Freestyle Breathing

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Triathlon Return on Investment: Get faster and spend less

Look around at any triathlon race and you will see that most triathletes are not afraid to spend money on their sport.  If we think a piece of equipment will make us faster and give us an edge on our competitors, most of us will probably buy it.  Bikes the price of a used car, the most cutting edge running shoes, the most buoyant wetsuits money can buy, all to shave a few seconds or minutes off our race times. 

 

There are new technological advancements being made in the sport every day.  Bikes are lighter and more aerodynamic than they have ever been.  Wetsuits are more buoyant and friction resistant, and shoes are lighter and perform better.  One could spend a small fortune trying to have the best equipment out there, and some do. 

 

Even though some equipment out there is amazing and can definitely shave time off your races, you may not be getting as much return on investment as you could by spending your money elsewhere, such as with coaching or a good training plan.

 

For a good cyclist, a nice bike could shave minutes off bike times, but for novice to average cyclists, the performance improvement is not as dramatic.  The advantage in aerodynamics and weight is most dramatic for cyclists pushing the boundaries of human performance.  For the average Joe, the gains in performance may not be worth the cost.

 

Buying a high-end bike when you are still a beginner is like spending a ton of money on the best wetsuit if you are not a good swimmer.  Yes, more expensive wetsuits are more buoyant and create less friction in the water, but performance gains are really only noticeable for swimmers that already have their technique and speed down and just need that extra edge.  If you are just an average swimmer, an entry-level wetsuit will be perfect.  I recently bought a brand new Xterra wetsuit for $99 on sale and I love it.  Just look for the deals and don’t feel like you need to drop over $500 on the next best thing.

 

Basically what I’m saying is to look for how much you are getting for how much you are paying, or “return on investment.”  Is $5,000 for the new triathlon bike worth the few minutes you might save?  What if you invested a little money in some coaching to raise the efficiency of your pedal stroke, a good bike fit to squeeze some extra power out of your legs, and/or a good training plan to make you a better cyclist.  What about taking the hundreds of dollars you save by not buying a cutting edge wetsuit and invest it in some swim coaching, or maybe some good video analysis, to really cut minutes away from your swim time.  I guarantee that for an average or below average swimmer, just a few swim coaching lessons will make you much faster than a top wetsuit will over an entry level wetsuit.

 

Don’t just throw money at your weaknesses; you need to tackle them head on.  So many times people see our endless pool and get scared when they see the mirror at the bottom of the pool, or our underwater camera.  Many are terrified to see themselves swim, which makes no sense to me.  If you know you have bad technique, you should do everything you can to fix it, not spend $700 on a wetsuit or a small fortune on a bike and hope it goes away. Most of the time, its only one or two little technique tweaks that make a HUGE difference in a personas swim stroke. 

 

If money is no option and you can afford all the best equipment and good coaching, then do both.  But if your funds are limited, and you have to choose between that new carbon fiber bike, or some good quality coaching and a training plan to bring up your weak points, you will get more return on your investment with good coaching and training every time.

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How to Run Faster Times at Any Distance

If you are a distance runner, there is a "secret weapon" that you should included in your training… That secret – sprinting (especially hill sprinting). Here are some of the highlights of why every runner should add these techniques to their training.

First, here's why you should add sprinting to your workouts. In fact, I'm going to give you 4 great reasons that you should sprint. They are:

Sprinting can raise your maximum running speed – no brainer here…

Sprinting can raise your lactate threshold – the point at which your body begins to build lactic acid as a byproduct – in layman's terms – a higher threshold lets your body run longer at a faster pace before the lactic acid kicks in.

Sprinting can promote aerobic – enzyme production

Sprinting improves blood flow to the muscles

Which are all major benefits for a distance runner's performance…

Think these ideas is just mine? No way, I've got some science to back it up…

Recent studies at the Imperial College in London, Queensland University, Deakin University and the University of New South Wales have shown these positive results on distance runners. The studies took distance runners with no prior sprinting experience and had them do sprint training 3 days per week for 6 weeks. They ran sprints from 40 to 100 meters for a total of 14 to 30 actual sprints per session. They also were allowed steadily decreasing recovery times between sprints – although maintained a 5 minute rest period between sets.

The runners improved in all 4 aspects mentioned above – which led to improved performances in their distance races.

(And then there's the study I've written about before about marathoners who added 2 days of sprinting to their plan – result: they were able to cut their training volume in half without any negative effect on their race times)

Remember that I completely agree that if you 'race' distance or enjoy running distance then you should definitely do it. But, putting some sprint training in your program can bring you some impressive results.

Now I'll go even further and try to convince you of something even more difficult to swallow – that distance runners must run hill sprints to reach their peak performance.

What? Unbelievable. Impossible. Absurd. What can hill sprinting possibly do for a distance runner?

Here's what.

There are 3 major benefits of sprinting hills for a distance runner. They are:

1. Mental toughness.
2. Stronger push off
3. More flexible hips

Including hill sprints in your program will give you all three of these. And, here's how they will help you to run faster.

First, mental toughness. There is probably nothing a distance runner dreads more than a hilly course. Seeing that hill looming ahead of you in a race can make you heart sink because you know that your heart rate is going to shoot up and your pace is going to suffer as soon as you start up the hill. But, hey, if you've sprinted up hills, you will know that you can conquer one at a lesser pace. This shift in your mental approach can improve your performance and make hill sprinting valuable.

But, that's not all. Another key factor in your distance times is your stride length. The farther each stride goes, the less strides you have to take in your run and the faster you will finish. So, what does hill sprinting have to do with this?

First, hill sprinting forces you to lift your knees high which increases the flexibility of your hips. More flexible hips equal longer stride lengths.

Second, hill sprinting strengthens you ankles (and other "push" muscles) enabling you to push off the ground with more force on each stride. This pushes you forward farther with each stride. Again, longer stride length.

So, there you go. I've done all I can do. Given you a bus load of reasons to run sprints – no matter what your race distance. The next step – or stride – is up to you. Hey, if you are frustrated with your times or have been stuck on a plateau, give hill sprints a shot.

You'll be pleasantly surprised with your results.

Marathon Training and Nutrition: How to Recover Faster With Antioxidants

So you're training for a Marathon and find the runs getting longer and longer. You might be experiencing a greater fatigue both during and after the runs. Maybe you 're just sore for days after your long weekend run…even though nothing was hurting on the course.

Or do you just feel a low level of energy the next week. Then from this you might be susceptible to colds, flus, or other simple virus that are attacking your immune system.

All of these symptoms could be from not getting enough antioxidants in your system.

Antioxidants are necessary for athletes as intensive exercise creates high levels of free radicals in your body which can go on to attack your cellular health, internal organs, and can cause chronic inflammation.

From Dr. Keith Scott, medical doctor and keen cyclist, " The body requires higher than normal levels of antioxidants to cope with the vastly increased quantities of free radicals produced during prolonged, strenuous exercise."

He further points out the benefits of more fruits and vegetables, "As a result of exercise-induced free radical overload endurance athletes also need to boost their intake of plant-derived antioxidants. A number of clinical studies have shown that taking a wide range of plant-based antioxidants can help to counter free radical damage in endurance athletes. In addition they improve post event recovery and accelerate muscle repair – especially in older athletes."

Here's five high antioxidant sources that can help your recovery from long runs:

1. Berries. The darker the berry the more antioxidants it will have. Good berries to digest are acai, blueberries, billberries, blackberries, cranberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Our ancient ancestors ate a rich diet of berries. You can put berries in your morning smoothy, have some for desert, or just snack on them all day. Frozen are very good to buy also. Blueberries are the king of the crop for antioxidant value. I had only one cold last year and think daily blueberry consumption was a big reason for this.

2. Kale and Spinach. These two dark green vegetables have the highest antioxidant values in the vegetable kingdom. Both are great juiced, stirfried, or steamed and a favorite of SoCalRunning.com.

3. Green Teas and other Teas. Green tea has been keeping Asian people living long lives for centuries. Start dropping off the coffee consumption which is high in caffeine and acid and begin replacing with teas. White tea, Roobios, and oolong are all high in antioxidants.

4. Dark Grapes. Lots of new research has been coming out on the health benefits of grapes. But this is nothing that the Mediterranean people have not known for thousands of years. Have a whole bunch of grapes one morning for breakfast and notice how you feel all day.

5. Daily MultiVitamins. After my first ultramarathon, a guy in his sixties who had run four! one hundred mile races that year brought me over to his car to make sure I was taking Vitamin C after the race…of course, I had my own supply but you get the point. Really you should taking a multivitamin rich in antioxidants which is easy to find at any health food store.

 

Top 10 Antioxidant-Rich Fruits and Veggies

 

Better running training tips stretching muscles technique

First DVD which explains running technique in detail. In depth explanation and training methods. Usefully for every jogger / runner. Presented by Dr. Andre Albrecht from Germany. You can order the complete DVD directly from his website at: www.intro-wolfsburg.de
 

 

Biomechanical Analysis of Usain Bolts 9.58 sec World Record

At the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, the German IAAF Member Federation, DLV, in cooperation with the IAAF is carrying out a major Biomechanics Project.

The project presented the reaction times and splits for all the finalists from the 100 metersemifinals and the final at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin.
We thought we would present them here and try to predict just how fast Usain Bolt can run.

This table gives us some real insight into Bolt's race. Lets take a look at some crucial points in the race. You can click on the table to see the details.

1. Of the 8 finalists Bolt has the 3rd slowest reaction time to the gun, at 0.146 seconds. Both Asafa Powell with 0.134 secs and Tyson Gay with 0.144 secs react faster.
2. By the 20 meter mark though Bolt has caught up all this time and gone ahead of Powell by 0.03 secs.
3. From the 20 meter mark on, Bolt is away and getting further away over each 20 meter interval. Although we can also see that Tyson Gay is able to hang pretty close between 20 and 80 meters.
4. Bolt reaches his top speed of 12.27 m/s or 27.45 miles per hour at the 65 meter mark. This can be seen in the second graph presented by the IAAF Biomechanics Research paper.
5. From 80 to 100 meters Bolt actually begins to slow down. We can see that his time for the last 20 meters is 0.05 seconds slower than his fastest 20 meter split of 1.61 seconds. We also know that he reached his maximum speed at 65 meters and everything after that was a little slower.
6. One last thing to note is that in this race there is a tail wind of 0.9 m/s. This is legal but it does give the athletes a slight advantage as it pushes them along.

To determine how fast we think he can run, lets look back at the Beijing Olympics and remember how analysis of that race suggested that if Bolt had maintained his speed through the last 20 meters and did not begin celebrations, he could possibly have run the 100 meters in 9.55 seconds.

His current world mark is pretty close to that already, so where can he improve to make up the time. So here are some key factors that are critical to determine how much faster he can go.

1. Firstly look at the table again and at Bolt's reaction time (RT) for his semi-final. In this race he gets out in 0.135 seconds as against the 0.146 seconds in the final. We also see that he completes the first 20 meters in the same time in both the semis and final, while he definitely seemed to be cruising in the semi-final. It has also been suggested that Bolt actually covered the first 20 meters in Beijing faster than he did in Berlin. This is up for debate though, as the video analysis was done using broadcast footage where the camera setup was not optimal. In any case, Bolt can definitely get out of the blocks faster and should be able to cover that first 20 meters faster than he did in Berlin.
2. The prediction from the Beijing Olympics was based on the suggestion that Bolt could maintain his speed at 80 meters through to the end of the race. In Berlin however, he is not able to do this and slows down a little over the last 20 meters. We also notice that all the athletes in the final ran slower over the last 20 meters, than in the split between 60-80 meters (which was the fastest for all of them). Therefore it may be impossible for a 100 meter athlete to maintain their speed over the last 20 meters and the Beijing prediction may have been optimistic in this regard.
3. In the last 10 meters in Berlin, Bolt takes a look out of the corner of his eye to check on Gay. We don't believe this could have caused too much of a slow down. In fact if we look at his average velocity at the 90m and the 100m mark from the research, we can see that he does not slow down between those 2 points. But lets assume he could have been 1 or 2 hundredths of a second faster if he had not checked.
4. The 0.9 m/s tail wind in the final in Berlin will definitely have helped Bolt. A tail wind of up to 2.0 m/s is considered legal for a record to stand. Therefore there is an advantage to be gained with the right conditions.

Finally we have some sort of answer. We think Bolt can definitely run faster. If he improves his reaction time and runs hard through the finish in the right conditions, we have no doubt a new world record will be set.
I am sure we would all love to see an athlete challenge the 9.50 second barrier and Bolt may have it in him to do just that. We look forward to watching it all.

Dudley Tabakin is Co-Founder of Sadaka, LLC http://videosportsanalysis.blogspot.com, a motion capture and biomechanics consultancy. Clients include FootJoy, Titleist, Warrior Hockey, Vicon Motion Systems, Innovision Systems Inc. and other Sports and Motion capture and biomechanics software companies

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/track-and-field-articles/biomechanical-analysis-of-usain-bolts-958-sec-world-record-1137239.html