Training
Strategy for 2014
There is a limited number
of hours in my life for training right now.
I cannot justify to myself the volume of hours that I want to put
in. I need a plan to maximise the training
time that I do have, whilst leaving me relatively fresh to enjoy family
life.
In coming up with a
strategy, I have come up with the areas that are important to me.
- I want to be consistent with my training.
- I want to be injury free.
- I want to see some improvement and not
simply the ability to finish.
I also had to consider
what areas need the most improvement. I
keep coming back to the fact that I come out of the water near the front but
start the run ‘miles behind’. I would
really like to get to the run and feel like I am still in a race with other
people. With this in mind, my focus is
going to be on improving my cycling. I’ve
decided that the best way to do this would be the following:
No swimming until March. In coming to this, I looked at it from a
return on investment point of view. It
takes a lot of time to go swimming when you include travel, time which I haven’t
really got at the moment. I figured that
my swimming will not improve an awful lot between now and then. So given the time and effort, I decided I
would be better served putting my energies elsewhere.
My cycling training is
focused on improving power, focusing specifically on FTP gains. The Garmin Vector power pedals are now on the
bike, so I need to focus and use them properly, targeting training around the
areas that will help me race faster. In
doing this, I have set up my training week to fit in a minimum of three rides
per week: one long ride to build endurance, one ride designed to improve FTP and
one designed to raise my speed / VO2 max.
I’m really fed up of
running related injuries, having had so many over the past two years, so my running
aim is to simply build endurance. This
will involve some slow running, building up slowly from my injury prone start. When running slowly is comfortable and I can
manage a minimum of 3 hours running per week without feeling the effects, I
will consider adding some pace work. For
now, the focus will be to run at or below 150 bpm.
Finally, I have decided to
add a little strength and conditioning work to the programme. I shall be calling on the expertise of a
personal trainer to help me with three things.
Firstly, improve core strength and stability. Secondly, to help with injury
prevention. Thirdly, for strength. This is new for me, so I’m particularly
excited about this.
So to sum up my training strategy
for the next few months, intensity and effort will be focused on both cycling
and strength & conditioning. Run
training will increase from its current low starting point, but keeping any
efforts easy and swim training will just have to wait!
