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October Article #1: Maximize Your Fall, Winter and Spring Training
By Ryan Riell, MS
As we near November, the 2010 triathlon season is quickly coming to an end, the big question on most triathlete’s minds is… what do I do now? The next 3-5 months can make or break your 2011 season… are you making the most out of that time? This article will explain how to maximize the next 3-5 months of your time so you are primed and ready for the 2011 season!
Looking closely at the standard practice of periodization in endurance sports is a great starting place. Standard terms such as microcycles, (< 14 days) mesocycles (15 days to 12-20 weeks) and macrocycles (full year) are commonly used when talking about periodization. In general, backwards planning (starting with your A-Race and planning backwards) is the most efficient use of an athlete’s time. With that being said, most athletes season is either coming to an end, or has already reach it.
For the purposes of this article, let’s go forward with an athlete whose season ended in September and has signed up for the first half ironman race, the Soma Triathlon in October of 2011. We will also assume the athlete has been “off” since the end of September 2010.
The two images below are a representation of the calendar from November 1st, 2010 through race day (Soma Triathlon) and the second with the standard periodization scheme laid over the top of the 17-week training cycle to prepare for the race.
These articles have been written by the professional coaches at Break Through Multisport and are packed full of useful training and racing information. For more information and articles similar to this, please feel free to visit the 100% FREE Break Through Multisport training and racing blog!
Ryan Riell is recognized as one of the top triathlon, fitness and nutrition experts in the nation. Ryan has been selected by USA Triathlon to give multiple continuing education lectures to USA Triathlon certified coaches on the topic of time trialing and pacing. He was selected by USA Triathlon to attend multiple Elite Coaching Mentorship Programs at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO and the year-long webinar based program. Ryan is the Head Coach of Break Through Multisport Inc., a national triathlon and endurance sports coaching company that has locations in Chicago, IL, Tucson, AZ and Phoenix, AZ, that provides professional coaching for triathletes, swimmers, cyclists and runners of all levels and abilities. Ryan also hosts a free triathlon and endurance sports training blog (http://breakthroughmultisport.blogspot.com) that is packed full of training tips, nutritional advice and racing tactics. Ryan holds two master’s degrees, one in exercise physiology and biomechanics and the second in organic and biological chemistry. For more information, please contact Ryan Riell at (931) 220-7050 or at Ryan@BreakThroughMultisport.com.
Image 1: November 1st through race day in 2011. The green and red shaded boxes indicate the 17 week build up to race day, with the race week highlighted in red.
Image 2: The same calendar, with the standard periodization (red is volume, blue is intensity and yellow is overall fitness) laid over the top of the calendar. The base, build and peak/race segments have been identified in the purple, yellow and orange blocks.
The question now is, what does this athlete do with the other 34 weeks of the year?
I can’t begin to tell you how many athletes that I’ve spoken with that asked their coach or training partner “What should I do for the rest of the year? What should I do before I start ‘training’ for Soma?” Amazingly enough, the most common answer is “take some time off, there is no sense in training until you’re supposed to for Soma” or even better, “just build a bigger base…” If our sample athlete goes down that path, here is what the rest of the calendar will look like.
From what we have seen over the past 4 seasons: if an athlete takes this approach to their off-season… they are simply wasting a LOT of valuable training time. Instead of wasting our athlete’s time, we have created a unique training methodology that has led to a lot of our athletes reducing their limiters and qualifying for multiple American and World Championship races across the globe.
Before we get into the specifics of our unique methodology, lets lay out some facts and terminology so we are all starting on the same page.
1. Limiter(s)
An athletes limiter is aspect of their current abilities (swim, bike and run) that is holding them back from performing better. There is always one limiter that is larger than the others
2. Standard Mesocycles
There are 4 mesocycles we use:
A. Recovery (2 weeks – 4 months)
The recovery phase is where an athlete has a significant amount of off time, with little to no organized workouts, with little to no intensity. This is the time that the athlete recovers both physically and mentally from the previous season. A recovery phase is mandatory, if this is too short, the athlete could be in trouble later in the year.
B. Transition (1+ month)
The transition period is the time where an athlete is between the recovery phase and starting formal preparation for a race or race season. This is the phase of training that we will focus on for the duration of this article.
C. Preparation (8-16 weeks)
The preparation phase is the formal training for a specific event or race season. This is where the standard base, build and peak phases come in.
D. Competition (4-12 weeks)
The competition phase, which usually consists of the peak, taper and race phase, which can be one of two things. First, if an athlete is preparing for a single A-race that is the main focus of their season, it will usually last 3-4 weeks, depending on the distance of the A-race. Secondly, for an athlete who is going to compete in multiple races over a 4-12 week period.
Now that we are all on the same page, here are the steps that we use to ensure massive skill improvements, while putting our sample athlete in the best possible position to perform to the best of their ability at the Soma triathlon.
1. Determine the athlete’s limiters
We start out with an in-depth evaluation of the previous season. Through multiple conversations and an in-depth analysis of the training from the previous season, we identify the main limiters that our sample athlete has.
2. Develop long-term goals for the rest of 2010 and 2011
Long-term goals
Long-term goals are defined as specific, measurable, achievable and controllable. We will develop three (3) long-term goals for our sample athlete:
1.Successfully complete the Soma Triathlon in less than 5:45
2.Ride 56 mile Soma leg in 2:45 or less
3.Run the 13.1 mile Soma leg in 2:00 or less
3. Develop short-term goals for the rest of 2010 and 2011
Short-term goals
Short-term goals are milestones that we want to achieve as we progress through training. In general, we want to keep the short-term goal time frame between 4-12 weeks. The first set of short-term goals that we would develop for this athlete are as follows:
1.Improve 20k cycling time trial from 42:00 to 36:00 by January 1st
2.Improve running biomechanics: increase forward lean (5 degrees to 8 degrees) and extension (15 degrees to 28 degrees) by January 1st.
3.Improve the catch and pull phase of athletes swim stroke to increase efficiency.
If you look at the short-term goals, you will notice that we are only seeking performance improvements in one sport from November 1st to January 1st: cycling. We are seeking biomechanical improvements for the swim and run, which will increase running and swimming economy and efficiency, which will result in increased speed for both sports. After this 9 week block of training, we will re-evaluate where our athlete is at before determining our focus at the start of 2011.
After step three, our calendar will look like this.
I have also added in the future 4-week training blocks that can be utilized and/or combined to create 8 or 12-week blocks if desired.
Another key point is to look at the recovery phase (purple block at the end of May), which is highly recommended for some brief mental and physical recovery before entering a short preparatory phase which rolls into the formal triathlon training.
If we take a look at the next two images, they illustrate the performance or ability gains depending on the approach taken by two different athletes.
Image 5: This graph illustrates a periodized increase in volume (red), while maintaining very little intensity (blue) with the dark green arrow (dotted) illustrating gains in ability.
The graph above (image 5) is showing the gains in ability that an athlete whom is simply “building a bigger base” throughout the first half of the year. This is representative of an athlete who is swimming, cycling and running, with or without any real focus on one sport, more than another. Bottom line: if you put the miles in, you will see performance/ability gains.
Image 6: This graph illustrates a periodized increase in volume (red), and intensity (blue) with single-sport blocks (indicated in orange blocks). The performance/ability gains are shown by sport, with the purple, light blue and black arrows
The graph above (image 6) is showing the gains in ability that an athlete whom is utilizing the Break Through Multisport methodology of single-sport training blocks throughout the first 5 months of the year. When you look at the graph above, you’ll see the performance gains for each sport, as we progress through the single-sport training blocks, with a slight decrease during the recovery phase (weeks 21-23). Bottom line: if you put the time to execute the single-sport training blocks, you will see larger performance/ability gains.
The next graph has removed everything except the arrows illustrating the performance gains from the previous two graphs.
Image 7: This graph is an overlay of the performance gains from the two different methods of training illustrated in images 5 and 6. The yellow dotted line is illustrating the baseline of performance, prior to starting training.
Upon looking at the graph above, it’s pretty clear that if you want to get faster, simply building a “bigger” base is not the best solution.
4. Develop specific training blocks to support the short-term goals in step 3.
Below, you will find the specific guidelines that we use in order to develop a single sport focused training block.
Swimming
With the more motivated workouts, we will combine a swim block with a cycling or running block, ensuring the athlete has enough time between workouts and is fueling properly between workouts. We need to ensure that drills and technique work is given enough time during the swim phase, while carefully integrating upper body strength training during a swim block.
Cycling
In general, we have our athletes that are going through a cycling block ride 5-6 times per week, which usually includes the following:
•2 High-Intensity Interval Training (HIT) sessions per week
•1 longer ride per week
•2-3 base rides per week
The swim workouts we add in are used as recovery workouts, with a high priority on technique and drills to maintain form. The run workouts we prescribe are at a LOW intensity, with frequency being the key. At least one run workout per week is a drill session, where we are able to focus on running biomechanics. We also take great care when adding in lower body resistance training during a cycling phase, to ensure it’s fully integrated into the cycling focus.
Running
In general, we have our athletes that are going through a running block ride 5-6 times per week, which usually includes the following:
•2 High-Intensity Interval Training (HIT) sessions per week
•1 longer run per week
•2-3 base runs per week
The swim workouts we add in are used as recovery workouts, with a high priority on technique and drills to maintain form. The cycling workouts we prescribe are at a low intensity, and are also used as recovery workouts. At least one cycling workout per week is a drill session, where we are able to focus on smoothing out a pedal stroke. We also take great care when adding in lower body resistance training during a cycling phase, to ensure it’s fully integrated into the cycling focus.
Now that you are equipped with the cutting-edge methodology created by Break Through Multisport, you have the tools to make the massive gains in ability that we are all looking for when we train! If you would like any assistance in putting together a training that utilizes these cutting edge methods, please check out our single-sport training plans or feel free to contact Coach Ryan for a far more personalized option.
