I once heard Joe Montana, famous quarterback for the 49er's, speak about "setting up a game" for the 4th
quarter.
He referred to strategies, for the first 3 quarters of the game, like:
1-ensuring that he hadn't
had his offensive-linemen on the field too long
2-making sure that the
running game was balanced w/ the passing game
3-always trying to be sure
that he didn't leave his team's DEFENCE in poor field position
4-and, yet, ALWAYS having a play or two that had yet to be used that he could
"pull out" at just the right moment to win the game.
Joe Montana would've made a great triathlete
because good triathletes understand the art of "positioning" themselves for great races.
Let me explain.
Often, I'll have an
athlete in a clinic or 1-on-1 who laments that his/her "weakness" is
the run.
To which I respond: "Tell me about your cycling." After a moment of strange looks and
uncomfortable silence a smile will break as, now, the athlete stops looking at
the "tree" and begins to see the "forest". That is, they
begin to see the run as a part of the race as a whole and not an isolated leg.
TRImyCoach athletes have often heard us preach the mantra:
"It's not how fast you run, but how
fast you run OFF the BIKE."
They now know, it is simply a practice in
'positioning'.
So how
to position oneself, optimally, to run out of T2
after a race-effort bike ride?
We teach our athletes 5
ways in which to do this. (Three that are cycling related,
and 2 that are run related.) These areas deal with:
1-Bike fit
2-Gear choice
3-Cadence
4-Stride mechanics
5-Pacing
1-Bike Fit:
When I see the "bike
fits" (how one's positioned on
their bike) that some people have, it's quite easy to see that a
well-intentioned bike shop has fit them. In other words, it IS, in fact the
best bike fit for optimal speed on the bike.
"Well," you may
ask, "isn't that the point? To be positioned to go as fast as possible on
the bike?" Hardly!
For example, what if we
'fit' you on your bike in such a way that you could split 30 seconds FASTER
on the bike-portion of a race BUT this came at the expense of running
Ideal bike fit, for a fast & efficient bike AND
run 'combo'-split, ensures that your
seat's position is neither too far back nor too far forward. With a seat
that's jammed back, the knees will travel too close to the chest while
you are in the aero-bars. Not only can this be uncomfortable on the bike, but
it can make for a long, uncomfortable run as well.
It's VERY hard to get
'going' on the run after having your knees push pedals from your chest for
several miles prior.
At the other extreme, I've
seen triathletes who were jammed too far forward,
for the sake of getting a "tri" bike which will deter their run
efforts just as much. In this example, the workload of pedaling fatigues a SINGLE
muscle group more than others. In essence, the responsibility for
wattage output isn't evenly distributed over a whole RANGE of muscles.
By the time this triathlete gets to the run, they feel good, except
for that ONE muscle-group that has long exclaimed: "No more!"
"BALANCE" is the key to bike fit. Balance in your fore/aft seat positioning. Balance
in your bar-height aggressiveness on the front end of your bike. Even
"balance" in how wide or narrow you position your arms on the bike.
It's this balance
that leads us (the TRImyCoaches) to favor tri-bikes
that offer a range of seat fore/aft adjustability. I've tested seat positions at every
imaginable degree. Some are faster for the bike…but hamper the run. Some work
well for the run...but leave you starting that run well behind of
"ideal-race-pace" off the bike.
We believe that a good
tri-bike should be flexible enough to match the athlete's body and bike-run
needs. NOT that one should attempt to mold their body onto a bike’s fixed
position. In other words, MATCH THE BIKE
TO THE BODY, NOT THE BODY TO THE BIKE and you will ''position'' yourself for
optimal efficiency for a greater percentage of the race.
2 & 3-Gear Choice & Cadence:
I group these two together
because they, really, go hand in hand. If you try to push a gear that's too big
the cadence will slow. While, if your cadence is too high you're probably not
in a big enough gear.
Studies have been done on
optimal "footstrikes per minute" of some of
the world’s greatest runners. The findings show that,
almost regardless of distance, that
the optimal footstrikes per minute of elite runners
is 180 footstrikes
per minute.
Likewise, optimal cycling
cadence measured in rpm (revolutions per minute) is said to be 90rpm.
Now realize that one RPM is each
foot taking a pedal stroke. So, in reality, 90rpm equates out to, you
guessed it, 180 pedal
strokes.
Hmm, 180 pedal strokes per
minute AND 180 footstrikes per minute are BOTH
optimal. See any correlation?
This is "case in
point" for the triathlete who says, "I like to push BIG GEARS!"
What they don't say is "…and I do
it at 70-75 rpm". [ Usually, this person has
the equipment to prove it. On their bike is a giant 56-tooth chain ring.]
And their bike-split may
in fact be very fast but more often than not, it won’t be as fast as
their gearing/cadence has COST them before they ever put on
the shoes to run.
· NOTE: A recent study at the The researchers
summarized: "Run
stride frequency is based on neural firing rates, and neural firing rates
are dependent on 'prior-task-patterns'.
In this case, those 'prior-task-patterns' were cycling
cadence."
4-Stride Mechanics:
"Stride
mechanics" refers to what running FORM
one employs in running off the bike. The tendency is to heel-strike, take big, long
strides and match the run-cadence to the cycling-cadence that was used just
minutes before.
Instead, realize the
objective is to get your "RUN-LEGS" underneath you as
quickly as possible. Remember your first triathlon? Remember what it felt like
to run after riding the bike hard? It was like a different sport altogether,
not running at all!!
The longer the stride you
try to take, the more your footstrike occurs IN FRONT
of your body's centerline. And this is called 'putting on the brakes'.
Instead, you want to feel
like you're tip-toeing out of T2 on your forefeet taking very short strides.
The stride length (& speed) will come but only in a medium of the ideal footstrike cadence.
And,
again, you can "set-up" that run cadence by choosing the SAME cadence
on the bike before the run ever begins. Now you’re positioning yourself for a
great race!!
5-Pacing:
When we discuss the aspect
of "pacing" a race, we're not just referring to your pacing during
the run or even on the bike but also the swim. "Pacing" refers to how
you "set-up" the entire race.
The objective, here, is to spread the effort out as
EVENLY as possible through the whole event. This is precisely why I DON'T
recommend racing with a heart-rate monitor in sprint races.
Obviously, heart-rate is
going to be lower early in the race (& on the bike) which could tell you to
push harder at intensities that are, already very high, despite several
variables like:
-the course itself,
-the day's conditions, or
-the competition you're
racing that day.
Instead, I recommend that
you develop a "feel" for
Sprint and Olympic distance races…one where your pacing is allowing you to BUILD into that final half-mile of the
run. More people slip from their "ideal race" in the final minutes that
at any other time.
However, I DO recommend wearing a
heart-rate-monitor in Half-Iron and Iron Distance races. These are
race-durations that the monitor can HELP w/ pacing. And
"pacing" at these distances is CRUCIAL to success!!
· NOTE: A study at the US Army Research
Institute concluded that: "If you were an athlete that competes in
events that last longer than 1 hour, it's clear that you should avoid fast
starts completely. Studies carried out with marathon runners suggest that
whenever they began races at a pace that was JUST 2% faster than their average for the marathon, they
struggle in the final 6 miles of the event."
Of course, the art of
"pacing" in a Tri is much harder. There simply aren't mile markers to
tell you to speed-up or slow down. And
you're pacing 3 different events and their relationship to one another.
This is where developing a
'self-systems-check'
(to be done every 3 minutes of the race) can be handy. In this check you can
self-assess things like:
-Am I hydrating?
-Am I overheating?
-What's my perceived
exertion?
-How do my legs feel?
-Do I have another
"gear" left in me?
-Am I setting myself up
for a fast finish?
...and most importantly:
"What
would Joe Montana do?"
For more information on
the TRImyCoach.com
training programs, you can visit our website at www.TRImyCoach.com
References:
1-Medicine and
Science in Sports and Exercise, vol 34 (9), pp
1518-1522, 2002
2-Running
Research News, vol 12(5), pp 1, 5-7. 1996