By Casey McDonnell Athletes in any sport spend a significant amount of time on skill acquisition, learning proper technique and improving movement efficiency. A focus on optimal form is equally important in running, as a way of minimising injury risk, improving running efficiency and overall performance. Working on cadence (being the steps taken per minute) is one of the easiest interventions that an individual can address to improve their running form. Changing your step rate directly influences other factors including foot placement, foot strike and step length so it is a great place to start when looking to reduce injury risk and enhance running efficiency. The ideal cadence varies between individuals. The optimal cadence is considered to be around 180 ...

By Katie Kelly Yes I am. No I am not. Triathletes pride themselves on being fit, strong and healthy. When it comes to healthy, we often just focus on our physical. How is your training? What was your swim set last night? Did you do a PB at parkrun? More and more I’m starting to witness conversations around our full well-being. That is not just the physical but also the mental. One of my best rides recently was of course whilst doing the Cotter-Uriarra loop. No bias but we ACT Triathlon members know it’s probably one of the world’s greatest rides. So during this particular ride a fellow training partner talked about their years of suffering a form of depression. ...

By Katie Kelly That's what came to my mind (the famous mini tantrum John McEnroe had when he said as much to a Tennis umpire - view that here), when I heard Novac Djokovic comment two weeks ago. The World Number 1 men’s tennis player Novak Djokovic suggested men should earn more prize money than women because they draw more spectators. We’ve now heard from many high profile athletes including Andy Murray and Serena Williams who have dismissed these comments. Djovovic’s comments came after an incredible six months in women’s sport. In Australia. We witnessed Michelle Payne's historic win in the Melbourne Cup last year. Then 2016 started off with the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) requesting all National Sporting Organisations ...

By Martin Bigmore Well, quite a bit has happened since my last blog, and I had hoped to finish off 2015 on a high note. Unfortunately, the roller coaster ride that is the pursuit of sporting goals continues and I’m currently on a downhill cycle. But let me back track and set the scene. It’s early November and finally I’d made the start line of an event. Given the protracted and interrupted recovery from the bike crash, I considered that to be something of an achievement. There I was, standing near the start line for the Run for your Lifeline 10km fun run proudly wearing my PTC gear and listening to my coach, Fi, who was one of the race ...

By Casey McDonnell (Physiotherapist) What constitutes good running form? All triathletes and runners know the importance of good running form, it is likely something contemplated over during long training sessions. It is known that good running form may make a person faster, economical, stronger and more potentially more injury resistant. However, the plethora of information on the topic seems to deny a simple answer at every turn, thus the question remains; ‘what is good running form?’ When implementing technique changes consideration of foot strike and foot placement is fundamental. Foot strike is the position of the foot at initial ground contact during the early phase of the gait cycle. Foot strike can be thought of as a continuum, with ...

By Katie Kelly It's now almost 16 days to the day when I crossed the finish line in first place for my first World Championships in Chicago. I claimed the victory for the PT5 (vision impaired) category for Paratriathlon. I had defeated the reigning World Champion in the Great Brits, and the Spanish who had dominated in the PT5 for the past few years. I had gone from never having competed at the elite level to competing with the best in my field within 9 months. I am just like you. I love the sport of Triathlon. I compete for all the benefits it brings with - healthy lifestyle, friendship, travel and challenging yourself to new levels. And like you ...

​By Brad Allen Welcome! This is the first “Event Manager” blog. If you have questions after reading, please feel free to email me at ba@tripleedge.com.au and I'll do my best to answer them. I'll keep it simple, as blogs should be. Firstly, a bit of background on the event. Who is Triple Edge? We are a small Canberra business, made up of triathletes, other athletes, event managers, logistics managers and some none of the above! We conspired to improve logistics at events some time ago, and have ended up organising events large and small for over twenty years, including triathlons for the past eight years or so. When the Canberra long distance events were discontinued in 2014, a ...

By Brenton McDonald Concussion is a disturbance of brain function caused by an impact to the head, neck or body of an athlete. A concussion is an injury like all others. The biggest difference is it’s an injury to the most important part of the body – the brain. A common misconception is an athlete has to be knocked out to be classified as concussed - this is untrue. A concussion can have a variety of symptoms including dizziness, headaches, blurred vision, sensitivity to light or touch, irritability and changes in mood, loss of balance and body awareness. Loss of consciousness is just another symptom that will assist doctors or specialist, in the attempt to accurately diagnose the severity of ...

By Graeme Sproule Overuse injuries in triathletes are common. A study on Australian triathletes (novice club level to elite international level) found 50% of triathletes sustain an injury in the 6-month pre-season with overuse injuries accounting for 68% of these injuries. In the competitive season 37% were injured, 78% of these were due to overuse injuries (1). Changes in training volume have a direct impact on the ever-changing structure of your body. Increase your training volume and the body will adapt to the new stresses placed on it by laying down more bone and increasing the strength of your tendons and muscles, however decrease your training volume and your body will decrease the density and strength of its bone, tendon ...

By Ntasha Gerebtzoff Well this past week started with a radio interview on ABC Grandstand with Tim Gavel on Saturday morning 29th August and finished with a photo shoot in the icy waters of Lake Burley Griffen on Friday for City News (with no wetsuit!!) It's been an awesome crazy week with the launch of my new website www.irontush.com and I now have a Twitter Account too - (thanks to Mel Trianta for setting both of these things up for me on her own time)!! When it comes to social media and websites I don’t have much of an idea about these things and tend to shy away from them but if someone sets it up and ...

By Ntasha Gerebtzoff Having qualified for the Ironman World Championships back in May at the Port Macquarie IM, the journey on the road to Kona to date has been a mix of many things. Emotional, exciting, scary, overwhelming and unbelievably cold at times during long training sessions through out the last 3 months. It has required focus and discipline to get the training done when all you want to do is stay in your warm bed and snuggle up with a good book when you wake up to incredibly uninviting weather outside. That said there is only approx 5 weeks to go before I head to the Big Island of Hawaii and I have a renewed focus heading into this ...

By Martin Bigmore Quite some weeks ago I wrote about the challenges that swim training presents for me, and confessed that I can suffer negative self-talk and find it easy to make excuses not to train. Well here’s an unexpected twist. When I injured my shoulder recently and couldn’t train, I genuinely missed swimming. Go figure! Why that would be, I’m not sure. But, as with most of life’s experiences, I want to (need to?) understand ‘the why’ and if the answer can be applied elsewhere. Was my new found emotional attachment to swimming a simple case of ‘you don’t realise what you’ve got until it’s gone’? Was it a realisation that the crash could have robbed me permanently ...

By Martin Bigmore Well, it’s been four weeks since I injured my shoulder falling from my bike, and I am pleased to report that this week I’ve been given the all clear by my physio (who is a miracle worker) to ramp up run training back to pre-accident levels and recommence swim training, but continue with bike sessions on the wind trainer only. This morning (14 Aug), as I ran around Lake Tuggeranong enjoying the crispness of the pre-dawn air and the beauty of the slowly changing light, I tuned into how my shoulder was moving and responding now that it is ‘structurally different’. There is a subtle sensation, but no pain, and it occurred to me that I have ...

By Geoff Hawke In 1988, Australia’s Bicentennial year, I ‘raced’ one of the legends of triathlon, Mark Allen. It was a year before his run of five consecutive victories at the Hawaii Ironman. Our race was the Daikyo World Cup, a 3/130/30 international event at the Gold Coast. It would prove an exceptional learning experience for my first Ironman 14 years later in 2002. I was coming off a pretty good ’87-’88 season, with my best result 14th at the Gold Coast Triathlon on my 30th birthday. I’d finished behind rising Australian stars Brad ‘The Croc’ Bevan, the eventual winner, and Miles Stewart, who was 5th in a field of 900 starters. Since my first triathlon in 1985, I’d moved ...

By Martin Bigmore Recently I sustained injuries when I fell from my bike after hitting a fox as I cycled down Mt Stromlo during a training session. The accident saw me carted off to Canberra Hospital where a grade 2 rupture to the AC joint in my left shoulder was diagnosed, along with a heavy concussion. I am very fortunate that the rupture has healed quickly and after just two weeks I am able to ditch the sling and return to training, albeit with a heavily modified program. But I can now focus on restoring strength and mobility ahead of resuming training for the half marathon in November. As I moped around home during that first week of recovery I ...

By Ntasha Gerebtzoff Gosh, I ask myself that question ALOT! I ask myself that question EVERY time I toe the line at a race with the butterflies bashing about in my stomach. Every time the alarm goes off at 5.15am. Every time I wake up to minus 5 degrees and I am forced to put on every piece of winter cycle kit I can find before venturing outside. Why do I tri? Why do I do this to myself? It would be so easy to just hit that snooze button, roll over and go back to sleep. Stay in my warm bed. Rest for another hour or two. Rug up with a good book instead riding my bike for ...

By Mel Saltiel I am about to embark on a 100 Day Challenge. The challenge I have set for myself is to complete a 100 day run streak. During these 100 days I will also be sugar free and low carb in my eating habits. Why? After the devastation that was Challenge Roth 2015 I needed to refocus. I know that what happened on race day was out of my control but I also know that I was not at the stage I wanted to be come race day, both physically and mentally. To be honest I'm not really a blogger or a journal keeper but I aim to do a weekly post here to track my progress. My reasoning ...

​​ By Martin Bigmore In my first blog I wrote about my first triathlon experience. In this blog I’ll talk about my introduction to swim training for that first event. To prepare for my first triathlon I trained for five months. Sure, it was a novice event – 200 metres swim, 13 kms cycle and 2 kms run, and something that many people could no doubt complete with little training. So why five months of lead-up training? The answer to that question is, and I am pretty sure many others feel the same way and are held back by it, a fear of failure and of being embarrassed publicly by performance and appearance. Triathlon is not a sport that allows ...

By Geoff Hawke Back in the 1980s, my wife became a triathlon ‘widow’. After my first race in 1985, I jumped enthusiastically into the sport, especially after a move to Queensland. In Cathy’s eyes, I was either training, at work or sleeping. She’d come to watch a few races but generally found spectating about as exciting as watching grass grow. Races back then were rarely shorter than standard distance and not designed for spectator appeal, with athletes seen only at transition. When I won M55 age group at Ironman New Zealand in March this year, I qualified for the Hawaii Ironman. Cathy’s enthusiasm for triathlon suddenly changed. “Well I’m coming to this one,” she said. Hawaii’s like that. With ...

by Martin Bigmore Welcome to my first blog in which I’ll chat about my journey in triathlon, where I’m at, how I got here, where I’m going, goals, challenges, highs and lows. Hopefully, you will find something interesting and share in my journey, having a laugh and maybe the occasional cry with me along the way. Some might feel a connection from their own experiences and emotions, and maybe some will even find motivation and inspiration. When I was invited to contribute to the Triathlon ACT #icanlive initiative by writing a blog I was excited, honoured and quite humbled. When I look in the mirror I see a 54 year old guy who is, in all honesty, very average. I ...