GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 49)

Thanks for the birthday wishes

PRIORITIZING RACES

If you think you might want to structure your season based on the tentes of Periodization, then it will be highly valyable if you can determine which races on your schedule are most important to you. For some people, this will be easy to decide, while for others it will seem that all of their proposed races are about the same in importance. But if you can find one or two (and for people with long seasons, possibly three) races that stand out from the others, then those are the ones aeound which your season will be structures -- those are the races you will Build and Peak for.

"A"-priority races -- These are the ones just mentioned, the one(s) you will Build and Peak for; this is the purpose of your Periodized plan. It is best to have your "A" races either close together (say, two weeks apart) or fairly widely spaced (eight weeks or more). The reason for this is that after an "A" race you will do a short Transition and then start to rebuild your fitness around the parameters of the next "A" race. Some people think they can hit their Peak for an early-season race, and then keep riding that peak throughout the season. But this is largely untenable, and simply does not allow the athlete to be in the absolute best form she or he can be in for a truly important race.

"B"-priority races -- These are somewhat important races in which you'll want to do well, but for which you will not be building a specific peak. Some people consider these "training races", but with the added edge that performance matters.

"C"-priority races -- These are races that are just for fun, or as tests of progresss, or in place of hard workouts, or the opportunity to isolate a skill (sprinting the swim, or hammering the bike, or red-lining the second half of the run) in a race setting.

Some people go through entire seasons without a true "A" race, and in my past three seasons of manic racing, that's been the case for me. I would say that most of the 41 ( ) multisport races I have done in the past three seasons have been "B"-priority, with a few "C" ones thrown in for good measure. So, it is NOT necessary to make more out a race than it actually is, but if you have some on your sched that are really important to you, then you can consider them "A" races and set about planning your season around them!

PERIODIZATION -- part three

As promised, I'll use Anne as an example for this. Anne's "A" race will be Muskoka on July 25. This is a highly popular and hotly-contested race, with a large pro/elite field and the oppotrunity to compete for spots in Ironman Canada. It is a weird distance though - 2000 meter swim, 55km bike, 15km run. So, the swim is half-iron distance, but the bike and road are closer to olympic-distant standards (which is 40km bike and 10km run, as opposed to 90km and 21.1km for half-iron bike and run).

As Anne looks at her schedule, she will have the week of July 19 as race week, which will include her taper. She will then count back two weeks, and this would be her Peak; that would begin on July 5. If her Build is eight weeks, then that brings her back to May 10. And allowing for a 12-week Base, then that will commence on February 15. And there, in a nutshell, is the structure for the first half of her 2010 season!

Along the way there will be other races for Anne. I don't have her schedule in front of me, but I know there is a half-iron aquabike (Peterborough) on July 4, and I think there is a sprint (Milton) on June 6; maybe also a sprint or oly (Guelph Lake) or June 26. Because Muskoka is Anne's "A" race, then she will need to determine a different approach to the other three. As I said in the previous post she will be training to Build and Peak ONLY for Muskoka. It is not necessary for Anne to decide right now the priority status of Milton, Guelph, and Peterborough, as much of that will fall into place as the races approach and she gets an idea of where her race fitness is at.

So, there is a formula of sorts in operation here -- but it is not rocket science!! That means that fudging and fiddling can happen, and that buffer time can be built into a schedule to accommodate illness, tough stretches at work, and sudden happenings that upset a workout schedule. But the rough framework would be:
2 weeks for Peak
8 weeks for Build
12 weeks for Base

And if you feel you want or need 10 or 12 weeks for Build, then you can structure your schedule that way. If, like Anne, you want a much larger Base than 12 weeks, then you can do that. There are some cautions to expanding these periods too much, as over-training can be as detrimental as under-training.....but that is a topic for another time.

As I've said before, there is NOTHING to say that anyone has to priotize their races and/or Periodize their season. For many of you it is all about just going out and having a good time, training for the challenge of it and racing for the pure fun and sense of accomplishment. For others of you, your work schedules will make it really difficult to follow a true periodized program, and that is fine too. My past three seasons have not been at all periodized, and I have had a blast and done really well (although not as well as I might have, had I trained truly serioulsy!).

More to follow, probably.

Edited by midlifeinsanity 2010-05-24 7:33 AM

Happy Birthday Dwayne!

STEVE,

THANKS SO MUCH for using my race schedule as an example.   It has helped clarify things for me alot!   I took a REALLY long transition at end of race season, focussing on my yoga, thinking I would get right back into some good off season training which didn`t happen and then January has kind of sucked health wise, causing the training to be hit and miss.   So I have been starting to freak, thinking I`m falling behind, but the way you lay it out it seems I should still be OK, if I can get on track by February 15th.   Although I am feeling better, my energy level is no where near normal.  

Your time frame shows 22 weeks - the beginner Silver HIM plan is 20 weeks (I see you haven`t made the plunge yet)  so should I just do what I have been doing and load the BT plan on the 28th and start following it?   I would feel better about blindly following it, if you gave it your blessing.  

Thanks,  

----------------- TO PERIODIZE or NOT PERIODIZE -----------------

I have stuck the following into a couple of the recent Periodization posts, but I just want to get it out here mostly on its own.

There is nothing to say that anyone has to Periodize their training! There is nothing wrong with approaching triathlon just to develop skills, train somewhat consistently, and have fun. There are many reasons why Periodization will not work for a person -- and most of these reasons will be 100% valid.

Periodization works really well for people who are looking to develop peak fitness and race-readiness, and who are ready, willing, and able to undertake a serious commitment to their training. And even for people like myself who train heavily and race seriously, Periodization is not a prerequisite. Periodization is just one way to approach training, and if it isn't the best thing for you right now (or even ever) then that is perfectly fine.

Without attaching names and timelines to training periods, however, the basic principles underlying Periodoization are fairly important to follow:
-- Each season begins with either developing (for beginners) or re-establishing fitness. This involves aerobic endurance, muscular strength, and specific sport skills. This is the time of "training to train".
-- The next phase of training will build on general fitness levels while also serving to refine sport-specific skills. Some people will have an eye on particular races, and will train according to the perceived conditions of those races. This is the time of "training to race".
-- As the race season approaches and progresses, there should be a shifting in the balance of frequency, intensity, and duration of training. However, skill development is still actively pursued.
-- At the end of the season, it is important to allow an adequate amount of time to refresh and rejuvenate both the body and the mind. Sometimes this also needs to be done mid-season -- either following demanding races, or just to stave-off physical and mental burn-out.

No pressure to Periodize yourselves, okay???

Hi,

SteveB,
This USAT ranking stuff is new to me but I find it fascinating.  Have been checking it out.  By the way, I noticed there's 4 below you today.
This might be a great motivater for me
Question:  I'm 63 and my birthday is Dec 18.  Next year would I be in the 65-69 group for the year even tho I don't turn 65 'til Dec?
Denise

Question for the more experienced folks around...any comments on the Xterra Vortex 3 sleeveless wetsuit? Found someone who is willing to sell me one in the size I expect to be come June, never worn in water, for less than Xterra is asking (currently $99)....

With the local (MI) tri's there seem to be a few pre-race groups who practice the course. So I would figure on 5-10+ uses in a year. I'm hoping more as I hope to do more open water swims in the summer.

Thanks.

DENISE -

Ohhhhh, you're one of the incredibly fortunate ones, born at the end of the calendar year. It was about five years ago that things changed, as it used to be that your age group was whatever age you were on the day of the race. (Remind me sometime to tell you about Don Callahan.) Now I I think it started in '05 or '06) your age is determined by how old you will be on Dec. 31 of the current year; your race age is 64. And you're right! Next season you will be in the 65-69 a.g., a huge benefit for competitive purposes!

The rankings are cool, partially because the score you get for each race is absolute. That is, it doesn't change according to your age, but what does change is how it places within your age group. So let's say that in a given race I finish neck-and-neck with a 36-year old, then our rankings score or value for that race is the same, say, 78.3504..........but if our season-ending average is 78.3504, then that might palce me in the upper 10% of my a.g., but for him in will put him much, much lower.

Try this. Go to my score, which is 79-something, and as of today that was 48/522 (and as you saw, with four HM below me! Yippee! Now go to the 35-39 a.g. and see where that score ranks. I'll bet it's not in the top 1000, and likely about 35% of that a.g. has a higher ranking for that same score. This just really points out the obvious, which is that some age groups are much bigger and much, much more competitive than other age groups.

I guess you've figured out tat the values you see are calculated on the basis of the top three rankings scores each season, so it behooves people to do as many races as they feel they can handle so as to increase the sample size. If you choose to look for "race details", you can see the scores for each race. I think my three top ones this year were Crystal Lake, Mighty Man HIM, and Timberman (or maybe it was Lake George).

Some people strategize heavily about this, looking for several smallish races in which they can shine, or race exclusively at a distance that works to their strengths. Each year I try to choose one race that plays to my strengths, which would be one with a inordinantly short swim compared to the bike and/or run. I usually score pretty well in half-irons, because the swim is only 500 meters longer than in an olympic, while the bike is 50km longer and the run is 11.1km longer. But Lake George, a pure oly, was good for me, and that is something I'm working on - closing the rankings points gap between traditional high-pointers for me (which are sprints and half irons) and olys, where my points are usually a bit lower.

One more thing! If you are interested in playing the USAT rankings game, make sure the races you do are USAT-sanctioned; if they aren't, they won't count. Any race that is USAT-sanctioned will address that in the registartion process, asking if you are a member and charging you a one-day licence fee if your are not. I've always been a USAT member so I don't know this for sure, but I don't think they include non-members in the rankings. I think the one-day licence fee only covers a person's race-day insurance.

So, the only people on those lists are (a) those who are USAT members, and (b) those who have completed a minimum of 3 USAT-sanctioned races. (My jump from 49 to 48 came at the expense of a guy who was previously at #23, but had only two races in '09.)

Sorry for the likely-way-too-much-information!!! (Can you tell I like this game? )

SHAUN -

I have owned two Xterra suits, and both were fullsuits. However, I expect their sleeveless ones to be equally good.

My problem with Xterra is that the suits are fairly fragile and tear easily. BUT "easily" is very relative, and keep in mind that I use my suits dozens and dozens of times a year - maybe 50-70 open water swims, races included, each year. So, they take quite a beating just in terms on being put on and removed so often. For someone who swims a "normal" amount of wetsuit swims, such as what you are suggesting for yourself, I think the Xterra would serve you really well.

When I mentioned tears, please don't picture big, long, nasty rips, but places in which the rubber has become opened up a bit -- usually from a nail digging in. Some of this stuff is inevitable, and similar to cars, wetsuits effectively depreciate quickly almost from the start.

The annual Xterra sales are huge, and all you have to do is scout around on the internet to see what the going price is for sleeveless models from other companies. Xterra starts out a bit lower than most, and then when the sales happen the bottom just plunges on their prices. They are a more rudimentary suit than many others, but very serviceable. My take on them is that the have increased buoyancy due to thicker rubber in more places, but they weight more and the rubber used is not top-of-the-line (which is think is now Yamamoto 39 or 40).

Try to make sure that the sizing is good for you. When you first put it on, you want the very real sensation of constriction; tolerate as much constriction as you think is possible, as snug/TIGHT is best. Lots of people eschew tightness and go with something that is too loose, which defeats parts of the purposes of wetsuits.

Happy shopping!




Edited by stevebradley 2010-01-29 7:43 PM

ANNE -

I'm edging closer and closer to the end of the diving board, poised to make the plunge.......

M -

IMHO, every little bit counts. After my shoulder separation (and once my road rash had healed enough to allow my into the pool ), I worked 75% on kicking and 25% on sculling or one-arm swimming. That not only kept my head in the swimming game, but after a few sessions of kicking, my times from end to end actually improved.

Some of the balancing drills from Total Immersion might be good, too, and as these require no stroking they are safe for shoulders. You can probably see these on a video at www.totalimmersion.net.

13 weeks for 300 yards? Very doable!

Glub, glub!

M again -

Yes, sticking to training plans can be a problem -- and not necessarily your own fault! It may turn out that you have to tweak your plans a few times to make them work for you, but take comfort in the fact that while you're tweaking your plans, 27,391 other people are doing likewise with their plans!

You're one of a vast legion of tweakers!

STEVE,

This post was REALLY interesting.   Sort of glad I`m not in a postion to do much racing in the States (yet).     So, what exactly does this  mean?    What rank are you trying to come in at and what will that mean to this year`s racing? 

KASIA -

Five weeks of Peak? That's a lot! And if it's similar in intensity to most Peaks, it could be a recipe for fatigue or burn-out. Which plan is it, might I ask? It could be that part of their Peak is more similar to another plan's Build. But five weeks for a standard Peak is asking a lot out a person to keep edge-dancing at high intensity for so long.

As for making up workouts when it comes to it, in general it is best to let missed workouts just fade away. That is, unless they are reallay key workouts, in which case you would want to insert them in place of a workout of lesser value. And as for fitting in a key workout, don't double up because then you will compromise the integrity of both - but definitely the key one.

Msiing workouts? You're right, that with snowboarding season in session for you, you don't want to get stressed about missing tri workouts in order to go snowboarding. That's another great thing about passing on Rage.....and it might be a caution against scheduling early season triathlons as long as you are a passionate snowboarder.

Bike thoughts!
For now you should just be looking a four weeks of riding twice a week, jsut steady efforts at a moderate intensity. And start short, maybe the first two weeks at about 45 minutes for each ride, and then bump it up to 60 minutes for the rides in the third and fourth weeks. And if you are feeling pretty comfortable after the first ride of week four, you can maybe throw in some short, fairly easy hill work.

Overall, for almost all of your workouts, gradually add volume. Speed work can come later, and you're not ready yet to add more wokouts, so frequency will stay stay the same until snowboarding is finished. (When is that usually for you?)

I've never snowboarded, but how much of that is a workout for the quads. My instincts say a huge amount, but I just don't know. But I figure the whole activity has to be pretty good for building conditioning useful for cycling!

Steve
Thanks for the additional posts on periodization, and the OK to not be too strict about it. I do gather from your last post that a person still wants to have different workouts in the 3 different phases. When you have time, would you comment on where to find options for workouts (w/o having to purchase a plan) or how to develop these on one's own (such as a general formula).
Thanks, Mark

MARK -

Well, that's my take on it. At the very least, one needs to train to train, and then train to race, and then rest from training. Within that incredibly expeansive framework, there are all sorts of variations; I suppose they are infinite.

And then there are the people who take "shortcuts", with the extreme case being the none-too-small number of people who have been doing The Local Triathlon every year since 1989, and just plunge into it with no training whatsover -- just do the thing for the hoot of it all.

But for people to enjoy some level of success and comfort in their race(s) for a particular season, they should establish some sort of basic degree of fitness and then spend time working on both weaknesses and strengths while also buiklding some endurance.

Or something like that.

As for sources to go to to try to develop your own plans, I think the most comprehensive book is one published by Triathlete magazine and written by Matt Fitzgerald. My copy has gone walking somewhere so I don't have the full title, but I would guess it is something like "The Essential Guide to Weekly Triathlon Training Plans". (I'm sure it has "essential" in the title. After I post this I will track down the exact title through google.)

This book has good rudimentary* plans for all distances of races, and what is good about it is that for a given distance (say, sprint) there are multiple levels of plans depending on what one's goals and levels of experience are. I'm thinking that for some of the distances (sprint and olympic) there are as many as ten different levels of plans. (That sounds high as I think about it.)

The other thing I will do is go to a bookstore tomorrow when I'm in Ottawa and find a copy and check to see what the range of plans is. But the book is a big bugger, and has very little text; it is mostly charts and atbles that are structured around a series of letter-number codes. But it's good, and can remove a lot of the guesswork fo you, I think. The cost is probably about $25.

* I don't mean this to be a criticism.

MARK again -

The full title of the book is "Triathlete Magazine's Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide", with a subtitle of "Plans, Scheduling Tips, and Workout Goals for Triathletes of All Levels". Whew!

The publisher is Wellness Central, and the cost is $19.95. (Sounds like a bargain to me, at 472 pages!)

Hmmm. I have to figure out where my copy has got to. It's not like I have a circle of tri acquaintances up here, so the places it could be is pretty limited. (But that's not helping me right now. )

Steve,

For me, snowboarding's pretty intense on both the quads and the calves, mostly quads though. Depending on how long I'm on the mountain and how many runs I do, I can either come back feeling as if I didn't do anything, or with gummy legs from fatigue, usually the latter. So I guess it depends.

The plan I'm referring to (and planning on using) is actually out of Matt Fitzgerald's book that you mentioned above in your post to Mark. I'm working within Levels 1-3, depending on discipline, from the 16-week Olympic distance plan. If you do go and check it out tomorrow, let me know what you think about the 5-week peak period for the Oly. Matt Fitzgerald describes the phase as "more race-specific with tempo workouts and longer workouts generally." It does seem to build off the build phase, so maybe it's more build that's being called peak? I dunno. Can you check it out when you go to the bookstore tomorrow and let me know?

Thanks!

Yo! Gang! Where are we all today??

So far it's just Mark and me today, and it's already 8:10pm here in the east! I'm lonely!

Are you all working up to a fare-the-well, or what? I swam for the first time in 10 days, just a mindless 20 minutes to cinfirm that the shoulder is okay. And then I ran 8km in 40 minutes right on, and that was good but frigidis in the extremis. I am now eyeing the bike, which is currently on the trainer but which I might switch over to the rollers for 30-40 minutes of riding-on-the-edge.

That's it from Casselman, Ontario, still squatting flatly on the floor of the former Glacial Lake Champlain.

KASIA -

Good to hear from you (see my whiny post above, just posted), and thank you for the snowboard/legs information.

If you are using that book, then I think it will help you alot. I never used it myself, really, but just had it as a reference. I will check out what you mention tomorrow, but i think I will go one better -- buy it, and that will give me 14 days to find my original copy before I have to return or keep the new one. I think i can gamble with $20 US (which is probably about $24 here, but still affordable).

I'll be back to you tomorrow!

Hey STEVE,

Had a good day today.   First day in a while that I woke feeling myself and like I could conquer the world.    Got a 25km ride in on the trainer and then a yoga class this afternoon.    Going to run tomorrow.   Didn't QUITE meet the volume I had wanted this week (swim coach cancelled today) but I am happy that I got that much done.   

Have a great night,

ANNE -

Mighty fine that you had a good day -- it's been a while. Your log somewhat belies your overall under-the-weatherness, so you've done a really good job of hanging in there and fighting the good fight to the best of your abilities. You're a tough nut!

I'm about to climb aboard the bike, which is locked into the trainer, and see how long I can last; 90 minutes is the far end of my interest today, with less being more likely. I had a wee bit of fun on the rollers last night, but just 20 minutes worth. So it goes.

Im also fixing to run again today and see how I feel doing it two days straight - first time in a month or two, I think. I did manage 20 miles last week in runs on Sat-Mon-Wed, and this week I'm gearing for 25 miles. I see no reason to push it much further at this satge of the off-season.....but 30 would sit nicely with me, if it dosn't get too cold again.

I'm ahaving a very difficult time getting to the gym for lifting, and seem to have stagnated at about once every two weeks, since about mid December. Hmm. And as much as I tell myself that I should do some work on my hips to keep ITB issues at bay, I lazy my way out of that every time; it's a notion that always dies a-bornin'.

Okay! Off to the trainer and a b-grade action movie to make the time fly. Junk miles in the basement! Oh joyous day, callou-callay!

Have a good one there yourself!

(And if you see any of our missing members, send them to the group forum here, okay?)