With more and more people taking up the endurance sport. The world wide participation of Triathlon has been increasing over the years,
This is excelent for the sport as a whole but does it serve the the greater community when particapants are Ill trained, jumping into the deep end may not be advisable for newbies who do not have some help with training.
In the wake of the death of 17-year old national triathlete Thaddeus Cheong and 25-year-old Captain Ho Si Qiu after races, what do rookie and veteran sportsmen have to watch for while training and racing?
TRAINING: HOW INTENSE?
There is no upper age limit for triathlons. There may be physical and medical limitations, but this is not the same as age limitation.’
However, noted that as people age, the risk of certain diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease and diabetes increases.
To counter this, precautions such as a pre-participation screening, training progressively, and ensuring proper hydration and nutrition during training and competition.
In addition, participants should monitor themselves for injuries and be aware of the symptoms of heart diseases. The issue with heart problems are not only restricted to an older particapant.
A sports surgeons suggest that by conducting proper warm-up and making sure training distances are not increased too suddenly, should help to prevent injuries.
Some of the common injuries include stress fractures (on bones), pain over the shin bones, muscle and tendon tears. When this happens, try to ease off for a while.
The tolerance level varies greatly from individual to individual. Some can tolerate high distances without injury while others get injured at one-tenth the volume.’ This is a very important point you can not blindly follow a training schedule that does not suit who you are.
It is recommended to increase distance covered by 10 per cent a week and keeping a training log to monitor training volume, intensity and how one feels. Any injury incurred should also be noted down.
‘For instance, if you developed a stress fracture when you raised your running distance to 40km, then you would want to hold your weekly distance at 35km for a longer period before stepping up to 40km.’
HOW MUCH TO DRINK?
For events over an hour, ‘special attention’ needed to be placed on both fluid and sugar intake during the race.
As a rule of thumb 500ml of fluid should be consumed two hours before the race, while during the race, athletes should have planned drinks of 125-250ml every 15 minutes.
Again different people have different needs I run with people who seem to be camels and I am trying to suck as much water down as I can get my hands on.
A heavy meal before race is a no-no. But athletes can take some energy gel or sports drinks to replace lost fluids.
After a long race, don’t stay stationary immediately. Walk it off and do proper stretching to loosen taut muscles and minimize soreness.
There is the school of thought that you have a window of optimum recovery time after an event so you aim to fuel back up within an hour or so with appropriate foods and liquids
A massage the next day would help.
ADDICTED TO RACING?
Addiction is a possibility for some enthusiasts.It would be considered an addiction when the sport literally controls a person’s life.
When your life become structured in such a way that study, relationships and work take a back seat to their participation in the sport.’
Other warning signs: when a person becomes irritable, nervous, guilty and anxious if he or she is unable to exercise.
some ways of managing such an addiction is to have watchful coaches, social support from spouses or family, and adhering to a prescribed training program.
They should be referred to a sports medicine doctor or sports psychologists when necessary.
As always ’It’s all about striking a balance between work, family and training.
Managing your priorities in life is the key.’
Related posts:
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.