Quarterly Coaching

        Customized plan, built around your schedule and races! $125/month - requires 3 months payment in advance and $100 set up fee. Plans are sent out in 3 month blocks, no changes will be made, and feedback is limited to 1x per month via email. Additional consulting is available on a per hour basis. This is the PERFECT option if you are looking for a plan with some periodic feedback.

Steph Popelar
2006 Bronze Medal, ITU World AG Champs
        Here is what Bronze Medalist Step Popelar has to say about the Quarterly Coaching Package: "Undoubtedly, my triathlon placements over the past few years are directly attributed to the training plans authored by Mike Ricci of D3 Multisport, Inc. My first experience of his knowledge was with the training plan he wrote for Team USA in 2004. I also followed the 2005 plan. I realized tremendous benefits and solicited a personalized training plan from Mike in 2006. Mike prepared a specialized 12-week training plan that was the catalyst for my season in 2006. I absolutely believe in his theories and organization of training workloads.
        "These plans helped me achieve a Bronze Medal (3rd place) finish in my age group at the ITU World’s Triathlon Championship in Lausanne, Switzerland on Sept 2, 2006. His products have proven successful for me, just like many others who thrive from his efforts. Thanks, Mike. I’ll be calling again."


Power UP!

Introduction to training and racing with Ergomo Power Meter:

  1. Using a Ergomo Power Meter lets you have a direct and instant feedback from your energy output. Power = work done at the current time. Heart Rate (HR) on the other hand is an 'indicator' of the work done, but you don't know how much work you have done and there is always a lag in HR.
  2. Once you establish a FTP (Functional Threshold Power or power at LT) you can then establish watts for each zone. For example a 40k TT would be 100% of FTP, in theory. A HIM would be about 82-87% and an IM around 65-82% of FTP. So let's say your FTP is 300 watts - so we can use a round number. IM watts would be 195-246 and Half IM watts would be 246-261.
  3. Olympic distance training and racing would be done right around your FTP from 87-105%. Based on an FTP of 300, from our example above, that would give me a range of 260-315 watts. Let’s say my workout is 4x5 minutes at FTP - and my goal would be in that range of 260-315. Some days I may push 265 and others I may be pushing 320 at the same effort - the wattage that I can manage that day would give me feedback about my fitness, dehydration, and glycogen stores. I can monitor HR as well, just to 'see' where I am. I also check in with cadence to make sure that is in line with my goals and most of all, I understand my RPE very well.
  4. Power obviously adds another dimension, but over a long race or a TT it allows you to literally meter out your energy. For example if you ride 112 miles, I can tell you within 100 kilojoules how much energy you are most likely to use up. Knowing this kind of information will allow you to know how much nutrition to take in - and guess what this leads to - not bonking on the run, and running to your potential b/c you are now racing at a more even effort, taking in the right number of calories and so on.
  5. HR is still important, and if you want to push HUGE watts go ahead, but be ready for the payback. Pushing big watts as in hill repeats or power intervals, as in 500+ watts isn't something you will do for much more than a 1 minute or two, before your lungs will bust open. Even pushing 400 watts is a lot of work that many of us can't handle for very long and not pay the price. Capping your watts for each workout is an important strategy for triathletes.
  6. Here are a few examples of when to watch watts and ignore HR:
    • Compu Trainer (CT) sessions: using the CT in ERG mode and forcing yourself to ride certain watts. Setting that to 250 watts and riding at 25 cadence or 90 cadence, and you are still pushing 250 watts. Personally, I do not think there is a better tool on the market for improving your cycling. You have NO CHOICE but to push the workload. There are days that I can't push the watts at the desired cadence, and on these days, I back off the watts.
    • Another example that I ignore HR is doing hill repeats. Last week I did 3x10’ (minutes) of hill repeats at FTP watts. Even over the course of 10 minutes, my HR wouldn't rise to where I think it should have been for my FTP/RPE. So, that was either a function of fatigue or it was lagging. I COULD push the watts, so I know it wasn't fatigue, so I know it was lagging. If I were doing the same workout based on HR only, I would have limped home with the idea in my mind that I didn't hit my goals, but in reality I did ride home full knowing I hit the workout exactly as I wanted. So, once again, watts trump HR, but in my opinion you still need to watch them along with RPE and cadence. Having more information makes you a smarter athlete and allows you to use all your tools to make better decisions and keep improving your cycling.
Why Use Ergomo Power?

An Ergomo Power Meter can take your training and racing to a new level and allow you as an athlete to fine-tune your training program. Training with power allows you to quantitatively track changes in fitness and help you define weaknesses. Once you have this information it’s simple to tailor your training to improve your training plan and to continue to see improvements. Here are some important factors why you should choose an Ergomo Power Meter from www.ThePowerMeter.com:

  1. The Ergomo supplies a great deal of information about your ride and allows you to know your strengths and weaknesses.
  2. The Ergomo allows you to easily communicate this information to your coach for analysis through Ergo Racer software, which is Cycling Peaks software
  3. The Ergomo has a screen on the computer that is called Pro Power, This screen gives you live Intensity Factor (IF), Training Stress Score (TSS) and Normalized Power (NP).
  4. The Ergomo also allows you to watch Average watts, Current watts, Altitude, Percent Grade, and even Altitude gained while you ride!
  5. Once you have the power information from your training and racing, you can identify better training methods and goals.
  6. Once you have better information, communication with your coach and a better training program, you are increasing your chances of success!
  7. Unlike a Power Tap, the Ergomo lets you ride and race on any wheel set you want. You don’t need to build another wheel for racing like Power Tap or race with a wheel cover.
  8. Like an SRM replaces your cranks, the Ergomo replaces your bottom bracket, but the Ergomo is priced neatly between the SRM and the Power Tap, yet provides much more information while you ride, and costs much less than an SRM!
Don’t miss out on this cutting edge technology, get powered up today! Contact us @ info@thepowermeter.com.
HERE HE IS!

Congratulations to Joe Vrablik who finished IM Wisconsin in 15:02 – in 2002 Joe’s weight was approaching 400 lbs. Today he is 225 and an Ironman Finisher! Joe is coached by AJ Johnson. Joe is proof that using the 3 D’s (Desire, Determination, and Discipline) on a daily basis will get you wherever you want to go! Congratulations Joe!

From the D3 Mailbag

Question:
I have this min-sprint in 13 days (but who's counting?). I'd like to do some brick workouts between now and then, just a couple or maybe three. How should I do this intelligently? Should I just combine either swim/bike or bike/run in that order, with the same distance as the race? It's really short, so I'm guessing that it would be okay to do that? The distances are 200m/9km/2.5km. How many times should I do it? Should I do a whole run-through of the triathlon itself? – Bob, Indiana

Answer:
Bob, It’s best to keep the bricks short since you are closing in on race day. If you haven’t done any bricks yet, this isn’t the time to start piling them on, but here are some examples you could do in the lead up to your race:

10 days out: 200m swim for time – after a good 300-400 warm up, then bike 5k, run 1k, bike 5k, run 1k. The goal of this brick is to bike the 2nd 5k faster than the first, and the same with the 2nd run. This is a workout that will teach you pacing if you take out the first bike or run too fast.

7 days out: 300m for time, once again after a good warm up, then 9 bike/1.5k run – 9k bike/1.5k run – break the 9k into 3 parts of 3k. Bike each 3k faster and harder. On the first run, make it very easy, do not push yourself, just run the 1.5k. The KEY to the workout is to make the 2nd 1.5k run faster than the first – be smart once again about how fast you start out. This is meant to challenge you, so race day is easier so don’t worry if the workout is hard, it’s meant to be!

After that I would just follow a standard taper of lowering your volume as you get closer to the week. A 7 day taper would look like this:

Day 6: Easy swim/easy bike
Day 5: short run with a few pick ups of 3 x 20 secs fast
Day 4: short fast swim –and short bike with a few pick ups to race speed – maybe 3x 1:30 fast
Day 3: off
Day 2: a 10 minute swim/a 10 minute bike/ a 10 minute run
Day 1: RACE DAY – warm up is the same as what you did on Saturday. You are ready to race, GO HAVE FUN!

– Coach Mike