Putting this out to the group to get some ideas. I am getting ready to leave for one year to work in the Middle East and looking for recomendations on what you would do to maximize your training time.
Here are the details. I am 40 years old with over 25 years of cycling experience. I do about a 56 minute sprint, 2:1X olympic and about a 4:40 HIM. Cycling is obviously my strongest discipline, followed by running and swimming. The running and swimming can quickly change depending on which I devote more time to.
Where I am going I can swim in a 25 yard outdoor pool 7 days a week year round with the occiasonal OW ocean swim. I am a 1:35/100 yard swimmer and would be absolutely psyched if I could get down to 1:20/100. Cycling is limited to early morning weekend rides in the desert before it gets too hot so it would probably be limited to the spring/fall/winter months. I can run limited distance but the scenery sucks so most of my runs will be short efforts.
My initial thought is to focus on swimming, run short intense speed sessions, do tons of core and body-weight exercises (pull-ups and dips like crazy) to focus on strength, core, and speed. Figure I can add on the distance and endurance stuff when I get back. There may be some possibility of heading to UAE to do some of those Skins races or even Abu Dhabi.
I also have access to kick ass gym equipment - olympic weights, kettlebells, TRX, med balls, etc…
Now I’m a bit younger, so there’s certain things that may be more important for you to focus on than what I need (weights, for example), but I’d pretty much pretend I was a swimmer for 6-8 of those months and forget a bicycle exists. Run as much as you can stand after that. Lift maybe once a week just so you keep things tight and avoid muscle wasting in general. Swimming lots will cover the need for lifting anyway.
Why?
Your base for biking is enormous, and given its constrained motion, likely the easiest to “come back” after a long hiatus. Swimming on the other hand isn’t so much, nor is running.
Frequency is good–so swimming every day building to 3k+/session would be my first order of business. 21k+ per week, day in, day out. I’m not sure if you’d need a second swim session, but others might find that effective. That’ll give you plenty of time to mix up both some short/hard stuff with long/steady-state stuff and everything in-between. If running is a bore nearby given lack of scenery, I’d keep my second workout as a 30 minutes or so every day. Some days run that 30 minutes a bit harder, some days a bit easier. Use your weekend to get somewhere else for a longer run perhaps?
After about 6-8 months of this schedule, I’d swap over to running a lot more, to the point of daily doubles (swim-run bricking one of the sessions/day).
The opportunity to do Tri Dhubi is staring you in the face- seize it man!
Hell yeah. I checked the calendar and I am supposed to be there on March 1st for 12 months. I am thinking it should slide a few weeks and I can hit Tri Dubai 2013. Looks like nearly all of the events in the Middle East are in UAE. I even saw an adventure race in Oman. Looks like I might have to get creative with my travel schedule.
sentania - to answer your question what’s different - I have more time to train (no household commitments, no commute, living where I work) but constrained resources (typically can’t run longer than 3 miles - area near work site is somewhat unsafe and dangerous to run solo, cycling is similarly risky but can be done if I can get a vehicle and other riders to accompany me) and will not be able to do any racing until late 2012.
Derf - thanks for the info. That was inline with my initial thinking. I was hoping to get quality yardage focusing on speed and technique where I can even add in a second drill/technique focused workout in the evening.
I would like to know your current running capabilities in order to throw in my $.02. Have you done a stand alone 10k lately? What’s your OLY run split? I ask that because I feel that triathletes generally don’t run enough.
I would like to know your current running capabilities in order to throw in my $.02. Have you done a stand alone 10k lately? What’s your OLY run split? I ask that because I feel that triathletes generally don’t run enough.
Haven’t done a stand alone 10K in years but last race I did in October I ran 47:ish off the bike as part of a 2:20 overall time.
I would be psyched if I could get my times below 45 minutes - that combined with a modest swim improvement would put me in contention for AG wins and top overall finishes.
What do you think? Add in some short running speedwork and drill workouts?
How limited is your run distance? Are we talking a half mile loop, three mile loop, mile out and back, etc? Obviously the more distance available the better, but an Ipod can make lots of things tolerable.
I used to run every other day, but do each one of those runs hard. But now I’ve become a real big fan of the BarryP running philosophy. His stuff may already be known to many people, but it wasn’t until I read his posts here on ST did I finally understand the benefits of recovery runs and easy runs.
Now, I usually do 1 or 2 solid workouts, 1 or 2 general condition runs and 2 or 3 easy runs each week. I don’t do everything he says, but I do think that running 5-6 days per week will do wonders for your times.
How limited is your run distance? Are we talking a half mile loop, three mile loop, mile out and back, etc? Obviously the more distance available the better, but an Ipod can make lots of things tolerable.
I’ve got about a 2 mile loop with several turns. That’s about two to three Rage Against the Machine tracks per lap.
I might be a much more angry man after 12 months
