We have been ripping it up this fall on our bikes at the adidas sportsplex.  Our next session of indoor cycling is now open for registration.

INDOOR CYCLING DETAILS 

ALSO, dates are set for our annual Easter training camp.

I hope you are enjoying the festive season and I hope to see you in the New Year!

In our last article, I mentioned that the forecast for Ironman Canada 2011 was to be hot.  And, was it ever hot!  

Well, things change.  It is the end of September and it is 13 C (55F) degrees and rainy.  I am not riding outside today but then again I don't need to ride today.  Still chill'n out in my off-season.

So, let's talk indoor cycling where it will be nice and warm but most importantly, DRY (well, for most people).

Indoor cycling requires an indoor trainer (or as our UK friends call them, turbo's).  There are a wide variety of trainers available and they range in price from $100 to $2000.  What's the difference?  What should you get?

There are five categories of indoors trainers:

1.  Magnetic

2.  Wind

3.  Fluid

4.  Electronic Brake Controlled

5.  Rollers

I'll cut to the chase.  If you have a budget of $300-500 then go out and get a good fluid trainer.  Reason being they are the most durable, least noisy and most importantly they increase in resistance when you shift gears (ie. you don't have to get off your bike to increase the resistance of the trainer to do hard intervals).  

Cyclops Fluid2 is a good example of a fluid trainer in the $400+ range.

If you are willing to go with a lower quality trainer that is less durably, and does not adjust resistance as easily then you can look at magnetic trainers.  Some, come with cables that allow you to adjust the resistance while you are riding.  However, these cables do not last forever.  Again, only get these if you really can't afford the more expensive fluid trainers.

Cyclops and Tacx make good magnetic trainers for $200-300.

You can also get wind trainers which give you a good range of resistance (and are even smoother) but for the same price as a Fluid they are a lot louder.  A lot.  Not a tradeoff I want to make for a smoother ride.

Electronic brake trainers are the Cadillacs of trainers.  They allow you to adjust the resistance electronically and give you a good measure of power.  They are relatively quiet and durable.  Tacx makes some that are under $1000 but are not as accurate with the power measurements.  The Tacx flow is the most affordable one while the Tacx vortex is a step up.  

More expensive electronic brake models come with software so you can train on various courses and do various workouts with your computer.  So, if you plan on doing a lot of indoor riding, have a plugin nearby and have $1500 to spend on a trainer, these are the ones to get.  

Trainers made by Computrainer give more accurate power readings while the Tacx Bushido trainers have better software for training.  

Lastly, rollers have come a long way even though they have been around the longest.  Basically, you sit your bike on top of 3 rolling pins.  They require that you balance on those rollers which is great to give you the road type feel and is why people use them.  Some offer resistance systems but most just let you set it to one resistance and as you pedal faster, you go a bit harder.  Some models also help you stay in the middle of the pins which prevents you from wiping out (been there, done that).  

Forecast for Ironman Canada 2011 is relatively hot.  Not hot if you are from Central America, but, certainly hot if you are from Canada or Northern States.

What can you do on race day to mitigate the effect of the heat on your day?

1.  HYDRATE - this is number 1.  I guarantee, more than half the field will struggle with some level of dehydration in a hot race (30C+ or 90F+).  It is simply from not knowing and not pushing high water intake that they are simply not used to doing.  Smaller bodies need at least 1000ml per hour while larger bodies and higher sweat rates will require 1500-2000ml per hour.  Remember though, this is when it gets hot.  You must take in less water early on (say first hour of the bike), if clouds roll in and it gets cool AND certainly when the sun goes down.  If you are in a dry climate like Ironman Canada, don't wait till you see sweat because you may never see it due to its quick evaporation.  

2.  Superficial Watering - does help but not nearly as much as proper hydration.  Keeping your head and torso wet are a great way to feel some cooling.  As the water evaporates, it takes heat with it.    

3.  Ice - for the run, many athletes like sticking ice down there pants or in their bra tops.  This comes down to personal preference.  And, you have to watch you don't get a lot of water running into your shoes.  Because, you want them to stay relatively dry for the run.   For this reason, we don't recommend running in puddles or under sprinklers.  It is much better to splash water on your head, torso and back.  That keeps most of the water on you and out of your shoes.

4.  A visor or hat - again this is personal preference.  But, both will keep the radiant (sun) heat off your face which is important to prevent you from feeling the heat.  Visor people like splashing water on their heads.  Hat people often like putting ice under their hat.

5.  Salt - we can't mention hydration with mentioning salt.  Sodium really helps you absorb water throughout the day and prevents a massive loss of sodium which can impair performance.  Sodium needs are very individual.  We recommend 400-1000mg per hour once it heats up.  For some people, they even need more.  Some need very less.  If you are unfamiliar with salt intake and drinking a lot of water, it is a good idea to get your salt from electrolyte drinks or from pretzels (suck the salt off, or chew them).  Pretzels have very few calories, so still get your fuel from other sources.  Salt pills are another source.  If you use them, try to find some with 100mg or more of salt per capsule.  You don't really need any other electrolyte or mineral on race day unless you know one of them really does help you (for example, some people like taking magnesium).  Sodium is by far the most important.        

6.  Mental advantage - Keep in mind, that everyone suffers in the heat.  Those that welcome the challenge and face it will do much better.  Those afraid of it or dread it will suffer and slow down right after their first step.  It is your choice, that is, which attitude do you want to race with.  Since other people are racing against you, the heat is actually to your advantage.  With the right attitude, it will not effect you nearly as much.

Factor 9 is very proud of these athletes who will be starting Ironman Canada this Sunday (August 28).  

Psychology plays such a huge role in sport.  Whether you are competing against yourself (aiming for your first finish or mastering a distance), competing against the clock (going for a certain time) or competing against other athletes (trying to win).  In many ways, our own mind is often our worst enemy.  Fear of the swim, anxiety about getting a flat tire, losing focus, not having a reason to push ourselves are all examples of how our minds can play tricks on us and cause us to deviate from our desired path.

Brian Mac has a nice overview of the key psychological factors that apply to any sport and most certainly apply to triathlon racing.  I like how he identifies four main psychological attributes that are needed to perform well in a race:

Some of us are really good at one or more of these attributes while other may be reasonably good at them all.  Each attribute impacts our race differently depending on how good we are at managing it.  Some of us may even have a major hang-up with with one of these attributes.  Having these "issues" does not make you "crazy", in fact, they make you normal.  Every athlete has room to improve in all of these areas.

I'd like to chat about confidence in this particular article since to me it is the most important one to consider and can influence the other attributes.  Without confidence in what you are doing, you will have trouble concentrating on the tasks at hand because you will be distracted, you will have trouble controlling your race because you will make decisions based on fear and you will have trouble committing to your decisions since you will have doubts.

I had been in sports for a long time before I got into Ironman racing.  And I had many successes in other sports as well as short course triathlon racing.  I pictured myself as a confident athlete and felt confident in what I was doing.  Slowly though, as I struggled in my second, third and fourth Ironman, I began to lose confidence.  And, I was not even aware of it come race day.  

Early on I really struggled with my Ironman nutrition on the run.  I always ran into stomach cramps or stitches that prevented me from running to my potential.  Walking or jogging because of a cramp was very frustrating.  Gradually I did get better at handling them and finding better ways to hydrate and fuel.  However, I really lacked confidence on the run.  As a result, I started eating and drinking less and less.  Even so in training.  Subconsciously, I was solving my cramping problem by eating less even though I always planned to eat/drink more to maintain my energy properly.  As you can imagine that did not help my racing at all.  I then had problems with bonking and slowing considerably.  And, I still had some stomach issues.  So, things got worse instead of better.  

It all came down to fear.  I did not want to eat or drink because I was afraid of stomach problems.  Even though I knew I had to eat and drink a certain amount, I ignored its importance because I was afraid of the consequences.  And, this fear, was a clear lack of confidence come race day in my nutrition.  The good news was, the more problems I had, the more I worked on a solution even if I did not recognize that fear was playing such a big role.

This is where "practice makes perfect".  That is, experience is your best friend when you lack confidence.  There is nothing that works better than putting ourselves through the experience successively.  That builds confidence.  And, it does not have to be a race or even a short race to build it.  Most of our experiences happen in training.  Even moreso than in a race.  Thing is, we don't value those experiences as much as we do a race.  But, we should.  And for two reasons: 1.  Any experience is important and helps us get prepared, otherwise we would not train, 2. If we are aware of the value, we can plan our training specifically to overcome certain fears, which in turn, adds in more value to the training.

Coming back to the fueling example.  After banging my ahead against the wall a few hundred times, I finally figured out I really needed to practice in order to improve my handling of nutrition.  The only way was to simulate racing and force my stomach to get better at it.  On all my long rides, I started simulating what I would drink and eat on race day.  I'd pack multiple bottles on my bike and follow my plan.  Then I would do a short run afterwards to see how my stomach was doing as another check.  Likewise and more importantly, I started packing all the water and fuel I would use in a race on my long runs.  I'd go into the long runs with an empty stomach and eat what I would only eat before a race (and time it the same as well).  This forced me to start eating/drinking at the 10minute mark of the run, just like I would in an Ironman run.  Then, I had to follow a stringent plan of water/fueling in the long runs or I would fall over.

I won't lie.  It took a lot of practice.  But, eventually I got a lot better at fueling and hydrating.  It also gave me a lot more opportunities through trial and error to find the better drinks, concentrations and salt amounts.  Mentally, I got a lot more confident in my fuel plan.  That still was not enough though.  I still had a lingering fear.  Although more confident, I still had the urge to skimp on my plan and get overly anxious at the hint of a cramp.  Although experience played the largest role in overcoming the problem, I still had to come up with some coping and decision making strategies so I would make the right decisions in the race and not give in to the fear.  

To this day, I still get prepared.  I still practice the plan before races.  I need to.  Each season, I mentally need to get prepared because that fear still exists and physically my body needs to get used to the fueling.  If I don't, I run into more problems than I want to on race day.

"You should prepare for every race as though it is a military campaign.  Wherever you go, the terrain, weather, food, air quality, language, accommodation, culture - they are all different.  You cannot go into those races with exactly the same strategy each time.  Planning and customizing your approach to each race dramatically improves your chances of winning."  From Chris McCormack's book I'm Here to Win.

I am about done reading McCormack's book and there are a lot of good tidbits in it.  To be honest, the first few chapters are tremendous.  Then it starts to slow down and I have yet to read the final chapters.  But, the first set of chapters make it a worthwhile read and to each their own.  You may find the final chapters more interesting then me.  Either way, if you have not read a lot of books about winning and a winners approach then you should certainly read this one.  

That does not imply you should mimic everything Chris has done.  Obviously, we are not nearly as gifted as he is when it comes to swimming, cycling and running.  And, that is one of his points in the book.  Always be ready to adapt.  Change your approach when it makes sense.

Bringing it On - Oliver Half Race Report

I am finally writing a follow-up to my own race at Oliver.  Remember, I talked about "Bringing it On" a few blogs ago.  We had shitty spring weather which meant cool training temperatures.  As, luck would have it, I was right.  It did get pretty warm on race day.  Upwards of 25C.  Ok, not hot like Australia hot or Hawaii hot by any stretch.  But, a number of people mentioned how hot it was one race.  Again, it is simply because we have had such a cool spring.  I felt good.  It did not feel "hot" to me.  Between the sauna training and knowing how to race in hotter weather (by hydrating and sponging) I was able to stay comfortable in the heat.

The swim went really well.  I got a great start by swimming beside Pro Jonathon Caron for 4m, then dropping back and following his feet for another meter.  Seriously, I was able to get pulled out by Jon and away from the big pack which was nice.  I swam strong to the first buoy and then settled into a mod-hard rhythm for the rest of the way.  Coming out comfortably in 5th or 6th I believe.  

I felt good starting the bike.  The TREK speed concept from the Bike Barn did not disappoint.  I am riding in a much better position.  Lower again and steeper.  Much like I did when I had my best years of riding.  I have not put my power meter on it yet though, so, I really had to watch my pace early on.  I did end up riding a little hard the first lap and was tired near the end of the bike course.  My power and stamina is not quite there yet.

I started the run pretty stiff.  I loosened up a bit but it never felt free like it sometimes does.  I really held back on the run.  I figured I was in a 1:35-39 shape and just went by feel that first lap.  Starting the second lap, I actually felt better so I took that as a sign to pick it up.  I did pick it up and it felt good.  Unfortunately, that was a bad idea.  I ran well to the 10th mile or 16km.  Then the wheels came off.  I was reduced to a shuffle.  It honestly felt like I was in an Ironman run at that point.  The last 5km were hard.  I was very well hydrated and well fuelled so it has to be fitness.  

I did not win nor did I come close to a PB.  But, I never had that expectation going into the race.  I missed my expectations by about 10 minutes on the run since I bonked so hard.  The swim and bike did go quite well all things considered.  My overall fitness was not quite there but it was close and I can see it approaching on the horizon.  

I planned as well as I could for this race.  I was ready for the heat and I was well rested.  Nonetheless, I admit I was a little hesitant to do the race given my training and recent hip injury.  But, I love racing.  I love the hard effort it takes.  I love the feeling of speed.  I like being out there battling it out with everyone.  And the best part is, I get to come home and play with my 10 month year old daughter.  

I'm still here to win, it is just a different game now within the same sport and I plan to enjoy it just as well.  This dad is now out to conquer the Fairmont Fantastic 3 Triathlon and is really going to enjoy that beer afterwards.