The real world ageing athlete

As sure as the sun rises we get older, with whole industries built around the promise of maintaining your youthful characteristics – skin, hair, health, energy and more. But the reality is that we can’t turn back time or aging, which from an athletic standpoint has its own implications…primarily being a drop in performance. The measured fall in performance is just the result of a whole range of changes that occur as we age.

I’m not going to document all the physiological changes associated with age – many people far smarter than me have written volumes on the topic – but rather comment on what it means in real terms and some things you can do in response. My basis for this is being well into my 40’s, and far from wilting have been running and competing as fast as I ever have, proving to myself (at least) that there can be life in an old dog for many years!!

Here are some key areas I’ve learned to focus on as you get older…it is the mix of all these things that will help you age well and keep the young guns honest.

All Round Strength and Conditioning
Those impressive quads and guns you had in your prime are not going to last. They get weaker and smaller as you age, and no amount of endurance training is going to maintain that strength. You need to do resistance work using weights, body weight, medicine balls, Swiss balls and other tools. Train the movement rather than specific muscles – functional strength. Sure, it is not necessarily specific to performance improvement, but neither is a loss of strength.

Primary areas to work on are your core strength – basically the region between your thighs and chest (especially your back) – glutes and calves. Glutes and calves play a major role in movement (running, in particular) but weakness in these areas is also a primary contributor to knee and lower leg injuries, while core strength is essential for basic stability.

Include strength and conditioning as part of your training schedule. It doesn’t take a long time, something like 30-40min of focused work 2-3 per week. Don’t be fooled by muscles that look strong and impressive…as the old saying goes, use it or lose it.

Body Composition
A general tendency as we age is an increase in body fat. Often, because this gain is off-set by a loss of mean muscle mass that your weight may stay much the same but don’t fooled that you’re still healthy. Increasing body fat is a health risk, and getting older is not rite of passage to middle age weight gain. Manage your weight and body composition closely to maintain performance and health, which includes being careful about diet.

Self-Maintenance
By this I mean self-massage techniques, and the like. We’ve all got our suspect spots, for me it is my calves, so use spare moments to get stuck into those spots before they become stiff and tight. Use time in front of the TV, in meetings (be discrete!), while waiting for a train, etc. A bit of self-massage here, some stretching there all adds up. An important modality of stretching as you age is neural stretching, especially of your sciatic nerve, which is linked to back strength and health.

Recovery
Nothing reminds you of your age like waking up the morning after a hard session, let alone a race. Of course, the fitter you are the better you will recover – age is no barrier to being fit – but you also need to work with your fatigue, not by ignoring it and working against it. Make allowances for how you feel and what you know your body can cope with – being flexible in your training approach is critical. A fatigued body is most prone to injury and health issues if you stress it too soon.

Having said that, like I said, the fitter you are the better you will recover…although it won’t protect you from being tired. So the best way to improve your recovery is for your body it be fit enough to cope with the stress you’re putting it under. You ‘earn’ the right to train hard by being fit enough to cope with it, and be very careful in trying to train harder than that. Don’t train (too far) beyond your current capabilities.

Training
Last but not least, is the training you do as you age. Generally, your capacity to do a high workload like you have in the past will diminish as your ability to recover also diminishes. However I have found that the higher the workload I maintain, the higher the workload I can sustain. It’s a bit of chicken-and-egg. While being sensible, it is possible to maintain a good workload, if you maintain a good workload rather than accepting what other people say is the ‘norm’, and that you should be winding down. Of course, life circumstances come into play here, also.

As far as the type of training, for most older athletes who have been in the sport for a while, you’ve already got plenty of endurance. So what you need to focus on more is speed and power, which are very time efficient also. The problem is that speed and power training, especially in running, is also very stressful so be very careful in how you approach this…if you’ve given consideration to the previous points you will be better prepared for this type of training because your all round conditioning will be pretty good. High intensity training – there’s many variations of session types – is the key to maintaining performance as you age.

So in summary, age is a real issue for older athletes in terms of your physical capabilities, but it is also the effort you put into maintaining your physical capabilities – and all round health and conditioning – that is the primary mechanism for a long, fit, healthy and competitive life. But all of this is common sense, anyway, isn’t it??

Two and a quarter things

There is a theory I read about a few years ago which says people have the capacity to be 100% committed to only two-and-a-quarter (2¼) things at one time. If you try to fit any more in something will have to be sacrificed. In the context of triathlons I think this theory applies on two levels.

Firstly, for many people this most likely means that work accounts for one point, family for another point, leaving a quarter of a point left to play with. But on a second level, it is really hard to be an equal level of form and fitness across all three sports. Two sports, yes, but three sports, no...although maybe a quarter point to the third sport!!

The thing about theories is that they’re generalisms, and don’t wholly apply to everyone, including this two-and-a-quarter theory. Here are some of my thoughts prompted by it.

• Whether or not this theory is true, and whether things account for full or parts points is a moot point (no pun intended), the main aspect is that there are a finite number of things you can do well at any time. Choose the (few) things that are important to you, and do them well.
• Triathlons can consume a person and become their lifestyle – it’s a choice and a sacrifice. But at the same time, take a look at where you’re taking points from in the other areas of your life and ask yourself if the sacrifice is worth it. 
• It’s OK saying no to things that are going to ‘cost’ you too much, whether that is financial cost, time cost, emotional cost or something else. Spreading yourself too thinly across multiple things is tiring, stressful and ultimately unfulfilling.
• As far as the actual sports go, it’s really hard to be in equal form and fitness across swim, bike and run simultaneously. And to be honest, there are only a few really key races during the year where that is really important, so in the meantime just roll with the ups and downs you experience and aim for overall enjoyment and incremental gains where you can get them.
• If something takes you out / away from doing one of the sports, typically injury, then move on and ahead with what you can do in the other sports. However, even at this time, still think of yourself as a triathlete who will be back in good time.
• Have a backup and exit plan in case things go out of balance, especially if other people are dependent on you. Have support networks (family, friends, other hobbies, etc) so that you’re not too dependent on the one thing that might be causing you to tip over the edge of balance.

There are many more thoughts prompted by this theory and what it might mean for each individual. But the main take away point is to keep tabs on how many things you take on in your life, and to do each of them justice. Keep it real.

The Off-Season Training Guide

With the summer season over and done, races run and won, hopefully you had some performances close to your goals. The end of season is a time to naval gaze somewhat, and take time out to day dream a little about what might be next season – after a good “off-season” winter of training.

What should do you do over winter? Six months or so is a long time, and while you don’t necessarily want to maintain the same intensity of training you had during the season, this isn’t a time to just noodle around in training since you can make big gains on your path to next season. Think of it as pre-training before you get into focused race-specific sessions later in the year.

Winter is often regarded as the base period of training, building a big, wide platform of fitness upon which to shape great race performances, which is true. Base training can mean many things to different people, and in my book it is not just about doing easy, steady state sessions. Rather, base training is where you build multiple aspects of fitness – speed, power, strength endurance, speed endurance, etc. – working on your weaknesses while also enhancing your strengths.

Base training is where you work on your all round fitness, with the specific emphasis varying depending on the individual characteristics of the athlete. Base training is also where you can set mini-goals as a means of measuring your progress, as well as developing skills to help you during the actual race season. Here are some things you can include in your base period:

Sprint and Short Course

Triathletes tend to be endurance machines by default, since triathlons are an aerobic sport. However, sprint and short course racing requires good capabilities in speed, power and speed endurance, as well as associated skills in executing these performances. So these athletes should spend time working on developing speed, and the two components of speed – biomechanical skill and fitness. The first comes from just practicing moving fast in a relaxed way against low resistance – small gear on a bike, and slight downhill on the run. You want to be able to move smoothly at speed, which is a practiced skill, and precedes the fitness to be able to go fast. You build the fitness starting with short efforts (e.g. 20-30sec with 2-3 x recovery). Holding good form is essential. Don’t go for any longer or harder than you can hold good form for. Once you can, then introduce hills, starting with short hills – the pathway to power development!

Speed endurance takes your basic speed and extends it out to three-to-four minute efforts, with equal recovery. Do these at close to maximum effort you can sustain across a total of 15-to-25 minutes cumulative interval time in a single session. These are gut-busting, high-octane sessions, but deliver great results over four-to-six weeks.

Good goals for sprint and short-course athletes to aim for are over 10-to-20-kilometre bike TTs, 5-to-10-kilometre running races, and short duathlons which you can afford to do several of. These allow you to test your fitness, assess your development and practice race skills. It’s OK, race fast during winter and aim for PBs, but remember when your goal season is.

Long Course and Ironman

Many of the winter goals for sprint and short course athletes also apply to long course and Iron-distance athletes, but in smaller amounts. For these athletes, the winter is the time to develop strength endurance and lactate threshold, and should follow on from speed, power and speed endurance – the linear order allows for good progression of fitness.

Strength endurance is sustained strength training for endurance athletes. The practical implementation of this for cycling is big-gear sessions, and for running is longer uphill efforts. On the bike, efforts of five-to-20 minutes are most effective, at cadence of 60-to-70rpm. The effort level is key: do these at close to Olympic-distance triathlon effort (or power), but note that this is a muscular-endurance effort and not an anaerobic effort. You want to feel muscle burn, not oxygen debt! For running the principle is similar, with efforts in four-to-10 minute range, ideally up a gradual hill of perhaps four-to-six percent, not so steep it is a struggle to run up. Recovery is easy, between about 50-to-100 percent of interval time.

The other aspect to focus on is lactate threshold work, which equates to about one-hour TT effort/power on bike, and for running your maximum average pace for a 45-minute effort. Once that is established, the sessions are based on short-recovery intervals with work:rest ratio of about 4-to-5:1. On the bike you might do 30-to-40 minutes of intervals in lengths of five-to-20 minutes, and on run 20-to-25 minutes of intervals in lengths of four-to-eight minutes. These are sustained sessions, and require concentration. Good test events include 20-to-40-kilometre bike TT and up to half-marathon running races.

Of course, these are just snippets of what might be included in a well-planned program, but hopefully provide some ideas of what you can include in your training over winter so you make some positive progress before you even focus on your racing season.

Mid-season training tweaks

The triathlon season can be a long one, running for many months and incorporating numerous races over a range of distances. It is the time when you put the hard work you did during the off-season into practice, hoping to see the results of your efforts in bringing you closer to your goals. Short-course athletes will probably do quite a number of races, with some key events amongst them, whereas long-course athletes tend to race more sparingly, often culminating in a goal event.

Regardless of how often you race, your fitness and form can fluctuate over time - it takes quite some skill to be race sharp all season (and somewhat unrealistic!). Most athletes have an innate understanding of their form, whether through race performances or based on how training is going.
The key thing is, by introducing some mid-season training tweaks you can influence your form in a positive way for the remainder of the season. Here are some common scenarios and what actions you can take in training (bike and run focus) to address them:

Symptom: You're dead, flat and tired. You're lacking zip and freshness in your movement. Your motivation and enthusiasm is low.
Action: Rest. It's amazing how common this problem is. Triathletes, in particular, are so good at training they forget how to race, and how to rest before a race. While rest is a relative term, the theme is allowing your body to feel refreshed and physically ready for a race, with your mental state also benefitting. There are few good reasons for being tired going into a race where it compromises your performance. This is a quick and easy fix!!

Symptom: You're lacking a top-gear and the ability to get the top 5% of performance from your body, typically in Sprint of Olympic Distance triathlons.
Action: Assuming you're not tired…this would suggest you're lacking race fitness, and the training sessions where you are truly pushing to race intensity, albeit for a shorter period of time than the race.
The best training intervals to address this are:
Bike: 2-4min at Sprint Distance Triathlon intensity with 75-100% interval duration as recovery, for a total of 20-25min of intervals in a session.
Run: 1-3min at Sprint Distance Triathlon intensity with equal recovery, for a total of 10-15min of intervals in a session.
These are not long sessions, but the emphasis is pushing hard in each interval and recovering well between them, which means they are high intensity and hurt!! Of course, you can also use races themselves to build your race fitness, which can be a good strategy leading up to key events, but quality training sessions are a good alternative. You'll feel some benefit within 2-3 weeks of doing these sessions once a week in each sport, but don't continue them for more than 4-5 weeks in a row.

Symptom: You're lacking strength towards the end of your races, despite feeling great early on, typically in Sprint of Olympic Distance triathlons.
Action: Assuming you've got the speed you want, this suggests that your race threshold endurance is limited. That is, you can achieve race effort and hold it for a short period, but not hold it.
The best training intervals to address this are:
Bike: 3 x 10min / 2 x 15min / 2 x 20min at Olympic Distance Triathlon intensity with 5min recovery.
Run: 5 x 4min at Olympic Distance Triathlon intensity with 1min recovery.
The emphasis with this is the overall duration of the main session, with the intervals being sustained and the short, incomplete recovery. Your goal is to maintain your effort across and between each rep, at or close to race intensity. You'll feel some benefit within 2-3 weeks of doing these sessions once a week in each sport, and you can continue them throughout the season although perhaps after the first 4-5 weeks, only doing this session every second week.

Symptom: You lack basic endurance. You fade in long training sessions, and similarly in longer races, typically in long course or IM triathlons.
Action: Assuming your nutrition is not the limiting factor, the simple answer to addressing this is doing more long training sessions!! Of course, there is more to it than that since how you do those long sessions makes difference. This means focusing on your pacing and building your effort during the session so you start easily and finish strongly. A further progression on that strategy is to include some intervals in the last quarter of the session, something like this:
Bike: 3-4 x 10min / 2-3 x 15min / 2-3 x 20min at Long Course Triathlon intensity with 5min recovery. Do these in the last 60-90min of your long session.
Run: Progressively build to a tempo pace in the last 30-60min of your long run. The tempo pace could be anything you want, but essentially a change in pace from what you were running at.
The emphasis with these sessions is to deliberately increase your effort late in these long sessions. This requires concentration and effort, and works to counter any slackening off in effort, thereby building your endurance. Of course, it is assumed you are building the duration of this long session sensibly. As with the previous actions, expect some benefit within 2-3 weeks, and this approach to long sessions can be used almost year round.

The other benefit of these sessions, if you do them well, is that you’ll build your confidence in these scenarios which in aiming for mid-season tweaks is just as important as your physical fitness. Good luck!!

New Year running resolutions

Here is a little article I wrote for http://www.newbreedrunning.com.au/

This year I'm going to be more of a runner.
This year the early morning darkness will not put me off. Neither will bad weather…unless it's really bad.
This year training will be a priority, rather than an after thought.
This year I will pack my running bag the night before, and perhaps even have a check-list so I don't forget basic things…like shoes.
This year I'll wash my running clothes more often.
Thie year I'll buy more running clothes I can wear that I can wash more often.
This year my running clothes will actually be running clothes, and perhaps even be matching. Sometimes.
This year I won't committ any fashion faux pas, like pants over pants, compression socks, cotton race t-shirts, football shorts and headbands.
This year I will learn how to run so I look a bit like a Kenyan, except they run a lot, lot faster.
This year I will do more races and not get nervous and anxious before all of them.
This year I won't rely on the porta-loos before the race, except if I'm nervous and anxious.
This year the races I do will be far and wide, long and short, up and down, and round and round.
This year I will get to know the people I see often at other races.
This year I will join a training group, and learn the language of running.
This year I won't be afraid of blowing up at training, or being out of my depth, or not being able to keep up.
This year I will do more stretching…maybe even do as much as should be doing.
This year I will be a strong runner, so you can actually see my muscles in race photos.
This year I might buy some race photos, especially ones you can see my muscles in.
This year my diet will be a lot better.
This year I will learn to like sports drinks, sports bars and possibly gels…even though they resemble snot.
This year I will take my lunch to work more often, rather than buying take aways.
This year I will swap my café loyalty card for a gym membership card.
This year I will learn what how it feels when you muscles burn.
This year I will learn how it feels to be out of breath and my heart to be jumping out of my chest.
This year I will enjoy the feeling of being tired.
This year I will run as hard and fast as I can.
This year I'm going to be more of a runner.

Running form case study

Running form is a popular topic these days as runners increasingly recognise the role it plays in efficiency, injuries and enjoyment of the sport. While running is not often considered as a strongly technique based activity, like perhaps swimming, running technique is a skill nonetheless where there is a variety of ways to execute the skill with varying degrees of efficiently and effectiveness.

In doing analysis of running form there are some common points that arise, which if addressed, help to improve the balance and alignment of the runner, and often performance. In many cases, issues are subtle and usually unique in their actual presentation. Working to address them involves identifying cues, working on drills, developing coordination and ultimately, practicing running to achieve the desired 'feel' and movement. The goal is not to have every runner looking the same, but to achieve a body position and alignment in common with good running form. The process differs for each runner.

The following is a case study in running form analysis - and improvement - involving my younger brother, Sam, because it nicely illustrates some common issues and how he worked to address them to markedly improve his running form, and performance.

Often there is a catalyst and/or reason for making changes to running form, which is important because there are (injury) risks in doing so, so you want to be sure the risk and effort are worthwhile. In Sam's case it was an injury to his tibialis anterior tendon on the front of his shin, which is responsible for pointing your foot and toes upwards (dorsi flexion). Sam sustained this injury 5 weeks before his goal race, the 2011 Melbourne Marathon (debut marathon), which plagued him and compromised training considerably during those 5 weeks (and post-race). Nonetheless, he ran 2:56hr and came home with motivation to improve…we just had to address his injury, not just the symptoms but the root cause.

Sam has always been a heel striker as a runner, as many runners are, which is characterised by his hips sitting back 'in a bucket', particularly at point of landing. Not only is it inefficient, but is often associated with common running knee injuries, with patellar femoral symdrome (PFS), or "runner's knee" being a particularly common one (which Sam has had). However, in this case it was linked to his shin problem, since with each step his tibialis anterior muscle is eccentrically loading to "release" his foot down from its initial heel strike position (with foot/toes pointed up), to being flat on the road. Repeat that thousands of time, and it overloaded the attached tendon causing inflammation, so as long as he ran this way would continue to cause this irritation.

Upon recognising this association between his heel striking running and the shin injury that the solution was apparent - we needed to change Sam to be a mid-foot runner to remove the overloading on his tibialis anterior, since in mid-foot running you place your foot on the ground rather than slapping it down heel first. To test this theory Sam did some exaggerated mid-foot running, and instantly the shin pain went away…and instantly came back when he reverted back to heel striking.

Now the challenge was to transition his running form, which is not as simple of saying "run mid-foot" since the way your feet strike the ground is a result / consequence of your body position. It also involved great risk as mid-foot running considerably increases the loading on your calf and achilles, in particular, injuries we really wanted to avoid!!

Fortunately Sam was up for the challenge…and enduring his older brother giving him instructions(!!)…so the first step was simply becoming aware of his body position while running, and the effect it had on his form. Remember, we were focusing on body alignment and if/when we got that right, his foot strike would improve the way we wanted it to. Foot strike is immediate feedback for body alignment, so we used a small amount of barefoot running to enhance this feedback, and also because of the natural effect barefoot running can have on how you run - it was a tool. We also reviewed his footwear, switching to a less-cushioned, smaller heel drop shoe, also as part of the multi-pronged approach.

During this initial transition phase, in February 2012, Sam was doing less running, partly because his shin was still recovering and partly to help adaptation in his calves (which were very tight). We worked out some suitable cues that helped remind him about the desired body position, slowed down his pace to allow quality practice, but also including some faster stride-throughs to practice the technique at multiple speeds. The key points were to focus on keeping his hips forward, being on top of his stride, and to roll along "over" the ground, as opposed to "across" the ground. These points help to incorporate the key aspects of good form in a "plain english" kind of way to make sense rather than being lost in jargon or technical terms. During this time feedback was via Sam's comments and video, since we live some distance apart. Ideally I'd be able to see him regularly to monitor progress and provide on-going feedback and altering the cues we used, but that wasn't possible.

The first video of his new running technique was highly anticipated - had Sam got what I was trying to explain, and had he translated that into his running? The answer was yes, and almost. My first impression was how well he had got the concept and principles, and how well he had adapated his running form…it was quite a transformation. At a quick glance, it looked like his form was all OK, but actually there was some more work to do.

While Sam was now running with good body position and alignment, no longer sitting 'in a bucket', he almost gone too far to the point where he had a fore-foot landing but was achieving this by leaning a little too far forwards and "falling" onto his feet rather than placing his feet on the ground. This was very subtle, but notable, with the result being that he was excessively loading his calves and achilles, and was also a technique I did not feel would be sustainable over longer distances, especially marathon.

My feedback in response to this progress was really positive but also adding some new cues to incorporate, being to straighten up a little, ie, more vertical, and to "place" his feet on the ground - one of the few times I do suggest to focus on foot placement in run technique review. I wanted him to just lightly touch the ground with each step. Again, these were subtle but I felt really worthwhile tweaks.

A week or so later Sam sent another video of his progress…and it was great!! I watched it again and again, and was really pleased to see how well Sam had incorporated all the technique aspects into his running. His form was spot on, with only on-going focus to maintain that form being the feedback I gave…it is easy to slip back into old habits when you're tired. Not only was his running form looking great, it was far more efficient and above all, his shins were OK.

It is testament to Sam's motivation and determination to make this change, being open to feedback and practicing…not everyone has this same application to the task. Fast forward to the Gold Coast marathon in July 2012 and Sam smashed his marathon PB, running 2:42hr, holding good form to the end.