In the last post we discussed the importance of planning and making sure that you complete each of the training phases to achieve your race goals.

In this post we will add the next layer to building an effective training plan and that layer is known as balance. Getting the right balance in your  training plan is important because if you mess this up, you can be left broken, tired or overtrained.

The first part of balance applies to the amount of load versus recovery throughout your progression. For most working athletes a 2 week load, 1 week recover protocol is good to follow. Some elite age groupers and professionals use a 3 week load, 1 week recover cycle although I think this is an over kill for most people.

Once you are happy with this progression the next thing to do is balance your week. You want to avoid having “like” sessions close together. Examples of this can be hill sessions next to hill sessions or speed sessions next to speed sessions as this does not allow for adequate recovery. Triathletes have added difficulty as this rule also applies to sports. It is best to keep swims away from swims, bikes away from bikes and so on. As you can see it can really be a balancing act.

It is important to understand that everyone responds differently to training and that most of what is mentioned above will be learned through trial and error over an extended period of time. Once you have your first plan, pay attention to how you feel and take notes. This can be useful when planning your next build up.

Happy training and happy holidays everyone.

This year is over (from a racing stand point) and now is the perfect time to begin planning for the coming season. The thing is, do you know how and what to plan?

When planning, understanding progression and the different phases of training is critical to maximising your time and getting the results you desire.

There are 3 main phases that all build ups (to peak) should go through.

Phase 1 – Endurance
Endurance should be the first phase of any training plan. In this phase the goals are to improve basic fitness, improve technique, reduce body fat, improve fuel efficiency, improve recovery rate and improve tolerance of training.

This is done and summed up by doing long, steady (aerobic) training.

Phase 2 – Strength Endurance
Strength endurance follows endurance and is in my opinion the most overlooked and important phase of training. In this phase the goal is to continue to build you milage / duration, increase strength, reduce body fat, improve fuel efficiency, improve recovery rate and improve tolerance of training.

This done and summed up by long, steady (aerobic), hilly (or paddles, bands and drag shorts in swimming) training.

Phase 3 – Speed
The last phase in the training progression is speed and I caution that speed is a relative term and is probably better described as race pace training. There is nothing fast about an ironman or ultra marathon (unless your are a pro) so there is no point doing 100m sprints to improve your “speed”. The speed needs to be specific to the distance of your event.

The goal of the speed phase is simulate race conditions and intensity so that on race day your mind and body has “been there, done that”.

Now that you understand the progression of training it is important to understand the importance of load versus recovery and how you need to balance this. Check back next week to read more on this.

With roughly 16 weeks to the 2010 addition of Ironman 70.3 Singapore now is a great time to be starting a focused build up so that you can be at your best on race day. This time of year is great for planning and even the pros have started their preparation for the 2010 season.

One of these pros is a kiwi guy named Kris Gemmell (world #8) with whom I spent a lot of time training and racing over the years. Kris is an amazing athlete and a great guy.

This is what Kris had to say in his recent blog about his preparations.

“I’m currently down in Christchurch with the Triathlon NZ high performance squad, We have been busy getting some early season testing done to find some baselines for the training over the summer. It’s always hard to max out in these tests at this time of year, but its very helpful for both coach and athlete to get the necessary feedback that will help with the overall design of the program going forward throughout the season.”

Like Kris, now is the perfect time for you (if you are racing 70.3 or any early season events) to visit the lab and get your baseline figures. When we have the numbers, we can craft a very specific training programme that will help you achieve your goals. The other cool thing with testing is that it allows for very accurate tracking of improvements. If you are a curious (analytical) person then you will love the data we provide.