4 things you should sweat about :)

The previous post covered 5 examples of things you should not sweat about in training. But there are a few things that are too often overlooked and that is a bit of a shame...

Bike fit
Some may say I am a bit biased as I am a bike fitter. However, I have examined the effects various bike positions have on multisport athletes' VO2max and thresholds as part of my undergraduate thesis and my results showed that even though a lot more research is needed (thats the conclusion of ANY research paper though...), different bike positions have the potential to have either a positive or negative affect on performance. Not to mention the fact that an improper bike fit can result in injury...

What really puzzles me is the fact that some athletes choose to spend more money on the latest and greatest equipment in the hopes of getting faster and more efficient, but will not devote a couple of hours to get a proper bike fit. A couple of hours with me (using the Retul system) will only cost $140, which is significantly less than the physio/chiro bill they get if they get injured and significantly cheaper than most of the parts that can make their bike lighter. A bike fit should be done on a regular basis, as things will change through out the season... So in 2009 - start thinking about your bike fit...

Season plan
It is one thing to know where you are going, but how are you going to get there? Imagine that you need to get to a specific location, but have no idea of the best route to take you there... so you try a few roads, find out that they are not right, then have to back track and try another route. This takes time and sets you back. How about planning ahead? After you come up with some goals, create a plan so you can achieve that goal. If you are not coached, don't be afraid to ask the help of a coach you trust, and if you are coached - make sure that your coach is actually planning properly.

Note that a season plan is never fixed. It is flexible and will change constantly as things come up.

Consistency
This is very important when it comes to training. The off season is very important to allow for full recovery, but taking 4 months completely off between seasons? Thats a bit too long in my opinion... However, this is very common; athletes that don't even maintain a healthy level of activity and then get back into training in January and expect to significantly improve their times from the previous year. This kind of goes back to my point about that season plan...

Nutrition
It seems that everyone is all about nutrition these days... but most end up falling into the traps of various "diets". I will not go into my thoughts about some of the common diets, I will simply say that too many athletes either pay too much attention to their nutrition (over-complicating things) or too little attention. The fact that there are so many so called nutrition experts around does not help either. A personal trainer is likely not going to have the ability to help an Ironman triathlete with his/her nutrition, and many coaches do not have the education or experience to do so either. To make matters worse, many registered dietitians do not have the training and/or experience to work with athletes. There are too few education programs in Canada (none?) that offer comprehensive sports nutrition education, separated from dietetics, which is a shame.

If you choose to figure out your nutrition needs on your own, try and read something a bit more advances that 'triathlete' magazine or VeloNews (very good magazines, but perhaps not appropriate for this purpose). If you decide to ask for help, there are better resources out there than online forums... As with anything else - choose the person you are working with wisely, according to their education and specific experience.

Just some food for thought... just in time for the new year :)