ASK 220
CRAMPING IN THE SWIM
Q I regularly get calf cramping towards the end of an open-water swim, but never in the pool. Is there anything I can do to alleviate this? I’ve tried salt sticks and electrolyte drinks. a Cramp is one of those issues that still has sports scientists scratching their heads. One long-standing theory cites electrolyte loss/imbalance as the most likely culprit, but another more modern theory is that neuromuscular fatigue could play a central role when muscles involuntarily contract. The latter seems more likely in the swim phase of a triathlon where electrolyte imbalance shouldn’t be occurring, and could be down to you working your muscles very hard for an extended period of time.
If neuromuscular fatigue is the main issue then training more specifically (i.e. with longer and harder efforts at race pace, under race-type conditions) should help as it will condition the muscles to cope. It may also be worth getting some proper sports massage on the affected muscles and topping that up with foam rolling and regular stretching to keep the muscles as supple and relaxed as possible.
Learning to relax your feet and to kick less vigorously when swimming hard could also be useful as there’s a good chance that the calf cramping is related to pointing your toes, which happens more and more the harder you kick.
Andy Blow
RUN CADENCE Q How I can I improve my run cadence even when I’m tired? Charles Alton a Well the good news is that it’s not going to be radically different to the
spinning you do coming into the bike-run transition. With my athletes, we concentrate on sessions where the final 30m of a run is much faster – so we might run 9 x 100m with a walk recovery. In each 100, build up from a relaxed speed to pretty quick in the final 30m. We run it as a workout after three or four miles and cool down three or four more after the 100s, but it could be a standalone workout.
Another good drill involves 10-15m ‘sewing machine’ steps – super quick, pitter patter short strides, as it sounds. Do that once a week, three or four times before a workout.
As with all training, this is going to take six or eight weeks to really pay dividends but it will, plus it’s going to make you much more effective at the end of long races. As endurance athletes we often ignore pace work like this, but trust me, it really does pay off big in longer events. Paul Larkins TURBO VS ROLLERS Q What’s the difference between turbo and rollers? And what are the training benefits of each? Chris Eaves a With a turbo your bike is bolted to it and held solidly in place. On rollers, your bike isn’t attached and is completely free to move as it would on the road.
Turbos allow you to create highresistance loads and, although some rollers do have a degree variable resistance, it’s not as wide ranging. They’re also great for focussed high-wattage work, high gear/ low cadence and any workout where you just want to concentrate on maintaining a specific intensity.
Rollers are brilliant for working on your balance and bike-handling skills, developing a smooth pedal stroke, leg speed and ‘rev-out’ style sessions, warm-ups/cool-downs and easy spinning.
In an ideal world, you’d have access to both as, addressing different areas of your cycling fitness and skillset, one’s not a substitute for the other. The perfect indoor workout would consist of a warm-up on rollers, main set on the turbo and then back on the rollers to cool down.
Assuming you’re getting out on the road for your long ride, from a triathlon fitness perspective, a turbo is probably your best bet. Just don’t spend all winter bolted to it though, or your bike handling will severely suffer – as will your sanity and potentially all relationships with other human beings. Nik Cook BODY ROTATION Q How much should your body rotate when doing front crawl? Lucy Peters a Body roll is useful for many reasons, but the most important is probably to make life easier to breath – if you move your hips and shoulders round then head movement is reduced to a minimum. It also allows for a longer reach in your stroke (forward and back) and using the larger muscles of the back (as opposed to just using your shoulders).
I tend to encourage people to try and move from the hips, keeping a straight line from the hips to shoulders and then to the hands at full extension, as this allows your core to do more of the work than relying on the shoulders, which are much smaller.
Depending on your relative comfort in the water, and your strength and stability, you probably should be aiming for between 30 and 60° of rotation to each side. Everyone’s different though, so it’s something you can experiment with to find what works best for you. Most drills (side kick, 6-1-6, etc) work on the basis of exaggerating the movement that you’re aiming for (in getting to 90° to flat), so that when you come to swim half that distance it feels easy.
My normal coaching cue would be to think about rocking your stroke from the hips, and shifting your hips down or up as the corresponding hand enters the water. This might also help smooth out your rhythm as you work on it. John Wood