For those racing in the back part of the season, staying focused gets challenging, especially if you’ve been going at it most of the year. Here, our contributors share tips on making the most of your late season race preparation.
Kevin Purcell, D.C.
Most motivated athletes are looking for year-over-year fitness gains. Experienced vets are seeking to maintain performance standards. To accomplish these goals avoid long training breaks, injury, illness or burnout -- often closely tied with lack of appropriate recovery. I encourage athletes to drop the calendar year concept of what a “season” should be. Rather, think more fluidly about two seasons with an appropriate break after each season and perhaps a mid-season break as well. If you are a cold weather athlete one season may be slightly more successful than the other. I used to race IM New Zealand or Brazil and then Canada or Kona or Florida.
For each of your two seasons, take at least four weeks relaxed training after your IM, consider shorter mid-season breaks after HIMs or during bigger volume phases. Understand that you’ll lose fitness over those periods while the body heals and sheds fatigue. That's okay because you’ll regain and then add to your previous fitness. This rhythm or cycle is repeated with adequate rest between fitness gains. If your rest phase is shortchanged, further fitness gains will cease, you will plateau -- or worse -- you could get injured, get ill, burn out or all three. Avoiding these pitfalls is why an objective advisor for the super motivated can be so valuable.
For cold weather guys and gals you will train more indoors in one season. Look for opportunities to ride volume camps for a week in SoCal, Arizona or Florida. You might do one sport overload camps (7-10 days) of run or bike placed within your balanced schedule.
Larry Creswell, M.D. [Editor’s note: Larry is preparing for Ironman Western Australia in December]
I’ve got two strategies:
- I'm taking a 12-day break in late August/early September to recharge the batteries (both physically and mentally) before starting the final 12 weeks of training leading up to the race.
- I'm doing my best to avoid the heat stress this summer. I'm implementing all the things that our various articles have suggested (indoor training, pre-dawn training, adequate hydration, etc.) -- all in an effort to be as ready as possible for the final 12 weeks of training.
Mimi Winsberg, M.D. [Mimi is preparing for Kona]
If the late season race is your first big race, then it's important not to build too early in the winter and spring. Having another single sport focus such as nordic skiing, a spring marathon, or even trying to be a cyclist for a few months can keep the fitness high while avoiding the mental burnout of a very long season of triathlon. Training for the Boston marathon would be a fun and useful way to spend the winter/spring. I love to ski, so having a late season A race lets me have my cake and eat it too.
If the late season race is the second big race of the year, I think most people do better psychologically if they schedule some down time between seasons. Having raced Ironman Canada the last three years, I found that my summers were pretty triathlon-focused. This summer I was able to take time off to do some mountaineering and stand up paddleboard; both mentally refreshing for me.
Lastly, my feeling is that trying a different training approach can be useful for a second season build. There is a bit more wiggle room as base fitness is already well established. This offers opportunities to take some risks and experiment, either with volume, intensity or both.
Sue Aquila [Sue is preparing for Ironman Wisconsin]
Here are some of the things I recommend to “keep it together” throughout the year while preparing for a late-season race:
- Participate in fun virtual "camps" during the winter. Two week swim camps, 60 runs in 30 days, power modules on the bike.
- Put together a basement pain cave crew for winter bike training. Keep it fun and less than two hours. Use different cycling videos.
- Create an indoor winter triathlon for your training group.
- Hire a coach. Think of it as a parking brake so your fancy car doesn't plummet down the steep hill and crash
- Create a network of triathletes to rotate into your longer workouts in the late fall
- Plan family vacations to coincide with unloading periods. You don't miss training and you don't feel guilty.
- Go to a camp somewhere else. New routes and new training partners.
- Race. It breaks up the monotony of training, allows you to assess improvements and have fun.
- Be as dedicated to unloading as you are to training.
Gordo Byrn
The trap that many athletes fall into with peaking is a desire to peak multiple times in a year. In truth, you're unlikely to truly peak more than a few times in your life and you won't realize it until after the peak has past.
Keep your goal races aligned with your life as well as the climate where you live. Living in Colorado, the cycling weather peaks in July so I would choose Ironman Canada in late August. Athletes that live in hotter-then-hell climates can race very well at the end of the year, providing they follow these tips:
- Schedule a break from highly structured training. This is best placed 16-17 weeks out from your goal event
- Train base late or race short early. Start your specific preparations late; in the block 11-15 weeks out from your race, continue to do base and/or race shorter distances. This point of time can also be a good place to do a block of training focused on long-term development of a specific aspect of your single-sport fitness (1500 swim speed, half marathon run speed, high mileage running, threshold bike power).
- Manage your mojo. Specific training is mentally draining -- make sure that your most challenging sessions are in the block 3-7 weeks out from your goal race. Resist the urge to set training bests in the final three weeks.
- Manage heat stress. If you want to be fast in November then do not ride long when the heat index is 105F. Focus on what you can do (highly specific indoor work and swim blocks, mainly) and save the longer stuff for when the heat breaks.
- Be patient. Most of your competition will do too much, too early -- if you can hold back until fall then you'll be able to push when it's likely to result in performance.
Endurance Corner members can continue the discussion on the EC forum via this companion thread.
