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Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode?
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For those of you who've done this what does it look like. If you were to say put the bike in maintenance mode to spend a certain amount of time focusing on the Run how many times a week would you still bike and what would those workouts look like.
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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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I partly did this the early part of this season leading into a marathon; run before bike.


Swim remained constant (swimming background so all season has been twice a week and felt it helped fitness/recovery)


As I was still relatively new to running so I didn't drop any bike sessions in place of running (didn't want to risk an injury) but instead reduced the length of bike sessions in place of slowly increasing the length of runs. I still kept at least 1 intense bike (depending how I felt) and then made sure all intense/target run sets were done before any bike intense sets. Week looked something like this in terms of "target" sessions:


Wed = high end run, Thurs = high end bike, Sat = long run, Sun = longish bike


This managed to keep my bike fitness stagnant; FTP test in Jan = FTP test in May. But running improved significantly. Swimming also remained stagnant.

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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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I took about two months “off” of biking to focus on running. Did an easy long-ish ride on Saturdays and one ~60 min mid-effort ride in the middle of the week. Felt stronger on my runs being better rested. Hit my goal for the run in the race right after.
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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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The bike is the only discipline I feel like I can truly maintain with significantly decreased volume on 2-3 sessions per week.

In order of importance:
  • Session 1: Endurance ride (2-3hrs at decently hard tempo, ~75-80% FTP NP)
  • Session 2: High Intensity (1-2hrs via Zwift race or hard VO2 like intervals)
  • Session 3: Whatever time allows for, outdoor ride, or some type of threshold efforts (4x12, 5x10, 3x15, etc.) if I'm feeling fresh after prioritizing the other sport(s)

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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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Did pretty much that last season building up to 70.3 WC in Nice. Had a strong swim/run focus in spring and early summer (actually, for a very long SwimRun race in mid June), while I did not do much more on the bike than a weekly group ride. So, no tri-/race-specific bike training at all. And I was absolutely not in the mood to push through bike interval or lonely 3 hours bike sessions.

So I more or less remained with that fitness/training setup leading into the race in Nice. Which was absolutely fine for me, I just had to set the expectation right. I expected to have a strong swim, a rather relaxed bike ride in order not to burn myself, finally have a good run and finish strong. It worked out well and I enjoyed the race, although knowing that my bike fitness was nowhere close to what it used to be in former years.

Just make sure you know what to expect and pace yourself correctly on race day.
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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [indianacyclist] [ In reply to ]
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So, your significant bike reduction was going to 5-6 hours/week???? So before that you were doing what?

I’m very curious as to what others did as I have kicked this idea around but never really for a long period of time. I always envisioned a maintenance or minimalist mode of 1, maybe 2 sessions/week. I usually average 4 bikes and runs/week so Im not sure how you (or at least I) can really increase in one sport unless you really reduce another.
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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [DFW_Tri] [ In reply to ]
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2 sessions would be 3-5hrs. As mentioned, third one is optional and time/body permitting.

Normal training would easily be double that, 8-10hrs. So a ~50% reduction in volume while still maintaining fitness
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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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Hunter Allen talked about this several years ago. In his mind, maintenance mode for the bike was one 60 minute SST ride per week and an endurance ride of 2-4 hours on the weekend. This was specific to bike racers, but I can't see it being any different for triathletes.
Last edited by: jhammond: Nov 19, 19 8:36
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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [indianacyclist] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for all the feedback.
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Re: Putting one of the disciplines in maintenance mode? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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Its a sliding scale.

But, I've gone as extreme as one ride EVERY OTHER week. Last year during the 100/100, I swam 6-7x (18,000 yds) and ran 8-10x (45mpw, 7 days a week with 1-2 doubles per week). That didn't leave much time for the bike, so I just did "something" every other week or so. Could be anything, long ride, 2x20 SST, 1x60 tempo, 30x30s, etc. The primary goal was to keep some muscle memory, and the sit bones conditioned. The point was that when I returned to biking I didn't have a long ramp back into beign able to sit on the bike for 2-4 hours without getting sore. During that time I lost 10% of my FTP---as measured by a 30min all-out TT.

At the conclusion of the 100/100 (actually a little beforehand) I switched to a more bike heavy program: Bike 6x, run 4x, swim 4x. Within 4 weeks my FTP had returned to pre-focus level. 4 weeks after that I set my all-time-best FTP by 15 watts.
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