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I am moving up to the 1/2IM distance this season and have adjusted my training accordingly, but I have also become really addicted to bike racing (crits mostly, some RRs). I have set up a pretty structured schedule, but looking at my weekly training, I am starting to become more and more worried about overtraining. This is part due to the fact that I am hammering on the bike during mid-week to get some high-end speed work in and then again most weekends at local bike races. I am sure that some of you do compete in both and was wondering how you have adjusted your schedule to accomidate? I am doing the obvious things (doing more of my runs as LSDs and chilling every fourth week, etc.) but was looking for some more words of wisdom...I really don't want to end up sucking at all four things...or is that three...or would I just doubly suck at one and just suck at the other two...so confusing.
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All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.
-James Thurber
I basically use bike races as my high end cycling workouts, but other than that don't do a lot of adapting. Back it off if you feel tired, but don't worry too much?
I find it tough to do both simultaneously and usually phase my season with a concentration on one or the other. Bike racing is a good base builder for triathlon, and the aerobic base from traithlon is a great base for putting down some speed work and jumping into a RR. But there has to be a priority. I find it works best for me to pick my A races (tris or ultraruns) and then use road racing as filler key workouts. Copperopolis RR is this weekend. 84 miles of California's version of pave. As you have probably discovered, there's a level of fitness only gained by 'sitting on the rivet' in a pack.
For training, be careful doing key run workouts on fatigued legs. That's what kills people most often. Good luck.
Being as that i am a self proclaimed expert at overtraining, I can offer some advice. Take it FWIW
During my IM summer I was doing 3 masters swim workouts a week, 1-3 group rides a week, 3 soccer games a week, weightlifting 2 days a week, plus individual LSD rides and runs, and some bike races when they were close by. Needless to say I was really crabby alot, but I've never been stronger than I was at the end of that summer.
I wound up doing 2-a-days 5 days a week (sandwiched inbtw regular work. curses.)
Getting enough sleep and food is paramount (I got neither).
You probably will end up sucking in all three at first. But stick with it. Given enough time, you will adapt.
If you find you a starting a workout tired for a couple days in a row, you should back off the intensity.
About a month out from the race, when my speed was kinda blunted by fatigue, I found it advisable to stop being so intense and focus more on LSD stuff. On group rides I hung out @ the back more. Etc. Kinda like a reverse pyramid. I worked on intensity first. Then added endurance. On race day, I had the endurance, and also found I had gotten my speed back and then some.
Not that I am a stellar triathlete by any strech of the imagination, so take this with a grain of salt.
I've got the same situation. I love to race my bike, but I've also got a case of Chimay riding on a 7 race series of which 4 are triathlons. My half is Blackwater which is flat, so I figure I can suck it up through on the run.
My thoughts are to try:
Mon:
Easy Bike (commute)
Easy Run at Lunch 30-45 mins for Frequency/Ecconomy
Tuesday:
Hard Run - Francois 30/30 or 1min/1min workout I figure it helps ecconomy and builds VO2Max.
Swim - Something in the PM
Wednesday:
Bike - Commute in in the morning then long way home - About 65 for the day all easy
Thursday:
Swim - Easy AM
Run - Easy run 30 mins or so at lunch for sanity
Brick - Training Crit then short brick. For me the crits important as its is run with sprints every 3 laps and I need to work on my leadouts for teammates. If I ride to the start of the crit and ride back its a 60 mile day. For the run I'm planning on finishing with a couple strides.
Friday:
Bike - Commute - 30 miles total all easy.
Sat:
Bike Race
Swim optional
Sun:
Bike Race with 45-75 min run afterwards.
Swim optional
Wednesday will sometimes be a longer run and if I'm not racing on Sat or Sun it will be a long run. Recovery week every 4th. Run endurance has never been a limiter for me - I'm hoping it isn't going to be this year. I'm counting on run frequency to make up for my lack of long runs.
Who know if it will work - Didn't Francois do bike racing in the past.
Matt
Firstly - I have two 1/2's on the calendar this year, which I have already done one. Ralph's and Wildflower. I pretty much only train crit style riding (Tuesday night crit, 2 medium pace tempo rides, sat group ride (45 miles or Sunday crit). As Ralphs was approaching, I kept saying, I'll get the aero bars on next week, gotta do another crit. Anyway, to make it short, about 2 months out from Ralphs I would go on the group ride and then tack on 30 just to get mileage. 2 weeks out I put the aero's on and got two long weekends in by myself to get reaquainted (?) with pacing, but proceeded to take the bars off for the tuesday night crit series. During the taper week I didn't race because I didn't want to take the chance of wrecking. I felt fine during the bike, even posted a pretty decent time. Sure if I would have had more time in the aero position my back would have felt better, but who cares. And to answer your question, maybe plan the midweek rides to be recovery / temp vs high intensity interval. Hope this helps a little - E