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MY PERSPECTIVE—BY BOB BROYLES
Bob Broyles, forty-one, is the warehouse manager for TriSports.com—one of the nation’s largest online stores for multisport athletes. He lives outside Tucson on a small farm with his family.
I began my life as a triathlete in 1988. Since that time, I have witnessed great changes as triathlon has grown by leaps and bounds. Back in 1988 there was very little information available for training. Even the gadgets and gear were very minimal by today’s standards. Companies such as PowerBar and Clif Bar were still a few years away. In fact, I bought my first heart-rate monitor in 1990. At that time, I knew enough that training with a heart-rate monitor could enhance my training, yet I knew very little about what was a good training zone, as there was not a lot of information available back then.
Over the years, I improved by persistence and by looking for new ways to enhance my training. It wasn’t until around 1994 that, through Mike Pigg, I started learning about Phil Maffetone. Mike was having a lot of success, and I knew that he was onto something good. The thought of going slower to get faster was intriguing but was almost a scary proposition at the time. I thought to myself, “Can this actually work? Or will this just turn me into a back-of-the-pack age-grouper with slower finishing times?”
At the same time, I was questioning my carbohydrate intake. I was eating a huge amount of carbohydrates every day, yet it puzzled me that two and a half hours into a training ride I was out of gas. How was this possible? I was eating pre-ride meals that were often 1,200+ calories, which were primarily carbohydrates, yet consistently hitting the wall. At this time, I actually shied away from anything with protein or fat in it. Honestly, I felt hungry for several years.
Then I finally decided that I needed to make some changes to my training and nutrition. This was really a leap of faith for me. To begin a training program in which I would be going slow, and to start eating foods with a higher amount of protein and fats in them, was a personal revolution for me. This was not simply a change in pace and diet; it was a total makeover in my training plans, which included a social aspect as well. Among my training partners, I was known as someone that would always insist on hammer training sessions. Often times on training rides and runs, I would have to slow down or stop and wait for others to catch up. Yet I made the decision to change to the Maffetone Method of training at the end of the season in 1994. My thought was that I would give this a serious try for a few months, and if I wasn’t seeing results that I would revert back to my old training methods.
I realized that I would have to train at my own pace, which meant much slower than what I was accustomed to. I will always remember my first few weeks of this “new” training method. I was “slow.” So slow that if I was running uphill, I would often end up walking. Psychologically, this took a lot of inner discipline. After all, I had been a triathlete for about six years at this point; I was “fit,” I had all the cool gear, yet I was running and walking at a pace that is usually reserved for the elderly, not someone in their mid-twenties.
To top it off, a good friend and training partner of mine read me the riot act for doing something as crazy as this. He made his case very clear that I was ruining everything I had built up over the years and that when the spring races came, I would be totally out of race shape; in fact I would probably be so slow that I would get discouraged from racing and probably give up the triathlon altogether. In addition, he made no bones about it that no one would want to train with me because “no one” trains that slowly.
Faced with all of this, I knew deep down that I had to do what I believed in, and so I continued following the Maffetone Method. A few weeks went by, and there was little improvement. Then around the six-to-eight-week mark, my times began dropping, while my heart rate was staying low. Was the program working? It was. Soon after that, I was running as fast as I was before I made the change. I even surpassed my old run times, and my heart rate was staying low the whole time. After a while, I really had to run (and bike) fast to keep my heart at the MAF target. What a great feeling that was, to be training in the spring at times faster than I had in the fall, except with a much lower heart rate. So, yes, training slower does make you faster. In addition, by keeping your heart rate in a true aerobic zone, the chance of injury is much lower. So much for the “no pain, no gain” theory.
Once the spring races came about, I was turning in times that I had only dreamt about in previous years. Also, I found that when I was in a race situation and I had to dig deep, I had what it took to succeed. This ability came from truly developing my aerobic capacity, and my confidence that I did the “right” changes in my training program.
Had I not made these changes, or had I followed my friend’s advice, I would never have been able to take my racing to the next level. I would have stayed like him and wallowed in doing the same thing and expecting different results. Sometimes, you just have to think outside of the box.
In 1996, I really began to have a lot of success, winning a few small races and qualifying for the 1997 Long Course World Championships in Nice, France. The Nice race was quite possibly the most memorable race of my life. I really focused on keeping my training and diet within Maffetone’s principles. I was getting stronger and fitter at all three disciplines. Days before the actual race, I did a last minute bike-shoe change that proved disastrous. In fact, when I finished the bike course, I was in so much pain that I literally thought there was no way that I could finish the race. At that point, running 18.6 miles seemed impossible, certainly a long struggle at best. While in the second transition, the light bulb went on, and I was reminded of just how much time, effort, money, and pride I had put into doing my best at this event. At that time, Nice was raced at the following distance; 4K (2.49 miles) swim, 120K (74.6 miles) bike, and 30K (18.6 miles) for the run. Due to both my mental strength and my great physical condition, I went on and ran 1:53, only two minutes slower than the race leader, Luc Van Lierde. I only mention this because if I had not followed Maffetone’s training advice, a run like this would never have been possible for me. To be within two minutes of one of the greatest long distance triathletes in one of his best years was a real breakthrough for me.
Over time, I became an elite triathlete, progressed up the ranks, moved to San Diego, worked with John Howard, and was scheduled to go to Italy for the World’s Duathlon Championship in September of 2001. But just days before the race, I had a serious accident and broke my clavicle and scapula in three places, fractured two ribs, one vertebra, and popped my right lung.
After the accident, it became my goal to recover as fast as possible. I got in shape enough to head to Tucson with John Howard at the end of November to complete the El Tour Bike Race in a time that barely put me in the event’s Platinum status. After that, I pretty much hung things up and moved on with life. I felt that it was time to “move on” and focus on other areas of life. I relocated from the shores of North County, San Diego, to the desert of Tucson, Arizona. I was offered a great management position with a sister company to one I’d worked at for years in the Northwest. Once I settled into my new life in Tucson, it was easy to immerse myself in work. I still trained, but it was very occasionally, leading to no training whatsoever. As strange as this might seem to anyone who knew just how serious I had been involved in the triathlon life, the distance from the sport actually felt good.
I think I was enjoying my new “freedom” of eating whatever tasted good and doing whatever I felt like doing. During this time, I still thought I was young enough that “nature” would keep me in shape for years or a lifetime, yet too old to continue to race competitively.
Fast-forward to 2009: I have now been married five years, and recently turned forty-one. I have a two-year-old boy and a six-month-old son. We live on four acres made into a small farm, and there’s plenty to do to keep me busy, but not necessarily healthy and fit. Since I entered fatherhood fairly late in life, I want to be around long enough to see my kids grow up and settle into their own lives. I am 5’8” and when I was in my racing prime, I weighed between 145 and 150 pounds. But in 2009, I tipped the scale at 180. The new me was a lot different from the old, single me, living in a condo half a block off the Pacific coast in Solana Beach.
The company that I help manage, TriSports.com, recently expo’ed at the Vineman Triathlon in Santa Rosa, California, and I had to drive our truck and trailer to the event. Even though I am involved in the multisport industry, I had escaped (for the most part) the lure of getting back into training. But Vineman got me hooked again. Now that I am older and (hopefully) wiser, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to find my own road back to health and fitness. I knew that my life is just too busy to really tackle triathlons again (at least while our children are small), but then it dawned on me that I could somewhat “easily” get fit by running. Running is very simple: not a lot of gadgets, just some clothes, the right pair of shoes, sunglasses, a hat, and of course a heart-rate monitor.
Knowing that my time was precious, I needed to be effective with my training. Fearing that I could easily fall into the trap of overtraining due to the fact that I was a former elite athlete, I needed ways to keep a healthy perspective on things. I started looking at some of the current running books on the market. I found that with my background, experience, and my current life situation, everything was either too simple or way too regimented for me. Going back into my own library of books, I instantly knew that Maffetone’s books were just what I needed. He offers good practical advice that I had used with great success before, and I knew that this would also aid me in what I wanted to do now.
Fortunately for me, when I looked up Dr. Maffetone online, I was happily surprised that he was still out there, doing what he had been doing for years: offering great advice that is simple, yet very comprehensive, and more importantly, I knew it made sense. His principles are completely founded, almost so simple that some people may not understand them in the same regard that some people cannot see the forest for the trees. Primarily there is the message to look at yourself holistically, adjust your diet to a more natural selection, and keep your stress levels in check. This is where many other “coaches” fall short. Today, I see plenty of people out there that offer coaching services for endurance athletes. While most of these coaches have good intentions, most do not have the ability to offer athletes the full, holistic package that Maffetone presents. In addition as athletes, we have become very comfortable in wanting others to tell us step-by-step what we need to do to achieve our goals. This is a very formidable challenge, given that cookie-cutter plans cannot possibly be optimal for everyone. These strict step-by-step plans also fail to look at things such as the stresses (which accumulate) in your life, and how that will affect an “off the shelf” training plan.
My fitness goal was to run the Tucson Half-Marathon on December 13, 2009, under 1:30, and to reduce my weight from 180 to 155. And while I was training, I actually kept this quiet around the people I worked with. I believe we all have our own “things” that inspire us. My “things” come from inside, and having the added pressure of others wanting me to train with them and ask me questions about my progress was something I could live without.
I ran the half-marathon in 1:38, not as fast as I had wanted to but still a good performance considering that a few short months before, I could not complete this distance. I later got my weight down to 140, which is actually at or below my old racing weight of years ago. This was accomplished by following Maffetone’s sound nutritional and training advice. I have continued to see improvements in my training times, which is very exciting and motivating. With more races on the horizon, the future looks bright!
In addition to my weight and fitness improvements, I have all but eliminated caffeine, and I find that I don’t miss it a bit. My diet has changed from processed foods to a diet filled with fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and whole protein sources, including plenty of eggs. Prior to this change, I have always had allergies, primarily hay fever and pollens. Due to proper nutrition, I have actually eliminated my allergies. Prior to this, I have taken multiple over-the-counter and prescription medications to mask the symptoms, but never to rid them from my body. As a horse owner who is around hay every day, this is something that has made a world of difference.
This midseason period is a time to build another small aerobic base. It’s short but sufficient to develop more aerobic function while providing you with rest and recovery from anaerobic activity. By taking this break after the first season, you will often have better second season performances. And in many sports, the more important events are scheduled in late summer or autumn.
The midseason aerobic base should be no less than about four weeks, with up to six or eight weeks in some locations and for some individuals. The more events in the first season, the more time you need to recover. And, the more important the second season is to you, the more additional aerobic base you’ll need before it.
Whether you live in Australia or New Zealand, the Caribbean or Hawaii, or even Alaska, you can make your own schedule to match the local weather, the events taking place, and your own lifestyle. And if you’re fortunate enough to move with the seasons, you can still do the same. But don’t try to do what I’ve seen many endurance athlete attempt, and that is race too much in the United States from spring through fall, and then race even more in Australia during that hemisphere’s racing season. This is a quick way to develop the overtraining syndrome.
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In general, if you rely on racing to get your anaerobic stimulation, you can race a little more. In other words, if you perform anaerobic workouts, you can’t race as often without creating additional stress.
One important consideration regarding your race schedule is extremes in the weather. In Arizona, for example, there may not be as many races or you may not want to compete as much in the summer. During this time, even morning temperatures can be in the 100ºF range in some areas like Phoenix. If you’re racing locally, you may want to use the summer as your long base period. In this case, break your winter into two seasons. One problem with this is the case where you may want to travel north for one or two big races. These are usually held in the summer, and if that’s your base time you may not want to race then. Planning your twelve-month schedule ahead of time enables you to resolve these issues.
