Heat Training Part One: Hot is the New Altitude

Preparing for Ironman Texas, I've been doing a lot of "heat training."  This is where you expose yourself to extra warmth and humidity to prepare the body for race day.  This thins the blood and allows you to stay much cooler than somebody who stays out of the heat most of the time.  Some people will tell you that it's even better than altitude training.  For a race like #IMTX, where people pass out left and right due to the insane temperatures, I totally agree.

There is an art to heat training.  Just like altitude training, you want to "train low, recover high."  If you subject yourself to horrible conditions while training, you won't get in good workouts.  You'll be wasting your training time and increasing your recovery time both at once.  A smarter option is to subject yourself to uncomfortably warm temps while not training, slowly increasing what you can tolerate.  For example, get so hot at work all day that running outdoors in the heat doesn't bother you at all.

You can do short to moderately long workouts (thirty minutes to almost an hour) outside or in a hot stuffy room and be alright.  It is the two to five-hour long bike or run in the heat that is very unwise.  Workouts like that require a huge recovery window.  You do not want to have bad workouts for three days because you decided to heat train on your long ride and now about as hydrated as a bag of dust.

In my next post, I'll cover when to start heat training and lots of tricks to do it right.

ZenTri 559 - Sami Style

How to train with intervals and heat, news with Tawnee Prazak, and Kai coaches us on how to ride your bike in a race.

 

Training for Ironman Texas starts getting really hot and heavy in this episode.  The heat of IMTX is incredibly oppressive, so I'm pulling out all the tricks. Above, I'm cycling in a long jersey and full gloves on a warm day.

In the pool, it's time to start adding in paddles and leg bands to amp up the resistance.

I've started collecting gear for the race.  I apply sunscreen again about halfway through the bike and again during the run.  The little tube is small enough to carry the whole race after the swim.

The Vaseline is the perfect size to apply to any hotspots that unexpectedly pop up.  And Thermotabs can be carried in a small Ziploc and eaten as needed.  I eat about two an hour.

With all the time on the bike, it was just a matter of time before my rig fell over and took a nasty hit.  The right rear tip of my Zipp Vukas got cracked off when my dog knocked over my bike in the living room.

I was feeling pretty bummed out, but managed to patch it just fine with some black Sugru.  Then to make myself feel better, I bought this cool shirt.  It worked.

The funniest thing happens over and over again when I wear it.  People stop, stare at it for a moment, then slowly say, "I... Texas... Texas."  Then they nod, and... nothing.  Conversation over.  Often, they just walk off and go about their business.  It's funny how it happens just like that every time.

Sami Inkinen is my inspiration for my latest round of training. He recommended RestWise in his training plans, and here's a screenshot.

When you get smart and zero in on how to do Sami Style right, you can do HARD intervals for two days in a row and be almost fully recovered in 48 hours.  Crazy stuff!

Sami Style training freed me up from eating mass quantities of junk just to keep up with the workload.  After a couple of days, I was able to go enjoy a nice salad at Freebirds.

I can't tell you how nice it was to enjoy some fresh greens without worrying about if all that fiber would wreck my next workout.

Back to the heat training, one thing I'm doing is spending any time in my car with the heater on full blast.  In this photo my watch is showing the temperature at 97 degrees while I'm wearing three layers of clothes.

It eventually got up to 99 degrees before I stopped that session.  It definitely seems to be working - I barely sweated at all.  

Alright! Stay tuned for more fun in the next show!

ZenTri Podcast 558 - The Natural

I'm honored to have Tawnee Prazak reading the news with me on this show!  We cover the latest in new races, pros being cut out of other races, cyclist drama, and much more.  

After that, Kai gives us some open water tips in his segment, "Kai's Coaching for Kids."

Then it's on to the training log!  It's peak training weeks time for Ironman Texas, so I take you with me on some epic rides.

(Out training on part of the Ironbaby bike course.)

I talk a lot about training techniques and high volume.  There's a lot of strategies to surviving 20+ hours of training a week.

(Texas scenery. He started snorting when I got too close.)

The Training Log is full of technical details on how to do many things.  I specifically describe about a way of training that uses your "natural pace." It's really cool!

Along the way, my bike starts coming apart from all the abuse.

(The bamboo bike computer mount I made by hand.)

(More scenery on the bike)

(Attacked by wild animals while stopping for water.  Look at the rage in his eyes!)

Among other things, the rear bottle cages flew off my bike on a long ride.  Once I escaped the death grip of the beagle-wolf, I was able to stow it away to find it again later.

(I hid my rear bottle cages in the bushes after it blew off the back of my bike.)

In random news, I've made friends with whoever is behind the @TheRealStarky Twitter account.  He sent me and Kai a couple of shirts and I might be helping him with a project!  

(Kai and I got a TheRealStarky shirt!)

That's it for now.  Stay tuned and let Tawnee know on Twitter if you liked her on the show!

ZenTri 557 - Galveston 70.3 2014

I had a great time racing the "Texas 70.3" in Galveston with a bunch of ZenTri fans.  I went into it as a bit of a tune-up for Ironman Texas coming up on May 17th.  This episode covers the race and also has good chunk of Triathlon News with my good buddy, Morgan Christian.

I ended up PR-ing with a 4:40, helped out by a very strong bike ride (Thanks to Strong Like Bull camp!) and even a nice tailwind for a good portion of the race.  I biked 5 watts higher than last year and did most of the race in a comfortable aerobic zone.  Here's the link to the entire race's workout file.

The Amrita kit was a nice touch and I got lots of cheers from fans that recognized me from the shows.  Thanks, everbody!  I did have a little bit of an upset stomach towards the end of the run, which I talk plenty about during the podcast.  

Galveston is very family-friendly, so Emily and Kai got to have a lot of fun as well.  Here's Kai and I attempting to steal a golf cart from the Kroger's parking lot right across from the beach.  

And the ocean was beautiful on Friday night before the race.  Lots of great surf and people out enjoying it.

As the weather is warming up, I'm getting outside more on the bike.  Wildflowers are blooming like crazy right now and it's great to be on the road instead of in the Training Cave.  I shot the pic below on one of my typical training rides.

With the warm weather, out come the critters!  The backstory behind the snake photo is that I was swinging it around and trying to scare Kai with it.  And I love how the car in the background is trying to get as much distance between itself and us as possible!

There's lots of fun and info in the show, so enjoy!

ZenTri Podcast 566 - Oceanside 70.3 Review

We cover the Oceanside 70.3 race and news with Morgan Christian, then turn it over to the Training Log!  I've been training a lot for the Galveston race, taking Kai biking while I run trails. (Above)

The local roads are bursting with wildflowers and it's getting warmer, so this is becoming my new scenery during training rides.

It's a nice change for sure.  Riding the trainer facing a wall was getting old.

I also did a guest post on "What's in my gym bag." for a another blog.  Here's the photo... It's pretty much running gear.  Full blog post can be found here.

Next episode is the Galveston 70.3 review.  Don't miss it!