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Multi-Sport training is often overwhelming and challenging. Kayaking, mountain biking, and trekking are the core disciplines. How long should you train? How often? And how do you put it all together? The answers are more simple than you think and we now have Brandon to help us figure it out. Brandon has the AR experience and coaching knowledge to help make it simple and fun.

The Recipe for Getting Faster

Many new athletes believe that getting in shape, gaining endurance, getting stronger and going faster are all the same thing. Most put in 4 - 20 hours a week of running, biking, and swimming. They find early success with their racing but struggle when they want to improve their race results and race time. The common reaction at this point is to train longer or train harder and if you survive the high risk of injury and fatigue, you will find a small amount of strength and speed improvements.

General workouts result in general fitness improvements, a.k.a. getting in shape. A one hour tempo run, a two hour bike spin or doing laps in a pool are a great way to get in shape, but going fast is a skill that requires specific training.

So if you are interested in getting faster, here are the steps to take:

Technique (2 months) is the first and most important step. Consider a gymnast learning the balance beam for the first time. Running on the beam will certainly not be the first goal. For your sport, learn and master the body mechanics of the activity. Whether it is running, biking, swimming or kayaking, the perfect form is a must to start getting faster. Getting your eyes and brain to synchronize with your muscles is the challenge at this stage. And if you don’t know what the perfect technique is, study it or seek out a specialist to help you. Body position and foot strike are critical to running. Bicycle fitting, saddle position, and knee alignment are important to your biking success. And, head and body position in the water along with arm and kick technique are the keys to success in the pool.

How to Clean Your Bike?

Clean components work better and more smoothly. Keeping your bike frame clean will also ensure that the paint job on your shiny new bike lasts a long time.

In general, bikes and their parts don’t like water. That being said, if your bike is covered with road dirt or trail mud, you will have to use a gentle spray of water to clean your bike. The trick is to clean the frame and components without washing away important lubricants.

What you need?

Clean rag
Simple Green - You can buy this at any store.(Target, Walgreens, Safeway)

Mid-Season Injury Prevention

You train for 6 months getting ready for your racing season. Your cardio is where you want it and your speed work is paying off, but a nagging ankle pain is starting to be a big problem. Unfortunately, this is just one example of how injuries often disrupt a good season of racing.

So why do athletes get injured during the racing season?

As a coach of 10 years and a life-long athlete, I have trained and observed athletes and have concluded the following.

Inadequate foundation – Every year, athletes need to put in the foundation hours/miles to start their training and racing season. Usually, this is a 2 – 3 month period of low intensity/high volume (hours or miles). Foundation training is a critical break-in period for your muscles, joints, and cardio system. Unfortunately, athletes often do not have time to put in foundation training or they train too intensely during this time. Th

Lack of recovery – High volume training, high intensity training or racing place a great stress on the body. Recovering from these workouts and races are critical to staying healthy throughout the year. If you are training, make sure to vary your workout intensity on a week to week basis. Also, a 4 week workout cycle should include one recovery week. Remember, your recovery time is when you are healing and getting stronger

Excessive high intensity training - Healthy athletes often increase their training intensity until they are either completely exhausted or injured. This is not an ideal training method. High intensity training is a great way to get fitness, but it needs to be planned, regulated, and include sufficient recovery.

Combined high intensity training with racing – Most of us will spend the first 4-6 months of the year getting ready for the racing season. We arrive to the first race with a significant volume of training as well as high intensity training. Now, we also add the stress of racing. This combination is often too much and leads to a mid-season injury.

So what can you do to stay healthy?

AdventureFit: An Exciting New Fitness Program for Adventure Athletes

The inside of my windshield gets foggier and foggier as my Jeep plods along to Mitchell Park in Palo Alto, California. It is just few minutes past six in the morning as I pull into the parking lot, cautiously ready for my AdventureFit session. As an adventure racer I am used to pain in the form of long distance running or cycling but I'm not always prepared for the delayed onset muscle soreness that AdventureFit occasionally leaves me with. Led by Brandon Nugent, California native, the AdventureFit session promises to send me deep into the pain cave on this Wednesday morning.

AdventureFit is the latest in series of fitness programs that have surfaced in the past couple years that rely on short high-intensity workouts which use basic movements such as squats, lunges, pull-ups and push-ups while incorporating lifting with free weights. AdventureFit differentiates itself from these existing programs by tailoring the specific workout and monthly programming schedule to adventure athletes that need to perform and compete in the outdoors. This audience includes adventure racers, mountain climbers, ultrarunners and even weekend warriors that seek to avoid getting winded on a simple hike in the woods.

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