MAXIMISING OLYMPIC DISTANCE TRIATHLON PERFORMANCE ...

the race is critical. A good transition isessential to gain as many seconds aspossible.3.3 BikeI cycle about 400km per week with avariety of speed work, rolling hills, timetrials and strength work using thehinterland. The aim is to get the miles inthe legs. The triathlon distance isalways 40km - not a great distance for acycle race, but the shorter the race thegreater the speed and the higher thelevel of skill required in taking turns andsitting on a wheel. The technical natureof the courses has meant that I do drillpractice to improve the technicalaspects of my bike handling.Now drafting brings higher levels ofdanger, faster racing, but with someopportunity for physical relief whentaking a wheel. In the future, when thepack is racing and it becomes evenmore “cut throat”, I think we will seemore cycling surges and countersurges,especially from those withweaker run legs. There is now littleopportunity for a sole cyclist to stay infront of the pack since triathletes arebecoming proficient racing cyclists. It isthat part of the race which now carrieswith it the most tactics.3.4 Bike RunThis is critical as the legs are the centreof attention in both the bike and the runbut used in entirely conflicting ways. Itrain for this transition each week whichis imperitave to my overall performance.It is difficult to achieve this havingcoaches for each discipline.3.5 RunOne will argue this is the most criticaland it seems this is the discipline wherethere can be the greatest diversity ofopinion in training. Some will work onthe basis of the more you do, the betteryou get. If this is the case I can get a lotbetter. I generally run about up to 70kmper week when other successful athleteswill train up to 100km to 140km perweek. Perhaps as the sport evolvesmaximising performance will be in thelatter range.The 10km run leg comes after75minutes of swimming and cycling athigh intensity. I instinctively run intorhythm, adopt the right posture and try tokeep my leg speed up and just run fast.This is something that I concentrate onduring training. There is little time tothink – maximising performance is areflection of adequate training. If I get ina position to finish high in the field mymental attitude will naturally increase.There is often not much time for tactics.It is a case of running as fast as you can,reaching into the bank of training milescumulated from the years before.3.6 Weights and resistance trainingand stretchingMy personal view is that weight trainingwould be advantageous in maximisingperformance. But there is some debateabout whether the performance wouldbe maximised from an additionalsession of weights. Perhaps the timewould be better spent doing anotherswim/bike/run session. My regularprograms do not include weight training,with the development of strength comingfrom general training sessions throughmountain and hill climbing work. Myonly experience with weight training wasprior to winning the Queensland SchoolsChampionships. This was over thesprint distance which gave me the edgeI needed for that day. I had been doing35