Practical Triathlon

The 48 hours prior to an Ironman can make or break an opportunity to perform optimally on race day.  During this window of time, the list of details that need to be attended to is lengthy and can be stressful.  Minimizing this stress can help you wake up on race morning feeling rested, focused, confident and ready.  Allowing unnecessary stress to consume your energy and attention can lead to a drag on performance on race day.

Here are a few things to consider to minimize stress:

• Plan! Plan! Plan! – At least a week in advance have all of your travel, event check-in, and logistical details determined.  Write the plan down and account for every hour of your time for the final 48 hours before your race.  Have a written plan noting specifically what final workouts you will complete.  Plan all of your meals and consider avoiding public eating arrangements (race organizers don’t shoot me!) so that you can have greater control over the composition, timing and ambiance (eating pasta in the hotel recliner may be preferable to a busy restaurant) of your meals.  Plan everything and avoid deviating from your plan unless absolutely necessary.
• Travel to the event at least 2 to 3 days early. – The stress of traveling is taxing on the body.  Even if you’re resting on a flight or snoozing in the passenger seat, travel will sap some energy.  Get the travel day out of the way early, if possible, and then relax and recover for a day or two.  Local races, where little or no travel is required, can be great opportunities to perform exceptionally as this stress variable can be completely neutralized.
• Make equipment decisions and maintenance as early as possible. – Don’t wait until the week of your race to make any final adjustments to your bike setup.  Do as much as you can a week in advance to ensure that all of your equipment is in order and ready for race day.  Avoid putting yourself in the situation of shopping for accessories or making significant bike repairs in the final days prior to your race.
• Quiet time. – Schedule some naps, reading or other sedentary activities, especially inside of the 24 hour window, that will give you an opportunity to relax your body and mind.
• Don’t get excited when “Stuff” happens. – Don’t fret unexpected challenges that you may face in your travel, logistics and race prep in the days before your race.  Be patient and deal calmly with any challenges.  The triathlon community is a friendly and compassionate bunch.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it from your fellow triathletes.  Whether it’s a tire pump on race morning or some help with a repair, someone will be there to assist.
• Don’t doubt. – Doubting is a waste of mental energy.  Remind yourself of your preparedness and your commitment to succeed and flush all doubt away.
•  Appreciate what you’re doing. – Remind yourself of how fortunate you are to be prepared and capable of participating in such an exciting sport.  Race day will be challenging but you’re where you are because you will achieve something that will satisfy you deeply.  Be positive and appreciate your opportunity to race and compete.

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In a blog post yesterday, I mentioned that more precision is a key to improving triathlon performance.  One of the most precise tools that a triathlete can utilize is a power meter.  Here’s a an excerpt from some recommended reading in The Road Cyclists Guide to Training by Power by Charles Howe and Andrew Coggan:

BENEFITS OF POWER-BASED TRAINING

1. It eliminates guesswork from gauging exercise intensity. As the true and objective measure of how hard you are working, power output directly determines physiological and perceptual responses to exercise, and even those with exceptional “feel” are unlikely to judge their wattage any better than to within perhaps 10%, whereas a powermeter is accurate to ±2% or less, allowing workouts (the training “dose”) to be more closely controlled.

2. Similarly, power-measuring systems allow the demands of racing to be quantified, using interpretive tools such as Normalized Power and Quadrant Analysis, which are covered in Part II of this guide. Once these demands are known, training programs can be more appropriately and more realistically constituted.

3. It allows fitness to be precisely quantified (including identification of strengths and weaknesses) and training regimes to be objectively evaluated. This requires that a training log of relevant workout data be faithfully maintained, so that performance can be tracked from month-to-month and year-to-year.

4. It allows training load to be more realistically assessed and effectively managed, again, with the analytical tools Training Stress Score (TSS) and Training Stress Balance (TSB) discussed in the second part of this guide. Training programs become less haphazard and the training progression can be carried out precisely, making peak performances easier to predict, while helping prevent overtraining and injury.

5. Powermeters have other uses, such as pacing during time trials and even breakaways in mass start races; aerodynamic testing; stationary trainer calibration; and possibly as an aid to dieting and weight control. Previously, aerodynamic drag could be accurately measured only in a wind tunnel, but under carefully controlled conditions, it may be possible to do this via field testing and analysis of power data.

Read the full guide here (free pdf).

Power meters are cost prohibitive for some athletes but should be a mandatory investment for any athlete serious about reaching the most competitive ranks of the sport.

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Jordan Rapp’s article on SlowTwitch.com (Less is Less: the Myth of More Recovery) reminded me of how important it is to quantitatively analyze your personal performance metrics and precisely train in a way that fits you, your goals and your life.

Triathlon training should precisely account for a myriad of variables including your genetics, ability, lifestyle, goals, family, etc.  Be careful not to jump from one training fad or philosophy to the next without carefully monitoring your performance data to find out what works for you personally.  Reaching a high level of precision in your training will take years of trial and error.  Unless you’re committing some egregious errors in your training, it’s likely only necessary to make small tweaks to your approach to see how your performance responds to “more or less” of any training approach.

Precision triathlon training requires a scientific approach.  Gather hard data in your training and racing and make sure that training or racing tweaks are isolated in a way that a positive, negative or neutral outcome can be identified as attributable to the change.

What works for one athlete may not work for another.  Be sure to do your due diligence in finding out what you personally need more or less of in your triathlon training.

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One common attribute that I’ve found in the most successful athletes that I coach is a sharp focus on the “big picture” when it comes to triathlon training and performance.  Big picture meaning the daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly training details are all precisely aimed at longer term development and goal achievement.  This is important for young promising elite athletes who may require years of development and it’s just as important for mature athletes who are seeking to find ways to dip into unlocked potential.

Don’t settle with setting goals for performance that only encompass a year’s worth of training.  Set 3 and 5 year goals and view your annual performance achievements as progress on the continuum toward your big picture goals.  This approach also encourages a pattern of consistency in training that discourages poor off-season training and/or nutrition habits.

Focus on the big picture with long-term goals and you’ll find more motivation and performance improvement in the short-term as well.

>> Triathlon Training with AllTriathlon.com – Get started today!!