Training Frequency - Every Little Bit Counts.

My first week back in training has been a good one. It is a great feeling to be active again, eating how I like to and getting good quality sleep. I have completed 5 rides, 4 swims and 3 runs, along with one all over body strength session and 2 core workouts. I didn’t do everything I had planned to, partly based on time restraints and partly on how I was feeling. I didn’t push myself much but got a good feel for the activities again.

Riding was enjoyable. The majority was done at an easy pace with a couple of sessions incorporating some efforts. Running was limited and the legs showed their vulnerability in these early stages with a lack of ability to turnover with any great speed. Swimming was interesting, as I cut all of my sessions short because my poor core strength and lack of muscular endurance showed through, deeming it pointless to push on too far at the moment. I concentrated on technique and simply logging some base mileage.

Just one week is enough to get me pondering about my current plan for the months ahead. Is it planned well and do I have the right spread of sessions to yield dramatic improvement?

I have been looking closely at my program over the past couple of days and, combined with assessing my weaknesses, I have concluded that a high training frequency in swim, bike, run and core is a major key to unleashing my potential.

Previously, in peak training periods, I have performed 5 rides, 5 runs, 3 swims and just 1 core session per week, where sessions covered necessary training elements of speed, strength and endurance across workouts of varying length. This may seem like enough and it has been until now, which is why my performance improved greatly this past season and enabled me to qualify for the World Champs. However, to go those extra couple of steps, and compete for first place, I must change something.

One particular area which I firmly believe will be improved, by increasing the number of sessions per week, is my swimming. In races, my shoulders and core tend to fatigue very quickly causing a laboured and inefficient stroke. My arm turnover decreases rapidly and I am losing 5 or more minutes to the leaders of my age-group in a half-ironman. I intend to rectify this issue by increasing my swimming to 5 sessions per week. The important thing to remember is that not every session is hard. A couple of the workouts will be just about spending more time performing that exercise and engraining those movements into my muscle memory. The others will have greater specificity and intensity. This is where ‘every little bit counts’. Some days I might only be able to do 30mins in the water but even performing three 30 minute sessions along with a couple of 45 minutes sessions per week is far greater than 3 one hour workouts.

The shorter sessions have the added benefit of producing less fatigue, whereby, I can swim without losing form from being too tired to do things right, and provide good quality training. This is priceless while building other aspects around it, such as, core strength and overall aerobic fitness.

Core strength is another area where I will be increasing the frequency of sessions greatly. 3 or 4 sessions per week are essential. This is not just abs. Your core encompasses the complete abdominal system, lower back and muscles surrounding the hips. A large repertoire of exercises is very useful for targeting all of those muscles but not essential and some solid basic exercises might be all you need.

Again, they don’t have to be huge workouts every time, just doing them more often and with great form will ensure greater swimming ability and should assist running and cycling just as much. So much focus is on your core muscles throughout an entire triathlon without even realising it. Therefore, it must have a great deal of emphasis placed on it during a training schedule to reap the benefits.

The above examples of frequency will be present in my riding and running too. I will be aiming for 6 rides and 6 runs per week, after I have completed my initial 4 weeks of base training. Not all 6 sessions are hard. Some are short but provide much needed mileage and general frequency of performing the activity. For example, you could add a 20 minute run after a hard ride or a 40 minute spin on the bike before a hard run session.

In a training week totalling approximately 20 hours, there is purpose in every minute but those purposes can vary greatly. If you are a triathlete struggling to find enough time to train long sessions each week, I suggest looking at performing a higher number of workouts, with shorter timeframes, for each discipline. Training more frequently for the same total weekly volume will be just as, if not more, effective.

Tell me in the comments below when you have experienced an improvement simply by increasing your training frequency.

Cheers, Lincoln.