Triathlon in decline?

Still getting my thoughts together about this season as I do my fall run focus. I'm feeling good about my run training as the first race approaches, though still unsure of what my target time will be.

Something I've been thinking about though, is that triathlon, at least locally, seems to be in decline. I noticed this at the Brockville race this year where there seemed to be significantly fewer bikes in the T-zone than I had seen in previous years. So I looked at participation numbers for the individual triathlon events (i.e. no relays, no duathlons or swimcycles) in the "prime season" Somersault events over the past 7 years, and you can definitely see a trend:

Overall participation is certainly in decline across the board. Are people leaving triathlon? Or is the sport not attracting newcomers like it used to? Here is a look at all of the above races specifically showing participants in the Try-a-Tri event:


And here's a look at the series' only long-course event, the Canadian 113.

You'll notice there's an asterisk for the years up to 2014, and that's because they used to also run a full-iron distance race (the Canadian 226). Despite having a second long-course race running concurrent the half-iron, the numbers were still much higher a few years ago than they are now.


So.. not only are fewer people "tri-ing" for the first time, but the more hard-core events are also in decline. My guess be the rise of the Spartan/Tough-Mudder/etc. races is drawing a lot of people who might have gotten into multisport. I certainly hear from plenty of folks who do these races, and encounter way more of them in my day-to-day life than I do triathletes. There does seem to be a perception that they're a greater challenge, as in "You think a triathlon is tough? You should try a Spartan race!" I think the big thing is that a) you don't need any special equipment (bike, for example) and b) there's no swimming, which I think is a big deterrant for many people. First of all, it's not easy to learn to swim as an adult and takes a big commitment. Secondly, open-water racing is intimidating to even some proficient pool-swimmers - the weeds/fish/etc. seem to freak some people out, and the body contact can be pretty nerve-wracking too.

The obstacle-course type races don't seem to require any special training or equipment - you just go and do it. And I think that's pretty attractive to people who have busy lives. And they're just plain popular, and that popularity becomes a self-reinforcing thing especially in the age of social media.

I guess we'll see what the future holds for multisport - it certainly won't go away, but is in a state of decline, at least locally. The long distance events, especially the WTC races but also smaller races like Barrelman, seem to be holding their popularity. Though I do have some concerns about the number of people who do these as a "one-and-done"/bucket-list sort of thing, and don't stick around in the sport. I guess that's part of the reason to local races are in decline, because there are a lot of local triathletes that just don't do them.

If another Simon Whitfield comes along and focuses the national spotlight on triathlon, maybe interest will pick up again. I think Canada can put up a pretty solid mixed-relay team in Tokyo 2020 with the likes of Tyler Mislawchuk and Joanna Brown.

On a somewhat related note, nobody seems to blog anymore. Not the pros, nor the local amateurs I've enjoyed following. I think other social media like Instagram is taking up that space, not really sure though. Anyways I've taken down the links section of the blog since more than half of those blogs are in a dormant state. Part of the decline in triathlon?

Final Multisport Race of 2017

My race report for the Thousand Islands Duathlon is up. I think it was a successful end to the season for me. I'm happy moving forward as a duathlete for the next few years. Training two sports still gives enough variety to keep things interesting, and biking/running keeps things nice and flexible (unlike swimming). I think ultimately spending some time focusing on biking and running will make me a better triathlete when I return in a few years. And duathlon is a new challenge for me so despite just finishing this season I'm already excited about the next.

Taking the girls on a post-race tour of the Brockvillle Railway Tunnel

Now it's time to plan my running races for the fall and set some goals for those.

More lessons learned

This has been a bit of a different year for me, training-wise, as outlined in various blog posts. "Different" mostly in a bad way, but "different" still gives one the opportunity to compare the experience with previous years and perhaps gain some insight into what the different effects are of the various approaches.

Here's a few lessons learned so far:

1) Miles on the trainer are more valuable than miles on the road

When I gave up on my structured training plan in the spring, it was liberating. No longer a slave to banging out intervals in my basement, suffering away on the bike trainer, I was free to enjoy biking outside. And I did. I was having more fun and logging more time in the saddle than I had been. So you might think more time in the saddle = more bike fitness, but that's not the way it worked. I still have deliberate workout goals, using heart rate to guide my efforts (no power meter on my road bike), like "2 hours in Zone 2" or "2x20 minute efforts at threshold". But my bike fitness didn't really improve and may have actually declined a little - as much as anything I think it was the lack of the dreaded VO2Max interval sessions that was doing it.

I got some nice rides in though, getting some good ones in beyond my usual environs. Here's a typical ride around where I live:

This one yielded a total of 91m elevation gain over 60km. So pretty flat, and on straight roads through farmers fields. Not very interesting. So I've made more efforts to get in opportunities to ride other places - twisty, up-and-down roads through woods and lakes between Perth and Westport, for example. Or this ride around Mont Rigaud:

Pretty much the same distance as the above ride, but 378m of elevation gain over the 60km. That's a more interesting ride.

A combination of life circumstances and a desire to put in a good build leading up to the Thousand Islands Duathlon have meant that over the last few weeks I've been back on the trainer rather than outside. And I've noticed a real difference in my bike fitness levels (they're actually improving!).

So quality trumps quantity, and you can't beat the quality you get from a good trainer session.

2) Stretching is overrated

Last year I wrote a pretty extensive blog post weighing the merits of stretching. Being really inflexible and having a history of injuries, I wanted to do whatever I could to help the cause. There's real debate on whether stretching helps, hinders, or does nothing at all. Ultimately I concluded that I wanted to keep up the regime.

This year, however, I haven't really stretched - a result of my lack of deliberate structure in my training. Coincidentally or not, I've been completely injury free this year. To be sure, there are other factors at play (general fitness accumulated over the years; holding off on speedwork until after months of outdoor mileage), but in retrospect I feel like stretching didn't really benefit me, and the fact that I'm by far the most injury free I've been when omitting stretching completely has me sold. I'm done with stretching. You were right, Paulo.

3) Core strength matters

Another part of my routine that's fallen by the wayside has been core strength exercises. I know this is important for all 3 sports, but I was particularly conscious of it as it related to swimming, since engaging the core is such a big part of a solid swim stroke. I had a good routine going in the winter and abandoned it in the spring, and my core strength is certainly not what it once was as a result. Obviously with no swimming I haven't noticed an impact there, but surprisingly enough to me, I have noticed an impact on my cycling. As part of my renewed efforts to get some solid training in leading up to Brockville, I'm back on the core routine and I feel like I'm able to transfer power to my pedals better (and sustain it) as a result of my returning core strength.

So there it is: 3 lessons to take into next year.

• If the goal is to maximize results, prioritize quality sessions on the bike trainer over outdoor rides.
• Don't worry about post-exercise stretching (I still see value in pre-exercise dynamic stretching).
• Have a good core strengthening routine and be consistent with it.

My last triathlon for a while

My race report for the Smiths Falls Classic is up. It was a fun race, albeit one with some execution errors, but nice to get the AG win after a bit of a drought. However, I'm pulling the plug on triathlon for a while.

Maintaining a consistent training schedule after the birth of our third child has been difficult, and swimming has been the biggest challenge. I can run and bike whenever - I've got a bike trainer and treadmill in my basement. What I don't have is my own pool, and the ones available to me are a) a fair distance away and b) only available for lane swimming at very specific times. Simply put, it's just not flexible enough for me at this point in my life. Many weeks I'd either have to skip swimming entirely, or I'd slink out of the house leaving my wife to deal with 3 screaming kids. I haven't been able to make any real swim progress as a result, and while I enjoy swimming, trying to fit it into my life is, at this point anyways, a source of aggravation. More significantly, trying to be a good swimmer is making me worse of a husband and father.

My pool membership expired at the end of June, and I'm not renewing it. I'm still running and biking, and will likely switch to duathlon for the foreseeable future. I'll come back to triathlon in a few years when the kids are older. So goodbye triathlon, you've done a lot for me over these past few years. You've gotten me fitter than I've ever been in my life. You've provided the motivation for me to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. You've provided a platform for me to challenge myself, and to set and achieve new goals. I've met some cool people, and had a lot of fun.

So I'm not done with multisport - I've got my eye on a duathlon in August. And there are more triathlons in my future. Just not for a while.

First race of the season and turning weaknesses into strengths

The race report for the Perth Triathlon is up. I had a good time and did okay. I didn't execute the race I wanted but the result was still good. Perth was my first actual triathlon back in 2015, and I've come a long way since then in terms of my fitness. Having not done the race last year (it was cancelled), comparing the two performances reveals some significant variations.

Here's my first ever triathlon.

2015	Time	Rank	Percentile
Swim + T1	0:10:33	25	26.88%
Bike	0:27:07	4	4.30%
T2 + Run	0:15:14	34	36.56%
	0:52:52	9	9.68%
	Participants	93
	% of winning time	117%

A performance I was pretty happy with, especially my bike time, finishing in the top 10%, and getting the AG win. I had about 6 months of swimming in me, and was just starting to develop my running ability amidst constant knee problems. The ranking of each discipline reflect this and I was far from a balanced athlete.

And here's me two years later.

2017	Time	Rank	Percentile
Swim	0:08:30	9	17.31%
T1 + Bike	0:27:10	3	5.77%
T2 + Run	0:14:03	2	3.85%
Total	0:49:43	3	5.77%
	Participants	52
	% of winning time	105%

The real standout is my running ability - from top 37th percentile to top 4th percentile is a huge jump. I'm not reading too much into time, since the run course was different this year and my Garmin has the new one as long by a few hundred meters. Also of note I actually did worse, percentile-wise, on the bike, though I was slightly faster in terms of time. Details on that in the race report. The swim rankings are always a little off in Perth, since it's a Stingrays fundraiser, they get a lot of "real" swimmers. If I average out the top 3 finishing times for 2015, I lost 2:26 to those guys on the swim, whereas in 2017 (when I was actually in the top 3) I only lost 2 seconds, since 1st swam a minute slower than me and second swam a minute faster than me.

So not only have I developed into a much more complete triathlete (something I noticed over the course of last season), but I've turned my biggest weakness into, at least in this race, my biggest strength. It's hard not to be disappointed with my lack of progress on the bike this year, but it's more important to work on your weaknesses than your strengths, and this result clearly shows that payoff.

When there's a discipline that's a point of pride for you, it becomes part of your self-image:"I am a strong cyclist." You don't want to let go of that. Being good at something builds confidence. I used to look forward to getting on the bike and chasing people down (just as I'd then run in fear since I knew many of those same people would pass me back). I knew I wasn't contending for an overall podium spot, but I was at the pointy end in terms of bike splits. That was my victory.

But triathlon is about who gets to the finish line first, and time invested into biking was not going to yield the same ROI as time invested in my dismal run. There was simply a lot more low-hanging fruit there. This result proves, to me anyways, that training to your weaknesses pays real dividends.

The Night Runner

It seems like most triathletes get their workouts done early in the morning. I've made a few attempts at this over the years, but it just doesn't work. You never really know when the kids are going to get up, but once they're in bed, there's a pretty reliable few hours in which to fit in some training.

So I'm a night trainer. This means that I can be found running around Metcalfe in the dark. It's nice and peaceful, I have the roads to myself, and I don't have to worry about sunscreen. And my running had been going pretty well. Swimming and biking seem to have stagnated, but running is really just a mileage game. Nice easy Zone 2 running so far, no speedwork, and no injuries.

Magic Shoes!

 

I think I finally know what I need in a shoe. Last year my Solefit gait analysis recommended some mild stability control in my shoes, and that they should be pretty lightweight. I ended up on Saucony Fastwitches, but the 4mm drop proved to be too much for my achilles (the New Balances I was on prior were 10mm drop).

So the conclusion was that while some stability is good, it's got to be with sufficient drop. In theory, a shoe with those properties should keep my knee and achilles issues at bay. A few shoes fit this criteria - the ever-popular Asics DS Trainer being one, but I've ended up on a pair of Brooks Ravennas. If I had one complaint it's that the forefoot is a little narrow, but they seem to be stretching out a little over time. And that fact that I'm running niggle-free for the first time ever is the key takeaway.

Another milestone: for the first time I'm running 5Ks under 25 minutes while staying in Zone 2. Not sure how this will translate into improvements in race speed, but it's a good sign of improved aerobic conditioning. The bad news is of course I've been sick again (a chest thing that isn't going away), but it's interesting that despite the constant illnesses and inconsistent training that I'm making gains in my run. Swim and bike are terrible right now, but both of those depend on being able to hit quality sessions, whereas the slow-and-steady approach to running seems sufficient.