It Starts With a Plan : Part 2

Triathlete Magazine's Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide: Plans, Scheduling Tips, and Workout Goals for Triathletes of All Levels
by Matt Fitzgerald

(Page 2 of 2)

Tune-up Races

A peak race is a triathlon that you want to be optimally prepared for-fit and ready to produce your best performance. The whole reason training plans exist at all is to make peak races possible. Every training plan culminates in a peak race, and its job is to raise your fitness level as high as possible between now and then.

In addition to peak races, the training plans in this book also have scheduled tune-up races. The only exceptions are the sprint triathlon training plans, which are only 12 weeks long-a little too short to squeeze in a tune-up race. The Olympic-distance plans feature a sprint-distance tune-up race in Week 12. The half-Ironman training plans include a sprint-distance tune-up race at the end of Week 12 and an Olympic-distance tune-up race at the end of Week 16. The Ironman training plans feature a sprint-distance tune-up race at the end of Week 12, an Olympic-distance tune-up race at the end of Week 16, and a half-Ironman tune-up race at the end of Week 20.

There are three reasons to do tune-up races. First, they're great workouts. You just can't push yourself as hard in a regular training session as you can in a race. For this reason, the right tune-up race at the right time can boost your fitness better than any regular training session. Second, tune-up races provide valuable experience in such areas as transitions, race nutrition, and dealing with race discomfort, to help you race better the next time. Finally, tune-up races reward all of your hard work in training. It takes many weeks of sweat and sacrifice to achieve peak fitness. It's a shame to put in so much effort for just one competitive performance. Even though you might not be able to perform at quite as high a level in your tune-up races as you can in your peak race, you can still perform well enough to be proud and feel rewarded for your training.

Of course, the odds are not great that you will always be able to find accessible races of the prescribed distances taking place at the times I've scheduled them in these plans. Don't sweat it. The tune-up race schedules in these plans represent what I consider the ideal scenario. Do what you can to create a race schedule that matches up with the ideal, but don't worry if you have to shuffle things around a little. The principles that underlie the race schedules in my plans are as follow: (1) It's generally best to avoid racing in the base phase, if for no other reason than because you'll probably disappoint yourself; (2) it's best to schedule shorter races before longer races; and (3) it's best not to race too often (one or two races a month in the build and peak phases are plenty).

How to Get the Most Out of These Training Plans

There are 40 complete training plans evenly divided into four groups according to the distance of your peak race: sprint, Olympic-distance, half-Ironman, and Ironman. Not every triathlon fits these four formats exactly, but every triathlon loosely fits one of them. There is no official sprint format. The typical sprint features a swim of about 0.5 mile, a 12- or 13-mile bike leg, and a 3-mile run. The official Olympicdistance format is a 1.5-kilometer (0.93-mile) swim, a 40-kilometer (24.8-mile) bike leg, and a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) run. The official half- Ironman distances are 1.2 miles, 56 miles, and 13.1 miles. The official Ironman distances are 2.4 miles, 112 miles, and 26.2 miles.

Before you choose a plan, choose a peak race-not merely a distance but an actual event of that distance. This event should be at least as many weeks in the future as the training plan is long. The sprint plans in this book are 12 weeks, the Olympic-distance plans are 16 weeks, the half-Ironman plans are 20 weeks, and the Ironman plans are 24 weeks. If you have a buffer of one or more weeks before you need to start your chosen plan, train sensibly in a way that prepares you for the workouts that Week 1 of the plan calls for. If there's less time between now and your peak race than the plans for that distance call for, then the training you've been doing had better look a lot like the weeks of my plan that you've missed!

Choosing the Right Plan

Within each peak race category the plans are ranged according to levels, 1 through 10. As you move up from Level 1 the number of weekly workouts increases, as do the average workout durations, the total weekly training volume, and the amount of high-intensity training.

To choose the appropriate level, look at the brief description of the plans at the beginning of each chapter. These previews provide a few words about whom the plan is a good fit for, plus information about the amount of training in the first week and in the peak training week (the second- or third-to-last week of the plan). Note that swim workouts are prescribed by distance (yards), whereas bike and run workouts are prescribed by time. It just makes more sense that way. In most cases, if you can handle Week 1 of a given plan now, you'll be able to handle the plan as a whole. However, there are exceptions. For example, if the training in Week 1 of a given plan is close to the maximum volume of training you've ever done, it's probably not a good plan for you unless you're a relative beginner and the plan in question is a lower-level sprint or Olympic-distance plan. Use common sense and don't bite off more than you can chew.

Because there are so many plans within each category, the differences between plans of adjacent levels are small. While this might make it a little harder to choose a plan, it also offers some flexibility that makes it much harder to choose the wrong plan. If, after completing a few weeks of a given plan, you begin to find the training unchallenging, feel free to begin subbing in some workouts from the next level up. Likewise, if you begin to feel overwhelmed by your chosen plan, drop down a level for some or all of your workouts. (Note that some workouts on some days are identical in plans of adjacent levels.)

You should never treat a training plan as gospel. It's impossible to always predict how your body will respond to training. When it doesn't respond quite as expected, adjust your training appropriately or your fitness will stagnate, or worse. Training well is about doing the right workouts at the right times, and the only way to do the right workout every time is to be responsive. On the other hand, don't get too creative. These training plans were designed with great care, such that, barring a major disruption such as injury, the amount of fine-tuning you need to do should be minimal, assuming you did indeed chose an appropriate plan. The occasional poor workout performance or stale patch is normal in triathlon training. Stay the course despite these annoyances, trust the plan, and see it through.

You'll notice that all of the workouts are prescribed in codes. The key to these codes is in the next chapter, which presents every format for every workout you'll ever need to do as a triathlete. In each of the subsequent chapters containing training plans you will find a "Quick Reference Guide" that provides only the details of the workouts used in the training plans presented in that chapter. This will allow you to decode the workouts in your plan without too much page flipping. The rationale for the code is economy. Without it this book would have to be about 1,000 pages long!

Finally, be sure to record the details of each workout in a training log. The Appendix at the end of the book is a 24-week blank training log that will get you started.

Copyright © 2006 by Triathlete Magazine

About the Author

Matt Fitzgerald, runner, triathlete, and coach, is a former editor and current contributor for Triathlete magazine. He writes articles for such national publications as Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Outside, Fitness Runner, and the Runner's World Web site, and serves as managing editor of the sports nutrition Web site, Pioneering Muscles.