Triathlon - Training schedule tips or advise.

in the road cycling section patentcad brought up rest days so i was wondering what others might think about my training schedule in regards to rest.

my schedule has been this for the last 6 months

monday; 6am to 7am swim 3000 to 3500 yards in the pool, typically run 3 miles in the evening after work

tuesday; 1 hour intense spin after work

wednesday; 6am to 7 am swim 3000 to 3500 yards in the pool. run 3 miles

thursday; either run 3 miles or bike 14 miles hard

friday; rest day

saturday; 30 mile group ride 15 miles of it at 25mph pace with parts sometimes to 30 mph then transition to 3 mile run or 1/4 mile ocean swim

sunday; 14 mile bike ride



my thoughts on this is that i am alternating my workouts for the most part that im not burning out on one thing. does anyone thing this schedule is ok or should i rest more?

I at this point am only doing sprint tri's but i want to get to olympic distance next year. just curious what others might be doing. also i am doing recovery drinks beta alamine and fish oil to help speed up recovery.

Rest less, exercise more.

that's pretty vague, can you be more specific?. I am pretty sure my swimming is plenty, probably wouldn't hurt to do more distance on my running but that is my hardest event. the bike, I could do more distance too but sometimes it becomes a time issue. not to mention at times i get sore hips and knees from what i think could be an over usage issue.

Just my thoughts here... but I would mix up the distances more. A short fast run is training for speed, while a long slow run is getting endurance. Similarly for the bike. Each workout should have a reason to it.

Since your runs are all the same (5k) I'm guessing you just run a familiar loop all the time. Don't get stuck in a rut of jogging that same route at the same speed all the time. You have to practice running fast to get faster. Some runs should be longer (work up to 10k) and some should be short and fast (intervals... run a fast 1/2 mile... walk for a bit... run a fast 1/2 mile... walk a bit... run a fast mile... walk a bit... sprint the last 1/2 mile... puke and walk home) Similarly for the bike.

You can only afford a couple of intense workouts (where you are targeting speed) per week. Also don't put the hard runs next to the hard bikes (for obvious reasons), but it seems to be ok to put them next to a hard swim. Also it seems to be easier to plan the long bike rides and runs on the weekends and put the short sprinty stuff during the week.

I'm guessing you are a descent swimming and are building up the run and the bike sections. With that in mind, I might do something like this:

Monday - Swim, hard bike (intervals)
Tuesday - easy run in the evening
Wednesday - Swim, easy bike
Thursday - Hard fast run.
Friday - Swim or rest or maybe and easy bike
Saturday - long bike ride
Sunday - long run

I work out less than that and have no problem finishing sprint tris and am doing an olympic (NYC) in July and have no worries about it...

That said you are probably a much better athlete for all that training. I am an advocate of 2 rest days per week however... but maybe thats just laziness. I have found myself having more effective workouts with 2 days off (not sequentially)

PS run more, 3 miles is a warm up. Your minimum run should be 5... my light days are 5 normally I do at least 7.

Just my thoughts here... but I would mix up the distances more. A short fast run is training for speed, while a long slow run is getting endurance. Similarly for the bike. Each workout should have a reason to it.

Since your runs are all the same (5k) I'm guessing you just run a familiar loop all the time. Don't get stuck in a rut of jogging that same route at the same speed all the time. You have to practice running fast to get faster. Some runs should be longer (work up to 10k) and some should be short and fast (intervals... run a fast 1/2 mile... walk for a bit... run a fast 1/2 mile... walk a bit... run a fast mile... walk a bit... sprint the last 1/2 mile... puke and walk home) Similarly for the bike.

You can only afford a couple of intense workouts (where you are targeting speed) per week. Also don't put the hard runs next to the hard bikes (for obvious reasons), but it seems to be ok to put them next to a hard swim. Also it seems to be easier to plan the long bike rides and runs on the weekends and put the short sprinty stuff during the week.

I'm guessing you are a descent swimming and are building up the run and the bike sections. With that in mind, I might do something like this:

Monday - Swim, hard bike (intervals)
Tuesday - easy run in the evening
Wednesday - Swim, easy bike
Thursday - Hard fast run.
Friday - Swim or rest or maybe and easy bike
Saturday - long bike ride
Sunday - long run

:thumb: this was the kind of input i was hoping to hear, makes alot of sense. i have tried to change up my loop and add some more distance but i have never been much of a runner, right now running 3 to 4 miles is the most in my life i have ever done. i definitely will try to do some intervals to mix it up more.

My advise can be summed up with "On hard days, go HARD; on easy days, go easy; never go middle"

that's a lot of training for just a sprint or an olympic distance. you've got to be worn out by that off day. generally a swim/bike/run/off/swim/bike/run routine will work just fine throwing in a brick on the 2nd bike day every 3rd and 4th weeks. if you know how to train that's all you really need at that level. think about it, do you really need 15k+ to train for a 5k run? if you just want to throw an extra ride or run in that's great but imo you shouldn't feel like you HAVE to. rest is not overrated, don't forget muscle growth and recovery occur durring it.

btw, people have successfully trained for marathons running only 15-20k a week pulling off sub 4 hour times. food for thought.

Ok so this saturday the race happens. this week starting with monday (yesterday) i did 3000 meters in the pool in the morning and 14 mile hard ride (20 mph avg speed) although a little windy and my legs were kind of burnt, followed up by one mile run.... this morning i did 400 meter timed swim before work. my time was 7 min 20 seconds. tonight i am planning to spin for one hour. tomorrow morning plan to do 3000 meter swim. after that i plan to rest up till saturday maybe just walk a few miles to stay loose. any advice on what i might need to do prior to the tri? this will be my first one. i did however go watch a tri this past weekend to see what i will have to be doing and the whole process.

Very, very, very, very, very, bad idea.

There is a certain art to tapering, you want to be working out, but not very hard. For a first tri, not tapering is not terrible, but stopping training completely is. When I was training for my first olympic, i had rest days all throuought the training, but when taper week came i did not.

The idea of tapering is to taper, not to fall off a cliff. Cut your 3000 meter swim to about 1000 yards, but easier, with possibly a few 50m sprints, and a long warm up (I would do about two 300s to warm up-one free one non choice) and move it to thursday.

The run takes the longest to recover, so go on a light 1.5-2.5 mile run tomorrow, a good enough pace to get your heart beating, but not so much that you are breathing very hard.

On friday try biking about 7-8 miles at the same kind of pace as the run. or swap that with a short swim before a shorter bike.

Rest days are very different than tapering, and in general you want about a week for a sprint, to about 4 weeks for an ironman.

Anyways good luck, I'm sure you will have a lot of fun. just stay loose and don't overexert yourself too much.

Rest days are very different than tapering, and in general you want about a week for a sprint, to about 4 weeks for an ironman.


Seriously? A full week of taper for a sprint? Wow.

Maybe take the day off prior to the sprint, and two days prior, don't go full out, but other than that, a sprint doesn't require much, if any taper.

well i suppose this is assuming this is your peak race. I come from a swimming background, and i have been told to spend a week tapering for a single 50 yard race.
If it was a sprint in the middle of a season and there were other races a week would be a bit much.
This idea is more about a speed taper then a nessessity taper. For instance, if you taper correctly you might go faster in a 50m race than if you only spent a day tapering, instead of if you did not taper for an ironman you run the risk of a DNF.

thanks for the advice, i will just train as usual just go a little easier the day or so prior. maybe a light run thursday and go to swim practice on friday as usual just i will do my own thing and not do the whole practice

sounds good. Keep loose and good luck on your first tri!