(wind whooshing)
- There is no getting around the fact that our running
is going to be hampered at the end of a triathlon
thanks to the previous bike leg.
- Yeah, but on the plus side there are various aspects
that you can practice and look to adapt
that will help to maximize your running performance
at the end of a race. - But we're going to be
bringing you eight ways which
can help you run faster off the bike.
(rock music)
Let's start in the race, now there are several things
that you can do to reduce that post bike jelly leg feeling
that you can implement right away, and don't even involve
any training. - Yeah, now we've
touched on this one before, but actually matching
your cycling cadence to your natural running gait
can make a huge difference, now say for instance
you have a natural running gait of about 85 strides
per minute, if you can try and ride at around 85 rpm
or revolutions per minute, that can make a huge difference.
Don't worry if that actually feels really uncomfortable.
Maybe that's higher than your normal race cadence
on the bike because, actually stick to what you're
comfortable with, and then at least change it
in the final kilometer or so and that will still
make quite a difference. - Yeah, and then as you
start running, you want to actually consider trying
to have your cadence a little bit higher on the run
than you would do normally, because it's just going to help
get your legs flowing and moving.
And then as you start to get the feel back in your legs
you can drop back into of course your normal cadence.
And hopefully it'll feel that much easier.
It can be tempting to increase the effort towards
the end of the bike leg because well,
the end's in sight, you might start to see the crowds,
other athletes heading out on the run already.
And your adrenaline can actually rise.
And without even realizing you might find yourself
just increasing your power and your effort.
- Yeah now, that might get you a slightly faster
bike split but that could actually end up
really hampering your run, so really try to keep
a cap on it, if not actually even trying to
reduce the power ever so slightly.
And that also comes hand in hand with the cadence
that we were telling you about before.
Because as you reduce the power ever so slightly,
why not try to match your cadence to that run
cadence we were chatting about before?
So, slightly increase the cadence,
that will also help to flush your legs out
and reduce any fatigue, ready for the run.
- Yeah and honestly it does depend a little bit
on those final few Ks of the race.
Because if it's uphill then you're going to struggle
to reduce your power, but you can at least
not put in any extra effort, and then,
if on the other hand it's downhill into transition,
you might be freewheeling, but don't just try and
swing your legs out because any movements
can increase the blood flow to your muscles
which in turn will help when you start running.
(fun electronic music)
It tends to be far easier to absorb nutrition
on the bike as opposed to the run.
So make sure you make the most of that opportunity.
And I'm not referring to the final few kilometers
of the bike leg either, I mean staying on top of it
throughout the whole race, now if you're someone
that likes to take on solids during a race.
Maybe consider trying to take that on in the first
half of the bike and then switching to something
like elitegels or energy blocks in the second half
as you get closer to the run, and the reason being
these are high in sugar and they are quick
and easy to digest and straight into your bloodstream
giving you that much needed energy
to get you through onto that run
and well into it before you need to start
taking on more nutrition. - Yeah, and hydration
is also key to race day nutrition.
And again, you need to address that on the bike.
There's no point in getting to the final few K
on the bike and that general realization
that you've not drunk any of your water.
And you try and finish your drinks bottle
and basically you're just going to have a stomach
full of water, glugging around on the run.
Which, it's going to but very uncomfortable.
But more to the point, you're probably
already dehydrated and then it's likely to lead to a stitch.
So think about trying to drink little and often
throughout the bike, and then the more hydrated you are
at the end of the bike, the less you're going to have
to worry about take on during the run when it's much harder.
Admittedly, it's harder to maintain the perfect
body temperature in a race than it is in training.
But whether you're doing a brick session or a race,
the more comfortable you are on the bike,
the easier it's going to be when it comes to running off.
Now jelly legs are one thing, but trying to run off
the bike with frozen brick feet
is going to make it even harder. - Yeah now,
if you are racing somewhere cold,
then that can take a little bit of time,
just to put some socks on could end up saving some time
in the long run, particularly, when you go onto that run.
And you can feel your feet, and you can run off fine.
You may also want to opt for some toe covers
on your shoes that you can still slip your feet
into shoes nice and easy, without having to undo
or do anything up, and something I have seen
some people do for some really cold races,
long distance races, is actually wearing some over shoes
to really make sure that they keep their feet warm.
And actually just a really smart move for brick sessions
in the winter. - Yeah, but do
bear in mind that running, your body temperature's
naturally going to be a little bit higher than cycling.
So if you do come into T2 a little bit chilly,
try not to put on too many clothes, because soon
you're going to regret that as you head out into the run
and your temperature naturally rises.
- Now we talked a lot already about how to physically
prepare for that run off,
but you can also mentally prepare too.
So as you near the end of the bike,
start thinking about your transition and also the things
that you need to do. - Yeah, then you can
visualize that first part of the run, so if you picture
running out of T2 and onto the first part,
that's automatically going to start to get your mind ready
for the running, and then just be prepared,
because apart from the preparation you do,
it's not going to feel normal when you start running
straightaway, so being prepared for that
is just going to be slightly less off putting.
- Yeah now that's enough about the in race tactics.
Because there's actually some things we can do before hand.
And the first step now actually
requires zero physical hard work.
♪ Got me falling ♪
♪ You got me falling ♪
- Cycling naturally puts your hips in a more closed
position and more flex than running does.
And it can lead to problems if you're spending
hours on the bike to then suddenly being
in an upright position running.
- Yeah, now the position on your bike
can make a significant difference here.
So if you're riding a TT bike, what you find
is they tend to have a slightly steeper seat tube angle.
And that instantly puts you slightly further forward
in relation to your bottom bracket which helps
to open up the hips, which really helps with that
run off, now don't worry if you don't have a TT bike.
Because if you are riding a road bike,
you can pop some clip on arrow bars on there
and then just adapt that position on the road bike
so you can increase the height of the saddle
and also push that saddle forward, and that is definitely
going to help. - This change
in position will naturally alter your muscle recruitment.
And actually means you're going to be activating
more of the posterior chain, so your glutes and your
hamstrings, which in theory, should leave your quads
a little less fatigued for the run.
- Yeah and talking of muscle recruitment,
another area you can look at is your cleat position.
Now this is something I've played around with.
I've actually pushed my cleats
ever so slightly further back.
And I actually know a lot of other people that have done
this, and to some extremes, really putting it right
into the heel of the foot, and the idea
is it takes pressure off of the calves.
Which for someone like myself, I used to cramp
quite a lot in my calves, so it helps on that.
And particularly useful if you're someone
who's quite calf dominant when you run.
- Okay, I'm first to put my hand up
that I hate these type of sessions.
And as a result, I probably don't do them often enough.
But more often you do a brick session, the easier
the run off a bike will become.
And obviously, how hard it is depends on what bike
and run you decide to combine.
- Yeah, now ideally you want to replicate
the effort level and the fatigue that you're going to
experience come race day, so just be mindful of that
when you're designing your session.
Now it's actually this first part of the run
that is the most important, or at least is the most
uncomfortable, so a good idea is to actually
start adding short runs onto the back of quite intense
rides, so even just 10, 15 minutes off the back
of something that's got some race pace type efforts
in it, that's going to be a huge benefit to you.
- Yeah and if you want something a little bit more
hardcore, the other end of the spectrum,
you could even go to the extreme of doing bike, run,
bike, run, et cetera, but some more ideas
on brick sessions that you can have a go at,
we've got a video which we'll share with you
at the end of this. - As I mentioned already,
the idea of a brick session is to replicate
the level of fatigue that we feel towards the end
of a bike, but in terms of training,
this doesn't have to be limited to just bike to run
sessions, because actually anything that tires
and fatigues the legs in a similar way to the cycling
will do, so for instance, say you've got a gym
session on the same day as an easy run,
why not combine the two, because that gym session
is going to tire the legs out, so once you've done
the gym session, pop out for that run and just
start getting used to that feeling of heavy legs.
- Yeah and we always complain about
having heavy legs for a session.
You want to feel good and fresh, but any experience
of running with heavy legs is going to help you mentally
prepare to know that you can run through it.
And on the positive side, pretty much always,
your legs start to feel better as you start
to get into a run, so just bear that in mind.
(hip hop music)
Well as you can see there are several ways
which can make running off the bike that much easier.
And some of them don't even require any effort.
- Well that was a very good run off the bike
I had there, if you'd like to see more from GTN
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If you liked today's video,
please hit that thumbs up button.
If you'd like to find out how to run faster
without actually training more, then you can see
that video by clicking just there.
- But if you are prepared to do some training,
then we've got a great video on some sample brick
sessions you can try out, just here.