What’s Limiting Your Triathlon Performance?
Performance Limiters and What To Do About Them
If you are training for your first Ironman Distance Triathlon and I was giving you a choice of swim session, would you rather do 40 x 100m with 10s Rest Intervals or would you rather do 4 x 1000m with 1 min Rest Intervals? The majority of athletes generally would opt for the former, and this alone would tell your coach whether you were naturally comfortable with either endurance or shorter sessions/events. Most athletes train the way they like to train whereas the most successful athletes train the way they need to train.
What is limiting your triathlon performance? Is it skill, technique, strength, muscular endurance, power or pure endurance? Sit down and look at all the disciplines in a triathlon: swim; bike; run; transition and nutrition then take each of these constructs, be honest and mark yourself out of 10 for each one. You should start to see where your performance is being limited. Then get your coach or a friend or partner to do the same thing; do the scores match? If you are a novice triathlete who has signed up for an Ironman then it is safe to assume you are limited by firstly endurance and secondly skill, particularly, unless you come from a swim background, in the swim.
In the case of an athlete training for the Ironman swim of 3.8km then during the race specific build up period at least one session a week would need to be an endurance type set. This doesn’t mean jumping straight into the 4 x 1000m set, it could start with a main set of 3 x 400m and develop from there. Whereas I will always work to improve a Ironman athlete’s technique, ultimately come race day they need to swim 3800m as efficiently as possible so we have to do the endurance work.
Similarly, when looking at your bike ability opt initially for endurance work before moving to a muscular endurance phase. You need to be able to cycle 112 miles before you can cycle 112 miles quickly – and then run a marathon off the bike. When it comes to the run in an Ironman event it is an analogous story, as pure speed is almost never the limiter. What is required is a long build that safely enhances run endurance and speed through consistency of training.
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In an Ironman Triathlon once you have the ability to swim, cycle and run efficiently and aerobically then you possess the key constructs to put together a winning performance.
Interestingly enough, according to Brett Sutton, if Chrissie Wellington were asked the 40 x 100m versus 4 x 1000m question she would opt for the latter. Whether this is a like or a need I do not know – but as a 4 times Ironman World Champion she knows what works.
About The Author Neil Scholes
Neil is one of the most knowledgeable endurance coaches you'll ever be likely to meet, both in terms of qualifications and valuable experience. He's well into his second decade in the sport of triathlon and third decade as a competitive runner.
In recent years Neil has worked with Runners, from those looking to complete their first 5k through to Elites racing the Olympic Marathon, and Triathletes, from those looking to finish their first ever sprint event, through Age Group medallists at World Championships, Ironman Age Group winners to the Elite Squad at University of Bath.
As an accomplished Ironman triathlete, Neil races for Royal Navy Triathlon and has represented Great Britain at Age Group Level across various distances.
2013 sees him initially planning to run sub 3hrs at the Rotterdam Marathon, then competing in the 56 mile Comrades Ultra Marathon in South Africa in June before making his return to racing Ironman Triathlon.
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Interestingly as a novice triathlete who has only done 2x ‘novice’ events, I would have opted for the 4x 1000m option simply because I know I can easily swim 1000m (and even 2000m) without any break. I do it every morning (1x 1000) but feel it is only time restraints that stop me from swimming longer. The 1 min rest between 1000m sets would be a bonus.
Having said that, in my first 2 tri’s the swims were only 150m and 300m and I actually struggled due to the open water being much much cooler than the pool I had been training in!
Ironman? Still a long way to go!!
Alan, Many thanks for your comment. Within any swim routine we, like many coaches, would recommend three or four specific types of set. It looks like you have one covered and that is the long swim and that is great to see as so many people drop this on – even those going for the longer events. The other types of sessions are ones I think would benefit your training and goals and they are a technique session, an open water specific session and a session working on improving your speed. If you are swimming every morning then you could look to incorporate these sessions in your training in addition to ensuring that your overall training package, swim, bike, run, strength and conditioning, is consistent, specific to your event, progressive and lastly don’t forget fun! Happy training, Neil
Interesting article and comments. I am training for an Ironman and I have been mainly working on technique and speed this winter. I indeed have gained speed, but have the feeling that I am not able to maintain a proper technique when swimming longer sets. So what would be your advice, taking into account the fact that I can “only” make it twice to the swimming pool per week? Do one long swim session (around 4 km in total) and a mixed speed and technique session?
Raphael, holding onto your form in all three disciplines of a triathlon is not an easy thing to master but is important in order to stay efficient. In the open water of an Ironman swim ones ability to hold a “pretty” technically correct stroke for a few hundred metres is not what one requires. The calm benign nature of the pool does not replicate well the conditions you may experience and you must try and get a weekly open water session in. I will always recommend a minimum of three swim sessions a week, one endurance, one speed based and one technique based. In your case as you can only swim twice and as you have spent the off season working on your technique I would recommend one endurance swim building up to a TOTAL set distance of approx 4km (4 x 1km; 8 x 500m; 5 x 800m) and for your second swim I would recommend getting an open water session in practising deep water starts, beach starts, sighting, breathing to both sides. Let us know what Ironman you are training for and the type of course and we can be perhaps more specific. Good luck!
Hi Neil, thanks for your response ! I’m training for Challenge Vichy (France) end August. The swim part takes place in a lake, which is usually rather calm (no waves, no stream). Plus there is a lane on all the course, which you can follow as if you were in a pool. So orientation skills may not be as important as for other races, also taking into account that I am not very fast (it took me 1h30 for the 3.8 km last year) and can therefore just follow the mass.
I must confess that I did only a few open water swim sessions during my preparation last year and I realize I should do more of them.
Let’s assume I could fit a third (short – around 45 minutes) swim training session in my training schedule, what should it be? Speed or technique?
Hi Raphael, well if you can fit in three swims a week and if open water skills are not an issue at Challenge Vichy, couled with the fact you have completed the race previously then I would do one endurance swim, one speed session (based on your critical swim speed per 100m) and one technique session. If you post your 400m and 200m swim times I will post your critical swim speed per 100 that you should aim to hit in a speed type session.
Neil
Excellent site i’m intersted inside starting triathlon myself i wish to do the ironman or ironman 85. 3