THE ULTIMATE 30 TRAINING TIPS

To celebrate 30 years of 220, we’ve asked the top triathletes in each discipline from the past 30 years to provide their ultimate swim, bike and run tips for tri. Get ready for the ultimate training masterclass…

2019-08-08 -

The top swimmers, bikers and runners in tri share their ultimate training and racing tips

01 Strategise the start

Everyone uses a different strategy for the start but I usually pick the start point that’s the shortest distance to the first buoy. Also, I look where the swell and current are going because it can influence my position start. If you’re a GB age-grouper, you don’t want to start next to too many good swimmers! You don’t want a mid-water fight to slow you down. If you’re not as strong a swimmer, start next to the athletes who are slightly faster than you so you can use their feet to drag you to the front. Richard Varga, multiple aquathlon world champ

02 Speed up the start

Swim speed for me is individual to the demands of a particular race. The only time you really need speed in the water is off the start, so look at the starting arrangement. Is it a deep-water start, pontoon dive or shoreline sprint into the water? Let this factor guide how you want to train for speed off the start line. Josh Amberger, fastest swimmer in Kona 2018

03 Master the buoy turn

If you can swim around a buoy correctly, you can easily save up to 5m per buoy, so that’s some valuable seconds. If you’re in a mass of people when approaching a buoy, it’s always good to take a few breaths so you’re prepared in the event of getting dunked, pulled back or someone swims over you. If you start panicking or find yourself in a compromising position, pull off to the side, out of the carnage, and carry on in clear water. Approach the buoy straight on and take shorter strokes around it to manoeuvre a lot quicker. As soon as you come around the buoy, look up to see where the next marker is so that you can position yourself in the right direction. Henri Schoeman, 2018 Commonwealth champ and Rio Olympics bronze medallist

THE SWIM

04 Pick your position

I always aim for the outside edge of the groups, either on the beach start or the water starts. Then once the lead group is established I’ll decide whether to join for the draft or stick to my own line away from the melée. Lucy Charles-Barclay, 2 x Kona runner-up

Nail the catch Try and slice your hand into the water near the top of your head (fingers relaxed and elbow slightly bent). The next step is the glide. As the hand enters the water refrain from wanting to pull down straight away. The glide is, I think, one of the most important phases as it’s the ‘set-up’ before being able to move yourself forward. When driving the arm down past your body try not to cross your centre line (belly button). So in short, relax, really use the glide phase for a good set-up for the catch and engage your lats when propelling yourself forward. Lucy Hall, 2012 Olympian and top ITU swimmer

Pace the start So many triathletes struggle with both pacing and breathing at the start of an event, but both are linked – keep your focus on your exhalation and sound out ‘breathe-bubble-bubblebreathe’ and you’ll be both less anxious and also less likely to go off too quick! Paul Newsome, Swim Smooth founder and head coach

Focus on posture Because you can only think of so much when you swim, focus on good posture, keeping your spine as long as possible. It will lift your hips up in the water – making your life easier and faster – and make your stroke better and stronger without trying to improve anything else specifically. John Wood, swim coach

Maintain quality As you inevitably increase the volume of training to target a long-distance race, it’s equally as important to maintain the quality key workouts that target speed endurance. Threshold sets are equally, if not more, important in long distance as long rides and runs, and incorporated as part of a balanced programme only add to your fitness profile. A good coach is valuable in creating the right individual mix for an athlete. Jodie Cunnama, Olympian and 2010 70.3 world champ

Know your race pace In the tri swim, you have no biometric feedback like power, heart rate or average speed, so it’s essential to know what your correct race pace for that distance feels like. Use disciplined, specific race-paced intervals with short rests to ‘groove’ this feel. Start a race too fast at your peril! Richard Smith, 220’s swim coach

10 Stay flexible

The thing that people don’t do often enough is flexibility work outside of the pool. Activities such as yoga can help open up your shoulders and increase your reach. Jess Learmonth, 2018 Commonwealth silver medallist

Fuel smart for the 180km In an Ironman, fight the urge to fuel (especially gels or solids) straight after the swim. Let yourself settle on the bike for 5-10mins and use climbs and flatter sections to fuel, rather than when you’re going downhill or cornering. Have a bottle between your bars for water or sports drink, and practise filling this up beforehand (it doesn’t need to be 100% full, as this changes the bike handling considerably).

Use training to practise the art of grabbing drinks bottles from aid stations, and retrieving gels, etc. from boxes on your top tube. Try to consume roughly 1g of carbs per kilo of body weight per hour. This can be a mix of liquids, gels and solids. Consume any solids in the first part of the bike rider rather than towards the end (otherwise you’ll still be trying to digest it when running). Chrissie Wellington, 4 x Ironman world champion

PEDAL SMOOTH UPHILL Ride in the hills! Try and find a hill that’s a consistent steep gradient for about 4mins. Ride up the hill with a cadence of about 70rpm. Stay in the saddle and keep your arms relaxed. Don’t pull on the handlebars. Imagine your legs are the pistons on an engine. You want to pedal in smooth circles. Jonny Brownlee, 2 x Olympic medallist

Hold the aero position

Good aero position means nothing if you can’t hold it for the entire race. Practise it in training on your TT bike or road bike down on the drops. Andrew Starykowicz, iron-distance bike split record holder – 4:01:14

Use hills for big strength gains

Hill work on the bike is a crucial part of training as it helps develop strength and endurance to be in peak fitness for races. The best time to do high-intensity hill training or regular mountainous rides is during the off-season when there’s a break from racing so you can take more time to recover. When doing hill work it’s always great to work both upwards and downwards, so take the opportunity to practise your bike-handling skills on the way down but make sure but don’t push too hard. Stuart Hayes, 2012 Olympian

Train for the demands of your event Sessions should include variety and consistency – the biggest areas you’ll find gains in. Train your weakness and build your strength, and stay mentally strong throughout. Another key tip is to improve your aerodynamics, so getting a quality bike fit will improve both efficiency and aerodynamics, to equal more speed! Matthew Bottrill, 220’s bike coach

16 Train on the road Turbos are great but there’s more to a fast bike split than a big engine. Cornering well, descending well and not crashing all save significant time and energy. If you’re not 100% comfortable training in race position, why would you race in it? Nik Cook, cycling writer and GB duathlete 17

Concentrate on effort not speed

Using speed for training, in general, can be a little misleading. I don’t believe it’s always a fair representation of your fitness levels or form. External factors (weather, course difficulty) can throw you for a loop and affect confidence and morale. My word of advice would be to concentrate more on your output of effort rather than trying to hit specific speeds. Spencer Smith, 3 x world champion and triathlon coach 18 Break the bike down Stay in the moment and don’t think too much ahead. I always try to break down the race into little fractions. Then I motivate myself from aid station to aid station and just set little goals. When I’m on the bike, I never think about the run. Daniela Ryf, 4 x Ironman world champion and 70.3 world champion 19 change your tyres Always look at what you can change and where you get the most savings for your pounds. On one hand, you have to work on your power output, while on the other you have to keep the energy losses as small as possible. One of the best changes you can make is to tyres. It’s pretty easy to do and doesn’t cost a lot of money. Also think about kit – a fast suit can make a huge difference. Sebastian Kienle, 2014 World Ironman Champion & 2 x 70.3 world champion

Hit the turbo 45-60mins is enough to do some work on cadence with fast legs, and some overgearing efforts. Do some 3,2,1s, which basically means getting quicker as you descend down, as well as getting out of the saddle. I’ve started doing sessions when you sprint for 30secs before doing a 10min tempo effort straight after, which is hard because it fills your body with lactate and then you have to continue to work hard for 10mins. But it simulates a race effort, as you’re able to switch it up and get an advantage straight out of T1. Georgia Taylor-Brown, third-place overall in 2018 ITU World Tri Series

Caffeinate your Ironman marathon

The aim should be to consume between 200-300 calories per hour depending on what your stomach can handle. Use nutrition you’ve trained with, even if that means having gels in your T2 bag to start the marathon. Try testing using caffeine, especially towards the end of the race where it can provide great performance benefits. David McNamee, 2 x Kona third-place finisher

Run one lap barefoot

The best tip I learned as a triathlete trying to become a better runner was one simple drill that changed my form and efficiency completely. I’d go to a track, take off my shoes and socks and run one lap barefoot. You land perfectly softly. Then you’re off your foot instantly. I’d put the shoes and socks back on and try to run with that same feel. It sounds simple but it was profound! Mark Allen, 6 x Ironman world champion

Stay mentally strong

The only way to get through a marathon run in an Ironman is to break it down into small manageable chunks in your head and eat/drink little and often. Alistair Brownlee, 2 x Olympic gold medallist

Build your base This is so important, so that your muscles, ligaments and tendons are strong enough to support you while you run. Build up your mileage slowly so you have plenty time to adapt and you don’t injure yourself! Scott Findlay, 220’s run coach

Work your hip flexors

Hours on the bike shorten these muscles and can create imbalances. Tight hip flexors can be the true cause of lower back pain or chronic calf problems; gaining just a slight improvement in flexibility of the hip flexors can help you avoid injury and the ‘Ironman shuffle’. A millimetre of improved mobility will lengthen your stride and improve your speed. There are many stretches for the hip flexors (I like the kneeling stretch and the wall stretch) – work on them daily. Dave Scott, 6 x Ironman world champion

Do fartleks I’m a big believer in fartlek running for 70.3 racing and above, but I still like to keep the recovery fairly strong so there’s a strength element to it. So a simple session I like to do is 4mins, 3mins, 2mins, 1min intervals twice through, with recovery runs of half the interval duration between them (2mins, 1:30mins, 1min, 30secs). Will Clarke, U23 world and european champion, Beijing Olympian and 2 x British champion

widen stride rate I know a lot of coaches who use treadmills to develop cadence and cadence bandwidth. Why? As an analogy, it’s like moving pieces of firewood. If you’ve 1,000 pieces of firewood to move, you could do 10 reps of 100 but you might be smashed after the third 100. Or you might do 100 reps of 10 and find it easier. In tri it’s the same. If you have a good cadence range, it’ll come in handy when you’re fatigued. Jamie Turner, Coach to Rio Olympics gold medallist, Gwen Jorgensen

Measure resting HR Tech can be really helpful in monitoring recovery, and one simple way is through measuring resting heart rate. I track it over a long period of time for the best indicator of whether I’m a little rundown or if there’s an underlying illness brewing. I work on 10% higher than normal being a warning so, because my resting heart rate is low (usually 36-37bpm), that means a variation of only 3-4 beats. If it starts heading up towards 50 then that’s definitely not okay and means bad times for me. Vicky Holland, Rio Olympics bronze medallist and 2018 world ITU champion

29 Work on core strength

Whatever your level of ability and aspirations, working on core strength/ stability and functional strengthening is a great time investment. Running involves a repetitive motion, so moving properly has two key benefits: Injury prevention – Allows consistency in training, the key to progression and improvement. Efficiency – A performance benefit, holding form as you fatigue will allow you to hold your goal pace for longer. Craig Alexander, 3 x Ironman world champion and 2 x 70.3 world champion

Pace smart for the IM marathon

Pacing a marathon in Ironman is key. Start at goal pace or just below for the first 5-10km and really work on nutrition and hydration, then build into the middle 20km and really use average pace to help guide you (hopefully you have a pre-race pace schedule for the marathon).

Consistency is paramount, but take the aid stations slowly and stay fuelled, the last 12km is in the head – if the strategy has gone to plan about keeping focused and ticking of each km at the set pace, this is when all those pacing sessions in training come into play, so you can really use them to gain confidence as everyone is slowing down and hurting. It’s who slows down the least and willing to hurt the most. Train hard, race easy! Tim Don, 3 x Olympian, 4 x ITU world champion and Ironman winner