Do you “just” ride your bike? Or do you “just” run? If you do either with no thought to your technique, you’re certainly among the majority.

Most of us in the triathlon world recognise very quickly that swimming is a very technique-dependent sport. And a whole industry has grown up with underwater cameras, endless pools, video analysis – the list goes on – to help us to improve our swimming technique.
[Some of it works, some of it doesn’t, but that’s another post altogether.]

However much of what we do in our running & cycling training is far less focused on technique, working instead on getting as fit as possible. Unfortunately, the longer your training sessions, the worse this can be for your performance, simply because as you fatigue, your form (technique) starts to break down.

What many of us don’t realise is that regular training in a tired state simply reinforces poor technique, with the inevitable result that we often don’t get faster & sometimes even get slower! You see, no matter how hard you concentrate on having good technique early in a race, once you fatigue you will return to the form you have practised most regularly & most recently. That’s usually the “tired version” of your technique.

After all, what is technique, except the habits you have developed over time. And where do you develop them? You do so in your training. Habits are developed by repetition, so how much more powerful example of habit-forming behaviour can you have than any of your training sessions.

In an average 1-hour run, you will take around 10 000 steps, that’s 10 000 repetitions of the same behaviour! How long before that becomes ingrained? And annoyingly, it seems that your nervous system remembers the things you do most recently (late in a workout, when you’re tired) better than the early repetitions.

So what can you do in order to make sure that the habits you form in terms of your swim, bike & run technique will help, not hinder your race day performances?

• Focus on form in every single workout.
• Have a careful look at the volume in your training plan. Do you need it all? Do your sessions need to be that long? Do you think you’ll be able to complete each workout with good form?
• Check your form at various points during your workout. Are you able to hold the form you want? What nasty little habits do you have when you get tired?
• Have one technique point to focus on in every workout. No matter how long your session, regularly come back to this focus point.
• If you can’t hold your form in harder workouts, make the efforts shorter to the point that you can hold good technique and build from there. The most important time to have good technique is when you’re under pressure, almost anyone can hold good form at recovery pace if they choose to do so.

Remember, just as powerful as the habits that we form to get us out of bed, stop us eating chocolate or get us out training in the rain are the habits we form with every repetition of every movement in every workout.

And the really cool thing about this is that the extra speed is 100% free. Try getting a disc wheel, aero helmet or wind-tunnel session for nothing, you’ll be lucky!