In January 2019, I made myself a goal I thought it was impossible to achieve.
I had seen people do weekly challenges, even monthly challenges, but haven’t seen a yearly challenge on youtube. So a crazy idea came into my head. From the first of January 2019 to my birthday on 31st December 2019, I’ll exercise every single day, 365 days straight.
I have always been an active person, I love cycling and running ever since I was 15 years old. But I had no idea how my body would react after doing it everyday for a year. Will my body be too exhausted? It was a scary thought, but the idea of achieve something I had never done before was thrilling and that’s what kept me going.
I had lots of support from my family and my friends at university too. I trained with SMU Aquathlon and they always put a smile on my face every time I see them at the pool or on the track. The team was a huge motivation booster for me when I was putting excuses in my head not to go for training.
SMU Aquathlon trains on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. On days where we didn’t have trainings, a handful of us would meet up after school to go to the gym or a run.
The worst days came when the fatigue builds up from the previous days and my legs were super tired to move. I always had to remind myself that I have come so far already so I had to get your lazy ass off my bed and exercise otherwise I’ll regret it.
Thankfully, having a stationary bike trainer and a treadmill at home saved me from the weather outside on many occasions. I wouldn’t have completed the challenge if it weren’t for that.
All my training data is on Strava. It helps me keep track of my workouts and also follow my friends workouts.
So in 2019, I had ran a total of 2377.3 km with a total time of 205 hours and 28 minutes. I cycled a total of 6406 km with a total time of 307 hours and 46 minutes. I swam a total of 200.7 km with a total time of 57 hours and 2 minutes.
Swim, bike and run combined, I did 571 hours of training in total and moved 8997 km. My biggest month of training was May of 62 hours and my smallest month was October, at 34 hours.
But now, I’m finally able to say I achieved it. Not many people in the world can say that. Yeah, I’m pretty proud of myself for that and I haven’t stopped yet. I got the same goal of exercising everyday in 2020 as well.
I hope that maybe this video could inspire some people to do the same. So if you’re up for it, why not take the challenge up? If you enjoyed this video and wanna see more training videos, feel free to like and subscribe to my channel and I will see you soon. Bye!
Hi guys! Welcome back! In this article, you will learn about the 3 most important components that all professional runners have which makes them crazy fast. You must have all 3 components and lacking in any one of these will limit your running potential. Stick till the end to find out the most important factor.
Just a quick disclaimer. I’m not an extremely fast runner, my 5k time is only 18:12mins. So this is the summary of everything I’ve learnt from watching hours of running coaches such as Sage Canaday and Jack Daniels. No, not the whiskey, the running coach.
So let’s get started.
VO2MAX
First off, elite runners would have a high VO2max. Many runners still don’t know exactly what VO2max actually is. If you do, great job! Your VO2max is the maximum volume of oxygen you can effectively use during exercise. And your VO2max pace is the pace at your VO2max. Any faster than that pace, you’re moving into an anaerobic energy system, but you’re still at maximum oxygen carrying capacity.
So why do we want to train at VO2max pace? And why not higher and definitely not lower? As Jack Daniels like to put it, the only way your body will get an adaptive response is by stressing that particular system. So if you keep training below your VO2max, you’ll simply not have an adaptive response.
But what happens if you go much faster than your VO2max? You won’t be able to complete the training set. For example, you feel very good on the first set and went way too fast. But the subsequent set maybe slower, and the next set even slower, until you’re not training at your VO2max anymore. You’re hurting and in pain, but you’re not gaining anything because you went out too fast. So instead of having 12mins of total VO2 work, you might only have 3mins.
Then the question becomes, how do I know my VO2max pace? Jack Daniels has a simple VDOT running calculator online. I will link it down below. So you just put your personal best time, I think 3k PB will be the most accurate, and the calculator will give you your training paces to run at.
Now how many times a week do I train at VO2max and what’s a typical set like? So ideally, you should be training your VO2max once a week, and the other intense session would be your lactate threshold set. Your sets are determined by whether you can complete the time spent at VO2max. For beginners, you might only be doing 3x800m, so that’s 2.4km worth of VO2max work. For more experienced runners, you may be doing 4×800, 5×800, 4x1k, 5x1k, so up to 5 or 6k worth of VO2max work. But again, most importantly, you gotta run at VO2max, theres no point going for a longer set but ZERO time at VO2max.
Alright, I think VO2max is taking too long, I’ll explain it in more detail in another post, especially what happens to your body when you train at VO2max and why VO2max is not the biggest determinant of running performance. But now let’s move on to a more important factor: Lactate Threshold.
Lactate Threshold
Lactate threshold will determine running performance better than your VO2max. VO2max is like your maximum potential and your lactate threshold determines what percentage of your VO2max you are most efficient at. So we definitely want to be training our LT once every week as well. Training your LT is exactly the same philosophy to train your VO2max, you gotta stress the right energy system, running at the correct pace.
Lactate Threshold is point where your body produces more lactic acid than it can clear. So running at any point faster than your LT pace will tell your body, hey now you’re producing more lactic acid than I can clear, so now I gotta evolve and clear lactic acid faster.
You can get your LT pace from the VDOT running calculator mentioned above. So in order to stress your LT, you gotta be running at least that pace for your LT runs.
If you don’t know your LT pace, it’s your 1hour all out pace, or in training, a pace that you can hold for 20-30mins. And around a 400m track, you LT should be 6 seconds a lap slower than your VO2max lap. So what are some LT sets?
Jack Daniels likes to prescribe a 20min run or a series of longer cruise intervals that make up 20 to 30mins. For example, 4x6mins and 1 minute of rest. A very short rest so that your body does not clear too much lactic acid before your next rep. So a typical set maybe 3/4/5×1.6km, even 4x2km, all at 1 min rest.
Remember, you’ll increase the length of the set only until you can do a shorter set. For example, you can do a 3×1.6k quite comfortably and maybe next week you can do a 4×1.6k. But all at the same LT pace. Only when you do a long 4x2k LT set quite comfortably, then it’s likely your LT has improved, then you can increase your training LT pace. And slowly getting faster and faster.
That’s all for Lactate Threshold for now, I’ll talk about the physical adaptations and I’ll explain the lactic acid graph in more detail in another post. But now let’s move on to improving your running economy.
Running Economy
Running economy isn’t just a fancy term. It’s measured in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute. The lower the number means you use less oxygen to move the same distance, meaning the more efficient you become.
In fact, someone with a lower VO2max can run faster than someone with a higher VO2max because their running economy is better.
Here are the largest factors affecting your running economy.
Mileage
The more you run, your body simply becomes more used to running and you become more economical. I’ll talk more in detail about the exact physical adaptations in the muscle cells in another post. And also what zone you should be running at and how to increase your mileage. But for now, more mileage equals better economy.
However, there’s always a catch. Please don’t go out and run 200km a week like what Eluid Kipchoge does. That’s stupid. You’re more likely to risk injury. So what’s the best mileage a week but relatively safe and risk free?
Unfortunately, it’s different for everybody and talented athletes can put out impressive results with less mileage. But it’s always a curve of diminishing returns, means you’re gonna get less improvements for every additional unit of mileage.
But from Sage Canaday’s video, he says that when he increased from 20 or 30miles to 40/ 50miles a week is when he really gained the most performance. That kind of makes sense, since I see many elite triathletes doing 50ish miles a week on strava too.
So an example of a 40mile week may look like this. 11k with Vo2max efforts on Tuesday, 10k easy on Wednesday, 16k with LT efforts on Thursday, 6k easy on Saturday, and a 21k long run on Sunday.
A 50 mile week may have the same structure, just play around with the numbers by adding a little bit more to your warm up and cool down. Also, another rule of thumb is for your long run distance to be about 30% of your weekly mileage.
Running form
I do think running form is just like swimming technique. You’ll want to get the basics right and then you can develop your own unique style that you can excel at. So what are some running form basics? We hear it all the time – don’t heel strike, land on your mid to fore foot, don’t swing your arms across your body, run at 180 to 190 steps a minute. I will do a more detailed running form analysis in the future, but a good place to start is by watching elite runners run and you’ll learn a thing or two.
Strength training also helps with your form. Your core is essential to keep you from running like a noodle at the end of the race. I consider drills, strength training, plyometrics, mobility and strides as part to improve running form.
I’ve made a video about exactly what strength sets I do. Link will be below. And I do my strength set every Tuesday, as part of the warm up before my VO2 run. It includes stuff like squats, box jumps, step ups, dead bug and planks. I learnt that routine from a video on Eluid Kipchoge.
On Thursday, before my LT run workout, I’ll do some mobility activation stuff like high knees, butt kicks and skips and I’ll do a video on my pre run routine in the future. But drills are a super essential part of maintaining running form.
Lastly, strides will also help your running forms as well. You may do a few 100 or 200 metre sprints during your easy runs. You can have a long rest in between. These are just to practice leg turn over and a great way to engage your core, keeping your posture in check. I may do strides before every workout, if it’s a longer workout I’ll do less strides, but I try to make sure I do my strides at least once a week.
Weight
Weight is part of the Running Economy equation so removing weight from your clothing, shoes and your belly will improve your running economy.
I’ll have other videos on my channel talking about nutrition. But in summary, you’ll want to lose weight first by looking at where in your diet are the fats coming from. The top sources of saturated fat in our diet are cheese, pastries, dairy, chicken and then comes your processed meats and beef burgers.
I know cleaning up your diet maybe the hardest thing to accomplish in the world. I find it ironic that most of us want to live a long, healthy life but unwilling to reduce the foods that are doing our body harm. I don’t want to go too in depth about nutrition here but the point is that everyone can clean up their diet.
Ok, back to the subject on weight. We can always wear lighter shoes for our speed workouts and races. And for your long, easy runs, you can wear heavier, more cushioned shoes which is less likely to risk injury. Or, you can have a mid weight shoe that provides sufficient cushion and you can use it for all your runs. Works for me. That’s why I love my Saucony Kinvara.
Conclusion
Now that I’ve shared the secret, competition is gonna be a lot harder. Now it just depends on who trains and recovers most consistently and who also eats the healthiest.
A quick recap, you’ll want to improve your VO2max and Lactate threshold by working at your exact pace every week. You can find your paces using Jack Daniels VDOT running calculator online. Next, running economy trumps LT and VO2max. So to improve running economy, do your drills, strength training, strides, increase your mileage and remove excess weight from your clothes and eat a healthier diet.
Thanks so much for sticking until the end. If you got something from this and want to know more, do consider subscribing to my youtube channel. And I will see you again soon!
I know many of my friends burn out from consistent training. I’m also afraid I may end up losing steam at some point. I wish I could keep doing triathlon until I’m too old to do it.
Sustainability is not just a mindset thing but also a time management and physical fatigue issue. So this article will talk about how I personally manage these 3 components to make triathlon sustainable for me.
Number 1: It’s not only about the race.
I see a lot of people get burned out and retire after completing their goal race. That’s because they probably sacrificed a lot time spent with family or work to train for it. And when the race is over, they may feel they need to get back lost time and take a break from training.
For me, I view races as just a test of fitness, maybe have a kick at the podium if I’m good enough. But I won’t sacrifice another part of my life in order to train that extra mile. Even if the race is over, training continues as per usual. So I feel it’s important not to place too much emphasis on a single race, so that you can keep training at a sustainable level all year round.
Number 2: Indoor Training
It’s hard to not talk about indoor training in a sustainability video. Indoor training is like the ultimate level of productivity. 1 hour of work is 1 hour of work. There’s no travelling time, no waiting for stop lights, no waiting for other people. It’s just you and what you want to do with that 1 hour.
Indoor training has really helped me find extra time in the day. Imagine if I had to travel 30 mins to training, spend an hour there and another 30 mins travelling back home. That’s half the time travelling already.
Another hack is that I actually do my work on the bike. If I have an easy ride, I can actually do my school work on the trainer. I love my trainer so much because I feel more productive. But when it comes to swimming, I’ve got no choice but to travel to the pool. That’s where the next point comes in.
Number 3: Commuting everywhere
Last year, I bought a $260 polygon just to cycle to school. $260 may sound like much, but I’ve already made back the money by not paying the bus or train fare. What’s more, I save 20 mins off my travelling time each direction. Yes, I cycle faster than the bus or train.
What’s even better is that I get to clock that distance as part of my aerobic ride for the week. In a week, I may clock an extra 2-2.5 hours of cycling just by commuting. I would do that anyway even if I wasn’t training, so that’s why it’s sustainable.
Number 4: It’s only 2 hours a day
This one’s a bit more psychological, but it’s basically finding 2 free hours in a day to train. That’s less than a 10th of the 24 hours in a day. So if you really have no time, wake up 1 hour earlier or sleep an hour later to find that time for training.
And I bet some of your time may be just lazing in bed and doing nothing. If you find you still have time for that, you definitely have time for a bit of training.
Number 5: Community
I’m so glad the triathlon community in Singapore is a small but strong one. I think without it, I probably would not swim 3x a week because I think swimming is so boring.
The community is like the gel that keeps you in the sport, they also keep you accountable for your training by making sure you’re not slacking. For example Strava and Instagram.
Another reason is killing the social aspect and the training bird with the same stone. As humans, we need social interactions (it’s the number 1 indicator of a happier life). So if I’m training with my friends, it’s another multitasking activity for me as well.
Number 6: The goal is to be better than last year
Right now I have more trivial goals rather than specific goals for triathlon. I don’t really have race goals like I gotta hit this time or get this position. Stresses me out and I won’t be able to perform well anyway.
So my triathlon goals are pretty simple; to be as fit and healthy as possible, break barriers that I’ve never done before. That’s also the beauty of the sport, you would never know what you’re truly capable of. It’s thrilling just to think about it.
When I race, I still get race nerves, but now I try to think less about the outcome but more on my performance. Even if I got last, but I performed better than what I expected, then it’s a win for me. That’s how I also try to keep other’s expectations away from my head and have a good time racing. That brings me on to my next point, which is…
Number 7: Enjoy the process
I’ve seen so many athletes dread training. Hopefully you’re not one of those. For me, training gets me excited and I always look forward to training. I love the hard interval sessions. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m slightly crazy. Who knows.
I wish my love for training would never go away. I love going fast. Moving above 40 kmh makes me happy even though I maybe hurting.
Number 8: Mental and physical breaks
At the start, you just want to hammer yourself everyday because you are so excited to get faster and faster. I know, I’ve been there. But when the initial excitement goes away, that’s where the daily motivation kicks in. And you have to balance that well and it’s the same concept as over training.
Most often during the 3rd hard week in a month, we would likely be dreading training already and can’t wait for the rest week. So I use the time in rest week to catch up on other things in life and reset my mental capacity for triathlon again. Usually when the rest week ends, I’ll be ready and excited for the next block of hard weeks because I can’t wait for all the gains. (:
Number 9: Triathlon does not have to be expensive
If you keep buying the latest toys once they are released every year, triathlon will probably cost more than your car. In the long run, that’s not very sustainable either. Unless you are a pro, triathlon is just a hobby to most of us and so I feel you shouldn’t be spending so much money for that 1% more performance. You’re better off getting that performance boost from training, which is free.
I’m always on the lookout for good deals in 2nd hand websites like carosell and togoparts. Almost everything I have is 2nd hand. From my treadmill to my 4 bikes to my gym equipment. What’s even better is that I could sell most of these items at the same price or at a small profit too. Yeah, so triathlon does not need to be expensive at all.
Conclusion
My most important goal for triathlon has been and will always be longevity in the sport. I only hope when I start working next time, triathlon will still be part of my life that keeps me fit and in tip top shape.
This is my 7th year in the sport and I have been through my share of “burnout” and have some very very low points too. But I’m glad that I’ve always found a way to get back up again.
This article could be for someone who may be struggling to find a balance between life and triathlon or someone who may be having a burnout phase. In any case, I hoped this has helped you and took some value from it. Feel free to comment below if you have your own tips to share. Would definitely love to hear them! Thanks for reading and talk to you guys again soon!
After coming out of a cold, I realized my immunity may be quite bad. So I went to look into the research to find out how I can boost my own immune system.
What surprised me was that athletes may actually have a weaker immunity because of the stress and inflammation during exercise.
So in this article, you’re gonna find out 10 different things you can do today to boost your immune system.
And it’s gonna be no surprise that most of them are going to be healthy foods. But what you might not know is how and why that may boost our immune system. Alright, let’s begin!
1. Green Tea
Number 1 is Green Tea. You’ve probably heard that green tea has many antioxidants and everything. That’s all good and gives even more reason to drink green tea. But what is green tea’s effect on immune cell production? In a study, people drank 6 cups of green tea a day which led to a 15 fold increase in gamma delta T cell production within a week! The gamma delta T cells act as the first line of defence against infection. In the same study, coffee had no effect on immune cell production.
Another study gave healthcare workers green tea compounds, and they had 3 times lesser flu than those who weren’t given.
2. Cruciferous Vegetables
Number 2 is Cruciferous Vegetables. This study dropped kale on human cells and they produced more antibodies, almost quadrupled. Also, cooked Kale worked even better.
Our Intra-epithelial lymphocytes (our protective gut cells) has 2 functions: condition and repair epithelial barrier AND provide a front line defence against pathogens.
This study found that Broccoli contains the key which fits on our AHR receptors in our Intra-epithelial lymphocytes which then activate our intestinal immune function.
3. Garlic
Number 3 is Garlic. Garlic increases the activity of natural killer cells and production of T and B cells. In a randomized study group, those who ate garlic had 60% fewer colds and faster recoveries. 1.5 days instead of 5 days and also fewer symptoms.
Another study showed that garlic boosted different mRNA proteins within 3 hrs of eating it. They compared different cooking methods and found that raw garlic was the best, boiling had a 3 times drop , and the allicin protein were totally wiped out when even just a single minute of stir frying. What was interesting was that even though roasting is hotter than boiling, it preserved twice as much allicin.
4. Blueberries
Number 4 is blueberries. We have an average of 2 billion natural killer cells in our bloodstream This study showed that people who ate blueberries for 6 weeks, their natural killer cells were boosted from 2 billion to 4 billion.
During prolonged exercise, your natural killer cells drops by half to 1 billion. This study showed athletes that ate 1.5 cups of blueberries a day had a decrease that wasn’t as bad and they had a less oxidative stress after running.
This study put black pepper on cancer cells in a lab and nothing happened. But when they added natural killer cells, the black pepper boosted killer cell activity by 10 times with the same no. of cells.
5. Mushrooms
Number 5 is mushrooms. It’s been shown that white button mushrooms accelerates immunoglobulin (IGA) secretion. That’s a type of antibody in our mucus lining in our digestive tract.
This study had a group who didn’t eat mushrooms and a group who ate about a cup of white button mushrooms everyday for a week. After a week they collected their saliva and measured their IGA levels. The group without mushrooms had no change in IGA but the group with mushrooms increased their IGA levels by 50% and stayed up there for a week even when they stopped eating the mushrooms. before dropping back down again. This suggests that a continuous intake of mushrooms is necessary to maintain an increased level of IGA secretion.
6. Fruits
Number 6 is fruits. This study split elderly into two groups. One ate 2 or fewer fruits and the other group ate at least 5 fruits n vegetables. The group with at least 5 fruits had more immune response by having more antibodies.
7. Sleep
Number 7 is sleep. This study showed that people who had more sleep were 3-5 times likely to beat common cold. Even if someone with the cold sneeze directly at you, you may not even get sick.
8. Exercise
Number 8 is exercise. 95% of infections are protected by IGA, an immunoglobulin antibody found in your saliva, preventing infections from penetrating the body.
In this study, elderly women had 50% chance of getting upper respiratory tract infections in the fall, those who walked 30 minutes a day had 20% chance and those who ran had less than 10% chance.
However, sustained, intense exercise had an opposite effect like a U shaped curve. Those who exercised at a moderate intensity had less risk than sedentary people but those who did intense exercise or over trained had the most risk. In fact, they had a 2-6 times the risk of URTI for several weeks.
9. Zinc
Number 9 is Zinc. Zinc has 3 ways it can slow down the proliferation of corona viruses.
It blocks the attachment of the virus to your throat, it blocks replication of RNA viruses, boosts immune system.
What are foods high in zinc? Wheat, oats, dark green vegetables like spinach, nuts and seeds especially squash, chia pumpkin seeds. Also, beans, rice and mushrooms.
Lastly we have Nutritional Yeast. This study showed that after 2 hours of cycling, there was a dip in monocytes in their blood. Monocytes are our body’s first line of defence. But those who ate 3/4 of a teaspoon of Nutritional Yeast, their monocytes were even more than when they started cycling.
In marathon runners, a daily spoonful of nutritional yeast cut their upper respiratory infection rates in half and they were also less tensed, fatigued and less aggressive.
But what was it in nutritional yeast that’s so good? It’s the beta glucan that boosts number of monocytes, 250mg of yeast was good and 500mg was even better.
CONCLUSION
As athletes we already are putting ourselves at higher risk by exercising at high intensity or long duration for fitness gains. So it’s even more important to boost our immunity especially when there’s a pandemic in the world now.
So here’s a short recap. 6 cups of green tea a day led to a 15 fold increase in gamma delta T cell production within a week. Cruciferous vegetables like kale and broccoli produce more antibodies and activate our intestinal immune function. Garlic increases the activity of natural killer cells and raw garlic was better than boiling or stir frying.
People who ate blueberries for 6 weeks had their natural killer cells boosted from 2 billion to 4 billion. Black pepper also boosted killer cell activity. White button mushrooms accelerates IGA secretion. Elderly who ate at least 5 fruits a day produced much more antibodies than those who didnt.
People who had more sleep were 3-5 times likely to beat common cold. Exercise reduces the chance of getting upper respiratory tract infections but intense training increases the risk.
Zinc can slow down the proliferation of corona viruses by preventing attachment of the virus to your throat, it blocks replication of RNA viruses, boosts immune system. Lastly, nutritional yeast increased cyclists levels of monocytes even after a long ride.
Thanks for reading all the way till the end. I hope I’ve helped at least one person today. Comment below if this has benefited you in any way. I love to hear your comments. Stay safe and healthy everyone!
A hallmark of the triathlete is their natural affinity to everything AERO. Welcome back guys!
Today is all about the best tips on how you can be as aero as possible. Why? Because aeroiseverything. 😀
So here are 13 tips on how you can get more aero in your swim, bike and run. First off, the swim.
Swim
Excess hair is weight, but worst of all, it catches water molecules that slow you down dramatically. Swimming with hair feels like you’re swimming with weights. Shave them off as much as you can. Particularly the arm pits. Nobody wants to see your bush anyway.
Next, goggles straps in or out of your swim cap? I’d say out for training and in for racing. And when you wear your straps inside your cap, make sure the side straps are tucked in the cap as well. Newbie mistakes. Don’t worry, even I did it too. I really don’t think it’s gonna make much difference at all but marginal gains is everything.
Aero tip umber 3 is to keep your head down. You probably heard this a million times over already. But like me, I thought my head was low enough, turns out, I still have much to lower. One good drill to do to be more comfortable with your head lower is the chin down drill. You’ll just flutter kick while chin touching your chest. You should feel the water flowing over your head as you move. So that’s how to have a more aero body position.
4th tip. Fingers down as you reach out forward. You might be pointing straight forward but never point up. You’re putting the brakes on every stroke. You’re basically Hi-fiving the water when it comes towards you. Don’t do that. No Hi-fiving the water. Just reach out and point your fingers down, feel the water flowing above your hand. That will set you up for a good catch.
5th tip would be to wear colorful trunks. The jury is out whether colorful trunks actually do or do not make you more aero. As the saying goes, “It doesn’t matter how fast you are, as long as you look fast.” I bet you have heard that before too.
Bike
Number 6! Now we’re on to the bike tips. Change your cranks to shorter ones. It will not make a difference with your power output but you’ll be more comfortable. And when you’re more comfortable, you’ll be more aero. Having a shorter crank means you can sit higher on the bike, meaning your saddle to handlebar drop is lower and more aero.
7th tip is to slam the stem. Be warned that this may result in back pain. So you gotta increase your back flexibility so that you can ride around showing off that you have a slammed stem. It’s all about looking more pro right?
8th tip is to tape up excess vents. Or you can buy a aero helmet. Which ever you prefer, or can afford. Your head causes a huge amount of drag, so making your helmet slightly more aero will reap a lot more benefits.
9th tip. Don’t put a cardboard on your bike. As mark from GTN tested, it’s not aero because it’s catching those side winds and made him slower. But what has made him faster was this next tip.
Number 10. Disc wheel covers. It’s okay if you don’t have a disc wheel. A DIY disc cover made by yourself can actually make you more aero too. It’s a very cheap alternative worth trying out. But hopefully it lasts through your full race and not fall apart mid way.
Number 11. Your own seat sail. This aero tip is also another one of GTN’s experiments. You just DIY a sail onto the back of your seat post to look like the Specialized shiv bladder compartment and you’ll be faster. It saved heather around 20W at the same speed. It shows a little can go a long way.
Run
12th tip. And we’re talking about the run now. There is honestly nothing much you can do to make yourself more aero. But don’t run with baggy clothes or those weird costumes. You know what I’m talking about. But if you’re wearing a running cap, wear your cap backwards. That way the visor doesn’t catch wind. Patrick Lange is a 2x Ironman world champion and always runs with cap backwards, and now you know why.
13th and final tip is to wear your sunglasses over your cap. I mean who wears them inside their cap? Always wear your shades over so you don’t creates spaces where air can go in your cap.
That is all the aero tips I have for you guys today. Comment below what your favorite tip was and do you have anymore aero ideas? Thanks for reading and I’ll catch up with you guys soon. Stay healthy and strong and most importantly, aero.
I believe everyone should do their long runs. From the track sprinters to the casual joggers.
It’s the first run to put into your weekly plan if you only had one run per week. That’s how essential a long run is.
And I learnt that the hard way.
Keeping my story short, in 2018 I kept going for races almost every weekend. I didn’t do any long runs at all. Maybe 1 or 2 the whole year.
My performance suffered. I wasn’t able to last during races because my aerobic engine wasn’t build up yet even though I had quite good leg speed.
Okay, you know how long runs can benefit you by improving your aerobic fitness, and improving your running efficiency, making you run easier at the same pace.
Disclaimer: I’m not a coach, I’m here to share my experiences and what I’ve learnt from pros, books and youtube videos so that you don’t make the same mistakes I made and give you information I wished I had when I started out. If you are a coach, please feel free to agree or disagree in the comments below. That let’s me know if my current understanding is True or False. That way we all get to learn!
Now, let’s dive straight into how long should your long runs be.
I believe your long run distance is not the same for everyone. I think there are 2 main factors determining the length of your long runs. First would be your running experience. For example, Kipchoge’s 2h runs are about 40km already while some may say 3km is the longest I ever ran. 2nd factor is the race you’re doing. You’ll typically be doing a longer long run if you’re training for a marathon than a 10k.
So with those factors in mind, I’m going to share with you how I decide how long to run my long runs.
Beginners to Experienced
If you are a beginner, maybe 3km is the longest you ever ran, then I suggest applying the 10% rule to your runs. So each week increase the length of your long run by 10% until you hit 10km.
For most athletes, 10km isn’t even considered a long run at all. If you’re a 10k runner, you can do the whole 10k at a pretty hard effort already.
So now we’re at 10km as your longest run. That’s good progress! I remember when 10km was a long run for me. That was back in 2014. You’re at a stage where you could possibly race a 5k, but you’ll only run a 10k for completion and not for time.
With that said, obviously more advanced 5k runners run more than 10km for their long runs. They need a strong aerobic engine too.
So lets say you wanna move up your distance, 10k, 21k, 42k. Will your long runs be more than 42km now?
Nope. 30km is about the maximum distance most athletes should do their long runs because of the return of investment isn’t as much anymore. In fact, running more than 30 increases your risk by injury by a lot.
A personal anecdote here: I ran a 30km long run one day because I felt good. The workout was good but the 4 days after that weren’t. I needed rest and the 30km long run was too much for my body to handle. Also because I jumped straight into 30km without slowly building up. I write this here so you can learn from my experience.
Now we got a better picture of long runs being 10km to 30km. Less than 10k, are you even doing a long run? And more than 30k, are you risking an injury? More experienced and ultra runners do go over the 30k mark, but you gotta be real careful to go there.
Even for sub 2h marathoner Eluid Kipchoge, he takes 2 to 3 weeks to recover after running his marathons.
General long run distances
If you’re doing a 5k, your long runs can be from 10-22km. You probably don’t reap as much benefit running longer than 22km so save your legs for the 5k specific track session later in the week.
If you’re doing a 10k, your long runs can be from 14-24km. You would generally want your long runs to be more than your race distance so I believe 14k is a good minimum distance.
If you’re doing a 21k, your long runs can be from 16-26km. Yeah, it’s just a little bit more than the 10km even though the race is doubled. In this case you’re not always doing over your race distance because it may take a huge toll on your body every week. So your long runs for some weeks can be less than 21km.
If you’re doing a 42k, your long runs can be from 18-30km. You would hardly ever touch race distance in your long runs because if you do that every week, you’re likely to get injured.
If you’re a casual runner who does the occasional long run and you have no race coming up, you can follow the 5k long run range of 10-22km just for a maintenance level fitness.
Periodization
Now we got a range to run your long runs. Let’s say 14-24km. But how long do I run every week? That’s where we bring in periodization into the picture. Basically it’s the period of the year/month/week to go harder or easier.
A basic monthly model is a 3 week build and 1 week recover. So you’ll be running a long run every week on the same day. The first week would be 18, next 20, next 22 and the rest week would drop back down to 14km.
So when do we go to 24km? I would put the 24km long runs during the base building period. Often early in the season where you typically want to focus on aerobic base building. Typically that’s January to March/ April. (Also depends on your upcoming races.)
In a typical month (Jan to Apr) of base building, I could do a build of 20,22,24 in 3 weeks then back to 14 or 16k on the rest week. Then as the season progresses (May to Oct), we cut back on our longest runs to prioritize our race specific runs. So its back to 18,20,22km in 3 weeks and 14km on the rest week.
And you could also adjust this plan if you’re doing a 5k, 10k or 42k. Btw, you don’t really have to run 16.0km exactly. It’s just a gauge.
What effort to run at?
There’s only one effort you should be doing all your long runs at and that’s Zone 2. Zone 2 is a very comfortable pace, just a little bit faster than a slow shuffle. About a 60% effort.
In terms of heart rate, I would hardly ever go above 140bpm and lower than 120bpm. I typically average 130-135bpm for the whole run.
In terms of pace, that’s about 5:45 to 6:00 minutes per km for me. I could be faster or slower for you so run according to heart rate.
Why don’t I want to go harder than zone 2 pace? You want to be efficient at slow paces because it translates to better running economy overall. Also, if you go too hard, you may not recover in time for your next hard session.
Conclusion
This isn’t an article to prescribe you a long run plan, it’s just how I decide a long run distance for myself. I give ranges like 14-24km as a general guide and as I said, that will change according to your experience level.
For me, that’s the range of my own long runs because I’ve got a half ironman coming up. So I gotta be training for a 21km run off the bike. And this week is my rest week so tomorrow I would be doing a 16km long run.
Let me know how long your long runs are, or if my article has helped you in deciding how long to run your runs.
2019 has been a much better year than 2018. I had the best performances I’ve ever had. I broke my 5km PB to a 18:12mins, Standard Duathlon under 2:04h and Olympic Triathlon under 2:20h and got my highest FTP of 234W, (247W 20mins).
In 2018 I had no structured training, my rest days were a bit too hard, I wasnt rested enough and I tried to do all I could in a week. I was burnt out and over trained. I had to take longer rest days so training volume and intensity wasnt as high as it could be with structured training.
So here are a few things I’ve changed in 2019 and with a structured plan, I was training more, resting better and actually performing better than 2018.
Danny and me at the National Triathlon Champs 2019
WEEKLY STRUCTURE
In 2018, I was deciding what I wanted to do every single day. The trouble with this is that I was likely to avoid the things I disliked doing. So I rarely did long rides or long runs since I was racing sprint distances.
In 2019, a weekly structure gave me something to do everyday. Not the exact workout, but the type of workout I needed to do. Mondays and Fridays were rest days, Tues to Thurs were hard interval days and the weekends were long rides and runs.
And because I was regularly rested, my body could adapt better and I reached a new peak performance this year. I never understood why a structured training was so important but after trying it out this year, I could say it was the best change I have ever made.
Consistency
Consistency in terms of regular training but also consistent workouts. Meaning every week I would increase the intensity by a small increment. Early in the year I decided to do 10k tempo runs in the gym and slowly upped the speed every week. I started out at 14kmh and now I can do 15.1kmh. Also I started my long runs at 16km and slowly increased to 21, 24km long runs. But that does not mean the distance will grow indefinitely: the distance will drop during the rest week, and build it up in the next 3 weeks to a longer distance than the previous build.
For the bike, I’ve been doing 2x20mins every week. Doing the same workout every week tells me exactly how I’m progressing (if my heart rate is lower with the same power numbers). But the drawback is that I avoided the rest of the cycling zones, I hardly ever trained in Zone 5 and above. But my target race was a 40km ride, so I needed a solid threshold rather than a powerful sprint. Perhaps now in the off season, I can start doing VO2 & sprint sets on the bike.
Loosing Weight
If you have read my loosing weight blog, I have lost 4-5kg since last year. I have been tracking the mass of my lunch and dinner and found a sweet spot (400g -450g) of food to loose weight slowly and consistently. At race weight, I was 56 -57kg.
But loosing weight is gonna be a problem during the off season as I’m eating more rubbish food now heheh. Since I know how to loose weight, I will change my eating routine as race season comes again.
Long Runs and Rides
In 2018, I hardly did any long rides or runs because I didnt enjoy them. Especially doing long runs was so boring doing it myself. So this year I would do a long ride on Sat and a run on Sun. I began doing my long runs on the track because I could track my heart rate and pace better over many long runs. And over time, my average heart rate dropped while my average pace got faster. That’s a great sign of improved aerobic capacity and running economy.
In 2019, I learnt about how doing your long runs can benefit you in a way that short intervals cannot. In summary, long rides/ runs improve your mitochondria density, improves your zone 2 efficiency and strengthens your aerobic system. How important are long runs? They say that if you have time for only one run in the week, it’s gotta be a long run.
Now here are some things I could still work on:
Strength and conditioning
They say to get the most performance in your season, it’s recommended to do strength sessions 3x a week in the off season and 1x a week in the season. But I was too lazy to do strength in the season and focused on the actual workouts. If I was at home, I wouldn’t travel all the way to school just for a half an hour gym session.
So this year I bought a barbell, bench and a few weights so I could do my strength at home. And I hope in the off season I can make these strength sessions a routine and not skip strength sessions. I will link my gym routine here. Studies have shown that performance can improve up to 17% by doing strength training, more so in older people.
Mesocycle
Another thing I could work on in 2020 is my mesocycle, which is the monthly train-rest cycle. This year I tried to do a 3 week hard, 1 week rest cycle. It didnt really go so well because my 3rd hard week would often have failed workouts. (Due to the fatigued built up from the last 2 weeks) So perhaps I can try doing 2 weeks hard, 1 week easy next year. Or doing the first 2 of 3 hard weeks easier, so I could have good workouts on the 3rd hard week.
Brick
I never really believed brick would be that helpful in a triathlon. I thought I would focus on the specific sport during training and that’ll be good enough. But after Singapore Triathlon, I knew that bricks was something I had to do now. I felt good in the first 5k off the bike. 10km was no problem during training, but off the bike, I was suffering the last 5k on the run. I needed to bricks of at least 6km and if I’m doing a half Ironman, perhaps a 10 to 14km brick run at race pace. So that’s something I gotta plan going into race season next year.
Rest week training
I used to think rest week was 60% volume and intensity of the hard week. But I quickly found out that a rest week should not have any intervals at all, after still being fatigued during my “rest” week. So instead, I learnt that ALL workouts have to be at super easy pace.
So a typical rest week would be easy from monday to friday and carry on with a long ride and run on the weekend at usual zone 2 pace.
Base
My season started early this year in January where the first SEA Games qualifiers were held. So my base building was non existent this year. Even after the qualifying race in Jan, I carried on training for Metasprint and the next SEA Games qualifying race in April.
That means I had lacked the aerobic gains that a good 3 month ish base period would have given me. So next year I would take Nov 2019 to Feb 2020 as the Base period and March and April will be specific half Ironman training.
The base period is where we can strengthen our weakness too. More swimming running drills, high end speed workout (sprints & VO2 Max), gym work and lots of easy zone 2 work for them aerobic gains.
Build
The build phase is when the workouts look more and more like the race. Every week you supposed to increase your intensity or duration a little bit more than the previous week. But I never knew exactly how much to increase by. It was a lot of trial and error for me this year and I sort of found out what my body can and cannot do.
For example, I tried doing a 30km long run. It felt okay during the run but the next 4 days I couldn’t hit any hard workouts. After a few trial and errors, my long runs range from 18 to 24km, and 16km on a rest week.
As for running, the key workout was 1.2k or 1.6k repeats at 3:35pace. When I try to do 3:30pace, I couldn’t complete the workout. So even a 5s per k difference is too significant of an increase. So next year I can try doing 3:30pace for 1k reps and slowly build the distance to 1.2k reps.
For the bike threshold workout, I should increase the duration to 45mins/ 1hr or even 90mins at LT1 because right now I’m only doing 40mins of threshold work on the bike. So if I can increase the duration spent at threshold intensity, my cycling would definitely improve by a whole lot.
Going into 2020, I’m much more experienced to plan a better season and weekly structure. And I should be able to reach new peaks with a better base, training build, strength training, a better rest cycle and more brick runs. Thanks for reading up till here! I know its a long one so thanks for sticking around!
Notice its Triathlon and School not School and Triathlon? That’s right, I plan my training week before planning my classes. Thankfully in SMU, my classes are super flexible and they only take up 15hrs a week. I actually get quite a few questions about how I manage this two things. To me, training is like a getaway from school like a stress remover. It’s something I look forward to during class and that also motivates me to study faster.
Here’s a few things I’ve picked up with regards to balancing school and training. Wait.. I mean training and school 😉
Tip 1: Scheduling
Seniors always tell us we should plan our classes on training days since we were already in school. I get where they’re coming from but since I exercise everyday, my philosophy is different. In fact, the opposite.
My rest days have more classes. If I can’t spend class time training, then I’ll just use it for recovery. So my Mondays and Fridays have classes. In fact, Fridays have 2 back to back classes and my legs really thank me for letting them rest.
In contrast, my hard days, like Thursdays, are usually double session days. Zone 2 bike in the morning and a hard run in the evening. And I have no lessons on Thursdays – more time to train!
TIP 2: Commuting
When triathlon becomes your life, triathlon becomes everything you do. Besides the training, food & nutrition, it’s also how you travel. Taking public transport to school used to take me 40mins, at best 30mins. But with my bike, it takes 15-20mins depending on how many green lights there are that day. Best part is that I can sleep in more as well 😀
TIP 3: Work habits
For me, school time means that I have to finish as much work so I can train later. This was the mindset I had for many years and it taught me how to study more effectively, how to ask seniors for help, and forced myself to learn quicker.
Also this mindset also made my study sessions more productive. I don’t do the 30mins work, 10mins rest cycle. For me, I’ll just do until I finish, no breaks, once I’m done, I’ll go.
I’m amazed by the fact that some people can study until 10/11pm. But really, how much of that is actual studying? To me, it’s a myth you have to study for long hours to get good grades. I’m also not saying my grades are good haha. Just enough to maintain my scholarship lol.
TIP 4: Recovery
Besides just hanging up my legs, I also wear compression tights or socks to school. May seem a little weird, but all my friends know I’m a triathlete anyway so it doesn’t bother me.
Some athletes choose to bring massage balls and roll in class. I feel that paying attention to the class is more important, if the lesson is too slow, go ahead and read up further. What you want is doing less things afterwards!
TIP 5: Indoor Training
Quite logically, you get more out the time you put in than outside. You remove all the cafe stops, traffic lights, toilet breaks, everything. Its just you and the clock.
A one hour bike session really means one hour of pushing pedals.
As much as these sessions are really productive, it is missing the social element. So when I have time on the weekends, I may ride outside. The social element is important too. But lately I’ve been doing skype calls for my group projects on the trainer so I’m actually doing work while cycling.
Isn’t indoor training boring? Well only if you do nothing. I’m the type of person who constantly needs something to be occupied with. Whether its 10mins or 4 hours on the trainer, every minute of it must be productive. So besides skype calls, I watch youtube videos about triathlon or netflix or check my instagram or chat with my friends. Then the 3-4 hours on the trainer will pass by quickly.
My indoor training takes up about 60-80% of my total training. This includes gym, tempo runs, threshold bike, recovery bike and sometimes even long rides or long runs.
TIP 6: Cut out the things that take up your time
I think this is the reason why I don’t have much of a social life. I don’t just “go out” for no reason. I don’t party, club, etc (I don’t even know what kids my age do these days) But anyway I think this could be the main reason why I’ve got time to do what I do.
When I think about my priorities, training comes first and if school gets in the way then find a suitable compromise. But with that said, there isn’t much compromise between training and school for me anyway. And if you’re really struggling to find time to train, maybe it’s time to review your priorities and maybe have a better plan.
You can do whatever you want to do with your time. If you really take training as a priority then you will find ways to put training in your schedule. As a general guide, 6h is the minimum training hours a week if you’re really in a time crunch. Especially as a student, you get to decide your classes and have so much flexibility with your time. While you’re working, that’s a different story.
So those are a few little things I do to help myself find time while training as a student. At the start, it may seem difficult to implement a change, but once it becomes a habit, you’ll do it without much thinking.
I came into SMU knowing what co-curricular activity (CCA) I wanted and it was either aquathlon or aquathlon plus other CCAs. So I am not like most freshies looking for a potential CCA at the CCA open house, in fact I was already representing SMU Aquathlon and getting the actual freshies to join.
My first training with the club was on 11th Dec 2017 at the school’s pool. I had already matriculated as an official student by then and I was technically allowed to be in a CCA. So I was a year 0 student who would start school in another 8 months time.
When I was still serving my time in army, I chose to schedule my offs and leaves on training days to maximise my trainings with the club as much as possible. I always had a long weekend, having monday swims in school before I book in and thursday runs at the track after I book out of camp. And the days in camp I was also running and swimming, but alone.
The club’s training dates were as follows: Monday – 6:30pm at SMU pool
Thursday – 7:30pm at Kallang Practice Track
Saturday- 7:20am meet at Seah Im carpark, we will go Sentosa beach for open water swim and run
After finishing my service, I joined them even more. I was present for their AGM, parties and also sunday rides and every training. It was the full time athlete dream. Swim, bike, run, recover, repeat everyday. I was doing upwards of 12 and up to 20 hour weeks. It was amazing.
Perhaps the best part of registering myself as an official member of the club was that my races were paid for. The membership is $30 per semester and one race was enough to cover the membership fee already. It was fun to be representing the school even though I was not studying yet. Sometimes there were even free race slots given out by race organisers and since the rest of them were studying for finals, only I could race in it. So in 2018 alone, I had represented SMU and raced for free in 12 races.
The feeling of being the first and only freshie to join was pretty special. I have to admit it was quite fun. When they brought up a subject about new freshies, I was like “me too”. Often followed by, “not you Aaron, I mean the real freshies!”
The ‘A’ race we trained week in and out for is SUNIG Aquathlon (750m swim, 5k run). Sunig stands for Singapore university games. It’s held around August to September and usually freshies do not take part in it because they had just joined the CCA just a month before. But for me, I was already being considered for the Sunig team. And a long story short, I made the team and competed in the race alongside my seniors and our friends from other universities NUS, SIM, NTU.
How do you know if you’re going too hard or too long on recovery rides?
Recovery rides are supposed to do exactly what it sounds like – to recover. You should feel better after the ride because you got your blood moving to flush out waste products from your legs.
In a studying comparing active recovery, passive recovery and massage, they concluded that active recovery worked best at lactate removal after exercise.
The danger is that many of us are too motivated and do our recovery rides too hard, thinking we can squeeze in a little bit more training and get fitter. This is a major risk to your whole training program because you will then not be recovered well for the hard rides and thus minimizing the fitness gains. Your recovery rides and hard rides then become the same intensity.
Your recovery ride should be at 55% of your FTP. Lets say your ftp is 300W. That means your recovery zone is 165W or less. But that does not mean ride an average of 165W for the ride or ride near 165W to maximise the workout. It means do not go over 165W for the entire workout.
Your average power should be a lot lower from about 95 to 115W. Sometimes even averaging 2 digit power numbers, especially if your FTP is lower than our 300W example.
If you don’t have a power meter, your recovery heart rate should be 70% or less than your threshold heart rate. But your recovery rides should be lower than this.
How should it feel like? Extremely, embarrassingly slow. It should feel like you’re barely putting any pressure on the pedals, just enough for it to move.
Your recovery ride should be from 45mins to 1hr. Theres no point going longer than that.
One recovery ride I did had an average power of 56W and my heart rate was 88bpm.
Your recovery ride should have as little elevation gain as much as possible because climbing will cause tension in your muscles which we dont want.
Usually in a week I will have two rest days. One will have a recovery ride for an hour and the other day will be completely off.
It is also important to take a rest week from a hard training block. It is one of the ways to break out of a fitness plateau. Rest for a week and then hit it hard on the next 3 weeks. Without a rest week, allowing your body to regenerate, you could easily end up over training.
A typical cycle may be like 3 weeks hard, one week easy.
Your volume and intensity of a rest week should decrease especially during the first part of your rest week and by the weekend back to normal intensity.
During a taper week, when your training intensity is even lower, you can do your recovery rides a little longer for example 1.5hours. This is because you dont have much fatigue to get rid of.
Aaroiseverything 