Recovery Week? Not really needed.

We all need recovery, especially when training hard. A common approach is to install a "recovery week" in the training plan. Many do a 3 weeks hard or building intensity/volume, followed by 1 week recovery. Some do a 2:1, or even a 1:1.

But is that really what you need? And how do you define a recovery week? Sitting on your butt? How much recovery do you need? The answer is: it's complicated. It depends on a number of factors, not limited to:
- Amount of fatigue athlete is facing
- History of athlete's response to training
- Weather
- Stress outside of training

Most of my athletes never take a "recovery week". We do recovery "days", but never a week. Too much good work can be lost if given too much recovery. And if you need an entire week to recover, you likely are training too hard during the week.

I find if an athlete can't have great performances in training after 2 light days of training, 3 at most, then the load the athlete is under is too much. 

If you're looking for a jump in performance, perhaps you simply need to reevaluate the recovery you're giving yourself, or the intensity and volume of the training you're doing.

Coach Vance

A Champion Admits He Got Lazy...

In the following video, a few hours after Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian in history, and shortly after being upset in his signature event of the 200m Fly, he was asked by Bob Costas, "what went wrong?" (1:40 mark of the video). His response was incredibly honest, and one which most athletes can learn from. He admits that he got lazy in training, and it carried over to race day. All those lazy touches at the wall in training, and more, came back to bite him.

Bob Costas: “Let’s talk about that 200 butterfly. You had the lead much of the way. You were out-touched by Chad Le Clos of South Africa 5 one-hundredths of a second.It’s hard to say that when you win a silver medal that something has gone wrong but your standard is so high that I guess we can put it that way. What went wrong?

Michael Phelps: Um… It”s probably the finishes I’ve done in workout. It ended up coming out here. There are times I go slow into the wall or touch lazy and it showed. But at the same time I’ve had a great career. And that’s my fourth Olympic final in the 200 fly. And, sure I’d like to have been 6 one-hundredths faster but there’s nothing I can do about that right now, it’s time to move forward. And I have a couple of more events coming up and that’s what I’m preparing for.

How many athletes can admit that? How many athletes when they lose or don't have the result they want can look in the mirror and recognize the little things, the details they have ignored? Everyone trains and prepares, everyone cares about the result. But very few care enough to do the details, and the ones who do win the races.

Watch the video here or below...




Perhaps another telling part of the interview is that he is satisfied, and he seems ok with the result he got, especially given how he hasn't been as committed as he knows he could have been.  This is not a criticism of him, as it is admirable. Many athletes struggle to find this balance, and even some athletes don't realize their commitment level is not up to par, yet hold an expectation of almost gold standard.

I think many athletes can learn a lot from his brief statement.

Coach Vance

Core strength does NOT equal speed

I have an athlete I've been coaching, and they have incredible core strength. Years of swimming, and lots of core work, 5 times per week, up to an hour per session.

This athlete though is not happy with where their performance is. The first thing I am doing as the coach is cutting back the core strength. This sounds like blasphemy to some, as core strength is the "in" thing. But if core strength translated to speed, this athlete would be one of the fastest around. But they're not.

Strengthen your core, sure, but there comes a point where the effort you put into getting the extra few percentage points of improved core is wasted, as you could be putting that effort toward things that actually make you faster.

Coach Vance

Attitude Part 2

"If you have a bad start, you've got 99 meters to be pissed." - Carl Lewis, sprinter, 9-time Olympic Gold Medalist in track and field

This past weekend I took my TriJuniors athletes to Des Moines, Iowa for a major Elite Cup, which is one of the toughest events on the Junior Elite Series, to get athletes qualified for Nationals. I had 2 girls race who it was their first major event. They told me, "That swim was really rough". Nevermind the fact I told them to expect this for months leading into the race, they didn't have good starts and they dealt with the consequences. If you want to have a good start, it is all about attitude in swimming, being aggressive. So you can either have a great start and enjoy it, or have a bad one and be pissed about it. Make the choice.

Coach Vance

Attitude on the Start Line

The attitude you have on the start-line will be the biggest determinant of the race result.

So what attitude do I want you to have on the start line? "Who's getting 2nd?"!!! That's the attitude I want. But you have to believe it for it to be effective. If you don't do the work, you won't believe it. If you've done the work, BRING THAT ATTITUDE!!!

Coach Vance

Belief of Improvement

I see a number of athletes not sure they believe they can improve to a high level of performance. Funny how I look thru the careers of every top level athlete, age-group to elite, and there took a period of improvement and increase in belief they could reach a high level of performance. No one ever heard of Peter Sagan in cycling, now he is the biggest name in the sport since probably Lance. Look at any athlete who we talk about today, and you'll find they improved beyond what most of us expect of ourselves. I wonder if they believed they would improve so much. And if they did believe it would happen, how many of us limit ourselves simply in what believe the limit is of our own improvement potential?

So where are you? Do you believe you can improve? How much? If you believe, then don't get in your way, take some risk and go after it.

Coach Vance

The Advantage of Forced Change

This year our venue for my TriJuniors regular Tuesday night track workouts was under construction, and we had to look for a new one. We were able to secure a much nicer venue, at the time we wanted, but they would only be able to accommodate us on Wednesday nights instead.

At first this was quite frustrating. I didn't want to change what I was doing as a coach, as I felt I had a good rhythm with our program. Changing what I was used to was uncomfortable to say the least. 

Then we started the new workout, and restructured the week we use for training. It was interesting to see how in many cases, the change was actually advantageous to the training I was writing for our group. Of course, at first I didn't even want to consider that possibility. Changing what I was used to was wrong, bad and just plain annoying! 

I preach a lot here about athletes changing what they do, and their unwillingness to do so in many cases, despite the clear benefits. I learned that lesson again myself. We are seeing the benefit. I changed training structure and approach because I had to, it was forced upon me, and low and behold, it was probably the best thing to happen to us. 

Seek out change, force yourself to try something different. If you're not happy with your current results, what do you have to lose?

Coach Vance

Show me the heel-striker

This was last weekend, at the ITU WTS Triathlon in San Diego. These guys are running very fast. The reason? They don't let their feet spend much time on the ground. Even Huerta, who looks like he's about to heel-strike, isn't actually, as he quickly moves the foot more under his hips, from a supinated landing to toe-off. 

Want to get faster at running? Perfect the foot-strike. Go on runs where all you do is pay attention to your foot-strike. When the heel contacts first, the foot can not get off the ground until the forefoot lands, and then it can toe-off. That takes time, a lot of time when you add it up over hundreds/thousands of foot-steps. If the forefoot to mid-foot lands first, that will reduce the time, so the athlete can spend more time propelling themselves. More propelling means faster.

Focus on perfecting your foot-strike to be more mid-foot to forefoot, and you'll be faster. 

Coach Vance

Coaching Triathletes with Power Meters Seminar

If you're in the Southern California area, or will be here for the ITU San Diego race, and are interested in learning more about how to train with power, or how to coach different triathletes, (Sprint to Ironman, drafting or non-drafting), then you should check out this seminar I'm conducting...


What: Coaching Triathletes with Power Meters, Sprint and Olympic to Ironman
When: Thursday, May 10, 2012, 9 AM to 12 PM
Where: DoubleTree Hotel, Hotel Circle, (Balboa Room)
Why: 3 CEU's for USAT Coaches, and lots of learning!

Elite Coach Jim Vance will present how to coach triathletes with power meters, using the data to plan and assess training, for triathletes using a power meter, from Sprint and Olympic distance to Ironman.

Jim will compare and contrast the different power files of varying athletes, from elites, to top age-groupers, middle of the pack athletes, and those just trying to beat the midnight cut-off. Citing the differences between the demands of the different athlete levels, Jim will discuss the training strategies for coaches to consider.

Topics Include:

-          What is power?

-          How to analyze a power file

-          How to track improvement within athletes

-          Examples of different race files, from varying abilities and distances

-          Power differences for draft-legal vs. non-drafting events

-          Understanding the differences in order to better plan training

-          Quadrant Analysis

-          Q & A

-          And more…

You can register here:
http://www.active.com/triathlon-conference/san-diego-ca/coaching-triathletes-with-power-meters-2012


Hope to see you there!


Coach Vance

Training isn't perfect, but we can learn to do it better

I came across this PMC chart for an athlete who got hurt a few years ago, and unfortunately was not able to start their Ironman event. Anytime you work with an athlete, you're dealing with a unique experiment of one. You can bring experience from other athletes and training philosophies, but in the end, no two athletes are the same.

From reading this blog, you know I am big on data, and this photo helps illustrate why. This athlete got injured, and I was wondering what might have been the trigger to getting injured. Was there a mistake I made in planning, or they made in possibly not following the plan, that we can learn from for doing better training next time?

In the above photo, you can see where I identified 2 instances where Acute Training Load, (ATL), shows a very large jump, followed not much later by an injury. There's even another moment where the athlete is sick, and identified in the graph.

This information showed me what some key metrics and numbers to avoid with this athlete, and how much risk is reasonable in training, versus just likely to injure them again.

If you're using technology on a consistent and committed basis, you can begin to learn these things about your own "experiment of one". Training is never perfect, but with the power of data and retrospect, we can certainly learn to do it better, making less errors, or at least making training judgments with the odds in our favor.

If you're looking for some help with this, I am happy to review your files and tell you what I see, and what I think. But look for trends yourself, and see if you can learn anything from them as well.

Coach Vance