<\/p>
Can\u2019t get going on the bike leg post-swim? It\u2019s not unusual, and there are several factors and scenarios that could contribute to this frustrating situation mid-race.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here are some considerations and tips to prevent and treat the feeling should it affect you.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve had a stressful swim \u2013 say you\u2019ve been hit repeatedly by other swimmers you\u2019ve had your googles knock off and\/or you\u2019ve encountered a water full of jellyfish \u2013 this may increase the stress response of your body.<\/p>\n During stress, blood vessels can narrow reduce blood flow to certain areas of the body. So for example, blood flow could be directed away from your less-active muscles \u2013 i.e. your legs.<\/p>\n This may leave them in a semi \u2018dead\u2019 or numb state and could then take a few miles for the blood flow to be redistributed and wake them up.<\/p>\n Reducing stress is a good way to perform better, so make sure to build this into you pre-race routine in a way that works for you.<\/p>\n Another consideration is that your perception in water is very difficult and because of that we tend to swim slightly harder than we realise.<\/p>\n This can have a similar affect as stress, as detailed above, drawing blood towards the working muscles and again leaving the leg feeling sluggish.<\/p>\n It\u2019s for this reason that us coaches will recommend that you kick harder in the final 200m or so of a swim. This redirects the blood to the legs ahead of time and prepares them to work though T1 and onto the bike.<\/p>\n The body is highly adaptable so, depending when your race is in the calendar \u2013 say it\u2019s at the start of the season and you haven\u2019t raced for several months a few months \u2013 then it might be that your body is simply not used to the transition<\/strong><\/a> from one sport to another.<\/p>\n You can prepare your body for switching between two sports by planning in some swim-bike brick<\/strong> <\/a>training efforts to better prepare for the demands of the race.<\/p>\n Lastly, it\u2019s key to switch on your muscles through a vigorous warm-up before the race. It\u2019s not uncommon for triathletes to skip a warm-up altogether and many will only perform a basic swim warm-up, leaving the legs unengaged and muscle fibres<\/strong><\/a> simply not ready to work.<\/p>\n A good warm-up should include leg activation exercise before moving onto more of an upper body focus.<\/p>\n Top image credit:<\/strong> Getty Images<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Joel Enoch Published: Friday, 26 August 2022 at 12:00 am Can\u2019t get going on the bike leg post-swim? It\u2019s not unusual, and there are several factors and scenarios that could contribute to this frustrating situation mid-race. Here are some considerations and tips to prevent and treat the feeling should it affect you. Can the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":17073,"template":"","categories":[1,23],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/how-to-deal-with-heavy-legs-on-the-bike-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/how-to-deal-with-heavy-legs-on-the-bike-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/how-to-deal-with-heavy-legs-on-the-bike-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/how-to-deal-with-heavy-legs-on-the-bike-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/how-to-deal-with-heavy-legs-on-the-bike-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/how-to-deal-with-heavy-legs-on-the-bike-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/how-to-deal-with-heavy-legs-on-the-bike-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Joel Enoch Published: Friday, 26 August 2022 at 12:00 am Can\u2019t get going on the bike leg post-swim? It\u2019s not unusual, and there are several factors and scenarios that could contribute to this frustrating situation mid-race. Here are some considerations and tips to prevent and treat the feeling should it affect you. Can the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/17072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Can the swim affect my bike leg performance?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Does the timing of the event have an impact on bike performance?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How brick sessions help you bike leg performance\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The benefits of a swim warm-up on your bike performance\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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