Congratulations Ron Collins!

Long time SET Coaching Client Ron Collins finished his first Triathlon!  Ron participated in the Lake Stevens Olympic Distance Tri on Sept. 12th.  Ron is a consistant top 5 finisher in the N.W. Mountain Bike Sceen and decide to mix it up a little after some time off.  He had a great result finishing in 2:30:53.  His bike time was the 1:11 making it one of the fastest bike legs even while riding a CROSS BIKE!  Ron placed 4th in his age group and is definately ready to do some more Triathlons next year.  Look Out!

Way to go Ron!  Keep up the good work.

Great Job for Sarah and Keri!

Sarah Barkley and Keri Gross, two SET Coaching athletes, Had great races at the recent Apple Capital Triathlon and Duathlon.  Sarah took the overall in the Women’s Olympic Field by crushing the bike leg with a 1:04:43 bike split on a rolling course! Sarah has shown that she can’t be touched on the bike leg and is also one of the fastest runners as well.  Way to burn it up Sarah!

Keri, reigning XTERRA Amateur World Champion, was coming off of the hardest training week of her carrier and still pulled out a second place overall finish.  Keri did this by laying down the fastest female run time.  Keri has been working on her run to match her dominant bike leg on the XTERRA circuit.  Keep up the good work Keri!

Hitting the Late Season Funk.

The end of the race season, be it triathlon, running, cycling, or swimming, can bring with it a lack of motivation to train and race.  This is tough when, for a lot of athletes, the end of the season brings some of the biggest races of the year.  National championships, regional titles, and even world championships can be on the line.  Why do we hit these late season Blahs and what can we do about them?

There are a lot of reasons both physiological and psychological why we tend to loose our motivational edge late in the season.  If we have been racing for a long time it can take its tole.  Some athletes have been racing since March and training even longer.  This can wear down your ability to go get the job done.  Our bodies only have some much energy to give during the year.  If we were training hard early in the season and had great motivation, raced hard we may have over extended ourselves and not taken a break after the middle of the season.  This break in the middle of the season is hugely important for a couple of reasons.  First of all it lets our bodies heal and repair a lot of the damage we have done during training and racing.  A lot of age group athletes tend to live in a constant state of minor fatigue.  This break allows us to come back from this fatigue and build a stronger machine that we can fine tune with late season training.  It is a typical trend for an athlete to train like mad for an event or race and then get to that event and not have the gas to perform at our top levels.  It is important to pace our efforts so that we can give it everything we have at the right time.  Not give everything we have in our training ride and have nothing left for the race on the weekend.  Don’t get me wrong.  Training hard and giving a max effort is important but there are specific times for this.  That’s where a coach can be handy.  Mentally, this break lets us evaluate our goals and look at our late season objectives.  This can be motivating if our early season plan worked out well.  If not, it is a great time to evaluate what might have gone wrong.  Take some time to recharge mentally.  Go visit family.  Go out to dinner.  Enjoy some of the things that we tend to miss because we are busy training and racing.

There are also a few things we can do to help us get our motivation back.  Here are some of my favorites:

1. Make a series change in your training for a week or two.  If you are a creature of habit with your training you probably have a routine that you stick to pretty religiously.  If that’s the case mix it up.  Go for a mountain bike ride instead of your long road ride.  Go do some trail running instead of your normal track workout.  Do something different.  Change your route.  This change in training can freshen up those legs and give you a new enthusiasm for training.

2. Spend some time focusing on one aspect of your training.  If you are a triathlete do a week or two focusing on your week sport.  If you are a one sport athlete work on your endurance.  For runners you can work on visiting the gym a little to rebuild some strength and focus on some weak points.  Cyclists, this is a great time for you to do some work on your pedal stroke by doing some drills again (by again, I am assuming that you did a regimen of drill work on the trainer during the winter.  If not, you should).

3. Go buy yourself something new that pertains to your sport.  Being a gear junky this is my favorite.  New tires for your road bike, new suit or googles for swimmers, and a new pair of shoes for runners are always good ideas.  This will encourage you to get out and use those products.  Some times all it takes is a new pair of socks you have been wanting to try. 

We all need help maintaining motivation throughout the season.  If none of these suggestions sound like they will work for you give me a call.  I’ll get you out there!

Reach Your Peak!

Coach Jason

Good Times At Black Diamond XTERRA!

This last weekend saw the second running of the XTERRA Black Diamond Race.  This is a great event with some super fun Mountain Bike single track for the bike leg.  The organizers went all out this year in making sure the bike leg was as challenging as possible while still maintaining some sanity on the course.  Other than the bath water warm water tempuratures for the swim (wetsuits were banned which is not my preference) the event couldn’t have gone any better. 

SET Coaching Athlete Keri Gross set the second fastest womens swim time as well as the fastest bike and run legs to take top honors.  Keri has been working hard this year to maintain her status as the #1 amature in the world.  Few can dispute her claim on the top spot of the podium.

Coach Jason also had a great race.  Not putting in his best swim but pulling out a good bike and excellent run to take second place to Mike Vine.  For those of you who know Mike Vine is a name that has been synonymous with XTERRA for the past 8 years.  Currently one of the top XTERRA athletes in the world Mike choose Black Diamond XTERRA to hone his skill before the next national.  Jason was able to keep the deficit from growing large on the swim and bike and was able to even close the gap on the run posting the fastest run time of the day! 

Check here for results.

Cograts to all athletes who participated in the event.  It was truely a challenge!

Strength training and the pitfalls of being an endurance athlete.

Being an endurance athlete often lends itself to a somewhat obsessive personality.  We work hard and we fit it all in to achieve our goals.  Sometimes we miss a workout but we make up for it on the weekend by going a little longer on our bike ride or run.  We are very sports specific people.  We rarely stray from the path of our chosen sport.  Taking some time to dedicate to a specific strength program would benefit a large percentage of the endurance population. 

For those of you who know how important it is to maintain strength and balance as an endurance athlete you probably visit the gym a couple of times a week even during your main competitive phase (if you don’t you should).  Maintaining a level of core strength and stability is a huge benefit to athletes especially those who are 30+ years of age.  I recently talked to an athlete who was telling me about a strength asymmetry that he had.  After our discussion I realized that he had fallen into a pattern that a lot of endurance athletes fall into.  We just try to get our stength work DONE!

This rarely helps us acheive the goal that we are trying to obtain.  As an endurance athlete we need to focus on stability as well as strength.  The term that I normally us with my clients is “slow and controlled”.  Think about why you are doing each exercise.  Make sure that you are getting the most out of each movement.  Our efforts need to be slow and controlled in order to acheive the desired result.  Getting in 20 swiss ball push ups while bouncing up and down and dipping at the hips will do us little good.  While slowly completeing 10 push ups while maintaining a straight body position, engaging the abdominals and concentrating on the movement gives us huge gains.  Don’t get me wrong.  There is a time and a place for speed work in the gym but it comes at specific times with specific preparation.

It is funny, that my job is to make people faster and stronger and one of the best ways that I can do this is to slow them down.

Shout Out!

It has been a while since I last updated what has been going on at SET Coaching.  Lets just say a lot!  Not going to be able to list everything but here are a few of the highlights that have taken place over the last couple of months with SET Coaching Athletes:

1. Stephen Ettinger.  Where to start.  Stephen was recently chosen by USA Cycling to be one of the six U23 MTB riders to attend a 2 week cycling camp in Europe.  This was a huge learning experience for Stephen as he was able to mix it up with the Europeans as well as get used to the pace that is set at that level of racing. 

As if that wasn’t enough Stephen got the call a couple of weeks ago from the development director of USA cycling’s MTB division inviting him to race some of the World Cups!  This is another huge leap for Stephen.  Not only is this a great oportunity for him but it also shows that USA Cycling recognizes his potential.  We are now getting Stephen ready for his trip by fine tuning his fitness and looking for additional support. 

To top this all off Stephen recently competed at U23 Nationals finishing 3rd!  This is a huge confidence booster for him.  He is still just 20 years old and has a couple more years in this division.  I know Stephen has the potential to go as far as he wants but this results helped give him the knowledge that he has that potential.  Great Job Stephen!

2008 amateur world xterra champion Keri Gross has continued to lay waste to the field in the regional XTERRA races.  Her last regional was a testament to her great fitness as she won the event as well as setting a PR on the La Grande course by 5 min. Keri has been working on her run and has made great strides in this department.  During the Receint XTERRA National in Vermont Keri, who normally has a crushing bike, was a little off the pace having not riden on that type of terrain made up great lengths by laying down the fastest amateur run and finishing 10th overall in the women’sfield!  With 4 kids and having just taken up triathlons a few years ago, Keri still has a long way to go until she reaches her peak.  Look Out!

That’s all for now.  I hope to be updating more frequently.  Look for photos on the photos page soon showing some of SET Coaching athletes in action.

Congratulations to Sarah and Cora!

Two of SET Coaching Athletes had some great results over the past few weeks.  Sarah competed in the Subaru West Coast Triathlon Series At Shawnigan Lake near Vancouver BC.  Sarah has been training very hard and was using this race as a final right before she starts to taper down.  Needless to say she was doing this race with a fair amount of fatigue.  To come away with a fourth place is a great result!  Especially with the competition she had.  Good Job Sarah!

Cora Sturzl raced last weekend for the first time since March.  Cora is a multiple Team USA Member for USAT Duathlon competing in multiple world championship events.  She has also been one of the top duathletes in the N.W. Region for the past few year.  Always a force to be reckoned with we have been dealing with an achilles strain lately.  Well, she is back at it and boy is she.  Cora competed in the Issaquah Sprint Duathlon on Saturday May 31st and took the overall female win!  Great stuff Cora.  Keep up the good work.