An overlooked aspect of triathlon

Fitter, faster, stronger, leaner, more powerful, improved endurance. 

These are among the top words that triathletes will often use to describe what needs to happen in training over the course of a season in order to be more athletically successful. While structured, periodized training can help an athlete develop sport specific fitness, it's especially important to have sport specific skills. If proper skills are not practiced regularly in training, you may struggle to reach your athletic potential on race day - despite putting in the physical work.

Most triathletes are great at working out but when it comes to skill specific work, it's either overlooked, pushed aside or not valued. With an infatuation with metrics, distance and intensity, many triathletes overly obsess with gaining fitness only to find that skills don't match fitness. Without a proper skill set, there's a lot left on the table when it comes to performing at your best on race day. This is why it's important for triathletes to appreciate all the little things that can help you excel on race day. It's not just about arriving fit and not always does the fittest athlete win the race.

Earlier this week our athlete Melanie traveled 8 hours for a 2-day private training camp in Greenville, SC. We are lucky to have a perfect playground for outdoor training and suitable weather almost all year long. We have been coaching Melanie for nearly three years and it's been incredible to see her progress. Three years ago she was afraid to ride outside in her aerobars. The bike was major weakness. Now she is impressing us with her great bike handling skills, terrain management and new cycling strength. During her camp we worked out a lot of important bike skills and put those skills to the test with 2 x 2 hour, hill focused, technical rides.

Similarly in the pool, we saw an athlete who once found it exhausting to swim, to now being able to complete swim workouts with great swimming posture. And now she can better run to her potential.

Because there's still plenty of room for growth, Melanie came to us for the opportunity to continue to work on her triathlon skills. She does the work at home but to improve, it can't just be about the training hours. For when she trains at home (and races), she wants to make sure her skills match her level of fitness.

Sadly, for many athletes this is not the case. When was the last time you practiced race specific skills in a training session? For example, let's walk through the skills that you will use on triathlon race day:

• Having experience in race day gear/equipment
• Day before race day nutrition
• Race morning nutrition 
• Visualization 
• Warming up
• Entering/exiting the water
• Sighting
• Swimming next to other triathletes
• Transitioning from swim to bike
• Mounting/dismounting your bike
• Changing your gears
• Passing other riders
• Taking in sport nutrition throughout the duration of your ride
• Changing a flat tire/dealing with mechanical issues
• Working through the highs and lows of racing
• Riding in the wind
• Climbing/descending skills
• Cornering/u-turns
• Paying attention to your surroundings on an unfamiliar course
• Transitioning from bike to run
• Pace management
• Terrain management
• Taking in sport nutrition throughout the duration of your run
• Working through GI issues/side stitches
• Being able to maintain good form under fatigue
• Running on different surfaces
• Mental skills used throughout the race

These are just a handful of "skills" that you will use on race day. If your primary focus is checking off a workout on your training plan (however/wherever you can complete it), obsessing over metrics, trying to make "race weight" or only focusing on distance completed, there's a good chance that you are not working on your skills. And let's remember that nerves, anxieties, worries, competition and pressure will make it much more difficult to perform at your best - with great skills - even if on paper, your fitness is exactly where it needs to be on race day.

I encourage you to always look for ways that you can work on your race day skills in training (ex. a skills camp). Don't assume that come race day, everything will magically work out. If you have race day worries, fears or anxieties, make the effort to work on your race day skills to gain confidence (and safety) for race day.

When you are in a competitive environment, what should be a simple task such as changing a flat tire, putting on your bike helmet, making a u-turn on the bike, grabbing a sport bottle, sighting in the open water and staying calm around others can be extremely difficult. It's not that these basic skills are difficult to learn but there's a big difference between learning a skill and performing the skill consistently well when you are racing, under fatigue, not thinking at your best, feeling pressure and in a competitive scenario.

Race day readiness is much more than being fit. Checking off workouts or reaching race weight means absolutely nothing if you can't execute sport specific skills in performance situations.

Are you working on your race day skills in training?

The 2017 Trimarni Triathlon Skills Camp is finally here!

When I started the sport of triathlon back in 2006, I was extremely dedicated to training my body to prepare for the sports of swimming, biking and running. I was obsessed with accomplishing specific workouts, at a certain pace/speed, while tracking my progress through completed distance/time. If I was swimming, biking or running faster than before, I thought I was improving. If I could cover more distance than a previous workout, I thought I was improving. With improvements, I thought I was becoming a "better" triathlete.

Eventually, I realized that this was a false sense of security of my athletic worthiness. While I did improve my fitness, it was only a matter of time before I found myself injured. My body was struggling. But like many athletes, when I was able to train again, I kept doing the same things over and over, hoping for a different result.

Although triathlon success continued to come my way through hard work and determination, I felt like I was always working so much harder than I should be working. While my work ethic and motivation was high, I never felt like I was making those big performance improvements to match my big dedication to training.

Something was missing. 

When we moved from Jacksonville, FL to Greenville, SC in May 2014, I found myself training on a very  new terrain. The terrain was challenging. Very challenging. At times, it scared me. I would often tell Karel "there's no way I can train here!"

With Ironman Austria and Ironman Wisconsin on my race schedule during the summer of 2014, I knew I had to face my fears and get outside and train. It was noticeable to me that my body was getting stronger and more resilient due to the new training stressors (hills), but I had no idea that with every workout, I was forced to improve my skills - whether I liked it or not. For the first time ever, I was focusing more on form, skills and perceived effort (and safety) than miles, pace, heart rate and power. I wasn't able to "zone out" and just bike or run but instead, I had to constantly stay present in what I was doing with my body. With every hill, turn and bump in the road, I finally understood the importance of having great biking and running skills to help me perform to my true athletic capabilities. 

Needless to say, when I went to Ironman Austria, I shocked myself with a huge Ironman PR - without changing my training, I was riding stronger than ever. Twelve weeks later, I went on to qualify for Kona (with Karel) at Ironman Wisconsin. With it being my second time racing on the IMWI course, I felt SO much more prepared for the challenging bike terrain, not to mention feeling more resilient on the run.

It was evident that improving my skills was the key to unlocking some untapped fitness in my body!

Without a doubt, moving near the mountains has been the missing link to my training. It's also made training SO much more fun. As you probably know, I absolutely love training in Greenville, SC. Although I am racing faster, stronger and smarter than ever before, I contribute so much of my physical improvements to improving my swim/bike/run skills.

I have the skills to swim better in open water thanks to lake swimming.
I have the skills to bike better thanks to our rolling hills, steep mountains, punchy climbs, bumpy roads, sharp turns and fast descends.
I have the skills to run better thanks to lots of hills to climb and to descend on.

Although I was forced to improve my skills so that I could train safe, happy and effectively in my new training environment, I knew that if Karel and I could bring other triathletes to our triathlon playground, they could also have the chance to embrace fears and to build confidence in order to perform better in training and on race day. Above all, improved skills brings more enjoyment for the sport of triathlon.

This was a long time coming but we are so excited that finally, we have our first skills camp here in Greenville, SC. Starting tomorrow, for 2.5 days, we will provide our campers with a lot of information, education and hands-on work to make triathlon training/racing more productive, effective, safe and fun.