- We all want to go faster.
I mean, triathlon is a race, after all.
I'm sure you spend many hours training,
trying to beat your rivals or lower your personal best.
Admittedly, there is no avoiding the hard work
that you've gotta do in the pool, on your bike,
and on the run, but there are several ways
that are much easier, that can help you
go a lot faster on race day.
So we've chosen a few of our favourite tips,
to help your race day experience become smoother
and most importantly, faster.
Obviously you're preparing for your race
from the first day you start your training,
but we're gonna be focusing on specific race day prep.
So let's begin with the swim.
Now there's a lot of ways you can save valuable seconds.
To start with, make sure you've got a good fitting wetsuit,
and once you're happy with what you've got,
if you grease your wrists and your ankles with something
like baby oil or Body Glide, then that will make
a massive difference, and also when it comes
to the actual transition, make sure you get
your wetsuit down to your waist as quickly
as possible as the wetter you are,
the easier it is to slide off.
Okay, onto tactics, so if you can get some inside knowledge
to find out the best place to swim with the current
and away from any of the chop,
and then try and find a landmark that's gonna
be large enough for you to see
to help you spot as well as using the marker buoys.
And finally, try and find some swimmers that you know
are gonna be similar paced to you,
or maybe a little bit quicker,
so you can really get the benefit from drafting.
(energetic music)
So you've got your wetsuit off in record time.
Well now you can dramatically improve the speed
of your transition by changing your layout.
For example, start with having a bright towel
so you can easily find your kit
when you run into transition.
If you're not yet at the stage of leaving your shoes
on your bike, then just make sure that they're laid out
in transition, facing away from you
so that when you come in you're gonna have
to get your feet in more easily.
If you're not gonna be wearing socks,
then put in a bit of talcum powder,
and a bit of lubrication like some
Vaseline or petroleum spirit around the heel.
If you are wearing socks, then make sure you leave
the corresponding sock on the corresponding shoe.
Maybe even think of popping them inside
and rolling down the tops so they're
that much easier to put on.
Well make sure the rest of your transition
is laid out purely for speed.
So if you're wearing sunglasses,
pop them in your helmet ready, and then leave your helmet
upside-down, facing towards you with the straps open
so you can grab it and put it on extra quickly.
If you're using an aero helmet,
and you can't put your glasses on top of it,
then have them open inside, so you
can really quickly pop them on.
Same goes for race belt, if you need a race belt
for the bike, have it laid down,
so that it's quick to pick up the clasp and pop it on.
Finally, leave your bike in the correct gear,
because there's nothing worse than
being in too high a gear when you've got
an uphill slope out of T1.
Not only is it gonna be very slow,
it could be slightly embarrassing as you're struggling
and you're gonna lose valuable seconds.
While there's a lot that you can do to your bike
to make you go faster, we have covered
that in a lot of detail in another video.
But look at your position, if you're riding a road bike,
then you could think about adding on some aero bars.
For your spares for example, you could put them
underneath your saddle and tape them up there.
If you've got a lot of loose cables,
then tape them up, just make sure you've still got
enough movement for your bike.
Well think about moving your hydration.
There are several options of where to carry it on your bike.
It's that balance between being more aerodynamic
but still having it easily accessible
so that you can drink regularly.
The same goes for your nutrition.
So if you're using bars for example,
make sure they're open so they're easy to access.
If you're using gels, you could even think
about taping them onto your top tube,
so they're really easy to get to.
If you wanna use the course nutrition,
make sure you've checked out what they have available,
and that you've tasted it before, so you know you'll like it
and if you do, you can actually save a little bit
of weight and you won't have to carry quite
as much on your bike, and you can pick things up
as you go on the course.
Then there are things that are more easily overlooked
such as a clean bike, and yes I probably do need
to address mine, but having a clean bike
that is well lubed will be more efficient,
and then obviously faster.
If you can afford some new tyres for your race,
that will make a difference.
You're less likely to have a puncture,
and they will be faster.
Talking of tyres, check out the road surface
before hand so you can work out
what the optimum tyre pressure is that you want to run.
Right, this may sound obvious, but know where you're going.
If you've got the chance, drive the course the day before.
You can note any sharp bends, ascends, descends
and maybe even get out of the car
and notice the wind direction.
If you can, find someone who's raced it before
'cause they might well be in to give you some good tips.
(energetic music)
We're going by pretty much the same rules
as we did for T1, it's all about the layout
for the quickest transition possible.
So, have your shoes facing away from you.
If you're not wearing socks, make sure you put
some talcum powder inside, and something to lube the heel.
You can use elastic laces to make it
even quicker to get your shoes on.
Then everything else that you're gonna need,
like a visor or gels, leave it in a pile
so you can grab it all together,
and you can be putting it on
whilst you're already out on the run.
Once you're out onto the run, there shouldn't
be too much that you've got to think about.
If it's a short run or it's short laps,
then try and walk it or maybe even jog it beforehand,
so you've got that mental advantage
of knowing how to pace it.
If you are doing a longer run,
or you're someone that needs
to have the odd convenience break on the run,
it might be worth considering wearing a two piece,
cause that will actually save you
a lot of time in the long run.
On that note, keep an eye out so you know
where the loos are, so you're not gonna have to panic
and try and find a bush.
Now there are a lot of little physical things
that you can do to help you prepare,
but don't underestimate the importance
of being mentally prepared.
So, swim, drive, or walk through as much
of the course as you can, and then visualise it.
When it comes to transition, walk through T1 and T2
several times until you're absolutely certain
you know where you're going, 'cause it's amazing
how a little bit of adrenalin on race day,
and suddenly all the aisles of bikes look exactly the same.
Final point, visualise a list in your head
for T1 and T2, and then towards the end of the swim
you can start going through the motions in your head
of what you're gonna do in T1,
and towards the end of the bike, you can work it out for T2.
And finally, a tri suit or a triathlon specific two piece
will save you a lot of time from changing in transitions.
Just make sure that if you're using any new kit,
and you've worn it at least once before race day.
And make sure to pack a spare pair of trainers,
as you don't want to be having to warm up barefoot
once you put your trainers into transition.
Talking of warm up, if you can't get into the water
or you don't want to before your swim,
then you can do a job and some ability exercises
to get your heart rate up and get you into the race zone.
Follow these tips and save valuable seconds,
even minutes, in your next triathlon race.
Do let us know if there's any hacks
that you've got of your own that we haven't included today.
If you haven't yet done so and you wanna catch more
videos from GTN, just hit the globe to subscribe.
And if you wanna see the video we made
on our top 10 triathlon hacks, that video is just here.
If you want to know how to transform your road bike
into a triathlon bike, we made a video just here.