Training alone: The best idea? (Page 2): Triathlon Forum: Slowtwitch Forums

Tom Demerly wrote:

The thread on group rides got me thinking: In the past four weeks I have started getting ready for some important events after being essentially out of the sport for the entire summer. Getting back into it, I have been training either completely by myself or, once a week with my buddies Nate, Mikey Roland and Mike Aderhold. Over the weekend I did some "social" training with my buddy Marcie at her place on the water (utter paradise). My training has been much more productive this way. I can focus on exactly what my goal for a given workout is and I can train when I want, where I want. Also, it gives me a lot of time to focus on thinking about my goals, what I'm doing, what I want to do and other things. I get a lot of constructive thought done during training without distractions from others. My swimming (which I have never been really good at and am very self-conscious about) has already improved quite a bit just by doing my own workouts. I acknowledge the value some people get from Masters Swim programs and group training rides, but, ultimately, we have to race alone. Training alone gets me back i touch with "the fire". Training with others often winds up to be distracting, annoying, political, and sometimes even a little dangerous. Plus, I invariably wind up taking care of other people's bike problems- not that I mind that (its what I do for a living), but its nice to have the freedom to focus on my own training. It has been years since I've had that luxury. Thoughts?

Out of college I was living in a city with a million people in its greater metro area. I was doing competitive running at the time and could find organized group almost every day of the week to workout with. I did speed works outs with one of the running clubs on a track most Tuesdays did some 6-7 mile group runs from local running stores on Thursdays, did long runs on Saturdays mornings with mentored marathons training groups, etc. I learned a lot from the seasoned members of these groups and the comradery kept me motivated and made the training enjoyable, but the more I progressed the harder it was to do the type of training I needed to do to PR at races. For shorter 5K & 10K type stuff the groups worked well, but when I was training to PR in longer Marathon races I had to do more customized training that meant training along. I got to the point that when I got down to the final 3 months before an A race that I would do everything except for recovery type days on my own.

When I got married and started to have kids my schedule changed quite a bit. I had been an after work type runner but that didn't work with a family. This time of year I would leave to the office before it was light outside and before anyone else in the house was up then get home an hour before my kids went to bed. If I took that hour to get my run in, I would miss the 1-2 hours a day that my kids has to see me to where they would only see me on weekends. That wasn't acceptable so I switch to being an early morning runner. That meant that I was running on my own. I would be find with people running with me if they would show up at my house at 4:30 AM to go for an 18 mile run before breakfast, but I was NOT going to turn a 2 hour morning workout into a three hour morning workout by driving down to a running path to wait for other people to show up to run with then have to drive home when I was done added travel time onto both ends of the run.

When I got interested in doing my first Triathlon one of my biggest concerns was how I was going to find the time required to train sufficiently to be prepared for the race without it taking a lot of time away from me being with my family. I was not longer in a big city. My work had transferred me to a small town that didn't have a local bike shop, didn't have a lap swimming pool, didn't have a running club (or even a shoe store) etc. I did have a lot of options from group training (like zero opportunities) but I did come across an article that was very helpful to me on how to train for triathlons with a time constrained working schedule. It said to train alone. So I alternated run days and bike days every morning and when I was in town during the day. I could go to the Wellness Center at the medical complex that has a 15 yard exercise pool (no lane lines or swim lanes of any type) and get in a 15-20 minute swim and make it back to the office over my lunch break. So I got all my training done either in the morning when my family was sleeping or over my lunch break from work. I trained 8 months for my first race (a 70.3) training 100% solo and completed. Since then I have don't 99.5% of my training solo. Again when you are the only Triathlete for 50 miles that is kind of a given, but after 11-12 years of living in small towns my work will be transferring my to a multimillion person city with a large triathlon population next spring and I think that I will likely continue to train solo because 1) I don't have time to regularly meet-up with other people less they are meeting at my house at 4:30 AM, 2) even in a city with other competitive triathletes I know from my running groups 15+ years ago that the other guys in town will usually be training for different races than me (I don't race Sundays for religious reason) so I will be on a different schedule than everyone else and have to follow my own plan 3) Even is my race schedule is the same as someone else's finding people who are going to train at the same intensities as me is not always possible. My last USAT score was a 104.5 (duathlon) and I now am the course record holder for two races (I am currently a big fish in a small pond but in 6 months will be a small fish in a great lake).

Anyways...solo training makes sense if you are limited on time and if you want to focus on what you need to do to improve. Training with a group makes sense if you are new to the sport with a lot of the basics to learn or if you are more interested on enjoying every workout than you are in maximizing the training effect you get from every workout.

BillT wrote:

I train alone most of the time by necessity. I don't have many people around who are as slow as I am, and training with someone in a different world of speed is merely frustrating. I also may be in 3 or 4 cities in a week and tend to do what I can, when I can.

I actually like it. Like TD, I get a lot of thinking done. I'm a consultant, and some of the ideas I've had running, riding or swimming have proven lucrative. Maybe I should deduct my bike or running shoes as a business expense, huh?

Do you live in west Houston? :)

Every few weeks I have a buddy who I do a long ride with. He has to slow way down, but he is a good buddy and will do that for me.

Otherwise, I'm training alone. If I had someone who was slightly faster and on the same or very similar training plan, then I'd seriously consider adjusting my schedule to train with them.

As previously mentioned, training alone allows me to focus on what the training session is about that day, allows me to adjust my session if necessary (heat in the summer can require changes on the fly) and allows me train according to my schedule.

However, I have found that the third week of a plan - the week before the recovery week - it can be motivationally challenging because I've been building up for two weeks and I know the third week will be tough. During the third week I try to focus on the fact that the next week is recovery week.

Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

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