Friday, May 11, 2018

Fwd: Top-10 books, blogs and resources for triathletes


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Mikael Eriksson




This week I finally answer the question "What's your favourite book, blog, or resource related to triathlon?" myself. As you know, I ask that question of all my interview guests, but in EP#125 I give you my top-10 resource list (plus a number of honourable mentions).

And Andy Blow makes a return appearance on the podcast to discuss how to train for Swimruns. Andy has competed in the World Championships and is also a former elite triathlete himself. We discuss both training to compete and training to complete, as well as some gear, nutrition and hydration strategies, and more.

Enjoy!


My Top-10 books, blogs, and resources

Well, I won't give it away in this email, you'll just have to go to the shownotes page (click the link below) or listen to the episode in your podcast app to get the full list. But I'll give you some hints for my top-3, and you can have a guess before looking up the list. Email me if you got all three right, and I'll respond with a virtual pat on the back, m'kay ;)

  • #3 is actually a few different books by an author who has not been a guest on the podcast before, although his name keeps coming up fairly regularly. And I've recently talked about bringing him on as a guest in the autumn, around the time of the release of his next book. So if you guess the author right, you got it for this item.
  • #2 is related to swimming, and is a set of resources originating in Australia/the UK, depending on how you look at it... the man behind these resources has not been a guest on the podcast either.
  • #1 is a single book that I mention a lot on the podcast, and many of the co-authors of the book are previous guests on That Triathlon Show.

See if you guessed right, get the full top-10 list, plus my list of honourable mentions here:

Top-10 books, blogs, and resources for triathletes | EP#125
Effective Swimrun Training

Andy Blow, former elite triathlete and founder of Precision Hydration joins us to discuss effective Swimrun training.

If you haven't given Swimruns a try yet, you absolutely have to do it! They are just incredible experiences that I always find reinvigorate my love for endurance sports.

Some key takeaways from my discussion with Andy are:


  • If you are "triathlon-fit", you can easily complete a Swimrun with a minimal number of specific swimrun workouts (3-5 of them is plenty). So if you just want to try one without taking focus away from your key triathlon events, that's fairly easy to accomplish.
  • The distribution of swim training/run training when actually focusing your training on swimrun depends on your strengths/weaknesses in the respective sports.

    If you're equally strong across both, a 50/50 distribution is about right. If you have a clear weakness, the focus may shift towards that discipline, but if your weakness is in running, you don't want to increase the proportion of run training too much because of the increased injury risk.
  • Andy's nutrition strategy in his Swimruns is quite different from what I described in episode 63. Andy relies heavily on the aid stations, and carry only a few spare gels on him. This means he has learnt to consume a large amount of energy in one go (e.g. a gel, a banana, some chews, and a piece of cake) and then let that fuel for the next hour or so, depending on how far it is to the next aid station.

    I like this strategy as you don't need to carry so much food, but it does sound like something that has to be practised diligently before race day.

Listen to the episode here:
Keep training smart,
Mikael
That Triathlon show is sponsored by Precision Hydration.

One-size doesn't fit all when it comes to hydration. Take Precision Hydration's FREE Triathlon Sweat Test to get personalised hydration advice tailored to what you're training for. Use the discount code THATTRIATHLONSHOW to get your first box or tube of electrolyte product for free.

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