Solo or mo’ better?
“OK, now what?” my wife asks when I return sweaty, exhausted, eyes glazed from a long solo run or bike ride. I have made several major life-changing decisions on these journeys. Decided to get married. Decided to move to Vietnam. Decided to ditch a comfortable 20-year career for utter uncertainty. Moved back to Colorado after 37 years away. I have also meditated on moving the couch and whether Rogaine could be a business expense. Most of my solo adventures are not about getting faster or because I’m antisocial, but to get the neurons firing.
But I have experienced the benefits of group training. Group training got me back into triathlon after a 17-year hiatus. Living in Manila, Philippines, working 12-hour days, traveling globally one-third of the year, I desperately needed the support and friendship of committed triathletes. You could set your watch by the PoloTri’s schedule: Monday rest or recovery ride, Tuesday run intervals, Wednesday swim, Thursday tempo ride, Friday tempo run, Saturday long bike and Sunday long run, all at 5:30am. We were expected to show up at the trainings and compete in the local and regional races or suffer the displeasure of PoloTri’s founding fathers, who managed the club with an IronFist. Training with them was fun. I made good friends, I got fit fast and it made my job and living in Manila bearable.
A few recent studies back this up. For example, the University of Oxford’s Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology studied their rowing team and found that the rowers’ pain threshold‚ : measured by endorphin levels in the brain‚ was steadily twice as high after exercising in a group than after exercising alone even with the same intensity. Researchers suspected that shared goals, like winning and endeavoring to row together in synch pushed that endorphin button. And a 2007 Ohio State University study reported that group exercise programs improved the physical and psychological well being of women being treated for early-stage breast cancer.
Should we all be training with groups all the time? Probably not. Based on the experience of local amateurs, coaches and pros, the benefits of group training are not so clear, and may be counterproductive or at least inconvenient.
Lauren Greenfield, a former Wild Oats team Cat 3 cyclist, trains solo out of necessity and choice. She mostly bikes and runs alone because of her work and family schedule, working in her commute as bike training. Greenfield likes the idea of group runs, but finds the typical pace intimidating. Greenfield does join Masters swim at Longmont Recreation. “I couldn’t swim across the pool when I first started doing triathlons,” Greenfield says, “so I knew I had to get some help.” She also got coaching help from Craig Howie for her 2008 Ironman Arizona debut, and also completed the 2009 Ironman New Zealand. “I can see doing more group stuff as I get into hardcore training, but I am still not sure what I will do in 2010.”
Peer pressure can be a good thing. It got Boulder native Megan Phares into triathlon. Friends and friends of friends were triathletes and gently pressured her to join their fanaticism. Megan, who grew up playing team sports in high school and college, made the multisport leap from running with FastForward Sports. “I am looking to improve my bike through more groups ride, but I’ve given up on my swim.” She admits she is a terrible swimmer, but loves the camaraderie of the Boulder Stroke & Stride series. Despite her love of the social side of sport, the majority of her training is solo due to her schedule. Phares says she has a hard time finding other BTC members who run at her pace with. “I have quite a few friends who run at my pace, but they are not in the club.” Phares does plan to improve her running through more group training this summer.
For some triathletes, going solo helps focus their dedication, determination and discipline. Stephanie Murphy, a former elite level gymnast, admits an antisocial mind-set when it comes to training. Priority on her family means training (and work) gets squeezed into tight schedule. Murphy is a Berthoud resident and has limited options for group training. Regardless, she does not like the pressure of group sessions, preferring hours on her CompuTrainer and intense solo track workouts. She does have help. She follows Joe Friel’s The Triathlete’s Training Bible and swims with Scott O’Brien at Longmont Masters. Is it working? Murphy has placed in the top five in just about everything she has raced. In 2009 she qualified for USAT Olympic Nationals and ITU Sprint World Championship. In 2010 she is focused on the HalfMax National Championships in 2010 with hopes of going to the ITU Long Course World Championship in 2011.
If you are serious about the sport, D3 Multisport’s Mike Ricci says you have to ask: What is the ultimate goal? What is the level of the athlete? And perhaps most importantly, is there a coaching component? Groups can provide motivation, but without correct technique, proper pacing and plan, it is just social time. Ricci says a good example of this is Master’s swimming programs, where many people struggle to maintain the lane pace and lose all technique and don’t get proper coaching. “The swim is about form, form, form. Not everyone can swim like Phelps because they don’t have the physiology so [coaches can help you] adapt techniques.”
It’s all about executing a specified training plan and learning to swim, ride and run at an appropriate pace.” Ricci insists, often tripling his emphasis. “In our American, Type-A culture, triathletes have a tendency to push, push, push. I want to get better, get faster and so I do more, more, more and do it harder, harder, harder.” Ricci says that many amateurs begin to breakdown instead of getting stronger or faster. In any given training there should be no more than three hard workouts, such as one hard swim, one hard bike, and one hard run. Doing every workout with a group can result in too many hard sessions that will ultimately break you down or result in injury.
Ricci says that the structure of group training has its benefits and can be a good entry point for the sport. For example, biking in a group is easier than on your own. You can learn a lot: learn to corner, descend, get other good tips, and learn to fix a flat.
“There is a time and place for solo and group training and you need to integrate both into your approach,” says pro triathlete Joanna Zeiger. There is hardly a Boulder triathlete who has not seen Zeiger out on solo runs or solo rides on her pink Guru. But group training figures in her mix as well. She came from a competitive swim background and still craves the same organized structure of swim sessions, which Dave Scott is happy to provide. “Learning proper swim technique on your own is hard, so having a coach on-deck really helps.” Zeiger mixes it up on the bike, doing intervals and intense rides with men and long rides on her own. For the run she does track and pace sessions with a loose group of training buddies who share similar goals and attitudes, and long runs on her own. Zeiger has coached a lot of women, “Who tend to wind it up with the boys all the time and end up overtraining.” Her advice is that most women should limit group efforts and not turn every workout into a race. “In my younger days it was a sin to get dropped, but I am smarter now.”
Lessons learned. The choice to train with a group or solo‚ with a focus on improving performance‚ is not mutually exclusive but getting the mix right. Here are few suggestions:
Swim. Masters swimming can be boon or bane, especially in uber-Boulder. Without proper technique you may struggle to keep the lane pace, reinforcing bad habits and getting discouraged. Beginners should consider some one-on-one coaching, training alone for a while then consulting with the Masters coach on proper lane assignment before jumping in. Need some time for drills and to work on technique? Go solo.
Bike. Conventional [roadie] wisdom says triathletes are hapless, unskilled cyclists. Ride with roadies, on a road bike if you can, and learn peloton skills, but be prepared to be dropped and do not take it personally. Develop a thick skin. Once you learn the proper handling spend some quality time out on your own. Unless you are almost exclusively focused on UCI draft-legal races, the benefits of always riding with a group will be limited. Most triathlon races are non-drafting, so learn to ride aero and on your own.
Run. Know thyself. Invest in a speed/distance heart rate monitor. Keep to your pace, nail-down your heart race zones, know your threshold. Long-distance running legend Haile Gebrselassie is famous for his three sets of training partners precisely calibrated for his “slow” recovery runs, tempo-pace, and fast runs. Consider the same approach. Just don’t tell your running partner that he is your “slow pace” buddy. When it is time to go fast, go fast. And when it’s time to go slow, GO SLOW. Save it for race day.
Shared goals. Seek out training partners with similar goals, training philosophies and plans, schedules and pace. Many BTC members will race the Boulder series (Sprint, Peak and new Ironman 70.3).
In the end, going group or solo is about what motivates you and makes you fall in love with the sport every day. Use the best of both worlds. Use group training to get started and learn technique and gain knowledge, but also do a significant portion of training on your own.
As a BTC Member you will be able to take advantage of many opportunities. Whether for training gains or meeting your new training partner or life partner, take advantage of the ramped-up events in 2010. Or forget the training and have a few drinks with BTCers at the next party. Like me, you can still sneak in that life-changing solo run the next day.
Need some help with your training, group or solo? Following is just a sample of group training as well as coaching options for the Boulder County-based triathlete:
BTC Sponsors
- Mike Ricci and D3 Multisport team offer discounted one-on-one coaching services, group training, and the training plans as well as Tuesday night run interval training starting late Spring, free to BTC members. D3 USAT-certified coach and Body Balance massage therapist, Amanda McCracken, also offers female beginner triathletes
- Flatiron Athletic Club BTC members get a discounted rate and free access to the following:
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- Masters swim classes with such as Dave Scott and Wolfgang Diettrich, and Boulder Aquatic Masters (BAM) mama, Jane Scott
- Spinning classes and Winter-season indoor trainer bike sessions with Simon Lessing
- Runner’s conditioning with Colleen and Darren DeReuck
- North Boulder Recreation Center, 25 yd pool BAM swimming
- East Boulder Community Center 25 yd pool, BAM swimming, indoor cycling
- South Boulder Community Center, 25 yd pool, BAM swiiming
- Scotty Carpenter pool (outdoor 50 m) and Spruce Pool (outdoor 25 yd), summer BAM swimming
- Centennial 25 yd pool, triathlon training programs, indoor cycling
- Longmont Recreation pool, 25 yd, Longmont Masters
Other coaching and group training
- Bobby McGee Endurance Sports
- Boulder Coaching Triathlon Club
- FastForward Sports
- (Craig) Howie Endurance Project
- Joanna Zeiger Coaching
- Joe Friel’s The Triathlete’s Training Bible
This is so cool, Burke!!!!
Best,
Andy