Coach Gareth TRIO & Andrew Kosove

Coach Gareth with TRIO athlete Andrew Kosove athlete was featured in the Wellness section “Get Healthy, the Hollywood Way” article in this month’s The Hollywood Report Jan ’13.

I have been working with Coach Gareth for more than two years.  I began training with him after my first year of Triathlon, during which I was coaching myself.  Gareth has performed both lactate and VO2 testing on me, as well as having written an extensive training program for me, resulting in a drastic increase in my fitness levels this past two years.

I have competed in several Olympic distance races, several 70.3 races, and my first full Ironman at the end of this season.  I have observed fitness gains both in testing and in my racing performance with several podium finishes over the last two years, placing high in 70.3 age group rankings and placing very well in my first full distance race.  I qualified for the U.S.A.T. Nationals in Olympic distance, held in Burlington, Vermont, and placed well considering I was competing against the nation’s best.  To top it all off, I am in one of the most competitive age groups: Men 40-44.  This could not have been done without Coach Gareth and his knowledge and experience.  He is truly a great coach!  He is there when things are not going well – he modifies programs when I get hurt – he is there when I have questions and been to some of the races to watch his athletes compete and cheer us on!

I have learned so much from Coach Gareth in the past two years about my body and fitness in general.  I know how the training and testing work, he is VERY thorough in explaining the tests results with me and, because of that, I know why it is so important to stick to the program he writes for me.  I look forward to another year of working with Coach Gareth, watching my fitness levels increase and my enjoyment and passion for the triathlon grow.  I am a very proud member of the TRIO group, I sport the TRIO logo at all the races and love hearing people yell “TRIO” when I fly by!  Coach Gareth always signs off his emails “yours for the distance”, and he truly is!

Tom O’Byrne

“TRAIN SMART NOW” will help all endurance athletes better understand how to maximize their training and “GOING LONG” will reveal insights for more successful Ironman and 70.3 racing.

GOING LONG … IRONMAN & 70.3

Get the scoop from the coach who has trained multiple Ironman champions. Learn how YOU can PR at your next long course race. Discover the secrets of long distance training and nutrition. Learn how to mentally prepare for race-day. Turn your body in to a fat-burning machine with specific Ironman workouts. Includes Q&A session.

Wed Feb 13^th : 8pm @ Runnergy, 14082 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

TRAIN SMART NOW

Get science on your side for the 2013 season. Shave pounds off your body and minutes off your times at this free lecture. Learn how to eat and train smart so that you hit 2013 in the best shape of your life. Find out why your training regime is keeping fat on your hips and leaving you lagging behind the pack.

Wed Feb 27^th : 8pm @ RUNNERGY, 14082 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

Visit the EVENTS page to sign up

I have long been looking for a “doctor” who can work with my athletes to help maximize their health and performance. Not in the way that Dr. Ferrari is alleged to have “helped” Lance Armstrong, but rather focusing on key nutrients and markers to ensure that health is 100% so that training can be carried out and absorbed fully.

David runs the most comprehensive blood panels I’ve ever seen and talks very logically through the science and results to guide you to the exact supplements that you truly need. In the way that I do blood lactate tests to create ethical, scientific training programs, he does the same for your health. Awesome.

Please check out his work.

If you have read any of my past TriLab blog postings, you’ll know that I have a penchant for very early morning workouts.  I’ve been known to hit the bike trainer for intense intervals at 4:30am with little in my stomach and my contact lenses still settling into place.  I often swim/bike/run at crazy early hours and have always looked at this as a good thing, it doesn’t disrupt my family or work time and I feel energized through the day from my early morning exercise endorphin dump. 

So “What’s the problem?” you may ask, well it all began during a recent blood lactate test on the bike with Coach Gareth.   For an easy understanding of blood lactate testing you can check my earlier blog postings but very quickly…lactate accumulates in the blood and is used as an energy source by the body.  As effort increases lactate reaches a point where the body cannot use it effectively and it accumulates as a waste or by-product.  This accumulation of lactate is an indicator & predictor for performance.

We discovered something interesting from my recent blood samples.  Over the past couple of months, my heart rate at a specific power output has decreased significantly.  This means that my body isn’t working as hard to maintain the same speed.  It’s an indicator that I have developed more general fitness which is a good thing.  On the other hand, my lactate levels at those same power levels have remained largely the same, which shows that my physiology has not adapted quite as quickly to burning fats over carbs.  There are several reasons for this but one of them could be that I’m not getting the maximum from my quality sessions when they are performed in the wee hours.  

In the early morning hours, I’m not properly fueled to burn fats as I’ve just come out of 7-8 hours of fasting.  My body temperature is very low to start.  As a result, I end up pushing higher power wattage to get my heart rate into the ‘proper zone’ for the prescribed workout.  My body is not at all warmed up when I start and muscles are not firing properly and efficiently.  I am also less focused, as I’m still kind of groggy for the beginning of the workout.  All of this could be leading me to less effective workouts when I’m supposed to be doing true quality sessions.  High intensity intervals on the bike, in the pool or on the run are very specific, somewhat risky and should be treated with great care. 

Research shows that people who can burn primarily fats during exercise are more efficient (go faster for longer), than people who burn a higher percentage of carbs.  We all burn both fats & carbs, but we have a finite amount of carbs and an infinite amount of fats to burn, to we want to train our bodies to burn primarily fats.  Maximizing each training session is essential in training the body to make the shift.

As a result of this last test, I’m shifting all of my quality workouts to the afternoons and only doing easy aerobic intensity workouts in the early morning during the week.  Something like an easy aerobic spin/run is much more appropriate for the early morning than lung-busting Vo2 Max efforts.   In my case, the harder stuff is better when saved for the more human hours.  This is just my personal experience, but it is all fairly backed up by science and will hopefully continue to lead to more improvements across the 3 disciplines.

Heartrate guides you to exercise at the correct intensity by monitoring the “stress” of a workout. Higher heartrates equal higher stress and more sugars burned. Lower heartrates mean lower stress and more fat burned. The goal of most endurance training is to teach the body to burn fat and save the limited carbohydrates available until the final push or sprint for the line. Therefore, monitoring your heartrate tells you when you are drifting from a predominantly fat burning state to a sugar burning state.

TRIO metabolic testing gives you heartrate training zones that are custom to YOU. I also tell you how to use these “zones” so that you get results. Each heartrate zone has a specific function. When you are trying to build endurance you work at a different heartrate compared to when you are trying to build speed.

I’ll also teach you what factors affect your heartrate so that you can adapt your training to different conditions.

For example, Heartrates tell you when you are getting dehydrated or running out of fuel. When you combine heartrate data with power/ speed information and perceived exertion you take control of your workouts. Do this on a daily basis and watch your performance and health jump to a new level.

Wednesday May 9 – FREE WORKOUT : Transition Mastery
This interactive transition clinic and brick workout will help you shave minutes off your race times. Learn how to simplify and safely speed through T1 and T2 and get a great bike to run workout in the process. Bike, Bike Shoes, Run shoes with Triathlon Laces plus helmet required. Held at TRIATHLON LAB, Santa Monica. RSVP to gareth@coachgareth.com

So, the answer to the “does the wall exist” question is this ……. Yes, if you don’t know how to pace yourself, fuel yourself or taper. No, if you do know how to do all those things.

The human body can store about 2000 calories of carbohydrate when rested and fully replenished – this is the goal of the taper. When you rest up your using partially depleted carbohydrate stores top up to maximal levels once again. You also repair at a cellular level and absorb all the great training you have just been doing.  So, tapering is what puts you at the start line 100% loaded to race.

Secondly, breakfast on race day tops up any short term deficit from the nighttime and carbohydrate ingestion at the rate of 200-300 calories an hour during the event helps you keep up with your “burn-rate” as you run.

Lastly, proper training to teach yourself to burn fats efficiently, extend your endurance and develop speed at threshold, puts you in a commanding position to race to your potential. Racing above your threshold and “beyond your conditioning” is one sure way to CREATE the mythical wall.

So very simply, if an athlete tapers, eats a normal diet of which 50%+ is carbohydrate and then also PACES THEMSELVES correctly = not going above threshold + consumes about 250 carbohydrate calories per hour during the event, they’ll be fine!!!

the wall is a myth or at most a self created obstacle caused by poor nutrition, poor training and poor pacing