To the athletes we coach, Yaro and I talk a lot about the importance of dialing in the proper intensity. Ultimately, the goal is to deliver the right kind of training load to stimulate improvement but when we review athlete workouts, too often we see...
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With the Pan American Championships less than two weeks away and the World Championships rapidly approaching in less than two months many athletes are hoping to have their best race. They are looking at their training and performances to this point and deciding what it...
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Ask 10 different endurance athletes about their diets and you are likely to get 10 different answers. On race day, however, this changes. Your nutrition plan needs to be precise because high-intensity exercise requires carbohydrate as your primary fuel source. The muscles, liver, and bloodstream...
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If you know anyone who competed in XTERRA Beaver Creek or if you did it yourself, you probably spent a number of days wincing any time someone bumped your legs or struggling down stairs because of super sore quads and/or sore knees from hammering the...
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Altitude is one of those things that, as a runner, you either love or you hate. Generally, if you live at altitude, races held over 6,000 feet are to your advantage, while if you live a sea level, racing where the air feels thin enough...
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One of the greatest challenges as both a coach and an athlete is training between several tightly-spaced races. Short local races can fit well into a regular training program, but big races with extended travel really disrupt training. Consider the demands of each race and...
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You may have seen the finish of the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Yokohama when Alistair Brownlee and Javier Gomez each put in surge after surge trying to drop each other to no avail. Gomez ended up winning by maybe a second in what is surely...
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When you think about elite endurance athletes and the factors that make them champions, many consider VO2 max as the be-all and end-all for determining success in endurance sports. But if this is the case, how did Frank Shorter win the Olympic marathon with a...
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In our last article we discussed performing threshold intervals. These are performed at the intensity you can sustain for 40-60 minutes. Typically these intervals are between 6-12 minutes in duration with a recovery that equals about 50% of the interval with a total of 40-60...
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The most important XTERRA races on my calendar every year are the big mountain courses with significant elevation gain on both the bike and run. XTERRA Beaver Creek, the XTERRA Pan American Championship in Ogden, and the XTERRA World Championship in Maui all fit this...
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