Putting It Together

Our photo this week is my daughter watching me set a personal best for push-ups (she prefers to check me out in the mirror).

I need to score 300 on my APFT so I can back off the upper body work. Greg Bennett says that my freestyle looks like I am wrestling down the lane!

Typically my fly is my only stroke that looks like it came out of the Rocky Balboa school of swim excellence...

So I've been rolling for two weeks and have a good idea on my baseline data. Before I get into my story I wanted to offer you some tips on your own training.

The EC Team have been writing a weekly column for XTri for six months now. I think you'll find a lot of good content there from each of us. We have a range of philosophies that are consistent at the core and different at the edges. Worth checking out if you get the chance.

Over the last two weeks, I completed a How-To-Manual for triathlon training. Here's how you apply what I have written:

The "game" you want to play is to maintain the quality of these key sessions while building your endurance to the point where you can handle three sessions, per sport, each week. If you can do that they you will attain the bulk of your triathlon potential.

In order to come close to your ultimate potential, you'll have to remove pretty much all the stress in your life and double the training load from there. Yes, I am implying 5-6 sessions per sport, per week plus strength training and recovery. You won't have much of a social life and will be unemployable. That description fits most the decent elites I know!

Structuring the program:

• If you want an "off" day then take the day after your key endurance day. The reason I place the key endurance day on Saturday is so this lighter day can have a family, or non-tri-life, focus. The does wonders for your long term viability in the sport.
• If some other day fits best for your Anchor Day (key day, Saturday in the above example) then simply shift the week along, keeping the workout spacing.
• You can adjust the workouts -- what I highly recommend is maintaining the spacing between the key sessions. Note that my base plan has:
  • no long gaps on swimming; and
  • no back to back key lower body sessions.

I've known a lot of people that are chronically injured/sick and/or never seem to improve. Improvement being measured in terms of body fat, race performance or life satisfaction. Take your pick... different things seem to appeal at different times in our journey.

Ironically, athletes that fall into this category are generally willing to consider anything other than resting and slowing down. Ultimately, they get to the point where it is impossible for them to consider "more" - that's when the following advice often finds an open ear.

Adding to the Plan
Here are the "rules" that I use with myself...

I can add volume, and training sessions, providing that...

• I never miss a key session. If I blow it and miss a session then I will need to pull all bonus volume from my plan. I need to earn the right to do more AND demonstrate that I can handle it by:
• ...being able to hit the main set quality for my key workouts. I keep the core volume moderate by high quality aerobic (as defined in my run article). I remember that...
• Illness, missed sessions, injury... ALL are signs that your training load is too high. I don't care what a textbook, physiology professor or advisor says. If you can't hit your five key workouts per week -- your plan is too demanding and you'll never progress to the nine workouts per week required to get the bulk of your performance ability.
• NO bonus intensity -- some of the main sets include faster work. Many athletes will lose their minds (literally) once their HR gets up. To get the most out of your plan... learn to sit inside your Steady zone, learn to descend, learn to accept the paces/powers that result. This is ESSENTIAL for effective racing because when we are under stress we will revert to our deepest patterns -- establish a pattern of self- control and personal awareness.

More important than constantly packing additional into the week... is knowing when to remove items from the week. My main role as a coach is workout removal and recovery reassurance.

The two performance enhancing techniques that are often overlooked (but very powerful):

• Consistent additional sleep -- an extra hour per day is huge.
• Trimming junk time and non-training stress -- there is athletic speed in simplicity.

Raw Reality!
Lest you think that I am some kind of Super Hero... here's a summary that Alan did of my current bike fitness.

Now I am not exactly sure how AC measures economy - he's sure to explain eventually in his blog - or, perhaps in a comment to this one!

Click to blow these charts up in a lightbox

FUEL Chart (June 09)

Strictly speaking, my VO2 zone is too wide and too low for purist VO2max training. We don't feel that the long, aerobic-focused test that we use on the bike is appropriate for calculating the top end zones (pace/power).

Those of you that understand fueling equations can now see why I am able to ride "as hard as I can" for a Half Ironman race - I'm lactate limited, rather than fuel constrained. AC believes this is due to my winter diet, which was very low in sports nutrition; very low in processed foods; and, relatively, high in good fats.

I am going to do my best to follow my own advice, as laid out in the top of this article. I'm logging on my personal training page so you can follow along. I haven't mastered the full functionality of the TP site (device agent for Mac doesn't like my PowerTap firmware). For now, the meat of the information will be found in the workout descriptions as well as my comments. These are the exact sessions that make up the Endurance Corner training engine. We take a lot of pride in these sessions - especially the swim module which is specifically designed to prepare you for open water triathlon swimming.

I have more thoughts on the mental challenges of Training Well but those can wait for another article.

No Easy Way,
gordo