TIPS AND STRATEGIES FOR Triathlon

Transcription

1 TIPS AND STRATEGIES FOR Triathlon

2 What is triathlon? Triathlon is a young sport that has been gaining popularity over the last few years. Legend has it that it was born from a wager between a group of friends on the beaches of Hawaii, wondering what the most challenging race was between the Waikiki Roughwater Swim of 3.8 km, the 112 mile bike race around Oahu and the Honolulu Marathon of 42,195 km. This story has done nothing but fuel IRONMAN s myth. Triathlon is an individual multidisciplinary sport involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance disciplines. Distances are different depending on the event. The three disciplines are swimming, cycling and running. Starting from 2000, triathlon has been an Olympic discipline, where men and women s races are held on the same distance. The standard distances in the triathlon are: Supersprint: 400 m swimming, 10 km cycling, 2.5 km run Sprint: 750 m swimming, 20 km cycling, 5 km run Olympic: 1500 m swimming, 40 km cycling, 10 km run XTerra: 1500 m swimming, 30 km MTB, 10 km run Double Olympics: 3000 m swimming, 80 km cycling, 20 km run Ironman 70.3 or Half Ironman: 1900 m swimming, 90 km cycling, 21,097 km run Long: 4000 m swimming, 120 km cycling, 30 km run Ironman: 3800 m swimming, 180 km cycling, 42,195 km run The Supersprint, Sprint and Olympic distances are suitable for beginners and even just a few months of constant training can be enough to complete them. But beware, I said to complete them and not setting new world records! The other distances are more challenging and require years of training, particularly for the Ironman and half Ironman. Although difficult to believe it, triathlon races with three/four times or more the distances of those of the Ironman are organized in some areas of the world.

3 Olympic triathlon races are regulated and controlled by the International Triathlon Union (ITU), which is responsible for the assignment of world and continental titles. However the Ironman and Ironman 70.3 Trademarks are owned by an external federation that organizes races all around the world and contributes to fueling the Ironman myth, in particular with the yearly world championship race in Kailua-Kona in Hawaii. Triathlon was born as an individual sport. In the beginning, any form of collaboration among athletes was forbidden, such as drafting during the cycling portion of the race. When triathlon became an Olympic sport, this ban was lifted on Olympic and lower distances. The ban removal was also due to the difficulty of enforcing the rules given the high number of athletes enclosed within a few seconds on the finish line. The races belonging to the Ironman circuit, however, still have the absolute ban on drafting and are thus called No Draft races. Judging by the high number of athletes, increasing every year, Ironman races show a huge amount success. Triathlon has become more and more popular in recent years, leading to some variants in order to expand the pool of users. The most famous are: Duathlon: two disciplines, three legs: run, bike and run. Distances are different depending on the event. Aquathlon (similar to Duathlon): two disciplines, three legs: run, swim, run. Winter Triathlon: in this discipline you take advantage of the winter element and the three legs in succession are running, cycling (in this case mountain bike) and crosscountry skiing. XTerra: a particular triathlon formula. It can be referred to as Triathlon Off Road as after swimming, the cycling and running legs are on off-roads or trails.

4 Understanding whether it s the right sport for you Run. Ride. Swim. The first three sports that we learn as kids. The joy of getting up and walk. Running to hide from friends or from the parents after some mischief (even more fun!). Taking off the training wheels to start speeding on sidewalks, barely missing passers-by, feeling like Schumacher even if we do not yet know who he is. Closing our eyes to see us as children at the beach, swimming in the water; blowing bubbles; wearing mask and fins to look at the fish and trying in vain to catch them, racing to see who s faster to the rock or the pier... Our inner child knows the triathlon well. The commitments of grown-ups threaten to make us to forget everything, but sometimes the desire to become children again reappears in us, to live a new adventure or journey, to discover our limits and push beyond them a little. Triathlon is at the door again, waiting for you. You have meet it before, so you do not send it away as you would with a stranger. Let a strong desire grow inside you until it envelops you. With this new realization you can start your adventure towards something magical, powerful, that will shake you to the core and from which you can not go back. Do you know what Courage is, man? Courage is Fear that has begun to believe in itself. [Aldo Rock] So what are the pros and cons of practicing triathlon? PRO It brings us into contact with nature It increase self-esteem It is not repetitive Alternative movements reduce the risk of chronic illness It improves coordination AGAINST It is difficult to reconcile with work and family commitments It requires strong motivation It causes physical and psychological pain It is an individual sport It is an expensive sport

5 Which equipment do you choose to start doing triathlon? A multidisciplinary sport such as triathlon undoubtedly presents some difficulties when it s time to choose the equipment for training and competitions. To start practicing the triathlon you do not have to spend thousands of euros from the vey beginning. You just need a bicycle (even an old one), a good pair of running shoes, one swimming suit, goggles, and great motivation and desire to train and challenge yourself and others. Here s a list of what s really needed: SWIMMING wetsuit goggles pull buoy band paddles CYCLING summer / winter clothing bicycle bike shoes helmet RUNNING summer / winter clothing shoes GADGET heart rate monitor or stopwatch

6 How to start training When we approach triathlon for the first time we are scared by the amount of hours that we must devote to our workouts. We are scared of the bicycle and swimming unless we come from this discipline, but above all by our wives or girlfriends who will hate us when we will ditch them on a Sunday morning for long bike ridess. SWIMMING Swimming is a very technical discipline, so if you haven t been a swimmer in the past it is better to entrust yourself to a skilled and qualified professional. He or she, by giving you the right advice, will help you achieve the right technical form and improve and weak spots, thus accelerating the learning process (and hence to improve more quickly). Start training gradually without paying too much attention to times and distances, as it would be too demotivating at this time. When you finally can swim for an entire hour then it s time to change the workouts and aim for more specific ones. Remember that in all its fractions triathlon is an aerobic sport, and in short distances (e.g. sprint and supersprint), in addition to work on your aerobic strength, you also have to work on your anaerobic one (explosive force), and even more on endurance, i.e. the ability to maintain a high effort over time. If you wish to prepare short distances (and I suggest you first start from these), your workouts must be set on medium distances such as 200m or 400m, trying to minimize your kicks to preserve the legs for the other fractions, and working at threshold. Keep in mind that in a triathlon race the first 150/200 meters are swam at the threshold, trying to get out of the initial chaos; then you slow down to your pace and increase it again in the last few meters while also increasing the kicks to begin warming up the legs for the subsequent fractions. CYCLING Some amateur sportsmen believe the fake notion that just racking up miles helps get stronger on a bicycle. This is not entirely true and what really helps, like in all sports, is to schedule the workouts and making them specific to the characteristics of the route. There is a small exception for you however; as you are just starting out and you need to clock up the miles and put miles on your legs. You have to be confident with the technical gesture, learn how to be on the bike, realize you are on the road possibly with other cyclists and be extremely careful. Once you are over this phase, you can start with the specific workouts.

7 My advice is to start in the first month with flat trails and some moderate hilly ones. Then you should start going out in a group where the speed rises considerably and where you should learn how to behave in the group and how to draft. This will also give you the opportunity to experience the highest speeds. Training with someone will give you the chance to improve and grasp little secrets: how to cover from side winds, how to position your hands depending on the trail and pace, how to visualize the seat of those who are in front of you and not the wheel, etc. RUNNING The race is much more manageable than other disciplines. However, even if we are used to running since childhood, this fraction is not to be underestimated, as it is important to have a good technique to avoid unnecessary injuries and to make the athletic gesture harmonious and inexpensive. You should then start running to acquire the correct technique and necessary aerobic capacity, which will allow you to run smoothly. You have to be able to run for at least one continuous hour. Next, you can try to speed it up, so you can improve your speed/threshold useful during a race. You can do so by focusing on rhythm variations, such as hilly runs or fartlek. Remember that running is the most traumatic fraction of the three so you need to carefully plan the training sessions. COMBINED Combined trainings are often underestimated and are usually problematic for beginners. It s important to devote part of your workouts to combined training to automate sequences. For example, when it rains and you cannot go out on a bicycle you can try to wear and take off the wetsuit quickly. In spring and summer you can instead train on quickly transitioning from cycling to running

8 Here is a training example for one month of preparation for a Sprint, Olympic and Super Sprint race. Legend Easy Distance running (ER): smooth, easy to go for long periods of time (even AE for swimming) Medium effort distance running (MR): faster pace than DR, quantifiable with an intermediate effort (not maximal) Fast run (FR): running pace close to the intensity of the race Repeats per minute (rpm): number of repetitions (cycle) per minute Threshold: 90% of the maximum heart rate. It is recommended that you train while advised by qualified professionals. Week 1 SWIM 300m warm up + 16x50 technique + 3x (50m + 100m + 150m + 200m AE recovery 5s, 10s, 10s, 15s) + 200m cool downo 300 m warm up + 16x50 technique + 3x (400 m threshold + 4x50 m recovery) + 200m cool down BIKE 1h 30 easy ER 2h on hilly route RUN 40 ER 20 warm up+ 6km (has to include 3 km of continuous MR) + 10 cool down Week 2 SWIM 300 m warm up + 16x50 technique + 1x (400m + 300m + 200m + 100m + 200m + 300m + 400m AE) + 200m cool down 300 m warm up + 16x50 technique + 3x (200m AE + 4x100m strong pallets) + 200m cool down BIKE 1h 30 easy ER 10km agility warm up at 90rpm + 45km MR (no incline) RUN 40 ER Combined Bike + Run: 1h 30 FL bike + 20 run ER

9 Week 3 SWIM 300m warm up + 16x50 technique + 3x (50m + 100m + 150m + 200m AE recovery 5s, 10s, 10s, 15s) + 200m cool down 300 m warm up + 16x50 technique + 3x (400 m threshold + 4x50 m recovery) + 200m cool down BIKE 1h 45 easy ER 2h on hilly route RUN 40 ER 20 warm up + 10x200 m uphill with recovery while descending + 10 cool down Week 4 SWIM 300 m warm up + 16x50 technique + 1x (400m + 300m + 200m + 100m + 200m + 300m + 400m AE) + 200m cool down 300 m warm up + 16x50 technique + 3x (200m AE + 4x100m strong paddles) + 200m cool down BIKE 2h Easy ER 10km agility warm up at 90rpm + 50km in MR (no incline) RUN 40 ER + 10 strides 20 warm up. 8 x (500m race pace, recovery 1 30 ) + 10 cool down