Don’t Get Divorced Over Triathlon
Every year, thousands of athletes will descend upon Ironman branded races for the right to call themselves an Ironman for the first and/or for a shot a world championship qualification. Most will repeat this cycle year after year. Many of these triathletes will find their relationships in a precarious state. While the triathletes feel the accumulated fatigue of the many months of massive training, their partners are just as tired of some of the grouchy behaviors that their beloved triathletes may have inflected on them. But now is not the time to give up, either for the athletes in their final preparations, or their partners who can hardly wait for this event to come and go.
When people get tired, they may get cranky. Everyone has experienced that phenomenon, especially with children. Tired, hungry children may exhibit such behavior as short temper, whining, outbreaks of crying and tendency to throw tantrums. In many ways, a triathlete in the final weeks of Ironman preparation is like a tired, hungry child, and may demonstrate a charming cocktail of any and all these behaviors.
It’s not the triathlete’s fault, exactly. To prepare for an Ironman, the triathlete often follows a training program that inflicts a massive buildup of training volume and intensity in the six weeks before the race (peaking), leaving them deeply fatigued and more than somewhat depleted in a physical sense (i.e. tired and hungry childlike). If you noticed the similarities, you are not alone. In the two weeks or so before the race, the triathlete may sharply reduce the volume of training in order to taper, or shed the crushing fatigue from the peaking period and arrive at the start line in a condition rarely achieved but incessantly sought after: fit, rested and healthy. The taper period can be emotionally challenging.
During the buildup to the peak period, the triathlete was absorbed with all that huge volume of training. Five-hour bike rides, 20-mile runs and swim workouts that seemed to take forever. Now, during the taper, the workouts are much reduced in time, leaving the triathlete with much more time to interact with friends and family, for better or worse. During the taper, the fatigue is still there, gradually subsiding but still impatiently noticeable, and still acting like a tired, hungry child. As the race draws closer, the triathlete will increasingly turn attention to the mental aspects of the race, also known as fretting, worrying and generating pre-race jitters. This emotional condition, piled on top of the tired, hungry syndrome, makes some triathletes genuinely unfit for the company of other humans (yes, I am at this point lumping the tapering triathlete in with other humans, but that’s just for convenience).
Now that you know about the phenomenon that is playing out, here’s what to do about it.
There are three possible scenarios at work.
You are the triathlete.
Your spouse or partner is the triathlete.
Both of you are competing at an Ironman event in the coming months.
Each scenario requires a special approach, if the relationship is going to survive this race.
Scenario 1: You are the triathlete.
First, recognize that you are not yourself, and tell that to everyone. You might see your daughter first thing in the morning. Now that you are tapering and not already at the pool banging out flip turns every 20 seconds for 2.5 hours, she might fail to recognize you at first, and wonder who is this strange person in her home. Ignore that. Just say, “Hello. Remember me? I am your mother. See, there on the wall is a photo of us together last year, when we spent time together. And by the way, I’m tapering, so I’m not myself. If I say or do anything mean, it’s not me doing that, it’s my accumulated fatigue and attempts to shed it during my taper period.” Depending on the daughter’s age, this approach may be more or less successful—the younger the child, the more successful. If your child is in mid-teens, this prattle will fail like a front-tire blowout. There is no known approach for gaining empathy with a mid-teen, so we will now proceed to the partner.
Your partner or spouse also has a great amount of accumulated fatigue from your rotten behavior over the past months. Recognize this (only briefly) then quickly turn back to your own situation. “Hello, honey. I’m tapering now, which means I’ll be around the house a lot more now until the race. And, I have a special condition that means I might say or so something mean, but I really don’t mean it. It’s the fatigue talking, not me. I hope you appreciate that and cut me a little slack.”
Does this really work? Well, you can try it and see what happens.
You might also try being extra nice. Before you interact with your family, think about nice things you could do or say to them, and then do them when you get the chance. Your partner may wonder what on earth has happened to you, and look at you strangely, as if an alien being has invaded you or you have been replaced with a duplicate in every way identical to you, except for the nice part. It’s worth a try.
Scenario 2: You are the triathlete’s partner.
You have been traipsing around on your tip toes trying to avoid the grumpy person in your life. And just like doing a million sneaky squats with Tony Horton in P90X, you your own self are getting very tired. You may find yourself issuing a sarcastic phrase, such as, “You know, if I had a little help in here I wouldn’t have burned the broccoli,” and wondering where that came from. “Is that really me saying that?” you might wonder. No, it isn’t you at all. It’s the accumulated fatigue. You are completely off the hook.
But that doesn’t solve the issue, as your whiny grumpy child of a triathlete will react to your own behavior in a predictably non-helpful way. “Broccoli? Really? Broccoli? Do you know that broccoli has only seven calories per cup, and I need at least 757 calories to recover from my seven-mile run with 8 by 400 meter zone 4a and 4b over and under lactic threshold efforts with 60-second slow jogging intervals at the track before completing the run with 2.5 miles of zone 2 and 0.5 miles of zone 1 cool down, followed by 2 minutes and 50 seconds of jump rope immediately at the end of the run? Broccoli?”
You are not a saint, and yet, the situation calls for you to exhibit saint-like behavior. Do this. Realize that alien beings have indeed take over your triathlete’s person, and the unwanted and downright crappy behaviors that you have endured are not really coming from your partner or spouse, but from the invading alien being. We might give this invading alien being a name—shall we call it accumulated fatigue?
One effective way to blunt the nasty effect of alien’s behavior is to reply with humor. Accumulated fatigue, in addition to fostering grumpiness, also produces a profound and discernable lack of intelligence. Yes, physically numb and mentally dumb are wrapped around the same axel of your triathlete’s wheel. You can crack all the jokes you want, and your tired, numb partner will not be able to make a coherent reply, as the glucose-depleted brain works too slowly to process the reframe shift that underlies all humor. To return to our example above.
“Yes, dear, broccoli, but those seven calories are precious, as broccoli is a chief source of broccolamine, a branched-chain amino acid that is shown in no relevant studies to enhance capillary densification, accelerate mitrochondrial recruitment and improve your catch. I do it for you, dear.” That should defuse any negative reaction, or actually any reaction at all, as your triathlete wanders off in a haze to go look for the swim paddles for the next workout.
Scenario 3: You are both competing.
If you have experienced something like this, as you straddle your bikes, waiting for your Garmin Forerunner 910 to acquire its satellites, you are not in a club whose members number exactly one:
“Where should we go on our 4.5-hour ride, with 5 x 19 minutes in high zone 4 followed by three minutes of easy spinning, two times through, dear?”
“I don’t know. I guess we could go to Carter Lake, but you decide.”
“I always have to decide. I want you to be part of this, you know. Just because I signed us both up for this race doesn’t mean that I need to make all the decisions.”
“Okay, Carter Lake then.”
“I’m sick of Carter Lake. We have worn a groove in the asphalt from our garage door to Carter Lake. The ski boat people of Carter Lake hate us. If I have to go past that little Carter Lake ranger stand one more time I’m going to torch an orphanage.”
“Okay, then somewhere else. I’m good with another idea.”
“Hell, do I have to do everything around here?”
Maybe you’ve never been inside this conversation. If not, lucky you.
If so, there is one possible path: www.triathletedivorcelawyers.com (This URL is still available).
In case you want to avoid this and stay together, here’s the plan.
First, go out of your way to be kind. Pretend to listen. Say, “Yes, dear.” It usually works, regardless of what that response is actually responding to.
Second, remember why you signed up for this Ironman in the first place. At this point, you might be wondering, “Who thought this was a good idea to register for this race? Who thought doing an Ironman was a good idea? Who invented this sport anyway, and can I get my thumbs on his adams apple…Oh, right, it sounded like fun at the time. Okay, I’m better now.” But you did indeed have some picture in your head that attracted you to the notion of doing this race—the fitness level you would achieve, the camaraderie of your training partners, the idea of actually crossing the finish line and hearing Mike Reilly shout, “You are an Ironman!”
Third, act as though your triathlete partner is flatly incapable of functioning as would a real human being until after the race, that it’s all on you, and if your relationship is going to survive you better step up. This last idea could well be true.
In seriousness, there are plenty of triathletes who have lost their relationships due to the strain they undergo and the behavior that ensues during the training and racing of an Ironman. To compete in one involves metric tons of work, many sacrifices and deep commitment on the triathlete’s part and that reverberates to the partner or spouse as well.
All kidding aside, here are two things that might really help.
First, remember why you love your spouse or partner. What was it the brought you together in the beginning? In your mind’s eye, run a video of the most charming, romantic experience you had together early in your relationship. Make this video big and colorful and bright and see you two over there having the time of your life. Run key parts of it in slow motion if that helps you savor the memory. Feel the warmth in your chest as you relive the experience. Stop the video at the end, and pretend that you can capture a little bit of that magic, a tiny pinch of pixie dust from that time, and hold it between your thumb and finger. Then, whenever you need it from now and until race day, when somebody makes a snippy comment, just sprinkle a little of that pixie dust over the situation, feel the warmth again, and allow the seed of a smile to take over your face. Shake your head in wonder of how lucky you are to have found each other.
Second, and of utmost importance, develop amnesia. During this phase, you may be saving up a Pentagon-sized ammunition depot of things that your triathlete did or said. You might be thinking, “After this race is over, we are going to have a talk, and I’m going to explain how rotten all this behavior was, how all the mean things said made me feel, and how this is never, ever going to happen again.”
But don’t. Just disarm. Forget about your arsenal. Destroy the weapons of mass destruction. If you realize that it almost really is like an alien being has taken over your partner, that nobody really meant any of those ugly things that got said, that it really was the hunger and crushing fatigue talking—that it really wasn’t anybody’s fault—it gets easier to take. In the three weeks after the race, until things turn back to normal, pretend that they already are back to normal. Forget it was every any different. Let your triathlete exorcize the alien being, and watch for signs of the old self returning. Sprinkle the magic pixie dust wherever you can.
And if your normal person doesn’t return, the person in your movie who you created magic pixie dust with doesn’t start to come back, I know a URL that is still available.
Key thoughts for Half Distance Racing
It seems as though 70.3 has become the hottest distance in triathlon these days. You get all the pomp and circumstance of the full distance at IM branded events, but get the benefit of half your weekends back without the 6 hour rides and marathon run training. There are still local (non-IM-branded) half-distance races, often at considerable discounts from branded races. Following are some thoughts from my long experience coaching athletes at this distance, as well as my own experience racing them.
1. Respect the distance.
If you are stepping up from short-course racing, halves seem like an easy choice. Though the bike and run are a little more than doubled, the swim is only 400m longer than an Olympic and the overall race is generally still a portion of day (rather than the all-day full). In general, if you are well-trained and experienced at the Olympic distance, it's not too big of a pull to set your sights on a half.
**Worried about the step up in swim distance, even though it's only a bit longer than Oly? Many branded 70.3 races feature current-assisted swims. You may actually be in the water for a shorter time at a downriver 70.3 swim than you would be for an Oly in a reservoir. If the swim is a barrier for you, this may be a very good way to introduce yourself to longer-distance racing.
While half distance is truly "raceable" for a lot of athletes, your result on the day comes down to pacing and related tactics. If you push too hard early, you're going to pay for it later. I see this most commonly with inexperienced athletes overbiking and then cracking on the run. In short course if you don't pace right, you're jogging in the last couple of kilometers. At half distance, you're going to be walking the last 10k (or 10 miles...). And unlike at full-distance races, there's not much chance of resetting, refueling, and saving your day. When the wheels come off at a half, they're off. If you're getting ready for your first (or one of your first) half-distance races, be conservative on course.
2. Have a plan and trust your training
Most people who have the desire could probably get through a short-course race on good looks and youth (if you still have that going for you...else on past glory). You're going to need more than that to excel at a half. Follow a training plan that doesn't require you to "cram" for your key event. Many athletes can typically be well-prepared to step up from short-course to half in 16-24 weeks, depending on the athlete and goal. Your plan should not just include appropriate builds in volume/distance for the longer bike and run, it needs to put a focus on fueling and hydration while training. A bottle on the bike and a gel on the run (a decent short-course fueling for many) is not going to do the trick. Practice as you will race--not just in terms of HR/power/RPE, but also how you will be eating and drinking at that output over time. Calories and electrolytes are keys to the day, not afterthoughts. Finally, your raceday plan should include decision points throughout the day. For example, "If I fell like X, at point Y, I'll decrease/hold/increase, effort to Z."
3. Don't set time goals
I get it...sub-5 or sub-6 or some other arbitrary number is what you're shooting for. To hit your number, you need to come out of the water in so many minutes and have a bike split of so many hours. This kind of thinking is what ruins races! Your finish time is determined by a big variety of factors--a tiny, tiny fraction of which is how fast you want to go. Instead, set process goals based on inputs--what you directly control. If your training shows that you can hold certain power over 56 miles and come off with great running legs, then ride those watts. You'll know what HR/power/RPE you can hold from your training runs (and brick days). Focus on being disciplined (not aspirational) to those metrics, especially early in the run when you're feeling fresh. If you're chasing a specific time and come off the bike a few minutes off because of currents during the swim or winds on the bike, you're prone to over-run early to try to stay "on goal" but your preparation and fitness have not changed. This is a recipe for disaster.
4. Have fun
I like to say that triathletes are just pain managers. There's a certain amount of pain associated with racing. In shorter races, the pain is more intense, but doesn't last as long. In longer racing, the pain is more dull, but goes on and on. At long course distances, you have time and ability to think during the races--you'll be out there for four to seven or more hours. Make a point to focus yourself on the positives. Race day is a celebration of your fitness and determination.
5. Redefine success
It's common in short-course racing to feel as though you "left it all out there" as you come across the line on a PR (or otherwise great) day. At long course, you'll fell like you left time on the course on a great day. Why? See my comment in item 1 about the wheels coming off. It's tougher to get the pacing right over longer distances. So what tends to happen is that on a bad day, you're walking at the end of the run. But on a good day, you'll cross the line and immediately think about where you should have gone harder. For this reason, it seems like athletes are more often disappointed with good performances at this distance than at any other. This can take away from the success of the day--and it's unnecessary. Go in knowing that it takes time to perfect racing 70.3 and you're unlikely to get it exactly right on your first (or any given) try.
Coach Mike’s Summertime Anytime Smoothie
This is a quick and easy smoothie to put together - it's big enough to share or to drink 1/2 and put the other half away until later in the day. It's packed with protein and flavor. This is one of my 'go-to' smoothies when I'm on the go.
This smoothie is packed with protein and is a great way to cool off or to get some pep in your step in the morning.
Here’s all you need:
2 bananas
3 TBSP of chia seeds
2 cups of 2% milk
2 TBSP of peanut butter
1 ½ servings of chocolate whey protein
1 cup of ice
Mix in a blender or Bullet and enjoy!
*You can substitute almond milk and almond butter for 2% milk and peanut butter, respectively.
This recipe will have close to 70g of protein and you can split it up or share it. Enjoy!
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While the temps are rising across the landscape and as triathletes ramp up their training as they prep for their biggest events of the year, we have the same conversations behind the curtain at D3: Even though we prescribe a lot of Z2 for our athletes, when the rubber hits the road, and the road heats up, it may be time to shift your approach.
Before we dive into how and why we think this shift is important, let’s first discuss why training by heart rate is a far superior way to train for most of us for the better part of the year. When you have ideal conditions indoors on your treadmill or even outside in cool settings you can rely on your heart rate to give you great information as to what’s going on with your body. When we talk about using HR for measuring effort, we talk about using a chest strap and not a wrist strap. Wrist strap technology has gotten better over the years, but it’s still not as accurate as a chest strap in our experience. A chest strap remains the gold standard for measuring heart rate.
We won’t completely dive into everything as we’ve written enough on the subject already (Zone 1 and Zone 2 Explained link here) - but most of your training is going to be in the Zone 1 and Zone 2 range. This means 70-90% of total training time for most of us. The newer you are to the sport, the more Zone 1 and 2 you’ll need in your program. For example, if you are coming from a non-endurance sport - and you haven’t run a 5k, much less a half marathon, you’ll want to build up your endurance and lean into the Zone 2 work. The more ‘easy’ (Zone 2) work you can do, the bigger the capillary bed you’ll build and the better you’ll be at delivering oxygen to your muscles and carrying lactate away from your muscles as you fatigue. We’ve seen lots of short course PRs come from “long and low” training - (long sessions at a low heart rate). If you want to learn more about Zone 2 training, one of our latest podcasts covers the subject pretty well. Listen to D3 Coaches Mike and Jim discuss the topic here.
Building that nice and robust aerobic base will only help you create a bigger engine and allow you to train and race at faster paces over time. There’s nothing like years of aerobic work to build that engine and see how much you can improve year over year. We see this with our athletes time and again and our experience says that patience in building this base is a key skill set.
Now, many of you may say, “I don’t use heart rate and I’ve always trained by pace” and that’s fine too! Although we have written about that as well here. I still think you will run into trouble when it heats up and you can’t deliver the same amount of oxygen to your muscles because your body is trying to cool itself, and therefore your pace will be hard to maintain at the same effort or you will push too hard to maintain that effort. You can run into some problems if you get dehydrated, such as have heat stroke. So it’s smart to know your limits in the heat.
And on that note, let’s back up a minute. Your skin is the biggest organism of your body. Therefore, when it gets hot, your skin will send a signal to your brain that your skin needs cooling. Your sweat glands will then be activated and it will send water to the surface of your skin, in the form of sweat. Water then evaporates on the skin and cools the body, but only when you are in a dry climate. When it’s humid, evaporation will slow. This is all in direct conflict with your muscles asking for more oxygen as it's trying to maintain a certain pace. Your heart rate will rise and you may be running ‘easy’ but as your pace drops and your heart rate rises, your body is giving you a different signal: This is getting harder to maintain. If your body temp gets too high and your heart rate rises too much, you can get heat exhaustion, as we mentioned above.
There is another option to running by heart rate and pace and that’s running by RPE or Rate of Perceived Exertion. As you learn to use all your running metrics: heart rate, pace, and RPE, you learn how they all give you different information but hopefully lead you to the right pace, heart rate, and/or effort depending on the environmental conditions. Using a subjective measure is a skill set you learn over time while using RPE. From here you can figure out how hard you are working physically and if it’s sustainable. We like to use a 1-10 RPE scale to align effort with paces.
RPE 1-4 - usually very light
RPE 5 - very moderate or a low Zone 1
RPE 6 - Easy, all day effort - Zone 2 - can hold a conversation
RPE 7 - Tempo, sustainable for a while and you can still talk in sentences
RPE 8 - Threshold effort, short, one-word answers
RPE 9 - Very hard effort - VO2 - lasting 5-6 minutes
RPE 10 - all out effort only last a few seconds
Here are some thoughts on using RPE in your training and racing:
1. Be honest with your RPE. It’s easy to say ‘It’s easy’, but you need to think about it and be honest with yourself. Is your breathing really where it should be? Can you hold that effort for the desired time, be it 2 hours for a half marathon or 40 minutes for a 10k?
2. Make sure you have tested RPE in training. Trying to use RPE only in racing will probably lead to a result that is less than what you want.
3. Post race - align HR, Pace and RPE and see what trends you can find. Do the paces and HR align with what you are seeing in training at the same temps?
4. Most important, from D3 Coach Dave Sheanin, “RPE has to reflect how you are feeling dispassionately. It’s not aspirational. If you lie to yourself, you’re sunk.” This goes back to number one above, but it’s so important we had to say it again.
Above all else, when the temps are high and heart rate seems to be out of range, start working some RPE into your training so on race day, you are dialed in and can have a great race, no matter the weather!
