Question:
I'm trying to do a triathlon in
May that is between sprint and olympic
distance. I haven't run in years
and don't have any bike background,
so I need to do a lot of work. I
swim in a Masters program about
eight hours per week in four workouts
to total exhaustion and don't want
to give that up. Can I train for
this in only four hours per week?
Does anyone
have any suggestions for how to
time bike/run workouts around the
swimming? If I run before swimming,
I am extremely tired by the end
of the masters practice. If I bike/run
on alternate days, I never have
a full day of recovery and I keep
reading that recovery is necessary.
I do weight workouts three days
a week and so am already at seven
workouts a week before adding bike/run.
Does active
recovery really work? Or should
I make certain I have one full day
off a week? And how many weeks should
I build up before I can handle two
workouts a day without making myself
likely to be injured or overtrained?
Answer:
I'm just getting started also and
honestly, I'd think you might want
to cut down on the swimming to make
some more time. Sounds as if your
swimming background should be more
than adequate for that leg of the
event, so you could drop down to
two swim workouts a week (four hours
of swimming is at least six times
as long as you'll spend swimming
in the race) to catch up on biking
and running. You can do a lot of
biking or running in four hours
-- way more running than you'd want
to do at the outset due to the risk
of injury.
Two swims,
two bikes and two runs a week is
the same as the beginners' program
in Triathlete over the last couple
of months and isn't too time-consuming.
In fact, the toughest week in that
program is still three hours shorter
than you're already doing with just
your swim workouts!
If that isn't
enough, you could drop a weight
workout. You should be able to maintain
a decent level of strength on two
workouts a week. Also, you can use
your runs or shorter bike rides
as a warmup for strength training
logistically, that usually works
better than lifting after swimming.
Triathlon
training is largely about balance.
If you are swimming 2-hour workouts
four times a week there is no way
you're going to be able to balance
that with running and biking, the
two segments of the triathlon in
which you are weaker and which actually
comprise an exponentially larger
portion of any race. A key rule
in multisport training is to spend
more time in the discipline(s) in
which you are weaker, and less in
the one(s) in which you are stronger.
