Building good base

Bart,

My college running coach firmly believed that it takes about 3 years for people to peak in endurance sports.  There will be a lot of low hanging fruit the first few years.  You can't really go wrong because about anything you do will bring improvements.  You should see big gain during the first few years, but you don't need to set any time goals for races in the first three years.  Your race goals should be on building your base, gaining experience,  and learning to do things smart.   There are two ways to get to the finish line in less time.  One is by getting faster and the other is by doing fewer stupid things.  I did more dumb things starting out than most so about 80% of my gains in the first 3 years came from doing fewer stupid things and about 20% from getting faster.  

I was on the couch to Triathlon Plan.  I had been a competitive runner but had got burned out and lost some of my motivation to where I would find a race train for 3-4 months, do the race in less that peak condition then do nothing for the next 8-9 months until I found another race and repeat the cycle.  So when I got interested in a local 70.3 race I spent 8 weeks training for a 5K and ran it.  Building on that I trained 8 weeks for a half marathon and ran it.  I was starting to feel some of my fitness coming back by the time I ran the half marathon.  I then added cycling into the plan for 8 weeks and taught myself how to swim in that 8 week block.  For Cycling I was focused on building my endurance.  I started doing 18 mile rides twice a week and a long ride once a week.  I started at 25 miles for the long ride and added 5 miles on build weeks and went back to 25 miles for the long ride on recovery weeks.  My goals was to get to 50 mile long rides before my 70.3 race.  Swimming I couldn't build endurance in that 8 weeks block.  I couldn't swim more than about 10 meters of the front crawl without panicking for air and having to stop to breath.  So I didn't try to swim at all during my pool time after the first day in the water.  I found breathing drills I could do in the water with my hands holding the wall and that is all I did for the next two-three weeks.  After I got the basics of breathing and body position I spent the rest of that 8 week block doing form drills in the water.  My last 8 weeks before my race I focused on building endurance on the swim. 

So...if you have a strength like I did in running then starting with that and instead of adding volume to grow your fitness but add a second discipline then a third is one way to do things that might keep you from getting overwhelmed with too many new things all at once.  If you can do all three then starting with all of them at once and building in each area as you gain fitness to grow your base is fine too.  The goal in the first three years is really on building the base first and on speed work second. 

The bike is where most spend their time in the first few years building their base because there is less impact on the joints from cycling than their is from running and there is a lot of cross over fitness to running.  Plus most would get water logged if they did a 4 hour swim session, but a 4 hour long ride on the bike is not bad, especially with a group. 

I feel i spent too much time on the bike.  My running was not improving and my bike wasn't improving very fast.  After two years of bike focus I was tied of getting beat on the run in triathlons by guys that I could out run in open running events so I said for get the bike leg I don't care if they beat me there as long as I can run strong at the end.  So focused on the run and not only did I see huge gains on the run, but my small gains on the bike started to turn into big gains when I cut back on the bike focus and just focused on getting the run back on track.  

So...focus use your strengths to improve your weaknesses.  If you neglect your strength like I did my first two years it will hurt you all around. 

My first triathlon was a 70.3.  I spend 8 months training for it and was in the best fitness of my life on the day of the race, but with no triathlon experience I made a lot of mistakes that cost me a lot of time.  For a physical standpoint you don't need to do a sprint before you do an Olympic or a an Olympic before you do a 70.3, etc.  but it is best to make the mistakes in a B or C race so you are ready for your A race.  If you don't have a B or C Ironman race to do before your Ironman A race then use a sprint or Olympic race for your B or C race is something is available when the 140.6 isn't.

So...that is a general overview.  If you have specifics that you are looking at in terms of your current fitness, you current strengths, you current A races, etc.  ask away.