Special considerations for Masters triathletes – By Nick Croft*
Having been in the sport now for over 40 years – the first 10 years as a professional triathlete then the past 30 years coaching pro’s and age groupers, over all distances and all ages, I am finding that the average age of my squad and clients is certainly getting into the ‘masters category’ with many in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s making up the majority of the numbers. Training as an older athlete myself and indeed coaching older athletes, the workload and structure has to be adjusted to take into consideration many factors. I will touch on some key elements to take on board. Of course, masters coaching is a big subject in itself with whole books and training manuals now written on this so I will be touching ever so briefly on some important things to consider for your own training and wellbeing while striving to be your best. I will not be covering off every aspect but quite a few of the highlights that I come across in the day to day and some of the issues that I have found to be limiters in masters athletes in training and for race day performance. We are all different and this is no less the case as we age. The aging process affects everyone in different ways. History in the sport (or previous activity if new to triathlon), genetics, lifestyle, and you’re attitude all play a part. In my experience in coaching master’s athletes now for over twenty years I don’t really start to see an accelerated decline in performance tell well into late 50’s or early 60’s. You have to remember again that we are all different and recall the other factors mentioned earlier in this article apply re individual genetics, history in the sport, past or current injuries and so on. It has been shown that endurance in a fit athlete declines at only around 4% before the mid 50’s. Muscle mass starts to decline in our early 30’s and by the time an athlete gets beyond 50 this is a much higher percentage and has been shown to be up to 10% for every 10 years. Looking to add strength training to assist to increase muscle mass in older athletes is a must which helps prevent injuries and assists helping form and technique. Working in resistance training will help prevent muscle loss and rebuild and activate weak muscles. A...
Video Swim Stroke Analysis in Noosa with Coach Nick
As an additional coaching service, Nick Croft – Head coach and MSC sport is now offering regular Swim Stroke Video (under and above water) Analysis in Noosa. Generally, a Monthly clinic with a maximum group of 4 (with two coaches) with options for smaller numbers – as a pair / couple and or one on one. Coach Nick has been coaching triathlon and swimming for over 30 years now – off the back of a successful 10 year career (35 pro wins) as a professional triathlete. Swimming is in his blood with over 50% of his professional triathlon participations, having him winning the swim leg. The son of Jan Croft (nee Paine) a former 2 x Aust 800m freestyle (880yrds) Champion in 1961 and 62. Benefits of Swim Video Analysis for Stroke Correction Experience immediate enhancement from a video analysis. Swimmers gain a deeper comprehension of their stroke and acquire skills customized to their unique requirements. Every piece of advice and information is personalized for the athlete, considering their swimming proficiency. Underwater views are incredibly powerful. Swimmers often learn best through visual experiences. If you’re looking to make improvements in the pool, swim video analysis is an invaluable tool. Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced swimmer, analysing your stroke from an outside perspective can help you identify areas for improvement and find ways to improve efficiency. It’s never been easier to get high-quality feedback on your swimming technique and make speedy progress towards reaching goals of faster times and improved form. Full details are now on the MSC website with the link to the Video Swim Analysis page here - https://multisportconsultants.com/training-for-triathlon/swim-stroke-video-analysis/ ...
Strength Training for the bike – with MSC head Coach Nick Croft
The off season is the perfect time to work on bike strength for next season. This will come around quickly and making use of the off season while building a base after some down time is ideal to work some specific strength into your cycling, especially if the bike is your weakness. Initially once some recovery / easy unstructured training may have taken place some athletes may choose to work in the gym but triathletes are fairly time poor and it is a fact that leg strength is not automatically transferred to the bike. It can be frustrating to see gym built strength fail to transfer to the bike. The majority of strength training for the bike should be done on the bike – unless you have areas that are very week and have been identified in a body screening by a qualified coach / physio and you work on these in the gym to correct any in balances. Below are some sessions that help build on the bike strength. Be aware that the sessions described are difficult and can be stressful to your knees. Monitor your knees carefully and stop if you feel any pain or discomfort. Build up the number of repeats and duration of each repeat gradually over weeks. Injuries are often caused by too much, too soon. Have patience with yourself to see the best improvements. Big Gear Repeats On a flat course or indoor trainer pedal in a big gear, with a cadence of 50 to 60 rpm for 5 minutes. Your heart rate should stay in heart rate zones 1-3 (60-75% of max HR). That is well below lactate threshold. This workout is to stress your muscular system, not aerobic system. Start with repeats of 5 minutes and work gradually up to 20 minutes. Stay seated in the saddle with a quiet upper-body throughout the repeat. Big Gear Hill Repeats When you have built up to 20 minutes of big gear repeats on flat terrain you can do the same session on a longer - not too steep (3-5%) hill to build additional strength. Remember to stay seated in the saddle with a quiet upper-body. Focus on leg strength and adjust gears accordingly. Force Repeats This workout is similar to lifting weights in the gym, but done on the bike. On a flat course or indoor trainer pedal in a gear that only allows you to reach 50 60 rpm. While remaining seated...
Keeping momentum up with training through winter – MSC Head Coach Nick Croft*
Now that the last tri events are done and dusted for the past season, the question for many motivated age groupers reads something like this - where to from here and what does one do in order to keep the momentum and fitness going that you worked so hard all season to achieve? This is a question that as a coach, I face frequently as the days get shorter and the bike lights are dusted off and the weekend events lose their ‘aquatic component’. One of the first things you must ask yourself is what am I training for in the interim and what are the goals for next season? This answer of course varies widely but for those wrapping up and coming off the first season of doing the sprint events then that goal may as simple as repeat the races you did this season but be faster or more competitive or to step up to the next distance and face up to the Olympic distance challenge. In order to improve we must raise that bar and it may be as simple as not having too much total time off between seasons. But first, some down time will be on the cards. As no matter how motivated we may be coming off the high of being a triathlete this past season everyone needs to take some down time physically and emotionally to restore reserves and freshen up. I like to give my athletes some respite of anywhere between four to six weeks at seasons end. This is also a great time to re-evaluate the season just gone and ask yourself a few more questions: - What did I do well in training and racing this past season? What needs some work and what are my weaknesses? For example open water swim confidence or bike strength on hills or run speed or endurance. How do I improve overall times and efficiency, technique? Do I train more? / Faster? / Smarter? Start using a coach or join a club? How many hours do I have to train – for the off season and new season? You will find a great deal of motivation comes from putting pen to paper and list a simple and realistic plan to take into the off season with you. The key is to keep it simple and above all else keep it real. Once you have a strategy and plan for the following summer, now we...
Using an Elliptical Trainer to improve Your Running – injured or not. By MSC Head Coach Nick Croft
Following on from one of my previous articles on Deep Water Running (DWR), another great training tool to help your running (potentially looked down on by some) is the elliptical trainer, or cross-trainer. Like DWR there is no impact on joints to contend with and can be a great second run for the day or additional general run frequency wise with no additional impact stress to the legs. Personally as I age, I am finding run time diminishing (injury / pain from niggles) and are reducing run time out of necessity. Still having the benefit of cross training through cycling and swimming of course really helps get your dose of intensity and cardio and adding in a Yoga or Pilates session if time available in taking away specific poses / routines from these disciplines and doing yourself for those tight / injury prone areas really does help as long as you do consistently. Enter the elliptical. One of our Noosa (still current pro) local Former world champs who has had a few career threatening injuries in recent seasons spent months during a previous non running phase on the elliptical and was able to up swim and ride volume and she came back to win a few Ironman events and place very highly at that year’s 70.3 Worlds – podiumed in fact. I coach a number of older age group athletes via distance – into their 50’s and 60’s who swear by the Elliptical as part of their weekly training with running every second or third day and doing body maintenance between and are running as well as they were when running over twice the volume and spending far less time out due to injury. Like Deep Water Running, elliptical trainers provide benefits to runners / triathletes beyond being the obvious cardio workout and not only for those injured runners that may have been steered towards the elliptical for rehab. Most elliptical trainers have a cadence feature. With many runners trying to increase their running cadence the elliptical provides an easy, monitored environment for doing this without the stress of actually running. A simple workout is to reduce the load on the elliptical and simply hold the cadence at around 90+ strides per minute (each side) for 30minutes. Alternately you can break up into a series of intervals instead at target cadence with recovery between backing off the tension and go easy but still...