Transition Clinic...back on track

1st off I'd like to invite anyone interested to a free transition clinic that I am hosting this upcoming Saturday, June 4th at 9:00 a.m. at Crow Creek Park in Bettendorf, IA. The clinic will take place near the main entrance under one of the shelters. The clinic should last about 45 minutes. I'll be doing a short run following the clinic and anyone is welcome to join. I moved the clinic back this year because last year it was about 40 degrees in early May when I hosted this clinic. No guarantees but I do hope it will be warmer. There is no need to bring anything. I will have my bike and the gear that I would set out in the transition area. I will go over ways to increase speed getting through both transitions in a triathlon (swim to bike and bike to run). I will be able to answer any questions you have related to transitions or triathlons in general. My hope is that the clinic will be very helpful at calming the nerves of anyone getting into the sport preparing for their 1st triathlon. In addition I hope even veterans of the sport will be able to pick up an idea or two that will help them lower transition times in the next triathlon they do. As an added bonus for anyone who attends GU Energy has graciously provided me with some GU gels to hand out at the clinic!


The week of training and eating was a great one for me. I was frustrated last week with my lack of training...especially on the bike. On Monday my "coaching" self had a great "chat" with my "athlete" self. It was a pretty one-sided conversation as my athlete self nodded in agreement as my coaching self gave me a good old fashioned butt chewing. The message was well received and I got after it this week both in training and eating healthy. I weighed in this morning at 158 lbs. which is 5 lbs. less than I was last Monday. For the week my total training time was 26.5 hours. I biked 222 miles, ran 60 miles, and swam 13,000 yards. I also lifted weights three times, jumped rope and did lunges four times, plyometrics twice, core work nine times, and push-ups, speed drills, and strides all three times. I got a great long bike ride in with Adam Bohach on Saturday. We went 85 miles and the time passed very quickly without the presence of crazy winds. That was my longest ride in about 7 weeks. I got great running workouts with some quality on the track on Monday and Friday. I also did my longest run in 7 weeks on Sunday morning when I went 13 miles. I'm excited for the summer to be here. Friday was my last day of school and now I can train and recover much more effectively. I've always thought a 30 hour week of training in the summer is easier than a 20 hour week during the school year. I'm able to get more sleep, spend extra time stretching, get ice baths as needed, have more time for awesome massages from Laurel Darren, and the absenc of a school week still leaves more time to train.

I've outlined a training schedule for the summer. An average week with no race will be 20 workouts for the week consisting of 6 days running, 6 days biking, 5 days swimming, and 3 days lifting. If I have a race I'll most likely cut out a couple workouts that week and also lower the overall volume. I won't cut back for the entire week but I'm only race 4 times this summer so the ones I do will have anywhere from 3-5 pretty easy days before them. I'll also have at least 3 weeks this summer that I call "camp" weeks. During a training camp week my goal is to completely overload the training volume. The intensity will be sacrificed because it is difficult to combine crazy volume with intensity and still live to tell about it. A training camp week will result in 22-23 total workouts with a total workout time in the ballpark of 35-40 hours. I will bike and run every day during a training camp workout and will swim 5-6 days during those weeks. I'll also lift 3x. The difference between a training camp week and a regular week is that I'll be running and biking very large amounts of miles, and swimming more yards than a regular week. My first training camp week will begin next Monday. I'm hoping to get 350-400 bike miles that week as well as 70 running, and 20,000 yards swimming.

On Sunday I'll be traveling to Cedar Rapids, IA to compete in the 20th annual Pigman Sprint triathlon. It is a 550 yard swim, 15.5 mile bike and a 5k run. They always get a very competitive field. 2 years ago I did this race and placed 11th. 5 of the guys who finished in the top 12 are now professional triathletes. On Sunday I expect there will be four or five of us within about a minute at the finish. I need to have the best swim of my life and run under 17:00 if I want to be in contention to win. I used today as a recovery day after a 6 hour training day on Saturday and 4 more on Sunday. I'll get good volume in through Thursday and then rest up for a couple days with easy workouts so I can give my best effort on Sunday without sacrificing an entire week of training. Thanks for reading! I hope to see you at the transition clinic on Saturday. DREAM BIG!!