General Discussion Triathlon Talk » The Most Undertrained You've Been Rss Feed  
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2014-12-09 6:00 AM


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Subject: The Most Undertrained You've Been
Work is killing me right now. 60+ hr weeks of grueling physical work.
My training for a May oly is suffering.
I can hardly roll out if bed on time, so forget waking early for a ride.
I fall asleep right after dinner, so forget a nice run in the evening.

I know I have some time until the race, but my work schedule is only going to get worse.
80 hr weeks of a$s kickn' work are on the radar.

What's the least ready you have ever shown up to a race?


2014-12-09 6:20 AM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: The Most Undertrained You've Been
Not sure I remember for me personally, but it depends on your goals. Assuming they have the swim skills not to drown while swimming 1500m in open water (which, I realize, would be a big assumption) and know how to ride a bike I'm guessing most healthy people could eventually finish an Oly if they were motivated enough. I have a few friends who have done Olys (first and subsequent) off of maybe a month or two of 2 workouts in each sport each week, if that, maybe a few of the longer ones being close to race distance, no speedwork. It took a while, but they finished. Assuming there's a generous finish time limit, there's no law against loafing on the bike and walking most of the run.

But seriously, I'd look into getting into a routine and getting in a minimal amount of training. It might be better to aim low (i.e. twice a week per sport, or at least some training in one sport each day) and keep goals realistic than to set too ambitious a program and give up in exhaustion when you can't live up to it. If you have any days off maybe you can work in the harder or more time-consuming training then.

I think my minimum was a sprint tri after a summer in Europe --a month of bike touring (but at 10-12 mph with 75 year old Mom and zero speedwork), three OWS and a few leisurely 20 minute hotel pool swims, and maybe 5 runs. I was very close to my PB. I did have a good base coming into it and was healthy and rested--but pretty much zero race-specific training for the 4-6 weeks prior to that race. The longer the race and the less base you have going in, the less you can get away with minimal training if you have competitive/time goals, or even just want to finish without undue suffering.

Edited by Hot Runner 2014-12-09 6:24 AM
2014-12-09 10:14 AM
in reply to: #5073210

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Subject: RE: The Most Undertrained You've Been
The least prepared race I did was my first HIM. About 6-8 swims and a dozen bike rides in the 6 months before the race, and only 3 runs in the month prior. Despite that my goal was to finish in less than 6 hours and I did with a 5:57. The distance didn't seem difficult. I went slower on the run than I needed because I was thinking I might hit the wall. When that didn't happen, the last two miles were my fastest.
2014-12-09 1:45 PM
in reply to: Donskiman

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Subject: RE: The Most Undertrained You've Been
Never cold-turkeyed a tri before, but had a leg injury a couple of years ago, and didn't do anything for 2 months straight, then toed the line at a half marathon since I already had paid for it. Managed to run the first 11 miles and 12.5 / 13.1.
2014-12-09 4:54 PM
in reply to: skibummer

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sacramento, Colorado
Subject: RE: The Most Undertrained You've Been
I did Boulder 70.3 last year. My running logs showed that I had run 36 miles training. I had swam 6000m. I had lots of bike miles though. I spent the week leading up to the race at sea level just to further hobble myself.
My swim was fine. Started to get some knee pain in the bike. The run was horrible. I decided I would run every mile between aid stations and gutted it out. So painiful! But finished. Just over 6 hours.

As a recovery ride the next Saturday I rode from Denver to Breckenridge.
2014-12-09 4:58 PM
in reply to: kingofbanff

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Subject: RE: The Most Undertrained You've Been
Just this last weekend for a Sprint Triathlon. Swam 30 minutes 4 times in the 4 weeks leading up to race and road my bike 2 times 12.5 each time. My results completely reflected that lack of training. The good news is I have been running my butt off (literally) this year, so kicked booty on the run.


2014-12-09 6:44 PM
in reply to: Donskiman

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Subject: RE: The Most Undertrained You've Been
The four months leading up to my Ironman I averaged:

4500 yards of swimming a week
150 miles of cycling a week
1 mile of running a week

I would have liked to have done more, but the transmission on my car went out and I was lifeguarding 60-70 hours a week over the summer to fix it. THe only upside of a busted car was having to bike everywhere. Prior to this summer the bike was my absolute worst leg, but I was forced to practice it pretty much every day by riding to and from work. With how much I worked, any pool in the area was closed whenever I got off.. So my training consisted of waiting until the pool I worked at was empty, and then swimming as fast as I could until someone decided to get in. The run... I got a stress fracture in my tibia 4 months prior to the race, so i stayed off of it for 3 whole months. I started running again about 3 weeks before the race, and my longest run was 7 miles.

I swam a 1:07, biked a 6:45, and ran 6:00.
It was 95 degrees and 80% humidity that day, and my nutrition sucked. I needed two bags of IV to help with my blood pressure of 68/35.
I was happy to finish, but disappointed with how I prepared for it. I hope to do another one in the next 2-3 years, but give it the time it deserves.
2014-12-09 6:59 PM
in reply to: skibummer

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Subject: RE: The Most Undertrained You've Been

Last year was one of the first where I hadn't done ANY swimming, and very little running (as in maybe 20 miles in 2 months). Lots of biking though.

But I went ahead and did the sprint tri anyway. No excuses. No expectations. Just hammer myself, give the best I had on the day, and see what happened.

Ended up 2nd in the AG. 

2014-12-09 7:25 PM
in reply to: briderdt

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Subject: RE: The Most Undertrained You've Been
I did Escape from Alcatraz last year at the end of my first year of residency. Hadn't swam for about 2 months prior and even before that I was in the water a few times. Also, only a few rides (one outdoors) and few runs (nothing over 10k). Just went in with a "finish" mentality.
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