Training volume for Olympic distance

Triathlon Forum
1

After searching through the posts, it seems most people on this forum focus on either the full or 70.3 distance. I want to focus on the Olympic distance this year, but when trying to build my training plan, have found the well of resources to have run somewhat dry in favor of the full/half distances.

My previous PR is a 2:40. My goal is a 2:15-2:20. I am a 27 yr old male.

My current plan for each discipline is:
Swim: Join my local masters club for 3x a week OR join a local pool sans coach and be able to swim more
Bike: 40k training plan on TrainerRoad for 3x a week PLUS one outdoor ride on Sat. morning.
Run: BarryP running plan with my long run on Sunday morning and my recovery runs following my trainer bike rides.

A couple of questions about the best way to make this happen:

Is swimming with a masters group 3x a week enough?

If I chose to swim solo, is there a swim training plan you would recommend? How many sessions/yards per week?

What is the ideal longest distance bike ride necessary?

What is an ideal total weekly volume for the run?
(A quick note: Although I typically have a solid running base, due to a crazy work schedule/wedding/honeymoon, I haven’t run more than about 10 miles per week with a longest run of 7 miles in about 3-4 months. I haven’t run at all in the past month).

Would you recommend a plan other than BarryP for training for the Olympic distance?

2

My recommendation is find a good online 70.3 plan. Typically they come in 3 flavors: 1. Low Volume 2. Mid Volume 3. High Volume. Select a low volume 70.3 plan and exceed the distance you intend to race so you’re better prepared to deal with the distances. That’s my two cents but the biggest thing to figure out is How many hours a week do I have available to me. Then you can just take the framework of these plans and scale them to fit you’re needs.

Here are a couple of resources you can look over if you haven’t already.

70.3 Plans
http://www.triradar.com/training-advice/half-ironman70-3-triathlon-training-plans/

Olympic plans
http://www.triradar.com/training-advice/olympic-distance-triathlon-training-plans/
http://gbr.garmin.com/winter-training/_downloads/triathlon/Tri-Training-Programme-12-week-Olympic-Intermediate.pdf
http://www.trinewbies.com/tno_trainingprograms/tno_18wOly.asp

3

There are Olympic people around, we just talk less :wink:

I think trainer road is adding a Oly distance tri plan in a month or so, so doing low volume sweet spot base 1-2 right now, then will do whatever they do.

How many miles do you plan to do for BarryP? I am doing 20 right now to just stay alive in the winter, but no idea either what I need. 30 mpw BarryP gives you 3 runs a week near or past race distance, which seems pretty dang good. I think a pro would say to do more intensity and less volume because the Oly race is so short… but 1 fast run day a week keeps me pretty tired.

4

there are lots of ways to get to the time you want, if you have either the potential, or history that says you can.

You didn’t say how fast you are now at any of the individual events. For example if you were a former swimmer who can pop a 20ish 1,500m then 3x per week would be fine to maintain a decent speed, certainly fast enough to get to the time you want.

However…

If you current race time is “balanced.” meaning you swim a 1,500 in say 31 min. Then no, you’ll need more to get to a 23 min swim for your time goal. The Oly is a great distance, but, it is a bit biased toward swimming. Plus to get to the time you desire, the intensity level is go, go, go.

If you post your current splits it would help.

FYI I raced Oly for years on running every other day, but almost each day was high intensity (aka track stuff). Running was my background and that kept me sharp. I travelled a lot, I could run and find a pool (which was my weakness) but riding had to be every day I could get in once I got home. Times ranged from 2:05 - 2:10 like clock work. My training program would be far from ideal for race distances longer than Oly, though it was a springboard for successful “half” distance racing - once I added volume to everything.

Enjoy the journey

5

I basically race only Olympic stuff. Am 58. Train 10-15 hours a week.

But, at your age, my answer is forget about how much you train. Focus on the more important things at your age. Family, job, friends, enjoying life.

Fit in training after you have given 100% to the above things. Took me years and years just training 6 to 8 hours a week to slowly improve.
And yes, I completed an IM on 6 to 8 hours of training.

I really improved when I did master 5x a week for many years. This would be a big help assuming you did not swim as a kid.

Plenty of time later in life when kids are gone and a job is not real high on your list.

.

6

In my opinion,
1)find your A race for 2015,
2)for the 12 weeks leading up to the race, just recognize these weeks needs to focus on very race specific workouts, such as 20min x 2 at oly race pace power, or mile x 6 @ your goal 10k off the bike pace…etc.
3). Then anytime before that 12 weeks i’d train as much as possible that your time allows, you dont need to do anything specific to race pace if you dont want to. Also, you can do high intensity work such as (20seconds hard 40 seconds easy) x 20 that isn’t particularly specific to your race pace.

7

I’m 25yo male in a similar boat. My oly PR is 2:08 on 12-15 hours per week training. I’m not a coach nor have I ever had one, but I will give you my .02 regardless:

Swimming:
Swim as much as you can. MINIMUM 4 sessions a week, 5-6 even better with each session being at least 2700 yards – the more the better. I don’t see how masters could hurt, but make sure you get your time in. I followed dan’s Tarpon plan and modified it some weeks (I hate longer sustained swims – I replaced with 100s/200s on my leave interval equalling same distance). Also, make sure you’re pushing in the pool and that you’re being honest. Swimming is not a weight-bearing activity, so it’s possible to add intensity more frequently than biking/running.

Biking:
I did the 40k TT low-volume plan. It works, there’s no doubt about that, but it will wreck you. It doesn’t seem too bad at first, but accumulated fatigue sets in, especially if you’re running a good amount, and you better listen to your body if you need an easy session in lieu of some supra-threshold sets.

Running:
Volume is king. Yeah, I ran myself into the ground over a misunderstanding of Barry P’s plan last season, but it was my own fault. I was averaging 40mpw, which was fine, but I had WAY too much intensity and it came back to hurt me.

All in all, with the times you’re putting down, I would suggest above all: more is better (within reason) and frequency/consistency trumps intensity. Slower, longer rides/runs still help you establish solid aerobic base which will pay dividends in the future. I’m not saying completely avoid intensity, it is important to add hard efforts in both riding/running, **but stay consistent. **Also, listen to your body. If you need a rest, don’t be afraid to go easy. Unmanaged/unplanned fatigue leads to unmanageable/unplanned injuries.

If you have any questions or whatever, reply or shoot me a PM – I’d be happy to help.

Also, don’t disregard the use of stretching/foam rolling/functional strength training. It helps keep injuries at bay.

ETA:

RULE TO LIVE BY:
Never run so hard one day that it prevents you from running the next. Running is such a consistency game and I’ve made gigantic gains running easy six days a week.

8

The questions I would ask are what training were you doing when you got the 2:40, and what were your splits? Without that we can’t tell how much of an increase what you’re suggesting is, or where you have the most opportunity to shave time. I’m guessing that balanced splits for the finish time you’re looking for are something like 25 min swim, 65 min bike, 45 min run, plus a few minutes transition time, so how close you are to those numbers already should drive where you focus your time. That said…

3 x Masters a week for a sustained period should get most people a pretty solid swim time. Sounds enough.

I think a long ride of 90-120 minutes is plenty enough for Olympic distance, and it’s probably not “necessary” to even go that long. Key session is doing something like a 2 x 20 min FTP session each week. Depending on your setup there may be significant savings from getting more aero as well.

Barry P plan is adaptable to any distance. With your run history recently, I’d start out by building up to 5-6 runs/week and a volume of at least 20-25 miles/week, that would give you a long run of 6-7 miles. If you have the time and have a history of running injuries, I’d take the volume higher than that. If you’re time-restricted and you can cope with speed work, then keep the mileage at that sort of level but add more intensity/speedwork.

9

The training volume to be all you can be at olympic distance triathlon is the same as the training volume to be all you can be at ironman distance racing.

Swimming - that is enough if that makes you fast enough to be happy with how fast you

Longest distance bike ride necessary - Worry less about how long your longest ride is, and more about how many hours a week you spend riding. more is more, except when more makes it impossible to run more.

ideal total weekly volume for the run - as much as you can do without injuring yourself, or making it impossible to bike a lot too

10

Wow - this blew up. Thank you to everyone for your recommendations so far. Reading through everyone’s posts, there were a lot of questions about what training I had been doing when I got my 2:40, as well as what my splits were for that event.

I don’t remember my exact training schedule when I ran my 2:40, but I think that says enough. I had run a 70.3 about 6 weeks prior but hadn’t done that much since. As a result, the swim was pretty rough. I was actually happy with my bike considering that the bike has always been my weak leg. I have always had to watch overheating on my run, and this was no exception.

My splits were 0:30:27 swim; 1:13 bike; and 0:49 run (rounded numbers).

My hesitation on the masters group stems primarily from the fact that they only offer 2 free-style workouts per week plus 1 “distance” workout. Also from the rigidity of the schedule. If I have to work late one night and want to sleep instead of hitting that 5:00 AM swim, I would like to be able to make up the swim the next evening rather than going “shucks, the pool isn’t available to me at that time.”

For the run, I am comfortable with track workouts, but will probably wait about 4 weeks in order to re-establish a base. Because BarryP’s plan pretty clearly lays out how to increase week-to-week, I am primarily curious about: (1) at what mileage to begin; and (2) at what mileage to peak and begin focusing on speed increases.

As h20fun mentioned, there are definitely other factors in my life. I have a fairly demanding job with some late night and travel requirements. I have been married for less than a month and would like to see my wife. All in all, I am looking to do between 10-14 miles per week (1.5 hr morning workouts during the week with some more on the weekend, but definitely staying under the “6 hour long ride” that sometimes seems typical around here).

11

I’m 25yo male in a similar boat. My oly PR is 2:08 on 12-15 hours per week training. I’m not a coach nor have I ever had one, but I will give you my .02 regardless:

Swimming:
Swim as much as you can. MINIMUM 4 sessions a week, 5-6 even better with each session being at least 2700 yards – the more the better. I don’t see how masters could hurt, but make sure you get your time in. I followed dan’s Tarpon plan and modified it some weeks (I hate longer sustained swims – I replaced with 100s/200s on my leave interval equalling same distance). Also, make sure you’re pushing in the pool and that you’re being honest. Swimming is not a weight-bearing activity, so it’s possible to add intensity more frequently than biking/running.

Biking:
I did the 40k TT low-volume plan. It works, there’s no doubt about that, but it will wreck you. It doesn’t seem too bad at first, but accumulated fatigue sets in, especially if you’re running a good amount, and you better listen to your body if you need an easy session in lieu of some supra-threshold sets.

Running:
Volume is king. Yeah, I ran myself into the ground over a misunderstanding of Barry P’s plan last season, but it was my own fault. I was averaging 40mpw, which was fine, but I had WAY too much intensity and it came back to hurt me.

All in all, with the times you’re putting down, I would suggest above all: more is better (within reason) and frequency/consistency trumps intensity. Slower, longer rides/runs still help you establish solid aerobic base which will pay dividends in the future. I’m not saying completely avoid intensity, it is important to add hard efforts in both riding/running, **but stay consistent. **Also, listen to your body. If you need a rest, don’t be afraid to go easy. Unmanaged/unplanned fatigue leads to unmanageable/unplanned injuries.

If you have any questions or whatever, reply or shoot me a PM – I’d be happy to help.

Also, don’t disregard the use of stretching/foam rolling/functional strength training. It helps keep injuries at bay.

ETA:

RULE TO LIVE BY:
Never run so hard one day that it prevents you from running the next. Running is such a consistency game and I’ve made gigantic gains running easy six days a week.

winner winner

12

6 hour ride is a waste of time for OLY. If your longest ride is 40 miles every other week that would do just fine. But, don’t count a ride unless you’ve got some skin in the game (i.e., no putt putt for 2 hours, might as well sleep in otherwise).

Make each workout have a goal (in all sports), and good advice was given re: the Run, never so hard that you can’t go the next day (wish I would have learned that 20 years ago).

13

I have spend many years training for Olympic and never ridden more than an hour on my trainer. I am now trying to see what doing 90 minutes per session on the trainer does. But no way do you
need long rides for Olympic. If anything, you need just 1 hour TT stuff flat out.

You need to find a masters team that wants triathletes. Find a group, get a lane, do see if you can do your own free style stuff. They usually want your money.

I will again say, if you want to be my age and not look back and wished you had spent more time with your wife, kids, job, put this sport on the back burner for 10 to 15 years.
So many get hurt your age that most are long gone when they become my age!! Or are divorced.

I did not find this sport until 39, and then started it as relays with my family. Was not until the kids were off to college that I was able to get more time.
Now I just get up at 4 am each morning, on the trainer at 5 and on my long days, done with my 1.5 hour trainer then 1.5 hour run by 8:30. Plenty of time for a life left.
I did say I am in bed at 7 each night. :frowning:

.

14

For the run, I am comfortable with track workouts, but will probably wait about 4 weeks in order to re-establish a base. Because BarryP’s plan pretty clearly lays out how to increase week-to-week, I am primarily curious about: (1) at what mileage to begin; and (2) at what mileage to peak and begin focusing on speed increases.

You have to start at what ever you are comfortable with. Err on the side of too little mileage, you can always bump it up a little faster if you are recovering really well from week to week.

If you are in couch potato mode, then getting out for 10-20 minutes a day could be a great place to start.

15

Thanks for all the very informative and useful answers. I was driving myself crazy trying to find time for three hour rides and I am only doing sprints.

16

With a 30 minute swim time, you can improve a lot going to masters three times a week. I wouldn’t worry about adding anymore. If you want to get down to sub 2:20, I think you’re bigger challenge is the run and bike, in that order. You’ve got to get that run down from 49m.

If your PR is a 2:40, I wouldn’t focus this year on getting to 2:20, make that more of a longer term goal. Maybe look at getting closer to 2:30 or specific times for each leg.