I wish that I had been able to attend a training camp specifically for novice athletes when I was starting out as a triathlete 20+ years ago. Unfortunately there weren’t any and I made lots of mistakes which cost me time, money and a good deal of pain. 3 things which I could have learned that would have helped to prevent these mistakes are outlined below

1. Learn to train smart – It’s a common mistake of novice triathletes (in fact novice athletes in any sport) to think that if you do more training then you get fitter. To some extent that is true, but a far better tactic is to train smarter. This means getting the maximum benefit from every available training minute before you just add more volume.

2. Learn to recover smart – Even more experienced triathletes still don’t fully “get” this one. Fitness gains are the result of a simple equation – Smart training + smart recovery. It is still possible to make gains by ignoring this, but they will be much less noticeable and take longer to percolate through. Learning how to fully recover from each training session (stretching, nutrition, massage, sleep + many other elements) is an art in itself.

3. Learn to spend smart – If you read the Tri mags then you’d be excused from thinking that just by opening your wallet you would be granted the right to go faster in your next race. Some products can help you to gain a bit of speed but there really is no substitute for the 2 elements I mention above. Of course there are some bits of gear that you do need as part of your regular kit bag but not nearly as much or expensive as the marketeers would have you believe.

I may have made the process of training and improving sound like a quite a simple process and in truth it is. If you want to find out how simple it really is then we have a training camp at the Idlebreaks complex in September. To find out more about the camp and how you can take advantage of our EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT please click here

I hope to see you there

While I have managed an element of consistency in my training recently, sadly the same cannot be said for my blog. I was horrified to see that my last posting was way back in April, when the summer (and my big race of the year) seemed a long way off.

Now summer is here and the race is only 6 weeks away. In my next blog I’ll bring you up-to-date on progress in training and news of the big race we have entered for 2011.
In the meantime I wanted to reflect on a training session I attended recently. It was hosted by Olympic physiotherapist Alison Rose and was entirely devoted to running drills.

The outcome goal was for athletes to understand the benefits of this type of training and how these simple drills can be integrated into warms ups. The benefit is not just the immediate running session but the long term running technique and therefore overall performance.

I’m already a convert to running drills and their effect on running performance. I’ve been doing them myself for years (although I confess, not on a consistently regular basis) and more recently including them in all the running sessions I prescribe for my athletes. Here are my observations from the session;

1. There were obviously plenty of people interested in learning more as the attendance was 20% higher than for the normal Thursday night track session

2. Despite being highly (aerobically) conditioned, probably 90% of the individuals had poor coordination and balance, including the fittest athletes in the group

3. It seemed that females were generally better than the guys. Perhaps they had more patience to stick with the drills whereas the guys were rushing the exercise

4. Despite this everyone had FUN – a key element in exercise adherence

5. The drills were good to use as a specific warm up, rather than just running and chatting, as well as having benefits for technique

6. There was a large element of core strength and stability required for many of the drills, which also seemed to be lacking in some athletes

7. I’d be interested to survey the group in 12 months time to find out how many had actually practiced the drills on a regular basis (1-2 times per week) and what impact they had on overall running performance

All drills (swim, bike and run) will have a specific benefit for their sport if performed on a regular basis (just ask Johnny & Alistair Brownlee – they’ve been working with Alison Rose and her team now for the last 2 years!). Many athletes, however, seem to want to spend their time time doing as much swimming, biking and running as possible. They see strength/conditioning work (including core & stretching) and drills as enemies, that reduce their aerobic development time.
On the contrary, I believe that becoming a more efficient athlete with better technique and control is a much smarter way to train.

If you think like me then you might be interested in our new website – www.TriathlonPB.com – where you will find many articles, sessions, drills designed to help you set new Triathlon PB’s the smart way.

Train smarter, race faster!

Simon

1. A catch up style stroke doesn’t work in open water - a catch up stroke means that at some point during every arm cycle neither arm is applying force to the water resulting in a loss of momentum and if you are swimming against the tide or current, another swimmer interrupts your stroke or you get smashed by a wave, you will stop or go backwards. You need a fast arm turnover where one arm is always catching the water (known as power-on or kayak style) and you have to learn this in the pool, since this is where you will do over 90% of your training. Include regular sprints to develop a faster arm cadence and focus on catching the water early in the stroke and eliminating the glide at the front end. Drills which help you do this are; fists, single arm drill with non active arm by the side and swimming with a band around the ankles.

2. you have to be comfortable breathing to the left and right - when the waves are breaking over you as you turn your head to breathe you’ll get a mouth full of water unless you are comfortable breathing to the other side. In the pool, practice breathing left and right during your regular sessions. If possible learn to breathe bilaterally as this will help you to achieve a balanced stroke for when you do have to breathe to a single side.

3. If you are going to race in open water (especially the sea) it pays to spend a few days getting comfortable in the environment before the race – For the first few days you feel as though you are fighting against the natural flow. This example came to light during our swim. Unless its a flat calm sea the swell will move the torso and legs around quite a bit. The natural action is to fight to stay in a neutral position which takes more energy and eventually becomes quite tiring. After a few days of swimming you will relax and stop fighting this action but it will take a few days, so get to the event early if you have a sea swim.

Why am I telling you all this? Because it’s apparent that many of the coaches who teach triathletes to swim come from a pool based background and teach techniques which are just fine for pool swimming. Personally I dont think that these are as effective in open water but by the time the athletes gets to the open water race it’s too late. This could be one reason why many triathletes struggle to replicate their pool times in open water events (there are others of course but I’ll cover those in a future blog).

Thanks for reading and please do make comments, whether you agree with me or not.

Stay healthy & have fun

Places are limited and offer those who take part a unique insight to the specifics of the Outlaw and iron distance training and racing in general. The courses will be led by Simon Ward of TheTriathlonCoach.com, 220 Coach of the year 2009 and one of the UKs leading elite and age group coaches. You can find more information about Simon Ward and his coaching team by visiting their website www.TheTriathlonCoach.com.

The camps will take place at Holme Pierrepont, the start and finish venue for the Outlaw, on 21st March and 16th May – 20 and 12 weeks out from the event respectively.

Simon Ward said: “The camps will familiarise athletes with the various aspects of the course, which looks like it could be super fast! We’ll also cover things like planning and fine tuning your training, nutrition and race strategy.

“Iron distance racing invariably requires athletes to overcome challenges throughout their training and preparation and on the day itself. Attending a camp will give athletes every opportunity to prepare themselves for success.”

Athletes will have the opportunity to try swimming in Holme Pierrepont Lake during the second camp, and both camps will incorporate elements of running and cycling as well. Based at Holme Pierrpont, the camps will familiarise athletes with how things will be set up when the Outlaw takes place on 8th August 2010. Places for the camps, and for the race are still available, but filling fast!

Make sure you are properly prepared when the Outlaw kicks off this August!

1). Assumptions –
a – Assume that every motorist is incompetent until they prove otherwise
b – Assume every motorist is out to get you until they prove otherwise
c – DON’T assume that just because you have the right of way the motorist will give you the right of way
d – DON’T assume that the motorist has seen you

2).Obey the Laws of the Road -You know when you get the feeling that the motorist hates you? That’s probably because they do! It’s nothing personal; how could it be? They don’t even know who you are! Its more likely that they just hate all cyclists because they imagine that you are slowing them down or more liley that we all ignore the rules of the road,when they have to obey them (running red lights, riding on the pavement, riding without lights etc) If we were all a bit better behaved then maybe they would treat us better!

3).Be Courteous – When I’m driving behind a cyclist and I wait for a safe opportunity to pass them, it would be nice if they acknowledged it. Maybe they aren’t aware that I have waited (in which case they need to be more aware of what’s going on around them OR maybe they are/were wearing an iPod) either way, if you thank motorists for being courteous maybe they’ll be more inclined to behave the same way next time, even if it’s not for you.

4).Use your senses – We have 5 senses, 3 of which can be lifesavers on a bike
1 – Sight – look over your shoulder regularly to see what’s behind and to help you when planning manouvres and always attempt to make eye contact with other rioad users
2 – Hearing – I like to know when cars are approaching. I fail to understand how you can hear road traffic when you have headphones in your ears and music playing. Sorry, but if you do this, it’s got to be the dullest thing you can do! If you insist on weraing headphones then at least take the right earphone out to give you half a chance of hearing that big truck.
3 – Smell. This may seem a bit off the wall, but a few weeks ago my riding partner smelled fuel as we approached a roundabout. Sure enough there had a been a small spill and his senses definitely saved us from an accident

5). Ride aggressively – this doesn’t mean threatening to punch every motorist in sight. BUT it does mean claiming your bit of the road. In my experience if you ride close to the gutter motorists will squeeze past and force you into the gutter. I prefer to ride a bit further out so that the motorist actualy has to go around me. When passing parked cars, I like to give them enough room so that even if the door does open I still have some clearance. Yes, of course a car will have to wait a bit but I’m more concerned with my safety not their lost 15seconds. I do look around before moving out, so the driver knows I have seen him and I will wave, when he passes, to say thank you

6). Reduce the odds – Every day there are more cars on the road and every day cycling becomes more popular. Inevitably this will result in more frustrated motorists and more vulnerable cyclists. If you want to reduce the odds of being the next on the list then two alternatives are a)ride your indoor trainer more frequently, b) ride your mountain bike. You may not think it’s ideal for preparing for your next tri, but then neither is a broken leg!

7). Be Seen – primarily this means wearing clothing that motorists can spot from some distance away especially at night. Always have light for riding at might and emergency lights with you for when you might get delayed and end up riding at dusk. If you can wear a yellow band on your R leg & R arm for more vsibility at night then that is a good idea. When passing a junction or approaching road users waiting to make a turn, pull out into the middle of the lane to become more visible and, if possible, sit up . That movement might just trigger something so that they see you instead of the car behind. I mentioned earlier that you should always try to make eye contact with other road users and that includes pedestrians. A motorist once pulled alongside me to ask why i was giving him the evil eye. I wasn’t I just wanted to make sure he had seen me. At least he did, so it was worth it!

If you have any more “Stay safe” ideas please let me have them by leaving a comment here.

Ultimately if you stay alert and expect the unexpected you’ll be a lot safer! It’s a warzone out there so take care!

Stay healthy & have fun

Returning to work after a trip (or a holiday) I generally feel invigorated and highly motivated. Do you feel like this?

The Hawaii ironman marks the end of the season for those lucky enough to compete and for me it’s the same. There’s no point in starting a new training programme before I go to work in Kona because it’s too hectic and the travelling and time zone changes increasde the risk of getting ill (which as you’ll see in the video is not a good thing). Generally this means that I plan to get started soon after I get back to the UK (Leaving a few days to get over the jetlag)

When planning any training programmme I follow a set of 6 principles aiming to keep things as simple as possible.

It really isn’t difficult to improve as long as you have a system. Please take a look at the video below and then think about whether your training programme meets these 6 principles. If it does then thats great because it means your are on the right track. All you need now is discipline, resilience and patience.

If on the other hand you can’t tick 6 boxes then go back to the drawing board and work out what changes you need to make to your programme. Then add discipline, resilience and patience and you’ll soon be on the road to improvement.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Best wishes and happy training.

I agree! Technique work, in any sport is a waste of time if you are practicing the wrong technique. You have to start with the right technique and continuously work until you can repeat it perfectly, under pressure, not just in the training pool or the training track. Look at the best athletes and they are able to maintain good form even at the limit.

All well and good, but how do you know what the perfect technique is and how can you tell how close you are to achieving it?

http://www.thetriathloncoach.com/training-camps-2009.php

Well, regular input from a coach is a good start but even then that’s not enough. Recently, I asked a swimmer to do a straight arm drill. After a few lengths she was convinced that she’d “got it”. Trouble was she hadn’t “got it” at all. In fact it looked just the same as before my intervention. I even tried showing  a video clip of her swimming and she still wasn’t convinced claiming that the person in the video wasn’t her. Eventually, when I pointed out that she was the only one in the lane, she relented and then we started to make some progress.

http://www.thetriathloncoach.com/training-camps-2009.php

You see even when you think you are doing something right you may not be. Alterations to habitual practice require constant attention and regular feedback, otherwise you’ll never move forward.

You need to see the model of good technique, see your own technique and then understand which drills will help you to move from where you are now to where you want to be.

Video feedback and coach intervention are two of the best ways to do this which is why the world best athletes have coaches and make regular use of video analysis.

Some of our best athletes go through this exact process every year….and that’s why they constantly post the best results and see the biggest improvements.

http://www.thetriathloncoach.com/training-camps-2009.php

If you want to be at the front of the pack in 2010 instead of in the middle then your first step is to work on your technique and now is the perfect time to get started.

Oh, and one other things about champions. They take action.. IMMEDIATE ACTION.

In one respect the Norseman is no different from any other Ironman. Its a big event that takes a lot of preparation and then a lot of effort on the day, both mentally and physically. On finishing it therefore takes a lot of recovery.

The start of Post race recovery

One definitions of recovery is “a return to a healthy or normal condition. That means getting back to where you were before the event.

However, the stress induced by a hard race, and which you need to recover from, includes muscle soreness/damage, energy depletion, dehydration, stress to the endocrine system, central and peripheral nervous system, not to mention mental fatigue. Each of these systems will repair at a different rate.

It’s easy to gauge when muscles are repaired as the soreness disappears but how can you tell if the CNS is recovered?

So how long does recovery take? I’m not sure you can put a time limit on these things. A lot will depend upon the individual. Not only on how long they have been in the sport, the depth of their initial fitness etc but also on their lifestyle, diet, age, gender, body size and a whole lot of other factors.

Personally I like to take at least 4 weeks of what I call “active recovery” training. Finding the right balance is important. Do too little and there isn’t enough circulation to remove waste products from the muscles. Do too much and you slow down the process of healing the muscles and joints. Low stress activity such as swimming and biking are fine at low levels of intensity and I like to add in other activities that I don’t get time to do when training such as kayaking or hiking. More importantly I don’t have much of a structure. I just do what I feel like doing and if I don’t feel like it then I don’t do it. A typical 4 week recovery programme might look something like this….

Week 1 – Just stay active. A bit of swimming cycling as commuting to work and definitely no running but lots of walking

Week 2- More swimming, still commuting to work by bike and maybe some running towards the end of the week (actually this time I was roped into racing at the National Relays – 14 days after Norseman – and boy did that hurt my legs for days afterwards!) I don’t know how OR why AG athletes want to race that soon after an Ironman and I certainly won’t be doing it again

Week 3 & 4- Back into my normal swimming programme still cycling as commuting and running regularly but only for 30 minutes per time and never on back-back days.

Also during this time I relax my eating & drinking habits, but never so much that I completely let go, and try to get as much sleep as my body tells me it needs.

What happens at the end of the four week period is still pretty fluid. I try not to put pressure on myself by entering a race in advance as I know that this will just force me to set a schedule for my body rather than letting my body set its own schedule. So I just play it by ear. This year we have a week in France and then 7 days later I go to Kona to work at the Ironman expo for CompuTrainer. This means that a full-on training programme will be interrupted anyway. Its more than likely that I’ll just be ticking over until the beginning of November and trying not to get to fat or unfit in the process. One thing is for sure, I’ll be chomping at the bit to get back into training, which is just how it should be.

Stay healthy & have fun.

Until next time

S

In a previous blog I think I said that I wanted to stand on the ferry ramp on Saturday morning and ask myself if there was anything else I could have done to prepare better. As it stands at the moment the answer is no. The cake is made, looks great and ready to eat (see the previous blog if you don’t follow)

However that doesnt mean something can’t go wrong. I have a back up crew for mechanicals and I have a plan for pacing.

Rule #1 – Stick to the plan. I’ll be aiming for the Black T shirt cut off which is actually 14 1/2 hours not 13 1/2 as I previously wrote. My race strategy has plenty of wiggle room if I slow down but the key is to pace the ride & first part of the run and stay fuelled & hydrated. I wont be chasing other Brits or other guys in my age group early on in the race. Mentally I’m treating it as an adventure race

Rule #2 – Deal with the pain. A race of this magnitude does come with some pain built in. I have to deal with it. The run has been a weakness for me in the past but as Julie Dibens (thanks JD) pointed out, when the demons enter my head I have to say “Shut the door” and keep them out

Rule #3 – Eliminate the negative thoughts. Once I have shut the door I have to replace any negative thoughts with a positive one immediately…

Rule #4 – Take strength from others – Most of the other guys around me will be suffering at some time. Knowing that I am not the only one will give me extra energy and eventually if I keep going I will feel better again.

Rule #5 – Enjoy the Journey – Its a beautiful place and I might never come back so I will be enjoying the scenery. I’ll also be  reminding myself that I chose to do it.

So thats the mental strategy. All that remains is to thank everyone who has sent good wishes and remind you that you can log in to race updates from 6am Saturday morning on www.nxtri.com

Next update is the race report

Read on to see why…

1. First I had to decide which cake to make (Choose the event and enter – The Norseman) in my case it would be a chocolate cake, just in case you are wondering
2. Then find a recipe (the requirements of the race – distance, terrain etc) and get the ingredients together (how much training to do for each discipline) and then the cooking instructions (how long to prepare for the race)
3. Start to mix the ingredients (start the training – lest call this the general conditioning phase)
4. Next put the mixture in the oven at the right temperature (training at the right intensity, volume, frequency – call this the specific conditioning phase) and check regularly to make sure it is actually cooking (keep a training diary & monitor progress with test sets)
5. When it’s been in the oven for the right length of time, remove and allow to cool (peaking)
6.  The the cake is now ready to ice (this is the tapering phase) – This is where I am at now. I’ve almost finished icing the cake but even when that is done I won’t be quite finished
7. Just before you eat the cake you have to put the candles on ( travelling to the race, registering, racking etc.) This is what happens on Friday
8. Finally, light the candles, blow them out and start eating – I’ll be doing this on Saturday, starting at 5am

I don’t know about you but I’m feeling quite peckish after that? I’ll resist the temptation to eact the cake before Saturday ( do too much training  in the taper).

Thanks for reading. Enjoy your cake. I know I’m going to enjoy mine.

For regular updates from the race please visit www.nxtri.com from 6am Saturday 8th August