Race Like a Pro: THE Biggest Difference Between Pros and Age Groupers
Hint: It's not talent, fancy gear, or big mileage.
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What’s the biggest difference between professional triathletes and age-groupers?
It’s not talent nor speed.
It’s not logging big training weeks.
It’s not having access to the latest greatest gear.
Although these things are certainly true, in my opinion the biggest difference between professional triathletes and age-groupers is feel.
What’s feel?
Feel is the ability to know your body’s capabilities, limits, and understand how to toe the line to produce the best performance possible.
Feel is being so fine-tuned with your effort level that you can dial in different paces solely by how it feels without cross-referencing against data or devices.
Sound hard? That’s because it is.
Developing feel takes time and intentional training. That’s why pros are often better at it than age-groupers. Because professional athletes log more training miles than we do, and compete in more races, they have more opportunities to hone this skill.
Because that’s what feel is. It’s a skill.
Which also means it can be trained.
How do you develop feel?
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “developing feel for the water.” That’s why over 50% of our swim workouts focus on drill work of some kind. Whether it’s using fist drill to enhance feel for the catch, single arm drill to isolate the pull, or swimming with a buoy and ankle strap to promote a taught body line, it’s all about developing feel in the water.
We do speed work for sure, but if you’re just trying to swim fast (and you don’t have a good foundation) it’s like firing a cannon from a canoe.
It’s the same thing on the bike and run. If someone asked you to ride your bike at a sprint effort or Olympic effort, without looking at your power meter, mph, or heart rate, could you do it?
If someone asked you to run at your easy pace, your smooth pace, steady pace, and strong pace, could you do that? Do you even know what those effort levels feel like without constantly looking at your watch to tell you if you need to slow down or speed up?
Because that’s what the pros can do. You can bet they aren’t fixated on their power meter during the bike thinking, “Well, my 70.3 power is 280 watts, but I’m only riding 260, I’d better go harder!” or “My race pace is 6:15, but I’m running 6:00, I’d better slow down!”
Now, I’m not saying pros never look at their devices, but for the most part the data is a result of the effort they're putting forth, not governing it.
You’ll see (some) pros post about their watts and paces on social media just like (some) age-groupers do. But the bottom line is they aren’t trying to ride a certain mph, or run a certain pace. They’re trying to win the race, and whatever numbers get them to the finish line first, so be it.
Now, most age-groupers aren’t trying to win the race, so understandably the process looks a bit different for us. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn how to train and race by feel, instead of by a spreadsheet.
“Pros race, age-groupers pace.”
It’s important to understand that the dynamics of the professional race are a bit different. At the pointy end of a race, pros must be able to respond to what their competitors are doing on course.
Whereas, age-groupers, for the most part, simply need to focus on executing their own race. This involves properly pacing their own effort during the swim, bike, and run.
My coaches train both pros and age-groupers, and one thing they said about the difference between the two really struck a chord with me.
“The pros race, while age-groupers pace.”
It seems like a small distinction, but in reality it’s everything! And this isn’t a knock on age-groupers (I’m one of them). But there are things the pros do that we can learn from, which can help us race better, faster, and close the gap from where we are to where we want to go.
Interested in learning more?
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News & Notes:
This is actually a republication from a few years ago, so it still has my maiden name on it! What Happens if I Lose My Timing Chip? (and other Triathlon Related Mishaps) for Triathlete Magazine.
Interested to learn how I got started in the sport? Check out this fun interview I did with Running Tales- From Equestrian World Champion to Triathlon Success.
Also, sneaky BIG news. Anyone who visited the link to order the e-book might have realized it’s on a new website… (TheTripleThreatLife.com) I’ll just leave that here and see if anyone notices. ;)
Brittany… I can tell a distinct difference between the 2 groups. The pros will approach & race the event almost as if their lives depended on it & take it very seriously… Think of marathons like the ones in New York, London & even the famous “Hawaii Ironman” triathlon & how some will race just to say they’ve done them & finished, which, as you’d know, is a huge accomplishment.
…Then, you’d get the “fun run” group… Those who may turn up in bizarre costumes or with their families to run together & have fun without taking the event or themselves too seriously & it doesn’t matter to them how long it takes to finish. For obvious reasons, they start well behind the pros. We have a well known race here in Australia (in Sydney) called the “City to Surf” fun run, open for all to take part in & they have “staggered” start lines for various groups.