Triathlon Blog

For most athletes, training time during the week is relatively finite, while the weekends are more flexible. Most athletes can fit an hour a day during the week, but things get very hairy at two to three hours.
Because of this simple fact, your training schedule should be based completely on the hours you have available to train, not necessarily on the number of hours you “need” to train. Question: “How many hours a week should I train to finish an Ironman?” Answer: “How many hours do you have available to train?”

I use three tools to manage the training schedules of my athletes:
1. Focus on “Training Events” rather than on “Training Hours.”
Most experts agree that to finish an Ironman, you need to have accomplished the following at least ONCE before race day: 4km swim, 6 hour bike, 2.5 to 3 hour run and 6+ hour brick. Therefore, rather than focusing on weekly hours, focus on a sensible progression of smaller “events” that lead to the successful completion of these larger EVENTS at least one time before race day. I call these larger training events “Training Milestones,” or events that we must accomplish in route to a successful race.
A less experienced triathlete may take six to eight months to work up to these Training Milestones. His focus should be on just completing these training events once. A more experience triathlete may be able to complete several of these events before race day, the first within four to eight weeks of starting his training. In this case, he can complete these training events more often and can even include training that develops more advanced athletic abilities.
2. Break the training week into “Work Week Hours” and “Weekend Hours.”
A typical working athlete might have four to ten Work-Week Hours, and three to nine Weekend Hours. Let’s take the work-week. You begin with an hour each day. You eventually work this up to two hours per day, which is all your personal schedule will allow. From this point forward your work-week hours will flex very little. What will change, however, is the character of your Thursday bike. For example, in January this might be an easy spin. In February it might be climbing; in March, tempo. Regardless of the week, month, or training period the volume of the ride is two hours, only the character changes.
3. Prioritize your weekly workouts.
“A” Priority workouts are your long weekend events. Again, these follow a sensible progression toward the successful accomplishment of your Training Milestones. You should do everything you can to hit these workouts every week. “B” Priority workouts are weekday Break Through (BT) sessions. The character of these sessions reflect the focus of each particular training phase. Do everything you can to hit these workouts. “C” Priority workouts are other stuff: base building, recovery or strength workouts. If something needs to slide or be skipped altogether, these go first.
When you apply these tools to your training week, the following occurs:

• The majority of your weekly volume changes occur as you flex your Weekend Hours, progressing toward the successful accomplishment of your Training Milestones.
• Your Work Week Hours stabilize at the level dictated by your personal schedule. The character of these hours changes from cycle to cycle and reflects the focus of each particular training phase.
•  Prioritizing your workouts ensures accomplish the most important sessions.
• Most importantly, this tool reduces the risk of putting in junk miles caused by feeling compelled to hit the weekly volume numbers in a training plan. Remember, it’s just a number on a spreadsheet. Focus on your Training Milestones and priority workouts, and let the hours just happen.

In summary:
1. Throw out (sort of) your weekly hour “goals.”
4. Build your Work Week Hours to a level that works with your personal schedule, given the requirements of work, family and recovery.
5. Keep your Work Week Hours at this level, with the exception of recovery weeks.
6. Focus on a progression of Weekend Hours that leads you to successful completion of your Training Milestones. The more times you can complete these key events, gravy.
7. Prioritize your workouts, so that you can make good decisions when Murphy comes knocking.
8. If your weekly training hours are very limited, start your training plan far enough out from race day so that you can hit your key events more than once.

<em>Rich Strauss is the founder and head coach of Crucible Fitness. He is a Joe Friel Ultrafit Associate, USAT Level I certified, a former Marine officer and the founder of the Pasadena Triathlon Club. Since 2001 Rich has specialized in training, coaching and racing the Ironman distance, having coached hundreds Ironman finishers and delivered pre-race talks to over 400 athletes at IMNA races. Rich offers affordable Half and Full Ironman training plans, and specializes in coaching athletes with a powermeter.

We’re about to start a new training season: time for season goals, training objectives, annual training plans and spreadsheets. For years I’ve used the principles of money and investing to explain a few critical training concepts.

As investors, we invest our money where it will yield the highest rate of return with the lowest risk. The same is true for endurance athletes. Our currency is training time and intensity. We only have so much time to train and our bodies can handle only so much intensity. Efficient endurance training is about the application of these scarce resources to activities yielding the greatest return of increased athletic performance. At the same time, we seek to minimize our risk of injury and overtraining.

The following ideas are the foundation of my coaching method. You can in turn use these concepts as a self-coached athlete:

Attach a final goal to your race season, or a desired end state to your personal fitness. Then for each training period, create goals and objectives that support the successful accomplishment of your seasonal goals. Consolidating our strengths and focusing our on limiters ensures we apply our currency to activities yielding the highest rate of return. When making training decisions within this subset of high return activities, ask yourself “What is the lowest volume, lowest intensity, and lowest risk activity that will yield the greatest return on my investment?”

Within each training period, schedule Break Through (BT) workouts that support the successful accomplishment of your training period goals and objectives. For each BT workout, ask yourself three questions:

What is the purpose of this workout and how does it support the objectives of the training period? If you can not answer this question, seriously consider whether or not the session is appropriate.

What is the “recovery cost” of the workout? I define recovery cost as training volume plus intensity. When you complete a workout, you have invested time and intensity, creating the potential for increased performance. You realize the return on your investment only after you have paid for the recovery cost of the workout. Minimize recovery costs in the first place by selecting workouts with the appropriate investment (time and intensity) and risk. If the purpose of the workout is sound but the cost is too high, modify the training variables to reduce the recovery cost. Help your body recover by practicing good recovery strategies: pre- and post-workout nutrition, stretching, sleep, etc. Remember, training without recovery is simply organized trauma.

How does the recovery cost of this workout affect the successful accomplishment of subsequent BT sessions? If the purpose and recovery cost of the two BT sessions are sound, increase the time interval between sessions to “pay for” the recovery costs of the workout. When you complete a training session you have essentially written a check and asked your body to cash it. Give yourself time to make a deposit and avoid NSF penalties.

Focus on scheduling effective BT workouts, per the guidance above. Schedule sensible, base building sessions around these BT workouts, per the limitations of your personal life. Overall training volume is then the result of effective, sensible scheduling, NOT the objective of your training. Never equate fatigue with effective training.

Increase your rate of return by making a plan for the “small details” of proper nutrition, flexibility, strength training and endurance training knowledge.

Above all else, your level of planning and implementation should reflect your athletic goals, desired lifestyle, and personal value system. A realistic, 80% plan executed with conviction and consistency is much better than an unrealistic, 100% plan poorly executed.

<em>Rich Strauss is the founder and head coach of Crucible Fitness. He is a Joe Friel Ultrafit Associate, USAT Level I certified, a former Marine officer and the founder of the Pasadena Triathlon Club. Since 2001 Rich has specialized in training, coaching and racing the Ironman distance, having coached hundreds Ironman finishers and delivered pre-race talks to over 400 athletes at IMNA races. Rich offers affordable Half and Full Ironman training plans, and specializes in coaching athletes with a powermeter.