Category Archives: cycling

The MOST important single sentence you’ll ever read about training

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I won’t keep you in suspense, here it is:

Instead of getting caught up in the latest fads, always make sure each workout is contributing to your long term goals.

I was in the airport yesterday and starring at the news stand. Every single issue has some variation of “the 5 workouts you must do this month” plastered across the cover. There are lots of great workouts out there, but only you can identify who you want to be.

Its pretty easy to work backwards. Define your goal, and ensure that each day’s heart beats, muscle contractions, nutrition intake, and rest schedules are target focused on that goal. Because we both want the same thing: for you to be able to cross your next challenge off your list.

The Bat-signal has been lit: time for a PARTY!

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Want to see what we are up to @ Rebound? Come grab a beer, some eats, and join us for our open house this Thursday! (superhero dress optional)

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Pace Maker: an interview with Today in PT

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Today in PT is a magazine for the physical therapy profession. They wrote:

Americans are increasingly on the run, with Running USA’s 2012 State of the Sport report counting nearly 39 million runners. Runners spend nearly $2.5 billion annually on footwear, according to the report. But, unfortunately, new shoes don’t come with accurate information and proper training to safely and successfully pursue the activity. For that, Today in PT turned to Jay Dicharry, PT, MPT, SCS, author of “Anatomy for Runners: Unlocking Your Athletic Potential for Health, Speed, and Injury Prevention.” click here for the rest

They threw out 10 questions, and i threw out 10 answers. Check out the link if you’d like to see some of the reasons why i do what I do, a few lines on the book, and why i got into this aspect of athletic injury care in the first place.

 

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Coffee Talk: TrailRunner Nation Podcast

The guys at Trail Runner Nation podcast gave me a call, and asked a few questions. If you’d like to hear some inside scoop on what you can do to keep healthy and happy on the way to your next PR, grab some of your favorite brew, and tune in here.

We’ll debunk some myths, babble about footwear, talk about why we don’t treat injuries by treating symptoms, and discuss some cutting-edge approaches on strength training for endurance athletes. Its a long hour of conversation, but all this talk is aimed at ways to help make running fun. Because that why we do this stuff. And more fun is, well,  just more fun.

Do you treat triathletes? Join me @ U of Michigan

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Multisport athletes have a lot of challenges in their training,  but the training demands of 3 sports seem to creep up on all of us. Athletes spend so much time trying to fit in their volume that the body often gets ignored.

Well, this all ends now. Join me at the University of Michigan April 20-21st where we discuss “Putting the Athlete in Triathlete: a clinician’s role in endurance sports.” During this 13 hrs course, we’ll lay the ground work and discuss how endurance training impacts the tissues of the body, and then move on to detailed descriptions of the mechanics of each sport. You’ll learn how to correlate your musculoskeletal evaluation of the body with a runner’s swim, bike, and running performance. We’ll discuss why swimmers aren’t your typical overhead athletes, you’ll learn how to do bike fits (how to fit the bike to the rider, and more importantly how to fit the rider to the bike) with hands on practice, learn how to identify common gait patterns and cue them out of problems that overload the body, and understand the role of complimentary training and strengthening. At the end of the weekend, you’ll understand how to help your athletes make training easier on their body, and improve their efficiency.

for registration information, click here, and for a hourly breakdown of the course, click here. See you there!

Elevator Up? The Mindset Behind a Champion

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A few weeks ago, I got to present along side Dr. Joe Vigil at a USA Track and Field conference in LA. For those of you who have to ask “who is Joe Vigil?”…..this man is to coaches as Rolex is to watches: the best.

Dr Vigil always has the uncanny ability to break down complex tasks and ask you the “right” introspective questions to help you reach your next milestone. We don’t just train the body in isolation. We’ve always heard that the body can handle more than the mind wants to give. So with that, I’m going to leave you with the following picture. Is it time to take the elevator up the “achievement triangle?” – What’s holding you back from reaching your goals? Change all starts with the desire to change.

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In fact, lets move beyond kumbaya and start this process in motion right now. Turn the computer off. Get out a sheet of paper and make 3 columns. Write down your goals in column 1. Then write down the obstacles that stand in the way of each of your goals. Then make a 3rd column of exactly what you are going to do to beat each of those obstacles.  Stick it on your fridge and remember your passion. When one of those obstacles seems like its standing in your way, make your tiger face and beat it down. Mental Tough = Body Tough.

And if you need help with your plan, give me a ring – I’ll help you find your tiger face.

UVA Running Medicine 2013: a recap

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What happens when you get 220+ clinicians in the room and talk about running? It was a beautiful day. About 55 degrees and sunny. The remnants of the 10+ in snowstorm on the ground helped dampen the air and made the sun feel even stronger. It’s a beautiful day for a run….but instead,about 220 clinicians sat inside, on their glutes, so they can learn to help you use your glutes better.

The 10th anniversary of the longest running, running specific medical conference produced a host of content to help “us” help “you.” Do you ever wonder why running is as challenging as it is? How your running would change if you had no gravity to fight, arms to swing, or perhaps even legs to stand on? Dr Rodger Kram led us in 2 enlightening presentations on the energetics of gait. Talks like this completely shift how you think about running.

Dr. Eric Carson reviewed the current and future trends on cartilage repair. Take home: right now, cutting edge surgeons are able to offer some pretty incredible proceedures, and they’ll be even more magic to come in the future.

Brian Hoke, PT helped us think critically through our video gait analysis. Anyone can watch a video in slow motion, but learning what to look for is critical.

Your’s truly helped clinicians through their musculoskeletal exams as they relate to a runner’s needs. No one can tlak about “correct running form” unless you understand that each runner is an individual with unique needs and attributes. If you understand how a person’s body wants to work, you can understand how to help that person run. For those of you who read the screen’s in Anatomy for Runners, that 8-point exam just got a whole lot more thorough: 32-points to be exact.

Dr Sibohn Stattua reviewed the literature on the female athlete triad. Turns out that there is more to it than just low energy intake, menstrual irregularity, and poor bone remodeling…..the triad is turning into a square? That’s right, there is a 4th “leg” to the triad, and this one might be even more severe of a long term complication from this complex disorder.

Eric Magrum, PT discussed the current research on the #1 injury affecting runners: anterior knee pain. He told us why runners with chronic pain in the knee try to avoid their pain. The problem is that the compensations we adopt to avoid pain in the knee are just as much of a problem as the original cause itself.

Kyle Kiesel, PhD, PT helped us through an eval process to identify core imbalances that affect far more than just the core.

And finally, Dr Bob Wilder guided us through the process of guiding you back to your running in explaining the best return to run programs after an injury.

Clinicans getting to know their feet: a scene from our lab session

Clinicans getting to know their feet: a scene from our lab session

And that doesn’t even mention the incredible lab session on Saturday by Brian Hoke, Kyle Kiesel, Dr Mark Cuccuzzella, myself, and the amazing cookies that I ate at the afternoon break. Egos were dropped at the door, and we all got down to the same level to help runners do what they love: run.

As always, the conference returns next year……

Learn how to run (better) from your couch!

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Yes, I’m suggesting you actually spend about an hour on your bottom if you want to learn to run better. Join me on Tuesday, Feb 26th, I’ll be hosting a webinar for USA Triathlon. A quick summary and a registration link is right here.

Topic: Building the Perfect Runner: How Strength and Form Can Improve Your Performance (with Jay Dicharry)

What’s the best way to run? While often polarizing headlines read “everyone must land on their forefoot”, there is a lot more to efficient running form than a foot strike. In this webinar presentation, Jay Dicharry will use both scientific data and simple analogies to discuss what good running form is. Then, it’s on to the naked truth: There are things you can do outside of running that will improve your running economy. By the end of this presentation, you will understand:

•What defines proper running form, and how it plays a role in injury and performance.

•How to ensure that you are putting the best ingredients (your body!) into your running form.

•The mobility requirements for proper running

•How to optimize your strength training to ensure it directly transfers into better running.

•How to optimize posture and effectively integrate it into your daily activities and training.

Join Jay as he looks past the hype and shares the information you need to perform at your peak.

“black box” training = grey answers

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The black box training model that most of us follow is pretty much like a blender.

Its time for breakfast, and you want a smoothie. You scrummage through the kitchen and try to find anything resembling fresh or frozen fruit. The blender is loaded up, and spinning loudly as the morning sun crests through the window. You take a sip……its good. But why isn’t as good as the smoothie you made a few days prior. What specific things made the other smoothie better?

Most of us put as much forward thinking into smoothies as we put into our training plan. We throw a bunch of training hours in, and based on our success, we arrive at conclusions. Well, what really happened? Some of you may have gotten faster. But could you have gone faster yet? Some of you may have plateaued…..why? And a few of you may have even gotten slower…..a lot of people really want to know the answer to this!

Wouldn’t it be nice to know more than just “effort in = race performance out?” What if you could actually see inside the black box?

Screen Shot 2013-02-12 at 1.13.38 AMWhen athletes come to me for an analysis, my goal is to find their limiters. Everyone has them, but not everyone knows how to find them. Over the past decade, I’ve blurred the lines between sports medicine, lab analysis, and performance training. And I’ve done it by being specific. I take a hard look at the state of your body, and a hard look at your sport performance. My lab has fancy tools like force platforms and instrumented treadmills, and a real knack for understanding how these values actually impact your sport’s performance. I can see into your body in ways that no “trained eye” could ever hope to capture.  Specific measures = specific answers. I call it “opening the box.” It works. 

Over the next few posts, we are going to go through some examples on how this approach has helped others in the past. But if you want to know how it helps you, and want to look inside your own box, give me a call!

From General to Specific: thinking through your yearly training plan

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OK. Gut check time. a few weeks ago, I asked you to take a look at your past, and identify your performance limiters.  While both “Type A” and “Type B” training plans can be incredibly successful, even the most open minded Type B person takes a step back to look at their needs. After all, you’ll never reach your goal without a road map to guide you along the way.

To help you organize your road map, I’d like you to keep in mind a general plan: “from general to specific.” What does this mean? Well, if you are a cyclist, the best, most specific way to train leading up to your competition season is to pedal your bike…..often! But if you are 4 months out from your season, there are about a million other things you could be doing besides biking, that will still help you pedal well come competition season.

There’s no substitute for working hard, but there’s also no reason to work hard at the same thing. I know some of you say, “sure – I do this. I lift weights in the offseason.” Well, if you know anything about modern training theory, weights, plyometrics, and drills aren’t just for the off season (another topic for another time). When I say general, I’m not talking about all this kind of stuff. I’m talking about other kinds of stuff.

When you are 4 months out from race day, your body doesn’t really care if you did 2 hours on the trainer, or 2 hours XC skiing out in the woods. But your brain just might be a whole lot happier shushing though the snow covered trees instead of watching another 15 yr old Spinervals video. If you feel like going to a rock gym – go for it. The balance, coordination, and muscle stabilization you gain from rock climbing will improve areas of your body you never existed. And so what if you aren’t good at it? You aren’t a professional rock climber, its just something fun to do while you’ve got time, and all-cycling-all-the-time isn’t the sole focus of your day.

Me? I’m tackling my nemesis…..trying to ride my unicycle. Previously, its been successful at tacking me instead. But this is all supposed to be fun right? We do this stuff for a challenge. Repeat after me: “It’s January.” You know your friend who is putting in 20 hr training weeks right about now? He’s in for a massive blow-up come about June, and will be spending the peak of race season burt out and destroyed. So expand your skills and expand your mind. This winter, what are you doing to work on your “general?”