THE TRIATHLETe’s GUIDE TO PERFORMANCEPEAK By the Editors of Magazine Cover2.indd 1 8/15/12 5:41 PM THE TRIATHLETe’s GUIDE TO PERFORMANCEPEAK By the Editors of Magazine PEAK PERFORMANCE Intro.TOC.indd 2 8/17/12 11:35 AM Peak Performance riathlon has inspired thousands to take control of their the couch. T.J. Tollakson is the pro triathlon community’s Tlives and get active. Participation is the lifeblood of the version of a mad scientist, and he shares his recovery routine, sport. But for a select few athletes, triathlon isn’t about simply which ranges from the mundane to the obsessive. Translating fi nishing a race; it’s about getting to the fi nish line faster than your physical preparation into results on race day is just as ever before. important as training, so ITU Long Distance world champion Torbjørn Sindballe shares the minutia that helped him thrive Multisport mastery is no small task, and this book is not an in the Kona heat and the mental techniques he and Craig instruction manual to guide you from registration through Alexander use to squeeze every drop of speed out of their earning your fi rst fi nisher’s medal. It does not include a race-day bodies. To inspire your own personal best, Mirinda Carfrae checklist. There are no swim technique tips, run workouts or gave an unprecedented look inside her new cycling-focused other helpful yet basic tidbits in this book. Instead, The Triathlete’s training strategy and how you can do the same to improve Guide to Peak Performance delves into the fi ner points that your own performance on the bike. Pull out your training log separate fourth place from the podium as only Inside Triathlon and prepare to absorb the details that can help you reach that magazine can. We selected some of the most informative feature next all-important milestone. stories published in the magazine to bring you training guidance from the sport’s most knowledgeable and accomplished sources. Coaches of Ironman champions and Olympians—Brett Sutton, Darren Smith and Mat Steinmetz among others— share the principles and strategies they use to guide some of the world’s best to their most impressive results. Their Aaron Hersh suggestions can help you do the same. These coaches have Inside Triathlon senior editor found success with different methods, but all agree on the importance of recovery. And recovering from the intense training they prescribe is more involved than sitting on Aaron swims to the fl oating coffee boat in Kailua Bay days before Ironman Hawaii in 2011. PEAK PERFORMANCE Intro.TOC.indd 5 8/15/12 5:46 PM GREAT MINDS (DON’T ALWAYS) THINK ALIKE We picked the brains of the greatest minds in the sport of triathlon—fi ve coaches of top pro triathletes. They shared their thoughts on injury prevention, nutrition, life balance and COMPILED BY BETHANY LEACH MAVIS everything in between. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MATT COLLINS PEAK PERFORMANCE GreatMindsDon'tAlwaysThinkAlike.indd 60 8/17/12 11:59 AM would say even more than a professional cause they’re so desperate to do well. Mary athlete because their livelihood doesn’t Beth Ellis is a good example—I spent all year depend on it. So you’ve also got the social trying to settle her down because she wants aspect of going to a group and doing a train- to be good so much that it destroyed her for ing swim. Swimming a 4K by yourself is not the past two years. … You try to establish the The a fun thing, unless you’re an ex-swimmer psychological profi le of some athletes, and Authoritarian or something. … The way I try to deal with most people think I run around with a big age groupers, again exactly the same as I do stick trying to stir everybody up. I actually with my professionals, is I say to them, “It’s walk around with a pacifi er trying to settle about you and improving you. It’s not about half these people down because they’re all ustralian Brett Sutton is not and never what the bloke next door to you is doing.” So too wound up to do well. And so to have the Ahas been a triathlete, yet he’s consid- if you can get them to start to realize, “OK, right mental approach to some people might ered by many to be the best coach in the my job is to improve me, my job is to use the be, “Take it easy and relax; don’t push.” I sport. His background includes being a na- group to improve me, not to destroy me,” have one girl whom I won’t mention because tional swim coach for Australia for 10 years, then you’ve gone a long way to making some she might get embarrassed, but I told her to being a professional boxer and squash player good, positive steps forward and being able not go faster than 95 percent. “What about and training greyhounds and racehorses, to improve rather rapidly within a group for- even if it’s a sprint fi nish?” “Don’t go harder all of which now infl uence his coaching mation now. If you go there and you’ve got than 95 percent.” What I’ve done is control style. He coached Chrissie Wellington to a big ego, and every day you want to go head her from over-trying because she’s a chronic her fi rst two Ironman World Championship to head with the next guy, you’ll make some, over-trier. She’ll train, she’ll run, she’ll race victories, coached Siri Lindley and Loretta what I call, artifi cial improvements in a till the blood comes out of her, and some- Harrop to ITU World Championship titles short period of time because you’re pushing times nothing happens. And it doesn’t hap- and now trains top Ironman athletes, such as yourself over your limit. And your body for pen because she’s trying so hard—her tech- Caroline Ste en, James Cunnama and Mary six to nine weeks, sometimes three months, niques are destabilized. She swims slower Beth Ellis, out of his TeamTBB training base sometimes half a season or a season, you can when she tries to go harder; she bikes slower in Leysin, Switzerland. do that. And then all of a sudden it catches when she tries to go harder. But whereas if up with you, and that’s when the injuries she just takes that edge o , her techniques Training philosophy I’m an authoritar- come and the lethargy comes in and the take over and she does fantastic. ian—I think coaches should make decisions tiredness, and “Oh I might be overtrained” and so with all our athletes, we discuss what or whatever. It takes a little while to catch On Ironman racing Over an Ironman, we’re going to do and when we’re going up, so my idea is to catch it early and try to it’s not “I’m going to race the guy next to to do it and how we’re going to do it. And educate them. And every day we want to do me.” It’s what your body’s capable of do- then we make a decision on what path we’re something that’s going to be benefi cial to ing—the amount of power your body can going to take. I’m very proactive in making them, not something that tears you down. put out over a nine-hour period. Those that decision—I don’t let athletes make that numbers are going to win you the race. So decision for themselves. In saying that, I On mental preparation I think the big- we try to concentrate on our own personal would suggest that we aim more to tailor to gest mistake age groupers do in triathlon numbers, and the only time we ever think the individual rather than the group. … We is they set times. Every course changes so about being in a race is when we get down have certain subgroups, so within the male dramatically. And professionals do it too— the 35K mark on the run, and then we put group, there’s a certain amount of people it’s “Oh I did this time, I did that time.” It’s strategies into place when we’re racing. that will do more, shall we say, anaerobic ridiculous. You could go on a 40K loop that But up until then, we’re about checking training and there are other groups that doesn’t change every day, and the wind our body clock, running on what we believe don’t need to do as much anaerobic train- changes direction 10 percent, and the times is our pace minutes, and let the cards fall ing. So they basically fi t into a category that are going to be 2 minutes di erent, whether where they may. At the end of the day, I sort of instinctively put them in. And it’s they be faster or slower. Say you run an we have a look at their performance, and the same with girls—some people need a lot Ironman one year, and you go 9:11, and the then we have a look at the scoreboard and of long work and some people don’t deserve guys want to go back next year and run nine see where we are. And I see far too many much at all, even though they’re Ironmen.