Why do I always need the toilet before a race?

Dr. Ollie Stoten, one of our excellent ultra distance running athletes and a polar explorer with a very keen medical mind turns his attention to that last hour before your race. Ollie offers a humorous, yet informative insight into your bodily functions in the last few minutes before you race; answering that all important question: "Why is the toilet queue so long before race start and why do I always need to go?"

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Preparing to Suffer On Race Day

Racing a triathlon is tough. Yes, there are countless sayings: "winter miles, summer smiles", "train hard, race easy”, etc. etc. However, that isn’t really why we race, that describes why we train. We race for a variety of different reasons, some very personal to ourselves. This article helps you define what question you are asking yourself by racing and helps you get ready to answer it.

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Training Hard or Hardly Training?

In the triathlon world there is often kudos given for doing “more” training. It is thought to be hardcore to add an extra rep to your session, or if you do a little extra, than you have prepped yourself a bit better for your race. Social Training Apps reward big weeks or rank athletes based on miles completed or otherwise.

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Open Water Swim Session 1

Here is a quick set to consider doing before you next open water session – This is more than just trying to get as many loops done as you can!

The purpose of this session is to have awareness of different speeds while you are swimming. Throughout the whole session you will have to be sighting and you may even get the opportunity to settle into some drafting if you find another swimmer who is swimming at the right pace for you.

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Macro Nutrition Guidelines from Helen Money

Helen Money of The Bosworth Clinic has provided a great general rough guideline of what you should be eating and how much. This is a general guideline and as always, if you are unsure it is best to get the professional help of someone like Helen! Here we recommend you look at tracking what you are eating and reflect at the end of a week and see if there are areas you can improve. You can track using an app like myfitnesspal which links straight into your Training Peaks account! Nutrition is never a stationary goal post, it changes with the season and your training load or cycle. So it is always worth reviewing how you are doing with it. Read below to see where you sit and if you are unsure, chat with your coach to get more advice.

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How to Balance Training with a Busy Schedule. Athlete Profile: Hagai and Tevfik

Here we introduce Tevfik, who works in the financial services bouncing his time between London and Turkey while training for IRONMAN and Hagai who balances his family, working life in the city with training for long course and middle distance races. They have both been working with Tri Training Harder for a few years and are certainly fantastic characters. They kindly give us an insight to how they fit their training into a busy schedule. See what you can learn from these two:

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Help! I've Entered A Triathlon And I Don't Know Where To Start.....

We've all been there (read the coaches bios!) where we've entered an event not really knowing what it entails, egged on by a bit of peer pressure, Fear Of Missing Out or just because it sounded like a good idea at the time.  Below we discuss the elements you need to include in your training to help you complete your first triathlon.....hopefully the first of many.

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How to Break the 1 Hour IRONMAN Swim Barrier

Here we break down what that formidable 1-hour IRONMAN swim looks like to help make the impossible become seemingly possible. For many people dipping below the hour is a fantastic accolade and will help you get out on the bike ahead of the madness that is the large group of athlete swimming just over one hour. Is it all to do with being a great swimmer, or is there more to it than that?

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Why Doing a Spring Marathon is a Bad Idea for a Summer IRONMAN

For many people, a spring marathon is an important stepping stone for an IRONMAN in the summer. However, is it really the most sensible idea? Can there be occasions when it should be in the training plan? Many people need a marathon as a way of psychologically preparing themselves for an IRONMAN, but is that the most sensible thing to do from a physiological perspective? Read on to find out more.

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Should I change my Running Technique?

We often get asked: "how can you make a meaningful difference using run analysis while on a 1 week training camp?". This is a very fair point as it’s easy when doing video analysis to just 'say what you see' and end up patching up or correcting outcomes rather than identifying root-causes. When it comes to video analysis, there is an old saying which is that the analysis is only as good as the person interpreting the data. This blog explores whether run analysis could help you understand if you should be changing your running technique.

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