Non-Conventional Triathlon Training, and Christmas Time

Happy Christmas all, I hope you all have something to play with come Christmas day... I remember getting a Scaletrix 'Minis' one Christmas and going into a total depression because I didn't have a spare plug for the adaptor... even though like a ZX81, Scaletrix is actually completely rubbish.

Had to get this post in before the craziness of Christmas starts.

I'd like to draw your attention to an excellent interview of Brett Sutton from the Boyz at www.imtalk.me Love your work guys.

You can get it here: Brett Sutton Interview it's at 00:40 and the second part is on the show after.

Answers a few questions that I often get when I coach athletes: "When do I start the speed work?"... "How will I get strength if I don't do weights"... "How do I ride at 120 rpm like Lance"... "I need to work on my core"

The methods used by Brett, which are similar to those used by Mark Allen, Gordo Byrn, Arthur Lydiard, but are very different from the conventional methods that are dictated to us by the Sport Science, Triathlete Magazines and Mens Fitness communities. It includes:

• Very little (if any) speed work. I've known pro athletes have their best results when doing only aerobic training... then they start doing the fast stuff... they fall apart / get injured / overtrained and guess what they start having bad results.
• A KEY phrase Brett uses: we are "Training to be EFFICIENT at LOW heart rates".
• Train to be a Triathlete... the amount of times I hear people say you need to train like a swimmer, train like a cyclist and train like a runner... as Brett says "It's Bullshit". Have you ever seen a Kenyan Runner ride a bike?... but sure go and train like them... or imagine Ian Thorpe running... having hyper-mobile knees and ankles is perfect for running.
• No weights / strength training.
• No core training... unless you have a particular area of weakness and have specific and individual exercises for this. Core training was just developed so that all these 'sport studies' students coming out of Uni would have something to do... if you want to get good at balancing on balls then go for it... if you want to get good at triathlon do something else.
• No swimming drills. It is actually a source of great amusement to me these days when I see age-groupers who claim they only have time to swim about 2-3k 2-3 times per week, get in the pool and do drills!?!? And breast stroke, butterfly etc. If you told them to swim 500m x 2 pull buoy, 500m x 2 paddles, 500m x 2 pull buoy and band they'd think you were crazy? "I get tired / bored / my arms ache if I swim for longer than 200m without a rest... where's the '50m sprint... 3 minutes chatting at the end of the pool x 5 set', as this is vital to improve my 1500m to 3800m swim time?"
• In fact no drills for cycling or running for that matter.
• UNLESS! That particular individual has something that may need working on such as a poor knee drive.
• No mega long bike rides and runs.
• No classic periodisation. The training program should be implemented according to the individual needs of the athlete especially age groupers who have a life outside Triathlon.
  
  

Pure Evil at the Weihnachtsmarkt

So why do people not want to train like this... many reasons really but this sort of training doesn't sell magazines and doesn't tell people what they want to hear... they want to get fast quick. People find it difficult to control their ego and slow down, they need to...

"Beat that Bitch who's started coming to squad, in ALL my 100m split times by at least a second each time because she thinks she's better than me... but she's not... I mean I am so much faster than her doing 'Chicken Wing' drills. But she seems to be improving more than I am... in fact I haven't improved since I can remember..? BUT if I just keep pushing as hard as I can I think I'll get an extra second and I'll do more drills and technique yes swimming is about technique because I read about these drills you can do in Triathlete Mag... written by a Pro Swimmer as well! My coach said I should do another 3k swim a week but I don't have time for that... I need to do my core work and someone told me that you have to have a strong core to be a good swimmer... As long as I don't enter any races that she does I'll be fine then she won't be able to beat me... but I mean she shouldn't beat me because I'm faster than her... well in the Squad sessions I am??"

Yes coaching athletes is a challenge at times... but that's often one reason why we need a coach.

"Errrmmm.... Help... Coach??"

We all make mistakes though I have made plenty in my athletic career I remember doing heaps of Drills and Total Immersion... my swimming was bad before and after it was totally rubbish! It's ironic but the person you see doing the most drills is often the person who is the worse at swimming... and of course I've done those Killer Track sessions and broken myself just to beat some young kid and his Dad... but it was worth it because they thought I was amazing because I beat them ;-)???

So some basic take home points:

• Just train... good focused aerobic training: swimming (free style), riding (pushing the pedals round... not free wheeling on someone's wheel) and running... one foot in front of the other and repeat.
• No Weights or Core Training unless you have SPECIFIC exercises to work on you own INDIVIDUAL weak areas.
• If you have more time to spare do more Swim, Bike or Run or call your friends and go for a drink :-)
• Build your training up to an amount of hours that you can sustain each week... and then just keep repeating.
• Train like a triathlete... always think how the session you are doing at the present is going to effect your next session and train for the SPECIFICS of Triathlon... i.e. don't 'train' breast stroke.
• Long Bike rides (for IM training) generally around 3-5 hours... long runs 2-2.30 hours.
• Do what's good for you as an INDIVIDUAL do what 'feels right' rather than what you read in a magazine: don't try and force yourself to land on the balls of your foot if it feels bad... yes you should have a general idea of your body position and where to put your limbs but your body will find what works best for it... all you have to do is train... i.e. perform the movement and you're body will work things out.
• Practice going as FAST as you can as EFFORTLESSLY as you can.

Now don't get me wrong some people love to have that 'Great Work-Out' feel, they like competition when they train or they love chucking weights around... this is fine, go for it because enjoyment is a good enough end result... but don't do them because you want to be a faster triathlete.

I'm going to go and enjoy myself in the Swiss Alps before Christmas for some Cross Country Skiing... won't really help my Triathlon speed especially as it will be more like 'Bambi on Ice'... but it'll be F-U-N.

Watch out for the all new website coming very soon!

Enjoying the Christmas Markets with The Germans... Tatyana and Markus

See you in the New Year...

WESTYxxx

Rubbish Scaletrix even with the 'Humpback Bridge'