One of the reasons I wanted to come back and race an Ironman in 2006 was to get acquainted will all the new advances in triathlon. As a coach I answer questions from all the athletes about training but I also answer questions on what to wear and on technical gear including bike components etc. As in any industry, triathlon and the buying trends of the consumers are influenced by marketing and advertising. This is true from bikes to run socks. I have to watch out for the fashion police. Over the past months I have been told I am old school about three times. Oh well, I'll take my old school results anytime.
There are a few things that have changed in swimming. I find that the old methods of pulling in the freestyle where you almost did an S to catch standing water are out. The new method is to pull more straight and with power. Catch up swimming which is also called front quarter swimming is also very in. The Australians took this method of swimming and beat everyone at long distances. I do a lot of catch up or almost catch up swimming in training. The other trend is also to train on a base rest interval rather than on a send off interval. This way you recover appropriately between swims instead of having to push harder to get more rest. I actually combine them both depending on what I want to do. Finally swim gear has made some improvements. Swim apparel companies developed special suits that make you go faster. I juts tried the one made by TYR and I went 4 seconds faster per hundred in the pool. I will definitely wear one on my next no wetsuit race. Wetsuits have not really changed much in my opinion. Almost all the top styles from each company go about as fast. One thing that I do notice is that the rubber gets old and one has to buy a new one every few years. Old rubber does not float as much and you will not go as fast.
The bike part of our sport has changed quite a bit, from gear to training methods. However I am not so sure how much of it translates to a faster bike split. Let’s start with the bike itself. In the early 90’s I rode a 23 pound steel bike and broke 5 hours on the Kona bike course. Now I have a carbon fiber 17 pounds bike that costs more than my used car. Am I going to even come close to my PR in an Ironman? I doubt it. Yes some of it is my age but you get my point. I bet that if you put a steel bike on Faris and make sure it fits him he will still do fine. Other new things on the bike like compact crank sets and more gears are great. Older triathletes can now spin without having to get a triple crank set. This is now the norm but my old 6 speed bike went fast as well. Aero bars now come in many sizes and shapes but the aero position remains the same. Wheels are now lighter and stronger and you have unlimited choices, but the disc wheel remains king. There are some improvements here for sure but nothing to make a huge difference I think. The biggest new trend on the bike is the use of power meters. Just the other day one of our athletes sent me an email that included writing by a coach that now will not coach anyone that does not have a power meter. I will bet he sells them too. I have read and studied some of the power training talk and I just do not buy it for non drafting and particularly for long distance triathlon. I think that it is a great tool for periodic testing and to track performance and progress but it is getting over used I think. Just like I do not wear a GPS monitor when I run to tell me my pace every second, I do not want a power meter to tell me how much power I am putting out all the time. I just want to train and not worry about my pace or output all the time. How did Mark and Dave do so well in Kona without any of these gadgets eh?
The run is still the run; its simplicity makes it the best sport for really knowing who is who. No technology involved. You just have to put one foot in front of the other as fast as possible. It is raw. Yes there are new shoes, hydration packs and few small gadgets. But it will be your training that will make you go fast. Nutrition which I will cover next influences the run more than anything else.
When I started in triathlon there were not many choices for nutrition; in a way that made things simpler. You just took what was there and keep on moving. Now days there are hundreds of companies marketing products with claims that they will help you. The problem now is that it is impossible to tell what works and what is marketing vs. reality. As a coach I think I have a handle on this and I may write an article on this soon. However, there is nothing full proof. The fact is that your pacing and your training combine together with nutrition to have a good race. They all work together. The problem now as I do my races is that I have to bring my own stuff for the race. What a hassle! Maybe the old days of taking what is available on the race course were better; less stressful anyway. I just made sure I trained with the same thing before the race.
My last topic is fashion. More and more companies are producing triathlon wear. That is great. Outfitting the MarkAllenOnline team has made me sort of an expert on this. But again I still have a hard time trying to figure out what I want to wear at my races. In the old days I wore a Speedo. That was simple and I actually like it. One of our athletes who races pro and we hope will be a contender in Kona this year will wear a Speedo style briefs on the run. He is from South Africa so he can get away with it. But I would be laughed at if I did that in the US. Talk about a fashion faux paus. Still I really dislike wearing bike shorts on the run. I was told that the compression on the quads from the bike style shorts is good for the run, really? I may have to pull out some running shorts for the run, I would rather feel comfortable.
Training has been going ok. I forgot how much it hurts to run for over 2 hours. ouch! I will do an Olympic distance race this weekend. It should be a lot less stressull than last time. I got it all covered on the home front. I will also be racing the Vineman 70.3 in a couple of weeks. I will see what happens at Vineman were the distances are longer and there is a premium for having more endurance than power. See you at the races.