Be Specific, Part I

One of the most important principles of triathlon training, and really all athletic training, is the principle of specificity.

If you want to become really good at jumping rope, don’t bother with a lot of push-ups and long runs. Jump rope. A lot. This is not to say that a long run won’t improve your endurance and help you in a general sense with aerobic fitness. It will. But, it won’t make you a proficient jump roper. How does this apply to triathlon? Well, in one sense it is fairly obvious. You need to do a lot of swimming, cycling and running. No kidding, right? Well, in another sense it is perhaps less obvious.

Triathlon is all about getting the intensity right for your race. Pacing, in other words. You can go too fast, and you can go too slow. Theoretically, there is an “optimal” speed/pace for YOU in any race which is unique to you. How do you find it? Unfortunately it is very hard to determine, for one reason because at the end (assuming you finish and didn’t go too fast and bonk) you can always say, “I could have gone faster” meaning you got the pacing wrong. Or, you can jet up one too many hills too fast and have nothing left, and end up crawling across the finish line. Remember all those TV shots at the Ironman? Remember Julie Moss?

This is what training devices like power meters and heart-rate monitors are all about. Getting the intensity (i.e. pace, workload, or effort) correct. ..Getting it “dialed in, ” or getting YOUR intensity just right to produce the best race time for YOU. How do you begin to uncover this target? By the way, it IS a moving target! Training with specificity.

Stay tuned.