 We spend a lot of time worrying about run mileage, frequency, and intensity but your running form is equally important. A lot of us assume that the way we run is the way we run and that there is little we can do to improve our natural gaits. Wrong. Focusing on proprioceptive cues (being mindful of specific things that you are doing with your body) while you run can make a world of difference. Those that paid attention to Craig Alexander’srun form in this year’s Ironman World Championships were super impressed with how he “popped” forward off the ground with each stride – basically he minimized his time on the ground and maximized the effect of that time on the ground. In the book “Brain Training for Runners” Matt Fitzgerald gives great examples of run cues and drills to help us do just that. One is to imagine yourself running on water. To avoid breaking through the surface you have to be quick and light, yet forceful. By thinking about actively driving your feet to the ground instead of passively allowing them to drop while running, you can increase leg stiffness on impact and improve your ability to generate forward thrust quickly, with minimal ground contact time. Also, if, in the instant before your foot makes contact with the ground, you contract the muscles in the glutes on that side of your body and keep them engaged thru the ground contact phase of your stride, you will minimize wasteful side to side rotation, maintain greater stability in your hips and generate more forward thrust. Next time you are running pick a single cue “run on water” or “butt squeeze” and focus on it.
You may also want to take a quick look at our tip on mimicking the best.
Continue reading Run on water
 Have you ever watched a world class swimmer on video? It’s as if they have gumby feet, acting like flippers pushing them through the water. You may have heard, or believe, that your kick is not a huge part of your Ironman swim stroke. This is true relative to a flat-out pool race, but if you can give yourself a strong and efficient kick it will most definitely benefit your longer triathlon swims and leave you fresher coming out of the water. Obviously training your kick in the water is step #1, but working the foot and ankle flexibility while you’re at work or lying in bed will do wonders for the efficiency of each kick as you push down through the water.
Take a look at this video. Unfortunately it won’t allow us to embed it directly into this tip but it is certainly worth your time to grab a quick peak. At approximately 45 seconds in to the video, watch how his ankles wip around like fins on a flipper: Michael Phelps Swim Kick
Continue reading Stretch your feet for a better swim kick
 One of the best things you can do in the off season (if you haven’t been doing this all year) is to pay attention to your hip flexors and IT bands. Throughout the year we all tend to neglect the side to side motion as we busy ourselves running, riding, and flutter kicking our way through each training session. Doing so can easily bring on the dreaded IT band syndrom or unfortunate knee and back pain related to tight/weak lateral legs muscles and stuck muscle fibres and tendons. A secondary effect of week hip flexors is to have your run form fall apart in the later stages of your race. You may not notice during the race, but if you look at those race pictures from mile 10 and mile 20 where you seem to be about to fall sideways into a heap on the ground, you can bet your stabilizing muscles – hip flexors being one of them – are not helping you look good.
So, stretch em out and keep em strong. There are many different types of strengthening excercises: clamshells, lateral leg raises, side stepping on a crossed-over stretch cord…mix em up a bit to keep things interesting. And guys, suck it up and get on the hip machine or grab the bosu ball like all the ladies. Rolling out the IT band and hip flexors with a foam roller or firm ball is equally important. If you’d care to try the toilet plunger approach and leave a comment we’d love to hear about it. Apparently pulling the IT band outwards with the suction of a plunger is another great method to get things un-stuck. We have yet to try that one.
Continue reading Stretch and strengthen your lateral leg muscles
 This is the second computrainer workout we’ve posted, to find the other you can click on the computrainer tag above, or in the sidebar tags.
Depending on your desire to ride your bike inside, you can get this workout going when you’ve got that extra jolt of motivation. We like to think that an hour on the computrainer is equivalent to 1.5hrs outside – in some cases probably more, provided you keep it steady. So, if you can put together 2 hours, or even 3 hours on the trainer you’re getting yourself some good mileage. In the winter, for long course racing especially, low HR rules all so throw on that HR monitor again. Know your Aerobic limit.
Your goal behind this workout is to start slow and build through each hour. Breaking up a long trainer workout into 20 or 30 minute chunks helps with the monotony.
Continue reading Computrainer workout #2
Visualizing your upcoming race, or even individual training sessions is an extremely important part of improving your personal performance. A lot of people make this part of their race week routine, but if you can make it part of your daily routine you’ll reap the rewards.
We tend to [...]
A great way to build bike specific strength is to find yourself a nice, not so steep hill and ride up it in your big chain ring. When selecting the hill look for something that will allow you to ride up for a minimum of 5 minutes. Keep [...]
Keep this one handy ’cause it will save you a trip to the bike store before and after every race. Swapping your cog set from a training wheel to a racing wheel and back again is super easy and something you can do on your own. You’ll need 3 tools and 2.5 minutes. 5 minutes if you want to clean your cog set at the same time.
You can pick two of these tools up at most bike stores. The other is your standard Vice Grip or Monkey wrench.
 Tool #1. Chain Whip – Used to hold your cogset in place while you unscrew the lock ring.
 Tool#2. Lock ring remover (A.K.A. freewheel remover) No need to get fancy.
Continue reading Change your cog set
Getting adequate sleep is crucially important for your recovery and general quality of waking life. Some people would argue that a good coffee is also crucially important for the quality of waking life! A lot of us get trapped in a caffeine cycle where we have too much [...]
 Swimming with one arm is a common drill, but there are some modifications that you can make to spice up your life and work on your form more efficiently. The most common version of this drill is to have one arm out in front with the other doing the pulling for 25 or 50m. Often people tend to flatten out on top of the water when they do this. It is important to think about being on your side instead of being a surf board. Holding on to the bottom of a kick board with your non-pulling arm, can help you stay on your side (and give you a nice scapula/shoulder muscle stretch too). It also makes the whole kicking and breathing thing easier if you are a beginner – you can actually focus on your form instead of not drowning. Think about having that pulling hand enter the water first, fingers towards the black line and not allowing your forearm to hit the surface of the water before your hand does. Having good shoulder rotation and recovering with your arm up your side instead of way out over the water helps this.
Another, more advanced, variation is to ditch the board completely and have your non-swimming arm at your side. You will naturally breathe to the side of the nonworking arm and it will make you hyper aware of your roll and body position. Concentrate on the catch, initiating body rotation with the core muscles. You can do boring old 25 or 50m one arm drill sets with normal swim in between (to actually apply what you are drilling to your full stroke), or you can be creative and mix drill into longer steady sets like say this: 5 x 200m on your goal time as 50m drill 150m swim.
Continue reading One arm swimming
Ironman race day brings with it a ton of excitement. Often times you get so focused on the race that you forget to take care of your body. Head down, riding for 5-7hrs, it is very easy to forget to drink or eat food when you need it most. [...]
|
|
About this site:
These triathlon and endurance sport related tips have been compiled by Heather and Trevor Wurtele over the years of their progression from working age-groupers to full time professional triathletes. Heather is now a 4 time Ironman Champion and top 10 World Championship finisher. Trevor has an Ironman PR of 8:22 and a 2:51 Ironman marathon.
|
We spend a lot of time worrying about run mileage, frequency, and intensity but your running form is equally important. A lot of us assume that the way we run is the way we run and that there is little we can do to improve our natural gaits. Wrong. Focusing on proprioceptive cues (being mindful of specific things that you are doing with your body) while you run can make a world of difference. Those that paid attention to Craig Alexander’srun form in this year’s Ironman World Championships were super impressed with how he “popped” forward off the ground with each stride – basically he minimized his time on the ground and maximized the effect of that time on the ground. In the book “Brain Training for Runners” Matt Fitzgerald gives great examples of run cues and drills to help us do just that. One is to imagine yourself running on water. To avoid breaking through the surface you have to be quick and light, yet forceful. By thinking about actively driving your feet to the ground instead of passively allowing them to drop while running, you can increase leg stiffness on impact and improve your ability to generate forward thrust quickly, with minimal ground contact time. Also, if, in the instant before your foot makes contact with the ground, you contract the muscles in the glutes on that side of your body and keep them engaged thru the ground contact phase of your stride, you will minimize wasteful side to side rotation, maintain greater stability in your hips and generate more forward thrust. Next time you are running pick a single cue “run on water” or “butt squeeze” and focus on it.
