Training Alterations

Since my trip to hospital a couple of weeks ago and taking the time to analyse some of the sessions I had performed in the week either side of that, I have made a few alterations to what I had originally scheduled in my program.

I identified some things I wasn’t happy with including; speed across all 3 disciplines, maintaining swim technique during longer efforts and bike endurance. This prompted the following changes:-

I consulted my Chiropractor, David, from Holistique Health and Spa, in Ballarat –http://holistiquehealth.com.au/ OR find them on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/HolistiqueHealthSpa – who is a former elite swimmer, and we determined that I was doing too many long intervals that were not allowing me to develop any real speed and not giving me the opportunity to focus on technique at my desired race pace. I now focus on 3 sessions per week of 3kms, including warm-up and cool-down. My strength session involves 5 sets of 400m using paddles with about one minute rest between sets. A race pace specific session with 20 x 100m at race pace, with 15 – 20 seconds rest and a higher speed session involving 20 x 50m with 30 – 45 seconds rest. Any session might exceed 3kms if I’m feeling really good and have the time.

As I get fitter, I can reduce the rest periods, provided I maintain good technique throughout the main set. Also, I will include backstroke, breaststroke and sculling sets during warm-up and cool-down phases to assist strength. Ultimately, I am looking to dial in my race-pace with good technique. These sessions lead me away from my previous habits of doing everything at about the same pace but just altering the distance of efforts. I am pleased to say that I have already seen improvement, in just a couple of weeks, in both speed and maintaining technique under fatigue.

On a side note, I am a huge advocate for the Non-force Chiropractic techniques that David uses. I try to see him every 2 – 3 weeks to maintain my muscular and skeletal health and during these sessions he relieves my knotted muscles, re-activates any areas that aren’t functioning as well as they should – usually my hips – and leaves my body feeling refreshed, aligned and ready to face the weeks of strenuous training ahead.

It is a common misconception that Chiropractors only deal with the spine directly and just want to crack you all over but, with Non-force techniques, this is far from the truth. David manipulates and activates my muscles and nerves to allow my body to operate at its optimal level. This includes all parts of my body, not just my back or neck. I like to have a treatment 3 or 4 days before a race just to make sure everything is operating as well as possible.

I assessed my bike training closely and decided I didn’t need to change too much, instead, just make sure I do my 3 specific sessions each week. However, I did change the schedule to reflect the following; my strength/over gear session now on Tuesday, high cadence and single-leg session on Thursday and leave my long endurance ride on Saturday. In 2 weeks, the strength/over gear sessions will be changed to a brick session with 3 sets of 30 minutes with a 10-15 minute run off the bike.

The main issue had been getting my long ride done on Saturday. As mentioned in my last post, I hadn’t yet done a ride over 4 hours during this preparation. This is key to my cycling development over the remaining weeks before the race. I made the mistake last year of not doing many over-distance rides and my lack of endurance showed in the second half of the bike leg during last year’s race.

With my running, I have been pleased with my improvements and have increased my volume and frequency. I now aim to cover up to 25km during my long run on Sunday on an undulating course. On Wednesday, instead of doing short run throughs on the footy oval, I am doing up to 10 x 1km intervals on the treadmill at 20km/h with a 2 minute recovery at 12-15km/h, depending on how I’m feeling. On Friday, I like to do a leisurely run, for about 10km, outside with some faster efforts towards the end to stretch things out. Finally, after my bike sessions on Tuesday and Saturday I will do a 15 minute run off the bike, at race-pace, or longer if I am feeling good and have the time to.

As you might be able to tell, I exercise the notion of flexibility in my program quite a bit. It is influenced by factors such as, my progression, any problems or things I’m lacking in, time constraints, unexpected events like going to hospital, etc. I feel I have used flexibility well during the build-up and I am feeling confident that I am progressing well towards my goals. I hope it continues.