Maximising Your Performance at Auckland Triathlon World Cup

By Coach Brendon.

Need a quality coach? 20 years experience, including world champions, world cup winners and Olympians. Call (09 889 2340), Skype (brendondowney) or email me brendon@endurancecoach.com

You know it really stuck me the other day how little advice age-groupers get about race day strategies that actually help them perform up to their training potential. And there is very little advice about how to actually get your effort right on the day. The focus is mostly on quality training (and a little on recovery). Of course race analysis has come a long way now, I expect that a lot of work was done on course analysis at the pre Olympic Triathlon in London by various national federations, no doubt they would all have dedicated a lot of time to capturing data on the course and feedback from the athletes about it. I have been involved in doing this in the previous 2 Olympic Campaigns with the goal of providing good advice and information to not only myself as an Olympic Coach but to other athletes and coaches.

However its no less important for age-group performance, indeed it may be more important due to the non-drafting style for age-group competition.

So what’s the basis for doing this?

Well the first thing you want to understand is fundamental strategies on the bike will have a massive bearing on final time (and therefore place), this is more so on the Auckland World Cup course than on a lot of other triathlon courses. In addition the weather could have a major impact also but we won’t go into how to work around that here.

Pacing strategy is simple on a flat course with no turns simply ride at the best average pace.

However throw in a number of climbs (of different lengths and with changing steepness), several turns, including one very fast left hand turn and another short but very fast and sharp right hand turn.  And it gets just a bit more interesting!

To boot there are painted lines in places, and some manhole covers.

What I recommend is that every athlete should build themselves a set of pace notes for the course (most of you will probably just do this in your head, which is fine). I have an example for you below so you can see how to put this together for yourself.

Here is the basic strategy to employ to analyse and develop a race plan for a hilly time trial such as this (and it will be more of a solo time-trial then courses like Wellington).

Firstly you want to know what pace you can hold AND run well. One way to do it is find where your anerobic threshold is and ride at a heart rate around 5-10 beats below that, to me this is far far more important than having power data from your bike, I won’t go into it in this article but I think the reliance on power data that some athletes and coaches are pushing focuses athletes on the wrong things. Besides its complicated and time consuming. Some athletes have an internal sense of their anaerobic threshold, usually through lots of experience racing (and if you’ve got that great I encourage you to use it!). For others its important to get this dialled in. Best way is to do a hard out TT 30-40km for most age-group triathletes your average HR in a 40km TT will be a good starting point (go 5-10 beats lower in a Tri), you can then refine over a number of triathlons and training effort to dial in the FEEL and EFFORT (More on why shortly). This is also the sort of information you can get from doing a lead up triathlon.

The name of the game is to finish the event in the least time not in the best shape.

It stands to reason that you will have to ride, on average slightly below this level when competing in an Olympic Tri as you do actually want to run 10km well. I say on average because if you just sit in a single tight band of effort/HR (or yes even wattage), you will ride efficiently but you won’t cover the distance in the least time for your effort and the name of the game is to finish the event in the least time not in the best shape.

Maintaining momentum is critical for the Age-Group Course.

Maintaining momentum on the bike is critical and this can be further broken into A) Have the ability to maintain and/or regain speed after cornering and B) Timing increased efforts when approaching pinch climbs, while on short climbs and also regaining speed quickly once over any climbs. On the Auckland Age-Group Course regaining speed at the top of Gladstone and on the first bit down Brighton Road is an easy gain (you can then recover on the lower ½ of the Brighton road decent) as well as the Shore Road Climb (the top bit is tough especially for the older age-groups) and also the Bastion Point u-turn (less important but still a few seconds here). Practice on the course working on these things is extremely valuable.

Let me explain a bit further....

If the course was flat and we add say 9 turns per 20km lap (like we have on the Auckland World Cup Course), if you stick to keeping the HR even approach you would slow down into the turns and then slowly ride away. The problem is that you then end up spending longer at slower speeds, hence you take longer to cover the same distance. Its better to therefore back off the effort a bit going into a turn and to then put in a bit more effort coming out of a turn. But keeping these harder efforts short (Under 10sec) you can minimise the impact on energy use and also keep the legs from getting smashed for the run. That said one thing that’s worth practicing in training for about 4-6 sessions prior to this event is 18x10sec short accelerations building from under 20kph to your race pace (preferably out of a mix of left and right hand corners). If you live in Auckland that’s one thing you can do on easy rides on the course that will help your race.

Well anyway enough of the theory, here is an example Race Strategy so you can see how to put one together for yourself, apologies to Craig in advance....

Example Race Strategy (Note this is a starting point and will need refining further) :

Craig Wigglesworth

Profile: Skinny Exec who sneaks in rides at 4 or 5am or sometimes rides to work doing intervals or strength work from his sadistic coach. Wife doesn’t think he is training.

Age: 40 (According to the entry list)

Goal: Qualify for the tough 40-44 Age-Group Team

Weakness: Main goal is IMWA in 2 weeks so can’t burn his legs too much at World Cup but would still like to qualify.

Recent bike times: POT: 2:21 for 90km (caught by the big train at 35km).

Expected Speed on the Flat: Approx 40kph

Course Pace Notes Example (directions in bold from the official website: http://www.triauckland.co.nz/2011_Event/Age_Group_Courses.htm#Age+Group+Bike+Course)

Transition: Ensure bike is in 53x21 Gear

Exit transition and ride American style (right hand side) along Quay st

Make sure you push your bike all the way past the mount line, if its busy and unsafe to mount there keep pushing and jump on a bit further down the course. Jump on bike and accelerate up to about 40kph over the first 100m. Once at 40kph put first shoe in. Re-accelerate to 40kph and put the other shoe in. Back up to 40kph and settle into a nice rhythm, get on aerobars check you have a nice rhythm (can use cadence meter 88-93 RPM) and ride steady along waterfront. Expect HR to be very high after the swim so go on what the effort feels like (a gut reaction saying its too hard is right).

Right into the Strand (returning to left hand side of road)

As you approach the rail over-bridge look to lift your effort about 5%, hold your gear, don’t change into an easier gear as you will lose too much momentum (probably stand up for part of this small raise. As you turn right the road flattens look to rebuild you speed (you may wish to change down here say from 53x15 to your 53x17 and then ease off slightly for about 3-4 sec

Left up Gladstone road past Rose Gardens

This is a tricky part of the course. You are likely to need to shift into a 53x19 gear or a 39x14 (If you can, try and avoid going out of your big ring). You will carry some speed as you make the slight left hand turn. The first part of Gladstone is steeper as the road bends around to the right past the tennis courts it flattens out. Look to rebuild speed, in your case having the correct gears so you can stay in the big chain ring around this bit will be very helpful. As you approach the Kingsgate hotel you should be able to rebuild some speed and drop down a gear or two (look to climb at about 75-78 RPM). Around Stanwell Street the road flattens out a lot and here you should be able to push the speed up a bit and then back off a fraction.

Gladstone turns right into St Stevens Ave and gets a bit steeper here, so expect to change down another gear, probably be in a 53x19. Maintain a good sold effort up here right to and around the Corner with Brighton Road

Left down Brighton Road, left into Shore Road

Danger! Be aware in training lots of driveways on this road and you will be travelling fast!

On race day you will be on your aerobars but please be careful doing so in training down here.

Pick up your speed and get yourself into your 53x14/13 and get it spun out, once that’s done on the first 200m of Brighton freewheel around onto Shore Road, you may be able to soft pedal in your 53x12 on the lower part to gain a bit also without much effort.

Picture: Left into Shore Road from Brighton, will be 40-60kph depending on skill and road width on race day. See Google Maps for more, its all there (except Basion Point) for those of you from out of Auckland.

Once onto the flat part of Shore Road look to settle back down to your average effort and spin, try and relax and get comfortable. As you approach the Shore Road Hill (Portland Road intersection) look to pick up your effort about 10-15%. You will look to ride hard into the climb, after about only 50m you will need to change 3 gears and then after only another 25m you will need to change into your small chain ring, this should have you in about a 39x19 or 21 to climb up and onto the top section (past Burwood Crs). Cadence will be very low for the last part (60 RPM) and you will need to stand up. Make sure you practice charging into the bottom of this climb and getting the gear changes timed right to avoid dropping your chain (happens when you change too late and do so under pedal pressure).

Look to rebuild speed while in your small chain ring first from here (the top section while having a dip in it is slow), you should be able to change back into your big chain ring about Victoria Ave, where you need to push you speed up over 40kph past the school on your left. Once up to speed on the short decent back off a bit (for say 10sec or so) to recover from the effort on the last climb (Soft pedal at about 50% effort to maintain speed). Onto the final part of Shore Road, which is flat, settle into your average effort again and make the turn into Orakei Rd

Left into Orakei Road

Maintain speed around this corner you should be able to pedal around it (unless you are able to maintain a lot of speed off the Shore Road Hill, the more speed you can maintain around this corner the shorter the next climb is. A shallow uphill climb here (probably drop down one poss two gears), look to apply about 10% more effort only on the uphill and try and maintain 80ish RPM. Once over the top rebuild speed and then back the effort off on the drop down until the roundabout and left turn into Ngapipi.

Left into Ngapipi, right on to Tamaki Drive (returning to riding American style)

A similar climb as on Orakei, so again look to maintain as much speed as you can around this corner (more important for this climb then the Orakei one), its a bit longer and a little bit harder so the same thing applies just a little bit more effort uphill here (probably drop down 2 gears) and back things off a bit once up to speed over the top (I would recommend that you soft pedal the decent to just keep things moving but also allow you to recover). Once onto the flat section settle into a good speed and maintain that right onto Tamaki Drive, you should be able to pedal around this corner also.

 Up and back Bastion point

As you enter Hapimana St just increase the effort a bit this will help you maintain momentum, change gears early (say 2 cogs) before the sharp right and drop down into your small chain ring right before making the turn, immediately after making the turn stand and pedal hard, you may need to sit and change down further and then stand again before making the top (remember on race day you are on the right side of the road here) and be in the right gear before you make the left u-turn at the top. After making this turn immediately pedal hard and gain speed, you will need to get back into your big chain ring on the way down (not much time). Also be very careful of the sharp right hand turn at the bottom back onto Tamaki Dr, its very tight and you want to maintain as much momentum here as you can.

Out to Mission Bay turn-around and return to city straight back along Tamaki Drive

Build quickly back to 40kph and settle in, as you approach the far turn change down 2 gears, courner and then again quickly build back to 40kph, settle in for the drag back to the start/finish area, only one small raise on the way back where you just need a little bit more effort on the up and a bit less on the other side once back to speed.

An example speed session which would help (Craig won’t do this because according to his wife he isn’t actually training)

90min Total

Warm Up

2 laps of the course. 1^st Lap accelerate to race speed before all hills and ride at just on or above anerobic threshold (10% more effort). Will give you about 8min of hard riding. Focus on controlling effort. Regain speed at the top of all climbs. Work on gear changes on Shore Road (change to small chain ring early enough so you can drop down without pressure on the chain). Look to maintain speed at all places (still ride safe its just training).

2^nd Lap 10sec efforts after all turns and crests of hills including the flattening section on Gladstone by Rose Garden (= approx 15 x10sec efforts).

Other session that would be useful following this session: 1 Lap TT effort focusing on easing off where helpful and applying more effort as needed, getting gear changes right to look after the legs and maintain speed around corners. You can try one session like this in a bigish gear also, will build some strength and help give you a sense of why you want to get it right on the day (if unsure of the impact try a short 10min after).