October 31, 2005 -- Surf swimming. Flailing arms. Mud, grass, roots and logs. Lava rock. Dagger-edged thorns. Desert heat. Neck-jarring descents. Flat tires and broken derailleurs. The XTERRA world championship on Maui presents some awesome and daunting challenges. This year at the Oct. 23 event I saw more than 10 competitors bleeding from at least one area of their body. But mostly I saw white-toothed grins beaming from beneath dirty, dust-laden faces. They would testify that XTERRA adds a fresh challenge to our familiar routine of swim, bike and run.
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Triathlete Interactive
Coach Lance Watson works with many top athletes, both on and off the roads.
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For those looking to tackle an XTERRA next season, the fall is a great time to start transitioning road skills to off-road without disrupting your usual training regime. For the XTERRA veterans, now is a great time to evaluate your skill set while the season is fresh in your memory. Make specific written notes on the areas you want to improve. XTERRA ultimately is about swim, bike and run fitness, but these basics need to be applied to the technical demands of off-road racing. In short, start building you technical skill set now, and plan your winter and spring to incorporate some specific energy-system demands of XTERRA.
Here are some winter considerations:
The swim: Many XTERRA events do not permit wetsuits, so don’t overuse the pull buoy over the coming months. Instead, train your kick to support your body position, accelerate around the turning buoys and power through ocean swells. Also, consider adding more paddle work (without a buoy) to your pool workouts. Rougher swimming requires more strength. You need to climb swells, pull water in traffic and lift your head higher to sight. If you are really hardcore you’ll swim with paddles, no pull buoy and a band around your ankles. Start with 25m repeats of this.
After working on strength and stroke length, turn your focus to stroke rate. When you do a 1000- to 1500-meter swim in the chop alongside 500-plus other athletes, you need turnover and arm speed. The water in these conditions is messy, and there is too much body contact to rely on feathering out a long, pretty stroke. Things jam up in the first buoy turn, so arriving early is an advantage.
Lastly, a little trick for those stuck indoors this winter. Prior to the Maui XTERRA worlds we tethered athletes at the waist so they could swim on the spot -- a great way to learn to swim with a steady stroke rate in sloppy water.
The bike: XTERRA requires strength, endurance and anaerobic capacity. It also requires excellent bike-handling skills. The fall is an excellent time to get out and ride off-road. If you can find someone with inferior fitness, but superior mountain-biking skills, you will have found your perfect fall training partner. Note when they shift, stand, transfer their weight on descents, brake, etc. Find some tricky trail sections, and start slow. If you struggle somewhere, re-ride it till you master it. Stay within your skill set, and set manageable skill-acquisition goals(i.e., challenge yourself, but don’t break any bones).
When planning your training, remember that an XTERRA ride is approximately 50 percent longer (in time) than in an Olympic-distance race, and many XTERRAs include a good deal of climbing. Stretch base rides, plan some low-cadence climbs for strength, sprints for lactic tolerance and practice on diverse terrain.
The run: Endurance, hill strength and agility are crucial skills for an XTERRA. Your ability to focus and keep your legs moving as you duck branches, hop across streams and power across sandy beaches takes strength and mental fortitude. Hills, long and short, should be a staple of your program, and include a few off-road winter base runs. Finally, as you get closer to race season, progress toward 30-second and one-minute hill repeats.
Work on downhill running and learn to turn over your legs when you are tired. Fall forward with high heals on the recovery portion of your run stride. Let your stride open up. Your legs can gradually become conditioned to the pounding of downhill running. Run trails often and learn to trust your peripheral vision to move fluidly through rough terrain.
Get out and get a little dirty this winter! Hit the trails and soak up the new challenge. Build up winter miles with a strength-endurance focus, but don’t forget the specific speed and agility demands of XTERRA. Have a great time acquiring new skills, and remember to keep your bike and runners rubber-side-down.
LifeSport head coach Lance Watson has coached a number of Ironman, Olympic and age-group champions. He enjoys coaching athletes of all abilities who are passionate about sport and personal excellence.
Visit LifeSport.ca or contact Lance for more information.
If you have a triathlon-training question for Lance Watson, please e-mail Triathlete Magazine Interactive.