Danger Dendy Thoughts - June

June 2013 - Training 101 - The basic week
Well - winter is here - and we are in one of the toughest phases of the year.  Cold, dark, windy and wet. Colds and coughs about.  For me, this time of the year is all about just keeping it ticking over.  I revert to "the basic week".

When someone asks the standard, overachieving triathlete / cyclist / runner: "how much training do you do each week?" - the usual answer is not the average week, but the best week they have completed in the last two years - with ridiculous volumes.  What I'm sharing with you is the week that keeps it all ticking over and it is a great base from which to build.  Winter is not about trying to do your best week - it is just too hard.  So, lets focus on "the basic week"

This is what mine looks like - and I'll explain why and then you can have a think about your basic week.

Monday:  Commute to work - 34km

Tuesday:

Wednesday: Run 12km

Thursday:

Friday:  Commute to work - 34km

Saturday: Mt Elisa return: 95km

Sunday: Run: 18km

Total week:  155km of cycling (5hr, 40min), and 30km of running (2hr 20min), 8hr of training

Some reactions to this basic week:
1. it is really not much....
2. where is the swimming?
3. where is the Dendy Special?
4. what are you doing?
5. why does this work?

This is not a great training week - but it is a basic week - and it is pretty representative of my last 6 weeks of training... there are some crucial elements in here.  Let me explain....

1. the most important session of the week is the long ride.  This three hour long ride (which I've dedicated an entire earlier post to) is the backbone / foundation of my training.  It is my long ride, my hard ride, my threshold ride, my social time all rolled into one tight three hour package.  I try not to miss them, because without this foundation, the whole thing falls apart.  This one ride maintains my base fitness and delivers intensity through the hills - which keeps me fit and allows me to then ramp up in summer.  It is also very efficient (good training return for minimum time away from the family)

2. the second most important session of the week is the Sunday run.  I run for 80 min - to the beach and then along the sandy trails to black rock and return - it is 18km round trip and I sit on 4:15 per km pace.  Again, it is a tempo run and it is a solid workout.  It is important that this run follows the long ride the day before, so my legs are still a bit glycogen depleted.  In a triathlon, the run always follows the bike, so it is important to train on glycogen depleted legs - so it better replicates race conditions.  Sadly, this run is almost always solo because of 2 reasons.  1. it is much harder to find a running partner who is the same speed as me.  e.g. Sam Hume wants to run on the road and not on the trails and he like to run at 3:55 pace (!!).  2. I am always trying to jam in my 80 min run at some point on Sunday - and I take the opportunity whenever it presents itself - so it is hard to organise a specific time.

3. and all the other sessions are just bonus sessions - especially in winter.  I try to commute a couple of days a week - I aim for 3 - but work and meetings get in the way ..... so you just have to adapt

4. I love going on the Dendy Special.  But I'm often working late and 6am is a hard start for me.  I try to go once per week - but if things are getting tough and I'm up late - I'll take some extra sleep and try to commute instead.  I must say that the intensity of a ride back in Group B is a bonus.  But I have to be careful not to over-reach mid-week.

5. I try to run once per week during the week - no real focus besides just getting out the door and hitting the pavement.  Efforts / intensity not crucial - but great when it happens.

6. Swimming: I like to swim - but it is very inefficient (ie lots of stuffing around changing / getting to / from the pool etc) so, in the middle of winter, it goes.  I would love to add one swim per week - but it is a bonus, and not central to the basic week.

7.  If you don't aim too high - then it is easier to do better than the basic week.... but at this time of year, just getting a basic week done feels like a good achievement.

8. Bonus / random racing.... During winter, about once per month, I like to get out there and have a race.  I don't like doing triathlons in winter (e.g. going up to QLD to race) because I'm not swim fit.  I'm happy to do some cross-training / interesting races.  For example, today I did the Stadium Stomp with my consulting team at PwC.  It involved running 7500 stairs of the MCG - every step on level 1 and on the top level..... I can tell you that they are very steep.  The event took me 41min and 30 sec. and I averaged 157hr and I got a good, hard workout.  Not something I would do every day - but a good winter hit-out and something different....

So, there you go.  Remember, my basic week is geared around doing an Ironman triathlon in Summer.  That's why my two most important sessions are the long ride and long run.  I'm hoping that for many of you, the Dendy Special is a critical component of your basic week....

See you on the road....

Danger