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Abu Dhabi International Triathlon Course Review

Coaching Tips: The Abu Dhabi International Triathlon

The Abu Dhabi International Triathlon is fast becoming a must on the triathlon circuit. For professionals the large prize money and the opportunity for an early season test are very attractive.

For age groupers, the unique distances (Super Sprint-750m/50km/5km; Short Course-1500m/100km/10km; and Long Course-3km/200km/20km) and very unique destination are attracting large numbers.

In its fifth year with the stunning Emirates Palace as the background for the swim, the YAS Island Formula One Circuit as the turnaround for the bike, and the Persian Gulf as the backdrop on the run, this event offers truly a stunning course and is sure to be added to an ever-increasing number of race calendars as word gets out.

While the course looks straight forward at first glance, the unique distances and always-difficult weather conditions can make this race very challenging. Triathlons are supposed to be hard and inspirational, and this race is certainly both. Athletes have faced high winds and temperatures in the previous years, with the mercury climbing to the high 30s (Celsius) by the time athletes started on the run.

With very little shelter from both the sun and the wind, and blowing sand, athletes who were able to cross the finish line at the end of the day truly felt they had accomplished something special.

Swim (750m/1500m/3km)

The swim for the ADIT begins and ends on the white sand beach of the Emirates Palace. With 1.3km of private beach and over 1kg of edible gold used every year, it is easy to forget the long day you have ahead of you.

Long-course athletes swim 2 laps of the counter-clockwise rectangular swim. With athletes going off in waves, this is one of the most ‘comfortable’ swim starts you will find in a race this size. Long-course athletes, however, re-enter the water after a short beach run and will have to navigate their way through the later-starting and slower swimmers from the short course and super sprint waves.

With water temperatures generally hovering around 23 degrees at this time of the year, all the talk leading up to the race focused on whether wetsuits would be allowed, or not. In the end, race organizers decided to ban wetsuits for the professionals but allow them for age groupers. This was a welcome decision. The buoyant salty waters of the Persian Gulf combined with the wetsuit made for a fast swim.

Swimming in a wetsuit, although it feels generally easier due to the extra flotation the suit provides, is harder on the shoulders. Training in a wetsuit is recommended to strengthen your specific swimming muscles and to get used to the feel of the suit and the extra strain on the shoulders; however, this is not always an option for everyone. A great way to simulate wetsuit swimming in the pool is to swim with paddles and pull-buoys. Long sets broken into shorter intervals with the pull-buoy give the feel of the extra buoyancy of the wetsuit and the paddles add the extra strain on the shoulders.

A very good set to prepare for a wetsuit swim is:

Warm-up: 300m easy

28 X 100m swim as:

3 hard, 1 easy with 15s rest between intervals and an extra 30s rest after every 4^th.

Cool-down: 200m easy

This session is about developing swim strength, improving your position in the water and developing an ‘open water’ swim stroke. The main goal of this set is to hold your best time that is sustainable for the entire set. Don’t destroy yourself aerobically.

Bike (50km/100km/200km)

The bike course is a 2-1/2 out-and-back course with athletes completing a lap of the world famous YAS Island Formula One Race track at the turnaround of lap 1 and lap 2. The bike course is almost pancake flat with the only elevation change coming as cyclists cross Khalifa Bridge connecting Abu Dhabi Island with Saadiyat Island and again when crossing the small bridge connecting Saadiyat Island with YAS island. Ironically the flat nature of the course is one of the things that make it so difficult. In addition to the heat and potential for high winds, the flatness of the course means that athletes are time-trialing the entire distance. This means no downhills to rest and no built-in opportunities to get out of your aerobars to stretch or change up your cadence. To be successful on this course, athletes need to be prepared to sit in their aerobars and push a big gear for the duration of the ride.

The best training for this course is to do negative-split rides on a flat course in the aero position pushing big gears.

Long ride session:

3-4 hours Negative Split B.R.O Ride—that is 3 to 4 hours in Big Ring Only.

After a 15-minute warm-up, shift to your big ring. Head out easy, staying in the aero position and keeping your chain in the big ring for the entire time. Bring it home a little harder, but still under control. Keep the cadence down and push the big gears!

Another great workout that can be done on the road or on the trainer is the weekly negative-split ride as:

20min easy

20 min moderate

20 min hard

Run (5km/10km or/20km)

The run course is 2 laps for the long course athletes, taking them from transition 2 on to the Corniche running path along the Persian Gulf to the turnaround on a point in the middle of the bay. Like the bike course, the run course is flat. Flat and, more often than not, very hot! Like in cycling, a flat course also brings its own challenges for the run. However, with the long course being only 20km, you can take a bit of a risk and go for it on the run if you have anything left.

As with all triathlon runs, it is important to focus on a high stride rate. The treadmill is a great tool for this, but this workout can also be done on the road or track:

Warm-up: 15min with 4-5 strides towards the end

Main set: 8 X {1min fast at 96 steps per minute, followed by 4min steady at 90 steps per minute}

Cool-down: 10min easy

Focus on high stride rate and running form during both the ‘hard’ and ‘steady’ sections. During the ‘steady’ section, runners often drop their stride rate too much and lose form. It is important during this portion of the set to focus on keeping the stride up and running with good form.

The final point to pay attention to when preparing for the ADIT is heat acclimation and hydration. This race can get very hot and it’s important for athletes who don’t train in hot climates to turn up prepared for the heat. Here are some tips on ways cool-weather athletes can prepare themselves for the Abu Dhabi heat. The most important thing is to get used to being uncomfortably hot for at least one to two hours of training per day in the month leading up to the event:

Use layers to stay warmer than normal. Use wind-resistant clothing on the bike.
Wear a windproof layer to surround your body in a shell of humidity.
Wear tights sooner than you normally would.
Wear long gloves and a headband.
If training on the trainer or treadmill, turn off the A/C and fan.
Try to do as much training as you can during the heat of the day.

It is also important to begin getting your body used to being hot when you’re not training:

Avoid using the air conditioning during the month leading up to the race.
Turn up the heat in your car, at home, and in your office.
Wear an extra layer of clothes or a sweater.

Once you arrive in Abu Dhabi prior to the race:

Avoid (as much as possible) the air conditioning.
Do your training during the heat of the day and at times that will be similar to race day.
Finally, the day before the race, AVOID both the sun and exposing yourself to extreme temperatures. Do your final sessions during the cooler part of the day or inside if necessary.
And, finally, hydrate and replenish during this acclimation phase. Make sure you are paying attention to replacing fluids and electrolytes your body is losing through extra sweat due to the increased training temperatures.

The Abu Dhabi International Triathlon is a fantastic event and will be a memorable experience. Hopefully, these tips give you a good idea of the challenges you will face and help make your day a superb one.

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Gustavo Moniz: A life dedicated to triathlon

By Vinnie Santana, ironguides.net

Over the past decade as a coach, I’ve worked with hundreds of athletes from all backgrounds and with all kinds of goals. Those who achieve success in this sport are neither the most talented athletes nor the ones who fully immerse themselves in training for a couple seasons. Instead, athletes winning your age group at all levels of races are likely to have adopted triathlon as a lifestyle, training consistent for many and many years, while also carrying a sustainable and balanced lifestyle with work and family commitments.

This article tells one of those stories. Gustavo Moniz is your typical age group triathlete: has a full-time job; has family and kids; lives in a big city (in Brazil); and deals with all the challenges of anyone of the same profile. But his passion for the sport and his consistency in training have made him one of Brazil’s strongest M45-49 age group triathletes

Background

Moniz started in triathlons in 1986, at age 18. He found the right balance of his teenager days with his new working career. Since then, he hasn’t ever been away from training for too long. There were times when training would take a back seat. Moniz shifted to “maintenance mode” for a couple years, when he started his business and had his child, while at other times training would pick up and he managed to find that balance for two decades, winning some local events, racing internationally and he also got to do some races as a pro.

Gustavo’s overall win in 1993, Vinnie watching the race

My first contact with him in triathlon was in 1993. At only ten years of age I was at a friend’s weekend house and inside the complex there was a triathlon event. We went to watch and the winner was this guy who ran barefoot due to blisters problems—that was Gustavo Moniz in action!

Fifteen years later we met via a mutual friend and started working together—the mission was clear and simple: to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Ironman Hawaii and the 10-year anniversary

For Moniz, Ironman Hawaii is the pinnacle of triathlon. Aside from being the world championships and attracting the fittest triathletes, pros and amateurs alike, to the start line, the race also carries a huge story of this sport.

In 1999 his opportunity to race in Kona came with the lottery system. While it was his first Ironman and there wasn’t much of an expectation in terms of results, he did not consider the mission fully accomplished. Moniz wanted to go back to the island the proper way, qualifying as a top age grouper in the very competitive M40-44 division at one of the Ironman races around the world.

The Attack Plan

Before we started the training, we aimed to get him from 11h54-Ironman shape in 2006 to a Sub-10 performance. And while being a Sub-10 Ironman is already decent enough, it doesn’t guarantee Kona slot—we had to pick a race that would suit his strengths while not exposing his weakness.

For a combination of reasons, we decided to go for a fast course with cooler weather, preferably a wetsuit swim, and flat to rolling hills on the bike, followed by a flat and fast run course. Our strategy was to hit the swim and bike as fast as possible, saving just enough in the legs for a quick shuffle on the marathon. Getting him into the top places by T2, we knew that if he were virtually running inside the Kona-slot placing, he would not give up his spot easily—he wanted it more than others. One of those times when heart is more important than legs.

With the race plan in mind, training had to follow. We tailored his sessions to fit in those race day situations, including a fast swim start then settling in the pack, and a solid hard bike with several smaller time-trial sections especially later in the ride, when he would be making up, or gaining, most of the time on the competition.

Run training was also adapted to the strategy he would be the prey, rather than the predator, on race day. He had to be mentally ready to hang on and hang in there for the whole marathon knowing there were fast runners coming from behind trying to catch him and his Kona slot.

Anyone who has done an Ironman knows that, regardless of how you paced your race, the last third of the marathon will be very painful—and being in front is a mental advantage, while being virtually qualified for Kona also raises your pain threshold.

The Calendar

Ironman Austria 2008: 9h45 – 33rd place

We started with one of the fastest possible courses, which was also a very competitive event. Our goal was to learn how to race fast, pushed by fast athletes! A Sub-10 was also important for a confidence boost that he was now a new athlete racing in a different league.
We achieved these goals with a new PB and, while a bit down in the ranks, we knew the plan was coming together.

Ironman Arizona 2008: 9h55 – 13th place

Arizona was the first serious shot for the Kona slot. The race was almost perfect, except for a flat tyre. Moniz was ONE MINUTE from the so dreamed Kona slot, a huge disappointment, and the obvious “what if I hadn’t had a flat…” crossed his mind.

While very disappointed, we say we can only control the controllable, so after some time off to recover from the training and racing of 2008 and the mental effort of focusing on Kona qualification, we moved on to the 2009 season.

Ironman Brazil 2009: 9h50 – 5th place

The mental cost of being so close to Kona at Ironman Arizona was huge. We decided to shift our focus to the process, rather than the result, for our next race in Brazil. Instead of racing for the slot, he would be racing for the best executed day he could possibly do, and be happy with whatever outcome that would bring, be it a slow or fast day, a win or last place, Kona slot or not.

On a magical day, Moniz finished the event in 5th place and finally got his Kona slot—the dream was achieved, mission accomplished.

Ironman Hawaii 2009: 11h33

“Ten years later” was the motto for Ironman Hawaii, to celebrate the 10-year anniversary since he first took part in that event. While there were little expectations in terms of results, a slower-than-expected finish time didn’t go down so well, we left the island with a certain “unfinished business” feel.

Ironman Brazil 2011: 9h24 – 6th place

Two years after his last Ironman race, we shifted the focus again to Brazil. In a perfectly executed race Moniz earned his new PB that day and placed sixth, qualifying once again for Kona.
Ironman Hawaii 2011: 10h13

As a more experienced and confident athlete this time in Hawaii, he had a smoother race with very few mistakes. With a new PB by more than one hour, the mission was accomplished.

Gustavo riding in Kona 10 years his first Ironman on the island

What’s Next?

In his own words, “My motivation is to keep on improving both my own personal times and within the age group ranks. My goal is to be able to sustain some sort of training forever.”

Moniz is the perfect example of how dedication, consistency and patience are crucial to a long-term success in this sport.

Enjoy your training,
Vinnie Santana – ironguides Head Coach