well.. i'm 19.. and in university.. so i can't really have a definate workout plan because it totally depends upon my school work. That being said, I normally workout ~6-8 hours a week.. and that is depending upon how i feel, ~12-15 k swimming, 15 k running, and an hour or two of stationary biking. I try and still have a life to go along with all of this, so it depends. I havn't been running at all this winter.. (well.. hardly anything) but my speeds are 1.21/100's (race pace for swimming.. up to 1000m) ~35km/h biking.. and ~ a 18.30 5 k off the bike (and thats right now... i'm not in super form). This is all for sprint distance races.

If your working out upwards of 10 hours a week, i think you should definatly cut it back.. you can hurt yourself way to easily.. last year i trained and raced a half marathon.. and messed my knee up for a year.. definatly not a fun deal... (3 months NO running, and physio everyday) and then gradually eased back into it.

Finally.. life's all about balance, and it is also important to get out and socialize.. if you have school, and workout that much, i definatly think you should get out and party a bit more. Granted.. your friends all may be super athletes, and you may workout with them, making it social.. but its really nice to get out once in a while. My swim team worked super hard during the week.. but come thursday night.. we were all out partying it up.

just my .02 cents..

David

Well Saturday is my day off so friday night I usually go and hang with my friends, but other than that I hang out with people that are on my team (around 10 people my age) before and after practices. Towards the beginning of the year I was dead tired after each practice, but right now I'm getting used to the volume and don't need as much rest and stuff. School's pretty easy right now because I skipped 2 grades in Math (ie took 10th grade math in 8th), and this year I decided to lay back a bit (relearn the 10th grade stuff into a bit more depth), so I got a lotta time on my hands.

Other than that lets get more people to post here.

Weekly volume really depends on the weeks, how much school work i have to do, and how i feel that week.

This last week i have put a lot of running miles in (2x20k) and then 2 hours of swimming. No biking this week.

Most weeks in the past little while i do between 4-5 hours of stuff, maybe more, if i have the time.

Come the summer, i am planning on increasing the volume to 40-50k run/week, 2-3 hours of swimming, and 6+ hours of biking. However, this will be once school is done and i dont have anything to worry about!

Near mid/late may, i will cut the running miles down, and begin to work on speed, probably only one long run/week, with 2 speed sessions (incl. a possible track session), as well as coaching track at my old highschool, and then work speed on the bike as well.

If you are only trainging for sprints, i wouldnt do more than one long run every week/2 weeks, esp. during your peak area (race time) in your schedule.

I found last year that a lot of good tempo workouts really helped. between 8-10k, with lots of hills and speed. + 1 track session. I dropped 2 minutes off my 5k pb in one month. (21-->19)

Just my $0.02



-Kevin

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"Anyone can work hard when they want to; Champions do it when they don't."

This seems to be a youthful chain of posts so being 17 I'll add my 2cents.

My weekly mileage is dependant on my schoolwork, time of year and motivation but I generally do:

15-20k swimming - my weakness, so I do as much as pool time allows.
150-500k biking - normally 250k a week I guess, with lots of turboing
55-65k running

I havent come from any of the 3 sports which is why I do so much in each - making up for 3 weaknessses!
I'm in a great position however, I'm a full boarder in my last year at school, so training fits around lessons and I still manage to fit in friends and a social life - minus the drinking us youthful brits are so good at!

keep tri-ing

During the season I'll typically put in about nine or ten, sometimes twelve hours on the bike, 3 or four hours swimming in a backyard pool and MAYBE an hour or two of running.

Since I'm a relatively old geezer in this sport, I can always use the excuse that running is too hard on my knees. That's a polite way of saying it's an activity that I hate, so a little bit of knee pain is a handy excuse. Guess that explains why I can barely break five minute kms. If I ever want to win my AG, I'll just have to put more time in with running.

Training for mostly halfs and olympic distances.

Weekly breakdown:
150-200 miles on bike
20-25 mile running, working through an injury.. would like to run more
8-10k yards swimming, hate the black line.. VERY mind numbing
1 hour of weights, 1 or 2 sessions, depends.. legs, back and tricpes

Avg about 14-15 hour per week currently.


mike

Since you're 15 you might want to consider cutting back on the volume and concentrating on speed skills such as running and biking cadence and swim technique. That's seems like an overly large volume for a short race, especially since you're doing only aerobic endurance workouts and a sprint tri is anything but that. Friel's book has some good info on training for juniors. When I was 15 I bike raced and our club had some good rules for preventing injuries among the junior riders. 1. keep your knees warm and 2. no riding in the big chain ring till you logged 600 miles.

It's pretty important to not base your training mileage on that of others, especially since you are a junior. Err on the side of conservancy.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Gollygeewhillakers you young whippersnappers! I can't even remember what workout I did yesterday, much less for a whole week!

It's great you guys are focused on this stuff, just don't miss too much of the rest of your life beginning so early. Then again, if you have a great group you're training with...that's one of the most important parts of the "rest of your life"...Other People. Make sure you have a qualified "coach" watching your training, it's very difficult to know when to push through and when to pull back....because the feelings can be very similar.

Rest assured, your cardiovascular system won't reach it's full potential for many years...your job right now is to give it enough opportunity for improvement without damaging it, and to build up your musculo-skeletal systems sufficiently to be able to withstand the efforts your continually improving cardiovascular system with be able to impart on those muscles/bones/joints.

Stay clean, stay healthy, stay around the right kind of people. To ignore that advice is very risky. You'll be able to whip old guys like me soon enough, if you aren't already doing so. Then, hopefully, if given the chance, you'll give some youngsters good advice...just don't be surprised when they all don't take your advice!

Oh, feel free to encourage the older competitors as you pass them, and, if they are passing you...encourage them then, too!

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

[Reply]Since you're 15 you might want to consider cutting back on the volume and concentrating on speed skills such as running and biking cadence and swim technique. That's seems like an overly large volume for a short race, especially since you're doing only aerobic endurance workouts and a sprint tri is anything but that. Friel's book has some good info on training for juniors. When I was 15 I bike raced and our club had some good rules for preventing injuries among the junior riders. 1. keep your knees warm and 2. no riding in the big chain ring till you logged 600 miles.[/Reply]

Well we have gear limitations, 52:16 is the biggest gear i've got :(
It sorta slows you down, especially on big hills or long flats, but it's extremely good for practicing high cadence (which is the only way to go fast).

In all honesty I am happy to say I've got an extremely smooth freestyle stroke (that's because I've been swimming with a coach that knew how to teach freestyle since a pretty young age).
But in our tougher weeks when we swim 20-25k it is usually divided up, not all freestyle (but a lot of butterfly :\).

But all in all this is a great sport, but right now when I watch TV, ITU olympic distance events seem a lot more fun/adrenaline pumping than sitting on the saddle peddling for 180k in IM's.

Well, you may one day find that high rpms aren't the ONLY way to go faster...."truths" tend to change and blur as you gain experience. But, for a youngster, I certainly don't see how learning high rpms could hurt you one bit! In fact, it may be one of the best things to learn to do at your age, not only because it tends to magnify inefficiencies (which you can then work to try to diminish), but it probably has benefits for your running speed, as well as perhaps lessening your chance of knee injury induced from straining too hard against big gears.

I NEVER agreed with the "don't use your big chainring until you've put in X number of miles at the beginning of the season." It's just an easy way to say "take it easy for a while" for those that haven't learned what gear inches are. After all, a 53X21 is a smaller gear than a 39X13. Maybe the old rule should be something like, don't go under 100 rpms for the first X miles of the year, or something like that.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is this: the best training takes knowledge that isn't always "common sense". Experienced coaches can make a world of difference. At your age, especially with the desire you seem to have, I'd highly recommend a successful, experienced coach. No sense wasting time and even premature injury doing something insane at 15! Good luck out there!

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

My training volumn is very consistent. I am currently running 60 miles a week which includes a long run of 13-15 miles and one speed workout a week. I am swimming 8500 yards a week, and biking 8 hours a week indoors which includes a spinervals workout (northwest ohio weather has been terrible). I do 4 sprint tri's and one olympic distance during the season. I come from a running background so 60 miles isn't bad for me.

In comparison to your other disciplines, it sounds like you're really letting your swimming down. With 60 miles a week, it sounds like you're a great runner, so how come the extremely low swim volume? I can understand 8500 meters, but yards, that even shorter.

Since I don't really know you/how you train don't take my advice too seriously, but I would suggest increasing your swim volume (either to match the running and biking, or decreasing runner/biking so you'll have more time to swim).



gl

I'm 32 and in my second year of triathlon. I come from a nordic skiing background. Right now I'm training about 12 - 16 hours per week, preparing for a 1/2 im in May. I do 3 x 2500yds in the pool, about 4 hrs of running, and 6-8 hrs of biking. I am a strong runner, and trying to improve my bike splits this year. Swimming is my weakest, but I figure the amount of training needed to improve 4 min in a 1.2 mile swim (last year was 32min) is not worth it - I can easily make that up on the bike or run.

I find that working full time and trying to have a family life only leaves about 12 - 16 hours for training, and I'm still neglecting my other interests, like hunting and diving. It is all about balance and priorities.

That's the mistake a lot of people make, swimming more doesn't just equal faster times (which they think they can make up in the run or bike), but if you have a good swim you won't be as tired on the bike or run.

Think of it like running, after a while of running (ie lots of practices) you'll be able to run faster without your heart rate going up; If you run 5k in 25 minutes on 180 heartbeats, if you train you'll be able to run 5k in 24 minutes on the same heart rate.

Just my 2 cents.

you are right in principle, but you have to take into consideration the amount of time it takes to knock 3 min off of a 1500m swim versus the amount of time it takes to knock 6 min off of a 40k bike ride...it's not even close. most people have a limited amount of time to spend training, and tend to spend that time where it will produce the best overall race.

Freestyle,

I am a few years older being 18 and from what I hear, it sounds like you should cut back just a tid bit and work more on your anaerobic speed. It sounds like you have a good base but it's not going to do you much more good in sprints. You are doing enough for an olympic and possibly even a half IM distance race in my opinion (except for your running). Right now I am training for IMCDA and my volume isn't a whole lot higher than yours from the sounds of it. I am doing about 3-4 hours swimming, 6-8 hours biking, and about 2-4 hours running each week. That's the good thing about sprints is that it shouldn't take up a terrible amount of time. Have fun and kick some of your training buddies butts ; ).

I thought that 8500 yards was enough. I do 2200 meters on sunday with a masters team, Tuesday is a hard day, usually short repeats for a 1300-1600 total: wednesday just drills and distance: Friday another hard day, usually longer (200-300 yard) repeats for about a 1600 yards total. Saturday is once again distance and drills. I'm not out to set any swim records(I just can't seem to swim real fast) just to stay in contention with top guys in my age group. My longest swim in competition is 1500 meters. All the other races are 1/2 mile swims.I usually can run most of them down. How much more volume would you suggest?