Innehållsförteckning för July 2024 från 220 Triathlon

Hands up who wants to be more aerodynamic? Hopefully, everyone reading this and for one simple reason: being more aero means being faster and being faster means a quicker and easier race day. A common misconception can be that you need to spend a fortune and master all kinds of contorted cycling set-ups. Luckily, this isn't the case as we explore in this issue – while top-end kit will undoubtedly increase your speed, some simple tips can also help you out, such as choosing closer-fitting kit, opting for an aero road helmet and clipping tri-bars to your trusty road bike. Meanwhile, the master of racing on a budget, Joe Skipper, shares the highs and lows of being self-coached to multiple pro wins in his typically honest, refreshing way. Hope you…

FEATURE JOE SKIPPER In a modern era defined by airbrushed Instagram and curating an image for sponsors, the one thing you can still guarantee with Norfolk's Joe Skipper is raw honesty. “When I retire, I won't f**king swim. I'm 100% sure. Okay, I might occasionally on a nice summer day in a lake, but if people say: 'Do you want to swim four times a week in the pool?' I can 110% tell you now: Not a f**king chance.” If the point hasn't landed yet, Joe Skipper isn't overly enamoured by triathlon's first discipline. “The only people who like swimming are those who started it when they were kids because they don't know any different and have a very high boredom threshold. “If I'm not doing it with other people I…

Tim Don is a four-time world champion and former Ironman record holder with a 7:40:23 to his name. He's a legend of the sport. India Lee recently toppled three world champions as she dominated the T100 Miami. What links them? That's right, their feedback lay behind the development of British company Nopinz's new Pro-1 Evo tri-suit that's designed to improve the performance and comfort of long-course athletes. And, thankfully, you don't need to be at the pointy end of the elite pyramid to benefit from the Pro-1 Evo's many attributes. It's an everyman speed ethos that's been at the heart of what Nopinz does since its game-changing arrival onto the scene in 2014… RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN North Devon-based Nopinz is one of endurance-sport's success stories and it…

Apex Flow £719 The top-end Apex Flow is Orca's most advanced suit due to its flexibility and buoyancy combination. Apex Flex £589 The Apex Flex wetsuit is said to be the most flexible suit in the entire Orca range. Apex Float £499 The Apex Float wetsuit is the wetsuit with the highest buoyancy in the Orca range. Athlex Flow £379 The Athlex Flow aims to find the happy medium of flexibility and buoyancy. Athlex Flex £299 This suit offers a mix of high elasticity and medium buoyancy for athletes who are already adept at holding a good position. Athlex Float £239 This is for swimmers who need added buoyancy to correct their body position.…

01 Know your gut mechanics Training the gut refers to optimising the way our digestive system absorbs carbohydrates while we're at race intensity and ingesting sports drinks, gels and food. In the same way that our muscles get fitter and stronger by training we can also train our digestive system, particularly our intestines, to absorb more carbohydrate during exercise. The digestive system is a pretty amazing set of organs, for example the internal lining of our intestine renews itself about every five days, which makes it very responsive to training. 02 Get the numbers right Every athlete has unique requirements, but if you're new to triathlon then a good benchmark target is 60g of carbohydrate for every hour that you're racing. If you're a little more experienced then 75 to 90g of…

MARTYN BRUNT Martyn is tri's foremost average athlete and is living proof that hours of training and endless new kit are no substitute for ability. Despite the impression I sometimes give of myself in my monthly column/rant, in real life I'm an affable soul. I've long resigned myself to sporting mediocrity and have learned to accept my resolutely middle-of-the-pack finishes in any tri I do with a wry smile and a shrug. With that comes a certain zen-like calm which, despite the odd provocation by members of the public who don't understand swim-lane etiquette, remains largely intact as I jog shufflingly through life. I'm on the warpath this month, though, and with good reason too because my world has been shaken to its very foundations. No one has pushed off…

START THE BIG PIC…

FEATURE AERO GAINS FOR EVERY BUDGET It's simple: if you can present a lower profile, via gear and positional tweaks, you will record a faster bike leg. And that's whether you're a newcomer who's just starting off on their sprint-distance journey or an Ironman old hack who's been racing for 20 years. Either way, becoming more aerodynamic on the bike can not only save you time on two wheels, it can save you energy for the run, too. That's why we recommend you remortgage your house and buy every ounce of slipstreaming speed you can… What's that? You're not willing to remortgage your abode in search of a massive reduction in drag? Okay then, we'll be realistic and chart the wind-beating gains you can make for three separate budgets: sub-£2,000, sub-£5000…

TRAINING NUTRITION As we're all too aware, as triathletes, there are many demands on our money, so anything that makes it stretch a little further must be a good thing, right? With that in mind, this month I've devised four recipes to really give you bang for your buck. First up, Tagliatelle with roasted onions and tomatoes, harissa and crispy bacon. Onions cost next to nothing. Slow-roast them and they morph into caramelised delectableness. The same goes when you roast cheap, normally tasteless tomatoes. Pop them in the oven before a training ride, then once you're back simply toss them and all their juices into your pasta, add harissa for even more depth of flavour and top with crispy bacon for a nicely balanced, highly nutritious and sustaining meal for four…

HOW WAS IT FOR YOU? IRONMAN LANZAROTE MEET BEN Ben Goodfellow, 28, has been racing as a pro since 2023. Born in the north west of England, he found his love of sport while exploring the Lake District. Alongside his racing, he also works as a manufacturing engineer in the aerospace industry. Ironman Lanzarote. A 3.8km swim in the Atlantic Ocean made up of two laps. A 180.2km bike around the hilly island, while being battered by the persistent winds that the island's renowned for. With a barren, black volcanic moonscape all around, it is like nowhere else. A 42.2km run comprising three laps along the beachfront, with crowds of supporters cheering athletes along while the sun beats down. I'm Ben Goodfellow, a 28-year-old athlete from the UK. I took on…

START EMMANUEL DUNAND/GETTY IMAGES One of the reasons World Triathlon eventually prevailed in its hard-won inclusion of the mixed team relay in the Olympic Games was because of the commitment not to increase the total number of triathletes in attendance. Worried about spiralling costs dissuading potential hosts from bidding, the International Olympic Committee capped the overall number of athletes at a Games to 10,500 in 2014. If individual sports like tri wanted to expand their medal pools, the same men and women would be required to double up. This summer, just as in Tokyo three years ago, triathletes heading for Paris aren't eligible for the two-man, two-woman team event unless they're entered into the individual race too. But it's time to scrap that premise. Not because more triathletes should be…

KIT ZONE THE BRAND VISITS orca Nineteen ninety three. The year of Jurassic Park, Mulder and Scully and Britain's Spencer Smith romping home to the ITU World Championship title in an instant classic in the Manchester rain. That race was an epoch-making day in triathlon, but it was also a significant 12 months in the fledgling world of triathlon-specific wetsuits, with something in the New Zealand air leading to both Ironman Wetsuits (latterly to become Blueseventy) and Performance Speedsuits (swiftly to become Orca) becoming established players. Performance Speedsuits were launched by triathlete Scott Unsworth in Auckland at a time of very limited triathlon wetsuit options. A name change to Orca, the second fastest marine mammal after the common dolphin (but with an infinitely catchier brand name), followed in 1994 and the…

TRAINING MASTERCLASS You've spent weeks and months training your heart, lungs and muscles, but not training your gut could be leaving you short on race day. Why? Because getting your fuelling right is absolutely crucial in triathlon. We often hear nutrition referred to as the fourth discipline, and with very good reason. With the ever-increasing evidence supporting the need to fuel well during racing, how we train our gut to tolerate what we eat and drink during races has now become crucial in optimising our individual performances and making sure that we have a great race. We've all been there, halfway through a race and we start to feel symptoms like heartburn, uncomfortable bloating and really, really, needing the toilet! These are the most common symptoms of gastrointestinal (GI) distress during…

JUNE 15 STUDLAND SWIMRUN (various dists) Studland, Dorset. iswimrun.com 16 ALDERFORD TRIATHLON (various dists) Alderford Lake, Shropshire. uktriathlon.co.uk EASTBOURNE TRIATHLON (various dists and events) Eastbourne, East Sussex. eastbournetriathlon.co.uk BEWL WATER TRIATHLON (various dists) Bewl Water, Kent. atwevents.co.uk 21-23 LONG COURSE WEEKEND WALES (various dists and events) Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. lcwwales.com 22-23 CHOLMONDELEY CASTLE TRIATHLON (various dists and events) Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire. castleraceseries.com 22 ABERSOCH TRIATHLON (various dists) Absersoch, Wales. abersochtriplecrown.co.uk EAST ESSEX KIDS' TRIATHLON (various events and dists) Basildon, Essex. east-essex-tri-club.co.uk 23 DAMBUSTER (various dists) Rutland Water, Oakham, East Midlands. pacesetterevents.com DARWEN TRIATHLON (various dists and events) Darwen, Lancashire. runthrough.co.uk SHEFFIELD TRIATHLON & DUATHLON (various dists) Rother Valley Country Park, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. wilddeerevents.co.uk DARTFORD BRIDGE TRIATHLON (various dists and events) Dartford, Kent. bridgetriathlon.co.uk 29 WINDERMERE TRIATHLON & DUATHLON (various dists and events) Cockshott Point,…