Early Season Training

Many athletes use the early season (winter/spring) to focus on improving a single sport.

Generally, the greatest triathlon gains come from building overall endurance and cycling strength by increasing our focus on the bike. However, for many of us, this simply isn't practical once the weather turns chilly. As I write this in Boulder, there is snow on the ground. Good thing that I am off to Noosa in three weeks.

So what to do? Well, the first thing to remember with early season training is that it is EARLY! You have a long year ahead and you don't want to burn any material mental toughness with your program.

We also need to consider what aspects of our previous program held us back -- you'll be tempted to return to old patterns -- such as my personal challenge... overtraining!

Your overall goal should be to build the platform (endurance, strength, nutrition, flexibility) that will support your late spring and summer training.

Here is one protocol that is highly effective. I've used it several times in the past on both myself and my athletes. I hope it helps you.

Pace your season like your races.
Be strong at the end.

gordo

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KEY things for a running focused early season...

**HR <= the lower of (a) MAP; and (b) the top of steady run zone. Follow this at all times. Note that this cap will let you go a bit "harder" on the bike (up to mod-hard) and in the water (mod-hard to hard RPE). However, remember that this is the cap, not the target -- I'm not smashing myself just yet!

**You need to trust this protocol as you will be able to easily exceed. I'm constantly slowing myself down these days. Most people simply cannot follow this protocol -- they are too attached to their ego in training and racing. If we want different results than the masses then we need to train smarter than the masses. This is how we create continual improvement -- you can rush yourself back to last year's fitness, and that may be fine for some. Personally, my goal is to take myself into a whole new level of fitness. This is how I moved my IM run consistently under three hours.

**If you compare your normal base training heart rates with the "ceiling" then most will see that they have been doing a lot of tempo within their previous base periods -- pretty much all year, all days! This results in a narrow aerobic base, relative to our personal potential.

**The purpose of increased run frequency is time-efficient widening of the aerobic base as well as increased leg durability.

**With the HR cap, there will be walking on hills -- if I can walk then so can you. Your humility will serve you well on race day.

**Run duration isn't a key metric. Simply run 45-60 minutes each time, follow the cap, make sure that you have at least one day per week without any lower body work. For advanced athletes, after you've done 3-4 weeks of this protocol, you could add a second run on one day; or a long hike instead of your run -- keep the rest day! After 6-8 weeks you can add a longer run. However, the greatest gains come from volume built through frequency -- not longer or faster runs.

**Keep swimming -- focus on building bilateral relaxation -- get your continuous, relaxed, bilateral swimming to the point where you can swim 4,000 meters without stopping -- pace does not matter. A gradual build up over 12 weeks should be plenty of time for an experienced triathlete. Don't swim hard, don't bother with TTs, swim relaxed and as often as fits your life. This is how I moved my swim sub-60 minutes.

**Strength training 2x per week -- start embarrassingly light, perfect form, slow and relaxed. Be humble. Free Weight Squats are the single best exercise in the gym -- learn perfect form and how to rotate your pelvis forward/down to protect your back.

**Bike -- real low volume or placed on hold when stretching the run frequency.

**Yoga -- 3x per week for the first 12 weeks of the season. Huge upside here -- if you have a non-tri spouse/partner then do it together. Again, most people will not invest in this aspect of their portfolio -- as a result they tend to experience reduced economy and increased time lost through injury.

This gets you to...
Swim 3-4 hours
Bike 0-2 hours
Run 5-6 hours
Strength 1-2 hours
Yoga 3-4 hours

Total = 12-18 hours per week. A stack for any working athlete and most people (living in the real world) will have to trim duration to get to 8-12 hours per week.

Remember that a moderate program applied with outstanding consistency over a long time is what builds fitness. You want to be a rock star at the end of the summer, not in March!

For reference, this sub-9 hour IMer is 12-15 hours per week right now including my walking and yoga. I'll stay here for a total of six weeks. That's AFTER a month of zeros and walking. I could easily tolerate more (volume, intensity, frequency) but, I think, that would risk my ability to hit it when it matters and I'd start to skip yoga!

Testing -- do a MAP test (run) at the start of the season and every three weeks thereafter. FYI -- my first result was 7:10 per mile (average) in early October -- personal best from 2004 was 6:00 per mile. I'll test again around Halloween. I use three miles -- you want to choose a distance that will give you about 20 minutes of running after a 15 minute warm-up. With
cool down that is a 45 minute session