Random Training, Reading WKO+ Charts From A Season

An athlete recently did a consultation with me over his training, where he sent me all his WKO+ files from this past season, and I reviewed the charts, telling him what I saw about his training.

Here is one of the charts I used, which showed me how his cycling training went for the year, fairly clearly:

(Click on image to enlarge)

You'll notice the athlete starts off the season really well, from January until May, with consistent improvement, only to see the second half of the season not resemble anything like the first half. This is something I see common in self-coached athletes. They will spend the first part of the season doing all the group workouts they can, racing in practice all the time, going hard as often as they can, training by peer pressure. After awhile, the body begins to plateau, or they get mentally tired, and they struggle to perform well at the same workouts which were bringing them such great fitness in the early season. By the end of the season, the athlete is just shot, mentally and physically, usually finishing on a negative note.

If you're looking for ways to prevent this from happening, then using technology in your training and analysis of your training will help you to make better training decisions. You can create training decisions based on data, not on peer pressure! After a few weeks of seeing a plateau, as a coach I would be changing training for sure!

This is the type of thing I discussed in the webinar on "Advanced Charts and Tracking in WKO+ for Athlete Performance," at Performance Webinars. If you use WKO+, or are interested in using it, then my webinar which is archived on there is something you'll want to see, for helping you see these plateaus before they happen.

I will share some more charts from this athlete and others, which show some interesting things from the year and season of 2009. Stay tuned!

Coach Vance

Gift Certificates Available for the Holidays and Beyond

If you're looking for a gift idea for the athlete in your life, TrainingBible Coaching is offering gift certificates and a holiday special for you to consider!

1. Gift Certificates - Purchase a gift certificate for coaching, our camps, clinics, video analysis or even a sit-down session with a coach to discuss goals, planning training for the year, or whatever the needs of the athlete are. Prices vary, so please check this page for details.

2. How about 3 months of coaching by one of my TrainingBible coaches? This is something nearly every athlete would love to receive as a gift to help them get ready for the 2010 season. Make your purchase before December 25 and TrainingBible will even give you a gift - we will waive our normal $150-250 Start Up Fee (with 3 months paid in advance). This offer is good for any of our coaching services.* For a list of services and fees go to our site. To take advantage of this offer please email our Director of Coaching, Adam Zucco before December 25, 2009.

Coach Vance

*This is based on coach availability, as I only have 3.0-4.0 level service plans available. However, we have other coaches with availability at other levels.

Post Season Analysis

The following is an article I wrote for Finishline-Multisport for the month of December. It's a timely piece, with a lot of relevancy for athletes who have finished up their season.

Post Season Analysis

Analysis of fitness is a key to improvement and performance, and is something I do on a regular basis with my athletes. However, sometimes it is best to sit back and look at the bigger picture of fitness and performance. This is why coaches set-up an annual training plan at the beginning of the season, which structures the year to build fitness across a spectrum of time.

Another great time to do this, which is often overlooked, is the end of the season. Analysis of how the season went, and how it could have been improved is a key component of planning for the following season.

One of the exercises I have my athletes do is write out the answers to the following questions, so we can better assess the season...

Read the rest here at Finishline-Multisport.com

Coach Vance

ActiveTrainer.com Swim Training Plans

For those of you out there training and using ActiveTrainer, I have created some swim training plans with iPod/iPhone videos, which you can take to the pool with you, to help demo drills and skills.

The plans are written as two days of workouts and new drill introduction, (Mondays and Wednesdays), and then another fitness-based workout which combines the skills of the week into a single workout. Every other week has a fourth workout, which is optional or can be switched around during the week.

If you're a triathlete looking for swim help only, and want to do your own bike and run training, then these plans are for you. You can simply add these swim workouts to your training, and adjust as you see fit.

Check it out here under Triathlon or Swimming:
http://www.activetrainer.com/

There are three plans, Level 1, Level 2, and a combined one for cheaper of Levels 1 and 2.

If you use these, I'm sure you'll learn a lot, and improve your swimming!

Best of luck!

Coach Vance

Understanding Swimming talk at Nytro - Wednesday Dec 16th

I'll be doing a talk at NYTRO in Encinitas, CA which you won't want to miss!

What: "Learning and Understanding the 3 Most Important Technical Aspects of Swimming"
When: Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 6:15 - 7:30 PM
Where: Nytro
Who: Anyone who is struggling with swimming, or wants to get faster in the water
***Please RSVP to Jim at jvance at trainingbible dot com****

This lecture will help athletes understand what they want to accomplish in the water, not just throwing one arm in front of the other.

Even if you've already been this or similar lectures, I've improved it with some new concepts, analogies and aspects which will help you improve your swimming OVERNIGHT! If you haven't seen it, then don't miss this chance!

Hope to see you there!

Coach Vance

Webinar - Advanced Charts WKO+ - Archived

If you missed my webinar on "Advanced Charts and Tracking in WKO+ for Athlete Performance", you can find it archived at:

http://www.performancewebinars.com

(Scroll down to the title)

It was a great webinar, with excellent questions from the viewers, and a lot of positive feedback. If you're a coach or athlete using WKO+, you should watch this webinar.

Coach Vance

TrainingBible Coaching California Triathlon Camp - March 2010

TrainingBible Coaching California Triathlon Camp
March 11th-14th, 2010, (Thursday – Sunday)
San Luis Obispo/Atascadero, California

The Perfect Training Camp for Wildflower, St. George, or Oceanside!

Camp Features:
• All workouts are coach-led, by a TrainingBible Coach, for swim, bike and run!
• Training on Wildflower Triathlon bike course and surrounding areas
• Coach on-deck for pool sessions
• Fully-sagged rides
• Underwater swim video technique assessment for each athlete, ($100 value!)
• Run video technique assessment for each athlete, ($100 value!)
• 3 classroom sessions, for learning, Q&A, discussion and individual learning, totaling 4 hours in length!
• Free airport shuttle to those flying via San Luis Obispo Airport to/from camp hotel
• 16-25 hours of training in 4 days! (Swim 6 hrs, Bike 7-13 hrs, Run 3-6 hrs)
• Hotel discounted rate (Athletes are responsible for food, lodging and travel to San Luis Obispo.)


The camp will feature training totals of:
Swim - 6 hours
Bike - 7-13 hours
Run - 3-6 hours
Total Training - 16-25 hours in 4 days!

Costs:
March 11th – 14th Camp (Thursday-Sunday): $499 ($449 for TrainingBible Athletes!)

Extended Camp Opportunity March 8th – 14th (Monday – Sunday): $799 ($749 for TrainingBible Athletes!) ****Extended camp opportunity is for those who want to extend the experience and enjoy a full week of training with the TrainingBible Coaching athletes and staff****

Register here at Active.com

See the full camp schedule here

Camp Hotel – Best Western Colony Inn, Atascadero

(805) 466-4449
Hotel Features:
• Free continental breakfast
• Free internet
• Pool access, (Kennedy Club)
• Special rate of $99-$105/night (Based on occupancy)
• Amenities include refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker

Send any questions to the Camp Coordinator, Orlanda Vance, at ovance at trainingbible dot com.

Hope to see you there!

Coach Vance

Triathlon Camp - Majorca, SPAIN March 2010

If you're looking for a cool trip, training camp, and learning experience over in Europe, then you should consider the camp I'm running with Joe Friel in Majorca, SPAIN, from March 19th to 26th.

One week full of training, technical work, open water swimming, and incredible scenery, on this beautiful island! Details of the camp can be found at:

http://www.sportstoursinternational.co.uk/triathlon/joe-friel-triathlon-training-camp-19th-26th-mar-2010

Feel free to contact me with questions. Space is limited, and it is filling up, so hurry!

Coach Vance

Webinar - Advanced Charts and Tracking in WKO+ for Athlete Performance

I will be giving a webinar on November 30th, at 7:30 PM EST/ 4:30 PM Pacific, entitled, "Advanced Charts and Tracking in WKO+ for Athlete Performance" at Performance Webinars.

If you use WKO+ to track your training, or are interested in using it, use a power meter, or even a speed-distance device for running, (Garmin, Polar, etc), then this is the webinar for you!

If you miss it, it will be archived and sold at PerformanceWebinars.com.

This is not a beginner-focused webinar, it is designed for athletes and coaches who are looking to maximize how to use WKO+, not just for individual sessions, but for the entire season and comparing over past seasons. We will not discuss how to download files, but focus more on assessing performance and tracking adaptation to training.

All of the webinars offered through Performance Webinars have both USAT and USAC credits associated with them. This includes the live and archived webinars.

Coach Vance

Choosing a coach...

For those of you who haven’t been reading my athlete blog, you’ve probably missed the announcement that I will be returning to elite level racing in 2010. I thought it would be good to share on my coaching blog how I, as a coach and elite triathlete, choose my coach. (http://ironmanexpedition.blogspot.com)

After discussing things with my wife, and making the decision, it became time to decide who I would recruit to help me on this journey, specifically, “who will coach me?” For some, this sounds like a crazy irony, because I myself am a coach. Shouldn’t I know everything I need to know in order to coach myself? Certainly I don’t lack the knowledge to coach myself, but I’m not ignorant to the fact I don’t know everything. I was able to coach myself to some incredible fitness in late 2008, with Joe Friel’s consulting, and even coached myself to the 2005 ITU World Age Group Championship for Men 25-29.

The problem is mostly objectivity that I tend to lack. Though I know myself, I know I can find it tough to stay objective and not fall to peer pressure in many of the decisions I have to make regarding training and racing. When I start to feel good, I tend to want to poor on the volume and intensity, and conversely, when I feel tired or bad, I want to back off way too much. The roller coaster was very taxing mentally and emotionally. Injuries would add to the mix, and I would be in dire straits.

I also would make decisions which in the past were based on things which weren’t important to me in the bigger picture, but I got caught up in short-term thinking. So after recognizing my weaknesses in my past training, I knew that I needed someone who simply could bring balance and structure to my training. I had to let someone else take the responsibility, and hold me responsible to it.

After coming to TrainingBible Coaching, I have become much more of a scientist, and really embrace technology and objectivity, to keep me balanced and my training more effective. I knew I needed a coach who would embrace science, even if it wasn’t in the same ways which I had in the past.

The coaches I have had in the past directly working with me have been Greg Welch, Cliff English, (briefly at the US Olympic Training Center), Peter Reid, and Joe Friel, which is an ALL-STAR cast! I knew my standards have been quite high, and that standard must be maintained.

Sometimes as a coach and athlete, we get stuck into thinking there is a specific routine to training, and we almost find ourselves in a rut, forgetting some of the things we’ve learned in the past, or even move away from experimentation in training. I have always searched for ways to do things better, and learn new things. As an Ironman-focused elite for the past few years, clearly my biggest weakness is speed and high-intensity. I needed a coach who would bring a different background of experience and perspective, to help me reach my goals for 2010 and beyond.

I always want to learn some new things to try with some of my athletes, and continue to provide a top level service to them, being a coach at the forefront of the industry. Certainly, a coach who would bring all these things to the table for me would help me not only as an athlete, but as a coach as well.

I had a short list of coaches, and did some research on them, and continued to ask myself again what was most important to me for learning, helping me become a better athlete, and advancing my career as a coach. I kept coming back to one name which I liked and provided me everything I was looking for, and then some. That name was Bob Seebohar.

Bob has been the nutritionist on staff with the US Olympic Training Center and the Florida Gators. He has successfully coached two of the top female ITU triathletes for the US, Sarah Haskins and Jasmine Onieck. Sarah went to the Olympics this year, and Jasmine won the US Elite Championship.

I will be his lone long course guy, but we will do some short-course racing as well, trying to do some different things and balancing the training for maximium performance preparation. Being his one guy in this arena is exciting and a great opportunity for me.

Bob has already taught me a lot, and I am looking forward to this relationship continuing for awhile. Should be exciting, stay tuned!

Coach Vance