Would the average FOP triathlete benefit from a 6-12 month period of single sport focus?
For example, spend October ('14) -March ('15) only swimming and then start a balanced training plan in preparation for a late season A race?
Or, spend October ('14) - October ('15) only on the bike and the start a balanced training plan for an early 2016 race?
6-12 months may be a little extreme, but does anyone cut out 2/3 sports over the off season and only focus on one?
Sure! Gain 2-3 minutes on the swim, lose 20 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes on the run.
I wouldn’t do this, but if I did, it would be a bike focus.
Kind of did this with respect to running while training for a 100 miler. When I got back to biking and swimming, the bike had especially suffered as my FTP dropped from 340 to about 315. Not an easy amount of power to get back in a season. But at least my IM run was a breeze as I had been used to running back to back 30-35 miler training runs.
I kind of went through this due to work constraints a couple of years ago. I had typically been top 20% as swimmer and cyclist and top 5% runner. A temporary job forced me to completely abandon swimming and cycling for 10 months, so I focused on running, a lot. I dropped my standalone marathon from 3:15 to 2:50 and when I returned to triathlon I found myself in the top 1% as a runner, many times the fastest run split for my AG, but my swim and bike suffered greatly and took a full season to get back to where I left off.
If you’re a FOP AG you likely got there through a balanced approach, staying there I’ve learned requires a balanced approach.
if you have a shorter period in which to focus on a race, as your example fall '14 - to - spring '15 then certainly focus on your weakest discipline, but not at the cost of abandoning your strengths.
not sure if this helps, but here are some data points from me, taking a shorter course as example
.25m swim 10m bike 3.1m run
when i was racing triathlon with balanced training: 5:30 min swim, 25-26 min bike, 19 min run
when i stopped and raced bikes for 1 year, 0 swim or run milage: 7 min swim, 23-24 min bike, 21-22 min run
as you can see i picked up a bit but lost alot more time in a very similar condition based sprint. i was actually happy with a 22 min run, to not put on run sneakers for 13 months and run 22 is actually not too bad. at least this is what i tell myself.
btw 23:40 is what i rode and i was not pushing at 100%.
Back in early 90s was a pretty decent fOP triathlete. Decided to walk onto D1 cross country team to help improve my running. It was approximately a 3 month intense focus ( volume, intensity etc). Helped my running times tremendously from both a mental and physical perspective. Not sure how it impacted bike as I did not ride with PM. I will say that come tri season was able to go sub 2 hours in Oly.
Would the average FOP triathlete benefit from a 6-12 month period of single sport focus?
For example, spend October ('14) -March ('15) only swimming and then start a balanced training plan in preparation for a late season A race?
Or, spend October ('14) - October ('15) only on the bike and the start a balanced training plan for an early 2016 race?
6-12 months may be a little extreme, but does anyone cut out 2/3 sports over the off season and only focus on one?
You probably don’t need the 6-12 months to see gains. I will say I think it depends also on which sport you’re focusing. For example in my opinion only swimming for a year might work out worse for you than only biking or running in terms of triathlon performance. It can be very hard to get your running legs back while swimming skill never really goes away once you have it. I would recommend an approach with at least one or two sessions in the other two sports per week.
I’d say that you take a big risk in losing a lot of run ability by taking off completely from running/biking and focusing on swimming - so much so that it will offset your swimming gains. The impact training required to run fast is really critical, and can be lost pretty quickly, especially if you’re not a lightweight.
On the bright side, I don’t think you need to totally abandon the other sports - even 1-2 sessions of bike/run per week is far better for maintenance than zero if you’re mainly swimming.
I’d say that you take a big risk in losing a lot of run ability by taking off completely from running/biking and focusing on swimming - so much so that it will offset your swimming gains. The impact training required to run fast is really critical, and can be lost pretty quickly, especially if you’re not a lightweight.
On the bright side, I don’t think you need to totally abandon the other sports - even 1-2 sessions of bike/run per week is far better for maintenance than zero if you’re mainly swimming.
Does the same go for swimming? My neighborhood pool is closing this weekend, which means having to go to the municipal pool with more restrictive hours, plus heading into the winter without access to a indoor pool – I’m not real enthused about swimming outside in Dec./Jan., even if it is California. What is the minimum I can do to not lose what swim fitness I have at the moment (which isn’t much, only started swimming/triathlon this year)? Have my first half marathon this December so my main focus will be running this fall, but I want to maintain the other two disciplines as well.
Sure! Gain 2-3 minutes on the swim, lose 20 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes on the run.
^^^ THIS^^^
I’d say that you take a big risk in losing a lot of run ability by taking off completely from running/biking and focusing on swimming - so much so that it will offset your swimming gains. The impact training required to run fast is really critical, and can be lost pretty quickly, especially if you’re not a lightweight.
On the bright side, I don’t think you need to totally abandon the other sports - even 1-2 sessions of bike/run per week is far better for maintenance than zero if you’re mainly swimming.
Does the same go for swimming? My neighborhood pool is closing this weekend, which means having to go to the municipal pool with more restrictive hours, plus heading into the winter without access to a indoor pool – I’m not real enthused about swimming outside in Dec./Jan., even if it is California. What is the minimum I can do to not lose what swim fitness I have at the moment (which isn’t much, only started swimming/triathlon this year)? Have my first half marathon this December so my main focus will be running this fall, but I want to maintain the other two disciplines as well.
It’s much less dramatic than with running. With running your body really has to stay used to it because of the impact as mentioned by lightheir. Swimming is 100% no-impact and from a triathlon perspective you’re not going to lose too much by cutting down on swimming. You’ll also be able to get back whatever you lose very quickly. Swimming is very technique-based and either you’ve got it or you don’t. Your performance is much more tied to your general fitness than specific fitness.
Thanks for all the replies!
I really meant, would it be a long term benefit to REALLY develop a single sport and then spend another large black of time with a balanced training load to regain what you lost. For example, 6 month focus + 6 month balanced load = faster overall race times in a year. I used swimming for an example, but I didn’t specifically mean swimming.
I don’t plan on spending the entire off season without running and biking, but I’ve been swimming exclusively for the last 4 weeks due to an injury and was wondering how long it would take to get my run/bike fitness back of this injury drags on for several more weeks.
Alan Webb, spent his whole life developing running. He grabbed the American Record for the mile on the way.
He just did an elite olympic tri last week and had the SIXTEENTH fastest run of the day. Not sixteenth fastest TIME of the day, there were fifteen faster runners than him in that race alone.
Take from that what you’d like.
A whole year probably not. Several 4-6-8 weeks block crushing that one sport followed by 2-3 weeks more balanced training. Now that could be a good idea.
Search the threads there are a ton of good threads on here about focusing on a single sport for a bit. Threads by coaches, age groupers and pro’s who have done this and results.
Alan Webb, spent his whole life developing running. He grabbed the American Record for the mile on the way.
He just did an elite olympic tri last week and had the SIXTEENTH fastest run of the day. Not sixteenth fastest TIME of the day, there were fifteen faster runners than him in that race alone.
Take from that what you’d like.
I will just say a few things:
a) He obviously hasn’t been in the same shape as when he got the record or else he wouldn’t now be a triathlete
b) He’s quite likely not training the run as much now or at least while focusing on bringing his swim and bike up to speed
c) Being in an elite field kind of skews things
Edit: Also FWIW it was his first ever OD race.
I definitely shift focus in the winter to run heavy because 1. i hate the trainer and 2. i hate the pool.
I like being outside, so I run and xc ski a lot over the winter, and just do maintenance on the bike and swim. Over the summer a good week is 40-50 miles running, 200+ biking, 4-5x2k open swims. In the winter it’s more like 50-65 miles running, 80-100 miles biking (4x1 hour on trainer with intervals), 40-60 miles of skate skiing, and 1-2x4k masters practice.
I’d say that you take a big risk in losing a lot of run ability by taking off completely from running/biking and focusing on swimming - so much so that it will offset your swimming gains. The impact training required to run fast is really critical, and can be lost pretty quickly, especially if you’re not a lightweight.
On the bright side, I don’t think you need to totally abandon the other sports - even 1-2 sessions of bike/run per week is far better for maintenance than zero if you’re mainly swimming.
Does the same go for swimming? My neighborhood pool is closing this weekend, which means having to go to the municipal pool with more restrictive hours, plus heading into the winter without access to a indoor pool – I’m not real enthused about swimming outside in Dec./Jan., even if it is California. What is the minimum I can do to not lose what swim fitness I have at the moment (which isn’t much, only started swimming/triathlon this year)? Have my first half marathon this December so my main focus will be running this fall, but I want to maintain the other two disciplines as well.
Swimming for non-ex swimmers deteriorates pretty quickly, but on the bright side, tends to come back up to your previously trained level pretty quickly once you get back in the pool regularly, because it’s nonweightbearing and no-impact so you won’t get as easily injured.
If you can afford it, a Vasa trainer ($2k) is what I’ve been using in the past year, and it’s the real deal - it’s literally as good as pool time for me, and I do most of my swim training on it even on my current swim/run focus block, with <90 minutes per week in the pool usually (6-7hrs on Vasa now). I’m convinced it can almost completely replace water swimming for a non-beginner swimmer who’s already decently comfortable in water and with decent form.
You probably don’t need the 6-12 months to see gains. I will say I think it depends also on which sport you’re focusing. For example in my opinion only swimming for a year might work out worse for you than only biking or running in terms of triathlon performance. It can be very hard to get your running legs back while swimming skill never really goes away once you have it. I would recommend an approach with at least one or two sessions in the other two sports per week.
I agree with this based on experience. I am a swimmer cyclist who needed work on my running. The past two seasons I have done basically the same thing which is 0 swimming after my last Tri in the fall, not picking up again until after the new year. Very limited cycling throughout the early part of fall, but after a month or two I normally want to get back on the bike because I love it and don’t want to lose much. Other than that I just run a lot. It worked out really well for me, I gained a little on the swim this year (due to better consistency in frequency of training once I started back up), lost nothing on the bike despite dealing with a knee injury all season (I suspect I actually gained a little here but I don’t have a power meter to confirm), and gained a decent but on the run. After a couple years of this I have become a fairly complete triathlete.
You probably don’t need the 6-12 months to see gains. I will say I think it depends also on which sport you’re focusing. For example in my opinion only swimming for a year might work out worse for you than only biking or running in terms of triathlon performance. It can be very hard to get your running legs back while swimming skill never really goes away once you have it. I would recommend an approach with at least one or two sessions in the other two sports per week.
I agree with this based on experience. I am a swimmer cyclist who needed work on my running. The past two seasons I have done basically the same thing which is 0 swimming after my last Tri in the fall, not picking up again until after the new year. Very limited cycling throughout the early part of fall, but after a month or two I normally want to get back on the bike because I love it and don’t want to lose much. Other than that I just run a lot. It worked out really well for me, I gained a little on the swim this year (due to better consistency in frequency of training once I started back up), lost nothing on the bike despite dealing with a knee injury all season (I suspect I actually gained a little here but I don’t have a power meter to confirm), and gained a decent but on the run. After a couple years of this I have become a fairly complete triathlete.
I’m also pretty much the same. During the winter I run almost every day. Until about November I bike a few times a week then stop until late January when I just go whenever it’s nice enough (no trainer for me). I don’t swim until like March or April, most of my races are in July and August. My training is supplemented by one one hour plyometrics/circuit training workout with high intensity running intervals per week along with ~30+ days of skiing. I like to think the skiing helps my biking as well. Although in my case the only reason I’m doing triathlon is because I can’t ski all year round so I don’t care so much, just want to have something to do, don’t need to focus on triathlon nonstop.
I wouldn’t want to take huge amounts of time off any the three sports all together.
But reduce training to “maintenance level” in your strong sports and focus on your “weakness” - that sounds like a good idea to me.
Both fun and helpful.
On the other hand if you are truly FOP your weakness might not be so bad in the first place.
Maybe still fun
While a lot of people never really put in the time needed in their off sport not doing anything in a sport for several weeks seems like a lot.
However, it depends on your competitive situation. Another thread someone is trying to take 5 minutes off of his olympic distance split. If for some reason you are in a competitive position that you are totally unfulfilled unless you get your swim to 20 minutes for example, then I guess you need to do what you need to do in order to get there. I don’t think there are a lot of people like that, but they exist.