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Now here’s something I thought a lot about before I started coaching: Is it better to do my run training on or off-road? I’ve also had a lot of discussions about this.

And I think that the consensus is that running off-road is overall a better approach for a number of very good reasons:

• The impact forces absorbed by your legs are lessened when you run off-road. Although this is true, running on hard-pack dirt doesn’t actually lessen them that much. But if you’re running a lot - and considering that every foot-strike transmits a force equal to 2 or 3 times your body weight to your joints and lower back - every bit helps.

• Running on an uneven surface means that no two foot-strikes are the same. This means that you use different muscle fibres and fire your proprioceptors differently in every step. The result is a reduction in overuse injuries, which are usually the result of repetitive use of the same few muscle fibres over and over again (could also be called “repetitive strain injury”). These fibres then get tired, can no longer perform their function properly… and you get injured. Running off-road reduces this risk significantly.

• Off-road run routes usually take you away from urban sprawl and into the countryside. The result? Well, it’s simple really; it’s good for the soul. You get to run where you can hear the birds sing, smell the smells of the countryside and listen to something other than the drone of traffic.

Of course, you need to be careful not to step in any potholes, trip over anything or breathe in any of the midges or other insects that buzz around in our countryside. And running off-road in the winter means accepting that you might get a bit (or a lot) muddy. But if those are the only downsides, I’ll keep running off-road for most of my training.

Now that the wet and cold of winter is upon us, you may be considering adding a little group riding with your local cycle club to your routine. Or perhaps you’ll still ride on your own throughout the winter. Either way, it makes sense to make a few modifications to your bike if at all possible - and anything’s possible if you want to …

Here are my top 5 modifications to make your winter riding more pleasant:

1. Put mudguards on your bike. Yes, you heard me correctly, mudguards. If you’re going to ride in a group, this is simpy good manners. Nobody likes a face full of mud and … (I live in the country near lots of farms, you figure it out!). Ideally, add a flap to the end of the rear mudguard so that it nearly touches the road, this minimises the spray you’ll kick up. Most racing bikes have too little clearance for full mudguards, but you can either buy some very nifty clip-on ones or you can customise a pair of full ‘guards as I did. Your mates will appreciate it, trust me. Oh, and if you’re only going to ride on your own, at the very least you’ll have a dry backside.
2. Get some lights. And I do mean good lights. You need at least one red rear LED light just to be legal in most places, I’d have two - one constant beam, one flashing. I’d leave these on the bike for the whole winter, ‘cos I’ve lost count of the times I’ve ridden in poor light, mist and rain when lights just made sense. On the front, you need something that throws a good beam on the road. While strictly legal, flashing white LEDs are simply risking your safety - while you may be seen, they do nothing to help you see where you’re going. Get a good set of lights and you may even be able to get in good mileage at night this winter. A few years ago, I averaged an extra 200 miles per week by riding in the dark!
3. Change your tyres to a pair that are puncture-resistant. Wet weather plays havoc with tyres because little bits of grit and other muck gets stuck to the surface and then works its way into the tyre, leaving you standing by the side of the road trying to change a flat with numb hands in sub-zero conditions. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need lots of tread on a wet weather road bike tyre - tread on a car tyre is there to aid water dispersal and prevent aqua-planing. There isn’t enough surface area on a road bike tyre to cause you to aqua-plane, if you’ve fallen off in wet conditions, you probaby did something silly!
4. Buy a chain cleaner… and use it regularly. Nothing wears out componentry on your bicycle faster than grit on a chain. A number of companies make these things now and at a good price - certainly cheaper than buying new chains, cassettes and derailleurs all the time. And it’s a lot less messy than cleaning your chain manually all the time.
5. Finally, get yourself a can of water-dispersing lubricant (brands in the UK include GT85 & WD40). And again, use it regularly. Ideally, wash your bicycle down after every wet ride with warm soapy water, rinse it off and then spray anything that moves. You really will prolong the life of your bicycle. I know, you’ll be cold, wet and tired. And the last thing you want to do is to clean your bike, but think about all the salt, mud and … (farming area, remember!) and what it will do to your bike if you don’t. Oh, and remember to lubricate your chain with something else which is actually meant for the job.

With a bit of thought, you can make riding in a cold, wet winter a lot more pleaseant. In fact, there have been periods in my triathlon career when winter was my favourite time to ride. And if you get it right and ride consistently, next season you’ll be a whole lot faster.

This is the first in my Triathlon “Workout of the Week” series. I thought about having a swim, bike, run etc of the week, but you know what, you’d probably get bored and so would I. So, it’s one per week, perhaps an extra one here or there when I think of something cool!

Today is all about your swim efficiency and is a session that I love to do and hate to do, all wrapped into one. It’s something my coach used to use a lot and we got quite good at it. Essentially, it’s a test, but one which you can perform almost any time in order to work out how well recovered you are in the stage of training you’re in. It also gives you an indication of stuff to work on with your swimming.

Here we go…

7 x 200m Step Test

After a good warmup (and I mean 1000m or so of mixed drills & steady swimming),

Swim 7 x 200m on 6:00* (That’s starting every new set exactly 6 minutes after you started the last one) as…

1. at 60 beats below maximum heart rate (count your heart rate at the end of the 200m for 10s and multiply by 6 - eg. 21 x 6 = 126, which is 64 beats below my estimated 190bpm maximum)
2. at 50 beats below maximum heart rate
3. at 40 beats below maximum heart rate
4. at 30 beats below maximum heart rate
5. at 20 beats below maximum heart rate
6. at 10 beats below maximum heart rate
7. at maximum heart rate

On every set you need to be strict about maintaining your breathing pattern (mine is bilateral - breathe every 3), counting your strokes on every lap, taking an accurate time for each interval and recording all of these, your heart rate and how you felt when swimming after every interval.

After this set, swim a nice long cool down, get out of the pool and stretch off well.

Now have a look at the data you recorded:

• Were you disciplined enough to achieve the heart rate limits, especially early on in the set?
• What happened to your stroke count as you progressed through the set?
• What happened to your times? Were you as fast for each as you expected?
• Did you maintain your breathing pattern properly?
• How did your swimming feel in each?
• Most importantly, from the above, what could you improve on?

Keeping in mind that fast swimming is a blend of superb aerobic fitness, muscular strength endurance, hydrodynamics and efficiency, the answers to the questions above will set you on your path to faster swim splits next season… as long as you apply them!

I was doing a bit of reading today & I came across this article on Tri247.

Now that really is some very bling new kit for triathlon cycling. Guess what’s on my Christmas list?

Autumn is here, the leaves are falling from the trees, the nights are drawing in and it’s definitely getting colder. Although if you live in the UK, the weather has probably been better than we had all summer. However, the point is that your racing for the summer is probably over.

And as such, it’s time to take a well-earned end-of-season break. But what should that break actually look like?

When I first started racing in Britain, I took the same breaks that everyone else did - 4 to 6 weeks of doing virtually nothing, no triathlon training at all. And every summer I emerged in roughly the same shape as I had before.

I noticed that when I started training again, usually in early November, it was as if I had never done any triathlon training in my life - my heart rate was high, my perception of effort was up, I weighed in a good few pounds heavier than six weeks previous and it took me until December to start to feel like an athlete again.

I’ve since discovered that when you take more than 2 weeks off training (and even that’s too much if you do nothing at all), you lose many of your hard earned physiological gains. And they take a lot longer to regain than they do to lose!

So why should you take time off at all?

The reason for an end-of-season break is usually much more psychological than it is physical. Taking some time away from structured training allows you to “reset” your mindset from one of racing to a training one. Most athletes I work with need to send this message to their nervous system in a more effective way than simply deciding that “from today we’re in training mode.” Taking a break accomplishes this very nicely.

And what should that break look like?

The key to an effective end-of-season break is not to do nothing. What works best is to remove the structured element from your workouts. So I’d suggest leaving your heart rate monitor, power meter, accelerometer, gps device and every other performance measurement gizmo at home and simply do what you feel like doing. Run somewhere different, go mountainbiking if you usually train on the road, swim because you can or even better, do somethng that requires fitness, but that you wouldn’t ordinarily do - perhaps try a new sport?

By taking this approach, you can extend your break to 6 weeks if you wish without losing significant parts of your fitness and while still giving your brain that all-important holiday. After all, if you live in Northern Europe, you’re going to need your mental strength to get out the door through the long dark months of the winter…

What an awesome display of athletic courage & ability by both Craig Alexander & Chrissie Wellington at the Ironman World Triathlon Championship in Hawaii yesterday.

After giving Macca some worried moments last year, Craig has certainly learnt the lessons & is a worthy winner this year.

As for Chrissie, is there anyone in her league right now? I doubt it. And to top it all, she’s just an all round, down to earth, friendly person.

Instead of me re-writing the whole story, here’s one report, well written as always.

More comment to follow…

Someone once said, “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got!” Wise words indeed.

And yet that’s what I see athletes I speak to doing year after year with their triathlon training.They repeat the same workouts in the same way at the same time of year, take breaks in the same weeks they always have, enter the same races they always do, attend the same warm weather camps… and get the same results.

It’s not hard to understand why they do it though. It’s easier to do the things you know, there’s little or no risk involved and after all, if you know the results you’re going to get you’re not going to be embarrassed.

Unfortunately, you’re not going to get significantly faster either. To improve significantly, you’re going to have to change something.

In this upcoming series of posts, I’m going to cover some of the aspects of writing your triathlon training plan that could just revolutionise the way you train… and the results you get.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next in the series…

That’s right, within the next 6 weeks, I will be publishing The Triathlon Handbook right here on this very website. Unlike the plethora of books recently published on the subject, this one is different. For one thing, I’m not initially going to publish it in the traditional manner… I’ve decided that it will be an ebook first. Why?

Well, unlike a traditional book bought in the bookstore, The Triathlon Handbook will be updated regularly with all the newest and best information that becomes available as a result of all the research constantly being done by sports scientists all over the world. in order to get such up-to-date information, you’d have to go out & buy a new edition of the book every so often. And having watched friends of mine publish their books the traditional way, I also know just how long it takes for a publisher to get a new edition out there - often the information is out of date before it’s even published. Not so The Triathlon Handbook: As soon as I see something major, it’ll be in there.

And more than that, The Triathlon Handbook will come with loads of extras, which you’d never find in with a conventional book in a conventional store.

Keep an eye on this blog for the launch date & grab your copy at the special launch price as soon as it’s published. There’ll be more details about this and all facets of The Triathlon Handbook here as the launch date gets ever closer…