So i’m coming off of my first ‘season’ here in my Triathlon life. I felt it was a great start, identified my major weaknesses and limiters and found some of my strengths. I kind of ‘molded’ into a training routine over the course of several months, and pretty much winged it based on the time I had available in my life. 12-15 hours a week was about the maximum I could sustain comfortably for tri-specific training (I still lift 3 days a week) - but what I don’t know how to do is vary my intensity. I just go all out. And over the past few months, my sleep has been suffering, BIG TIME. I am an otherwise healthy 25yo male athlete who could lose a few extra pounds (maybe 8kg off of ideal race weight).
So I am inviting ST to take a dump all over my training week. I have an A and B week that I alternate every other week. I have no concept of an off season because I am in a tropical country. My swim times suck, but my run training really needs to improve and my cycle training I can see some potential huge gains. So i’m okay as long as I don’t get worse at swimming.
I’ve decided I would like to avoid exercising in the evenings if possible, as I think that could be affecting my sleep. So this is what I have come up with to proceed with from now on, and am hoping this brings a little balance to things.
Monday(A/B)-
Weight training
Tuesday(A/B)
TRR Intermediate Base I (60min)
10km tempo run
Wednesday(A)
45 minute whatever run
Weight training
Wednesday(B)
60 minute whatever run
Weight training
Thursday(A/B)
10km tempo run
2500m swim + TRR Intermediate Base I (60min)
Friday(A)
45 minute whatever run
Weight training
Friday(B)
60 minute whatever run
Weight training
Saturday(A/B)
4000m swim
TRR Intermediate Base I (90min)
Sunday(A)
130km long ride
Sunday(B)
long run, 90-120 minutes
No need to run that hard i don’t think. I’d cut one of the runs and make one of the tempo runs an easy run and also make sure the “Whatever” runs are easy pace. You’ll have 4 easies a tempo and a long run then. Might just start to feel better. Sounds like you’re beating yourself up pretty good with a lot of hard sets
Check out BarryP’s info here for running advice and tips
Tempo once a week should suffice. As jamgam said keep the “whatever runs” at a very easy pace. Also add a day of true speed work to complement those. The video Scotttriguy linked to should help explain how that combination of mostly easy with a few very hard efforts works. In general just try to keep running consistently even if you’re not able to go for too long, 30 minutes is still a solid run. And keep decent separation between your hard/long workouts.
I would start by subtracting all the weight training. All of it. It’s not going to help you swim, bike, or run faster.
x2. You even stated that you’re trying to lose some lbs.
Pretty much agree, and I come from a weight lifting background and love hanging out at the gym. But I’m onboard with the best way to get faster is through more SBR, not gym time. I get to the gym about once a week, and avoid it completely within a couple of weeks of a race.
On the other hand, I do think that some weight training can assist in weight loss. Also, in my particular situation I’m at an age (61) where I need to worry more about muscle mass loss due to age.
I would start by subtracting all the weight training. All of it. It’s not going to help you swim, bike, or run faster.
I recently read a long term study (I think it was done in Sweden but I can’t find it now) that showed weight lifting did improve cycling by up to 15%. It did state that the training should be done in the off season.
I would start by subtracting all the weight training. All of it. It’s not going to help you swim, bike, or run faster.
I recently read a long term study (I think it was done in Sweden but I can’t find it now) that showed weight lifting did improve cycling by up to 15%. It did state that the training should be done in the off season.
This may be true, but more cycling will improve cycling by up to 1000%, and surely more than 15%. And since this is triathlon and there are 3 sports, weight training is almost always time better spent actually practicing a sport you are trying to improve.
I would start by subtracting all the weight training. All of it. It’s not going to help you swim, bike, or run faster.
I recently read a long term study (I think it was done in Sweden but I can’t find it now) that showed weight lifting did improve cycling by up to 15%. It did state that the training should be done in the off season.
This may be true, but more cycling will improve cycling by up to 1000%, and surely more than 15%. And since this is triathlon and there are 3 sports, weight training is almost always time better spent actually practicing a sport you are trying to improve.
Please share the program which does that!! I don’t recall reading any rules that state it has to be “either…or”. I’m not advocating replacing riding with lifting. Only pointing out that all the rhetoric saying lifting doesn’t help is not true.
Switch swimming for the weight training workouts and maybe your swimming will suck less. I also seem to sleep well after an evening swim, not the case with running or cycling.
You need to think of a weekly schedule in terms of recovery, and making your key sessions count. What are key session? I consider you long bike and long run key session… and high risk & high fatigue. They have the biggest impact on you weekly training load. You goal is to get in the most work in a week within the time you have available. Couple things hurt that goal:
Long bike & run on the same day. While there is a potential benefit, I see it as too much risk and the quality on one or the other will be compromised. Spread them out by 1 day or if you can by 3 days.\
Weight training almost every day? Really? Are you a triathlete or a body builder? Pick one. 2-3 days a week plus maybe a 4th day of core work is plenty of endurance sport focused strength training to create useful adaptation without impacting you overall training load in terms of time or recovery.
Too little cycling. 1-2 80-90 minute sessions on top of your long run are key to building bike fitness. Unless you can’t find a block of time that big during the week.
Is this you schedule every week? How often do you take a recovery week? Do you increase progressively? By duration? Training load? How are you measuring training load? Distance and time are not always accurate. A higher intensity 18 hour build week week can have as much training load as a 24 hour base week . What type of prioritization are you following?
Weight training will not make you swim significantly faster. Focused strength training has benefits, but they are NOT low hanging fruit type items. Especially if you have poor technique. To improve technique, you need to swim more and/or get coached in some manner.
Let me put it this way. If you only swimming 2x a week and weight training 5x a week… well… it should be pretty clear what your priority is as a triathlete. It’s not swimming faster. I ramp up to 14-20k yards per week swimming 6-7 times a week this winter, I still feel like that’s pretty minimal to see significant improvement in that discipline.
You need to think of a weekly schedule in terms of recovery, and making your key sessions count. What are key session? I consider you long bike and long run key session… and high risk & high fatigue. They have the biggest impact on you weekly training load. You goal is to get in the most work in a week within the time you have available. Couple things hurt that goal:
Long bike & run on the same day. While there is a potential benefit, I see it as too much risk and the quality on one or the other will be compromised. Spread them out by 1 day or if you can by 3 days.\
Weight training almost every day? Really? Are you a triathlete or a body builder? Pick one. 2-3 days a week plus maybe a 4th day of core work is plenty of endurance sport focused strength training to create useful adaptation without impacting you overall training load in terms of time or recovery.
Too little cycling. 1-2 80-90 minute sessions on top of your long run are key to building bike fitness. Unless you can’t find a block of time that big during the week.
Is this you schedule every week? How often do you take a recovery week? Do you increase progressively? By duration? Training load? How are you measuring training load? Distance and time are not always accurate. A higher intensity 18 hour build week week can have as much training load as a 24 hour base week . What type of prioritization are you following?
Thanks for all of the input guys. I am on a different time zone as you all so I saw the replies all this morning. I am really trying to focus on my run a lot more as the spread between my stand-alone half and tri-half is about 12-15 minutes. I increase my tempo speed every week or every other week depending on how I am feeling about it. My whatever runs I was going to do some sprints, and maybe a few minutes alternating at different paces here and there.
I’m going to look into all the other suggestions also, currently I am in the middle of reading Racing Weight and also Matt’s book on the Well Built Triathlete.
Currently, I have no rest weeks or de-load weeks.
Previously, I would basically just go as hard as I could in all the sessions I had; but I realize this is not a good idea and had a feeling the crash and burn point was nearing.
To clarify a little better, I do weight training 3 days a week, during my lunch break at work. The only thing I could really replace this with is more running. To simplify a bit;
Week A -
Weight - x3
Swim x2
Cycling x3 (TrainerRoad 60min-60min-90min)
Run x5 (incld long run)
Week B -
Weight - x3
Swim x2
Cycling x4 (TrainerRoad 60min-60min-90min + outdoor long ride ~ 130km)
Run x4 (no long run)
I don’t recall reading any rules that state it has to be “either…or”. I’m not advocating replacing riding with lifting. Only pointing out that all the rhetoric saying lifting doesn’t help is not true.