Anatomy of a Triathlon Workout
Grab Your Training Plan
Before you read this post, I recommend that you pull out your training
plan. If you don’t already have one, you
can get a free sprint triathlon training plan from www.mytimetotri.com. If you don't have one and wand a plan that's personalized, you should have one written by a certified Triathlon coach.
As you read through your plan, you may be introduced to some new
terms and concepts. You may also have
many questions about the duration of the plan, its structure, and the purpose
of individual workouts. This week’s
clinic and post will explain “how” to read swim, bike and run workouts. More importantly, it will explain “why” the
workouts are designed with varying intensity, distances, terrains and skills. The
“why” is important to understand “how” to approach the workout.
Every Body Adapts
The subtitle is not a typo – it’s intentional. Everybody and every body adapts. The goal of the training plan is to train
your body to handle the demands of the consecutive swimming, biking and running
exercise of your upcoming triathlon. To
take your body and mind from where you are today and develop them for the demands
of your future race requires adaptations.
These adaptations include strength, endurance, cardio-pulmonary and coordination
changes that occur in recurring stress/recovery cycles. Your training plan will have workouts that
are designed to cause these adaptations – different workouts with different
objectives to cause specific adaptations.Workout Specifications
Notice that triathlon workouts rarely read “just go swim”, “ride
your bike”, or “run somewhere and back”.
They are (or should be) much more specific. If they are written by a certified triathlon
coach, they should include specifics for duration (or distance), intensity,
terrain (grade and/or surface), intervals and recovery, and potential skill
focuses.
The specifics of a workout are designed to affect an
adaptation. Different intensity levels,
distances, terrain, sequencing and progression stress different energy systems
and the neuromuscular system to affect different changes to your body.
Training Intensity
The “Training Zone Chart” refers to Zones that tie to a Rate of
Perceived Exertion (RPE) range and description of how that may be
perceived. Think of zones as gears in
your cars transmission. 1st
gear is the easiest (engine is doing less work) and slowest. 5th gear is the hardest (engine is
doing a lot of work) and fastest.
Zone 1 as a training intensity is intended for active
recovery. You are getting circulation
and exercise, but it’s easy. Walking is
a good example of Zone 1 effort.
Zone 2 intensity is designed to use your body’s aerobic energy
system. This means that it’s primarily using
your body’s ability to combine oxygen with fat to produce energy to fire your
muscles. It does not put a high strain
on your cardiovascular system. Lower
intensity efforts are typically prescribed for longer distance and time
efforts.
Zone 3 is the hardest you will work while using fat as your primary
fuel source, but you are starting to use more glycogen (sugar) stored in your
body’s muscles and liver to produce energy.
Zone 4 intensity is the tipping point where your body starts to
use more glycogen for fuel than stored fat and instead shifts to and anaerobic
adaptation. It also raises your heart
rate drastically, influencing adaptations in your cardio-pulmonary system. You
will often see interval training prescribed in 2-3 minute durations.
Zone 5 is designed for neuromuscular, or speed, development. Higher intensity efforts are typically
prescribed in shorter “intervals”. You
will typically see intervals prescribed in 20 second to 1 minute in duration.
Training Endurance
Of the physical adaptations speed, strength and endurance, the
latter is the easiest one for the body to make.
Consider what it would take to decrease your 100-meter sprint by 10%, or
bench press by 10%. Increasing your run distance from 1.0 to 1.1 miles is a
relatively easy adaptation. If you
consistently and progressively apply low intensity effort swim, bike and run
efforts, you will be amazed how easily you are able to increase the distance of
what you are capable of today and reach your goals, given adequate time. While you want to progressively increase your
distance, you want to be careful to not add too much mileage too quickly. 5-10% increases each week is recommended to
avoid injury.
Swim Specific Workouts and Skills
Swimming is a skill and form-centric activity, meaning proper
form can make it much easier (more efficient).
Drills are prescribed to teach a skill or neuromuscular pattern required
for proper swim form. You will see
drills titled “catch up”, “fingertip”, “fist”, “right arm”, “left arm”,
etc. For a complete list of drills and
definitions, I recommend using the following website. http://mastersswimworkoutsbysaramclarty.blogspot.com/p/swimming-drills.html
Swim workouts are typically prescribed as a total distance
broken up into three parts, a warmup, main set, and cooldown. Read below for warmup and cooldown
descriptions. Depending on the objective
of the swim workout, your main set will be designed to help you focus on
skills, speed or endurance. Following the intensity and endurance concepts
previously discussed, you may have short intervals of 25 yards to trigger a
speed adaptation, 50-150 yards to trigger an anaerobic adaptation, or 200-500
for an aerobic adaptation.
Bike Specific Workouts and Skills
You should see similar concepts in bike workouts with respect to
total distance (or time) and intensity.
Again, longer distances are typically prescribed at lower intensities
and higher intensities are reserved for short intervals.
Terrain may be prescribed to train for strength, speed or
endurance. Hills (uphill) are prescribed
for strength and endurance, while flats are typically for speed or skills. You may see cadence prescribed to develop
pedal stroke efficiency. Faster cadence
of 85 rotations per minute (RPM) are prescribed to develop neuromuscular
efficiency, while lower cadence 75 or less for strength.
Bike handling skills will be a separate clinic.
Run Specific Workout and Skills
Running is another skill and form centric activity. Proper form can make a big difference in
perceived effort, speed and risk of injury.
We’ll cover running form in a future post.
Intensities are prescribed for run workouts and are like bike
and swim workouts. Intensities are often
written as zones which can be indicated by rate of perceived exertion (RPE),
pace (minutes/mile), or heart rate. Having a heart rate monitor is a good tool,
but not essential. RPE and pace work
just fine.
Warm Up and Cool Down
All workouts should have a warm up and cool down. This allows your muscles, and neuromuscular
system in general, to get ready for your workout. This gets blood flow started, warms the
tendons and muscular connections creating elasticity, and activates nerves that
fire required muscles. Cool downs allow
the body a gradual transition back to homeostasis. It helps clear lactic acid
and use circulation to remove waste products from your muscles. It is also a good time to stretch since the
muscles and tendons are still warm. This
will aid in not feeling “tight” after a workout.
I hope you found this explanation of “how’s” and “why’s” of
triathlon workouts useful and will get more from your training as a
result. Good luck in your training this
week!
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