Stacey Richardson’s Weekly Workout Tip:
This week’s workout tip is brought to you by the greatest ” S” word in coaching jargon: specificity.
As my athletes and I begin discussing strength-focused workouts and how to make some gains in the off-season, we return to this concept in all our coach-athlete conversations.
“Coach, I could go do 100 push ups!! And I”m great at pull ups!”
Great! Way to go. But for the precious little time that we have to be masters of three sports, to recover, and to build functional strength and economy, is this the answer?
My simple advice is specificity and sport specific work whenever possible. Do the actual sport itself and add resistance if you want to see big gains. For the bike, this is big gear work and hills. For swimming, this is paddle, parachute, and band work. For running, this would be stadiums, hill repeats, harness runs, or (if you ever have one), a sled. Again, do the actual sport and increase the demands on you as you do that sport. Email me for more info or ideas to add to your suffering. 
I love these commercials about Wim Hof and Columbia’s Omni Heat Electric jackets. Incredible how this athlete has tapped into the power of the mind to keep his body warm despite frigid condtions. Imagine what any athlete could do with similar mind over body power. And, next time I feel like a total wuss riding my bike in 50 degrees, I will think of Wim Hof and be inspired to go out and ride no matter what the temperature.
And, I want one of those jackets! This commercial is very convincing, because it is so cool and clever. Or, is that warm and clever.
Stacey Richardson’s Weekly Workout Tip:
Winter cycling: dress for success
A long time ago, a fine roadie friend of mine taught me a few simple things about cycling through the cold winter days. He told me that great cyclists always layer and if you are REALLY good, you don’t have to match. 
Here in NC, we are great at clashing but it seems very few of us know how to dress for cold rides. It’s all relative, of course. But it seems that my athletes need a refresher. Heard this weekend while there was frost on the ground “Don’t worry, coach, my legs are numb now so I feel great!”
For me, it’s simple. Toe warmers stay on bike shoes from November to March. Add neoprene booties for the coldest months and double up. Wind block in everything else from jackets to tights. Your jacket should BREATHE or you will end up like poisson en papillote (steamed fish!) . Leg or knee warmers are a must for all rides with temps under 60. Leave the tight gloves and thick socks home, as tight fits make for cold digits squeezed into shoes or gloves. Gotta have wiggle room. Wish I could say the same for my tight bike shorts! : )
Stacey Richardson’s Weekly Workout Tips
©TriStacey Coaching
Tags: cold weather, cycling, winter training
Preface: In the old days, I spent alot of time editing my blog posts to correct grammer and spelling and make the story flow nicely. I don’t have time for that these days with my demanding job. So, please forgive the poor writing. What you see below is ‘in the raw’.
Here is my race report from the 2011 Washington Half Ironman race in Little Washington, NC. This race is put on by FS Series…who always does a fantastic job of organizing a great race experience. I enjoyed this race very much. Except for the wind and the suffering, but that is what racing is all about!
Official Results:
Swim 1.2 Miles: 38:08.1, 1:49 min/100m (I think the swim was measured short, cuz I don’t think I can really swim that fast)
T1: 3:46
Bike 56 miles: 3:07:04.7, 18mph
T2: 3:25
Run: 13.1 miles: 2:24:58.0, 11:04 m/m pace
Overall Time: 6:17:21.0
5th Overall Female out of 18
2nd Age Group (out of 4. First place got an overall award, so I got 1st age group award.)
Check In:
I was able to get off work a little early on Friday and made it just in time to packet pickup Friday evening. Washingon Park is a quaint little riverside park and community and makes a fantastic site for a race. I really love this spot!
Back at my hotel, I unloaded my race packet to inspect the goodies! Look at the Schwagg you get doing this race!! The grey hoodie is my favorite! I also got arm warmers, socks, and a key chain. I gave my brown hoodie from last year’s race to my daughter, Laura. She was thrilled! I got everything read that night in my hotel room to save time in the morning (put stickers on bike and helment, bib on race belt, etc, etc)
Race Morning:.
Here I am in my hotel room at 6am getting ready for the race. I bought a brand new pink Zoot tri top on sale for this race. Just because I wanted to be pretty in pink. Also, pink is a shade of red, and red is the color that fast athletes wear. So, it’s perfect! 
I did have to mix up my Perpetuem in the morning. That is my favorite nutrition for long bike races, as it’s not too sweet. I bought cafe latte flavor this time, and it tasted just like a latte. Yum.
I got to the race site in plenty of time to set up my gear. I chatted with some BT peeps: Scottie , Alan, Doug, Mark, Dick and his son William. Also, saw a local riding buddy named Gerson and his friend John. It was nice seeing familiar faces at the race. One of my friends asked me why I had a disk wheel on my bike. I looked around and only saw one other bike with a disk on it. Ooops, I guess the forecast called for a very windy day, and disk wheels are not good in the wind. Nothing to do but put that out of my box.
I spent so much time chatting with people, that I had to rush to put my wetsuit on. And I forgot the BodyGlide on my neck. My wetsuit always causes terrible chaffing there!
The Swim
The Bike
So, the bike is a mostly flat course . It’s supposed to be fast, right? I was feeling really good the first half of the ride. There was a bit of a tailwind helping me along and I was averaging 20-21 mph without working too hard. Then I turned south and felt a cross wind. It got very hard to maintain over 20 mph on that stretch for about 10 miles. And I could feel the wind picking up, too. Crap. There was one gust of wind that I felt blow me sideways a bit. I don’t think the disc wheel hurt me too much, unless it took more energy to fight the crosswinds. I dunno.
Then the course made a turn back East. Holy crap. My speed ground to a mere 14mph and I was working hard. Then I looked up and saw a sign that said “Washington 22 miles”. Holy crap for crap. 22 Miles of this headwind. Not going to be fun. And that’s going to kill my average speed. Nothing to do but hunker down into a small shape and maintain a consistent effort. I thought about my friends doing the Beach2Battleship full iron race just a few miles south of me, and wondered if they had the same winds to fight (they did). I was very glad to be only doing a half ironman race, not a full iron race!
So, I ground out the rest of the race course the best I could hunkered down into that headwind. I saw my avg speed drop from 20+ to 18mph. When it got to 18mph, stubbornness made me work harder and not let it go below that.
I did make one potty stop on the ride. I ducked into a little farm shed to pee. The dirt was loose and got into my new speedplay cleats. That made it really hard to clip back in – I had to stop and bang my foot against the ground, and do alot of shaking about to get the dirt out. I love the speedplays, except that they are higher maintenance than the shimano’s I had before.
The Run
Well, I was hoping for a pace of 10 m/m on the run. My running is not where it should be and neither is my weight. So, that was the best I felt I could do. I started out the first 6 miles on target with that pace, doing sub 10 and wasting a little time at aid stations to equal about 10 m/m. The next 6 miles slowed a little, but I was still on target for a decent run. The 2nd lap the wheels fell off and my back started to ache, and my feet hurt, and I was not able to hold a 10m/m pace. Still, I didn’t let myself give up and complete degrade to a slog. I just kept running with fast feed and solid core (fast feed, solid core was my mantra). That seemed to work pretty good. I took a few really short walk breaks only to take Gu or drink water. When I was done with that, I said “Breaks over”.
During the run, I tried to be really cheerful and send positive vibes to everyone I saw. I figured I wasn’t going to have a stellar race, so I would at least have fun. I’d pass other racers and give them a big smile and thumbs up. I’d pass Doug and tell him to keep up the good work. He had been struggling with back pain from that tough bike ride for the whole run. He was doing great with a nice run/walk routine, and I told him to keep it up. I saw Gerson a few times too, and I tell him how he was really smoking the course (which he was!). I smiled and waved at Roxanne, another BTr, who I met after the race. So, all in all it was a good run. And I was super glad when it was done!
Post Race
After the race, I hung out for a bit chatting with friends. I ended up getting an age group award of a coffee mug. Yay coffee!
On the way driving home, I noticed my neck felt uncomfortable. I rubbed it, and OUCHIE, that hurt alot. Turns out, I got the worst chaffing ever during that swim! Lesson Learned: don’t forget the body glide. And, at least I have a huge tub of Aquaphor from my friend, Ginger, to help heal it up!
Not looking like very good weather conditions for my race on Saturday. Swim.Brrr.Bike.Brrr.Run.Brrr.
