Great community hear, I’m thrilled to be apart of it!
A little backround, before I ask my question Last year I started running seriously, ran a bunch of 5ks, 10k, 1/2 marathon and was leading up a marathon. About 5 weeks before my marathon, I ran a long run, 22 miles, which lead to a really bad ITB. I tried time off, ART, roller, new shoes, orthodics. But nothing was going to get me back in time for my marathon. So, I sadly bagged my marathon.
When I was sulking to a friend one day, they suggest I try Triathon training, which would allow my knee more time to heal. Within a week I was cycling and swimming and hooked! I love the challenge of three sports, I love not doing the same thing every day.
So, to my question… How should I train to build up my base?
-Becuase of my running backround, I am in decnet shape and have a good aerbic base. Clearly my biking muscles and swimming muscles/technique are lacking. So do I focus more on cycling and swimming to try to catch up to my running skills?
-Initially I was planning to do all three sports two times a week for a couple months, to build my base.
I have been cycling about 10 times and done 15-18 miles per workout. I could go farther, bue I haven’t done more because I don’t want to overdue it (or know what overdueing it would be) I can see myself building up very quicly
I have swam three times. I’m very comfertable in the water and was even a lifeguard 13 years ago. I joined my local YMCA and already had a great practice with the local tri team where they are teaching me proper swimming technique and providing some workouts.
Sorry if I’m giving to much information. But I figured more would be better then less
So, any advice on how I should break up my weak to get my cycling and swimming base up?
It’s a very difficult question to answer because no one will really be able to figure out exactly what your weaknesses and strengths are. For example, given what you’ve told us about your swimming, you could be awesome at it, or you could suck. There’s just no way to know.
Many will give you different advice, and some will be good despite taking a different approach than others, and some will be bad. In my personal opinion, you simply need to go forward with a well balanced program for several months until you can learn more about your own fitness levels.
The very first question, in my opinion, is how much time a week are you willing to spend training. Triathlon, unlike running, is often limited more by available training time rather than recovery time. 8 hrs a week will give you a different answer than 16 hrs a week, and even then it will still largely depend on your fitness level.
I understand how it is a tough question to answer, which is why I have been unable to find any training programs online. I have found tons of training schedules for people 1)starting from scratch, or 2) for people who already have a tri base and want to train for a specfic distance. But none for my situation, coming from running.
To answer your questions…
I would like to put in 6-10 hours a week. Some harder weeks, some easier.
Swimming- I’m brand new and obviously have a lot to learn to swim with some decent technique. How fast that will be, I have no clue
You say “go forward with a well balanced program for several months until you can learn more about your own fitness levels.”. What does this mean to you?
My start in Tri’s was the same as your’s. A running injury sent me to the pool and I decided to get into tri’s from there.
Your goal should just be to get in the best shape that your training time allows. However, I firmly believe in what BarryP has been preaching here. I’ll paraphrase…“Run often, but don’t run hard too often.” I wish I listened to this advice a long time ago.
My training advice is to do your easy runs on your biking days and fit your swims in on the other days.
Truth be told, 6 hours a week isn’t a whole lot. That being said, you can certainly keep yourself fit and enjoy triathlon, but you really need to get into the 10-15hr range to really reach your potential.
That being said, 25% swim, 25% run, 50% bike as a very very generic split. Since your overall training time will not be that great, you’ll eventually want to get to the point where most of these is at a pretty high intensity. The pool and the bike you can usually get away with going pretty hard. The run you need to be a bit more cautious. Throw a lot of variety into your workouts and vary the paces.
That’s a very very generic starting place. This will get you from point A to a point where you are starting to get fit and starting to figure out how much you want to train, what kind of races you want to do, etc. Make up a plan, follow it, and make adjustments.
For those types of hours I would go intensity during the week up to an hour in each workout and then go longer and less intense on the weekends. I would say on 6 hrs a week you can effectively train for sprints and olys with a well designed plan that reduces wasted time.
I work with a couple medical interns who train with this volume and that is what they do.
Last year I started running seriously, ran a bunch of 5ks, 10k, 1/2 marathon and was leading up a marathon. About 5 weeks before my marathon, I ran a long run, 22 miles, which lead to a really bad ITB. I tried time off, ART, roller, new shoes, orthodics. But nothing was going to get me back in time for my marathon. So, I sadly bagged my marathon.