I just got done being a test subject at UNH. One thing they had us perform was vertical leap and mine came back at 18 inches. I used to high jump in college and had a 32 inch vertical leap…albeit I am not 20 years old anymore but I am only 37. I havent tried to jump high in over 5 years as I dont play hoops anymore and it was a truely strange experience to try and push off then really have no explosive power like I used to have.
The good thing is I could probably jump 18 inches over and over again for miles with all the slowtwich fibers I’ve built
On the good side, my flexibility has remained great and the body fat was 7 percent.
Any of you see other physical aspects go south due to training for tris?
I had the wise idea of jumping as I crossed the finish line at IMFL. Resulted in very little air. Did however produce the goofiest finish picture ever and looked completely ridiculous on video to boot.
No need to worry. There’s no real advantage to having a high vertical leap if you are doing triathlons. Now if you were a road or track sprinter that would be another story…
Specificity of training, and getting old. I cleared 2.05m in college (23cm over my head), but I don’t think I can touch a basketball hoop right now. As much as I’d love to see how (not) high I could jump today, I won’t even consider it due to the probability of blowing out a knee or a hamstring.
It’s not so much what training you’ve done, but what training you haven’t done.
I think we need a thread debating the benefit of high jump training for triathlon. I mean, if you added three hours of jump training to your schedule, don’t you agree that you’d be a faster triathlete. How could you not be faster if you could still jump around 2m?
Any of you see other physical aspects go south due to training for tris?
No, but I’m pretty careful about saddle choice.
i’ll actually echo the reaction time in racquet sports thing. on a tennis court I feel like my feet are bolted into the ground sometimes.
i feel like my first step, light-on-your feet stuff is way back from where it was last summer. But this is partly because i’ve gone from doing tris & team sports (which proved to be too much); to rehabbing my knee; to just doing tris. I think that the first step could come back fairly quickly, but i have to pick & choose about what i want to work on, as much because of risk of (re)injury as because of time constraints.
-charles
Tell me about it. Im only 24, but back when I was 20 and playing basketball all the time I used to be able to dunk a basketball with ease. I tried playing basketball again a little while ago and I can barely touch the rim. It definitely sucks.
I think we need a thread debating the benefit of high jump training for triathlon. I mean, if you added three hours of jump training to your schedule, don’t you agree that you’d be a faster triathlete.
The jumping up wouldn’t help a triathlete, but it might help a pure cyclist. OTOH, the landing wouldn’t help a pure cyclist, but it might help a triathlete.
I was a top 10 ranked north american champion irish dancer (yes, ala river dance) when I graduated high school (10 years ago), danced for 15 years of my life, mostly at a highly competitive level from when I was 10-17. I can barely get my body off the ground now! The other day I was showing my mom how pathetic looking some of the high kicking dance moves I used to be able to do, getting my legs over my head, and we were hysterical laughing.
Curious about your bike position. You seem a lot less aerodynamic than others.
Have you experimented with going lower. From that one picture your frontal aero seems rather large compared to your overall body. For someone always posting tips about getting free speed, that would seem like a huge way to get some free speed by improving your position.
I played volleyball in college (for a short time), and could easily dunk a basketball (I am 6’4’). 6 months after I started serious endurance training, I could barely grab the rim anymore. Bummer.
I can’t hit my elbow on the rim like the good ol days but I can still throw it down pretty easily. I’m mostly a roadie with some trail running/mtb throw it…
37 years old and 7 percent Bf is awesome though!!!
Just staying active is what it’s about…whatever your flavor.
sbr, I could be lower, but the pic makes it look a lot worse than it is. That pic is on an uphill turning a corner and as you can see, i am choked up on the bars. When I get on a flat, my hands are further forward and elbows on the pads, head dropped below shoulders.
As a point of reference here are some well known aero pros at the same corner:
Faris
Badmann
And then the pic that you refer to:
So given the terrain, it is not too bad, but I have already started to do some work. I’ve gone 5 mm lower and 1 cm futher out since Kona.
OK, sorry for hijacking the thread…back to vertical jump…
