The latest Inside Triathlon magazine arrived in my mailbox this week and I immediately found myself looking at the pictures of all the beautiful bikes. From there it was a Google search to the websites of the different bikes, components, power meters, and the variety of other equipment available to triathletes. Have you ever stopped to think how much equipment is really out there and how much of it is available to all of us!?! It’s pretty incredible how quickly we could put together a $10,000 bike, yet how many of us can identify when we have exceeded our endurance watts or easy zone 1-2 run without a piece of equipment telling us?

Think back to when you initially got involved in the sport of triathlon; did you start out with the best bike, wetsuit, etc.? Would this equipment have made your faster or make you look the part? At that time could you tell how closely you were to redlining that 12 mile ride or running at close to your max HR for the 3 mile run to finish that sprint race? If I could guess, most of us could not be sure because we were so new to the sport. We were creating our initial blue print as a triathlete. When we think back to these initial years in the sport we also recognize that it was much easier to drop big blocks of time in one, two or all three of the disciplines. The more experiences we have gained, the more we learned, and the more we have discovered what we have to learn; the more we find that those big drops in times are not achieved quite as easily as they initially were. This leads us to ponder; ”what else can I do to go faster?”

So, is it the art, science, or a bit of both that helps us knock some of those precious seconds and minutes off our present PR(’s)? Science now tells us more about the workings of the human body than ever before. Not only can we buy some of the most amazing high tech equipment on the market, we can also have someone analyze us while we are swimming, biking or running. We can download information from our power meter to learn more about our riding, changes in our fitness, customize our workouts, and track our overall training stress (TSS). We can download our running data from our Garmin which will tell us the relative elevation in our runs, save the run routes, and more. The challenge with the availability of this science is that there no guarantee that with all this great equipment we are going to go any faster.

One of the questions that is presented because of the availability of this technologically advanced equipment is: if and when do we need it! If we buy these things too early in our training, do we think we will get results simply because we have the same things the top pros have? Do we have enough experience to know if we are pushing too much or not enough if this equipment fails on race day? Here is one thing we all must recognize, there is no substitute for hard work. Great equipment is helpful, but the engine is what drives the equipment and in the case of triathlon our body is the engine.
Training our body certainly is helped along by the many things scientists have learned about anatomy and physiology of the human body. It helps us find solutions to questions about fueling, hydration, recovery, overtraining, but it cannot be overlooked that we are individuals with individual needs. Joe Friel said, “Every athlete is an experiment in a sense, because every athlete brings a different set of strengths and weaknesses, both mental and physical, to the sport.” He also said, “That’s why training is both art and science.” It is the reason why we really need to know and understand our body first. To understand your body is to be sensitive to changes, signals, and messages it sends you continually about your training. It is to have the power of knowing if my HRM dies on me at the start of IMUSA, after months of training, you can calmly step to the line knowing you can manage the day based on the feedback your body will give you. It is the ability to understand the art of being a triathlete through the blending of experiences, knowledge of your body, combined with the benefits of science (training).

The challenge is finding the combination that is right for you. Each individual has individual needs. It is having the willingness to try new things. It’s recognizing that science is not perfect, and it provides no guarantee. As an unknown author said, “Evaluate the research, look at the data, then use your experience, instincts and intuition to make an intelligent, calculated judgment call.”

Happy Training,
Coach Amy