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Question about mix and matching to meet my needs

ghankinsghankins
in Coaching Forum 🧢

Hey Coach,

Newbie here, so I have been loving the team so far and have already seen awesome changes that I know will definitely make this a kill season.  I have already shave 10 seconds off my average 100m in swimming and have been enjoying the interval running.  Thank You.

Now onto my questions.  I'm a firefighter and work 24 on duty 48 off duty and sometime my plan calls for swimming on days I'm shift.  Can I flip and flop some of the days or add swimming to the next day.  For instance I work tomorrow which is Friday so I wont be able to hit the pool till Saturday morning.  I realize this day has a long bike day but I don't mind doing both for a make up (it adds character). 

Next question, my first race of the year is an xterra triathlon which is no big deal but the bike demand is extremely different then road triathlons.  I was pretty much forced to do mountain biking today because of snow and 30 mph wind (I know its May 2 and I said snow) so I hit the trails and realized something that has me a little concerned because of the difference between mountain biking and road biking. I live a few mile from the course I will be riding so I have plenty of time on the course and know how much more demanding the terrain is compared to the races I'm doing this year. 

I learned a valuable lesson last year at Hyvee in Des Moines, when I started the bike that I had not put in enough road time and pretty much blew up and ruined my average and was forced to push the run (which turned out to be my best run in years).  The problem I see now is that last year I focused on Xterra triathlons and hit the road bike very little.  It paid off by me making a trip to Nationals in Utah but made me realize I have poor balance between MTB and TT bike riding.

The good thing is I am only doing one xterra this year so the rest is road focused.  Can you point me in the right direction on balancing the mtb and road till late June.  I really don't want this one race to ruin my HIM in August and really don't want it mess up my Olympic distance shortly after the xterra.  

Sorry for the long winded forum.  Please help me find the balance I'm searching for. 

Thanks 

Greg Hankins    

Comments

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    Coach PatrickCoach Patrick
    That's great feedback...thanks for sharing!!!

    Yes, swimming is an easy "low cost" workout to move around...but if you "had to" skip it, it would be okay. Only becomes more important in the final 4-6 weeks before your big race.

    I think we can go on an alternating weekly schedule. So Week "A" is MTB on Wed and Sunday, with ROAD on SAT; Week "B" is Road Wed and Sunday, with MTB long on Sat. This way you are keeping up some progressive fitness in each discipline without sacrificing a "fixed" session across many weeks...what say you?
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    ghankinsghankins

    I think that will work.

    Thanks for the super fast response.

    Thanks 

    Greg

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