Carl Holland, a physiotherapist from the Drummond Clinic, has asked for help in his training leading up to the Lanzarote Ironman (IM) in May. I shall use him as an example of how to build up the training plan, and he will keep a blog on his progression, so you can follow the reality of it. At the end of this week there will be 23 weeks to go until race day.
Below, in list format is brief summary of Carl’s overall training plan. It is important that he knows what he will be facing in each phase of the training
To build up a training schedule it is necessary to work backwards from race day.
Week 23 LANZAROTE IM Race week – This will be travel, recovery and preparation. More detailed information will be offered much nearer the big day
Week 19-22 Taper- For IM, I use a long taper of 3 weeks ( 1 month if you include the final race week)
The main point of an extended taper is because you need to rest up before the big day. There is no point in devoting months of your life to training and then under performing on race day because you are too tired !
Week 15-19 Speedwork: Carl will need 4 weeks of speedwork to get back his race legs after his distance training. ( 3 weeks is the shortest time someone can train and benefit from a physiological change. I have added one extra week for safety. 6 weeks would have been ideal, but as there are only 23 weeks left to race day we don’t have that time spare.
Week 14 Recovery weekWeek 8-14 LSD training LSD is a crucial part of any IM training programme. Carl will have 6 weeks, split into to two periods of three weeks, building the distance and time spent training in weeks 1-3 and 4-6.
Week 7 Recovery week
Week 1-7 Base Training. There will be 7 weeks for base training…which you may have realised by now is not lots of LSD training ,as some triathletes mistakenly think, but instead it is strength building to lay down the foundations for the distance work and speed work to follow.
If I can get Carl to build up his muscular strength, core stability and work on his form he will go into the following phases with his body, acting like a well oiled machine, if not it will be like trying to fine tune an engine that sits in a rusted shell of a car.