(Upbeat music)
- [Mark] Hello and welcome back to Ask GTN where we're
gonna be talking about all things triathlon.
Not just specifically swim, bike or run.
We're gonna be tackling things like
how do you turn pro?
- [Fraser] Can anybody turn pro, Mark?
- Very good question, Fraser.
Well, we're gonna be tackling that as well as
loads of other questions we've been receiving
over the last couple of months and yeah, actually.
So, let's tackle that first question from Leokreuzer_
and they've said how did you turn into a pro?
Do you think everyone can turn pro?
- Well, I guess it was kind of, I would've said
a normal pathway here in the UK for me.
Bit similar for you too, really.
Came from swimming background as a kid.
Just trying to be a swimmer, wasn't really very good.
I wasn't, anyway, Mark was quite good.
And then that just led me into sort of a
traditional, British, triathlon pathway as such.
Gave junior races a go, got a little bit better,
managed to get on teams and things.
Went to Under 23, got to major championships.
Europeans, worlds, just tried to do
- And this draught legal, I2 racing.
- Exactly, yeah, with aspirational goals of maybe
going to the Olympics, wasn't gonna happen, but yeah.
- You did get close.
- Well, that was the goal, to try and get to the top
level of racing, but yeah, that was how I started.
And you were the same, really.
- Yeah, absolutely.
I came into it a lot later on and found myself
on that pathway as well, going to worlds, Europeans
and all sorts, and trying to strive for the Olympics.
Realised the Olympics wasn't gonna happen.
Very tough nation, Great Britain and Scotland,
of course for the Commonwealth Games.
So then we both went down this long course pathway,
which actually, to be honest, probably played
into our strengths a bit more anyway.
And then that was a chance for us to go pro in there.
So yeah.
- [Fraser] I mean, but then to dovetail into
can anybody turn pro?
No.
I mean, it's definitely not something that's,
well it's not an easy thing to do and I guess the
main point that I've seen a lot of very good
age groupers try and grapple with is,
how do they then switch over to being a pro?
They might look at results on a time only basis,
think oh I'm competitive, I could give that a go.
But then they actually come into racing and realise
the nuances of professional racing.
A, you do need to have a good swim, and that's why
I guess Mark and I were lucky.
We came into it and that didn't phase us.
And then there's other things that really aren't always
that obvious when you're watching a race play out,
is how the dynamics for a bike ride works.
- Absolutely, yeah.
I mean the surging, and actually it's a case of you
actually having to go with the race.
You can't let that race go.
So, whereas in an age group or amateur race,
you'll often race your own race and you're just
going for the time so you'll perfectly pace the ride.
That doesn't happen in pro racing.
And that can really affect your performance,
and that is what a lot of age groupers that have
then turned pro, have really struggled with.
And we've seen age groupers placing in the top ten pros
previously and then going to pro racing and finishing
nowhere because it's been such a shock.
- And I think that's where the experience that we have
from that I2 short course days comes into it, so,
because the dynamics of short course racing is very fast.
It's what we call stochastic where there's lots of
power surges and spikes and effort that
you just learn to deal with as a youngster.
And then that dovetails into long course racing.
Not in the same extent, but you still cope with it.
Whereas, as Mark said before, in age group racing,
you almost can flat line and be very good at riding
a very narrow power band.
Which is a great skill to have,
but it's not always what happens in pro racing.
- But it's not to say it is not possible,
'cause we have also seen some very good age groupers
step up to pro racing and they are now the
top pros out there, so.
- Cal Buckingham, for one
- Well exactly, so it is more than doable,
but it can be a shock to some people.
Well, next question is from Roenegbi and they've said
Do pro triathletes diet down and lose weight
before an important competition?
Very good question.
- And yes would be the broad answer to that.
You would pick your target races in your season.
You would know roughly what your weight is,
or you should do.
And as those races approach,
whether they're early season, mid, late season,
you're gonna think to yourself, right,
how do I lean down that little bit?
That might be one, two, three kilos.
It just depends, but you'll have a number
that you think's achievable and then just
figure out a way of just trimming that weight down
in the weeks that lead into it, so that when you
hit that race you get to what we would call
goal race weight.
- [Mark] And this is so different from athlete to athlete.
There's some athletes that can actually get away with
being very lean and I know from experience that
I don't perform well under a certain weight, although
I am fairly lean anyway, but if I go too much lower
when I'm in race season, then I lose all my power on
the bike and I cannot swim.
So it does take a little bit of learning and also,
I would say that for a lot of people out there, as you go
into race season you're doing more intense training,
naturally that weight just drops anyway.
So I wouldn't focus on it too much.
It's important that we're actually quite careful
in this area.
- [Fraser] Yeah, definitely and I suppose the one
other thing I would caveat that with is,
we finish with a run and by the very nature of running,
it's a power to weight in so much as you can run faster
if you're a bit lighter, as Mark says, to a degree.
And our next question comes in from Todd Holmes,
who asks us how do I balance training if I need a lot
of work on one discipline without, perhaps,
sacrificing the other two?
- Yeah, well, first of all, it is not a bad thing at all
to focus on one of the three disciplines.
What I would say is, let's take swimming for example.
If that's your weak discipline, which it probably is,
for a lot of people out there, is that you want to make
sure that you're doing, like a good focused block of that.
So that might be somewhere between six to eight weeks.
Maybe even shorter if you want to, but six to eight weeks.
- It's a good period of time to really be able to start
focusing on making some change.
- Yeah, but the key is to make sure that you're maintaining
the other two disciplines.
So it'd be very easy to put all your effort
into the swimming which of course, you should do.
You want to make sure that you get good value from that,
but you don't want to let the biking and running drop off.
So I'd say, just be really specific in the
sessions that you're doing.
You'll be doing lower volume but making sure that every
minute on the bike, every minute running, it really counts.
- [Fraser] Mmhmm, and it's just being confident in that
plan of attack that you're implement for this next
six to eight weeks.
And also being mindful, because triathletes do tend to feel
that more equals better.
So all of a sudden you find yourself creeping other sessions
back in on those other two disciplines, which really
isn't gonna help you try and focus on that swim block.
- Yeah, and now is actually a really good time if you
get to do that in the off season, to really do those
focus blocks and dedicate some time to
swimming, biking or running.
The next question from Davejdrys, and they said
What are the best ways to prep for a hot weather event
when it's still cold where I live?
- Now, good point, especially for us coming from the UK,
because usually, and definitely when we were racing,
if we were gonna have a mid to big race somewhere,
chances are it would probably be somewhere warmer
than we were used to at home.
We were in that fortunate position, if we were able to
work in a training camp to go somewhere to prep for
those races, but I totally understand that's not
a luxury most people can afford.
But fear not, there are definitely things and tips or
tricks that you can employ at home to just adapt.
- Yeah, I mean first of all, you could literally just
out on extra clothes when you go for a bike ride
or a run outside.
It'll be uncomfortable, but it's actually a very good
and easy method to go with.
- Oh, you definitely get some adaptation from it.
- Yeah, almost like boxing.
- Yeah, Rocky.
But you could also, as well, think about things like,
I don't know, setting the Turbo trainer up inside,
let's have the bathroom with the taps running.
So if you're thinking about a humid race maybe that would,
or even just a hot and humid race without doubt,
that's gonna give you that ability to kind of sense
what it might feel like.
- Yeah, I mean, you could switch the fan off, though.
That is gonna be pretty horrible.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause it's nice to have the ventilation,
even with the hot environment.
Another method, that I haven't actually, really properly
tried before in my training, is to do a hard session,
then maybe if you're doing that at a gym,
you're on a treadmill or on a bike,
then jump straight in the sauna.
- Mm-hmm, yeah and I know quite a lot of athletes who do
definitely do this.
So if you've got one at your pool or your gym,
definitely worth thinking about.
- Yep, fantastic.
Good question, next one from Bartkusm, and they've said,
Most effective brick workouts, question mark.
- The old jelly legs.
- Mm-hmm, don't we love 'em?
- [Fraser] Yeah, I mean that's definitely something
that when we come into triathlon, we have to figure out
a way to deal with because running off a bike,
totally different, as I'm sure you've experienced,
or will experience, from running standalone an event, right?
- [Mark] Yeah, well the term brick, just to sort of
back track, it was developed by Dr. Matt Brick,
or so we understand anyway.
- We think, yeah we hope it was 'cause it's a good
sort of background, isn't it?
- Yeah, he developed this sort of
run to bike or bike to run.
- [Fraser] He was a duathlete, I think.
- [Mark] He was a duathlete, yeah that's what we
understand anyway, and it seemed to be really quite
successful and it's basically trying to train us to
adapt to the sensation of running off the bike
with the jelly legs.
- So, certain types of sessions you can think about
implementing into your training.
One that I always like to do as a kind of staple
throughout my racing, whether that was when I was
younger doing short course racing, or then as I
gravitated up to longer, was to take my longer
bike ride of a week, which let's say is on a Saturday.
And it might be sort of three hours, well it would be
three hours plus, and then just simply say right,
I'm gonna have my run gear set out, whenever I'm gonna
be finishing the bike so I can try and get into
that stuff pretty quickly.
You don't have to make it as fast as a transition but,
equally, you don't want it to be so long that it kinda
negates the purpose of doing that run off the bike.
And then just simply adding in, initially, a
short run off the bike.
Now that even might just be 10 or 15 minutes initially.
I would say right, I'm gonna run out nice and easy
for half that time, turn and just try and run home
a little bit quicker.
And then just gradually build that over time.
And then if you want to think about something
a little bit more specific or short course orientated,
there's other types of sessions that you could do as well.
- Yes, you could do very short, intense bike rides,
and you're gonna get a lot of fatigue in a
short period of time, and then, same thing, try and run off.
Or you could do, multiple bike, run, bike, run, bike run,
as some pros we've seen doing.
- [Fraser] Which is a lot of fun in a sort of painful way.
- [Mark] Yeah, or we do have a session that you could see,
just here.
Now this is focused more on those
shorter distance triathlons.
Your sprint and Olympic distance triathlons.
In fact, this is the session that I'm doing today.
It's got some relatively short, high intensity efforts
with, again, some relatively short recoveries between them.
But if you're doing some slightly longer events like
a half Ironman or an Ironman, then we have this session here
that has some relatively long, sustained efforts.
We've got two lots of 20 minutes on the bike
and two lots of 10 minutes on the run.
And that'll really help you to dial into your pace
and also use your arrow bars for some long periods of time
on the bike.
Okay, but now let's really mix things up a bit, now.
Because there's no harm in going from one discipline
to the next over and over and over.
Sort of creating a monster brick session,
like this one.
Now this will be a really high intensity.
It's quite short reps from one to the next,
but the focus is really on going from those transitions
from one discipline to the next,
practising that process and that feeling.
And, of course, you can increase the durations,
depending on the distance that you're focusing on.
It really can be tailored any way you like.
- And now a question from Paul Dischler, and he asks us,
I'm a bigger guy but would like to trim down to a decent
race weight or size and have you got any suggestions?
- Yeah, well actually this is a, sort of a common thought
and process really, that by training for long distance
events like triathlon or endurance events for that matter,
it's that we can adopt this see food diet where we literally
eat any food in our path.
- Anything
- And it's not really the case is it?
- That we can see, yeah, I mean it really leads quickly to
eating everything in the fridge syndrome and that's
not a good way to go.
But it all seriousness, I hadn't really contemplated the
thought process of people doing lots more training
and therefore eating lots more, but actually rather than
losing weight they're actually putting it on.
And that's obviously not what we're hoping to do at all.
- No, not at all, and actually by, I think what happens is,
people think that by doing all this training, we're going
to negate a bad diet and we're gonna outweigh any
bad food, pack of Haribo, whatever it is.
But it doesn't work like that.
- [Fraser] No, and a good example, I remember a girl in
Scotland, Catriona Morrison, who I used to train with a lot.
When she was racing, she decided to take, I think it was
Fridays, and that would be her treat day.
And they, in the house would have whatever it was, their
beer, their pizza, whatever they liked, her and her husband
on that day, and that was the day they would have it.
It worked really well for them.
I wouldn't have been able to stick to that, to be honest.
But I guess it's finding something that still allows you
to have that reward as we might call it.
If you want to have it, of course.
And that allows you to kind of, keep both sides
of the fence happy, I guess.
- Yeah, and I guess, probably what you're striving for
is consistent meals.
So you're not looking for a massive breakfast,
massive lunch, massive dinner.
So actually spreading those meals a little bit more
over the day, keeping the breakfast normal, lunch normal,
dinner normal, but actually fueling well before a session,
after a session, so you're never craving food too much,
and sort of going into that debt that's gonna make you
really, really want to sort of, overeat.
- Yeah, so if you are obviously upping your training,
getting more consistent with a routine, there is more
calories being burned, therefor you do need to eat a
little bit more, but do try and keep that regular
pattern of mealtimes the same, and get that extra
calorie intake before and after training, in a
sort of more controlled manner.
- It's a very good question and quite a complicated one,
so I think there's probably a video in that at some point.
So, stay tuned for that.
Abel Buurma asked can you explain tapering, and yes we can.
We could talk about this forever, couldn't we?
- Yeah, I mean tapering in its simplest form, is
reducing our training off from a few weeks, a
predetermined amount of time before our goal race,
and then just whittling that down until you get to
race day feeling ideally fresh and absolutely ready to go.
- [Mark] Yeah, I mean there's so many different methods
to doing this as well, actually.
I mean, we used to adopt a process of kind of tapering
a few weeks in advance and then increasing the
training again, back into the race.
Because what happens is, when you're coming off a
big training block, you're often feeling so fatigued
that your body almost goes, oh thank goodness.
And you potentially get ill.
Your body sort of lets its guard down and by doing it
well enough in advance, and getting rid of those
horrible feelings that you often get when you
first start a taper, it allows you to get all that
out of your system, crack back on with some good training
to get the body pumping, feeling good,
then just ease back down again into the race.
- Often called the reverse taper, actually.
- Yeah.
- You know, you would rather than literally
whittling things right down to a point, if you imagine
a graph where it's just dropping down, then obviously,
as Mark's saying, there's that little bit of a kick
happening right before, which keeps the body,
not guessing, but just remembering what's gonna come
on race day, which is obviously a hard effort.
- Yeah, but one thing we should really point out there,
is this misconception with tapering, that you literally
come off the gas and you've got three weeks of just
chilling out, putting your feet up.
That doesn't happen actually.
You still do need to be working quite hard, but it's just
reducing that overall stress and volume to make sure
that you arrive in the best shape possible.
- As you say, reducing the volume, but you do need to
keep the intensity in there.
- Yes.
- Not as much, but there has to be some, again, so the
body doesn't forget what's gonna happen.
- Thanks so much for sending in all your questions.
We've loved going through them today and please do
keep sending them in for future Ask GTN's.
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