EPC Tips:Training for XTERRA West and South Central Champs

New in 2011 XTERRA Pro Cody Waite from EPC (Endurance Performance Coaching) will be an official training partner of XTERRA, providing tips, plans, and programs to the Tribe on a bi-monthly basis via this newsletter and the training section of xterraplanet.com.  While the tips and tricks Cody dishes out here will be free, more in-depth training plans will also be available for a fee at www.epcmultisport.com.  In this first installment Cody touches on the race specific training for next month's XTERRA West and South Central Championship races at Lake Las Vegas, Nevada and Waco, Texas, respectively…

It's March and the 2011 XTERRA U.S. Championship Series is nearly here. The U.S. Championship in Ogden, Utah and World Championship in Maui are both still months away, but to get to those two grand-finale events you have to qualify. And to qualify, you have to race well consistently throughout the year collecting points (to qualify for Nationals) and peak for an earlier Regional Championship event(s) to punch your ticket to Maui with a top placing! This qualification process is just one of the things that makes XTERRA racing so challenging and so fun to compete in. It also means that most athletes need to look at their season as two parts with two separate peaks; the first one early in the year to qualify, and the second to have a great race in the season finale events in Utah and Hawaii. The most effective strategy for the "double peak" season is to get an early start to the training year by building a big aerobic base leading up to your first peak. Then take a short rest and recovery period following your first peak before rebuilding to an even higher peak the second time around when you really want to be at your best! 

The first crack at qualifying comes early this year in April, ideal for those athletes in the southwestern (ie. warmer) regions of the country. The opening two Regional Championship events at Lake Las Vegas and Waco are back to back weekends this year, April 10 and 17 respectively. If these are your first priority events of the year, up to this point in your training you have probably been focusing on building your aerobic base with consistent swim, bike and run training at lower intensities with the objectives of perfecting your technique, improving your aerobic fat-burning engine, and gradually increasing your training volume. Now about a month out, it's time to add some intensity to the mix to get that extra boost of power and strength before race day. These two courses, one in the Nevada desert and the other in the Texan hill country, are very different from one another in terms of physical demands and racing styles. The course out at Lake Las Vegas is a relatively static course that requires a more consistent application of power and speed, where as the course at Cameron Park is an extremely dynamic course with "on and off" power application filled with repeated short bursts of power over the repeated hills and accelerations through the twists and turns of the bike and run course. Although the base training for every race is more or less the same, the final preparations should be tailored more specifically to the event.

In this case, if you are headed to Vegas, you will want to emphasize longer intervals, building from your upper aerobic pace right up to your race pace twice a week. An example could be 4-6 intervals of 10 minutes, building from your aerobic threshold of say 145 bpm up to your race pace of maybe 160-165 bpm over each of the 10 minute intervals. Allow for 5 minutes of easy riding between intervals getting your HR down below 120 bpm. These intervals will improve your ability to maintain a steady race pace over the duration of the Las Vegas course. A great workout would be to do 3-4 of the intervals on the bike and then transition to the run and do another 2-3 intervals over a hillier course to simulate the demands of race day.

If you are headed to Waco, you will want to focus a bit more on the anaerobic side of things. There is nothing "steady-state" about the course in Texas. Even the swim, with its downstream-upstream-downstream format, has less consistency to it than typical swims. The Waco race has you on and off the gas throughout the entire course, so you need to prepare for that kind of racing. Doing rounds of several short, intense intervals will help you prepare for this race. For the workout, find a short, reasonably steep hill or series of hills that you can do repeats on. The intervals should be between 30 seconds and two minutes long, and you will want to ride or run them basically as hard as you can while still being able to complete the set. Allow for a downhill of similar duration between intervals for recovery. Hit the climbs hard, then basically just coast or walk back down to let your HR recover. A great session could consist of 3 sets of 5 repeats (15 intervals total) with several minutes between sets for added recovery. You can keep the length of the intervals the same or mix it up between intervals or sets. Like with the Vegas workout, you can combine the bike and run into one combo session with 2-3 sets of intervals on the bike followed by 2 more sets on the run to really get your legs ready for race day.

Keep in mind that these race-specific workouts are additions to your predominantly aerobic training schedule. Two of these high intensity workouts a week will be plenty for nearly all athletes. Make sure to space them out with a couple easier days to allow for adequate recovery and adaptation. One or two longer endurance days per week is also essential to maintain (or continue to build) the endurance you have worked on all winter. If these two early season races are your priority events for the first part of 2011, and you achieve your goals, then consider enjoying your fitness for another month or so of racing before taking a short break and refocusing on Nationals and Worlds in the fall. If your early priorities lie in other upcoming races in May, June or July, then keep building your aerobic base for a bit longer and look for the course specific training tips coming in the weeks ahead to help you prepare for your first peak of 2011!

Good luck and be sure to say hello if you see me at the races (I'm the short but good-looking guy on the Seven 29'er).

- Cody Waite
  web: www.epcmultisport.com
  email: cody@epcmultisport.com

About Cody
Coming from a bike racing background, Cody Waite is in his 5th season as an XTERRA professional. Cody is also the founder and head coach of EPC Multisport, a Denver based endurance sport coaching company, club, and elite amateur XTERRA racing team. His passion for off-road racing and helping others achieve their goals in triathlon, mountain biking and running are visible by looking at his own successes and those of of all he works with. Learn more about Cody and EPC Multisport at www.epcmultisport.com. Join the EPC Team and make 2011 your best season yet!