Get Faster, Not Older

Experience Matters: 6 steps to triathlon success

Though the pros tend to get the lions share of the media’s attention, everyone knows that age groupers are the heart and soul of triathlon. You’re the ones who are out there training and racing on your own dime. Beyond the dozens of age-group athletes I coach personally, my colleagues work with thousands of you, and we’ve observed some interesting trends. It turns out we could all learn a few lessons from age-group triathletes, especially those who have been around the sport for a while.
Recovery: Many people believe that older athletes automatically need more recovery time between hard workouts, but our observations don’t confirm that. For the vast majority of athletes over 40 we don’t need to schedule any more recovery time than we do for our athletes in their 20s. The biggest reasons for this seem to be the older athletes’ attentiveness to proper recovery habits, post-workout nutrition and sleep. By extension, if many younger athletes had more of their elders’ good habits, post-workout nutrition and sleep. By extension, if many younger athletes had more of their elder’s good habits, they’d need less recovery than we’re forced to schedule for them.
Available time: Older athletes tend to have more control over their time. Case in point: I’m coaching a young lawyer just out of law school. He’s working a ridiculous number of hours a week, he’s recently married and he’s training for an Ironman. At the same time, I’m coaching a 52-year-old partner in a law firm across town. He’s at a different point in his career and has more opportunity to arrange his work schedule to accommodate his extra-curricular activities.
While older athletes often benefit from being in more advanced positions within their careers, we’ve observed that, across all age groups, actively raking control of one’s time is the key to successfully balancing work and triathlon. Athletes who allow work to consume their lives struggle to maintain consistency in training, nutrition and recovery habits. Carve out time for yourself and you’ll see your performance improve.
Sleep: On the whole, older athletes get more sleep than younger ones because they’ve willing or able to go to bed earlier. In many cases, this is because their children are grown and out of the house. Others have decide they’re not really that interested in Sopranos reruns on cable or the local bar scene. Interestingly, our coaches have noticed that triathletes of any age who can increase their average nightly sleep to eight or nine hours (as opposed to six or fewer) experience significant improvements in workout quality and race-day performance.
Spending habits: Without winning the lottery, there’s no way many young triathletes can afford to spend as much money as older age groupers on equipment, travel and even nutrition. But all triathletes can benefit from focusing on reliability rather than glitz. You don’t need to break the bank on equipment every year, but do spend the money necessary to ensure the stuff you have works flawlessly. Invest in a top-quality travel case to protect your bike. Find a hotel chain and car-rental company you trust for predictable, hassle-free service and stick with them.
Race Day Prep: Many veteran age groupers have already learned from the experiences of forgotten cycling shoes or tackling the local Lumberjack Special as a pre-race breakfast. Take a look around next time you are in the transition area. Try to pot the cleanest, tidiest and most organized area; then look who it belongs to. I venture to bet that it belongs to an older, or at least more experienced, triathlete. The less frantic you are before a race, the less energy you waste and the faster you’ll go when the gun goes off.
Racing: Once the race starts, age doesn’t matter. What’s consistent across all age groups is the desire to reach the finish line as quickly as possible. Perhaps the only difference we see among age groupers as they age is an improved ability to listen to their bodies. Maybe it’s because older athletes have already visited the medical tent and don’t need to do it again or because experiences inside and outside of sport have taught them that blindly pushing forward isn’t always the best policy. Time and time again we’ve seen age-groupers who respond quickly to signs of trouble early in their events (by slowing down, resting in an aid station or taking on more food) rebound later to run past faltering newbies on the way to a strong finish.

Take home message:

We could all learn a few lessons from age-group triathletes, especially those who have been around the sport for a while.

If many younger athletes had more of their elders good recovery habits, they’d need less recovery than we’re forced to schedule for them

You don’t need to break the bank on equipment every year, but spend the money necessary to ensure the stuff you have works flawlessly.

Athletes who allow work to consume their lives struggle to maintain consistency in training, nutrition and recovery habits. Carve out time for yourself and you’ll see your performance improve.