Cool news!!

By JAY SCHWAB jschwab@kcchronicle.com
Elburn resident takes triathlon coaching award
Avoiding burn-out for young athletes is tricky enough in traditional sports such as soccer, basketball or baseball.

Now consider the risk in a sport as mentally and physically demanding as triathlon.
Adam Zucco, of Elburn, has a strategy for tapping the potential of young triathletes without sapping the joy from the sport. That approach went a long way toward Zucco being named USA Triathlon Developmental Coach of the Year on Tuesday.

“It’s a huge honor because there are so many great coaches out there and so many people out there trying to do great things,” Zucco said. “I just got lucky enough to get the tap on the shoulder this year.”

Zucco, 34, is head coach of the Tri-Cities based Multisport Madness Triathlon program, an outfit that in the past decade has produced numerous top finishers in national and international competitions. He also is a partner with TrainingBible Coaching, an organization that mentors “results-driven endurance athletes.”

Patience and vision have factored heavily into his coaching success, Zucco said.

“I think a lot of coaches feel under the pump to get instantaneous responses,” Zucco said. “With a lot of these kids, I’ve taken three- and four-year plans. The biggest thing you can do for an athlete to make them better is to improve their economy, and to improve their economy, they have to be able to move efficiently.”

Zucco’s willingness to think long-term might be a product of his own story. He wasn’t much of an athlete as a youngster, recalling the need to shed almost 40 pounds in three weeks leading up to Marines boot camp. He has dropped 70 pounds from his heaviest point, and contends “there is a place for everyone” in the triathlon, which combines bicycling, swimming and running.

Zucco has plenty of help from other coaches at Multisport Madness, but his sophisticated training methods have been instrumental, especially in guiding the program’s teenage athletes.

“Adam is really the one who has brought the expertise to the program as far as coaching,” said Michael Kanute, whose son, Ben, is one of the program’s top triathletes. “There have been some years he’s been more hands-on and some years he’s been less hands-on but all along he’s been the one who has written the plan and balanced the training.”

Zucco has the versatility to train a wide spectrum of ages and abilities. For TrainingBible, he mentors athletes from as far away as Hong Kong and Moscow through online software, but he is just as comfortable overseeing beginners.

“With younger kids, literally some of the speedwork I have them do is play a fun game of soccer or combat frisbee because they’re going to work harder than if I had them doing intervals on the track if they’re chasing their friends around,” Zucco said.

Proud as Zucco is of Multisport Madness’ elite competitors – Geneva’s Kevin McDowell placed fourth at the ITU Junior World Championship in Australia last fall, and Lukas Verzbicas won a competition in North Carolina in September – he also delights in the sport’s overall surge in local popularity.

Zucco said the Tri-Cities is “almost becoming the Boulder of the midwest,” noting large packs of triathletes and their family members who regularly go on evening bicycle rides together.

“It’s really cool,” Zucco said. “It’s becoming a whole new lifestyle for a lot of people in our area.”
Copyright © 2010 The Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Just keep going

It was good to get away and get some training in some warm weather. I am posting pictures of a couple of the camps we did. One was with Multisport Madness in Palm Springs, the other was a personal camp in San Diego. What was even cooler was Lindsay and I were able to go to Tucson just by ourselves. It was a good boost of fitness but the reality of coming back to winter storms is HARD REALITY that I still live in the Midwest.

I had an athlete ask me the other day how to improve over the winter and would a camp help. Of course, camps are great for boosting fitness and especially if done properly can really set you up for a great increase even when you return if you back it up properly with the right type of training. What my answer to him was also was consistency. Seems that every athlete I coach is looking for the “magic bullet”. There is no one single thing if you just do that it will make you a better athlete. Of course there are specific things you can do to improve, i.e. economy, strength, form, new stimuli, etc. In fact I just received a bike fit at the Bike Shop in Glen Ellyn with Rich Ducar and John Cobb. I will try to post about that in a separate blog, but we made some pretty extreme changes he swears will pay off. However, the that being said, any athlete will have the most significant changes with consistent approach to training. It isn’t the most sexy answer but you just have to go to work and stay at work over and over. At least this is what I have found.

As coaches we know this and can really help our athletes stay on track. We often get the athletes that want to do the New Year’s Epic swim, or the major ride in the summer, or 100 days of swimming, etc. Again, those can be fun and help, but if those are the only thing you are changing, you are going to be right back to where you were last season, just maybe injured from the massive change in stress for the short term.

The good news is the flip side of the coin. Just because you can’t make it to a single camp of an epic day, doesn’t mean you are necessarily at a disadvantage. I have some Ironman athletes right now with busy work and family schedules. We haven’t been able to do many rides if any over 5 hours. Most of them are 4 or less. Our approach has been to consistently introduce the right amount of stress on a consistent basis to keep fitness moving forward. We feel we have been quite successful to this point.

150.00 waived!!

Per Joe's blog:

Looking for a present for the athlete in your life? How about 3 months of coaching? This is something nearly every athlete would love to receive as a gift to help them get ready for the 2010 season. Notify us before Christmas and TrainingBible will even give you a gift - we will waive our normal $150-250 Start Up Fee (with 3 months paid in advance). This offer is good for any of our coaching services. For a list of services and fees go to http://www.trainingbible.com/coachingPlans.aspx. To take advantage of this offer please email our Director of Coaching, Adam Zucco (azucco@trainingbible.com) before December 25, 2009.



Best,

Practice makes perfect?

It is often said “practice makes perfect”. Does it? It might.

I was doing some research and came across an interesting study of ice skaters. Each ice skater was given 1 hour to practice their craft. One skater was an Olympic caliber skater, one was a very solid up and comer, and the final was a beginner.

The Olympic skater spent their time practicing moves they have not yet perfected. The Up and comer spent their time practicing moves they have already perfected. Finally the beginner spent a lot of time talking with friends, and in general reluctant to do much.

All three skaters practiced the same amount of time, however each used the time extremely differently. The basic premise of the study was practice alone does not make perfect, however DELIBERATE practice does.

I send a lot of time with my athletes trying to get them to understand this, especially with weaknesses. Joe Friel used to use the example about golf when speaking with me. He would point out for a new golfer the worst thing they could do was spend hours a day hacking away. The same golfer would do much better to do several shorter practice sessions refining skill.

Self coached athletes will get better with “time in” for sure. The same athlete with a general plan will do even better yet. The athlete with a coach will on average do the best because deliberate practice is forced. It usually does not come naturally to work deliberately on the things you do not like to do.

Coaches will often encourage athletes to invest in devices such as power meters and or speed distance watches for this exact reason, it helps us refine the practice even more.

Kona 09

my friend's Polar watch said it was 105 degrees today at teh bottom of Hawi, and it did not get below 100 until we finally reached the airport at mile 100ish.

Everyone,

Thanks for all the support. I really never write race reports, but Ill give you the down and dirty.


Swim-
Very hard swim. Got knocked around a ton. Saw a girl about 20 yards ahead of our group should out to catch her, took me several min. I finally did, followed her blindly, but for some reason half way back she swam off course, and by the time we got back on course we were back with the group. 

Bike-
I went pretty well the entire way. Went through half way in like 2:27ish. It was so windy and hot coming back I just chose to shut it down and save it for the run. I gave back 15 min on the back half, but it paid off.

Run

Just ran steady. Ran first 10 miles conservative, walked Palani Hill which is like almost half mile steep hill, then tried to run harder. Was able to get it down to 7:15-7:30 pace several times, but then would hit one of the never ending up hills. The hills here are like Campton hills, over and over. Not steep but always on one and they go FOREVER. So I kept getting relegated to 8:30ish pace.

Walked a couple aide stations, and a couple really steep sections, but all in all ran consistent.

10:04, PR for here, by far the hardest Ironman I have ever done with heat and wind. Crowie (male winner ran 2:48! 6 min slower then last year, Macca ran 2:55 and several of the top pros were around 3 hours) It was a very hard day today.

New uniforms!

As I am finishing up some of my long rides and runs I am observing more and more soccer and football games forming with kids and parents getting everything out for these games and events.

It has brought back so many memories for me. I can remember getting assigned to my team and receiving my uniform! I would wear that thing first thing in the am with intense anticipation for the game to come later. Armed in my uniform I would watch Saturday morning cartoons (remember when that alone was an event?) and then anxiously pace around the yard with the sporting equipment I would need for my game.

My coach at the time represented such a figure of authority and I would live to impress him at my practices and games. I was absolutely convinced that the World would stop and take notice when the game I played was taking place. We would do feverish battle until halftime when all we hoped was for someone’s mom to have brought “cool” snacks. Capri Suns, twinkies, fruit roll ups, these were the food of the athletes of the day. Who the hell wanted orange slices anyway!?

What I started to realize is I never grew up in this regard. Here I am in excited anticipation for my next event. For me this happens to be IM Wisconsin then Hawaii. I cant wait for the final ride to take place so I can finally clean my bike and put the race wheels on, set out the transition bags, and eagerly set out my nutrition for the race (still not going to use the orange slices).

I want to impress my coach, my family, and of course prove to myself the work I have put in is for something. At the end of the day though, my results are my results. The person holding final judgment is I, just as when I was a kid. Just as today I sit and watch my kids do their sport and my ONLY hope is they have fun. I base my excitement or criticisms based solely on their own reactions. I suspect the people who love us and care about us will still do that even now.

So as you come into your final races for the season or if yours are over and it’s time to review please be as passionate as that little kid waiting with the soccer uniform on for days before the event, but realize just as then, more defines you then that one game.

We are all awesome; we are competitors each of us on our own levels.

Great things all around

I just spent the last week with Simon Thompson. He is an amazing athlete but more importantly an awesome guy. He has become a life coach and was telling me the tremendous satisfaction he gets from helping people balance triathlon with family, jobs, and other pressures and still perform well.

What he was saying rang so true. How many of you have ever been on a workout torn because you felt needed somewhere else therefore you could not really “engage” in your session? We all have. Simon is not a counselor but specializes in helping us put into perspective the things in our life that pull at us the most. VERY interesting. It is also rare to have an athlete still competing at the highest level willing and able to work with you who directly understands the demands of the sport.

I also spoke with Ryan Bolton last week. He has not raced in years, as he has been focusing on his coaching. He was not only an 2000 Olympic athlete, but also coaches Kenyans for running currently. He decided to jump into a half marathon and ran 1:05:08!!!

Wow!

Well done Ryan.

This week I am hosting one of my athletes Kristin Lie from Norway. She hopes to podium at Wisconsin this year, and she is looking pretty fit!