How Do Triathletes Balance Training?

danceswithwolf

I'm sure I could read about this online but it's nice to have a chat!

How do triathletes in general balance their training? I cycle and I race and find that takes up so much of my week. I'd like to swim more but if I'm cycling round 4 or 5 days and preparing to race it is hard to fit in swimming, let alone running.

It's not even a question of time, more about tiring myself out for racing.

Would tri people tend to do two sports in one day? Or do it all on separate days?

I read that you need to swim 3 days a week to improve and I can't imagine fitting that in at the moment. I have the time to do it as I'm in college but wondering how to juggle the efforts.

Oryx

Get up early.
Cycle 3 times pw not 5
Do split sessions morning and evening, or bricks
Become very efficient with my time
Stop watching tv
Do covert s&c during work

MrCreosote

Depends where you're coming from and what you are aiming for I reckon. If you're coming from no swimming, you'll still improve with 1-2 sessions a week. If you want to focus on tri I'd drop some of the cycling for sure, but if you're entering for the experience/enjoyment then do whatever you enjoy the most- maybe throw in a few short runs after rides?

Despite what people say, you don't need to be doing 15+ hours, 10-12 sessions per week

Bambaata

I generally do this:

Monday - Run (lunchtime) & Swim (Evening - group)
Tuesday - Bike (lunchtime or after work)
Wednesday - Swim (morning) & Run (lunchtime)
Thursday - Bike (lunchtime or after work)
Friday - Swim (morning) & Run (lunchtime)
Saturday - Long bike
Sunday - Long run

Key sessions run and bike wise would generally be Tuesday for bike and Friday for run but depending on how im getting on/phase of training/other commitments. I'm fortunate i can get 40-50mins in at lunchtime

tunney

Slowly slowly catchy monkey.

If over tries to immediately ramp up to the frequency, duration and intensity of more established triathletes one will quickly become sick, injured, jaded, or have a fatigued endocrine system. Slowly increasing frequency of training over many years is the key.

shotgunmcos

Oryx wrote: »

Stop watching tv

Or cycle while watching TV

Early morning swimming
Turbo
Lunchtime runs
Embrace Silly O Clock

rooneyjm

If its not a question of time then 3 session should be no problem. Do 45 min sessions initially, low intensity, build it up slowly. If one of your cycles is a recovery cycle replace it with a swim and short cycle.

Once you go over 8ish hours a week you have to double it up. At the start of last year I was wrecked for about 2 months, sick twice. It takes time, no issues this year.

Peterx

tunney wrote: »

Slowly slowly catchy monkey.

If over tries to immediately ramp up to the frequency, duration and intensity of more established triathletes one will quickly become sick, injured, jaded, or have a fatigued endocrine system. Slowly increasing frequency of training over many years is the key.

Totally agree with this. I have seen so many people who go tri, love it, get right into it, and then burn out after 3 years.
There's a lot to be said for some kind of adaptation of the runners 10% rule.

gofasterdad

Peterx wrote: »

Totally agree with this. I have seen so many people who go tri, love it, get right into it, and then burn out after 3 years.
There's a lot to be said for some kind of adaptation of the runners 10% rule.

If you take a look around at a typical race, the majority of entrants would be between 30-49 years old and within that group, a significant % are likely to have a young family & possibly a full-time job.

On that basis, it's reasonable to assume that a significant portion of triathletes are performing a tricky balancing act of family / work / training.

When family, work & training are all going well, chances are you are operating close to your limit. If one of those stressors were to suddenly increase (children won't sleep, work travel required etc etc) there isn't a huge buffer there to accomodate it. When this happens, you need to reduce the load in one of the other areas. Family will always comes first, so training is usually the area that takes the hit.

What I am saying is that if you take a closer look at some of these "burn-outs" and consider the general age profile of the sport; beyond triathlon, Life is happening to these people and pulling them in all sorts of directions.

I agree with Peterx that a sensible increase in workload would go a long way to avoiding burnout, you can control your training load like this, but other stressors seems to be a little more "lumpy". I had one child and then another one came along, well that was a 100% increase right there! :eek:

BTH

gofasterdad wrote: »

I had one child and then another one came along, well that was a 100% increase right there! :eek:

You clearly weren't training hard enough if you had that kind of time available to you.

rodneyr1981

BTH wrote:

You clearly weren't training hard enough if you had that kind of time available to you.

Says the new father...ðŸ˜႒

BTH

rodneyr1981 wrote: »

Says the new father...ðŸ˜႒

Did you SEE any of my results last year, I clearly did no training.

Johnnio13

interesting topic OP.
Adding to this balancing the O/Hs sporting requirements this can be very tricky.
I use my cycle to work & home X5 as the bike training.
I'm swimming X3 a week but no real plan to it other than increasing the distance gradually. (Still amazes me watching groups swimming 400-500 fs extremely quickly and wonder how I get to that level)
I've always run and can bang out 6-8k every 2nd day
The only real brick sessions I've done is cycle to pool, swim and cycle to work.
First tri coming up. (A short one)

I have caused OH to miss Pilates more than once. Which costs me 12eur everytime!!

rooneyjm

Johnnio13 wrote: »

interesting topic OP.
Adding to this balancing the O/Hs sporting requirements this can be very tricky.
I use my cycle to work & home X5 as the bike training.
I'm swimming X3 a week but no real plan to it other than increasing the distance gradually. (Still amazes me watching groups swimming 400-500 fs extremely quickly and wonder how I get to that level)
I've always run and can bang out 6-8k every 2nd day
The only real brick sessions I've done is cycle to pool, swim and cycle to work.
First tri coming up. (A short one)

I have caused OH to miss Pilates more than once. Which costs me 12eur everytime!!

Always try to have some sort of plan. After this season,try and pick up a group session somewhere.

JohnBee

2 major adjustments I have made to fit training with a 60-70 hour work week and three children.

1. Turbo sessions. Not 2 hours of long endurance, but short 30-60 min focused sessions (trainer road or sufferfest are ideal for this).

2. Combine sessions: swim/run or bike run.

Thus I swim/cycle/run 3 each per week, as follows: 1 swim session, 2 swim followed by run sessions, 2 bike sessions, 1 brick (bike/run) session. I make the brick session my long run. Thus it is only 6 workouts per week. I find split sessions (eg swim morning/run evening) are more taxing, and my current training has allowed me to be aware of training volume/intensity, and gradually ramp up without over training!