am I the only person that doesn’t have a coach/am not in a training group?
yall are going to think i’m crazy because i’ve only done 1 sprint and 1 half IM, and now i’m wanting to do an IM because i had SO MUCH FUN doing both, especially the half IM.
the 2 tris i’ve done were based on advice i picked up from others (which i’m SO thankful for) and a training sched i made up myself…but now i’m thinking maybe it’s a good idea to invest in a training group for an IM? do yall think its absolutely necessary? my self-formulated training worked fine for the half IM though
but i suppose joining a group is also a good way to meet other triathletes because i only know 3 others i don’t know how else to meet fellow triathletes
I am definitely a solo self-coached trainer – but I did find it really fun and INCREDIBLY beneficial to swim with a Masters club. Do what you want and just HTB (see my tag below)
Self-coached here and will be doing my first full IM this year. There is so much information available out there. Surf the web long enough and you’ll gathere enough information to pick and choose what works best for you in developing a training plan.
Heck, every one in a while you’ll cherry pick a nugget of gold from this forum!
I would recommend joining a club. A wealth of experience and from my perspective, great comraderie.
I think that most of us would love to have a coach, but, most of us are self coached. My training is much less structured than most. Family, job , etc. You read a ton of training schedules and philosophies and you start to see some common points. I hang on to those points and build a year around that, staying very flexible. You figure out when you should be hitting hard sessions and when you should be upping the volume. If you go IM, respect the time requirements but don’t be afraid to commit. The simplest tip I can give came from a book called ‘Going Long’. Each week you’ll have 2-3 key workouts (volume and/or intensity), everything else is recovering from one of these or preparing for the next one. These filler/practice workouts can be done often. And then you notice that if you’re not at work, bathing the kids, mowing the yard, cleaning dishes, etc, then you’re making the most of your time by getting up early to train, stealing some time at lunch to train, and maybe getting a bonus workout done at night. And remember that its not a curse that you have to workout so often, its a choice and a privilege.
And as far as groups to motivate…if the start time of my group ride coincides with my time window, I’m there. Usually run solo unless I’ve ridden with another tri guy who wants to run. Swim solo cuz I’m always fitting this in whenever I can, I quit trying to become a Phelps and just practice swimming to stay steady and comfortable. I train whenever I can and if other folks are around great, but I don’t rely on having them around.
Just my .02cents, from an average AGer and busy dad.
I count any time that I am not on the couch watching t.v. (which is rare for me) training. On a more serious note, I just joined the local collegiate swim club, and do the other 2 parts by myself or with a friend. Most people that do triathlons have other commitments, so a strict daily training regime is not feasible.
Great programs that you can tweak to your liking. I also recently bought a power meter and have been reading through the Coogan/Hunter book as well as Dr. Skiba’s book.
If you are like me you train in the morning then evening 6-7 days a week doing way to much and end up hurting myself. Which would be a good reason for me to get a coach. Which btw I do not have. Basically just to protect me from myself and to help me keep them gains I make.
I’m in the same situation as Morpheus—family, job, limited time, etc. I’d love to have a coach, but can’t really fit it into my sometimes erratic training schedule, plus it can be a lot of money. With focus and flexibility, you can do well without a coach.
I really like the book Going Long for self-coaching. Another book that’s been very helpful for me is The Perfect Distance by Tom Rodgers. As mentioned above, if you read enough stuff, you find a lot of important similartities in the concepts that you can apply to self-training.
what do yall do for bike/swim training? some advice would be greatly appreciated!
i got no idea about those 2 besides doing distances longer than the actual race, e.g. swim 1.5 mi for a half IM.
i’m aiming for the Louisville Ironman 2011
my running training has worked pretty well for me: 3 runs/wk consisting of 2 short (6-7 mi) +1 long (10+ mi). work in hills and increase the long distance runs by 1-2 miles/wk. i also combine 2 for the workouts (e.g. bike+run).
i’m sort of clueless because i’m a newb, i’ve only done 1 sprint+1 half IM.
Not in a training group, hired a coach for just about each of the next major (to me) steps. Pros- someone else gets to do the thinking, negatives - someone else gets to do the thinking (no typo). Only one guy will ride with me about once a month. Have plenty of friends but schedules ect.
Many have gone before you, tons of reading material out there (and here). If you have a group to bounce ideas off great. If it is truly solo, and you’ve got over a year, why not try extending everything now with no specific goal than to just see if you can do it.
If it was me, I’d just sbr as far as I could on any given day just to see what my weak points are. Where do I get sore? What did I feel like eating (soft salty sweet hard squishy)? Set up a loop that Takes you past your car with gear and food. You can go significantly farther than you think you can, in part because you’ve never tried. Go slow enough you do t get injured and be smart about the build. 6 months out do a formal build for iron. By that point u will have read lots, know your own limitors and be well into a strong journey.
It’s not rocket science. The pilgrims used to travel across the country by wagon and foot and this was only after they set sail on a boat not having a clue what America consisted of… Sbr and see where you’re at. Have fun, rest sleep repeat.
Put your long run mid week and on the weekend, two back to back long rides - might start out as 3.5 hrs/2 hrs and progress to 6/2-3. But with the long run midweek it will keep the two big, leg-fatiguing workouts separate.
Swim: far, far out from the race: vo2 max intervals and a lot of fast swimming with generous rest. Closer to it: empahsize threshold work.
Include intensity on your long rides. Also, vo2 max intervals far out from the race, moving to race pace intensity sections and ABOVE race pace during your long rides as you get closer to the race.
I’m pretty new myself, but for swim I find it beneficial to break up my long days into segments to get use to a certain tempo and speed instead of just trying to crank out continuous laps. Also, it gives me a break so I can reset and pay attention to how different my form feels when I’m a bit fresher vs. when I’m tired.
I definitely echo the benefits of a master’s class. I joined one here in Houston and it’s made all the difference.
swim - joining a masters group really helps. but you can find a variety of different workouts and sets on-line.
bike - turn your knowledge about running into the bike. do hills. do flat speed work. do intervals. really, the best biking advice anyone ever gave comes from Eddy Merckx - “Ride lots”
At work, we recently received notice about a course called “Introduction to TRIZ”. I was all excited until I learned that it’s not a course about Triathlon http://www.triz-journal.com/whatistriz.htm
i don’t know how else to meet fellow triathletes