Australian Triathlete — December 2017

AustrAliAn triAthlete | 61

Brendan Sexton

BRendAn seXTon

As a youngster, Brendan’s life ambition was to be the

fifth Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. That didn’t quite

pan out. But triathlon did. A decade on, he’s still at it.

http://www.brendansexton.com.au

@kung_fu_sexton

MeTRonoMes: Metronomes (or

pacers) aren’t as well known as the data

monitors previously mentioned but can be

just as beneficial for triathletes,

particularly those new to the sport.

Metronomes are devices that hold a

rhythm. The most common metronomes

beep at a constant rate allowing the user

to hear a preset rhythm. Used in both

swimming and running the metronome

allows the user to hold a consistent rate of

stroke or stride without overrating or

dropping below the desired tempo. Having

a constant reminder of rhythm can be a

useful tool for athletes who find it difficult

to identify when their form is beginning to

deteriorate or for those who get distracted

when training and tend to fall out of their

prescribed intensity zone – a little beeping

voice that helps out when training buddies

are a no-show.

C LoCks: Hardly a new technology, very

few of us would not use a clock,

stopwatch, or timing device of some kind

in our daily training. We time efforts and

recovery; we set time goals, and we chase

the clock through traffic to get to the pool

before closing. But do we use clocks to

their full potential? The concept of rating

(in swimming and running) or cadence

(in cycling) is, in essence, the sum of

repetition over time. So, where a

metronome sets rating, we can use clocks

to measure and monitor rating and be

aware of a value many of us don’t often

take into account. Simply count strokes,

pedal revolutions or steps over a set time

and compare at different points within a

session or race. A higher rating will

generally require more central effort and

will rehearse a movement more

effectively whereas a lower rating will

need more power, strength and put more

pressure peripherally (on arms and legs).

Set your own time frame (say, 30

seconds) and always use the same

count window.

CoMPUTeRIsed TRAInInG LoGs:

When I started triathlon, I was encouraged

to keep a training diary. Being a standard

teenager with the attention span of a

cartoon surgeonfish my entries were

intermittent and would often record

inconsistent information. Enter the digital

age of GPS watches, Wi-Fi and mobile

phone Apps, and data recording and

analysis is a science within itself. As a

professional athlete, having past training

session numbers, mapped courses, race

course profiles and a metrics history gave

me an almost instant comparison of my

performances in repeated sessions or

races. As a coach, I can use training data

software to chart athletes’ improvements

and setbacks and cross reference these to

identify relationships. I can gather that if

an athlete begins to run a certain volume

in a week, the following week will see a

drop in cycling performance. Going into

greater detail and using metric recordings I

can establish that at a certain weight an

athlete will be able to hold peak power-to-

weight, but any less and the athlete is

highly susceptible to falling ill. In the huge

range of software and Apps available,

there are specially designed values that

give fitness scores or predict race

performance by compiling uploaded data

and feeding it through trademarked

algorithms. If that’s all a bit too technical

for you, I still recommend giving the basic

training diary features a try. It’s just like the

old ink and parchment, and you might find

there’s a feature that shines a bit more light

on your goals than you could already see.

It is a brilliant time to be a triathlete in the

digital age. Whether you’re just looking to

tick a bucket list box or carve out a career

at the top, you’re very likely to utilise some

form of technology. No doubt there is a

product out there that can help you smash

your goals but keep in mind, the best tools

a triathlete can have is their arms, legs and

some good company.

one individual to another can be massive.

For example, a heavier person will be able

to produce a greater wattage purely from

adding their body mass to the pedals. An

athlete set up on their bike to utilise their

posterior chain (big muscles down the

back of their legs) will be able to produce

more power, but then you add in some

other factors, the heavier athlete will have

to use all that extra power to overcome

inertia and maintain momentum of a

greater mass, and the big muscle setup

could potentially tire out muscles

required to stabilise the athlete’s hips

once they get onto the run.

The key to getting the most benefit out

of a power meter is, as with the HR

monitor, to build a bank of data that can

give you a comprehensive profile of your

own thresholds and limits, then work at

improving those numbers within a similar

context. Using power meter data, you can

plan training on the bike to target race

specific cycling e.g, a long flat bike course

will best benefit from a moderate but

sustained power whereas a short hilly

course will be better prepared for by

obtaining short, high and repeated peaks

of wattage with recovery.

Getting the most from your technology