There is a theory I read about a few years ago which says people have the capacity to be 100% committed to only two-and-a-quarter (2¼) things at one time. If you try to fit any more in something will have to be sacrificed. In the context of triathlons I think this theory applies on two levels.
Firstly, for many people this most likely means that work accounts for one point, family for another point, leaving a quarter of a point left to play with. But on a second level, it is really hard to be an equal level of form and fitness across all three sports. Two sports, yes, but three sports, no...although maybe a quarter point to the third sport!!
The thing about theories is that they’re generalisms, and don’t wholly apply to everyone, including this two-and-a-quarter theory. Here are some of my thoughts prompted by it.
Whether or not this theory is true, and whether things account for full or parts points is a moot point (no pun intended), the main aspect is that there are a finite number of things you can do well at any time. Choose the (few) things that are important to you, and do them well.
Triathlons can consume a person and become their lifestyle – it’s a choice and a sacrifice. But at the same time, take a look at where you’re taking points from in the other areas of your life and ask yourself if the sacrifice is worth it.
It’s OK saying no to things that are going to ‘cost’ you too much, whether that is financial cost, time cost, emotional cost or something else. Spreading yourself too thinly across multiple things is tiring, stressful and ultimately unfulfilling.
As far as the actual sports go, it’s really hard to be in equal form and fitness across swim, bike and run simultaneously. And to be honest, there are only a few really key races during the year where that is really important, so in the meantime just roll with the ups and downs you experience and aim for overall enjoyment and incremental gains where you can get them.
If something takes you out / away from doing one of the sports, typically injury, then move on and ahead with what you can do in the other sports. However, even at this time, still think of yourself as a triathlete who will be back in good time.
Have a backup and exit plan in case things go out of balance, especially if other people are dependent on you. Have support networks (family, friends, other hobbies, etc) so that you’re not too dependent on the one thing that might be causing you to tip over the edge of balance.
There are many more thoughts prompted by this theory and what it might mean for each individual. But the main take away point is to keep tabs on how many things you take on in your life, and to do each of them justice. Keep it real.
With the summer season over and done, races run and won, hopefully you had some performances close to your goals. The end of season is a time to naval gaze somewhat, and take time out to day dream a little about what might be next season – after a good “off-season” winter of training.
What should do you do over winter? Six months or so is a long time, and while you don’t necessarily want to maintain the same intensity of training you had during the season, this isn’t a time to just noodle around in training since you can make big gains on your path to next season. Think of it as pre-training before you get into focused race-specific sessions later in the year.
Winter is often regarded as the base period of training, building a big, wide platform of fitness upon which to shape great race performances, which is true. Base training can mean many things to different people, and in my book it is not just about doing easy, steady state sessions. Rather, base training is where you build multiple aspects of fitness – speed, power, strength endurance, speed endurance, etc. – working on your weaknesses while also enhancing your strengths.
Base training is where you work on your all round fitness, with the specific emphasis varying depending on the individual characteristics of the athlete. Base training is also where you can set mini-goals as a means of measuring your progress, as well as developing skills to help you during the actual race season. Here are some things you can include in your base period:
Sprint and Short Course
Triathletes tend to be endurance machines by default, since triathlons are an aerobic sport. However, sprint and short course racing requires good capabilities in speed, power and speed endurance, as well as associated skills in executing these performances. So these athletes should spend time working on developing speed, and the two components of speed – biomechanical skill and fitness. The first comes from just practicing moving fast in a relaxed way against low resistance – small gear on a bike, and slight downhill on the run. You want to be able to move smoothly at speed, which is a practiced skill, and precedes the fitness to be able to go fast. You build the fitness starting with short efforts (e.g. 20-30sec with 2-3 x recovery). Holding good form is essential. Don’t go for any longer or harder than you can hold good form for. Once you can, then introduce hills, starting with short hills – the pathway to power development!
Speed endurance takes your basic speed and extends it out to three-to-four minute efforts, with equal recovery. Do these at close to maximum effort you can sustain across a total of 15-to-25 minutes cumulative interval time in a single session. These are gut-busting, high-octane sessions, but deliver great results over four-to-six weeks.
Good goals for sprint and short-course athletes to aim for are over 10-to-20-kilometre bike TTs, 5-to-10-kilometre running races, and short duathlons which you can afford to do several of. These allow you to test your fitness, assess your development and practice race skills. It’s OK, race fast during winter and aim for PBs, but remember when your goal season is.
Long Course and Ironman
Many of the winter goals for sprint and short course athletes also apply to long course and Iron-distance athletes, but in smaller amounts. For these athletes, the winter is the time to develop strength endurance and lactate threshold, and should follow on from speed, power and speed endurance – the linear order allows for good progression of fitness.
Strength endurance is sustained strength training for endurance athletes. The practical implementation of this for cycling is big-gear sessions, and for running is longer uphill efforts. On the bike, efforts of five-to-20 minutes are most effective, at cadence of 60-to-70rpm. The effort level is key: do these at close to Olympic-distance triathlon effort (or power), but note that this is a muscular-endurance effort and not an anaerobic effort. You want to feel muscle burn, not oxygen debt! For running the principle is similar, with efforts in four-to-10 minute range, ideally up a gradual hill of perhaps four-to-six percent, not so steep it is a struggle to run up. Recovery is easy, between about 50-to-100 percent of interval time.
The other aspect to focus on is lactate threshold work, which equates to about one-hour TT effort/power on bike, and for running your maximum average pace for a 45-minute effort. Once that is established, the sessions are based on short-recovery intervals with work:rest ratio of about 4-to-5:1. On the bike you might do 30-to-40 minutes of intervals in lengths of five-to-20 minutes, and on run 20-to-25 minutes of intervals in lengths of four-to-eight minutes. These are sustained sessions, and require concentration. Good test events include 20-to-40-kilometre bike TT and up to half-marathon running races.
Of course, these are just snippets of what might be included in a well-planned program, but hopefully provide some ideas of what you can include in your training over winter so you make some positive progress before you even focus on your racing season.
The triathlon season can be a long one, running for many months and incorporating numerous races over a range of distances. It is the time when you put the hard work you did during the off-season into practice, hoping to see the results of your efforts in bringing you closer to your goals. Short-course athletes will probably do quite a number of races, with some key events amongst them, whereas long-course athletes tend to race more sparingly, often culminating in a goal event.
Regardless of how often you race, your fitness and form can fluctuate over time - it takes quite some skill to be race sharp all season (and somewhat unrealistic!). Most athletes have an innate understanding of their form, whether through race performances or based on how training is going.
The key thing is, by introducing some mid-season training tweaks you can influence your form in a positive way for the remainder of the season. Here are some common scenarios and what actions you can take in training (bike and run focus) to address them:
Symptom: You're dead, flat and tired. You're lacking zip and freshness in your movement. Your motivation and enthusiasm is low. Action: Rest. It's amazing how common this problem is. Triathletes, in particular, are so good at training they forget how to race, and how to rest before a race. While rest is a relative term, the theme is allowing your body to feel refreshed and physically ready for a race, with your mental state also benefitting. There are few good reasons for being tired going into a race where it compromises your performance. This is a quick and easy fix!!
Symptom: You're lacking a top-gear and the ability to get the top 5% of performance from your body, typically in Sprint of Olympic Distance triathlons. Action: Assuming you're not tired…this would suggest you're lacking race fitness, and the training sessions where you are truly pushing to race intensity, albeit for a shorter period of time than the race.
The best training intervals to address this are: Bike: 2-4min at Sprint Distance Triathlon intensity with 75-100% interval duration as recovery, for a total of 20-25min of intervals in a session. Run: 1-3min at Sprint Distance Triathlon intensity with equal recovery, for a total of 10-15min of intervals in a session.
These are not long sessions, but the emphasis is pushing hard in each interval and recovering well between them, which means they are high intensity and hurt!! Of course, you can also use races themselves to build your race fitness, which can be a good strategy leading up to key events, but quality training sessions are a good alternative. You'll feel some benefit within 2-3 weeks of doing these sessions once a week in each sport, but don't continue them for more than 4-5 weeks in a row.
Symptom: You're lacking strength towards the end of your races, despite feeling great early on, typically in Sprint of Olympic Distance triathlons. Action: Assuming you've got the speed you want, this suggests that your race threshold endurance is limited. That is, you can achieve race effort and hold it for a short period, but not hold it.
The best training intervals to address this are: Bike: 3 x 10min / 2 x 15min / 2 x 20min at Olympic Distance Triathlon intensity with 5min recovery. Run: 5 x 4min at Olympic Distance Triathlon intensity with 1min recovery.
The emphasis with this is the overall duration of the main session, with the intervals being sustained and the short, incomplete recovery. Your goal is to maintain your effort across and between each rep, at or close to race intensity. You'll feel some benefit within 2-3 weeks of doing these sessions once a week in each sport, and you can continue them throughout the season although perhaps after the first 4-5 weeks, only doing this session every second week.
Symptom: You lack basic endurance. You fade in long training sessions, and similarly in longer races, typically in long course or IM triathlons. Action: Assuming your nutrition is not the limiting factor, the simple answer to addressing this is doing more long training sessions!! Of course, there is more to it than that since how you do those long sessions makes difference. This means focusing on your pacing and building your effort during the session so you start easily and finish strongly. A further progression on that strategy is to include some intervals in the last quarter of the session, something like this: Bike: 3-4 x 10min / 2-3 x 15min / 2-3 x 20min at Long Course Triathlon intensity with 5min recovery. Do these in the last 60-90min of your long session. Run: Progressively build to a tempo pace in the last 30-60min of your long run. The tempo pace could be anything you want, but essentially a change in pace from what you were running at.
The emphasis with these sessions is to deliberately increase your effort late in these long sessions. This requires concentration and effort, and works to counter any slackening off in effort, thereby building your endurance. Of course, it is assumed you are building the duration of this long session sensibly. As with the previous actions, expect some benefit within 2-3 weeks, and this approach to long sessions can be used almost year round.
The other benefit of these sessions, if you do them well, is that you’ll build your confidence in these scenarios which in aiming for mid-season tweaks is just as important as your physical fitness. Good luck!!
Running form is a popular topic these days as runners increasingly recognise the role it plays in efficiency, injuries and enjoyment of the sport. While running is not often considered as a strongly technique based activity, like perhaps swimming, running technique is a skill nonetheless where there is a variety of ways to execute the skill with varying degrees of efficiently and effectiveness.
In doing analysis of running form there are some common points that arise, which if addressed, help to improve the balance and alignment of the runner, and often performance. In many cases, issues are subtle and usually unique in their actual presentation. Working to address them involves identifying cues, working on drills, developing coordination and ultimately, practicing running to achieve the desired 'feel' and movement. The goal is not to have every runner looking the same, but to achieve a body position and alignment in common with good running form. The process differs for each runner.
The following is a case study in running form analysis - and improvement - involving my younger brother, Sam, because it nicely illustrates some common issues and how he worked to address them to markedly improve his running form, and performance.
Often there is a catalyst and/or reason for making changes to running form, which is important because there are (injury) risks in doing so, so you want to be sure the risk and effort are worthwhile. In Sam's case it was an injury to his tibialis anterior tendon on the front of his shin, which is responsible for pointing your foot and toes upwards (dorsi flexion). Sam sustained this injury 5 weeks before his goal race, the 2011 Melbourne Marathon (debut marathon), which plagued him and compromised training considerably during those 5 weeks (and post-race). Nonetheless, he ran 2:56hr and came home with motivation to improve…we just had to address his injury, not just the symptoms but the root cause.
Sam has always been a heel striker as a runner, as many runners are, which is characterised by his hips sitting back 'in a bucket', particularly at point of landing. Not only is it inefficient, but is often associated with common running knee injuries, with patellar femoral symdrome (PFS), or "runner's knee" being a particularly common one (which Sam has had). However, in this case it was linked to his shin problem, since with each step his tibialis anterior muscle is eccentrically loading to "release" his foot down from its initial heel strike position (with foot/toes pointed up), to being flat on the road. Repeat that thousands of time, and it overloaded the attached tendon causing inflammation, so as long as he ran this way would continue to cause this irritation.
Upon recognising this association between his heel striking running and the shin injury that the solution was apparent - we needed to change Sam to be a mid-foot runner to remove the overloading on his tibialis anterior, since in mid-foot running you place your foot on the ground rather than slapping it down heel first. To test this theory Sam did some exaggerated mid-foot running, and instantly the shin pain went away…and instantly came back when he reverted back to heel striking.
Now the challenge was to transition his running form, which is not as simple of saying "run mid-foot" since the way your feet strike the ground is a result / consequence of your body position. It also involved great risk as mid-foot running considerably increases the loading on your calf and achilles, in particular, injuries we really wanted to avoid!!
Fortunately Sam was up for the challenge…and enduring his older brother giving him instructions(!!)…so the first step was simply becoming aware of his body position while running, and the effect it had on his form. Remember, we were focusing on body alignment and if/when we got that right, his foot strike would improve the way we wanted it to. Foot strike is immediate feedback for body alignment, so we used a small amount of barefoot running to enhance this feedback, and also because of the natural effect barefoot running can have on how you run - it was a tool. We also reviewed his footwear, switching to a less-cushioned, smaller heel drop shoe, also as part of the multi-pronged approach.
During this initial transition phase, in February 2012, Sam was doing less running, partly because his shin was still recovering and partly to help adaptation in his calves (which were very tight). We worked out some suitable cues that helped remind him about the desired body position, slowed down his pace to allow quality practice, but also including some faster stride-throughs to practice the technique at multiple speeds. The key points were to focus on keeping his hips forward, being on top of his stride, and to roll along "over" the ground, as opposed to "across" the ground. These points help to incorporate the key aspects of good form in a "plain english" kind of way to make sense rather than being lost in jargon or technical terms. During this time feedback was via Sam's comments and video, since we live some distance apart. Ideally I'd be able to see him regularly to monitor progress and provide on-going feedback and altering the cues we used, but that wasn't possible.
The first video of his new running technique was highly anticipated - had Sam got what I was trying to explain, and had he translated that into his running? The answer was yes, and almost. My first impression was how well he had got the concept and principles, and how well he had adapated his running form…it was quite a transformation. At a quick glance, it looked like his form was all OK, but actually there was some more work to do.
While Sam was now running with good body position and alignment, no longer sitting 'in a bucket', he almost gone too far to the point where he had a fore-foot landing but was achieving this by leaning a little too far forwards and "falling" onto his feet rather than placing his feet on the ground. This was very subtle, but notable, with the result being that he was excessively loading his calves and achilles, and was also a technique I did not feel would be sustainable over longer distances, especially marathon.
My feedback in response to this progress was really positive but also adding some new cues to incorporate, being to straighten up a little, ie, more vertical, and to "place" his feet on the ground - one of the few times I do suggest to focus on foot placement in run technique review. I wanted him to just lightly touch the ground with each step. Again, these were subtle but I felt really worthwhile tweaks.
A week or so later Sam sent another video of his progress…and it was great!! I watched it again and again, and was really pleased to see how well Sam had incorporated all the technique aspects into his running. His form was spot on, with only on-going focus to maintain that form being the feedback I gave…it is easy to slip back into old habits when you're tired. Not only was his running form looking great, it was far more efficient and above all, his shins were OK.
It is testament to Sam's motivation and determination to make this change, being open to feedback and practicing…not everyone has this same application to the task. Fast forward to the Gold Coast marathon in July 2012 and Sam smashed his marathon PB, running 2:42hr, holding good form to the end.
The bike leg of any triathlon is really important, largely because it is disproportionally long and so much can happen during the time you're riding. This is perhaps more so in IM and IM 70.3 distance races, and even though the saying goes "ride for show, run for dough", if your bike leg is weak it will be shown up on the bike and carry-over to the run.
There's all kind of things you can do to improve your bike leg, from getting a newer bike to simply training more, but I'm going to focus on just a couple of things I've found to be valuable in preparing athletes for IM races (in particular), which kind of seem opposite to each other but actually work in harmony on race day. Let me explain some more.
In a long bike leg, 90km to 180km, you're going to get tired and pedaling will just feel harder…like you're riding through sand. Even though you might be pushing the same / similar power it doesn't feel like it. You've run out of endurance, so to speak. Something to help your whole bike performance - not just in this situation - is including big-gear riding in training. And quite a bit of it. The intent is to develop your muscular strength and endurance, your neural familiarity with this type of effort, and train your ability to keep pushing the gear when you're legs are fatiguing.
This strength endurance work can be included in a variety of ways, but with the common element of pedaling at about 60-70 rpm, or about 20-25 rpm less than you would naturally choose - we're not training you to be a big gear rider or change your natural cadence.
As with adding any new / different stress to your training, you should build into it gradually. Start with 2-4 x 5 min efforts with 2-3 min easy between. Your target effort is about FTP wattage, or the kind of effort you'd ride in an Olympic distance triathlon. They key is the muscle tension you are developing, not the anaerobic effect - if you're breathing hard then you're not quite doing it right. It will burn your legs more than your heart and lungs. You can do these on flat, uphill or on an indoor trainer…aim for the same effort on the pedals.
Once you're used to 5 min efforts, extend them out to 10-15-20 min up to total of about 30-45 min per session, just once a week at this stage. For variation, do some of the reps standing up…this will burn your quads!! Big gear work can also be included into your long ride, alternating intervals of normal gear/cadence with big gear work, ultimately building up to intervals as long as 60min, completing 4 of these in a long ride - two at normal cadence, two at big gear. The difference with big gear efforts in your long ride is to do them a IM (or slightly above) effort - a power meter is ideal for measuring this effort.
Including big gear work throughout your IM build phase can pay big dividends in the last 40km of the bike leg, however having this new found strength on the bike is not necessarily a strength in itself. It is simply developing an aspect of fitness you will call upon late in the bike leg.
The second aspect of training to help bike performance is learning to "soft pedal" as you ride, which is somewhat contrary to developing big gear strength, but the best thing about having a performance strength is not necessarily using it. In doing an IM bike leg your goal is to expend a minimum amount of effort for the maximum reward / speed, which you can do by "soft pedaling" and barely touching upon the bike strength you've built up.
Saying "soft pedal" needs a very careful definition, which is a subtle change in the way you ride and "how" you generate power through your pedals. It is best illustrated on a power quadrant analysis, where the aim is to shift the power spread from Q I and Q II towards Q III and Q IV. The feel of this just as "soft pedaling" implies - being softer on the pedals, by a small and subtle amount. So rather than "pushing" during the pedal stroke, you would ease off just a fraction, and perhaps even changing down a gear at times. Your power would barely change, but your perceived effort would. As I said, it is subtle and represents a variation in the way you ride…having a smoother pedal stroke.
Learning to soft pedal takes practice, especially during long rides where your effort is most like an IM bike leg. During shorter, harder rides you do need to pedal hard - including during any big gear work - so it is during other gentler, steady-state efforts where practicing soft pedaling is best done. Having a power meter helps a lot, especially for post-ride quadrant analysis, but even without a power meter the feeling of soft pedaling is what you are after. To an extent you are aiming to protect your bike strength - to not use it - even though you eventually will, where your big gear work will come to the fore.
These two aspects of training seem at odds with each other, but are actually complementary. Using big gear work builds your bike strength, especially for late in the bike leg, and soft pedaling protects you from having to use that bike strength until as late as possible. If you get it right - pacing is crucial - you'll get off the bike with fresher legs and ready to run to your potential.
Holidays are great for all kinds of reasons. For the places you go, the people you hang out with, the R&R and so much more. Holidays are also great for running, and running is great for holidays. Some holidays are even based on running, whether it's travelling to do an event or going away for a training camp…running is front-centre of the experience.
For me, I love running while holidaying for the pleasure it brings and the things I can see on the run. Perhaps my most memorable holiday run was in Paris whereupon leaving the hostel set out in the early morning, I set out on a route that took me down to the Seine river, along to Eiffel tower, across to Place de la Concorde and the forecourt of the Louvre museum, then up the Champs Elysees to Arc de Triomphe before heading back to the hostel, all in about a 55 min run. Not only did I see many of the main sights of Paris, but saw the city come to life…the street sweepers, delivery vans, cafes setting up and more. It was memory I've held and savoured to this day.
Then there were some fabulous runs in New Zealand, heading out along trails, around lakes, into some hills and round towns, just checking out the scene and hoping I don't get lost (or worse…). And don't forget running along the endless beach on Fraser Island…being chased by a wasp…or running the road to Uluru, or circling Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. Running on holidays can take you places you might not go if you were walking - a lot quicker - and starts the day off on the right foot. If you've done a run and seen things before breakfast, you've got the rest of the day to just take in the peace and serenity of being on holiday.
The challenge for a keen runner while on holiday is the fine line between running for enjoyment while away against the temptation to turn it into a "training camp", of sorts, and smash out some great sessions to give your running fitness a boost. The problem with this is the effect it may have on your actual holiday…being too tired to really enjoy the surroundings and the people you're with. Running up a great mountain trail is fantastic, but hiking up it with others and appreciating the view might be a better…as long as you're not too tired to do so. Striking a compromise between great running and great holidaying can take some practice!!
The middle ground I've found is to see holidays as a break from focused training, as such, and enjoy the holiday for what it is…and enjoy the simple pleasures of running in new and stimulating environments. That is, enjoying holiday running. The exception is, of course, if you're taking a running holiday in which case, run hard!!
Amongst the training libraries of many athletes and coaches you'll find a range of "go to" sessions which are the ones they most often do, for all kinds of reasons. Some will be complex and some will be simple, and some in between, but the bottom line is they work for that person/people.
One of my "go to" sessions is simple, 1 min 'on' / 1 min 'off' repeated a certain number of times, but the beauty is in the universal way a simple session like this can be used, at any time in training year and with almost any level / fitness of athlete. The key to it is the emphasis of the 'on' and 'off' intervals and the number of reps. It could equally be described as "timed fartlek"…as opposed to a "free form fartlek" where you use things like trees, posts, and other landmarks as the delimeters, but the effect is similar. I'll explain this further with some examples, using running as the sport.
The pre-requisite for this session is having sufficient fitness to be able to consider doing a session beyond just easy running, something that will take a new runner some time to build up to. Once you have, the sky is the limit in using this session.
The first example in using this session is for a runner who is new to any form of interval type training, and are more familiar with just easy paced running. For this runner using their watch to time out 1 min at a "faster" pace, then 1 min at a "slower" pace introduces them to simply running at different speeds. They could do it for a certain number of reps, around a particular course to set a duration for the session, much like a race is a defined length.
The key detail is the "faster" and "slower" pace, which is expressed that way to help the runner develop a feel for their own ability, and pacing during a session. For new runners it is part of experience to know what it feels like to run faster, and to align that with their ability to maintain a pace for duration…this session introduces them to that which is why it is important not to set any specific pace target and let them work it out themselves.
This approach can also be used for a runner returning from a break to get back into interval training in a gradual way rather than aiming for specific targets before their fitness is at that level.
Moving on to a more experienced runner, the session can be used for speed development with high emphasis on the 'on' interval and using the 'off' interval for very easy recovery. In this way, there is a large discrepancy between the 'on' and 'off', and keeping it time limited means you also control how much recovery the runner gets rather than leaving it open-ended, eg, 200m recovery, by contrast, can take minutes if they slowly walk it.
A further variation is to make it a threshold/tempo session where there is only small variation between the 'on' and 'off', so that the emphasis is on the overall duration of session rather than the individual reps. For example, 10 x 1 min on / 1 min off, becomes a 20 min tempo session featuring surges for each 'on' minute, but still maintaining a high pace during the 'off' minute. In that case, they key is not slowing down too much in the 'off' interval…if you execute it will you will find the total distance covered in the 20min will only be slightly less than if you did a 20 min effort.
A beauty of using the session in a tempo style is that the runner can choose the effort / pace depending on how they feel that day, and it's a good way to break up a 20 min effort if you're a little unsure of your capability to do 20 min straight…the 'on' and 'off' allow you to build the effort to achieve a productive session rather than potentially abandoning it if you feel ordinary from the start.
A final example for this session is during a taper, where you can use it to keep some intensity in training without the session being too stressful in the lead-up to an event. In this scenario, the 'on' could be at goal pace, and the 'off' at an easier pace, which helps the runner be in tune with how they want to run in the upcoming race. The duration could be something like 10-20 min total (ie, 5-10 reps), just enough for them to feel a little effort but short enough not to fatigue them.
So the key points of the session are the use of individual feel for the 'on' and 'off' intervals, and how the variance in pace between those intervals can change the nature of session. While I've based this on a 1 min base, you can use all kinds of variations to the length of the 'on' and 'off' intervals - a favourite is 2 min 'on', 1 min 'off', which has been a favourite amongst Kenyans for many years.
This is just one session that I use, where the key point is how you can use and control the 'on' and 'off' intervals to vary the nature of the session depending on the season, athlete ability, how they are feeling on a particular day and more. Being flexible is crucial to getting the most from any session, and choosing a session which allows this - while still being aligned to the training objective - helps piece together a great training program.
Terenzo Bozzone graced the Australian shores for a rare race appearance at the Shepparton IM 70.3 race, and showed the class act he is in swim, bike and run with a convincing victory over a quality field of Australian contenders. Bozzone has real pedigree, evidenced by multiple IM 70.3 victories in USA and around the world, including a World Championship title a few years back. His progress came to a halt 12 months ago, however, undergoing Achilles surgery...and having had 3 Achilles operations myself can say that his comeback has been fantastic, seemingly reaching top form late in the US season.
If he does have an “Achilles heel”, so to speak, it is in IM races where he hasn’t quite put together a race that reflects his capabilities over IM 70.3 distance. Often it has been in the run leg where the IM race has got away from him, a leg where he is arguably at his best over the half distance. There could be all range of reasons for this fade, but regardless, I took some good footage of him running at Shepparton which provides great material for analysis of his running form...and believe me, he was going very fast in the first 2 (of 3) run laps, eventually running 1:12 on an accurate course.
This video was taken at the start of the 3rd lap, so at the 14km+ mark, with a clear and safe lead. The following are some comments / observations of what I see, using my experience in running form analysis:
He is very smooth, with little vertical movement.
His arm swing is compact and relaxed.
His core stability is strong, with little non-linear movement or body rotation.
Further to that point, his hip stability is also very good, with minimal hip drop upon landing. However, he does twist his hips a little.
He torso is nicely vertical...although I’ll touch on this again in a moment.
He is mid/flat-foot runner, and to see him in real-time speed, is quite light on his feet.
So those are all the good things about his form. Now to be really harsh and picky, there’s a couple things I’d point out that might be coming back to bite him in an IM run leg:
His foot landing is a little in front of him, meaning he is “behind” his stride rather than on top of it...this would really noticeable if you put him alongside the likes of Cam Brown, Crowie, etc. Refer to my article post IM Melbourne analysing the run form of the top-10 men.
In conjunction with this, his hips are slightly back and “in a bucket” to a minor extent. The effect of these two things is that when he fatigues this will be exaggerated and he’ll sit back even more rather than being forwards and on top of his stride, which is momentum that is critical to maintaining form and speed in the depths of fatigue such as in an IM.
Also, his slight hip twist would become more pronounced.
What I’m talking about is very subtle, but at that level it’s things like this that make the difference, even to a Formula 1 engine like Bozzone.
So what would I do if I was his coach...work on getting his weight over his stride via combination of drills, run form practice and incorporating it into his default form. The effect would be to introduce an ever so slight forwards lean, from the ankles (rather than from hips) and he would roll along, over the ground using momentum to his benefit.
Terenzo Bozzone is a world class athlete, proven by results over recent years, in particular IM 70.3 format, and he obviously has the calibre to compete over IM...but has not quite cracked it so far. Perhaps a little tweak to his running form might help in that quest, to see him compete with the best guys over IM. These were just my thoughts on that aspect...I wish him all the best.
Another little piece for www.newbreedrunning.com.au
It was one of those days, you know, when you wake up and are not sure which side of the bed to get out on…the good side or the 'other' side...which reflects the uncertainty about how the day might unfold. Nonetheless, you get up and lace up your shoes in preparation for the run session you've got planned. Part of your mind is suggesting to can it and either not start or just take it easy, competing with the other part that says just get out and get started. So you do.
As you expect, the first km feels awful…tired, dead and heavy. Urgh!!! But you haven't gone far enough for it to 'count' as a session, so you keep going. As you do something happens. Whether it was stopping at the traffic lights to cross, or passing over some imaginary line, or even that you've just woken up, you're not sure what it is. But things start feeling better.
Your stiff joints loosen up. Your breathing levels out. Your stride finds a groove. Your rhythm becomes smoother. Things just seem to click into gear and your body warms up. Your running actually starts feeling good, much to your surprise, and you start thinking about doing a proper session of fartlek, or tempo, or intervals…there's a range of options.
As you run on you find yourself losing track of how long you've run for, or how fast you're going, until you realise how hard you are breathing - this is equating to a good, hard session, and it feels effortless. Why don't race days feel like this? You go on further, relishing your fitness and endurance to be able to do so, taking all the little side tracks you usually only selectively go down. It's surreal to be feeling so good.
Eventually you look at your watch with surprise to see how long and how swiftly you've run, not to mention how much you're sweating. You could continue on forever, but decide to head home, still skipping over the ground albeit with some fatigue creeping into your legs…the adrenalin is keeping you going.
Arriving back at your front gate and you come to stop, euphoric about how good the run was and how surprising it was considering the way it started. These are the times you love being a runner. It was just one of those days.
