(upbeat instrumental music)
- Welcome back to Triathlon Training Explained,
powered by Training Peaks.
This week I am literally explaining training
as I tackle some of the more common
triathlon training mistakes that I'm afraid
we see all that little bit too often.
Now, we are all guilty of these at some point,
even the pros, of occasionally making some
fundamental training mistakes,
and I do get it.
Some of us have come into this sport having had
maybe some level of experience in one discipline,
but the other two, not so much,
and they become a little bit trial and error.
So it's understandable that we make mistakes there.
Now, I've witnessed countless mistakes over the years.
I've actually made a few myself,
so I've compiled a list of some of the more common mistakes
and how to avoid them.
(upbeat electronic music)
Oh, hello, Frasier.
No, no, I probably won't join you for a swim today.
Now, I was thinking of biking.
I was probably gonna bike on Monday,
bike on Tuesday, bike on Wednesday,
probably bike on Thursday as well, actually.
Yeah, might as well on Friday.
Yeah, yeah, Saturday and Sunday as well, yeah.
Just bike all week.
Now, I bet we all know that someone
that just loves to ride their bike
but fails to turn up to the swimming pool
or lace their running shoes up quite so often.
Or perhaps it's on one of the other two instead.
Now, I know I don't need to explain this to you,
but that is not very conducive to a faster triathlon time.
Sure, you might post the fastest bike split of the day,
but are you a cyclist or are you a triathlete?
I do get it.
Obviously, if you do enjoy that discipline more
and you find it easier, then naturally you're gonna be
lured towards that sport more
when you do have time to train.
But if you can focus a little bit more
on your weaknesses, that is gonna pay absolute dividends
come race day, so as a real rough guide,
I'd recommend splitting up your total
training time per week to 20% on swimming,
50% on cycling and 30% on running.
And with that in mind, the next big mistake
that I see more often than any is athletes
not progressing their training sensibly,
and I have to put my hand up here
because I've definitely done this in the past myself.
Oh man, so hard today.
Maybe try and do a track session
and a two-hour run this week
having not run for six months was a very stupid idea.
Yup.
As triathletes, we are naturally quite impatient beings.
Progressing on training too quickly is just stupid.
We all know that.
But so many of us still do it.
Now, more often than not, this comes about
because we're not following a structured training program.
So no matter what your standard is, your level of fitness,
I can't recommend enough trying to plan out your training
so you can follow that over a set period of time.
Or better, get yourself a coach
so they can plan that out more thoroughly for you.
Now, in this instance, I'd also recommend the use
of an online training platform like Training Peak
so you can monitor all of that information within there.
And then if you're using something like a sports watch
or a bike computer, you can upload all of that information
and data to that platform,
and you can start to rip that apart.
You can start to see how much of each discipline
you're doing, for instance, which could be very handy
for those athletes who we just discussed
that like to favor one discipline over the other.
Now, this is also really useful
for those athletes that think they're invincible.
They never need to recover.
Oh, hello, mate, how are you doing?
Sorry, hang on one second, I can't quite hear you.
Let me just get somewhere quiet.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, sorry, wait.
Did I just hear you correctly?
Did you just say a rest day?
A rest day.
What are on Earth are you taking a rest day for?
Now, I'm afraid that is just complete rubbish.
We all need to recover.
Even the best athletes in the world
will take recovery weeks, or even complete days off.
After all, we all want to progress,
and to do that, we need to allow our bodies time to adapt
and absorb all that hard training
that we've been putting them through.
Otherwise, without that, we can end up over-training,
we can end up injured, and we can even end up ill.
Now, I do appreciate not all of us
are in the mindset of actually skipping these recovery days.
More often than not, it's actually just a mistake.
We don't realize how long it's been
since our last recovery day within our training.
Which shows just how important
these online training platforms
can be, because with those, you can just quickly
scroll back through, see when that last recovery day is.
You can even see things like
your training load, your stress score,
and in some cases, your predicted form,
and then adapt your training accordingly.
Now, I always suggest trying to plan your training
in blocks of three or four weeks
where you'll progress your training,
your builds, the intensity, and/or the volume
throughout those three or four weeks.
And then you follow that with a complete day off,
and then a recovery week for the rest of that week.
And then after that, we'll then start another
progressive block of three or four weeks.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Now we've all heard the phrase, all the gear, no idea.
And I actually haven't got a problem with these people.
If they want to splash their cash on a sport that they enjoy
and things that they like, then good for them.
There are certainly worse things
that they can spend their money on.
However, if you're spending your money
on these fancy new products in the hope
that it's gonna make you faster without actually doing
any training, or very little training,
then you've got it all wrong.
We all know that era helmets and TT bikes
are gonna give us an advantage,
but far too many athletes are focusing on things
like aerodynamics before actually focusing on the basics.
So, before you go burning through your cash
in the hope that it's going to improve your race time,
try putting in some hard training first
so that you'll feel a little bit more
satisfied with those purchases.
And I know I'm not going to convert all of you out there
because that need for a nice new shiny bike
or some race wheels, it's just that little bit too strong.
Okay, I can hardly talk on this one.
(beep)
Okay, next up, the (murmuring).
Ready?
Let's go.
(beep)
Yup, not practicing your transitions.
In this instance, I thought it'd be a great idea
to have myself filmed doing my
first transition onto a brand new bike.
The saddle height was a bit higher than usual,
and yet, I made a right shambles of it.
And believe it or not, people also turn up to races
without practicing their transitions too.
So whether it is a fly mount,
or you're doing a simple stop and go transition,
it's really important you practice before race day.
And that includes having all your kit laid out
as you normally would so you can practice things like
putting your helmet on, clipping it up
and even unclipping it and putting it back
as if you were doing a T2.
Running with your bike.
Even mounting and dismounting your bike.
Now, you can do that, obviously,
within something like a brick session,
or something I used to like doing was
a standalone transition practice session.
Now, I would do that actually at the beginning of my races.
And given that, it'd probably been quite a few months
since my last race at the end of last season.
Yeah, so I was gonna start with the Norseman,
and then just two weeks later,
I was gonna do a 5K, try and run a PB there.
And then a week or so after that,
I've got the Ironman 70.3 world champs,
and yeah, be cool if I win my age group there.
That'd be really good.
And then I was gonna squeeze in
another little 70.3 just a week or two after that.
Maybe just a local one.
And then a couple weeks after that,
I've got the Ironman world champs.
So, yeah, quite a lot, isn't it?
Now, obviously, I am joking.
But it is amazing how often you hear this kind of stuff.
Now, I would never wanna rain on anyone's parade,
but some people's plans are just a little bit overambitious.
And that can be their schedule for the year
or what they think they can achieve.
Now, there's no harm in obviously aiming high.
I always do.
But be realistic at the same time,
because otherwise you're just setting yourself up
to be disappointed and ultimately maybe
falling out of love with what you're doing.
Now, on the other hand, when you're planning your season,
try to plan it wisely, because if, say,
you're planning on racing Olympic distance events
for part of the season then switching to Ironman events,
you need to allow adequate time between that change
for that change in training so that you can prepare fully.
And then obviously, think about that
recovery time between each event.
And then also, it's worth noting that
you can't peak for the whole season.
You can only peak two or three times
within the whole season.
So again, you need to allow adequate time
between each of those that you can recover
and then prepare fully.
- Yeah, I bet you've all been there.
Your training is going so well,
you can't possibly miss a session.
A cold, a niggle, an injury can't get in the way now.
And I have definitely fallen foul to this.
It's almost like we're in denial that it's really happening.
But the problem is, if we ignore it,
we can often make it far, far worse than it needed to be.
So whether it is an injury or an illness,
it's far better if we nip it in the bud
sooner rather than later.
And more often than not, you can be back training
fully within a couple of days.
However, by training through it, well,
you're risking literally limping along,
not being able to train to your full,
and also prolonging it.
Recognize any of those?
Well, if you do, please get involved
in the comments section below,
and maybe even shame one of your mates
that perhaps needs to watch this video
and get a little bit of advice.
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Now, if you'd like to see some more videos from us,
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and if you'd like to see our Triathlon Race Mistakes video,
then just click down here.