Endurance Training Slows Top End Speed

From Matt Fitzgerald

The problem with this weightlifting expert’s argument is that the training required to increase your maximum sprint speed will reduce—sharply, in most cases—the percentage of maximum speed that can be sustained over long durations. So the runner who begins with a maximum speed of 18 mph and the ability to sustain 50 percent of that speed over 10K, and who then increases his or her maximum speed to 20 mph, is now able to sustain only 40 percent of his or her maximum speed over 10K and goes from a 41:20 10K runner to a 46:30 10K runner.

Coaching People Not Sports

From Vernon Gambetta

I am the coach of people not sports. Coaching sports is easy, that is the X's and O's, the sets and reps, the intervals, and anyone can learn that stuff in a book. Coaching people is tough; it demands understanding of what makes each athlete tick. You must never compromise your foundational beliefs. Know why you coach. Know why your athletes participate. Make sure your management or coaching style is your means of implementing your philosophy and remember the cornerstone of any effective coaching style is communication.

Less Volume, More Rest

From Healthynomics

Part of me wants to say that it has evolved tremendously, but much of the training in the United States remains dated, naive and backward. The over-reliance on volume without recovery still leads to a big problem of over training and athletes of all levels arriving to races fit, but tired. The positive is that there is a tide of change beginning to occur.

Less Thinking

From The Sport Factory

George Sheehan wrote, in Running to Win (1992), “of all the lessons sport teaches us about life, perhaps none is more dramatic than the danger of focusing on the outcome.” A part of our nature, we have a tendency to focus on winning or losing, success or failure. By focusing solely on the outcome, our enjoyment and our performance may suffer. A “don’t think, just run,” mentality keeps us focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, as fast as we can, rather than just thinking about the finish line.

How Important is Lactate?

From PhysFarm

So, you may now be asking yourself, “Why should we even worry about lactate?” The answer is, we shouldn’t! I encourage my athletes and students to stop thinking in terms of lactate. Everyone does it, because it is so easy to measure. However, as you can see, it is really just a very indirect market of some much more important / interesting stuff that is going on in the body, most of which is not easy to measure without expensive gear. From the perspective of the average (or even professional) athlete, it is simply important to realize that you don’t want to be crossing CP with any significant frequency or for any significant duration if you are expecting to do your best in a triathlon, particularly a long course triathlon.

Don't Overthink

From Paulo Souza

The sport of triathlon is full of overthinkers. They overthink everything: nutrition, equipment and of course training. Proof of the existence of these overthinkers is the popularity of triathlon forums, with their endless pages of often pointless discussion. What makes overthinking an issue is that when athletes overthink, they lose focus. Focus on the truly important things: consistency, patience, long-term approach to development. This is a problem for many athletes, but I see it worse when coaches suffer from it. Too many coaches out there overthink their processes and “infect” their athletes with superfluous questioning of every step of the training process. The bottom line is that overthinking is synonym with underachieving.

A Look Inside Gait Analysis

From Running Times

A must-see video for all running coaches out there. This is a look inside at the University of Virginia's Centre for Endurance Sport and how they treat injured runners.

http://wpblogs.runningtimes.com/blogs/performancepodcasts/?p=204