Greg LeMond told me I should ride Powercranks. His words “if I had used these when I was racing I would have won a lot more time trials in my career” caught me by surprise but certainly made me listen. I think that was December of 1999 and it would be almost another year before I actually tried them, starting what has been a love/hate relationship ever since.

Goal-setting is a common weakness for struggling athletes and a common strength for successful athletes. Do it wrong – or avoid it altogether – and watch your chances for success plummet. Do it right, and watch your motivation and self-confidence improve. For many athletes, it’s the key to enhancing performance.

This is an excellent time of year to consider what you would like to accomplish athletically in the upcoming New Year. As with many things, planning is the key to accomplishment for your race season.

Dear Santa, I was bad this Christmas. Despite a pretty good training protocol, I basically ate everything in sight. Now I have a spare tire around my waistline and I’m trying to figure out how to shed it quickly. Any advice? Dear Triathlete,

In Part I we introduced you to the notion that fitness is in the muscles, not the cardiovascular system. In Part II we discussed the principles of Specificity and Return on Investment, urging you to delete that 4th newsletter this month espousing the benefits of off-season strength training. Let’s put these together in an example that illustrates the Endurance Nation training method compared to traditional endurance training.

Congratulations. You've just finished a fun-filled, yet challenging triathlon season. Maybe you set a PR this year on your favorite course. Maybe your goal was to finish an Ironman distance race. Either way, it's that time of the year when all things triathlon begin to wind down. We like to call this the 'off-season'.

In Part I, we introduced you to the principle that performance fitness is in the muscles, not in the cardiovascular system.

As a gym rat for almost 15 years and strength and conditioning professional for the last ten, I have seen plenty fads come and go. From “Six Minute Abs” to “Exercise in a Bottle”, we have seen them all. Unfortunately, Functional Training (FT) is lumped into this category. However, functional training is more than just a fad.

We have bad news and good news for you. The bad news is that once you finish this article, you are going to want to cancel that winter schedule of base building, aerobic mileage-oriented, zone 1-2 training. The good news is that by the time you finish reading, you’ll be ready to set up your best triathlon season yet!

Historically most people, including triathletes, think of strength training as bodybuilding. Unfortunately this thinking keeps many triathletes from participating in a properly designed strength and conditioning program. For most endurance athletes the benefits of strength training are outweighed by the fear of gaining too much bulk, loss of flexibility and diminished "feel" of their sport.