinated by the missed great race performances due to an athlete’s mental breakdown rather than physical issues. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of bad races can be attributed to acute physical problems like injury, nutritional issues, or muscle fatigue. In my fifteen years of experience with elite-level athletics, I’ve always taken great interest in the psychological side of training and racing. I’ve spent time around some of the best triathletes in the world. While their physical abilities are always superb, I’ve found that it’s their mental strength that sets them apart. On the flip side, I’ve known a lot of great athletes who didn’t reach their potential either in some races, or throughout their entire careers, because their minds have held them back. Throughout my professional racing career, I too experienced being held back by my own psyche. I also experienced some of my best performances when my mental preparation matched my physical preparation. Endurance sports are hard on both the mind and the body. As athletes, it’s important to place as much importance on our mental preparation as we do our physical training. Toeing the start line mentally ready to go can make the difference between the race of your life and a DNF. Here I want to share with you a handful of tools I learned to use to prepare my mind for race day.

1) Visualization – This is probably the most powerful tool in the mental preparation box. The key to this technique is to start your visualization practice months before your key race. Think through your race day. You can even think through the days leading up to the race as well. Go through the entire race day, from when your morning alarm rings until after the finish. You can even include how you’re going to celebrate a great race. Think through every moment in between. Think about what an amazing experience it is going to be, think about how you will thrive in the race. Think about how you will feel at each moment, your emotions, but always in a positive light. Think about how calm and collected you will be through the whole day. How will you execute every aspect of the day? Address how you will embrace the pain and the tough moments. Dictate all of your thoughts throughout the day. Again, you need to make sure you maintain a positive take on every moment. After you’ve envisioned all of these thoughts and moments, make sure to write it down in a journal. Then as you approach your race, spend a little time every day thinking through your scenario. Every time you think through or review your visualization, you are creating your own reality. Those positive thoughts and emotions are being programmed into your brain and you’re actually deciding now how you will feel. This will become ingrained in you psyche and creates your future.

2) Confirmation – As race day approaches, athletes may start to doubt themselves and their preparations. When this happens, you can start to talk yourself down and not trust in your preparation. Negative perspectives like this do you no good. You need to focus on the training you DID do, rather than the training you DIDN’T do. You need to confirm that you are indeed prepared to race. An easy way to do this is to spend time reviewing your past training plans/logs to reinforce and remember all of the hard work and sweat equity you put in to be ready for this race. I once heard a world-class triathlon coach say that endurance athletes have about a three day memory. They can’t seem to remember the months and years of good training they’ve done. If they haven’t felt a certain way or done certain workouts for a few days, they start to doubt themselves. We tend to remember only the few bad workouts or that maybe we missed one key workout. I can remember being stressed about a race because I was sick for a week and missed 7 days of training. I didn’t think about the seven months of great training leading up to that one week in bed. If you take the time to read through your training logs, it can help reinforce how much work you’ve done to prepare for your race. Use this tool to confirm to yourself that you’re ready. As you read back through all of your logs, you will realize how far you’ve come as an athlete. You want to stand on that start line confident in your fitness and this will help remind you of all of the miles you put in to get to where you are.

3) Affirmation – We are our own worst critics and we tend to talk negative to ourselves. This is especially true when we are experiencing doubt about an upcoming race. Motivational speaker Les Brown says that there is an old African proverb “if there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do you no harm.” By affirming your strengths to yourself, you can eliminate that enemy within. Of all of the mental preparation tools, I feel that self affirmations are the one that some people struggle to do. It can feel awkward or maybe corny to tell yourself positive things. You need to get over any feelings like this and begin to tell yourself how good you are. Like visualizations, your thoughts will begin to create your own reality. A great way to do this is to start writing down positive thoughts, phrases, or sentences on flash cards. Think about your future state. How do you want to feel? Then each day, in a quiet and peaceful moment, read through your flash cards. Ideally you read them out loud so you can hear yourself say those positive things to yourself. At first, you may feel like you’re telling yourself fibs, but the more you practice, the more you will internalize these statements and believe in them. This will become who you are. For example, you could write down something like “when I run, I am relaxed and my legs feel light and springy, like a deer galloping through a field.” It may feel hokey or strange to recite that to yourself, but that will become your reality. You will to eventually feel more relaxed and springy as you run.

4) Worrying Time – One of the best tools I’ve come across to avoid excessive pre-race nerves is to schedule worrying time. As race day approaches, anxiety around all of the ‘what ifs’ can build in your brain. Some nerves are inevitable. In fact, a certain limited amount of the butterflies in your stomach is healthy and can help your performance. This is because it helps release your stress hormones designed to increase our physical abilities as a natural defense mechanism to stress or danger. However, too many of these nerves, for too long (days and weeks) before a race can leave you mentally exhausted and physically hamper your performance. A sports psychologist I worked with gave me this great technique to deal with those nerves in the days before a race. He recommended scheduling time to worry about those ‘what-ifs.’ Start by setting aside 30 minutes at a certain time on a certain day. If you feel anxiety before then, tell yourself “it’s not time to worry right now, I will think about this today at 3:00pm (or whenever you decide).” Then during your time slot, worry as much as you want about what could go wrong. Go crazy with it. Then think through how you will handle all of those scenarios. Use that time as contingency planning. When the time is up, then you tell yourself that you’re done with the worrying and it’s time to move on. You can schedule more time later or the next day. If you feel those jitters creeping in again, tell yourself you can’t worry now, but you can during your next worrying session You have the ability to tell yourself that you can’t worry about what could possibly happen all of the time. I found this to work really well for myself. Give it a try, you may find it really helps to mitigate your pre-race anxiety.

5) Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail – If you think about everything that goes into your race itself, there are a lot of moving parts that make it a fairly complex endeavor. The more you can plan out and address the details that go into every aspect of the race, the better. Spend the necessary time to think through all of the steps and details surrounding travel to the race, going through all of the motions of the final days leading into the race, executing every step of the race, and contingency planning for potential issues that could arise. For instance, think about your race nutrition. Spend the time well ahead of race week to think through how much XRCEL you need to bring to the race, where you will pack it in your luggage, which water bottles it will go in for the race, how much and how often will you drink it, will you have spare XRCEL if you drop a bottle, etc. Spending the time to think through these kinds of details ahead of time can save you a lot of stress in that final week before the race. This shouldn’t be limited to your nutrition planning, but you can do this for all aspects of your race; from travel logistics to your equipment. With forty full-Ironmans to my name and even more half-Ironmans, I’ve heard of, seen, or personally experienced almost everything that could go wrong. The better prepared you are going into the race, the better you will be able to handle any issues that Murphy’s Law will throw at you!

6) Victory Lap – I once spoke with a sports psychologist before a race. He said one sentence to me that has stuck in my head ever since. In fact, I stole it and say it to many of my friends and athletes before they race. It’s a very simple but a profound idea. He said, “Tomorrow’s race is your victory lap. Go take you victory lap.” We often think of the races as the end point of our journey. That viewpoint tends to place too much gravity on the results of that race. It can make it appear as an all or nothing event. Instead, try to look at the race as your reward for all of your hard work and preparation over the previous months. Getting to the start line healthy and rested is the hardest part about any endurance sport. Look at the race as your celebration for all of your sacrifices and everything you overcame in your training. You get to go race because you did everything you could to get yourself to that start line. The time you spend actually on the race course is a small fraction of the time you spent training. Enjoy every minute out there. This is your time. This really is your victory lap.

Endurance sports are hard enough, don’t let your mind make them any tougher. Place the importance on training your mind as it deserves. It doesn’t matter if you’re physically fit and strong, if you’re mentally weak you may crumble as soon as the race gets hard. Just like every other aspect of your physical training, mental training takes effort and practice. Make it a priority and you may find it opens up your potential for your best performances yet.

The long build run…cringe…
It’s always the one for me that can be the hardest – more mentally than physically. But when done right can add a great deal of strength and endurance to the legs, and mind! Here are 5 things I have learned over the years from many failed, and also some successful, long build runs.

How long is long? Well that depends on your goal race, and also your level of fitness when starting the run. For me, I have years of running in my legs, but even at the start of an Ironman prep, my build runs are only 60-75mins. These gradually increase to around 2 hrs – and most of that is easy running to “flush” the legs. Here are my tips:

1. Start out easy.

Sounds easy enough, but I have learned the hard way many times. Give yourself time to warm up and get the blood moving through your legs with a very easy jog. Almost a shuffle. Gradually increase the pace a little to a steady jog but keep it really easy to start.

2. Don’t force the pace – let how you are feeling dictate the effort in which you build the pace.

It’s ok to have an idea of the numbers you want to hit as you progress through your build, but don’t let these rule the run. From your starting jog, pick up the pace a bit and see how you FEEL and then go from there, gradually increasing the pace every 10 mins or so (depending on your run duration). Never force the pace if it feels too hard too soon. I have had runs that have felt so fluid and smooth finishing at a pace that is faster than my ½ marathon pace, and then others I have barely been able to hold my marathon pace to finish. Its all about what you have on the day. Work with what you ARE feeling and not what you THINK YOU SHOULD be feeling.

3. Fuel & hydrate early to optimize a strong finish.

Bonking at the end of a longer build run isn’t always a result of starting out too hard, or forcing the pace too soon. It can be because you are dehydrated and/or you have simply run out of fuel. On the longer runs, I like to have a gel before and during the run (usually 15mins before I start the build). My choice is XRCEL because its easy for me to digest and never upsets my stomach. I also carry a hand flask with electrolyte and fill up with water along the way. For runs about 60mins you should be ok with one XRCEL just before, but for anything over 75mins think about taking extra with you.

4. Choose your terrain wisely.

An ideal build run finishes on a flat section or even somewhere slightly downhill when you want your leg turnover to be cranking along. Some hills at first when you are warming up are ok, and can often make you feel better when you start your build, but try to find somewhere you can really hammer out the build portion. If you can’t find this outside, it can be replicated on a treadmill. Start out very easy at a 0% incline, then increase to 2% for 10mins, then 3% for another 10mins, and then flatten it off and run easy for 5mins and then crank your build out.

5. Pick the right partner.

If you are running with someone, try to run with someone that has a similar pace or is only slightly faster. That way you won’t start too fast or try and run your build at a pace that has you starting at your finishing pace. If you are running with someone faster, right from the start, just let them go and stick to your pace.

Have fun! And I hope you nail your next build run!

Jimmy Buffett has a good song titled “A Pirate Looks at 40.” In my eleventh year racing as a professional triathlete, I too had to look at turning 40. Even though I’m still 23 in my head, I know the realities of advancing age versus athletic performance. After over 15 years in the sport of triathlon, in my last year of racing, I was able to achieve my personal best Ironman 70.3 time only two months before my 40th birthday, and my personal best full-Ironman time only three weeks before the big four-oh! I was very proud of the fact that despite my age on paper, I proved to myself that I could perform better than I could in what most consider their “prime” racing years.

 I learned quite a lot over my last few years in the sport about effective ways to approach training and racing as I aged. If you read my last XRCEL blog about injury prevention,  you’ll notice similarities to the content I share here. This is simply because as we age, our injury risk increases. While there are common themes with that last blog, here I want to point out some specifics for the masters athletes. These tips are not exclusive to triathletes, but the ideas here can benefit all athletes.

Wisdom is Your Best Asset – You’re not in your twenties anymore, but that also means that you have your wisdom to guide you through your decision making. As we go through the months of training to prepare for an event, then executing on race day, we’re constantly faced with decisions that will impact our training, recovery, risk of injury, proper execution of workouts, and being smart on race day. Learn to rely on your knowledge and experiences to help make smart choices. The ego, courage, and bravado of youth can lead athletes astray from making good decisions. Use your wisdom to help you avoid some of the mistakes a younger version of yourself may have made.

Acknowledge the Changes – Our bodies are changing, that is a fact. We all need to acknowledge those changes and then learn to work with them instead of fighting against them. This goes back to my previous point about using your wisdom in decision-making. I know that I can’t fly across 8 time zones or have an extra couple glasses of wine in the evening without it taking more out of me than my younger self. If I stay out later at a party, I’m going to pay the price the next day. If you find yourself ever saying that you USED to be able to do something, then take note of that thought and don’t try to do it now. Let the younger athletes abuse their bodies. Acknowledge the changes, be smart, and work within your own new parameters.

Make the Gym a Priority – It is a fact that as we age, we begin to lose muscle mass and strength. Both men and especially women also have to deal with the loss of bone mineral density (think of staving off osteoporosis). The best way to combat these two serious issues is to maintain gym work as part of your routine. I know there is a constant debate about lifting weights and endurance sports, especially when it comes to the question of lighter weight/more reps vs. heavier weight/fewer reps. I’ve had conversations with several strength and conditioning coaches for some of the world’s top Ironman and Ironman 70.3 professionals. Their consensus is that for endurance athletes (even aging ones) that heavier weight and 6-8 reps per set is the sweet spot. With the heavier weight, you will stimulate your body’s natural hormone production. A little extra natural HGH production will make you feel younger and give you more energy. If you also work on some of your stabilizing muscles and muscle engagement, it can help with injury prevention. Spending time in the gym will help keep you healthy and feeling young.

Intensity is as Important Now if Not More – We maintain our endurance extremely well as we age. You won’t see the level of degradation of your aerobic capacity as you will the fitness associated with harder, more intense efforts. There’s a reason you see a lot of excellent ultra-distance endurance athletes (think 100 mile runners and extremely long distance cycling events) who are over the age of 40. It’s the upper level areas of your fitness like the fast twitch muscles (sprinting), VO2 max (60-120 seconds), and threshold (under an hour effort) that are the areas where we lose the most fitness as we age. Because the workouts to train those engines are difficult and hurt, many masters athletes fall into the trap of long and slow. For these reasons, it’s important to keep intensity as part of your training to reduce the degradation of upper fitness levels and keep you fast and strong.

Different Approach to Recovery – As we age, we need more recovery time to absorb hard training. When I was in my twenties and early thirties, I could train hard day-after-day, with little recovery time. Looking back at old training logs, I’m shocked at how much hard training I could do. Over the last several years, I had to work with my coach to make adjustments to my recovery approach so that I could hit the hard workouts with the intensity they require. This simply meant I couldn’t push hard every single day in every workout. I also learned that over the last several years, I lost fitness much faster and it took longer to get it back if I took too much recovery or time off. In my earlier years, I could take a lot of time off in my off-season and be back in shape after a month of hard training. Recently I found the more time I took completely off, the time to regain my previous fitness increased significantly. I found that maintaining lighter training and recovery workouts helped recovery, without spending too many days off on the couch, and was the key to finding the balance between recovery and losing fitness.

Nutrition – When I was a new triathlete in my twenties, I would go on some of my long bike rides and eat absolute garbage like Pop Tarts and Doritos. I got away with it because I was young. Looking back, I now know that I could have performed better had I taken my training nutrition more seriously during those early years. As I’ve matured as an athlete, I learned how important sports nutrition is to my performance. Working with XRCEL Athlete Fuel, I found a product whose formulation with its extended release micro-gel technology kept me better fueled for my workouts and racing. With it, I was able to continue to perform at a higher-level despite being “over the hill” in terms of professional racing age.

Mobility – Coaches and trainers love to talk about stretching and foam rolling. While I think they both serve a function and have a valuable place in all athletes’ training regimes. I’ve found that mobility and activation are as important, if not more, to maintaining my body function and performance as I’ve gotten older. I’ve previously written about Lawrence Van Lingen and his approach and techniques to improve mobility specifically for running. My coach and Lawrence simplified the terminology to call it “happy hips.” It actually refers to sets of exercises and active stretching to help your body increase it’s mobility and engage critical biomechanical functions for increased performance. While all athletes can benefit from incorporating mobility exercises into their programs, I’ve seen it greatly benefit aging athletes as we start to lose flexibility. Search for Lawrence Van Lingen on Youtube to find his channel and spend some time watching his videos. It’s an excellent investment of your time for increased performance and injury prevention.

Warming Up – We all know someone, usually in the office, who tore their hamstring playing softball. As we age, our muscles aren’t as supple and those types of sudden ballistic movements put us at an increased risk of injury. The same is true for starting out too quickly in your workouts. Make sure to be disciplined about taking extra time to warm up to get your muscles ready to go. If you train with other people, you need to be smart about it. If I’m in a small group of 2-4 people, I never have a problem asking if we can warm up a little slower. If it’s a bigger group, it’s harder to settle everyone down at the start of a ride or run. I found that if a training group starts too quickly for me because of the young bucks at the front, I show up 10 minutes early to the run and jog around to get my body nice and warmed up at my pace before the group dynamics take over.

Use Technology to Stay Competitive – Let’s face it, if you’re getting on in your years, you’re probably at a more advanced point in your career than you were a couple decades ago. Hopefully with that comes a little more disposable income. The great thing about sports, especially when it comes to triathlon, is that there is always better equipment available where you can “buy” speed. As technologies of each sport advance, you can find small, or sometimes large chunks of time by using better or faster equipment.  One of the most innovative companies for total body fitness is the Peloton bike and new Peloton tread.  Just like XRCEL provides cutting edge technology to fuel athletes to peak performance, Peloton provides the technology for athletes to increase fitness and performance. Other “high-tech” examples can be in the form of gear like running shoes, swim speedskins and wetsuits, bikes and any associated cycling equipment, and even nutrition. Investing to upgrade your nutrition to XRCEL over an inferior sports nutrition product can keep you racing faster by keeping you properly fueled for your training and racing. Using your purchasing power advantage will help keep you competitive. Shaving off time here and there can add up to big gains in the big picture of your racing.

Use Your Age as Motivation – I’ve heard random people say snippets like “I was the fittest of my life playing high school football when I was 17.” That doesn’t have to be you! The Baby Boomer generation has been redefining what it means to age and that being “old” is only a mindset. I think the following generations will continue to prove that age is only a number. Use your age as a motivation to push yourself to a new level of fitness that you didn’t know was achievable. There’s no reason you can’t be your fittest in your 40s. Show yourself that you can do something in your 50s and 60s that you never would have dreamed possible. When the task seems insurmountable, think about how good it’s going to feel to pass those twenty-somethings in your next race. We have our ages written on our calves in black magic marker by race organizers in triathlon. Own it and wear it as a badge of honor!

Just because you have a few more candles on your birthday cake these days doesn’t mean that you can’t have some of your best racing ahead of you. I proved to myself that age is only a number. I have friends, my age or older, who are still competitive against the top professional triathletes in the world. If you heed the advice I’ve shared here, you too don’t have to surrender to Father Time when you toe the line at your next race.

By Patrick Evoe

     If you’re a triathlete, you’re now moving from winter off season towards racing season. Your fitness is probably coming around and you’re really starting to turn the screws in training. Nothing will derail your progress faster than an injury. If you want to have a successful racing season, staying injury-free should be a top priority. Here, I want to give you some tips and ideas to keep you off the injured reserve and training and racing strong.

1) Keep up the gym work: It’s an old school mentality that strength work in the gym is only for the winter or “off season.” Most professional triathletes stay working in the gym year round now. Maintaining gym work as part of your training regime throughout your racing season will not only help your overall strength and muscle recruitment, but it will also help keep your stabilizing muscles strong, thus helping to prevent injury during your larger volume training.

2) Soft surface running: Elite runners know that the pavement is your enemy when it comes to injury prevention. You can help reduce your risk of stress fractures and other injuries from repetitive impacts by staying off of hard surfaces when you lace up your shoes. The more miles you can run on softer surfaces rather than concrete and asphalt the better. Dirt trails or roads are ideal for putting in the bigger miles, but there are other options to minimize your pavement time. Treadmills, grass soccer fields, and tracks are all other excellent options for running depending on the specific training session. If you’re faced with an area where pavement is your only option, always choose asphalt over concrete. Asphalt actually gives a little with each stride where concrete does not, so the asphalt road will provide better shock absorption than concrete, and thus less pounding. If you want to know how much “harder” concrete is than asphalt, one source I found had the measure for how much an object resists deforming (modulus of elasticity) for asphalt at 380 kpsi and concrete at 4500kpsi. The moral of this story is stick to the softer surfaces for your running miles to help prevent those repetitive stress injuries.

3) Maintain your body work: Body work is to training what flossing is to dentistry. We all know we should be doing it all of the time, but as soon as we get tired, it’s the first thing we drop. Then when you’re injured and go into a physical therapist, the first thing they ask is how much foam rolling and stretching you do. When you’re tired, the last thing you want to do is hop on the foam roll, but the reality is that keeping up with a body work regiment will help keep your body happy and healthy. Massages, stretching, and foam rolling are very effective at helping with injury prevention.

4) When in doubt, don’t – My uncle, who is a lifetime runner gave me some advice when I was a new runner. He said an old coach of his used to say that during a taper “when in doubt, don’t!” If you’re not sure if your should do something in training, you’re probably better off if you don’t do it. I like to extend that advice to injury prevention. I learned the hard way (time and time again), that if you feel tightness or a little pain coming on, stop the workout. It’s not worth risking a pull or strain just to soldier through a session and check the box on your training program. It’s better to bag that workout, take it easy for a day and come back to hammer through the rest of the training plan, than to be out for a couple weeks with a calf or hamstring pull. Trust me on this one, I was the worst offender of this during the first two thirds of my racing career. It took a lot of pulls and strains before I gained the wisdom to stop a workout as a precaution rather than let my motivation and ego keep me going during a workout.

5) Keep your warm-ups slow – Moving into your racing season, your fitness will naturally improve as you try to reach your peak. As you get fitter, you may feel urge to start out faster on your swim, bike and run workouts because your winter paces feel easier. Keep in mind that your body still needs a nice, long, and slow warm-up to get your muscles supple and malleable before you start hammering away. Always remember the common analogy that your muscles at the start of a workout are like a rubber band pulled out of the freezer. Stretch it too fast before it’s warmed up and it will snap. The same is true for your muscles. Keep your warm-ups nice and slow, even if the pace feels too easy.

6) You still need recovery blocks – You’re now counting down your final months and weeks to your key races. You’re fit, strong, and better yet, motivated. This is a great position to be in, but it can also be dangerous if you overreach. Some athletes want to build and build; add in more and more intensity. True, you need to add volume and/or intensity to create a training response, but if you don’t give yourself recovery blocks, or back off for a week here and there, you will increase your risk for burn out and injury. Remember, you never get stronger in a workout, only during the recovery!

7) Substitute a long bike for a long run – A great tip I learned from a former coach was to substitute an extra long ride for a long run periodically. We all get in the mentality of Saturday long ride, Sunday long run. It’s the triathlon way. While long runs are an essential piece to your training plan, they are also the single workout that most increases your injury risk. Now and then, my old coach would have a weekend where I didn’t have a long run. Instead, Saturday would be a medium-long to long ride (3-5 hours) with hard intensity. Then Sunday would be a long endurance ride of 5-6 hours. Just relaxed endurance pace riding. You still get a great cardiovascular boost from the double long ride but without the pounding of the long run. It’s also a great way to boost your cycling fitness. For the type-A triathletes who mentally can’t miss a long run, don’t worry, you won’t lose your run fitness by missing one long run. Of course you need to have a solid cycling base before you try this because you don’t want to end up with a cycling injury.

8) Stay on top of your hydration – As the weather warms up and your training load increases, you will be in a constant battle to stay hydrated. If you become chronically dehydrated, you increase your risk for several types of injuries; more specifically pulls and strains. Calf and lower leg pulls or strains can sometimes be attributed to chronic dehydration because the muscles are not as supple when they’re in a dehydrated state. Make hydration a priority throughout your season. It should be something you stay on top of before, during, and after all of your training.

9) Proper Fueling – A tired body and mind resulting from inadequate fueling can contribute to injury risk from fatigue due to mechanical failure or poor decision making from sub-optimal brain fueling. Athletes talk anecdotally about the dreaded bonk, but in reality, if you reach the point in a race or training where you’ve sufficiently depleted your stores to put you in that state, you’re putting yourself at risk of harming yourself. Help mitigate that risk by ensuring you keep your mind and body fueled using XRCEL’s extended release micro-gel technology as your fueling source throughout your training and racing.

After reading this, you probably recognize that injury prevention is primarily about risk reduction. As you think through your training, racing, and recovery, try to get into the mindset to mitigate as many of the injury risks inherent to our sport as you can. Setting yourself up to have your best race is as much about getting you to the starting line healthy as it is getting you there fit!

about getting you to the starting line healthy as it is getting you there fit!