Triathlon Success
Training and racing for your first triathlon is an amazing experience! There are right and wrong ways to do this and I experience the latter early on in my endurance journey and hopefully as a coach I can help athletes learn from those mistakes and train smarter to stay injury free and perform at their best while getting time back as well.
Swim Focus
Most of your races are going to take place in open water. There are a few exceptions of small races that have pool swims which are fun and less stressful as open water but still have their challenges.
I see so many athletes who spend so much time in the pool but they don’t focus much if any on open water techniques such as how to sight properly, how to breathe properly in open water, how to draft and how to change your stroke for open water conditions. If you wait to show up on race day and thing those 1,000’s of meters swam with no focus on technique especially in open water is going to magically happen, it’s not.
Your swim sets the stage for how the rest of the race goes. There is a chain of events. If you burn too much energy during the swim from improper stroke technique, sighting technique, your going to be inefficient and that is going to show up on the run. Most athletes don’t think about this or realize it is happening because the swim is the first event. If we have trained properly we show up on race day in peak condition.
So using more energy and being less efficient on the swim is not felt immediately because the athlete is fresh and in peak condition. But it will come back to haunt you on the run.
Focus on quality, consistency and technique in swimming is monumental for overall success on race day. Now with smaller races like sprints you can “fake” your way through it so to speak because they are very short distance and durations. When you move up into larger events like Olympic distance triathlons and especially 70.3 and full Ironman distance races, you can’t “fake” your way through those races. You have to be on point with not only your swim but your nutrition intake, pacing and adjustments throughout the race for the changing environment.
Bike Focus
The bike is your bike chance to refuel from the swim and more importantly fuel for the run. It is your time to take in hydration and calories because the amount of stress is less because there is very little impact to the body and the gut like there is in running. Since you can’t fuel during the swim your pre-race meal has to be on point as well as your efficiency in the swim.
You have to constantly be adjusting on the bike for weather conditions. Is it getting hotter and more humid. Is the wind changing direction and speed. If so you have to adjust your energy output as well as your nutrition to be successful on the bike as well as the run.
Run Focus
The run is where everything happens. This is where you can see who paced smart, who managed their energy and nutrition smart and adjusted for weather. Starting out with the optimal amount of fuel in your body goes a long way to being successful. Properly training to run off the bike and pace smart is also another key to being successful.
Nutrition Focus
Knowing what your calorie burn and sweat rate are per hour is crucial. If you don’t know how much your body needs in certain conditions you are playing roulette with your race outcome. Knowing these things allows you to properly fuel through every part of the race and make smart adjustments based on what you need and not what the “average person” needs. What works for me probably will not work for others.
You have to practice your nutrition each and every session. You need to be doing sweat tests and looking at your calorie burn in different weather conditions and intensity levels in training.
Key Take Away Points
Train smarter, not harder
Work on open water swim technique consistently
Work on nutrition and hydration needs during the bike to fuel your run
Know your sweat rate and calorie burn
Learn how to adjust during the race for changing and unexpected conditions
Happy Racing!
-Coach Ray
