It was a perfect, cloudless day when I pulled into the Howard Community College parking lot. I knew I must be in the right place because most of the cars had expensive bikes and racks mounted on their roofs. As I entered the building I viewed what appeared to be "Triathlete college" with athletes changing "classes" every 45 minutes. There was significant star-power at the clinic including famous Ironman athletes: Mike Pigg, Troy Jacobson, and Joanna Zeiger. Also conducting sessions were Phil Maffetone known for his 40-30-30 nutrition and LSD (long slow distance) training theories, and Steve Tarpinian of Total Training, Inc. (clinic sponsor, coach and event consultant). I decided to drop in on Troy’s session, first. Troy and Phil Maffetone were advocating very different training theories and produced an interesting contrast.

Troy Jacobson on Triathlon Training
Troy Jacobson advocates a fairly traditional approach to training. I’ll quote from his article, "Talking about Triathlon" from the March 1999 MetroSports Magazine. "There’s nothing more important for a triathlete than to know when to work and when to take some time off. Take my advice. Don’t do what I did a couple of years ago when I fell behind in my running and tried to overcompensate by piling on my mileage. It cost me six weeks of training, because there’s no remedy for a stress fracture other than rest." Troy talked about how to modify and play around with the frequency, intensity and duration of your workout. He also discussed how to use weekends for longer runs and the weekdays for high-intensity intervals. However he did caution that "spinning" (high-intensity bike work) should be done only once a week.

He recommended doing a "brick" (back-to-back workouts of two triathlon sports) at least once and possibly twice a week. He believes that in order to go fast in a race, you have to train fast. (This is where he differs from Maffetone.) Troy says that elite athletes will do an entire race at 90% of max heart rate. He said that a beginning athlete will realize significant gains for the first six or seven years. However, as they approach their potential as an athlete those gains will be much smaller. In order to continue improving he recommends periodization with 15 weeks per year spent doing shorter, lower-intensity workouts. He said not to worry about the weight gain and temporary loss of conditioning – that it’s absolutely necessary for the body to recover.

Phil Maffetone on Aerobic Training and Nutrition
Next I visited Phil Maffetone’s lecture room. Mike Pigg gave the introduction. He talked about how he had stopped realizing gains and was experiencing frequent injuries. He was searching for a remedy and contacted Phil Maffetone. Phil told Mike to train for five months at no more than 155 max heart rate. He also changed Mike’s diet to include more fats ("good" fats called essential fatty acids) and protein, and less carbohydrates. As he continued to train "aerobically" Mike noticed that his times were improving even though his heart rate was still no more than 155. He began to make gains and is now racing professionally again. Maffetone then began to talk about his theories of nutrition and training. He began by cautioning that there is no 40-30-30 magic and no perfect schedule for the fastest race. It’s a matter of trial and error on every athlete’s part. Maffetone’s recommendation in nutrition, in training, and in life is to remember that you’re in it for the long haul. You can’t consistently produce well by doing all-out efforts followed by crashing.

Maffetone is concerned about stress in the athlete. This stress can be mental, emotional, or physical. When an athlete trains anaerobically he produces stress and burns glucose. When he drinks coffee he produces a chemical stress. When he eats carbohydrates, he stimulates insulin, burns the sugar quickly and then is left depleted. Maffetone believes triathletes need to get 99.9% of their energy from the aerobic system that is primarily fat-burning. A trained aerobic system results in better circulation, better immunity to disease and better joint support. He says that when the athlete burns more fat (through aerobic training), he has less body fat and burns less glucose.

Maffetone says that if you’re eating primarily carbohydrates you’re burning 90% sugar and 10% fat. You’re tired, not sleeping well, possibly becoming insulin-resistant, hungry for sweets, craving caffeine, and depressed after meals. He said when insulin goes up in the bloodstream, blood pressure goes up. In the later stages of prolonged high blood insulin, heart disease, stroke, and chronic high blood-pressure may develop. He recommends drastically reducing your carbohydrates for 2 weeks (eating primarily protein, good fats – from linseed, soybean, or fish oils, and vegetables) and noticing how you feel. If it’s noticeably better you may be insulin resistant and should consider restricting your intake of carbohydrates.

If you feel that your athletic performance is "stuck" and that you’re experiencing frequent injuries, Maffetone recommends training almost exclusively aerobically until you begin to realize gains again. He is fairly radical in his approach initially restricting the athlete even from weight lifting and situps or pushups.

Steve Tarpinian on Swimming
Finally I attended Steve Tarpinian’s Swim session. Steve Tarpinian has completed the Hawaii Ironman, conducts swim and triathlon clinics, and is founder of Total Training, Inc. Steve has a background in engineering and likes to illustrate swimming principles with demonstrations of the laws of physics. He has an extensive background in coaching techniques and said that when he was in high school and college he read everything he could find on swimming in order to swim like his idol, Mark Spitz.

Steve simplifies swimming into two areas of emphasis: streamlining and efficient stroking (when you have to break the streamline). He says that the most perfect streamline in the world would not result in significant swimming speed unless you also have a powerful, efficient stroke. He talks about swimming on your side (when rotating) and how the body is more streamlined and also longer. He illustrated this by standing in front of a wall with his arm extended above his head. He then turned his body sideways and the extended arm was at least three inches higher on the wall. Although he took a cerebral approach to swimming principles it was not overwhelming such as one would experience when reading Ernest Maglischo about the Bernoulli principle!

Tarpinian recommends interval training because the frequent rests enable the swimmer to maintain technique. He talked about swimming toys and his clinic features some of the latest including the monofin, a tube with balls that when strapped to the waist "clicks" when rotated from side to side, "hip-wings" which are strapped to the hips to improve rotation, and fraid-knots which come with an excellent beginning stretch program. He recommends against pull-buoys, kick boards, and paddles. He said they can become crutches and exacerbate injuries. He does advocate using zoomers since they can help you maintain good body position and speed when doing drills. Steve has developed 11 drills that he combines into an individualized program for each swimmer to correct any swimming flaws. His clinic includes above- and below-water videotaping.

To find out about future MetroSports/Total Training Triathlon Clinics visit their web sites at: http://www.metrosports.com or www.swimpower.com.