Olympic 3x Balanced 16/20 Week Group

I was hoping that this distance would be added.

I just finished my first season (small 20 year layoff) with two sprints and I would like to repeat those two races again next season as well as increase to the Olympic distance too.

I am just now maintaining my fitness while swimming biking or running one time per day.
My goal is to increase  my mileage totals for the jump from sprint to olympic distances without loosing my present fitness.

My first Oly will not be until the middle/end of next summer so is it too early for me to be in this group?
I am looking forward to continuing with Triathlon (really got the bug - again!) and jumping to the next level!

Doug

Welcome to the group, and congrats on your first season!

I'll get in on this group.  I have my first 2 sprints coming up in the next few months but already have the bug.  Seems that it can be an expensive bug, but I've caught it.  My goal is a half IM by the beginning of 2012 so this seems as good a place as any to start.

Oh and I'll be starting on the schedule the beginning of September.

Edited by uhcoog 2010-08-20 3:18 PM

Greetings!
I'm new to all of this, did my first sprint in July.  For some crazy reason I'm doing an Olympic distance on October 2.  OF. THIS. YEAR!

I'm on the second week of the third month of this program.  HARD, but very "do-able".

Good luck to everyone here!
Byron

Hello,

My name is Rich and I would love to become part of this group.  I am scheduling three oly events for next year, one in June, August, and September.  I am relatively new to tri but absolutely have fallen in love in the multi sport lifestyle.  I live in Western Maryland and really enjoy training through the hills although this will be our first winter here so that should present some challenges for training that I am not used to coming from Va Beach.  Whatever I can contribute to the forum please let me know.  Thanks in advance.

Rich

Also curious as to how to transition from one race to another, do I jump back into the plan again where it leaves me enough training days to go to completion again or do I need to completely adjust?  If I start from day one/week one and go 16 weeks to raceday but then the following race is less than 16 weeks after that what is the best way to maintain fitness or build even more upon it?  Thanks

I would think you just work backwards.  So if you're 5 weeks short you jump ahead in the plan.  In theory your fitness level should already be at a point where you can handle it.  You could also look at just working on a maintenance routine while listening to your body on when it needs off days/weeks.

This is what I usually do! Seems to work great! I was halfway thru my 1st HIM training plan when I switched to the 9th week of this plan.(Tri got switched to a dually cuz the dam broke at the lake, they let us transfer $$ to next year!) Man, the biking really ramped up. I've done 2 olys this year and I definately think this is a great training plan for an oly! It will prepare you and then some. I have taken the short run and added to the long bike ride ( I switched the day to Sunday, just for personel preferance. This will give you 2 recovery days instead of 1 and nothing like a brick early Sunday morning!

Since this plan is times-based, it can grow with you as your fitness grows. You will just be going farther in your given time than you did in the past.

Also, if you take 16 weeks to get to your 1st Oly, but you have another race in 4 weeks, for example, then your training for the next five weeks should start with a recovery week and then be another build cycle.

Thanks for the clarification, looking forward to some oly's next year!

Thank you! It was a great season, one I will remember for a long time.
I am looking to move forward and to improving my times and races, and increasing my race distance.

I have a couple of questions for now;
I have been training in mileage and not time. Is this something that I can continue to do or do you recommend that I make the switch over to the time version?
In my view I see it as if I race in mileage then I should train in mileage....

Secondly, I am a long ways out than 16 weeks for my Oly. I am planning on around Aug 2011 for my first Oly, with sprints mixed in.
How do I approach from now until that beginning the 16 week training period?

The best thing you can do until your training plan starts is to be consistent with your training. If you have a limiter, focus on that in the off-season.  You might also want to build up your running and race a 10K or two. Lastly, build up your cycling volume on the weekends over the winter if you can. Two hours is a good goal.

Hi, I am brand new to the sport and have not done a race yet. I am hoping to do a sprint in October or December. I come from a running background (half-marathons and marathons) so am use to long workouts. I decided to start with this plan so that I can maintain volume in training. Swimming is my weakest link. I do what I can in the amount of time listed in the schedule, resting when necessary. Today was the start of my fourth week. So far I am enjoying the training and am looking forward to my first race.

You can choose to use the plan now if you like, and just plan on repeating it. That is totally fine. But if you don't want to do the plan twice or more, you can take the off season to work on your limiter or build a great base. The Olympic Plan will help you build your base, of course. So if you don't mind repeating, go ahead and use it over and over.
And yes, it is ok to adjust based on your particular schedule. I like to swim and run on the same days as well.

I am so itching to get going here.  May jump it up to this upcoming Monday instead of the one after.  I am a weight lifting junkie as that is where my fitness background lies.  Trying to figure out if I throw it in on M,W,F or T, TH, S.  I'm kinda feeling the latter.  Also I plan on repeating the program and just upping the pace I start out at on cycle 2.

I love strength training! I think you may find that 3x a week might become too much, but it's totally individual. Depends on what your goals are, too. If you aren't willing to sacrifice muscle loss or strength gains for triathlon, then absolutely make time for strength training. But if your goal is to be the best triathlete you can be, the strength training at 3x a week for hypertrophy may be a conflicting goal.
Of course, there is plenty of wiggle room in there, as you can have a primary goal and a secondary goal that may be somewhat conflicting but you manage it as best you can to make this enjoyable for YOU.

I'm thinking at some point strength training may be cut back to twice a week.  I come from that kind of background though and I just have to come to terms with it.  Looking at Month 4 of this plan it's going to be hard to stay on plan AND hit the weights with my normal intensity.

Just wanted to stop in and I say I've used this plan a couple of times and really like it. I made some slight modifications so as not to do any discipline two days in a row and created a spread sheet for scheduling (attached).



Edited by mrbbrad 2010-08-25 9:14 AM




Attachments
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3x_no_repeat.xls (25KB - 125 downloads)

Hey All!

Mind if I join in?

I'm finishing up my first tri season and as I expected, I'm hooked.  I've got one more sprint in a couple of weeks and then I'm done with races until May (unless I can throw in a 5K or 10K somewhere).  I managed to complete 4 sprints (and one super sprint) this summer so my plan is to do all the same races next year plus one.  My first OLY will be the last weekend in June (and it'll definitely be my A race)!

For the off-season, I plan to work on my run and losing a bit more weight.  I've captured the winter maint. run focused plan into my log, but it might be a bit too much run volume for me.  We'll see.  I'm pretty much a MOP swimmer, a FOP cyclist but a very, very BOP runner. so I'll need all the running I can get!

I'm trying to figure out how to fit this all in.  I really enjoy swimming as a workout, but I recognize that I need to run a LOT more.  I am not concerned with biking, really.  I'll keep up the longer weekend rides (it's a social thing for me), so I expect to maintain that skill over the winter anyway.  I would also like to get back into weight lifting which has really, really slacked off lately.  So much to do...so little time!

I'm thinking about using the 16-week plan for my Oly (starting end of Feb) but I might stretch it out to the 20-week version.

This looks like it's going to be a very helpful forum addition!

Given your above, what I might do is a 4-6 week run focus. Keep the social rides, throw in a swim or two, but spend that time really getting into the run before you hit your 16 week plan.

A good progression is 6 runs a week, time based. M/W/F do 20ish minutes. T/TH do 40ish, and one day on the weekend do an hour run. Don't worry too much about how far, just get the time in. Somewhere around the midpoint of the focus, try 25/50/75 minutes for your sessions.

Then, when you start your plan, you will be really ready to hit the run hard and be well prepped to make the most out of it.

John

Awesome, John, thanks!

One quick question, how much 'rest' should I have between the shorter runs?  I ask because due to my schedule, I can run after work on Tues and Thurs (which I prefer) but only before work on M/W/F.  That'll mean only ~12 hours off between runs twice a week.  Is that enough 'recovery' time?  If not, I can do morning runs on T/Th as well, but I'd rather not if I can avoid it.

I'm going to pop in here to sort of answer this. We all have to make accommodations to fit with our lifestyle. Sometimes our lifestyle can make things easier, sometimes it makes it harder. It may not be ideal to only have 12 hours between runs, but if that is what you have to work with, you make the most of it. How the training fits into your life is JUST as important, so if you would rather not run on Tue, Thur mornings, then don't. Don't fit yourself into a triathlon lifestyle...make triathlon fit into YOUR lifestyle.
I trained for my last IM when my daughter was in half day kindergarten, so each day I had to finish ALL my workouts before 1pm. That was not ideal, but it was my reality. I could have worked out at night, but I didn't want to take that time away from being with my children when I had so much free time when they were at school. So in that situation, triathlon came second. And I still PRed by a huge margin. Most days I worked out, took a 30 minute nap, and worked out again.
In your situation, the most important thing you can do is to make sure you get AT THE VERY MINIMUM 8 hours of sleep on the nights between running days. And that you eat very well after your evening run.
Jessica