Photo by Alex Gorham on Unsplash Studies on flow states show when athletes are experiencing them the thinking part of their brain is offline. “The less you think, the better you perform,” quips Markus Arvaja, a certified sports psychology consultant and senior lecturer in coaching at Finland’s Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. “We’ve studied athletes, the best of the best, studied their brains when they perform, and they have less brain activity in their prefrontal cortex. Which means they have automated their skills so they can purely enjoy their sport.” When he’s not teaching at university, Markus, himself an ice hockey, football and tennis player, works as a mental coach for Finland’s national women’s ice hockey team and the national youth tennis team. He’s a board member of the Finnish Society of Sports Psychology. He’s passionate about people performing at their absolute best. “Studies show peak flow states are intrinsically motivating experiences,” he says. “People become so involved in an activity that they are on automatic pilot, totally absorbed in that experience. It’s a merging of action and awareness. Thing is, you can’t force yourself to go into flow. But their are elements that help you enter into the flow space.” Flow states, peak performance, being in the zone, runner’s highs; these are all interchangeable terms describing the transcendent experiences athletes, artists, musicians and creatives report having. Maybe you’ve experienced one yourself. Time slows down, you become totally immersed in the task at hand, it feels effortless, maybe the world seems more vivid, and you have sense of mastery. They are when athletes have their best performances and, according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who wrote a seminal book on the topic, they are a key aspect of human happiness. It’s something we can all experience, not only elite athletes and artists. Neuroscience has revealed much about what’s happening in the brain during a flow state. Brain waves change from beta, more rapid waves underlying waking consciousness, to somewhere between alpha and theta waves, where we daydream and first enter into sleep. This is when many people have their best ideas. Neurochemicals associated with pleasure and performance – endorphin, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and anandamide – are the raw ingredients of flow. Perhaps the most interesting fact is how different regions of the brain respond during flow; for example, studies have found the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with self monitoring – and also self criticism – goes offline during flow. Instead of constantly analysing and evaluating, we do things spontaneously. “Sometimes coaches can interrupt the flow happening for athletes by giving too much information for the athletes’ minds,” Markus says. “It’s better to say only one or two things. “For flow, your mind should be free of worry and unnecessary thoughts. Stay in the present moment by quieting the mind and turning off the inner critic. Mindfulness certainly helps with this.” Stay tuned for the next article in our series on flow: the ingredients of flow.

Hill repeats are the best and safest form of speed work for endurance athletes. In my 10 years of coaching triathletes and runners, I’ve used hill repeats to train high school sprinters to run 49 seconds for the 400m dash, ITU athletes to run under 16 minutes for an off-the-bike 5K, and IRONMAN athletes to run sub-three-hour marathons. We do hills and drills all year, almost every week. As a coach of age group world and national champions, I have a firm belief that an athlete should always be between eight and 12 weeks away from an exceptional performance. Which means you should always work on speed development. If you drift too far away from speed work, you will see a plateau in performance and potentially injury. Why are hills so important? 1. They build your strength If the intensity is correct, the muscle recruitment is at its highest level, helping you increase your distance per step. Developing this muscular strength is critical for long-term health and development. Hill repeats are also the best, most specific form of strength training a runner can do. 2. They improve your speed Hills are the best form of plyometrics you can do. If you want to run faster, you have to develop an elastic, responsive stride. If you feel like you stomp the ground, this is a great sign that your stride needs improvement. The ability to use the ground’s energy to become more elastic is critical for success and prevents injury. 3. They improve your coordination Do you not feel comfortable or coordinated when you try and run fast? I’ve worked with many ITU athletes who grew up swimming but had very little running background. They benefitted greatly from hill sprints because it taught them proper running form and speed very quickly. Now that you’re ready to head into the hills, here are some parameters to keep in mind: Progress slowly When you start doing hill repeats, you want to gradually progress from a short, fast sprint to a longer one so as to give your body enough time to warm up and get accustomed to the coordination needed. Always start short. Begin with a hill sprint that takes you less than 10 seconds to complete, then gradually work up to one that takes you roughly 30 seconds. Finish your workout with hill sprints that take between 40 and 60 seconds. If you’re new to hill sprints, or you are injured, then stick to the shorter duration sprints and don’t progress until you feel ready. I recommend five to six repetitions of each length of repeat. Focus on intensity The intensity is critical. To make hill repeats effective you need to go very hard. In fact, when doing your eight to 10-second hill repeats, you should be going at maximum effort. If you don’t go hard enough, you’re wasting your time. As the hills progress in length, the intensity doesn’t change much. When you graduate to 40 to 60-second hill repeats, they become incredibly challenging. Your legs will flood with lactate and you will experience a high level of fatigue. Learn the proper frequency This depends on your physiology and injury background; not all athletes are treated the same. We do a Run Profile Test with each athlete to show us their technical flaws and their physiology. We also need to know their injury background. If an athlete is frequently injured, they will learn to love 10-second hill repeats. The Run Profile Test includes a 100m sprint, 1 mile, and 400m effort (in this order). As coaches, we watch for technical flaws in your stride, your elasticity levels, and the differences in your speed versus aerobic properties. If we’re working with a remote athlete we have their training partner video them at certain moments in each repetition. If the athlete scores well on the speed portion, we train them differently than someone who scores low. Every athlete is different. Add run drills Run drills are important and shouldn’t be avoided. However, if you think only performing run drills will make you a faster and healthy runner, you’re wrong. Drills teach you how to feel your stride at certain points and increase mobility. In a hill repeat session, we do them before entering each repetition. We perform a specific drill, for example butt kicks, for 10 meters or 10 seconds, then explode into a maximum-effort 10-second hill sprint from a standing start. The objective of the drill is to keep the athlete engaged in what they should be focusing on during the hill repeat. Some of the drills we use include slow marches, butt kicks, high knees, ankle pops, a skips and bounding. There are many common mistakes that I see runners make while doing hill repeats. The most common include: 1. Not enough rest between repeats Remember, hills are meant to be educational and not purely for conditioning. You are expected to go maximum effort or close to it. If you don’t allow enough rest, by the third repeat the intensity slips and you’ve lost the benefit. You should allow full recovery between each hill. 2. Skipping the short repeats Don’t skip the 10-second hill efforts and go straight to the 30-second efforts. When you begin training, the stress should first come from the frequency and volume set for the athlete. We start with short hill repeats to not overload the athlete too much too early. 3. Not going hard enough The goal is maximum muscle recruitment. You have to achieve maximum recruitment at 10 seconds before you can at 30 seconds. The short hill sprints are what keep you healthy, they lay the foundation for the year. Even if you have a long hill, use that long hill to do short repeats if that’s the amount of time you can go at maximum effort. 4. Poor hill gradient You never want to sacrifice your posture for an overly steep hill. On the other hand, a hill not steep enough won’t provide you with the resistance needed to execute the workout. A good rule of thumb is a hill no less than 5 percent and no greater than 10 percent. How steep you go depends on how well you can keep a good, natural running position while still being able to work at a maximum effort. Test out what these hill repeats can do for you. Resist the urge to accelerate the progression too quickly. I can almost guarantee you will feel faster and more coordinated in your upcoming races. This article by coach Steven Brandes was originally published on trainingpeaks.com. You can learn more about coach Brandes here. TrainingPeaks provides you in-depth analysis, planning tools and coaching services to help you reach your goal. Track your workouts with your Suunto watch. Afterwards analyze your heart rate, power, pace and other data with TrainingPeaks on the web or in mobile and progress towards your goals.

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.― Sun Tzu, The Art of War Pro triathlete Cody Beals loves a good race battle. He’s been having them since his high school cross-country days. More recently, he fought it out against two athletes at the inaugural Challenge Cancun triathlon, ultimately placing second. Cody thrives on competition, and is not afraid to employ deception to defeat his rivals. The most dramatic battles, he says, are when you are neck and neck with another athlete. Knowing how to do battle is an important part of triathlon. It’s something that can be trained, and requires a certain degree of cunning. Cody shares his tactics. 6 tactics to overcome your rivals 1. Let them do the work The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.― Sun Tzu, The Art of War Cody advises to sit back and let your rival work for you. He learned this the hard way after many years of trying to be at the front of the pack, especially on the runs. He expended so much energy doing this he got his butt kicked in finishing sprints over and over again. He eventually learned it’s better to sit back, bide his time, allowing his rivals to do the work. “This offers a strong physiological advantage on the swim and the bike if you're drafting off other athletes, within race rules,” he says. “On the run, it's a small advantage physically, but more psychological. “It’s a good tactic if you find yourself neck and neck with someone else. It's the Muhammed Ali rope-a-dope thing; acting like you’re weak and sand bagging a little bit.” 2. Play up a perceived weakness or look strong Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.― Sun Tzu, The Art of War In his own words, Cody says he’s “not the prettiest runner”. This is true when he’s fresh, and even more so at back sections of Ironman courses. In certain situations, when he wants his rivals to believe he’s in worse shape than he really is, Cody accentuates his running style. “I let my head wobble back and forth, throw my arms even wider, looking worse than in reality, when in fact that's just how I run,” he says. “This can get into another athlete’s head.” Alternatively, the opposite ruse – looking stronger than you really are – is also advisable in certain situations. “This is often something you do out in back sections of the run course,” Cody says. “Most triathlons feature sections like this where you can scope out the competition. I like to smile at my rivals, maybe give them a thumbs up. Or to really get inside their head, I might offer a word of encouragement, like a ‘good job’.” 3. Remember they are struggling, too In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity― Sun-Tzu, The Art of War In the heat of a race, when he’s really suffering, Cody likes to remind himself that his rivals are, too. “I like to tell myself that they are suffering as much or more than I am,” he says. “Often you feel like you are locked in this titanic struggle all on your own. But it bears remembering that everyone else out there is also going through this. Remembering that gives me strength.” 4. Block them out When the outlook is bright, bring it before their eyes; but tell them nothing when the situation is gloomy.― Sun Tzu, The Art of War As a last resort, when things get really tough, Cody advises to turn inward. “The other thing you can do is outright ignore them, pretend other athletes on the course don’t even exist,” he says. “This is a last resort. I think the most useful strategy is to engage the competition, to engage with the pain, to be very present and mindful about what is happening. However, as a last resort, you can detach from everything happening, including the competition, and turn your focus inwards.” 5. Prepare well for battle Plan for what it is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.― Sun Tzu, The Art of War Intense competition can rattle even experienced pro athletes like Cody. That’s why he dedicates a significant amount of time to preparing for it. “In pretty much all my difficult training sessions I will dedicate some time to visualisation, specifically around other athletes,” he explains. “If I know who I’m going to be racing, they will figure into my visualisation. I will practice a key moment involving that athlete and rehearse it again and again mentally. For example, I might go over a certain pass, where I'm going to drop them, or us locked in a finishing sprint. It’s extremely repetitive so when it comes to the actual moment in the race, it’s almost like a dream because I’ve practiced it so many time before.” 6. Make an alliance If you do not seek out allies and helpers, you will be isolated and weak.― Sun Tzu, The Art of War Once in a while, during a race that isn’t going well, and only in the bike stage, Cody says making an alliance with another athlete can sometimes be helpful. “It’s always with an athlete who I think I can outrun, but who rides similarly to me,” he says. “If I think I can leverage that, and gain something by being cooperative on the bike by legally working together with the 12 m spacing, that’s worthwhile. It rarely works out in practice, but sometimes you can find yourself with one or two other athletes and it pays to work together.”

© LymbusSwedish skyrunner Ida Nilsson is more at home running in rugged and wild country than on city streets. She's a three-time winner of the Transvulcania ultramarathon, winner of the Marathon du Mont Blanc, and this year’s winner of the hardcore 236 km Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica. Running on pavement just isn't her thing. But this year she decided to fulfill a longstanding wish to complete one road marathon, and has been preparing for it over the last months. During a recent training camp, Ida began to enjoy the feeling of running fast along flat terrain. She’s confident she’s ready for the Hamburg Marathon on April 28. Her goal is to finish in 2h35m. “What I sometimes miss in trail running is to run with the pack and to feel the flow and speed,” she says. “If you’re in a good group in a road race, it feels really nice moving in a pack. In trail running, because of the terrain, distance, and course size, you rarely pack up and run in a group. “I really like racing and it's always interesting and exciting to see how a distance and race that I'm not comfortable with will turn out.” Now 38, Ida has been winning elite level races since she was a teen, starting in track and cross country. In Sweden during the 2000s, she dominated the 5000 m run and 3000 m steeplechase disciplines. Due to a series of injuries, including a stress fracture in her hip joint, she gave up her track and field career and didn’t run for five years. In 2013, she began running again, this time focusing on off road. “When I was doing track and cross country, the marathon always felt like something I would try to do in the end,” she says. “Then I just jumped over the long road running races and went straight to ultras. But I still want to try to do a decent time in a road marathon before I stop competitive running.” How to make the transition 1. Take it gradually Ida advises to make the transition to road running gradually. Don’t suddenly do all your training on the road. “Running on hard surfaces is really hard for the legs; they get a pounding,” she says. 2. Focus on speed and form “For trail runners trying a road marathon, it's important to start doing some shorter interval workouts that focus on speed and efficient stride,” Ida says. “Trail runners have the endurance and toughness for the time and distance of a marathon, but maybe not the speed and efficient stride for the road.” She has been doing flat interval workouts, ranging from 5x500 m to 10x1000 m, and 12 km tempo runs to get fully used to running on the flat. 3. Add longer marathon workouts After gradually transitioning, it’s time to add some typical marathon workouts. Ida has been doing a 35 km long run, with 15 km at tempo. She has also been doing 25 km tempo runs. “It's really hard to keep marathon pace in these workouts and I think it's good to have some sub-marathon pace speed first,” she says. “These workouts don’t need to feel like your fastest pace.” Follow Ida's experience at the Hamburg Marathon this Sunday via Instagram as she takes over Suunto's global account. Lead image: © Lymbus

(Updated March 2024) It can happen to the best of us. We sign up for a marathon with good intentions and then life happens; the kids get sick, you get sick, or maybe you just procrastinated like a champion. Whatever happened, your training plan went out the window. Next thing you know, the marathon is a week or two away. What to do? This is an all too familiar scenario for running coach and fitness and nutrition expert Dr. Rick Kattouf II. Clients come to him in a panic about this, looking for a saviour. “I never want to send an athlete into a bear fight with a butter knife,” he says. “So I'm very honest with them; running a marathon significantly undertrained is going to dramatically increase the risk of injury and illness. If it was up to me, I would say let’s move on, go back to the drawing board. But if they are intent on doing it, I will back them.” With that proviso, we’re assuming you’re the type to walk into a bear fight with a butter knife. In that case, we play out a couple of scenarios where you might come out alive. When race day rolls around, there is one thing to keep in mind: respect. Scenario 1: one week before race day Let us imagine the marathon is seven days away and your training plan has gone up in flames. Should you even bother preparing now? “The general answer is, no, there is nothing we can do the week of the race that is going to make us a better marathon runner,” Kattouf says. “With that been said, we do need to tweak things.” Ordinarily, for those runners who bothered to train, the seven days before a race would be part of their tapering. In this scenario, that doesn’t make any sense. “We have an athlete now that hasn’t peaked so there is no reason to taper,” Kattouf explains. “Nor are we going to try to get them up to a 10 or 20 mile run this week. But what I would like to achieve before race day is a little feedback on that body. The body needs to feel the road.” Preparation advice: Imagine it’s Monday and race day is the coming Sunday. Kattouf advises to run about three kilometers, or two miles, a day for five straight days. Keep it light, don’t go hard. Make them easy jogs. “Otherwise, race day will be like a hammer to the head,” Kattouf says. Aside from the running, it’s also important to stay well hydrated during the week preceding the marathon. Get plenty of sleep and eat well. Kattouf advises no dieting this week. Scenario 2: two weeks before race day In this scenario, we imagine you have caught on a little earlier to the potential car wreck of a race that is hurtling towards you. You muster up your determination and try to swerve back on course. What is the best way forward from here? “They say, ‘don't shove a square peg through a round hole’, but sometimes we need to do exactly that” Kattouf says. “And now we're just going to shove it.” Preparation advice: Kattouf advises implementing a multi-day training block. It’s not about the distance or duration of one training run, but instead the focus is on the cumulative effect of the whole training block. Forget trying to smash out one 20 km run. Focus on incremental gain. On Monday and Tuesday of week one, do an easy run for an hour each day. Take Wednesday and Thursday off, and then repeat the hour-long runs on Friday and Saturday. For the seven days before the race, revert to the preparation advice in scenario one. All up, this builds in nine runs in 14 days. This strategy prioritises frequency over volume. Scenario 3: a month before race day Respect. You’ve caught on to the looming catastrophe early and have given yourself a fighting chance to come out the other end relatively unscathed. Let’s drill down. “A month can give us a good amount of time to prepare,” Kattouf says. “It’s time to initiate a four week training camp.” Preparation advice: Get ready to train. Coach Kattouf wants you to do it every single day. Yes, seven days a week. The good news is he’s not asking for big running volume. He wants a mix of training: running, strength training, stretching and foam rolling. “Seven days a week of exercise for four weeks is no joke,” Kattouf says. “The key is, if we work out that much we never blast ourselves in one session so that we need a whole day to recover.” Running, swimming, stationary bike, weight training, stretching or yoga – all could have their place over the four weeks. Running should, of course, be the primary focus. The main message is: keep moving, just don’t push yourself. Race day: respect When race day rolls around, there is one thing to keep in mind: respect. “The marathon is no joke, even for the very well trained,” Kattouf says. “The conditioned athletes 100 % respect it. That’s important.” One way to show respect is to focus on taking care of yourself properly, rather than being cocky and charging into it blindly. Race day advice: Wear a watch with a heart rate monitor, and focus on keeping your heart rate low. Achieve this by following a walk-jog rhythm right from the beginning. Start the race by walking. “Throw out time, throw out pace,” Kattouf says. “Keep one number on your watch: heart rate. Nothing else matters.” Keep your heart rate below zone one (50-60% of your maximum heart rate), or in zone one, and no higher than zone two (60-70% of max heart rate). If your heart rate creeps into zone three, immediately switch to walking. Make it your mission to enjoy the marathon. Forget competition or trying to chase a personal best. Fun is the name of the game for this race.

Many athletes and coaches head to the track for speed work; however, for triathletes and distance runners, there is a more important workout. I call this a pacing session. Pacing for distance runs and triathlons is one of the most critical components of successful racing, and yet most never spend a concerted effort “dialing it in”. Why is that? Well, with most athletes glued to their Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) devices, the majority use this feedback as the primary means to pacing their runs. While valuable, it is critical to “learn the body through the mind”, and use your personal biofeedback techniques to stay within an intensity level appropriate to the race distance, course, and conditions. By raising awareness of and learning your Perceived Exertion (PE), as well as your onset and sweat rates for various conditions and hydration levels, and how they alter within the eight training zones (but especially Sub-Lactate Threshold through VO2max), you can dial in you optimal sustainable pacing. Remember, especially when relying on HR as a performance indicator, that HR is affected by many things. Heart rate may be elevated by physical issues like inadequate recovery, hydration, caffeine, glycogen storage levels, psychological and emotional stress load. It can also be affected by outside elements like ambient temperature, humidity, wind, altitude, and terrain. When I am with an athlete at the track, I prefer that they not focus on their HR, and only refer to it at specific times. By having them focus on PE, they can learn to gauge pacing more reliably. This is an important skill to learn across the spectrum of conditions and intensities. Once learned, it makes sustainable pacing performance much easier to identify – whether you use a HRM or not. The pacing session I often do with my athletes at the track for the first time is listed below.   Track Session WARM-UP One mile, recording 400m times and overall mile time. Normally, I ask my athlete what they think their endurance pace is, and then instruct them to just relax and warm up for a mile at a comfortable endurance pace (not looking at their watch or HRM). Quite often, the athlete is shocked at how hard or fast they went, and soon discover that it was a pace not sustainable for an Ironman marathon for example. STRETCH SESSION Best case scenario is to stretch the hamstrings, calves, shoulders, quads, hips, quads, and glutes. However, if you are crunched for time, target the hips, hamstrings and calves. WORKOUT 400m repeats are my go to workout. Depending upon the athlete and time available, I’ll have them perform 6 to 10 repeats with approximately 2 minutes recovery between each. Whether we are searching for a sustainable Ironman marathon pace or a sprint triathlon LT pace, I’ll orient the intensity levels to zero in on what we’re trying to learn. Pacing is subsequently adjusted as applicable. Ideally, we will try to learn 2 to 3 pacing levels during the first session. As part of the initial briefing, and reminded throughout the session, I tell the athlete to really focus their attention to their PE and how they’re feeling during the various paces. As fatigue starts to surface in their form and technique (i.e. shoulders raise/tense, sitting back), it is addressed during the session, as well as during the workout recap and documentation for both coach and athlete. COOL-DOWN One mile and shoot for a particular pace. Then stretch, refuel, and rehydrate.   Lessons To Be Learned In my experience, these pacing sessions are invaluable to both the coach and athlete. Key information is obtained during both warm up and cool down, and not just during repeats. A coach is able to correct biomechanical inefficiencies and learn much about the athlete’s abilities (i.e. running, ability to suffer, ability to learn and replicate their PE and pacing), and subsequently prescribe a more focused training plan. The athlete always learns a lot about themselves in terms of current pacing, sustainable pacing, as well as running strengths and weaknesses. Followed by a thorough training recap and documentation, both can move successfully forward on improving performance, as well as re-visit reports from previous training periods. Within the training reports, I believe it’s important to not only provide biomechanical assessments and times, but also what those times translate into for a per mile (or per kilometer) pace as well as current and goal per mile pacing for a marathon, 5k, 10k,…etc. This information will make your subsequent training easier to translate your performance, recovery level, progress, as well as more relevant feedback to the coach. So head to the track, and rather than just running eight 400s hard and calling it a productive session, dial-in your pacing for various distances and you’ll optimize future performances.   This article by coach and former professional triathlete Todd Parker was originally published on trainingpeaks.com. You can learn more about coach Parker here. TrainingPeaks provides you in-depth analysis, planning tools and coaching services to help you reach your goal. Track your workouts with your Suunto watch. Afterwards analyze your heart rate, power, pace and other data with TrainingPeaks on web or in mobile and progress towards your goals.Lead image by Matt Trappe Photo / Suunto