Monday, February 4, 2013

It's Not Like It Was 3 Years Ago...

If you had asked me if I was training right a few years ago, I probably would have said you betcha, "I am hitting all my mileage". I would have believed myself also, but now I know I have not been training like I should until about a year ago, and that is when I started seeing the most results.

Now, I have always followed a plan since I first started training for triathlon, and I thought I was doing it right. If my plan said for me to run 4 miles that day, then I would go run 4 miles. If I were to swim 1500 yards, then I swam 1500 yards and called it a day. I was basically going through the motions thinking I was getting a good workout in.I wasn't getting any faster or making any type of progress. The reason why never dawned on me until I took a good hard look at my training plans. I had nothing planned for interval work, recovery runs, speed work was not happening at all. I was simply running to get the miles completed. This was my mistake.

After really going through my 2010 numbers, it was shown to me that I was not training as much as I thought, and I certainly wasn't training as smart as I should have been. So I knew I needed to make a change in my planning. So I did. I started working on speed drills in all segments. I run three times a week. One run is speed work, meaning I really push the pace for a determined amount of time. Usually for somewhere around a 2 fast pace and a 1 minute recovery for an extended distance. My next run is more of a steady "race pace", but yet slower than a race. My third run is a recovery run and it is the slowest of them all. This has been working for me because I am on a PR streak!

I am only swimming twice a week now and it is simply labeled as a medium swim and a long swim. On my medium swims, I normally try to hit the Master's class. A good solid hour of drills and speed work and my second swim is normally what I call an endurance swim where I try to keep race pace for an extended distance.

My bike, well, so far this year it has been all trainer work. I know a lot of the pros use the trainer, and I can honestly say I feel I am getting the most of it as possible. When it warms up, I will be outside, but until then, it is a trainer ride for me. I am using my cadence sensor to establish my training than I am anything else. While I have m bike computer on my rear wheel, I am just not as confident that the speeds are correct. So I use it only as a "measurement", and rely on the cadence sensor. I have so much work to do on the bike to be ready, but I am not shying away from it.

One thing I can say is that it is taking some planning in order to follow a training plan. As you know, Monday and Wednesdays are my double up days, meaning I run and bike on those days, and it takes everything I have to get up early and get in the run. It is not as easy as I would like it, but I know when I hit that PR at my Olympic race, it will be sweet.

So tell me how your training has changed over the last two or three years? Anything significant?

P.S. I am still sticking strong to my crunches goal, only 6,000 more to go! I added a countdown over here so you can see. I WILL DO THEM ALL!

12 comments:

  1. I am you 3 years back. Now that I think about it I have been doing it longer than you, so I am me 4 years ago?? Slug out the miles, no speed work... no improvement in times.... BUT, I don't get hurt either. At my age that is the most important thing as I will never compete with the 140 pound guys.... but I plan on outlasting them!
    Good luck with your plan..

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    1. Thanks, it was your post about the forks in the road you took that got me thinking about my racing 3 years ago!

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  2. Sounds like you are making great training progress!

    My bike speed on the trainer is about 20% slower than on the road for the same effort, so don't let the speed worry you. You'll notice the difference in the spring.

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    1. We are triathletes, we always worry about bike speed! Right now, I am just working on getting the legs going strong, so that first outside ride is awesome!

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  3. I'm a ways behind you still just trying to get out the door or on the trainer and knock out the miles/yards. I am so far at the back of the pack that I don't get too hung up on my speed.

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    1. a 3 hour trainer ride is a great start! LOL

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  4. Do you design your own plan or have a trainer?

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    1. I use a plan from Beginnertriathlete.com. It allows me to design a plan based on the distance of the race, my race paces, how many workouts I want to do a week (2 swims, 3 bikes, 3 runs) and then uses all that info to come up with a daily plan. It worked well for me last year, so I am trusting the plan again!

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  5. I use to do the same, 4 mile it said, 4 mile done, last year was the first year I discovered I wasnt really training right, and noticed the improvements right away

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    1. It's funny how that works huh? I think way to many people just go out and get a run in and then wonder why they aren't faster!

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  6. Most triathletes I know train the old way you used to, me included.

    Now, things are very different. My plans are broken into phases and the phases are broken into cycles and those cycles are broken into mini-cycles. Each and every workout I now do serves a purpose and I know what that purpose is. I have built in performance testing within the plans so that progress can be measured and tracked. Training with a purpose is so much more effective then just training.

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    1. I guess I could have mentioned it in the post, but when you broke down my numbers for me 2 years ago, that is what opened my eyes! I remember you saying (and I paraphrase) you really aren't training that much! LOL So it's your fault!

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