Matthew C. preps for Ironman 70.3 New Orleans

It is winter and there are not very many races, so my recent results blog entries are mostly focus on the means to the end: training.

Matthew is a law student in New Orleans and we are doing on-line training planning for him. He has big goals this year: Ironman Florida with the target of "KQ." He is using Ironman 70.3 as an early season "A" race. We are doing some interesting things with his training to make sure his bike leg--formerly a limiter--with be a huge strength for him.




If you want to get good on the bike, it usually means committing to a lot of time on your trainer. Hence, here are some pictures of Matthew getting in some "chamois time."



Matthew writes: "I have to be honest, I'm starting to get a bit - not cocky - but confident. I'm starting to get that feeling when I see other people training that when race day comes, I'm just going to rock their socks off. I know it's early, but I already know I'm doing more than I ever have at this point. I can't help but feel like I'm going to be strong as hell come April and May. It's nice. I mean, last year I didn't even get on my bike until March or so. Things are going to get interesting in the next few weeks..."

Posted by Stephen Taylor, Nashville Triathlon Coach

CVL on the Road to a Pro Card

CVL lives in Iowa City, IA and his dream is to be a pro triathlete. We started working on this goal when he was just out of high school. I have coached him for about 5 years--with a break in the middle when he went to college to compete in cross country, track, and swimming.



He did a single-sport bike season in the fall to get his cycling up to par. (These pictures are from when he visited TN to help me get ready for IMAZ.) Now he is in winter base training. Although he is training to specialize in non-drafting Olympic distance, what most people don't realize is that you can do almost unlimited base building even for short course.



His most recent training week was as follows:

30,000 yards swimming
40 miles running
6:15 cycling
3 x strength training

He is building towards the base training goal of:

35-40,000 yards swimming
50-60 miles running
200-250 miles cycling
3-4 x strength training

As base training this training period is almost exclusively Zone 2/3---low to medium intensity, focusing on efficiency and technique. My stomach turns imagining trying to fit in all this training myself---in fact it is more than most iron distance triathletes. But this is not unusual for a pro/elite short course specialist. This will set the stage for when he starts doing intensity training--look out.

Vanderbilt Triathlon Boot Camp Polar Plunge

The culmination of the third annual Vanderbilt Triathlon Boot Camp was a polar plunge into Percy Priest lake. This year no open water swim will feel cold after that experience. See the rest of the boot camp write up and pictures [link here.]

Jason R. gets bike fit, registers for 140.6

Jason R. recently did a 1 day individual tri clinic with me. His goal is an ironman distance triathlon in 2009.



We covered so much training in one day I lost my voice. One of the things we did is a bike fit with his Cervelo P2. He had some shoulder/neck pain, knee pain, and needed his cleats changed and adjusted. A couple weeks later he writes:

Just made it official. I signed up for Beach to Battleship. So you have your work cut out for you to make sure I finish (lol). I've been riding with the weather being nice. I rode last Friday (17 miles) and Saturday (35 miles) on Big Red since it was wet. I rode the Cervelo yesterday 25 miles and it felt good. No pain.

He is one of several of my clients training for Beach to Battleship. Why pay so much to do an IM race! If you aren't already signed up for an ironman it is not too late, you can do Beach 2 Battleship.

Kasper Makes Music

This blog is not about an endurance athlete. It is about a couple who balances fitness with many other activities in life.

Jonathan and Jocelyn K. do personal training with me once per week at the Wellness Center at Baptist. They squeeze this in while running a business together: KasperMusic.



Jonathan just competed his Doctorate in Eductation. He is also a rock star as the lead singer of local British Invasion Rock Band: Zig Zag.


I have seen several of their shows and they are always a good time. They frequently play Friday nights 7-9pm in a smoke free venue...very athlete-friendly.

Jonathan completed a doctorate, sings lead in a rock band, operates a small business, AND has time to train. How does he have time to do it? Jocelyn, of course! Behind every great man is a wonderful woman. Jocelyn is also a theater performer, is mid project on a jazz album and is completing a course with the Institute of Children's Literature.