Triathlon - Distance, building, tapering

Hello!

I am training for an Olympic-distance event September 12. The distances are slightly unconventional: I believe it's a .6mi. swim, 38mi. bike, and standard 10k run. I currently train in each discipline 3x weekly. For swimming, I do one "long" 1500yd. endurance workout, one 6x200yd "sprint" workout, and have my behind kicked by a swim coach for half an hour for my last session. On the bike, I do one "long" 40mi. endurance run, an hour of hill repeats, and an 8x4min interval session. As for running, I just a hilly 10k three times a week. I am more or less a beginner. I started the sport in May of this year and have just one race (a sprint) under my belt.

Thanks for reading so far.

My questions are: Are my training distances adequate preparation for an Olympic-length race? If not, How should I build? And, finally, how do I achieve the fabled taper in the last couple of weeks before the race.

Thanks for your input!

Overall it seems like a pretty good plan but it could use some work.

The swim training seems lacking, but that depends on how naturally good you are as well. How well would you say you swim? (for instance time in a 400 or 500 or at least 100?) If your times are in the 6 minute range for the 500 or the one minute range for the 100, then your swim training can go pretty easy seeing as you would be one of the top swimmers anyway.
BUT I will assume that this is not true because that would place you in the majority of triathletes, and say you should be doing at least 2500 yards a practice(maybe once a week for a sprint workout) and try to have the endurance workouts in the 4000-5000 range. (or 100 100s a 10,000 yard set for crazy people. preferably on the 1:20 interval)

The bike seems good, maybe add a couple of short sprints (like 30 seconds). Possibly add a time trial every couple of weeks (about 15-20 miles, hard... very hard) if you remember the course you can watch your skill level increase

The run training could use some intervals as well, maybe a long flat run to give some variety.

BUT you are forgetting one HUGE aspect of triathlon training. Brick workouts. Do them.
After any of your bike rides, (not all of them, probably about once a week) add a short 2-3 mile run immediately afterwards.

Do you have rest days? Try to get at least one a week

Building should probably for you include higher intensity on the intervals and time trial. Or just more of them. possibly with less rest in between. Swimming just gradually increase your yardage.

And now for the taper. For my peak (not just for completion, for speed) olympic this season, I did a one and a half week taper. The week before you can call hell week, and ramp up the training like none other. The first 4 days, training decreased gradually to about a normal build week, the next four it dropped to about half of that, and the last 3 I had a rest day, a transition day and a slow easy supersprint (that i made myself).

That should be fine for now, If you have any other questions feel free to ask
Good luck!

Thank you Sirious94,

This is very helpful/eye-opening information. First off, your assumptions are correct: my 500 is quite a bit off from 6min. Swimming definitely seems to be my weak link.

Just to clarify--you are suggesting one 2500 "sprint" workout, and one 4000-5000 endurance workout in the pool?

If this is the case,

1)what would be a good breakdown for the sprints (e.g. 25x100?)?, and

2)is the endurance workout simply 4000-5000 of continuous freestyle w/out breaks, or would you suggest breaking it up at all?

Sorry for all the questions. Again, I really appreciate your knowledgeable post.

Thanks

So an average workout for my swim team at each of those distances would go something like this

Warm up-2 300s
8 50s IM progression
25s 50s 100s sprint set with lots of rest to equal 1000 yards
500 warm down
Total 2500

no endurance workout does not mean continuous
Warm up-2 300s
8 50s IM progression
8 250s @ 4 min pace (250s are race pace)
5 200s @ 3 min pace last 50 all out
500 for time
500 warm down

of course though two workouts are never the same, another option is to just to

Warm up-2 300s
8 50s IM progression
45 100s @ threshold interval, sets of 10 probably decreasing interval with 100 cool down in between
500 warm down

Or add in a 1000 for time

Thanks again sirious94.

This looks like a great place to start. Would you mind helping me to understand "pace"--e.g. "8 250s @ 4min pace." Also could you break down "45 100s @ threshold interval, sets of 10 probably decreasing interval with 100 cool down in between." Sorry for my ignorance--I don't have much of a swimming background. I really appreciate your help and look forward to putting your input to good use in my next swim.

With a 3x/week workout schedule in each discipline, a full multi-week taper is probably not necessary. However, the week of your race should be a reduced volume week. Assuming your race is on Sunday:

Monday before race: rest day
Tuesday-Thursday: short-ish, easy-ish workouts with race pace intervals mixed in.
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 30/15 brick workout. Include a few race pace accelerations. try to get in a short swim on the race course if you can, as well.

Good luck!

The pace usually means whatever the distance is for instance: 8 250s @ 4 min pace would mean you do 8 250s with four minutes between the beginning of each 250
And I would agree that a full multi week taper is not necessary for an olympic, but I generally taper for speed as opposed to completion

track splits work very well for 10k's. basically do 400m splits with 1:00 recovery time at race pace with the splits equalling 6-7 miles. pace them so you're finishing each 400m split with a +/- 15 second time. you might also want to try pushing past the 10k barrier. 12-15k once a week will allow your body to adapt to a longer distance and increase your 10k speed.

your bike and swim look fine. you may want to add a little to the long ride to hit maybe 50 miles for the same reason as the run distance increase. i'm not a swimmer so my take is that for just .6 miles doing 2500m in a session is overkill. the time would be better spent increasing bike or run speed or even transition and brick work. if i were training for basically a sprint distance swim i'd be lucky to do 1500m. i've finished an 800m sprint without even training in 15 minutes. i think you are fine unless you really struggle in the water.

Don't know if it'll help at all, especially because I don't remember the majority of our workouts, but when I was on the swim team, we would warm up with a 1000m SKIPS (swim, kick(with a board), IM, pull, swim, 200m each). We also did salmon runs, which we swam 25m, got out, did 5 push-ups, and got back in; don't remember the length but probably ~200m worth. We'd typically swim 2hrs a day, 6 days a week, and an extra hour on tuesdays and thursdays. Of course, a tri isn't just swimming so unless you plan on not having a life, I'm not sure I'd actually suggest swimming that much, but those salmon runs will kick your a**!

oh and also to build lung capacity, we'd swim laps with only taking one breath (take a breath, do a lap, take a breath, do a lap, etc. yes it hurts, no I don't think I ever once completed a 200m without taking a few extra breaths, and I don't think we ever did more than a 200m like that in a given week)