By Coach Brendon

Recently I was up in China, I was invited to coach the Chinese National Coaches via an IOC Olympic Solidarity Grant.

One of the things that was obvious was a real lack of understanding of progressions that will help athletes get faster - you've got to walk before you run. They certainly were not afraid to train hard and the do some huge training sessions, as much as the top triathletes in other parts of the world. But they were, on the whole, very inefficient. They don't focus enough on technique and efficiency - they are leaving this one largely to chance that it will improve itself. Thus they are yet to really make a mark on the international triathlon scene.

I was then able to attend the New Zealand Schools Triathlon in April, what was clearly obvious there was a real lack of technique, especially running. Apart from a few boys in the Seniors and a couple of the fastest girls, there was a lot of inefficient running technique being displayed - of course it's easier to see when athletes run after swimming and cycling because they are tired. What I saw was a whole group of fit, talented athletes with poor technique. To me it was as plain as day what they need to do, which is GET EFFICIENT.

Let's look at the key progression of efficiency. Now if I was a beginner at any sport I'd be thinking that the best thing to do is master technique and GET EFFICIENT. Why? Because Fitness times Poor Efficiency is still SLOW and it's also tiring and takes a lot of effort. Working on technique on the other hand is easy (it's a freebie for improvement in my mind) and when it's combined with follow up harder or longer training, it nets great rewards.

Now there is no reason that a beginner can't work on technique while slowly increasing the amount of training that they do - by doing that they are increasing the VALUE of the time spent in relation to their goal. Actually there is no reason to stop ANY level of athlete doing this. Yet it's often the more experienced athletes that do this. I guess it's easier to see the value once you've done it the hard way!

SET AN EFFICIENCY GOAL IN EACH SPORT

I think it's especially important to have a goal that helps you focus on your technique when there is less pressure to go hard - winter, early on in a training block, during taper for a peak event. These goals should be measurable and specific to each sport. Here are some ideas for goals and what to do about them:

Stroke count swimming

Count your strokes while swimming a length at a set speed (does not need to be fast). For Ironman athletes this could be 100 or 200m at the pace that they would like to swim next years Ironman at. So for a 57min swimmer that's 90sec per 100m. Now if you normally take 25 strokes per length (@ 90sec) the idea would be to aim to do it with 23 strokes per length - remember a 1 stroke change represents a 4% change so 2 strokes is HUGE. To check that you are getting more out of this you can do a set and check HR at the end of the last couple. Ie 8x100m at Ironman Event Pace, 30sec Rest. Check HR and Stroke Count, both should come down at a given 100m time.

Look to get some feedback from your swim coach about what you should focus on to get more distance per stroke (DPS) and work on those things during such a set.

We have a heap of useful free drills on our website - check out the swimming section on our Articles Page

Efficiency on the bike

The best way to do this is to get on a wind trainer that can give you feedback on your pedaling or to use a power meter. Power Meters are expensive and are not practical for most people in this sport (spend your money on other stuff) but if you can get on a computrainer and check out the spin scan, what you can do is look at how much power each leg is producing and then you can work on your weak leg.

We also have a basic set of cycling drills free on our website here: http://www.endurancecoach.com/Spin_to_Win.htm

You can then do a mix of one leg drills and working on them together.

For those of you who don't have access to a computrainer or similar, you can always use the following three tests: The sound test, the mirror test and the one leg test.

• Sound Test: While pedaling, try and make the humming sound of the trainer as even as possible. The more even the sound the more even the pedaling.
• Mirror Test: Check yourself out in a mirror - front on to see side to side movement.
• One Leg Test: Put it in a small gear and pedal for 1min on each leg, note which leg feels weaker, that's the one you need to work on.

It's also worth checking cadence - if you typically ride below 90 RPM then an easy way to improve your efficiency will be to lift your cadence (smaller force every pedal stroke).

Again if you can time trial (TT) on a flat course at a set speed, as you get more efficient you should see your HR drop. Basic wind-trainers don't cut it for checking changes in efficiency as they vary a lot depending on the air temperature and pressure. So a TT on a windless day on a flat stretch of road at a set easy speed is one way around this (you can use a concrete velodrome if you have one near you).

Running Efficiency

It's much harder to look at efficiency running. HR vs Speed on the T-Mill is one way of setting a benchmark - at the same time (if you can do it with a mirror) check how much your body moves up and down and look for stiffness and excessive or unnecessary movement in your upper body. You can also count your running cadence, as with the cycling you don't want to be in the low 80s. A low cadence is usually associated with over striding so check that also.

You can then start a series of drills (maybe 2x per week). These don't need to be hard and can be incorporated into what was otherwise nothing more than a jog. Again adding value to the time spent without making the training harder. Just be careful that you add drills slowly and progressively with running - it's easy to overdo it and get injured.

You can test power balance by doing a series of one leg hops on each leg. I suggest that you time yourself over a 50m one leg hop and count the number of hops on each leg, if the legs are different by more than 10%, do something about it. Be careful doing this if you have shin issues.

Now all of this requires some awareness of what your body is doing and you can certainly help yourself get better feedback by making an effort to focus on where your body parts are in relation to each other (sounds obvious, but how many people just go out the door for a run and have no idea how they are actually moving).

Free article on run drills is HERE

I also recommend the Striding On DVD - sample drills from this DVD can be viewed HERE

THE FOLLOW UP STEPS (MOST IMPORTANT)

Working on technique while training easy is only the first step in the progression to improving efficiency during competition - once mastered you then have to master technique with the pressure of your event speed. Now if your event is Ironman that's at a relatively easy pace anyway and you've probably done it, you just need to master the ability to hold your new better technique over the full distance. Just remember if you fail to do the follow up steps you may not actually have all the benefits of your technique training when competing.

So the progression is:
Good Technique, Easy Pace, Short Distance =>
Good Technique, Easy Pace, Longer Distance =>
Good Technique, Easy Pace, Longer Distance, Competition Environment =>
Competition (with good technique)

If you are aiming for a shorter event like a sprint triathlon, then you need to do some shorter intervals at race speed focusing on being efficient. I like to tell athletes to be 'smooth and efficient' when doing this type of work. Of course the final step in the progression is to compete and hold the new efficient technique during competition, which is at competition pace in the competition environment (other competitors and maybe harder / different conditions). Which is why you want to do events leading into your goal event and is also why experience in competition helps.

So the progression for shorter events is:
Good Technique, Easy Pace, Short Distance =>
Good Technique, Competition Pace, Short Distance (reps) =>
Good Technique, Competition Pace, Longer Distance (long reps or Time Trial) =>
Good Technique, Competition Pace, Competition Distance (near), Competition Environment =>
Competition (with good technique)

There are also a few other progressions that I use, one is:

Good Technique=>
Uphill/Power (reps) =>
Race Pace (flat) =>
Competition

Note that the constant in all these steps is GOOD TECHNIQUE.

I like to COMBINE these in a single session, here's an example of how that looks in practice from an Elite Athletes Plan (early season):

10min Drills
4x1min Moderate Uphill
2x1min Hard Uphill
2x1min Very Hard Uphill
(focus: good strong leg drive)
4x400m at best 5k Pace on 2min
(focus: smooth and efficient)

Right then, get smart and go and get efficient!

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