I am curious for those of you on the typical Saturday/Sunday longer bike/brick/run cycle regards swim workouts and your preference for which day to bike vrs. run. I have finished the 12 weeks of SS base and have used Plan Builder for an off-road triathlon in May. Looking at the plan made me think again about these two questions I have wondered about.
Do any of you do a hard swim workout on the weekend? I mean a regular swim workout, not just a shorter recovery. For me that is very hard to to do. If nothing else, going to a pool takes quite a bit of time out of the weekend after longer cycling or running also. I have access to a great pool that opens at 5:30 am M-F but not until 9 am on weekends which is another issue for me.
Do you have a preference for which weekend day you bike vrs run? Or do you think it really doesn’t matter? My plan has a Saturday bike and a Sunday run. A few years ago I had a coach who always had me run on Saturdays. But he also coached elite marathon runners and was perhaps somewhat run centric I think.
I would think it really shouldn’t matter. If you are getting the right nutrition most of your low and slow Sat/Sunday work should be recovered by the next day.
Since I am newer to triathlon my biggest thing is putting the workout I am most likely to do on Saturday, so that I don’t push it off to Sunday and then screw myself with trying to get two long workouts in on one day.
@NMBillb1 Great question. For me, my hardest swim of the week is Saturday morning followed by my 2nd hardest bike ride, as well as a medium to long brick. Granted, this is my 14th season of triathlon competition, so my patterns a little more firmly established.
As often as I’m able, I actually use Sunday as my full recovery day - 100% doing nothing except stretching - obviously, that doesn’t always work out.
I do my super long runs Monday morning (to start the week off) and sprinkle the rest of the workouts throughout. Sunday off allows me a mental break after torching my body on Saturday while preparing for the upcoming week!
I don’t think it matters which weekend day you pick, just orient around your real-life schedule and whichever enables you to be the most recovered.
I never stress myself for the third swim per week, exactly for the same reasons - too much time committed to longer rides and runs and reduced pool availability. I am doing okay on two swims per week so that’s alright.
We have a club swim on Sat late morning which I sometimes join and treat as an easy workout, but only if it doesn’t interfere with other workouts or family time.
A lot of this is going to depend on your strengths and weaknesses as a triathlete. If you’re a strong swimmer, I wouldn’t bother even thinking about swimming a 3rd time during the week until you’re 6 weeks out from A race or something. If you’re a weak swimmer (relative to the other 2 sports), then you may want to prioritize it.
As far as whether to do long ride or run on Saturday, I’d pick the one you’re weaker at and do it on Saturday when you’re fresher. For me that would be the run, I prioritize long run over every other workout of the week. I want to be fresh and get some good adaptations from a great long run, not just slogging through it.
I end up doing the exact schedule as @mrlavalamp except I do long ride Friday, rest Saturday, long run Sunday. This schedule also allows me to have a great Saturday with my family. I may squeeze in a short easy run if one of my kids wants to ride bike with me.
I work away from home so weekends are largely family time for me.
Also, i dont do a lot of swim training, not until closer to my race, when for the last couple of months I will slot in a longer swim at the weekend and a longer one mid week.
I do my long rides on a Wednesday (this week is 3hr30min)
I do my long runs Tuesday.
I seem to do a lot of brick sessions for my other ride/runs