Ryan Bickerstaff

The first two weeks of this new triathlon season have come and gone without much to note, which is a good thing sometimes.  At the beginning of last year’s season, I was really focused on swimming a lot more than I ever had.  Until my foot started hurting in June, everything seemed to be going great with running, too.  I got a little bit of a late start with biking, and although I did some strength training pretty regularly, I was always doing the same thing without much of a progression plan.

I’m doing much better this year as I’m organized and have a pretty solid plan for all three sports and strength training.  I have the first 12 weeks planned out, consisting of primarily aerobic training.  I’ll be doing some shorter faster efforts along the way based on a lesson learned last year.  I think one of the reasons my foot started hurting was because I went from almost 100% aerobic running with normal training shoes to faster workouts in racing flats.  I have some new running shoes that work well in both aerobic runs and workouts, so by mixing in some faster work occasionally, the transition to race preparation workouts should be less jarring on my body.

My planned weekly schedule is along the lines of:

Monday: Bike, Swim
Tuesday: Run, Swim, Strength Training
Wednesday: Run, Swim,
Thursday: Bike, Strength Training
Friday: Run, Swim
Saturday: Bike, Swim, Strength Training
Sunday: Run, Swim

My swim progression through the first 12 weeks of the season is planned to be (in kilometers): 26, 28, 30, 14, 28, 30, 32, 15, 30, 32, 34, 16.
Comments: This is somewhat along the lines of what I was doing last year, but I am really dropping off in volume once every four weeks.  I think this will help my body rejuvenate and better adapt to the training workloads.  Plus, since I’m being more consistent with biking, I’ll probably need the rest even more. 

My bike progression (in hours): 4, 5, 6, 2.5, 5, 6, 7, 3, 6, 7, 8, 3.5.
Comments: The past year I tried to get in 6 hours a week, but it didn’t happen very often.  By easing into it and starting off more gradually, hopefully it’ll be easier to be consistent with 6 or so hours a week during the racing season. 

My run progression: 2:00, 2:20, 2:40, 1:10, 2:40, 3:00, 3:20, 1:30, 3:20, 3:40, 4:00, 1:50.
Comments: I need to be gentle with the running given my foot problems the past year.  I was doing 4:00 per week consistently during aerobic training prior to my foot injury, and I was having a lot of success.  So, as long as my foot is willing, I’d like to get back up to that level.  The difference again this year will be doing faster efforts occasionally so that my foot adapts to the extra force gradually.

My strength training progression: there are several sport-specific exercises I do plus some core and hip stabilizer exercises I do.  I will be doing 3×15-18 @ a 20 repetition maximum weight level.  In weeks 9-12 I plan on starting some plyometric exercises as long as everything else is going smoothly.

If I manage to do all this, my non-recovery weeks will range between 15 and 24 hours.  24 hours is around my lifetime maximum, but I plan on trying to be smart and readjusting training levels if necessary.  Most likely I’ll take volume off the swimming if needed because I think the marginal benefit in doing 30,000m instead of 34,000m isn’t as much as the extra hour of biking or running.  Keeping with the strength training will provide more long term benefits, so it’ll also be a focus.

If all goes according to plan, towards the end of February or the begnning of March I’ll be ready for race specific training in prepartion for the Pan American Championships in Oklahoma City in May.

Filed under: Training