Strength & Conditioning for Triathlon – Paul’s video Part 2

Strength Training for Triathlon in Melbourne

2011 Event Calendar for Melbourne

Many fitness events are held in and around Melbourne each year.

This list specifically includes events for Unlimited Fitness clients and trainers. We will either have a client training under the guidance of our program, or one of our trainers will be competing themselves!

Keep checking this list as the year goes on… we’ll add other events as clients request new exciting challenges as part of their lifestyle results program.

If you’d like to train for an event, please drop us an email, and we’ll see what we can do to help you cross the finish line.

February

11th & 12th Go The Tan – Run

19th Geelong Multisport Festival

20th Nissan BRW Corporate Triathlon

20th MS Summer Cycle

27th Vic Sprint Championships – Triathlon

March

6th Gatorade Triathlon – Elwood

20th Gatorade Triathlon – St Kilda

26th Ottways Classic – Bike Ride

27th Xosize Mini Tri

April

17th Run For Kids

May

8th Mothers Day Classic

30th Results Week

June

30th EOFY (End Of Fatness Year)

July

3rd Gold Coast Marathon

17th Run Melbourne

August

14th City to Surf - Sydney

September

TBA

October

3rd Results Week

9th Melbourne Marathon

16th Around The Bay

November

13th Eastlink – Bike Ride

December

Gatorade Triathlon

Christmas Run – Albert Park

19th #fitxmas

Fitness Newsletter

We’re upping our community involvement with brand new healthy content via email.

… here’s what will be in it for you:

• Fitness and exercise tips
• Fun run & multisport events in Melbourne
• Nutrition tips and healthy recipes
• Studio specials and free community training sessions
• Sports science research
• Sports technology, functional fashion and workout music
• Canterbury business referrals and specials

If you’d like receive the occasional email from us, SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Richmond Duathlon 15.8.2010

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

With 4 weeks till the big race in Budapest, I needed a final hit-out to practice transitions, and gain more race paced training.

I entered the Richmond Duathlon and managed to get through without too much soreness or hassles on the day. Thanks to Mornington Peninsula Tri Club for hosting the event.

Race distance: 5km Run / 20km Bike / 3km Run

My times:        15:42   /     30:37     /    10:11

2XU = functional fashion

2XU clearance sale on now in Collingwood.

Click here for the details.

5 year old Pretty Boy Bam Bam.

Bam Bam is from the southside of Toledo, Ohio, USA. Watch him go!

Training is underway for Budapest 2010 and I’m seeking sponsorship.

A look back at 2009 World Triathlon Champs

This year the sponsorship options include:

Logo printed on my triathlon race suit (3 different pricing options) As pictured here on last years race suit.

Equipment sponsorship (bike).

Blog articles, links & product recommendations of your products and services to my social networking sites.

If you or your company would like to sponsor me at this years World Championships, please contact me at Unlimited Personal Training

Stay tuned for the sponsorship party!

Strength Training for Endurance Athletes

Many endurance athletes train for their chosen discipline without backing it all up with a well balanced strength training program in the gym. Obviously, writing one of these programs can be quite difficult, as you need to be aware of many factors. Here are some examples:

1. Micro & Macro cycles – & how to fit strength training into the equation
2. Becoming too sore/depleted and compromising the quality from the next few training sessions
3. Understanding the specifics of the sport you’re training for, so that movement patterns are imitated during specificity phases

Perhaps these factors deter many endurance athletes from taking the next step in performance, or maybe they believe that training in the gym will make them too bulky and slow? As a junior I started doing light-weight/high-rep sets on my shoulders with push-ups etc, until I spoke to my state triathlon coach who said “that time would be better spent on your bike”, which is what I believed right up to and even throughout my university degree. I was the highest point scorer in the National Triathlon series two years in a row, and thought I was doing just fine as an endurance athlete without weights. After University I moved to the Gold Coast and tried the ‘professional athlete’ thing for a while, and trained up there for 12 months with the best squad in the World at that time. Names like Myles Stewart, Chris Hill, “Snuffie” Reed, Luke Harrop, Courtney Atkinson, Jason Shortis, Trent Chapman, Liz Blatchford, Rebekah Keat were my regular training partners. In all that time I remember doing one half-ass’d strength session without any clear direction in what I was dong.

In 2001 I quit triathlon and started my personal training career. Almost 10 years later, I look back and realise how much we all missed, in terms of strength training and it’s benefits. A well structured resistance  program can have outstanding results in the performance of endurance athletes. I returned to triathlon last year and gave myself the arduous task to compete in the World Triathlon Sprint Championships on 4 months of training. I had trained for 4 weeks to compete in 2 qualifying races (just enough to get on the team), had 2 months off traveling Europe, and once I heard the news about making the team, I hit the gym. Well firstly I hit the excel spreadsheet and mapped out the next 4 months.

The first session was on the 13th of April and started with a conditioning phase of left and right side (single limb) movements with plenty of core work, to ensure my core and limbs were evenly balanced and stable. That went on for 8 weeks. The second phase was heavy strength for 4 weeks  throughout June. This meant that I did put on some size, and did feel pretty heavy, but I had to be patient and look forward to converting the 110kg Bench/Squat/Row into power and speed later in the program. (I doubt there would be many endurance athletes who would be willing to do sets of 4-6 reps of 100kg+?)… As I turned toward the final stretch of the program I started to work in more specific movements patterns relative to triathlon, and I felt strong, quick, powerful, explosive and fast! I was also sharpening my skills on the road as well. Faster repetitions on the bike, transition practice at the velodrome, 50m sprints in the pool with porpoise and sighting drills etc, so my body was trimming down nicely, and in the end, I felt like a robot triathlon machine. It felt good & it worked.

Writing a strength program is not easy if it is to be done correctly, but it is worthwhile exploring your options with an experienced personal trainer for one session a week. Work with your race calendar and training phases so that you’re not interrupting the specific training sessions on the track. I recommend it, and yes… I am doing it again for this years World Championships.

Can I prove my theory again?

I break new ground in an attempt to kill time: as i spin on the bike in the studio @unlimitedpt and type this message from my phone…

It’s early April, and I’ve got 5 months till the World Sprint Triathlon Championships in September. After winning last year I gained automatic entry, but that didn’t change my commitment to taking a 6 month break. I felt that traveling to the other side of the World to defend my title was too expensive and the intensive training too difficult, but after 6 or 7 months off I needed a new challenge and as always; I’ve found that putting myself in a difficult position and wriggling my way out often works. I guess I’m motivated by “intensive” and “expensive”. The unplanned decision means that I find myself starting from scratch. So again, like last year I’m hoping that my ‘general fitness’ will provide the base that I can only assume I have. This month and the next will be all about recovering that base and building strength.

Follow my training on twitter @jaiforster
Follow training partner and fellow 30-34 team mate @petejmatthews

Remember to stretch…