Triathlon

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The Truth About Triathlon Swimming - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 33

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The Truth About Triathlon Swimming - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 33

Because the swim makes up the shortest part of the race and training volume, it’s often the most overlooked piece of the puzzle. How many times have you heard it (or even said it yourself), “I’ll just survive the swim” or “So long as I don’t drown in the swim I’ll be fine.” Yeah, it’s said tongue-in-cheek but there’s always some truth to those comments. Chances are it’s because the swim training was often skipped, unfocused, or haphazard and didn’t prepare the athlete for what to expect on race day.

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I Had My Resting Metabolic Rate Tested: Here's What I Learned - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 32

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I Had My Resting Metabolic Rate Tested: Here's What I Learned - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 32

Compared to a typical person of similar sex, age, height, and weight my metabolic rate is 19% faster. That simply means I burn more calories than normal. Obviously the opposite is true too. Slow metabolisms burn fewer calories. Most people need to eat below their total metabolic rate to lose weight. There’s that calories in versus calories out research again!

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The Right Way to Calculate Calories for Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 31

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The Right Way to Calculate Calories for Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 31

To determine daily caloric expenditure, I used the hour-by-hour BMR calculations. Here are the calculations used:

162 lbs, converted to kilograms, 162 divided by 2.2, 73.5 kg. When multiplied by the lean factor of 1 for 10% body fat, and then multiplied by 24 for total BMR, we arrived at 1,766 calories at rest per day. Break that down by 24 hours, dividing 1,766 by 24 for each hour in the day, I expend 73.5 calories per hour at rest.

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The Importance of Protein for Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 30

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The Importance of Protein for Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 30

In general, protein intake for athletes should be about higher than for the average non-athlete. That means, for a general approach, athletes should be consuming 1.2 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. That’s a great place to start and then progress from there.

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The Importance of Carbohydrate for Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 29

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The Importance of Carbohydrate for Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 29

Each macronutrient (fat, carbohydrate, protein) plays an important role in health and performance. For example, different carbohydrate will affect energy and performance depending on nutrient timing and type of carbohydrate a triathlete eats. Fats are the most calorically dense macronutrient and if over consumed can negatively affect body composition. Protein during and after workouts, for example, will be used for energy and repair, respectively.

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The Importance of Dietary Fat for Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 28

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The Importance of Dietary Fat for Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 28

Different types of fat will affect energy and performance depending on nutrient timing and quality of the fat. Fats are the most calorically dense macronutrient and if over consumed can negatively affect body composition.

Dietary fats should generally come in the lower end of your macronutrient breakdown, especially if you’re properly focusing on carbohydrates and protein. This will leave an athlete with fats making up roughly 20% of their daily caloric intake, generally.

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The Basics of Essential Nutrition Explained - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 27

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The Basics of Essential Nutrition Explained - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 27

This is the first article in a five week series where we discuss proper nutrition for triathletes. The first week focuses on basic nutrition practices for general health. Moving forward we’ll explain the importance of fat, protein, and carbohydrate as well as share strategies to calculate your daily caloric expenditure and the proper macronutrient breakdown to improve your athletic performance.

Basic nutrition practices for general health

The evidence of poor nutrition is rampant. You don’t need to look further than your friends, family, and coworkers for proof. It’s an unfortunate reality, but there’s no sense in sugarcoating everything just because they do.

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A Day in the Life of an Ironman Triathlete - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 26

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A Day in the Life of an Ironman Triathlete - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 26

I was reminded of this fact on Saturday morning when my alarm went off at 4:00 AM (yes, on a Saturday) and it was 17F degrees outside. I had a 90 minute bike ride with an hour at or near threshold followed by a 20 minute brick run. My pain cave is the uninsulated garage and I forget to get the propane heater refilled. Alas, I was left to battle the workout plus the frozen temperatures. Good mental training, right?

An Open Letter to Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 25

An Open Letter to Triathletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 25

We are in the midst of a crisis. Our sport has lost its sense of community. What was once an open society of health-conscious athletes has divulged into a social media pissing contest and non-Ironman finishers need not apply.

Tattoo to celebrate a 70.3? Idiot.

Full Ironman without training? Disrespectful.

Setting out to complete 50 Ironmans in 50 days and failing? Immediate lifetime ban.

Something needs to change.

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What to Eat and How to Exercise When You’re Sick - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 23

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What to Eat and How to Exercise When You’re Sick - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 23

On Saturday the bug got me. Bad. My alarm was set for 4:30 a.m. and I planned on being on the trainer by 5:00 a.m. for a 90 minute ride, which included five 10 minute intervals just below threshold followed by a short, but snappy 10 minute brick run. So when I awoke at 3:15 a.m. with unspeakable pain in my stomach and a splitting headache I knew that as I raced to the bathroom that would be the only running I’d be doing that day.

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The Most Effective Way to Adjust and Substitute Your Triathlon Workouts - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 22

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The Most Effective Way to Adjust and Substitute Your Triathlon Workouts - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 22

Training plan templates make a hell of a lot of assumptions. Those silly PDFs and app icons assume we have unlimited time to train, zero friends, are unemployed, and that our lives revolve around triathlon. Perhaps that’s you in a nutshell. Though, more than likely it’s probably not. You have to ask yourself…

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The Reasons Why Running is The Best of all Three Triathlon Disciplines - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 21

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The Reasons Why Running is The Best of all Three Triathlon Disciplines - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 21

Just as the snow has worn on me, running has grown on me. It’s slowly becoming my favorite of the three triathlon disciplines because I can simply lace up my sneakers, walk out the front door and run as far and for as long as I like. It requires one piece of equipment, sneakers!

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What Every Triathlete MUST Carry on Their Bike - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 21

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What Every Triathlete MUST Carry on Their Bike - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 21

You wake up to the morning sun shining through the bedroom window and the sweet sound of birds chirping just beyond the glass. It’s the first nice day of the year (for us Upstaters this happens in late April most likely) and you’re eager to throw down some watts on the open road! Just before you clip in you do a check to make sure you have all the essentials to be seen by driver, to repair a flat, to pay for some unforeseen item a.k.a f*ck you money, and enough nutrition to get you back home safely. So what does all of that look like?

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The Most Essential Swim Training Tools for Triathletes and How to Use Them - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 20

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The Most Essential Swim Training Tools for Triathletes and How to Use Them - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 20

Training tools are all well and good by themselves but unless you know how to use them effectively, they’re meaningless. With (hopefully) a renewed sense of focus on my swimming, here are the most essential training tools, aside from your cap and goggles, for triathletes to improve their form and get faster in the water.

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The Single WORST New Year's Resolution for Endurance Athletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 19

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The Single WORST New Year's Resolution for Endurance Athletes - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 19

I hate New Year resolutions. Aside from the fact it’s a failed strategy, I never understood why we need the calendar to change before we start to change. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made resolutions (to “lose weight” for example) in the past. I’ve stuck to them for a while, but then my motivation faded and I was back to burying my ass in the couch with a 6-pack and a bag of Cheetos.

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4 Quick and Easy Exercises to Make You More Explosive on the Bike - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 18

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4 Quick and Easy Exercises to Make You More Explosive on the Bike - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 18

Putting out your best power on the bike requires plenty of force being applied to, and through, the pedals. These four warm-up exercises will help wake up your backside and loosen up your hips so you can be more explosive, safer, and train longer in the saddle.

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Survive the Holidays with These Effective Techniques - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 17

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Survive the Holidays with These Effective Techniques - 52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 17

We know the week and days leading up Christmas are ridiculous so I’ll spare you the cliches. The reason you’re here is to figure out how the heck to manage it all, eat with your best intentions, and still maintain your swim, bike, and run fitness.

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52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 16

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52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 16

The two most important elements of an Ironman training plan are patience and consistency. Sure, the program itself is important. It needs to be structured in such a way that promotes progress and physical adaptation. But at the end of the day, if you’re not consistent in training the program fails. If you’re not patient in training the program fails, no matter how great the program is.

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52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 14

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52 Weeks to Mont Tremblant - Week 14

Triathlon saved my life. I made a promise to myself that I’d start living healthier after my mother’s breast cancer diagnosis in 2014. I was overweight, unhappy, and settling for one job after another with no real desire or direction. But what started out as a goal for myself later blossomed into a passion for endurance sports and helping others realize the freedoms in life and sport that triathlon has afforded me.