Ai_1 wrote:
If I was you, I wouldn't try and spread the cycling time around too much, by which I mean I'd keep the short rides relatively short (say 60-90mins) and if possible allocate more time to the weekend long ride. So if you've say 6hrs to spend on the bike, don't do 3x2hrs or 2x1.5hrs and 1x3hrs. Instead do 1x60mins, 1x75mins and 1x3.5hrs or similar. Best to make your hard rides hard and your long ones long rather than make everything kinda hard and kinda long. It'll have better impact and be more interesting.
I've just started a BarryP style approach and I'm getting 2 short & easy runs in by tagging them onto the end of my two weekday short hard trainer sessions as a Brick. It saves time doing them back to back, you only get changed once and have one shower. Wouldn't work with a longer run or anything above easy recovery effort since I'm already spent from the bike session.
So far this working well but my run volume is still small. Will see after Christmas when my volume is climbing whether this continues to work but I think it will.
My plan will hit 10-12hrs per week after Christmas and would be very sufficient training for a 70.3 IMO.
Now-Jan 1st: Run/Bike only (no pool access). Ramping up from, currently, 6 1/2 hours to 9. Run 2x 1hr, 1x 2 hour. For me, @9:30 pace, that should be about race distance, but at Z2 for now. Biking is all Turbo, doing the Zwift FTP-builder. I think the longest one there is about 90 min or so. Anything “blue” and above, I stay in aero. Tonight, week 3, work 1, is 6x 6:00 at 70% FTP. So I’ll spend 36 minutes in aero. My last 70.3 races I wasn’t able to stay down long, and it hurt my time for sure.
Jan-March: 3 months where I add back the swimming (which will add 2 hours/week). I’m thinking I’ll add 15-20 min. Of running either before or after, BarryP style. But I’ll still be keeping my long runs to 2 hours. I’ll be switching to race pace for the second half, however. I’ll also switch my Sun rides on the Turbo to more free form and get in the 2-2 1/2 hour range. My goal for this block is 10-12 hours/week.
April-July: get back outside on the bike, and get some 60 milers (which is about 3 1/2 hours in Z2-3), and get some 14-16 mile runs in as well. With more day light, I can run off the bike mid-week too.
I’m also, generally, doing my long runs on Saturday. This is an injury-reduction strategy for me. Running 2 hours on dead legs after a long ride is necessary training, but for most of the year I prefer to flip it.
Anything grossly wrong here?
Michael