SLEEP : A KEY TO SUCCESS

Nothing can be left to chance in high performance sport, and the importance of sleep cannot be underestimated. Effective rest is essential to aiding recovery and pre competition preparation. EIS physiologist Charlie Pedlar spoke to eis2win.co.uk about ways to improve your sleep…

Sleep is a complex physiological process that scientists are only just beginning to understand. We do know that when you are asleep, there is a clear alteration in the activity of the brain. There are also changes in the levels of some hormones, for example, growth hormone is released during the deeper stages of sleep. Sleep is described as a highly restorative process.

Studies where sleep is deprived of animals and humans show that there are plenty of negative effects caused by the sleep loss. For example, immune function is impaired by sleep loss, increasing the likelihood of infection. A famous study in 1989, where sleep was totally deprived from rats, reported that the rats all died within one month. Although the picture is a little different in humans, this shows the importance of getting plenty of good sleep.

We also know that exercise has a profound impact upon sleep. Up to a point, the more you ask your body to do in the day, the more sleep is required to recover. This is why endurance athletes in particular generally need more sleep. However, excessive exercise can actually disrupt sleep, so it is important to strike a balance.

Successful training, particularly for endurance sport, is a balance between physical work and subsequent recovery. It has been said that winning athletes are not those that train the hardest, but those who recover the most effectively. Training is all about recovery. Each training session causes damage to the body which must be repaired. Over time if recovery is inadequate, the body eventually breaks down.

Recent research has shown that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, which is the deepest stage of sleep but where the brain is most active, is essential for improving memory and learning, so this could be crucial for athletes learning complex tasks. ‘Power naps’ may also be effective in restoring mental alertness, although these do not offer the same restorative benefits as sleeping at night.

If you are getting good sleep then there is no need to try to improve it, however, some simple tips can often improve things where sleep is poor. For example, not training too late in the day, ensuring the bedroom is very dark and very quiet, and avoiding excessive caffeine intake and all help to promote good sleep. This is called good sleep hygiene.

By Ally Mcdonald

The Cardiac Drift Phenomena

Concerns for Triathlon

J D Beckinsale M.Sc

Introduction

You may be thinking about your first ultra endurance event*, ironman triathlon, adventure race, Etape or ultra marathon. Amazing, that just off the top of my head I came up with quite a solid list of events, which are designed to test the limits of human endurance. What’s even more amazing these events are not just completed by superhuman beings, they are completed by you and your buddy in the office working 40–50 hrs a week and hey, no afternoon snoozing! That’s superhuman.

* Ultra endurance is determined as an event lasting longer than 4hrs.

Trial and error

It may not be the smartest way to observe this area of human physiology; however I first came across the phenomena know as cardiovascular (CV) drift*, when I completed my first middle distance tri. Like most, I had worried about completing the whole event fist time around, so set myself a target heart rate to work at. During the run section I looked at my HR to find it was higher than I was expecting for the mile pace I was setting and my perceived exertion. I then slowed my running to the HR levels I had set prior to the start of the race, subsequently my mile pace slowed along with my half marathon time.

As a coach, I have investigated this CV drift phenomena and although it is not yet fully understood by sports physiologists, their studies have given me a much better understanding as to why my HR monitor lied to me that day.

*A slow but steady increase in heart rate (HR) is witnessed during prolonged endurance exercise at constant work rate for around 3–3.30hrs.

Don’t listen to the lies

Why will your HR monitor be lying to you? Basically, if you are running at a steady state, say 160bpm at 7.30 min mile pace for over an hour (up to about 3hrs), your heart rate will start to “drift” up, to say 166bpm, while maintaining the same 7.30 run pace. Because you are so disciplined with your training, you look down at your HR monitor and it’s registering the extra number of beats. You then think “I have to stick to my HR pace”, you slow down until back to your predicted steady state HR of 160bpm, in turn slowing your running to 8 min mile pace (hypothetically) and BAMB you never achieve you predicted race finish times.

Tip:

Be aware some studies have reported CV drift from 15 – 33 beats^.min^-1 but read on to find out how to limit it.

Importantly, if you train with your HR monitor over long distances and stick to your steady state HR parameters, the CV drift will ultimately have a detrimental effect on your long term preparation and you may never reach optimum performance. Understanding why CV drift occurs will help you prepare for racing better, thus achieving your potential.

The Big picture

After trawling through papers on triathlon performance etc, it is clear that ultra endurance triathlon needs further investigation. Therefore, I have also taken into consideration studies conducted with our single disciplined cousins of swimming, cycling and running and will present my findings from across all endurance sports related to triathlon.

CV drift appears to be caused by a progressive decrease in stroke volume (the amount of blood leaving the heart with each contraction), thus an increase in HR is required to maintain cardiac output during endurance events.

A number of studies have shown that CV drift is caused by dehydration and reduced fluid/ electrolyte replacement. One other factor related to CV drift is blood glucose levels (carbohydrate, once broken down), therefore the evidence is clear that optimal re-fuelling and energy replacement are vital in reducing the effects of the drift. Get those torq bars and carb drink in guys!

Reduce CV Drift

To reduce the effects of CV drift you simple have to reduce or, as much as possible, limit the amount of stress you place on your system during competition and training.

For example, in the last article on ironman preparation I mentioned gastric emptying* and how the speed of this emptying is determined through a number of different stimuli including; particle size, dietary fibre, meal volume, meal temperature and osmolality. It therefore makes total sense to do as much as we can to speed up this emptying process and we can do this by reducing the stress or energy (blood shifted from working muscles to gut in this case) required in digesting food stuff while competing. Furthermore, this can be limited by taking in/ eating smaller amounts (more often than larger) and chewing it for longer.

*This quite simply is the process of getting fuel into our blood stream and to our working muscles.

Tip:

Remember there are enzymes in our saliva which help break down carbohydrate, so chew your torq bars longer to utilise them.

If you look at the packaging of a sqeezy gel or most carbohydrate bars you will see that they require quite a lot of water (around 200ml) to help in digestion. If these levels are not met you are again placing undue stress on your body and will enter into dehydration.

As mentioned above, a further area to be aware of is the hydration and body temperature. As you know when we exercise (especially in heat) we get progressive water loss through sweating. When the body’s core temperature rises it causes a redistribution of blood to the periphery. Again, these actions cause a reaction, as blood is taken from the one place it is needed, the working muscles in cycling and running.

Be aware… if you or your athletes are completing an half ironman or ironman race and are spending more than average (slower times) amount of time completing a race, there is a greater possibility of hyponatraemia* (an extracellular sodium imbalance) this is where they are basically over drinking or ingesting too much fluid.

*Read Stephanie MacLean’s article on hyponatraemia at www.optimaracingteam.com

Now for a little twist

As Olympic and middle distance athletes you know that your HR may drift steadily upwards over the first 3 – 4hrs, known as cardiovascular drift. So what happens in Ultraendurance races of 4hrs or more?

It has been shown that over time intensity declines as a results of substrate shifts (increased fat use relative to carbohydrate) and neuromuscular fatigue by 6 – 7%. This in turn will show a decrease in heart rate leading to a downward cardiovascular drift. Again this process can be limited by correct re-fuelling, hydration and electrolyte homeostasis.

When an athlete is competing for over four hours and ultra endurance events lasting days, with very limited sleep (adventure racing and Sahara type marathons) neuromuscular fatigue starts to play a much bigger part (ironman shuffle!).

This fatigue leaves a lot to be desired with regard to economy of motion and is a far cry from the perfect running patterns of the 100/ 200m sprinter. Try to hold good form over the latter part of your race.

Tip:

Don’t fret if you are not a strong swimmer in ironman triathlon; just remember to be efficient with your energy while swimming (i.e. don’t panic) as it is only 10% of the overall triathlon time. Moreover, the swimming leg in triathlon has demonstrated a non-significant relationship with overall race performance.

Take drift out of the equation

The only way to know how hard we should be pushing ourselves during the bike section of a triathlon of any distance, but the longer we go the more important it becomes, is to use a power meter (Power Tap, SRM or Ergomo). It really is crazy how many triathletes spend thousands of pounds on bikes/ wheels and still do not use power meters. The effect the bike and wheels will have on your performance is negligible (it’s not about the bike!!!), however the return for your pound gained from using and understanding power meter and power is huge. More on this in the next article.

Conclusion

I have presented lots of information here, but if I know my audience well, good preparation is part of most multisport/ endurance athletes lives and hopefully you will now have superior preparation. CV drift will occur, but now that you are aware of it and know how to limit it, your actual race times should not be “drifting” away.

Just remember to practice your eating/ re-fuelling patterns and try to keep the body temperature down. Basically limit the amount of undue-stress you place on your body. The body is stressed enough just doing the type of distance and races you guys are asking of it, be kind to it when you can.

If you would like any further information or have any questions regarding this article please email the author james@optimahealth.co.uk.

Further reading:

1. Bompa, T. O., (1994). Theory and Methodology of Training. Iowa: Kendall and Hunt.

2. Boudet, G., Albuisson, E., Bedu, M., Chamoux, A., (2004). Heart rate running speed relationships during exhaustive bouts in the laboratory. Can J Appl Physiol. 29(6): 731 – 742

3. Farber, H. W., Schaefer, E. J., Franley, R., Grimaldi, R., Hill, N. S., (1991). The endurance triathlon: metabolic changes after each event and during recovery. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 23(8): 959 – 965.

4. Farber, H. W., Arbetter, J., Schaefer, E. J., Dallal, G., Grimaldi, R.., Hill, S., Hill, N., (1987). Acute metabolic effects of an endurance triathlon. Annals of Sports Med. 3: 131 – 138.

5. Gulbin, J. P., Gaffney, T., (1999). Ultraendurance triathlon participation: Typical race preparation of lower level triathletes. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 39(1): 12-15.

6. Larsen, P. B., Rhodes, E. C., (2001). Factors affecting performance in an Ultraendurance triathlon. Sports Medicine, 31(3): 195 – 209.

7. Larsen, P. B., Rhodes, E. C., Langill, R. H., (2000). The effects of 3000m-swimming on subsequent 3-h cycling performance; implications for ultrendurance triathletes. Eur J Appl Physiol. 83(1): 28-33.

8. McArdle, W. D., Katch, F. I., and Katch, V. L. (2001). Exercise Physiology, Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance. USA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

9. O’Tool, M. L., Douglas, P. S., (1995). Applied physiology of triathlon. Sports Medicine, 19(4): 251-267.

10. O’Tool, M. L., Douglas, P. S., Hillier, W. D., (1998). Use of heart rate monitors by endurance athletes: Lessons from triathletes. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 38(3): 181 – 187.

J D Beckinsale M.Sc

You know, and I know, there is no substitute for putting in the miles when it comes to cycling, the more revolutions done in training the easier the racing!

However, some of us work upwards of 40 hours per week and therefore can’t afford to just jump on our bikes and do 3 – 5 hour rides three or four days a week. So, what sessions are going to benefit you the most given our intention that you can get to your bike/gym and be done and dusted in under an hour?

There are three areas we are going to look at:

1.     Technique

2.     Force

3.     Sustained power

Session One: Technique

It’s funny how when people first talk about triathlon they focus so much on how technical the swim is, but the bike… “Oh, I will just jump on and ride, I used to ride to the office etc”. However, cycling effectively (economy of motion) is a very technically demanding skill and that skill starts with the correct fit.

Bike set-up

Have you ever thought what you might have in common with a down-hill skier? Take the triathlete off their bike and look at the perfect TT set up (have a go at it, is this how you feel on your bike, with the weight coming down through your glutes, quads and feet?), then fit the bike to the triathlete.

If your centre of gravity (feel that optimum force coming down through your bum, quads and feet) is not in the most efficient position on the bike you could be loosing 50 – 80 watts (you can test optimum set up on a power type turbo or through a mobile power meter). Even the pro riders are continuously jigging around with their bike set up and remember

A road geometry frame is not designed for full on time trial (TT) bars, unless you have a TT bike (steeper seat angle) you are better off with a little pair of short tri bars that don’t pull you too far forward.

Cadence

Ever wondered why you find it difficult to run well off the bike? One area you may want to look at is your cadence. There have been a number studies done on cadence and all sorts of numbers are banded about. So, just to simplify things a little, if you want to ride 40km at an average cadence of 80-85rpm, this means you have to produce much more force than a rider who is cycling at 105rpm. Or, in weight lifting terms, rider one/ weight lifter one, is picking up 100kgs and trying to lift it continuously for 1 hour against rider two (weight lifter two!) who is lifting 60kg (a little faster) over the same time period.

Cyclists may choose a cadence they are happy with, but the triathlete must go with a higher cadence so as not to fatigue their legs prior to the run. Triathletes are not cyclists, we are a different animal!

So long as rider two has trained at this higher cadence (so his neural pathways are used to it) his legs will not have recruited as many muscle fibres as rider one, thus will be able to run off the bike at a high optimum cadence (above 90 steps per min), not over-striding, thus breaking as he steps forward.

Equipment needed for this session is your bike or a gym bike, clip in bike shoes or straps on pedals and a means of measuring cadence (cycle computer with cadence unit or just use your watch and count, but a very worthwhile investment for your bike).

Warm up (15 minutes): Aim is to increase neural firing of cycling muscles

• 5 mins @ 95 rpm easy gear to start
• 1 min @ 100 rpm same gear
• 1 min @ 105 rpm same gear
• 1 min @ 110 rpm same gear
• 1 min @ 115 rpm same gear
• 1 min @ 120 rpm same gear
• 5 mins @ 100rpm building to 70% max HR

Main set (16 minutes): Aim is as for the warm-up and to increase power balance in individual legs

Unclip your right foot and position your leg safely out of the way of the cranks and the wheels. Pedal for 1 min with the left leg and then switch and pedal with the right leg.

Repeat the one-leg drills decreasing by 5 seconds each time: 55 secs left and 55 secs right, then 50, 45, 40 and 35.

Now change up 1 gear (harder) and continue decreasing by 5 seconds each time as follows: 30 secs left, 30 secs both feet, 30 secs right then 25 secs left, 35 secs both, 25 secs right and so on until you are down to 10 seconds per foot. Now got into the cool down. Although I have never had anyone injure themselves doing this session, for safety reasons do not go beyond 10 secs of power on SLD.

Cool down for 5 – 10 minutes of easy spin or run off the bike for 5 – 10 minutes.

Session Two: Force

For this session (54 minutes) you will need: rollers, a heart rate monitor and a mirror.

Rollers, not many people use these now as turbos have taken over in the “home entertainment” department! However, what the turbo does not teach is balance through your pedalling action as you ride (also, try riding with no hands up a slight incline … safely!).

When I talk about force, I am referring to the amount of pressure applied to the pedal at a slow cadence (power is referred to as the amount of force applied at high cadence).

Warm up (15 minutes): The aim is to increase neural firing of cycling muscles

• 5 mins @ 95 rpm easy gear to start
• 1 min @ 100 rpm same gear
• 1 min @ 105 rpm same gear
• 1 min @ 110 rpm same gear
• 1 min @ 115 rpm same gear
• 1 min @ 120 rpm same gear
• 5 mins @ 100rpm building to 70% max HR

Main set part 1 (16 mins): The aim is to increase force output to cycling muscles and increase balance of left and right legs. Four sets of 3 mins with 1 min recovery spin between each repetition.

NB; your goal is to keep the bike on a straight line (too much force from left or right leg could spell trouble!) while maintaining 65 – 75rpm in your aero position (as this is the position you will want to produce the power in later!).

Finish with 3 mins recovery spin @ 100 rpm

Main set part 2 (10mins): Now apply a smooth pedalling action at your normal rpm in a relatively easy gear. 10 mins in aero position @ 100rpm around 65/75% max HR. This time can be increased to up to 1 hour if you have lots of time.

Cooldown for 5 – 10mins easy spin.

Session three: Sustained power

This is the meat and veg of your triathlon cycling performance training routine. As coaches we can come up with all kinds of fan-tangled sessions, with work and recovery of all different times, but the crux of the situation is: you need to be able to sit in your aero position at your optimum functional (power) threshold. The more power you can produce over the bike course and then run effectively off the bike, the better your result.

For this 50 to 60 minute session you’ll need: a power meter showing watts (ideally this will be a proper meter as the ones on turbos and gym bikes are generally not accurate but they will give an indication), a heart rate monitor, a cadence sensor and either a flat(ish) bike route or a turbo/rollers.

If you don’t have a mobile power meter (Ergomo, Power Tap or SRM), you are at a slight disadvantage when it comes to triathlon, as bike speed itself is irrelevant to triathlon performance. (More to follow on power meters soon).

Warm up (17 minutes): Start with 10 mins at over 100rpm, building to 65 - 75% max HR (so you are working but not breathing too heavy). Now do 7 mins of pick ups and recovery (either 20 secs max out or 1 min at 90%, make sure you are ready for the hard 20 mins, but don’t kill yourself!) and 3 mins recovery spin prior to the start.

Main set: Work for 20 mins at over 100 rpm, as hard as you can sustain for 20 mins. (You need to be highly motivated to do this type of session, don’t go off too hard as you will blow up)

Cool down for 10 – 20mins easy recovery spin.

(10 - 20mins)

Thinking…

The aim of this last session is to find out where your functional power threshold is. Once we have this data we can work out what power output you need to complete a standard or Ironman distance course. You could also find out what your average heart rate (HR) is, but the heart will start to lie over a longer duration event (HR drift phenomena) and, therefore, is not as reliable an indicator as once thought.

Working it out: If your average watts for the 20 mins of the last session was, say, 300 you calculate your functional threshold by multiplying this by 0.05 (300 x 0.05 = 15) and then subtract this from the 300 (300 - 15 = 285). Your functional threshold (what you could maintain for 1 hour) is 285 watts. This is now the "magic number" you need to see improving as you become a better cyclist.

Power to weight ratio: It is reported that prior to the start of each of Mr Armstrong’s Tour de France wins he would look to achieve his magic 6.7 watts per kg (I think he weighed about 71 kg at the time). The higher your power to weight ratio, the stronger rider you are, this is another very important number to get to know and, again, improve on, by either increasing your power or reducing your weight.

Each person has an optimum power to weight ratio. One does not want to lose so much weight that you become weak and ineffective.

For example, if you weigh 90kg and produce 350 watts climbing a hill, a rider weighing 56 kg and only producing 218 watts will climb at the same rate as you -- they have the same power to weight ratio. Once you know your functional threshold you can divide this by your weight and get your own power to weight ratio. For example, a 75kg ride averaging 300 watts for 20 minutes has a functional threshold of 285 and a power to weight ratio of 3.8 w/kg.

J D Beckinsale M.Sc

Running is by far the predominant area in which triathletes pick up most of their injuries and this can be caused by poor technique, over training (as it is the only weight-bearing discipline) or conducting brick type sessions thus running tired off the bike (again poor technique/ poor economy of motion).

It is also the area where if you are not strong physically or mentally, you will always end your triathlon experience on a low.  How nice would it be to be coming in off the bike thinking “I have worked hard on my running over winter, I can’t wait to get on the run and put it into practice” That said, if you have just hammered the bike to try and get a good time, thus worked above your functional power threshold, no amount of run training is going to save you from the pain!

Before we start, remember we are not runners, we are triathletes.  Therefore, we ride before we run and when we ride we rely heavily on our quads, they (our quads) then become very tired, so we do not want to over use them on the run.  Instead we want to utilise our hamstrings and only use our quads as stabilisers.

Session one

The use of the treadmill was first introduced to me by the lovely people at Sports Dimensions in Chiswick. Although their thinking on correct running biomechanics was the same as my own, I found introducing the treadmill really speeds up the learning process when coaching athletes. You see when you increase the incline, the athlete naturally has to run with soft knees and as you increase the speed the athlete is forced into recruiting the running muscles in the correct pattern (with some coaching!). I have seen some dramatic results using this technique and it negates the need of long sessions on the track trying to teach athletes (especially juniors) optimum economy of motion.

Skill/technique: the aim is to improve the neural firing patterns of your running muscles.

Equipment required: skipping rope, treadmill, mirror, video camera (use your mobile phone), friend/ partner.

Warm up: Skipping for 5mins (you can build this until you can skip for the time it will take you to run 10km), do not increase duration of skip by more than 10% each week and use single leg skipping not just double feet. (Time 5mins)

Main set: Put the treadmill up to about 10-12% and at a speed that is around your 10km race pace.  Straddle the treadmill, test the pace of the treadmill with one foot, keep holding onto the side and the jump on. Keep hold of the sides until you are comfortable running then let go.

Set 1 = 4 x 1min with 3mins recovery between (jump off treadmill once finished first run and just walk around)
Set 2 = 4 x 30 secs (increase speed + 1km per hour, ie if on 10kph go to 11kph) with 3mins recovery between each rep.
Set 3 = 2 x 15 secs increase incline by 2% and increase speed by 2kph with 3mins recovery between each rep. (Time 43mins)

Cool down: 5mins easy spin on bike. (Time 5mins)

(Total session time 53mins)

Ask a friend to video your running so you can let your coach see it or try to do some self analysis. Here are some points to focus on while watching.

NB: It takes the mind and body (neural pathways) around six weeks to develop/ learn a new skill, so persevere; you’ll soon be injury free and flying!

Session two

Technique/aerobic aim: to develop running skills while developing aerobic capacity

Equipment required: running track, HR monitor, video

Warm up: 10mins easy jogging (Time 10mins)

Drills: about 5mins of different running type drills, ballistic stretch (ask someone if you don’t understand this term) (Time 5mins)

Main set: 6 x 1mile reps at 10k race pace (ie off the bike run pace) – on laps 2 and 4 focus on the above running skill points and on laps 1 and 3 ensure you maintain the correct pace. Take 90 seconds to 3mins (depending on fitness) recovery between each rep but do not just stand around go through running drills. This is not a stressful session and as you complete the reps think “could I maintain this pace in a race”? If you work too hard you will not be able to focus on good form on laps 2 and 4. (Time 30/ 35 mins)

Again try to get a friend to record what your running is looking like; visual feedback can paint a thousand words.

Cool down: 5 – 10mins easy jog and static stretch (Time 5 mins)

(Total session time 55 mins)

Session three – SUPER-SET

Lactate tolerance strength aim: to increase the rate of lactate dissipation from cells and increase run specific strength.

Equipment required: strong heart and mind, track, HR monitor

Warm up: do four laps of the track: first is easy, second medium, third is building from medium to hard and finish with one lap as pick up’s (50 hard 100 easy etc) then do some ballistic stretching (ask someone!) (Time 10 mins)

Main set: this set is done at maximum effort throughout. As you go through 200m into 400m the build up of pyruvate and proton accumulation at cell level ensures you will not be able to keep up the 200m pace and it's the same for the 1km. This is a fantastic session to increase the mental strength of the athlete, as they have to hold onto form as they endure the pain, it makes running off the bike a doddle!

Start with a 200m run, straight into a 400m run then straight into 1km. There is no rest between each distance. Recovery is waiting until HR drops below 120 bpm or for around 90 secs to 3mins depending on fitness. Repeat this 1 to 6 times (Time 30 – 35 mins)

Depending on your fitness you will start to get jelly legs as you head into the second half of the 400m phase (600m) and it is at this point you will need to be mentally strong to hold good form (the first 2 to 600m is where you will develop run specific strength). As you get into the 1km part, you will not be running fast, but just trying to hold good form and a moderate pace. It is during this phase you are training the body to dissipate the lactate from the cells. As you improve your fitness/ strength you will be able to run the last km at closer and closer to race pace.

Don’t worry so much about the times you take to run each segment, just try and keep working at your maximum intensity for the specific distance.

One of the main limiting factors of white (as opposed to African endurance runners is their lack of strength endurance, improve your specific run strength and watch your run times tumble.

Cool down: do at least 10 mins of easy jogging – when you get home do hot and cold contrast on your legs; get in a shower (or bath with ice in) and run cold water over your legs for about 5mins – then put it to hot and repeat the process (try and cover all of the major muscles from the hips down) repeat x 3 to 6. (Time 10 mins)

(Total training time 55 mins)

J D Beckinsale M.Sc

This is the start of a new series which is intended for all of us who are constrained in the amount of time that we can devote to our training. The series title, "Done in an Hour…" formed the basis of the brief -- come up with a selection of workouts for the swim, bike and run that can be done in an hour, the sort of time we can squeeze in before work, as a long lunch or after work but before we have to deal with all the family stuff.

The first of his articles, James looks at three swim sessions that are designed to improve your technique, your race preparation and your open water swimming. All of these can be fitted into that magic hour as long as you focus on the task in hand.

Session 1: Technique Swim

In order to identify your weaknesses you first need to complete a basic time trial so you have a benchmark that you can judge your improvements against. This timed swim needs to be long enough for your weakness to reveal itself, but not too long that you totally lose the plot! I find the double distance 400m swim very effective for this as it gets longer as you become more efficient.

Double distance 400m Time Trial

Every four to eight weeks you should complete a good warm up session and then swim 400m. Get a friend to time the swim (you will need each 100m split and the total time) and to record your stroke count on every fourth length. In an ideal world, a bit of video so you can see what you look like swimming would not go amiss either.

Each time you do the test just add another 400m so the first is 400m, the second 800m, the third is 1,200m and the fourth (your last-preseason one) is 1,600m. This should be done approximately six weeks out from your first A-priority race.

What are you looking for?

I'm sure that you have a time in your head in which you would like to complete your Standard (1,500m) distance swim in? Remember, triathlon is three disciplines and you need to get out of the water relatively relaxed and strong; it always amazes me when coaches or athletes claim they where first out of the Bla Bla swim or had the fastest bike at Wotsit! Well done, I say, but what was your actual triathlon time? That's what counts…

Olympic distance target times and their 100 and 400m splits work out like this: