The plan for the year

So I’ve spent a long time hemming and hawing over how to train this year.  Something new?  The old reliable?  What?

Well I spent a bit of time looking at my training log for my 3 tri seasons to date, done a lot of reading, and thinking.  And I’ve come up with a basic strategy that will work and [hopefully] give me great success this year.

I’ve decided to use a different structure for my basic week this year.  I’m pretty happy with it, but the long run on Friday Morning will be a little rough.  Have to stay very motivated to make sure it never gets written off.

Monday: AM – Long Swim (Not until 4/28) PM – 45-60 minute easy runTuesday: AM – IM Swim followed by short, easy run PM – BikeWednesday: AM – Med Run PM – Easy BikeThursday: AM – Temp Swim PM – BrickFriday: AM – Long Run PM – BikeSaturday: AM – Long Swim PM – Maybe a bike/run, but not likelySunday: Long Brick

I plan to break my season into a several distinct phases, some short, some long, but each with a single distinct goal.

Phase 1 (Now – 3/23/08)This phase is all about raising my bike FTP, and doing some minimum maintenance work on my endurance.  The focus of the week is a ~90 minute bike workout on Tuesday and Thursday that is focused on building my FTP.  Friday AM I’ll do a 1:45 – 2:00 run, and then a 3:30 brick on Sunday.  Depending on what life throws my way some workouts may get moved to make sure I get in the two hard rides.  Wednesday morning will have some minimal run speed work – no more then 15 minutes total, although it may be built into a 45-60 minute run.

Phase 2 (3/24/08 – 4/13/08)This phase is fully focused on preparing for a Half Marathon on April 12th.  It’s only 3 weeks, but I will sacrifice a lot of swim and bike time to be able to do some very high quality running.  Going to use a prebuilt running plan for a 35 minute 10k.  Goal for the Half Mary is 1:17 (5:57 for 1:17:59).  It’s an extreme stretch goal, but I think with some hard work I think I can make it.

Phase 3 (4/14/08 – 4/27/08)Recover and regroup.  Take it easy, just a bunch of unstructured training to decompress and recover from the Half Mary and the high intensity training.  Reset my internal difficult perception gauge.

Phase 4 (4/28/08 – 5/20/08)LSD Base phase.  Just pure volume, no real bike quality workouts, no real quality running workouts.  Only quality will really be swimming centric.  Mostly just pure Steady State Training – reignite the aerobic engine.  End the month with the Triple T.

Phase 5 (5/26/08 – 7/20/08)Balance training.  Mostly LSD/SST work, one  quality bike/run per week.  Nothing like the workouts in Phase 1 and 2, but enough to stimulate all systems and get all cylinders firing.  Rockman 1/2 early in the period, and ends with "Stotan" week.  Plan to follow the 8 week ME bike plan from page 120 and 121 of Going Long.  Run will be basic tempo runs – NO TRACK!

Phase 6 (7/21/08 – 8/17/08)Specific race prep.  Focus is on preparing specifically for the IMWI.  End with Pleasant Prairie Olympic Tri

Phase 7 (8/18/08 – 9/7/08)Taper and Race.