Congratulations to all those who competed in events over the weekend. Gabriel Sayer completed his second Ironman of the year in Bolton just four weeks after completing Ironman Austria. He finished 12th in his age group which is another fantastic result. Enough of the Ironman racing Gabriel, let’s get you into the London League events! I spoke to a number of our athletes after the London Triathlon. There were some great results with super quick bike splits and a number of athletes setting PB’s for the 10km run. Stuart Hitchcock flew around the bike course in 01:00:05 averaging almost 40km/hr! Ellen Greaves was third in the F25-29 age group and posted a blistering 00:40:51 run. Well done Sam Hart and Wendy Musique for overcoming mechanical problems and Katie Hocknell for overcoming gastric problems to complete the race too!
I don’t have to tell you that this weekend is going to be massive in Hyde Park with the triathlon course for the 2012 Olympics being tested and Olympic qualification up for grabs! It’s a stacked field with none of the big names missing. For those that want to see the elite women’s race which starts at 8:30am on Saturday we could ride over to Hyde Park immediately after our swim session has finished. Depending on how many people want to go and watch we may cancel the run session but we will try to make a decision on this before Saturday. Leave us a comment on the blog saying whether you want to watch the race or run! The elite men are on at 1.00pm on Sunday. We also have a number of our own athletes competing in the age group races on both Saturday and Sunday and it would be great to support them with as much noise as possible!
We had the video on a number of our athletes again on Sunday during the swim session. This included uber swimmer Matt Tilbrook. Even Matt had aspects of his technique to correct. Yes I believe he can go even faster! The pathways that his hands followed during the pull phase of the stroke were different from side to side with one being less effective than the other. We saw this in a number of other athletes too. In some the hand would sweep very wide and in others the hand would sweep under the body. Take a look at this video of legendary marathon open water swimmer Shelley Taylor Smith(scroll down the page a little for the video). Watch the pathway of her hands when viewed from the front. See how they follow a straight path in line with the shoulder. Some of the drills we have used to help develop this aspect of the stroke are: sculling positions; doggy paddle and pull sets. There are many more including some of those mentioned below.
The tendency to press down on the water during the breathing stroke popped up again. If every 2nd or 3rd stroke you are pushing down rather than pushing water back behind you, you are losing a lot of propulsion and wasting a lot of energy. Take a look at this video of Shelley Taylor Smith again. Watch how her elbows bend and her shoulders internally rotate during the catch and pull phases of the stroke. Her forearm is in a vertical position very early pressing back on the water. There are a number of drills that you can use to correct this. Some of those that you are familiar with are: kick on side ‘superman position’; 6/1/6; 6/3/6; single arm FC; Popov and Unco. If you don’t practise the drills we use in our coached sessions during your own lido time you really should.
All the best to those competing in the Dextro Energy Hyde Park Triathlon this weekend. I hope to catch up with most if not all of you either before or after your races. I’ll be there cheering on the Kiwis (and Brits and even the Aussies too!).
See you this weekend for some full on racing! Tim (LFTC Coach)
