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Training for Efficiency
To be a successful Ironman athlete you need Endurance, strength and then speed. On top of this you need to be Efficient. If you lack efficiency in any of the three disciplines no amount of training will give you the endurance, strength and speed required to be a successful Ironman athlete.
Swimming requires the greatest amounts of time to be devoted to developing an efficient stroke. The winter period is a good time to focus a large proportion of training in developing efficiency on the bike and run. Naturally if you become more efficient on the bike and run you will be able to bike and run longer, faster and with less effort. When you look at the professionals racing they always look like they are moving along effortlessly. Peter Reid is a good example of a guy who when he races he never looks like he is moving along that fast. Yet his IM run splits are the fastest in the world at the Hawaii Ironman. This comes down to him being such an efficient runner.
In the past I have come to realize the benefits on working on my stroke in the pool. Relentlessly working on drills has refined my freestyle into a long and effortless stroke which enables me to produce a sub 1hour IM swim time with very little swim training. I will now apply this same strategy to my bike training and run training.
On the bike I will look at producing a pedal stroke that will become effortless at the speed I desire to achieve (ie av sp 36kph). By developing an efficient pedal stroke you will benefit greatly when riding into headwinds, up hills and towards the end of the IM bike leg. For the run the same principles apply. I’ll work on running as efficiently as possible. This will benefit me in terms of running strong when I’m tired and especially towards the end of an IM run leg.
Training for the Ironman is not just about getting out there and doing it everyday. To be good at it you need to refine the finer details on how to be a successful athlete. Addressing the efficiency in the swim, bike and run is one way of improving your overall ability to maximize your training. Get out there and drill away.
Fluro
Swimming requires the greatest amounts of time to be devoted to developing an efficient stroke. The winter period is a good time to focus a large proportion of training in developing efficiency on the bike and run. Naturally if you become more efficient on the bike and run you will be able to bike and run longer, faster and with less effort. When you look at the professionals racing they always look like they are moving along effortlessly. Peter Reid is a good example of a guy who when he races he never looks like he is moving along that fast. Yet his IM run splits are the fastest in the world at the Hawaii Ironman. This comes down to him being such an efficient runner.
In the past I have come to realize the benefits on working on my stroke in the pool. Relentlessly working on drills has refined my freestyle into a long and effortless stroke which enables me to produce a sub 1hour IM swim time with very little swim training. I will now apply this same strategy to my bike training and run training.
On the bike I will look at producing a pedal stroke that will become effortless at the speed I desire to achieve (ie av sp 36kph). By developing an efficient pedal stroke you will benefit greatly when riding into headwinds, up hills and towards the end of the IM bike leg. For the run the same principles apply. I’ll work on running as efficiently as possible. This will benefit me in terms of running strong when I’m tired and especially towards the end of an IM run leg.
Training for the Ironman is not just about getting out there and doing it everyday. To be good at it you need to refine the finer details on how to be a successful athlete. Addressing the efficiency in the swim, bike and run is one way of improving your overall ability to maximize your training. Get out there and drill away.
Fluro
posted by Paul Fleuren at 8:55 pm
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