after my first sprint tri last month, and another coming up next month, I’m going to take next year a little more seriously. I’m looking at planning a training program for the coming year, but have the winter (not much of one here in Texas) coming up, where it’ll be much more fun to train in reasonable temperatures.
I’m considering either just putting a program together from the TTB, or going with one of the online programs (Training bible looks the best option at the moment as it’s reasonably affordable, can’t believe some charge several hundred a month).
The question is when do you start a proper program, do you just do general training over the winter and then start a more structured program in the new year/spring, or does your program start in the off season and ramp up for the competition season?
I’m looking at doing sprints and oly’s next year, half iron the year after.
I train all year. At 55 it’s hard enough to stay in shape, let alone get back in shape after taking the winter off. In the fall and winter I do more weights and when the days get too dark, cold and miserable, here in Michigan, I ride the Computrainer and run on the treadmill. This summer I recorded lots of bike races on OLN TV to make the winter indoor rides more tolerable. Somehow it doesn’t seem quite as hard if you at least pretend you’re keeping up with the peloton.
I train a little bit year round, but I find it hard to motivate myself without a date circled on the calendar. Even if it’s a 5K or 10K run or a non-competitive century ride, some type of event scheduled in advance will keep me on the road.
Go buy Joe Friels’ - Triathlete Training Bible. This will walk you through setting up a training plan based on the periodization concept. It is pretty simple - define your first “A” race then back track through your Peak weeks, Build weeks, Base weeks, Prep weeks and transition weeks to get your starting point.
I just bought TTB and am working through it at the moment. Lots of good info. I was interested in what other people do.
It’s difficult for me to pin down races for next season, as I know I’m moving out of the country somewhere between christmas and summer, but won’t know where we’re going until about 6 weeks beforehand.
After the last race, I usually take between 2-4 weeks off of “structured training” and just do whatever I want, swim, run, hike, ride, ski, whatever. After that, I start the structured training again. Still crosstrain some of my cardio like go for long xc ski sessions and weight training in the winter, along with base building sport specific training. So year-round for the most part. There are online trainers that are for as little as $100/month which isn’t that unreasonable. And that definitely keeps you motivated, because you basically have to do what they say or they hunt you down with a pack dogs!