Triathlete's World Fab Four: Thames Gargler

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Comments

  • Ballooning the wetsuit sounds like a euphemism image

  • Re your pace drop on the run off the bike compared to a solo run, it's very individual.

    Personally, at 42 yrs, it takes me a while to warm up on an individual run so the bike ride does that job for me. It also gets my legs going round faster than they would normally go.

    A lot of tri tipsters seem to recommend keeping the bike cadence high and, when getting to the last couple of mins of the cycle, drop the power you are pushing and increase cadence. This loosens the legs up (takes the pressure off my back too).

    When you first start running you feel like you are wading through treacle. Ignore that and relax, your legs are going round quicker than you think, just slow relative to the bike. Settle into the run and don't force it and gradually it will all come together.

    I'm very amatuer at these events but something that works for me is to start the run keeping my legs mimicking the circular motion of the pedalling, making a concious effort to pick my feet off the ground rather than push. Got that idea from Chi Running book. Works a treat.

    Good luck.

  • Thanks to everyone for the comments following my previous updates. A few reflections on training these past 2 weeks:

     1. Swimming: a couple of 1800m (20 length) sessions in Tooting Lido has provided a useful opportunity to follow up on some of the issues arising from previous OW swims. The tips, above, about allowing water to flood into the wetsuit from the neck worked a treat in 3 ways:

    (i) reducing body temperature;

    (ii) reducing the 'vacuum packed' sensation in the nether regions; and

    (iii) making is a bit easier to quickly remove the wetsuit after the swim.

    The actual swimming has gone OK as well; almost identical times for the 1800m, suggesting a 1500m time of about 30 mins. The Lido, because of its sheer size and the absence of lane markers, provides quite a useful reminder of the importance of sighting, as I'm sure actual distance swum far exceeds those round numbers. I've got a new watch, basically Ti8mex's response to Garmin, but with proper waterproofing and a swim function, so I'm keen to find out what my actual time for a true 1500m is.

    2. Race Preparation: Statement of the bleedin' obvious time: a sure fire way of undermining the benefits of months of training is to not look after yourself in the last few days ahead of a race. Case in point: really pushing it in track sprint pyramid training last Tuesday (200m/400m/800m/1200m and then back down) seemed a great idea at the time, and doing 75 second laps at the end of a 1200m and pushing a sub-30 second 200m suggested that I was running pretty well. But that takes a pretty heavy toll on the glutes and hamstrings, which were starting to recover by Friday, at which point my club cricket tour began. Cricket might seem pretty sedate and less demanding of a decent level of fitness than triathlon, but it features an awful lot of standing very still then sprinting at full pelt, doing a 180m turn, then standing still again. By the time a closed-M11 induced 3-hour journey home had ended, numb bum had well and truly set in. But instead of combining hot baths with gentle recovery runs on Sunday morning, I had a 10k race to participate in. Cue a personal worst of gargantuan proportions. Lesson learnt: taper. Nothing silly now until the 31st. The advice from our tri coach is: ease off the running from about 10 days out, then stop the cycling, and finally give the swimming a break. In that order as the key to tapering is avoiding impact (i.e. the very thing I encountered with last week's sprints). As such I will be marshalling next Tuesday's club 3-mile handicap, and this weekend doing a few laps of Richmond Park and an OW swim, but nothing likely to put too much fatigue into the muscles.

  • Nice work! I need to start that taper stuff...

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