5000 yds swim, 100 bike, 20 run, but i tend to train for an IM a year too, but i specialize in sprints.

if i were just doing sprints id do, 5000 yd swim, 50-70 bike, 13-16 run.

now, that being said, if youre concentrating on sprints only, then frequency of training is much more important than volume. i advise folks i coach that, for sprints, theyre better off with 5 swims a week at 2000 yds than 3 swims at 3300 yds, for example. same principle applies to the bike and run. it especially applies to your weakest sport.

Bump. Sorry, couldn't resist.

I only race Oly's and less. Does that make me a "sprint specialst"? You decide.

My training weeks have been 7000-9000 yds, 60-100 miles and 20-34 miles. In # of workouts per week: 3x swim, 3-4x bike (1-2x windtrainer week morning, 1-2x outdoor on weekends), 4-6x run (99% outdoors, even at 0F).

(It may seem like a lot of swimming, but we have an informal group that meets M-W-F at 6 am and that makes it a lot easier. One guy likes to be the "fatherly" type and makes up workouts. And then the yards add up fast.)

With these distances, I do OK in local races. I don't feel I could be competitive at 1/2 IM, so I don't stick my neck out for those.

Your mileage may vary...

horia

Last year I only did sprints, my longest swim was maybe 800m, bike 25miles, run 6 miles. Could/should I have done more? Almost certainly.


edit: the 800m was the longest continuous swim, not total for a workout

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I agree with you on the frequency bit, but I feel that it is something that will benifit triathletes at all distances. Long course guys forget to go fast. :30 in your 5k will lead to minutes in a marathon. Geb ran a would record indoor 2 mile just months before his debut matathon where he ran 2:06. He is also a former world champion in the 1500m.

I would go less on the swim at 4000-4500. Focus more on form.

About 100 on the bike. Try to do it fast and with a group.

2 hrs on the run.

Other workouts: For swim, Do 25's almost every day. 8 X 25 on :40 is good. Once every two to three weeks do a set like 25 X 25 fast.

Bike: do a lot of intervals like 6 X 2:00 all out 53/11 2:00 rest, Hard short fast climbs, and low revolution intervals like 6 X 2:00 uphill at 50RPMs

Run: include a sprints day. 8-10 X 60m sprint with 340m jog rest. And my favorite run, 45min build to below 5k pace.

This year I trained for mostly long course. First half iron man at Eagleman. :-) But the previous season, I did little sprints, I would swim no more than 1500 yards/ session all quality work. Anyting over 2500 yards for sprint distance in my unprofesisonal opinion is way overkill...

Then my longest bike was between 40-50 on the weekend, Longest run was 8 miles once a week.

I trained this way, but did mostly quality stuff as I only had about 6-7 spare hours/week to train. Ended up placing in my age group every race.

After a decent base, you have to focus on doing quality work w/ speed if you want to do well in sprints. Long stuff is just over kill for sprints if you ask me and will be counterproductive if you are tryig to get fast. Of course, getting in the long days here and there is excellent. You don't need that much endurance to finish a sprint but rather be able to handle pain.

Here's my experience ..... I trained for an IM this year, but have much better body composition for sprints, which I mainly did last year. I tried a sprint to kick on my IM taper and absolutely smoked my PR on that course. I was actually shocked at the result and it was one of those rare days where everything went perfect(sw bk run and transitions). The long slow workouts combined with some intensity seemed to work well. I think the mental aspect of training long helped on the run as I've learned how to suffer a bit more to maximize potential. That is not too say that you need to work out 12-15 hours per week to produce a great sprint result, but it certainly did not hurt. Everyone is different in their abilities and how they respond. At least for me, being fairly new to the sport, the long base (Mark Allen style) combined with some intensity in a build period and peak produced a great result on the short distance. Lack of running years/base made for a tough IM run though....

Horia's a good one to listen to.....he does more than "OK" in "local" races, in fact he usually wins his AG, or in the case of Wendy's last month, was the fastest overall AGer. The boy can motor.

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Dan
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póg mo thóin

I am a sprint course-a-holic. Sadly I am probably the worst person to ask about training principles..as I never really do any. Any. Mind you I race every weekend so technically you could say my training is limited to interval workouts once a week. Works for me. Yeah I could be faster but then I wouldn't find it near so much fun. If the podium is what you're after you'd better ask another opinion ('cept for the fact that I've been on it three times already this season..oh well there goes that theory).

20 races/20 weeks...#10 on Sunday

Longest swim workout is about ~4000yds, longest bike is ~4 hours, longest run is ~75 minutes.

Geez, I guess I'm an underachiever. I did two half IM's early in the year, so I have a pretty good base for the sprints. I get in about 4000-7000 in the water (that's a big range, I know; depends on time, schedule, etc. -- usually in the 5200 range), 100 on the bike and 20-25 running. My longest run is about 90 minutes, longest swim 2000, longest bike 3 hours. However, it's been so hot down here in south Georgia lately that I haven't been running long. I've been trying to run 4 or 5 times a week, with my longest run being a hilly 4.5 miler. And my "long" bike has been reduced to about 40 miles in the last couple of weeks.

So though my overall mileage is low right now, I've been trying increase intensity and frequency. Some of the mileages you guys put in amazes me. Sometimes reading this forum can be a very humbling experience.

RP