Peaking for those Big Races

If you want to race well this season, at your target races, then the last few weeks of your training should be devoted to bringing you to a physical and mental peak. The way in which you achieve this has been the subject of much debate and the jury is still out.

Unfortunately, an endurance athlete's performance on a given day depends on a vast number of factors, many of which, like the weather or traffic jams, are simply beyond your control. And yet through experience we should all have some sort of perception of what training seemed to work well in the past. If we are aiming to peak for a race, it would seem logical to try to repeat the formula. But infuriatingly, a repeat prescription often fails to produce a repeat result.

In this world of uncertainty there is one thing of which you can be quite certain; approaching the racing season you should start to change the emphasis of your training, both physically and mentally. Your training in May and June should no longer be aimed at building strength and endurance - that should have been done in the winter months. Nor should you be working too intensively to build speed and power - this should have been done in March and April. Now that races are imminent you should train less intensively but faster, if that makes sense.

The next few paragraphs contain the thoughts of some expert coaches and their ideas for some training sessions during this important stage.

SWIMMING - the thoughts of Duncan Rolley

The most important factor for all swimmers but particularly triathletes is feel for the water. To maintain this, the goal is to complete 3 pool sessions per week (say Mon., Wed., Fri. or similar). During the session the aim is to maintain good technique (developed in the winter) throughout each set. The structure of the training session should remain the same:

Warm up, drills, aerobic maintenance, high intensity work, cool down but the volume should be reduced to 75 - 80% of normal time or distance. You should finish each session feeling good and as though you have plenty left in the tank. You could try swimming just until you feel really good and then get out, regardless of where you are in the session.

Examples of sessions:

Aerobic Maintenance
10 - 12 x 100, 5 x 200, 4 x 300, 3 x 400 all 20-30” rest ( Pull buoy an option but no paddles or fins) 75 - 80% intensity.

High Intensity
8 x 50 descending 1-4 & 5-8 (# 4 & 8 @ 95% effort) 30” rest
3 x 200 building each 50 (last 50 of each 200 @ 95% effort) 30” rest

Race Specific
Deep Water starts - get to a point in the pool where you have to tread water. Then, looking in the direction of travel and with the shoulders open, place 1 hand in front and 1 hand by the side. To start push the front hand down hard and then recover with the other arm to start the full stroke and sprint to the end of the lane and back to your start position.

Group swimming - If you have 2/3/4 willing mates (preferably triathletes, so that everyone benefits) try the following drills:

• Swim 3 abreast for a length to simulate congested swimming conditions - try to concentrate on your own stroke and not wasting energy wrestling with other swimmers
• Adopt a diamond formation and swim the whole length like this. The swimmer at the back will get the sensation of drafting and can also practice not tickling the toes of the swimmer in front. Rotate every length so that you get to swim in different positions
• Have the front two swimmers go slower and practice going round/over/under/between them and then sprint to the end of the lane
• Do a few lengths in your wetsuit (ask the management first). Take care not to do too many otherwise you will end up dehydrated. Always wash your suit thoroughly at the end

CYCLE - Steve Trew

Keep the basics of a structured schedule there throughout the season; that means retaining the basic outline sessions of the structure.

• the endurance ride
• the hill session
• the anaerobic threshold/strength endurance session (working at race pace or heart rate). You know the one, the classic 6 x 6 minutes with just one minute’s rest and variations of it

High Intensity Taper
I would suggest that of all the methods used for tapering, the high intensity taper is the most successful. With this method, the athlete continues to train hard but a number of days before the important event -sometimes as much as 10 days- they will reduce the amount of time spent training but will continue to maintain, or even increase, the intensity of the training.

Increase intensity, reduce total amount of work, increase recovery, go into race fast but rested.

It is important to keep that speed element going right into a race and it would be better to rest completely two or even three days before a race and then do some fast efforts in the preceding (two) day(s) to remind the fast twitch muscles what they are going to be expected to do on race day. Resting up for a whole day just pre-race encourages lethargy and going into an important race feeling tired is not going to help you perform to the best of your ability. Do incorporate lots of stretching, flexibility and mobility.

Sample sessions:

1. 10 mile time trial (the philosophy that we take into this is; "start flat out, accelerate in the middle, and sprint to the end")
2. 30 mile steady ride with 5 x 1 mile full out efforts between mile 5 and mile 25, full recovery in between single mile efforts
3. 1 minute intervals on the turbo with 2/3 minutes spin recovery. Use big gear
4. 20/30 seconds on turbo, absolutely flat out, as long a recovery as you need

RUN - Julian Goater

In the 4-6 weeks before a major competition Julian suggests the following:

• Maintain your basic routine.
• Reduce the volume and intensity of your training.
• Increase the speed of your fast sessions.
• Increase the number of easy (recovery) sessions.
• Introduce specific race practice sessions (e.g. brick sessions).

My advice to you in the week before the race is therefore:

1. Train for feelings, not for fitness.
2. Aim to feel ready to race the day before race day - that in effect gives you an extra
   day to get things right.
3. Try not to alter your routine too much - and that includes your sleeping and eating
   habits as well as your training.
4. Concentrate on finishing each run as fresh as possible. Use your HRM to limit
   your effort.
5. Reduce the intensity of your training, but not necessarily the number of sessions
   you do.
6. Do one or two sessions that get you well out of breath, but which are over quickly,
   and so do not leave you tired.
7. Drink plenty of water in the days leading up to the race, so you are fully
   re-hydrated before starting the race.

But above all, be sensitive to how your body is responding, and adapt your training
accordingly. Don't feel you have to follow the routine that worked last time.
There's no magic routine - it's how you feel this time that matters.

Sample sessions:

In the 4-6 weeks before a major competition Julian suggests the following:

1. 5,4,3,2,1, x 200 getting faster each set. E.g. start @ 5 in 44 and reduce by 2 seconds each set. 1 minute rest between each 200, 3 minutes between each set
2. 4 x (3 x 200) - middle 200 as fast as possible. E.g. (40”, 36”, 40”). Same recovery as for #1
3. 2 x 1000m on track (or 4’ on grass circuit) - 5’ easy jog recovery
4. Hills. 5 x 40”, 4 x 50”, 3 x 60”, 2 x 70”, 1 x 80”. Same recovery as for #1
5. 1 mile time trial on track. Record lap times and repeat every 3 weeks
6. Change of pace session. 6 x 1 minute (45” at 1 mile race pace, 15” sprint) - 90” recovery

Back to Back, Bricks & T2 sessions

T1 - Swim/Bike - From Duncan Rolley

If you can get your bike & turbo on the poolside (ask the management first)

Swim -Warm up 1 x aerobic maintenance set (see Swim paragraph)

Bike - 10-15’ turbo @ Threshold level (use HRM and cadence, not speed)

If you can’t get your bike on to pool side. Ride to the pool do a session as outlined above and then ride home, going hard for the first 3-4 miles.

T2 - Bike/Run - From Steve Trew

Bike 5k (or 6-8 mins) @ Threshold Level for each rep

Run - 1000m @ 10k pace for #1-2, 5k pace for #3-4, flat out for #5 ( if you do that many!!)

Take 2-3 mins walk recovery after each run and then spin for 1’ before starting the next rep

Start off by doing this session once per week and complete 3 efforts. Build up to 5 efforts over a number of weeks.

To make this even more specific in terms of intensity you could try getting out of the saddle for the last minute to simulate the entry into transition.

From Julian Goater

Transition Training (Brick sessions)

5 min turbo / 4 laps (1 mile) run, 4 min turbo / 3 laps run, 3 min turbo / 2 laps run,

2 min turbo 1 lap run - Try to increase pace each run.

Hopefully that provides you with enough sessions and information to set the triathlon world alight this summer. You may think that there is a lot to take in but try to remember that the general principle to follow is; do less, go faster, recover fully.