It All Starts Tomorrow!

Well we are over and done with the off-season, out-season, base training, and everything else you can come up with that fills the stretch between the final race of 2010 and the first day of specific training in 2011. Tomorrow is the start of my 12 week build to Racine that will include 3 heavy blocks of training. This is a completely new way that I will be training this year as each block will utilize the standard 4 week rotation, but instead I will go on a 23:5 ratio. I am doing this for a couple reasons. First training for a HIM is not as hard volume wise on the body so I don't think I will need as much recovery and secondly 7 days is just too much time to recover, so I am doing 5 days instead and I will get almost a full week more out of my training.

Last year when I started my training for IMWI I really did the training by "the seat of my pants" and "on the fly". Every week I tried to write down a "weekly" plan, but I never wrote in key workouts and everything seemed to be constantly changed around due to my work schedule and the constant changes it had. One year later, I am at a more stable hourly job and am wiser in my approach to training. I am writing this program completely on my own and adapting to my needs, what I believe will work, and they way I can fit in my workouts. After Racine I will be able to say either this worked very well, or it failed and I will be back at the drawing board. These are a lot of eggs to be be putting in one basket, but at the same time each I will review and tweak my schedule as needed.

Below is a look at my first week of training and what I will be following for the first 3 weeks. I am adding in a lot more intensity into my biking this year, hoping to be much more fit on the bike and stronger when I get off the bike as well. I will start with doing a brick a week, but I intend on incorporating at least 2 bricks per week. Finally another big change that I am doing is the structure of my long rides and runs. At least building into Racine I won't be doing any 100+ mile rides, but instead I will have the traditional Saturday morning rides of anywhere between 3-4 hours, or 60-80 miles. Sunday will be another bike day with a short brick that will follow, and finally Monday will be the day of the long run. I am dividing up my long run this year into 2 runs each time with the first run being about 75% of the total distance. The two main reasons for this is that I can now recover faster, and also I plan to add some harder efforts on the first run as well. Swimming should be nothing special besides 4 swims a week, with Friday being a swim only day and doing my olympic set of 8x200's and eventually switching to 4x400's at the same pace. This is all new and a different approach to training, but the only way it can work is if I am consistant with each day. The way that I have planned this schedule is for many of the sessions to work off each other, especially Saturday-Monday.

Saturday: Long ride (3 hours, big ring only)
Sunday: 60 min TT/T-Run 3-4 mi (8:30 pace)
Monday: Swim drills/Long Run 11 mi (First run every other mi at HM pace, second run easy)
Tuesday: Swim distance set/Bike high cadance ride
Wednesday: Swim/Tempo Run 6 mi
Thursday: Bike Intervals 90 min/Easy run
Friday: Swim only day (Olympic set 8x200's)

This is the plan in a nutshell, now we just need the weather to turn and were are set for a great 12 weeks of training!

BC