The secret to peaking for triathlon

Peaking for triathlon is not just a case of doing the right training at the right time.

The real secret to peaking (which is much harder to get right) is controlling Mental Drive and leaving yourself with enough Mental Energy at the end of the program to peak for and perform well in your event.

Running low on Mental Energy for too long and still maintaining high mental drive can result in your central nervous system becoming fatigued.

If this happens you may be forced to take a long break and / or suffer long term loss in performance if you do not catch it in time...

Conserve the battery

When you start a training program you only have a given amount of Mental Energy to expend from the beginning, to the end of that program.

Another way of thinking of Mental Energy is that your body is like a battery and the more focused and determined you are in training (the higher your Mental Drive) the faster your battery runs out of charge (your Mental Energy).

Everyone has a different rate at which they loose charge at.

This depends on everything else going on in their lives, other than training.

A full time athlete has a lot of time to recover so can be far more focussed though a program than a full time mum or someone working long hours in a stressful job.

The problem is that Mental Energy has to spread across everything in your life.

Your family, work and friends all take up some Mental Energy not just your training.

Control

Controlling Mental Drive as well as controlling the rate at which you discharge it also effects when you peak.

Unfortunately most people perform at their best 2-4 weeks before their event because they have not paced themselves through the program.

From here ME slowly declines until you get to what I call the “detonation point”.

This is the point at which your motivation becomes low enough to have a negative effect on your training and performance.

You know you have reached this point when you feel like you ‘should go training’ because you have a race coming up rather than you ‘want to go training’ because you are enjoying every minute of it!

Another common sign of reaching Detonation Point is looking forward to your break from training, more than the race itself.

In this case the best sessions are normally seen on the training track three weeks (or earlier) before the event.

In this case an athlete will come into a race out of control.

Strategise

Triathlon is a hard sport and triathletes typically are motivated, driven people and often very competitive which can be a lethal combination.

Here are some strategies to help you peak at the right time, giving you back the control to peak at the right time and preventing under-performance.

Make your easy weeks easy

Your easy weeks are not just lower in volume they are lower in everything including your Mental Drive.

Relax and just enjoy your training in these weeks.

That means changing your attitude to training as well as your training load.

If you are feeling like you are slightly more fatigued than you should be make your easy week even easier and take a few days off.

You don’t improve in easy weeks you recover and if you don’t recover you don’t improve it is that simple.

Most people look at a short run of 30min on flat terrain in an easy week and think, “how can that short run make me any better?

“I will do it really hard so I can improve!”

They are missing the whole point of that week Recover!

Group training sessions

Group sessions are great for controlling your peak.

You generally get pushed harder and use less Mental Energy to do the session.

However these are not so good at the beginning of a build up to an event as they bring your form on and can contribute to peaking too early.

Do your group sessions when you have a hard session as there will always be someone in the group pushing the pace.

It is much more fun to be the person pushing hard than the person on the back listening to their heart rate monitor telling them they are going too hard in an easy session.

Some group sessions are easy and that is fine, BUT if you have a group session you know is always hard or you have a tendency to push the pace then do not train in the group if you have an easy session planned.

If the group session fits with what you are trying to achieve then this is a fun and effective way to train and help you peak at the right time.

Keep a log

A log is a great way to take an outside look at how you are going.

Record your energy level and how motivated you are as well as all the other stats.

That way you can see where you are sitting in terms of Mental Energy and adjust you training to suit and make early adjustments as needed.

Build up not down

Think of you build up in that way - a build up not a build down.

Pace yourself so you have something left at the end just like you would in a race.

The longer or harder the race you are training for the more conservatively you need to start.

That applies to the program for that event as well.

Most people get this wrong by being intimidated by the event and starting harder and more focussed than they normally would.

This can be frustrating because the more important or harder the event is, the more likely they are to peak early and under-perform in the event.

Look at your program, talk to your coach and have a strategy for pacing yourself not only in your event but in your sessions, weeks and though the whole program.

Remember to enjoy your training but most of all do everything you can to avoid detonation!