There was an interesting article posted on xtri.com this week, Maximizing Economy: An Essential Parameter for Triathlon Success. The key point in this article is that in addition to increasing aerobic capacity and your lactate threshold, triathlon training should also focus on improving efficiency – being able to move at the same speed but with less effort, using less energy and allowing you to keep up a faster pace for a longer time.

The author goes on to provide a number of tips on how to improve cycling efficiency, mainly, finding an optimal cadence, and ensuring proper positioning on the bike. It was interesting that this author quoted studies that show a relatively lower cadence (~70rpms) tends to be more efficient than higher cadences. As always though, the key is to find the optimal cadence where we are able to produce the most power for the least amount of effort. Guess I’ll need to get a power meter sometime soon!!

Anyway, some interesting stuff, check it out.

I was doing some searching on YouTube for some swim training videos. Came across this one that seemed pretty good, the coach broke the stroke down into five “keys” to look for:

1. Hand position entering the water: want hands entering at 1 and 11 on the clock.
2. Hand glide position: focus on getting a glide with arm outstretched.
3. Kick: Keep legs straight, kick from the hip.
4. Stay long in the water: reduces drag and helps apply force with the pull.
5. Hand exit position: finish stroke strong, pull hand out at lower part of hip, not at the waist.

Hopefully this helps. I know these are good pointers for me to keep in mind!