DIY Triathlon Training Plan - Fine-tuning The Schedule - Getting Ready To Set Up The Workouts

Having a schedule, a plan to get out there and do a workout, is one thing but when the time rolls around, what are you going to do?  To put is simply, you just have to do something, just start swimming, biking or running, get your body moving.  In fact, you might have already started and you haven't realized it yet:

1. Are you coming from a run background?
2. Are you in a masters swim program?
3. Do you have a regular group ride or take a spin class at your local gym?

If you answer 'yes' to any of those questions, you're already on your way to training for triathlon.  Looking at triathlon training in the simplest way, you just have to swim a few times a week, run a few times a week and ride a few times a week.  In order to get the most benefit out of the time you spend training, though, and in order to keep in interesting, you can add some variety to your workouts in terms of the duration and intensity of the sessions.  But you don't have to go think about that yet.  The first goal in a training program is to establish habits by getting into a schedule that works with your left.  In order to do that, I am guided by two principles in setting up my program:  the K.I.S.S. Principle and the F.I.T.T. principle.  

The K.I.S.S. Principle

Most of us know have heard this one at some point in their lives:  Keep It Simple, Sister.  (Yes, I know there are some other options for that second 'S' but I thought I'd use a friendly one).

Quite simply, you could train for a triathlon by simply swimming a few times a week riding a few times a week and running a few times a week.  Overall, you just want to build up the total duration of your workouts and your overall weekly training load to the point where you can cover the race distance in some of your training sessions.  For a shorter distance like "Try a Tri", Sprint or even International/Olympic distance races, most people will be able to build up to and even go further than the race distance either regularly or at least once or twice before the race:

• You'll  swim 750 meters or longer in a swim workout. (1500 meters for Olympic or Standard International distance).
• You'll do a bike ride of 20 kilometers (or 12 miles) or more in one of your bike rides. (40k for Olympic distance).
• You'll run 5 kilometers (3 miles) in one of your run sessions (10k or 6 miles for Olympic distance).

If you can cover all 3 of those distances (or 2 1/2 of them), you'll be able to finish a Sprint or Olympic distance triathlon.  The workouts don't have to be fancy, you don't have to worry about intervals, hills, or even tracking your workouts on your GPS watch.  Just get your body moving over the goal distance and you'll get there.  It really doesn't have to be complicated.  You've got this!

The F.I.T.T. Principle

This is so simple to remember, it's always stuck with me as the overriding guideline to setting up my program and each workout.  

F - frequency - How often do you train and how many workouts of each discipline do you do each week? 

I - Intensity - How hard do you have to push yourself in each session?

T - Time - How much time do you commit to training every week and in each session?

T - Technique - Proper technique will help you prevent injury and over-training can cause form to deteriorate and increase your risk of injury.

To set up my training plan, I first go through each of these principles in terms of my approach to the weekly schedule as whole.  But, following the first principle of KISS, if you want to keep it super simple and still get to your first race, as long as you deal with the issue of "Time", you'll be fine.

Time To Train - Filling Out Your Triathlon Training Plan

There are only so many hours in a day and days in a week and you have other things to get through in your day besides training.  For many or even most of us, your available time daily and over the week will be the limiting factor in your training.  If you can only spare 30 to 60 minutes a day to train, if you can 'only' train once a day, those are the factors that will form the basis for your training schedule.   Now, before we start marking down the goal duration of your daily workouts, you just have a few points to consider.   

How long should your workouts be?  

They'll be as long as they need to be or as long as you have time available to fit them in.

1. Some days you'll have more time and some days you'll have less and that's OK.    If you have more time, train a little longer and then on the days you have less time, you'll know you've banked some time.   
2. Not all workouts need to be race distance or longer.  On the days you know you'll only have a short block of time, include a short session as either a recovery day or a quality day.  A recovery session will be short and easy and is just intended to loosen you up, work out some kinks and get the blood flowing or even just to enjoy the fresh air.  A quality day will have some short hard efforts that will help improve your fitness, speed or strength.
3. Save your longer race distance or longer workouts for the days when you have fewer other commitments.  For example, if you work Monday through Friday, you'll likely schedule your longer workouts on Saturday and/or Sunday.

Mark your goal workout time on your triathlon training plan.

1. If you are in a master swim group and the workouts are 60 minutes, put that on the schedule.
2. If you take a spin class and the session is 45, 60 or 75 minutes, mark that on the schedule.
3. If you have a weekly group run, you got it - put in on the page.

Here's what my program looks like now:

(Disclaimer: I am training for a half ironman distance race so the overall volume and the weekly 'long' sessions are more than you'd need to race shorter distances. Having said that, this is lower volume than some people might do for half ironman and that's OK too. This is what fits into my weekly routine right now.)

Now it's time for some brutal honesty on my part:

1. 1. This is as far as I go in setting up my own triathlon training plan.   I fill in the workout details as I go.  
2. 2.  Yes, I do interval sessions on the bike and run where you see red squares but I don't plan it out in advance. I have a few 'go-to' workouts that I rotate through for my run sessions and I pretty much let the weather dictate which one I do on  a given day.  Today (Friday), the roads are icy so I'm going to do my run speed session on the treadmill.  
3. 3.  My Tuesday & Saturday rides are coached sessions so I just do what I'm told.  Ok, since I promised honesty, I have to admit that I lead the Tuesday bike workouts so I do make a conscious plan for that session.  Again, I have some favourite 'go-to' sessions that I repeat and build on regularly.  I'll share those with you, absolutely, but that is a topic for another day.  
4. 4. Periodization:  You'll probably hear this term and, in simple terms, it refers to the change in training volume and intensity as you move through the season and move towards a race.  I actually don't do anything more formal than build up training distance until a few weeks before a race. Then in the last few weeks prior to the race, I reduce the volume but I don't follow any hard and fast taper formula.  My "taper" is more pragmatic:  when the bulk of the training is done, I change my focus to catching up with other things in life, resulting in what I call my 'accidental taper'.  You might want a more formal approach to periodization as you gain more experience or if you have specific performance goals. 

In the next issue, I will work through a specific low volume training schedule, including sample workouts, that is based on just 6 sessions in total per week.  Yes, I'm going to take you back to my early days, when my triathlon journey was just starting. 

Until then,  K.I.S.S. yourself a schedule that works in your own life:  go train already!