Prep Period

I had previously posted a review of the Triathlete’s Training Bible by Joe Friel. I intend to make good on the annual training plan I put together a few weeks ago. Right now I am finishing up the prep period, which is supposed to get my body ready for the stress of training that will be begin in base period 1.

I am pleased with how the prep period unfolded. I feel fresh and ready for training. I have been consistent and not fatigued or sore, with the exception of a couple of strength workouts.

The intent of base period 1 is to begin functional training. For my purposes that means swimming, biking and running. As I have been doing this already, it is not too much of a change. Given 2 workouts per week per sport, one workout will be dedicated to aerobic training and one to speed skills.

For swimming this means one workout dedicated to long slow distance. I am currently swimming about 1000 yards/workout and I will up that at the rate of about 100 yards/week until I get to 1500 yards. The second workout of the week will be drills. Based on the SwimLabs feedback this means focusing on a catch, slight acceleration with pull and follow through. This workout will probably be of higher intensity and include a 30 second break every 100 yards. This session should probably include kicking as well.

The plan is similar for bicycling. The Sunday ride should be the long ride. I can currently ride for about an hour. Per the plan I would like to up this about 10 minutes per ride until I get to 2 hours. The speed skills workout should be intervals or hills. I am not a fan of hill repeats but driving out to the Morgul-Bismark loop may make for good training sessions. If this works out I may get a roof carrier for my wife’s car.

The running plan is a more challenging as my current run fitness is still in question. I have been running for 20 minutes without injury. I will begin to increase the distance 2-4 minutes each week. As far as speed is concerned, I have been trudging along at about 11:00 minute to 11:30 minute miles. I might try slipping in a track workout with 200 meters at race pace followed by 200-400 meters walking recovery. My proposed race pace is another obvious question. If I shoot for 9:00 minute miles, this would translate to 67.5 seconds for 200 meters.

In regards to strength training the intent would be to decrease reps and increase loads. However, as I have been using 10 rep sets, I am leery of moving to 8 rep sets. The plan is to stay flat with my workouts and move up in 6 week cycles. On race weeks, I will cut back the strength training to sessions at 75% of the previous session. The next cycle would bump bench press up to 155 lbs, lateral pull down to 110 lbs, and leg press to 110 lbs.