WORKOUTS TO BETTER TRANSITIONS


By Greg Reasynich, USA Triathlon Level II Certified Coach


A


workout designed to teach awareness of personal cadence is as beneficial as recovery and time


trial workouts. Since every athlete differs, personal awareness is critical. No one cadence exists for all cyclists. Transitions are simple. It is how we get


from the swim to the bike and from the bike to run. However, triathletes tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. How do we prepare for that disorienting feeling of swimming to running to our bikes? What do I need to have by my bike? How can we improve our transitions?


With the hectic pace of racing a triathlon


the first and best advice I give to athletes about transitions is to keep it simple. When I walk through a transition area I can see any number of things, from people laying out a full-size beach towel with a shopping cart of nutrition products spread across, to those athletes who have it down with only a hand towel and nothing but their race belt and running shoes. When setting up transition it is best to lie


out only what you need. This will vary based on race distance and individual needs, but generally shouldn’t be much; race number,


running shoes, hat, maybe a little nutrition, but that is it. Remind your athletes that transitions


count towards their total time in the race. Tell them: “Always stay moving. Any extra time spent standing by your bike eating and gulping down that extra water is just extra time. Grab the nutrition that you need and use it on the go.” Transitions take a tremendous amount


of skill to perform. Practicing the individual skills is key. Some of the skills that should be practiced are:


PERFORMANCECOACHING | page 11


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