8 Triathlon Myths | Tips Every Triathlete Should Either Know Or Forget

Published on November 10th 2017

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When I first started triathlon I was given a lot of helpful advice. Or was it helpful? Were they in fact just triathlon myths? I'm sure you've heard a few good ones over the years, Mark. Yeah I've heard a few good myths over the years. I think I'm a little bit more wiser, over these last few years. But anyway we'll go through a few myths and see. Come for a coffee, who are you texting? I've got a new coach, mate. He's gonna take minutes off my time. Ooh. You should get one. Okay I'm not sure that's necessarily true. I reckon there's three avenues you can go down. We've got clubs for instance. Yeah clubs is really important. That's where I started off. You can go down to a club, learn from people straight away. They can tell you where to go ride in a local area, when the pools are open, things like that. And then there's coaches there if you wanna access them as well. Yeah I guess if you've got an A race or a target race, that's where a coach could come in really handy. They'll give you a bespoke programme, targeting that race. Yeah and then I guess finally, there's some good YouTube channels out there. Someone's got a big appetite. Big race tomorrow, mate. Carb loading. Sure you need that much? Course I do. Okay Mark, carbo loading, what's your thoughts on it? Well if I had a pound for every time someone asked me about carbo loading, I'd be a rich man. I think the biggest myth is that you have to have five bowls of pasta the night before a race, which just isn't true. I think you need to do everything in moderation. That's what I would say. Yeah I guess our bodies can only store so much energy. We're not bottomless pits after all. I think the main thing is just stick to what you know, and don't change things suddenly the night before a race. I was just going to the gym. Gym? Yeah! Gym's for bodybuilders, not endurance athletes. So obviously you've been working out, mate. Oh well thanks Mark, cheers for noticing. But no seriously, there is a bit of a misconception here. People think going to the gym is for getting big. But it's actually great for your strength and conditioning. So give you a bit more strength for racing and training, but also makes you less injury prone. Yeah, I'll hold my hand up, I was never one to go to the gym much, but over the years I've realised it's really, really important. We call it prehab, preventing injuries. But obviously when you do get injured you need to do the gym work as well to get back stronger and healthy. Right mate, now for some kicking drills. No, I don't need that. I'm saving my legs for the bike and the run. Okay, I guess where this comes from is the fact that the two disciplines after the swim require quite a lot from the legs, so people advise not to kick too much during the swim, which is great advice but that doesn't mean you shouldn't train on it. Subscribe to GTN: http://gtn.io/SubscribetoGTN Check out the GTN Shop: http://gtn.io/3U If you'd like to contribute captions and video info in your language, here's the link 👍 http://gtn.io/3V Watch more on GTN... 📹 What Is FTP And How To Calculate It? - http://gtn.io/FTP 📹 How To Speak Like A Triathlete | Tri Jargon buster - http://gtn.io/TriJargon