Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2016 i Triathlon Plus

“My five-year-old son recently learned to ride a bike. He was so proud of himself and after days of determined practise, he improved noticeably. It’s made him try harder in other areas of his life too, including school. It’s all too easy to forget that children love to succeed and are prepared to put in the hard work to get there. Which is why in this issue we’ve chosen to focus on Junior Triathlon (p41). Across the country there are children aged eight and above, swimming, biking and running their hearts out, achieving so much more than just a medal. If you’d like your child to get involved too, we explain how easy and fun it can be. For those slightly above junior tri level, check out this issue’s first…

REGAL RACE A brand new Outlaw Half takes place in Norfolk this summer, with a bike course that passes the Queen’s residence at Sandringham. The Outlaw Half Holkham is on 3 July, in addition to the traditional Outlaw half on 29 May. Big names confirmed so far include Lucy Charles and Cat Faux. onestepbeyond.org.uk ALL CHANGE… British Triathlon rule updates include allowing backstroke in open water and adult barefoot running (if event organisers are notified); no personal video recording devices; a 10-metre drafting zone in shorter and draft illegal races with 20 second pass-through time (12 metres for middle and long distances, with 25 seconds to pass); and no boxes left in transition. Some infringement, drafting and littering penalties have also been updated. For details see britishtriathlon.org UPDATE IN IRONMAN…

OMBAR CENTRES £1.99 Ombar.co.uk This Easter treat yourself to a delicious and healthy alternative. New from Ombar is the Centres range made with 100 per cent raw cacao and filled with flavoured coconut cream. Choose from raspberry and coconut or coconut and vanilla. They are dairy and gluten free and, we can attest, are delicious. ZONE 3 BUOYANCY SHORTS £67.50 racezone3.com As open water season creeps closer, it’s a good time to work on your technique in the pool. If you’re aiming to improve your body position in the water, try some of Zone3’s Elite neoprene buoyancy shorts. Worn over normal swimwear, they’re a convenient alternative to a pull buoy, but allow you to kick and swim more naturally. WE’RE GIVING AWAY FOUR PAIRS OF THE NEW ELITE 2016 RANGE.…

RACE GEAR A one-piece tri suit is ideal. You can buy great off-the-peg junior trisuits for around £40 from manufacturers like Dolphin Kick, Zone3, ZeroD and Zoot. Alternatively boys can swim in jammers (swimming trunks) and put on a T-shirt in transition while girls can race in a standard swimsuit. There are specific junior triathlon shops such as kidsracing.co.uk for one stop solutions. There’s no need to pay more than £8 for goggles when starting out. Number belts are available in small sizes for around £5. For open water events a proper junior triathlon wetsuit is usually needed. These are quite pricey to buy (about £100) but can often be hired instead from suppliers such as Tribe Junior Triathlon, My Wetsuit Hire, Wetsuits For Hire, and Hireawetsuit.co.uk. Most children wear…

Clinic Director Finchley Road Clinic, London Q. I get a pain in the crease between my glutes and upper hamstring while seated. It dissipates when I run but I do feel it at the start of the run. It’s only on the right side and I’ve had it for a long time (years in fact). I would describe it as ‘niggling’ pain. Not extreme. I just know it’s there. What are your thoughts? Dawn A. Lester via Facebook A. It sounds like you’ve actually got a problem with your lower back rather than your leg muscles. Pain around that area when sitting (and easing with movement) tends to indicate one of the nerves from your lower back is irritated and sending ‘referred pain’ into the glutes. Imagine a mild version…

Notes and key The Race List AT THE TIME of going to press, some race details were yet to be confirmed. Before entering a race, or if you can’t find your favourite event here, please contact the organisers for the most up-to-date information. Distances given are: for triathlons, swim/bike/run; for duathlons, run/bike/run; and for aquathlons, swim/run. Swim distances are in metres up to 999, then kilometres. Bike and run distances are in kilometres unless otherwise stated, with ‘M’ denoting distances are in miles. APRIL SATURDAY 2 APRIL VOTWO ETON DORNEY DUATHLON Distance: various Eton Dorney Lake, Windsor, SL4 6QP votwo.co.uk SUNDAY 3 APRIL HOLE PARK DUATHLON Distance: Various Hole Park, Kent trispiritevents.com HOLE PARK TRIAL RUNS Distance: 5k and 10k Hole Park, Kent trispiritevents.com HOLE PARK SPORTIVE Distance: 40k AND…

£1,199 giant-bicycles.com So how does the Giant fare in the mix? GIANT HAS always made excellent alloy bikes but now its in-house carbon framed bikes are ridiculously affordable without compromising complete bike performance. FRAME AND FORKS If you’re looking at the TCR Advanced frame and thinking that looks identical to the Advanced Pro level framesets you’d be correct. The only change is that the Pro level framesets get a full carbon fork, whereas this bike and its siblings use an alloy steerer-tube (the bit that goes into the frame) on the same slim carbon fork legs. It’s a difference you’d notice on the scales, but not in terms of accuracy or comfort on the road. Because Giant has now concentrated on producing more of one frame rather than less of…

Unless you come from a swimming background, and like many triathlon clubs most of the members at Zoom Tri don’t, swimming can be the toughest of the three disciplines to master. Fast swimming boils down to two key factors; fitness and technique. Fitness can be built through time in the pool or open-water swimming, but unless your technique is efficient you could be wasting a lot of time reinforcing bad habits. Rotation is one of the fundamentals of good swimming technique and critical to generating power in your stroke and slipping through the water as quickly as possible. It’s an often overlooked area but remember it is primarily your shoulders and body that should be rotating as you swim. KEY TRAINING POINTS FOR IMPROVING ROTATION: • Move your hips, body…

PHIL MOSLEY Over the last couple of months coaching editor Phil has been steadfastly working his way through the new Ironman University Coaching Certification program. Thankfully he passed, so now he can return to his routine of childcare, writing and coaching triathletes via his business myprocoach.net. In his precious spare time, he likes to go training. GILL CUMMINGS-BELL Gill is an exercise and nutrition scientist who specializes in sports nutrition management for training, performance, recovery and body weight management. Gill has been a fitness professionals’ education consultant and international presenter on nutrition for more than 30 years. Gill leads the field of research in nutrition, exercise and teacher training in the UK. drummondclinic.co.uk GUY KESTEVEN Guy Kesteven has been testing bikes and components professionally for 18 years, and was riding…

Choppy waters, strong winds and heavy rain set the scene for a gruelling 10th anniversary Challenge Wanaka, dashing any hopes for new course records. Defending champion Dylan McNeice got off to a great start exiting the water a full fi ve minutes ahead of the rest of the fi eld. He held his lead until the 98th kilometre of the bike but was no match for Maik Twelsiek (GER) who is known as the German Cycling Machine for good reason. Behind them both, however, was a racer hungry for his fi rst victory on local territory. Dougal Allan (NZL) picked off McNeice at 135km and then Twelsiek at the 14k mark on the run then blazed a trail for home taking an emotional victory in 8:31:53. Twelsiek came in second…

It’s been very much a case of building up the distances for rookie Matt Beale as he prepares to start coach Phil Mosley’s 70.3 training plan. “I’ve committed myself to weekly half marathon distance runs, 1,500m swims and several laps of Richmond Park, but now 70.3 Staffs is just three months away I’m keen to start on my training plan for real,” says Matt. Follow Matt’s progress as he blogs through his training on TriRadar.com. There’s still a chance to win a £500 VIP package to compete in Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire. Enter at TriRadar.com…

1 DOWNWARD FACING DOG Great for: Re-lengthening and decompressing the spine, releasing tension in hamstrings and calves. This is such a great pose to do after any activity and is always the first pose I do after a run to begin re-lengthening my muscles and spine. How to: Start on your hands and knees, push into your hands to lift the knees and guide your hips up and back, lengthening your spine. Only then start to think about lowering your heels towards the ground. If your hamstrings are tight then this pose will be hard at first, so think about lengthening your back and arms by keeping a bend in the knees. Hold for five breaths. 2 LOW LUNGE Great for: Releasing tension in the hip flexors, a major area…

The result of weeks in the wind tunnel and numerous computational fluid dynamics studies, Zipp’s astonishing new 404 NSW carbon clincher wheelset could save you time and effort, as well as add free speed to your races this year. Unlike the firm’s Ironman-winning 808 NSW wheels, these beauties are designed to be more of an all-rounder – light, strong and retaining the wind-cheating qualities of the deeper section wheel. Zipp claim a 34 per cent reduction in crosswind forces compared to their own 404 Firecrest wheels. The rims’ ‘Sawtooth’ design also has 12 nodes that commence aerodynamic shearing at 20mph, increasing high yaw drag in crosswinds and saving you vital watts. In an effort to squeeze every drop of speed from the wheels, Zipp has used its clever ‘cognition’ hub.…

WRITE TO: TRIATHLON PLUS, KELSEY MEDIA, CUDHAM TITHE BARN, BERRY’S HILL, CUDHAM, KENT TN16 3AG triathlonplus.ed@kelsey.co.uk WRITE IN AND WIN A LAZER Z1 AERO HELMET LETTER OF THE MONTH Late-comer but loving it! AT ALMOST 74, I’m a lifelong marathon runner; in fact I’m one of the fi nal 12 Ever Presents – runners who have completed every single London Marathon since it started in 1981. I only started following triathlon after watching the 2012 Olympic Triathlon in Hyde Park. After completing the Brownlee Tri at Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire the following year, I was hooked. Soon afterwards, my wife and I were lucky enough to be left a few pounds in a will and have spent it following the ITU World Series. We’ve been to some great places…

£1,500 specialized.com A carbon cruiser that knows how to impress THE SPORT is the cheapest bike in Specialized’s carbon Tarmac range and while the frame is sound, the components that touch the rider and the road make the biggest difference. FRAME AND FORKS The Tarmac chassis uses the same carbon fork as the Allez, which is fine by us as it’s a good balance of comfort and precision. It’s held firmly in the big bulged head-tube, which the very broad top-tube and down-tube actually wrap around the sides of. The cables also thread into bulges on the down-tube shoulders before it tapers slightly before expanding out again into the huge BB30 bottom bracket lump. Deep oval to square chainstays and tapered seat-tube pop out backwards and upwards respectively. The seatstays…

THE VERDICT COMING INTO THIS test we had a sneaking suspicion what the result might be, mainly because we’d ridden the Allez before and absolutely loved it compared to the sound, but not quite as sharp or supple, Tarmac. Things turned out to be more close run between the two Specialized bikes, because of tyre choices that made more difference to speed and smoothness than the frames did. With a £300 difference in cost you could fi t the superb S-Works Turbo tyres (we’d go for the 26mm versions) to the awesome Allez frame to create one of the best metal framed bikes around. The Giant showed that by leaving a bit of metal where it won’t really be noticed (in this case the fork steerertube) you can save a…

There’s some commonly experienced confusion in triathlon – and I’m not talking about where your bike is in T1. It’s something that makes itself present to athletes at any level, from age-group to pro – the coaching conundrum. Whether to be coached or to self-coach, who to employ as a coach, what credentials a coach should have, what proximity to them is needed and what level of coaching is required. There’s a whole wealth of questions to be asked and it can be a tricky one to crack. The reason is individuality. Every athlete is different, as is every coach and the combination of the two can be make or break. I speak from experience as I have had a number of coaches in a relatively short number of years.…

With Rio 2016 just around the corner a fresh wave of British children is about to be inspired by the excitement and drama of Olympic triathlon. But how can you help your child to get involved? Junior triathlon undoubtedly offers children all-round fitness, social benefit, and a great sense of achievement. Multi sport activities are perfect for children’s physical development too. They help to build all round athleticism and to prevent over use injuries from overspecialisation at an early age. Your child doesn’t need to be in a club to take part in junior triathlon, although good clubs have a youth development structure geared to having fun while learning the necessary skills. At first sight this might not seem to be a cheap sport for children. Race entry often costs…

With the current cold snap, temperatures aren’t rising as fast as the increase in our training and this can cause problems. Cold weather can make our tissues feel stiffer due to the reduction in surface blood flow in an attempt to maintain body temperature. Extra strain is also added if you’re not dressed appropriately or your warm up and cool down processes are inadequate. Physios often see an increase in tension related neck and lower back pain due to people habitually shrugging their shoulders to their ears and hugging themselves when it’s cold. The tissues around the neck and shoulders are already under load from work and too much time spent on computers and hand held devices. It is really important to incorporate postural mobility and activation exercises into your…

“I couldn’t walk to the bathroom without a Zimmer frame” It’s normal to feel under the weather after a marathon. That’s what Kevin Frazer told himself. Just four days previously, in March 2014, he’d crossed the finish line of the Barcelona Marathon. And while he’d experienced blisters, spasms and cramps after other races, he couldn’t recall being doubled up with stomach pains like this. The pain intensified through the night and he was rushed to Norfolk and Norwich hospital. Scans revealed a bowel obstruction caused by a 12-year-old appendix scar, which had caused a section of Kevin’s large intestine to twist. The surgery, to remove six inches of infected bowel, should have been a two-hour procedure, but it was evening when the hospital finally telephoned his wife Christine asking her…

£1,200 specialized.com How will the alloy Allez measure up to its carbon copy? SPECIALIZED HAS created a whole new construction method for their sublime riding alloy frames but you’ll have to invest in new rubber to really bring the bike alive. FRAME AND FORKS Specialized is making a big fuss about its D’Alusio Smartweld construction innovation, but the first sign of its use is hardly pretty. The big weld seams between the stub-tubes of the head-tube section and the down- and top-tubes have a distinctively Frankenstein quality about them especially on the naked, polished frame. What’s happening under those big weld seams is clever though. Rather than the usual technique of cutting tube-ends so that they mitre perfectly on to the curve of the head-tube or seat-tube, the tubes are…

NEW GEAR PUT THROUGH ITS PACES 1 POC DO BLADE RACEDAY £200 2pure.co.uk Serious pro-level equipment, these are used by the Cannondale-Garmin pro team. Their opinion-dividing style aside, the depth of the lens and total eye coverage afforded by these lightweight sunnies is unparalleled in this test. A mouldable nose bridge allows a perfectly snug fit on the face, while the Carl Zeiss lenses are formulated to give high contrast vision so you can spot road imperfections quicker. They also have an anti-fog treatment and rain drops simply bead off the one-piece lens. But they’re very pricey. OVERALL 2 OAKLEY RADAR EV £145 oakley.com Particularly lightweight and well thought out, these Oakleys are also at the more acceptable end of the brand’s price range. They’re not worn by countless professional…

After a long period of winter training and with race season approaching, enthusiasm for triathlon can be high. But be careful that all your hard work doesn’t go to waste with these common mistakes. TOO MUCH RACING You’ve got the fitness, PBs are being smashed and those annoying rivals are finally being put in their place, so what better time to keep going out and demonstrating to everyone just how good a triathlete you’ve become? Racing can be addictive and the buzz and excitement created once your race number is pinned on is rarely matched in training. However too much of anything is never a good thing, and this definitely applies to racing. Select multiple races as goals throughout the year, but in order to perform to your best ability…