Hi All
New Trainer road user here. Would anybody be able to help me plan out my season?
I am a time rich 23-year-old Triathle.
Stats about me: 62.5kg, 175cm tall, 315ftp, 1:17:45 open HM, 5:05 400m swim TT. This year my standard of racing has been a few podiums in tri’s with ~400 competitor fields and a 46 overall including pros (2nd in AG) at Alpe d’Huez Triathlon.
At the moment this is how my race calendar looks for 2020
Remaining base training. Not sure which plan yet?
Start a building plan. Not sure which yet?
8 Weeks from first goal race. Thinking of starting Speciality Phase High Volume Sprint Distance.
Leaving me 7 Weeks till next goal race. Thinking Speciality Phase High Volume Half Distance Triathlon without the first week, so jumping straight into week 2.
Race Block 2 Threshold/Threshold
(A) British Standard Distance Championships (Leeds) - 07/06/2020
(A) Welsh Triathlon National Middle Distance Triathlon Championships - 13/06/2020
Leaving me 12 weeks till next goal race. Thinking of jumping straight into the final 4 weeks of the Build Plan High Volume Full Distance Triathlon. Then finishing with Speciality of the same plan.
Race block 3 - Endurance/Long
(A) Ironman wales - 06/09/2020
Questions?
What training plans would people recommend I use for the remaining base training?
What build training plans would people recommend I use for pre Speciality Sprint Distance? (Build sprint would be the obvious answer but given I have some longer races later in the year. Without the gap for a build. Might Standard or half distance build work better as it works on speed and endurance)
Would Speciality Half or Standard be better leading into block 2 where I am racing both distances of race back to back?
Am I ok to jump straight into the 2nd week of the Speciality plan after race block 1 or should I take one week easy then start at week 3 instead?
Same Question with starting the build after race block 2 (so 4 weeks of build vs 1 rest week and 3 build weeks).
Can I have this many A Race? or should I pick 1 A race per block and derank the others to B races?
Should I try a year with mid-volume first before going straight to high?
Sorry if these seem like silly questions. I would just like to have the import from some more knowledgable minds at this early stage.
I’m not a triathlete so I’m not going to try to coach you, but I think this may be too many and too varied ‘A’ races for one season. You won’t be able to be at an absolute peak for all of them. The sprint and standard are fairly similar and probably wouldn’t be that hard to train for simultaneously but a full ironman is a pretty good jump from the other two. So maybe re-label some of those as B or C races. But someone with more triathlon experience may have a different view on it.
You look like you’ve got a decent level of fitness on you already.
Regarding question about too many A-races. First block looks doable. Two weeks between is short, but manageable. Sprint’s don’t generally ruin the body as much as something like an Ironman. So would take a couple of days easy after the Duathlon, and then finish the last two weeks of the sprint plan going into it.
Might be alright to jump into week 2, but depends how deep you go in the race, it all depends on how you feel.
Next block. A week between races is definitely pushing it. Depends if the first is your A or second. If it’s the first then go as usual, and understand the second one might not go as well. If second is the A race I would do less of a taper and still do the swim/bike as a race practice, but hold back on the run. Think more of a tempo run than full gas.
But it’s also dependent on you, I find I can fake a 10km pretty well regardless of how fatigued the body is, but anything longer and the wheels start to come off. Some people can race into fitness pretty well.
Standard recommendation is Sweet Spot Base for remaining bases training.
In my opinion I would skip the sprint stuff and focus on base/build standard distance. And treat those sprint races as training races/familiarization. But I’m more of a long course guy so depends what your goals are.
Depending on your background with training and indoor, it’s usually better to start with mid-volume and add endurance rides rather than going the other way.
I think I’ve hit most of your questions. But if you’ve got any more.
Thanks for the reply.
With that in mind I will probly make the Ironman the A* main goal race.
The standard (Leeds) and the duathlon A races
Then drop the other two other races down to B’s
Sounds like a good plan to repeat the last final 2 weeks of Speciality Sprint in between the two events.
As you say, realistically only really looking at around 100-120 TSS for a sprint so can probably train normally within days after.
Guess I will have to make the standard the A race and just see where I am for the middle (I do tend to perform ok on fatigued legs, so fingers crossed).
Would go with Sweet Spot Base now but I love structure and would feel lost without planned sessions in swim/run
Will check out what sessions the build of the standard has. got some concerns it will lack the running speed need for a fast duathlon and sprint tri.
With adding structure to Sweet Spot base there’s the option of doing a LV/MV plan and adding in your own swim/runs based on another plan.
I swim with a Swim squad so that’s all of my swim sessions structure taken care of.
For running I usually go something like 3 runs minimum. 1 Interval, 1 Tempo, 1 long weekend run, maybe a short brick off a weekend ride. But something like a BarryP (excuse the terrible formatting) might also help.
Also depends on what you feel your weakness is. If it’s running then maybe drop down from MV->LV and add an extra run or two in. If it’s cycling then swapping an interval or tempo run to an easy one and keeping the MV plan.
