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welcome suggestion??

HI,
I am currently training for and excited about my first triathlon. I have booked myself into an event on 2 Dec 2012 and 27th Jan 2013. Both are 200mtr swim, 10km bike and 3 km run. The first event is in open water and the second is in a pool. The event host have provided a 8 week lead up training program which my personal training at fermwood ladies gym has incorporated into my training- however we are a bit blind as to what i should be doing in the lead up prior to the 8 weeks of competition phase training. My training Janet thinks i am currently doing to much as may burn out. I dont feel it is too much. I jog 2.5 km each morning and in the afternoon alternate between two swim sessions of 4 sets of 200mtrs and two weights sessions. Most evenings I do a 30 min stationary bike ride. I usually have the weekends off. Each session is only about 30-40 mins. Is this too much in the off session. I am 38yr female with three young children.
As i am a beginner, as suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
DOnna

Comments

  • HarryDHarryD Posts: 425
    Donna

    If you have gradually built up to this training load there is little chance of burnout unless additional stress comes in from elsewhere. Family commitments? If you are sleeping well & full of energy then all is most likely OK.

    I would suggest that your training programme is deadly, deadly dull - this is more likely to make you stale rather than burn out.

    Mix it up. Vary distances and times. Swap the exercise bike for a cross trainer or vario. Do some aerobic or spin or PumpFX or step classes instead of some of your runs. Try bands or the pulley machine instead of weights machines. Try some freeweights. Make every week different to the last. Make it more like play - enjoy every session. When did you last use a skipping rope? Keep the weekend free to recover.

    Then go into your traing programme fresh as a daisy & keep it that way

    Yours

    HarryD
  • gavinpgavinp Posts: 168
    Hi Donna

    Open water event in December - really!? I'm presuming that this event isn't in the UK...? If it is, good luck with that as it'll be a cold one! I also can't think of any open water races running that late.

    Anyhow, Harry is right. Mix it up a little with lots of core work and vary your fitness regime. If your keen to get going, what's stopping you turning the eight week plan into a 15 week plan? that is, start 15 weeks out with the original plan up until week 7 (week 8 is usually winding down ready for the race), and start again right up to race day, but on the second block of training you can up the tempo/distance etc as you see fit for each days training. Your instructer should be able to do this for you quite easily if he/she is following your progress.

    Also, your current regime is (yes dull ) but will also be counter productive. You need recovery time between each type of session to fully benefit from that session (i.e. monday:swim, tuesday:bike, wed:run, etc). You will start doing more than one session a day as you get fitter/better, but you will still keep the same principal as much as possible regards spreading session types out across the week (have a close look at your 8 week program and you 'should' see this as a good example for your sessions spread across the weeks).

    One last thing: Make sure you have at least one clear day recovery (as most training plans are over 6 days per week). That means no training whatsoever! you will feel the benefits of this day off and is very important inyour training schedule

    Have fun!
  • Hi Donna,

    As the other guys have suggested, your body will let you know if you're overtraining.

    If you've built up to the distance and you're sleeping well and eating well...it's all good!

    There's a few good programs available online which you can follow during the off season, there's some on different forums and websites so they will give you a good guide to follow.

    Brent
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