Exploring: Finding faster ways to move

Generally, American culture teaches us that hard work pays off in the end. We love to hear stories of athletes like Michael Jordan who struggled, worked unbelievably hard, pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, and emerged as an extraordinary athlete. These types of stories put us into the “no pain, no gain” mindset and inspire us to work hard ourselves¹.  This mindset, I think, is partly what forms many Americans into really successful athletes. But it also forms us into very particular kinds of athletes. There is no doubt that we are compliant with our daily workouts, working very hard, and becoming very fit. As a way of coping with the overloading stress that comes with the hard work, however, we often turn our attention away from our bodies. We take mini vacations on our long workouts. We throw in our earbuds and allow the thumping Kanye² beat to carry us away from the strain that we pour onto our muscles. This isn’t inherently bad, but it distracts us from listening to the ebb and flow of our own bodies. It distracts us from important information that may very well help us to become faster athletes.

One way to become a faster athlete is by taking a few minutes each week to consciously engage with your workout. Many coaches call this exploring. Exploring involves noticing how your body works and looking for new ways to produce more power, produce more speed, or become more efficient. You can explore any time you’re moving (walking to the water fountain, riding your bike, practicing yoga, etc.) and for any amount of time (a few seconds to a few hours). That said, a particularly good time to explore is during your workouts, specifically endurance workouts, where you are already moving with a purpose and can spend time exploring ways to become a faster athlete.    

The first step of exploring is to remind yourself of your desired outcome. In his book “The Inner Game of Tennis,” Timothy Gallwey breaks tennis players in two groups. One group focuses on how they look. They care about having perfect form. Another group focuses on the outcome. They care about form only to the extent that it supports their ability to control where the ball lands on the other side of the court. Gallway found that the group who focused primarily on technique rarely mimicked the technique they were trying to imitate and won far less matches than those who focused primarily on outcome (48). While tennis is fundamentally different than swimming, biking, or running, I think Gallwey’s outcome concept provides some very valuable insight for multisport athletes. It’s easy to get caught up in technique and to forget what it is that you are actually trying to accomplish. The goal, in my eyes, is not necessarily to look a particular way, but to go faster. Asking yourself a guiding question such as “How am I going to get faster?” will help focus your exploration in a productive way.   

The second step of exploring is to figure out how you’re going to assess whether or not a change improves your performance.  There are a variety of ways to do this. One simple way is to time yourself. Say you are doing 50 meter repeats in the pool and are exploring the tension in your shoulder during the recovery part of your stroke. If you change something and go a little faster with the same effort level of your previous 50’s, you know you’ve made a productive change. Another slightly more complicated way to assess how a change affects your performance is to use biofeedback devices such as a HR monitor or power meter. Say you are exploring your center of gravity on an endurance treadmill workout. You keep your speed and incline consistent and begin to lean more from your ankles. If you see your Heart Rate decrease by a few beats per minute, you know that you’ve made a positive change because your heart doesn’t need to work as hard as you continue at the same speed.

After you figure out how you are going to assess how a change impacts your performance, the third step of exploring is to develop an awareness of how you are moving. Let’s get concrete by focusing on a specific example. Pretend you are doing a routine aerobic endurance ride on a trainer.  As you warm up, what stands out to you? Does anything feel awkward to you? What feels good? Say that you notice an awkward hiccup in your left peddle stoke while your right peddle stroke feels good. When all is said and done, this little hiccup isn’t preventing you from completing your workout and reaping many of the physiological benefits of an endurance ride. You could simply ignore it. But now that you have paid attention to your body and noticed the hiccup, you can choose to explore the area.   

The fourth step is exploring the area. You can do this in variety of ways. One good way to start is by comparing the side that feels good to the side that feels awkward. What is it that you are doing on the right side that allows you to move so fluidly? Is it that you are more flexible on that right side? Is it that you are engaging and relaxing your leg muscles on the right side differently than you are on your left? Another way of exploring is by changing your position on the bike. What happens to your hiccup and your power as you move forward and backward on your seat? What happens if you increase the seat height or lower it by 1cm? A third way is to investigate through drills. A common drill that helps athletes smooth out their peddle stroke is called a one leg drill. This is where you peddle with one leg as the other leg is clipped out and rests on the trainer. One leg drills allow you to focus on a particular leg, noticing how you engage your muscles to do the work. Are you engaging your calf all the way around your peddle stroke? Is this necessary? Is this somehow contributing to the hiccup? What happens when you relax that calf? Does your stoke get more or less fluid? It’s important to remember that drills isolate your leg from the functional movement which occurs when you peddle on both sides. Drills are great ways to find out more about how you are engaging your muscles, but they do not account for the complexity of the full functional movement. In other words, your body is a complex system where everything is connected. Peddling with your right leg, your movement from side to side, your body position, among many other things will affect the way you move your left leg. If you choose to do drills, make sure that you adapt what you’ve learned when you return to the full functional movement.

As creatures of habit, we tend to execute workouts the same way over and over again. A fourth and slightly different way of exploring is by changing up the way you approach a particular effort. Consider another example. Say you are executing a V02 max workout where you are riding 5x 3 minute efforts really hard. Although you may not be thinking much about technique during this workout, the workout affords you the opportunity to find out how you can create the most power over that 3 minute time frame. While endurance workouts are great for exploring technique, V02 max workouts can help you explore how different ways of allocating energy affect your results. Do you create a higher average power if you push really hard in the first half of a 3 minute effort and just try to hold on for the second half of the effort? Do you create more power if you maintain an even power throughout the entire effort?  Or, do you create a higher average power if you try to increase your power as the interval continues? How does average speed factor in to all of this? Each type of workout provides a particular avenue to explore.

Once you notice what change allows you to be a faster athlete, it’s time to replace the old way of moving with the new and turn it into a habit. This requires practicing the new change over and over again, making the movement so natural that you don’t even have to think about it. Though it may be boring, the habituation process is just as important as the exploration process. When we get to a race, we want to be able to turn off our exploration mindset and just allow our bodies to do their jobs.  

When all is said and done, do not forget to measure how your exploration affects your performance. One of the drawbacks of exploring is that you can get lost in your own technique/approach and forget that you are trying to produce a particular outcome—to get faster. You can also get lost in your own head, hyper focusing on one thing when it is more productive to focus on something else (something outside of your conscious radar). Herein lies one of the great values of a coach. A coach who sees the overall picture of your life and training can help you see the bigger picture, help you decide when you should shift focus, and remind you that the point is to get faster. As long as you keep the outcome in mind, however, you will begin to see the benefits of exploring. Maybe you never noticed this small hiccup before and when you smooth it out your power jumps 10 watts. Or maybe you find out that the hiccup is due to a small muscle imbalance that you can strengthen in the off season. By consciously engaging with your workouts and paying attention to your body, you will begin to notice your little inefficiencies. Addressing these inefficiencies through exploration and making the positive changes into a habit will make a big difference in your future race times.

1“No pain, no gain” is no accidental phase, here. It is a fundamentally American motto that was coined by the quintessential American, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, made a career for himself as a printer/publisher, and became THE American role model.

2 Insert with your favorite upbeat recording artist: Ke$ha? Journey? Josh Groban?

As always, I welcome any comments or questions.Shoot me an e-mail! Also, don't forget that it's time to start planning for next season. The decisions you make now will affect your performance next season. Consider signing up for races, buying a new bike, and/or hiring a coach to help you achieve your goals. Have a great day! 

Jon Fecik

jafecik@gmail.com

717-368-7198

Works Cited

Gallwey, Timothy W. The Inner Game of Tennis. New York: Random House, 2008.

Image one: http://blog.bikeridr.com/2013/04/dear-runner-pay-attention/

Image two: http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/triathlons/training/breathe-in-freestyle-swimming3.htm

Image three: http://winningmovecoaching.com/tag/drills/

Image four: http://www.tssphoto.com/index.php?p=179

On Physical Fitness and its Influence on a Creative Mind

"For physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body; it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound bodies." JFK's words in "The Soft American," Sports Illustrated (1960).

You DO NOT need a healthy body to have a creative mind. This I know for sure. That said, I agree with JFK when he states that our creative abilities reach their highest capacities only when they are supported by a sound body. What is a sound body? It's not necessarily one that looks razor thin or can dead-lift 500 lbs. In fact, many of these very fit bodies are actually unhealthy. Rather, a healthy body is one that doesn't limit you from your everyday tasks. It's a body that allows you to do those things in life that you want to do.

Exploring the Affordances and Constraints of Individualized Triathlon Coaching

We are limited by the amount of time and money that we have to spend on triathlon and there are many options beyond hiring a triathlon coach that can help you improve your health, fitness and performance. Some of these options include programs put out by Crossfit, the YMCA, triathlon clubs, etc.  These programs tend to be less expensive than individualized coaching and provide some valuable benefits such as a community atmosphere, a designated time and location, and a trainer to push you through the workout. These programs are fun and help you to stay motivated to work out on a regular basis.

That said, these types of programs are generic. Perhaps the most distinct advantage of a personal triathlon coach is that your training program will be individualized. What this means is that there is more one on one, personal interaction with your coach. This provides the coach with time to observe and address your own personal challenges as an athlete. This interaction also allows the coach to see your life as a whole. Unlike a generic program that tends to neglect the other stressors in your life, a coach engages in an ongoing dialogue with you about training, racing, and life in order to design and tailor a program to you; a program that adjusts to your stressors, your goals, and your races. The idea is that when your program fits you personally, it enhances your training and racing experience. It helps you remain consistent and motivated. It helps you to not only achieve your goals but to achieve a level of health, fitness, and performance that you didn’t know existed. Of course, this relationship requires that an athlete is willing to change his or her approach and put in the time to do so. The purpose of the following is to help you understand some of the affordances and constraints of hiring a personal triathlon coach. This will hopefully help you decide whether or not this is a good option for you. 

Coach-athlete relationship

Generally, hiring a coach involves engaging in an ongoing coach-athlete relationship. The two biggest constraints of this relationship are that, like all relationships, it takes commitment and time. Unlike a generic program where you don’t need to develop a relationship with a trainer, individualized coaching requires that you are committed to developing the relationship in order for your coach to help you change and grow as an athlete. Although an opening interview will give your coach a sense of your background, education, experience, and goals, it takes time for a coach to figure out how you operate on a physical and psychological level. And it takes time for an athlete to trust in the coach’s program.     

 Conversely, you will benefit greatly from this relationship when you commit and put in the time to communicate with your coach. The more your coach knows about you and your life, the better he will be able to design a training program and the better he will be able to coach you. For instance, if you have an event coming up and are feeling run down from work, your coach can modify your training program to help you get more rest before your race.  Second, he can inform you about things that you do not know. It’s not often the things that we know, but the things that aren’t even on our conscious radar that limit us from improving. If you tell your coach that the training is too easy so you have been going out for harder rides and runs, your coach can inform you of why he has backed off of the training. Maybe he will explain to you that you are in a taper phase of your training, and although you may feel like you are getting out of shape, your body is recovering quickly and resting up for your race. Your coach can bring these things to your attention as they come up. And third, the more you talk about the process of training and racing with your coach, the more things that you will find to work on and improve. When you notice that your calfs are tight while you run, your coach can suggest ways of relaxing them. This will give you something to work on during your next run instead of continuing to run without changing anything. When you have something to focus on in every workout, you tend to be more engaged in the process and more motivated to become a better athlete.    

Resources

As I said in the introduction, we are limited by the amount of money and time that we have to spend on triathlon. A constraint of hiring a coach is that it takes time to communicate and you have to pay for the relationship. An affordance is that your coach can help you make better use of your money and time. Your coach should know triathlon equipment well and will help you understand the value of the equipment that you might purchase. For instance, he can help you understand that buying an aero set of wheels may save you more time on a bike course than buying a new bike frame. And a structured plan with quality focused workouts will help you get the most out of your time. If a coach knows your 5k PR for the season, he will be able to write specific, time based track workouts to help you get faster in a shorter amount of time.   

Goal Setting

Generic programs do not usually address your specific goals beyond, say, staying active or finishing your first triathlon. These programs are certainly helpful and are almost always a great first step to becoming a better athlete. Individualized coaching, however, takes achieving your goals to another level by asking you to be specific. Individualized coaching assumes that clearly defined goals coupled with a time frame make it easier to develop a program, monitor your progress, and actualize those goals.  

A constraint of talking to your coach about your personal goals is that you have to share something intimate about your life. This can be hard because some goals are intensely personal. Sharing a goal can make you feel vulnerable because you are asking to do something or achieve something that you’ve never done or achieved before. You might not be sure if you’ll be able to achieve it. Or maybe it’s something that you’ve tried to do but failed at multiple times before.  

That said, there are many affordances to discussing these personal goals. Namely, putting your goals into words is the first step to accomplishing them. Next, your coach can help you clarify these goals, develop a time frame, and help you understand what is required so that you can achieve them. After a coach knows your goals, he can help you understand how you might get there, design a plan to do so, monitor your progress along the way, and keep you accountable. If your goal is to run a 10k at the end of an Olympic triathlon in 42 minutes and right now you are running it in 44 minutes, he can help you understand that one way you might achieve this goal is to incorporate a weekly track workout at your desired race pace for the next 6 weeks and include a few brick workout so you can learn how to balance your bike and run. If you agree, then he can incorporate these workouts into your training. In essence, your coach can and will refocus your attention from your goal to the process that will help you achieve it.   

Structure

Once an athlete has a clear set of goals, a coach can design a program that will help an athlete achieve those goals. The constraint of a training program is that it tends to isolate athletes. Especially if the athlete doesn’t have a lot of time, the training can get very specific and you may feel as though you cannot train with others. That said, if the coach knows that training with others motivates you, he can build group workouts into your schedule and schedule training specific days on other days of the week. The structure can also act as a constraint if the training conflicts with your work or family life. This requires the athlete to spend time with the coach, figuring out a logistical schedule that can work. The structure also becomes a problem if you aren’t willing to do the workouts. You have to commit to the schedule in order to reap the most benefits from the program.  

That said, a well structured program has many affordances. Timing is a very important part of triathlon. Unlike a generalized program that focuses on only one goal and ends when that goal is achieved, a well structured training program takes your races and goals into account and ensures that you are doing the optimal type of training for specific parts of the year. The most common way of doing this is through periodization theory. This theory tends to prevent against burnout, allows time for building and overloading, has built in rest to prevent overtraining, and has benchmarks to make sure you are progressing towards your goals. Structured programs also change up the training to help athletes maintain consistency throughout the year. It takes a few weeks to get use to a program, but once you integrate it into your life, it provides you with a pathway to success.

Physical technique

There are three main limiters that prevent us from getting faster in triathlon. The first two are fitness and health which a coach addresses with a structured program. The third limiter is technique. Overall, I’d say that the general fitness classes do a great job with this. Trainers tend to have a very technique centered approach and this is one of the advantages of going to a group class. A personal coach also should have a general handle on the technical aspects of the sport, has studied how athletes move, and has the pedagogical skills to help you move more efficiently. One constraint of getting help with technique has to do with physical location. It’s best when a coach can be in the same location so that he can give you instant feedback. Of course, there are ways around this such as using video, but the feedback is not usually as fast. A second, and possibly a consequential constraint, is that your coach may require you to pay extra for his time and travel. Further, you have to find a time that works for both of you. That said, meeting with your coach to work on technique can afford him the opportunity to guide you in a productive, more efficient direction.  Although his guidance might not click right away, it will most likely help you in the future. Another affordance is that he can get to know you a little better as an athlete by watching how you move. This will give him a new perspective and will help him design your program to address technique issues in future workouts.     

Decisions

Life is complicated. You never know when a challenge is going to arise like a scheduling conflict, a family emergency, or an injury. A coach is there to help you make decisions specifically about triathlon, but coaches know well that everything you do outside of triathlon will impact your physical performance. Again, the constraint of a coach helping you make decisions is that it takes time. Further, you have to be willing to tell him what is going on in your life. But if you are willing to communicate, a coach can help you see how this challenge fits into the bigger picture and open up your ability to choose.

Consider this example: I’ve been working with an athlete who’s been trying to qualify for Kona. He scheduled a half ironman three weeks prior to a full ironman.  The athlete injured himself at work a week prior to the half ironman and the injury only affected his running. The day before the half, he felt good enough to run and called me to tell me he was going to do it. It seemed to me that the pressure of racing this half plus the injury had placed blinders over his eyes. He was seeing this race as more important than his overriding goal to qualify for Kona. First, I reminded him of his overriding goal. I reminded him that we had been working towards the ironman all year and that it was his chance to qualify. Next, I explained that he had at least four options. First, he could choose to run during the halfiron and possibly have a great race, but risk an injury that might take him out of his ironman. Second, he could make a decision as he came into T2, but that the decision might not be as clear because of the high emotions that come with racing. He might feel great during the race but injure himself during the last few miles of the half marathon. Third, he could make the decision to step out of the race after the swim and bike. In addition, he could redefine his swim and bike goals to make the race a successful workout. This option would give him more time to allow his run legs to recover prior to the ironman. Last, he could choose not to race the half. I left the choice up to him. He decided to swim and bike and save his run legs for his ironman. Three weeks later, he went on to qualify for Kona.  We all need help making decisions from time to time. A coach can help remind you of your priorities and help you make decisions based on your overriding goals rather than on your emotional response in that isolated situation.   

Motivation

Sometimes motivation is hard to come by. Again, the most common constraint of having a coach is that you have to reach out to your coach and be willing to come up with solutions to overcome challenges like a lack of motivation. An affordance of having a coach is that he/she can sometimes pick up on a lack of motivation and proactively discuss it before an athlete even knows he/she is unmotivated. A coach can also help you recreate motivation. This may involve just listening to you, helping you see your progress, helping you see the bigger picture, and helping you to redefine your goals.    

Success

The athlete-coach relationship often yields success. The constraint is that you might have to change what you’re doing to become successful. The affordance is that you might just be successful. There is no coincidence that almost every Olympic athlete and most pro triathletes have coaches. The best coaches help athletes to get to a level of health, fitness, and performance that was never on their conscious radar.

Conclusion

Clearly, I’m biased. I am a professional triathlon coach, I am coached, and I find both roles extremely rewarding. That said, I understand that hiring a coach isn’t for everyone for a variety of reasons—namely time, commitment, and trust. This is why I’ve set out to write about the affordances and constrains of hiring a coach. It provides me with a more lucid perspective on why coach-athlete relationships work out and why they might not. It’s just as valuable for a coach to know these things as it is for perspective athletes.

Please note that I’m sure that there are many more affordances and constraints that I haven’t mentioned. Some may depend on the variety of coaching styles and some may depend on individual athlete’s lives, their needs and their wants. I hope this provides you with a sense of the value of a triathlon coach so that you can make a better, more informed decision about whether or not you should hire a personal triathlon coach.

Strengthen Your Core: Video

Looking for a new way to improve your running, swimming, and biking? Try strengthening your core. You can find some great ideas in this video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aNq5v695T0

Cycling Technique Video: Cornering

There's some good reminders in this video on bike technique. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DehM8Ou-mTA  Practicing these types of skills will make you a safer and faster rider. It might even give you the edge you need over your competition.


Jon Fecik
USAT Certified Coach
jafecik@gmail.com

Vegas AND KONA? Congrats!

Congrats to Power On athlete Ted Breault for a break through year! After working closely with coach Jon over the last year, he has dropped his IM swim time by 10 minutes and his IM bike time by 10-15 minutes. This allowed Ted to qualify for both the 2013 Ironman World 70.3 Championships in Vegas and the 2013 Ironman World Championships in Kona! Boom! 

Join C3!

The Premier Triathlon club in Branford, Guilford, Madison and the Greater New Haven Community

Who We Are:  We are a team comprised of multisport enthusiasts. The club was founded based on our desire to create a totally inclusive environment where members can find a community of like-minded individuals wishing to peruse fitness and health through exercise and sport. Our members are those who enjoy the freedoms of exercise while pool and open water swimming, mountain and road riding, trail and road running, walking, hiking, paddle boarding, cross country skiing, triathloning, racing, and everything else. Some of our members just enjoy going to club lectures and clinics to learn how to improve their nutrition and lifestyle habits. Others enjoy their involvement with behind-the-scenes tasks like maintaining the club website and planning events. In other words, C3 is open to absolutely everyone. We welcome the big and the small, the heavy and the light, the young and the old, the experienced and the novice, the educators and the students, the fast and the not quite so fast (just yet), and everyone else in between. If any of this defines you, you will fit in perfectly!

Our Mission: To serve the Greater New Haven community as the premier multisport club, committed to the development of endurance sports; cultivating a space for athletes to train, compete, and grow together; educating athletes so they can be the athlete they want to be and live the life they want to live; providing athletes with further opportunities to improve through coaching, clinics, and camps; and supporting our local and national communities, sponsors, races, and other events; all the while, promoting an active lifestyle.

Join Now! Take control of your destiny by joining the club and providing yourself with the opportunity to connect, learn, build, commit, and preserve your fitness, health, and performance. Joining information can be found at http://ctcyclecenter.com/team-c3/. It’s the best $50 you’ve ever invested in yourself.