Athlete Education

Cut through the noise of triathlon

Triathlon is the most complicated sport out there by a long way. We need to learn all about swimming, cycling, running, strength, nutrition and how to tie it all together to excel on race day. To say that it’s intimidating for athletes is an understatement.

We’re here to help with two options. Firstly, below you will find an assortment of free articles on a wide range of subjects from relationships to cycling cleats, and budgeting to types of coaching.

If you like what you see, we also offer a premium education hub which covers just about every aspect of triathlon, and is currently 50% off, you can learn more and subscribe here: https://phazontriathlon.mykajabi.com/phazon-triathlon-hub-launch

November 18, 2024

Strava vs TrainingPeaks

When someone is starting off in their triathlon journey they will want to start tracking their training electronically before too long. Garmin Connect and other apps developed by device manufacturers are ok, but leave a lot to be desired. The two biggest players in the market are Strava and TrainingPeaks. Both are web based applications with their own app, which import your data directly from your device to be analysed in detail. As a quick overview, Strava is a more social offering, where you can follow your friends, comment/like their workouts and see how you stack up against other athletes. TrainingPeaks is an industry leader in workout planning and analysis, where you get much more detailed information than Strava provides. The two aren’t all that similar in many ways, I subscribe to both, but if you can only justify one, I’m going to break each one down for you so you can make a more informed decision. Strava Strava is the more popular choice for newer athletes due to the social nature of it. If you go out on a ride with a group, or even bump into someone and ride/run with them for a bit, Strava offers you the ability to follow them, give them “kudos” on their activities and generally keep in touch. It also has many user created segments such as a hill, fast stretch of road or even something as simple as a gap between traffic lights in a city. You can look back at your completed segments to see how your time ranked against everyone else on Strava who has ever ridden/run that segment. It can be nice to see your placing improve as you get fitter and faster, but you can run the risk of building your ride around attempting to beat your time on various segments, which isn’t always the more productive way to train. Yes it will feel great, but it won’t help you develop the aerobic fitness required for triathlon in the same way. There are also rewards for being a “Local Legend”, which is the individual with the most attempts at that segment in the last 90 days. Beyond jostling for segments, Strava also allows you to analyse your GPS map, speed, heart rate and power on a graph after each workout. If you have zones setup correctly, you can see how the intense the workout was to you personally, and track fitness trends over time. One of my favourite Strava functions is the route builder. I can tell it I want to ride 120KM, or run 20KM from my house and it draws up a variety of options for me. The nice thing about this is it helps me to enjoy and explore roads or trails I may have overlooked, or not even known had existed. You do need to check the route is suitable before you head out (no dual carriageway, not running down fast, narrow roads e.t.c.) but it’s a great way to keep your training fresh when your normal routes start to get a bit stale. You can also use the map functionality to view heat maps to see where you, and others have run or ridden the most, to help you find some hidden gems. You can also join clubs, take part in sponsored challenges where you can earn discount codes/prizes, and a handful of other features I won’t go over in painstaking detail here. However there is something else I feel I should mention before I go. Comparison is the thief of joy, or so they say. Strava has been associated with mental health struggles for some athletes, who compare themselves unfavourably to others, or who train when they shouldn’t, push too hard on their easy runs and generally get themselves into trouble in their training for the sake of maintaining an image. Recently, a commissioning editor at Runner’s World was caught uploading a GPS file from someone else’s watch and cutting the course at London Marathon events to maintain a facade of fitness. I’ll be honest, I’ve never felt the need to mislead people via my Strava feed or given much thought to Strava before/during training, with the exception of a few good ideas to funny workout names. If you are the kind of person who has a bit of an obsessive personality or who is very preoccupied with what other people think about you, then you may want to proceed with caution if you decide to sign up. Strava is a free app, but a premium subscription which allows you to create routes, see your position on segments and offers more in depth analytics is available for £54.99. TrainingPeaks While most new cyclists and runners will download Strava early in their journey, TrainingPeaks tends to come later. There are no social interactions, instead it is completely focused around you and your performance. It is used by the majority of World Tour cycling teams, professional triathletes and serious age groupers. You can use it to work with a coach such as myself who has access to your account and who can set you workouts, analyse your data, plan your year and leave comments under workouts. While the fitness tracking capabilities of Strava are quite rudimentary, TrainingPeaks uses the most robust system out there to track fitness and fatigue. It’s far from an exact science as it relies on accurate data, zones and proper maintenance of your training files and it is still an algorithm at the end of the day, but it is the most robust of fitness calculations. Each workout goes into a much deeper level of analysis than Strava, to the point where I don’t check every data point for every client as there’s so information and not every stat is useful. What may provide valuable insight for someone looking to quality for the Olympics may be confusing and unnecessary for someone training for their first sprint. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it

August 12, 2024

Creating an Ironman Budget

It’s no secret that you’ll need to budget for an Ironman. From the high entry fees, bike costs, nutrition and travel, the costs can quickly get out of hand. In this article, I’m going to break down most of the costs associated with not only the race itself, but also training. We’ll also add up all the costs as we go, to get a very rough idea of the costs involved. I’ll be looking at the average costs of each area, rather than going for the maximum or minimum you could spend. You race Ironman for less than the costs listed here if you already own most of the equipment or don’t mind roughing it, but I’m going to look at the costs of doing an Ironman “properly”. Entry Fees If you want to enter an official Ironman event, then you’re going to be looking at between £500 and £600 just for your race entry. As eye watering as this is, it doesn’t represent poor value in my opinion. You get closed roads to race on, high levels of medical cover, a “free” bag, nutrition on course and the whole carnival that comes with an official Ironman event. If you’re looking at doing an independent event you’ll still be looking around the £300 mark, so for many it’s worth spending a bit more for the full experience. TOTAL: £500 Accommodation You’ll need somewhere to stay for your event, unless you live within an hour’s drive of your race. You’ll need to get there for around 5AM, so don’t want a long journey to get there. If the race is on Sunday, I recommend you get there for the Thursday so you’re not in a rush and have time to acclimatise to the environment as well as go through all the pre-race admin. You’ll want to stay over on the Sunday night as well if at all possible. How much you spend depends on where you’re staying, the availability of accommodation, how close to the event you book, how many people are coming with you, and whether you have expensive tastes. However, I think that budgeting around a grand is about right for four nights in a nice hotel on Ironman race weekend. TOTAL: £1000 Travel This can vary enormously, from a trip down the motorway to flights across the other side of the world. It also depends on if you’re bringing any family with you, and whether you want to fly first class on British Airways or hop over the channel with Ryanair. I’m going to go for the average amount here and say £500, which should cover a single person, checked luggage and a bike bag for the majority of us who will be racing without leaving the US or continental Europe. Obviously, it may well end up being more than this or drastically less. TOTAL: £500 Bike Your bike will likely be the single biggest expense. If you already have a bike you plan to use you can ignore this cost, but if you’re reading this there’s a good chance you’ve never done a triathlon before, so won’t have a high quality road bike. Ironman do not permit mountain bikes, and you wouldn’t want to use one anyway, so you can’t use the rusting hardtail knocking about at the back of the shed. I highly recommend a road bike, not a triathlon bike. A tri bike requires you to lean forward over the front wheel on a pair of bars with no access to the brakes, so definitely not suitable for novice cyclists. Around £1500 is the sweet spot for road bikes, spend any less and the quality may not be there, any more than that and you quickly hit the point of diminishing returns. If you’re looking at the second hand market this number could of course be lower, just do your research before parting with your cash. TOTAL: £1500 I hope you’re enjoying this free article. If you’re interested in more articles written in this style, you can claim a two week free trial of my all in one triathlon education platform. Whether you’re looking for help with your swim technique, to improve your nutrition or unsure how to dress for different weather conditions, we have you covered. Redeem your free access below Sign Up Today Swim Equipment For your swim training and racing you will need a few pieces of kit. You can get away with just a pair of swim shorts and some goggles for your very first pool triathlon, but by the time we reach Ironman we need to invest in some training aides and a wetsuit. Here are some rough costs: Wetsuit: £300 You can get entry level wetsuits for less, but £300 will get you a very flexible, comfortable suit that is probably just as fast as the top end models in reality. Not necessary if you’re entering an event which is routinely non-wetsuit. Pool aides: £50 This should hopefully cover a pair of fins, hand paddles and a pull buoy Goggles: £75 Not £75 for a single pair, but you’ll be buying several pairs over the duration of your training as they fog up, snap, you lose them or just want a brand new pair for race day. Pool fees £300 This is a miscellaneous cost, but it seems to fit her best. You’ll most likely need to pay for pool access, and £300 for the period you’re training for is probably about right. Like anything, you can pay an awful lot more or a lot less depending on where you go. TOTAL: £725 Run Equipment While running is arguably the cheapest of the sports, you still need to put some cash aside to cover the costs of your running shoes. You will of course need a few others bits such as shorts and a running top, but most of us will have something suitable knocking around at the back of our wardrobe. Your average pair of running

June 19, 2024

In Person vs Online Triathlon Coaching

In Person vs Online Triathlon Coaching Someone looking for help with their triathlon training will soon find there are two types of triathlon coaches out there. Triathlon coaches who deliver sessions in person alongside those who deliver primarily online, and it can be hard to decide which suits your needs best. In this article I’m going to discus when you would want each, and why I’m moving away from in person coaching. In person Coaching Yours truly delivering a coached session at London Royal Docks When most people think of a coach, they imagine someone sat with a clipboard, whistle and probably a moustache barking orders at hapless athletes. This is obviously something of a chariciture, but it is most people’s preconception. A coach is someone you go to see when you to get faster/better. They watch you training, give feedback and help you improve. It’s an old fashioned model, but it works. The truth is that if you want help with your technical ability, then there is nothing better than someone sat on pool deck watching you swim, maybe using a camera to film your stroke, and giving feedback. This can take the form of part of a group session, or a one to one session. The going rate for a group swim is around £7 a session, where for one to one you’re looking at closer to £50. A group session gives you a basic set to follow and more camaraderie, but less technical feedback. In fact, unless you specifically request it, you may get no feedback at all. One to one on the other hand is all about you for the duration of the session. One to one and group swim coaching are two very different products really. Group sessions tend to be attended weekly as part of a group and a long term relationship with a coach, where one to one coached sessions you may only get one of. Which you go for depends on the kind of person you are, and what you’re looking to get from the session. If you want help with your technique, go for one to one. If you want a community and longer term development, then go for group swim sessions. When it comes to running, cycling and strength it’s similar, but a bit different. One to one running and cycling sessions are pretty rare, but can normally be done on request. Group strength sessions are also very rare, but having a good S+C coach look at your form and provide a mobility screening one to one can be very important to make sure that you’re performing exercises safely and correctly if you are new to the gym. Online Triathlon Coaching Analysing a workout remotely Online triathlon coaching is often dismissed out of hand, or laughed at by some coaches and athletes, “What do you mean you’re working with an *online* coach?”. It’s true that online coaching is inferior to in person coaching when it comes to correcting form and giving feedback on technique. I can ask clients to send me videos of them swimming, but it’s never going to be the same as being there in person. However, that’s not what online triathlon coaching is about. When I deliver a one to one session to an athlete, they have my attention for an hour, then they’re on their own until I see them next, which could be anything from a week to a year later. When working with someone in an online capacity however, I am by their side seven days a week. Working in an online capacity with someone, I am helping them with every session. I write them a plan which optimises their training around their lifestyle, provide analysis on the data they collect in their session, and answer any questions they have. Rather than focusing on a single session a week, I am building an intricate, carefully planned week of training around them, focused on their specific goals, preferences and weaknesses. Instead of focusing on pushing them as hard as I can in a single session, I am focused on getting their training balance right across the three disciplines. Making sure we are developing all energy systems, getting the mixture between easy and hard training right, and tweaking it on the fly as fatigue, illness, work, stress and family interfere with our perfect training plan. When someone begins their coaching education journey, they start by learning to write and deliver face to face sessions. You don’t need much experience to write a simple session such as 10X100M sprints with a warm, simple build set of fast 50s and cool down. This allows clubs to run sessions with a group of volunteers happy to give up an hour of their time once a week to provide sessions and keep the club going. Most courses aimed at online triathlon coaching require a couple of years of experience before you can start, it’s not the kind of thing you can just launch yourself into with good intentions and buckets of enthusiasm. The reason is that working as an online coach, you are taking on a lot of responsibility. Not only is someone paying you personally for your help, but all of the rest of the money they have invested in their race(s). Someone starting from scratch is probably looking at £5000+ to do a destination Ironman once you consider their entry fee, bike, wetsuit, pool/gym fees, travel, hotels, insurance, clothing e.t.c. The decision to hire someone to help with their preparations is a savvy one when so much money is already involved. But if you get the programming wrong and they fail to finish their race, that’s not going to go down well with them. The coach on pool deck who told them to keep their elbow higher in the water is much less responsible for your overall performance. Online coaches also need a much wider knowledge base. If you asked a club coach how what ratio of fructose to glucose

June 11, 2024

How Does Age Affect Triathlon Performance?

How Does Age Affect Triathlon Performance? Most of us are very aware that age affects triathlon performance, we can’t get away from that fact that no matter how hard an 80 year old trains, they won’t be able to keep up with an 18 year old. However, there is a lot we can do to slow down the ageing process and prolong our athleticism, even when we’re past our biological prime. However, in some cases, we might even be able to excel and feel better than ever in our sixth or event seventh decade. Let’s take a look at some of the basics. When do we reach our physiological peak? Most of us will be in our biological prime around the age of 25. Most of those reading this will be past that point, and probably feeling it too. As I write this I am only age 35, but my ability to rock up at a 5K with minimal speed training and still go under 20 minutes fairly easily isn’t what it used to be. The good news for those of us in our 30s and 40s is that the decline is quite gradual to start with. We can’t gain muscle as easily as we used to, and we have to work to maintain things we may have previously taken for granted such as flexibility and explosive power, but with a well written programme we can achieve much more than we could at 25. With apologies to those who are in their mid 20s, at that age you’re probably not fully mature. There’s still a huge amount of distractions, hormones and stress in your system you just don’t have in the same way as when you get older and find yourself in a more stable position. You’re a world apart from where you were 10 years ago, but very few 25 year olds have the ability to dedicate themselves fully to a programme while also thinking critically and engaging fully with a coach. They have all the enthusiasm and drive in the world, but this can come at the expense of more reasoned, long term thinking. As a result, unless you were very mature in your mid 20s and had been training at a very high level since you were a pre-teen, your best years may still be ahead of you. A 40 year old with ten years of solid aerobic fitness behind them is going to come out on top against a 25 year old who has only just started in the sport every single time. If you did very little exercise until the age of 50, you may hit your athletic peak in your 60s, maybe even your 70s. It’s never too late to start. What causes the decline in performance? There are dozens of physiological changes which explain how age affects triathlon performance, but I’m going to stick to the biggest and most notable changes. I want this piece to look at actionable changes people can make, rather than get bogged down in science and lose most of the readership. The biggest culprit is a condition known as sarcopenia. This is the reduction in muscle size and strength as we age. This accelerates between the age of 65 and 80, but begins in your 30s. For the first couple of decades, the effects can be minimised with a well rounded strength and conditioning programme. As well as the muscles decreasing in size, they also lose elasticity and the ability to generate force in an explosive manner. Someone’s ability to generate power in an explosive fashion is likely to be the first thing to notably decrease as someone ages. In the swim and on the bike this is less noticeable, but as running is essentially a series of hops, it will be the first discipline to deteriorate out of the three. This doesn’t mean we need to send a white flag up the mast and stop all power training after our 30th birthday, in fact it means we probably need to do more, to slow the decline and loss of performance. This can be achieved by performing exercises such as med ball slams, pogo hops, box jumps or any other dynamic exercise which involves rapid acceleration. If all of those sound a bit intimidating, you can start by standing with your arms making a T shape, and slap them down to your thighs in an explosive manner. You don’t need a gym or expensive equipment to get started. Maintaining overall muscle size and strength is the real key to maintaining high performance in triathlon though. In a strength session I’m very unlikely to set someone more than two power exercises in a session, most of the time is spent strengthening our larger muscle groups to ensure we can keep pushing those pedals round with high levels of force for many years to come. By maintaining the strength of our muscles, we are also looking after our connective tissues, which are incredibly important for preventing injury. Often it’s tendons and ligaments which are the cause injury rather than the muscle itself, so we get a double benefit to our strength work. On the theme of injury reduction, our mobility and flexibility also decrease with age. Look at how well children move, they all have a beautiful rang of motion, instinctively squat down to pick up something heavy and can bend themselves in shapes that most of us could only dream of. As we get older, we tend to spend most of our time sat down which further limits our mobility. You don’t want to turn into your dad who makes those embarrassing noises every time he gets out of his armchair. Decreasing hormone levels While the changes in a woman’s body as she ages quite rightly gets more attention than the changes a man experiences, we need to address both if we want to help athletes. As women enter perimenopause, this can bring with it high levels of

January 3, 2024

How Much Does Weight Affect Triathlon Performance?

How Much Does Weight Affect Triathlon Performance? One of the biggest misconceptions in the sport is about how much weight affects triathlon performance. Whether athletes obsess over the weight of their bike, embark on extreme diets, or spend hundreds on a pair of running shoes which are 20g lighter, they believe that the key to unlocking performance is by racing with less weight. I’m going to delve into a bit of the science and mathematics behind the relation between athlete weight and performance. Trigger warning:I will be using the word weight a lot, and talking about the effect it has on performance. Usually I will tie myself in knots when writing to try to avoid using that word in relation to an athlete, but there’s only so much I can lean on a thesaurus before the article starts to sound unnatural, and weight is the correct clinical term. Usually I would recommend those who are at risk of, or recovering from an eating disorder to move onto the next article, but as the theme of the piece is that weight doesn’t matter as much as people think, I will instead recommend you scroll down to the conclusion at the bottom, have a read, and start the article again from the top if you feel comfortable. As a bit of context I am a level 3 triathlon coach, level 4 personal trainer and certified nutrition coach. I weigh in at around 53-55KG most of the time, but have clocked in at 49 the day after a race in the past. This is important for points I will raise within the article. I’m also going to work off of the assumption that you are an athlete currently at a healthy weight who is looking to improve your race times, not someone who has recently taken up the sport with weight loss goals. Swim The swim is an anomaly, in that nobody serious about their performance will ever make weight loss a major part of a swim programme. In fact, weighing less may have a negative impact on your swim. I have got hypothermic in open water on more that one occasion as my small frame struggles to cope with spending prolonged periods in cold water, and my noodle arms just can’t develop as much force as someone 20KG heavier. This is something I am addressing with strength training, but as any extra weight from muscle mass becomes essentially weightless in the water, it’s not going to slow me down in the swim. It may mean a bit extra to carry on the bike and run, but in isolation, we don’t need to worry too much about our weight for swimming. In fact, carrying some extra timber can very much help us. Just look at your average long distance open water swimmer. Bike Now we’re talking, this is what most of you have come for. You want to see how much time you can save by buying a lighter bike, or losing some weight. The desire for someone to have a lighter bike is a tale as old as time. For as long as people have been riding bikes, a lighter bike has been desirable. Especially when someone on a much lighter frame shoots past you on a hill. Upgrading from a hybrid bike you found in the back of the shed to a road bike is an obvious move for anyone serious about their road cycling, but to do that do we really need to spend £2000 on the latest groupset which is 50g lighter, or £1500 on a set of lightweight wheels to save on rotational weight, which isn’t really a thing in cycling? To work out just how much time we can save, I’m going to use a piece of software called Best Bike Split, which is a maths engine that can help us predict our cycling performance using data we input on ourselves and our bike. Let’s look at a race plan for an athlete I coached to qualification at the Duathlon World Championships. The course really is flat as a pancake, but so are many triathlon courses, especially in North America. For the 40K bike ride around a motor racing circuit (lots of corners), we’re looking at 1:04. Pretty handy by anyone’s reckoning. His power target is 272W, and his weight is 86KG. Let’s draw up a second plan, where he theoretically loses 4KG. This would take a large amount of dedication as he’s already pretty trim, and take him to around 4-5% body fat. Yes, you are reading that correctly. He gained 10 seconds over 40KM by losing 4KG. When you consider the sacrifice this would involve, and the impact it would have on his training as well as other areas of his life, it’s not a lot of time to gain. It’s the kind of time you could easily lose in transition by fumbling with your shoes or helmet. If he’s focused on losing weight, he’s not going to be putting on or maintaining muscle mass in the same way, and will likely end up losing leg strength, resulting in a drop in power, so he could actually end up going slower. For the next plan we’re going to have a look at what happens if he were to focus on hit fitness rather than weight. He eats a higher calorie diet to fuel his hard workouts, with lots of protein to facilitate the muscle development required for recovery and muscle growth, putting on another kilo, and his power target jumps up by 30W as a result of his hard training. Let’s see what that does to our time prediction. That’s an extra 1:29 we’ve found. The extra kilo only cost us two seconds (not shown). One and a half minutes may not sound like a lot, but imagine dismounting your bike and having to wait all that time while competitors you overtook on course stream past you to start their run. That’s going to

October 13, 2023

Optimising Sleep for Triathlon

The training we engage in as endurance athletes is the cornerstone of athletic performance, but to truly achieve our potential, we need to optimise our sleep for triathlon. You could have the world’s greatest, most accomplished coach for an hour a day, but this still gives you 23 hours a day to get everything else wrong. These are what we call the supporting habits; sleep, nutrition, mindfulness, recovery, strength work and more which may be specific to the individual. If we imagine a pyramid with the most important habit at the bottom, and the most superfluous at the top, sleep would be slap bang at the bottom of the pyramid. Nobody would expect someone to perform to their best after four hours of sleep. The Benefits It’s literally free fitness. I cannot make this any clearer. If I was offering you money for nothing, you’d be rightly suspicious, but we can genuinely get free fitness gains by getting more sleep, as long as you’re putting in the training that is! This is due to the general adaptation syndrome (GAP) as described by Hans Selys , which without getting into the weeds too much, tells us that after we shock the body with training, our systems will then try to recover, and rebuild to handle that stressor better in future. If we don’t allow for that resistance phase where our body adapts to the stimulus with stronger muscles and an improved cardiovascular system, we’re simply pummelling our body with more and more training until it breaks. By optimising our sleep for triathlon, we are allowing our bodies to better adapt to the stresses we place upon it, so our tissues can grow back stronger, allowing for improved performance. It’s free fitness. The Early Start All triathletes are short on time. Yes, even the pros. They all want to squeeze as much as they can into their week, to gain as much fitness as they can. The classic way to maximise hours in the day is simply to get up earlier. Become one of those people who gets in from their run at 6AM, showering and eating breakfast before getting the kids ready for school. You just have to set the alarm for 4:30, pull yourself out of bed, put you running shoes on and get out the door. Easy, right? Well, optimising sleep for triathlon is far more than when you set your alarm for. The first few times you try it, you’ll likely feel buoyed by this new experience, and revel in the smug feeling as you sit down at your desk with a productive morning already behind you. After a few days of this the enthusiasm will start to wain, and any soft object you feel you could lay down on is going to become incredibly appealing around 2PM. There is a lot more to managing our sleep schedule around our training than just getting up earlier. The Early Bedtime Whether you wake up at 8AM or 4AM, you still need around 8 hours sleep a night. The exact number is up for debate as it depends on the individual, but 8 hours is about right for most. If you want to join the 5AM, or even 4AM club and the benefits that come with it, you simply need to go to bed sooner. Some simple maths shows us that to wake up at 4AM feeling empowered and ready for the day we’d need to be in bed not long after 8PM. This isn’t going to be appealing for many, and is more an example of why 4AM wake up calls aren’t really sustainable for most people. However if we want to be up at 5, we need to be in bed for 9. This is a lot more realistic, but will involve a level of sacrifice. If we want to be in bed ready to sleep for 9, we probably need to start winding down not long after 8. Some people haven’t even finished their dinner by this time. If the only window in the day we have to train is from 5AM, we need to cut down on the Netflix, pub, xbox, internet and reading to ensure we’re tucked up in bed ready to drop off around 9. This will no doubt elicit a knee jerk reaction from many. How can they be expected to give up their well earned me time in the evenings? Of course, I’m not forcing anyone to do anything, but if done right, triathlon training can become its me time in itself. Watching videos on the turbo, listening to audiobooks on your run, getting away from the kids for an hour in the pool. Finding a club or group which swims early in the morning is even a way to fit in some social time. You’ve probably spend most of your life since you were a teenager staying up late for no particular reason, so try an earlier bedtime and see how it work for you. You may be looking at these numbers, doing the sums in your head, and deciding that you simply can’t fit in eight hours of sleep a night and fit in the training you “need”. Not everyone can fit 15 hours of training into their week, sometimes you need to engage with reality and accept that with your current circumstances, you’ve maxed out your weekly hours. Sleep hygiene No, this isn’t a case of how often you should change your sheets, it’s more about your sleep environment. We’re talking about a cool room temperature, some airflow, minimal light from outside or electronic sources and minimal noise. Now this could seem laughable to someone with small children or a partner that snores like a chainsaw, but setting ourselves up for a good night’s sleep is paramount to optimising sleep for triathlon. Think back to some of the best nights of sleep you’ve ever had. I reckon they most likely ticked a lot of the above boxes. Some

September 30, 2023

Do Cycling Cleats Make you Faster?

This is a question which has been doing the rounds on social media for as long as I can remember, do cycling cleats make you faster? It’s a surprisingly complex topic, and worthy of a bit more explanation than a couple of paragraphs on a combative thread. First things first, there are two things cleats do not do. They do not give you more power, and they will not give you free speed. They can make you faster if used correctly, but it’s not as simple as declaring that they give you more power. Power is a product of torque (how hard you push down through the pedal) and speed (cadence). Unless something generates more torque for us (such as a motor), or increases the rate at which we’re pedalling, it cannot generate more power. Cycling cleats will probably make you faster though, for a few reasons. Improved power transfer This is the one that people like to quote, better power transfer through the pedals. This comes primarily from two areas, the cycling shoe you use, and the ability to change your pedalling mechanics. By wearing a cycling shoe with a stiffer sole, you avoid losing any power to the flex in the sole of a trainer. All of the power goes through the cleat itself, straight into the pedal, then the drivetrain, generating power. However, it probably won’t improve your efficiency by anything close to the 20% like some will try to claim. However, it does give us the potential to generate more power, at a cost. To understand this a bit closer, let’s look at the muscles used in the pedal stroke. Being clipped in allows us to recruit muscles in the upstroke which we cannot easily engage with flat pedals. These are generally muscles used between the 6 O’clock and 12 O’clock position. If we look at these muscles which are otherwise unengaged, it’s primarily the ankle flexors in your shin, hamstrings and hip flexors. Now the hamstrings are a big muscle group, but the others? Not so much. Even though our hamstrings are working, how many times have you climbed off of your bike nursing sore hamstrings? I can’t say I ever have, nor have I heard anyone complain of that. So despite the fact it’s a big muscle group, it’s not really working especially hard in the pedal stroke. Compare this to the powerhouses of glute maximus, the quadriceps and the calves, and those muscles at the back end of the pedal stroke probably aren’t contributing an enormous amount of power. Should we all be training to engage more of our hamstrings though? Is this the secret to unlocking hidden power? Well, if you are a track rider or a road sprinter, then there is absolutely validity in this. However, for the vast majority of us are not sprinting for the line in a race or riding the team pursuit, we’re simply trying to become better weekend warriors. We can spend several hours using a Wattbike to create a perfect circle with our pedal stroke, but when we start to fatigue, our body starts to prioritise metabolic efficiency over mechanical efficiency. What does this mean? Well, as an example, think about all of the individuals you see at the end of a marathon bent double, feet barely clearing the tarmac, swaying from side to side. This is far from an efficient way to run. In fact, it’s an absolute disaster, but what the body is trying to do is protect its metabolic processes (survival) over technique. The body is just trying to survive at this point by conserving as much energy as possible. To see the most efficient running form, you only need to look at athlete running the 100M. Long stride length, strong arm drive, forefoot landing, high cadence. But how many marathon runners do you see holding this form throughout 26.2 miles? This is a similar story for cycling. Yes we can maximise the recruitment of the upstroke, but not for prolonged periods or time. As the body fatigues it will revert to focusing on the downstroke to simply get us home in one piece. For some individuals however, there may be enough recruitment of the hamstrings and hip flexors to increase power output by a notable amount, even when riding easy. However, it’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t free energy. It still requires oxygen and energy to contract that muscle, so we’re still paying a cost to recruit those muscles on the upstroke. As above, very useful if you are looking for higher power output in a short timeframe, but it’s going to be hard to keep all those muscles firing over the course of 100 miles. So yes, there will be increased muscle activation, but it won’t contribute nearly as much as some people would have you think. Improved Acceleration This is probably the biggest benefit for me personally. When I’m clipped in, I know that I can accelerate hard out of a corner or up a hill without any fear of my feet flying off the pedal, and the aforementioned pedal slamming into my shin. While we may not be doing a huge amount of acceleration in triathlon, we still need to get up to speed coming out of corners and when passing competitors. Learning improved pedalling mechanics So as we’ve established, the upstroke probably doesn’t contribute much to the stroke mechanically, but using cleats will still help teach you a more efficient pedalling motion. Most people will have a very ‘stampy’ pedalling technique when they start riding, which cleats will help transform into a more efficient stroke, even in trainers. With cleats and an appropriate saddle height, it helps you push down through the whole of the downstroke, and backwards after you’ve finished pushing downwards. Imagine you’re scraping something off of the bottom of your shoe and this will help you recreate the correct motion. Even when you’re not riding in cleats (I ride short distances in

July 19, 2023

Toxic Positivity in Sport

Unfortunately, toxic positivity in sport is pretty rife, especially in the age of social media. You may think that there can be no such thing as too much positivity, that we should be all smiles, unwaveringly supportive and glossing over the bad days to ensure we experience #onlygoodvibes. However, this is not a successful strategy for long term development of both the athlete and the person. Let’s dive in. What is toxic positivity? I am definitely an optimist, however I also believe you can have too much of a good thing. Toxic positivity is the term used to explain a trait where an individual chooses only to see the good in every situation and refuses to acknowledge the emotions of others. Phrases such as “you’re overtaking everyone on the couch!” shouted to someone walking it in with a limp and a grimace, or telling someone who is clearly having a very bad day by their standards “you’re doing so well!”, or glossing over some of the less palatable truths of the sport when asked are what I would consider to be examples of toxic positivity. They always come from a well meaning place, and may help those very new to sport or exercise in general, but they’re also very hollow, and aside from a brief pick me up, don’t really help athletes develop as individuals. Toxic positivity can come from coaches, training partners, clubmates, friends or random spectators at events. Why toxic positivity? If you watch any film or TV show with a sports episode/theme, there will often be a coach figure. They will usually have a baseball cap, clipboard, whistle round their neck and be very hard to impress. This is the other end of the spectrum, what we’ll call the grumpy coach for the purposes of this article. While grumpy coaches do exist in the wild, I’ve yet to meet a grumpy triathlon coach, and what we see in the media is definitely an over exaggeration. Still, some people will see coaches as distant figures who hold their athletes to unattainable standards, and think “that’s awful”. So what they do to avoid becoming that figure, is they swing to the other side of the spectrum, which can be just as harmful in the long run. Rather than be the grumpy coach who drops athletes for missing sessions, they’re going to encourage athletes to take all the time they need. Instead of being critical of someone’s performance, they’re only going to heap praise on them. Instead of sitting at the sidelines looking sullen and unimpressed, they’re going to be up close and personal with their athletes, making sure they realise they’re getting attention. The problems with toxic positivity These habits always comes from a place of love, but can have the opposite effect. If someone hasn’t turned up for a month, maybe they’d like to know they’re missed, or are going through a rough patch and would appreciate someone reaching out to them. If someone’s performance is going downhill, they’re probably very aware of this, and praise for praise’s sake may just make them feel worse. And while it is always nice to know you’re being looked after by a coach, having someone stop you 5-6 times a session to tell you how well you’re doing is going to cause an element of frustration after a while for most. We should absolutely heap praise upon our friends when they achieve the extraordinary or really put in a great training session, but if we heap too much praise, it starts to become meaningless. Learning to trust athletes If a club member says they’re thinking about signing up for an triathlon which you have knowledge of, you should of course encourage them, but equally you should not be afraid to fill them in with some less desirable details they won’t find on the website. If the bike is prone to crosswinds, the swim has a habit of being choppy, or the run is off road and slippery, these are probably things they should know so they can reach an informed decision and prepare accordingly. If they are very new to road cycling and nervous on a bike, they should probably know about strong crosswinds which might blow them about. If they don’t, they run the risk of pulling out of the event if the wind is gusting, crashing, or at the least coming away from the event with a negative mindset. That they didn’t feel safe out there they may never want to do a triathlon again. Think back to the story of the young Buddha, how his father tried to shield him from all suffering in the world. His father went to great lengths to create a bubble to make his son happy, but it was only when The Buddha left the walls of the palace and spent time integrating himself into the wider world that he achieved enlightenment. Think also of the modern day parent raising their child. They could keep the stabilisers on their bike, make difficult choices in life for them and shower them with gifts in an effort to protect them and preserve their innocence, but will that person thrive in the workplace when they finally fledge the nest and need to provide for themselves? How toxic positivity stunts growth In a small number of sports clubs, the toxic positivity becomes stifling to the point that athletes stop improving. If every session is a fantastic session, every athlete is an absolute warrior, and every race is a huge success, we lose one of the most important tools for personal growth. Self reflection. If I am leading a session and an athlete has a really bad swim, I’m not going to tell them they just had a stinker, but I’m going to make sure they know I’m here for them. This may be something as simple as a comment like “Don’t worry, it happens to us all sometimes” at the end of a session. If they

April 28, 2023

How to Qualify for Nice Ironman World Championship

For help qualifying for the world championships in Kona, please visit our sister article here: https://phazontriathlon.com/2022/10/18/how-to-qualify-for-kona/ For only the second time in its history, the Ironman World Championship is moving out of its traditional home in Kona. The men’s race and women’s race will rotate between Nice and Kona each year, starting with the men racing in Nice in 2023. This decision has resulted in a lot of discussion, but regardless of how you sit on the issue, the fact is that the worlds are moving to Nice, and this will have an effect on how we qualify for the World Championships. My name is Simon Olney, I’m a British Triathlon High Performing Coach who has experience helping athletes qualify for Kona, and wanted to help share some tips and insights into how to qualify and race in the World Championships. As I write this in spring 2023 there is a large amount of unknown over how exactly the change of venue will affect the qualification process so there will be some assumptions and guesswork on how qualification will be affected, if at all. we’ll probably have a clearer picture for next year when I’ll update this article appropriately. Prerequisites Qualifying for an Ironman world championship is hard. There are a few things you probably need in place before you can start to think seriously about qualifying in most cases. You don’t need to hit every single one of these as we all have our weaknesses, but if you don’t hit at least a few of these points, you may want to reassess whether this is the right time for you to think about qualifying. A few Ironman finishes under your belt These don’t have to be official Ironman events, but it’s extremely rare that someone turns up to their first Ironman and punches their ticket to the worlds. It happens, but if you are an Ironman virgin you should focus instead on enjoying your first race and soaking up the moment. Most athletes who have qualified for Kona in the past have around 3-5 iron distance finishes under their belts, although there are always outliers. The ability to swim 3800M in around an hour without exhaustion Some athletes will want to be looking at closer to 55 minutes, while some female and older athletes can afford to be close to 1:05, but for the most part you can’t afford to be swimming much slower than 1:10 in good conditions. To qualify you need to be a well rounded triathlete, you can’t really afford to hand your rivals 10-15 minutes in the first hour. One of the main differences between Nice and Kona is that in Nice there is a chance that wetsuits could be legal for age group athletes, as the cutoff for wetsuits is 24.6, and the average water temperature for Nice in June is 25. The Worlds will be in September, so it’s not out of the question that the water will be wetsuit legal, but I wouldn’t count on it. As such, if you don’t feel you could swim 3800M in the sea without a wetsuit, you probably need to ask yourself whether this is the right event for you. A good quality bike I’m not sure how many people have qualified for the worlds on a road bike with clip on aero bars and stock wheels over the years, but I don’t think it’s many. If you want to race on the Cote d’Azur in September you need to invest some cash on your rig. This isn’t to say that you need to drop £10,000 on the latest superbike, but a £1500 TT bike and around £1000 on wheels are probably a good starting point. You can buy speed in triathlon, especially on the bike, so you may want to put some money aside here if you’re serious about qualifying. Money spent on a bike fit, aero helmet and fast tyres is also money well spent. You of course need to be able to ride the bike very fast, but it’s generally easier to improve cycling speed than swimming or running speed, so I’m not giving any time/fitness benchmarks here. The ability to run a good for age marathon time and no injuries Good for age (or GFA) is a time used by some larger marathons to guarantee entrants a place. For a male under 40 this is usually around the three hour mark to give you a ballpark idea. While you don’t need to hit this time exactly, if you are unable to come close to this time you’ll need a really special swim and bike ride to put yourself in contention. Athletes don’t generally run GFA times during Ironman marathons, and you don’t even need to run that time in training (I’d actively discourage it in the run-up to a qualifying event), but knowing that kind of time is technically achievable by you is important. For example, if a 30 something athlete run a 3:10 a few years ago, and a 1:20 half marathon last year, they know that a 3 hour marathon is probably in their wheelhouse, which will suffice. Additionally, you want to make sure you aren’t starting your training with any notable injuries. As we get older we will likely be managing a minor chronic issue of some sort which flares up if we’re not on top of the stretching and strength work, but you can’t afford to start your training without being able to run a half marathon pain free. At least 10 hours a week to train Time is the currency we all wish we had more of, and this is definitely true of athletes. I’m not suggesting you need to train 10 hours every single week, and you will want to be training much more on some weeks (closer to 15-16 hours), but if you look at your schedule and can’t see a way of fitting in 10 hours in a standard week due to other

November 20, 2022

Triathlon Training and Music

For many, music and triathlon training go hand in hand. They can’t imagine running without their favourite band spurring them on, and are aghast at the prospect of racing without their headphones. To start with I’m going to look at why personal music is banned at races, then I’m going to look at the effect, and practicality training to music has on each of the three sports respectively. Racing The vast majority of events will ban the use of headphones. To many this will seem cruel beyond measure. They’ve done all their triathlon training with music, what will happen when it’s taken away? The primary reason is for athlete safety. If someone is running along with music blaring in their ears, they cannot hear instructions from race officials or other athletes calling out to let them know they’re trying to pass. Last month I ran the London Marathon, and coming into the last 3KM was in a very congested group. We were making our way through a tunnel when an ambulance appeared behind us. We all jumped onto the pavement or got out of the way somehow except for one guy who was holding up the ambulance listening to very loud music through headphones he had insisted on using, completely oblivious of the obstruction he was creating. It was not done out of any spite or malice, and I’m sure he felt dreadful when he finally realised what was happening, but it’s a textbook example of why we have the rule in races. On race day, whether it’s your first 5K or an Ironman marathon, there will be more than enough distractions to keep your mind distracted. From cheering residents to music from boom boxes, or steel bands to chatting with other athletes, it is unlikely your brain will be starved for stimulation in the same way it might be when running laps around a local park. The best way to prepare for the lack of music in races is to train without it, even if it’s only for short periods. The motivation and practicalities for listening to music in each sport is slightly different, so let’s break them down. Running with music Running and music go together incredibly well. There are very few athletes in the western world who haven’t headed out for a run while listening to music. The primary reason for this is that, especially when you start, running is hard work. Most of us begin running under a form of duress. Everyone else at work is signing up for a charity 5K. You need to learn to run for a triathlon. Your partner is strong arming you into it. Very few of us as non-runners wake up one morning, look outside the window and say to themselves “You know what would make my day better? Pushing my body to its limit with a run”. Now, I love running, but it can be a hard sell and it’s really tough to get started. When I started my triathlon training, music with my runs went hand in hand. I was in my early 20s and single, a time on your life where angst guitar riffs and lyrics based about frustration just hit differently. It’s worth thinking however about the really fast runners you see when our training. You know the ones, build like a beanpole, calves like sculpted marble and what looks like an effortless stride. How many of them overtake you with Slayer blaring from their headphones at max volume? Not many. The reason for this is that their running has evolved from being something they put themselves through, to something which brings joy and an almost mediative effect. Rather than use music to push them on, they instead soak up the sounds of the world around them, and enjoy the solace it brings. I understand this can sound slightly flakey and woo woo, but there is more to it than that. Truly great runners are as good as they are because they listen to their body, especially their breathing pattern and footfall. If their breathing becomes more ragged, their foot strikes heavier, this is a sign they are fatiguing, and may want to back off, depending on where they are in the race/workout. Data is great, but you never know how your body will react on the day. Just because you had a target pace in mind six months ago, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to pull it off if you slept poorly the night before, had a rough bike, or simply aren’t feeling it for whatever reason. Listening for cues from your body are key here, and it’s hard to pick up on those cues while you’re listening to the Backstreet Boys. I rarely listen to music on my runs these days, but I will do my long, easy runs listening to a podcast. I keep the volume low though, so I can hear bikes approaching me on the bridleway, or faster runners who are asking to pass me. If you run in urban environments, it’s important to be aware of traffic noise, and in some environments, to ensure there is nobody around you who could do you harm. Cycling with music Where running with music helps dull the pain, cycling is often more about curing boredom, or having something to focus on other than the sound of traffic. However, safety is a much bigger issue on the bike, where you need to be acutely aware of where cars are and what they’re doing. There is a lot of victim blaming in the press about cyclists being hit by drivers while wearing headphones and I don’t want to be seen to be facilitating this, but as so many motorists can be driving distracted, you need to have your wits around you to keep you as safe as possible. If you’re approaching a pinch point in the road and someone starts to accelerate aggressively behind you, this is important information you need to be aware

October 18, 2022

How to Qualify for Kona

As of 2023, the Ironman world championship will rotate between Kona and Nice, with the women racing in Kona 2023. If you are looking to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Nice, please visit our sister article here: https://phazontriathlon.com/2023/04/28/how-to-qualify-for-nice/ The Ironman Hawaii in Kailua-Kona catches the imagination of thousands across the world every year. Many will see some of the fittest athletes in the world racing across the lava fields and vow that they’re going to go race there themselves. A few minutes on google however teaches us that we can’t simply pay for £100 for an entry and hop on a plane to go race, we first need to qualify. Which brings us to the question, how do I qualify for Kona? My name is Simon Olney, I’m a British Triathlon High Performing Coach who has helped athletes qualify for various world championship events, including Kona, and wanted to share some insights and tips to help you achieve your dream of racing on the big island. Prerequisites Qualifying for Kona is hard, really hard. There are a few things you probably need in place before you can start to think seriously about qualifying in most cases. You don’t need to hit every single one of these as we all have our weaknesses, but if you don’t hit at least a few of these points, you may want to reassess whether this is the right time for you to think about qualifying for Kona. A few Ironman finishes under your belt These don’t have to be official Ironman events, but it’s extremely rare that someone turns up to their first Ironman and punches their ticket to Kona. It happens, but if you are an Ironman virgin you should focus instead on enjoying your first race and soaking up the moment. Most athletes who qualify for Kona have around 3-5 iron distance finishes under their belts, although there are always outliers. The ability to swim 3800M in around an hour without exhaustion Some athletes will want to be looking at closer to 55 minutes, while some female and older athletes can afford to be close to 1:05, but for the most part you can’t afford to be swimming much slower than 1:10 in good conditions. To qualify for Kona you need to be a well rounded triathlete, you can’t really afford to hand your rivals 10-15 minutes in the first hour. As wetsuits are banned at Kona you also need to be able to swim 3800M confidently in the sea without a wetsuit. You don’t need to be able to swim a particular speed in these conditions, but if the thought fills you with dread you may want to reconsider your objectives. A good quality bike I’m not sure how many people have qualified for Kona on a road bike with clip on aero bars and stock wheels over the years, but I don’t think it’s many. If you want to race in Hawaii, you need to invest some cash on your rig. This isn’t to say that you need to drop £10,000 on the latest superbike, but a £1500 TT bike and around £1000 on wheels are probably a good starting point. You can buy speed in triathlon, especially on the bike, so you may want to put some money aside here if you’re serious about qualifying. Money spent on a bike fit, aero helmet and fast tyres is also money well spent. You of course need to be able to ride the bike very fast, but it’s generally easier to improve cycling speed than swimming or running speed, so I’m not giving any time/fitness benchmarks here. The ability to run a good for age marathon time and no injuries Good for age (or GFA) is a time used by some larger marathons to guarantee entrants a place. For a male under 40 this is usually around the three hour mark to give you a ballpark idea. While you don’t need to hit this time exactly, if you are unable to come close to this time you’ll need a really special swim and bike ride to put yourself in contention. Athletes don’t generally run GFA times during Ironman marathons, and you don’t even need to run that time in training (I’d actively discourage it in the run-up to a qualifying event), but knowing that kind of time is technically achievable by you is important. For example, if a 30 something athlete run a 3:10 a few years ago, and a 1:20 half marathon last year, they know that a 3 hour marathon is probably in their wheelhouse, which will suffice. Additionally, you want to make sure you aren’t starting your training with any notable injuries. As we get older we will likely be managing a minor chronic issue of some sort which flares up if we’re not on top of the stretching and strength work, but you can’t afford to start your training without being able to run a half marathon pain free. At least 10 hours a week to train Time is the currency we all wish we had more of, and this is definitely true of athletes. I’m not suggesting you need to train 10 hours every single week, and you will want to be training much more on some weeks (closer to 15-16 hours), but if you look at your schedule and can’t see a way of fitting in 10 hours in a standard week due to other commitments, you’d need to be very genetically gifted to qualify for Kona. Disposable Income Qualifying and racing for Kona is eye wateringly expensive. For the qualifying event you’re likely looking at around £1000 minimum including accommodation and travel, then you’ll need to shell out the best part of another grand for your Kona slot, which must be paid for the day after the race. Once you qualify for Kona you then need to book your accommodation which can run into the thousands, especially if you qualify with

September 28, 2022

Choosing a Training Plan

Once an athlete has entered an event, their thoughts will soon turn to training for that event, and in most cases choosing a training plan. For those not familiar with the term, a training plan is a series of workouts for you to follow to help you achieve a goal. These workouts are progressed in a fashion which should (hopefully) protect you against injury and allow you time to recover between big workouts. However, there are various options available, from writing your own plan to hiring a coach to work closely with you. We’re going to look at the pros and cons of each. Self Coached This is the option that many newer athletes will default to, which is completely understandable. They simply start swimming, running and cycling in a way that suits them, and the gains come quickly. When you’re starting from scratch, it’s not difficult to see rapid improvements. However, this option falls short in a number of areas. Firstly, athletes will tend to focus on their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. If you’re an accomplished marathon runner but hate swimming, chances are you’ll run three times a week and only go swimming once, maybe twice. Secondly, there is a lack of accountability or outside perspective. If you wake up and are in two minds as whether to go training, it’s all too easy to roll over and feel there are no consequences. Following a plan, especially if supervised by a coach, creates a much greater sense of accountability if you see the workout turn red or you are unable to tick it off. Finally, it takes a huge amount of knowledge and experience to write a plan which helps you achieve your potential without injury. You can learn to fix your car yourself if you invest in all the tools and spend hours pouring over car repair books/forums, but in many people’s minds they’d rather drive it to the garage and get someone else to do it for them. The same is true of triathlon training, though a training plan is often significantly cheaper than getting your car serviced! Pros Free Rapid results in the short term Cons Lack out outside perspective Often limited understanding of the training process Liable to injury/burnout Free Training Plan There are several free training plans available to athletes. These can be found in magazines, books, online or even on the website of the race organiser. These are a step above self coaching for most as they involve some structure. You’ll have scheduled rest days, progression in your workouts and sessions designed to help simulate racing such as running after bike workouts. They are however pretty basic, with very little detail for the most part. They may be as simple as “30 minutes in Z2” or “Long ride” in some cases. They will also be written almost exclusively for first timers who are coming to the sport from a non athletic background. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, but unless it’s your first race or attempt at the distance, it may feel a bit basic. Pros Free Basic structure Easy to follow Cons Written for first timers Very basic Normally in paper format, which can make execution fiddly Stock Training Plan These are training plans written for the masses, and sold on platforms such as TrainingPeaks. These are a big upgrade from the above options, as they can be tailored to specific athlete groups, and sync up with your training devices. By choosing a training plan through TrainingPeaks you can pick one that matches your ability. If you’re a first time Ironman athlete there are thousands of plans for that. If you’ve been competing at sprint duathlon events for several years but want to qualify for a world championship event, there’s a plan for that. No matter your ability or experience, someone will probably have written a plan for you to follow. Ot may require a bit of tweaking depending on your ability and availability, but you’ll likely get a much better result then you would training ad-hoc or using a plan from a book. Workouts are uploaded to your watch, cycle computer or training software for you to follow in real time. If you’re following a run workout your watch will beep at you if you go over or under the target range. If you’re following a cycle workout on Zwift it will let you know when you are outside the target range. This removes a lot of fiddling, creating custom workouts on platforms or trying to remember your workout while you’re training. If you were my friend signing up for an event, I would recommend a plan from TrainingPeaks as a starting point. Our selection of plans can be found here. Pros There is a plan out there for most people Workouts sync to devices Low cost Cons If you are especially strong/weak in one discipline you may find the plans limiting Some sports/distances aren’t catered for as well as others Choosing the right training plan from those available can seem intimidating, but remember that the best training plan is the one that you will follow. If in doubt, go for a slightly easier plan which you know you’ll be able to complete, rather than choosing a training plan you will struggle to keep up with. There are various filter options on the TrainingPeaks store to help you choose plans of a suitable duration, weekly hours and intensity, which work well with the devices you own (power meter, heart rate monitor e.t.c.). Custom Training Plans The vast majority of stock plans work on a number of assumptions. That you work Monday-Friday, you have around an hour on the weekdays for training, you are roughly the same ability in each sport, and you have a standard period of time to train for an event (3-4 months for a sprint, 9 months for an Ironman e.t.c.), and you are young/healthy enough to train for six days a week. If you

August 7, 2022

Choosing a Triathlon Coach

For many athletes, deciding they’d like to be coached, and then choosing a triathlon coach is a rite of passage. If you have the budget and the inclination, coaching is the best way to get faster. However, there are many things to consider when choosing a triathlon coach. You need to consider their experience, their qualifications, the kind of athletes they work with and their methodology. There are very few right and wrong answers in triathlon, and different coaches will work in different ways to achieve the same thing. In this piece I’m going to look at different considerations when choosing a triathlon coach, pitfalls to avoid, and red flags you may want to look out for. Full disclosure, I am a coach myself and you are reading this on my website (sorry about that), however more than anything I want people to enjoy their triathlon and have a positive coaching experience, whether that’s with me or someone else. Are You Ready to be Coached? This may sound like a silly question, but I’ve worked with athletes over the years who aren’t truly ready to hand the reins over to someone else. Doing so can be scary, as you are giving up your autonomy and putting a lot of trust in someone. If you are still improving at a rapid rate with your current programme, it may be worth waiting until you hit a bit more of a plateau before you hire extra help, as otherwise the coaching relationship can be stressful for both parties and become strained over time. You need to be able to show true vulnerability. This goes beyond simply telling your coach “My swimming sucks, I need your help to improve”. It means telling your coach when you’re tired or having doubts about the training. When you feel you’re not making progress or you’ve picked up a potential injury. Honesty is so incredibly important in coaching, to the point I’ve terminated coaching relationships when an athlete has been deliberately dishonest. Most coaches will not judge or think less of you for missing sessions, going off plan or switching sessions around, but transparency with the coach is incredibly important, so we can understand why you aren’t following the plan, allowing us to attempt to fix it. Starting Your Search If you feel ready to work with a coach, you can begin your search. Ask around any triathlon friends you have to see if they have recommendations. If nothing comes up that you think will work for you, it’s time to take your search online. You can either start by searching for simple terms such as “Triathlon Coaching London”, or you could use a coach finder website to find a suitable coach for you. I recommend the latter, as you can then compare dozens of coaches like for like, without flashy websites to distract you from what really matters. Once you find a coach’s profile who appeals to you, it’s worth visiting their website to learn a bit more about them, and creating a shortlist to come back to later. Location The first thing you need to consider is location, as this will have a large impact on your search. Do you see yourself spending a lot of time in person with your coach? Or are you completely self sufficient in that regard? Newer athletes tend to need a bit more in the way of in person coaching while more established athletes tend to need much less. I have worked with several athletes I have never met before, from Syria to India, and the US to Russia. If you have the choice between working with a mediocre coach in your local area, or a high quality coach virtually, it’s worth asking yourself just how important face to face is for you. When I was living in London I had dozens of athletes sign up with me who wanted a local coach. Many of them I never met face to face. Coaching means different things to different people, and some I saw at least once a month, but it’s worth being realistic with how much time you genuinely intend to spend with your coach. Coaching sessions aren’t generally free, so your budget is worth considering as well. If you are towards the upper end of your budget from monthly coaching fees alone, will you really have the disposable income to pay them for in person sessions? You may want simply to meet up with them occasionally over a coffee to discuss how training is going, but in the post pandemic era, Zoom is a time efficient relatively personable way to have these conversations wherever you are in the world. Monthly Fees The next big consideration when choosing a triathlon coach is monthly fees. Coaches can charge anything from £40 a month all the way up to £1000. Triathlon is already an expensive sport, so pick a coach in your price range. I love triathlon, but it’s really not worth putting yourself into debt over, and those coaches charging the higher fees may not necessarily be that much better than coaches charging less, they may simply have a very high opinion of themselves. I charge £200 a month, which is roughly the going rate for the level of service I offer, taking me nicely into my next point. Level of Service Choosing a triathlon coach is much more than just hiring the best coach you can find, it’s important that it matches the level of service you desire. You may be able to work with a legendary coach for a surprisingly affordable fee, but if your only contact with them is one E-mail a month, are you really being coached? Equally, if you have a coach who analyses all your workouts, messages you every day to check in and is always asking questions, is that too much for you personally? If you want someone to write you a comprehensive plan then just leave you alone to get onto it,

July 26, 2022

IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire Race Guide

DISCLAIMER: This is not the official race guide for IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire. This is an unofficial guide written to help athletes familiarise themselves with the course. The official IRONMAN Athlete Guide is compulsory reading and will become available close to race day at https://www.ironman.com/im703-staffordshire All information provided here is based on my experience at the 2022 event, however things may well be different when you compete. Always defer to the information in the athlete guide and that which is provided by team members on site. I have written a guide for a generic M-dot branded race day which goes more into the nitty gritty that can be found here, where this article will focus more on what makes the Staffordshire course itself unique. Introduction Congratulations on taking the plunge and signing up for IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire. Whether this is your first 70.3 or your 100th, I’m sure you’re going to have a great day. The course is the toughest half distance event I’ve ever raced, so underestimate it at your peril. The swim can be choppy, the rolling bike course has a real sting in its tail, and the run features a punishing hill up to Staffordshire Castle and back. Logistics This will probably be the longest section of this article, all of the logistics involved with setting your transition area up. I remember thinking on the Saturday how I was looking forward to the Sunday morning, as the amount of faffing I had to do to get myself setup on the Saturday was mind boggling. This is a very difficult race logistically, and you have little hope of getting everything done without access to a vehicle of some sort. Firstly, if at all possible, I recommend you travel up to Staffordshire and stay over on the Friday night, and register on the Friday if at all possible. The reason for this is two fold. Firstly, you have more time to get everything done, and don’t run the risk of running out of time. Secondly, if you get ready to leave on the Saturday morning and your car won’t start or your train is cancelled, you have time to sort it out. The registration tent closes midday on Saturday, and if you arrive any later than this you won’t be able to race. Registration and T2 Setup Registration and T2 are both in the town centre, so I recommend you head down with everything you need for your run bag. This should include your running shoes and any additional clothing and/or nutrition you may want for the run course. For registration you will need photo ID (passport or driving license) as well as your proof of entry, in 2022 this took the form of a QR code we needed ready to be scanned. T2 is a long way from the town centre car park recommended by IRONMAN, so make sure you factor this into your timings. Upon registering you will receive an IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire backpack, wristband, race number, series of stickers, swim cap, blue bag, red bag, white bag and some promotional items. You will receive your timing chip in T1, so don’t worry about that just yet. Apply your stickers to your red bag and place the items you need for the run inside of it. It is worth running through in your mind the things you’ll have on you at the time, and the things you think you might need. You can now enter T2 (using your wristband as ID) to hang your red bag onto your hook in the marquee. From here, walk all the way from your bag to the entry to T2, where you’ll be arriving with your bike on Sunday. From here, plot out your walk to your bike racking point. This is denoted by stickers on each piece of racking, one of which will have your race number on it. Plan your exact route from racking your bike over to the marquee, so you don’t run the risk of getting confused on the day. While you’re in T2 you can check out the merchandise tent if you’re that way inclined, but it’s worth bearing in mind that you will get a free technical T-shirt when you finish tomorrow. T1 Setup Transition 1 for IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire is a bit of a nightmare. Firstly you have to find the car park for T1, avoiding the directions your satnav will give you over a bridge that is closed to traffic. Once in the T1 car park you then unload all the gear you need, build your bike back up (giving it a test ride to make sure it works as it should), then wait for a shuttle bus to take you to T1 itself. Once you disembark the bus, you then have a 10-15 minute walk to transition. After leaving T2, you should budget between 60 and 90 minutes to get to T1. As a result of the logistics involved, it’s worth triple checking you have everything you need before leaving for T1. You will have access to your blue bags on Sunday morning if you forget something small such as your sunglasses, but it’s a stress you can do without. Before entering T1 itself you will need to ensure your stickers are on your helmet, bike and blue bag. Your helmet will need to be on your head, with the strap tightened so marshals can check it is fitted correctly. Once inside T1, your first job is to find your racking point. Like T2, you will have a designated racking point denoted by a sticker with your race number. Rack your bike in a way which doesn’t cause an obstruction to other athletes, and make your way to the marquee to hang your bike bag in the same manner as your run bag. You can then collect your timing chip from the volunteers at the far end of the marquee. While a walkthrough of T2 is a nice to have, a walk

July 4, 2022

Alcohol and Triathlon

Most athletes have wondered at some point what the relationship is between alcohol and triathlon. Should they drink at all? How much is too much? Why is alcohol free beer such a big thing in our sport? In this article I hope to sort fact from fiction, and help you make informed choices. The first half will be science focused, in the second half we’ll look at a few strategies you can employ, and my personal feelings on the subject. If you’re looking for a quick wrap up, scroll on down to the conclusion at the bottom. I’m not going to try to talk you out of drinking, rather help you decide whether one more pint really is a good idea, help you understand the effects it has on your performance, and make more informed choices. We’re all individuals with our own set of values, and I’m not going to try to impose mine on you. The Metabolism of Ethanol Ethanol is known by some as the fourth macronutrient. We already have carbohydrate, fats and protein, with ethanol sneaking in as a fourth. So what role does ethanol play? Well, it doesn’t play a role at all in a healthy diet, it’s completely optional and of no benefit to an athlete. Carbohydrate and protein both contain 4 calories per gram (so 100g of sugar would contain 400 calories), while fats contain 9. Ethanol contains 7 calories per gram, so is calorifically dense. This can add quickly over the course of a night out. The body has no way to store ethanol, so it is perceived as a toxin. The quickest way to remove ethanol from the body is to metabolise (burn) it, so the body prioritises burning ethanol over carbohydrates, in the same way the body prioritises carbohydrates over fats when training. This means that the food we were already digesting prior to alcohol consumption or following it becomes excess calories. When you consider that some of the food decisions we make during and after alcohol consumption can be… interesting… combined with the fact the body is getting all the energy it needs from ethanol, this has the potential to leave us with a lot of excess calories What does the body do with excess calories? It stores them as body fat. When you consider that dietary fats can take up to seven hours to digest, any fats you had for lunch or dinner before you start drinking may be translated directly into body weight. Ethanol metabolism also creates acetates in our body, which reduces our body’s need to utilise its fat stores. When you consider this alongside the fact that a small glass of wine contains 100 calories and a pint of real ale can easily hit 200, you can start to appreciate how counter productive alcohol consumption is for an athlete trying to watch their weight. One night of heavy drinking can undo a week’s worth of healthy eating and training. The Effects of Alcohol on Health I’ve yet to meet a doctor which recommends the consumption of alcohol. There are a few studies you can find which will talk about the benefits of certain types of alcohol (normally on the front page of a tabloid newspaper) due to the presence of antioxidants, but these effects aren’t always repeatable in other studies, or may only be limited to specific population groups. If there are any health benefits from certain drinks, they’re outweighed by the effect that regular alcohol consumption itself has on the body, as the diagram below shows. I probably don’t need to talk you through the above, but it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Alcohol is a class 1 carcinogenic, which means it has a very significant risk of causing cancer at some point compared to other substances. Alcohol consumption also increases heart rate, which in turn increases blood pressure. It affects our testosterone and/or oestrogen levels, which are critically important for sexual function as well as athletic performance. You may believe that alcohol helps you get a good night’s sleep, but it disrupts our sleep patterns by restricting the amount of REM (rapid eye movement) and deep sleep we can access. I can’t think of many individuals who feel refreshed and well rested after a big drinking session. No matter how late they sleep in the next day. The Effect of Alcohol on Triathlon Now we’re done with the theory, let’s put it into practice. How will alcohol affect your triathlon performance and training? The biggest issue is with regards to recovery. As mentioned above, alcohol has a huge effect on sleep quality (not quantity). Swimming, cycling, running and lifting don’t make us fitter, they just create a training stimulus. Without sufficient recovery we won’t actually get any fitter, we’ll just run ourselves into the ground. If you sink a few pints to “recover” from your ride, you will undo some, if not all of your hard work. While the exact effects alcohol has on adaptation to endurance training haven’t been researched extensively at the time of writing, it has been proven to have a notable effect on muscle protein synthesis (Duplanty et al., 2017; Parr et al., 2014). This is the process of your body using proteins to create new muscle fibres, giving us bigger, stronger muscles. This is more of a concern for bodybuilders than triathletes, but may make an endurance athlete’s DOMS last for longer than they’d like. Chemistry aside, what are the real world implications of heavy drinking? Alcohol affects your proprioception, which is your awareness of the world around you and how to react to it. This can result in entirely avoidable injuries such as a sprained ankle or fracture from missing a step on your way to/from the toilets. More than once an athlete of mine has been coming into good form after a hard winter of base training, but come back to the UK with their foot in a medical boot and their season in tatters after

April 21, 2022

IRONMAN UK Race Guide

First things first, this is not the official Ironman UK athlete’s guide with all the information you’ll need on the day itself. That all important document can be found on the Ironman website in the last couple of months before the event. This is a piece written by me, Simon Olney, professional triathlon coach and Ironman UK finisher, here to share some pragmatic advice with you ahead of race day. The information provided here is based on the knowledge I have acquired over the years of training athletes for this event and racing myself. The race changes every year in some respect, so always trust information from the race officials over anything you read here. Secondly, I have written an in depth article on generic race day tips for Ironman events, which can be found here. For the purposes of this article I will assume you have read the other article, or already be familiar with other Ironman branded events, as combining the two would be unwieldily. With all that taken care of, let’s dive in. About The Race Ironman UK is one of the hardest Ironman races in the world. It may not have the brutal winds of Lanzarote, the humidity of Kona, or the mountain ascents of Nice; but the relentless steep climbs, unpredictable weather and hilly run course gave the race a DNF rate of over 20% in 2019. That means that for every five people who collect their number from registration, at least one will have gone home without a medal. 2019 was a particularly difficult year with 2500M of elevation gain on the bike, but the race traditionally has a high DNF rate. The support from the locals is pretty outstanding, with the population of the local area taking to the roads with signs, banners and musical instruments to cheer athletes on. At a couple of points it can feel like you are riding up a mountain in the Tour de France, with spectators filling the road either side of you. Ironman UK has a traditional 17 hour time cutoff. You have 2:20 to finish the swim, 10:30 to finish the bike and the swim, then 17 hours to cross the finish line. All times are taken from the time you cross the timing mat at the start of the swim, so don’t think you’re at a disadvantage by starting at the back. Long Term Planning You are best off booking accommodation in the centre of Bolton if you can. This is so your room is only a short hobbling distance from the finish line. A minibus service runs from the city centre to the Pennington Flash on race day, as well as parking being available in the nearby Leigh Sports Village. You’ll need to book well in advance to get a spot in the centre though, so don’t put off booking a room. You may also want to check whether they’re serving breakfast early at the hotel you’re looking at. Many do, to ensure you can get some proper food ahead of the start. I highly recommend travelling up on the Friday if at all possible, as registration closes midday on Saturday, and if you’re delayed on the Saturday morning you won’t be racing, or eligible for a refund. You also have a busy schedule on the Saturday, so need all the time you can get to avoid a panic. On the Weekend Once you arrive, the first thing you should do is register, as this is time sensitive. Once you have your race number and wristband, it’s time to head back to your hotel to pack your bags. This is covered in depth in our main article (link at the top of the page), but pay close attention to the forecast on the day, and pack anything you think you might need in your bike bag. Once your bags are packed, it’s time to head to the Pennington Flash to rack your bike. Parking is available on the Saturday, but there is a one way stretch of road coming into the venue so it can be a bit sticky at busy times. Once you re-build your bike, take it for a quick ride around the car park, trying all the gears and brakes, to ensure everything is working as it should. If it isn’t, or you need some last minute spares, mechanics are available in T1 who can help you. Mechanical tweaks are normally free, but you will have to pay for any parts. Once you rack your bike, it’s time to head into the marquee to collect your timing chip. Protect this like your firstborn child, as getting a replacement in the morning will not be easy, and you’ll be charged for a replacement. It’s a level of stress you can probably do without. In the marquee you’ll also be hanging your bike bag on a hook for collection once you exit the swim. Make sure your bag is hanging on the correct hook, as they will be numbered. After everything is in place, take the time to walk down to the swim exit (the left most of the ramps as you look at the water), and walk to T1 tracing the steps you’ll take on race day. In previous years, this has always ran to the left of transition. From here head into the marquee, over to where your bag is, then outside to where your bike is waiting. This will help it become second nature on the day, and save you getting confused. It’s also a good way to check your bag is on the correct hook! Once T1 is setup, it’s time to head to T2 which is a much simpler affair, simply hanging your bag up in the marquee, though a walk through is still a good idea. Take the time while you’re here to find where your bike racking spot is, so you have one less thing to think about on race day. The most difficult

February 22, 2022

Turbo Trainer Vs Smart Bike

For the cyclist or triathlete looking to train in a more structured way, indoor training is a must. It allows you to ride hard without interruption, worrying about road surface or other road users. There are two primary options available for indoor training. One the one hand we have the ubiquitous turbo trainer. This is a device you mount your existing bike onto, providing resistance and power readings. Most modern turbo trainers are also what we call “smart” turbos. These change the resistance for you based on both manual input and that from a 3rd party app. Next up we have the smart bike. These are a relatively recent invention, with the first Wattbike released in 2008, designed for use primarily by track cyclists. This was updated more recently with the Wattbike Atom, a bike designed for integration with modern training apps. In recent years other manufacturers including Wahoo, Stages and Tacx have launched their own smart bikes to rival this, seeing a gap in the market. So, which option is superior? A turbo trainer or a smart bike? Of curse, it’s not quite as simple as that, but there are definite pros and cons to each. Let’s start by looking into each in a bit more detail. Turbo Trainers When you purchase a turbo trainer, you will be choosing between one of two options, wheel on or wheel off. With a wheel on trainer you can simply mount the whole bike onto a trainer using a clamp, however there’s a bit more to it than that. You have to make sure the drum the tyre presses against is at the correct tension and the tyre is at the correct pressure. The trainer will also place a lot of wear on your tyres. To get around this many cyclists buy a second wheel to place an indoor specific tyre on, which they will swap out when they ride indoors. As many cyclists will look at wheel on trainers to avoid having to remove their rear wheel, this removes much of the appeal. Most turbo trainers are wheel off trainers, where you remove the back wheel and place the bike on the trainer itself. The advantages provided by these trainers are a greater potential for creating resistance, quieter operation, improved accuracy, more realistic ride feel and smaller unit size. The only real downside is if you plan to share the trainer with another rider whose groupset isn’t compatible with yours, as the cassette lives on the trainer. A cassette swap is a five minute job with a bit of practice, but it’s a barrier to getting your workout done, especially if you’re not feeling motivated that day. One downside of all turbos is that by riding your bike indoors, you are putting wear on it. All components have a shelf life, and riding a turbo trainer will place wear on your components. Making sure your drivetrain is clean before placing it on the turbo trainer, and regularly checking your chain length can help with this. Some frame manufacturers don’t cover turbo use under their warranty, so you may find yourself out of pocket if your bike is damaged on the turbo trainer. Damaging a bike on a turbo trainer is incredibly difficult, and as long as you attach it to the turbo tightly, the chances of damage are incredibly low unless you do something silly. Pros Cheaper Smaller Correct position every time Minimal setup or fussing Can take with you when travelling Cons Slightly noisier Places wear on your parts Potential frame warranty issues Next up, we’ll look at what you can expect from a smart bike Smart Bikes There are two very noticeable differences between turbo trainers and smart bikes. The size, and the price tag. While many turbo trainers can fold up and fit behind your sofa if you are tight on space, a smart bike needs a dedicated space, perhaps even dedicated room to use. They also come in at over twice the prize of a top end turbo trainer. So, what do you get for your money? Smart bikes are almost silent, due to the absence of a moving parts. While the latest turbos are whisper quiet compared to classic trainers which would give jet engines a run for their money, you still have the mechanical nose of the chain, which smart bikes remove. There will still be some humming as you put down the big watts, but if you have a sleeping baby in the house or live somewhere with thin walls/floors, this could justify the purchase of a smart bike over a turbo trainer. Smart bikes also require less calibration, due to not only their ability to self calibrate, but the fact they don’t get moved around as often as a turbo trainers do. This means your power readings will be more accurate, if you are using the Smart bike’s power meter. I encourage everyone who uses a power meter outside to also use it inside, overriding the power meter on your turbo/smart bike for more consistent readings, so this won’t be as much of an issue for many. The big downside to smart bikes for me is adjustability. While you generally have a great degree of freedom to get yourself in the right position with smart bikes, 1mm can be the difference between a great ride and a painful one for some cyclists, so replacing your position fully on a smart bike is an ongoing battle for many. A little higher, a little shorter, try a little lower again, the tweak are often endless, especially if sharing with another rider and you have to adjust each time you ride. One client I’m working with was using a smart bike, but the fixed crank length on his model meant it exacerbated a hip issue. As a result, he had to sell his smart bike and buy a turbo trainer. Getting the basic measurements (reach, saddle height, frame size) right can take a bit of

January 2, 2022

Why Is Cycling so Expensive?

It’s the question that has crossed the mind of every aspiring cyclist or triathlete, why is cycling so expensive? You may have had a budget in your head of £100 (or regional equivalent) for your bike, but it seems even that is unlikely to leave you walking away with a bike. Let alone a road bike. That’s before you even get to the clothing and accessories. Why is cycling so expensive? Is the whole industry a rip off? In this article we’re going on a deep dive into the cycling industry to find out. We’re going to be focusing on road cycling as this is the area I’m mot familiar with. The majority of the points here apply to off road as well. Why Shouldn’t I Buy a £100 bike? These bikes are what I have seen fondly referred to as “bike shaped objects” by mechanics. This may come across as snobbery, but there’s logic here. These bikes are designed to be taken out for a short ride on flat terrain a couple of times a year. The quintessential family bike ride. They’re heavy, sluggish and will break very easily. When it does break, you will probably pay 30-40% of the value of the bike to fix it. The tyres will puncture easily, the chain will probably fall off without much encouragement, and you’ll struggle to get spare parts. What Should I Buy Instead? In contrast, let’s look at the classic starting bike, the Specialized Allez. Like many cyclists, I started out on one of these dream machines. Other brands are available. So, what does this bike offer which our bargain basement bike doesn’t? Lighter For many cyclists, a lighter bike is a better bike. If you get passed on the hills by those on much lighter bikes, this is very demoralising as you feel powerless. An entry level road bike like an Allez could be twice as light as a cheap bike. It still isn’t that expensive in the grand scheme of road cycling, but it’s a big step up. Lasts Longer I’m probably not exaggerating by much when I estimate that this bike will last 100 times longer than a cheap bike. I rode mine for the best part of 15,000 miles without major issue. Yes I needed to replace some parts, but when you consider you’re lucky to get 100 miles out of a cheap bike without needing to take it to a mechanic, the difference in longevity is remarkable. It’s actually cheaper to pay more up front in the long run. More responsive The Specialized pictured above uses a Shimano Sora groupset. This refers to the brakes, gears, shifters, chain e.t.c. When you shift a gear on this bike, it will jump to the new gear less than a second. When you shift a gear on a bike shaped object, it will make a slow, clunky shift. If you’re lucky it’ll end up in the gear you wanted to without jumping around. If you’re not changing gear much this doesn’t matter. But if you’re on rolling terrain and want to use your gears to make life easier, this can be frustrating. In addition, when you turn a corner, the steering will feel silky smooth for a long time. Meanwhile, a cheaper bike’s bearings will wear quickly. Especially when it gets wet. Upgrade Potential Once you’ve been riding for a year or two, you’ll probably find yourself looking at some upgrades for your bike. This could be more gears, better brakes or a new saddle. These upgrades are designed to fit traditional road bikes. Cheaper bikes often have non standard fixtures, as they don’t expect to be upgraded. When you can be looking at £80 for a comfortable saddle, you will very quickly get to the place where you’re almost spending as much on single components as you did on a cheap bike. Inevitable Regret If you buy a cheap bike and get bitten by the cycling bug, you’ll end up regretting it. Whether you ride with friends who leave you for dust, or it breaks down yet again at the furthest point from home and you need to call for a pick up; you’ll end up having to sell it for a fraction of what you paid for it, and buying a more expensive bike anyway. So, where does my money go? The Specialized Allez starts at £650, which is a lot of money to spend on a bike. So where does the money go? And why would someone look to spend £5000 on a bike? Quality of Materials The biggest factor which makes cycling expensive is the materials used in manufacture of the parts. If you want a cheap steel frame, you can get this for a song. However, it will be very heavy. There are Chinese factories which manufacture counterfeit bikes, which they sell on for a fraction of the cost. However, there’s a good chance these will break, potentially injuring you in the process. When looking to purchase something it can be cheap and light. Or strong and cheap. Most bikes need to be both light and strong, but this doesn’t come cheap. For a bike to be able to withstand thousands of miles on the road without damage the materials have to be carefully chosen. They also have to be treated in a specific way to ensure performance and safety. This extends beyond the frame materials to everything on the bike. Wheels are notoriously expensive because they have to both be incredibly light, and withstand huge forces from hitting potholes without buckling. There will always be a cheaper option out there, but this will come with a penalty to performance and longevity. Research and Development If you want to create the lightest and fastest bike on the market, this involves a considerable amount of research and development. This involves paying designers and engineers to build prototypes, time spent in a wind tunnel, stress tests on the frame itself, and dozens of

September 30, 2021

How To Prevent Punctures

We all want to prevent punctures. The dull thudding sound, sluggish steering and sensation you’re riding through treacle is all too familiar to anyone who has ridden a bike for a prolonged period of time. You have a flat tyre, which will need attention if you’re to continue your journey. If you’re lucky this will be on a warm summer’s morning and you’ll have a puncture repair kit with you, armed with the knowledge on how to repair it. If you’re unlucky it’ll be dark, cold and a long way from civilisation with no obvious way to fix it. Even worse, this could be during an event. This experience can be traumatising for some, I’ve even hear multiple people tell me “I used to love riding to work, then I got a puncture, and my bike lives in the shed now”. While we can never 100% guarantee you’ll be puncture free, unless you run solid tyres, there are some simple steps you can take to prevent punctures. Saving you money on tubes and a lot of time in the process. Buy Better Tyres This is the biggest single thing you can do to prevent punctures, buy a tyre with better puncture protection. Some tyres can be purchased which a gel inside of them (such as slime tyres), but they are so heavy and slow you’ll want to steer clear of them for serious cycling, so you should instead be looking at tyres with a protective bead. Most brands will have a nigh on bulletproof tyre (such as the Continental gatorskin) and a super minimalist tyre with no very little or no puncture protection (such as the Continental Grand Prix Supersonic), and many shades of grey between. Many novice cyclists will want to go for the most puncture protection they can their their hands on, which is completely understandable, but it does come at a cost. The cost comes in weight and rolling resistance. Weight is quite obvious, a 32mm Gator Hardshell weighs in at 445g, so 890g for the pair. Meanwhile the aforementioned Supersonic weighs in at 140g, or 280g for the pair, that’s a whopping 610g difference, or the equivalent of carrying an extra water bottle on your bike. While this won’t have a huge effect on your times, you’d definitely notice the difference if you rode the two back to back. The second price you pay is rolling resistance, this is how much resistance is created as the tyre rolls down the road. Sticking with our two examples, you lose 19.5w through the Gator Hardshell and only 10.2W through the Supersonic. If someone offered you 10 extra watts to your FTP, you’d probably bite their arm off, so this loss is not to be sniffed at. Finally, we have grip. Many tyres boasting high levels of puncture protection will be made with a hard rubber compound to make it harder for sharp objects to penetrate the rubber, before it even gets to the protective band under the tyre. This comes at the cost of grip, and you’ll have less confidence going into wet corners as a result. I’ve ridden with people who call Gatorskins as “skaterskins” based on their lack of grip in the wet. If you are a new cyclist looking to compete in your first event and the thought of puncturing during the race keeps you up at night, then the gatroskins will be fine. You won’t be leaning into the corners fast enough to worry about grip, and an extra minute or two onto your finishing time isn’t going to be a concern, so this might be the right tyre for you. If you are a high level cyclist looking for every possible gain, and will take your risks with the puncture gods for the possibility of a new PB, then the supersonic is probably the tyre for you. However, the vast majority of us sit between these to categories. We want to avoid punctures, but not at the expense of performance. Over the course of a 180KM Ironman bike leg the chances are you’ll ride over something which will try to penetrate the tyre at some point, so don’t let the promise of low rolling resistance tempt you away from the pragmatic need for puncture protection. This is one of the few areas I recommend it’s worth spending a premium. Data on rolling resistance for individual tyres can be found at: https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/road-bike-reviews Most bikes roll off the shop floor with very poor tyres on them, so I always recommend someone buys new tyres when they purchase a bike to avoid that inevitable puncture and frustrated trip back to the bike shop. Replace your tyres when they wear Like most parts on a bicycle, a tyre will wear and need replacing after a time. The rubber will be slowly worn away after hundreds of thousands of revolutions, and the compound itself will start to harden, creating small cracks which pieces of flint or glass can find their way into. Many tyre manufacturers have a wear indicator on their tyres, so make sure you replace them before they reach the limit. If not for puncture protection purchases, to stop the tyre failing dramatically on you at speed, which could result in injury, Pull debris out of your tyres Many sharp objects will find their way into the rubber, only to be stopped by the protective bead. This isn’t the end of their journey though, as there they will sit for the foreseeable future until you pull them out. Left unattended they may make their way through the protective bead slowly over many weeks, months or even years until they reach your inner tube and spoil your Sunday. To keep on top of this, I recommend you deflate your tyre and check it over very carefully by eye, pinching it wherever you see a hole in the tyre to check if anything is wedged in there. If there is remove it gently with a small flathead

September 23, 2021

IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 Race Day Success

Note: This article is aimed at athletes who are preparing for an “official” IRONMAN branded race day. Not those who are completing the distance at “unofficial” events. If you are completing the distance at an even with a different organiser (Outlaw, challenge, independent), this is the article you need: Triathlon Race Day Success Hopefully by the time you’re reading this your training has gone well, you’re excited, and feel nervous, yet unstoppable. However, a few mistakes on your Ironman race day can really put a spanner in the works. This may leave you disappointed with your time or even result in you failing to finish. All of that fitness isn’t much use if you can’t apply it onto the course, so we’re going to walk you through the confusing and sometimes stressful world of race preparation and race execution. This will help reduce stress and confusion on the day itself. The following points are based on my experience of Ironman triathlons, however as the races are run as franchises there may be small differences in how each event is run. Always read the race information and defer to it over the advice I give here. Long Term Planning At some events you can put your bike in the back of the car, drive to the event, pay the entry fee and race. However an Ironman race day is one you need to put a lot of thought into. You will have likely signed up to many months in advance. You need a long term plan for the weekend, as at the very least you will need to be there the day before to register. Unless you live very locally, this involves finding accommodation in the area, and travelling down. I highly recommend you travel down two days before to register. The reason for this is that if you get up at 7AM the day before the race for the 4 hour drive to the registration, and your car doesn’t start, there’s chaos on the railways or even just heavy traffic after an accident, that’s your ironman race day over before it’s begun. All that money on the entry, time invested in your training, all of it evaporates as registration closes at 12PM sharp the day before. No exceptions. Packing I recommend you pack your gear three to four days before you travel, even if means you’re training out of a suitcase for a few days. The reason is this gives you a chance to get the bike fixed if there’s a problem, to order a new trisuit if the zipper has broken, or new goggles if yours have completely fogged up. Finding these problems the day before an Ironman race day is a level of stress we can all do without. Here’s a recommended packing list: Bike Wetsuit Running shoes Cycling shoes Trisuit Goggles Spare goggles Second swim cap/neoprene cap (for cold swims) Bodyglide Helmet Sunglasses Suncream Socks Race belt Tools for bike (tyre levers, spare inner tube, multi-tool) Running cap/visor Nutrition Bicycle pump Photo ID (for registration, normally a passport/driving license) Plus anything that you specifically may want to take During registration you will have indicated whether you wanted a special needs bag or not. I always encourage my athletes to say yes, so they can stick some expendables they may need in their bag. This could be a spare inner tube in case you’ve already used your spare, obscure nutrition you just might fancy on the marathon, and anything in-between. As yourself what you normally crave during a hard workout, and pack that. Use this opportunity to read (or re-read) the athlete guide to familiarise yourself with the course and what you can expect. Two Days Before Ironman Race Day Registration Your first port of call should be registration where you will receive the following: Blue bag– This is for your bike kit. Everything that won’t be on your bike in the morning, more details below Red bag– This is for your running kit. In most cases will simply be your running kit, more details below Race number– This is essential to avoid a disqualification, in Europe you need to wear it on the bike, however this is not always a requirement in all territories, so check the race guide. Most athletes will run with a race belt which their number will be attached to, allowing them to spin it behind them on the bike, and round the front for the run as per the rules. Swim Cap– Pretty self explanatory, this will be what you wear for the swim, and will be branded with the event name. It’s one way to ensure only registered athletes enter the water. Rucksack– All events I’ve been to will give you a branded rucksack at registration. The quality can be variable, but they’re generally a good souvenir of the event. Wristband– This will normally be attached by a volunteer, and you will be unable to remove it between now and the finish line. It’s proof that you are a registered athlete. It’s your ticket into transition and other athlete only areas. Become One Wristband– For first time athletes, they will receive a special wristband denoting them as a first timer. These are completely optional to wear, but might get you a few more cheers out on course. Stickers– You will be provided with stickers that belong on your helmet, bike and transition bags. This is to mark them as your property, and to allow for identification on course. Bike Check Take the opportunity to give your bike the once over by riding it around for a bit, changing through all the gears. Your bike will likely need to be disassembled for transport, and in the rebuilding process mistakes can be made resulting in irritating imperfections such as a gear shift being slower than normal, all the way up to a race ending mechanical such as your aero bars coming loose or your brakes not working correctly. All Ironman races I’ve

September 17, 2021

Triathlon Race Day Success

Hopefully by the time you’re reading this your training has gone well, you’re excited, and feel nervous, yet unstoppable. However, a few mistakes on your triathlon race day can really put a spanner in the works. Maybe even result in your failing to finish. All of that fitness isn’t much use if you can’t apply it onto the course, so we’re going to walk you through the confusing and stressful world of race preparation. This will reduce stress and confusion on the morning itself. It’s worth clarifying that every race has its quirks and differences. There are races which start at 7PM, are pool swims, end with a run up a mountain, mix up the disciplines and more. Don’t see this as being a guide to your race specifically as it can’t cover all possibilities, Make sure you always read the pre race information on the organiser’s website. Don’t make assumptions that what you read here will happen on the day. Two Days Before This is the best day to organise your kit. As most triathlon race days are Sundays, by packing your kit on the Friday is a good idea. Not only to make it a less stressful experience, you make it more likely you’ll remember something you forgot to pack. This also gives you time to replace anything missing/broken. Here’s a recommended packing list: Bike Wetsuit Running shoes Cycling shoes Trisuit Goggles Spare goggles Second swim cap/neoprene cap (for cold swims) Bodyglide Helmet Sunglasses Suncream Socks Race belt Tools for bike (tyre levers, spare tube (unless running tubeless), multi-tool) Running cap/visor Nutrition Bicycle pump Photo ID (for registration, normally a passport/driving license) Plus anything that you specifically may want to take Use this opportunity to read (or re-read) the athlete guide for your event. The Day Before Unless you race is very local, I recommend travelling up the night before. A traffic jam, cancelled train, or dead battery could be the end of your triathlon race day before it’s even begun. List of Jobs Rebuild bike and take it for a very short ride to check everything is working ok Organise nutrition, attach it to bike/place it in clothing where applicable Drive the bike course (if you own a car) Walk to the swim start to get an idea of the swim course Register, if possible Stay hydrated Eat a nutritious, easily digestible meal Avoid alcohol Get an early night Race Morning Wake up at least 2 hours before your start time, allowing more time if the venue is further away. You want to arrive with at least an hour between arriving at the venue and your start time. There are a lot of things that can go wrong during your triathlon race day. Give yourself as much time to deal with these as you can. Before Leaving You’ll probably want breakfast before you leave for your race, but hotels can make this difficult, unless you are staying at a big hotel close to a big race, who will often put an early breakfast on. Breakfast is a personal choice, but I’ve had more success with gastrointestinal issues since I cut down on the lactose on race morning. We’re all lactose intolerant to a greater or lesser extent, and the emotions of race day combined with the exertion of racing can cause that big bowl of porridge to sit very heavy on the stomach, or even make a reappearance in the swim if you’re very unlucky. This is also a good time to put your trisuit, or whatever you’re wearing for the swim on. Races don’t normally have a dedicated changing area, and I doubt you want to get changed in a portaloo. Leave your accommodation with plenty of time to make it to the start. It’s better to be sat around in your wetsuit for another 15 minutes than to miss your start because you hit the snooze button. Registration If you haven’t registered yet, that should be your first port of call. You should receive the following, unless they arrived via post in the preceding days: Race number Wristband Race number stickers Timing chip Contents may vary from race to race Your timing chip will normally be in the form of a plastic chip on a band with a velcro closure system. This is placed on your left leg, to prevent it from interfering with the bike. Make sure you do not put this over the top of your wetsuit as not only does this increase the chances of it getting knocked off in the water, it also makes it a pain to get your wetsuit off. The wristband allows you access into transition and will normally include your race number so marshals can check it matches the number on your bike. Your race number usually needs to be placed on your back when cycling and your front when running. A race belt is the best solution and prevents you messing around with safety pins through your expensive tri suit. Your race stickers belong on your bike and your helmet, and are used to identify you both on course and in race photos afterwards. They are also used to identify your bike in transition when the marshal will cross reference it with your wristband, to stop someone walking off with your pride and joy. Setting up Transition Your next port of call will be heading to transition where you will rack your bike, unless you did so the evening before. On your way into transition officials will check your bike’s brakes work and that you have bar plugs on your dropped handle bars, if applicable. Some races have stickers denoting your race number on the racking, others it is a free for all. If you have the choice, rack your bike near the end of a rack to make it easier to find. Another benefit to getting there early! To start with place your bike on the rack, which normally takes the form of a

September 4, 2021

Gift Ideas for Triathletes

September 1, 2021

How to Fall Back in Love With Triathlon

As with everything in life, what once raised our pulse and dominated our every thought becomes slowly mundane. When we started out in triathlon we were all smitten with the bike tech, wetsuits, different events and all the toys we never knew we needed. We completed our first race, got faster quickly, raced progressively longer distances, until a day came when we no longer jumped out of bed to train every morning. How can we fall back in love with triathlon? It could be that your performance hit a plateau, you picked up an injury, or you achieved everything you wanted to. For whatever reason you’ve lost your mojo and triathlon no longer gives you goosebumps. While you can never recapture the thrill of the first year or two in the sport, there are steps you can take to remember why you started, and hopefully get back to enjoying training. These tips are very generalised, and depend on why you’ve found yourself out of love with the sport, but should hopefully help you get back into the swing of things. Find New Training Routes To start with, exploring the roads in your local area by bike was a real buzz. Whether putting in a big training ride or simply saving money on petrol/public transport, it was a new way to see the world. Fast forward five years and you know every pothole, every corner and every gradient change within 10 miles of your front door. The list of places to explore is dwindling and with it the satisfaction of achieving something new. To start with, look into some route planning software such as Komoot, Strava or Ride with GPS. These can help you both find new routes uploaded by others, or help you create a new route based on a destination such as a cafe or a piece of coastline. Be careful here though, as some software will try to take you down overgrown bike paths, through muddy forests or a really convoluted, slow route using cycle lanes, so it’s worth checking the route before you blindly set off. Focus on a Single Sport If you’ve always been a pure triathlete, you’ve probably missed out on a lot of events. It may be worth looking into cross country running, time trialling or long distance swimming. These events are usually much cheaper than entering a triathlon, and you can train for them alongside the other two disciplines. They may push you out of your comfort zone, but this is a good thing, as being outside your comfort zone was probably one of the things that appealed to you about triathlon in the first place! You may not even need any new equipment, just a sense of adventure. Mix up Your Multisport Triathlon is great, but so is duathlon, aquathlon, aquabike, swimrun, quadrathlon, off road triathlon and other variations that I’ve no doubt forgotten or have yet to be invented. If you are struggling with a running injury? Have a go at aquabike. Always way behind in the swim? Spend your off season racing duathlon to see how you perform there. Triathlon may still be your ultimate goal, but this is a good way to shake things up a bit. Falling in love with other multisports for the first time will probably help you fall in love with triathlon again. Just Sign up for a Race This is a high risk, high reward strategy. You need to put money on the table here, but there’s nothing quite like a race on the calendar to focus the mind and get you out the door, which can be the hardest part of some workouts. Make sure it’s something which is challenging enough to feel you have to train for it, but it’s also achievable within the time you have to train for it. Signing up for an Ironman with three months to go and minimal fitness probably isn’t going to end well. Treat Yourself to Some New Kit Let me make this clear, I am NOT suggesting you go out and drop four figures on a new bike to help motivate you. The chances are this motivation will be short lived, and very expensive if it doesn’t work out. Instead, think about buying yourself some new sunglasses, replacing your worn out bib shorts, or getting some new goggles you can actually see out of, things like that. This is unlikely to have a huge effect on its own, but should help make your return to training feel that bit more exciting, and different to last time. Try a Structured Training Plan Many clients I have coached have commented on how I have helped them fall back in love with triathlon by delivering flexible, detailed plans. The sense of specificity and the accountability of a coach who will ask questions if the training isn’t done and the knowledge that they’re working towards something special help motivate them. If you burned out in the past, failed to finish your big race or trained randomly with mixed results, structured training can help refocus the mind and get results. If you’re not looking for a coaching relationship, a training plan is an affordable way to bring structure to your training. Step Away from Structured Training If you have spent the last four years moving from coach to coach, or training plan to training plan, and you’re just feeling drained, taking some time away from a structured regime may be what you need. This could be for an entire season of self discovery or just for a few weeks, but it can really help you recharge mentally. Once you are back into the swing of training 5-6 days a week, you can if you wish look at returning to a more structured plan. Join a Club If you are used to training solo, which definitely has its advantages, it can be a lonely existence. While training in a group may be less effective at getting you race ready

August 25, 2021

The London Duathlon Race Guide

Billed at the world’s biggest duathlon, The London Duathlon is an annual event in Richmond Park that sees athletes competing over the sprint, standard and ultra distances in Richmond Park, SouthWest London. For the purposes of this article I will be focusing primarily on the standard distance as this is the most popular distance by far. All information in this article is correct as of the time of writing, the course has remained unchanged since the first event (to my knowledge), but the intricacies of how the event is ran may change from year to year with very little notice. Always read all the pre race information to avoid being caught out. Arriving at the Venue Richmond Park is completely closed for the event, so despite the fact there are car parks at the venue, they will be inaccessible on the day itself. You will need to find parking on nearby roads if arriving by car which can be challenging. Your best bet would be to take the train to Richmond Station and ride to the park from there. Bikes are permitted on the national rail, overground and district line, all of which are served by Richmond Station. You will want to be arriving at the event village at least an hour before your start time to allow you to prepare in a calm, methodical way. Nobody wants to be faffing around with their bike with minutes until the start of their run. Event Village The London Duathlon event village can be found on the east side of the park, next to Roehampton Gate. It is accessible by a footbridge which you will need to carry your bike up and over. If you struggle with this, there are plenty of individuals present I’m sure will be happy to help. When you enter the event village, take the time to attach your race number to your top, your bike stickers to your bike and attach your wristband. This will be required to remove your bike from transition, so do not remove it until you leave the venue. Setting up Transition Your wristband is your ticket into transition, an athletes only area where you will find a number of racks for you to place your bike. The last time I did the event it was a free for all, if this is the case I recommend you place your bike close asp possible to the end of one of the racks, to make it easier to find. You can also place a coloured towel in front of your bike for improved visibility if this helps, but you’re unable to tie a balloon or similar to the rack as an identifier. The run will be the first discipline, so make sure you leave everything associated with the bike leg (sunglasses, nutrition, helmet e.t.c.) with your bike to access it later. Large bags are not permitted, but can be left in the bag drop area. Once you have your bike left in an appropriate gear ready to go, it’s time to walk the transition area. Find the “run in” banner which indicates where you will enter the transition area following your first run. Walk the route you’ll take to your bike to commit it to memory. Then look for the “bike out” banner, which is where you’ll start the bike leg. Repeat the process for “bike in” and “run out”, there should only be one of each. The start line Get to the start line with at least 10 minutes before you’re due to start. You will be placed in a holding area, then called forwards into a small black marquee where a pre recorded race briefing will be played, followed by three beeps which signify the start of the race. Run 1- 10KM You will start your run on a short grassy section heading towards Sawyers Hill. Yes the race start with a hill. The adrenaline will be pumping and you’ll be excited for the day ahead of you, but remember, you’ll unlikely to finish any faster than two hours, so don’t get carried away. This event is hard on your legs, and going hard on the first 2.5KM up a hill is a good way to kill your legs for the rest of the race. Once you reach the top of the hill you’ll take a left onto a slightly undulating section, followed by a notable downhill which will allow you to pick up the your feet again after the long slog of Sawyers. This doesn’t last forever however as you then make a left to cut through the middle of the park on a flat section, passing some large ponds on your left. After the ponds, you’ll then make a left hand turn onto a short out and back section which is there to bring the distance up to a nice round 10KM. Here there has traditionally been a water station for you to replace water lost through sweat, which I recommend you take advantage of unless you are carrying your own water. From here you are treated to a final downhill section before you make a left at Robin Hood Gate roundabout and run the last 2KM to the transition area where you’ll begin the bike. Bike- 44KM As you exit transition you will merge onto the bike course. It’s VERY important you give way to other cyclists who may be travelling at speeds in excess of 30MPH, as you really don’t want to have to cause them to swerve, or even crash into you. Once on the course, it’s important you stay left at all times except when overtaking yourself, and always make a check over your shoulder before you make a change in direction, just like you would with a mirror in your car. You are treated to a nice section of flat to help you find your cycling legs, before you make your way up the steepest hill on the course, Broomfield Hill. As you approach

January 28, 2021

Introduction to Running Power

Often the butt of many jokes on Twitter and dismissed by many experienced athletes. I believe running power is a misunderstood technology which can provide an athlete with unparalleled insight into their training. Here I want to give a more balanced introduction to running power for those considering it. The running power meter was inspired by the bicycle power meter, which collects data from a strain gauge in a pedal, crank arm or wheel hub to calculate how much force is being applied by the athlete. This allows them to pace and race better on hills, into headwinds, at altitude and in the heat. The running power meter is not a true power meter in the respect that it is based on an algorithm, using accelerometers rather than a strain gauge. Combined with the pace at which an individual is running to generate a number measured in watts, this gives the athlete an insight into how much energy they are expending to achieve forward momentum. As a runner, I would put money on you having trained with pace, heart rate and RPE in the past. So to start with I’ll break the pros and cons of each method down to help you make the right decision for your training. RPE Rate of perceived exertion is how hard you feel you are running, whether you are going eyeballs out in a race (RPE of 10) of gently jogging along on an easy run (RPE of around 4). It’s an important skill to develop for runners of all abilities even if they also use technology, as data doesn’t have all the answers and can fail at any point. Pros: If you are having a bad day, RPE will make sure you don’t over exert yourself and push you towards exhaustion or overtraining It removes the risk of setting targets that are too high/low for an event Free Cons: Newer runners will struggle to understand what their bodies are telling them, and may be based on what they perceive as “getting a good workout” rather than achieving the goals of the session Will cause most runners to head out too fast when fresh, then fade as they didn’t pace themselves well enough Difficult to accurately measure training load, fitness or fatigue Requires many years of experience to dial in, and even then the best of us make mistakes Heart Rate Pros: Heart Rate gives us an unparalleled insight to how the body is performing, if your heart rate is outside of normal parameters, your body is trying to tell you something. This helps us avoid overtraining by pushing too hard Relatively inexpensive, most modern running watches will come with a heart rate monitor built in or come with a free chest strap Tracking your heart rate over time provides a valuable insight into how well your body is adapting to exercise. Cons: There is a large delay between your body’s exertion and and an increase in heart rate, so it is difficult to use it to pace races with lots of hills/surges as the feedback isn’t immediate, and your heart rate may continue to rise for up to 30 seconds after a tough section Lots of factors outside of training can artificially inflate our heart rate. A lack of sleep, high levels of stress, temperature, altitude and mensural cycle to name but a few will all affect our heart rate and may result in us running faster/slower than we should Prone to dropouts or false readings. Where 10BPM is a huge difference, battery or connection issues can leave you vulnerable Sticking to heart rate based training can be incredibly frustrating for new athletes as they feel they need to walk to keep their heart rate in the correct zone Pace Pace is probably the most popular method of measuring running intensity, and is still the most important. Let’s assume I put a running power meter on the foot of every athlete starting a 5K run. The winner wouldn’t be the one who put out the highest number of watts or the best horizontal power. It would be the one who ran the fastest. However there are issues when using a GPS watch to measure pace Pros: Cheap, comes with all fitness tracking devices, or you can use you phone The winner of the race is the athlete who runs the fastest, so it’s the purest way of tracking intensity Cons: GPS watches can lose signal, or struggle to find it in areas such as woodland or around high rise buildings Large events place so much strain on GPS systems that they cannot keep up. This resultis in athlete’s watches giving false readings, and getting out of sync with the race organiser’s distance markers. This can result in widespread confusion and frustration GPS watches are very sensitive to changes in direction. They expect you to continue running in a straight line. Making a U turn or sharp corner can leave the GPS struggling to catch up It does not take gradient or headwind into account. If you are running up or down a hill, pace data is of very little use Susceptible to headwinds Power Finally, this brings us onto the running power meter. For my money, this goes a long way to correcting the flaws of other methods: Pros: Takes hills and wind into account (new generation Stryd only) Provides advanced running metrics such as stride length, ground contact time, running efficiency, form power and leg spring stiffness Reliable data in all situations Measures distance precisely using the accelerometer inside the power meter, giving you an exact pace rather than GPS estimate Allows you to track improvements easily Unparalleled treadmill accuracy Cons: Can be confusing at first, requires time investment Expensive, at £200 for a Stryd unit, on top of a compatible watch, it’s a definite investment in your running The data can become all consuming, and athletes run the risk of losing sight of the bigger picture (running faster) Any long term

January 11, 2021

The Difference Between Road Cycling and Triathlon Cycling

When I started triathlon in 2012 I felt confident the bike would be my strongest discipline. However, my background included riding a 12KM loop around the lakes near my parent’s house and not a lot else. When I discovered the world of road cycling I was drawn in. The clubs, brutal climbs, watching pro cycling, the cafe culture. It all felt like a world hidden in plain sight. However, within these groups there were very few triathletes, and certainly no triathletes of a high calibre. I discovered, there’s a big difference between road cycling and triathlon cycling. Especially when you start looking at middle and long distance triathlon. To illustrate this point, let’s look at the difference between the pinnacle of both sports This is an image from the 2020 Tour de France. As you can see it includes over 100 cyclists inches away from each other on standard road bikes wearing standard helmets. They’re getting ready for a bunch sprint, where the first athlete across the line wins the stage. Within each team you have specialists. Whether they are good at long climbs, short climbs, sprinting or are just all rounders, each rider has a role to play. This is an image from the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. The world’s fastest Ironman athletes converge here every year to take on the famous course. Riders here are keeping a minimum of 12 metres apart unless overtaking, tackling the course with special triathlon bikes optimised for aerodynamics. They also wear clothing and helmets optimised for speed while riding solo. Once they finish their 180KM they then have to run a marathon. It doesn’t take a sports scientist to notice that these events are very different. Even if you are taking on a triathlon on your road bike, you still have to keep a distanvce between competitors, and still have to run at the end. The vast majority of road cyclists aren’t really training. The definition of training is specifically structuring your riding for optimal performance at an event. Most road cyclists are just riding around, enjoying the cafe culture, trying to be the first to the top of the hill, and maybe entering the odd sportive. For them cycling is a way to socialise and see more the local area/world. This is absolutely fine, but as triathletes we have our eyes set firmly on race day. We need to think about our riding very differently if we want to optimise our performance. Here are a few tips on how to keep your cycling triaining specific. We’ll be assuming for the purpose of this article you’re not racing a draft legal race. Focus on Steady State When you’re on a triathlon bike course nobody cares about your ability to sprint. You won’t impress anyone by being the first to the top of the hill. Finishing with the fastest bike split doesn’t actually mean very much. It’s far more about setting yourself up well for the run without losing too much time. Even the very fastest Ironman cyclists will be putting out pretty comfortable power outputs over an Ironman bike leg. Knowing that it will start to sting towards the end, and they still need to run a marathon. Triathlons either take place on closed roads or on roads carefully chosen to minimise encounters with cars. Most courses tend to be pretty flat. As a result, there won’t be much chance for respite once you’re on the bike, except braking for corners. To allow for this, you need focus on a continuous, steady power output for the duration of the bike leg. This prevents us from building up fatigue as a result of pushing too hard at any given point. Especially important on hills when it’s easy to get carried away. There is absolutely a place for hard intervals to develop your cycling fitness. But these need to be chosen thoughtfully and with purpose. Simply exhausting yourself every ride by pushing hard isn’t the best use of your time. Get used to riding solo I have no problems with athletes who occasionally join group rides on the weekend. It adds a nice motivational boost, especially in the winter with conditions not conclusive to long rides. The issue comes however when athletes become allergic to riding solo, and need someone to ride with them. While I don’t want to downplay people’s fears about riding on the road solo, if you ride carefully it’s mathematically no more dangerous than walking down the street. You’ll probably be on your own at points on race day, so you need to feel comfortable in this situation. Riding solo allows you to focus on your own power outputs, get better at reading the road, and develop resilience to the boredom which can come with long, lonely miles, and results in a lack of focus if you’re not careful. By the time you get to within eight weeks of your race, at least every other ride should be done solo. Become self sufficient This is a continuation of the previous point, but in triathlon cycling you need to become self sufficient. You can’t cycle along praying that the puncture gods are on your side. You need to know that should the worst happen, you have everything required to get back on the road. This also applies to carrying supplies, food and drink. You probably won’t be wearing a cycling jersey on race day, so you can’t stuff your pockets with food and tools. You have to carry all the fluids, food, and tools on your bike. There are normally aid stations on course providing you with water and selected sports nutrition. At big events will have roaming mechanics, but these can take over an hour to reach you, and won’t help with punctures or other minor mechanicals. Aerodynamics For Triathlon Cycling When riding solo, your biggest enemy is aerodynamics. The benefit of group riding is that riders in front of you disrupt the air, where you can slipstream

December 9, 2020

Choosing a Road Cycling Cassette

October 31, 2020

How Much Faster Will A New Bike Make You?

September 22, 2020

Top Ten Triathlon Training Tips For Beginners

Taking the decision to train for a triathlon is the biggest step many will take in their sporting lives. Many will be complete novices to all three sports, captivated by the idea of stringing swimming, cycling and running together, it’s the challenge that draws us in. However it can be difficult to know where to start, there are thousands of articles, books, YouTube videos and podcasts to wade through to get a well rounded picture of how to train effectively for the sport. To help, I wanted to condense all of the knowledge I have attained over the years into the top ten training tips for taking on your first triathlon. I could easily make a list of the top 100 training tips, so I’ll have left a few out, but these should help stop newcomers from making embarrassing mistakes, or putting themselves at the risk of injury. 1. Slow Down You’re no doubt excited to start your triathlon training as a beginner, and I’m excited for you, but we need to dial things back to help keep training efficient. If you swim, bike and run as fast as you can every day, you’ll burn out and will never reach your full potential. Two, maybe three workouts each week should be really challenging, and the other days of the week should be spent recovering from these hard efforts. This ensures you’re ready to go for the next hard session. These easy days should be undertaken at a pace where you could hold a conversation if needed. Your main concern will probably be not being fit enough at this point, worried about failing to finish. But if you are so over trained that you’re exhausted on the start line, you’re not going to have a good race. 2. Progress Your Training If you have signed up for a sprint triathlon (750M swim, 20KM cycle and 5KM run), you could be forgiven for slowly building yourself up to these distances then figuring it’s job done and you can focus on getting faster over those distances. Hitting the distances in training is a milestone you should be proud of, but you should keep extending your training beyond these distances. After reaching 5K run 6K, 7K, 8K, or even further to keep pushing yourself. This will improve your aerobic fitness, making you more efficient over shorter distances. Plus you’ll have the confidence of knowing you can run over the distance, meaning race day should feel easier! You should also start running intervals such as one minute hard one minute easy repeated 20 times. Progress this by reducing the rest or increasing the duration of the hard running. Keep moving forward with your training on your hard days. I recommend athletes use www.trainingpeaks.com to track and plan their training. 3. Train in the open water If your race takes place in a lake, sea or river, you need to be training there, in the wetsuit you’re planning to wear on the day. Swimming in open water is totally different to swimming in a pool, and you need plenty of practice before the big day. Otherwise you’ll likely find yourself panicking and disorientated. Most lakes will provide coaching, to provide you with a much smoother transition into the open water. 4. Learn to ride at a consistent effort This is especially true for those training for a long or middle distance race, but it’s worth remembering for all distances. When we used to race bikes as kids we were primarily racing from lamppost to lamppost, pushing hard for short periods. While most of us are wise enough to realise this isn’t the most efficient way to train for a triathlon, it’s tempting to push hard for a few minutes, then recover, push hard for a bit, recover, then push really, really hard up a hill. This is especially prominent for riders who are big Strava users, and want to push hard where they know there’s a segment. Even if you are racing a sprint triathlon you’ll be spending a minimum of 30 minutes on the bike, so you need to learn to spread your effort evenly over this period, especially as you have a run at the end! 5. Mix up your swim training Swimming can be intimidating and may feel like a fight for survival when all you want to do is make it out of the water. As such, you could be forgiven for getting in the pool, slowly working your way up to the required distance for your race, then repeating this every week. Not only is this pretty boring, it’s also ineffective as it won’t help you swim better. Including a warm up, main set and cool down is a good place to start. Split your swim up into shorter segments, such as swimming 100M fast with 30 seconds rest between each interval. You should also include swimming drills to help you improve your technique, which is free speed. 6. Practice your race day nutrition If you’re going to be competing for anything longer than 90 minutes, you will probably need to eat during your event. Carbohydrate is the body’s primary source of fuel for the body. When you start to run out of this valuable resource your performance will fall off a cliff as your body runs out of glucose. Practice eating in training, find what foods work for you, and when you need to take them on. Grabbing an unknown product from a feed station when you start to feel weak could easily lead to cramps, stitches, or vomiting, none which are generally not conclusive to fast race splits. 7. Research your event, and train accordingly If you have a hilly race, train on the hills. If you have a sea swim, train in the sea. If your race is in a hot climate, try to replicate this during your training. It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how many people forget this if they follow a generic training

July 24, 2020

Faster, not fitter

The fitter you are, the faster you are, right? Well, it’s not quite as clear cut as that in the real world. Fitness has an enormous effect on as athlete’s ability to swim, bike and run as fast as possible, but it’s by no means the only factor. Let’s take the term fitness for a start, it’s a phrase I really don’t like because of how vague it is; someone could be able to bench press twice their body weight, summit Mount Everest, free climb up the Dawn Wall or walk the length of the River Thames. All impressive achievements in their own right, but how would an individual who achieves any of these impressive feats fare in a triathlon? Better than your average member of the public you’d wager, but the chances are they’d be soundly beaten by those who are physically weaker, with a lower resting heart rate and a lower V02 max but who are more experienced in the sport. How do we measure fitness? There is no right answer or wrong answer here, lots of individuals will have a different idea of what fitness means, however as triathletes we’re interested in the bottom line, our race results . Yes improvements to our FTP and threshold heart rate are all stepping stones to success, and for some individuals these numbers are more important than race results, however I believe these individuals are few and far between. Those who measure everything objectively can often struggle on race day and find themselves disappointed when their predictions and meticulous calculations fall short, and they’re never short of an excuse to explain a poor performance (but then again, how many triathletes aren’t?!). You can be very fast and very fit, that’s what we’re all aiming for, but it’s also possible to be the highest FTP of the field, yet find yourself struggling to make the top ten. An athlete is fast when they have the confidence, the skills and the experience to complete the race in the fastest possible time, with the resilience to keep pushing when their body is telling them to stop. The winner of the race is the one who crosses the line first, not the one with the highest power numbers, the lowest level of cardiac drift or the most expensive bike. Let’s break it down and have a look at the traits of successful triathletes in each of the disciplines. Swimming In the water, the fast athlete goes off like a rocket at the start, finding fast feet or setting the pace themselves. They then settle into their race pace, sighting often to stay on track. They feel comfortable drafting, and come out of the water towards the front of affairs. They’re not overly concerned about optimal stroke length or stroke rate in the melee of a triathlon swim, they’re more worried about swimming fast and coming out of the water with the fast guys. They swim in the open water at least once a week, and work on their technique all year round, with plenty of hard swims thrown in as well. Transition 1 The experienced triathlete knows there’s a lot of time to be made up in transition. You may shrug your shoulders at the thought of saving 20 seconds over a long event, but imagine how happy you’d be with taking 20 seconds off of your 5K PB? Fast athletes can easily save time by practicing wetsuit removal after every training swim, memorising where their bike is, leaving it in an appropriate gear, with their items left on the bike in the order they’ll need to attach them. They have also practiced their mounting technique, comfortable with whatever method they have chosen rather than simply hoping for the best. Cycling Too many triathletes are addicted to their turbo trainer, but while time spent riding indoors will make you fitter, it doesn’t teach you how to take a the corner in the wet, carry momentum through a rolling section, fix simple mechanicals, ride up hills, brake effectively or stay on your aero bars on anything except a perfectly flat, smooth tarmac. ERG mode is especially bad for creating cyclists who can only ride at one cadence in a very narrow operating window. Fast cyclists know their bike and how it works intricately, they can carry speed through the corners and drop down the descents, making up time on fitter, less skilled cyclists hand over fist. They’re also able to spend longer in an efficient TT position without developing neck or back pain, because they’ve put in thousands of miles on their race bike, instead of treating it like it’s made of sugar glass. Rather than only taking it out on the sunniest of days, they’ve learned how to ride it in the wet and giving it a thorough clean after every ride to prolong the life of the parts. When on race day the heavens open, a strong headwind develops or strong gusts try to throw them off their bike, they keep their head down and keep making progress rather than excuses. Nobody cares about your W/KG if you’re sat on the side of the road staring at your flat tyre like someone has just asked you to fix the space shuttle. Fast cyclists do their quality training rides on the turbo, but in anything except the foulest weather they hit the road for their easy/long rides to build their confidence and road craft. Transition 2 After the bike it’s tempting to take a few moments to yourself to recuperate and mentally recharge before the run. If you’re racing an Ironman, you’re new to the sport or you had some issues on the bike you need to address this is fine, but if you’re going for a good time you need to go into T2 with a detailed plan of how you will switch from bike to run. Fast athletes can picture the exact route they’ll take to their bike racking, where their

May 21, 2020

Should you use ERG mode?

Ergometer mode, or ERG mode as it is more commonly known, is a function of most modern smart trainers which allows the trainer to set the resistance for you. If your target is 200W and you go above this, the trainer will reduce the resistance to stop you from going any higher. If your wattage drops below the target it will increase the resistance to encourage you to put more force through the pedals and get back up to target. To many cyclists this sounds ideal. It allows them to relax for a bit and watch some TV while they train or listen to an audiobook. Safe in the knowledge that their trainer won’t let their power drift too high or too low. However, it’s not without its problems, which I’ll go into here. Riding in a vacuum When riding in ERG mode you don’t have to think about gradients and changing gear. However as your target event is probably outside, this does not prepare you for the realities of racing a bike outdoors. Make sure you do your steady state rides outside of training mode on a virtual course to prepare you for this. This is especially important in the last eight weeks before your event. The Spiral of Death If your cadence drops significantly or you stop pedalling ERG mode will instigate what many call the spiral of death. This is when it increases resistance dramatically as you’re not putting out enough power. If you’re in the middle of a tough interval, this can feel like riding through wet cementas you try to pick the pace up again. We all drop our chain, have to answer the door or adjust the fan sometimes, so this is something to be conscious of. You may end up having to skip an interval or even abandon the workout as a result. Problems with Power Meters If you own a power meter you should be using it for all your training to make sure all the numbers match. This helps to keep your data clean and ensure all your intervals are accurate. There is something of a problem however as the training software will listen to the power meter, check the power output against the target, and then tell the trainer to increase or decrease the resistance. When the device creating the resistance isn’t the same as the device measuring the power, the ERG mode isn’t nearly as accurate or immediate to change reistance. This means you need to focus much more on holding targets, offering the worst of both worlds. For harder workouts this can be beneficial if you feel you would struggle to complete it otherwise. However I find that more often than not it’s more effort than it’s worth. Inability to change gear You can physically change gear in ERG mode, but the trainer will pick up on this pretty instantly and change resistance. If you find yourself pedalling squares desperate to increase you cadence, the only way to do this is by pedalling harder to lower the resistance. If you’re really struggling in a workout however, your ability to hold this cadence may be compromised. This will likely result in your cadence slowing again and ERG mode “carrying” you through the rest of the interval at 40RPM. There is a time and place for this, such as a ramp test, but you can’t get through every hard interval this way. Disabling ERG mode will give you a more authentic training experience. Lazy Cadence Perhaps the biggest issue I have with ERG mode is the way it encourages a slow, lazy cadence. Riders who start to fatigue will naturally slow their cadence, yet ERG will push back to ensure they stay within the power target. This can result in riders associating harder efforts with a slower cadence and ultimately spending most of their time in tempo and sweetspot at 70RPM, well below where I’d want to see athletes riding, even the low cadence advocates will race at 80-85RPM. You can’t afford to spend time fiddling with your gears trying to find the narrow cadence window you’re used to riding in from training. Uneven wear on cassette If you do a lot of riding in ERG mode, you will be doing a lot of riding with minimal (if any) changing of gear, which can create a lot of uneven wear on the cassette, wearing one or two cogs excessively which will lead to shifting issues. The subject of which gear to ride ERG mode in is also continuous in itself, this video from GPlama explains it well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHUOhmG04M8 I’ve given ERG mode a bit of a bad rep so far, but there are some definite benefits to using it. No need to concentrate If I have to use the turbo for my steady state rides, I’m happy with the entertainment provided by the scenery and the changing gradient, but that’s me, and I know not everyone is as easily entertained. For many, turbo training is the perfect time to catch up on the latest Netflix series or watch a film their partner isn’t interested in. With a pair of bluetooth headphones they can enjoy some televisual entertainment while riding, and ERG mode keeping them within the power boundaries. This is more useful for steady state workouts than intervals, as most software does not integrate with video, so you may end up being caught unawares by a sudden increase in resistance. Helps you complete tough workouts The mental element of training is just as important as the physical element of training, and for many the presence of ERG mode is the difference between them completing or failing a workout. I’d much rather someone limps over the line and completes a workout at a low cadence than they have to give up and bail twenty minutes in because they can’t hold the power without their trainer pushing back. This provides a safety net for many cyclists, and as long as they’re

May 7, 2020

Keeping TrainingPeaks Data Clean

TrainingPeaks is a fantastic tool for planning and analysing our training, but we need good quality data to make informed decisions. If we have bad data we end up making bad decisions which can lead to burnout or even failing to finish your race! So, how do we keep our data clean? There are three areas I consider to be very important, we’ll take a look at each on a case by case basis, looking at common pitfalls and how we can avoid them. Consistent data Enough data Accurate Thresholds Consistent Data We need to make sure that the data from one workout is comparable to the workout before it, and the ride after it. The biggest area this can be a problem is with cycling power, specifically when athletes change power meters between activities or fail to recalibrate their devices. If you are only training indoors and using the power meter built into your trainer, you need to make sure you are re-calibrating the power meter (known as completing a spindown in most cases) every time you transport it, or every four weeks out of habit. As trainers are moved around and knocked about, they can lose their accuracy so the trainer needs to recalibrate itself to ensure the data stays accurate. I once failed to recalibrate my turbo trainer for several months, got myself up to an FTP of 4 W/KG, then re-calibrated my trainer, found workouts impossible, and discovered I was only at 3.6 W/KG! If you are planning to use your power pedals on race day, you should use your power pedals for every ride so you’re training at the same numbers you’ll be racing at, otherwise you run the risk of your intensity factor target on race day being based on turbo numbers, not power pedal numbers, resulting in you blowing up as a result. If you are using a bike based power meter (which I highly recommend) you still need to perform a zero offset (or recalibration as some brands call it) weekly, or whenever you move the power meter from one bike to another. Another issue can be the right pedal running out of battery or experiencing connectivity issues with the left pedal, so keep an eye on that. Running power meters do not require regular calibration, however the numbers are based on your weight, so any changes to your weight will require you to reset your thresholds. As such I only recommend updating your weight if you have lost/gained weight that has been fairly static for a couple of months, or at the start of the season before your baseline testing. Heart rate can occasionally be very low if the your chest strap takes time to make a good connection, or if your optical monitor struggles to get an accurate reading for whatever reason, such as a loose watch strap or heavy sweating. If you find yourself with a consistently low heart rate reading during a workout, make sure your monitor isn’t upside down! GPS accuracy varies a lot, especially in urban areas or thick woodland, where you can end up with very high or low numbers. I once had an athlete run a 10K around the City of London, where the GPS trace accidentally made its way to the top of a skyscraper, leading TrainingPeaks to mistakenly believe she’d gained 150M of elevation in 10 seconds, sending the TSS score rocketing. Finally we have elevation, if your GPS or altimeter is putting out bad data it can have you down as running thousands of metres above sea level, resulting in grossly exaggerated TSS scores. If you find yourself with dropouts or spots of bad data, TrainingPeaks allows you to rectify this on the graph view within a workout. Simply click and drag your cursor over the problematic area, then click on the appropriate button in the top right of the graph for different data field: W for watts, KPH for speed and BPM for heart rate. From here you can select “fix”, which will allow TrainingPeaks to create a preview of the data smoothed out, with the option to apply or discard the changes. In some cases, such as with horrifically inflated elevation data, it can be better to delete the data field entirely, or switch the TSS calculation to hrTSS. If you start playing around with the data but make a mistake you can’t undo, you can simply download the workout from the “files” section in the top right hand corner of the workout view, and re-upload the original file. You’ll lose any comments or other changes you made to the workout, but the original file will always be in tact. Sometimes bad data slips under the radar, looking at the PMC for big spikes can be helpful, as can browsing your peak performances on the TrainingPeaks mobile app and looking for numbers which you know are unrealistic. If a huge wattage or jump in pace isn’t accompanied by an increase in heart rate, you can be pretty sure it’s bad data. Enough Data The performance manager chart found in your dashboard is a coach and athlete’s best friend, it allows us to see how fit an athlete it, how fatigued they are, and how ready they are to perform. The numbers here will only be accurate if we have enough data from your training history to give us accurate insights into your training history. A world champion could create a TrainingPeaks account, but without any information on their training history TrainingPeaks will assume they are a novice, and suggest that they are incredibly fatigued after a couple of what would be a couple of very easy workouts for them. If you are already an established athlete, you will need to sync your TrainingPeaks account to your fitness tracker/software of choice. Depending on the service you link to, it may or may not import all of your previous activities into TrainingPeaks (As an example, Garmin will, Zwift

May 1, 2020

Choosing A Road Bike

Buying a road bike is one of the most exciting purchases you’ll ever make. This guide is primarily aimed at those buying their first road bike, but I hope to be able to use my experience in bicycle retail to help all cyclists make more informed choices, and save themselves some cash along the way. Chances are that until now you’ve been riding around on a mountain or hybrid bike, and are looking for some serious speed gains by upgrading to a road bike. However, it can seem like a complete maze. How much should I spend? What makes bikes more expensive? What’s a groupset? What’s the right size? Should I get a women’s bike? What can I upgrade? Having spent two years working on the shop floor at a highly reputable bike retailer, these are all questions I hope to answer in the course of this article. We’ll assume you’re a triathlete at this stage, but if you are simply looking to get fit or look to take place in road cycling events, then disregard the references to triathlon, the rest of the points will be just as relevant. What is a road bike? This may seem like a silly question to ask, but it’s worth making sure we’re on the same page before we start. A road bike is a lightweight bike designed exclusively for use on the road, traditionally with narrow tyres and dropped handlebars. It is not a: Hybrid bike Normally identifiable by the flat rather than dropped handlebars, these have wider tyres with more tread in them to handle minor off road sections more easily such as bridleways and towpaths. You don’t want one because: It is much heavier, and you’ll be slower due to the drag created by wider handlebars. A few manufacturers make high end hybrid bikes, but most are cheap with components that will break/wear quickly, and wheels which will buckle easily. The saddles also tend to be awful. Cyclocross bike: Very similar, and easily confused with a road bike by newbies, check for the wider, lumpier tyres and greater clearance around the tyres themselves as they get clogged with mud. You don’t want one because: The geometry is different on a cyclocross bike, with the bottom bracket (where the cranks connect to the frame) being higher, and often further forwards than on a road bike. These are designed for an hour of hard riding, not a long day in the saddle. Track bike/fixie: Used on velodromes, these often catch the eyes of customers because they are so cheap and light. You don’t want one because: They have no brakes! Even if you were skilled enough to ride one on the road, they are banned in triathlons as they do not have functional brakes, you slow down instead by slowing your pedalling and pushing against the pedals. They also have no gears, making them very challenging to ride in traffic or on hills, for experienced riders only. Gravel bike The gravel bike is a recent addition to the bike world, it has a very similar geometry to a road bike but the wheels/tyres of an off road bike. They are setup for comfort, and are very popular in North America where there are large amounts of roads/tracks are gravel. You don’t want one because: They tend to be slightly heavier and not as responsive as proper road bikes, and the heavier tyres will have a notable effect on your speed. Additionally many only have one chainring which can make life harder for you on steep uphills or downhills. However, if you’re only going to be taking part in short triathlons and don’t plan on spending much time riding on the road, then you could certainly get away with it. Triathlon/TT bike I know it has triathlon in the title, but if you don’t know what a triathlon bike is, you don’t need one. These are bikes designed for pure speed, where your elbows rest on specially designed pads and your arms rest on aluminium/carbon fibre bars, putting your body in a very aerodynamic position, narrowing your body and reducing the amount of drag. You don’t want one because: You have no access to the brakes when in the aero position and it can feel very twitchy. They’re the Ferrari of the cycling world, so to use one with any confidence you need to have first pushed the limits of cheaper, more accessible machinery. Now we know we need a road bike, we need to look at what kind of road bike we’re after. There are three different types of road bike, just to confuse matters even more! Performance Bike Examples: Trek Emonda, Cervelle R series, Specialised Tarmac, Cannondale SuperSix These are the lightest and most responsive road bikes out there, built to be as quick as possible uphill. On hilly or rolling courses these are the bikes pros will be using, where every gram matters to help them get to the top of the hill in first place. These tend to be fairly aggressive bikes, and you may struggle to get comfortable on one if you have limited mobility. For triathletes weight is rarely the primary concern however, so these aren’t bikes I generally tend to steer athletes in the direction of. Endurance Bike Examples: Cervelo C series, Cannondale Synapse, Specialized Roubaix, Trek Domane These bikes are perfect for those getting into the sport later in life, or those who are more worried about all day comfort than outright speed. If you’re looking at at Ironman event, a road endurance bike is probably your best bet. Some models include various springs/suspension tricks to soften the ride, but at the expense of stiffness. Road Aero Examples: Trek Madone, Specialized Venge, Cannondale SystemSix, Cervelo S Series This subcategory appeared relatively recently, a bike where the tubing and cabling is all designed to be as fast as possible in a straight line. Where performance and endurance bikes normally have rounded tubing, a road aero

April 21, 2020

What is a vanity FTP?

Are you struggling to complete workouts? Has it been suggested you may have a vanity FTP? Confused as to what this may mean? I’ll try to explain in this article what a vanity FTP is and what you can do about it. Firstly we need to look at what Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is, or more importantly, what it isn’t. FTP is not (always): The highest power you can sustain for 60 minutes 95% of your best 20 minute power Your aerobic threshold Your anaerobic threshold The definition of FTP that most coaches and sports scientists now use is: “The highest power that a rider can maintain in a quasi-steady state without fatiguing for approximately one hour” – Andrew Coggan That’s quite a mouthful, so let’s have a look at it visually on a chart created using WKO5 from two athletes: Athlete A Athlete B What you’re looking at is each rider’s power duration curve for the last 90 days. Without going into the details right now, you have time on the X axis and watts on the Y axis, so you can see that both riders can hold higher power over shorter durations, and the power they maintain drops over time, as you’d expect! The yellow line shows personal bests for each timeframe and the red line joins the dots to create a mathematical model that is used to calculate modelled FTP, or mFTP, which is denoted as the bottom dotted line. Between around 10 minutes and 60 minutes (depending on the rider) the line starts to level off, this is where we find your FTP, the maximum power you can hold in a quasi-steady state without fatiguing for around an hour. Rider A has an FTP of 223W with a TTE of 1:02:22, and rider B has an FTP of 215W with a TTE of 32:21. Most riders will have a TTE between 30 minutes and 70 minutes, which gives us an insight into how well trained an athlete is at holding high power. As a coach looking at each of these athletes I can work out how to develop each athlete and improve their training. Athlete A needs to lift his chart upwards, he’s unlikely to get much benefit from trying to increase TTE at this point, so we’ll look to increase his power over shorter durations such as 20-30 minutes, then when he increases his FTP significantly we could turn our attention to increasing TTE again. Athlete B however would benefit from extending the time he can hold his FTP for by spending extended periods at higher intensity (tempo, sweetspot) allowing him to hold 215W for longer, vastly improving his performance over an event such as an Olympic triathlon or standard duathlon. Now we understand what FTP is, we can start talking about vanity FTP. As a coach I want my athletes to have the highest FTP possible, and every athlete wants to have the highest FTP possible, however this is where a lot of athletes get into trouble, and find themselves training to a vanity FTP, which is an overinflated estimation of what they’re capable of, let’s have a look at this and why it happens. One of the many benefits of using WKO5 is it estimates the effect the anaerobic system is having on your efforts. FTP is an aerobic effort, as is everything up to around 120% of FTP (depending on the athlete), after which we start working anaerobically. This is where our muscles are demanding oxygen faster than our body can provide it, and we start to create an oxygen debt. This is our body’s fight or flight system and allows us to put in a huge effort up a short hill or sprint for a finish line, but leaves us gasping for air afterwards. As triathletes this is of limited use to us during most events as we opt for a steady, smooth application of power, but we can’t ignore it and the effect it has on our training. This chart for athlete B looks at the contribution the aerobic and anaerobic system makes to their effort. The blue shaded area represents the contribution of the anaerobic system to the effort, the green represents the contribution of the aerobic system to the effort. As you can see, up to the 50 second mark the majority of energy being used to fuel his effort is anaerobic, beyond 50 seconds the aerobic system takes over pretty quickly, although the anaerobic system still makes a small, yes statistically important contribution beyond this point. Using 95% of your average power from the standard 20 minute test is designed to account for the contribution made by your anaerobic system. This athlete however isn’t an especially gifted sprinter so at 20 minutes, only 3.3% of his energy is coming from his anaerobic system. Using the standard 95% equation he would only get an FTP of 210W, the 5W he’s lost here could be worth a lot of time over an Ironman and result in them wasting time with ineffective training. On the other hand you could have a very talented sprinter, who has either come from a power lifting background or is simply blessed with a high number of fast twitch muscle fibres genetically. In this situation, they could well generate 10% of their 20 minute power anaerobically. Let’s say they put in 300W during their 20 minute test. As 10% of their power was generated anaerobically their FTP should be 270W, but using the median figure of 5%, they would get an FTP of 285W. They’d no doubt be able to smash short, hard workouts with their strong anaerobic system, but ask them to spend prolonged time at the high end of their aerobic zones and they’ll really struggle. This is because their FTP is too high, which can result in them working in zone 2 when they should be in zone 1, zone 3 when they should be in zone 2, e.t.c. Many athletes

February 6, 2020

Choosing Your First Triathlon

Choosing your first race is one of the biggest decisions you can make as an aspiring triathlete, and it can actually be the difference between you making it to the finish or not. There are a surprising number of factors to take into account, and the race fees may well set your back three figures, so it’s important to get it right. We’ll start with the basics and slowly move our way into the more detailed, tricky stuff. Distance Before you even look at events, you need to decide which distance you’re going to be tackling. The standardised distances are: Super Sprint 400M Swim12KM Bike2.5KM Run Sprint 750M Swim (400M if pool based)20KM Bike5KM Run Olympic 1500M Swim40KM Bike10KM Run Half Iron 1900M Swim90KM Bike21.1KM Run Iron 3800M Swim180KM Bike42.2KM Run Hopefully you’ll have decided on a distance before you even begin your training, but if you haven’t yet started then it’s crunch time and you need to make a decision before the races start selling out. I recommend a distance you feel is realistic, yet will provide you with a feeling of reward upon completion. If you are new to endurance sport then a super sprint will likely prove to be a challenge in itself, however if you’re an experienced ultra runner and long distance cyclist who has been competing for many years and just needs to master the swim, then an Ironman may, in extreme cases, provide you with the challenge you’re after. Swim Type This is probably the second biggest consideration, where will you be swimming? In an icy Scottish loch? In a shallow, warm lake? Or in your local leisure centre pool? If you are new to triathlon I’m 90% certain the swim will be causing you the most anxiety, and managing this fear is paramount. If you are going to have sleepless nights thinking about open water swimming, a pool based event will be the safest choice. Alternatively if you are lucky enough to be an accomplished swimmer, then a sea swim may give you the sense of achievement and adventure that you crave. Location Writing this from my London flat, I’m very fortunate in that there are hundreds of races within driving distance so I can have my pick of any event of any distance, however if you live in a more isolated area, you may have much less of a choice. It may be tempting to travel somewhere more exotic to make a holiday out of it, but for your first race it’s worth considering the other stresses this introduces into what may already be a stressful experience. You have travel, transporting your bike, hiring a car, potential language barriers, unknown local cuisine, jet lag and more, all of which can work against you and getting to the start line calm and confident. If you are lucky enough to have a local event close enough that you can travel there and back in the same day, I highly recommend you do so, so that even if you do have a sleepless night, at least it’s from the comfort of your own bed. Completing a triathlon is an exhausting experience, so having someone to drive you there and back Course Profile The chances are you’ll be looking for an event which you feel confident getting around, and this will likely equate to a nice, flat course, especially if you’re making your debut at Olympic distance or above. I personally love hilly courses as these are where I perform well, but if you’re tentative about your first event, you probably want to remove as many potential tripping points as possible. Sticking to flatter courses is a great way to save energy, increasing your chances of finishing or hitting your target time. Number of Competitors Many newer athletes really benefit from having constant support on the course, feeding off of the energy and noise of the crowd as they make their way towards the finish line. If this is the case for you then it’s probably best you find a large scale event such as The London Triathlon, a World Series event or a local race renowned for its support. The flip side to this is that if an event has a lot of competitors, the course can be very busy, which can be intimidating for newer athletes, and frustrating for faster athletes as they try to weave their way around slower participants. Race Organiser Not all race organisers are created equal, an understatement if there ever were one. I’ve organised a triathlon and been race director a couple of times so I know how much goes into running an event, but it’s incredible how badly some organisers get it wrong. At one event I competed at they ran out of transition racking so bikes were stacked three deep against a wall, and I once arrived at a junction during a small 70.3 to discover a sign flapping around in the wind and no marshals, resulting in a 700M diversion before a group ran towards me shouting “Don’t run that way!”. Race organisers really make a difference, not just due to huge errors such as those, but smaller details such as clearing the swim course of weed, having enough aid stations that are well stocked, a professional transition area and in some cases closed roads. Yes events by premium race organisers are expensive, but you normally get what you pay for. Temperature Are you looking at a race in the Mediterranean during summer, or a race in Yorkshire in October? Are you a larger athlete who struggles in the heat, or a featherweight who struggles in the cold? This is an important distinction to make, and you should use this to help you choose your race. You have enough to worry about during your first race without having to take layering and heat management into account. Time of Year This is perhaps the most underrated consideration, when in the year will you be competing? Many

January 10, 2020

Don’t Let Ironman Ruin Your Marriage

As someone once said to me, “Training for a sprint is a hobby, training for an Ironman is a lifestyle”, something many of us can relate to. You likely started out at sprint and Olympic distance where a long ride was three hours and you rarely ran for longer than an hour. However when taking on an Ironman, this just won’t cut it, and your longer workouts tend to dominate the day once you include the preparation, execution, recovery, cleaning/washing and the obligatory nap afterwards. All of this can take a strain on your relationships, which can leave your other half feeling neglected and overwhelmed with jobs such as looking after kids and food shopping which you can’t help with while you’re out putting in the miles. Training for an event like an Ironman will likely change the dynamic of your relationship, but there are some simple steps you can take to stop it being a change for the worse. Choose your moment If you’re moving house, expecting a new arrival, your workplace have announced redundancies or a family member is unwell, you have to ask yourself whether this is really the best time to engage in an expensive and time consuming challenge such as an Ironman. When you get closer to the race you may be out of the house for six hours at a time on your long ride, you may find yourself stressed if things aren’t going to plan and the physical exhaustion you’ll experience towards the end of the hard weeks can make the best of us come across as a bit short tempered and surly. The Ironman distance isn’t going anywhere, so don’t feel you have to cram it into an already stressful period in your life. Make time for them If you love someone the greatest gift you can give them is your presence, just to be around, even if it’s just sitting on the sofa watching a film together. Ironman training will reduce the time you can spend together, and your other half may take this personally if they believe you are growing tired or bored of their company. Even if you’re not able to spend as much time together as previously, making an effort to put time aside for them, and following up on this goes a long way. If you can’t spend an evening sat on the sofa browsing Netflix for five hours together, take them out to dinner for a couple of hours to make them feel special. Involve them with the process If your partner is less than keen on your Ironman habit the best way you can turn it around is to involve them so they feel some ownership over the process. This doesn’t mean forcing them to train with you, but it can be something as simple as asking them to hold you accountable to your training plan, asking them which event you should enter or combining your training/racing with a family holiday. If your partner is a stickler for organisation, sharing your precise schedule with them, or inputting the times you plan to train into a shared calendar can help ease any anxieties about you disappearing at short notice. Keep the sex life going If you’ve already spent six hours sweating away on the bike in the morning, the thought of spending more time getting sweaty between the sheets can be less than appealing, especially for male athletes as prolonged aerobic exercise decreases levels of testosterone. While every couple has their own preferences on how regularly fornication should occur, it’s important not to let this slide too much when you start training. Your intimate sessions may be shorter than normal and you may have to adapt if you’re feeling truly exhausted, but leaving your partner to their own devices for several weeks or even months because you deem your training to be more important is unlikely to go down well. Keep perspective Your training may mean the world to you at this point in time, but the saying goes that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. If you duck out of seeing your in laws for the sake of a big swim session or refuse to spend time with your sick children because you’re afraid you’ll catch a bug that will stop you training this can add up over time. No single session in your training plan will make or break your race, but the anxiety and stress of relationship problems that stem from being inflexible and selfish will have a far greater effect on your performance as not only will you struggle to keep a clear mind, those around you may remove their support for your quest and that run down the finishing chute will feel very lonely. Be transparent Show them the Strava file from your run, show them the photo you and your friends took together at the top of the climb, maybe let them track you while you ride/run for safety purposes (most devices allow this), and just generally keep them up to date with what you’re doing. This will help ease any anxieties about where you’re spending your time and who you’re spending it with. Pick up the slack on your rest day Most athletes should be taking one day completely off a week. If you have a young family you should see this as an opportunity to pull your weight and pick up the slack; looking after your children to allow your partner some time to to socialise, relax or exercise themselves. Even if you don’t have children, this is a good opportunity to clean the bathroom, mow the lawn, do the dishes, fold the laundry, all jobs which you’ve probably let slide in favour of ploughing up and down the pool. This gives you the double header of a grateful spouse and a clean, organised environment to train and live in. Look into home training solutions In this day and age there are several solutions

November 6, 2019

How To Finish an Ironman

An Ironman, or any triathlon for that matter, is a massive undertaking and there’s a lot that can come between you and the finish line, especially over an event that can last for up to seventeen hours. What follows is a list of problems you could encounter and how to avoid them. Triathlon is an incredibly complicated sport, and everybody has individual needs which need to be taken into account to get you to the finish, but what are universal are the reasons for not finishing, which we will be exploring here. While this article will be angled towards Ironman as there’s simply a lot more to go wrong over a longer event, most of this advice can be applied to any distances. GENERAL Not Fit Enough This is probably the number one reason for someone not finishing an Ironman. Excuses will be made about nutrition, pacing, blaming their equipment, but most people who fail to make the cutoffs simply aren’t fit enough. This is often the result of two possibilities, either not starting training soon enough, or doing the wrong kind of training. If you are a complete novice then hiring a coach or reading up on endurance training yourself is the best bet to get you in shape for a big event. Training for a triathlon no matter the distance is a serious undertaking and isn’t something you can simply push through like a Tough Mudder. Overtraining Arriving at the start of an event 10% undercooked is much better than arriving at an event 1% overcooked, if you are slightly undertrained you can still pull it out of the bag with some grit and determination. If you’re overtrained however you’ll struggle to get your power up to where it should be, you’ll fatigue quicker and end up very frustrated that all of the hundreds of hours you’re putting in aren’t producing results. In a worst case scenario you may even find yourself struggling to focus and find yourself weaving around a lot as your body tries to shut itself down to protect itself. The way to avoid this is to back off your training before the event (tapering), to ensure you’re raring to go on the day. It can feel counter intuitive, and you may feel like you’re losing fitness, but keeping the sessions shorter and sharper in the weeks/days leading up to the race will really help. You also need to take into account the length of your event and the priority of the event. If the race is a low priority sprint then you probably only want to back your training off in the last few days, whereas if this is a high priority Ironman event you probably want to back off for up to a month before race day to ensure your legs are good on the day. If you have a busy life with a job and a family you’ll also want more taper time than a pro who may be able to get away with a taper of a fortnight for a big event. Accepting outside help The vast majority of races do not permit any kind of outside help, this is either you handing people items, or them handing you items, as well as accepting mechanical assistance from spectators. You can accept help from other athletes (an inner tube if you’re lucky), but from spectators on course is a big no-no as it could give some competitors an unfair advantage by having various friends/family out on course providing nutrition. Wrong time of the month You know how your body reacts to different stages of your cycle so I’m not going to tell you how to manage it, but where you are in your mensural cycle can have a big effect on your race. You can use a period tracking app such as Fitr, Clue or Garmin Connect to log how you have felt at that point in previous months to ensure you know what to expect on the day. If you suffer badly with cramps it may be worth taking some pain relief with you on the bike and run. Hyponatremia This is a condition where the body loses salt through sweat which isn’t replaced. This can cause relatively minor symptoms such as a headache and slower stomach emptying rates, but can also cause more extreme symptoms such as blackouts, projectile vomiting, loss of co-ordination and in extreme cases slipping into a coma. The reason for this is that as the water levels increase without sufficient sodium in the system to regulate it the brain eventually starts to swell causing the above symptoms. Avoiding this is really quite simple, you need to take on salt during your event, either in the form of electrolyte tabs in your water, sports drinks, salt tablets or salty snacks. If you find yourself starting to weave about, feeling a bit disconnected or with a persistent headache then it’s worth ensuring you take some salt on at the next aid station if you don’t have any on you. Illness No matter how well you prepare, there’s always the possibility you’ll end up suffering with some illness on the day. Whether it’s the local cuisine backfiring or a virus you picked up on the flight, it can put you in a very difficult position. These symptoms can be exarcabated on the swim which exacerbates nausea and congestion. You’re the only one who can make the call on whether you’re able to take the start, but if you’re feeling a bit rough round the edges a PB is probably off the cards, and you might have to adjust your expectations. If your only goal is a personal best, you may want to sit this one out rather than incur the fatigue from a long day of racing, and enter another event in the near future instead. If the affliction is anything more than a stomach bug or cold though, I’d seriously recommend you sit it out to avoid

September 19, 2019

From First Middle Distance to Sub 13 Iron Distance in 2 Months

When I first started working with Naval in the early summer he had two middle distance events booked, the Owler which he wanted to use as a sighter, and Challenge Almere which he wanted to use for a big performance. Luckily I had already known him for a couple of years by this point through the club, so knew a lot about him and his training from day one. We changed his training quite significantly, not so much the number of sessions but the length of them and the content. He is an incredibly strong cyclist and is one of the few people who can hold my heels during a hill session, but this doesn’t translate into a strong half marathon after you’ve already been racing for around three and a half hours by the time you put your running shoes on. He was told to either sit in the wheels on group rides or keep his heart rate below zone 4 when on the front. By spending less energy showboating on the hills and sprinting allowed him to both maximise the aerobic benefit of these sessions, run well off the bike when he got home and keep training well in the first half of the week rather than spend the time recovering from a very hard ride. We also changed the majority of his run training from intervals to longer runs, as with a month to go he hadn’t run much over 12K before. We only had a few weeks to prepare for the Owler, so when he lined up we hadn’t got close enough to 21KM in training as I would have liked, but he pulled it off and managed an impressive 1:50 run split off the back of a 2:51 ride. With some speed work and tempo runs we could get that run split down to 1:40, and hit the bike harder, taking 15-20 minutes off in the two months we had wasn’t out of the question. Then a couple of weeks later I got a call from Naval. Instead of beating his PB in Almere, he wanted to step up to the full distance. He explained that he was unsure if he’d have as much time to train next year due to other commitments, and worried that this may be his best chance of completing the distance, a long term ambition of his. While I always do my best to help people achieve the goals they come to me with rather than tell them what they can and can’t do, this was a big ask. I decided to look at the facts, for a start the swim would be manageable. He’d completed Ride London in well under 6 hours, and had ridden the hilly 200KM Ditchling Devil audax, so 180KM of riding on flat roads were unlikely to cause him a problem. Using the conservative estimate of 90 minutes for the swim and 7 hours for the bike, this gave us around 7 hours to run/walk 40KM. I’ve learned to never take completing the run course for granted as cramps, digestive issues or sheer exhaustion can leave someone weaving across the road, but I thought he could do it. Naval really wanted to step up the running distances which is understandable, but as he has a history of running injury, increasing the distance dramatically would most likely result in injury and crush his dreams, although we did need to increase the run volume to give him his best chance of success. I decided the best way to do this was to include two middle distance runs during the week to increase his weekly volume rather than jump straight up to 30KM long runs. The marathon was going to be brutal, we both acknowledged that, but there wasn’t a huge amount we could do otherwise. It seemed a risk worth taking He pulled it out of the bag, finishing in a highly impressive 12 hours and 53 minutes. Coaching isn’t a silver bullet, but this is a perfect example of how good communication and thinking outside of the box can create results.

May 9, 2019

Choosing a Triathlon Wetsuit

January 11, 2019

Aerobic and Anaerobic- What You Need to Know

Aerobic and anaerobic are two words that many in the endurance coaching world including myself bound around on a daily basis, yet for the aspiring triathlete these can cause confusion at first. The terms refer to how the body generates energy, imagine a six year old at sports day, belting across the school field towards the finishing line. When they finish their run they will likely be breathing heavily, exhausted from the 25M sprint they have just completed. When they move into secondary school and start running the 1500 on the track and cross country they soon realise something, if they want to run longer distances they have to slow down. Once they run longer distances at a lower intensities they are not nearly as out of breath at the end of the effort. They may be exhausted and collapse in a heap with sore legs and no energy left, but their lungs will not burn in the same way as before, they will not be recovering from what is known as an oxygen debt. The reason you experience an oxygen debt after short efforts is due to the body relying primarily on its anaerobic system heavily for short, hard efforts, this is where your body creates energy without oxygen. I won’t go into the science of how it works here, but what you need to know is that the anaerobic system can only function for around 2 minutes before the athlete accumulates a large oxygen debt and has to slow dramatically, this is our fight or flight reaction that allows us to escape from danger. Many predators in the animal kingdom rely on their anaerobic system heavily as they sprint after prey, if the gazelle manages to slip from the cheetahs grasp or zig zag enough to tire the cheetah, it can avoid becoming lunch as the cheetah has created an enormous oxygen debt it must recover from, akin to the six year old who has sprinted full pelt over a short distance and has nothing left at the end. On the other side of the equation we have aerobic fitness, this is energy created using oxygen. This is much more efficient and is one of the leading reasons for our dominance as a species, where our prey relied predominantly on their anaerobic system to escape danger, we were able to keep them in sight and slowly run them into exhaustion as they were unable to hold the pace that we were over longer distances. As triathletes we are focused almost entirely upon the aerobic system, as it is very rare that we will be putting the hammer down and become predominantly anaerobic when racing even a sprint distance triathlon as we will need time to recover from this effort. The exception to this is in draft legal triathlon where you may launch an attack off the front of the pack to try to bridge to the next group, which upon joining you will be able to sit in the wheels of for a minute or so while your body recovers from the oxygen debt. This is the reason that so much triathlon training is done at an “all day” pace, to ensure we are building and strengthening our aerobic system and not our anaerobic system. The mistake that many athletes make is doing all of their training way too fast and making very little headway on the aerobic development side of things. You may be able to run a very quick 5K, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a great marathon experience, I can vouch for that one personally! This is where things get confusing, I am a fairly gifted anaerobic athlete, I can push myself harder and go deeper than many others over shorter periods, but tend to suffer over especially long efforts. Normally when I mention that I have a strong anaerobic system and that 5K is my best distance to an athlete a metaphorical finger is waved in my face. “Aha! But a 5K is over 2 minutes, so it’s not an anaerobic effort”. This is of course true, but what people don’t always realise is that your body is never generating energy on a 100% aerobic or anaerobic basis. If that were the case a 100M sprinter could run with his mouth gaffer taped shut and still hit the same time as his rivals. Anaerobic energy is created in addition to the energy that is being generated aerobically, you are using anaerobically generated energy while reading this. It is only an incredibly tiny fraction of the energy being created (think several decimal places), but is it ticking over like a pilot light, ready to leap into action at a moment’s notice. To illustrate this more clearly here is a graph created using WKO4 (more information here) that visualises the energy systems used by an athlete at different timeframes. The data is collated using the athlete’s best performances at the time periods listed on the X axis, with the maximum power than can sustain for that period on the Y axis. I use these graphs to help athletes gain a better understanding of their individual physiologies to help us understand where we need to focus our training effort. Today we want to focus on the green and the blue lines, the green line represents aerobic contribution, the blue line anaerobic. If we start to the left of the chart we can see that at 1 second there is very little contribution from the aerobic system as the body has not started increasing the rate at which it pumps oxygen to the muscles yet, but using glycosides the body can create energy within the muscles and get us moving immediately. As we look closer towards the 10 second mark the aerobic system is really starting to get up to speed now, additional oxygen has been absorbed from the lungs and is being pumped to the muscles to get them fired up. For this athlete, it is

November 29, 2018

The Benefits of Coaching

A good triathlon coach is far more than someone who tells you what to do, it is someone who shares with your journey with you. While every coach is different, I’m going to take the time to talk through what I believe makes a good coach, and the relationships I foster with my athletes. Coached Sessions Starting with the most obvious one here, when I tell people I’m a triathlon coach their mind normally jumps to an image of me stood at the side of a pool with a stopwatch or cheering on runners as they sprint round a running track. This is a small but nonetheless important aspect of the coaching I provide, using my expert eye and knowledge of swim, bike and run to provide feedback on an athlete’s form, providing encouragement to help them push themselves hard. If you are new to triathlon the chances are that you struggle with the swim, whether this is frustration at not being able to get your times where you want them to be or breaking out in a cold sweat at the very thought of open water swimming. This is where many people find the most value in 1to1 coaching, whether it is a coach stood on poolside providing feedback on your technique or someone to help squeeze you into your wetsuit and be there as you take your first step into the water, expert instruction from a coach can help you improve rapidly and ease anxieties. Flexible Training Pans There are hundreds of Training Plans available for free or for much less than the cost of a coach, but the value of working with a coach comes from working with someone who understands your lifestyle, strengths, weaknesses, available time, history of injury, equipment available and much more. After filling out a questionnaire and from ongoing conversations a coach will help create a training plan that suits you, and adjust it on the fly for you. Yesterday one of my athletes contacted me with some bad news from his GP, that he had picked up an eye infection and was unable to swim for a week. Within 10 minutes I had updated his training plan to replace his swim sessions, talked to him about how we can prevent it happening in future and reassured him that the effect on his fitness would be minimal. If he was following a standard training plan he may replace the swims with inappropriate sessions or even worse push through the eye infection for fear of what might happen if he misses a session. I always deliver training plans on a week by week basis, writing them late in the week so I can get a picture of how the preceding week of training has gone. If their pool was closed for refurbishment I know we have to prioritise swimming in the following week, if they have picked up a cold I know they need to take it easy, or if they have received guidance from a physiotherapist I need to implement this into the next week of training. A training plan should be organic and ever changing to take into account the fact that no-one has the perfect run up to an event, and that sometimes life gets in the way. Someone to turn to While very few triathlon coaches will hold any kind of qualification in psychology, I’ve spent countless hours on the phone to athletes in floods of tears or who are on the verge of giving up. Whether this is because they have crashed their bike days before an important event, are suffering from stress in their family/professional life or they are simply having a crisis of confidence, coaches can help pick you up, brush you down and set you back on track. A lot of emotion flies around athletes training for triathlons, the ecstasy of finishing your event, the frustration of injury, the relief at qualifying for your target race, the self doubt that even the world’s greatest athletes suffer with, your training can become a rollercoaster of emotion. When things start to add up and become a bit too much, having a coach you feel comfortable venting to and who provides a shoulder to cry on helps you process these emotions and prevents you from allowing them to cloud your judgement when making important decisions. Objective advice Sometimes it’s unavoidable that your judgement becomes distorted, triathletes are extremely driven people who are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goal. This determination is admirable and one of the qualities I look for in potential clients, but this can also create tunnel vision. Our family, our health and even our sense of reason can fall by the wayside as an athlete gets up at 4AM even though they’re suffering with the early stages of a chest infection to start pounding the pavement for fear of missing a session and losing fitness. No doubt their friends and family would be alarmed at this and ask them to back off, but knowing athletes as I do, these concerns would likely be batted away with phrases along the lines of “You don’t understand” or “I’m not sure you realise how much this means to me”. This is the point where a coach can step forward as the voice of reason and tell the athlete what they may not want to hear, that we need to take some time off to allow the chest infection to clear before it gets worse. The self coached athlete is so focused on his goals and so determined to hit them that sometimes they get it wrong, putting a hard interval session in on only 4 hours sleep then spending the rest of the month laid up losing fitness hand over first as his full blown chest infection prevents him from getting any sessions in. “What an idiot, what was I thinking?” the athlete asks himself with the beauty of hindsight. There are only so

October 3, 2018

Understanding Your Annual Training Plan (ATP)

When you begin training with us here at Phazon Triathlon, one of the first things we do is create your Annual Training Plan, or ATP. This is a framework which we use to base your training off of, so you can understand decisions we make and can see how your training will progress over the year. However the acronyms and numbers can be confusing so I wanted to take some time to explain the meaning of all the figures you see to help you better understand and use your ATP. For this example I will be using an ATP I have just written myself for the 2019 season, here is a screen grab for you. As you can see, there is a lot of information squeezed into a screen here, so let me talk you through what it all means. The most attention grabbing part of the screen is the chart at the top with various colours of lines and bars. The most important of these is the big blue shaded area that fills the majority of the screen. this is my CTL, or critical training load, which simply put is how fit I will be at that time of year. I am currently sitting on a figure of 44 and am forecast to hit 99 before IRONMAN UK in July. Notice however that the line is not a straight line, it levels off and even drops at points, this is because I need easy weeks for my body to recover, continually building fitness throughout the year is a sure way to burnout. The mustard coloured shaded area is my form, this is how race ready I will be, as you can see here it peaks in two periods during the year, for my A races. When we train we add fatigue which impacts on our form, we must lower the training load for our form to increase, a process known as tapering. Our training load for each week is represented by the vertical bars, these are the TSS targets I have set myself for each week. As I complete each week these will become shaded to tell me whether I have missed, hit, or overshot my target for the week. The blue and yellow dotted lines will also start to move around, these represent my actual fitness and fatigue, I can use this to see whether they are closely corresponding to the shaded areas, and whether I’m on track. As you can see from this screen grab I was slightly below target for my first week of the preparation phase, but I didn’t miss it by much and it will make next to no difference to my performance on race day. What may confuse those of us new to the sport are the period names at the bottom of the chart, these are preparation, Base 1, Base 2, Base 3, Build 1, Build 2, Peak, Race and Transition. Preparation This is a very relaxed phase of the training, these is much less in the way of structure here, the only really structured work taking place in the gym where we begin the anatomical adaptation phase (more on this later). Why would you have phase of unstructured training you may ask, especially if you’re feeling apprehensive about your event. Triathlon training is tough, it takes a lot of time and energy to train for these events, it takes a toll on the body and the mind in equal measure. With the preparation phase we give new athletes a chance to get their head around working with a coach, and give experienced athletes a chance to wind themselves back to up to full tilt. Base 1 The purpose of this period changes depending on your level of experience, if you are a rookie triathlete you will spend this time moving to a more structured programme, focusing on improving aerobic endurance and your speed skills (technique). If however you are an experienced triathlete and are confident in the gym there is a big focus on weights at this stage to build our maximal strength, this allows us to swim, bike and run faster while also preventing injuries. We also use this time to work on our speed skills, primarily our swimming technique. Base 2 We continue the theme of building on our endurance and speed skills here, stepping back from the heavy gym work to allow us to focus more on our aerobic endurance and speed skills. Lifting big weights is an effective way to improve your performance, but it has an effect on your ability to swim, bike and run in the following days so is generally consigned to the Base 1 period. Base 3 This is the period you will spend most of your time in, for the rookie athlete who may just be looking to get round their event, the rest of the year may be spent in base 3. For those who are looking to build speed we will repeat this phase until we are 8-12 weeks out of our first A race, so depending on when you start your season dictates how many times you will repeat base 3. You will also return to base 3 after an A race if you have enough time, and will return to base 3 if you have more than a few days off of training at any point in the build phase. Build 1 This is where we focus almost entirely on muscular endurance work, extending the periods for which you can maintain your threshold and race pace efforts, the exact contents of this phase depend on the distance you are training for, for Ironman athletes it will involve longer workouts set at or around race pace where for short course athletes it will involve much more in the way of speed work. Either way, as we get closer to our race our training must better reflect the demands of race day. Build 2 This is simply a repeat

September 20, 2018

The 2018 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships

After one of my athletes qualified for the 70.3 World Chamopinsip in Port Elizabeth at Edinburgh on the 1st July, in a haze of excitement I told him that I’d go out there with him, the race was his hometown and it was his dream come true to race there. As he was the first athlete I had trained to qualify for a world championship, it seemed like a good opportunity to see a part of the world I’d heard so much about. In the days preceding the event I made the most of the local area, going on Safari, checking out some of the local history and getting escorted out of a park because it was too dangerous to be there on my own, but before I knew it Thursday had come around and the event programme was kicking off, starting with the parade of nations. This is a traditional event held in the days preceding world championships where countries line up under their country’s flags and engage in a parade with their compatriots, complete with commentary from the race announcers. The biggest country by some margin was the USA, but Great Britain, South Africa, Germany and Australia also bought their fair share of athletes to the event dubbed “The fiercest race in the friendliest city”. The parade made its way through the Boardwalk area where the event was based, and towards Hobi beach where the race finished. Several thousand athletes converged on the seafront to hear speeches from the top brass on the World Triathlon Corporation (who own Ironman), as well as being treated to some traditional African music by a choir. This was followed fairly soon after by the welcome banquet. My roommate who had his possessions stolen in London finally joined us in time for the food, which was surprisingly good quality and followed by a welcome ceremony and series of (mercifully) short speeches by a series of dignitaries, including the shortest ever speech by a politician courtesy of the newly elected mayor of Nelson Mandella Bay, who has been in the job for two days after a vote of no confidence in his predecessor. The oldest competitor was bought onto the stage, and was asked what kept bringing her back. After an evening of people predictably towing the corporate line it was amusing to see the borderline chaos that broke out when she replied simply with “stupidity”. The next day had an altogether different feel, the women’s race was taking part on the Saturday so everything was much more subdued as people started to get their race face on. The expo was busy with people buying last minute nutrition and spares (hopefully not temped into buying some bling piece of kit they planned to use on the day of the race) and the practice swim was looking very busy. I had a go myself and was amazed at the clarity of the water, as well as the speed at which I was overtaken at a couple of points, I was certainly swimming with the sharks! On race morning itself we were treated to the most incredible sunrise over the beach as the Ironman machine was in full swing, dozens of safety craft in the water booming music and the very best athletes in the world warming up in the water, I’m pretty sure it gave everybody present goosebumps at one point or another. The pros received a traditional blessing before the start, then when the cannon went they sprinted into the ocean as I sprinted over to the swim exit for a good view of the leaders. Lucy Charles was first out of the water in a time of 23 minutes followed by Fenella Landridge who I met in Johannesburg airport and spent a few hours chatting with. I thought she had an amazing swim, which she did, but it turns out she managed to gap the field so impressive by body surfing a wave into shore, giving her 5 seconds on the main pack, impressive! Onto the bike course Lucy Charles and Daniella Ryf made it clear that it was a two horse race for the win, both averaging the best part of 40KPH for the 90KM, admittedly with a tailwind that appeared on the way back but most of us are happy to see 40KPH appear on our bike computer at any point, let alone as an average speed for a middle distance. On the run Daniella immediately started to pull away from Lucy, although the gap did stabilise after the first few kilometres as Charles made it clear she was not letting go. It wasn’t to be for the Brit though and Ryf took the win in stunning style, before subsequently covering up as her tri suit had been stuck open for the entirety of the race leaving her sports bra on show and her tri suit flapping around, hopefully she’ll look back on the race for the tour de force it was rather than feel embarrassed because of a wardrobe malfunction. [wpvideo ni6soqTd] The following day I was awoken by my roommate’s 4:30AM alarm call and I laid there in bed so caught up in the emotion of the event, questioning why I was lying in bed rather than getting ready to race myself. I’ve dedicated nearly all of my time and energy on growing my business in recent years so time for training has been limited and I’ve struggled with injury, but these were still excuses at the end of the day. A visit to the British Triathlon website later and I had signed myself up for a middle distance in seven days time with absolutely no specific training. “I think I’m going to live to regret this” I thought to myself, but I could at least use it as a marker of where my fitness is currently and how I can get to the start line of the world champs in Niece. Sadly the weather wasn’t quite as

August 1, 2018

The London Triathlon Race Guide

The London Triathlon is the world’s biggest multisport event, attracting thousands of athletes year on year. Its location in one of the world’s largest cities and its beginner friendly nature makes it very popular for those looking to compete in their first event. The flat, fast nature of the course means it also appeals to PB hunters. Distances There are multiple distances available: Super Sprint: 400M swim, 10 KM bike, 2.5KM run This distance is ideal for those just looking to dip their toe into the world of triathlon. It’s a less popular distance, so less places are available. Sprint: 750M swim, 20KM bike, 5KM run Very popular with first timers, this is a challenge in endurance in its own right. Don’t let the word sprint deceive you though, it could take you over two hours. Olympic: 1500M swim, 40KM bike, 10KM run This distance gets its name from its inclusion in the Olympic Games. This will be the greatest sporting achievement of many people’s lives. The winners may go just under the two hour mark, with most people coming in somewhere between 2:20 and 3:10. There is a separate wave for those who can go under 2:30 to allow them a clearer, less congested course. Olympic Plus: 1500M swim, 80KM bike, 10KM run This course will appeal to stronger cyclists, and works well as a stepping stone to a half iron distance. Logistics Getting to the start of the event can a challenge due to the road closures for the event. Especially on the Sunday where the road closures are more extensive. As a result I highly recommend you take public transport to the start if based in London. If you are travelling from afar, it may be worth booking a local hotel. There is a limit on the number of bikes that are permitted on each DLR train, but this is rarely enforced. Make sure you arrive at least two hours before your wave starts where possible. This allows you time to set up your transition area, collect your number, mark up your bike, get changed into your wetsuit, make multiple trips to the toilet and still be there 20 minutes before your swim start. Ensure you take time to watch the briefing video and familiarise yourself with the layout of transition area to save you valuable seconds during your race. The clock doesn’t stop between the disciplines! Swim The swim is held in the London Royal Docks, which isn’t as dirty as it looks or sounds! The docks have long been abandoned and the water quality improved dramatically in the last 15 years with the installation of a filter at the intake point. NOWCA run swim sessions most days at the west of the docks. I have spent countless hours in the water coaching without ever falling ill, so the likelihood of you picking something up during a race are incredibly low. Just try to avoid swallowing any water. Wetsuits are compulsory for The London Triathlon. I believe it is due to the large number of weak swimmers at the event. Make sure you have a suit ready in advance as there are none available to hire on the day. If the water temperature is over 25 degrees wetsuits will be banned and athletes will need a tow float instead. To my knowledge this has never occurred in the history of the race. But given the summer we’re experiencing at the time of writing it’s not out of the realms of possibility. You will receive an update on the weather conditions when you arrive at the swim start. Once you walk outside and down the steps you will find yourself on a floating pontoon. You can enter the water however you like, whether you prefer to dive, jump or tentatively lowering yourself in. You can be waiting for quite some time if you’re one of the first in the water. If you’re nervous hang towards the back to avoid time spent treading water. The swim course is as simple as can be. It consists of a one lap clockwise loop dependent on the distance that you are swimming. Start on the right if possible to shorten the distance to the first buoy. Start towards the back if you are feeling nervous or are a slower swimmer to avoid any incidents. Once you climb yourself out of the water you have to remove your wetsuit. There are wetsuit strippers on hand to assist you with this. You need to place your suit a plastic bag to avoid water dripping on the floor of transition. Next you will head in the direction of the stairs that lead back up to transition. Be careful here if you are feeling dizzy after the swim. Don’t run up the stairs if you aren’t feeling steady on your feet. Bike Once you collect your bike, you will then follow the signage to the “bike out”. This will lead you to a mount line. This will be very clear as marshals will be holding flags to denote the position of the line. Once you have crossed the line, you can mount your bike and begin the longest of the three disciplines. The course varies depending on the time and the day you are racing. On the Saturday you traditionally will be on a much shorter course. On Sunday the course will be longer, going all the way out to Westminster for some waves. The course is fast and flat but technical in parts due to the amount of roundabouts and 180 degree turns. Keep your eyes on the road, and don’t take any risks. Even though The London Triathlon is held on closed roads, this doesn’t mean you can switch off and ride where you like. If anything it means you have to keep your wits about you even more as you will be sharing the course with a large amount of cyclists. Some may be travelling at twice your speed, or riding

June 29, 2018

Heart Rate vs Power

Heart rate and power are the two most popular ways of measuring effort when cycling, but which is the most accurate way of measurement, and which should you use for race pacing? We put the two head to head in different categories. Accuracy As numbers geeks, accuracy is probably the number one concern when choosing between the two. In this scenario power easily comes out on top simply due to the data range we have available to us. While an athlete’s heart rate will very rarely fall outside of 40-180BPM, an athlete’s power figure can range from 0-1000W and beyond in the case of exceptionally well trained athletes. This gives us a much greater insight into an athlete’s effort by default, so it’s 1-0 to power at this point. Reliability Power meters are incredibly powerful pieces of equipment, but they do require a certain degree of maintenance. Once you purchase and install your power meter they require an initial calibration followed by periodic re-calibration, especially after travelling with your bike. Heart rate monitors are cheap and simple, as long as they have a good connection they will very rarely let you down. Application of data This is the power meter. Hands down. As a coach, when athlete uses a power meter it gives me a goldmine of information to trawl through. I have a piece of software developed by TrainingPeaks called WKO4 which I use to analyse athlete’s power files to within an inch of their life. It also gives a much better insight into an athlete’s form over time, and due to the huge amounts of data the power meter harvests athletes will find their CTL levels increasing quite sharply as the power meter gives a real insight into every detail of a workout. Even more data can be collected when using a dual sided power meter that collects data from both your left and right side. Most power meters function by taking the power data from your left hand side and doubling it. Affordability This one is easy, heart rate wins hands down, a heart rate monitor will set you back around £40, with power meters costing £300 at the very least. If you purchase a triathlon watch it may even come with a wrist based optical heart rate monitor as standard. For the athlete on a budget, heart rate is the winner on practical grounds. Response time One of the major downsides with heart rate is how long it takes to react to changes in effort. Your heart rate will often take several seconds to respond to an increase/decrease in effort, as we can see below. The above is a short excerpt from an athlete’s workout. As the power (purple) dips and rises we can see the heart rate takes significantly longer to react, it reacts less evidently (which goes back to our initial point on accuracy), and is still increasing in response to the surge to 350W 30 seconds afterwards. If I only had heart rate data to go off, this graph would tell a very different story. Effect on Performance Everything comes at a price, and the same is true with power meters and heart rate monitors. A power meter will add a small amount of weight, but we’re only talking about a handful of grams here, with some brands coming in much lighter than others (for a price!). Meanwhile heart rate monitors will obviously add a small amount of weight by virtue of wearing them, but the main issue athletes worry about is the chest strap. While I’ve never had a problem, some athletes do and find that it uncomfortable. For those who can’t stand the chest strap there are now various optical heart rate monitors available which sit on your wrist or your arm, however these are not as accurate as standard chest strap versions. Battery Life Most heart rate monitors use a standard coin cell battery which can last for many years, where power meters will normally only last a matter of weeks, or even hours if broadcasting data via bluetooth. Sampling rate This is a slam dunk for power meters, most will have a sampling rate (the rate at which they measure the power output) at around 50HZ, which is higher than basic heart rate monitors. The exception in this case is heart rate monitors which are used for heart rate variability (HRV) monitoring which have a higher sampling rate and a price tag to match. Suitability for pacing Both methods are very useful for pacing, but for very different reasons. Power data is very useful as it is an objective measure of what is coming out of your legs. Using Best Bike Split we help our athletes create a bespoke plan that tells you what power to hold at which section of the course. 180W on the flat, 190W at is starts to kick up a bit, 210 on the steep section, it gives us a blow by blow plan to ensure you pace your bike leg to perfection. Heart rate is affected by a huge variety of factors such as temperature, stress, any infections your body may be fighting, fatigue, you get the picture. While this is its weakness, it is also its strength as it tells you exactly what your body is going through at the time. If your heart rate is sky high your body is trying to tell you something, and you’d do well to listen to it. This brings us to the underlying point behind this article, and the answer is that they are best used in conjunction with each other. Relying solely on power but with no insight into how your body is coping with the effort can lead to burn out, while only monitoring your heart rate lacks accuracy. This is a subject I will cover in more depth in a future article on aerobic decoupling which I will link to here when completed.

April 4, 2018

Where is the Best Place to Invest in your Triathlon Performance?

Image copyright AMC The products that promise to make you faster in triathlon are literally endless, every trade show or press release that comes my way promises free speed for a price. Whether this is in the form of miracle nutrition supplements, super aero bike components, advanced cycle clothing or running specific underwear, they all claim to be great value for money, and promise to solve all of your problems. Having worked in triathlon retail for two years I have helped hundreds of triathletes put together the right package for them and their budget, so I wanted to share with you the advice I have picked up and shared with customers over the years. Obviously I can’t cover every single piece of equipment, but I’ll do my best to cover the most common purchases. It’s worth mentioning that for each item listed there are cheaper options as well as more expensive options available. Just because something isn’t listed as good value doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy it, I’m the proud owner of many of the items that I list here as being poor value, however for the new athlete there are a other purchases which should come first and will offer your more bang for your buck. Good Value Power meter Probably the single best investment you can make in your fitness, especially if you are working with a coach who can use the data to monitor your fitness closely. The power meter not only records data, but displays it as you ride to help you pace your rides effectively. Heart rate also helps with this but as it’s so easily affected by other factors such as fatigue, illness and stress, power is useful as an absolute measurement of what’s coming out of your legs. The savvy athlete/coach closely monitors the relationship between heart rate and power to track fitness and fatigue. Heart Rate Monitor If you can’t afford a power meter then a heart rate monitor is the next best way to monitor your effort levels. A chest strap gives you much more accurate readings than the optical heart rate monitors found on newer triathlon watches, so are recommended for serious training. High Quality Clothing Invest in high quality clothing which will keep you warm and comfortable when riding and racing. Cheap clothing is a false economy as it will be uncomfortable resulting in unenjoyable training, chafing and it will likely fall apart quickly. Tools This covers all bike maintenance tools, chain lubes, grease e.t.c. If you learn to fix your bike yourself this will give you confidence and save you lots of money on workshop labour fees. High quality tools are important if you plan to do a lot of work on your bike, but there is no need to spend money on workshop quality tools if you are occasionally tinkering with your own machine. Elastic Laces There’s no excuse for this one, these will save you lots of time in transition and allow you to get running sooner. Tying laces with cold hands after a chilly ride is near impossible, a problem solved with a £5 pair of elastic laces. Good Quality Goggles Swimming isn’t much fun if you can’t see where you’re going, you’re blinded by the sun or your goggles keep taking on water. A good pair of open water goggles can be picked up for cheap and will provide you with a far more enjoyable experience in the water. All goggles have a shelf life, so treat yourself to a new pair ahead of race day. Dumb Turbo Trainer Is the weather too cold to conclusive riding? Too windy? Not enough time? Throw your leg over a turbo trainer and get a good quality workout in from the comfort of your garage. The fitness you will gain from getting rides in when you’d otherwise be forced off of the bike results in enormous gains in fitness. Coaching Some people struggle with the concept of paying for coaching as they want to walk away from a transaction with something carbon fibre in their hands. But when you consider a year of coaching with Phazon Triathlon costs less than a rear wheel, the expert guidance and support you will receive from a coach will help shave hours, not minutes off of your finish time. Premium Tyres As covered in a recent article, a good set of tyres will help prevent punctures, provide extra grip and reduce rolling resistance. Because nobody likes to end up in a ditch or standing by the side of the road trying to wrestle a tyre off the rim as other stream past. Appropriate Running Shoes A pair of running shoes that fit you well, are comfortable and not too worn are essential to your performance ,by running in ill fitting and/or worn running shoes you vastly increase your risk of injury. You also need to ensure the shoes you wear are suitable for he distances you’re running and the terrain you’ll be running on. Swim Toys Investing in a modest collection of swim toys (pull buoy, fins, paddles, tempo trainer e.t.c.) will vastly improve your swim if used correctly, shop around and you’ll find some good deals going. Clip On Aero Bars Using a set of clip on bars can save you time hand over fist by lowering and narrowing your position on the bike. It’s very difficult to get a comfortable position on a road bike with clip on bars, but the good news is you’ll be able to revert to the hoods if they prove to be too uncomfortable. Sports Massage/Physiotherapy If you feel niggles or tightness appear from training, be sure to get them seen to by a professional. Sports masseurs can help you treat the symptoms of the pain and advise on the potential cause, but sometimes it takes a full screening with a physiotherapist is essential to address the cause of the injury. Bike Fit Ride your bike in more comfort and

March 27, 2018

Complete Guide to Triathlon Race Nutrition

March 6, 2018

Road Tyres 101

February 7, 2018

Introduction to TrainingPeaks

January 24, 2018

Should You Buy A Second Hand Bike?

December 12, 2017

Should You Ride in Extreme Conditions?

As road cyclists/triathletes we generally pride ourselves on being hard. Riding up a mountain for 90 minutes? No problem. Dropping down a hill at 50MPH? Hold my beer. 12 hours straight with no break? Walk in the park. However there comes a time when cycling is simply not very sensible and has a high margin of risk associated with it. Never is this more appropriate than in cold weather, but not wanting to comes across as being a bit soft can make it difficult to make the distinction between it being a bit chilly and dangerous. Here’s an overview of different factors and how they should affect your decision on whether to ride or not. Icy roads You don’t need snow for ice to appear, and it can be invisible in the form of black ice. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve had very few crashes on the road, but one time did involve dropping it in Richmond Park on black ice. It’s impossible to spot until it’s too late and your front wheel will simply disappear from underneath you, giving you no chance to react or avoid a crash. To reduce the risk you can lower your speed, giving you more time to react in the unlikely scenario you spot it before it’s too late, and reducing the likelihood of injury/bike damage if you do hit the deck. Top tips: -Watch out for frost on grass/pavements as you leave. If there was a frost last night there is also a reasonable chance black ice will be around -If there was standing water on the roads the day before a frost, this will likely translate into black ice come morning -Avoid areas that are shaded by trees/buildings. Most frosty nights will be followed by a clear morning which helps to clear the ice as the sun rises, but dark lanes will be exposed to less sunlight and more prone to icing over. If you’re desperate to get outside try to keep on more exposed roads which will be more likely to warm up in the sunlight -Roads with a camber will be more likely to collect water, ride further away from the kerb than normal -Avoid bike lanes. This may attract the ire of drivers, but there’s a very low chance that your bike lane has been gritted, where the road adjacent likely has Snow It’s pretty obvious when it’s snowed, and just because of the endless pictures of people’s gardens on social media. However when it snows the bicycle is the preferred mode of transport for many, with lots of ‘fair weather’ cyclists breaking the mountain bike out of the shed when all the trains fail and the roads are gridlocked. Where cars will likely lose grip and end up involved in an expensive accident, the correct bicycle tyres will have a good level of grip and any crashes will be far less dramatic/expensive. However once the snow becomes more than a few inches deep it is far safer and quicker to walk, unless you happen to own a fat bike… Top tips: -Stick to bike paths and/or quiet roads, you don’t want to run the risk of sliding out on the snow and falling into the path of a car, or being collected by a driver which has got it wrong and lost control of their vehicle -If you live in an environment with frequent heavy snow, consider fitting snow tyres to your wheels. These are wider tyres with studs/spikes in to help you gain purchase -Slow it right down, leave more time for journeys and don’t try to use the ride for training -You can gain extra purchase in the snow by wrapping cable/zip ties around your tyre (disc brakes only) Low air temperature Sometimes the fact that the air temperature is below -5 can be enough to put you off of cycling. The air will be so cold it will be difficult to inhale and exposed skin will sting, making for a thoroughly unenjoyable experience. The correct clothing will go a very long way to making the experience more bearable, but keeping your extremities warm is a real challenge, and if you are unable to effectively operate your brakes you are putting yourself at great risk. Top tips: -If you are experiencing cold hands invest in high quality winter gloves and a pair of merino wool glove liners, these will make a world of difference -Invest in a pair of winter shoes or some overshoes, and use a layer of tin foil underneath your sole to reflect heat back -A cycling cap/skull cap will make a big difference, some even include ear flaps which will benefit those whose ears resemble pork chops after a ride -Layers, layers, layers. Using a base layer, a short/long sleeve jersey and cycling jacket is far more effective than simply putting on a big coat or the thickest jacket you can find. Each layer traps warm air, resulting in a very insulating effect. It is also very flexible if you feel start to overheat and you can start to remove/undo layers without exposing bare skin -Don’t stray too far from home, try to ride laps of an area rather than a huge out and back ride in case you start to develop the early signs of mild hypothermia. These can include shaking, confusion and slurred speech. If you or one of your riding partners goes from excessive shaking to feeling surprisingly warm, call an ambulance immediately. For more information on hypothermia symptoms and treatment visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Hypothermia/ -Exercise extreme caution when exerting yourself in extremely cold temperatures where capillaries shrink and it becomes harder to pump blood, vastly increasing the risk of a cardiac event. Gusting winds Strong, constant headwinds that you battle into are one thing, but a strong sideways gust can immediately displace you into the middle of the road or a ditch. These are normally associated with gales and hurricanes, so think very carefully before riding in these

November 2, 2017

Lane Swimming Etiquette

A lot of people dislike lane swimming, and I can’t say I blame them, it’s a necessary evil to share the same piece of water with others pounding up and down the lane, which can be frustrating for all involved as fast swimmers get held up and slower swimmers feel mobbed. If you’ve been swimming for a while, chances are you’ve either experienced, or been subject to the phenomenon of lane rage, where a swimmer becomes so agitated at having others interrupt their workout that they lash out at others. This is completely avoidable, so let’s dive into these murky waters to find the best way to avoid such unpleasantries and to help everyone have a great swim. Be Considerate This should be the underlying message to take away from the article, you want your swim to be as enjoyable as possible, and you should want everybody else to enjoy your workout as much as possible. In the same way a good driver spends more time focusing on the behaviour of other drivers than on themselves, the same is true for swimming in close confines. Everybody’s trying to get the most out of their session, treat people as you’d expect to be treated yourself. Communicate With Other Swimmers If you find yourself at the end of the lane at the same time as your lane mate(s), make an effort to engage in some kind of conversation, even if it’s just asking if they want to go first. Even if you’re too gassed or simply don’t want to talk, acknowledging them with a nod can help. Adding a bit of humanity to the situation can help diffuse any potential tension or resentment. Swim in an Appropriate Lane This is the subject closest to my heart, people swimming in in the wrong lane. If you want to swim heads up breaststroke to keep your hair dry, that’s fine, it’s a free country, but please stay in the slow lane. Even if the fast lane is empty and you decide to hop in there instead to reduce the chance of getting splashed, when a faster swimmer gets in the fast lane, you’ll get splashed by them and also ruin their swim by slowing them down. Please swim in the lane that best reflects your ability, and if you absolutely must swim in the fast lane as the slow lane is chock full, move back down when appropriate. The same goes for Michael Phelps wannabes who decide that the fact the slow lane only contains one pensioner makes it perfect for a 400 IM. Make Other Swimmers Aware of Your Presence This can be as simple as dangling your legs in the water for a minute or two before you enter the lane while you sort out your goggles and hat, but will make others aware that there will soon be another swimmer joining them. Especially important if the swimmers have split the lane rather than swimming in a circular fashion. More than once I’ve been swimming along minding my own business and narrowly avoided a head on collision with someone who’s jumped into the lane without any notice. If you see a swimmer waiting to start their swim, and the lane isn’t already a circle swim lane, stop for a moment at the end of the length to communicate what you want to happen next. Don’t just keep swimming up and down the middle of the lane. Check before pushing off All competitive swimmers have been there. In the middle of a fast 400M time trial, coming into the last 100M on track for a rapid time, when a swimmer who lowered themselves into the fast lane and spent 10 minutes doing his pre flight checks decides to gently push off and begin his warmup just as you approach for a tumble turn. Read the lane and check for other swimmers approaching before you push off, in the same way you look both ways before crossing the road. Give way at the end of lengths If a swimmer is directly behind you, they may inadvertently or otherwise give your feet a gentle tap. A light toe tap is generally considered to be a polite request to let them past at the end of the length. All it takes it to hold onto the wall at the end of that length for a second while they complete their turn, allowing you both to get on with your swim. Even if you don’t get a toe tap but sense a faster swimmer has been behind you for the majority of the length, giving way is polite and allows everyone to get on and enjoy their swim. Failure to do so will likely result in an aggressive overtake in a couple of length’s time and the evaporation of all goodwill. Don’t rest in the middle of the lane If you are taking a break at the end of the lane, stand to the side of the to allow others to tumble turn easily. If you stand in the middle of the lane having a chat, it becomes very difficult for others to continue swimming. Consider moving down a lane for drillls/kick sets This depends very much on how busy the lane is and the calibre of swimmers you’re sharing the water with, but if they’re doing sprints and you have 25M of sculling coming up, consider moving down a lane for a few minutes to avoid making enemies. This also goes for swimmers who find themselves fatiguing towards the end of a tough set. If you notice the swimmers in the slow lane are consistently moving faster than you, take the L and move yourself down. Swim in the correct direction Most pools will have a clockwise lane next to an anti-clockwise lane, next to a clockwise, alternating across the pool. This is to prevent swimmers from clashing arms and legs, especially prevalent when swimming breaststroke or fly. Pay attention to the direction of travel

October 22, 2017

The Importance of Sports Massage

Sports massage is a term that you may well have heard thrown around in magazines or at club training, which can initially conjure up images of candles and whale music while a beautiful masseur lightly releases the tension in your muscles. Unfortunately this is about as far from the truth as you can get, a sports massage normally involves being taken into the spare bedroom of someone’s flat, or dumped onto a treatment table at the finish line of a race, where someone inflicts so much pain on you that many people compare it to childbirth. However as triathletes we are no strangers to pain, and these beatings should become a regular part of your training ritual. So what is the purpose of the pain? Why should we pay someone good money to beat us within an inch of our lives? The benefit is two fold, injury prevention/treatment and addressing imbalances. Muscles will slowly tighten over weeks, months and years of training until they become so tight that they overwork another muscle group, pull on a tendon or trap a nerve, all of which can result in substantial time sat at home unable to train, every athlete’s worst nightmare. As someone who has spent the last three years battling injury, I’m trying to help people recognise how important a regular sports massage is to your training. When you first visit a new masseur they will ask you a few questions about any injuries you’re suffering from along with a brief history of your health to allow them to treat you effectively. They will then conduct some flexibility tests which normally involve a lot of sucking of teeth in my experience, before they knuckle down with the hard work. Normally from the initial assessment and some prodding they’ll have a good idea of what’s causing the pain. It may be that your knee pain actually comes from your glutes or your plantar problems can be traced to your hamstring, the whole kinetic chain that runs through your body is incredibly complex and it requires an experienced professional to locate where the problem is coming from. Once they’ve located the problem, they can begin the treatment. How painful they are depends on how supple you are, if you have been training for years and never had one, you may want to find something hard to bite into for your first visit, but if you make monthly or bi-monthly visits to the treatment table the experience will be altogether more bearable. The methods of sports masseurs vary between each individual, but primarily involve applying pressure to different areas to relax and release the muscle. Often the pain of the treatment is followed by a brief moment of ecstasy as the muscle releases, before they move onto the next area and the ordeal begins again. How much pressure they apply depends on the severity of the injury and your own tolerance for pain, I’ve had it before when a masseur has rubbed oils to my IT band which has made me whince, “You won’t like it when I get the elbow in then!” he quipped. The experienced therapist will use conversation as a means of judging how much pain you are in and how much pressure they can apply. If you arrange treatment for a specific injury then the vast majority, if not all of the session will be spent working on that area, however if you simply ask for a tune up they will spend more time working on various areas of the body, focusing on areas that are worked heavily by your sport of choice. Prevention is better than cure, and even if you are not experiencing any significant tightness or pain, a regular massage will help keep things supple and improve your performance. However sports massage does have its limitations, sometimes the cause of the tightness is so deep within the muscle that trigger point therapy may be able to get where a masseur’s elbow cannot, and some people even report acupuncture has helped them overcome injuries. Both of these methods are considered alternative treatment by medical bodies and results cannot be guaranteed. Sports massage is invaluable, but there is a lot that you can do to help keep muscles supple in you day to day life. A thorough warm up and cool down for every training session is very important, it’s tempting simply to collapse over the line or through the door and spend the rest of the day horizontal, but time spent gently turning the legs over followed by some gentle stretching will help prevent injury. You should also enlist the help of a foam roller to release tension after hard training sessions. Foam rolling techniques warrant a separate article themselves but the basics are moving the foam roller up and down the tight muscle until you find the most painful spot and holding it for 30 seconds, or until the muscle releases. This will go a long way to preventing injury, but the occasional services of a professional who can reach deep into the tissue are still important. After three years of relentless training and racing, I have since spent three years battling injury caused by neglecting sports massage and foam rolling, and hope to save my athletes/readers from the same fate. If it’s something you’ve been meaning to get round to, now is the time to take the plunge to help avoid an injury blighted season.

October 18, 2017

The Importance of the Off Season

The off season is the period between the last race of your season and the first structured training session of the next year, it is arguably the most important part of the year for athletes, as our body needs time to rest and recover from the season of hard racing and training. This is often a period of the year I struggle to guide some athletes through, as they instinctively want to keep training and racing, especially if this if their first few years of racing in multisport. This is partly due to a puppy dog level of excitement, they’ve found this fantastic new hobby and want to keep going, but is also linked to a fear of losing hard earned fitness from the previous year. Here we take a look at why it’s so important to coast your way through the off season and vastly reduce training volume/intensity. First and foremost, as a species we are not meant to be active for 52 weeks of the year, the winter was traditionally a time of rest and a fight for survival, stockpiling resources and trying to stay warm. While we now have innovations such as central heating and Gore-Tex to get us through these winter months, the body still expects a period of down time each year. This is why the winter is the ideal opportunity to wind down, although if you’re big into your cyclocross and/or duathlon you may wish to skew your year slightly so it starts and finishes later. It’s natural for us to put on a little bit of weight and take things easier for a short period over the winter, but this doesn’t have to be for the duration of the season, just a handful of weeks. This should be a minimum two weeks, and even up to 6 weeks in some circumstances, which will depend on how well you recover as an athlete. If you are a lifelong competitor in their 30s then you can probably get away with only a couple of weeks, but if you’re a masters athlete or someone who is very new to the sport and feeling run down, a six week break is preferable to throwing yourself back into training too early. Training and competing in triathlon is hard, really hard, and it’s easy to lose sight of this. When training your body will be in a near constant state of stress, which prolonged exposure to will eventually take its toll. Overtraining is the single greatest threat to an athlete’s progress, and has bought many promising athlete’s careers to a premature end. While we’re probably not looking at fatigue on this level, we still want to turn up to race day feeling fresh and ready to go, rather than beleaguered and nonchalant about our race. I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you about a friend of mine who I used to ride with, let’s call him Jack. Jack, was and is a very talented cyclist, we both started road cycling around the same time and we both joined a low profile cycling club in the spring of 2013. He spent the year heading out on rides with groups faster than him, hanging on by the skin of his teeth, until week after week it got easier, and he eventually started leading the faster rides himself. When November came many of us took the month off, and restarted training in December with long, easy rides, however Jack declared “I don’t believe in base training”, containing to lead rides every weekend, racing people up the hills and giving it full gas all the way through the winter. When April came Jack was so exhausted that he started suffering from chronic fatigue and had to take the rest of the summer off of the sport he loved while his body slowly recovered. While this is something of an extreme example, it serves as a reminder of the physical dangers that come with constant training. The other side of the coin is the advantages of time off. You may be keen to crack on with next year’s training, especially if you’ve just signed up to your A race, but training solidly for 11 months ahead of your race is going to involve a lot of ups and downs, a small break of a few weeks will help you come back with a renewed hunger. This is perhaps of more importance to experienced athletes than novices who will be keen to ride the wave. It’s an important time for goal setting and reflection as well, time away from the pool and the open road will help you remember why you started in the first place, as well as helping you question what it is you want to achieve. You’ve signed up for a big race, but why are you doing it? Why did you pick that race? What do you realistically hope to achieve? This is a good opportunity to sit down with a coach to help choose some realistic goals, and devise a plan for achieving them. Rather than feeling destitute at the lack of training, use is as an opportunity to spend more time with your family and enjoy other active pastimes. Go for walks with your family, try a new sport which interests you such as rowing, you could even have a go at improving your weaker strokes to mix up your swimming sets. I encourage athletes to do a bit of training here and there if they feel like it, but it should be purely for enjoyment and done at a steady pace. A coach is there not simply to set you a series of workouts every week, but to get you to the finish line in the fastest time possible, and time off at the end of the year is an important part of the process.

September 26, 2017

Introduction to Turbo Training

Turbo training, or indoor cycling, is becoming increasingly popular among cyclists and triathletes of all abilities, allowing for incredibly focused and specific training with minimal fuss. As the winter approaches and brings with it strong winds, freezing temperatures and rain, indoor riding becomes all the more appealing. I strongly advise all athletes I work with to purchase a turbo trainer to allow them to get specific and focused training sessions. An hour on the turbo is generally worth two hours on the road, and is worth even more when you you include all the time prepping your bike and getting changed for an outdoor ride, and if you live in a city, the distance you need to travel before you can get riding properly. I have athletes ride the turbo not as a last resort in bad weather, but all year round to allow us to fit more quality hours of training in every week. You can also train with specific metrics and monitor power closely, rather than simply going out for a ride to get some miles in the legs. Using Functional Threshold Power (FTP) testing you can accurately monitor your improvements and use the data to train at intensities specific to you. The words ‘turbo trainer’ strike fear into the hearts of most old school cyclists, and hark back to the days where indoor training involved staring at a wall or watching a video of other cyclists racing while you pedal into nowhere using a heavy, expensive trainer that kicks up enough noise to make a jet engine blush. Turbo training has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, so let’s look at the new generation of training options and what they offer Smart or dumb? You’ll hear the phrase “smart trainer” thrown around on various websites, blogs and bike shops, so you can understand people’s hesitation in asking what exactly makes a bike trainer smart. A smart trainer will talk to electronic devices, broadcasting power data to them and changing their resistance based on the feedback they receive from the training software. If you’re riding a virtual course and reach a hill, the trainer will increase resistance, decreasing it when you reach the summit. This makes your indoor riding experience far more immersive and valuable with specific metrics such as accurate power and in build cadence sensors. Direct drive or classic? The term direct drive refers to when a cassette sits on the trainer itself which you mount your bike onto (after removing the rear wheel) and start riding. Wheel on trainers work by taking the bike in its entirety and bolting it onto the trainer. A metal drum is then pressed against the rear wheel to provide the resistance. So which is better? You’d be hard pressed to find someone who chooses a wheel on trainer over a direct drive trainer. Wheel on trainers will rapidly wear some tyres necessitating the use of a specialist turbo training tyre, and the tyre/wheel change that comes with it before every indoor ride. Wheel on also tends to be noisier, and it feels very unnatural to ride compared to the smooth, progressive resistance of the direct drive trainers. Direct drive trainers are coming down in price, so I’d recommend looking at them as they’re so easy to use. If you have to change the wheel/tyre every time you want to ride indoors, it’s a barrier to you getting the workout done and you’ll find excuses not to ride. Training software The vast majority of those training indoors will use training software to maximise the accuracy of their ride and stave off the boredom. Here we look at some of the options available to athletes. Zwift The benchmark in training software, Zwift has exploded in the last couple of years, edging itself towards the world of mainstream fitness. The premise is simple, by turning the pedals you power your rider around a virtual course, providing not only a challenge in the undulating courses they create (including a full mountain climb), but a visual distraction from the monotony of indoor training. Several hundred riders can be found online at any given time varying from weekend warriors to professional cyclists, either participating in races, battling over the various jerseys that can be earned on course, following a workout or simply pooling round the course. Zwift is an incredibly detailed topic which deserves an article on its own, but can be summarised as the most social and iadvanced platform. Pros: social, being continually developed, incredible visuals Cons: only three courses currently available TrainerRoad If Zwift is the excitable 10 year old of the indoor cycling world, TrainerRoad is the surly uncle. It’s been around for longer than Zwift and focuses more on performance. It works on the premise that you are given a series of power figures to hit, and you have to hold the correct power and/or cadence/heart rate for each effort. There is no visual representation of your efforts, it is more of a no frills experience than Zwift, instead focusing on its library of workouts and training plans designed by coach Chad Timmerman. It also has the unique feature of allowing you to minimise the software to watch your favourite film/TV show with essential workout information at the bottom of the screen. Athletes training with me are provided with turbo workouts, so the appeal of TrainerRoad is limited. Pros: Extensive workout library, ability to minimise workout Cons: Represents poor value for money compared to other software, no visualisation or social aspect Bkool simulator Bkool are the underdog here, and something of an anomaly as they produce their own trainers as well as software. The Bkool software is unique in that is allows you to ride a huge variety of routes with video/google earth images to keep you engaged, rather than relying on the somewhat limited course offerings on Zwift. This can prove especially useful for those who have a big race abroad and want to preview the

September 11, 2017

How to clean your drivetrain

This may not be the sexiest of blog posts, but as triathletes we have a reputation of poor bike skills, and this extends to the maintenance of our machines. Today we’re going to look at how to clean your chain to ensure your bike is running at optimum performance for as long as possible. “But I don’t have the time to clean my bike every ride, I put it in for a service every year!” I hear you cry, but do you also tend to acquire a bill for a long list of replacement parts with every service and think “Blimey, this cycling lark is expensive!”? While all components need to be replaced eventually, their lifespan can be multiplied ten fold with a bit of TLC. After shorter rides you can get away with a quick wipe of the chain, but once every 200KM or so you’ll need to give your drivetrain a proper clean. I’ve been selflessly letting the chain on my commuter bike get dirty to demonstrate the method to you, and as you can see a large amount of black gunk has started to attach itself to the chain, creating a black paste which will eat away at our components, wearing them away and requiring replacement parts to optimise shifting and performance. A tell tail sign that your cassette/chianset needs replacing is when the notches on the cogs start to resemble a shark’s fin rather than a smooth, symmetrical tooth. If in doubt, take it to your local bike shops, most bike mechanics are honest and will give you an estimation of how long you have left in your components. To start the cleaning process we first need to give the bike a good wash down with a hose. Cleaning your drivetrain is a dirty job and you WILL get grease on you and your clothes, I’d hate for you to get black specs all over your brand new Ironman finisher’s shirt, so wear something you don’t mind getting a bit dirty. If you don’t have the luxuary of a garden then make sure you carry out the work above a surface you can wipe clean, and substitute the hosing down with a thorough wiping down of the chain. The aim is to dislodge any bits of grit and dirt that my be hiding between the links before we get serious Take this point to notice how the raised areas of the chain are cleaner than the rest of the chain. This is a result of the chain rubbing against the front mech and reminded me that I needed to adjust the limit screws to minimise chain rub which lowers the life of your chain as well as creating an incredibly annoying grinding sound. Before we clean the chain itself, let’s the the opportunity to clean all the easily accessible working parts, namely the chainset and the jockey wheels. As you can see below, these are prone to attracting black gunk from the road as they sit right in the firing line Probably not the best example as I’m generally pretty good at cleaning them and there’s a limit to how dirty I’m going to let my bike get for an article, but it’s important we get rid of this before we clean the chain, otherwise it’ll be black again by the time we get to the bottom of the road. The best way to do this is spinning the crank and using a screwdriver to remove the offending muck This is preferable to wiping them down as any cloth you use is liable to getting dragged into the workings of the rear mech. Also check the chainset (front gears) for any dirt, then we’re good to start on the chain. It’s finally time to clean the chain itself, and for that we will need degreaser. Degreaser is perfect for getting rid of pesky grease that builds up on your chain, but also very good at stripping useful grease from your bottom bracket and wheel hubs, so to avoid the powerful chemicals getting into these areas I use a chain cleaning tool, specifically the Park Tool Cyclone pictured. Notice the number of bristles on the inside of the machine, the real problem is not the visible dirt on the outside of the chain but the paste that has made its way into the links of the chain where it is eating away at the metal. The bristles are there to get to the difficult pieces of dirt that you can’t reach simply by wiping the chain down. Fill the tool up to the indicated level with degreaser and then seat the machine over the chain, clipping it closed to sit on the chain like so: The tool keeps the worst of the degreaser inside its workings, but you’re doing well if you manage to avoid the splatter that can erupt from the end of the roll. I recommend keeping it as level as possible to reduce liquid escaping, but you do need to give the chain a good dozen or so rotations to ensure the bristles do their work on the entire chain. If you don’t have a chain cleaning tool you can apply the degreaser using an old toothbrush, but a chain cleaning tool is a wise investment for anyone who regularly rides their bikes. The chain is already looking much better, especially compared to the cassette behind it. Next up we need to give the chain a thorough wiping down to get rid of the degreaser. Give the chain a good few spins through the rag, ensuring you clean every surface of the chain, and we’re rewarded with a nice shiny drivetrain. We’re already looking a lot better, and you’d be forgiven for wanting to jump straight onto your sparkling steed and heading straight out for a spin, but there’s one more final step to be completed. Remember how I said degreaser removed grease both good and bad? Well we need to re-lube our

August 29, 2017

Life after Ironman

The post Ironman blues are a well documented phenomenon, athletes in training spend every waking moment thinking about their race; training, planning and worrying, drawing up various scenarios in their head and spending most of their disposable income on products that promise to get them round in a faster time. This is completely natural and I’d be concerned if an athlete didn’t give much thought to their race, but after we cross the finish line and the elation has subsided, people end up with a large M-dot shaped hole in their life. This is often inevitable, but affects different people in different ways. Some people feel a bit empty for a few weeks, other feel destitute, thinking that any training they do would be pointless now they’re an Ironman. The best way to prepare for this period is to plan in advance, just like you are doing for your race. This doesn’t mean sitting down with a calendar and creating a strict itinerary for the month following the race, but take ten minutes to sit down with a pen and paper to list all the things you’ll have to look forward to with more free time and pencil in a few plans. Here are a few suggestions. Spend more time with your family/partner If you’re lucky enough to have a partner who is completely on board with your training, they’ll have been proud to support you, and no doubt been very patient with you and long days alone in the house while you put in the big miles, this is your chance to make them feel special again by spending more time together. Take them out to dinner without worrying about what you’re eating or when you have to be back, enjoy lazy Sundays mornings in bed together and treat them with a long weekend away without packing your bike or running shoes. This will help butter them up for when you announce your plans to complete another Ironman next year! Catch up with friends I hate to break it to you, but if you’re in training for an Ironman you’re probably neglecting your friends to a greater or lesser extent. You may not feel like you are, but the times you politely excuse yourself early from a party early or turn down an invitation for a night out in the name of training has probably led to you falling off their radar somewhat. This is your chance to reach out to them, flash around your finishers medal, tell a few heroic stories and remember what it feels like to stay up putting the world to rights into the small hours. Friends are a vital part of your support network so make sure you invest time in them while you can and remind them you care. Finish that project Whether you’ve been putting off pressure washing the patio or finishing that art project, these things tend to fall by the wayside in the post workout glow as you fall into an accidental nap on the sofa in front of the antiques roadshow. These little projects are a great way to keep that results orientated side of you in check, replacing the sense of achievement you get from a high average speed with a clean car or finally fixing the the shower. The next step This doesn’t have to be Ironman orientated, but having something booked for after your Ironman can help you pick up your feet in the weeks following the race. A cycle sportive is perfect as it’s low impact, affordable and gives you the chance to enjoy a new part of the world without worrying about performance. Give yourself at least a month between your Ironman and next event, to allow you to recharge your batteries both physically and mentally. Whether you ever want to complete an Ironman again is a question only you can answer in the weeks following the event, but having a small goal will help you keep focus. Remember it’s good for you Life is all about balance, and months of intensive training must be balanced with periods of total rest. All the best coaches talk about the need for an off season for athletes to get unfit, put on a bit of weight and live like normal people. This will slowly be replaced with gentle, recreational exercise if you start to get itchy feet after a few weeks, and slowly turn into a new base period. If/when you decide to return to training you’ll do so with renewed enthusiasm and energy. Chat to your coach The debrief following an Ironman is perhaps the most important conversation you’ll have with a coach all year. This could be your coach or a coach you’re considering hiring, but they’ll help you analyse your performance, look at how it went objectively and help you plan your next move. There are always things that went well, and always areas to improve, your coach will ask the right questions and help you reflect on your race in a constructive way. It’s all to easy to beat yourself up about areas that didn’t go well, but putting things into perspective and help you move forwards. A temporary drop in mood is common in all walks of life following an achievement, and can be attributed to a fear of being unable to recreate the success, however if you feel you are struggling following a race, during your training or at any point in your life and need someone to talk, you can call The Samaritans free of charge on 116 123 for confidential support.

October 30, 2016

Is Your Triathlon Bike Slowing You Down?

Ahead of your big race have you invested in a triathlon bike? Are you surprised, confused or disappointed at the lack of improvement in your speeds, or are you even slower on it than on your road bike? Here we’ll delve into the reasons this may be, and hopefully offer some solutions. If a triathlon bike was the outright fastest and most comfortable way to get round, why wouldn’t people ride them all the time? The answer is a triathlon bike involves a lot of compromises in the way of bike design, and they can be difficult to get comfortable on. For those who need a basic explanation, a triathlon bike makes you faster by lowering and narrowing your profile against the wind. The bike frame itself is also tapered to make it cut through the air as fast as possible, but as the least aerodynamic thing on the bike is you, the focus is on getting yourself lower and narrower. Most have shifters on the end of the aero bars and electronic models also have shifters on the bullhorns to make it easier to change gear when braking, climbing or descending. The compromise is that to improve airflow around the bike the frame, more material is needed to reduce turbulence, which results in a bulkier frame, increasing weight. On a pan flat course this doesn’t have much of an impact, but if you find yourself on an undulating course when you’re used to a featherweight road bike it can come as a surprise. Not only does a tri bike increase weight when climbing, but it makes the bike less stable on the descents due to the short wheelbase and deep section wheels, which combined with the fact that brakes on triathlon bikes are normally less efficient than on road bikes, can lead to you handing over minutes to those on the road bikes on the hills. If you can make that time back on the flats you’ll be faster overall, but if a course is relentlessly hilly, such as Ironman UK, you may be better off going for a light, responsive climbing bike. There is also the question of wheels, most stock triathlon bikes will come with a very basic set of wheels to make the price point more appealing, but most triathletes will upgrade the wheels into something more aerodynamic such as a rear disk wheel or deep section rims. These are not only heavier and slower to accelerate but are a handful in crosswinds, to the extent that certain courses especially prone to strong winds ban them. If you are on a flat piece of road in good conditions they can shave valuable minutes off of your bike split, but they’re not always the right choice. If you are new to riding your triathlon bike, I recommend you use the stock wheels for a few rides, and if you plan to upgrade to deep rims for race days, make sure you get plenty of practice riding these on your long rides, and learning how they handle on the downhills/crosswinds. You also need to be going at a fair rate of knots for the aerodynamic benefit to really kick in, around 30-35KM/H. Can you maintain that speed for the duration of the bike course? Chances are that on shorter distances you can, but over half iron or full iron distances you really need to be able to ride a bike well to reap the rewards of a tricked out triathlon bike. The reason for this is that as you get faster, your encounter more wind resistance and aerodynamics become more important, this is why you see Formula One teams doing everything possible to improve air flow, but racing trucks still look like their road counterparts, they’re simply not going fast enough for aerodynamics to be an issue. A triathlon bike will always be faster on the flats than a road bike, but how much faster depends on how hard you can push those pedals round. Along with ability to maintain speed is also the question of core strength. While properly setup aero bars can be very comfortable as your weight rests on the elbow pads, you need to make sure you have the core strength to maintain that position for the duration of your race, as you will be in a plank like position. If your core collapses in the bike leg your run will likely be a disaster as your can’t support your body in an economical position, adopting what many call the “Ironman shuffle”. The simplest way to improve this is to develop your core strength with exercises such as planks, but you can also look at adding some spacers to bring your bars higher up. If you race on your triathlon bike you really need to train on it. That’s not to say that you should bin your road bike, as it is important for group riding sessions and those long off season miles, but you should stick your race bike on your turbo over winter and take it out at least once a week in the spring to get used to handling it on the road. You should get used to riding on all conditions in all terrain on your race bike, whether it’s descending down a steep hill in the rain or threading it through a series of fast corners, you need to be confident in your handling ability to ride with confidence on race day. If you keep your race bike locked up in your shed all year and only break it out for race day you’re going to struggle to convert your training into speed on race day. You should also put it in for a full professional service at least once a year, clunky gear changes will not only frustrate you but lose you time hand over fist, not to mention the possibility of pieces falling off! It is also important to re-index your gears when you re-build your bike