Robbie MacNab, an up and coming age-group athlete, went along to a Gatorade Training day with former GB international Richard Allen, to find out how he could improve his overall performance. The day also included completing a 'sweat test', which was designed to help the athlete understand the effects of hydration and how much fluid your body actually need to perform at its optimum level when competing or training. Robbie sent us this report on how his day went and his top ten tips for beginners.

I recently had the opportunity to attend one of the Gatorade Triathlon Technique Training Days, run in partnership with Richard Allen Fitness. As a keen (not fast) amateur triathlete I saw this as a great chance to get some top tips and first hand coaching from Richard Allen (nine time national champion) and Ryan Bowd (multiple world age group long distance championship triathlete and multiple Ironman athlete), as well as the chance to take part in the ‘sweat test’ and understand more about the effects of hydration (or lack of it) on my own performance.

The day was a good balance of technical presentations on everything you need to know to train and tackle a Triathlon, and also the chance to practice the art of transitions and training drills. As mentioned the day also included a ‘sweat test’ this is something that I was particularly looking forward to. In the past I’ve read various articles and been told you obviously need to re-hydrate, but then you read you can over hydrate so how do you really know how much to drink? That’s where the ‘Sweat Rate Equation’ comes in handy (and some clever people better with a calculator then me!. The basic equation is weight lost during one hour of exercise (in grams) + Fluid consumed during one hour of exercise (in millilitres) = The amount (in millilitres)you SHOULD be drinking during one hour to replace sweat loss.

We only ran the test over 40 minutes, 20 minutes on the turbo trainer, 20 minutes running to get a guide. Now without giving away any of my vital statistics I was shocked to find that in just that 40 minutes my weight had dropped by 0.6kg! Once the calculator had been put to good use and the amount of fluid I’d consumed added in it was estimated that I would be losing around 800ml an hour in sweat! It was interesting that I hadn’t consumed much fluid during the test and a good indication of this fluid loss really having an impact was the fact that I cramped in my calf’s just as I came off the bike. I definitely need to invest in another bottle cage for my bike before I attempt my Half Ironman next month!!

From the rest of my day I’ve compiled my top ten of Tri Tips for beginners:

1. Know the course! Get to races early enough to check the routes in and out of transition, you don’t want to do a PB swim only to get lost trying to find your bike!
2. Practice your transitions, have a set and rehearsed routine for T1 and T2 including how you lay your kit out.
3. Try and practice group swim starts, your first open water start with 200 other people suddenly around you can be quiet daunting, try and get your mates to practice in the pool swimming near you(ed; or take a look at all the open water swim lakes in the UK) If your not confident on the day, make a point of starting nearer the back of the swim.
4. Practice getting in and out of your wetsuit, leave enough time to get into it before the swim start, sounds obvious but if your not used to wearing a wetsuit it can take longer then you think! Use a lubricant on your ankles/wrists to help with a quick removal and on the neck to avoid any chaffing.
5. Practice eating and drinking on the bike, make sure you are used to the drinks and nutrition that is available. If like me you forget to drink enough set your watch to beep every ten minutes or so.
6. Try and drink earlier on the bike, leave it too late and you’ll have too much sloshing around in you as you start off on the run.
7. As you get near to the end of the bike lower your gear and increase your cadence to get the legs used to a quicker rhythm that you’ll want as you start running.
8. Don’t race with new kit! There’s often plenty of places to part with your cash on race days for some kit that’s shiny and has go faster stripes. Make sure anything you race with is tried and tested.
9. Break the race into smaller goals, take one step at a time.
10. Enjoy the roar of the crowd as you cross the finish line!

For information on Gatorade products go to: www.gatorade.co.uk