Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i 220 Triathlon

Much as we all love triathlon, it’s not often that our athletes become household names. Over the last couple of decades, though, two lads from Yorkshire have definitely managed it (yes, you know who!). The Brownlee brothers captured the hearts and imaginations of the country, bringing us copious medals, some great quotes (including getting the word ‘numpty’ into national headlines), and plenty of stories. As their careers have matured, though, they’ve naturally gone in different directions, so this issue it was a priviledge to catch up with Ali Brownlee. On page 32, writer Tim Heming finds out about his race plans, his work insipiring the next generation and how he has no plans to retire… Still a legend and an inspiration, we’re looking forward to seeing what 2025 holds. NEVER…

BIG PIC: IRONMAN WORLDS NICE…

KIT ZONE BIKE LIGHTS GROUPTEST Like almost any multisport product, a great bike light for one triathlete might not be ideal for others. You might want a light to be seen that isn’t bright enough for night training rides, which could count it out for some. Or you’re after a lightweight for commutes, meaning a heavy duty high-beamer isn’t for you. However, there are a few rules. If you need a beam to light your path, picking out potholes and twists in the road while it’s pitch black, I’d recommend something with at least 500 lumens, ideally more. For daytime, when steady front lights are less visible to drivers, invest in lights with daytime flash modes. Side visibility is a plus for being seen in the city, while lights with multiple…

TRAINING MASTERCLASS Where once the turbo trainer was seen as an instrument of torture, now the smart trainer and smart bikes, like those from Wattbike (pictured) and Zwift, are seen as an essential tool to prime you for your big rides. Zwift and Rouvy have seen impressive uptake over the past few years, helped in no small part by lockdown, where sales went through the roof. A few years on and it’s clear that indoor training and gaming are here to stay. This can only serve to help your cycling performance, according to Professor Daniel Mestre. Mestre and his team told 12 subjects to exercise on a static bike while first watching a cycle simulator, then doing the same but with added music. Not only did the video feedback/music combo encourage…

NOVEMBER 2024 3 DEVON DUATHLON (various dists) Bicton College, Budleigh Salterton, Devon. sportivaevents.co.uk CARDIFF TRY-A-TRI (200m S/9km B/1.6km R) Maindy Centre, Cardiff, Wales. triathlon@cardiff.ac.uk 10 DORNEY DUATHLON (various dists) Dorney Lake, Windsor, Buckinghamshire. atwevents.co.uk 17 BUCS DUATHLON CHAMPIONSHIP (5km R/20km B/5km R) Mallory Park Racing Circuit, Leicestershire. bucs.org.uk 24 REMPSTONE OFF ROAD DUATHLON (4km R/18.5km B/ 4km R) Wareham, Dorset. resultstriathlon.co.uk DURHAM MASSEY DUATHLON (various distances) The Bramley Farm, Altrincham. mcafitness.co.uk DECEMBER 1 BLACK COUNTRY SPLASH & DASH AQUATHLON (400m S/5km R) Ounsdale Leisure Centre, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. entrycentral.com 15 DORNEY DUATHLON DECEMBER (various dists) Dorney Lake, Windsor, Buckinghamshire. atwevents.co.uk HALESOWEN AQUATHLON (400m S/5km R) Halesowen, West Midlands. britishtriathlon.org WOODFORD COMMUNITY DUATHLON (various distances) Woodford Community Centre, Stockport, Greater Manchester. mcafitness.co.uk MARCH 2025 2 FROSTY AQUATHLON (various dists) Littlehampton, West Sussex. tuff-fitty.co.uk 16…

One of the many advantages triathlon has over other sports is that it doesn’t give you any time to think. From the moment the person in the canoe blasts their klaxon, all thoughts about bills, mortgages and embarrassing things you did 25 years ago empty from your mind and you become instantly focussed on more pressing concerns. Am I going to get booted in the face at that turn buoy? Is that a pothole? Is that a mile sign or another bloody ‘caution runners’ sign in the distance? I had time to ponder this recently when I had a crack at a long-distance swim, the ‘Two Way Windermere’, which involves swimming the full 11mile length of Lake Windermere, then turning round and swimming straight back again. This is obviously a…

START DIVE INTO THE WORLD OF TRI…

Launched at the Nice expo, Argon 18’s new E117 triathlon bike takes many of the features of its pro-focused E119 model – as ridden by Ruth Astle at the IM Worlds where she clocked the fifth-fastest bike split – and delivers them at a more AG friendly price point. Brakes are integrated into the forks and aero-optimised frame, there’s a bento box on the top tube, a toolkit on down tube and an aero bottle. Prices start from £3.5k with alloy wheels, up to £6.5k complete with integrated carbon wheelset and cockpit. The “perfect price point for a triathlete,” says project manager Marc-Olivier Hardy. If you want to go full pro, the E119 comes with the Notio Aerometer that measures drag, with your CdA displayed on your bike computer, so…

In August 2022, Serena Williams, the 23-time Grand Slam champion, announced that she was “evolving away from tennis”. The suitably stylish bow eventually concluded with a flurry of spectacular night matches on Arthur Ashe at the US Open, the biggest tennis venue in the world. It’s not language you’d readily associate with a straight-talking Yorkshireman, but over the past few years the signs have been there that two-time Olympic gold medallist, and the individual who has done more to energise triathlon in Great Britain than anyone else, Alistair Brownlee, has been preparing for life after competitive swim, bike and run. While Williams stressed she’s no fan of the word “retirement”, there’s a sense it’s rarely in Brownlee’s vocabulary either. While he throws himself into more and more off-course pursuits, the…

Talk to any group of triathletes and chances are, at least one (if not more of them) will have taken on an ultra-marathon. After all, as athletes we tend to like a challenge and something a bit different and nothing says ‘a bit different’ than going beyond the humble 26.2. Coming into the winter months, it’s good to have a new goal to keep you excited and out training as well. So if the lure of long has been a thing for you for a while, then now could be the time to start planning by picking an event and lacing up your comfiest run shoes. To get you started, over the next four pages expert Claire Maxted shares an extract from her new book The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook…

KIT ZONE RUN JACKETS Being soaked through in colder temperatures during the off-season can lead to a shivery and miserable finale to endurance running sets. It’s enough to put you off going out, with the treadmill or television becoming more tempting by the day. It doesn’t have to be that way with a decent running jacket, however, and all five of the men’s versions on test here (women’s to come next issue) offer everything from protection from light rain and breezes to standing firm in the face of continued, torrential rain. This test period involved chilly morning runs but nothing extreme in the cold stakes. It did, however, feature some of the wettest September and October days in memory, but the majority of the jackets here (bar the Asics) proved formidable…

01 All the gear To tap into online cycling games, you’ll need the basics of a bike, computer or smartphone, and a set of rollers or a turbo trainer. It’s this last one where, increasingly, the magic happens, as smart trainers like those from Wahoo wirelessly sync to an app for terrain-specific, real-life-mimicking changes in resistance. If you don’t have a smart trainer, an ANT+ or Bluetooth speed-cadence sensor should do the job. 02 Big-ride gut You’ve signed up for Ironman Leeds 2025 and don’t think training indoors will help you refine your nutritional strategy? Fair point. No one wants to spend eight hours on a turbo slurping gels. “Few people are going to ride 180km on a turbo, so you need to challenge your gut in different ways,” says sports nutrition…

Q: HOW CAN I FIND THE BEST ARM RECOVERY? Kate Hall A When you watch the swim leg of any triathlon, you’ll see all sorts of different over-the-water arm recoveries. Some are faster, some are slower, some are higher, some are lower, some are straighter and some are more bent. And, of course, you’ll see everything in between. You’ll also see various combinations of the different recovery styles. What’s interesting is that you’ll see swimmers of different ability levels using the same style of arm recovery, and you’ll see swimmers of the same ability levels using different arm recovery styles. These observations can make it confusing when you’re trying to determine how to recover your arms as there’s no clear indication as to which strategy is best. The main reason…

START The men-only Ironman World Championship in Hawaii marked the end of an initial two-year cycle where triathlon’s biggest annual showcase has been split by gender and separated by nearly 8,000 miles. How did we get here? Following a double-header in Kona 2022, Hawaiian authorities insisted that two days of racing wouldn’t be possible on the Big Island again. It was a decree incompatible with Ironman’s pledge that the women should have a race day to themselves and ultimately led to the men’s and women’s races alternating between Nice and Kona last year and this. But what happens next? The mayor of Nice made clear the city’s preference to embrace the original four-year plan which would see the two-year cycle repeat and the men race in France next year and…

TRAINING NUTRITION This month I bring you four speedy soups to get you going in the kitchen. So quick that you can rustle them up in just 15mins. A selection of humble yet nutritious ingredients, a few nifty shortcuts, like good shop-bought stock, and there you have it: four cheap, power-packed training suppers or workday lunches nailed! First up, a gently spiced, warming and sustaining Tomato and chickpea soup with crispy chorizo. Brimming with vitamins C and A, B vitamins, plus important minerals such as magnesium, folic acid and iron, this soup is an excellent source of slow-release carbohydrate, protein and fibre. We love to eat this on a saturday lunchtime before an afternoon run. Next, a nourishing Pumpkin soup with toasted pumpkin seeds and parmesan crisps. Super tasty and loaded…

My orange swim cap isn’t on, my wetsuit’s not done up. I messed up my wave time. A race official reassures me. I have one minute left. Fumbling fingers. Ear plugs in, cap on, goggles on. Zip pulled up by a volunteer. The stony beach banks steeply down. Into the water. Breathe. Start. It’s a maelstrom. The water is an explosion of thrashing arms, feet, bodies. Concentrate on rhythm. Keep sighting. Breathe. The swim settles and some order’s restored. In this start wave we are all over 60 years, yet the passion, strength, competitiveness and focus is undiminished. The hours of training take over. My arms and legs are working. I concentrate on positive thoughts. Only a couple of miles to swim and then the bike. I am prepared. I…

FAQ Build those bricks The key to duathlon training is a weekly or fortnightly brick session. This can be: runto-bike, bike-to-run or run/bike/run. The run/bike/run option is ideal physiological training to simulate the fatigue of biking after a fast first run and then running off a hard bike ride. It also means you can practise transitions. These sessions can be done outdoors around a measured run and bike circuit, using a run route while you bike on a turbo or even at a gym – jumping between a treadmill and stationary bike. Train when tired Work on strength for the second run by doing your quality runs on tired legs after a few days of hard training. In the race, have faith that the pain will ease, focus on form…

‘A’-Race The most important race of your season Age-grouper Non-pro triathlete (most of us!) Aerobic Aerobic exercise involves oxygen consumption by the body Anaerobic How much energy your body can produce without using oxygen Aquabike Race with just swim and bike elements, no run Bilateral breathing Breathing every 3 strokes when swimming Biomechanics The forces applied to your body during exercise Bonking Running out of energy mid-race or training session Brick session When you ‘brick’ two disciplines together, e.g. bike and run Cadence Pedal rate on bike, in revolutions per minute (rpm) Carb-loading Eating a carb-heavy meal prior to a race to boost energy Catch The part of the swim stroke where you pull on the water Core strength Development of the stomach and lower back area in support of…