Balmoral Triathlon Club's triathlon training and triathlon racing tips are provided by Bruce and Christina Thomas from Energylink Performance Coaching.

 

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Bruce and Christina Thomas have over 30years involvement in this triathlons including ironman triathlons, half ironman triathlons, olympic distance triathlons and many other aspects of the sport. During that time they both have raced triathlons professionally in Australia & overseas and have been coaching athletes for 14 years. What Bruce and Christina have learnt and what they have experienced has been enormous. Much of their experience has come first hand and some has come from witnessing others and coaching. The rest has come from study, education and research. Either way they have found what they have learnt to be very powerful and would both say that their own racing and training experience and "feel" for this has been instrumental.

Here are their top training "beliefs and tips". Hopefully you can take something from them and make it yours. Feel free to talk to Bruce and Christina about them and ask questions if you need to. Bruce and Christina can be contacted via email, phone 02 9899 6004 or at many of the Balmoral Triathlon Clubs training sessions.

 

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Energy Link's top triathlon training and racing tips:

by Bruce & Christina Thomas

Keep it all simple:

It is not rocket science......success comes from the amount of effort, determination, perseverance and commitment you put into something. You need to keep it simple....work on your weakness and persevere. There is definitely a time and a place for complex and technical training however, you need to ask yourself.....am I doing the simple things to the best of my ability and will the more complex training save me the time I need or can smarter more simpler training?

Training has to be individual:

Thank goodness we are not all the same...it makes life far more enjoyable! So many factors should go into successful training - background, medical and injury history, time availability, lifestyle, geographics etc. One of the most important factors that will influence your ability as an athlete is your physical make-up and genetics. These areas play a massive role in your performance capabilities, tolerances, repair and recovery process just to name just a few. As coaches part of our role is to monitor and evaluate these areas in order to come up with an individual plan. We can assure you as professional and experienced coaches that there are many reasons why your programme may be different to someone else's even though you have the same race goals.

Fact…The Moroccan athletics team, which includes El Guerrouge, has a process their National Team of athletes are involved in. The process is very systematic and they work in a group of 30. However there is an understanding amongst the athletes and their Coaches to respect individualism. It is a compulsory behaviour line for the group. An example: They run by time 20, 30, 40minutes, but Sulah Hissou never runs more than 1 hour of continuous running, and Khalid Skah runs very often over 1:15 - 1:20min, same event, same level of performance, different loads.

Have a triathlon plan (performance model) and make it specific:

Have a plan in place. Performance modeling comes from an understanding of what is required to meet your desired goal. What areas do you need to address to meet your goal/s? You need to look at the event itself and assess areas such as course requirements. Make sure that the race is really suited to you. If you are someone who is likely to become injured when you run hills then choosing a hilly course where you will need to train over hills may be an issue for you. On the other hand, hills or weight may be an issue and this will need to be addressed when setting your plan. You will also need to break the race down so that you can set some training goals. So, go back to school and work on a formula.

Desired triathlon swim time:
30min 1500 / 100m pace is 2.00min

Desired Ironman triathlon time:
11hours S: 1:20/100m pace 2.06 B: 5:45 / 31.3kmph R: 3:55/ 5:35 min.km

Break the event down and set up the training so that you can work towards the targets.

Consistency is the key:

Consistency is everything. Strength comes from consistency and the body loves it. Try not to get hooked on the quantity of the miles but rather the consistency of the miles.

Strength is the other key:

Efficiency, form, speed they all come from strength and the stronger you are the more efficient and faster you can become. Triathletes in general spend a lot of time "dumping" on their legs and falling apart during the run. When they ride the bike, they spend the whole time pushing down on the pedals and dumping on the quads and on the run they sit down on the run and hammer their quads again. If you are not strong enough then your technique will suffer. Most triathletes are not particularly strong in the core or the gluteus and hips and therefore they become technically poor during the back end of the run.

We need to work on physical strength and optimise your whole body strength. This way you will be supporting the contractions of the leg muscles and fatigue and poor technique is minimised. On a whole, your muscles will function better and you will be able to maximise your performance throughout your race. For ironman athletes, a strong back end of the run is the key to a solid race so your strength is crucial.

The strength phase of your programme will be early in the plan however some strength work can be maintained up to 4-8 weeks from race day. Some of the specific strength sessions you can do are: specific gym work, circuit, plyometrics, stair climbing / step ups with weights, hills and core stability sessions.

Change pace:

We see many triathletes who train like they race and race like they train. There are the plodders who do everything at one pace and the racers who do everything at their best pace. If you can find the balance in between somewhere you are the winner!

There are few important reasons why you need to understand your pace and also be able to change it: As mentioned earlier, you need to train (sometimes) to race pace so that come race day you are aware of your targets an you know they are realistic.

 

There are easy aerobic sets, long slow distance sets, Strength sets and speed sets and hey all need to be done at a certain pace and the pace of each should be varied.

A change of pace is important for improving technique on the run. It is much easier and more realistic to work on your form throughout the run while you are running with some speed. Technique/drill sets where you will work on form such as running tall, activating and strengthen your core and gluteus and pushing the hips forward are better worked on with some pace. You are less likely to "dump" on your quads while running at a faster pace.

You are what you eat:

There are huge benefits to a healthy diet and all you have to do is a bit of planning and organisation to get your diet working in your favour. You should be very aware that the level of exercise intensity influences nutritional needs AND the nutritional intake influences how well you train and more importantly recover.

 

Triathlon Nutrition:

Rehearse your nutrition and hydration for race day and the only way to do this is during race pace sessions such as brick or other intense sessions. The LSD run and bike sessions will not always be a good indication of how positively or negatively you will handle your nutrition and hydration.

If you are someone who suffers with food intake or drink intake, cramps, gastro etc you need to rehearse where you are having problems until you get it right. Example: If you exit the swim and find that for the first 40km on the bike you can't take an food on board then you may need to look at what you are eating prior to the race and how much water you may be swallowing during the swim and then you need to work on a plan to prevent this happening and rehearse it.

Remember: you are what you eat!

Appreciate your support network:

This one is the most important so we have left it to last.
You are only as good as the people who support you. Take the time to appreciate your family, friends, squad coach or who ever else is involved. Make sure that you have a life and that triathlon is not your whole life!

Balance will make you a better athlete.