Jessi Stensland - Adventures in Endurance Performance

Podcast // The Fitness Buff Show

Pete Williams, the co-author of Core Performance Endurance and host of The Fitness Buff Show writes:

Pro triathlete Jessi Stensland joins us this week to offer her secret tips to swim, bike, run, and transition better as we get ready for the upcoming triathlon season. Stensland, an endurance sports multi-media guru, took two years off from racing to build her digital media empire - www.gojessi.com - but she's back and ready to thrive in 2009.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW HERE

RACED TODAY: Renegade Off-Road Triathlon

Just a quick note to say how amazing the race was!  It was a 1/2 mile swim.  15 mile MTB. 3 mile run.  Bonelli Park is GORGEOUS.  Another little slice of heaven just outside of downtown LA.   Jonathan Pauley at Renegade Racing puts on unique-and-always-awesome-experience-type events!

Finished first among the women.  Eleventh overall.  Lead from start to finish.  All women started in the final wave, so it was fun to keep picking off the guys...all but a few! Definitely was a reality check.  I haven't yet been in the water for swim training this year.  MTB skills still need work.  My run felt great even off the bike and during the neverending climbs (the saying what goes up must come down just didn't seem to pertain to this course!!)

I'll post a RACE RECAP soon.  As I was racing today, during the MTB, I kept thinking I couldn't wait to write it.

One thought of the day was:  I DON'T KNOW why it took so long for me to venture off-road, but at the same time, I'm still amazed at how few people take advantage of these amazing races.  I decided during this race (had to be on one of the rolling sections or while cresting one of the small climbs to one of the more precious views I've ever seen) that I would like to get the word out about these races.  Race directors are out there working so hard to offer this wonderful experience to athletes but it's hard to keep them up when the numbers of participants aren't even close to those of on-road running, biking or multisport events.  I would LOVE to see them be able to keep doing it...for selfish AND unselfish reasons :) !!

More to come...including Part 2 of the Ankle + Foot Series...sorry for delay lots been going on:

Last 10 days broke down like this:  4 full days of shooting video including drive up and back to San Francisco. 4 days of training. 1 speaking engagement. 2 blogs (needed 4!)  1 day off (spectated Jr. Carlsbad + Oceanside 70.3, attended Dear Edwina at Junior Community Theater, watched NCAA Basketball + had dinner with friends). Plus, 1 race day.

This week lots of training, lots of editing, hopefully lots of writing and figuring out what the next 3 weeks are going to look like with a trip to Vegas (to pre-ride the XTERRA Vegas course), to Moab (for MTB training), to Baltimore for Under Armour event and hopefully to South Carolina to see my cousin who is just back from Iraq and heading into a 2-year training stint for his new position in Special Ops in the Air Force along with getting a chance to squeeze my sister's baby girl Anna, who just started crawling - haven't seen her since Jan 1 :( !!

The adventures continue...

My ESD on the Treadmill Today

Have to share this workout I did today.  It was one of my favorites, that I tweaked as I went along.  Again, ESD stands for Energy System Development.

It was based around leg speed.  The goal was to do 16 minutes of total work.  I could just list the workout, but there's a lot of purpose that went into it and that's the part I like to share!

First I chose a goal speed of 10mph.  I wanted to see how long I could maintain that, which turned out to be 3 minutes.  I ran easy (rested) for 2 minutes, but could not repeat another 3 min, so I went 2min @ 10mph with 90sec easy and was able to repeat that twice.  That was Set #1.  Upon completing it, I realized I wasn't happy with my leg speed.  I was having a hard time keeping my legs under me at that 10mph.  I felt my upper body having to do some of the work just to keep that speed.  Ideally my upper body would stay relaxed and my legs would be doing all the work beneath me. It didn't make much sense to me at first, that I would be having that issue, since I've been working out so dynamically with strength, stability, elasticity and running form, but it occurred to me that I hadn't yet really trained my leg speed, essentially tying all those elements together...connecting the dots... biomechanically, neurologically, mentally, etc.  6min/mi really shouldn't be a problem for me certainly for a only minute or two, if all is working properly.  It hit me that I couldn't just expect my legs to turn under me that fast if I had yet to do it in training, at any speed. So after the first set, I wanted to focus on that leg speed:  keeping my upper body relaxed and my legs under me.  I shortened the interval AND the rest.  Set #2 went well that way.   The third set was a bit of a test.  I always like to push my limit to find my limit and create a new 100%.  I increased the speed first, to see if I could do it.  And I could.  I've realized that there are times when increasing intensity actually forces a more natural reflex and engagement of correct movement patterns.  That's usually IF alignment, stabiltiy, strength and all that good stuff are working together.  Knowing that 10.5 felt fine, I bumped it up to 11.0 to see if I could maintain it.  And I could.  I felt my abdominals engaging actively to do so.  That was a good sign.  They should be activated, not my upper body, which I was able to keep quiet.  For that sixth and final rep of 30sec I bumped it up to 11.5 (5:20/mi) and that was hard.  I was encouraged though because I did it, and though it wasn't effortless, I was able to actively engage and move my body parts in an efficient movement pattern, which tells me my strength and form is there.  Just gotta keep working up some more leg speed. 

Previous experience tells me that 10mph will feel easier once my body has been challenged to do 10.5-11.5, even if only for 3 minutes total.  We shall see...next week!

Try it out!  Start at your own 'goal' speed.  Even if you can only hold it for 1 or 2 minutes to start.  It should be challenging enough however that you can't hold it for longer than 3 (maximum 4) minutes.  Take enough rest between reps that you recover enough to maintain your form.  As your fitness level increases, you'll need less rest.  Adjust it as needed and in relation to the length of your 'work' reps.

THE WORKOUT

Set #1

1 x [3min @ 10mph + 2min @ 6mph]
2 x [2min @ 10mph + 90 sec @ 6mph]

2 min break off the treadmill

Set #2

6 x [1min @ 10mph + 30 sec rest]

2 min break off the treadmill

Set #3

3 x [30 sec @ 10.5mph + 1min rest]
2 x [30 sec @ 11.0mph + 1min rest]
1 x [30 sec @ 11.5mph + done]

My Under Armour Race Kit // Coming Soon!

Woohoo!  Its been in the works for a while. After numerous fittings and revisions of the custom pattern of the swimsuit, tri top and tri shorts, all is awesome.  I'm picky about only a few things and my training and racing gear is one of them!  I needed fabulous fabric, a comfortable cut and super support, and that's what I got.  Worked with Under Armour creatives on the design, layout and colors to top things off.  I'm stoked to say it should be ready before my first race on May 2:  The Loews Lake Las Vegas XTERRA West Cup.

Lots of thanks to the Under Armour crew for all their hard work on it! 

Here's a sneak peek: