David Gillen's Group - FULL (Page 24)

Before I can answer your question, let me ask you a few. Because I'm a not a performance member (yet!), I don't have access to your logs that are older than a week:

1. About how many hours/week have you been training?
2. About what distance and speed is your "normal" ride?
   
3. How long as your longest ride and longest run been?
4. Do you train with a HRM? (I'm sorry if you've told me before!)

If you've been training similar to an OLY program, then I bet you're more than prepared for this sprint. I looked up the distances of Rockwall and it's 300 yard swim, 14 bike, and 2.9 run. This is about a average for a sprint, although some sprints have a bike of 18 miles or so.

Without getting into the details just yet, I think you should probably try to incorporate some brick and maybe interval training in this last 6 weeks. Also, don't do any super hard workouts the last week.

Bricks: Once you answer the above questions, we can tailor this more, but based on the race distance, I'd recommend you do the following bricks:

1. At about 3 weeks out, ride 8-10 miles at moderate speed, and then immediately run about 1 mile again at moderate pace.
2. At about 2 weeks out, ride 12 miles at a speed a little slower than your goal race pace, and then run about 15 minutes at a moderate pace.

I call these "race simulation" workouts and they are tough, but provide you with an excellent idea of what the triathlon will feel like. If you can complete these bricks without collapsing, you'll do great in your race. Workouts such as these are great confidence builders!

Intervals: I'm venturing to guess that you have build the basic endurance to exercise continuously for the 1 - 1.5 hrs that the sprint will take you. Thus, you're probably interested in increasing your speed a little now. That's where intervals come in:

1. 3 weeks out, 4 bike intervals of 3-5 minutes each with about 1-2 minutes rest in between. Try to pick a safe, flat route where you can ride the 3-5 minutes at a challenging pace. Don't go all out, but it shouldn't feel comfortable either. 3-4 run intervals of 400 meters with 200-400m recovery. Do these on a track if you can. Again, don't go all out, but go faster than your normal pace!
2. 2 weeks out, about the same as above, but you can either do 1 more interval or increase the duration a little for each one!

Brick and Intervals are tough workouts and are probably different from what you've been doing, but 6 weeks out is about the right time to start them! Please be sure to be well rested before and recover well after these tough sessions.

Was this clear? Please ask questions if it wasn't.

I'm excited about your first tri! You're going to do awesome, and have a blast doing it!

David

Thank for the info David.

I train about 6 hours, sometimes 7 hours a week. That includes my commute on the bike, usually 3-4 times a week. Therefore, I guess my normal ride is 8 miles in the morning and 8 miles in the afternoon. My average is  at about 15-16 miles per hour what with dodging cars and other fun obstacles. My longest ride has been about 24 miles. My longest run lately has been 6 miles.  I have not gotten a heart rate monitor yet. Talk me into it.

Thanks for all your help and patience.

Great.  Thanks for answering.  It sounds like you're in great shape for your sprint race!  

As I suspected, your endurance is probably sufficient to do the race TODAY.  This is great.  I like it that you've done some "over-distance" rides and runs.  These really help build your endurance. 

I forgot to mention before to please take it easy on the your 15K race this weekend.  We don't want you too get injured before your triathlon.  Just take it slow and this race will serve as a great base builder for your tri!  Also, write up a race report!

Based on your answers, I think my previous recommendations are valid.  I think you should try to incorporate one brick / week.  Probably on the weekend when you have a a little more time, and can ride somewhere with minimal traffic.   Also, one interval session either on the bike or run, per week could help increase your speed some.

Also, I forgot to mention another important workout: The tempo session.  This workout, typically a run, is great for increasing your muscular, rather than aerobic, endurance.  Warm up well for about 10-15 minutes and nice and slow pace, and then "pick up the tempo" to about race pace (or even slightly faster) for 10-15 minutes.  Then cool down  with an easy jog/walk for 10 minutes.  This will teach you mind and body how to hold a faster pace for an extended period of time!

Yes, your long bike rides provide you with aerobic endurance that carries over nicely to your run.  That being said, running does stress different leg muscles.  The Bix is 7 hilly miles, right.  Your legs will get tired before your aerobic system, and this is OK, just don't thrash your legs completely.  Take it easy, have a good time, chat it up with the 15 THOUSAND other people, and you'll be fine.

Pene, 11 hr/week is A LOT!  That is exactly what I averaged over 6 months while I was training for my IM last year.   

Nice!  I'm glad your feeling more enthusiastic!  I've been enjoying watch the tour.  Those guys are amazing.  Be sure to try to find some time to watch the TT this Saturday!

Welcome to the club.  When you spend as much time as we do training, it's natural to want to talk about it.   

I'll be the scrub of the group, I've only been averaging 6 hours a week.  I'm stepping it up this week and will continue to do so up until the HIM on 02 Sep.

I did have a question on how much taper (1 or 2 weeks) would be necessary and when I should try to peak for my HIM.

20 hours a week?  Aren't you in school, do you study/have a life?  I guess that's when the running girlfriend comes in handy but still, dates at 6:00 min/mile have got to have their limitations!

LOL!  Best quote I've heard all month!

To answer you question about tapering for an HIM, 2 weeks should be plenty, and 1.5 may even be enough.  Don't do any real long runs the last 2 weeks though.

Perfect, just what I was looking for.  As always, you rock!

Only 18 hours.....bum!  Dude, thats a lot of training time; I'll keep you in mind the next couple weeks while I'm building my training time and crying like a little girl from the pain.

Dave,

 My turn for a training question.  As you know my HIM is in less than 8 weeks and I want to make sure I am not overtraining and will get burned out.  My next 8 weeks total training is as follows

1 - 563
2 - 619
3 - 681
4 - 408
5 - 681
6 - 749
7 - 599
8 - 280

My split between disciplines is swim (16%), bike (57%) and run (27%).  I plan on 2 swims, 3 bikes and 3 runs a week, one of the bikes will probably be on a trainer (I will probably miss some of these also).

In addition here is the days I am trying to train. 
    Mon - Off
    Tues - Swim, Bike
    Wed - Run
    Thur - Swim, Run
    Fri    - Off
    Sat   - Long Bike
    Sun  - Long Run, bike trainer

Lastly, my longest training for each discipline is Swim (72min), Bike (270min) and run (121min).

Realistically do you think I am over, under or training just right? 

The one thing I was thinking is switching my tuesday ride with my wednesday run to break up the runs but have not been feeling any ill effects. 

Basically I am trying to get rest day before and after my long weekends as recovery.

My goal time for Praireman is sub 6hrs but I would like to be closer to 5:40.

Thanks - See you Saturday.  Let's hope the rain stays away.