Dengie Events Intermediate Plan Big East Challenge distance This plan is for those have completed their first triathlon and are now looking to improve their performance. It is assumed you are capable of swimming 100m continuously and repeatedly, and can run for around 30 minutes steady. The first half of this plan is designed to build your general fitness, to then allow a more specific development from week 4 onwards, leading to less chance of injury, via a steady progression. Rest days are incorporated and are essential to prevent overtraining at this relatively early stage, which can easily result in injury, and hence lack of motivation. Alongside this program, coming towards race day, if you can substitute one swim a week for an open water swim then that would be useful to build confidence ahead of race day. As you will notice, during the swim sessions I have included Drills. The best way to improve swimming is always to concentrate on technique, so here it is best if you can get a coach to recommend drills specific to work on your technique. (I also offer technique analysis please visit my website to contact me directly if you are interested in this) Transition practice is also essential to help prevent race day stress. Race week is not about getting fitter you can only ruin your race from here, use the extra time to organise kit / spend time looking over the race course and ensuring you are organised for the big day. Training isn t designed to be hard this week, just to keep your muscles ticking over so that they are feeling fresh ready for race day. Zones Z1 Easy recovery (up to 60% max HR, or RPE 1-4) Z2 Aerobic base (60-70% max Hr, or RPE 4-7) Z3 Tempo (70-79% max HR, or RPE 7-10 Olympic distance race pace) Z4 Threshold (80-85% max HR, or RPE 10-15) Z5 Anaerobic (85%+ max HR, or RPE 15+) www.tomdavistriathloncoaching.co.uk www.dengieevents.co.uk
Technical terms definition: Swimming Run Bike Brick o 25m is 1 length of a normal length pool o F/C = front crawl stroke o Br/s = Breast stroke o Drills = technical exercises to help make you more efficient in your stroke o Pull = Specified stroke with a Pull buoy in between legs to aid flotation and simulate a wetsuit o Kick = holding a kickboard at arms length in front of you, using legs to provide propulsion o w/u = warm up to help loosen muscles and raise heart rate in preparation for the session o c/d = cool down to help reduce heart rate and remove waste products from muscles o rest dictates the amount of time to stop at the wall after a certain number of lengths, using a pace clock, or second hand on a normal clock o These sessions can be performed on the road or treadmill if time/ weather dictates o For example session 1 (Run 20mins as 1 min run at a steady pace, 1 min walk) Here 20 mins dictates the whole duration of the run, and then it is performed as 1 min run 1 min walk, and repeat until the 20 mins is completed o c/d = cool down o These can be performed on the road or stationary bike, whichever will work in your time frame / weather dependent o These sessions are very key to triathlon as they allow practicing running straight after a cycle, which is very different to a normal run. Your legs will feel very odd but this should get easier with practice hence the point of these sessions. o After week 4, I have included a period of faster running off the bike- this is because you are likely to get excited in transition, and head out much too fast, so provides you with confidence that you can recover from this. www.tomdavistriathloncoaching.co.uk www.dengieevents.co.uk
Week 3 Week 2 Week 1 Intermediate Plan Big East Challenge distance Run 30 mins Swim (1100m) 2*50m drills Bike- 45 mins Ride 45 mins Swim- (1300m) Ride 45 mins steady Z2, straight into Run 20 mins Swim- (1100m) Run 40 mins Run 50 mins 2*50m br/s 4*25m F/C @Z5 + 30 4*50m as 25m @Z5, 25m 4*50m as 25m @Z5 25m Swim (1350m) 2*50m drills 2*50m br/s 6*25m F/C @Z5 + 30 6*50m as 25m @Z5, 25m 6*50m as 25m @Z5 25m Swim (1400m) 150m br/s Ride 60 mins Bike- 75 mins Ride 75 mins @Z3 + 15 +15 @Z3 + 15 Swim- (1400m) 150m F/C @Z3 + 15 +15 150m F/C @Z3 + 15 Swim- (1500m) Ride 45 mins steady Z2, straight into Run 30 mins Brick - Ride 60 mins steady Z2, straight into Run 30 mins 2*(25m F/C @Z5+ 10 25m F/C@Z2 + 10 @Z3 +10 25m F/C @Z5 + 10 25m F/C @Z2) Swim- (1500m) 2*(25m F/C @Z5+ 10 25m F/C@Z2 + 10 @Z3 +10 25m F/C @Z5 + 10 25m F/C @Z2 @Z3) Swim- (1700m) 100m paddles 6*25m F/C @Z5 + 30 6*50m as 25m @Z5, 25m 6*50m as 25m @Z5 25m @Z3 + 15 +15 @Z3 + 15 2*(25m F/C @Z5+ 10 25m F/C@Z2 + 10 @Z3 +10 25m F/C @Z5 + 10 25m F/C @Z2 @Z3)
Week 6 Week 5 Week 4 Run -45 mins 4*(2 mins Z3, 1 min Z2, 1 min Z4, 2 mins Z1) Run 45 mins 3*(3 mins Z3, 1 min Z2, 1 min Z4, 2 mins Z1) Steady 9 mins Z1/2 c/d Run 42 mins 3*(5 mins Z3, 1 min Z2) Steady 9 mins Z1/2 c/d Swim (1500m) 100m kick 2* (12 * 25m + 15 as 1 @Z5, 1 @Z2 Swim (1600m) 100m kick 2*50m build + 20 2* (12 * 25m + 15 as 1 st set 1 @Z5, 1 @Z2, 2 nd set as Swim (1700m) 4*50m pull +15 2* (12 * 25m + 15 as 3*(6 mins L4, 2 mins L2) 5*(10 L5, 50 L2) 11 mins L2 c/d 2*(8 mins L4, 2 mins L2) 5*(10 L5, 50 L2) 15 mins L2 c/d 2*(10 mins L4, 2 mins L2) 5*(10 L5, 50 L2) 13 mins L2 c/d Swim- (1350m) 25m @Z5) @Z3 + 20, 100m Pull @Z2+ 10 @Z3 + 20, 100m Pull @Z2+ 10 Swim- (1550m) 25m @Z5) 300m F/C @Z3 + 20, 100m Pull @Z2+ 10 300m F/C @Z3 + 20, 100m Pull @Z2+ 10 Swim- (1750m) 25m @Z5, 25m @Z4, 25m @Z2) 400m F/C @Z3 + 20, 100m Pull @Z2+ 10 400m F/C @Z3 + 20, 100m Pull @Z2+ 10 20 mins Z2, 10 mins Z3, 20 mins Z2, 10 mins Z3, 10 Straight into 30 mins Steady Z2 run 20 mins Z2, 15 mins Z3, 15 mins Z2, 10 mins Z3, 10 Straight into 30 mins Steady Z2 run 20 mins Z2, 20 mins Z3, 10 mins Z2, 15 mins Z3, 5 mins Z2, 5 mins Z4 Straight into 30 mins run as 2mins Z4, 10 mins Z3, 18 mins Z2 Swim- (1600m) 2*(25m F/C @Z5+ 20 @Z3 +10 25m F/C @Z5 + 20 @Z3 + 10, Swim- (1700m) 2*(25m F/C @Z5+ 20 150m F/C @Z3 +10 25m F/C @Z5 + 20 150m F/C @Z3 + 10, Swim- (1800m) 2*(25m F/C @Z5+ 20 @Z3 +10 25m F/C @Z5 + 20 @Z3 + 10,
Week 8 Week 7 Run 50 mins 3*(7 mins Z3, 1 min Z2) Swim (1100m) 4*50m pull +15 12 * 25m + 15 as @Z2 Swim - (1900m) 4*50m pull +15 3* (12 * 25m + 15 as @Z2) Bike 30 mins 6 mins L4, 2 mins L2) 5*(10 L5, 50 L2) 7 mins L2 c/d 2*(12 mins L4, 2 mins L2) 5*(10 L5, 50 L2) 11 mins L2 c/d Run 24 mins 7 mins Z3, 1 min Z2) Swim- (1950m) 25m @Z5, 25m @Z4, 25m @Z2) 400m F/C @Z3 + 20, 200m Pull @Z2+ 10 400m F/C @Z3 + 20, 200m Pull @Z2+ 10 20 mins Z2, 20 mins Z3, 10 mins Z2, 15 mins Z3, 5 mins Z2, 5 mins Z4 Straight into 40 mins run as 6 mins Z4, 15 mins Z3,19 mins Z2 Swim (600m) 100 F/C 2*50m F/C pull 4@25m F/C sprint @ Z5 + 20 4*25m F/C kick @Z4 + 30 pull Brick Ride 30 mins as 10, 10 Straight into 15 mins run as 6 mins Z4, 9 mins Z2 RACE DAY