The Triathlete's Training Bible

I'm glad to help you with TTB as much as I can. I'm familiar with the concepts he uses. On the main BT site, there's a 1/2 ironman plan which uses periodization. Even if you're doing a sprint race, the same concepts apply, just shorter hours per week.

I have the book as well, and used it to understand some basic concepts and also to set an annual plan, with hours, workouts, etc.

However, I have found myself mostly just doing stuff off the top of my head. I figure that this is my first year training, so just by building the miles and taking scheduled recovery weeks will get me where I want to go this year.

Maybe next year, I will work on his specific workouts, which I think will be very valuable. It is just a little beyond my reckoning right now.

I can totally relate soupa.....
I borrowed the book looking for the brass ring and finished it with my head spinning.
I was looking for something more structured, like "run 5 miles on Tuesday", but realized that the book was focusing on overall concepts for training and not a daily training plan.

I took several things from the book and put them in my plan:
1) Broke my training into different phases [Base, Build, etc.]
2) Suggestions on weight training [e.g. ME, PW, etc] ... I like the idea that the workout focus changes throughout training.
3) Broke down my realistic annual training hours by week.... I think this will help eliminate the risk of overtraining. Also will make sure I spend 50% of those hours on the bike each week.
4) Appendixed workouts . . . has some good suggestions. But where the book says "start with 6 to 8 of X...". I start out with about 4.

To find my zones in each sport....
1) Swim - 1000yd time trial. Got overall time and found zones on table.
2) Run - Took best 10K time and used that time, found zones on chart. I like tracking zones by pace then correlate that pace to my HRM.
3) Bike...... this one was definately the toughest. I took a recommendation from a local coach on how to test this. 10 min warm up, then 10 min @ 95-100 rpm HARD [hold ~90-100 rpm]- took HR @ 10min - then at next 5 min - then at next 5 min - then at next 5 min - then at next 5 min, then 10 min cool down. I averaged the last 4 X 5min heart rates (mine were 160/162/164/164) and came up with my LT of 162. Plugged that into the table. Afterwards, of course, I slithered off the bike in pure exhaustion.

Not sure if that helps (or just adds to your confusion).
If you want more advice, email me. I'd be glad to give you my experiences or help you in any way I can.

I agree about that book. I set it down a few times and came back to it before I really used it. What worked (sort of) was starting with the training schedules in the back and dipping into the rest of the book for reference about what sort of weight circuit to do at the gym, what PE means, etc. It's not a great cover-to-cover read. Whoever said that it makes more sense in the context of a long-term, periodized training plan is right. I appreciate getting the tools to figure all that out for myself, and I'm working at it slowly.

Carrie

sold mine on eBay.  Geeeez....I just wanna have some fun, not like I'm gonna win the race or anything!

I am sure with you Ellen -- I actually bought the book, tried opening it and closed it immediately. Way too much for me. I guess I'll have to learn how to do e-bay!!

Lori your comments are very helpful (as are others) I agree that it seems the bike is the hardest to track. He constantly refers to a "CompuTrainer" that provides watts. Is this something I can get the same result from a stationary bike that provides watts? I have no idea where to find a CompuTrainer and this being my first season I wont be spending money on one for certain.

Also as far as the periodization goes. I've already been doing what I would consider base and I've scheduled my first race for the end of May. Should I be moving into Build now? Or waiting until the beginning of April?

I plan to do a sprint Distance in May, June, July, and an Olympic/International Distance in September for my first season. The only one I would consider an 'A' race is the September one. As far as the endurance goes Im to the point now where I can do a 10k at a Zone 3 or RPE of 13 pace consistantly. As of last week I'm covering about 10 miles at Zone 2/3 and RPE of 11-12 in my long run on Sundays. Id really like to start working on my intensive endurance to get faster. The problem I've been running into is that with my training as it was increasing 10% time per week I'm at an hour and a half run and 10 miles. If I keep going up by mid summer I think I'll be doing marathons every sunday . You get the idea. So I think after I've done the "Grade Exercise Tests" this week when I begin laying out my schedule I will start in the Build period

soupa,
You and I are on the same track.
My A race, an Olympic Tri, is at the end of August.
So you should still be in Base I training according to Friel.

As far as the Computrainer, I don't own one as I hear they are somewhere in the neighborhood of $1300.
I need to know my commitment to this Tri stuff for a bit longer to justify the purchase.
Although, they do sound pretty kewl....