Those who have had a chance to see Bobby McGee speak, read his books or viewed his instructional DVD know that Bobby suggests keeping certain muscles "tight and small," such as the abdominals and hamstrings, as well as the "external rotators." This sometimes causes confusion, especially in light of the common athletic practice of stretching and increasing flexibility.

Here, Bobby follows up on two points that he made at Endurance Corner's Boulder Camp:

• Athletes shouldn't stretch the posterior (back) side of their kinetic chain, with the exception of the soleus.
• Athletes should avoid exercises (yoga poses, breaststroke kicking) that would result in increasing the external rotation of their legs and loosen the ligaments around loading (elastic) joints. Doing so causes power leaks and loss of elastic storage as well as instability.

by Nick Mathers

September is “Elite Lifestyle” month on Endurance Corner and we’ll be profiling a number of our top athletes and coaches. We’re kicking things off by speaking with Kevin Coady from Pleasanton, California. Kevin recently qualified for Kona at Ironman Coeur d’Alene where he finished third in his age group after running a 3:10 -- the 12th fastest run of the day.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

My favorite TV channel of late is, without question, Universal Sports. Prior to the introduction of this channel, we rarely saw swimming and triathlon outside of major events like the Olympics. Now, with 24 hours of air time to fill, we get to see all of the ITU world cup races, the world athletics circuit and small invitational swim meets.

Because of this, we also get to see superstars racing at far below their best. When this occurs, we hear comments like, “Phelps is coming off a tough training block right now.” But what does that mean? What does a "block" of training consist of and why is the block approach preferable to constant load over the season? Is there an optimal duration for each training block? I’m going to delve into these questions a little…

by Jonas Colting

I often tend to make easy things more complicated. Fortunately I´m aware of this personality flaw and when the tendency for me to complicate things does occur I´m in the habit of audit and I scrutinize this behavior. It´s not so much a flaw as a side effect of ambition and the need for being on the upslope of development and the learning curve. It really doesn´t matter if something is good when good always can be better and if the speed isn´t high enough there´s hopefully another gear to shift into and straighten out the curves and bends in the process.

by Gordo Byrn

A doctor buddy of mine shared that if he had terminal cancer he’d head to the South Pacific, secure a large bag of weed (for pain relief), and chill on the beach.

So last week, Monica and I went on holiday in the Pacific. There were a lot of reasons not to go (cost, time away from Lex, distraction from work, difficulty training) but I’m glad that I went anyhow. It turns out the world didn’t end during my travel days and they have high-speed Internet in the middle of the Pacific (who knew?).

The trip was a first step in reclaiming my personal freedom and it made my wife feel special. A win-win!

by Jonas Colting

This great dish is enjoyed just as much for dessert as for breakfast. There's no added sugar as the stevia (which is a natural sweetener much sweeter than sugar but with no calories, hence no insulin response) sweetens the deal and the rest of the ingredients are all organic and non-refined. I even grow the rhubarbs in my own backyard!

by Marilyn McDonald

As endurance athletes we know it's a part of our event to carry as little extra weight as possible. The goal is to have maximum strength to weight ratio -- getting as light as possible while still maintaining 100% strength.

A challenging part of triathlon in particular is the balance of three different sports that require different body compositions and then putting all three together. Complicating that further is the weather at your race and the distance you’ll be racing.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

In the last three articles in this series on bike fit (part 1, part 2, part 3) we examined how to set up your ride to provide the most neutral, comfortable all day position.

So, what modifications can we make to our "all day" position to strike the best balance between comfort, power and aerodynamics?

by Mimi Winsberg, M.D.

Showing your work was routine in high school and college math classes, and usually necessary for full credit. It always seemed like an extra requirement. In the real world isn’t getting the right answer all that matters?

If you think you have graduated from the days of showing your work then think again. Welcome to triathlon training: the world of workout logs, power files, training stress scores, intensity factors, calories consumed and kilojoules burned.

by Gordo Byrn

Three years ago, a wealthy friend of mine noted, “While I live better than you, you seem to enjoy the way you live more than me.”

In reviewing my personal business plan, I realized that I had been knocked off my path. I’m smart enough to rationalize to myself the “why” of my historical choices but I also know that I am the only one that can get myself back on track.

Let’s start with the key points that have helped me over the last decade.

For those racing in the back part of the season, staying focused gets challenging, especially if you’ve been going at it most of the year. Here, our contributors share tips on making the most of your late season race preparation.

by Bob Albright, D.O.

Accepted dogma states one’s performance will decline if you lose greater than 4-6% of body weight during a session. This makes sense, as you would lose vascular volume -- leading to higher heart rates for the same exertion, decrease availability of serum and cellular volume to sweat (and hence cool -- thus setting up a vicious cycle) and increase the relative density of the bloodstream -- perhaps leading to circulatory “sludging” (or at least increased rheology --from more cells per volume of blood). Hence, current guidelines suggest avoiding more than a 2% loss of body weight during the session.

As usual, what the actual studies show us is a need to question these assumptions.

by Sue Aquila

I recently went into my local organic food coop to get my multicolored veggie fix for the week. After selecting my organic meats (is there any such thing as inorganic meat?) I worked my way to the register. At the register I asked the woman for a plastic bag to keep the meat isolated from my veggies. The woman explained to me that they no longer keep plastic bags at the register and that I would need to remember to grab a plastic bag at the meat counter. Given my obsession with service, I asked her why they made that change. She explained that the register area had gotten too crowded for the staff. The staff had decided to cut corners for their comfort rather than service their customer.

In triathlon training, cutting or not cutting endurance corners can be an excellent predictor of success/improvement. What do I mean by cutting corners?

by Justin Daerr

Now that races are appearing all over the world, at all times of the year, it becomes more difficult to signify the "end" of the season. Having said that, many of us in the Northern Hemisphere are working towards our final season peak (between the months of September and November). This is a tricky time for many of us. On the one hand, we want to be our fastest of the year. On the flipside, we do not want our fastest day of the year to be on our local training roads.

by Larry Creswell, M.D.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) may be the most significant chronic medical problem in the United States. More than 13 million Americans are affected and nearly one person dies every minute in this country from this condition. Importantly for the readers here, CAD is the most common cause of sudden death in athletes over the age of 40.

So what can you do about it?

by Marilyn McDonald

Earlier this week I talked about VO2 sessions for the bike. In this piece I'm going to give a couple examples for incorporating some of this work on the run. While you need to be careful when adding this type of work to your cycling, it is even more important to be extra careful when you add these sessions to your run training. Like I mentioned before, it truly is the icing on the cake and very little of this type of work is needed for the long course triathlete. Often only very fit, very mechanically sound and very experienced athlete's should add VO2 work to their run training.

Vince’s latest healthy kitchen masterpiece for a summer meal: Greek Chicken –- easy to prepare, and even easier to eat.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

In my last article on Anatomical Considerations in Bike Fit, I outlined the process of measuring your body -- both your dimensions and your flexibility constraints -- so that you can optimally fit your bike to you.

In this article we’re going to complete the process by solving that one remaining (variable) aspect of the equation -- your bike’s dimensions. In this piece I’m going to follow my philosophy that a good TT or tri position begins with a good road position by setting you up with the most comfortable, neutral road position for your body geometry. In the fourth and final piece in the series I’ll go into how to adapt that for tri/TT fits.

by Marilyn McDonald

By this time of the year most of us are pretty fit and strong. You've had a good chunk of your season to really dial in the long training and your level of strength endurance is probably high.

If you're getting the long sessions, maintaining strength and recovering well week in and week out, the next step in your race season might be to include some good solid speed work.

by Gordo Byrn

Far and away, the best times that I’ve had in sport have been at training camps. Camps are where I’ve met most of my adult friends. There is something about doing big miles with a good group of people that brings everyone together.

"Big units" (those athletes over 190 pounds) have different fueling requirements than smaller athletes. Kevin Purcell, top age group coach, former elite age-grouper and "big unit" himself, shares advice for determining what works for you, along with his personal pre-race and race nutrition strategy.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

In the first article on anatomical considerations in bike fit, I highlighted the importance of setting up your bike position so that you put your muscles in the most powerful and most comfortable position -- at or very slightly beyond each joint’s resting length.

In this article I’m going to delve into the nitty gritty of how to go about doing that, how to measure both your body dimensions and range of motion capabilities to come up with the ideal bike position for someone with your unique body dimensions and flex-ability.

So, how do we measure you up?

John Cobb, bike fit and aerodynamics expert, recently took the time to answer Endurance Corner team member questions. We're sharing his responses as part of a series throughout the summer. In this installment, John answers some more questions about position and cleat placement.

by Gordo Byrn

For most of June and July, I was experiencing a persistent calling to “ride more.” The strange thing is that my training load has been far above what I need to be healthy/happy.

I shared this feeling with Monica and she asked me what “more” was. I replied, “five rides a week, 5/4/3/2/1 by hours.” She smiled, noted that was an elite triathlete training plan and suggested that I ride long the following day.

So I headed out and ripped 65 miles at a solid pace -- about halfway through that ride, I found myself wondering if I really wanted to do 15 hours of that sort of riding every single week, for the rest of my life...

When “more” doesn’t seem to be the answer that I thought it would be, I look deeper at my true motivations.

Vince Matteo, EC team member, shares another of his excellent recipes: BBQ Tomato Basil Shrimp with Vegetables -- perfect for a summer evening dinner.

In case you didn't notice, it's "Heat Month" here at Endurance Corner. While our columnists have shared a lot of information about how to train and race in the heat, our team still has a few more tips to share.

by Marilyn McDonald

I am Canadian, which means I grew up in the winters. I also grew up in northern Alberta, so I experienced real cold. But despite growing up with cold weather, I never really got to like it.

But heat is a different story. When it comes to heat training and racing I have had some good success and hopefully have some good advice to share.

by Mimi Winsberg, M.D.

Pumping milk in the front seat of her car is not Tina Pretre’s typical pre-race routine. But as the new mom prepared to dive into the 58-degree San Francisco Bay waters to race in an olympic distance triathlon, she found herself doing exactly that. To her surprise, she was not alone. A competitor next to her was also breastfeeding her baby.

Despite the unusual warm-up, Pretre went on to place fourth in her age group. Her daughter was among the spectators at the finish line. She was eight weeks old.

by Gordo Byrn

It’s been a strange summer for me. I have a goal of being “fast” in October/November so have not put a lot of pressure on myself in training or nutrition. Like my buddy Slater, my main goal is to hit each sport at least once every three days.

That said, I’ve noticed that my fitness is quite good and was thinking that I might as well “use” some of it outside of my masters swim workouts! Dropping $1000 (entry, hotel, airtix, car rental) to race a marquee event away from home seems like a waste of time and money.

So what to do?

Race different.