|
Carl Holland, a physiotherapist from
the Drummond Clinic, asked for help in his training
leading up to the Lanzarote Ironman (IM) in May
2010. I decided to use him as an example of how
you can build up your own training plan. Carl will
keep a blog on his progression, so you can follow
the reality of it. At the end of the first week
there will be 23 weeks to go until race day.
Below, in list format is brief summary of the
overall training plan. It is important that the
athlete knows what he or she 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 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 Speed work
You will need 4 weeks of speed work to get back
your race legs after 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 week
Week 8-14 LSD training
LSD is a crucial part of any IM training programme.
Carl, my coached athlete 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.
Weeks At-A-Glance
My athlete Carl, like many of you has limited
time available due to 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.
Carl is an ex swimmer, therefore 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 you get through base training, you should
be fitter, leaner stronger, more efficient, and
so in theory will be able to tackle distance work
at a higher pace than you expect, this will then
mean that your speed work will also be able to
start off at a faster pace than usual, which will
hopefully lead to a faster race time.
In Carl's plan 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
Carl's 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
1.Hill strides/hill hopping, to develop stride
length and strength. The number of reps will gradually
increase
2.Steady run including strides, for leg speed/
leg cadence
3.Track session: this is well documented in my
previous blog and will progress over the weeks
4.Time trial, X-C race or fun run.
The Bike Rides
1.Indoor Turbo cadence work trying to maintain
cadence of 100 plus for riding economy
2.Indoor Turbo, big gear work, to build up strength
and power output. Power output will be pushed
up gradually, over the weeks
3.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
Sessions in Detail
Over the Christmas period I have noticed two types
of triathlete appear. Some use every spare minute
including Christmas Day and New Year's Day to
maximise their training...and the others use these
great opportunities as an excuse to do nothing!
Over the festive period get out and try some of
these sessions, it will turn up the metabolism
and allow you to indulge yourself in more of those
naughty but tasty Christmas foods...anyway this
is what Carl will be wading through this the festive
season.
Hill Reps
You need a hill that takes about 3 minutes to
run up, on gradient of 6-10%. You should just
be able to jog back in 3 minutes. If you cannot
get back to the start in time, you have run up
the hill too fast, or the hill is not steep enough.
Start at 3 repetitions and add on one per week
up to 6 reps then maintain until end of period.
Also before starting include some hopping. 4 sets
of 5 hops left leg and 5 hops right leg twice
through. Concentrate on contact with the ground
and your drive phase...remember, land- lever-
lift. To do the hopping correctly, land on the
midfoot. It is actually impossible to land on
the heal when hopping uphill. I would recommend
never hopping on flat ground as it puts too much
stress on your knees, always uphill hopping. Next
you must Lever, ensure you get your centre of
gravity over the front of the shoe and then drive
forward and lift off the ground again (read
more about one legged hill running here).
Easy Run with Strides
This is a recovery run, but instead of wasting
time I have added in some strides to help develop
leg cadence. So long as the sprints are downhill
or on the flat, always with the wind, and there
is a long recovery period between each 75m wind
assisted stride, you should not build up lactic
acid. This is because the muscles will use stored
ATP energy. My athletes always feel much fresher
after this session than if they took the day off
completely.
Track Session
For details on track sessions, see my blog. Even
IM athletes should spend one period of their base
training on the track, to ensure they do not develop
the IM shuffle! However I will allow them to run
the intervals slightly slower than my Olympic
distance athletes, as the IM guys are just putting
in the ground work in for some much longer intervals
later on.
Time Trial or Race
It is good to do a steady run at your aerobic
threshold to help develop your efficiency, it
is also good to keep a hand in at some sort of
racing so that it is not such a big shock to the
system when IM comes around, due to the nature
of the beast, you can only really do one or two
IM races a year, so it is important do a race
of some type from time to time.
On the Bike
As it is currently the middle of winter, I keep
cycling down to a minimum. It can be sole destroying
having to do long slow rides on cold, damp and
windy winter days.
The focus of cycling in this base period is on
building up power, via Low Cadence training high
resistance cycling. It is ok to do this indoors.
This training can be as simple as 6 x 5 minutes
pushing a big gear at about 65-75 cadence. Hold
the biggest gear you can, while maintaining cadence.
As you get stronger gradually push a bigger gear
rather than increasing cadence. I tend to take
about 3mins easy spinning between reps.
The other key session, is in contrast, and could
actually be classified as an easy ride. I vary
the sessions but the objective is to do easy intervals
with little resistance to allow me to keep my
cadence between 90 and 120. This really helps
you concentrate on cycling efficiency; again I
would do it indoors this time of year!
In the Pool
As Carl has a strong swimming background, the
aim is to stop him making the fundamental error
of concentring on his stronger discipline. One
drill session and one interval session will get
him through this phase. If he had been a strong
runner I would have dropped that down to 2 run
sessions a week and would have focussed on the
swim.
I have shown how to build up a programme from
race day and work backwards in time. I have also
shown how to take it from the macro scale down
to the micro scale. It is important to know where
and why everything fits into the system.
However it is important to stress that this is
the frame work, and from it we will inevitably
deviate, when the real world comes into play...Injuries
and sickness may happen. Work and family pressure
may causes sessions to be cancelled or altered...but
the key thing is that Carl can now see where he
is heading and will soon be able to get back on
track if he misses some sessions.
Why not go beyond the article and have us train
you 1-to-1 to meet and exceed your running and
triathlon goals - contact
us.
|
