This will wrap up our keep it simple series of posts, another one of our Ashworth Awards Thursday blogs. We'll switch to another topic in a couple of weeks...suggestions are welcome!
Lather, Rinse, Repeat...
We coach athletes, and enjoy it, but there is a lot of missing the forest for the trees going on in training today. There is no quick fix or magic bullet. It’s easy to read a pros blog and see what they are doing and try to copy it. Pick up the latest issue of any tri- or run- mag out there and find ‘3-steps to your best 5k’ or ‘6-weeks to an Ironman’ and follow that. You can also buy any one of the myriad of books out there and read up on training theory and setting up a schedule...or you can borrow ours.
Spend a bit of your time laying out your entire season. Plan a schedule and commit to it. Barring injury or other emergency stick to it without to many additions or subtractions. If you spend more time worrying about how many of what type of interval you should do than just getting out there and doing something every day, you are missing the forest for the trees.
So, particularly if you are a new triathlete, take a little bit of time to plan out your races for next season. Then, take a look at your non-triathlon related activities and fit in your workouts around those. Find a general week that you can repeat for 40 weeks of the year and DO IT. Wake up on Monday and Friday morning and swim just like you did last week. Tuesday and Thursday morning get up and run and do a gym workout in the evening. Do a solid weekday ride on Wednesday. Keep your really long stuff for the weekends.
DO get up and work out. DO repeat your daily schedule week in and week out changing up the type of workout you do every 4-6 weeks. Monotony in training can lead towards over reaching/training, so after 3-5 weeks of solid training cut back on the intensity and then switch the focus for the next 3-5 weeks. If you feel better on some days than others, go a little farther or a little faster. The further away from your key race you are, the less specific to that race the training needs to be. Once you’ve seen how far you can go like this and feel like you need more, seek out a qualified coach and get them to help you with the finer points of the sport.
Consistency pays off big time. Repeating a basic week for 40 weeks of the year except for race weeks, holiday weeks, and vacations will likely take you a long way.