Critique My Training Plan (1)

Triathlon Forum
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Sorry this is so long. If I could afford a coach, that’s where my money would be going. You’re my only hope, SlowTwitch.

About me:
Male, turning 34 this year.Currently weigh 196, but I recently started counting every calorie in and out (the only way weight loss has ever worked for me in the past). I’m ahead of schedule to hit 180 by the end of the year, and then will probably continue to drop until I get to 170, which is where my “natural” weight feels about where it should be when I’m active. The last time I was counting every calorie and cycling a lot, my weight was 168-173. I’m 6’0". Once I get to 170 or so I’m not really going to worry about my weight, just my nutrition, and I’ll let the numbers fall where they may.
Full time student, dad, and husband. Currently working 0 hours but that will probably go to 16-20 hours soon (telling you this for time management purposes).Have completed only one tri before (Longhorn Half Iron in 2007). Felt fine in the swim, hated life on the bike (road bike, no aero bars, huge mistake), after that it was a death march. I had no training plan, I just did whatever I felt like doing for that particular day. That’s the impetus for this post.I broke my left shoulder, elbow, and a rib in March and have just recently gotten back into swimming and biking. I picked up running again around May.

My swim:
I used to just force my way through the water, but then I started doing Total Immersion drills lately, and my efficiency improved overnight. I’m sure I still have a long way to go. A couple of days ago I swam 2,000m in about 40:00, and that felt like a relaxed pace. I could go faster, but I’m not sure how much faster until I blow up. I do TI drills on easy swim days and just go long on hard swim days. I only swim freestyle, and I never do repeats, just one long set. I do most of my swimming in a 25m pool, and it’s all open turns. I start to feel a little dizzy if I start doing flip turns. I can do bilateral breathing for about the first 2-400m, and then I switch to breathing on every stroke. I’ve been swimming four days a week, with my weekly distance around 4-6,000m. This week I’m aiming to do a little more than that.

My run:
In the past, I’ve had IT band issues once the volume ramps up, but that seem to be keeping that at bay since I started running in Five Fingers. I do a mix of treadmill, road, and trail running (lately it’s been mostly treadmill since it’s fucking hot in central Texas). My best running performance was a 10-mile road race at a 7:15 pace. Right now I’ll do a 6-mile run at around a 9:30 pace, and that feels comfortable. I’m only doing easy runs, no speed work, no speed drills, and I usually run on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with the longest run on Wednesday (although it doesn’t always work out like that).

My bike:
My shoulder and elbow finally feel decent enough to support myself on a road bike. It still hurts a little, but I feel that it’ll fade away with more time in the saddle. Right now I’m just riding at a casual to steady pace, and I’m trying to ride three days a week (Tuesday and Thursday, with my long ride on Sunday). This is my second week back. Yesterday I did 46 miles of rolling hills in 103F temperature, and I finished strong, although my legs do feel a little dead today. About two years ago cycling made up the majority of my activity, but that dropped off sharply when I got laid off and went back to school. I’m just riding on a road bike with drop bars, but I’m working on scraping up the dough for something fast and affordable. If the funds become available, I would get a P1, a disc cover for my Open Pro, and a used aero front wheel. Throw in an aero helmet if possible. Worst case scenario is that I buy some short clipons and go with my road bike.

My goals:
Complete the Texas Tri series next year. It’s six races starting in April (four sprints, an oly, and finishing with a half in August). They’re spaced about a month apart.I’d like to run the entire half.Avoid burnout. This has been an issue for me in the past, which leads to three months of fairly intense activity followed by four months of sitting on my ass and getting fat. Rinse, repeat.Avoid injury.My plan:
In a nutshell: Prep/Base, Build, Peak. The problem is that I’m not exactly sure what that looks like. Right now I run MWF, bike on TThSu, and try to get to the pool four days a week. I’m trying to stick to a four week cycle, so that week 1 is about 6 hours, week 2 is about 8 hours, and week 3 is around 10 hours, and then week 4 is a recovery week of about 4 hours. I figure I’ll stick to the same schedule and just cut the volume in half, and instead of going long on the swim I’ll focus on Total Immersion drill sessions in the pool (these seem to help me a lot). I’m calling this Prep/Base, but maybe that’s too much volume right now. I have no idea when to start my Build, or how that changes much.

So there I am. I have one year until my A race, and about seven months until the first race of my season. I’m going to hopefully get a tri bike before then (at least aero bars for chrissakes), and maybe a wetsuit (it would be nice to do some open water swimming over the winter, but my A race probably won’t be wetsuit legal).

Do I sound like I’m doing enough during Prep? Am I doing too much? Am I over-thinking it? When do I switch to Build, and how will that be different?

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Since no one has replied I think we can only assume the plan is flawless. Maybe i didn’t read well enough but hopefully you included Step 0: pick your parents properly. To bad we can’t put Simon Lessing into a time pod to make sexy time with your mom at an appropriate date in the 70s.

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Well he’s totally my mom’s type. Just need to give him a 'stache and a 'fro.

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I live in Austin but not sure how long I will be able to stay unfortunately. I would suggest you take advantage of the amazing wealth of FREE triathlon training possibilities if you want to improve/meet people/stay motivated. Free running store groups, shop rides, free OWS at Barton Springs. If you want to get serious about swimming check out the Masters team at UT (I assume you are a student at UT). It’s awesome but would cost you a bit. You could also try the coached swim at gregory gym.

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I ll take a stab at this. Im just reading forums and chilling out. Ive been doing tris for about 6 years. 5 full IMs. Several half IMs including world championships in Clearwater last year and several olympic distance, dont do much with the sprints anymore. Professionally a PT in San Antonio and certified strength and conditioning coach. My last two half IMs were around 4:50. Im 45 yr old male,

I ll comment on some areas and make assumptions on others.

First Prep/base: there was no mention of any weight or resistance training during this phase, I for myself and those I coach include leg strength and functional movement exercises and alot of core work during this phase. Makes the body stronger and can prevent injuries during later phases of training. On the swim, this is when you hammer the drills and technique, get in plenty of yardage but hone in the technique. Bike: work on quality riding. Good mileage paying attention to form and cadence, smooth riding. Prep and base work are usually up to 16 weeks prior to your A race date. Running the same: good quality miles focusing on form, leg turnover, Consistency in both the bike and run here are the key, mixed up with weight training. Overall focus on good techniques, injury prevention, and being healthy for build up phase.

Build up, Here is where you need to start alternating work out goals and develop a purpose for each work out, Some shorter more intense workouts geared on speed, intervals, hills, and some workouts are designed specifically to lengthen distance. if you are staying in the sprint and olympic distances and up to a half I would focus on 60-75% of workout time getting faster at each phase. Less drills more intensity in each area as you get to the end of this phase. I would start the 16 weeks prior to your A race and spend 8-10 weeks in building phase modify the plan for your early season races. You should hopefully be 20% faster in each phase then when you started and 20% longer.

You got six to eight weeks left. I do some periodization here for about 4 weeks. About 12 days starts emphasizing swimming, i get other work outs in but the swimming domniates the schedule and intensity. the second period is biking and then two weeks of running emphasis.

Now we got 4 weeks to peak. most of my key workouts in this phase are all geared to bricks and combos. You are trying to take this fitness level you have and turn into a peak triathlon race. Focus on busting ass in one phase and transitioning to the next phase quickly and efficiently. For instance beat yourself up in the pool on intervals and swimming harder than pace goal and then try to quickly and efficiently get into your bike rhythm and pace and maintain that for 80% of the A race distance. similarly bike harder than goal and transition to your expected run pace and push to keep that pace for 75% of the A race distance. This is the phase where you get better and begin to peak. Its the most intense and also the most injury prone. Pay attention to your body and back off for short rest days only if you have to.

For a half IM i do not taper so do these hard driving workouts up to 4 days prior to race day, minimal workout effort for a couple of days to let your body rebound from the intensity but not lose any built up energy or fitness level. focus on staying loose and relaxed and rested and nail your A race. Good luck

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You sound like me when I started racing. I wasted alot of time overthinking everything.

For now… I would do this. No runs over 80% max heart rate. Walk hills if you can’t run them within this heart rate range. Do speed work on the bike. Concentrate on technique and do drills in the pool (catch-up’s, head position, hand entry, body rotation, etc.)… don’t worry about speed for now. You can do speedwork on the bike, but make sure you give yourself at least one day off during the week and fit a brick workout in of at least a 15 min. run off the bike on the weekend.

Just training is going to get you to pretty good fitness at first, don’t overthink it all. One of the biggest things that took me 5 years to figure out was how to diet and also train. It comes down to WHEN you eat. Carb load when your going long the next day and make sure you eat protein after hard days and preferrably eat something right away. On easy days or when you don’t train… eat light. The weight will come off.

But, hey- what do I know. I haven’t been to Kona. :wink: