Alex Hinton and friends
Alex Hinton took up triathlon in 2009 and completed races from super sprint to half-ironman distance. Pretty impressive! But Alex is a competitive sort who’s previously rowed across the Atlantic and raced to the North Pole, and he thinks he could have gone a lot faster. If he were to do his first year in triathlon again, this it what he thinks he would or should do differently.
1) Sort out a proper training programme
“I did the training I wanted to do rather than what I needed to do,” he says. Like many newby triathletes, Alex swims a bit like a fish might ride a bicycle – not very well. Instead of tackling this fundamental weaknesses, he spent all his time running and cycling. But even though the volume was high, the training was sub-optimal.
“Basically, I wasn’t very clever about the training and primarily based it around my 14-mile commute to work. I’d complete two over-long runs each week and eight short, stop-start bike rides. There was no variety, no periodisation and no speed work.”
So although Alex’s training got him in better shape than the majority of the population, it wasn’t optimised for race performance. To avoid this he would join a club, attend a training camp or possibly sign up with a coach.
2) Plan races better, do more of them and have an overall objective
“I chose races based on what my friends were doing and so ended up doing an eclectic mixture of short to long-distance events with a couple of marathons and duathlons thrown in.” This resulted in a lack of focus in his training and reduced race-day performance.
If he were to do the year again he would pick races based on his objective to complete an ironman event in the not too distance future. This would mean more longer distance races (despite the additional cost), sensibly spread through the season and booked long in advance. He would do as many as possible for motivation and to make sense of the long hours of training.
3) Be less afraid of longer distances
Alex found his biggest problem in triathlon was the periods immediately following the two transitions, swim to bike and bike to run. To his surprise (and relief) this problem didn’t scale with the length of the event. Whatever the distance there are still only two transitions and the longer the race, the less significant they were. However, Alex has yet to test this theory at ironman distance.
“The other advantage with longer races is that the swim is often proportionally less of the total,” says Alex.
4) Give up football
“I tried to keep up my weekly kick-around, but it wasn’t working. I just got injured. I think my football career has a seriously short shelf-life but I can imagine myself still competing in triathlon in 20 years time.”
5) Improve nutrition and add core strengthening programme
Alex suspects losing a little weight would boost performance and, although he wouldn’t make any radical changes, he thinks he would have benefitted from paying a little more attention and reducing his fat intake.
He would also pay more attention to core strength and overall flexibility to help keep injuries at bay, and he thinks he should have included sport specific strength exercises such as hill sprints in his training.
If you’re about to embark on a triathlon journey hopefully you’ll benefit from Alex’s experience. Be warned however, the sport is surprisingly addictive. Despite his mistakes, Alex admits to being inspired by his first year in triathlon and totally motivated to carrying on.
Permanent link to this post (622 words, 1 image, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)
Do you plan your winter as meticulously as your summer? During the northern hemisphere summer many triathletes’ schedules are determined by the racing calendar (and if not, they probably should be). Over the winter it’s easy to let things slip.
Date: 15 August 2010
