Sugar Water: It’s Not Just for Racing Anymore

by CBCG Athlete Amy VT

“I never drink water.” - Matt Lieto, professional triathlete and the voice of IronmanLive®

It’s always a good idea to try new things on race day, right? You would never christen a shoe, saddle, or sock at a race without significant mileage of testing beforehand, and nutrition and hydration products are no exception. 

Head CBCG coach Chris Bagg says, “Athletes often avoid sports drinks in training, potentially to cut down on sugar and calories. Unfortunately, that typically leads to athletes complaining about GI issues on race day that could have been prevented with better training practices. Moreover, athletes frequently shortchange the quality of any given workout by skipping optimal fueling.”

So, why can’t we just eat our fuel and supplement with water? In a word: absorption. Whether training or racing, endurance athletes need the sugars (plural!) and elements that only sports drinks can provide, and absorption rates affect performance so drastically that it’s essential to hydrate with a scientific approach to what’s in your bottle.

CBCG Athlete John Seddon, en route to a 70.3 PR with two bottles visible and a third inside his downtube

So now that we know why can’t we just eat our sugars - A.K.A. carbs A.K.A. energy - what the heck is the diff among sucrose, glucose, fructose, malto, and so on? If you’re a CBCG athlete, your coach has prescribed sports drink in your race plans, largely informed by what will be on course. Ideally the concoction contains a blend of sugars that absorb at different rates, in addition to other key elements like electrolytes, potassium, and sodium. 

Dr. Asker Jeukendrup was a pioneer of studying absorption, and he posits, “Although it is known that carbohydrate (CHO) feedings during exercise improve endurance performance...studies using (stable) isotope methodology have shown that not all carbohydrates are oxidised at similar rates...Glucose, sucrose, maltose, maltodextrins and amylopectin are oxidised at high rates. Fructose, galactose and amylose have been shown to be oxidised at 25 to 50% lower rates. Combinations of multiple transportable CHO may increase the total CHO absorption.” *

Check out this infographic of how a dual source performed versus a single (and placebo). †

Now let’s explore an ideal sports drink. Indulge me as I gush about my personal favorite product the brand new PowerBar® Isoactive sports drink mix. Eric Zaltas, founder of Pivot Nutrition LLC, is at the helm, of the PowerBar Sport® And describes this awesome new product, “Isoactive's 60 grams of C2Max carbs per liter of the drink speeds energy to your muscles. Work your way up 70-90 grams of C2Max/hour or as close as you can comfortably get to see your endurance times improve.”

The stuff is designed for rapid absorption, and, ergo, transport of energy to muscles. I personally love the flavor, and find the specific ingredients even more ideal considering there’s ample electrolytes and sodium so I don’t need to worry about salt tabs or nuthin’ else. 

But what if you just can’t keep sports drink down the hatch during a race? What if it makes you hurl or you just can’t stand the taste? Here’s what Chris has to say to that: “It’s likely you haven’t practiced it enough it your training! If it’s just the flavor making you nauseated, think of it as medicine.” Indeed, race day isn’t a trip to the ice cream parlor. Nothing should be tasty. 

And how about Amy VT’s secret trick? I find that training with the type of plastic bottle (some fine day it will be more enviro-friendly) that will be on course can be useful. I need every nanosecond I can spare in a race, and nailing the one-handed (or teeth) twisty-turny to open and then close those disposable bottles is an art. In fact, last race I encountered the surprise of an actual plastic cap on a hinge that you had to open and close with your teeth for each sip. Race day is no time for surprises, so I find and start with the exact product and disposable bottle in my cage. 

OK, what are our takeaways? We need sports drink to absorb carbohydrates at different levels. We need to train with it, too. We need to find out what’s on course. We need to drink a lot, and drink early. Talk to your coach about what’s right for you, and relish drinking the Kool-Aid.

CBCG Swim Smooth Hood River Camp Round Two

CBCG Swim Camper Nicole Van Baelen is All Thumbs Up

Our second Swim Smooth/CBCG Swim Camp in Hood River is scheduled! We are returning to the Columbia Gorge for another couple of days of swim analysis and instruction on October 19-20 at the fantastic Hood River Aquatic Center. Our first Hood River swim camp was a huge success, but instead of plugging ourselves, we’ll let one of our campers speak for us:

“What the heck is swim camp? Let me break it down: 2 days, 2 amazing coaches, 4 campers/swimmers, 2 hours of video analysis, 8 hours in the pool with a swim test, specific instruction on drills targeted at your ‘opportunities,’ lots of time to practice those drills, culminating in a massive swim set aimed at testing what we learned. Chris and Molly of CBCG are so knowledgeable, plus they made learning and working hard fun.
I was able to feel a significant improvement in my swimming over the course of the two days. The decreased level of effort I expended to swim FASTER was unbelievable. I also had the opportunity to spend the weekend with three amazing people who are now friends that I’ll see again. Nicole, Jenny and Sebastian, until next time!”

Pretty good, huh? We think so too, and we’re really happy that our camper was so happy. Swim instruction is incredibly important for triathletes, and it’s rare to spend an entire weekend focused on all the different aspects of a proper open-water freestyle stroke. Here’s the schedule for our next camp in Hood River:

Saturday (Day One)

8-10am—session one: threshold testing, CSS swimming, and videotaping
10am-12pm—classroom: video analysis of your stroke in a group setting, which helps you see that all swimmers are different, which is the Swim Smooth way!
12-2pm—session two: introduction to the Swim Smooth primary drills

Sunday (Day Two)

8-10am—session three: stroke correction session and technique/endurance session
10am-12pm—a much needed break!
12-2pm—session four: the mysterious and effective Red Mist Set!

If that sounds like something you need, then head here to sign up! We are limiting camp to eight participants, so make this a priority if improving your swim is something that interests you this winter!

REMY MAGUIRE WANTS YOU TO BE STOKED (both happy and well-fed)

Our new coach, Remy Maguire, in action at The Sisters Stampede

"I love helping people discover the life changing aspects of triathlon, appreciate what their bodies (and minds) can do, set big goals, reach big goals, improve their relationship with food and do amazing things." Remy Maguire tells me, and then concludes the whole thing with a smile. “That’s it. That’s what I’m excited about doing.” I’m talking to the coach/athlete/nutritionist over at Nike World Headquarters, where she’s dropped in to see what our swim classes are like and to talk about what makes her tick as a coach.

We’ve had a lot of changes recently at CBCG, with our new gym getting the most attention, but we’re also super excited about the people who have come on board: Remy Maguire, Juliet Hochman, and Daniel Silver. Remy, similar to the rest of us, coaches triathletes, runners, swimmers, and cyclists, but she’s got another superpower in her bag of tricks: she specializes in nutrition and works to help others optimize their bodies, for life and for performance. It’s a piece we’ve been missing at CBCG, frankly, and we’re all stoked to see how Remy can help our clients get even faster and happier.

There are two ways you can optimize your fueling with Remy: with short-term packages and ongoing subscriptions. Read on to learn how she can help you achieve your goals. When you’re ready, you can head here to sign up. Not sure if you’re ready, but want to learn more? You can book a free fifteen-minute session with Remy to find out if her services are right for you.

Part One: Initial Assessment ($100)

First, we’ll meet with you, ideally in person (or via videoconference), and go through the following steps:

• review of 3-day food diary

• review of medical history

• overall nutrition assessment 

• individualized goal setting

• guidance on meal planning

• basic nutrition education 

If that’s enough for you, then you’re good! You’ll leave this session with a greater understanding of how to manage your daily nutrition, and you’ve taken an awesome step to better health and improved performance. If you need more, though, then we’re on to part two…

Part Two: Ongoing Consultations

We offer two routes, here: a monthly subscription for three-, six-, and nine-month periods, or a set number of follow-up meetings that you can schedule at any time with Remy. During your meetings, you’ll review your progress and cover the following:

• review of habits, goals and progress

• nutrition education

• guidance on meal planning 

• advice for navigating obstacles

Monthly Subscriptions

• bi-weekly follow-up meetings that cover the above topics, keeping you on target for three, six, or nine months, coaching you to lasting change in your nutritional habits.

• $200/month for three months, $190/month for six months, and $180/month for nine months (subscription costs are in addition to the initial assessment)

• Unlimited email and text support

Meeting Packages

GET THE BALL ROLLING!
$200.00

Whether you need a hand to get started, reenergize your workouts, break out of a rut, or simply get some new ideas for meals or a boost of motivation to keep going – this package is for you.

• 1 initial assessment   

• 2 follow-ups

MAKE REAL PROGRESS
$330.00

Tired of the all-or-nothing approach to a healthy lifestyle? Are you ready to figure out how to incorporate better eating habits into your daily routine? With this package, real progress can be made creating good habits and making them stick. 

• 1 initial assessment

• 5 follow-ups

OPTIMIZE RESULTS
$450.00

You’ve been working hard at staying healthy and fit and are ready to add the next piece of the puzzle to your life – then pick this package to dig in and get the information, motivation and support you need to feel your best.  If you are committed to creating a healthier lifestyle this option is for you.

• 1 initial assessment

• 8 follow-ups

CBCGYM Opens Today

CBCG Head Coach Molly Balfe Working in the CBCGym

CBCG is proud to announce the #CBCGym Summer Schedule! Starting on August 2nd, join us for the following classes and get faster, happier, and healthier for your training and racing lifestyle. Check out the below schedule for a description of classes, and instructions on how to sign up now!

Weekly Classes

Monday Morning Routine

We are thrilled to offer a CBCGym exclusive class that combines 40 minutes of the “basic strength you never do,” 10 minutes of heart rate variability breathing, and 10 minutes of journaling. Start your week off right by joining the ranks of high achievers who are using morning routines to clarify and achieve their goals! You will need a journal for this class.

Tuesday/Thursday Spin

Come take on some high intensity intervals in a fast-paced class designed to make you stronger and faster on your bike. Challenge yourself with workouts designed to create breakthrough performances—all while listening to tunes with your friends!

Friday Evening Restorative

End your week with a restorative class that uses elements of Yoga, Kinstretch®, and functional movement. Unwind your stress and unlock your body to stay strong and prevent injury.

Open Gym

Is it possible to have the coaching and individual assessment of a personal trainer with the community and price point of a group environment? What about with the flexibility, open hours, no set time, and structure of a gym membership? Yes—that’s within reach, and Daniel Silver’s Open Gym is just that. Come in, meet with your coach about your goals, go through any specific assessments, get added to our system, and you’re a member of the team. From there, you are able to sign up for any open gym hours each week. Your training program will be provided and explained, and your coach will be there at any open hours to help you through your program. You’ll sign up for one, two, or three sessions per week, depending on your goals, sport, and times available to train.

$99/month – one weekly workout (four sessions/month)
$150/month – two weekly workouts (eight sessions/month)
$175/month – three weekly workouts (twelve sessions/month)

You can also use two class passes to attend an open gym session if you do not have a subscription. Single drop-ins will be $30 each.

Personal Training

If you would prefer one-to-one strength training, schedule a session with one of our strength coaches! Contact us for pricing and availability.

How To Sign Up

Both Class Passes and Open Gym subscriptions can be purchased on our website. We ask that you sign up in advance for specific classes to ensure your spot. To register, just click on the class you want to attend and fill out your name and email address. If you have class passes, click “Redeem Coupon or Package.” If you need to buy more, click “Pay Now.”

Morning Routine: Our New Class at CBCGym

Morning routines are all the rage. From Tim Ferris to Rich Roll, people who aspire to be high achievers are adopting some kind of regular routine from the moment they awake to the second their butts hit their chairs at work (or their feet hit their standing desk pads because it’s 2019, yo!). Ferris likes to quote W.H. Auden, who says “Routine, in an intelligent [person], is a sign of ambition.” Now, maybe the whole ambition thing isn’t really your bag, which is totally fine and understandable. But if making change in your life is something you want, then you have at least that type of ambition. I talked about this way back in January, after coming back to Portland after a blissful two weeks in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Needing a change and a way to kickstart my physical therapy routine, I began with a simple start: eight minutes of any PT exercises before I got to drink my coffee. After about a week, I did my exercises, grabbed my coffee, and banged out some gratitude journaling. By the end of the third week I added ten minutes of writing to the end of the journaling. Right now, as I write these words, I’ve got three minutes left on my daily ten minute timer of writing, which I’ve completed just about every morning in 2019. Here are some of the results from the seven months of routine:

• A return to regular running, mostly pain-free (and waaaaaaay better than where I left things in December)

• More power going uphill on the bike, due to daily clamshells

• Greater stability in everything I do, due to regular core work

• A huge uptick in published articles around the Interwebs, with an ensuing rise in freelance pay

• A more expansive sense of gratitude throughout each day

• A plan for the day and for the following seven days—i.e. a sense of sanity in an often too chaotic world

So that’s all well and good for me—what does this mean for you?

You’ve heard about our new announcement regarding the CBCGym. Now we’ll begin letting you know about the new classes we’ll be offering, and this is one of them. Every Monday morning at 6am, I will lead a class consisting of the following:

• 40 minutes of the “basic strength you never do,” such as:

  • internal/external rotation clamshells

  • banded arm pull-aparts/circles for scapular stability

  • ab braces and core moves

  • hamstring curls on stability balls or benches

  • hip flexor stretches to avoid high hamstring tendinopathy

  • movements to strengthen and mobilize ankles and knees

  • basic joint health

• 10 minutes of heart rate variability breathing, intended to get your autonomic nervous system to chill out!

• 10 minutes of journaling, where you’ll use the following structure

  • three things for which you are grateful

  • three things you want to accomplish within three months

  • three things that will make TODAY a win for you

  • three things that you want to accomplish by the following Monday

So yes, you will need a journal for this strength class! We will have ones for you to purchase at the gym if you’d like, but any old notebook will do, really.

Sound like something you’d like to try? You can head here, to our brand new gym page, and sign up for one class OR a package of classes, and we’ll see you on the first Monday in August!

Enter the CBCGym: We Have a Big Announcement!

CBCG has Some Big News!

What’s happening: We are thrilled to announce that on August 1st, 2019, we will be opening the CBCGym! As you may have heard, Shawn Bostad, owner of Steelhead Coaching, and his family are moving back to Texas. While Portland will be sad to see them go, we couldn’t be more excited to take this opportunity to expand CBCG and to have a physical space allowing us to serve as the physical, philosophical, and spiritual hub of CBCG. We are thrilled to be joining forces with Juliet Hochman, Remy Maguire, and Jon Eng to offer support for the whole athlete, including endurance coaching, strength coaching, personal training, nutrition counseling, and physical therapy.

What you can expect: The Gym will be a space for Portland endurance athletes to come together for high-quality training sessions, educational opportunities, and community building. The content we offer will support our overarching goal of helping athletes become faster, happier, healthier people. We will be releasing more information about our schedule in the coming weeks, but you can expect:

• Coached workouts to help you exceed your training goals

• Lecture series from coaches, experts, and athletes

• Community events that deepen your network of endurance athletes

Come Celebrate: We can’t think of a better way to warm up our new space than by filling it with all of you! Please join us on August 1st from 6:00-9:00 PM to check out the CBCGym and say hi to friends and training buddies.  We’ll have beverages and snacks and maybe even some competitions. Can’t wait to see you all there!

The CBCGym Warming Party
Thursday, August 1st
6:00-9:00 PM
2635 NE Broadway
Portland, OR 97232

When Calamity Strikes: five do’s and don’ts for coping with adversity in a race

by CBCG Athlete Amy VT

Phil Collins chucked a beer can across the room. 

Johnny Depp tele-marketed fountain pens. 

Chrissie Wellington got a flat tire at Kona.

These three moments in history have a common thread: they reveal successful people in the throes of adversity. In our last blog I highlighted a few consummate examples of #fiercelyselfreliant athletes at our annual CBCG Camp in Bend, Oregon. The idea is that practicing resilience can arm athletes with the ability to cope should something go wrong in a race, so this week I unpack five classic examples of setbacks in triathlon, and how to, in the words of Beyoncé (specifically Jay-Z’s grandmother), turn “lemons into lemonade.”

Let’s begin with the above three examples. During a seminole studio session for the legendary band Genesis, Brian Eno endeavored to spark creativity by having band members draw cards, forcing them to play another instrument than their own. Phil Collins drew the “drum” card. He allegedly grew so frustrated that he threw several beer cans across the room. Tough day in the studio for the brilliant musician, but we all know how it turned out. Genesis produced amazing, globally chart-topping albums, featuring Phil, himself, on the drums. 

Speaking of knowing how the story turns out, you can guess that anything Johnny Depp endured in his youth ultimately worked out for the dude. Similar to Phil, he was forced to do something he hadn’t planned on when he dropped out of high school and wasn’t let back in. He became a telemarketer, hawking pens of all things to unwitting phone answerers. That seemingly sucky job forced Johnny to adopt different personas and act-out effusive pen-demanding scenarios as he tried to make a sale, revealing his talent, and, ergo, igniting his career in acting. 

photo: slowtwitch.com

Most relevantly, we triathletes would be remiss to ever forget Chrissie Wellington’s Kona victory a decade ago in spite of a flat tire. Arguably the most competitive triathlon in the world, and arguably the most frustrating uncontrollable setback in a race, Chrissie lost 10 full minutes due to a puncture, and still managed to win. Beginning with punctures, let’s now look at five examples of worst-nightmare-worthy adversity in triathlon, and how to overcome them with some semblance of smarts and grace.

photo: gameyum.com

1. Flat Tire - D’oh! 

👍🏽What to do - Ignore the cyclists going by. There’s actually only one move when you get a flat: change it. CBCG Coach Molly Balfe offers sage advice, “The best thing any athlete can do when they get hit with a mechanical is to stick with their plan when they get back in the saddle.” This strategy avoids  the #1 mistake athletes make, which is... 

👎🏽What not to do - Coach Molly continues, “If you get a flat, drop your chain, loose your water bottles, etc., it can be really tempting to try to make up the time you lost. It is far better to get back on your plan since the time you spend frantically trying to ‘catch up’ will certainly have consequences later in the race. The longer you’re racing, the more important it is to let these seconds go.”

Indeed, so many athletes focus on the dialog “...but I was up there and now I lost all those places!” when really the only thing to do is to recommence cycling at your prescribed numbers, pretending like the clock stopped for you during your time on the side of the road. 

As an aside note, please, please, please, especially if you’re a CBCG Athlete, do not gripe about your flat after the race to anyone save for a few close friends and your coach. Word to the wise: mention of flats (or pretty much any other form of adversity) has no business on social media.

Head CBCG Coach Chris Bagg a the Great White North Triathlon photo: Ken Anderson

2. Bad Stomach - barf!

👍🏽What to do - keep drinking and eating. ‘Nuff said. You won’t be able to finish a half- or full-iron-distance race if you’re not hydrated and fueled, so even if you keep barfing, there’s no choice than to just keep forcing it down. Uncomfortable for sure, but it’s really up to you to either DNF or keep going. Obvi, if you continue to wretch with agony, or if you are too dizzy to ride safely, it’s time to call it quits, but vomiting happens (CBCG Coaches may suggest you hadn’t trained enough with race-relevant fuel), and the mentally strongest athletes puke and redeem. 

👎🏽What not to do - stop drinking and eating. 

photo: meredithkessler.com

3. Legs Won’t Run - oooph!

👍🏽What to do - keep moving forward. When Ironman Champion Meredith Kessler is approached by a first time iron-distance hopeful, she shares a mantra for them to repeat, “Continual forward motion.” If a biomechanical renders you unable to run, your goal should be to see if and when you can start trotting again, right? So keep speed walking the line of best fit as you try to pick it up every 60 seconds or so. 

Even if you keep trying and you keep walking...for 26 miles...CBCG head coach Chris Bagg, for one, is a fan of finishing races no matter what. Plagued by years of not being able to run off the bike due to a chronic injury, Chris has had to walk off the course, in some cases sparing himself from five hours of sunburn, but when at all possible he errs on the side of finishing, often spewing the reminder to all his athletes, “What else are you going to do that day?”

I personally once ran past Meredith Kessler (a phrase that begs for an explanation) because she was walking. I’ll never forget how she cheered, “Go VT!” because she was walking away from the finish line on an out-and-back! She had resolved to walk the marathon in deference to the spirit of the race, in addition to the opportunity to cheer on runners. A pure class act, that Kessler. 

👎🏽What not to do - give up. 

photo: Wallmart.com

4. Goggles Kicked-Off - crap!

👍🏽What to do - there are only three options: retrieve them, swim the remainder without them, or pull out of the swim if they’re gone, as in the case of an iron-distance swim in salt water. If they’re still on your head or within reach, you’ll probably cause mayhem as you tread water and swimmers collide with you, so the key will be calmly and slowly reentering your freestyle flow.

If you end up swimming without goggles, the worst part will be glimpsing your watch when you hit shore. With a swim time way slower than you planned, you’ll need some supreme mental strength to bike and run as planned without getting distracted by discouragement or trying to compensate with speed. 

👎🏽What not to do - it might be impossible to not incite turbulence with other swimmers, so the only controllable mistake you can avoid would be to dramatically swing right back into freestyle too soon. That would spike your heart rate, invite water choking, and prolong your panic. If you do have to pull out of the swim (be sure... give it at least a minute of treading water before you decide), then flagging down a kayak and extracting yourself from the pack can be harrowing. You should do so via breaststroke with your head up at all times - never try to dive under the school. Nota bene: when you’re back on shore, dial up my article on coping with DNF’s. 

photo: slowtwitch.com

5. Crash - yikes!

👍🏽What to do - pull over. Get you and your bike off the road, and then take two breaths to control your shot of adrenaline. Then survey your body for cuts, and test out every joint head-to-toe. Actually wiggle your neck, shoulders, wrists, and everything down the line. Then check your helmet and bike, spinning the chain and everything. Only if you passed those exams should you get back in the game safely (I’ve seen more than one cycling re-entry result in a subsequent crash). If there’s another victim, make sure she is OK or has help on the way, which we know all CBCG Athletes will do. 

👎🏽What not to do - never, ever, ever get back in a race without conducting the above survey first. Your second crash might be worse when you can’t shift because your arm is actually broken, masked by your adrenaline. Strategically, you should also follow the above flat tire advice. 

Adversity rewards strengths and exposes weaknesses. It seems to all boil down to that adage when it comes to handling setbacks in races. Of course there are countless other things that can go wrong (I harbor a fear that I’ll be handed the wrong run bag at two-transition races), and the common denominator to grappling with the unexpected is to exhibit mental strength. 

Mentally weaker athletes immediately focus on lost goals, unable to divorce their thoughts from not making that time or place. Worse yet, they end up making dumb mistakes to compensate for the calamity. Mentally strong athletes, conversely, are able to divorce the obstacle from their outcome. They avoid writing a script about how their race might be ruined, in what capacity, and the reenter as though the clock stopped for them. 

When Chrissie got a flat, we know she never disbelieved she could win because, well, she won. Perhaps we should all think of her the second something goes wrong in a race. It doesn’t have to mean we will necessarily still attain our precise finish goal, but we should all channel her grace and wisdom, and the moment we get a puncture our first thought should be, “Remember Chrissie.” 

#FiercelySelfReliant: the Best Way to Make Camp Workouts Race-relevant

by CBCG Athlete Amy VT

“Be fiercely self-reliant tomorrow,” said Christopher Bagg, head coach and leader of our annual spring training Camp in spectacular Bend, Oregon. 

Chris was debriefing the next day’s long ride, imploring the concept of autonomy not because Camp staff weren’t at the ready with exceptional SAG and support (which we love to provide!), but because it’s actually ridiculously race-relevant to practice self-reliance and resilience during training. Camps provide an optimal opportunity for race simulation, especially when Campers resolve these questions:

WHAT IF I WAS ON MY OWN FOR THIS RIDE?

WHAT WOULD I DO IF THIS *INSERT ADVERSITY* HAPPENED IN A RACE?

Bend Campers sporting their Wattie Ink. custom kits

We at CBCG believe the best way to parlay Camp to race-readiness is to surmount the above questions in real-time. To maximize a Camp experience is to seize opportunities to practice total autonomy during long workouts, and to practice real-time fixes or adjustments when adversity strikes. This week we’d like to highlight three consummate exemplars from our Bend Camp who were #FiercelySelfReliant.

1. Kristen Hughes

Kristen knew no one coming into Camp, and she’d never been to Bend. Talk about brave; I am personally unsure I could ever be such a daring trailblazer. Camps can be daunting to begin with, but not knowing what to expect, and having met nary a Camper nor coach exhibits utmost courage.

How was it, then, that Kristen was entirely self-reliant during all workouts, and grew exponentially stronger and faster over the course of five days?  Her success stemmed from these clutch moves: 

1.     Kristen was immune to competing with other Campers. Pro move right there. So many Campers, especially those new to groups, get caught up in racy demonstrations, especially during the first Camp workouts. Even those who swear they don’t feel like they have anything to prove are subconsciously drawn to strutting their stuff early, or when coaches explicitly command moderate or easy effort. Kristen was steady, if not conservative during the first few workouts, and then, can you guess what happened? That’s right. She ended up relatively stronger than anyone during final sessions. On the penultimate day, several of us marveled, “Where did she come from?” She is Kristen, and she comes from the land of wisdom. She will be stronger at her next race.

2.     Kristen prepped for rides as though she was going solo. On our second day, Kristen faced down a century ride reconnoitering the hinterlands of central Oregon. She guaranteed her own confidence and success, however, by downloading routes to her device, studying them before-hand, and packing as much fuel as possible. Of course our SAG vehicles were bountiful along the way, one with Tour de France soigneur extraordinaire Kurt Marion at the helm, but Kristen wouldn’t have freaked out if support wasn’t there at any given turn because: WHAT IF I WAS ON MY OWN FOR THIS RIDE?

Self-reliant enough to research and find her own solo adventure aprés Camp, Kristen camped out and went hiking in Bend the next day. Congrats on LA Tri, Kristen, and thanks for joining us! 

Kristen running and riding stronger than prior days during Monday’s brick sesh

2. Kelsey Bledsoe

 Ask any Camper about Kelsey and she or he will tell you the same thing: she was always smiling. It was almost freaky - freaky because Kelsey had never been to a Camp, never ridden a century (by half!), and never, ever trained so much over five days. Going into Camp, both Kelsey and her CBCG Coach Molly Balfe aimed to sort of “see how it goes” every day. Welp, every day was stellar, and Kelsey did 100% of every workout despite Molly’s offering of rip cords. Moreover, she always donned said abiding smile.

 She was definitely feeling it towards the end of Camp, but she kept showing up (with signature smile) ready for the full workout because: WHAT WOULD I DO IF THIS FATIGUE HAPPENED IN A RACE?

 What made Kelsey so resilient? Coach Molly attributes it to her fierce self-reliance, “Kelsey had never done a ride over 45 miles before Camp, so she was understandably nervous that morning. She got to base camp early with basically everything she owns so she would have options for all kinds of conditions. She totally crushed her ride, and was tired at the end of course, but she made good decisions throughout. In fact, she rode all that camp fitness to a 2:35 first Olympic Distance last weekend!”

 Talk about race-relevant Camp experience...congrats, Kelsey!

Kelsey seriously looked like this the whole Camp - the most she’s ever trained in fie days by double!

3. Ann Hill

Ann just might be the most intrepid Camper I have ever witnessed. She was continually extended get-out-of-jail-free cards tendered by coach Molly, who saw legit reasons why she might want to cut a workout short. She took none. The most salient example was our final day, when rain and cold conditions made descending Skyliners Road less-than comfortable. Most Campers bailed on their last repeat - heartily condoned by coaches who’d rather everyone be safe and comfortable - but Ann went back up.

Ann had a jacket. Ann had grit. Ann went back up because: WHAT WOULD I DO IF COLD RAIN HAPPENED IN A RACE?

Coach Molly attests, “I figured Ann would turn around and head back to the parking lot, but when I hadn’t seen her 15 minutes later I got worried that she’d gotten cold and pulled over. We took one of the SAG vehicles up to find any remaining campers, and saw Ann cruising down the hill with a big smile on her face, dismissing a pickup and responding, ‘No thanks, I think I’ll ride!’” 

Our final day at Camp called for a final run that most Campers eschewed due to travel needs or physical fatigue. I swear Ann had more spring in her step on that final workout than anyone. Three days later she was spotted updating her Facebook profile pic with the below pic and the self-described caption, “The great Ann Hill.” I love this woman.

Our brick sesh before the rain came…nothing can stop Ann

Again, CBCG Camp staff relish supporting, SAG-ing, and providing enjoyable experiences. We consider our Camps a premium experience, and hope Campers revel in five days of having everything taken care of for them, save for their own physical training. CBCG Coaches also want your next race to rock, though, which is why Chris and all the CBCG Coaches hope Campers line up at their next one with some gritty experience having practiced being #FiercelySelfReliant.

Caffeine and Watts Tackle Belgian Waffle Ride—Triathletes Trying New Modes of Suffering

Riders at the start of this year's Belgian Waffle Ride

by Chris Bagg

Ed. Note—all of us have been there at some point: an injury or desire for something new has moved us away from triathlon for a spell, and we look for some way to spend our hard-won fitness. Longtime Wattie Ink. professional triathlete Chris Bagg is spending much of 2019 racing for sister company Caffeine and Watts at gravel races around the country, and competed in the iconic Belgian Waffle Ride last weekend. He joins us to explain how triathletes may want to give this "new" kind of racing a shot.

I’m sitting on a flight home from San Diego to Portland trying to describe endurance fatigue. For me, it feels…fuzzy, as if my skin had an extra layer or film on top of it. Not unlike the early warning signs of coming down with something, my body seems to want to get away from itself, to molt like a snake or a lobster in search of a new home. Why the attempt to catalogue fatigue? Well, I spent this past Sunday (and the preceding weekend) on a new kind of bicycle, the “gravel bike,” a chimera that incorporates aspects from road, cyclocross, and mountain bike design. At this point, you’ve probably heard of gravel racing, maybe even seen pictures of grim, grime-faced riders toiling through clouds of dust, stretches of mud or sand, spread across both lanes of blissfully car-free roads. Gravel or mixed-terrain racing, despite the moment-in-the-sun it’s enjoying, is no new thing. What is Paris-Roubaix, after all, other than a mixed-terrain race? Or any of the Tour de France stages before, say, 1960? There are long-toothed gravel road races right here in the states, such as Western Massachusetts’ D2R2 or the venerable Battenkill-Roubaix (now Tour of the Battenkill), have been kicking around since the late 1990s or early aughties. Gravel racing, really, is just an acknowledgement by many that roads don’t have to be perfect, and that additional adversity is something to be welcomed.

That was a long preamble, wasn’t it? Apologies—it’s easy to get rambling on this sort of subject. I’ll return to the subject at hand: fatigue. It’s a deep, abiding one, because I participated in the 8^th Belgian Waffle Ride this past Sunday, on the heels of the Cascade Gravel Omnium the week prior, which may be the first race of its kind in the United State (Rebecca’s Private Idaho probably got to “Gravel Stage Race” first, but a points-scored omnium is something new). I’ve been taking a bit of a hiatus from triathlon thus far this year, trying to fix a recalcitrant hip and hamstring, and have been lucky to land a spot on the new Caffeine and Watts Gravel Racing team, which will participate at some of the bigger gravel races throughout the year: Belgian Waffle Ride, Dirty Kanza, SBT GRVL (Steamboat Springs), and the aforementioned Rebecca’s Private Idaho, with smaller races scattered throughout. Lots of you reading are triathletes, so I’ll tailor my BWR report to speak to what you might experience, should you decide to dabble in this kind of racing.

Caffeine and Watts rider DeLayne Hart, on a recon ride the day before the race

The Belgian Waffle Ride is what you get when you’ve got a taste for longer rides, you live in Southern California, you’re a bit sick of the usual road routes, and you love the road races that take place in Belgium and northern France from February to April: hard, long races with plenty of short, sharp climbs (“bergs”) interspersed between tiny cobbled roads and hamlets. The first edition was in 2010, and it grew from a curiosity into a segment-leading model. While not a true gravel race, it features (this year at least) 46 miles of dirt and single-track inside its 134 mile length. The 2019 edition saw many legitimate road cycling professionals stick a toe into the water, resulting in one of the faster/harder races yet. I was there to experience it, but also to get a big day of racing in my legs ahead of (gulp) the 209 miles that await me in Kansas at Dirty Kanza in just a few short weeks. BWR begins with an eleven mile “neutral” roll-out that devolved, unsurprisingly, into an all-out sprint for the first section of dirt. I knew positioning would be important, and did what I could to be near the front of the pack, but 300 riders makes for a dynamic, shifty field! If you are a triathlete coming across to this style of racing, I would find some local road races to get comfortable with this sort of pack riding. It is fast and cutthroat, and you have to keep your wits about you and be comfortable with some amount of contact. If that’s not for you, simply drift to the back, knowing that you’ll be behind some traffic jams once you hit the dirt. I managed to be in the middle third of the field (I think) when we first hit the dirt, which separated me from the front of the field (not that I would have been able to stay up there on the road sections, either), but meant I wasn’t too far back once we completed the first two miles of single-track, which is called Lemontwistenberg, probably due to the small, hand-lettered, ancient sign advertising “Lemon Twists” about a mile back along the main road. This section of dirt did what it is supposed to do: break the 300-person field up into groups of 30-40 riders, and it was with one of those, along with teammate James Walsh, in which I settled into the rest of my day.

One of the dirt sections of the BWR

And what a day it was! I won’t bore you with all the particulars, but I can’t remember having as much fun on a bike. The vibe at BWR is “racy with a hint of irony,” as died-in-the-wool road racers, mountain bikers, cyclocross-istas, and the occasional semi-retired professional triathlete all rub elbows in a challenging yet fun setting. Here are some things that will stand in your favor as a triathlete-become gravel-racer, should you decide to give this a crack. Teammates James Walsh and DeLayne Hart are also both former triathletes, so the three of us could exchange histories of all things triathlon: peeing our cycling shorts (a big no-no in the cycling world; the chamois are thicker, so you really end up with that full diaper feeling), the pain of the final 13 miles of an Ironman, and enough nutrition science to launch a small startup.

• Your endurance will really help. In the gravel races I’ve done so far, I’ve discovered that as long as I keep pedaling steadily, the road racers around me (not used to the constant muscle tension that triathlon requires) tend to simply fall away as the day progresses.
• Your understanding of race fueling. Triathlon is more of a logistical and mental challenge than a pure athletic challenge, and if you’ve come up with a successful fueling plan for a half-ironman or Ironman, you’re going to be prepared for the “out there all day” nature of these rides. Eat and drink early, but learn how to pee while riding your bike (sorry, ladies), so you’re not stopping all the time.
• Your capacity for steady discomfort. Road racing, while featuring short, repeated bouts of actual suffering, also gives you long breaks while you roll along in the comparative comfort of a peloton. As a triathlete, you’re used to doing it yourself, and this well help you deal with the accrued pain of 6-7 hours of riding (heck, for most triathletes, this is only about half our racing day!)

Bagg and Walsh at the finish

Of course, the cup is not all full. Although you may be more suited to jumping into a gravel race than a classic road race, there are some things your multisport background won’t provide, and you’ll want to bone up on them before your first gravel-staganza.

• Riding in groups. Nothing screams former triathlete more than not being able to ride in very close proximity to other riders who are moving quickly. Unless you’ve done some draft legal triathlon (good for you), you’ll need to find some places to practice this. Your usual training ride probably won’t cut it, as it could be full of triathletes doing all sorts of verboten things (sitting on the front too long, half-wheeling, letting gaps form). Maybe your town has a road-bikes-only ride, or a weekly training race that has categories for beginners. Do not skip this step! Doing so will place you (and the people around you) at peril.
• Bike handling/riding off road. Triathletes get a bad rap where bike handling is concerned and—let’s face it—that reputation is fairly well-earned. Our sport doesn’t require a whole bunch of handling skilz, so we tend to disregard them. Buck the trend and instead of being “that guy” take some time and get good at the things roadies shame us for: improve your descending; try out some track-standing; stay off your brakes; discover how much you can lean your bike before it starts to disappear out from under you. A great idea, here, would be to take a mountain bike skills clinic, or a cyclocross class, which should be easily findable in your area. You’ll scare fewer people, and you’ll actually get faster upon your return to triathlon, as you carve through corners and descents with greater grace.

The weekend prior to BWR, I mentioned that I’d taken part in a gravel omnium, out in Bend, Oregon. I was joined by Wattie Ink. professional Rachel McBride, who went on to post a perfect score in her race, winning all three stages: a short, Friday evening time trial on a rocky road outside of Bend; a technical, lower elevation 70-mile route on Saturday; and a glorious, long-climb, plush gravel 65-mile course on Sunday. Here's what McBride had to say about gravel racing:

"Triathlon prepared me for gravel racing in a couple different ways. First, gravel racing is a super tough endurance sport, so I use my ironman mental toughness and grit to get to through those hard miles. I also need to keep cool with things go wrong - gravel racing is hard on the body and bike and you’re usually out in the middle of nowhere with support a long walk away. In triathlon with 3 different sports and transitions, there’s a lot of room for error or malfunction so you have to have the ability to handle different situations, improvise, go with the flow and not get too worked up about it. Triathlon also helps when the climbs are so steep you have to run your bike up them!

Triathlon does not prepare you for the bike handling skills you need. Every gravel race I do, there is new and different, challenging terrain that I may have never experienced before. There can be gloriously smooth-packed roads, but that usually doesn’t last long. Expect washboarding that will shake your teeth loose and numb your hands, technical rocky roads that drive you batty as you bounce around and can’t find a rhythm, and big washouts and sand traps that got me this time at the Cascade GG. Oh and don’t forget the potholes that come out of nowhere to pinch-flat your tires (game changer: ride tubeless!). So go out and ride some trails first to try it out, take a cyclocross skills session (or better yet, race it!), or take up mountain biking (because we all need yet another bike, right?!).

This may sound a little scary and not so much fun. Well, I can tell you it is sometimes scary, AND it is some of the best fun I’ve ever had. The gravel community is pretty chill and rad. You are destined to come out of any race with some new friends. The courses are always epic, on roads few have travelled at times, and usually packed with beautiful views. And of course my favourite, it’s almost standard you’re supplied with a few pint at the finish. Sign me up!"

McBride on the podium after her Perfect Score

Riders traverse some lonely, open expanses of Central Oregon; image courtesy of Adam Lapierre

Day one saw some deep, technical, sandy descents; image courtesy of Adam Lapierre

The men's lead group on Day Two—your editor promises he is just out of frame on the right; image courtesy of Adam Lapierre

In short, gravel racing is fun, low-key, hard, safer than riding on the road, and tends to take you to places normal paved roads don't traverse. It's something you should add to your calendar right now. Interested? Head over to Caffeine and Watts to learn more about the Wattie Ink. linked gravel team.

10 Things NOT to Bring to Your First Triathlon

by CBCG athlete Amy VT

If you scroll through our past blogs, you’ll mostly find vernacular, topics, and discourse geared towards experienced endurance triathletes. Indeed, the majority of CBCG Athletes are Iron-women and -men with decades of experience, looking to progress to that proverbial “next level.”

This week, however, we bring to you a refreshing change of pace. If you’re a vet triathlete, share this with that pesky coworker or cousin who’s peppering you for advice. If you’re a beginner yourself, read on for ways to streamline your first race. 

You’ve likely already gleaned a litany of tips from magazines, online forums, and other triathletes. Is your head spinning? Perhaps less is more when packing up for your first tri. 

If you watch a pro athlete transition from the swim to the bike, she’s only doing two things: removing her swim gear, and putting on her helmet. That’s it. Here’s a refreshing approach to your first race, suggesting what you don’t need, in the spirit of simplifying your transition and your headspace, in general. 

1. Gloves

‘Nuff said. Cycling gloves, whether half- or full-finger, are designed for protection against abrasions in a crash. They also absorb shock, which is advantageous for longer rides. It’s not worth the time during races, however, to remember, stage, or put them on, which is why you never see gloves in triathlon. 

2. Towels 

Some transition areas, particularly the more rookie setups, colonize upwards of five square feet with spa amenities. Foot pails, towels, bath mats, bags, dinette sets...When did the memo go out that T1 is the prefect time for a pedicure? 

True, wet, sandy, and dirty feet might portend blisters, but transitions are too frenzied for perfection. A quick one-two Tinder swipe of your bare soles against your opposite calf should suffice. Perhaps during a half- or full-Iron distance it’s more important to take a few seconds to clean your feet, but a sprint or Olympic isn’t long enough to worry.

That stated, if you just freaked out reading that advice, then a smallish towel in T1 is fine so long as you don’t spend too long with it, that you don’t colonize beyond your area, and that you don’t flip if it’s not there when you get there, or your neighbor already used it. 

3. Sunblock

SPF is extremely important. CBCG Coaches recommend applying and reapplying for all activity in the sun. For race day, you should obvi apply liberally before the race, which should be enough if you use a thick or waterproof variety. It’s not worth it, however, to take the extra time to reapply from your own tube in transition, which might be futile since you’ll be soaked from the swim. Most races in blazing sun offer reapplication on course, so don’t complicate your transition. 

4. Body Glide

Ditto. 

5. Nutrition for the Bike

It should all be on your bike. During sprint or Olympic tris, you’ll only need to eat one-to-three times on the bike, and it should all fit on your frame. If you don’t have a “bento box” for your top tube, then you can attach bars and gels with electrical tape. Rehearse a ton: practice finagling the packages, and consuming them while you’re steering and cycling fast. 

Festoon your bike with all your stuff on it and then take it for a shakeout ride before your race.  Indeed, this means sleeping your bike overnight bedecked with your nutrition. (Let’s not broach the hilarious practice of adhering open bars to your top tube, just plastering on sticky little squares without their packaging.) 

There is one exception to this rule: if you are super quick and adept at grabbing a handful of nutrition and shoving it in your race kit, pockets, or sports bra. If that works better for you than bike storage, then ensure you’ve practiced rushing through the process with precisely what you’ll be wearing on race day. 

6. Hydration for the Bike

Ditto. It should all be on the bike. In fact, most triathletes pack too many bottles on their frames, seats, and aerobars, rendering their ride unnecessarily heavy. Exactly how much to carry is highly race- and athlete-dependent, so discuss with your coach, but there’s no need stage extra bottles on the ground in transition. 

7. Frame Pump

Again, many triathletes load up their beautiful bikes with unnecessary weight. Of course bring an extra tube and flat repair, but learn how to use CO2 cartridges (or tubeless repair), and practice to the point of confidence before race day. (Let’s not broach spoke reflectors.)

8. Hand-held Water Bottle for the Run

Especially for a sprint or Olympic tri, there will be ample hydration on course. If you’re worried about spilling, getting enough down, or picking up the right thing (water or electrolytes), then it will be more worth it to slow down through aid stations than it would to set up your own bottle in transition, which might disappear, and it will definitely get hot.

9. Tons of Nutrition for the Run

Ditto. For a sprint or Olympic tri, you will only need to eat one-to-three times on the run. It may be be more worth it to adapt to what’s on course than it will be to set up your own buffet, save for a baggie or pile of a few gels, bars, or blocks. Fuel belts are contraptions we usually reserve for longer events, but they can be convenient when they double as race number bib belts, so that one comes down to personal preference. Bottom line: keep it simple and try to rely as much as you can on aid stations. 

10. Helium Balloon

You’ll see at least one at every race. It’s a self-centered, if not egregiously rookie move when a triathlete marks the coordinates of her transition area with a balloon so that her crazy, hazy, post-swim eyes can hastily locate her rack. What a spectacle if everyone did that! Selfishness aside, c’mon people, memorize your bike coordinates.

Many triathletes over-think their first race. If you have studied up via magazines, online forums, and other triathletes, then hopefully you’ve imbibed the most salient words of advice: have fun. The adage is a bit hokey, but if you can’t have fun stumbling through your first triathlon, why do it? And if you simplify things by minimizing your stuff in transition, there will be less on which to stumble. 

Women’s Cycles and Triathlon: the Real Effects on Training and Racing

The author and CBCG athlete Amy VanTassel chilling in The Dead Sea

by CBCG Coach and Co-Founder Molly Balfe

Several years ago, a fellow coach referred a female athlete to me for help with what he called “women’s issues.” In my experience, as it relates to triathlon, this term typically applies to one of the following: whether you are supposed to wear underwear under your tri shorts, or how to train and race throughout your menstrual cycle. This athlete fell into the latter category; after spending the better part of a year training for her first Ironman, she realized that she would almost certainly get her period on race day.

CBCG Athletes Becky Matro and Cher Vasquez at our yearly Tucson Training Camp

Her understandable concern was exacerbated by a lack of reliable information, not to mention the nuances of approaching her male coach about the issue. Within the last century, a lack of understanding about female anatomy combined with outdated ideas about gender roles gave rise to the absurd belief that a woman should not participate in sports lest she rattle her uterus loose. It was this type of thinking that contributed to the ban on women’s ski jumping, which persisted until the 2014 Olympics in Sochi!

This history of misinformation has also contributed to a lack of evidence-based research about the specific needs that female endurance athletes have regarding nutrition, training, and racing. A recent article on USAT’s website about “Fueling the Female Athlete,” cites that “when all 2015 publications from the three leading sports science journals were analyzed, women made up only 3 percent of the 254,813 participants in 188 studies.” The unsurprising result of limiting women’s representation in sports science research is that traditional recommendations for endurance athletes are often appropriate only for men.

The good news is we are starting to see some progress. In the past few years, more resources have become available to help equip women with the tools they need to work with their physiology. Stacy Sims’ book Roar provides a tremendous amount of information for women on how hormones impact performance throughout their lifetime. The book clearly states that “women are not small men,” and therefore should not assume that fueling and training based on recommendations that were developed for men will work equally well for them.

The book also details how hormonal changes throughout the menstrual cycle can impact training. Surprisingly, the athlete who came to me because she was worried about racing while she had her period had little to worry about regarding her performance. The biggest hormonal challenges for female athletes present themselves during the high hormone luteal phase of their cycles, when blood sugar levels, breathing rates, heat tolerance, and mental focus can all be impacted. Once the low hormone phase starts on the first day of their period, performance potential and pain tolerance tend to increase.

Research about women’s specific training needs is still being done, but here are a few key points to think about when developing a plan that works for you:

Fueling

For long-term training and racing, it seems pretty clear that most women will not thrive on low carbohydrate diets. As Sims’ book says, “Low-carbohydrate diets increase fatty acid oxidation during exercise and encourage intramuscular fat storage. The body is smart; if there isn’t enough primary fuel to support the stress it’s under, it’ll go for a secondary source—in this case fat—then store more of it for the next time it encounters that stress. But this does not translate into improved performance.” Female athletes are also at risk of undershooting their protein needs, especially in the post-workout recovery window. We urge all of our athletes to consume protein in the post-workout window, but for women this is extra-important: the window is shorter than for their male counterparts.

Recovery

No doubt your coach has told you that recovery is a critical part of training. Strength and speed gains happen when we work and then rest, so a good training plan should include periods of lower intensity to allow you to repair the damage done to your body during periods of heavy training. Moreover, women’s ability to access stored carbohydrates is typically lower than men’s, and lower still when our estrogen levels are high, so you and your coach should develop a recovery routine that allows you to reap the gains of all your hard work. 

Aging

Postmenopausal athletes may find that they need to adjust their nutrition plans for optimal performance. Increases in insulin resistance during this time may require a move away from traditional high-carb endurance products to regulate blood sugar and prevent GI distress. Postmenopausal women should also consider adding more high intensity training (along with commensurate recovery!) to their training regimen to support muscle strength and to fight muscle atrophy/loss. 

Summary

The author on deck at a recent training camp, image courtesy of Dylan Haskin

Even with recent additions to the body of research on how women respond to training, there is much work to be done. I found a lot of the information in Roar to be extremely valuable for determining possible solutions to common issues that female endurance athletes face. I also thought it was somewhat limited in its discussion of how athletes respond to the hormones used in contraceptives and hormone therapies. My recommendation to all of my athletes is to evaluate your sources of information and find what works for you.

Our sport requires balance, and finding that balance means being clear about your goals and your needs. So tell your coach about your period! In fact, all CBCG Coaches condone tracking your cycle in Training Peaks, so if your coach is male and demurs at “women’s issues,” show him this blog post.  

CBCG Hosts Swim Smooth at Nike WHQ: Our Single Best Technique Session

Swim Smooth Co-Founders Adam Young and Paul Newsome, and CBCG Coaches Chris Bagg, Molly Balfe, and Josh Sutton at the Swim Smooth 3-day Coaches Education Course

There’s been a lot of swimming on the blog, recently, but springtime always feels like swim time to us. It’s the perfect time of year to think about technique and to focus on the stroke faults you have in order to optimize your performance at races later in the season. At CBCG we deeply believe in the importance of the swim so that the rest of your race can go the way you’d like it to go. In that vein, we sent coaches Molly Balfe and Josh Sutton to the Swim Smooth 3-day Coaches Education Course at Nike in Portland this past weekend, in order to flesh out their already impressive coaching abilities. Professional development is a huge part of coaches continuing to improve their games, and we’re happy to be able to provide that support.

What is the 3-day Coaches’ Course like? Well, there’s a lot of material, for sure. Adam and Paul know they have a lot of material to cover, so they get right down to it, putting coaches in the water for a CSS test (like finding FTP on the bike) right off the bat, and then following that up with video analyses of each coach’s individual stroke. Molly, for example, set a new CSS pace, but was surprised (and motivated) by her video session: “I’ve got some things to work on,” she averred afterward.

Paul Newsome stalking the deck, running the “Single Best Technique Session”

One of the sessions Paul and Adam teach the coaches is the Swim Smooth “Single Best Technique Session.” This session helps swimmers focus on posture and alignment, hand entry, and breathing, ideally recognizing afterward which of those three areas is holding them back. If you’d like to give it a crack, the session is below:

Warmup

100 breathe right only
100 breathe left only
100 breathe bilaterally

Build Drill Set

4x100 with fins as 2x(25 kick on side, 25 swim), :15 rest.
---When kicking on side with fins, focus on the following things:
1) lead hand is 8-10 inches below the surface of the water and straight ahead
2) wrist is above hand, and hand is above elbow
3) eyes are straight down
Video here

8x50 Javelin Drill. 1-4 paddle on right hand. 5-8 paddle on left hand (ideally using a Finis Freestyler Paddle)
1) focus on feeling the water during the first 25. Ideally you feel water on the back of your hand, not on your palm.
2) on the second 25, focus on not crossing over, and on starting your catch even while breathing away from the catching hand.

Main Set
3x100 moderate breathe only right side, get time. :20 rest
3x100 moderate breathe only left side, get time. :20 rest
3x100 moderate breathe both sides, get time. :20 rest.
Which side was fastest?

Optional Set
400 pull + paddles breathe slowest side, :30
300 pull + paddles breathe bilaterally, :20
200 pull + paddles breathe slowest side, :15
100 pull + paddles breathe bilaterally

Happy Swimmers are our Favorite Swimmers

Ready to make a change in your swimming? You can now book Chris directly for a video swim analysis right through the scheduling site, here.

Two Great Peak Week Swim Sessions

by CBCG coach Molly Balfe

Spring is finally here! The snow is melting and triathletes are making the slow transition from their trainers to the open road. With the improvement in weather comes the indisputable fact that race season is upon us. Athletes everywhere are testing out their flashy new kits, ensuring their nutrition is dialed in for race day, and (hopefully) adjusting their workouts to allow them peak for their first important race. A good training plan should include a few weeks, or at least a few days of decreased volume to rest up for the big day and provide a chance to heal from the physical and psychological stresses of training. 

Simultaneously, workouts during these “peak weeks” should also include a bit of higher intensity work in an effort to stay fresh as volume decreases. Perhaps more importantly, training sessions are great opportunities to simulate the unique challenges of race conditions, practicing coping mechanisms for when things inevitably get tough. To get ready for the swim leg of a big race, triathletes should ideally seek out open water swims to acclimate to that exciting sensory depravation experience that accompanies swims in murky water without convenient walls for unscheduled rest breaks. This preparation is invaluable, but there is so much more you can do to make sure you are ready to have your best swim possible. 

Race starts are specifically engineered to be exciting, if not completely chaotic experiences. The music pumping, the announcer amping everyone up, nervous athletes shimmying into their wetsuits, and everyone panicking about lines for the bathrooms... All of this hyperactivity comes to an apex as the gun goes off and athletes heart rates are potentially higher than at any point during the entire race. If you do not prepare for this eventuality, you may well end up taking out the first few hundred yards of your race at a categorically unsustainable pace. 

Have you ever found yourself struggling to breathe, 100-200 meters or so into the swim?  Perhaps you can’t even tell how fast you’re swimming since everything is so wildly different from the pool? Maybe you’ve even faced anxiety or panic?  This scenario is one reason why I love giving athletes fast start intervals as they start to taper for a race. Mimicking race starts is an essential practice from the beginner to the pro, as every triathlete must be ready to swim the frenzied start with a semblance of grace, and then drop back to a strong, but sustainable pace for the entire swim. 

The following two workouts are among my favorite “peak week swims.” The first is a pool sesh, and the second should ideally be done in open water. I typically prescribe the pool workout early during the week before a race, and the lake or ocean swim later, preferably on Sunday after their long run (which tends not to be very long that weekend).  I’m cognizant that it’s not always convenient for everyone, but I do recommend prioritizing finding open water for that week prior, since nothing simulates race conditions like finding a buddy, zipping up each other’s wetsuits, and swimming with the fish. 

Fast Starts / Pool

400 easy swim – use a buoy if you are preparing for a wetsuit legal race (no paddles)
8x50 build (:10 rest)
+++++++++
4x250 as 50 fast/200 race pace (:15 rest)
500 @ race pace
+++++++++
200 cool down

Fast Starts / Open Water

10 minutes easy swimming
+++++++++
5x(20 strokes fast/hard, 50 strokes easy)
10 minutes steady, just below race effort
+++++++++
5 minutes easy cool down

Remember, competence comes with preparation! If swimming in open water is outside your comfort zone, don’t expect that to change on race day. Comfort comes from familiarity and confidence, and the A-#1 best thing you can do to minimize race day anxiety is to mimic race conditions. How about this: make a stretch to have your next swim start more cool, calm, and collected then ever. Your coach will be able to tell from your heart rate file, and you’ll be able to overcome unexpected challenges if you incorporate the above workouts. We CBCG coaches are here to help you not just get physically fit, but also mentally fit to make your next race, and this season your best!

What the HECK Does RM Mean?

Since returning from Swim Smooth Camp down in Perth, I've been using the somewhat foreign "RM cycle" more and more in your workouts recently, and it always gets some questions. I know that it seems odd at first, but this way of training is excellent for one reason: it standardizes the amount of training stress that everyone on the squad experiences, which means we all get faster, more efficient, and more comfortable at new paces together. Here is how it works.

1. Take your CSS (or Threshold Pace)—for this example, let's use Salvo who swims in lane three or four at my Nike squad as our example. His CSS is currently 1:37/100m

2. Round up to the nearest even number = 1:38/100

3. Split that number in half = :49 seconds

4. This is now your "RM 0" number. By adding seconds to it, you can use it like a send-off that is more tailored to your present fitness. When we're using RM cycles, we use the Tempo Trainers (those little yellow torture devices) in mode two, and we're usually trying to "beat the beeper," i.e.: finish the interval before the beeper beeps, and leaving the next time we hear it beep. If you were to do a set on RM 0 (using your CSS pace as your send-off base per 50), it would be very hard indeed, since you would have to swim faster than your CSS pace to get any rest at all! That's why you will usually see a number after the letters RM. Here's what to do with those.

5. Say I give Salvo a set of 200s on "RM 5." He adds five to his RM 0 number, arriving at :54 (:49 + :05 = :54). The beeper will now beep every :54 seconds, meaning that if wants to get any rest, he'll try to get farther in front of the beep every time he finishes a 50. Salvo goes out a little fast and swims :50 per 50, finishing :20 ahead of the beeper in 3:20, which he uses for his rest, and leaves on that next beep (which sounds on 3:40, or 4x:54 seconds). He sets off on his second 200, a little winded from his first effort, and only manages :52 per 50, this time finishing in 3:30. The beeper simply marches on, though, beeping :10 later, signaling him to begin again.

6. Whenever we use mode 2, we are “beating the beeper,” which means you try to finish ahead of the beeper ever 50 (getting farther and farther ahead in longer intervals). It’s like a pace clock made for you!

Why don't we just use traditional send-offs?

I'm guessing this will be my biggest obstacle in implementing this system. We've been used to traditional send-offs, like completing a set of 100s on a send-off "base" of something like 1:45/100. The problem with this system is that it shoehorns everyone in the lane into something that doesn't account for individuality. Salvo's CSS is 1:37, but Tracy will also swim in his lane, and her CSS is 1:43. On a set of 100s swum at threshold, using 1:45 as a send-off, Salvo gets 8 seconds per 100, while Tracy only gets two! That is a very different set for the two swimmers! Using RM cycles standardizes the set across participants. It also frees us a bit from "the tyranny of the pace clock," leaving whenever we hear a beep rather than having to wait for intervals of :05 or :10 on the clock. For those of us who grew up with a pace clock, this is an adjustment, I know, but I know from personal experience how effective this kind of training is, and how quickly you'll pick it up if you give it a fair crack.

The other reason is that it really allows us to give a swimmer the correct dose of training stimulus during each session. When we just use multiples of five seconds on the pace clock, we aren’t optimizing our time in the pool, as we’re usually getting too much or too little rest. This way we can figure exactly the correct rest number, and adequately prescribed training stress, too.

What are the other modes for?

Yeah, good question. We use mode one when we want to stay at a certain pace, such as CSS/TP + 3”/100. With mode one we program the beeper to beep every certain number of seconds, so we can use it a pace check. Say Salvo wants to swim at CSS +3”/100 for a set of 400s. He takes his threshold of 1:37 and adds three seconds to get 1:40. If we want it to beep every 25, we have to divide that number by four, right, since the 1:40 is per 100 and we want a reminder every 25? So take 1:40 and divide by four. This is easy, since 1:40 = 100 seconds. Divide 100 by four and you get 25:00. Set your tempo trainer to that number, and you have a device to perfectly pace you through your set.

The third mode, mode three, is a stroke rate beeper, and useful for other things. We’ll discuss it another time.

Diversity in Triathlon: A Few Radical Ideas

CBCG athlete Morgan Spriggs, photo: Darcie Elliott Photography

by CBCG Pro Athlete Amy VanTassel

Moments before the start of Challenge® Penticton (R.I.P.), I helped an African American athlete named Anthony zip up his wetsuit.

“See you out there!”

“How will you recognize me?” Anthony quipped, and we both laughed without having to confirm why it was funny. He was probably the only black man competing that day.

Less than 1% of the entire sport of US participants in triathlon are African American.1 Albeit a staggering stat, are any of us surprised? Look around at any race, anywhere, and it’s egregiously evident that triathlon is predominantly a white man’s sport, fueled by the affluent, and uninviting to minorities since its nascence for the following reasons: 

Why it’s so reason #1 - socioeconomic and sociocultural realities

To truly affect long-term and lasting change, we need to get comfortable discussing, and more importantly, addressing uncomfortable topics. The issues surrounding lack of diversity in triathlon stem from deep-rooted discrepancies in privilege, wealth, culture, perceived social constructs, and actual social behavior. It’s daunting and complex to unpack these phenomena, and, like trying to turn a colossal barge, it will likely take time, and a lot of effort, to see a sea change. 

Why it’s so reason #2 - the swim thing

Another sensitive issue is the converse correlation between African Americans and swimming culture. Similar to socioeconomic nuances, we must stare down this factor and get comfortable discussing it.

Triathlete Magazine reveals, “Seventy percent of black adults in the United States cannot swim, a fact attributable to a complex mix of political, cultural, economic and geographical factors limiting access to pools, and the ramifications of generations lacking a strong swimming culture.”2

More boldly, The Conversation US reveals, “...learning to swim is one of those intersections where race, space and class collide. Black peoples in the United States drown at five times the rate of white people. And most of those deaths occur in public swimming pools.”3

CBCG athlete Morgan Spriggs offers his insight, “What occurs to me as I reflect on my [triathlon] journey so far was how little did I know when I began. All three sports have a language on their own, community norms and customs and basic competencies that have to be integrated. Quickly, I learned of the myth of African Americans and swimming, a task that seemed nearly impossible based on misconceptions.”

Morgan on looking strong on the run, photo: Darcie Elliott Photography

Why it’s so reason #3 - there are ridiculously few role models

Perhaps the most reparable problem is the fact that young athletes of color have little-to-no reason to be inspired about triathlon. There are staggeringly few exemplars who look like them, and it’s doubtful they’re watching Ironman World Championships® on ESPN-23, or wherever it’s broadcast. (Ed. note: even if Kona was more publicly broadcast, one might note the skewed coverage of men at the front.)

Triathlete Magazine interviewed Sika Henry, slated to be the first black female professional triathlete, “I truly believe that you achieve to be what you see. When I don’t see other people who look like me in this sport, it’s difficult—a little like being an outcast in a way.” In the article, Sika refers to Max Fennell, the first black professional triathlete, who inspired her by “...seeing his journey, his story and having that image.”1

Max Fennell, the first African American triathlete to turn pro, and elite triathlete Sika Henry; photo: usatriathlon.org

Impressive strides made #1 - USAT and the NCAA

Last fall USAT announced a major initiative: to continue to monetarily support historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) to increase diversity in triathlon. They jump-started the  pledge with the women’s team at Hampton College in Virginia whose team was made possible through a $225,000 grant from the USA Triathlon Foundation.4

 “USA Triathlon is planning a number of other initiatives focused on HBCU community engagement, including an indoor triathlon series at HBCU campuses, an HBCU triathlon combine to identify multisport talent, a campus rep program and a professional development program...part of USA Triathlon’s larger mission to increase diversity in triathlon.”4

 Strides made #2 – more cash from USAT

Moreover, the USA Triathlon Foundation awarded a grant to Maryland-based group International Association of Black Triathletes. The IABT is the only international African American and women-owned non-profit organization in the multisport industry. Moreover, the Foundation proffered their exclusive “Volunteer of the Year Award” in 2017 dually, to the IABT and Dr. Tekemia Dorsey, its CEO who champions developing under-served populations in discovering triathlon.5 

My radical idea #1

USAT’s strides are impressive, indeed, and continued monetary support will be clutch in creating change. USAT and the ITU are non-profit organizations, however, and cannot shell out the kind of coin that some political candidates seem to solicit in a single day, which led me to my first of a few wild ideas.

What if for-profit companies followed USAT’s lead? There are ample corporations with deeper pockets associated with triathlon, such as race companies (the World Triathlon Company® springs to mind), the bike industry, publications, and title sponsors. In terms of the latter, we’ve all heard Matt Lieto and Michael Lovato dutifully include title sponsors in race announcing, as in, “The Hoka One One® Run Course” at Kona. And this year’s lineup of major races has room for more than one car sponsor, including Mazda, Ford, Toyota, and Subaru.

Perhaps most salient was the “Amazon Ironman® World Championships.” So we know there’s a relationship with these major corporations; what if they could be cajoled to donate or grant developmental programs for triathletes of color? Perhaps they could name a college scholarship and award it to black triathletes at Hampton College. The possibilities are boundless.

CBCG long-time friend Rebecca McKee with an impressive finish at World Championships

My radical idea #2

Whenever I see a need for a seemingly impossible sea change, I think of “affirmative action,” due to my career in college admission. In the context of the allocation of resources, Google defines affirmative action as “the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously.”

In higher education, this practice was adopted by most college admission offices several decades ago, giving a relative leg-up to applicants of color or at least African American and Native American students. The topic is rife with nuances and controversy, such as the most famous case of Grutter v. Bollinger and the University of Michigan Law School Office of Graduate Admissions.7

There have been scores of similar cases since, and the topic remains highly contested, but in my professional opinion (I do still work in the college admission industry), affirmative action in the allocating resources is seemingly the only way for to affect staggering discrepancies as quickly as possible, and I stand by my statement.

What if major race companies practiced affirmative action?  What if the WTC offered free race entries to athletes of color?  It wouldn’t have to be all entrants - they could offer a lottery or figure out another way to manage the cost. How about providing travel or home-stays? What about a special Kona entry system for African Americans? 

There are limitless possibilities for race companies to favor triathletes of color, but affirmative action is a strategy to not only make change now, but to impact the pipeline. So what if youth swim programs offered free facility use, lessons, or team membership? Or, perhaps the Olympic Training Center could host a free summer camp and fly-in young African American triathletes.  Or, perhaps the most sought-after elite coaches could reserve at least one spot for a triathlete of color, which would directly mirror the efforts of affirmative action in college admission.

What it will really take

We must acknowledge the nearly insurmountable underlying issue behind this topic: there are vast racial divides - predominantly socioeconomic and cultural - in the US. I, personally, can only envision true equality in triathlon when these divides are leveled, which saddens me since I doubt that will be during my lifetime.

I do see a glimmer of hope, though, stemming from three pathways: increased support for African Americans in the sport, a continued effort to squash the myth of African Americans and swimming, and significantly increased visibility of high-level black triathletes like Sika and Max.

Morgan nods to inspirational exemplars who combat all of the above, “Without my friends and mentors who knew the culture and ignored the stereotypes, I wouldn’t have had access to the necessary training resources nor been loaned the necessary equipment to begin my investment in each sport. It is so cool I can ride any distance, hop in a pool and swim and go out my front door to run.”

We at the Chris Bagg Coaching Group would like to celebrate Black History Month and offer a special thanks to Morgan for being an exceptional CBCG athlete. 

Morgan in the field with CBCG teammate, Sue Moote; photo: Darcie Elliott Photography

1 https://www.triathlete.com/2018/10/news/usat-just-made-a-big-step-toward-increasing-diversity-in-triathlon_337155 

2 https://www.triathlete.com/2017/07/lifestyle/behind-grassroots-efforts-make-triathlon-diverse_303602

3 https://theconversation.com/swimming-while-black-101354

4 https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon/News/Articles-and-Releases/2018/October/30/Hampton-University-Becomes-First-HBCU-to-Add-Womens-Triathlon-as-a-Varsity-Sport

5 https://www.endurancesportswire.com/usa-triathlon-announces-2017-multisport-award-winners-presented-by-garmin/

6 https://www.iabtyouthnjuniortriconference.org/about-us 

7 https://www.oyez.org/cases/2002/02-241

Using a Break to Groove that Habit You've Been Chasing

Quick, what are the habits you wish you had, but don’t? Get up earlier? Go to sleep earlier? Floss? Do your PT? Get to the pool? Spend ten minutes writing in your journal? Nail that morning routine Tim Ferriss keeps talking about? Has it been eluding you for months, even years? What is it costing you, NOT making that behavior habitual? For me, it might be an exaggeration, but I think not having a solid routine around physical therapy cost me the end of my professional triathlon career. For the past four seasons I’ve battled something in my left hip (diagnoses abound: crappy feet; crappy glutes; sciatic nerve entrapment; lumbar stenosis; high hamstring tendinopathy), and the consistent result has been poor or nonexistent runs off the bike in 70.3 and Iron-distance races.

Want to guess what hasn’t been consistent? Yeah, you’re right, my attention to physical therapy. Sure, I went to my physical therapy appointments, nodded along enthusiastically with my PT, and then went home and didn’t do nothing, but did fairly close to nothing. Here’s a good accounting. In the fall of 2017, deeply frustrated with this continuing pattern, I tried really, really hard to get my PT done. I scheduled it into my TrainingPeaks account. I made room for it in my life. There were about six weeks between my first visit with my PT, in October, and my second, just after Thanksgiving. On my way to see him I counted my PT sessions, hoping to proudly display what I’d done. It felt like I did PT almost every day, but after the final accounting I had…seventeen sessions in 47 days. Barely one session every three days! It felt that I’d been doing it pretty much every day, so I was surprised and aggrieved. Which brings us to our first step…

Get Real and Keep Score

“It all starts with keeping score,” says Al Gore, and that face remains true, whether discussing the imminent end of the world and tracking carbon pollution, or if you’re tracking anything you want to control. First you have to know (and accept!) the reality of what it is you’re presently doing, and for this you need to keep track, and, like, really keep track, not “oh, I’ll just remember what I did,” because science tells us that you won’t, in fact, remember accurately. SO WRITE IT DOWN. People who have been trying to change their eating habits have told us this for years, and they’re right. When you write something down, you make it real. Knowing that my strike rate for PT compliance was barely one-in-three (when I was aiming for two days out of three) revealed to me what I was actually doing, and how far I actually had to go in meeting my goal.

Make a plan for what you want

You know what you want, right? Or…maybe you don’t? I thought that what I wanted was a better PT routine, so that I could return my racing to it’s pre-injured potential. But as I thought about it more, I realized that what I wanted was more focus and more satisfaction. Racing better could certainly achieve the more satisfaction goal, but the thing actually standing in my way of doing my PT was that I had let my life (running two small businesses, a two-days-a-week blog for an apparel company, training for professional-level triathlon, running a Masters swim team, and being a halfway decent husband) devour my time and focus. I moved from one task, workout, and meeting like a whirling dervish, all sound and fury, signifying nothing. I arrived at the end of each day exhausted and frustrated, feeling as if I hadn’t accomplished anything of note, even though I’d been “Getting Shit Done” all day long. The big goals in my life (finish writing that book, increase the number of athletes in the company, and win an Ironman) seemed as remote as ever. I realized that what I wanted was a little space—a part of the day I could call my own, where I could address (in tiny steps) those big goals. In that tiny clutch of time, here’s what I wanted:

1. Four PT exercises (banded arm pull-aparts, banded arm circles, thoracic mobility John Travoltas, internal- and external-rotation clamshells), taking no more than 8 minutes—the time it takes our coffee maker to go from dormant to pleasing.

2. Three-to-five minutes of journaling. I’m stealing from Tim Ferriss and Best Self Journal, here, since both their routines mirror each other. Write down:

   1. three things for which you’re grateful

   2. your long-term goals

   3. three things that would make today a win for you

3. Ten minutes of writing in any area: this blog; the novel I’ve been “writing” for years; something for Wattie Ink.; the Output Speedlab blog—anything.

shift from your normal environment and routine

Easier said than done, I know, but everybody has some kind of vacation each year, right? In my case, at the end of each year Amy and I crash out of Portland, fly to Denver, drive over the Rockies, and spend two weeks camped out with her brothers and sister-in-law in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. This was where I chose to make my stand and make some changes. But first I had to clear away my usual routine, which had been getting in my way. With little fanfare, here’s what my morning routine looked like:

1. Wake up, make coffee and breakfast

2. Read the news while eating (I try not to work and eat at the same time—it’s not really great for you)

3. Get distracted by an email

4. Lurch into putting out fires/starting to work

Not great, huh? The first change I made was the breakfast right away. Even though I usually wake up hungry, I suspect that that hunger is both emotional and habitual, and it turns out I was right—I can wait 20 minutes for my usual egg-and-avocado tacos each day. The second change I committed to was the PT RIGHT AWAY, like, as the coffee was brewing. I tried to “beat the coffee maker” each morning in order to gamify the experience. Third (and this was the big one), I had told my athletes before I left that I would be on vacation during these two weeks, and wouldn’t be responding to workout notifications with my usual alacrity. That’s the work that I usually move to right away in the morning, so by removing that urge I made some space to establish my new behaviors.

So I had made two big changes: environment (not Portland, where there is always work for me to do or commitments I could fulfill) and routine. Now came the real work: making it stick.

Get Habitual

Science tells us that if we can hit a new routine for 21 days, we’re pretty much in the clear. I had fourteen days available to me in Glenwood Springs, so I could make a good start on it that way. As I established the new routine, I discovered several things:

1. It didn’t take very long at all. 20 minutes, max, so you can ditch all of those people who want you to spend an hour on your morning routine. Going from 0-60 (literally) minutes will just make you discouraged—it would be like sending a non-runner out the door for an hour run, and we all know how that ends!

2. My normal experience of time and urgency changed. My usual mindset in the morning is a frantic chimp brain screaming at me that if I don’t work as soon as possible, my business will fall apart and people will realize I’m a fraud. Instead, by hitting a routine and doing the things that are important to me, first, it made the work that came after it more meaningful—I understood what I was doing it for. That made me understand what was actually urgent, and made time seem more like a resource to spend than a terrible doomsday clock I could never beat.

Reflect when you fail

Too often, when people establish a new routine, they treat it like the train schedules in Fascist Italy. Don’t succumb to this temptation! A new routine is intended to make your life work better and serve you, rather than becoming a new hurdle or stressor. If you miss a day, spend your time figuring out why you missed, rather than beating yourself up for missing. The original obligation to stick to the new habit still stands, so you’re not off the hook when you miss a day. Relapse, as they say, is part of recovery. Figure out what happened (not necessarily what went wrong), and be on the lookout for those circumstances again in the future. Fail again. Fail better.

Swimming Spotlight: Scott G.'s Path from Bambino to 1:25 Ironman Swim

Scott G. back in December 2015—a textbook “Bambino”

by CBCG Head Coach Chris Bagg

Whenever we have an athlete perform at a new level, we hear from that person’s friends: We’re so amazed by _________’s swim/bike/run! What did you do differently for that person?" Today we’re going to use one of our proudest examples, a recent breakthrough swim for CBCGer Scott G., who swam 1:25 at Ironman Arizona in November 2018. 1:25 not seem super fast to you? Well, let’s consider where Scott came from, which was a total alien in the water, only three years ago. As you can see in the video above, Scott was what we would call (using Swim Smooth’s terminology) a “Bambino.” These swimmers have a bunch of issues, many of which are apparent above. They are:

• Poor water feel: Bambinos usually haven’t spent much time in the water and they just don’t “get it.”

• Sinky, jittery legs: Bambinos often have their legs sink behind them, and display a leg kick that jitters—usually they kick from the knee instead of from the hip

• Holding their breath: one of the reasons Bambinos struggle so much is that they tend to hold their breath underwater. This fault causes their chests float and exacerbates the sinking leg issue. Breath holding also makes the swimmer feel very anxious as carbon dioxide builds up in his or her blood.

• Poor rhythm and inefficient catch-and-pull: Bambinos tend to display little rhythm and “oomph” in the water, usually due to a catch-and-pull that mostly pushes down on the water, instead of back on the water.

Now, let’s look at Scott when we did his yearly swim analysis (something all CBCG athletes get) in December of 2018:

Quite different, yes? When Scott joined us, it would take him more than 45 minutes to swim 1500m (an Olympic-distance triathlon). At Arizona, he swam two-and-a-half times that distance (3800m), in 57 degree water, in less than twice that amount of time (1:25). Here’s how he did it:

1. Consistency of approach. Yep, you knew this was going to be here. Scott has been uniquely focused on getting better at triathlon since he joined us in 2015, coming over from a mostly-cycling background. He has lost weight, dropped his open half-marathon time to 1:29, and committed to improving all aspects of his game. He has been in the pool 2-3 times a week, every week, for close to 150 weeks straight, now. That is the kind of commitment that improving at swimming requires. We’ve said it a bunch of times: swimming is more like golf than cycling or running, and it rewards patient skill acquisition.

2. A focus on fitness. Even though skill acquisition is important, it is far from the whole enchilada. If you can’t swim 200 meters without getting gassed, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got good form for that amount of time/distance: you simply won’t be able to maintain it even in your workouts, let alone your races! We focused on Scott’s swim fitness, giving him lots of sets with long intervals, forcing him to build his aerobic capacity in the water.

3. Addressing his limiters. For Scott, our hierarchy was:

   1. get rid of the breath-holding!

   2. improve the kick: use the glutes not the quadriceps to straighten his leg, so he’s actually getting some body lift from his kick

   3. improve the catch-and-pull to generate more force, which will both make him faster AND reduce drag (with more propulsion, his body sinks less)

4. Practicing pacing. As with many cyclists, Scott likes to go fast. He often started too hard and blew up early, reverting to bad form and slowing down drastically in the second half of the swim. He now approaches swims at the pace he knows he can hold, aiming to swim harder in the second half of the leg rather than the first half.

5. Growth mindset versus fixed mindset. We hear, so often, triathletes say things like “I’m a 1:15 swimmer,” and abandon any plan of improvement, forgetting (or not realizing) that even if you swim the same speed, you can do so and expend less energy. These swimmers tend to struggle over the whole race, even though they focus on the biking and running. They simply give up too much during the swim, due to their lack of training. Scott has consistently focused on the fact that he can improve, and been patient with that process. Scott’s goal is to qualify for Kona, and that’s going to require slicing another 15-20 minutes off his Ironman swim, and getting their will require belief, confidence, and patience, but most of all the mindset that change IS possible.

And that’s kinda it. No silver bullets, magic drills, or mystery pull sets that will transform your swimming. Unsurprisingly, it takes understanding what you’re doing wrong (analysis), a plan to move those faults up the competence ladder (from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence), and commitment to that plan. That’s what we do every day at CBCG, for every athlete. If you’d like to talk to one of our coaches as to how you’d be able to pull off this kind of improvement in your own swimming, you can inquire here.

How to Come Down from Caffeine

by Chris Bagg

It’s 2:34 PM, thirteen days before my last Ironman of the year, and I’m breaking my commitment to stick to only two cups of coffee a day. Great way to establish credibility, right? And you thought you were here to learn about how to kick the habit, huh? Well, we’ll get there (I hope). First of all, though, why am I even trying to get off of caffeine in the first place? And why so far out from the race, too? Wasn’t there a study, like, just last year, that established you only needed three days to get clean from caffeine?

It’s a well-established fact that caffeine is a performance enhancer. WADA (the World Anti-Doping Association) toyed with the possibility of putting caffeine on the banned list a few years ago, before basically the entire cycling industry lost their collective shit. So we do know that it improves performance, but—as with anything—it’s important to know how caffeine improves performance, and under what circumstances. Caffeine is a stimulant of the central nervous system, and one of its effects is to block a chemical reception that triggers the onset of drowsiness. So, first of all, you get less tired/sleepy. Not too many athletes get sleepy during their events, but a little more alertness never hurt anyone. The next helpful effect of caffeine is that it helps us utilize fat as a fuel source, especially as we run low on glycogen. For any athlete doing an event longer than 90 minutes, this is hugely helpful. Thirdly—and probably the most pertinent—caffeine changes our perception of effort. Think about that again. Most of what drives our performances out on course is our perception of how things are going, rather than how they are actually going (this is a whole other blog post). If we can change our perception of effort, it is possible we can rewrite our entire experience of the endurance event at hand, perhaps turning in a performance we never even thought possible.

Before you head to the store, though, to stock up on beans, a very important caveat. As with any drug, we build up tolerances. And, like many Americans, we tend to already drink two to three cups of coffee a day, numbing our response to the popular drug. And if you’ve ever had to go until noon without your fix (or if a clever spouse switched the decaf on you), you know that the withdrawal symptoms of caffeine addiction are no joke: lethargy, terrible headaches, irritability. That aforementioned study on coming down from caffeine breezily posited that only three days are necessary for the body to be rid of its addiction to this particular drug. I’ll bet that those freaking study authors drink tea, and herbal tea, at that. Try to kick your habit three days before a race, and you will be so miserable in the days leading up to the event you may decide to DNS.

But it IS important to get off the drug. If you don’t, you’ll need caffeine simply to bring yourself up to your normal level of ability. For some, that may be fine, but if you are looking for that extra zip on race day to nab that Kona qualification, then getting off of caffeine may really help. If you’ve ever managed to get away from it for a stretch of time, you know what that first cup back is like: speed in a mug. How is this legal? you may think to yourself, and I’m not sure if I should drive right now…caffeine to the virgin (or, at least, scoured out) system is fairly amazing, and it can really power great performances on the race course.

OK, I hope I’ve convinced you. So how do we get there? Here’s the system I usually put into play while getting down from caffeine:

13 days out: 1.5 cups of coffee in the AM, with the freedom to have half a cup around 2-3 PM
12-9 days out: repeat the above process
8-6 days out: 1 cup of coffee in the AM, with the freedom to have half a cup around 2-3 PM
5-3 days out: 1 cup of coffee in the AM, nothing else
2-1 days out: 1 cup of green tea with only 35mg of caffeine in it (one tea bag, steeped for three minutes)
Race Day: nothing with breakfast, 100mg caffeine pill 45’ before race start

Why no coffee itself on race day? Well, the tannins in coffee can mess with your stomach on race morning, moreso than the caffeine, so I avoid the drink entirely, take my 100mg of caffeine pre-race, and am usually absolutely flying by race start.

Why Camps?

This article originally appeared on the Fuse Lenses blog. We’re reposting because it’s camp season, and that means our Tucson and Bend Camps are open for registration. Regardless of whether or not you’re coming to one of our camps, you can follow the below structure to give yourself a boost of fitness if you can set up your work schedule to allow for it.

Why training camps? Each spring (or whichever season describes the early part of your competitive year), athletes of all stripes head to different locales to train in groups, in better weather, or to spend some valuable time with his or her coach. But how much really changes? My old training partner, Olympic-probable Eric Lagerstrom, often points out that when other athletes talk about camp, they’re really just describing their normal training in a new setting. This is quite true. I’m in Carlsbad, California right now, with Amy and my training partner Heather Jackson, posted up in a beautiful house in the San Diego County hills. We’ll be here for twenty days, and training doesn’t look too different from normal: big days Wednesday and Saturday on the bike. Big runs Sunday. Long hard swims Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Short but hard runs sprinkled throughout. Easier rides wherever they fit. So why pull up stakes, go somewhere else for three weeks, spend a bunch of money on renting a house, driving the entire length of I-5, find coverage for our jobs and businesses?

That might seem like a stupid question. Sure, the weather is nicer in Southern California than it is in Portland during the winter, but training effectively in Portland isn’t hard at all. It’s wet, yes, but the temperature is fine, the running is always top-drawer, and you can swim anywhere, really. The real value of a camp is not in the amount of training you can get in, or the convenience of nice weather, or the company of strong athletes—the value of a camp is the efficiency it provides: you can do more than you normally can, not by freeing up more time to train (there’s always more time to train, it just depends on how you feel about running/riding/swimming before light or after dark, or when you’re exhausted from work), but by freeing up more time to recover and rest.

When Amy and I are back in Portland, chaos basically reigns. We both run our own small businesses: my coaching company has five coaches and 55 athletes, and Amy counsels high school students through the byzantine, competitive world of college admissions. Like most long course triathletes, amateur and professional alike, we fit our training in and around our work commitments. I think most small business owners will sympathize that you can always work—if you’re not careful you find yourself logging 80-100 hour weeks. Training camp gives me, for a wonderful three weeks, the chance to fit my work around my training, and fit my training around my rest. Long course triathlon also requires a bunch of hours (Heather and I put in 25-30 hour weeks; Amy is in the 21-25 range), but all that training requires a ton of recovery. Stepping away from Portland and getting out of my business bubble allows me to really focus on the work hard/rest hard equation. Here’s what a week looks like, coupled with appropriate recovery blocks.

And that’s basically it! Wash, rinse, repeat for however long you’re at camp, and then schedule some time to really rest the week after camp. We’ll be here for three total weeks, putting ourselves in a pretty deep hole by the end of March. That kind of heavy training requires heavy resting afterward, cutting training volume by 50-70%, depending on how exhausted you feel. Many athletes train hard enough, but don’t rest hard enough, and they find themselves getting tired and slow by mid-summer. Camps are great for training stimulus, but you don’t get faster until you let that stimulus soak into your body. As my first cycling mentor, Captain Dondo, once said: “Riding your bike isn’t training. Lying on the couch afterward—that’s where everything actually starts to change.”

Want to experience the highs and lows of camp yourself? Come to our legendary Bend camp in May, or our Heather Jackson/Wattie Ink. Camp in Tucson, where YOU get to train with Heather Jackson for five remarkable days.

How to Race in a Radically Different Time Zone from Your Own

by Amy VanTassel

Someone once said (was it Confucius?) that to properly adapt to a new time zone, you need one restful day in your new location per every hour difference. Ergo, if you’re heading for the Gold Coast of Australia, with a nine hour difference, you should arrive nine days in advance to get a shot at adaptation. For athletes attempting to actually compete abroad, it should probably be even more.

CBCG friends Rachel McBride and Steph Corker traveling to compete in Ironman World Championships, 2018

Not every athlete, however, has the luxury of showing up on site several weeks in advance. So, as CBCG athlete and five-time participant at CBCG Camps Don Geddes discovered, there are strategic ways to prep for races abroad. The strategies begin at home, well in advance to flying overseas.

“Before I left for Worlds in Australia, I read an article from University of a Sydney professor, Steve Simpson. Since the time difference to Portland was seven hours behind, I had already started staying up a bit later every night, but after I read this research I committed to practicing the following:

CBCG athlete Don Geddes at the 2018 ITU Age Group Standard Distance Worlds in Australia

1. I began going to bed 90 minutes later every day until I was staying up until 3-4 AM, ultimately getting up around 11 AM - 12 PM in Portland.  

2. My drastically later wake up time put me in sync for a 4 AM wake up in Australia, which was pretty much in line with my wake up time on race day. 

3. I started doing my workouts close to when my actual race times would be - real time in Australia. Since I had a late wave start of 8:23 AM, that meant shifting my workouts to 3-4 PM. 

4. In turn, I needed to adjust meal times by having lunch around 4 or 5 PM, and dinner around 8:30.

5. To shake out the stiffness and cobwebs for sitting so long on the 14-hour flight I opted for the formal Aquathon offered to all competitors, which was a 750 meter swim and 5k run the day after arriving. I felt this was really helpful as it let test the water and shake out the legs. Doubtful that a similar event is available for other races, at least I recommend discussing your shakeout routine upon arrival with your coach. 

Don ended up 3rd American in his age group that Sunday, in the triathlon!  He has clinched multiple PR’s and impressive podia positions in his time working under CBCG head coach Chris Bagg, which is principally due to his diligence and perseverance as a world-class triathlete.

Geddes on his way to 3rd American and 15th in his Age Group in Australia

We at CBCG recognize that such adjustments may be relatively easier for Don, or any athlete who doesn’t hold-down a 9-5 career, but there should be some universal takeaways from his experience. So, in addition to Don’s above sage list of tactics, we offer some general rules-of-thumb for anyone planning to race in a significantly different time zone:

1. Talk to your coach. Whether or not you can get ready in terms of training and fitness, it’s half the battle to ensure you can realistically thwart for the ramifications of jet lag. The best-trained athletes in the world are no good if they’re not acclimatized, so ensure you can meet the afncdd requirements to set yourself up for success for your dream race on the other side of the planet. Your coach can help.

2. Talk to your family. If you’re combining racing with a family adventure, which is a fantastic idea, let’s make sure you’re not throwing them under the bus. If you’re phasing into a new time zone, so should they, at least a little. If they cannot phase-in at least some degree of sleep change, you’ve got to consider the impact on both your racing, and/or their vacation.

3. At least do something. Again, if you’re all, like, “Yeah, must be nice to get to go travel a few weeks in advance, but I gotta work!” at least practice some behaviors while still holding-down your day job. Going to bed just a littler earlier or later, depending on the location, will do wonders. And then controlling your sleep on the flight and upon your arrival will be key, which many people don’t realize is largely controlled by other daily practices...

Eating and training closer and closer to your global race time will be increasingly valuable, so check out Don’s advice and the article he engendered. Talk to you coach and fam, an consider if traveling to Nice, France for 70.3 World Champs or something similar is right for you!

CBCG head coach Chris Bagg waiting for a train in Strasborg