12 Days A Week
I've completed my initial "break-in" training and things seem to be going well. I'm starting to settle into the routine. I think I'm now managing to get my food on track. My backside is toughening up on the saddle and I'm starting to feel a bit of balance in the pool. It's now time to work into a more structured plan.
Obviously I'm at different stages in each discipline. Currently running is by far my strength, so I'll maintain a balanced approach with that. My specific strength and endurance on the bike is not yet up to a standard where I'll be capable of performing extensive anaerobic threshold (AT) or VO2max sessions without undue recovery needs and risk of injury. Instead I'll include sets targeted at developing the necessary strength across intensity levels. I'll take a conservative, but progressive approach to swimming, and just gently build on the last two weeks. Importantly I have to ensure that I can absorb all this training properly. Since some of these stressors will be new to the body, I will require a reasonable amount of recovery.
To achieve all the above, each week I'll need to include a long run, a couple of long rides and aerobic swims, 2 or 3 weights sessions, a strength session on the bike, some faster swimming, AT and VO2 running sets, some technique work and of course recovery time. Looks like I need a longer week. One advantage of doing rotational shift work is I left the mentality of living within a seven day week a long time ago. Seven days is just an arbitrary time frame used because it fits into most people's work schedules, it doesn't mean it's the best time frame for the body to adapt to training.
My solution for the next round of training is to follow a 12 day cycle as follows:
Obviously I'm at different stages in each discipline. Currently running is by far my strength, so I'll maintain a balanced approach with that. My specific strength and endurance on the bike is not yet up to a standard where I'll be capable of performing extensive anaerobic threshold (AT) or VO2max sessions without undue recovery needs and risk of injury. Instead I'll include sets targeted at developing the necessary strength across intensity levels. I'll take a conservative, but progressive approach to swimming, and just gently build on the last two weeks. Importantly I have to ensure that I can absorb all this training properly. Since some of these stressors will be new to the body, I will require a reasonable amount of recovery.
To achieve all the above, each week I'll need to include a long run, a couple of long rides and aerobic swims, 2 or 3 weights sessions, a strength session on the bike, some faster swimming, AT and VO2 running sets, some technique work and of course recovery time. Looks like I need a longer week. One advantage of doing rotational shift work is I left the mentality of living within a seven day week a long time ago. Seven days is just an arbitrary time frame used because it fits into most people's work schedules, it doesn't mean it's the best time frame for the body to adapt to training.
My solution for the next round of training is to follow a 12 day cycle as follows:
- Bike Long, Swim Long
- Bike-Run technique, Swim
- Run Long, Weights
- recovery
- Swim
- Bike strength, Weights
- Run AT, Swim Long
- Bike Long
- Run-Bike technique, Swim
- Run VO2
- Weights
- recovery
The long continuous swim will progress from 800-1600m, long ride 2-3 hours and run towards 3 hours. Recovery days will be whatever I feel like doing as long as it is easy. This provides a long ride and a longer swim every six days, while my long run will be every 12 days. It looks good on paper, but lets see how it works in the real world.
"Fact of the matter is, there is no hip world, there is no straight world. There's a world, you see, which has people in it who believe in a variety of different things. Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, use that something to support their own existence." - Frank Zappa
that is a good point - i always feel like i have to work in a 7 day cycle - but other than when certain sessions that I attend are on, there is probably no real reason! interesting food for thought... thank you!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good basic cycle. It gives you the freedom to include one or two recovery days, as you did, and that's very difficult if you're working with a 7 day cycle.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the 7 day cycle works for me because I know Tuesday is my long run, Saturday my long ride, etc... It sort of makes everything easier to plan.
Goes to show, Ironman training is all about finding out what's right for you!
Train smart!