THE TRI- CHRONICLES: Training to Train
Training to train. Make sure you peak at the right time for your next event. Image courtesy of Digital Vision/Thinkstock.
Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Training to Train”?
During one Saturday morning ride, my friend Donald and I were talking about the start of the semester. Donald is a teacher in one of the local high schools. Like many teachers, Donald wears many hats. He is also the school’s cross-country coach.
We talked about his fear that students will begin the year out of shape. It becomes particularly challenging for him because he only has a limited amount of time to get them race ready.
I remember one phrase in particular that he mentioned as we were riding towards Azusa Canyon. He said, “We don’t train to train.”
I took that to mean his students wouldn’t be ready for the upcoming season if they showed-up from summer vacation out of shape. He would spend most of his time readying the group just to be able to run the drills and work-outs necessary to compete. However, if it takes too much time to condition them, it may take all season long they end-up training to train rather than training to compete.
What does that mean in terms of training for triathlons?
Triathlon training is cyclical and can be broken down into periods. At its core, training is about building-up towards an event. Most of the programs I’ve seen focus first on building-up base mileage, which makes sense.
For me in particular, it’s hard to jump into high intensity work outs without first getting back into the routine. It could be something as simple as calibrating my weekly schedule to accommodate training and rest days. Equally important, it could also mean getting the heart, lungs, and muscles ready for the work load ahead.
I usually get really achy and susceptible to colds when I try to rush too quickly into high-mileage or high-intensity workouts. Worst yet, I get injured. Runners have this saying of not building up by more than 10% week after week. They also have a rule of cutting back after three weeks of increasing work. This helps ensure you build-up properly.
The base building period is followed by more intensity or speed. Having invested time to get your base in order, it is now time to add intensity into your workouts to allow the body to withstand the stress of competition.
This is the time that training becomes more specific to race conditions and the time that nutrition should be dialed-in.
Make sure your nutrition is on point. Image courtesy of Thomas Northcut/Lifesize/Thinkstock.
This is also the point in the cycle when the body is working the hardest. As time and intensity increases, so too should the amount of time spent resting. After all, it is during rest that one reaps the benefits of all that work.
Following that is a period of tapering. This is when the duration of exercise decreases while maintaining the same level of intensity. The objective is to peak just in time for the particularly race or races selected for the year without being too tired.
This is also the time that you make sure that all your equipment (e.g., bike, wetsuit, running shoes) is ready to go.
Finally, tapering is when you fine tune your head.
This is when you make sure that you are psychologically ready visualizing the event and crossing the finish line. This is when you recall past humbling workouts and problems encountered during training and how you successfully overcame them. It is when you find a mantra you use when the going gets tough. It is when you focus on the one reason why you’re competing.
You’ll need to dial-in your head because things can get really tough while you’re competing. Runner’s call it the Wall. Triahtletes lovingly call it the Beast. Regardless of what you call it, it’s something that will happen and it’s best to be prepared.
Once you’ve tapered down, then the next step is the event.
Now that you've properly trained and tapered down, you are now ready for the big event. Image courtesy of Hemera/Thinkstock.
In many ways, the event is the shortest part of the cycle. If you count all the time and effort you put into conditioning your body and your mind, the event itself is perhaps the least of all that time. While it’s the shortest, it’s the reason why you train.
What follows that cycle is a period of rest.
Some take advantage of this period to do things completely unrelated to running, cycling, or swimming. Many invest time with family knowing that the next cycle is just around the corner. Some literally work themselves out of shape.
As we gear up for the next season, we work ourselves back into shape by focusing on weaker areas and the cycle begins anew.
Different athletes train and prepare differently. The amount of time we spend on each of these phases can vary but there’s method behind this madness. By setting goals, planning out the year, and remembering the training cycle, triathletes can be better prepared to train-to-compete rather than train-to-train.
SamG is a middle-of-the-pack recreational triathlete. Overweight and out of shape, he got into triathlons in 2006, starting with the shorter Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. He has since completed a number of half-iron distance (70.3 miles) and a full-ironman distance triathlon (140.6 mile).
