My "Basic Week"

Triathlon Forum
1

There has been quite a bit of talk on Gordo’s message board regarding the benefits of “the basic week.” According to Hellemans, one of Gordo’s mentors, far too many folks get creative with their workouts which lead to a variety of problems including inconsistencies in training and the lack of absorbtion of the workouts because many of them are far too advanced or complicated for the athlete. “Keep it simple and do it…over…and over…and over” I suppose.

I’ve been thinking about my “basic week.” Something that I could do day in and day out considering the factors in my life such as work, S.O., spending time with family and friends.

Here is my background: I am 25, I come from a competitive swimming background, and I enjoy long walks in the rain with my g.f. Just joking. I’m also into endurance running. I’ve only done short-course triathlon races for about two years, won my age-group in my peak race last year but felt that long distance would be better suited for my body type (not an anaerobic guy). My main limiter is cycling. I have no previous experience in the area other then riding around as a kid to the pool. So yes, I’m intimidated by you guys but I’m learning alot, which is the most important thing.

Like many of you, I am Type-A. I’ve read the substantive triathlon books, have Gordo’s tips on hand and have read over and over and over. Here is my problem: At times, I find myself thinking that I am far too advanced for my own good. What others apply to their training should have no weight bearing to mine. I need to keep it simple.

I didn’t fully absorb the message when he mentioned it during my interview, but Deboom said in response to advice for IM working athletes: “When people ask for advice on training, I always say fit in what you can, but be consistent about it. Make sure it’s enjoyable too.”

Kinda like Gordo and Hellemans, eh?

So, here is my basic week. Take into consideration my background, no laughing, please. I simply want to finish my first IM with a big smile. All workouts are done in Z1, Z2/Steady State for about 6-8 weeks and readjust volume.

Monday: A.M Bike 60min, P.M. Weights (UB/LB) and Core

Tuesday: A.M Swim (2,000), P.M. Run 45min

Wed: A.M. Bike 60min, P.M. Core

Thursday: A.M. Run 1 1/2 hour

Friday: A.M. Swim (2,500), P.M. Weights (UB/Lb)

Saturday: A.M. Bike 2hr-2 1/2, P.M. Swim (EASY Stretch out 2,000)

Sunday: Run 45 min.

Would love to hear what other people’s basic week is like.

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Here you go - my basic week is the following, I have only successfully done it once this winter though…it’s tougher than it seems!

MORNING

LUNCHTIME

EVENING

Monday

Strength top or Ride

Run strides/intervals

Off/Swim easy

Tuesday

Swim Long (1h15+)

Run easy

Big gear ride

Wednesday

Ride easy or Off

Off

Strength legs + Swim easy or Off

Thursday

**Swim **

Long run (1h30+)

Off/Ride easy

Friday

Ride easy

Strength top+legs

Off

Saturday

Long Ride (2h+)

Brick run + Swim easy

Off

Sunday Rest day / other activity / Ride

Totals 2/3 strengths, 3 runs, 3/5 rides, 3-5 swims

Wednesday is a rest day. Sunday is either a rest day, or I ski (downhill) in winter.

I will start riding on Sundays when I can ride outdoors (in a couple months)

3

What others apply to their training should have no weight bearing to mine. I need to keep it simple.

→ So why are you asking what others are doing? :wink:

Here’s my quick $0.02. for starters on YOUR plan:

– 12 workouts in 7 days. You sure you can maintain
this? If you drop workouts, start w/ the UB/LB stuff. Heck, drop those anyways, and substitute w/ bike rides.
– Remember where Gordo talks about a high percentage of IM athletes always being in a state of overreaching/overtraining? Seeing your ‘off day’ (presumably Sunday) including a 45-min run made me think of that. Go for a spin instead. Better yet, take a day off! Give your body time for the training adaptations to kick in.
– If I was an swimmer who runs well, I’d focus more on biking. Any bricks planned?
– I’m assuming you’ll increase run/bike workout duration. Can’t speak to the swim.

JB

4

Hi Lorenzo, thanks for sharing.

Hi Job, dude, I KNEW someone was going to ask me that after I posted :wink: What people post will not influence the way I train, simply a matter of seeing how others structure their basic week. I’m going to take a look at the Sunday easy run-it was more of a flushing or a slow shuffle but I like the idea of an easy spin. My basic week was based around the 3xeach sport philosophy. Thoughts? Regarding bricks, I’m going to incorporate them after a few solid weeks of in-season training.

5

I’ve been doing this for the last 3 weeks, it is about 9.5 hours of training, next week will be an easy week and I will dump off 3 workouts. It will change when I get into my new training schedule for the upcomming season starting Jan 31

monday - swim 3000-3500 E2
tuesday - run 7 to 9 miles E2
wednesday swim 3000-3500 E(speed)
thursday run 5-6 tempo, ride 30 min on CT E1
friday swim 1500 at lunch E3, maybe hockey in morning
saturday swim 3000-3500 with Masters club E2-E4, run 5-6 E2
sunday run 4-5 miles short intervals, ride 60 min on CT E1-E2

There is a lack of bike workouts and that is because cycling is my strong event and I want to train my weak events now, plus the weather outside isn’t cooperating.

jaretj

6

where’s your day off? i like to schedule at least one a week. for me, i don’t have a basic week. i know i have 2 key workouts that are most important - it doesn’t matter what day i do them on just as long as i’m rested and feel ready to give my best effort. the others are just fill in the blank and usually no longer than 30 minutes. if i’m tired or unmotivated i don’t train.

7

Here is my basic week in tri season. I work out once per day between 6 am and 9 am on weekdays and between 6 am and 10-11 am on weekends.

Mon: Swim easy 30-60 min

Tue: run 90 min easy with 2-3 mile repeats on track at 10K race pace, ride to work and back (20k)

Wed: Ride 90K hard

Thu: run 90 min easy with aerobic hills, ride to work and back

Fri:Swim 30-60 min easy

Sat: run 120 min with lots of aerobic hills or rest

Sun: ride 3-5 hours or race

I can repeat this day in and day out from April 1 to Sep 30 and anything I throw on top of it is bonus

8

In building up for Ironman, my “basic week” (if you can really call it that) is really quite simplified and easily repeated:

(1) one long steady state swim, (2) one long easy run and (3) one long steady state bike or brick, normally of progressively longer distances and times. I try to repeat this week after week in building toward IM, normally starting 16 weeks out.

Everything else is filler. I try to swim 3, bike 3 and run 4 (one weekly brick, sometimes two). Currently I am building to 5 runs weekly. I think your 3 runs weekly might be a problem for your IM; frankly I think your frequency on that end should increase. I am assuming you will gradually increase the volume of your basic week as you progress towards the IM. Since you identify cycling as a limiter, you really should consider higher volume. Weak cycling can translate into a weak IM marathon, even if you are a decent runner. Hard to run on shattered legs.

Every monday is day off!

9

My time devoted to each discipline has mirrored percentage of time spent in each segment during the races.

I started following the advice of the fastest master swimmer I know who, after I hounded him with specific questions for months, said that it didn’t matter where you were on the swimming scale, daily swims, regardless of distance, were the #1 rule to follow. I have tended to follow that philosophy in all of my workouts, which are geared toward Oly distances….

Swim 6 x week- 2-3 hours/week

Run 5-6 week (try to go at lunch every day during winter) 30 miles/week

Bike 5/week (save my biggest blocks of time for bike)

I think the Hellemans you refer to must be the NZ doctor John Hellemans, who has got to be one of the best age groupers in the world. At the 2003 ITU World Championships in NZ, he won the 50-54 age group title by 9 or ten minutes. Incredible at that level. I’d listen to anything he suggests.

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I just referred your schedule to my coach, Coach Edvard Asskeichenman, and here’s what he said back, it’s sort of in broken German, I’m just passing this along, don’t get mad at me.

“Diese azlete want to partee and take a break for twice days a veeek by running avaay down to his prettee gymnasium to see diesen maiden in tight pants, when er be running for 3.5 hours, can be, outside. He’s fraidy cat of running, and is running to zee gymnasium to nein run berry berry long, to haben on a big szveeedish ball muden und lift some barbells for about 45 minutes, and vwatch dee girls and haben fans blow on him.”

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I think the problem is that it’s too straight-forward. There always has to be some gimmick to get people on board - Witness the Aitkins diet. ANY diet is reallly all about calories in and calories out. It’s really that simple, but people for some reason don’t want to hear that. It’s almost like they want complexity. The complexity gives it some form of validity even if it does not have a leg to stand on. It’s the same with training - you can make it as complex or as simple as you want. The bottom line with endurance sport performance improvement, is that the substantial long term improvements come with long term and consistant training over months and years.

Here’s my basic Week THESE DAYS - well, this was last week

Monday - Long walk with the dog

Tuesday - 45 min spin on the indoor bike trainer

Wed - one hour of skating/hockey with my son

Thursday - repeat Monday

Friday - 45 min on the trainer

Saturday - Pilates in the morning, swimming at wave pool with son in afternoon

Sunday - Off!!

Fleck

12

Hi Herschel, Sunday’s EASY run is an optional day off. The cycling keeps my running in check.

Hi Devanish, thanks for posting.

Hi RA, my IM is in Oct and ½ in late spring. I would adjust volume after 6 weeks. As you noted, I plan to focus on bike volume and getting good mileage in. Not too worried about my running.

Hi Jdubs, I would have to agree with what your friend says. I don’t lose my feel of the water as quickly as others. After taking a 3 month break, I could easily hop in and do a 2k swim hard-not the same for running or cycling though!

Hi Booth, I just laughed pretty hard :slight_smile:

13

Are you doing Great Floridian? It’s the only IM I know of in October other than Kona.

If you are doing GFT, or Kona for that matter, prepare for hills. GFT has short, but very nasty steep hills, including one bitch of a hill on the run, that really affects the participants, including the elites. I ride the course with a 12-27/39-54 so that I can spin up the steep hills. Just look at the times from the last 2 years and you’ll see that this is no easy race.

Enjoy.

Robert

14

Hi RA, I’m doing the ChespeakeMan.

15

Here is my average week as of December 1. I will incorporate some swim workouts beginning Jan 23.

Monday-6:00am Treadmill run 50-60 min. 6.75-8 mi

11:00 am Mountain run. 45 min. 6 mi

5:30 1 Hr spin stationary

Tuesday-Repeat Monday

Wednesday-11:00 am Mountain run 1:15 min 9 mi

1 Hr spin stationary

Thursday- Rest, Occ. will do a light spin

Friday- 35-45 min run

Saturday- long ride 56-75 mi

Sunday- long run every other week, 10-16 mi. Rest on Sunday when not running

16

Hi Lorenzo, thanks for sharing.

Hi Job, dude, I KNEW someone was going to ask me that after I posted :wink: What people post will not influence the way I train, simply a matter of seeing how others structure their basic week. I’m going to take a look at the Sunday easy run-it was more of a flushing or a slow shuffle but I like the idea of an easy spin. My basic week was based around the 3xeach sport philosophy. Thoughts?

  • Keep in mind what’s your limiter
  • Lose the weight training, save some core stuff if you want. It sounds much better when Booth sez it.
  • Do a designated stretching session - maybe just warm up on Sunday, then do a 45-min stretch.

FWIW, if you win your age group and put this much effort into training, consider a coach and a powermeter.

JB

17

Last week for me…and I’m new at this triathlon thing and haven’t read any books :slight_smile:

Mon AM 6.5 mile run PM 60 mins bike

Tue AM 6.5 mile run PM 60 min bike

Wed AM 6.5 mile run PM 60 min bike

Thur AM 6.5 mile run

Fri AM 6.5 mile run 45 min bike

Sat Am 8 mile run

Sun AM 60 min bike/12 mile run brick

I gotta get in the pool soon and face those demons.

18

This post definitely has to be up for “Post of the Week”. Thanks for the laugh.

D.

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Not sure if this will help you since I’m a BOP’er who just manages to complete enough training to finish a race. I’m not a type-A. I do this stuff for fun and fitness, so if I can’t fit in a workout in a busy day then it’s the first thing to go. I’d rather be happy and less stressed than finishing in the top of my AG. My workouts are scheduled simply around what I hope to accomplish each day. Also, I know that to improve I just have to swim/bike/run a bunch and I can take a good chunk of time off my PR (that’s the benefit of being BOP):

Mon: Run / weights & core
Tues: Bike / Swim
Wed: Run / weights & core
Thur: Bike / Swim
Fri: Bike (long)
Sat: Run (long)
Sun: off

D.

20

Basic week for a guy with FT job who races OD events:

Mon - AM 1 hr run, PM 1.5 hrs swim

Tues - AM 2 hr ride, PM 1.5 hrs swim

Wed - AM 1 hr swim, PM 1.5 hour run

Thurs - AM 2 hrs ride, PM 1.5 hr swim

Fri - AM 1 hr swim, PM 1 hr run

Sat - AM 1 hr swim, 3.5 hr ride

Sun - AM/PM 1.5 hr ride, 1 hr run

There’s also a floating day-off that I throw in when circumstances dictate - quite often the Sunday goes - especially if there’s a wave.