Posted by Juerg (207.194.220.94) on February 04, 2004 at 08:14:52:
I am happy to see the nice input by Frank.
In triathlon the biggest risk is " over reach - over load "
Because of the nature of this sport , a lot of athlete are prone to do too much training and not
enough recovery.
The biggest risk discipline is running. a ) mechanical stress due to impact ( Joints , ligaments )
b ) eccentric muscle work , which depletes glycogen faster than concentric.
c ) coordination problem in connection with speed .
On a bike we can train very " fast " with a very slow speed . (High RPM and minimal resistance )
So training the coordination in race type of a stimulation is very easy.
In running training with race pace coordination is equal race pace effort. At least in speed but not
in duration.
Using power crank even tough for some coaches to believe stimulates the hip flexion phase really
well. Checking EMG activity and trying to do short sprints out of the saddle with power crank
and you will have a problem to see a difference between EMG running of this person and the print
out on the bike.
The activation pattern seems to be close to equal , The impact dramatically better on PC than in
running.
Interestingly enough is the EMG pattern , once the Athlete is using PC over a period of 6 - 12
month . Now if the athlete is really focusing of the motion from the hip ( not pushing from the
knees ) he can activate again very similar activation pattern on the bike , as he would do in
running.
With this he actually can eliminate to a certain part impact collection . He still needs the eccentric
, as we saw with Andrew , but 1 - 2 x a week on race pace , which is for this athletes over 30 - 45
min not a very hard training will solve this problem nicely.
Tradition will stop coaches trying this .
Here short 2 stories of 2 athletes , which use PC since Frank developed them.
1. Canadian duathlon junior champion 2002 , but it is a MTB athlete. Very little running at that
time 2 - 3 x a week 30 - 40 min , race pace . The rest biking.
Had no problem to run with the " specialists " in the race , actually could relax in the run and just
wait for the bike section.
Same athlete for fun Winter triathlon world championship . Third , with a lousy skiing.
Running in the snow no problem to go with the top in the world , with very little loss , but
extremely smooth bike ride in the snow , thanks to proper pedal technique.
Victoria marathon 3 years ago . Top Canadian MTB guy , with basically no running during the
summer.
, Wins the Victoria marathon in his age group U 23 . Only training he did was biking and biking
with PC.
I am aware , this are case studies , but at least some people may try to get some thinking going.
Summary :
As Frank points out. I think long slow base endurance can be done very nice on a bike. As a
triathlete as in Larsons situation , change from a MTB guy , he was over years in a short time to a
long distance runner is perhaps missing the point of proper frame adaptation.
Changing sport from 1 to another discipline may need some time , physically and psychological.
Pounding kilometers in running into this situation was a "Alarm training " after another with very
minimal hope of a proper adaptation.
Just some thoughts on Cris’s and Frank nice input.