Tweak My Training Week

Triathlon Forum
1

Below is my current usual training week. I enjoy the bike the most, am a poor but slowly improving swimmer and have let the run mileage stay pretty low in season. With respect to the run mileage: 1) I race pretty often, usually a couple times a month so I get speed work in that way; 2) the low run mileage leaves more time to ride and swim; 3) with the low mileage I am still usually top 1-3 in my AG in Olympic/sprint races on the run where I am MOP in the swim; 4) I feel like at 48 I can get more fitness with less injury risk riding and swimming as long as I consistently run 3-4x a week to keep a base. That all being said, I’d be interested in thoughts on how to tweak my training to go from placing in my AG to winning. I am usually beaten by someone who outswims me, and sometimes by folks who are just better athletes in all three sports, but rarely by someone who just outruns me. Also be interested to hear how might tweak it to do some 70.3 racing by year’s end. I was thinking making the Wednesday run a longer run and then making the Thursday ride more of a recovery ride but am open to other thoughts

Monday = AM 5.5 mile run (hilly) / PM 2000 meter swim (warm up. 200-300 meters kicking with fins, main set, cool down)
Tuesday = AM 30 mile bike with intervals (4x10, 2x 20 or 30x 1’ hard/1’ ez) / PM 2000 meter swim
Wednesday = AM 5.5 mile hilly run / PM 2000-2500 meter Masters Swim
Thursday = AM 30 mile interval ride (similar to Tuesday) / PM off or 1:00 core-strength work out
Friday = AM 5.5 mile run (hilly) / off
Saturday = AM 70 mile ride (hilly) with some longer HIM paced intervals / PM 1500-2000 meter swim
Sunday = AM 40-50 mile ride (including some pace or even a 1:00 harder effort in there if I am feeling up to it) / PM either a short run (3-4 miles) or swim 2000 meters (sometimes we have a local open water swim Sunday mornings and I will do that before riding if I can make it)

thanks in advance

2

If you want to step up in distance to 70.3, then you need a long run and an easy/easier day during the week. My week kind of looks like this:
Mon: Swim
Tue: Run medium(tempo)
Wed: Bike(intervals) & Run short, PM Swim
Thu: Long Run
Fri: Swim, Run short
Sat: Bike medium & Run short
Sun: Bike long

3

You never have an easy day, this I doubt you are ever fresh enough to really push your limit.

There are times in a training plan to go sorta hard all week and there are times to go easy some days and all out others.

4

Thanks a lot for the reply. I agree with your point and that what I was really looking to tweak: being fresh enough to really push it (particularly on the bike) a few times a week to make some big gains while at the same time keeping a minimal run base to avoid injury and working steadily on my swimming weakness. Right now I am addressing that by racing a Olympic or sprint race every two weeks and lowering volume for the 48-72 hours before the race to be fresh enough to go all out at the race. So basically its like a 10 day training block, 2-3 easier days, race hard, repeat. Depending on how sore I am from the race I usually trade and easy ride for a run the day after a race to help with recovery.