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Training between events

Did my first tri (sprint distance) a week or so ago. Thanks to various websites, 220 and the like, I followed a training programme that got me to the event raring to go.



I've signed up for another in late September. I'm interested in any advice that anyone might have about training between events. Should I scale down training for a few weeks and then head up towards a peak again? At this point in the year is there anything I can do to seriously knock some time of my previous attempts? Any thoughts?



cheers



matt

Comments

  • BoycieBoycie Posts: 189
    Matt,

    this isn't an easy question to answer without knowing where you are with your training and how much training you have done. But some basic advice is; you should be fine to resume training by now but it may be worth scaling things down a bit, but without taking too much of a backwards step. You should then look to start increasing your training weekly, much the same as you should have been doing before your race. You have plenty of time before your next race to prepare well, so think about doing some interval training if you feel you are ready for it. Remember not to overdo it though and include adequate rest. I know this is vague, but it's obviously very individual. If you can find a good training programme to work from that fits your training it would help. Listen to your body and look forward to your next race.

    David.
  • rpopper65rpopper65 Posts: 171
    Late September is plenty of time for you to resume training. The best thing is to work backwards from your next race and plan your training accordingly, plus add a week or so of Rest & Recovery training after your last race.



    So, say, for example, you raced on Sunday, June 17th and you hurt a lot of after the race. Then, you would have taken off a day or two after the race to rest and recover, maybe do some stretching and some light exercise. Then, you start to get back into your training routine slowly, working in a few short-distance training sessions at low levels of intensity and gradually building your distances back up without pushing too hard on any one session. You gauge how you're feeling, any aches and pains, and you keep yourself in check, resisting the urge to get back in there too quickly. Keep stretching, maybe learn a few long, static yoga stretches. By now, you're approaching your first weekend after the race and you might normally be planning some long-distance training sessions so, if you feel good and fully recovered, go for the longer sessions, but still keep the intensity down. Leave the stopwatch at home and just go by what feels comfortable without pushing too hard. If all goes well, then next week you'll resume something closer to a regular training routine. If you still have some aches and pains, then keep building up slowly.



    As for the next race coming up, work backwards from that date. Give yourself 1 week before the next race (if it's a sprint, 2 weeks if it's longer) to taper. Before your taper, you should be aiming to reach your peak fitness and maintain that for about 1 week (for a sprint, 2 weeks for longer). So everything between now and that period during which you hope to hit your peak and then taper should be building towards that point. Which means you pretty much should have all of July and all of August to build towards that point.



    You may even want to throw in a "B" race between now and then (say, towards the end of July, beginning of August, and use the race as just another training day, except with official times and simulated race conditions) to gauge your progress and how you feel, without worrying too much about personal bests and all that. Or do your own version of some time trials (mark out a carefully measured distance of say 5k or 10k under controlled circumstances and see how well you run or cycle, respectively, those distances on 2 or 3 separate occasions to measure your progress).
  • mh130mh130 Posts: 6
    David / rpopper



    Cheers for the advice. Had a couple of easy weeks and am now starting to slowly ramp up the effort again. Agree about putting in another race - after enjoying the first one, two and a half months seems to long to wait to have another crack at this...



    matt
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