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Identify and Work on Your Weakness for Big Gains in your
Ironman Times
The Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns
By: Bo Jørgensen
Triathletes are a special breed. They like targets and they work hard towards them.
Sometimes I find this single-mindedness can also be a drawback for my athletes.
I was working with a young Australian triathlete “K” who had performed well in her age group but found she had hit
a plateau. In her last two Ironman races her times weren’t improving, despite an average 3-5 hour increase in her
weekly training workload.
We looked at all the factors involved. She was training harder. She was focusing on specific areas of her training
like VO2, lactate thresholds and building core strength. But the times weren’t coming, and with that frustration.
Now, K made the fatal mistake that many athletes make at this stage. She dropped it into conversation “maybe I’m
getting old”. K was 36 and her physical numbers weren’t as good as they were 5 years ago but these fatal words
can become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
I sat down with K and looked at her entire spectrum of skillsets. What became clear was that she was ignoring
specific areas of weakness and BINGO, here is where the problem lay.
You can work so hard at your main core skills like bike power output and running intervals but you will always
experience diminishing marginal returns. That means, after a certain stage, the return on your effort decreases the
more you put into the exercise.
Identify Your Weakness
What you need to identify is your areas of weakness and deal with them first.

2. Let’s say you are strong on the bike and run but not on the swim. This bias leads you to focus your training on bike
and run. You soldier through the season, like K, saying “as long as I don’t drown”. The problem with a weak point
in your training is that these weaknesses impact your performance in other areas.
You may only be gaining 5 minutes in your Ironman swim from an extra 2-3 hours a week of training so it’s
tempting to move those hours elsewhere. But what you’re failing to account for is how this weakness impacts your
bike and run. As a better swimmer you also save energy. Energy saved on the swim translates to a better
performance on the bike and run. You want to come out of T1 feeling strong, not battered.
How Weaknesses Impact your Performance
In working with my athletes, I’ve observed many common and overlooked weaknesses. These weaknesses don’t
yield big returns on the training time but they have a significant impact on the rest of the race through:
* energy savings (weak points can translate to magnified energy losses)
* mental performance (when you struggle, your mental state carries into other areas of your race)
* morale (when you start falling back in the race because you hit a weak point, you can also give a platform for
your doubts to grow)
The 4 Common Areas of Weakness
I recommend my athletes focus on their weak points as a core discipline within their training. Beyond going out
and putting in the hours, you need to address the following 4 areas that may be holding you back:
1) core strength: how much gym work are you putting in? how much strength training are you doing? No good
training all those hours only to pick up an injury on the marathon.
2) hill climbs: you can’t simulate this well on an indoor trainer. It’s all well spending hours booming flat bike courses
but you will never build real aerobic strength without hills.
3) transitions: the pros will be in and out in 2-3 minutes max. Age Groups can get through T1 in anything from 2 to
10 or more minutes. Those extra hours on the bike to gain 10 minutes on your split can be lost in a poor transition.
4) brick work: as you hit the second half of your training season, you need to incorporate brick work. Bricks are
simulations. You can train a swim-to-bike or a bike-to-run. I don’t suggest a full 3 discipline brick unless part of a
mid term race to sharpen your high end. Bricks are important because they train your muscles to deal with the new
sensations caused by transition. I see many good cyclists suffer when they hit the run because their legs are
gone. A few brick sessions will immediately identify that area of weakness. You don’t need to run a marathon off
your long bike session, a 5k run will do, just to get your legs used to the sensation. Same is true of swim-to-bike. A
30k bike off your usual swim will get your body used to the feelings and (sometimes) dizziness experienced out of
T1.
More Ironman Triathlon Tips
Get Your Bike Serviced: 9 Check points to help improve speed and reduce failure
Got sick? Here’s how to recover and what not to do this season
Do Speedwork Now, Benefit Later
Be Careful of Weight Gain During Taper Weeks
3 Tips: How to Run More Efficiently