Friday:  Swim 50x 100m with 10sec rest – Bike 2hrs with long TT efforts and a 10km brick session at a pace that you are pushing. Well above Ironman race pace.

Saturday:  Swim 10x 400m aerobic swim.  Bike 7-8 hours (minimum of 200km but more is more on this set), Brick session of 10km at Ironman race pace. That night go to the gym for 1 hour light strength session.

Sunday:  Wake up, and run 20 miles.  That afternoon, back to the pool for 100x100m.

Monday needs to be an active recovery day.

Tuesday right back into normal training.

You should do this week 9, week 6 and week 3 out of an Ironman.

OK, here comes all the warnings.  Whilst I do get some athletes to do this, this isn’t for everyone.  The main reason is come Tuesday, a lot of athletes can’t go right back into normal training.  Going back into normal training come Tuesday is the key.  If you need an extra day recovery, this is too much for you.

The risk of injury will normally come from  the time when you start normal training again so before you tackle a crazy weekend, you need to be really fit and really strong. If you are able to do this Crazy Weekend safely than go for it.  There are good gains to be made and helps greatly with getting you in peak condition.

Email: tim@trainsmooth.com

 

FOLLOWING up on the sponsorship article I posted last month, I thought I would write an article on thinking outside the square when looking for sponsorship.Most people, when looking for sponsorship, automatically will market themselves as part of the company’s marketing strategy, without really investigating what the company needs and is looking for.

You will find with most companies, their sales marketing budget is already stretched extremely thin and no doubt receive a large number of proposals from a wide range of marketing businesses every day, so sponsoring an athlete or an event is generally not even on their radar, but there could be other budgets within the organisation that you may be able to target.

A NASCAR race team was actively looking for a major sponsor and during their investigation into possible companies to target, they noticed that FedEx’s marketing budget was already used up for the financial year, however they discovered that their HR department had money in their budget . The race car team set out a proposal that would help the HR department to recruit staff and ultimately reach their goals.

The plan was simple and brilliant. At an event, the team would talk to the crowd on stage and ask the crowd “Is everybody here happy where they work”? Generally, the instant reply was a unanimous “Hell No”. The team then spoke about FedEx and how they are currently recruiting. Behind the crowd were tables where application forms were available and people to assist.

This campaign was so successful, FedEx had hoped to employ around 80 people from the event, but in fact employed over 120 people. This was a successful and well thought out idea from the NASCAR race team.

They gained this sponsor because they were able to think outside of the square and become part of FedEx’s strategy. When you are investigating a possible target, look at all aspects of the company and continually ask yourself, ‘how can I help them’? Once you find something that you can offer of real value to a company or a department, then you are on the right track to gaining a new

Tim Egge

I recently read a book from Scott Zagarino called “How to Get and Keep Sponsorship – Athletes Edition” and found many good points that I thought would be worth sharing with the athletes who are looking to gain new sponsors.Before getting started, you must find the answer to the following questions:

1)      What do you want?

2)      What can you do for the sponsor if they sign you?

3)      What do the companies you’re contacting do?

The Data

Zagarino recommends that you go to your local paper, magazine collection, related website etc, and in two categories list them as General or Vertical.
The General list will have all the companies that are not athletic or sports products but do market to an athletic lifestyle.  The Vertical Column lists the companies that cater to advertisers selling gear directly to athletes.
Target

The next step is creating a Target List using a spread sheet or in a note book and make five columns:
1 Company name

2 Product

3 Vertical

4 General

5 Give a grade of A through to F on how you feel your assets match up to their business.

6 Next slowly go page by page in every magazine and list every company that could possibly and realistically provide you with a sponsorship.
Now it is time to become an investigator

With your target list, create a new page per target. You need to write as much information on the company that you hope to be sponsored by, as well as the people who are in charge of granting sponsorships. The more information you have the better.
You need to know about their business marketing goals, their strategies and other athletes they may currently sponsor.
This can be a very slow and painful process, but one that is critical to your success on gaining sponsorship, so that your time and really do your homework.
LinkedIn

You should really consider creating a LinkedIn account. You also need a professional photo of yourself, as well as completing every box or line when you create your profile.
Not only will this help with marketing yourself, but it will help make your investigations to your Target List a lot easier as most CEO’s, CFO’s, directors, managers, sponsorship managers etc, will have a LinkedIn account.
The Proposal 

Your cover letter should contain:

1        An introduction of yourself, informing them of what you do and what you require.

2        Tell them briefly what you know about their company and their industry.

3        Describe briefly what you believe will assist them in achieving their marketing goals by sponsoring you.

4        Close with your complete contact information.

First Page

1   Use a photo at the top

2   In the second third of the page, add your 28 words.

3 In the bottom third of the page, list your three best results in the past year/season.  Outline two or three of your athletic career highlights and your goals for the next three years.

Second Page

Your biography goes on this page.

The Third Page

In the top two-thirds of the page, explain what you believe you can do for the sponsor, not just what the sponsor can do for you.

Your full information should be outlined on the bottom third of the page.

Do not add a fourth page.

Other good ideas:

• Create a business card and when outlining your occupation, add the word “Athlete”, not Pro-Athlete.

• Create a professional website with sponsorship in mind, to emphasise your initiative.

• Send your proposal by Fedex or Registered Mail as this ensures it will be opened and shows a degree of confidence on your part.
If you are truly serious about gaining sponsorship, then I highly recommend buying this book.  It will only cost around $5 on Kindle and is a quick read.  The book offers a great deal more advice, with some useful tips, but in greater detail.

Good Luck

Tim Egge

Post workout meals are very important whether you train for an hour or six hours, you will need to put back what you took out to maximize your recovery.After training, you have a small window of 20-30 minutes to get something into your system.

My coach Allan Pitman highly recommends Endura Optimizer and I do use it a lot myself but find it is out of my budget as I would go through a container every couple of weeks.

There are a few things I do use that give me rapid recovery from training loads Please note that this is what I do and always, with anything nutrition, it is controversial so you will need to find what works for you.

Please be smart with your nutrition. If you only completed a small training session then you will not need a lot.  The smoothie is for big training loads where you have depleted your body of a lot and need to put back in a short time.

Also note that all I am discussing here is the first step after training.  There are many steps to a triathlete’s nutrition path and I will touch on them later but for now I will keep it just as post training in the first 20-30 minute window after training.

Endura Optimizer

As I get closer to a race, I will mostly use Endura Optimizer after my long or hard training sessions.

–  500ml of water and six scoops of Endura Optimizer will put me on the right road to recovery every time. for smaller session 2-3 scoops will get you across the line.

Homemade Smoothie

I tend to use this more often than not as I always have everything in the house, it is cheap, easy and taste great.

I will put into a mixer 2 small or 1 large frozen banana, fill with juice to 500ml, add a pinch of salt, a scoop of protein powder and mix.

It sounds shocking but is it surprisingly nice. I find even after that hardest training loads I put my body through, this gives me a bang for my buck.

Small Training Sessions

Any small training session I do, I will have a glass of Milo and milk. Simple, easy and does the trick.

More to note:

After big training sessions, I will also have another meal one hour after training has concluded but I will touch on that next time.

Tim Egge

There have been many discussions over the need to carbo load before a race, or is it a waste of time?  I work more on common sense then what a lab rat at a University will tell me.  Again my Coach Allan Pitman really put me onto carbo loading and the importance of it.  Most of this carbo plan has come from Allan and works very well.

Not just taking his word as Gospel, I ran my own tests and experiments and found that my performance was significantly greater when I carbo loaded than when I didn’t.  I won’t go too far into it at this stage as I want to mostly post what I do when it comes to carbo loading ready for an Ironman or a 70.3 race.

Again, please just don’t do what I do, you must go out and check, test, change and test again. I know there is a lot of information out there.  Get a plan like this and change it to your needs.

It is also important to sip on water during the last two weeks leading up to a race. You want to be well hydrated but don’t drink too much as you don’t want to demineralise.

Two days out of a race – I will train for one hour (swim, bike and run) at race start time to help acclimatisation.

Right after training – I will have 6 scoops of Endura Optimizer with one Saltstick capsule.

Have a breakfast homemade rice pudding or a rice based cereal – pancakes are OK, but try to limit consumption of too much wheat at this time.

Mid Morning – Have a bottle of 3 scoops Endura Rehydration formula with added saltstick.

Lunch – Lean meat, chicken or fish with rice.

Mid Afternoon – Have a bottle of 3 scoops Endura rehydration formula with added saltstick.

Dinner – Similar selection to lunch (avoid eating out if possible), make sure the meal contains protein, fats and carbohydrates and is eaten early leaving time for a walk after dinner.

Supper – Endura Optimizer 3-4 scoops with added saltstick.

Day Before Race – I will train for 45min (swim, bike and run).

The same eating plan as yesterday.

Tim Egge

I am fascinated by people who have broken systems and refuse to resolve them. These are the people who are on the way out and can’t find their keys, or leave everything until the last minute and wonder why they are always late. They may not think these are systems, but they are and they are defective systems that remain broken.

Fixing these systems can be an easy process.  Installing a key hook at the front door and placing your keys on it every time you enter the house turns into a habit and thus an improvement to your system. After all, how much of our life do we really want to spend looking for keys?  The average person lives to around 82, yet I see everyday people going through life as if they will live to 182.

Continuous improvements in all aspects of your life will pay dividends over and over, giving you more time to train, recover, to spend time with family, or work on making more money. Whatever your choice, look at straightforward and effective ways to simplify your life.

Tim Egge