Post injury - wanting sub 40min

[dale_8888]

I usually ride by feel, so if my legs are sore I'll just go and take it easy but try and get 2-3 quality sessions in a week.

Swim, I always feel good so I sometimes have whole sessions that are hard and other times I just have brief segments that are hard e.g 4x100 as I like to swim at my goal pace every session.

I'll have a look at doing a similar format for the rides and see what I come up with.

[dale_8888]

3 week plan: See what you think. Organsied as...

day XX: , ,

day 01: easy, interval, long easy
day 02: hard, long easy, easy
day 03: hard, easy, 2km intervals
day 04: rest
day 05: hard, easy, long
day 06: easy, brick, brick
day 07: hard, long, long easy

day 08: hard, easy, 1km intervals
day 09: hard, long easy, easy
day 10: easy, TT, long easy
day 11: rest
day 12: easy, easy, 5km paced
day 13: easy, tempo, easy
day 14: hard, long, easy

day 15: easy, power, speed
day 16: hard, long easy, easy
day 17: hard, easy, fartlek
day 18: rest
day 19: race/rest, race/brick, race/brick -if no race, no swim, just brick
day 20: race, easy, easy -- only race if didn't race day before
day 21: easy easy easy

What do you think?

[dale_8888]

TheEd,

I know you said hold off from the brick sessions until the weekends but this is the start of my weekend Also, yesterday I was planning on doing the 2km session but didn't get around to it and didn't run at all. I was planning on doing an easy one today but it was late before I could even get on the bike, so I ended up doing a brick session.

Bike 34km, Run 6.2km

Bike av HR 160, tried to keep it below 165.

Run:
km pace av HR max HR
1 | 5:18 | 147 | 167
2 | 5:00 | 164 | 169
3 | 5:13 | 160 | 166
4 | 5:17 | 161 | 164
5 | 5:12 | 160 | 166
6 | 4:58 | 162 | 165
X | 4:51 | 165 | 166
total: 6.25km, 32:11, av: HR 159, pace 5:09.

The run was firm, but when it started to feel hard I just slowed down.

I am going to try lower my HR during the ride in these brick sessions as I think I am wearing myself out a little too much on the ride for the run.

Don't worry, tomorrow will be an easy jog

What are your thoughts on the above?

[TheEd]

hopefully you able to get to a level where cycling can be beneficial

the great secret is to master the true 'spinning' of cycling for the rides in-between the hard run sessions

low gear and high revolutions

total spinning

this will work you aerobically without taxing the legs

you have to have how you sit on your bike closer to perfection, the exact saddle height etc specifically to your needs

once you achieve this you will be able to start getting balance in the right way

good luck

TheEd

[dale_8888]

TheEd,

Since last time I have run Fri, Sun, Mon and today. I rode Sat and Sun.

Fri run av HR 139, av pace 7:04/km, 7.7km total, I think it was because I did the brick session the day before?

Sat ride nice and easy and I was working on 'spinning'. It starts to get challenging around 120RPM as my pedal stroke is not even and I start bouncing. HR rises fairly quick with that RPM too.

Sun ride - was meant to be my long, steady ride but I did a 2hr MTB instead, which was particularly hard, but was set out more like intervals with the stopping. I think I have been missing this from my training as I was a lot weaker on the MTB than I was before.

Sun run - 12km pace 6:43/km. HR monitor went nuts so HR data was nuts, but last 4km it settled down averaging 6:28/km HR 142.

Mon run - was very very humid which I think slowed me down, so I just increased the HR a bit, still felt easy. pace 6:15/km, 5.6km total, av HR 150

Today - I was going to do the 2km intervals but I was feeling lazy It's a first for me, so I started out with an easy jog and loved it the more I did it so I did a 4km TT (probably about time). Splits below:

km time av HR max HR
1 | 3:56 | 166 | 179
2 | 3:57 | 179 | 181
3 | 3:56 | 181 | 183
4 | 3:55 | 182 | 184

4.0km, 15:43, av HR 177. Conditions - Road, about 20C, light drizzle. Roads were pretty much flat, slight undulations and I had 1 turn around point. Measured on google maps track was 4.1km where as last 4km TT was 3.9km in 15:57.

What do you think this means for my interval times?

I am going to set a premature goal of less than 20min 5km. I think I could have done that today without too many dramas! What do you think this 4km TT roughly relates to for 10km?

[TheEd]

Sat ride nice and easy and I was working on 'spinning'. It starts to get challenging around 120RPM as my pedal stroke is not even and I start bouncing. HR rises fairly quick with that RPM too.

Try to focus on getting this right as good technique is the most important aspect of cycling and changes the game of cycling completely

check this over and over again until you achieve the smoothness

your 4k time would give you a 41 minute 10k though closer towards 42 minutes

making progress. A sub 19:30 5km has you getting closer towards 40 minutes

TheEd

[dale_8888]

Hey TheEd,

I was pretty lazy last week. Didn't do anything after the 4km TT on Wednesday before Sunday where I did a bike TT (25km) then a MTB about 10 hours later.

I thought about what you said about the spinning and thought I'd give it a bash. I'm also going to stick to your training plan more rigidly after I finish this race on Sunday as I am switching my focus towards running. My last tri is in early April so I think my swim won't drop too much between now and then but ride and run might pick up a bit.

First of all did an easy jog today. 8.3km, av 6:13/km, av HR 139.

Wasn't sure on the best way to go about the spin session so I just started easy then did 1min spin, 1min easy. Just to let you know the bike TT I averaged 222W, so I think threshold would be roughly 200W. Based on that I aimed to be doing about 100W at 100RPM. This session was done on rollers as well. Let me know what you think.

Time av RPM av Power max Power av HR max HR
5:01 | 96 | 103 | 155 | 135 | 142 ------ Warm up
1:00 | 120 | 130 | 147 | 149 | 155
1:00 | 102 | 98 | 130 | 149 | 155
1:00 | 121 | 132 | 156 | 150 | 158
1:00 | 100 | 94 | 120 | 148 | 157
1:00 | 123 | 136 | 169 | 152 | 160
1:00 | 101 | 91 | 131 | 154 | 160
1:00 | 123 | 129 | 171 | 152 | 159
1:00 | 103 | 92 | 148 | 154 | 159
1:00 | 125 | 132 | 170 | 156 | 162
1:00 | 103 | 90 | 137 | 156 | 163
1:00 | 125 | 132 | 158 | 156 | 162
1:00 | 103 | 92 | 124 | 158 | 163
1:00 | 127 | 139 | 172 | 159 | 165
1:00 | 101 | 91 | 159 | 160 | 166
1:00 | 131 | 148 | 176 | 161 | 170
1:00 | 101 | 91 | 138 | 163 | 171
1:00 | 129 | 142 | 174 | 163 | 168
1:00 | 101 | 89 | 147 | 161 | 168
1:00 | 133 | 152 | 190 | 164 | 172
1:00 | 102 | 89 | 132 | 165 | 173
5:00 | 94 | 61 | 355 | 136 | 161 ---- power spike was a test, max 177RPM

I found it easier the more I did it. What do you think for the spinning? I am not sure whether to do shorter higher RPM (130+) intervals or longer, slightly lower RPM (115-120) intervals?

[TheEd]

Hi Dale .. I would need to go through the data more thoroughly

the thing with the cycling is to get the spinning 'right' so that it is an aerobic session and that your legs are not 'unnecessarily' tired once you get off the bike

as you progress your cycle technique should improve and when you do a specific cycle session you get the benefits out of the session

for aerobic conditioning on the bike the higher revolutions and smooth spinning is best for the balance of the training

as you get the balance of your training right with the aerobic spinning, you are then able to further focus on the swimming, where it is similar to the cycling where you need to spend hours in the pool honing your technique to be smooth without 'much' rolling

you can keep the brick session for once a week on weekends

the whole secret (which is not a secret but is often forgotten) is to keep everything simple and to build things up slowly having the body become stronger and the athlete gain experience from the training

if you able to do this, then you able to become a better athlete or triathlete

all the best

TheEd

[dale_8888]

Thanks for your help TheEd,

Today, I did a light 30min jog, av pace 6:14/km, HR 139, 5.0km.

After that I tried another spin session. This time I tried single leg spinning - epic, epic fail. It is not even close to smooth, I'm bouncing all over the place. Is the best way to get better at spinning just doing single leg over and over? I did 5min each leg, 3 times through. I managed to hold roughly 90 RPM. Each time I switched legs I noticed my hamstrings were quite useless. Not tired or sore, I just couldn't lift my heel up like I normally can.

I am thinking of doing these single leg spin sessions every day for a few weeks until they get easier and I can smoothly sit around 100-110RPM.

Thoughts?

Oh and I was thinking of doing the 10x400m tomorrow as I am helping to get friends faster in their 2.4km race time and we're heading for the treadmills.

[TheEd]

6 x 600m session is a 'very' decent session to prepare, more so that the 400m

and 3 x 1000m would be event better though the 600m session has a bite to it

as for the cycling, I shall chat to my cycle 'friend' instructor

Cheers

TheEd