March 15 First Round of "Tom's Tri Tips"

Tom’s Tri Tips – March 15


At this point you should still be building base endurance. Your goal should be to reach a point where you are at least comfortable with the distance for each race part, or even better, twice the distance of each race part (for a sprint triathlon). If you are not at these (or following) distances yet, build gradually, adding not more than 10% - 15 % per week. You gotta avoid injuries!

At about 12 weeks out, you should be adding intensity to some of your work outs.

You should have at least three runs per week. One run for basic endurance – 3 to 6 miles at a comfortable pace. Don’t push it. A second run should be something like intervals – maybe starting out with three or four 440s at a little faster than goal race pace. Make sure you warm up for at least a mile and cool down afterwards with another mile. A tempo run should be your third weekly run at – Maybe 2 or 3 miles at a tad slower than desired race pace. A word of caution might be to avoid consecutive run days. You are most vulnerable to injury and/or illness with the run work outs.

Similarly with swims: 2x race distance for endurance, one day; intervals another day; and maybe a tempo swim the third day.

Hard to advise on the bike. Get it out three times a week and ride 15 – 30 miles once or twice a week. Push the pace some, at least one day a week. Maybe on the third day do some bike intervals and/or hills, carefully. Maybe after 30 to 45 minutes, you do a brick – get off the bike and try a comfortable mile or two run. The bricks can wait ‘til about six weeks out but will be an important component of training.

Recovery could be the most important part of your training and could be the key to keeping you in the race! Again, recovery is most important after run workouts. Swims and easy bike days can be good “recovery workouts.”

Schedule one day off per week. The body needs it. Consider every fourth week an easier week. Cut back a little on time and intensity for that week.

You will be amazed at how good you feel and ready to crank it back up.

When in doubt leave it out. If you feel run down or sore and doubtful about a workout, better to skip it and resume the next day.

Have you set any race goals? Write them down, but keep them to yourself so as not to add undo pressure on race day.

Write a day by day plan like Janet sent out. It will help you stay on track with training and goals.

More to come later on transition tips, technique and form, equipment, nutrition and hydration, and race day checklists (it actually gets hectic trying to keep up with all the race day details for all the things you will do from rising until finishing the race).

Tom