In a previous Runnea post, our particular senior runner and experienced triathlete, Alberto Cebollada Kremer tells us about the guidelines that should be followed once the triathlon season is over to face the preseason with good feelings and with the best physical conditioning.
On this occasion, we go a step further, and in order to correct mistakes for the start of the season, our triathlon expert discusses five common problems that can occur when preparing for a triathlon, whether short, medium or long distance. To these five incidents, Alberto Cebollada provides five effective solutions with tips that will help you improve your performance in the next challenge you have marked in this demanding sport discipline.
The swim starts get on my nerves. I can't stand the crowds, and I can't stand the nudges and initial blows. They get the better of me.
Start by training with a group of swimmers, several in a lane, at different levels and in different skills and strokes. This will force you to become familiar with swimming in a pool, and overtaking and being overtaken, being pushed and being cut off, having to speed up and being forced to change strokes.
In short to get used to swimming among swimmers. Playing water polo one day a week with your training buddies is a good aquatic familiarization exercise that will help you gain aquatic skills and abilities. It's not only fun, it's also a great way to get in shape. It's great to include parallel swimming drills with another partner, or even 3 at a time per lane changing sides and swimming direction. Do sprints, or series swimming several at a time in 1 lane or remove a cork and swim in the space of 2 lanes several people simulating the start of a triathlon.
The aerodynamic posture on the bike causes discomfort in my back and neck.
My recommendation is to go to a biomechanist to adapt the optimal pedaling posture to the effectiveness and efficiency of pedaling itself, as well as comfort, which are above the aerodynamic valor. Aerodynamics is a determining factor in the posture of the long-distance triathlete, but not at the expense of health and sometimes not even sacrificing pedaling efficiency...
In this sense, it is also necessary to improve muscle elasticity values and increase ROM, improving the general and specific flexibility of the muscles involved in adopting a more aerodynamic posture.
The beginning of the second transition (from the bike to the footrace) is very difficult for me. My legs feel very heavy and I have a hard time getting into a running position.
Everything can be improved through training. If there is a weak point, if there is a segment or transition that is worse for you, it is time to correct the failures and reinforce weaknesses. By training transitions and combining these two disciplines in a row, simulating the real conditions that occur in competition, considerable improvements can be achieved.
The final stretches of the last and final segment of the footrace take forever. I lack the energy to finish in good conditions
If there is a feeling of lack of energy, it means that the refreshment has failed, either because it was insufficient or because it was delayed more than necessary. You learn a lot from experience and how your body responds to the effort, you have to learn from your mistakes and remedy them so that next time it does not happen again.
Providing more energy in the bottles, not just drinking water, taking more energy through complex carbohydrates every so often on the bike and in the race will allow you to have enough energy to finish in top condition.
Sometimes this lack of energy is not due to lack of food, but it is a sign that the training has been insufficient, that there are not enough kilometers in the legs or that the necessary amount of training has not been done. Fatigue may be due to lack of energy, lack of training of the muscle fiber or nervous fatigue due to a deficit of the neurotransmitters necessary for muscle contraction to be carried out properly. All these aspects are susceptible to be improved by means of training carried out in conditions similar to those that will occur in competition.
I am not able to progress in training sessions
The figure of personal trainer is increasingly gaining prominence, putting yourself in the hands of a professional with experience in the preparation of the triathlete, who knows how to logically apply the basic principles of training and knows how to adapt them to the characteristics and needs of the triathlete is key to improving and being able to get the most out of oneself.
Photos: Koldo Larrea (Lekeitio Triathlon 2015|Vamos A Correr)
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