I know most people stack up their training on the weekends. Curious what some monster weekend training regimens are?
Friday: 90 minute (5300yd) swim, 45min-1hr easy aerobic ride
Saturday: 6hr ride, 40min run
Sunday: 2.5hr ride, 2.25 hour run
Thats about it for me, I am not very hard core tho. Although, next week, I get 10 straight days off, I plan on getting 40 hours of training in that 10 day period…not including a 200k brevet ride(with 7,000 feet climbing) as my major ride before IMAZ.
A perfect weekend for me will be 60 min run, 112 mike bike, 60min run on saturday. repeat on sunday. i’ll probably hit that weekend only a few times leading up to my scheduled ironman in november. for now, i’m trying to build up to on sat (30 min run, 56 mi bike, 30 min) x 2, once in the a.m, once in the p.m. and then repeat that day on sunday.
wow. not sure what type of results you get, but I’d like to see the results off this type of training. What have you seen so far?
IMAZ in April?
have you done that type of volume before to know what your recovery will be like? not trying to discourage as I’ve done big blocks like that myself, but that seems kind of close to IMAZ. Are you planning to do it all at low/moderate intensity?
For me, a weekend often looks like this:
Friday
90min ride, followed by a 45-60min trans run, then an intense 3000m swim
Saturday
Long ride (4-6 hours) with a short trans run (30min) and a short, ez swim with lots of drills
Sunday
Hard ride (2.5-4 hours) with a Tempo trans run (60-90min), then a good nap followed by a masters swim workout in the evening.
I try to avoid stacking my training on the weekends, although it doesn’t mean I still don’t do big weekends. A common routine is:
Friday: AM/2 hour intensity ride w/30-45 transition run. Afternoon: 2.4 mile swim
Saturday: 100-112 bike w/30-45 minute run
Sunday: 2-2.5 hour run.
Last weekend, I mixed it up a bit and did:
Friday: 1 hour interval bike/1 hour run; PM: 45 minute swim
Saturday: 2.5 hour steady bike/15 mile run; PM: 30 minute swim
Sunday: 4.5 hour ride (with a 45 min. TT race in the middle)/15 mile run
It was a really good way to learn how to run on fatigued legs. The second 15 miler felt a whole lot like the last 15 of the IM mary.
I also like to do back-to-back-to-back 100+ mile rides if I can manage the time (which is only about one weekend per year). Each with a transition run
Wow these are some pretty huge weekends…
We’re seeing #'s in the 12 in 3 days, 14 (assuming a 5 hour flat 112) for 2 days, 15 in 3… etc…
My questions would be:
What does your next week look like?
What kinds of times are you turning in for HIM and IM?
Has your SO disowned you yet?
Have you been fired from your job for sleeping at your desk yet?
…and lastly: what kinds of hours do you average for an entire week throughout the year?
Not necessarily a monster weekend but this past Saturday I did 5:30hrs on the trainer followed by 1hour run. From a mental standpoint is was a monster session. Thank god for NCAA basketball and online gambling.
I was thinking the same thing these are some huge # 5hrs on the trainer preety impressive I can only muster up 2 maybe 2.5 before I want to slam my head into the wall…
“Thank god for…online gambling” Were you playing poker or something on the computer??
No, I would put money on the basketball games that I was watching so that it would make them more interesting and pass the time while I was riding.
I think this is an excellent question. This should probably be included with about 75% of the questions asked on ST. I would like to know what kind of race results some of these people are getting.
Heyyyy look at all the single guys with no kids!!!
Heyyyy look at all the single guys with no kids!!!
…and they all work only 4 days a week! Bastards!!!
Oops. This was the question. "What kinds of times are you turning in for HIM and IM? "
FWIW…and I don’t know if I’d include myself in the big volume bunch…
My year-round average is ~11-12 hours per week. Over the last 5 years, I’ve done 7 IM’s (with #8 in April, and 9 in June) so that has helped to keep my schedule fairly constant, and fairly consistent so far as periods of total recovery (at least 4-8 weeks per year of zero/<5hours of volume) and big builds are concerned. Looking at my ‘official’ IM prep period of 12 weeks before the race, the weekly average jumps to 18 hours per week. That number gets further skewed by periods of 3-5 weeks where I’ll really ramp up the volume (four of the last five weeks, for example, were between 23 and 27 hours). The easy way to say it is that I’ve been in a constant cycle of ramping up to big volume, then tapering down to a race, then going into total recovery, and then starting the process over again. And, when I start the process over again, I start with very small volume. I would also note, that by a long-shot my training for the next IM is the most I’ve done over that span of big weeks.
next weeks? I’ve found that doing one big week/end of training doesn’t really do much for me. So, I like to stack them up in 2-3 week cycles. However, I’ll try and alternate the big volume between bike and run so that I’m not doing huge weeks in both at the same time. Although, I have done it - the fatigue and recovery is too great, considering I have a normal life I have to juggle as well.
times? I don’t have any recent HIM times as I only did World’s Toughest in my 2nd year of tri, and I hadn’t yet gotten into bigger volume training. As far as IM, I’m still not ‘fast’ like a lot of others on this board, but I have taken my time down from an 11:57 to 10:27. I am shooting for sub 10 at IMAZ next month. People come into this sport from different starting points, so different levels of effort are required to get to certain performance targets…at least, that is what I tell myself
SO is very supportive as we both make sacrifices to accomodate my tri training, and her running. I tend to workout very early and at lunch time, or when kids have activities in the evening that don’t require my involvement/being there. Of course, it’s never fully balanced.
Nope. I actually find that the more training I fit into the day - the more organized I am at work. Plus, you adjust to the sleep schedule required to make it work.
Finally - doing big volume training doesn’t always have to be for the express purpose of getting faster - sometimes, it can be for the simple reason of enjoying biking and running long distances day after day.
Generally my last big weekend prior to IM is as follows:
Friday - 3000m swim, 60 min run
Saturday - 180k bike, 21k run in Lake Placid off bike, much later in day 2000m swim
Sunday - 90k bike (reverse loop at LP) 60 min run, 4000m swim
I am generally baked and ready to head into taper for the race. This is done normally on the July long weekend so tends to be either 3 or 4 weeks out from the race.
Saturday:
Front End Brick
4 x 800 yd swim
4 hour ride (IM race pace)
Sunday:
Back End Brick
3 hour ride
17 mile run
Monday. Turn the legs and complain that they hurt. IMAZ. Hurry the hell up and get here!!! Damn you!!!
“Finally - doing big volume training doesn’t always have to be for the express purpose of getting faster - sometimes, it can be for the simple reason of enjoying biking and running long distances day after day.”
You read my mind. I was just going to make a post to explain that some folks (myself included) truly enjoy going out and training for the enjoyment and new challenge of it all - race results may be a secondary thought. In fact, a lot of what I do will not help me set PRs but that’s okay…I just get off by seeing what I can do.