Tips on top 5 mistakes that trainers make in races

Yo! Good to see how sparse the messaging has been this wknd. Means that
everyone's out riding...

Multi-IronMan winner Mark Allen gives out sage advice and I found his
comments on "five mistakes made in training" to be excellent.

Since I'm shamelessly nabbing his comments, let me give a plug to his site:
www.markallenonline.com. (not much there, all of it is pay...)

I've done a lot of running, swimming and biking over the years and I really
like these and much of it is already in vogue, and many of us use it
instinctively anyway.:

Synopsis:
Establishing "Base Training" (aerobic base)
Transition, esp Bike to Run tip
Nutritional Strategy (training carbs vs race carbs)
Mental Approach (race day mental rough spots vs physical rough spots)
Tapering Strategies.

1. Not establishing enough of a training base, and putting too much
emphasis on speed.
Going over your HRM can take you out of the aerobic 'zone' and
require up to 9 hours to recover.
He gives a neat way for older riders to calc their HRM:
a. Subtract age from 180.
b. From this # subtract if recovering from major surgery
c. No change if training 2-3 days/week over the past year
d. Plus 5 if training 3 days per week consistently over last year
e. Plus 10 if training 3 days/wk over past 5 years, plus no signs of
overtraining (colds, injuries, stress probs)
f. Plus 5 if 55 y.o. / 25 y.o.& active / training reg.for past year

This rate should be what you do in your base training.

Typically for 35 y.o. to 50 y.o. should be 135 to 140 bpm and
maybe at 145 to 155 for 55y.o. if training over last 5 years, good
health, training 3 days/wk. IOW, if you're mid 50s and have been training
well for past 5 years and all other factors optimal, they have a really
good base established.

2. Poor 'Brick' training. This refers to the bike to run transition, and
mentions that many try to train 3-4 hours on the bike and then run too much
fast distance (say 40 min at fast pace running).

He says, consider doing over-distance on the bike and then running at
comfortable pace for only 20 minutes, but starting running no sooner than
15 min after dismounting. Even if you feel 'cooked' after the long ride, a
short recovery plus quality 20minutes running will be optimal. IOW, if the
bike portion is 30 miles, train overdistance to say 40-50miles, and then
run 20 min at comfortable pace w/in 15minutes.

3. Poor Nutritional Strategy. Here he talks about awareness that in
training what you eat after a ride might not matter, stopping for pop and
cookies at the 7-11, but on race day, your gastro-intestinal system will
not be happy. Carbs should be easy to digest, often liquid form. Many
racers in great shape have had stomach problems, or intestinal problems
that results in DNF. (we've all been there, eh? Cramps, bloating, diarrhea)

4.Poor Mental Strategy. This is a good one. Think about what gets you
through those mentally tough sessions - what kind of 'self-talk' do you do?
(Badger: a mentally tough session is different than a physically tough
session)
Rehearse what kind of 'soothing or inspirational talk' you're going to do
if/when you reach a mental rough spot. Then get through it and keep going.

One strategy if problems mentally is to just go to the 'no talk zone' and
think nothing...i.e. avoid negative thoughts is more important, and being
'quiet' mentally is one place. Just see the beauty of nature, monitor your
systems (feet ok, eating on the move ok, water consumption ok, etc.)

5. Poor Tapering. If you're doing short course racing, then a week of taper
where you reduce training load at least 25% from normal load could be fine.
If you're doing IronMan level, take at least 4 weeks prior to race and
reduce load, stay healthy, heal up any injuries is best.

He talks about the "Drop Dead Taper" which is good to know as a fall-back
if you haven't been able to taper:
a. Three days needed to do the DDT - day 1 and 2 just sleep and eat
modestly, and do nothing else.
b. Day three do a little training on the three legs, swim, bike, run
just enough to get the muscle cues / muscle memory awake.
c. Day four - Race day.

Hope this helps everyone - I think the ideas are applicable even if you're
not training for a race, but you do a 'max out' distance day, for example,
and even if you're not swimming or running, or if b/c of an injury you
can't run much, but want to do a little to compliment the biking.

Happy Training
-Badger