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By Landice, September 9, 2010 10:00 am

by Lewis Elliot

There is no doubt that goal setting can help bring the most out of an individual regardless of the setting in which it is set.  For endurance sports, I believe reaching for the unobtainable result can often lead to your best performance.

One of the biggest contradictions I’ve seen with goal-setting is the idea that if you achieve your set “goal,” then you have succeeded.  This is all too simple, why not set an easy goal and once it’s achieved you’ll be happy?  The reason is, that goals are meant to be set to help us motivate, push, and in most cases achieve beyond our current level.   I believe in setting your goals high, maybe slightly beyond what you think is really possible.  Put a goal out there in a place you’re a little uncomfortable with, then dream big and go after it!

While going big and reaching for the seemingly impossible may garner your best result, it’s also important to realize that it can also cause you to fall painfully short.  Often times a more modest and secure approach will offer a more likely “good” finish.  This is an unfortunate reality of going BIG, and often times the fall-out after one of these shortcomings requires a lot of mental strength to move forward.  If this happens, then I feel the best idea is to rely on positive thought and persistence and look to the future. Once an event is done, it’s in the past, we need to learn as much as we can from it and mostly focus on what’s ahead.

Here is an example of how I use this goal-setting method.  In November of 2010 Ironman Arizona is coming back to Tempe.  My best finish ever at Ironman Arizona is an 8th place where I finished in a time of 8 hours and 53 minutes.  I believe that winning this November will require a sub 8:20 performance.  That’s over a half hour off of my best time at this event!  What’s my goal?  The same as it is every year, to win the event!  Why not race to go faster than my previous best?  Because I know that the only thing that will make me 100 percent happy will be winning.  We could list out one hundred reasons as to why I’d be more likely to do “well” with a more controlled or realistic approach, but I only need one reason to set my goal at winning.  The only way to satisfy my dream on the day, is to win.

Of course not everyone has a dream of winning their next race.  What I recommend is taking a little time and figure out what your personal dream is for your next running, cycling, triathlon, or other multisport endeavor.  Take that dream, see if there’s a way to mold it into something real, and make that your goal.  After you have or haven’t achieved your far-reaching goal, you will know that your pursuit of having giving 100% to your dream will leave you looking back more than satisfied.  Then revise the goal, repeat the preparation, and do it all over again.

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By Landice, August 26, 2010 10:00 am

by Dave Smith

Well, I apologize for being out of the Landice blog loop for a little while. My wife and I made the move back to northern Michigan a couple of weeks ago as that is where we are originally from and both our families reside up there. We both were very fortunate to find jobs and couldn’t turn down the opportunity to be back closer to family. We are finally all settled in and I have had a blast searching out the different lakes, roads and trails for swimming, riding, and running. There are hills after hills and they are already making me stronger!

Before we left for Michigan, I blogged a couple of times about different aspects of mental conditioning.  I’m going to continue on that path for the next few blogs.  Today we’ll cover hormones/how feelings dictate actions, emotional manipulation through action and attitude, and finally distraction, and selective attention.

We are all aware that feelings, for the most part, dictate our behaviors. When an athlete is feeling well, it is due to a hormonal balance, and the needs of the “real self” are met. When an athlete is not doing well, it wants to show on the outside. Unfortunately, this often times reveals potential weaknesses. More importantly, bad feelings can spawn a downward spiral of negative thinking and affect performance.  When I read this I think of splits in a race. If you are hitting your goal splits mile after mile you will likely stay motivated and encouraged to keep pushing the pace. You may even have a big breakout performance because seeing those splits may really excite you and allow you to do something you didn’t think you were capable of. The problem is, the direct opposite can happen. If you get a bad split of two you may allow it to get to your head and suddenly your race is over because your head and heart are no longer into it. This is one of the reasons I advocate not being overly concerned with always knowing your splits, and focusing more on how you feel and staying in the moment. I rarely ever race with a watch anymore as it tends to limit me more than anything. Continue reading 'Acting to Influence Success'»

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By Janda, August 12, 2010 10:00 am

I’ve been training for and competing in triathlons since 1995. Ever since catching the tri “bug” at age 19, it’s been my dream to host a triathlon of our own here in my home town of Gloucester, Massachusetts. That dream came to fruition last year and once again this past Sunday, as my city and I celebrated the 2nd annual Gloucester Fisherman Triathlon. It was a ton of hard work to pull the race off, but we did it, and enjoyed a spectacular turn out and some tremendous performances by the best pro/elite field to grace the New England sprint triathlon scene this year.

Helping to create and direct a triathlon is one of the most challenging endeavors I have ever faced. Logistically, you must cover all the bases and think of ways to avert all the things that could go wrong before over 800 athletes swim, bike and run throughout the streets of a fairly busy city such as Gloucester.

Being a long time athlete myself, my first and foremost concern for the event revolves around safely as the thought of a fellow athlete being injured on our course is something that makes me lose sleep at night. The myriad of emotions that you face leading up to, and following race day leaves you nothing short of exhausted. I often wondered why race directors complained of being sick post race, and now I know (I’m currently dealing with a nasty cold!).

The GFT serves as a fundraiser for the non-profit group I belong to: The Gloucester Fisherman Athletic Association. The GFAA consists of a group of volunteers who pool their collective resources to create events and fund raising drives that raise much needed funds here in Gloucester. These funds are used to offset the athletic “user fees” that our school system must impose upon its student-athletes due to budgetary cuts. The funds are also used to maintain and enhance the athletic fields & facilities that our student-athletes play and compete upon.

As a proud graduate of Gloucester High School and someone who benefited tremendously from my experiences as an athlete, I feel that it my obligation to help out the next generation of GHS athletes and saw the creation of the Gloucester Fisherman Triathlon as a chance to do just that.

It was once again a dream come true as I watched hundreds of athletes pour into Gloucester last weekend. Many of them showed up on Saturday to pre-register for the race, and I had the opportunity to lead a training clinic for many of the first timers in attendance who would soon embark on their first triathlon the next morning! I must admit that, due to the combination of fatigue and stress that I had to endure for the weeks leading into this race, I was nearly overtaken with emotion when I first greeted the group and began my talk. Although it may sound a bit corny, I felt incredibly proud of the fact that these people would soon call the GFT their FIRST EVER triathlon. I was also very grateful for their participation as they were directly helping the GFAA in their fund raising efforts by competing in the race.

Michelle and I were up bright (it was actually pitch black at 4:30 a.m.) and early Sunday morning and on the go all day; helping out on the course, running supplies around, directing athletes as they headed out and in on the bike, handing out awards… if you think that competing in a triathlon is hard, try organizing one!

We had some legendary names on hand and the Women’s race was won by none other than the 1995 Hawaii Ironman World Champion, Karen Smyers. Seeing Karen rip through the streets of downtown Gloucester was almost too good to be true. What made it even better was that she was joined by so many other great athletes like former U23 national champ Ethan Brown and about 100 of my friends and acquaintances from around town.

Check out the Gloucester Daily Times’ online edition for a story on the race and all of the great photography and video content that the good people at Good Morning Gloucester provided as well.

Well, that’s a wrap for the 2010 rendition of this year’s GFT. I’m looking forward to next year already!

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By Landice, August 11, 2010 10:57 am

Janda Ricci-Munn helped coordinate what is being called the most competitive sprint event in the Northeast, the Gloucester Fisherman Triathlon.

Congratulations to Janda for such a successful event, and to all the runners, the race even saw a new course record by John Babcock!

See full race results here.

Good Morning Gloucester was on the scene for the race. Check out their video recap, including interviews with triathletes and their fans!

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By Landice, August 9, 2010 11:00 am

Monitoring heart rate for beginners

For the beginner runner, the safest and most effective means of determining appropriate pacing objectives during your treadmill based workouts is via the monitoring of your heart rate response.  One of the advantages of owning a Landice treadmill is the fact that you can effectively track your “HR” response via the wireless HR chest strap that is included with the majority of the Landice models.  But why exactly is HR response so important and what does it mean?  Let’s dive a little deeper here.

Continue reading 'Where’s your heart?'»

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By Landice, August 5, 2010 11:15 am

Photo by Chris Milliman. Courtesy of Craft Apparel.

We’ve looked at what gives you your power as a runner, and introduced Fartlek training. Let’s take a closer look at the importance of VO2 Max for the endurance athlete and talk about how you can go about preparing the body for the heavy doses of VO2 max work you’ll be laying down in the not-so-distant future.

As previously discussed in my article “The Limiting Factor” (posted Nov. 24), VO2 max represents the maximum amount of oxygen that an athlete can consume and the rate at which they can process it in order to produce energy aerobically.  VO2 max is typically measured by the amount of oxygen (in milliliters), per kilogram of body weight, per minute (ml/kg/min.) that an athlete’s body can process.  Simply put, the higher the athlete’s VO2 max, the more rapidly they can produce energy aerobically.  For additional information on aerobic energy production, click here for a Wikipedia article that explains the chemical steps involved. Continue reading 'Train your aerobic engine'»

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By Janda, August 3, 2010 10:00 am

Let’s review: What is your Aerobic “engine” and how can you specify your training to strengthen it?

Building Your Aerobic Engine

In order to compete at a high level, a triathlete or distance runner must be able to run fast for very long periods of time.  A common misconception is that endurance athletes are, by nature, “slow.”  Although it is true that an athlete like 100 and 200 meter Olympic champion and world record holder Usain Bolt would make an elite marathon runner seem slow by comparison, many of the world’s top marathon runners can run close to, or under, 4 minutes for the mile on the track (that’s 15 mph on a treadmill for 4 minutes!!!) and would give just about any regional sprinter a good run for their money from 200 meters on up. Continue reading 'What gives you your “Go?”'»

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By Janda, July 30, 2010 10:00 am

Photo by Chris Milliman. Courtesy of Craft Apparel.

As stated multiple times in many of my previous training tips, effective training is nothing more than subjecting the body (and mind!) to appropriate doses of event specific training stress and then allowing the body to recover, absorb and adapt to this training stress via the insertion of easy training sessions and/or periods of complete rest. Although this formula may sound overly simplistic, that’s the way the cookie crumbles and the way that progress is made! Ignore the simple stress:recovery relationship and you’re setting yourself up for subpar results and a frustrating training experience.

When approaching key training sessions such as tempo runs, interval sessions, pace runs, etc. you’ll want to keep the stress:recovery principle in mind. Note that I used the term “appropriate doses of event specific training stress” in the previous paragraph. Training stress is a relative term; what constitutes a stressful workout for 1 athlete (i.e. a set of 5 x 1 mile repeats at 7 min/mile pace) might constitute a very easy/recovery session for someone else. When subjecting yourself to high stress training sessions, it’s important to go into the workout with a specific objective in mind, but to never forget the importance of tuning into your body’s signals over the course of that workout in order to tailor the session to your body’s status on that given day. Continue reading 'When to Say When'»

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By Landice, July 29, 2010 10:00 am

If you’ve ever trained on a treadmill, then this video is for you. Check your technique to be sure you’re getting the most out of your workout!

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By Landice, July 28, 2010 10:00 am

Some of our customers sent us this video of their Landice treadmill purchased in 1996. After 13 years, it’s still going strong, and they love it! Check it out!

To learn more about Landice treadmills, or to find a dealer near you, visit our website at www.Landice.com