Training Strategy for 2014

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!