I remembered Vincenzo Nabili winning the Italian
Championship years back. He was the
man.
During this year Giro he had many
occasions where he failed to keep with the leaders:
On Thursday morning,
the Astana medical staff
were so concerned about Nibali’s subdued form that he underwent additional testing to uncover if an
underlying illness was to blame. Barely 24 hours, Nibali was somehow a man
transfigured on the toughest day of the Giro to date, shining on the Agnello
and then soloing to victory at Risoul to leap
to second overall, just 44 seconds behind new maglia rosa Esteban Chaves
(Orica-GreenEdge).
This kind of problems is common for many champions but
not for all. We encounter this problem
with many of our athletes, “they are afraid to shine” or they do not believe
they can do it. They are frighten! This statement is very difficult to swallow. We
have written about this problem:
21 août 2012
Psychology for Triathletes II
In part I, we spoke about what Sergio Santos
said and that Psychology was doing things instead of talking. Pain
in athletes exacerbated by environmental conditions and inner world is nothing
new; as we can see in this vignette written by Simon Whitfield:
The worst moment, and it was nearly a
complete meltdown, came during an ill-advised-pre-Athens training camp we set
up for Brampton, Ontario, less than three weeks before the 2004 Summer
Games...Bystanders thought I was overdosing and called an ambulance. When
it arrived, the paramedic immediately saw there was no real physical distress
but the signs of an emotional breakdown (68)... "Son, you're okay. Calm
down. Get your act together. You´re fine. I recognize you. I watched you in Sydney.
I know you can win." Simon Says Gold. 2009. Canada.
The above is
a problem encounter by coaches. How much you push the athlete to
continue? When do you stop pushing athletes to return to train? Is he/she
faking it? What is happening in the life of the athlete? What
doctor you choose for treatment of your athlete? I will try to give
you an answer to each one of them, taking into consideration that you need to
personalize the formula; also, what I say is for high performance individuals
that are 120% involved with the process of “performing at the highest level
possible.” Try what is prescribed someplace for the “regular athlete” if he/she
is not involved 120%, otherwise you get into a lot of problems legally or you can
loose your athlete.
We have a popular saying in Spanish: “A la vejez
viruela.” This happened to Nabili; getting old brings doubts to him. Let´s see how he can overcome this fear, he
is just 44 seconds from Chaves (the leader).
How we can deal with problem? Bringing the issue to the open is very
important; giving the necessary confidence follows. Do not do it the opposite. We are assuming that the training is there as
well as the abilities. Otherwise, start
with getting the abilities (training) and perhaps you can deal with this issue
if it comes when the abilities and the training is there.
It is refreshing seeing a young man as Khristian
Blummenfelt competing as the man. He and
Dorian Connix made the necessary steps to be competing at an elite level. They have the skills to be with the best
cycling, they can pull the peloton if necessary. The only problem is that races are not made
for excellent bicyclists. The 390 watts
on the course speaks of Blummenfelt´s capacity.
We have previous measures on flat surfaces and hilly terrains from Jan
Frodeno and Laurent Vidal, for an Olympic distance triathlon 370 watts has been
the peak to stay with the peloton. Blummenfelt
rode with a small group and was able to run after the bike without difficulties:
This is the closest way to science in triathlon. If we know that on flat surface 370 watts are
produced to keep with the peloton cycling at San Diego and 370 watts at
Auckland for Olympic distance triathlons; 390 watts is for sprint distance when
they are really pedaling.
22 avr. 2013
San Diego and Auckland Triathlons
Different strategies are coming into play in
triathlon. Changes come from above to below, hardly any change come from
below. That is the reason why revolutions do not change anything,
they come from below to above imposed by force most of the
time. Something moving from above to below is not common, frequent
and/or well-accepted; we appreciated what Mr. Brownlee, The Great Champion of
Triathlon, said at the finish line interview:
“I didn’t know how fast I was going to run to
be honest because it was only literally this week that I felt decent,” Brownlee
said of trying to break away on the bike. “I don’t understand why there’s eight
to 10 guys in that group and none of those guys finished in the top 10. I don’t
know why they’re not pushing on the bike. It doesn’t make sense to me. I tried
to get away a little bit; form a group of three or four of us, see if we could
get away, but that didn’t work.”
We will try to answer the above
question. Jan Frodeno has giving us interesting information
regarding the effort done during the last two competitions. For
Frodeno, the effort was the same at San Diego and Auckland (changed a wheel and
kept with the first pack). 370 watts average during the 40k bike,
meaning he had the same power in a hilly course as in the flat course.
Frodeno's
power Auckland
The bike was harder in San Diego compared to
Auckland for Frodeno! Different training protocols are required for the two
courses. Jan is a heavy guy for a triathlete and going up hills
requires extra watts, he used the same watts without lifting his weight in San
Diego; meaning that he was giving more work to the ones behind him (Jan was one
of the ones pushing the pace at the chasing packs). 370 watts is the limit
for the majority of the triathletes competing in these races to have a “wet
run.” Whoever kept hidden longer in the second pack led by Frodeno
was able to run faster at the end. The ones that stayed with
Brownlee were not able to run because they just kept “closing the gaps;” and as
a consequence, they could not do a “wet run.” Please see previous
post:
11 mars 2013
Wet Run II and Triathlon
Of course, this strategy works for second,
third place, but not for the champion: Brownlee.
We can infer from our exercise that the Mexican
competitor is able to make just above 300 watts, reason why he is so far
behind. We know from previous
competitors that when they are teenagers, they can improve from 20 to 30 watts
per year if they train close to 500k a week for a 20k time trial. We assumed that the cyclists has the proper
technique (please see our blog to what we meant).
Blummenfelt has improved that much since he was a
teenager and competed at Auckland:
