Away race checklist

Anyone travelling to a race abroad may want to think about all the stuff they need to take.  Here’s the F4L Coaching checklist for travelling to a race overseas:

Documents:

  • Passport
  • Driving Licence
  • Foreign Money
  • English Money
  • Airline tickets / vouchers

Packing the bike (in the bike box should be): Continue reading

Pre-race checklist

Here’s the F4L Coaching checklist of things to bring with you for a Triathlon:

For the swim:

  • Swim suit or Tri suit
  • Goggles (comfort and leak proof tested)
  • Swim Cap (often provided by race but take a spare)
  • Wetsuit for open water swim events (Unless you’re racing Kona, Hawaii)
  • Vaseline or some other anti-chafing substance for wetsuit, shoes, costume etc

For the bike:

  • Helmet (required by the British Triathlon rules)
  • Padded cycling shorts or Tri Shorts
  • Sunglasses (hey, you got to look good – but it also keeps the flies out your eyes!)
  • Water Bottles – err… best if these are full of drink for before, during and after the race
  • Continue reading

The importance of understanding Tapering

Tapering is a key factor in any Triathlete’s training plan, well any athlete’s plan for any sport come to that.  Whilst tapering for a triathlon may appear complicated compared to a single discipline such as running, the general scientific principles still apply.

Tapering is simply a reduction in the training load for a certain period of time prior to an event.  The purpose of tapering is to promote full recovery, and adaptation to, the preceding training, thereby optimising performance on the big day.

The training load should be truncated by reducing the frequency, intensity and/or volume of your training.  The amounts of these reductions will depend on the individual athlete’s normal training volume, frequency and intensity.

Continue reading

Eight technique tips that will make such a difference

Swim efficiently and more focused not harder…

Many triathletes don’t have the opportunity to invest in a good swim coach to look at and correct their strokes.  The next best thing is often a training partner or a well-to-do friend who wants to help.  When a faster athlete is swimming at the same time there may be the opportunity copy them or use the swim tips page from your favourite tri-magazine.

The difficulty for the self-coached athlete is that there are so many different parts of the frontcrawl stroke that it becomes impossible to copy or select the right fault to correct… what you think you are doing may not be what you are actually doing… where do you start, “Is my catch ok, how about the push phase, do I go all the way back, am I crossing the centre line, do I rotate my hips, am I kicking from the hips, where should I be looking… oh my goodness my stroke feels like an unfolded lawn chair!” Continue reading

Upcoming Swim & Bike technique sessions

F4L Coaching will be running several sessions in the coming weeks.  These will include:

Swim Technique Sessions (2 options)

  • Series of 3 sessions with video feedback (max 4 people) **FULL**
  • Series of 3 sessions (max 10 people)  **LIMITED SPACE**

Cycling technique Sessions

  • Series of 3 sessions

Continue reading

Track Session

There will be a track session on Saturday 25th February – the session will last about an hour – 9:45am until 11am.

The session will be at the track at Amble, which is 200m behind the play area, swings and skate park, next to the high school – link to the map here.  (park on Acklington Road or in the high school)

There will be a good warm up / technique stuff / bit of harder work / cool down – will Continue reading

Special offer for the 2012 season

“If you do what you have always done… you’ll get what you have always got!

F4L Coaching are offering the opportunity to sign up to a coaching plan (with a discount) to get the best out of yourself as a Triathlete…

Athletes come to a coach in search of a plan, that little ‘je ne sais quoi’ that will help them to achieve their ambition. Well, the reality is, there is no single magic formula. Everyone is different. There is an individual formula for everyone.

There are three things that I believe are essential to making progress in Triathlon: consistency, recovery and the structure and balance to your training. I believe Continue reading

Base Training – What is it?

When planning athletes’ seasons or even multi-seasons I liken it to painting a picture.  The picture won’t be complete until you complete your ‘A’ race.  So, where do we start?

With a blank canvas of course…

The base period is the foundation of a triathlon training program, when you build the fitness, strength and skill to reach the finish line of your race. During the base phase you build the most important skills for triathlon: cardiovascular endurance, strength, technique and fuel economy. Training intensity is predominantly (but absolutely not entirely) low in the base training phase so you can safely build your overall training volume without injury. Continue reading

Spring Swim Technique Sessions

F4L Coaching Spring Swim Technique Sessions (*SESSIONS NOW FULL*).  F4L Coaching are going to be running a series of swim technique sessions through February / March 2012.

There are TWO options:

1.  F4L Coaching encourage you to attend a set of 3x 1 hour sessions: each consisting of 1 swim analysis session with video feedback (including underwater footage) and then 2 swim technique sessions working on the technique errors from the 1st session. Continue reading

Its all about the big picture

Consistent training is arguably the most important factor in the development of any triathlete. In my view it is and certainly provides the key which unlocks a triathlete’s potential.

How do you make certain that you train consistently and continuously develop over time? Volume of training is one aspect; quality of that training is another. It is not just about putting together a couple of weeks, or even months but over many years? Let us begin by looking at why training falters, what stops athletes training?

INJURY – We all have them. Some occur due to a specific incident: bike crash, running along a path and turning an ankle etc. However, in my experience triathletes have a tendency to over-train and that is a recipe for disaster. Overuse injuries can occur as a result of doing too much too soon, or not getting enough recovery during high intensity periods of training; Continue reading