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Rich Strauss

Four Secrets of the Long Course Swim Revealed

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BOOM! And so begins perhaps the most unique spectacle in all of endurance sports — the Ironman swim start. Nearly 2500 bodies and 5000 arms and legs churning the water to start a 140.6 mile day. Below are our tips for surviving, and excelling at, the Ironman swim.

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Meet the Team: 2011 Arizona

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TeamEN takes on Arizonain the Arizona desert!  Looks to be a challenging weather day but the team is ready to make it happen.  This is a favorite event for many of our racers and they can’t wait to light this firecracker. Meet a few of them below. Terry Olivas TeamEN ArizonaRace Captain My name is…

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Rethinking the Value of the Brick Run for Long Course Triathlon

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Making improvements to your training approach is a critical annual exercise if you are looking to improve. As coaches we perform the same review, although we have the benefit of looking at training and results from a detached perspective. And our top change for the 2012 season is a big one: we decided to eliminate…

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Return on Investment, a New Perspective on Triathlon Training, Part I – Introduction

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Lactate Threshold, Rate of Perceived Exertion, or Functional Threshold Power? Periodization or Reverse Periodization? Tastes great or less filling? As a triathlete it’s easy to get caught up in confusing and conflicting advice on how you should/should not train. As coaches of busy age group triathletes, just like you, we’d like you step back and…

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The Case Against Brick Workouts

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As part of our most recent rewrite our entire triathlon training plan suite (OutSeason, Half and Full Ironman), we decided to eliminate brick workouts (runs off the bike) as a “special” workout. After years of reviewing results and the feedback of our athletes, customers, and comparing both with our own training and racing experience, we…

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When to Start the OutSeason

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It’s that time of year again, as athletes end their 2011 season and begin to plan their training and racing for 2012. Inside the team we are now fielding many season planning questions and the Big One is: “Given my race schedule for 2012, when should I start my OutSeason® Training Plan?” Answer: You should…

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The Long Course Run/Walk?

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“Should I walk the aid stations at my next Ironman® run or just run through them?” We’ve been recommending a run/walk strategy for our athletes and at our “Four Keys” pre-race talk for years. It works and these are our thoughts: Run through the aid station to the last water, gel, coke, sportsdrink guy/gal, whatever…

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Tour of California Training Camp, 2011

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Every year since 2007, we’ve conducted a training camp for our members on the Tour of California course. There are camps where you can swim, bike and run a lot…but no other camp puts you ON the course of a pro tour race, riding a couple hours ahead of the peleton — sprint towns and…

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The Kick in Triathlon Swimming

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As a triathlon coach coaching triathletes, 95% of whom are not former competitive swimmers, are swimming 2100-4200yds in a race (much, much farther than your typical competitive swimming event) in a wetsuit that adds a lot of buoyancy to their legs and who have to bike and run a long distance after their swim, my opinion is that the kick should be viewed as an aid to body position and balance first, propulsion a very, very distant second.

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Thoughts on Swim Paddles

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Paddles can be a good tool to help you learn proper catch and pulling technique. The much greater surface area provides with a LOT of feedback on the (in)effectiveness of your pull.

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