Training partners for triathlon

Hello!

Training partners......... and triathletes. It is often a interesting situation to observe. Often many athletes turn it into a social gathering and are talking the whole time, not always the best if you want a solid work out. many times I have seen people doing "speed work outs" at the track and talking the whole time while running. That sure as hell is not a speed work out. Talking should be quite difficult if not impossible during one of those work outs.

If you want to talk and work out do it during a recovery ride or run.

If you want to gain in performance and have some training partners then don't train with other triathletes. Yes, I said it and yes, I mean it. To be good in all three sports train with triathlete.

But who wants to be just good? Be great. To be great you must train like a swimmer, cycle like a cyclist and run like a runner. Thus run with pure runners, swim with pure swimmers and cycle with pure cyclists. Is that profound or what!

Triathletes often pick up allot of bad habits and are pretty average in all three sports in general. Training with better people who focus on one sport will often push you harder and help you hone in technique and tactics.

advice when training with all these groups,

1) Don't show up to a group ride on your tri bike or with tri bars. It is disrespectful and dangerous. Every one in the group ride will hate you too. This I know as I ride for a road cycling team you should here the smack talking going down when a triathlete shows up on tri bike/bars.

Tri bikes and bars make you less stable and it is harder for you to react to situations while in the drops. In group riding you have to react fast and be able to handle a bike well to avoid any potential bad situations. If you happen to crash tri bars also act like bull horns causing carnage all over the lot too.

2) Hold your line while riding. Allot of the time inexperienced riders wave all over the road like one of Hellen Keller's students. Stay calm, concentrate on smooth pedal strokes.

3) Swim with normal goggles. This will save every one form laughing at you ; ) Allot of triathletes are big fans of diver mask type set up. They are unnecessary. If you look at the top ocean swimmers in the world none of them rock those goggles.

4) Swim with a master group and swim often. Swimming is so much technique and feel, thus frequency becomes important if you desire to get faster. Ask a fast swimmer how often they swim and you will find a high frequency.

Swimming is often the weakest part for most. When people ask me for advice, I ask how many days a week do you swim and they reply 1 or 2 days a week, my reply is always, "How is that working for you?" Basically get in the pool and get in the pool with swimmers as much as you can.

5) Run with runners. Disconnect form all the gadgets too. I-pod, fuel belts, hats, sunglasses, GPS, fanny packs, cell phone.........DUDE Keep it simple. When is the last time you saw a Kenyan run with all that. NEVER. Case in point run like a runner. Less is more.

6) Fast athletes in any one of the 3 sports will train with higher frequency than a triathlete. Focusing one one area via high frequency also usually means high volume and is a good way to improve. Doing so in all three can be tricky and is why a good coach comes in handy

Hanging around all pure one disciplined athletes will help you get better. There technique rubs off on you and there mind set. Rather than thinking you are a triathlete when racing you will start to think of your self as a swimmer, cyclist and runner. When this happens you get faster. NICE!

Ok that is all I got for now. Much peace & love to you all