Many of us are looking for a peak in May or June. Remember that it is only March - keep plenty of juice for the key workouts that will lead into your first major event of the year. Right now, most of your friends will be feeling quite peppy and it is easy for group sessions to turn into hammer sessions. Train smart and remember your goals. Here are some general tips and ideas for you as we head into spring...

Swim

Some tips I received while working with an excellent swim coach at IMNZ.

  1. Those of us who are using paddles -- please remove the wrist strap from the paddles. Why? Without the wrist strap, you HAVE to keep a high elbow. As soon as you drop your elbow, the paddle will leave your hand. If you find that you are unable to swim without the wrist strap, then you either need to slow down or get a smaller set of paddles. The slowing will only be temporary as your body adjusts (just like b/l). This is important, remove those wrist straps.

  2. Those of us who have weak rotation to our non-breathing sides (all of us?) -- for technique, swim 50s and 100s with every cycle breathing to your off-side. You will likely find that your stroke feels weird, this is due to the change created due to proper rotation. I was amazed. Master bilateral before moving onto this next step. Again, you have to be willing to trade a little short term speed for long term gain.
The gains from both these tips are material and worth pursing.

Bike

In March, all of us will start riding outside. Here are some tips. Ensure that you are on a very safe road when working the skills tips below.

Skills -- When (a) sitting up, (b) climbing and (c) in TT position, can you hold a straight line while...

  • taking a drink
  • taking and returning a bike bottle
  • shifting (both front and back)
  • look over left shoulder, (tip, place left hand on hip when looking)
  • look over right shoulder (tip, place right hand on hip)
  • look down
  • look at rear cassette
  • eating
For those of you with bar end shifters, learning to shift coming into climbs and on climbs is a BIG one for saving time. Dropped chains and poor shifting cost you time and energy.

Half Wheeling -- this occurs when the leading edge of your front wheel moves forward of the trailing edge of the rear wheel in front of you. Never, ever half wheel in a group ride.

Ride Time -- For your endurance rides, the amount of time scheduled is net time. Now that the race season approaches, try to get your net time to equal your gross time as much as possible.

Run

Unless specifically scheduled otherwise, your endurance runs should now build to zone two and hold zone two. This will be quite a good pace for the better runners. Always remember -- NEVER force a HR zone and use RPE to guide your efforts as well. Just to be clear, if you feel like you are really having to work hard for Zn 2 you should ease off. Review the Tri Bible and those RPE guidelines (John Hellemans note) for some good ideas on how different intensities should feel.

See you at the races,
gordo

Back to Topics
Back to Tri Newlsetters