This is a little longer then I originally planned, but you need to go back to 2010 to understand my full grasp my training this season and leading up to TRR. If you want to skip the verbal diarrhea punch down to the bottoms to the “By the numbahs”.
After completing my first year of triathlon in 2010, I was set to target National Series races in 2011. I wanted to have a solid year racing while working towards the goal of NS points. I intended to pick my races and not just race any chance I had. Doing the TRR was not definite until late May/early June, so I maintained from the get go that I would train for tri and pick up the running in July/Aug for TRR if we did it.
2010/2011 has been the essence of inconsistent WRT training. I spent the majority of 6 months (November to May) in France for work so squeezing 5K in at 6AM before a 10-12 day onsite was what I was living on. For the first few months I started doing 30-40min of strength training or core work in my flat after the runs. I was struggling to find quality in these runs 5 min out of bed. I decided sometime in the New Year to do the strength and core work before my runs, hoping that this would get the blood flowing in my legs before heading out. It helped a bit, but the long workdays on my feet meant quality was hard to come by full stop. The only break in my sleepy 5Ks was Saturdays where I solely ran before work so I’d get 5 miles in and Sundays, which we had off, so I would do 8-10 miles. Clearly my triathlon training was taking a hit. I got 3 swims in before January and only 3 bike sessions, two of which were rollers!!
In Jan/Feb I started to get a swim or two in during the week. Most consistently were Friday nights and Sundays before my “long” run. Again, even though I got to the pool consistently on Fridays and Sundays, to say the pool was a sh*t show is an understatement. The lanes were packed and there was no pool educate, i.e., no slow or fast lanes. No matter which lane you chose, there was surely always someone just floating in the lane. This meant you need to pull up or speed past, trying to move past without swimming into someone coming the other way. Anyway it was what it was, so I just basically just tried to cover a distant each session, with no particular set workout.
From January to February I was topping out at 20 miles or less of non-quality runs made up of 5Ks and one “long” run a week. I did start to integrate some strides as the end of the 5K, but I wasn’t doing any specific speed work. Again I only got a handful of swims in and less bike sessions. At the end of March/beginning of April I went to Aguilas, Spain with KJC, Joyce, Sean and Mark for a week. I finally got some real training in, i.e., daily structured workouts with speed work; in 6 days I got 4 swims, 6 bikes and 4 runs. For the week I was following along with the crews IM plans. KJC, Joyce and Sean had IM Austria in the sights later in July. Mark was on a just as intense plan for his race season. It was from that point that I started changing my workouts. It was a whole different type of training for me. My swims were structured based on Katie’s IM plan, but catered a bit for my ability with a little less distance and slower times, but swim structure was new to me. My bike sessions consisted of various efforts compared to just going at the same level every time. And the same goes for my runs. I also started using time more then distance when setting goals for each bike or run session.
This was all good for my week in Aguilas and then the two week stretch around Easter, but then it was back to France and the dreaded early AM 5Ks. There were also two trips to the states in May, one for PJs wedding and one for work. By the end of May I was in Cork regularly so this is probably where any consistent training for the 2011 season actually began and at this point the tri season had already started. I did two Olympic and one sprint in May with mixed results.
I did two sprints and an Olympic the first three weeks of June but also was back to France during the 2nd week. At the end of the month I heading off to Austria for KJCs IM. By June my mileage had hit a few 20+ weeks but I also had sub-20 weeks. In Austria is where I started doing my longest runs of the year. I was able to put in a 1, 1hr30 and 2hr trail run with a few 30min road runs mixed. My mileage was creeping up to 30.
In July I was reserved to the fact that I would maintain my tri training, i.e., Katie’s plan, but adding in some long runs on weekends were her plan was calling for bike sessions. JP had also been reading that in TRR, speed work is key since it is only when you have the opportunity to open up the legs, you can put time into other teams. It makes sense that at say 15+% grades, it probably neutralize everyone and when you get to the flats you need the speed. That being said I was happy to keep up the swimming and cycling to compliment the running. I was going to keep healthy by not dramatically increasing my mileage and keep speed with at least one speed session a week.
Some trolling the blogs also revealed that strictly speaking trail runners did not have an advantage. Therefore I limited my trail runs to once or twice a week and mostly combined those with my long runs. I did a few trail runs in the Midleton Estuary and the Rineens Woods, and one trip each to the Galtees, Knockmealdowns, and the Old Kenmare Rd. There was no way to simulate the altitude of CO here in IRL, but I was surprised that I was able to get 2K+ft of gain when doing the Galtees, Knockmealdowns, and the Old Kenmare Rd. I kept up the speed sessions up till the week of the race. I didn’t really taper.
For recovery, I got a few messages and tried to use my foam roller, stick and message ball regularly. There were a few weeks in the last two months that I was very sore, most probably the result of the downhill during my trail runs. I was not as good about this as I would have liked, but this last week up to the start my legs feel pretty good.
With my very erratic training, I’m not really sure where I stand when tomorrow comes but I feel fit and healthy so here’s hoping that gets me from line to line for 6 days.
By the numbahs for the last 16 weeks:
Run (Ave - 23.68 miles/week)
- Road - No. 42, 233.23 miles
- Trail - No. 15, 145.76 miles
Bike (Ave - 78.39 miles/week)
- Road - No. 57, 1254.16 miles
- Pool - No. 39, 84.1K
Races
- 3 Sprint Tri
- 5 Olympic Tri
Sports Message
- 4
- 2 trips to the US
- 2 trips to France
- 1 trip to Austria
Sincerely,
Unsure but Healthy, TJM
Yikes, it sounds like it was follow my plan or else :)
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