Ah, the triathlon racing season is over – at least for most of us. Regardless of how you placed at the races, I hope the season has been personally rewarding for everyone.

At some level, I’m certain all of you already have some goals for next season. Perhaps you noticed one of your skills is significantly less developed than the other two and you’ve decided you are going to do something about it next season. Maybe you’ve made it a goal of yours to get some help improving your swimming, or getting more comfortable and more confident on your bike or working on your running technique so you you’ll be able to get off the bike and really run rather than just survive. However, a lot of you are probably thinking of tying these goals into your New Year’s Resolutions, right?

You may feel a little tired, a little burned out right now. It’s darker longer, it’s getting cold outside, your body has regeneration on its mind – it’s hibernation time! You might be thinking “Hey, I worked hard all season, I’m looking forward to November and December and the holidays – they are my reward. I finally get to take some time off, enjoy the holidays and eat lots of good food.” Well, many people tend to acquire some, ah, “energy reserves” during this time of year from the decrease in training and the increase in the availability of tasty food. Instead, why not acquire a reserve of efficiency that will become your armor for the next racing season?

But why wait until January to begin tackling your 2008 goals? Why not start now? I’m not suggesting you jump back into your structured training with the intense intervals, the long workouts, the difficult strength sessions. I’m asking, why not just put an hour or so a week toward improving one facet of your triathlon “game?” You’ll still be able to take time off from training, enjoy the holidays and eat tasty food. So, why now, you ask? Well, I’ll gladly explain.

Your body is fatigued to some degree after a season of training and racing. It wants and needs to regenerate for a while before you ask it to start up again with a structured, intense, workout regimen. Your mind needs a bit of a break from the many hours of training and the discomfort some of the tougher training created. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a tremendous improvement in any of the skills over the next two months. In fact, this is the PERFECT time of year to create the efficient technique you’ve always wanted! When, during your in-season training, do you actually take the time or have the patience to devote your effort solely to improving your efficiency? Probably never. That’s why now, precisely when you aren’t doing any structured training, is the best time of all. There is no pressure to go out and do any tough workouts. You aren’t at the mercy of the clock and the second hand - which always moves more quickly than you want it to. Now is the time to keep the body moving gently so you are still active but actively recovering.

So, what would be more gentle than a quick dip in the pool to do some drills and hone or even re-create your swimming technique? How about a gentle 25 minute jog including some really short, focused drills to work on perfect form? Why not go out with a few friends on an easy spin, stop off at the soccer fields and do a couple biking drills to really sharpen your skills and gain some confidence?

Efficient technique is the foundation of success in every sport there is! Why do we ignore this in workouts and won’t take a few minutes to work on our technique? We should all be spending more time creating and developing better technique and spending less time on miles and workouts that don’t, in some way, contribute to improving our efficiency.

If you spend just 20-30 minutes a few times a week over the next two months, you’ll be amazed by what you can achieve. Focusing on technique drills for just those few minutes, over the course of two months, can carve more minutes off your triathlon time than an entire season of training and racing!!!

Let’s talk about some specific things you can do to put this time of the year to great use.

If your Achilles heel is the swim, ask your masters swim coach, your current triathlon coach or a friend who is a good swimmer to critique your swimming form and give you just three aspects of your swimming to work on - the entry, the catch, the kick, breathing, the recovery phase, the pull phase, your body position – whatever! (Of course, the best scenario would be for them to video you and show you exactly what they see so you can see it as well!) Ask them to show you a few drills you can practice for each of the things they mention. Then, a few times a week, work it into your schedule to stop by the pool either before work, on your lunch break, on your way home, between weekend errands or chores. You aren’t going there to do a workout – you are simply going to swim a couple minutes to loosen up and then practice, with great focus, a few of the drills you were shown. You also don’t need to work on all three things every time – mix it up a little. Alternate doing a drill or two for each aspect of your swimming you wish to improve with doing several drills for just one aspect of your swimming. When you’re done with your few minutes of drills, just swim an easy few minutes (or 50s) with a keen emphasis on just one of the things you were working on.

I guarantee, if you practice consistently for just a few minutes a few times a week for two months, you will see a very nice improvement in your technique – something you can carry into your next season of training. And won’t it feel great to put in all those thousands of yards of swimming next year practicing your improved technique rather than ingraining your old, in-efficient technique?

If your biking lacks confidence, if you don’t feel comfortable on the bike, this would be the perfect time to seek some assistance improving any aspect of your cycling. The foundation for cycling is a really comfortable position. If you aren’t comfortable on the bike, you aren’t going to be producing the power output you are potentially capable of. You’ll be too distracted by the discomfort of the position. So, go to your local bike shop and ask around for a bike fitting expert – someone who works with triathletes or time-trialists. They’ll surely be able to recommend someone. Or, if you want to pull out all the stops, go see Dr. Massimo Testa at TOSH in Salt Lake City. He probably has more experience fitting people to their trusty racing bikes than anyone in Utah (or the United States, for that matter).

One way or the other, have the expert tinker with your position while you are riding your bike on a trainer and work at it until you are comfortable – not until they say you look good but until YOU feel comfortable. The aerodynamics of your position on the bike are irrelevant if you aren’t comfortable. When you’re pleased with the fit, it is time to learn how to trust your new position and gain some confidence in your ability to handle the bike properly.

Go out for a short, easy ride with at least one other person. Ride around for about 10-15 minutes and finish at a park or a soccer field – anywhere you can ride on a flat length of grass. Start by riding side by side as slowly as you can in a straight line on the grass – slowest person wins. Then, ride up and back a few times and each time ride a little closer to the person or people you are with – until you are almost touching. Then, still riding slowly on the grass in a straight line, while riding in your drops, bullhorns or hoods, gently flare your elbow so you touch the elbow of the person riding next to you. After a few lengths of this, try touching shoulders together – not bumping, touching. When you’ve tried that for a few lengths, still on the grass with your hands on your bars, try leaning on each other. Last but not least, as you ride side by side, take turns trying to “herd” each other off the straight line with as much arm and shoulder contact as possible – remember, no tackling. It is no fun to fall on a bike even if it is on grass.

When you are finished with these drills you can end the session by riding slowly behind each other and bumping your front wheel into their back wheel – both side on and straight on so you can feel what happens to your control wheel when you touch wheels with the person in front of you. This will teach you how to react without over-reacting – potentially saving you from a bad fall. The entire drill session only takes 15-20 minutes and you can always add or substitute different drills. You will be astounded by the boost in your biking confidence after just one session. Imagine how you’ll feel if you do this even once a week for a couple months?

Last but certainly not least, if your running is holding you back from a solid race performance, this is the best time of the season to tweak or even re-create your running technique. You will benefit a great deal from spending just thirty minutes with a running expert who can take a look at your form (or, better yet, video it so you can see it too!). A running coach, bio-mechanist or exercise physiologist with some background in kinesiology will do nicely. TOSH (in SLC or up in Park City) has the skilled staff and the equipment to get all of this done in a matter of minutes. The running expert will give you several aspects of your running technique to work on to gain greater efficiency and give you a few drills to achieve greater efficiency in these areas. Things as subtle as the way you hold your hands, the way you swing your arms, the curve of your lower back, how you hold your head, the angle of your chin, how your foot impacts the ground – can all have a dramatic effect on the way you run.

Armed with the drills and the knowledge of what you can work on to improve your efficiency, it would only take about 15 minutes a few times a week (outdoors or on a treadmill any time of day or night) to warm up and gently practice a few of these drills with a high degree of focus for a very short period of time. This consistent, focused, repetitious practice will ingrain a more effective, more relaxed, more efficient neuromuscular firing pattern which will result in faster speeds at a lower energy cost. Any time you can go faster while expending less energy than you did in the past, you are becoming more efficient!

I hope you’ll invest a few hours in yourself over the next couple months and give efficiency a chance to happen. Remember, it only takes a very small improvement in efficiency to drastically improve your triathlon performance. Have a great, productive autumn! - Marcel (www.MarcelVifian.com)

Thanks to Wicked Fast Sports Nutrition for the use of this artcle.

(www.wickedfastsportsnutrition.com )

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