Long time no post

Its been a few weeks since my last post but let me asssure you all that I am still training. Its heading towards the end of our season in Australia and there is just one race left for me, an olympic distance event on April 16. The problem I am having is motivation. the days are shortening with less daylight hours and the weather is getting colder. The mornings in particular are quite cold.

Added to this, I have been getting some muscle soreness which just isnt going away. I sure am looking forward to a little rest after the last race and am just hoping there is enough in the tank for a good result.

Warm ups for racing

For something different this week I participated in a 10km fun run. One of the big differences between a fun run and a triathlon, apart from the obvious, is that you can actually warm up for the event properly by easy jogging before the race.

I am not a big advocate of warm ups in a triathlon. What is the point of warning up with a run or cycle an hour or so before you have to run and cycle. None whatsoever as far as I am concerned. I can understand a swim warm up as that is the event that you are immediately undertaking. But for the cycle and run legs I think the only thing you get by jogging or cycling before the event is reduced available energy when you race.

If you don't believe me give it a try. Before your next race don't to the cycle or run warm ups and see if it effects your performance. Rather than the warm up try some gentle loosening exercises to get all joints relaxed and even some very gentle stretching. Try to relax the mind then go for a warm up swim and concentrate on starting the event with a higher intensity. After the swim leg it wont have mattered one bit that you missed your run warm up.

Defining Oneself

I sometimes wonder why I continue to train. Often its not because I enjoy it, as a matter of fact more often than not I would prefer not to put myself through the effort. I think what drives me, or what motivates me, is the fact that in a way my sport defines who I am. I like to consider myself as a triathlete, regardless of what standard I compete at, or how slow I am, I am a triathlete. Without my training, my sport, my level of self esteem would drop and I would cease to picture myself as the person i want to be.

This is all probably ego but thats the way I am.

What is the best way to train?

I have often read about triathlon training methods to see if there is anything I should try or change in my own training program. However a lot of the time when I read about new methods I often get the feeling that authors only seem to be interested in the so called serious or full time athletes.

Don't get me wrong I do not disagree with what the experts have to say but I do think that the age group triathlete has to seriously weigh up what fits their lifestyle best. By this I mean that there obviously has to be a balance between training, family, profession, recuperation and relaxation and this balance is very highly skewed towards training when listening to the experts.

In order to explain my point I will look at weight training as an example. I do not have to be convinced of the benefits of weight training I am fully aware of them, but in order to obtain a benefit in strength the workouts have to be fairly regular and by this I mean at least 3 per week. In order to find the time to do an extra 3 workouts per week something has to give. I currently do 3 running, swimming and cycling sessions in a week and at least 1 of these would have to be sacrificed to be able to participate in a weights session. I feel sacrificing one of the core activities in my chosen sport in order to supplement the core activities of my sport is a little silly and in the long run counter productive.

I once heard that a tennis player once said that in order to get better at tennis one needs to play tennis. I will extrapolate this theory and say that to get bet at participating in triathlons one should endeavour to swim, run or ride as regularly as possible. This means that in my book you should never sacrifice a swim, bike or run session in order to engage in a supplementary activity.

If you are not bound by a job, a wife, children, lack of sleep, and are able to easily relax go ahead and try as many training activities as possible. However if you are like me only retreat to other activities if boredom or staleness means that you are ceasing to enjoy your standard triathlon sessions.

Triathlon round up

We were lucky to have a great day for the triathlon on Sunday. By great I mean cool and cloudy. There are down sides of course. There was a bit of a swell in the water and the return legs on the bike were tough into the wind but this is great when compared with stifling heat or high humidity.

I am very lucky to have a wife who also competes. This means that we can train together, and race together giving each other encouragement along the way. I like to see her do well and love her very much.

My race was a good one. I had a great swim, an average bike and a good run. The ankle injury held up well giving me no problem at all in the run. This is the last triathlon in Melbourne for over a month due to the Commonwealth Games being here during March. My next race will be in April over the Olympic Distance of 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km Run.

Preparing to race

I haven't had a great week on the training track as during my easy run on Wednesday I twisted my ankle. After the initial limping, and swearing I attempted to get home and must admit the pain eased after a km or so. I iced it immediately for an hour and now after a couple of days am left with a nasty bruise around my ankle. I can now jog without pain but upon waking in the morning the ankle feels a little tender.

My next scheduled triathlon is tomorrow so I hope it holds up ok. The race is at a bayside location in close proximity to Melbourne called Elwood. It is probably the biggest race of the season due to its central location. The distance is a 600m swim followed by a 20km bike and 6km run.

I suppose i class myself as an experienced competitor having completed probably around 100 races over the last 15 years. It is amazing how your thought process changes over time. In the beginning most of my anxiety concerned completing the distance, expecially the swim, and just getting through the race.

After getting through the phase of just completing the race my thought process changed to racing and trying to place as high as possible. Although still a hack triathlete I still feared not performing at my anticipated levels and the levels I perceived my peers placed upon me . My initial fears and anxieties of completing the race were now gone but were replaced with these new anxieties about poor results or by looking bad in the eyes of my peers.

I think I have now overcome these fears but like before have additional anxieties to replace them. My new fears concern pain. I know the distance is not a problem and I have confidence in my perfromance but I know from my previous races that putting yourself to the test always involves pain. The lungs screaming for air during the run, the legs yearning for relief during the ride, these are feelings that I know I will feel at some point during the race and the thought of them scares me.

I want to improve and this involves a testing process. The price of a good performance is the pain of effort and as I age the thought of this pain becomes less palatable. I am not yet prepared to give up my sport so I must find a way of dealing with these fears.

Swimming - How to get better

I started participating in triathlons during the early 90's and to be honest was virtually scared of the water. I persisted with my training and over the years gradually became quicker, but I was never at ease in the water. I also reached a stage where I ceased to improve despite how hard I worked. Its usually at this stage that we blame old age catching up. I didnt however feel this was the case. I trained with other people older than me who were better swimmers but not nearly as fit. If age was the reason I was not improving then why were these guys better than me.

It was at this stage I made the staggering discovery (It only took a decade) that no matter how hard I swam during training I was not going to improve. The reason - Its not my fitness which governs the ease and speed of my swimming it is my technique.

I stopped swimming and started swimming drills, attended some drill sessions, and read. I virtually only drilled and worked on body position for around six months then returned to some structured workouts. I now swim as quickly as I did previously but with a lot less effort and a lot more confidence.

If you are not improving STOP. Get a coach work on some drills and try to become a better swimmer rather than a faster one. By continuing in your old ways you will only become better at swimming inefficiently.

Dont fear losing fitness. If you are cycling and running your fitness will be fine. Swimming technique is what will help you and you must work at it. I am sure you will improve if you take my advice.

My training has been curtailed recently. I slightly cut my foot and feel that I should not tempt fate by running in pain and risking injury by an uneven gate. I therefore only rode yesterday - about 25 km and only swam this morning.