General Discussion Triathlon Talk » overtraining race distance for an Oly Rss Feed  
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2012-09-12 9:27 AM

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Subject: overtraining race distance for an Oly

So I am thinking about competing (to win my a/g) in an Oly triathlon next year.  I see the last couple of years and I think I might be able to get up to speed by next year. 

My question is you can pretty easily and safely train at longer distances than each sections of the race.

Would be wise to try to the do the distances at race pace but do more miles than you would in the race.?

If so what would be a good amount.  Should I be able run 8 miles at race pace to get ready for the 6.2 miles run for example?



2012-09-12 9:40 AM
in reply to: #4407337

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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly
I'll let you know after Sat.  I've been training a HIM plan, but decided to wait until next Spring.  I have an Olympic on Sat. as my only race this fall.
2012-09-12 9:43 AM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly

Maybe in the month leading up to the goal race, depending on how well you've built your aerobic base. Don't use numbers though I'd base it off of perceived exertion just because of all the physiological changes that happen leading up to race day and goal race time, leading to faster times race day.

If you've got a whole year to train for it, you can definitely safely build up the distance for it. Just gotta stick to a slowly increasing plan; I'd try to build a plan around 10-11mi being the goal long run, with 3.5mi short and 7mi medium distance run. Then sustain that for 4 weeks or so. Then when 6 weeks before the race start changing your plan a bit. Start running at T-pace once a week, then when there are two weeks left start cutting out your long run and make your medium 8mi, short 4mi and increase the pace a little. Then the week before start tapering like no other :P

Thats just how I'd approach it though, I don't know much about getting faster for cycling though I'd definitely do 50mi sessions frequently and lots of threshold sets. Stroke work & threshold/sprints for swimming.

2012-09-12 9:45 AM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly
i think, from what i have interpreted from many articles, for the run is to train for the race distance above the run leg of your tri, example: for an Oly your run training should be aiming at a HM not a 10k.
2012-09-12 9:56 AM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly

You can bet the AG winners in Oly tri's are training more than those distances!  I wouldn't go crazy, but definitely be doing workouts longer than Oly distances

I think you'd be well served to be doing

1-2 mile OW swims

40-60 mile rides

10-12 mile runs

Honestly though, there is a lot more to training to be fast at a distance than a long run/bike/swim so this is only part of the training.

2012-09-12 9:57 AM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly

You can train at longer distance but it won't be your race pace for the whole distance  - race pace for 8 miles is slower than race pace for 6.2 miles (because if you're racing, the assumption is you are going as fast you could have for that particular distance).  If you're finishing 10K with enough to spare to go another 2 miles, then you may want to look at your pacing strategy.  The 10K is probably the most painful distance to race for me because you're at threshold the whole time.  I'm pretty much done by the time I cross the finish.

You can always train longer distances than your race distance.  You may have to optimize some workouts to focus on a particular race (for example, I have a sprint tri (a "C" race so not really focused on it) coming up but my longer term training goal this year is a Marathon in November and an Oly Tri in October.  I've been doing long runs up to 20 miles the past month but those have been slow.  However, on my shorter runs during the week, I incorporate some tempo runs and intervals that will help get me ready to run more time at threshold and get me used to the longer stride length of the shorter distance. 

I am on maintenance mode this year for my bike so I am not expecting to improve much there.  However, my long bikes are still around 60 miles, and my 2nd weekday ride is about 32 miles.  I'll throw in a 1-hr bike trainer workout and that's it for cycling.  Both rides are definitely longer than my Oly distance (25 miles) as well as my upcoming sprint (12 miles). Likewise with the swim (though i rarely will swim 1500m in one go - but will swim more than that in one workout).

Bottomline, you can always look to get more aerobic endurance and most training is still done at aerobic pace.  However, there will be some 'quality' workouts where you will be at threshold more. 

By the way, winning your AG is always hit-miss as you never know who will show up.  Sometimes you can win with a sub-par performance, and sometimes, you do your best race and you still finish 11th! (happened to me at my last sprint tri! - 41st out of almost 600 people overall, but 11th in my AG while setting PRs in swim and run). Good luck!



Edited by m2tx 2012-09-12 9:59 AM


2012-09-12 10:10 AM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly
chirunner134 - 2012-09-12 9:27 AM

So I am thinking about competing (to win my a/g) in an Oly triathlon next year.  I see the last couple of years and I think I might be able to get up to speed by next year. 

My question is you can pretty easily and safely train at longer distances than each sections of the race.

Would be wise to try to the do the distances at race pace but do more miles than you would in the race.?

If so what would be a good amount.  Should I be able run 8 miles at race pace to get ready for the 6.2 miles run for example?

 

Just an opinion

You definitely should do workouts with more miles than the race

You do not have to do workouts with race pace at race distance . I do not know a lot of people that do 10k pace run workouts for 40 minutes or 90% FTP workouts for over an hour.

You need to do workouts at that pace but they can be for shorter distances. For the bike 2x20min at race pace (95% FTP)  is a good workout. For the run 40min at steady state pace is a good workout. 20-30 min at race pace is a good workout.

2012-09-12 4:32 PM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly
What might be a way to approach it is to figure out the paces that you want to be able to sustain for the race, then train to be able to sustain those indiviidually for perhaps 1.5 times race distance/time.

Example: If you want to be able to average 23-24mph on the bike for an Oly, then train yourself to be able to sustain that pace for at least 36 miles.... that way, there is still something in your legs for the run.

The way I was approaching it was to figure out what my comfortable cadence was, then I just started riding that distance maintaining that cadence in one gear harder than what was comfortable. After a couple of rides like that, I then forced myself to do as much of the ride as I could one gear hard than that, etc... I figured that if I ever got to where I could sustain my cadence over that distance in the smallest cog, then I'd be pretty darn well off, and until then, I'd be doing some really nice base building.



2012-09-12 5:33 PM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly
You need to do race-specific workouts. An OLY race pace is different than a half IM race pace. Matt Fitzgerald's training plan book has different levels of plans for each race distance. This is to help accommodate skills level, goals and time available to train. You should check it out-it may help you.
2012-09-13 10:29 AM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly

goobergirl98 - 2012-09-12 5:33 PM You need to do race-specific workouts. An OLY race pace is different than a half IM race pace. Matt Fitzgerald's training plan book has different levels of plans for each race distance. This is to help accommodate skills level, goals and time available to train. You should check it out-it may help you.

 

I looked on amazon for this book and there are a couple- which year/publish date is the one you are talking about. I want to get it- either that or the exact title would help. Thanks.

2012-09-13 10:46 AM
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Subject: RE: overtraining race distance for an Oly
marcag - 2012-09-12 11:10 AM
chirunner134 - 2012-09-12 9:27 AM

So I am thinking about competing (to win my a/g) in an Oly triathlon next year.  I see the last couple of years and I think I might be able to get up to speed by next year. 

My question is you can pretty easily and safely train at longer distances than each sections of the race.

Would be wise to try to the do the distances at race pace but do more miles than you would in the race.?

If so what would be a good amount.  Should I be able run 8 miles at race pace to get ready for the 6.2 miles run for example?

 

Just an opinion

You definitely should do workouts with more miles than the race

You do not have to do workouts with race pace at race distance . I do not know a lot of people that do 10k pace run workouts for 40 minutes or 90% FTP workouts for over an hour.

You need to do workouts at that pace but they can be for shorter distances. For the bike 2x20min at race pace (95% FTP)  is a good workout. For the run 40min at steady state pace is a good workout. 20-30 min at race pace is a good workout.

Good advice!

If you haven't been working out consistently be careful. Most folks who have been training consistently will not do over distance at race pace especially on the run...recipe of injury and losing training time for recovery.



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