Multisports in Singapore

I have come across many riders who complain about back ache after a long ride, so what could be the real cause? Could the reason be that your body is not use to the position? So what if you got use to that position after some ride is it beneficial to you in the long run? 

Bike fitting is the basic requirment when choosing a road bike or tri bike. Your body position on the bike affects how you ride and it affects how much power you can efficiently deliver to the pedals. It affects how comfortable you are on the bike. A position that is more comfortable may not allow you to put as much energy into moving the bike forward as a less comfortable position might. How do you decide where to position your body on the bike?

Below are some links related to bike fitting. My words to you though are to get your bike fit done by a qualified bike fitter. It would be best to get it done when you are shopping for a new bike.

Competitive Cyclist 

SlowTwitch.com

Peter Whites Cycles

No Comments

When the race day is near, most participants will be overwhelmed with excitements about the race they are going to embark on. They will be panicky about what they need to pack.
Here’s a check list that may be handy for most races. Use this list prior to leaving your home, hotel or your trip. This will sure make you feel more at ease knowing you have got what you need for the race.

Triathlon Race Checklist

Swim

1. Swim suit or tri suit or tri shorts

2. Wetsuit (only in some regions)

3. Goggles (best to bring extra)

4. Swim Cap (it will be given in most racing pack)

5. Lubricant or anti-chafe (Body Glide)

6. Towel (optional)

7. Ear Plugs

8. Sun screen

Bike

1. Bike

2. Helmet

3. Bike shorts or tri shorts (dependent on what you want to ride in)

4. Bike Shoes

5. Sunglasses

6. Water bottles w/energy replacement fluids (fill them before the start)

7. Energy gel or snacks

8. Biking gloves

9. Spare Tube, CO2, Tire Levers

10. Tool Kit

Run

1. Race shoes with quick laces

2. Cap or Visor

3. Lubricant for feet

4. Race number on race belt

5. Energy gel or snack

6. Sunscreen

Other

1. Rain cover

2. Sunscreen

3. Bag (remember to store in the appropriate place)

4. Extra Energy gels, snacks and pre race drinks

5. Sandals for post race use

6. Change of clothes for post race

1 Comment

Well….guess every athlete have some hard days where they find all sort of excuses of not getting their heart rate pump up. Here’s just a few to share….you can point finger at your buddy or friends…remember though. One finger is pointing forwards while the rest are pointing at YOU….hahaha. That includes me.

1. Bike NO BRAKES …
2. Shift HOUSE … again !!! (an excuse with a touch of fengshui …)
3. my ahboy to register PRI One !!! (eh? guys? sorry … i gotta queue for …)
4. Ouch! i am down with PCL !!!
5. i’m quitting it all, coz someone scold me!!!
6. cant go out - coz i got new Hardware to play !!!
7. coz my girlfriend or boyfriend must demand for me, so i must accompany them
8. my girlfriend/boyfriend is going oversea, i gotta go …
9. you guys are DAMN fast…cannot catch up!!!
10. dont wait for me … i’m still in the office !!!
11. i’ve change to mountain biking … went to pickup bike last nite…no time to cycle with you!
12. but my knees is giving way now … cant even run for 10km - god bless me in 2 Marathons in one months time…..
13. eerrr … my xxx not home yet - i cant come…gotta look after pets, kids…!!!
14. I have to work, cannot go cycling now.
    Tomorrow I have to work, also cannot go out……

 more to come……….

No Comments

It’s widely accepted that a large number of distance running injuries occur during training. So getting everything right before competition therefore takes on greater importance if you’re aiming to compete on a consistent level.

Running injuries when training are generally associated with high volumes and rapid changes in intensity. Too many athletes fall into the trap of overtraining and not taking sufficient rest. As a direct result of this, the bones, joints and muscles in the legs and lower back are stressed and this causes damage. Thus a recovery period must follow the training. During the recovery, the damage is repaired. In time, regular training combined with adequate rest results in what is called ’supercompensation’.

With supercompensation, the body responds to the stress by growing stronger. This happens to all the bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles. Once stronger, the bones and joints can handle greater stress, absorb more shock, and the muscles can act more efficiently. However, if you continue with high mileage training day after day, there is never sufficient recovery. In time, instead of growing stronger, your body becomes permanently weakened and running injuries occur as a result.

Slow and steady wins the race

The crucial underlying principle in correct planning is for slow and steady progression. The starting point is to work out what level of mileage you can currently train at without picking up unnecessary running injuries.

Then you must plan a slow progression over a period of months up to the mileage level you would like to be training at. As well as being the correct practice for injury prevention, this long, slow progression of training is also the key to improved performance.

Prolonged high mileage and sudden increases in mileage are not the only kinds of training errors. In fact, just about any rapid change in any aspect of training could be classed as a training error and likely to cause injury.

A sudden addition of high-intensity training is another common training error that can lead to significant running injuries. This could be the situation when, say, you have spent months on steady mileage training and then decide to include fast anaerobic interval sessions. Again, the same principle applies.

Another example of a training error is a sudden change in running surface. Hard surfaces, such as roads, require high impact forces to be absorbed. Obviously you must be able to cope with this. However, at the same time hard surfaces are true and do not dampen the propulsive forces. Conversely, soft, off-road terrains attenuate impact forces, thus lessening the need to absorb shock, but dampen the propulsive forces. This means you may have to change your neuromuscular coordination to adapt.

If you train regularly on hard surfaces and then switch to training on soft surfaces, or you do a one-off cross-country race, problems may occur due to the different stress on the muscles. And vice versa: if you regularly train on soft terrain and then switch to hard surfaces, you will suffer because you cannot cope with the high impact forces.

Artificial surfaces also have unique properties that you must be used to coping with. If athletes are to train or race on different surfaces then they must plan in advance the switch in surface and build up the training on the new surface slowly.

Compounding the problem

The worst kinds of training errors that cause running injuries are compound rapid changes. The classic compound change that runners make is to spend all winter doing steady running on the road in trainers and then switch to fast training on the track, in spikes, for the summer season. Here there are three variables that have suddenly been changes: the intensity of the running sessions, the surface and the shoe. With spikes there is lower heel lift and less support. This means there is greater dorsi flexion and potentially more pronation. This will place greater stress on the muscles in the lower leg.

This change in biomechanics caused by the shoes, along with the higher impact forces from the fast speeds and different muscle recruitment required for the spongy nature of the track is often too much for the athlete and injury will result. However, if you include some speed training on the track, in spikes, throughout the whole training year, you will drastically reduce injury risks in the spring when you want to increases intensities for track racing. As long as you are used to, and can cope with, a variety of surfaces or shoes then that is fine. Remember, it is rapid changes that have to be eliminated, not necessarily variety.

Clearly, then, it is very important for injury prevention to avoid training errors. With careful planning and slow progressions, athletes should be able to avoid the kinds of errors I’ve discussed.

But a word of warning: because elite performance requires high mileage and high-intensity training, athletes are still at risk simply from hard training. Some may be able to withstand it; others may need to reduce their training to remain injury-free. Only then will they reap the benefits of uninterrupted training.

Raphael Brandon

No Comments

Do you want to run a marathon for the first time? A good training schedule is important to avoid healthy risks and injuries. The distance of this run is 42,195 km or 26 miles 385 yards. You will understand the need of a good preparation to start this athletics event. Nobody will do the same like the Greek soldier Pheidippides who ran the entire distance without stopping from Marathon to Athens and died by his arrival.

How to train for a marathon depends of the current condition of the runner. Some important questions are:

- How long ago did you started with running?
- Did you already run long distances?
- How many times are you used to run in a week?
- Which is the normal distance you run usually during a long distance run?

If you started recently with running it is a training which takes more than one year. It is important that you can build up very slowly your program to prevent injuries and you need to have the time to do it regularly. Don’t you have the time to spend more than one hour each day after a time or the courage to do that: running a marathon will give you more trouble than pleasure. Injuries are the consequences in that case and probably you don’t reach the end.

Probably if you think on a marathon your condition is good enough to run at least 5 km without stopping otherwise you can best start with a conditioning program which makes it possible after several weeks to run at least 5 times each week 5 kms. Now you can think on your real schedule for running a marathon. It is not recommended to set up a time goal for your first marathon; it is best that you just want to run your first marathon without stopping or surely with a minimum of stops.

Don’t expect to run a marathon with a schedule of 12 weeks. If you do some research on the Internet you can find a lot of these schedules but it you follow these the consequence will be that it damages your general health. Many injuries and even the possibility that you never can run a marathon in the future are possibility. Some people can succeed in these programs but I don’t recommend it. I saw in the past too many people with injuries and even some of them needed to stop with running totally.

A good training schedule for a marathon takes at least one year. If you are able to run 4 or 5 times each week 5 km every day you need to build up your program till it is possible to run 10 km each day. The first months it is only a matter of running long distance and the speed is not important; it is better that you run not too fast. It is necessary that you can talk when you run; and it will increase your endurance resistance.

After one half year and you are be able to run 50 km in one week it is necessary that you bring some variation in your marathon program and also rest is important in your training schedule. The three next months I advice you to do three long distance runs in one week ( every week a little bit longer till you can do 26 km in once at the end of the three months) and two shorter runs between 5 and 10 km but on a higher speed. A possibility of the building up of the long distance runs during these 3 months are every day one km more till you reach the 25 km : by example :

Week one: 3 times 11 km (slowly) and two of 5 km (on a higher speed)
Week two: 3 times 12 km (slowly) and two of 5 km (on a higher speed)

When you start your second month you will increase the distance of your higher speed runs (by example 7,5 km) and at the end of your second month your program will be :

3 times 18 km (slowly) and two of 7,5 km (on a higher speed)

The third month it is best that you also increase the distance of your long distance runs with 2 km every week and that you do twice a faster run of 10 km.

At the end of the third week it is possible to run 3 times 26 km (slowly) and two times 10 km (on a higher speed).

Very important is that you take two days of rest during the week; it gives your muscles the time to relax for the next days.

The last three months you only need to build up your endurance training till you reach the next week program:

- day one : 15 km slow distance run
- day two : 35 km slow distance run
- day three : rest
- day four : 10 km run on a higher speed
- day five : 35 km slow distance run
- day six : 10 km run on a higher speed
- day seven : rest

If you follow these tips and you do the necessary stretching exercises you can reach the goal of running a marathon. Try it out and enjoy your marathon! The next marathon you can set more time goals.

These tips can help you in a good training program for beginners but the schedule is individually and can be changed by your personal trainer.

No Comments

Making the decision of where you will go to exercise is a very important step in reaching your goals of fitness. A lot of factors will go into this decision, and each one should be evaluated well before you start exercising. Once you have made a decision on where you will go to exercise, you can move on to deciding how you plan to work out.

As you probably know, exercising at home has many advantages. The finance department is one of the best advantages. With the gas prices being what they are today, it is quite obvious that you’ll save money on fuel as well as wear and tear on your vehicle by choosing to exercise at home.

Memberships to a gym can often be quite expensive and may include other things that you don’t need such as child care or swimming pools. You also won’t need to be concerned about the latest trends of exercise gear as you most likely will be exercising by yourself at home.

Keep in mind that working out at home does require a bit of financial obligation. Even though you may plan to run, it is very important that you have high quality running shoes. This statement applies to any type of equipment that you may purchase to use at home. If you go out and buy cheap equipment, you’ll probably end up getting hurt or getting frustrated because you aren’t making any progress.

Along with the financial gains, exercising at home may also help those who don’t like to work out in public. If you are worried about how you look in gym clothes, it is very comforting to know that the only person who has to be with you when you exercise at home is you. Also, when you exercise at home, you don’t need to worry about time at all.

Those of you who are motivated by being with people you know or come to know while working out away from home, a gym may be a better idea than working out at home. At the gym, you’ll also more of a selection of equipment as well, far more than you’ll have at home.
If you need other services than just weights and equipment, the gym may have just what you need.

If you plan to swim a triathlon, you’ll find the swimming pool at the gym to be just what you need to prepare yourself. Swimming is also a great exercise for your body and cardio, as it will work muscles in your body that you probably didn’t even know you had.
Gyms will also offer you classes that you may find very motivating. If you attend class on a regular basis, you may be motivated enough to continue so you don’t have to defend yourself when asked where you’ve been or what you have been doing. You can also meet new people in class, or just help others along if you choose.

All in all, making the choice of exercising at home or at the gym is a choice you should make based on your goals and personal preference. The most important decision you’ll need to make is to determine what type of environment you want to be in and how you want to accomplish the fitness goals in your life.

Once you have given it some thought and weighed out the pros and cons, you’ll have no problem making the choice. Always keep in mind that once you’ve made your choice, you can always switch if you aren’t happy with the choice you made.

No Comments

What if we applied the lesson of encouragement beyond race day? The right word at the right time can work wonders.

It’s race day and everybody’s ready at my house. My one-year-old has his race day milk sports bottle in one hand, and a plastic hand clapper in the other. My four-year-old has a sign that she has made all by herself that simply says “Go Daddy,” and the matching plastic hand clapper. Both kids have on “Go Daddy, Oh Yeah” shirts that match my wife’s “Go Honey, Oh Yeah” shirt. I have the U-Haul loaded with any race day contingency provided for.

Four moments define the day for me. Just before the race starts, my four-year-old corrals my one-year-old over long enough for a hug and kiss from both and a “Gud luu, dahey.” Exiting the water and making my way to T1, above the noise of the rest of the crowd, I hear three voices: my wife, my daughter and my son. The scene is repeated at T2 and again at the finish. I love that they endure waiting and boredom in order to cheer for me. I know it fuels me, but I never knew how much until I was mowing the grass one day.

I had sold my riding mower over the winter and, combined with fertilizer and all the rain you can endure without planning out an ark, my yard had blossomed. I found myself growing increasingly bitter at the training time I was missing to cut my grass with my 22” push mower. While cutting the backyard one day, I heard screaming from the porch and immediately let go of the handle and turned to see what was wrong. Nothing was wrong. My daughter was standing on the back porch with her “Go Daddy, Oh Yeah” shirt on, her “Go Daddy” sign and her clapper, yelling to the top of her lungs, “Good job, yeah Daddy!”

It seems that my daughter had decided to apply what she learned on race day. It worked. After a hug and a kiss, I resumed mowing with a new attitude and that day, I cut grass better than grass has ever been cut in the history of cutting grass! No stray pieces missed, perfectly straight lines, beautiful striping pattern.

What if we applied the lesson of encouragement beyond race day? I cannot help but wonder what difference we may make in someone’s day, week, maybe even life. So make sure to encourage the other athletes on race day for sure, but consider making every day race day with regard to encouragement.

No Comments

Swim, Bike Run and Life can be a difficult act to get right - it’s a real juggling act. Here are three simple steps to help any triathlete get the basics right in terms of balance.

Step One: Make a weekly plan of available time

Clearly, the first thing you have to do is decide how much time you are prepared to commit to training. If you don’t it’s easy for triathlon to suddenly overtake your life and ’suck’ you in. By taking a step back and making a rational decision about you maximum weekly commitment you are taking control and avoiding a lot of potential problems.

So how much time do you NEED to commit. Not all of us have the natural ability of Sam Warriner and the commitment to being a world-class triathlete. If triathlon is not your profession it’s not going to be practical to commit 25 hours a week to training. But don’t become despondent, because you can easily complete a ½ Ironman on 10 hours of training per week, Oympic Distance on about 6 and Sprint Distance on as little as 4 hours per week. I also know many athletes that have successfully done Ironman on 15 hours, and often only in the last few months (however for Ironman I generally advise a little more in the key weeks to make race day a bit easier!)

Here is an example of a typical weekly schedule:

If the event you are aiming for is more than 4 months away, you might decide to make a weekly plan for the first ½ and then review it closer to the event.

If you are working on a regular weekly pattern you need to look at your week and schedule available time. Make a schedule like the following:

Total 7-11 hours per week.

· If you are on shift work then you should make your “week” be the shift rotation schedule, so for a 12 day cycle you would need to do a 12 day “week”
· Don’t forget to include some time for socialising and doing other things. In the above example we are going to keep the afternoons and evenings free (except Monday, because on Mondays the person in the example finds it hard to get up and train - sound familiar?!).
· You may want to talk to your friends and see what their schedule looks like so that you can coordinate some sessions.

Step Two: Determine the amount of time per discipline

Ok, so lets take the example program above of 7-11 hours per week and 6 sessions per week - we now need to ask how do you use this time most effectively?

This is where a good coach comes to the rescue! Here are some guidelines…

Of course the choice of events is going to be the first major factor determining how to proportion training. If you are preparing for a ½ Ironman its got very different ratios to a sprint triathlon.

Let’s assume that you are fairly well balanced in all three sports (a novice in all three would be a good example). Until you do some training you won’t know which disciplines you are able to pick up the quickest. So to work out how much time to spend on each discipline we need to look and see how each discipline contributes to your overall performance.

We know from analysing short course triathlon race performances that, on average, the swim contributes about 15-20% to your final placing, the bike contributes about 50% and your run about 30-35%. So logically we want to proportion a similar amount of training time to easy discipline.

If you are training for ½ Ironman or Ironman the swim is a little less important (once you know you can cover the distance comfortably!) so the ratios are more like Swim 10%, Bike 55%, Run 35%.

Competitive triathletes do need to spend more time swimming, especially if competing in the Draft Legal format races. In the ITU World Championship Races and World Cup events swim time can be the difference between a DNF and ITU ranking points and money to get to the next event! Analysis of their events shows that the swim makes up about 25% of their final placing, the bike 30% and the run 45%. But elite athletes are generally not limited to the amount of time in a week that they can commit to training, so they end up doing a lot in each discipline!

So back to reality! If we have 10 hours for training towards a Sprint or Olympic Distance Triathlon we would want to spend 1.5-2 hours swimming, 5 hours cycling and 3-3.5 hours running and if we have 10 hours for training before a ½ Ironman we would want to spend 1 hour swimming, 5.5 hours biking and 3.5 hours running.

From this basis you can then adjust depending on your abilities and past experience (both recent and distant!)

If you are brand new to swimming when you start triathlon, this is often the most daunting - at least with running you can just stop and walkwhen you become tired! Wetsuits have gone a long way towards making many beginners much more comfortable with the swim but it still helps if you are very confident with the distance. In the very initial stages of beginning triathlon training I like to see people over emphasize the swim until they reach the point of being comfortable with the distance. In the program example above, you might add ½ hour to your swimming and take away a ½ hour from your running.

If you come into triathlon from a running background (i.e. have run for a while and have maybe done a 10km or a ½ Marathon), then your initial programme might be weighted towards the swim and bike. Similarly if you come from swimming or cycling background you should look to do a bit more in the ‘new’ disciplines. Of course you don’t want to fully neglect your strength, so you need to adjust rather than cut out - you might adjust by 5-10% on the above guidelines.

Step Three: Fit the Scheduled Time into the week!

Now that you will have established how much time to spend, the critical thing to do is put it together. As a general guide you need to do a minimum of 2 sessions in each sport, so if you are only doing 6 sessions the choice becomes 2 per sport. You can also look at combining two or more of the disciplines into a session - I think this is a really effective way to use 60-90min. For example you might choose to swim on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and then run on the treadmill at the pool or go and run from the pool, come back have your shower and breakfast and go to work. One of my favourite workouts is to run 20-30min to the pool, do a 30min swim and then run 20-30min home! Two sports 60-75min for the total workout, that is good effective training. Another good one is the simulation - a swim, bike, run workout on a Saturday can also be done before 10am leaving you the day to do other things. Wednesday’s workout could be 45min on the turbo trainer in your garage and then 45min run from your house - again, that’s a fairly effective 90min workout and its specific to triathlon.

Example of a programme for an athlete looking to do 2hrs swimming, 5hrs cycling and 3 hours Running

Suddenly 10 hours looks a whole lot more when you get it into a schedule! You may find that when you come to do this step that you need to go back and adjust the time per discipline.

Obviously you won’t be doing these workouts every week (it’s unlikely that you would you get the most benefit if you did this every week) to fit in with races, other commitments and the need to progress. It is always great to have a base plan like this to get things started. If you are not ready to do the base plan right away, you can go and look at how to build safely toward this level. After you are able to successfully complete a program like that above then there is the matter of what to do in the sessions but that is a whole other article!

So there you have it a 3 step process to help you plan your training schedule.

by Coach Brendon

No Comments