By Bytown Storm Triathlon Club
They are two sports with similar challenges and appealing attributes, and for many athletes who enjoy endurance sports, the crossover between cross-country running and triathlon is a perfect match.
“A lot of things are unpredictable that you may have to deal with,” says Greg Kealey, the head coach of the Bytown Storm Triathlon Club. “Both sports are dynamic and exciting, and you have to do a lot of different things and make different choices.”
In cross-country, athletes will run across different surfaces, face elevation changes, see varied settings though trails, and battle the elements like rain or mud. In triathlon, there are of course three different disciplines within it – swimming, cycling and running – each offering their own set of unpredictabilities.
“For a lot of the kids and the families, it’s the variety in triathlon that they like,” Kealey highlights, noting many of his club members wanted a change from sports like soccer, or swimming and running on their own. “They wanted to try something different and they gravitated towards the challenges of a multi-sport event.”
For aspiring triathletes and runners looking for a little something extra, the Bytown Storm Triathlon Club provides expertise in coaching and athlete development.
“For a lot of high school athletes, they join their cross-country team and every practice is the exact same,” notes Kealey, explaining that variations in intensity, volume and frequency are key. “If you’re doing the same thing all the time, you plateau very quickly and you don’t move forward.”
The Storm first work to develop the fundamental skills required for success in running, particularly establishing the proper rhythm – from breathing, to stride cadence, and arm drive.
“If you look at any elite athlete, they always look their best when it looks easy. They know the movement patterns and they’re comfortable with them,” Kealey indicates. “A lot of the kids who do really well when they’re young don’t do well when they’re older.
“At 19 years old, everyone is going to have the same fitness and the same strength. If you haven’t worked on the technical aspects of running – it doesn’t matter how much you’ve been winning before that, you’re going to start to lose.”
The club uses advanced techniques to build proper form, such as video analysis to determine how long runners are in contact with the ground and how often, using a metronome to set the number of steps per minute and teach them to maintain their cadence whether they are doing a slower long run, intervals or tempo runs, and ensuring they have proper posture and breathing frequency.
“That’s the foundation, then you can start building speed and strength,” underlines Kealey, whose club also utilizes the high-tech underwater treadmills at LiquidGym in Bells Corners. “You want as big a vocabulary as possible, so that regardless of what the environment is, you’ll be bulletproof.”
Less trained athletes will find that when they fatigue, their form will “start to break down immediately because they’re not used to it,” adds Kealey. To be successful in triathlon requires well-practiced rhythm because the run portion of the event comes after athletes have already completed a swim and a bike ride.
“You get to learn very quickly how to run when you’re uncomfortable,” adds Triathlon Canada’s 2010 coach of the year. “You will never, ever, ever begin the last portion of our race feeling well-rested. You’re feeling fatigued or broken and you still have to perform at that level.”
There isn’t a much better time to get into triathlon locally than now. Next summer, Ottawa will host the Canadian Triathlon Championships, featuring races from the entry level and age group classes up to the elite international athletes.
A number of past Storm athletes have gone on to represent Canada at World Championships and major multi-sport Games, while also simultaneously enjoying success in the university cross-country ranks, such as Guelph Gryphons national champions Tristan Woodfine and Joanna Brown.
The sports align well for athletes since the triathlon season wraps up in time for cross-country in the fall.
“You can learn a lot running cross-country that you can carry into triathlon, and vice versa,” Kealey signals. “At the high school level especially, it’s a great compliment. They really feed off each other.”
Find out more at BytownTriathlon.com