I am a triathlete… Can I compete in Trail Running?

Many triathletes have not considered running on the mountain, so we want to analyze the benefits of this sport for triathlon

 

Today, from Triathlon News we try to open a new path, we will present an analysis that was made this season by EYC Sport, Trail Running Test Organizers as "VERTICAL LIES", where they tried to go further by investigating in which public participate in their tests , among them, TRIATLETAS.

TRAIL RUNNING, THE BEGINNING OF A NEW AGE

Everyone knows the BOOOM that has emerged with the Trail Running in the last (we could say) 5 years and also anyone who is related to the world of sport knows friends or colleagues who have dared to do some test or, even, who has participated in an Ultra of great distance.

The benefits, always from a healthy sports practice will be many for our body and quality of life or what is the same, our psycho-biological system. But….

"What does Trail Running bring to my performance as a Triathlete?"

Let's go by parts. The Triathlon, is defined as a sport of resistance where the body is subject to a physical effort in durations that can go from a 30 'in the SuperSprint modality to the 8-9 or 16h in which we can be competing in an Ironman, for not to mention the Ultraman or the stage competitions. This is common in Trail Running so, surely, the adaptations achieved by one or another discipline, well organized will strengthen each other. Remember, power without control is useless, and this in our sport should be a maxim.

First of all, long distance athletes, Ironman and Half Ironman mainly, we will agree that they are the great beneficiaries of the practice of these sports. WHY?

Very simple, their discipline is more similar in terms of duration and, moreover, they are the ones that have to spend more time without any doubt so they are more adapted and before they can dare to participate in any test of these characteristics.

LIES VERTICAL: STUDY OF A CURRENT TO THE RISE BETWEEN TRIATLETS

Before starting to talk about the study carried out by the organizers (from here to thank Raúl Martos and Francisco Javier Alcaraz for providing them) throughout the 2016 season, increasing since they began in the year 2013, we will describe a little for those who do not know, the structure of these competitions.

The proof of the VERTICAL LIES is developed in the Valley of Tus within the Natural Park of the Calares del Rio Mundo and La Sima has the perfect distances for any athlete who sees in this sport a challenge as it is organized around 4 distances, being able to complete any of them according to our level and preferences. 4 to be able to choose which race you want to run. From 20 kms to an Ultra of 73km, passing through 37 and 55km where they all share the ascent to the most emblematic peak of Albacete; The Lies with about 1900 meters high and running along mountain trails where the hardness of the terrain makes all participants, this year more than 500, show their physical conditions to the maximum.

"What did the organizers do? ANALYZE your participation data to check what type of audience was the most used to attend your test "

Well, from among the near 600 participants that there was in this test, near the 15% were triathletes or had participated in some competition of Triathlon before (differs depending on the distance).

"With these data, we can say that it is a fact that the Triathlete, mainly the one of Average and Long Distance, is competing in Trail"

 Obviously, to draw accurate conclusions we would have to analyze many more tests of Trail (and hopefully many more organizers did) but with this data and the news that comes from people of a very high level in GGEE who are participating in this era in these competitions, leads us to have this correlation.

At the same time, it is more than clear, they are tests whose greatest benefits can be found in a period away from the Triathlon competitions, ideally in periods of Accumulation (if we use ATR) or Base (if we use traditional periodization) but every day there are more that take advantage of the end of summer and disconnection at the end of the season looking in the VERTICAL LIES one last annual challenge .

"And the girls ... Have they gone over to the Trail? "

We can also find a growing number of women, each day more are looking for their challenge and / or their objective in this type of tests as it happens between TRI-Women. We can see triathletes who shine on Trail as Alba Reguillo (3rd in the 2016 Spanish LD Championship and qualified for Kona 2017) who a few days ago played the "Trail Humedales Manchegos" of 20.000 rods (17km).

This natural triathlete of Alcázar de San Juan achieved the victory in the female category with a time of 1: 12: 09 highlighting that she was 5ª of the general and she was only 2 'of the 2º man in goal.

 

With what objective was the study made?

With the IMPROVE the conditions and attention to the participants "

SO…. WHAT CAN I FIND ON THE TRAIL THAT COMPLEMENT ME AS A TRIATHLETE OR SPORTSMAN?

Surely this is the million dollar question, that which, those who have read this article, do as they must be meditating their own benefits before supplementing their preparation with one of these tests.

From here, and as always, we are going to give 10 ideas so that each one is able to decide if participating in these tests will bring an extra benefit to his preparation as a triathlete:

Motivation, a test of this type is able to keep you motivated to train in months like winter where it is much more complicated to take time and costs us more with rain, cold and bad weather.

Extra Kms on foot, if on different occasions you have had muscle problems due to excess kms or intensity on asphalt, maybe running on a mountain, working a good aerobic base in variable conditions, roads and softer terrain may allow us to complete that preseason or winter that we have always searched.

Metabolic adaptation in the long distance, it is the proper training to favor Aerobic Metabolism, the ignorance helps us to train smoothly, perhaps to POLARIZE our training and not to bite each Sunday outing.

Nutritional assimilation, The Trail as well as the Long Distance Triathlon are tests that need a contribution of nutrients in competition in more complicated conditions. This is key in the final kms of any test that goes from Olympic distance onwards so training it will be the key between a medium or higher performance.

Eccentric work and with canes, which leads to an enhancement of the muscles that we use in a cyclical way in the other sports 3, we provide a variability.

New proprioceptive adaptations, changes of direction, terrain, unevenness and even variations of intensity that will provide us with better Efficiency in Running.

Change: We break with the routine of training that we usually take to, removing pressure, continue to make improvements.

Psychological improvement in the face of new sporting challenges to face, they will take us one step further in our day to day and in our competitions.

Better stress management, sleep quality, self-esteem, cognitive, social and other psychological improvements derived from the practice of a sport in the natural environment.

ENJOY a new environment for which we are "designed".

Today, from Triathlon News we come to solve a few questions and present an analysis that was made this season by some organizers who, trying to go further, inquired into what audience participates in their tests, including TRIATLETAS.

"Just as we have heard of CONCURRENT TRAINING where the binomial of Strength + Resistance adds more than each of the disciplines separately, we can use TRAIL RUNNING as a complement to our preparation"

You can follow our friends from EYC Sport on social networks and on the test website:

 – https://www.facebook.com/MentirasVertical/ 

 - https://mentirasvertical.com/

Raul Martos and Francisco Javier Alcaraz

EYC Sport organizers

J. Luis Caballero and Juanjo Martín Navío

Triathlon Coaches - FTCV

 

Photos: Facebook Mentiras Trail / José Miguel Muñoz - EYC SPORT