I have no plan. (Page 2)

This is my 4th year of the triathlon life style.  I started when I was 49.  I progressed from Sprints to HIM distances.  I am still improving in all 3 disciplines.  I do get podium spots in some races so I am competitive.  I do not follow a specific plan.  I train with a Garmin and use HR for my run training.  I try to keep a balance between s/b/r but am pretty flexible.  I seldom go more than 3 days w/o a workout in any of 3 individual disciplines and usually have at least 3 workouts in each per week.  Intensity and duration are managed appropriately. 

I ran a marathon last Dec and followed almost to the letter a Hal Higdon Intermediate Training plan starting at week 8 after a Sept HIM.  I did hardly any biking or swimming during this time.  It was different having a specific workout for each day.  It was only my 2nd marathon and the 1st was 10 years ago.  Again, I was successful as I reached my goal with BQ time.  I then ran Boston in April but had to tweak the plan significantly due to injury and weather.

So I've been on both sides, plan and no plan.  For now I will stick with no specific plan for triathlon training at least as long as I stay at HIM distance and below.  If I venture up to full IM distance I may re-evaluate.  I will use a marathon plan as a basis but probably do some tweaking for my next marathon.     

Everytime I see this thread title I chuckle!  "I have no plan."  Soudns like a desperate cry for help!  Maybe it's just my warped sense of humor but it just cracks me up.

I have as a signature line on my work email a favorite saying of mine:  "A good plan today is better than a  perfect plan tomorrow."  So I'm a big fan of plans....for work.  For training?  Eh, not so much. 

Like others have said, training for me is fun...recreation and if I locked myself into a detailed plan, it would feel like work.  I guess I do have a general "plan" and that is run, swim and bike as much as time (and my body) allows.  So I have a 'good plan', not a 'perfect plan'.  :-)

~Mike

I do a lot of workouts with my club (most of them coached) and they are on set days and set times so then I work in the other workouts around those. I try to do 3 bike and 3 run sessions a week. One speed work, one tempo and one long for each sport. I do swim drills once a week and try to do an OWS a few times a month. I do strength training once a week too. I find it's really helped my speed on the run, in particular.

I'd love to get in more swimming and more strength training, but right now it just isn't happening.

Right now I haven't got a personal coach, but I am thinking about doing an Ironman next year and I think I'll need a coach for that. I believe in quality over quantity and I've been able to make good progress spending less time and doing less workouts than most triathletes I know do, by trying to be smart about my workouts. But I'm pretty sure my piecemeal approach isn't going to cut it for an Ironman. If I had 5 more hours in the week for workouts, I could probably do it, but I don't. Plus, the various coached workouts I do aren't coordinated. So I have 4 coaches in one way and no coaches in another.

Edited by MacMadame 2009-08-06 5:13 PM

My weeks pretty much all look the same, with the exception that I vary the duration and intensity of my workouts.  Swims are a bit sporadic, though.  Occasionally I throw in a rest day.

I don't know, it's working so far.  At some point when the gains stop, I'll figure out another approach.  The thought of following a "plan" seems stifling to me.  But I'm not in this for a Kona spot, just to stay fit and keep getting a little faster to the point that there's too much effort involved in accomplishing that.

What are you goals?  If you want to be an elite triathlete or improve to the upper echelons of your AG, then you probably need to be more structured with your workouts.  Otherwise, keep it enjoyable.  If unstructured is enjoyable to you and you are getting out of the sport what you want, then why change it?