Changing Things Up

I have reassessed my training format and made some significant adjustments which I started last week. This was prompted by the continuous inability to train properly while working early shift, as well as a need for separating key sessions better for more effective training output.

Previously, I had worked on a 3:1 training weeks to recovery week ratio. I would build up over 3 weeks before having a significantly lighter training week to absorb the hard work and refresh the body, regardless of what shifts I was working. However, during my most recent week of early shifts, I was increasingly frustrated with the inability to get to sleep early enough, the constant state of grumpiness and the illusion that, I didn’t have enough time to complete all of the desired sessions, this caused.

I have now changed my approach to a 2:1 training/recovery week ratio. My early shifts, which come around every three weeks, will now be considered my recovery week. The 14 days of hard training, which actually starts on a Wednesday for me, then takes place on days of late shift and days off only. I find I can get my 8 – 9 hours sleep consistently during those two weeks and I feel much better when training in the morning, before work.

Also, with only having two weeks to build up before recovery week, I now add extra volume to the last 4 days, of the 14, by doing the following:

Day 11: Add an extra swim after my regular long Saturday 5 hour ride/30 minute run session.

Day 13: An extra 4 hour ride with hill repeats in place of my leg weights session, and;

Day 14: An extra 2 hours of easy riding and a swim to add to my 2 hour, long aerobic run.

The other adjustment I have made is to the general layout of key sessions. Previously, I was performing a 2 – 3 hour strength ride on Tuesdays, a 90 minute+ high cadence ride on Thursday which preceded my leg weights session and a long ride on Saturday. These were my key bike workouts. However, I was finding myself being too sore from the weights on Thursday to have a good ride on Saturday.

As I am now extending my long rides to 5 hours and adding in some key efforts in those rides, I want to go into them as fresh as possible. Therefore, I will now do my leg weights on Monday and push even harder. On Wednesday, I will do a 3 hour+ strength ride using really big gears and staying around 60RPM. This will leave 3 days to recover before my long ride on Saturday. I will still ride another 2 – 4 times per week but for commuting purposes or as warm-ups and active recovery.

My running has taken a similar adjustment as I have three key sessions. Long run on Tuesdays pushing up to 2 hours and using some inclines. My new addition is a track session on Thursdays where I am currently doing 8 x 800m at approximately my theoretical 5km race pace, with a 400m jog in between. This pace currently equates to 3:20-3:30mins/km and I am hoping to be on sub 4:00mins/km pace during the run in Mont-Tremblant.

Finally, I do a tempo (race pace) run on Sundays. Previously, I was running tempo for 40 minutes but I have now pushed this up to 60 minutes. I did my first 60 minute tempo this past Sunday and was very happy to average about 3:55mins/km while maintaining a very consistent 92 – 94 RPM leg turnover.

Other runs will include short 20 – 30 minute runs off the two main bike sessions and I do plenty of drills during warm-ups for the key run workouts.

My swimming structure remains the same with attempting to get in the pool 4 – 5 times per week. However, I am starting to up the volume and I’m now seeing some good aerobic fitness in water.

I feel much more comfortable with this new approach. I feel I can train even harder during the two training weeks and stress less during the recovery week. All aspects are improving and that’s very important as the world champs are now less than 10 weeks away.

Are you ready for the world champs? Tell me below.

A Big Month Ahead

I have begun a big phase of focused strength building in my training. In doing this, I will be looking to increase overall volume while being smart with how I break down my sessions to get the most out of each key workout.

This week and next week have an all-round focus on volume for each discipline. Following these initial two weeks will be 9 days of focus on bike and run strength endurance. In those final 9 days, swimming will be backed off to allow for harder work to be completed on the bike and run as well as trying to fit in some extra recovery work, including, essential chiropractic sessions with Dr David Riordan at Holistique Health + Spa (http://www.holistiquehealth.com.au/), in Ballarat.

I have a particular tendency to get very tight hamstrings, glutes and lower back through lots of hard riding in the aero position, among other things, and Dr David puts those areas back in working condition very nicely. Holistique Heath + Spa are tremendous supporters of my triathlon endeavours and I’m very grateful for their services.

One interesting change to my bike training during this phase will be reducing my ‘key’ bike workouts to 2 per week, down from 3. I will perform one long ride up to 5 hours in length with some hill work and race pace efforts. The other session will be 3 hours of predominantly low cadence strength work. I will still ride another 2 – 4 times each week but only at low intensities and mainly for commuting purposes. This will allow me to recover better and put greater emphasis on those key workouts. Not forgetting my weekly leg weights session which is, essentially, like a third key bike workout.

My run training will follow a similar tone with greater emphasis put on key workouts and extra sessions being about active recovery and technique. My key workouts will now be a long run of 90mins+, a 40 – 60min negative split tempo run and, new for me, a track session. The track session is going to focus on 7 – 8 x 800m repeats, above race pace, with a 400m jog recovery in between. I tried it out for the first time on Wednesday and was hitting 2:40-2:45mins per 800. That is about 3:20-3:30min/km pace but I will be looking to get my 800m splits down to around 2:30mins over the next few weeks.

One important factor, I will need to keep an eye on during this phase, is my recovery through nutrition and sleep. Sometimes I get lazy and don’t take in enough protein, fruit and vegetables or good carbohydrates. Or, I procrastinate too much meaning I miss out on valuable hours of sleep. As I draw closer to the race, in September, I must continue to improve each of these areas.

I know I can be smarter with my recovery nutrition, so I went and visited my supporters at Evelyn Faye Nutrition (http://www.completehealth.com.au/) in Bourke St. Melbourne, where I had the opportunity to have a great discussion with one of the resident Sports Nutritionists. I provided an outline of my usual diet and mentioned my recent fluctuating energy and periods of extended lethargy, so, it was suggested to me to increase my protein and complex carbohydrate intake. Other aspects of my diet, including, fruit and vegetable intake, meat sources and supplementation all seem good but as my training increases further, so will the need for protein and energy consumption. I will now try to use my protein powder at least twice a day and eat a sizeable portion of rice every day instead of a couple of times per week.

I’m looking forward to putting all of the above training and nutritional changes into action and anticipate seeing some improvements in overall strength and endurance at the end of this phase. Having that improvement in the bank will put me in a great position going into the next phase where I’ll be training my power and speed.

Please comment below and tell me how your diet changes during different periods of training.

Holistique Health + Spa http://www.holistiquehealth.com.au/ - located at 10 Errard St. North, BALLARAT.

Evelyn Faye Nutrition http://www.completehealth.com.au/ - located at 360 Bourke St. MELBOURNE.