TRAINING » GOOD PRACTICE
LESSONS IN
TRI
Experienced age group
athlete and owner of 5th
Dimension Coaching,
Andre Bekker shares
what he thinks triathletes
need to do di erent .
here are no shortcuts when it
comes to IRONMAN racing.
A medium- or ultra-distance
triathlon is not a bucket-list item.
Consider it to be a long-term project
fi lled with fun, enjoyment and learning. will help you to identify weaknesses which
you can then work on with your coach.
You will meet great people and learn
so much. Nothing beats learning. It’s a
growth process, so embrace it.
GET A COACH If the event involves swimming in the
sea, then swim in the sea as much and
as oft en as you can before race day. Start
off at shorter-distance races before you
attempt a long-distance ocean swim at
an IRONMAN. Confi dence comes from
having ‘been there, done that’!
T
First off , fi nd a good coach. Every
triathlete can benefi t from having a
coach. A good coach will:
• help you understand your goals better
• help you with a plan to get to your goals
• structure your training
• take the guess work out of training
• answer the many, many questions you
should have
• have skin in the game, i.e. take your
progress seriously
BE PATIENT
Long-term growth and gain is a slow
process. It takes years of consistent
training, learning and building to get to
do an IRONMAN event.
The old cliché of ‘it’s not the results but
the journey that matters’ is never more
true than in this sport. You cannot ride a
bike like a pro in just a year or two. Make
it a fi ve- to 10-year joy ride. You will be
over the moon when you look back at your
steady improvement. It will defi ne you as
a person as well – not the results, nor
the fact that you are an IRONMAN, but the
fact that you showed perseverance and
grit, and the willingness to learn.
Start off doing sprint- and Olympic-
distance races, then build up to IRONMAN
70.3. Only then can you have the
confi dence to do a full IRONMAN. It is vital
that you race at these shorter distances
fi rst and experience the racing process. It
64
PREPARE FOR AN OCEAN SWIM
CYCLE AT A HIGH CADENCE
There are revered coaches who still insist
that cadence is not the answer. It is! I
know a student who tried to do a thesis on
this subject. The data could not prove that
riding big gears is more benefi cial than
spinning small gears at a high cadence.
Why is cycling with a high cadence so
important to generating and maintaining
speed? Let’s simplify the concept. Take
weightlift ing and doing curls. How many
curls can you do with a 15kg weight?
10? 20? 30? Now how many could you
do with a 2.5kg weight? You could go all
day. Cycling with an easier gear works
on the same principle. Unfortunately, if
you’re going to use an easy gear, to go
fast you have to pedal that gear at a faster
cadence to generate speed.
In general, 90 revolutions per minute
is the ideal cadence. Why? Getting up to
100-110 is diffi cult to sustain and, more
importantly, if you’re riding in a group
and pushing 90, you have a little gear left
to respond to a sudden surge. It’s that
simple. At 90 you have enough gear to
accelerate. At 110, it’s too hard to get
Andre (top) en route to winning his
age group at the 2018 IRONMAN
70.3 World Championship. A high
bike and run cadence is important
to master for a good race, he says.