I was in the pool today and since I don't have a way to get Usher or Kesha to scream in my ears while I'm swimming it leaves me tragically alone with my thoughts (yikes)....well here's one I had...
Back story: My husband and I did our first outdoor tri's last summer (only sprint distances) and fell in LOVE! He is an exceptional athlete. Like REALLY good! He is a bit scary good considering the little amount of time he trains and is still knocking off the competition. Well our friend asked us to do a Half Iron in May of this year (now he asked this back in October) and while I said "no" b/c I'm positive I couldn't be ready (c'mon, I did theatre in highschool while my husband was doing two-a-days on his champion soccer team) he jumped on it! I thought it was a bit premature but our "trainer" thought he could be ready since he's such a natural athlete.
Back to the present...we are such tri-newbies that I'm worried he'll do this race and be toast for the rest of the season, so I ask this question, "At what point in your tri career should you consider taking on this type of race?"
The other question that plagued me was, "Should your longer races be saved to later in the year to avoid burn out, or should they be done at the beginning of the season when you're 'fresh'?" Okay, so you see why my swim was burdened today.
Off the subject, but seriously needs to be pointed out...my cardiovascular strength is miles ahead of where I was this time last year! Training ROCKS!!!!
FIrst off, you are smart for asking this question, I have seen too many atheltes do a sprint and next words out of their mouth is "I am doing an Ironman next" Big mistake, can it be done, yes, will they enjoy it, probably not, the problem is that the body needs time to build an endurance base, the jump in distances are big
ReplyDeleteThe natural progression set is
1st season - sprint
2nd season - oly
3rd season - HIM
4th season - Full
Can he do an HIM this year? Yes, he can. ITS ALL ABOUT PACE!!! He will need to slow it down, he cant go sprint pace at a HIM. So lets look at the time limitations for a HIM
Swim cut off: 70 minutes from start of race
Bike cut off: depending on the race org, either 12:30pm or 1pm
run cut off either 5-5:30pm
So if he paces correct he will have plenty of time, even if something goes haywire at the race, still gives time to make it.
When to schedule a Big Race, thats the tough question to answer, I scheduled my 140.6 in September, now I am questioning if I made a wise decision scheduling it at the end of a season. Now, a sprint later in the year is going to feel easy to him compared to the HIM, so less distant races will be ok, because his base is already there to complete a HIM.
Does he like that plan I sent you? If he does and follows it to the letter, he should not blow up due to over training.
Email me if you have more questions
If I could get him to follow ANY plan I'd be happy....he's very stubborn about training. He runs a manufacturing plant that operates 24/7 so his training is sporadic at best. He's TRYING to slow down, but you said it right, he needs to PACE. I'm actually glad you mentioned it, I'll get it back out and see if he'll look through it again. At least we're ALMOST finished with snow here, so maybe he'll be able to follow something a bit better.
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