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On the International Women’s day (8^th March) ironguides Head Coach Vinnie Santana has compiled his observations and experiences as a coach and professional triathlete on the main psychological and physiological aspects of triathlon training for women. He has trained or worked closely with female athletes of all levels, from helping women finish their first triathlon to attending a training camp with four-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington and 2012 Olympic Champion Nicola Spirig.

It’s clear that the number of women athletes in our sport has risen significantly in recent years. In some countries women-only races and race series are appearing. And the industry has picked up on this trend with an increasing number of items specifically designed for women from shoes to wetsuits to bikes.

The depth of the elite women’s field also has deepened in the past few years. We have watched as Chrissie Wellington has raised the bar again and again in winning the Ironman World Championships in four of the last five years (she missed one Kona due to illness). Chrissie also has lowered the world record for Iron-women several times, most recently to 8:18, which she did at Challenge Roth in July 2011. As a result, most of Chrissie’s rivals also have stepped up their games, in training and racing. There has been a slew of Sub Nine hour Ironman finishes by women, inspired by what Chrissie has achieved.

When it comes to performance, women may use less glycogen and tap more fat for fuel than men in longer, lower-intensity types of exercise, such as long-distance triathlon, which possibly gives female athletes a relative advantage to their male counterparts. Chrissie has previously indicated that she believes that it’s only a matter of time before women beat men in Ironman and who can argue with her; Chrissie, the reigning world champion, has placed in the Top 10 overall in most of her Ironman races, and she has crossed the finish line ahead of many high-profile world-class male triathletes.

When it comes to coaching, the two sexes require different approaches. Despite the health benefits of being an endurance athlete, psychology and physiology are very different between women and men. Women have menstrual periods, and they are in general more vulnerable to stress fractures.

This article is a compilation of my observations and experiences as a coach and professional triathlete on the main psychological and physiological aspects of triathlon training for women. I’ve been fortunate enough to train or work closely with female athletes of all levels, from helping women finish their first triathlon to attending a training camp with Chrissie.

Psychology

When it comes to goals, men and women are different. Men tend to be more concentrated on the result, while women are more focused on the process. This has an impact on the way a coach should motivate his male and female athletes. Women benefit from an approach that is aimed at building confidence, making them feel good about themselves and helping them believe they can achieve their goals, while men perform very well when they are challenged.  Of course, there are exceptions to this rule and that’s the value in having a perceptive coach.

These key differences also explain why the personal relationship between some athletes and coaches—the relationship they have outside the sport—has a big impact on their performance. We have seen many successful athletes who are coached by their husbands, fathers or boyfriends including Olympic champion Emma Snowsill and seven-time Ironman champion Natascha Badmann.

Of course, these relationships aren’t limited to triathlon. The Williams’ sisters—Venus and Serena—have long been coached by their father. The closer the relationship between athlete and coach, the easier it can be to gauge whether constructive criticism or encouragement is the best option for the coach on any given day.

Being able to “read” one’s athletes, in particular the female athlete, is a skill that takes time to develop.

One former ironguides athlete had a three-colour swim-cap system for her swim coach: green meant “all’s good, critique away”, yellow signalled “warning: could go either way”, while red alerted the coach to “watch out, not open to feedback!”

Physiology

Once the coach has established a solid understanding of the athlete’s level of motivation, it is time to reach for improved physiological performance.

Let’s start with body type. There is a fundamental difference in how much training an individual athlete can handle, regardless of gender.

Heavier or muscular athletes tax their bodies more when training and tend to need longer recovery periods after intense workouts, especially with running. In contrast, a skinny—leaner—athlete often can train at a very high intensity and yet require less recovery time. This reflects one’s level of testosterone, which can vary widely from athlete to athlete and is not necessarily a requirement for success for women in triathlon.

Understanding both body type and testosterone levels are important to understanding the differences between training loads for men and women.

Many age-group women are training for hobby and lifestyle, and a coach needs to be aware that training can impact their periods. Again, the impact varies significantly by individual. Some women can, at a very high training load, get skinny and still have their periods, while others find the smallest change in body fat can interfere with the timing of their period or suppress it altogether.

Some female athletes may use the pill in order to keep their estrogen and progesterone at the levels they should be. However this also has a downside, especially because of hormonal swings. It’s important to check with your doctor if you have any concerns and to keep your coach in the loop too.

A woman’s diet may also be different to a man’s. Some observers believe a higher intake of red meat helps to prevent anemia and, while doing heavy training, calcium intake is also believed to help sustain bone density which, if not looked after, could lead to the stress fractures I noted earlier. Asking a doctor for advice is advisable if you have any concerns, while keeping in mind that fatigue can also be a normal side effect of adjusting to training or to a higher training load.

For these reasons, it is important to understand the true goal of each female athlete, as the details do have an impact on performance, health and lifestyle.

Enjoy your training.

Vinnie Santana, ironguides Head Coach
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Alun ‘Woody’ Woodward, Certified ironguides Coach – UK/Hungary
http://www.ironguides.net

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We would all like to have everything go perfectly leading into a race but there are times when this simply does not happen and we need to have coping strategies in place.

Not all problems that arise mean you have to give up your race. I saw a great example of this from former World Champion Spencer Smith when racing an ITU points race and qualifying event in Funchal, Madeira. During the bike section Spencer had a major mechanical issue with the rear brake coming clean out of his bike frame, rather than give up the race Spencer jumped off his bike and quickly found a way to secure the brake to the frame to stop is jumping around and causing a major hazard and then got on with the race just taking a little more care on descents and corners due to having only one working brake. Not only did Spencer finish the race but he had one hell of a story to tell after and just further enhanced his reputation of never stopping the fighting!!

There are 3 main issues that can come up before or during a race and these can be pain due to injury, mechanical issue or nutritional issues.

While some injuries simply mean we cannot race, some smaller issues can be overcome using over the counter pain killers. An example of this can be a strained back which is very common for all of us and usually results from something unrelated to our sport. Simply moving wrong getting out of bed or picking something off the floor can lead to a sore back due to muscle spasms. I would always recommend you see your doctor to determine whether any permanent damage could be done by racing on pain killers before following this advice.

With pain killers we have 2 main over the counter pain killers paracetamol and ibuprofen. When we are looking at these two drugs we need to know when to take them and what they do.

Paracetamol kills the pain response BUT only if it is taken before the pain starts, so if we are racing and wait until the pain comes on it is too late and nothing is going to help. Once the brain starts signaling pain, the process has started to try to get you to stop moving and it can’t really be switched off. So if you have a pain that you know is not going to cause permanent damage by ignoring, you need to be looking to take paracetamol before the pain starts.

During a day you can take 3 times 1g of Paracetamol so if you are racing Ironman you might want to take one dose with your breakfast, another starting the bike ride and then one more before just before the end of the bike.

A lot of pain is caused by inflammation and ibuprofen is designed to take away this inflammation and can be very effective. I would tend to limit the use of iboprofen though when racing as it is very hard on the stomach and that is the last thing we need on race day. If ibuprofen is needed, I would take with breakfast and then leave until after the race.

Other stronger pain killers are available from your doctor but please make sure you explain to your doctor what you are doing as the demands of ironman will effect what you should take, for example Voltaren, a commonly used pain killer is processed by the kidneys and this could be very damaging during an ironmen race when the kidneys are already under a lot of stress. A safer choice for endurance sport would be Codeine which is processed by the liver.

Remember always get your doctor’s advice before taking any pain medication.

Nutritional issue on race day can be numerous but one big one is losing your own special nutrition. I am sure you have been racing and seen nutritional products all over the road, when we hit a bump in the road it is easy for our products to fall off the bike or also we can simply drop them when trying to eat and drink. While we should have our own products that work well for us we need to be aware of what is on the course and how much we need to take in to satisfy the energy demands of the race. Most races have aid stations with various products to give us a choice so we can take solid bars if we don’t tolerate gels and vica versa. Always have a backup plan in place so you can simply move to it if the worst happens and then you don’t panic and can still have a great race.

A lot of races also have a special needs area where you can place a bag containing spare nutrition or emergency foods.  I would always recommend you utilize these on race day as you never know what might happen and after all your hard work preparing for your event it is better to be safe than sorry.

Mechanical issues are a huge factor for many people on race day and one of the leading causes of athletes not finishing their races. Make sure you have basic supplies with you on the race course so you can fix minor issues yourself. A basic allen key set is essential as you don’t want your race ending due to a loose bolt that would only take a few seconds to tighten. Also carrying a spare tube and pump to fix a flat are essential, I would always prefer a manual pump over a CO2 canister as these do notoriously fail on race day. On the bike I like to have the following and secure them to your bike using a strong tape such as duct tape.

• allen key set
• manual pump / dual Co2 pump
• spare inner tube
• tire lever

So a little forward planning and preparing for possible problems on race day can make any issue that comes up a lot less stressful to cope with and still lead to a successful completion of your race. Plus when things do go wrong and you overcome them it leads to a much more entertaining post race story to share with your fellow athletes and friends!!

Enjoy your training

Coach Alun “Woody” Woodward

 
Train with ironguides!

Personalized Online Coaching:  Starting at USD190/month

Monthly Training plans (for all levels, or focused on one discipline): Only USD39/months

Event based training plans:

Sprint Distance (USD45 for 8-week plan)

Olympic Distance (USD65 for 12 week plan)

Half Ironman (R$95 for 16-week plan)

Ironman (USD145 for 20-week plan)

X-Terra (USD65 for 12-week plan)

Running Plans (10k, 21k and 42k – starting at USD40)