The following article
is not meant to have any proper structure. I am just writing some random
thoughts from my experiences into triathlon, since I started it about a
year ago (i.e. summer of 2010). I only aim to share with all you some
aspects, which I think these might be of interest for anyone involved into this
sport.
p.s:
I am actually not considering accurate syntax writing at first place.
I write down ideas as they flow out of my head in an attempt to catch
the instant inspiration before they go away. I am reviewing the text from time to time to spot any obvious mistakes!
The Multi-sport Complexity:
Triathlon:
an equation which includes an endless number of variables. It can be
viewed as a sport, but the more you look into it the more you realise
that it demands gradually more and more of your resources (time, money, physical
and mental).
Even, if you want to compete at a
basic level, the sport of triathlon requires plenty of components to work together: Swimming asks for technical ability, regardless of how
strong you are. You will have to spend months and months training on the water
only to realise that you can become a little bit faster.
Cycling needs endless hours of training on the pedals and the bike
itself needs to become part of your body, too. Running is more
accessible to the public (easy to find a place and run), but it's the
last section in triathlon and you will have to cope with the tiredness
that accumulated from swimming and cycling . Hence, in between other
aspects, the risk of injury increases dramatically if you are not quite
familiar with the multi-sport challenge or if you are not used starting
an activity already tired.
Don't forget to add the need to handle the transitions (also called T1 and T2). To put it in
another way: On average for every minute that you 'waste' during a
triathlon race, you drop down on the ranking by about 6-8 positions!
(that's almost correct for an event of around 200 people in sprint
triathlon and about 2-3 positions for Olympic Distance triathlon). So,
if you want to save in your overall time you can imagine how critical is to consider a range of several
issues (even elastic shoe laces, etc!).
But that's not
only it: You will have to plan how to balance and mix your time between
the 3 disciplines. You can't just practice one of them and shift to the next one thinking that
you can leave it after excelling at it. You will constantly need to train in ALL of them and as best as possible in the right way,
i.e. share the time efficiently between them. Additional aspects
include mastering the technique, mentioned before, the tactics i.e. they
way you save energy consumption and effort during the race, etc.
But
that's only the beginning: You will also have to consider that
fish-n-chips or cheeseburgers will not move you forward at all. Training
without proper nutrition simply means that training goes in the bin!
Especially, in endurance sports such as triathlon, there is no way you
can perform well (unless you dope yourself, but even then this is does not give guarantees) without fuelling up your body with healthy substances including vitamins,
carbohydrates, protein, etc, plus managing hydration. And of course you will have to learn how to manage nutrition during a race, too!
Yet, there are more ingredients
to be added on the triathlon recipe: Self-coaching! Who is going to comment on your performance or spot any of your weakness? A coach can complement your thoughts sometimes. You might be doing something wrong only to find out at a very
later stage about it. An external observer (many thanks to my
girlfriend!) can help you save time and perhaps reduce the possibility of an injury.
This triathlon equation is indeed very complicated. And there is even more to consider...
Say,
you got your physical training right, you follow the best nutrition
plan ever, you got a coach... There is still more which you will have to
practice equally carefully:
Mental toughness. Triathlon will make you to suffer. A lot. More than
you can imagine. If you want to perform above average, you will have to
negotiate tough mental games within your head. Your mind and your body
will be screaming the harder you train. If you don't have a solid mental
spirit to resist (or perhaps adapt to) the pressure, then
everything else around it (training, nutrition, exercise, etc.) will be
spoiled.
In my opinion you can be physically well
trained, but without mental strength you won't let your body deliver its
best. A super expensive car (the body) can't be fast if the driver (the
brain) does not know how to handle the power and acceleration of the
engine.
So, at the end, the triathlon recipe is made up
of this mixture: train in 3 sports, keep body healthy with proper nutrition and
avoid or prevent injuries, train constantly, train with your mind ready
to accept pain (different from injury pain though) and finally deal with
prolonged sport activity (about 1.5 hours for Sprint and 3 hours for
Olympic distance as a novice). But, there is more to be added in the
equation... the obvious...
...to be continued........
Dedication and training for triathlon:
The
obvious is that a solid dedication and commitment is needed if you
wish to build up a rising progress curve. You can't just train one week and
then sit down and eat pizzas the other week. You will have to plan the
way you train (base, build, peak period, etc.) both indoors (e.g. on the
gym) and outdoors. Add a full time job on top of everything mentioned
above and there is almost nothing else left for other social or personal
activities!!
I
am not sure if this will work in the long term, but I have so far
discovered some benefits in trying to distribute my load like this:
Saturday and Sunday is the time for cycling and, applying occasionally brick sessions by combining
running (at recovery pace). On mid-week, 2 swimming
sessions and 2 running sessions are considered, with one session each day.
One day is left for rest (normally Wednesday). I think swimming sessions
fit best on Monday or Friday, after and before weekend's hard training
respectively, since a different muscle group is used (lower vs. upper
body muscles). The 2 running sessions and the swimming sessions might be
alternated (e.g run-rest-swim-run or run-swim-run-rest) to optimise recovery.
At most, I manage to get an hour or so, of training on each training
session. On the weekends, this number increases up to 2.5 hours/session.
That is enough, if you want to race on a Sprint Triathlon event, but it might not be sufficient for distances beyond this. At most, this amount of training volume will help you complete (and not compete!) an
Olympic Distance. You could very conservatively try a Half IM event,
but you are exposing yourself to a high risk of injury. Not good news.
...to be continued........
Training Tips and advice:
You
might say (and I agree with this) that a weekly training volume of
around 9 hours does not suffice to prepare you well for a triathlon
race, except perhaps for a Sprint distance event. However, considering
the additional load due to a full time job, personal and social
activities, etc, then the margin is very tight. Furthermore, you need to
consider that continuous training plan lasting 3 to 4 months may end up
in over-training you,
especially if you have no previous experience or no consideration on
recovery issues. The latter is something that I learned right away when I
started training for triathlon since a year ago. During that period, a series of minor, but
annoying injuries (knee pain due to running, calf pain due to cycling,
shoulder pain due to swimming), forced me to restructure completely my
training approach. It's not bad to go through a back-off stage, as soon
as you know what's happening and why you need to cool down a bit.
Self-judgement can be beneficial when aiming to improve your
performance.
Technique is
vital element in triathlon, as with all sports. Lack of proper technique can
lead to injury, as this was the case with my knee pain due to
inappropriate running style (issues with strike and foot landing) and
shoe design - I had to get special shoes that correct my foot pronation (more on this on a later article in this blog).
Another 'lesson' I learned, during my training sessions was that recovery is
also very essential and sometimes compulsory too! Yes, indeed, but
believe it or not this is something that athletes overlook, thinking
that a non-stop effort into training will lift them to superior physical
level. That's not so true anymore (see, bibliography on older post
within this blog, e.g. 'The Complete Guide to Endurance Training').
Training stimulates body, nutrition helps to build body and recovery
helps body to adapt to training load! No recovery or over-training =
higher risk of injury = shifting backwards the training schedule. In
practice, this means that it might be better sometimes to stay home and
get a good time of sleep or relax, instead of digging deeper into a
training session at an already exhausted body.
Give your body time to adapt (and repair the micro-tears in damaged
muscles, etc). Don't over do it though, i.e. don't rest for a week (unless if
an injury forces you that way or if you have ended your season).
...to be continued........
Technical aspects of triathlon: Energy and body weight
I
am not sure why the 3 triathlon events (swim, bike, run) were put in
that order, but it is interesting to note that there is a progressive increase in gravitational force as you go from one discipline to the
other. Swimming is the least gravity-dependent section, since you float
on the water. Hands execute the forward moving action, while the rest of
the body tries to minimise drag and assist hand's operation. As soon as
you start the bike section, the action of the legs comes into play, with
the upper body weight 'resting' on the aerobar (or handlebar) and the
saddle. This means that the pedals receive power which is due to the
force applied from the legs and the weight of the legs
themselves. The transition from swimming into cycling affects
energy expenditure required from the athlete, but since the upper body
is supported on the bike then there is some redundancy. Let's move
to the last section of the triathlon: The run. You abandon the bike
stance and suddenly the whole body is standing upwards. All the body
weight is transferred to the ground through the already exercised legs.
Suddenly the lower body receives an increased shock. The gravity is
punishing the tired muscle legs further and you perceive all your body
weight as an 'extra' load from the bike to the run part. In my opinion
the 2 main reasons that tire you most at the beginning of the run part
are: (i) Legs are already tired from the repetitive action on the pedalling, (ii) Legs receive significantly additional pressure due to the whole body weight.
I
am not sure about this, but I believe that this is the main (not the only though) reason of why
during the run part of the triathlon tall and heavy weight body shapes
have a disadvantage over shorter and lighter ones.
Clearly a 70 kg athlete and a 100 kg athlete, even at similar physical
level (i.e. training in a similar way for the same length of time), can't have the
same possibility for crossing the finish line together. I am talking
about healthy weight, not weight which is owned to bad eating habits and
lack of training, due to excessive body fat, etc.
I've
never managed to become less than 92 kg (I am 1.93 tall) and that was
during a period about 10 years ago (while I was a student!), when I was
eating minimum amount of food and I was not training systematically
(actually, I couldn't because I was feeling 'weak'). I am now close to
101 kg and my average weight before I started triathlon or rowing was
around 98kg. Previously, I was only spending time for sports mainly
during weekends while I was windsurfing (no gym, nothing else). Since I
started triathlon, my weight went up! I exceeded 100 kg quickly and
basically I think this was due to the muscle mass added on the legs
from the cycling. Anyway, I just want to note in particular that my
average weight is pretty above average and there isn't(?) much I can do
to reduce it. For the curious, my body fat is currently around 21% (total
weight 101 kg), still room for improvement, but this is down from 26%
fat (total weight then was 108 kg) about 5 months ago.
So,
if you are an athlete on the region of 75 kg and you want to imagine
what is to be 100 kg try this: Add a 25 kg jacket on your back and see
how it feels! An additional 33% of body weight! It was written ['Racing Weight' Pete Fidgerlant] that an extra weight of 10 pounds
(around 5 kg) requires an additional 6% of energy expenditure to retain
the same speed. So, imagine what an additional load of 25 kg demands:
an additional 30% of energy!. And there are even lighter athletes, in
the region of 60-70 kg, who, for this reason, have even greater benefit
during the run part.
This is something I think I will
never be able to deal with! - I don't mention this as an excuse, but
it's vital for naturally big body shapes to realise that there is an
'upper' limit on how much you can fight against your normal body size. To
put it in other words: You might never be able to achieve the same or
even better running performance compared with a lighter and shorter
trained athlete. So, don't waste your energy on this! You will inevitably have
to apply a different strategy on your triathlon races to survive and stay close to the front of the race, if the issue of the 'body-shape' limit is what matters you!
Clearly, a heavy-weight athlete can improve his
run part if he trains properly, this is important to remember. But,
from my personal experience, he/she is also more prone to running
injuries. The lower part of the legs, knees, ankles, etc. receive about 3
times the body weight each time the foot lands on the ground. So, an
instant weight of 300 kg per leg
is what my legs are receiving each time I land on the ground during run
(compare it e.g. with a 60kg athlete, which ~180kg which is significantly
less). This requires some attention and it's the link between technique
and running shoe selection and running injuries.
When
I entered triathlon sport, minor, but annoying injuries, was my main
concern. I was trying to figure out why and how these could be avoided
and also how to correct them. During this search, I realised that
body-weight can be a significant contributor to injuries, which is
magnified when there is lack of technique.
If you can
improve technique you save a great deal of problems (and energy too!).
But, if you can additionally optimise your body weight, then you can
benefit more! So, in the recent months I have been concentrating both on
technique and body weight management during my training sessions. I chopped around 6 kg of body fat in a time span of 4 months, without any diet
(I simply changed my eating timing without sacrificing food quantity -
more on this on later article on this blog). This is good news. I feel
as if I rejected an unwanted load of 6 kg which was sticking on my body.
I can now race the same distance by consuming less energy! And there is
still room for more body-fat rejection, but the more body fat you want
to eliminate the more it takes to achieve this (the law of diminishing
returns!).
...to be continued........
Self-criticism and knowing your limits:
It's
vital to properly relate the physical capacity of your body and the
current state of training with the individual disciplines of the
triathlon. I mean, if you are a lean person, then you might perhaps
excel in the run part, or alternatively if you have a strong swimming
background then your technique is already in place and you can focus in
the other disciplines to increase further your performance. This is
something I have been working around for a long time now. As I have a
tall and bulky muscular shape, then I understand that a light weight
person can beat me in the run section. But, I also know that in the bike
part (which requires strong legs) I can have an advantage, giving me the opportunity to gain time
against all those who are better runners than me.
You
can use your strengths in the way described above to help you set up
your race strategy. I haven't raced an adequate number of races to
be able to provide an accurate and certain advice on this to the reader, but from the current experiences I can share with you my race
plan as a heavy weight novice athlete which, so far, I believe it
offers a good approach in a triathlon race.
First of
all, you need to practise your transitions. It's unacceptable to waste
time during those time slots and try to cover this missing time in the
sport section, e.g. try to run fast because your shoe laces made you to
waste time! You have been investing effort into training for weeks and months to
appear at the start line of a race and wasting race time this way is unfair! Put those T1 and T2 plans into place firstly.
The swim part: Aim to stay close at least
with the middle of the group, not far behind otherwise you will have to
work hard later to catch up. I noticed that in my case, my swimming ranking is quite close with the overall ranking on average. Here's the explanation.
I
spent weeks trying to figure out how to balance my effort between the
three sports during a race. I know that the run part is my weakness.
Regardless of how tired I am, I can't improve my 5 km or 10 km sections.
I've done the following experiment: I compared my 5 km running time
within a sprint triathlon with the running time of an stand alone 5 km
effort. I was surprised with my finding! Those two times were quite
close! Around 2 minutes apart. I run the 5 km on a sprint triathlon in
around 28 minutes, while this time is around 26 minutes (at best) when I
run the 5 km on its own. So, during a triathlon race, if I need to gain
some time, I need to drive my main effort into the bike part. This is
my only chance to improve my overall time (swim+T1+bike+T2+run) and
compensate the weakness in the run part. Indeed, the bike part fits my
body shape quite well: It requires strong legs and being tall means that
I can push down that pedal with an efficient stride. This explains why I
can stay together with the top 25% of the athletes in the bike part.
However,
later in the closing section of the run part, most of those that I
overpassed in the bike part are catching me again! How annoying this can
be! Only if I could be a decent runner that would mean a better overall
finish time. I don't have to be a fast runner, I only have to retain my
position as it is at the end of the bike part, this can lift me up
significantly! All the effort in the swim and bike part is fading out
during the run part! It's mentally frustrating to realise this. But, I
understand that I cannot keep up a fast running pace, I have never achieved
a sub 25 minutes, while on the contrary all those fast runners are close to the sub 20
minutes time in a 5 km distance.
So, that's where I
left my racing strategy so far. I swim with rhythm, I bike hard and try
to run steady to stay away from those who attempt to catch me again in
the closing part of the run. This is what I am working right now. To be
able to keep the running pace. I know that I cannot run as fast as those
small and light weight athletes - but I want to be able to remain in
front of them until the finish line as much as possible. You might say
that my effort in the swim and bike part is burning out the run part,
but I have thought of this possibility and fortunately this does not happen!
I am still working on achieving a more efficient running technique. Another factor though, as described in this article 'Body shape and sporting potential'
from the Times, UK online website, provides an insightful view into the
importance of athlete's body. It explains clearly how important is to
match your body shape with the sport you are into, if you want to
maximise your performance. This article puts everything into an order!
Personally, this article helps me to justify why I fit better in rowing
instead of running too!
So, knowing your natural limits
can help you plan your training sessions: work hard on your strongest
disciplines and try to minimise your weaknesses.
...to be continued........and concluded!
It should be fun on top of everything: The Triathlon lifestyle!
To
perform optimally you and even professional elite athletes, need to
enjoy and love triathlon. It's important that you have made it clear
within yourself that on top of everything this multi-sport addiction is a
'game' which you need to have 'fun' with. Your training, your races,
your preparation, your schedule, your nutrition, the competition and the
need to suffer, are elements that you should accept to perform at peak level
Ok, I
agree that from time to time, triathlon, like any other sport in which
you aim to reach and conquer a higher level, can leave you with
frustration and tiredness. But this is normal, too. And it can happen to
anyone regardless of his level. In such instances you can cross-train
or have a recovery period or perhaps combine vocations with sports, too.
Such alternative options are limited only by your ideas and your free
time, otherwise there is normally a way to deal with motiving yourself.
Moreover,
triathlon provides a healthy and unique lifestyle from many aspects.
You get the chance to travel around in races, train on a multi-variable
terrain, meet and train with new people, combine, mix and train at 3
different disciplines, get a top physical condition, feel and be great!
How many times have your friends been impressed with triathlon races:
"...wow, you finished an Olympic Distance event..." or "...how can you
race such a long distance?...", these are some common quotes we've all heard
perhaps. And we like to accept them!
So, let yourself accept the beauty of this sport and let others know how great you feel
about it. It makes the sport stronger! ;)
My road to perhaps the most ultimate sports mix of endurance, strength and effort.
CLICK here to view the 2016 Greek Triathlon Calendar
CLICK here to view the 2016 Brevets (long distance) Road Bike Events in Greece
The Motivation: If not now, then when? Life is too short to stay inactive.
The Challenge: If you are not willing to suffer, then you shouldn't be racing
The Dream: Staying fit and feeling younger day by day!
CLICK here to view the 2016 Brevets (long distance) Road Bike Events in Greece
The Motivation: If not now, then when? Life is too short to stay inactive.
The Challenge: If you are not willing to suffer, then you shouldn't be racing
The Dream: Staying fit and feeling younger day by day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Popular blog articles...
-
Triathlon Races in Greece have exploded in number the last year or so. Normally, competitors had to pick up races between from a number of ...
-
Between other useful parameters, a very important figure that mainly concerns endurance athletes is the knowledge of VO2max. The procedu...
-
Hello there! Thanks for visiting my blog. Ok, reviewing a product is a tiring process, as it requires many things to be carefully explaine...
-
Registration time was a complete madness! Well, 21,000 competitors are expected to appear on the start line...so make sure you don't get...
-
(an update was added to this post 12th Oct. 2014 - scroll at the bottom of this article) Despite my full time job as a computer engine...
-
Photo Album Video of the first runner at the 32.5km The Marathon race through a short road bike ride! For a complete list of...
-
I recently purchased a Bontrager R3 700x25 tire, moving up in width from Bontrager R3 700x23. The main reason was that I was looking for mor...
-
Video: Mens 30-39 2012 Greek IRC (Me with white t-shirt, next to me standing my coach, Makis, with red jersey) 2012...
-
Well, no equipment is perfect and failures can happen to anyone anytime, regardless of how expensive or cheap is the product. I had my fir...
-
Scroll at the end of this article to view the official results of the Mens 30-34 HWT Race Above: 2012 BIRC in Nottingham. Fun pre-rac...
No comments:
Post a Comment