Innholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2017 i Triathlon Plus

SECRETS OF SUCCESS I PLAYED LOTS of sports as a child until I decided to focus on running. I trained with Steph Twell at AFD Running Club, was mentored by Dame Kelly Holmes and competed all over the world. But my London Olympic dreams ended after knee surgery for a patella tendinopathy; I had to pull out of the trials in agony. Finding me in tears Kelly suggested the London Triathlon would help my rehab and I started training with Michelle Dillon, Olympic runner and Commonwealth triathlon champion. In my first year, 2013, I won the British Super Series and qualified for the WTS world final. The following year was even better; I became National Duathlon champion and took titles at Blenheim, Windsor, and London. And, in 2015, I became…

THE BEST PLACES TO TEST YOURSELF FANCY STEPPING BACK in time and making history? This summer the genteel Staunton Harold Estate in Leicestershire has teamed up with Derby-based HUUB events to host its first ever triathlon. The 2,000 acre estate has seen its fair share of monumental events (think Tower of London imprisonments and deaths, ruinations, and a last minute reprieve from demolition) over the centuries. Now it’s preparing itself for the spectacular sight of hundreds of racers swarming through its grounds cheered on by throngs of spectators. With both a sprint and super sprint distance on offer, the race will kick off with a 400m or 750m loop in the crystal clear waters of the estate’s largest lake, The Serpentine. Racers will then head off for a 14km or…

When people tell you it’s the small things that matter, it’s sometimes hard to swallow. Whether you want to take part in your first triathlon or win a world championship event, the same principle applies. Sure there’s a ton of hard work to do, but often it’s about getting the basics right. For example, it’s no good trying to do masses of training to improve if you just keep getting injured. Something quite basic is going wrong and it needs to be figured out first before you do anything else. Is it recovery? Is it biomechanics? Is it nutrition? Once you get to the root of the problem, your training will just be the “add-on”. But if you don’t have the basics sorted first, your training can almost become redundant.…

WIN THIS A s race season is nearly upon us, so is the decision whether to upgrade your bike to a TT version. But now you don’t have to make the financially painful decision as Triathlon Plus is giving away this top spec Ribble Aero TT to one lucky reader. Reviewed in the Summer 2016 issue of Triathlon Plus, our hard nosed expert bike testers declared it a well rounded, enjoyable distance bike and awarded it an impressive four out of five. The Aero TT is an advanced aerodynamically carbon frame designed to give you every advantage in a triathlon or when time trialling against the clock. It’s uncompromisingly built with speed in mind. Ribble’s triathlon and time trial bikes are tested and developed in real race situations, including European…

1 When I’m training, do I have to spend 100 per cent of the time in the prescribed training zone? No. Don’t be a slave to your zones, just use them as a guide. If you’re doing a long Zone 2 bike ride for example, your intensity can be slightly higher up the hills and slightly lower on descents. That’s normal; don’t worry about it. 2 Why don’t my heart rate, pace and power zones match up? They are three completely different measures. Power is an instant measure of how hard and fast you pedal. Heart rate is a non-instant measure that can take several minutes to climb and settle. Pace is constantly affected by variables like wind, gradient and weight. So the three measures will never match up perfectly,…

FAST FOOD TO FIX YOUR BODY FUEL YOUR RACE INGREDIENTS 150g salmon fillet 1 small pumpkin (or butternut squash) 1 onion 1 clove garlic 2 tbs olive oil 80g carnaroli rice 280ml chicken stock 2tbs grated parmesan METHOD 1 Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and discard. Place cut side up in a roasting dish and cover with foil 2 Bake at 170 degree for 45 minutes until cooked through. 3 Scoop out the flesh into a food processor and blend until smooth, set aside. 4 Finely dice onion and garlic and sweat on a medium heat in a pan along with the oil. 5 Add the rice and a third of the stock. 6 Stir gently until nearly all of the liquid has been absorbed,…

4 RIDE REVIEW 1 FIRST RIDE A 71.5° head angle combined with a seat angle of 74° ensures we have good leverage, yet classic endurance-spec geometry supplies a steady rate of turn and a confidence-inspiring ride. Vittoria’s 25mm Rubino Pro tyres assist with comfort, absorbing poor surfaces, while Fizik’s Aliante saddle is supportive and comfortable. 2 FAST RIDE When you need to put the hammer down, the Infinito responds impressively. Campagnolo’s Potenza levers are positive and precise. The ride ecourages you to hold your pace on rolling roads. Fast cornering is easily achievable, thanks to a precise front end. Deep, box-section chainstays get power to the ground with minimal losses. 3 HILLY RIDE The compact Potenza chainset combined with an 11-29 cassette, allows you to take your pick between powering…

THERE’S A popular adage in cycling circles that the maximum number of bikes you need is n+1 (with n being the number of bikes you currently own). But what if there was one bike that fit the bill for long training miles, hard sessions on the rollers and even competition? We think there is: the so-called "aero road bike". Designed to propel the rider at the maximum speed for the least possible power investment and often built as a result of painstaking hours in a wind tunnel, this breed of road bike used by the sprinters in the Tour de France, as well as the Brownlees, makes a good case as the perfect bike for a triathlete. And, since you’ll be consolidating your other bikes into one, you might be…

ABOUT THE CLUB Exmoor Triathlon Club has been established by passionate local triathletes to encourage the uptake of triathlon in the area, provide a friendly community base, enhance enjoyment of the sport and the local area, as well as provide training opportunities and support to help athletes of all levels develop their fitness and achieve their goals. As a rural club it is relatively small, so we often link with the local cycling and running clubs to give our members the opportunity to train with others at a similar speed. The club welcomes all abilities to share the delights of exercising on Exmoor, which is both challenging and inspiring. TRAINING AREA Exmoor Triathlon Club swims in open water at Minehead Beach and Wimbleball Lake, offering sea and lake swim locations.…

California dreaming What: Nautica Malibu Triathlon When: 16-17 September 2017 Where: Malibu, California Distance: Olympic and Sprint Cost: From $205 (£162) To enter: nauticamalibutri.com Why: This boasts a beach start, ocean swim, bike route along the iconic Pacific Coast Highway and a run with spectacular views of the Pacific to one side and mountains to the other. What’s not to love? Great for spectators with ‘bleachers’ (benches) offering great views of transition and the finish line and entertainment galore for kids, along with the chance to star spot. Previous racers have included Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey, Will Ferrell and the late Robin Williams. Rocky road What: 106° West Triathlon When: 9 September 2017 Where: Dillon, Colorado Distance: Half and Olympic Entry: From $105 (£83) To enter: 106westtri.com Why: It’s the…

GB’S TOM BISHOP stunned the field and himself, by delivering a world class performance at the first World Series race of the year in Abu Dhabi. Bishop, who lost out to Gordon Benson for a place in last summer’s Rio Olympics, broke away with multiple world champion Javier Gomez (ESP), matched him stride for stride for most of the run and was only shaken off in the closing stages of the race. His performance made him the first British man, other than the Brownlee brothers, to get a podium place at an ITU WTS series race since 2011. Gomez, returning to racing following his broken elbow accident last summer, admitted he had to use race tactics to lose Bishop and secure victory. He said: “With Tom, it was very tactical. The…

WHAT CHALLENGE WANAKA WHEN 18 FEBRUARY 2017 WHERE WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND WINNERS DOUGAL ALLAN (NZL) 8:26:38 YVONNE VAN VLERKEN (NDL) 9:15:44 Records were obliterated at Challenge Wanaka with GB’s Laura Siddall smashing the women’s bike course time in a gutsy bid for glory. Siddall, who hails Wanaka as the most spectacular race of the year, chased defending women’s champion Yvonne Van Vlerken right to the wire, crossing the finish line just 27 seconds behind her. It made for a far closer finish than last year’s event, which saw Siddall finish some three and a half minutes behind her rival. Sunny conditions were a million miles from the wet, windy race day that greeted competitors in 2016. On this February morning Lake Wanaka resembled a millpond and swimmers struggled to spot…

OBJECT OF DESIRE A few years ago nobody had heard of Wahoo Fitness, but how times have changed. With a focus on innovation and usability, Wahoo has established a strong position in the turbo trainer market and now, with its new Element Bolt GPS bike computer it may be about to conquer the competition again. This is a great device; small, sleek and very user friendly. It was easy to use straight out of the box. Uniquely, it is completely wireless, you simply have to sync it to your Apple or android device by scanning a QR code on screen and you are all set. It’s packed with additional features that mark it out as a potential market leader, such as live Strava segments, clear field customisation, optimised route navigation…

If you want to make the most of your talent and hard work, a good set of triathlon training zones is essential. Training zones are simply a way of grouping your training intensities, from super easy to all-out sprint. A good set of training zones helps you to strike a better balance of hard sessions, recovery and easy workouts. In other words, they help you to train at your optimal level every time. There are various ways to measure your intensity for training zones, including heart rate, perceived exertion, pace and power. You can use one or all of these measures, depending on your training gadgets and your preference for simple or in-depth information. When I coach a new athlete the first thing I establish is their training zones. Without…

H ave you ever thought about what makes a great triathlete? You'd probably list things like genetic talent, steely determination, intelligence, skill and an ability to cope under pressure. However for anyone trying to juggle their training with a career and family there's another, even more important skill that you'll need – time management. With three disciplines to train for, it's a huge challenge trying to spread your precious weekly hours between your sport, family, work and social commitments. It's not just the training that takes up your time either. For every hour you spend swimming, cycling and running there's another half hour spent on logistics like bike maintenance, driving to the pool and getting changed. Add it all together and you won't have a minute to spare. Often the…

THE VERDICT IN THE end, it was a close run thing for top honours, but the Giant Propel takes the win, by supplying you with a package that makes the most of every pedal stroke. Not only is it a particularly rapid road bike, but also a surprisingly comfortable one. Its wheels get up to speed and stay there with ease, while for us magpies, the bright colour scheme is the icing on the cake. Ribble Aero 883 offers undeniably excellent value for money and performance that’s almost on a par with the Propel. It’s direct, confidence-inspiring in both its handling and braking (if a little twitchy on Mavic rubber when in damp corners), but can’t match the Giant for comfort and outright speed and ultimate thrills. BMC’s Timemachine packs…

Plans can be fickle things and following them even more so. For most triathletes, life will probably have gotten in the way on several occasions and you won’t have done half as much training as you had originally planned, falling shy of the conditioning you were hoping to achieve. But don’t worry. If you’ve got between three and 12 weeks before race day you’ve got time to try these six tips to rescue your season. 1. RACE-SPECIFIC TRAINING During this period focus on quality sessions that are intense and specific to your race distance. For example, to train for an Olympic distance triathlon with a 1,500m swim, break training into 3 X 500m or 6 X 250m swims with short rests of 10 seconds in between. This is called a…

At this time of year, it’s time for the last phase of training before the competition season really kicks off. Now is the best opportunity to prepare for your personal best race. CHECK YOUR TECHNIQUE It is important to swim slower and focus on good technique. This may tire your muscles more than you think and you will probably need to rest often in order to hold good technique, although the benefits later in a race are sure to be felt. The more you practise efficient technique the easier it will become and you will soon find you can keep it going for much longer periods and sustain faster swimming speeds. ONCE A WEEK If you swim once a week, it’s a good idea to use the warm up and…

Why: Not only is this the longest-running Ironman event in North America, it also scooped a clutch of Athletes Choice Awards last year including: Overall Satisfaction, Overall Bike, Overall Run, Best Race Venue, Best Host City Experience and Will Recommend to_a_Friend Entry: From $600 (£475) for 70.3 and $740 (£590) for IM general entry See eu.ironman.com DETAILS What: Ironman Lake Placid and Ironman 70.3 Lake Placid When: IM 23 July 2017 and 70.3 10 September 2017 (Only charity slots available) Where: Lake Placid village, New York I DID IT! REPORT FROM THE FRONT LINE AMY STONE 43, blogger, from Miami, Florida What: IRONMAN Lake Placid When: 26 July 2015 Finish time: 14:38 Although I’ve raced Ironman events in France, Chattanooga in Tennessee and Florida this is my favourite hands down.…

Don’t worry if you’re not overly familiar with Penticton, in British Columbia. By summer, when it plays host to the prestigious ITU world championships, a 10-day extravaganza of racing, it will be a household name. For Canadian and North American triathletes, who have long regarded the city as the Holy Grail of triathlon, the recognition couldn’t come soon enough. Nestled between two lakes and surrounded by highlands and mountains, Penticton provides one the greatest and oldest long distance courses in the world. The city is steeped in triathlon history with three decades of long-distance racing immortalised in its gardens. Large bronze plates depict male and female winners of the iconic Ironman Canada, which was held there until 2012 before the race became Challenge Penticton and Ironman Canada relocated to Whistler.…

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO GET YOUR MONTH OFF TO A FLYER WHAT: THE SUPER LEAGUE TRIATHLON WHEN: 17-19 MARCH WHERE: HAMILTON ISLAND, AUSTRALIA It’s been hailed as the future of triathlon with huge prize money (first prize is $100,000), ‘pic n mix’ racing formats, nail-biting eliminations and the world’s top athletes including the Brownlee brothers and Gomez hand-picked to take part. Think of the gripping races we see in the Olympic Velodrome (the Keirin, Omnium, Pursuit and Sprint) and you’ll get an idea of how different this series was to traditional triathlon. The island was chosen especially for its challenges and potential for pain and suffering, admitted organisers. “It’s a tropical paradise, but we’re going to break them here. This course is brutal,” said co-founder Chris McCormack. Fellow founder Michael…

I njuries are part and parcel of triathlon, just like any other sport. The good news is that by dividing your training time between three disciplines you're less likely to get overuse injuries in triathlon than if you were training for a single sport such as running. Another bonus is that if you do get injured you can often carry on training in one or two of the other triathlon disciplines. Having said all that, triathlon injuries are still hard to cope with. Not only do you feel like you're losing your fitness, but you can feel mentally low too. When you’re unable to train it takes away structure from your life and reduces social interaction. You don’t get your daily fix of endorphin-high from training either, so you can…

If the six Ps stand for “Piss Poor Preparation Provides Pathetic Performance” then back when I was still racing I had a beautiful week when I found out that it was undeniably true. Half a dozen of us Brits were in Rotterdam, we were racing a sort of three-quarter Ironman distance event; two mile swim in the canal (up one mile, turnaround and back), 80 odd miles on the bike and finally an excruciating 20 miles of four laps round an aerodrome. To start with, I was totally brilliant. As ever, the swim start was crowded, with everyone trying to get the stellar start position in one half of the canal as the rope and buoys divided it in half. With a touch of cunning, I ducked under the rope,…

Most triathletes are dealing with similar issues when it comes to planning and using their time effectively. With busy working lives, family commitments and other stresses, it’s understandable that long training sessions aren’t always a realistic option, even if your ultimate goal is to compete in a long distance triathlon. However quality training needn’t take hours and with some clever planning it can be shoehorned into a busy day. For example, could you run to work and back on alternate days, making your commute a training session? Or could your lunch break benefit from an energetic session? Perhaps you could shape your morning so that you slot in a pre-breakfast run on specific days? If you want to maximise your time with some quality training, try these 30 minute sessions…

THE RACE AT A GLANCE Distance: 1.5 mile (2.4km) swim, 18 mile (29km) bike, 8 mile run (13km) Cost: $750 (£600) Why: Don’t let the shorter distance fool you. This is one of the world’s toughest and oldest triathlons. (It was believed that even if prisoners escaped from the high security fortress they would never survive the swim to shore.) Organisers warn it’s a challenging course and not recommended for first-timers. This year marks the 37th anniversary of the race, which starts with a leap into the chilly San Francisco Bay from a ferry that docks just off Alcatraz Island. Athletes then swim to the shoreline of Marina Green before a twisting bike route and run, which takes in the infamous 400-plus step sand ladder. Fancy it? Numbers are capped…

Monumental event What: The Nation’s Tri When: 10 September 2017 Where: Washington DC Distance: Olympic and sprint Cost: $130 and $100 Enter: nationstri.com, the closing date is 7 September Why: Imagine racing in the shadow of the nation’s memorials and national treasures. Starting with a swim in the Potomac River that takes you past Arlington Cemetery, the race, now in its 12th year, winds through Washington as the only triathlon in the capital city. The bike route is flat and fast, taking racers past iconic landmarks including Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial and the Kennedy Centre. “There is no bike course like it in the world,” boast organisers. The run route is a beautiful, flat, route that takes competitors past the Tidal Basin, Jefferson Memorial back to Hains Point…

Athletes will compete for world titles in long course triathlon, duathlon, cross triathlon and aquathlon from 18-27 August with some planning to compete in all four races. “For the first time, athletes can compete in more than one multisport World Championship race in one convenient location, which is an idea we’ve had a great response to from both the cities and age-group athletes,” said ITU President and IOC member Marisol Casado. “Penticton will set the stage for the future of the event. We are very confident in the team’s ability to deliver an exceptional experience that will set the bar of this festival very high.” Michael Brown, executive director of Penticton 2017 says: “There is no better place than Penticton for a multisport championship on this scale. The Okanagan has…

FLAT WHITE What: The Great White North Triathlon When: 2 July 2017 Where Allan Beach Resort, Stony Plain, Alberta Distance Half and Olympic Cost from C$160 (£95) Entry: gwntriathlon.com Why: This is one of the fastest courses in Canada with long standing records crying out to be broken. The male course record of 3:46:01 has stood since 2009, while the female record 4:14:18 was set back in 1993. Allan Beach features a large, sandy area for the start and finish of the swim, which takes place in the calm Hubbles Lake while the run takes in both the town of Stony Plain and a network of trails. This popular race also attracts volunteers in abundance with more than 550 willing helpers on hand. FALLING FOR YOU What: Niagara Falls Barrelman…