Triathlon Fatigue

Casula

Probably sacrilege creating a thread with this title here but keen to hear the views of some of the more experienced campaigners on this topic. What has anyone done to freshen up their love affair with triathlon when the spark begins to fade? Five years into this sport now and remain as dedicated as I can be (usual work/family excuses) but winter base miles boring the ass off me. No running for a few months due to recurring injuries. Still loving the pool work and Marty in the Morning (Lyric FM) soothes the pain of early AM core work. Loose goals for next season include sub5 in Kenmare or AN Other HIM but all too far away to really commit. Any words of advice on how to freshen things up more than welcome....

EC1000

Are you in a club? Training alone?

Kurt Godel

Casula wrote: »

and Marty in the Morning (Lyric FM) soothes the pain of early AM core work.

This is screaming out as your problem. Marty on Lyric is only useful for hard turbo's, as you consider ways to torture that prattering simpleton for infecting the one good station on Irish radio.

Otherwise- goals, times, races, targets... they are the important stuff. What are your pool times like? What would you like them to be? How will you get there?

Casula

EC1000 wrote: »

Are you in a club? Training alone?

EC1000 wrote: »

Are you in a club? Training alone?

In a club which is why swimming is going well but attendance is hit and miss on club spins. Finding club cycles I do make fairly unrewarding. Reasons include: riding flat roads, steady pace, roads too familiar. All sensible stuff I know in terms of building a base but pretty dull.

Casula

Kurt Godel wrote: »

This is screaming out as your problem. Marty on Lyric is only useful for hard turbo's, as you consider ways to torture that prattering simpleton for infecting the one good station on Irish radio.

Otherwise- goals, times, races, targets... they are the important stuff. What are your pool times like? What would you like them to be? How will you get there?

Quite the confession I know but his gags are so bad they're good. Apart from sub5 HIM, sub2.20 hangs out there still for Olympic. Pool times: 6.40 for 400 and aiming to get it down to 6.20 over the next few months. How I get there: club swim coach in control of that and all I have to do is obey. It's the bike that has me lost. Riding flat roads in small ring for 3 hours plus has lost its shine. Plan to hit the hills this weekend to try to liven things up.

Kurt Godel

Casula wrote: »

Quite the confession I know but his gags are so bad they're good. Apart from sub5 HIM, sub2.20 hangs out there still for Olympic. Pool times: 6.40 for 400 and aiming to get it down to 6.20 over the next few months. How I get there: club swim coach in control of that and all I have to do is obey. It's the bike that has me lost. Riding flat roads in small ring for 3 hours plus has lost its shine. Plan to hit the hills this weekend to try to liven things up.

Good luck with the swim. I hear you on the long bike rides- company is the only saviour here. South Wicklow based and living near scenic hilly routes if you're local any weekend.

Casula

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Good luck with the swim. I hear you on the long bike rides- company is the only saviour here. South Wicklow based and living near scenic hilly routes if you're local any weekend.

Cheers. Venture as far as Laragh now and again. Will get in touch when next in those parts.

MrCreosote

Maybe branch out into something else for the winter?

Mountain biking, cyclocross, cross country running if the injuries clear. Mightn't be as good as a strict tri winter training plan, but you know, it's supposed to be fun!

Ceepo

Casula wrote: »

In a club which is why swimming is going well but attendance is hit and miss on club spins. Finding club cycles I do make fairly unrewarding. Reasons include: riding flat roads, steady pace, roads too familiar. All sensible stuff I know in terms of building a base but pretty dull.

Absolutely no reason why you have to stick to flat roads in the small ring. You need to add a bit of verity into the mix. Use on bike session as a power/strength based session. Something like 3 mins on a steady climb in a big gear, will add a different dynamic to your training and will also help develop your strength.

Option 2 ; Get a coach ; )

Fazz

My tips

- mix it up with some strength/weights at the gym. Enjoy how weak you are and the diff muscles used.
Learn your muscle weaknesses/imbalances and work on them.

- get back to some gadgets - use the hr meter and get back to basics enjoying a simple z2 run.
Run a set time - 30/45/60mins on treadmill at fixed pace with hr monitor. Zone 2 stuff. Then track your hr and hr drift. Look forward to repeating this every 7-10 days and monitoring progress as fitness returns.

- do some efforts on bike but try keep below vo2 max as you should be so unfit they would kill you anyway.

- again back to hr on bike, enjoy hitting set times in hr zones knowing you are getting fitter.

- bring the turbo back and do some short intervals - like 5-8 x 3mins at zone 3 initially, then z4 with say 2 mins recovery.

- take time to work on technique in all sports.

- add something different for variability - rock climbing, mountain biking, anything just to help ease back into tri training.

- drop the gadgets - enjoy a simple swim/bike/run with no aim other than enjoyment.

- find some hills. Even if you've to drive somewhere to do some.

- run short intervals at local pitch, easy around then sprint diagonal across pitch, repeat.

- only plan 1-2 weeks ahead and do what you enjoy.

Casula

Run a set time - 30/45/60mins on treadmill at fixed pace with hr monitor. Zone 2 stuff. Then track your hr and hr drift. Look forward to repeating this every 7-10 days and monitoring progress as fitness returns.

Thanks for the feedback. This caught my interest. How do you best replicate something like that on the bike and what should I be looking out for in terms of monitoring progress?