The internet is a giant mess of raw information, complex scientific studies, outlandish claims, anecdotal evidence, personal blogs, and businesses that claim “to know” the answer–the one thing that your training and life is missing and can turn you from an out-of-shape athlete into the next up-and-coming age grouper. Through some very clever marketing and psychological processes, it can be hard to sift through it all and it is becoming increasingly hard to figure out whom to trust and who is just out to make money or promote an agenda. Moreover it seems that every triathlete and his/her bike has a personal blog boasting their best training stats (interestingly the bad workout never make it on), which it makes it easier for you to feel very self conscious about your own training, diet, and body.
At TSC, we try our best to sift through it all and find out what studies and research is applicable to you. Our own website is an excellent resource, but it has its limitations, which is why we tweet and facebook twice a day what we have found to be very reliable sources when it comes to improving your swim and triathlon training. If you want to dig deeper though, here are our top, go-to pages for every type of swimmer and triathlete:
- For the pure swimmer: http://swimswam.com and http://www.swimvortex.com These two sites are for you pure swimmers and ex-college athletes out there who want the latest in just swimming news and training. They also have some great articles and tips from the pros every week. This is not necessarily for triathletes, but that is not to say triathletes cannot benefit from it. If you want to become a good swimmer you have to learn from great swimmers.
- The group swimmer: US Masters Swimming: http://www.usms.org Whether you are looking for a club near you, a practice in a city you are traveling to, or National competitions, USMS can help. They have a great database of teams in addition to well written articles from certified and time tested coaches who know their stuff.
- The data geek: www.trainingpeaks.com In addition to their online workout log (which I highly reccomend using to track your workouts, training stress volume, and every metric under the sun), they have a blog with lots of useful training tips from acreddited coaches and pro athetes.
- For the Paelo and LCHF diet people: Bengreenfieldfitness.com and Marksdailyapple.com are two of the most reliable sources that we have found if you need information on going LCHF or Paleo while keeping up your training. While there are some ads for some pricey products, both Ben Greenfield and Mark Sisson back up each claim with links to scientific studies to support their claim. Even if you are not LCHF, you can still find some interesting stuff on this page. Is it the best source for you? Hard to say, but it is worth a look.
- The plant based swimmer/athlete: The Rich Roll Podcast and http://www.nomeatathlete.com/ On the opposite side of the nutrition coin there is the plant based folks. Just like an athletic Paleo diet can go horribly wrong, a vegan/vegetarian diet can too. Rich Roll and Matt Frazier have some good tips on how to make and sustain the change correctly without killing your thyroid or sinking your training.
- Those seeking work/life/family balance: http://familysportlife.net is my personally favorite blog when life gets too hectic and I need to balance my self in sensible wisdom. Tara is an excellent writer with sports psychology background, who knows not only how to save time and money while helping John, her triathlete husband train. She and John are very honest and relatable in their posts, which is why I like to read their weekly newsletter religiously.
- For the Ironman race result junkie and pro stalker: http://www.trirating.com/ is very good at analyzing data and making race predictions. You can (I know I have) lose yourself in all the numbers and analysis, so if you tend to procrastinate beware.
Do you have your own list of bookmarked sources? Share them with us over on our facebook page or on twitter.
Train hard,
Coach Chris and Kev
