Hello All!
For those of you who may have missed Lisbeth Kenyon's Norseman Xtreme Triathlon race report, here it is! We think you will enjoy her vivid descriptions that take you through the ups and downs (literally and figuratively) of the most difficult iron-distance race on the planet. In this epic event, Lis finished third woman overall, and together with the first two finishers, smashed the existing course record.
I received a lot of questions about how I coached Lis. You can find my debrief in this video post--Four Principles Guiding Lisbeth Kenyon's Training for Norseman Xtreme Triathlon I was struck when reading Lisbeth's race report how her words add force to these principles, just as her race powerfully demonstrated the real performance benefits I know come from getting functionally strong, training smart, and showing up 100% on race day. Yes, Lisbeth is an elite athlete. But these principles apply to every single athlete in any sport you can name--and that means YOU too.
Here are the Four Principles I adhere to in my coaching paired with Lisbeth's own words.
1. Movement Quality First
Coach Al: This is the baseline for EVERYTHING--your training, your racing, getting faster, unlocking your true potential, and reaching your goals.
Lisbeth: I started my training by taking 2 weeks off from running to concentrate on building my glute strength and resetting some basic movement errors that would cause injury if I didn't correct it. I actually had to re-learn how to walk up the stairs correctly, avoiding using stabilizers even in simple movements. It would be an experiment to see if I could get up the mountains without the specific hill training, but equipped with new found glute and core usability.
2. Quality over Quantity
Coach Al: It's also not about maxing out "training load," but, rather, it's about building your work capacity under the auspices of quality movement. If that's not the focus or the strategy of the training you do, you will be forever limited in your development.
Lisbeth: I trained an average of 13 hours per week for the past 6 months; anything more would impact family and work--for a hobby. That doesn't seem like much, but the sessions I did required this old body more time to recover. Given these limiters, Coach Al focused heavily on functional strength, mobility and movement skills.
3. Strength, Strength, Strength
Coach Al: True functional strength designed to shore up YOUR personal weaknesses and compensations is not just something "nice" to have. It is truly the foundation for all athletic accomplishment, regardless of your ability or your sport.
Lisbeth: Normally at this point in Hawaii I am in survival mode and leaning slightly to the left. Here I am feeling stronger and stronger. Mental note to not stop my planking routine.
4. There Is No Short Cut--No Easy Way
Coach Al: There are no special shoes, no magic workouts, no short cuts that lead you to outstanding achievement. It's not always fun or sexy to work on the fundamentals and skill development, but it always circles back to the basics when striving to reach one's potential.
Lisbeth: The climb to the finish--it never ends. Rocks are everywhere. Just rocks, wobbly gray wet rocks as far as the eye can see in all directions. We are on all fours climbing some of them. Now I get why people in the videos are holding their quads. Every time I look up, the radio tower is still far away. It is so much steeper in real life than the videos show and it is way less smooth than I expected. This was the hardest part of the day for me because we are now chasing the clock. What I really wanted was a sit down coffee break. All of a sudden the tower appears big and we are there. We make it in 12:46. Maybe the hardest one hour and five minutes I have done, mentally. This race is epic!
It means more than I can express to see Lisbeth be so victorious at Norseman. She understood our training approach and principles on a very deep level, and never wavered in her dedication to our approach. She also worked incredibly hard, and brought her A-game to race day. In short, she put it all together with 100% commitment, which is how she was able to achieve such an outstanding result. You might not be taking on Norseman Xtreme, but these same principles that guided Lis can lead you to your own epic performances, whatever your goals may be.
Click for Lis Kenyon's Norseman Xtreme Triathlon Race Report
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