NELLI SZANTO : MANAGE YOUR IRONMAN TRAINNINGS

Creating harmony between the three sports of an Ironman is one of the most difficult tasks for a triathlete. Have you asked yourself, how much of the training should be allocated? I think that this is totally individual and the preparation period also affects it.

In my case, running was the weak link. I had to spend four years in this sport, so now I can say it is not a problem to complete a marathon run.

In contrast, swimming and cycling have many positive childhood experiences, and I never had to struggle for a good result as it was in running.

Since I knew I could keep the 1’30 / 100m pace with 2 training sessions a week, and it would not be time to spend more time, because I could only improve the ironman run by up to 1-2 minutes with increased training. The rest of the time is devoted to the other 2 sports, where I can improve up to 10-20 minutes.

The amount and distance of my runs until the end of April, as in previous years, averaged 80-100km per week. In addition to comforting the mind: I put a lot of energy into running, I learned to run, my stamina and endurance were very good for those kilometers. It was time well spent.

Ready for an Ironman

At the beginning of my preparation, my bike was the best in cycling training. It was a very cold and rainy winter, and thanks to my other work, I was also struggling with time problems. That is why I’ve been trying to put more emphasis on the bike in the last month, something that was handled by running meteors. In May I had the opportunity to ride in Italy, on routes where the stages of Giro d’Italia have passed. Here we have a total of 200km in 2 days, with lots of levels and a Giro stage (stage 14 Zoncolan), which was a great experience! Zoncolan is a well known and tough climb, so it was great to train on it so well.

These 3 days were confirmed by the fact that a bicycle change would have been a very good idea. Since I did not get the new one, I took the old one, and unfortunately my knee and my waist hurt. The 2 days were so burdensome that, if we planned to travel for several days, I probably should have left the 3rd day to regenerate.

My bicycle suit, on the other hand, was very good. The kit got it right too, because in the 2 days we had all sorts of weather conditions. When we started to cook in the sun and the summer equipment performed, we were soon wearing a hail; and finally we had to pick up the winter set as we climbed snowy summits at 3000m high! In these situations, one of the most appreciated things is the professional equipment and clothing.

I remember the words of a very nice TF teacher who always said, “There is no bad time, just not enough equipment.” In these mountains I really understood what he was talking about !

The lack of cycling training at first was not a particular problem, because like swimming, I knew that it would go with less energy investment. I did not mess up with the distance, even though my monotony tolerance was positively disappointed. However, I had to accept a great truth: unfortunately, I do not belong to the time trial group! I’ve always been a field racer and hated timing races.

My performance is not weak, but I feel that I have deficiencies in this area.

It is difficult to get rid of wind shadows, because I can suddenly become explosive and I’m not afraid to “run” the wheel, but the ironman run is prohibited from running, that is to the other in the wind shadow. I was raised in my childhood to “not break out of the winds”, but now I have to look at it as I pass someone with speed and I can not go after it. Such a suction!

If I did something else in my preparation, I would try to put more energy into cycling, although I’m not 100% sure you would not mind my running performance. In May, I spent more time in the saddle than in my running shoes, and suddenly I got 2kg of muscle, which I mostly feel on my thighs.

As much as one sport has a physiological positive effect on the other, in my case, hard driving is the result of a significant increase in muscle mass that I have to run when running. It’s not that simple, is not it? It’s a balance across all three disciplines.

G4