After years of triing and accomplishing a longstanding goal of finishing an IM race (LP) I’m feeling burned out on triathlon. It started as a kind of post IM let-down and I haven’t been able to shake it. I still train and will do a few sprints this year but my heart just isn’t in it.
So what I figure I need is a break from triathloning and joined a local rugby club (which I played prior to doing tris). My question is, risk of contact-related injury not withstanding, after years of tri specific training am I more susceptible to injury (esp. knee) as a result of the quick starts, stops and lateral movement involved? If so is there anything I can do to mitigate it? In any case I plan on taking things slow to start but this is something I was wondering about.
sorry, I obviously can’t readm because you kind of asnwered the second question.
I’m not a coach, but I played back home in the UK for quite a while. The power requirements are obviously quite different, but I would think that strength training (with a different emphasis to an endurance oriented program) will help quite a bit. For what it’s worth I think you are in the right place physically to be able to change things quickly enough to minimise the risk you put yourself at from those movements you mention, if that makes any sense. I would pay some attention to your ankles - maybe tape them before you play? - when you first start out. That’s my bigest worry.
could you start out traing by playing touch rugby at first and then introduce more contact?
Due to my total inability to focus on any onething for a significant period of time I think I can offer some advice.
I train to keep in moderate tri shape throughout the year, but I also heavily participate in hockey during the winter and soccer during the summer.
I can tell you I have suffered only a handful of minor injuries which prevented me from playing in the past 5 years. There are many occasions where I thought I should have been badly injured yet had no problems. I believe the reason for this is my weghtlifting program. I lift for total body general strength year around. I also take care to train opposing muscle groups religiously (bench followed by rowing, leg extension followed by leg curl, etc). Ab work every session goes without saying.
If you are not on a program right now, start slowly, but try not to waste too much of your time with endurance sets (15+ reps).
Plyometrics may be something to consider, but I would wait untill you have a good strength base. I started doing some plyo this year for hockey and I could tell a difference.
When you start playing your new sport, your most probable injury will be a pulled muscle. This will be caused by all the sprinting you will be doing. Something you probably haven’t done in all the years you were working up to an IM. It’ll be a shock. Warm up thoroughly, and then warm up some more. For the first few practices and games don’t go full speed. If you do find yourself going hard, find a way to pull yourself out of the action early. Losing 15-30 min out of a game is nothing to losing 3-4 games due to a pulled calf or hamstring.
You will definitely find that this program will slow you down some in the pool and on the road. But, it will allow you to enjoy your new found sport a little more. Good Luck.
I quit cold turkey for 2 years from tri training. Picked up several other sports. For the lateral sports I found that even though my general strength was good my “quickness” and ability to change direction cost me a step ther and here. I did lots of side to side triaining and strengthing on an 8ft slide board. w/in 4-6 weeks it had improved remarkedly. I will recommend running a bit every week. i didn’t run for almost 2 years and my biking considered of commuting 2 miles each way to work on my bike. the running still hasn’t come around to where I think a 37:00 10k is a tempo run.
I’ve been strength training in addition to tri specific training for years. I know thats controversial here but I enjoy it so I just stuck with it. Also I’ll go at this “lite” at first. Looking forward to the team effort and cameraderie and recharging the tri batteries.
To answer an earlier question I’ll probably end up a forward again, 2nd row.