Explaining more about what he will cover, Jim says, “This webinar will be covering how to track fitness patterns and prevent performance plateaus in WKO+ software, using advanced charts and graphs. Many coaches utilize WKO+ software to assess an individual session, but miss the opportunities to track overall fitness, recognize performance plateaus sooner, and make training decisions based on all the data available in a bigger picture, encompassing all sessions.”

“The webinar will show how to create alternative charts, enhance the data given in the Performance Management Chart (PMC), and how to interpret these to make better training decisions. If you are a coach or self-coached athlete, this session will help you to better understand how you or your athletes are adapting to training stresses.”

Learn more on Jim’s blog and sign up for the webinar at Performance Webinars. Coaches, let us know if you’re also planning to give a webinar by emailing us at info@trainingpeaks.com so that we can share the news!

This article is based on presentations given at the US Olympic Committee’s recent Altitude Symposium as well as my own experiences coaching endurance athletes over the last decade.

Is altitude right for you, or your athletes?
Far more important than your elevation is the quality of training that you achieve at your training camp. My #1 piece of advice would be to go to the location where the training is best.

Endurance athletes that struggle to pace themselves in a group situation, or who rely heavily on their anaerobic fitness, will have a difficult time at altitude. For this reason, I think that mature athletes will tend to do better than young athletes.

You may have heard of “non-responders” to altitude. In my experience, it is far more likely that you are dealing with a slow responder; a poor pacer; or a lack of basic endurance for the workload of the training camp.

If you place yourself in a hole at altitude then you are likely to be staying in that hole until you get home. So if you get sick then best to pack it in, head home and learn for next time.

However… don’t give up on altitude! It is often reported that athletes gain strength with each altitude exposure. Learning how to adjust to the stress altitude will make you a better athlete at all elevations.

Read more in the full article on why to go to altitude, how to use altitude, and what an altitude training camp might look like. Track your own altitude training in a TrainingPeaks account to see what effect it has on your performance!

Gordo can be found over at www.EnduranceCorner.com where he coaches endurance athletes and leads cycling-focused training camps. His triathlon training plans are also available on TrainingPeaks.

Branded running techniques such as Chi Running and the Pose method have become quite popular. But are they effective? Many runners who have read the books, watched the DVD’s and/or attended the clinics say they are, and no doubt they do yield results for some runners. But do they represent the best way to increase stride power and efficiency and to reduce the stride anomalies that cause injuries in most runners?

There is no scientific proof that this is the case. In fact, quite the opposite. For example, a 2005 study published in the Journal of Sports Sciences reported that the running economy of 16 high-level triathletes was actually reduced (meaning the athletes became less efficient) after 12 weeks of practicing the Pose running method.

Another study of the Pose method was performed at the University of Cape Town, South Africa a few years ago. Ross Tucker, PhD, who led the second phase of that study, has told me that it had to be halted because the Pose method was causing calf strains in many of the subjects (a common complain among Pose customers).

There is a newer theory of running biomechanics which holds that the stride is best improved unconsciously instead of consciously. It is well known that stride efficiency and power increase automatically through subconscious processes in response to different types of training. It is not known whether consciously manipulations of stride form can be beneficial, and if so, which specific changes are beneficial for which runners. Therefore your efforts to improve your stride should consist primarily if not entirely in training methods that stimulate “automatic” gains in power and efficiency.

Check out the full article to read more about four such training methods including the giant walking lunge, the hip flexor stretch, single-leg running, and steep hill sprints. You can also check out some of Matt Fitzgerald’s Books on Amazon.

TrainingPeaks has been selected as the official training and nutrition software of the new Colorado Runners Association (CRA), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting health and fitness in the state of Colorado through running and walking educational resources and services. As an official sponsor of the CRA, TrainingPeaks will provide all CRA members with an online training and nutrition log that will allow them to easily keep track of their progress, improving their overall fitness.

TrainingPeaks is the ultimate training and nutrition software for runners who want to increase motivation and improve results through tracking their daily workouts, logging meals, and recording their favorite routes.

Runners can also upload data from one of over 80 training devices including heart rate monitors and GPS data systems from Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Timex, and more. In addition to tracking their completed workouts, runners can plan their future workouts, or follow a pre-built training plan designed by one of the running world’s expert coaches like Hal Higdon, Matt Fitzgerald, or Bart Yasso.

As the official training software of Runner’s World Magazine and the New York City Marathon, TrainingPeaks is an industry leader in providing runners everywhere with the tools they need to achieve their fitness, health and athletic goals. Whether you’re training for your first 5k or your best marathon, TrainingPeaks can help you reach the finish line faster.

Read more about TrainingPeaks and the Colorado Runners Association on their website, where the first 500 people to sign up will receive their annual membership for free.

We often focus on hydration during training for a marathon, but then for some reason, sometimes that focus gets thrown out the window at race time! Listen to RunnerDude… Don’t Do That!

Hydration can make or break a race for a runner. You can be carbed-up to the max, have trained your body to better utilize its fat stores, and have increased your endurance 10-fold, but if you get dehydrated during a race, it may spell DISASTER for you.

Here are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you’re well hydrated before, during, and after the marathon.

1. Find out what sports drink will be provided during the race. If you’re able, train using the same sports drink provided by the marathon. If your system doesn’t tolerate the featured race drink or you’d just prefer to use something different, be sure to plan out how you’ll carry or have access to your preferred hydration source. Some options include, wearing a hydration belt or stakeout family members or friends along the course ready to hand you your preferred fluids.

2. Never use the featured sports drink in a marathon, if you did not use it in your training. Don’t Do It! This will often cause stomach issues. The many different brands of sports drinks available contain varying amounts of carbs and electrolytes. Some contain other components such as protein. If you’ve not tried these products during training, you don’t want to risk causing stomach issues on race day.

3. Don’t over hydrate. Throughout the day before the race, drink water when you are thirsty, but don’t overdo it. Drinking a half a cup to a cup (4-8 oz) each hour works well. Remember, you’ll still be carb-loading on this day. Make sure some of your carb intake includes salty simple carbs like pretzels. Also eat a banana or two for the potassium. This will help ensure that you’re not flushing out your precious electrolytes that you’ll need during the race. Do not drink alcohol the day before the race. This can dehydrate you.

4. Drink 16oz of water 2 hrs before race time. This will provide enough time for the water to pass through your system and the excess be voided well before the start.

5. During the race, drink 6-12oz every 15-20 minutes. Don’t rely on the Thirst Mechanism during a race. By the time you are thirsty you are probably already dehydrated. When you are severely dehydrated, you may not even experience thirst. Water works fine the first 45-minutes of the run, but after that sports drinks should be used to help restock the body’s glycogen stores as well as replace electrolytes that are being sweated out. Whether you drink water the first 45 minutes and then use sports drinks or you use sports drinks the entire race, make sure it’s what you did during your training. Don’t vary on race day!

6. Rehydrate after the race. Do a “Sweat Test” a couple of times during your training. Simply weigh yourself (in the buff) before a long run. Do the run. Weigh yourself again (in the buff) immediately after the run. The weight loss incurred is the amount of water you sweated out. For each pound lost, drink 16oz of sports drink. Drinking sports drink will help replace the lost carbs and restock your depleted glycogen stores as well as replace lost electrolytes. This will help ensure a better and quicker recovery. It’s important to remove your clothes before weighing especially after the run. If you sweat heavily, your wet clothes could be adding weight which will keep you from getting an accurate post-race weight loss total. Doing the Sweat Test a time or two during your training will give you a good idea as to how much you’ll need to drink to rehydrate after a race, since you probably won’t have access to any scales until quite a while after the race.