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Recently I was up
in China, I was invited to coach the Chinese National Coaches
via an IOC Olympic Solidarity Grant.
One of the things
that was obvious was a real lack of understanding of progressions
that will help athletes get faster - you've got to walk
before you run. They certainly were not afraid to train
hard and the do some huge training sessions, as much as
the top triathletes in other parts of the world. But they
were, on the whole, very inefficient. They don't focus enough
on technique and efficiency - they are leaving this one
largely to chance that it will improve itself. Thus they
are yet to really make a mark on the international triathlon
scene.
I was then able to
attend the New Zealand Schools Triathlon in April, what
was clearly obvious there was a real lack of technique,
especially running. Apart from a few boys in the Seniors
and a couple of the fastest girls, there was a lot of inefficient
running technique being displayed - of course it's easier
to see when athletes run after swimming and cycling because
they are tired. What I saw was a whole group of fit, talented
athletes with poor technique. To me it was as plain as day
what they need to do, which is GET EFFICIENT.
Let's look at the
key progression of efficiency. Now if I was a beginner at
any sport I'd be thinking that the best thing to do is master
technique and GET EFFICIENT. Why? Because Fitness times
Poor Efficiency is still SLOW and it's also tiring and takes
a lot of effort. Working on technique on the other hand
is easy (it's a freebie for improvement in my mind) and
when it's combined with follow up harder or longer training,
it nets great rewards.
Now there is no reason
that a beginner can't work on technique while slowly increasing
the amount of training that they do - by doing that they
are increasing the VALUE of the time spent in relation to
their goal. Actually there is no reason to stop ANY level
of athlete doing this. Yet it's often the more experienced
athletes that do this. I guess it's easier to see the value
once you've done it the hard way!
SET
AN EFFICIENCY GOAL IN EACH SPORT
I think it's especially
important to have a goal that helps you focus on your technique
when there is less pressure to go hard - winter, early on
in a training block, during taper for a peak event. These
goals should be measurable and specific to each sport. Here
are some ideas for goals and what to do about them:
Stroke
count swimming
Count your strokes
while swimming a length at a set speed (does not need to
be fast). For Ironman athletes this could be 100 or 200m
at the pace that they would like to swim next years Ironman
at. So for a 57min swimmer that's 90sec per 100m. Now if
you normally take 25 strokes per length (@ 90sec) the idea
would be to aim to do it with 23 strokes per length - remember
a 1 stroke change represents a 4% change so 2 strokes is
HUGE. To check that you are getting more out of this you
can do a set and check HR at the end of the last couple.
Ie 8x100m at Ironman Event Pace, 30sec Rest. Check HR and
Stroke Count, both should come down at a given 100m time.
Look to get some feedback
from your swim coach about what you should focus on to get
more distance per stroke (DPS) and work on those things
during such a set.
We have a heap of
useful free drills on our website HERE
Efficiency
on the bike
The best way to do
this is to get on a wind trainer that can give you feedback
on your pedaling or to use a power meter. Power Meters are
expensive and are not practical for most people in this
sport (spend your money on other stuff) but if you can get
on a computrainer and check out the spin scan, what you
can do is look at how much power each leg is producing and
then you can work on your weak leg.
We also have a basic
set of cycling drills free on our website here: http://www.endurancecoach.com
You can then do a
mix of one leg drills and working on them together.
For those of you who
don't have access to a computrainer or similar, you can
always use the following three tests: The sound test, the
mirror test and the one leg test.
- Sound Test: While
pedaling, try and make the humming sound of the trainer
as even as possible. The more even the sound the more
even the pedaling.
- Mirror Test: Check
yourself out in a mirror - front on to see side to side
movement.
- One Leg Test:
Put it in a small gear and pedal for 1min on each leg,
note which leg feels weaker, that's the one you need to
work on.
It's also worth checking
cadence - if you typically ride below 90 RPM then an easy
way to improve your efficiency will be to lift your cadence
(smaller force every pedal stroke).
Again if you can time
trial (TT) on a flat course at a set speed, as you get more
efficient you should see your HR drop. Basic wind-trainers
don't cut it for checking changes in efficiency as they
vary a lot depending on the air temperature and pressure.
So a TT on a windless day on a flat stretch of road at a
set easy speed is one way around this (you can use a concrete
velodrome if you have one near you).
Running
Efficiency
It's much harder to
look at efficiency running. HR vs Speed on the T-Mill is
one way of setting a benchmark - at the same time (if you
can do it with a mirror) check how much your body moves
up and down and look for stiffness and excessive or unnecessary
movement in your upper body. You can also count your running
cadence, as with the cycling you don't want to be in the
low 80s. A low cadence is usually associated with over striding
so check that also.
You can then start
a series of drills (maybe 2x per week). These don't need
to be hard and can be incorporated into what was otherwise
nothing more than a jog. Again adding value to the time
spent without making the training harder. Just be careful
that you add drills slowly and progressively with running
- it's easy to overdo it and get injured.
You can test power
balance by doing a series of one leg hops on each leg. I
suggest that you time yourself over a 50m one leg hop and
count the number of hops on each leg, if the legs are different
by more than 10%, do something about it. Be careful doing
this if you have shin issues.
Now all of this requires
some awareness of what your body is doing and you can certainly
help yourself get better feedback by making an effort to
focus on where your body parts are in relation to each other
(sounds obvious, but how many people just go out the door
for a run and have no idea how they are actually moving).
Free article on run
drills is HERE
I also recommend the
following website and DVD: http://www.stridingon.com/
THE
FOLLOW UP STEPS (MOST IMPORTANT)
Working on technique
while training easy is only the first step in the progression
to improving efficiency during competition - once mastered
you then have to master technique with the pressure of your
event speed. Now if your event is Ironman that's at a relatively
easy pace anyway and you've probably done it, you just need
to master the ability to hold your new better technique
over the full distance. Just remember if you fail to do
the follow up steps you may not actually have all the benefits
of your technique training when competing.
So the progression
is:
Good Technique, Easy Pace, Short Distance =>
Good Technique, Easy Pace, Longer Distance =>
Good Technique, Easy Pace, Longer Distance, Competition
Environment =>
Competition (with good technique)
If you are aiming
for a shorter event like a sprint triathlon, then you need
to do some shorter intervals at race speed focusing on being
efficient. I like to tell athletes to be 'smooth and efficient'
when doing this type of work. Of course the final step in
the progression is to compete and hold the new efficient
technique during competition, which is at competition pace
in the competition environment (other competitors and maybe
harder / different conditions). Which is why you want to
do events leading into your goal event and is also why experience
in competition helps.
So the progression
for shorter events is:
Good Technique, Easy Pace, Short Distance =>
Good Technique, Competition Pace, Short Distance (reps)
=>
Good Technique, Competition Pace, Longer Distance (long
reps or Time Trial) =>
Good Technique, Competition Pace, Competition Distance (near),
Competition Environment =>
Competition (with good technique)
There are also a few
other progressions that I use, one is:
Good Technique=>
Uphill/Power (reps) =>
Race Pace (flat) =>
Competition
Note that the constant
in all these steps is GOOD TECHNIQUE.
I like to COMBINE
these in a single session, here's an example of how that
looks in practice from an Elite Athletes Plan (early season):
10min Drills
4x1min Moderate Uphill
2x1min Hard Uphill
2x1min Very Hard Uphill
(focus: good strong leg drive)
4x400m at best 5k Pace on 2min
(focus: smooth and efficient)
Right then, get smart
and go and get efficient!
Smart, Simple... Realistic!
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