In the second of his 3 part Ironman Training Programme article, Mike looks at how his athlete Carl Holland will divide his training week across the three disciplines.
Since Carl has limited time available due to his work and family commitments, I will need to take this into account, as well as looking at his current fitness and his past sporting achievements.
As an ex swimmer, I shall keep his swimming to a minimum and concentrate on the run and bike. To make the training more time efficient I shall give him some hill hopping and seated hill reps on the bike. This is efficient as it replaces the gym work. In an ideal world it would have been great to integrate some weights, but often as age groupers we have to set priorities and make some compromises.
When Carl gets through his base training, he should be fitter, leaner stronger, more efficient, and so in theory will be able to tackle his distance work at a higher pace than he expects, this will then mean that his speed work will also be able to start off at a faster pace than usual, which will hopefully lead to a faster race time.
I have only included 2 swims a week at this time. This is enough for one drill session and an interval session. This will not take his swimming forward but will stop it from deteriorating and allow Carl to concentrate on his weaker two disciplines. Think about how long each leg will take in the IM race? Over 90% of carls race, will be on the bike or running. (1hr swim and 10hours for the bike and run combined).
With this in mind I want Carl doing 3 bike sessions and 4 runs in this base period. I shall put more emphasis on the bike in spring when the days are longer and the weather is slightly better.
The runs are:
- Hill strides/hill hopping, to develop stride length and strength. The number of reps will gradually increase
- Steady run including strides, for leg speed/ leg cadence
- Track session: this is well documented in my previous blog and will progress over the weeks
- Time trial, X-C race or fun run.
The bike rides will be:
- Indoor Turbo cadence work trying to maintain cadence of 100 plus for riding economy
- Indoor Turbo, big gear work, to build up strength and power output. Power output will be pushed up gradually, over the weeks
- Easy ride 2-4 hours ( the exact length will depend on time commitments, fatigue and of course the great British weather
Carl’s Week at a glance
Day One RUN : Hill reps with hopping
Day Two SWIM: Easy swim Stroke work BIKE: Big Gear Work, (low cadence around 65-75)
Day Three RUN: Easy run with 6×75m strides
Day Four RUN : Track session
Day Five SWIM: Intervals BIKE: High Cadence work (100+)
Day Six RUN: Time Trial or Race
Day Seven BIKE: Easy Ride 2-4 hours
Next time I shall go into more depth about the training, so that Carl can understand why I have given him each session.