Aaron Davidson's Group -- Closed. (Page 3)

One thing about bricks is that they are nice timewise to get on a longer workout or let your body know what it feels like. Outside of that there no 'benefit' to doing bricks outside of just 'knowing what it feels like.'

Your training is supposed to get you: to the finish, to the finish faster, lose weight, and go longer.

Here its the thing, if you go out for a hard ride, why are you going to follow it by a run? You are increasing your likelihood to get injured, increasing fatigue and extending the time you will need to recover. Instead of resting, recovering and then getting in another solid workout.

Go longer. Frequency, speed and distance are all factors. 4 sessions in each is GREAT. Or you can do specific focused periods. For the next 4 weeks, back off on bike and run and increase your swim, distance and frequency. You can do the same for each, you will not lose much in the sports in which you reduce in. For example this past year, I started a swim focus in November and built into early January, which culminated in a swim TT. I then built my run base for 6 weeks with a half marathon. Same for the bike, before taking 10days 'off' and then going into training fulltime.

Here was an example week during my swim build:

Monday: Swim, focus on drills

Tuesday: Swim, long sets, aerobic

Wednesday: Rest day.

Thursday: Bike

Friday: AM Run, PM Run

Saturday:Swim, masters

Sunday: Long Run

2nd example

Monday: Swim test.

Tuesday: Run 45-60min easy, Endurance swim workout

Wednesday: Swim, drills

Thursday: Long ride, 2-2.5hours

Friday: Off

Saturday: Swim, speed

Sunday: Run 75min

When you run do you wear tri shorts? When you swim do you wear a race suit? There is something to be said for being comfortable in what you will wear/ingest/do come race day. However run like a runner, swim like a swimmer and bike like a cyclist. Just keep up your mix.

I wear specific shoes, and race kit for races only. I ran trails today, I will not be racing on trails that I know of this year, but they are great for my overall run base.

Less impact, but more strenuous. Same effort (perceived exertion) requires a much slower pace. It is quite a bit easier on the joints, but it is easier to hurt yourself on trails. Roll your ankle, fall and bust your wrist or hip. Plus where I run trails there is a built in ice bath called the ocean.

I am writing up a 'article' for you guys on recovery and how to maximize your ability to recover and train.

Recovery:

The biggest thing you can do is sleep. Some of us have the ability to get 8-9hours of sleep a night and get a few naps each week. For others of us we get 6-7hours of sleep and dream of naps. Sleep is the greatest thing you can do for your body.

Following sleep the next best thing is post workout nutrition. You need to get some protein and carbs in after workouts. Immediately following is ideal, 5mins is great, within 30minutes is clutch. 1% chocolate milk is good because it contains the near ideal 4:1 protein to carb ratio.

Usefulness of the warm-up and cool-down. Warm-ups are good because they allow you to slowly increase your HR from rest and get your muscles 'warmed' up. A cool-down allows the same in reverse, instead of a hard stop you can gradually bring your body down.

Ice Baths: While they can be painful they can greatly decrease your recovery time and allow you to better utilize your allocated training time. Fill your bathtub with cold water, and slowly get in. Let your body adjust to the temperature. Dump one 5-pound bag of ice (or a few trays of ice) into the tub. The colder, the less time you need. Soaking in a tub filled with water and ice will help reduce inflammation of tissues and joints, relieve soreness, and speed up your recovery. The theory behind ice baths is related the fact that intense exercise actually causes microtrauma, or tiny tears in muscle fibers. This muscle damage not only stimulates muscle cell activity and helps repair the damage and strengthen the muscles. Constrict blood vessels and flush waste products, like lactic acid out.

Massages: Can help break up scar tissue, increase flexibility and stimulate blood flow. In theory a massage, "is an effective therapy for releasing muscle tension and restoring balance to the musculo-skeletal system. Received regularly this may help athletes prevent injuries, which might otherwise be caused by overuse. A constant build up of tension in the muscles from regular activity may lead to stresses on joints, ligaments, tendons, as well as the muscles themselves."

Compression: In therory compression socks and the like work in a similar fashion to an ice bath. Again there is science to back this up. No science to show that compression helps during training.

Elevation: After a workout, you can lay on the ground with your legs up in the air. This will constrict blood vessels. After a few minutes when you get back up 'new' blood with flow back into your legs and help flush lactic acid and other waste products out.

Stretching: Helps to reduce soreness by increasing flexibility. Muscle contract after hard use and create  that 'hard' feeling/look. Stretching helps to lengthen the muscles back out so that they can be fully utilized.

If you do get sick, it's your body's way of enforcing a moderated start and salvaging ego. The body is wise and by listening to it you are more likely to execute smartly. Above all listen to your body. Dial it back if you need to.