Thinking about doing all short-course tris next year, how to train?
I got into tri last year specifically for Ironman. It's something I've wanted to do for about 15 years. I did the Rev 3 Knoxville oly and IMLOU last year, and this year will be IMLOU again and Rev 3 Anderson SC oly.
I love Ironman and I want to keep doing them as long as I can, but by jumping right into IM I sacrificed race experience. At the end of this year I'll have only done 4 tri's, and 2 of those will be IM's. I'm thinking I'd like to take a year off from IM to focus on short course races, to the tune of a sprint or oly every few weeks throughout the summer. I just want to enjoy the race experience, have fun, and earn some SAU's. Also, I'm kinda slow from an IM perspective, and I think if I spent an entire year doing "fast" OS-like training and racing, then when I return to IM the following year I'll hopefully have some additional speed to bring with me.
I'd probably start the year with the Rev 3 Knoxville HIM in early May, that way I could still go through the OS over the winter and build a solid base. I'd probably finish the year with the Rev 3 Anderson SC oly in October (assuming they do that venue again in 2012) and I'm thinking I'd start training exclusively for that race about 6 weeks out. So that leaves about 3 1/2 months, mid-May through late August, that I'd like to fill with sprints and oly's. Just fun local races, nothing too high pressure.
So I have 2 questions:
1. Has anyone taken a year off from IM to focus on short course, and if so, was the experience beneficial from a speed perspective?
2. How would you train throughout that stretch of a few months that I want to do a bunch of short course races? I'm thinking I'd fall into a relatively static program that was similar to an EN OS program and simply swap in a sprint or oly race instead of a weekend workout every few weeks. Maybe a few days taper on the front side and a couple days recovery on the back, than right back to the standard program.
Thoughts?
Comments
I am also going to do short course next year. My life right now just isn't built for a heavy training loan. New job calls for a lot of hours, summer weekends fill up with various plans, etc etc etc.
I used the EN Short Course plan for an Olympic Tri that I had in early June and really liked it. I plan on getting a PM in the fall, and think that one year focused on short courses and learning how to train with power can be really beneficial for an eventual return to HIM and/or attempt at IM.
I am planning on the same thing for next year with a focus on sprints!
Most up and coming top level athletes in our sport came from the ranks of ITU racing circuit. Talking about building speed, top level.
Racing SC for an extended period has huge potential effect on building speed in general terms in all 3 sports. Imagine than a return to LC racing that you could build on top of that. Prime example of applying EN prinicple of laying fast than long in Macro cycle terms.
Very sound idea.
Jason:
I'm focusing on short course for the next year or so as well. I want to build more fast and then go back to far. I'll be doing the EN short course program.
@Justine: My n=1 sample is that this is very doable. My OLY PR times each came about 8 weeks after IM races. In each, it was something like a 10 min (at that time) PR. In fact I've never been faster in OLY than after recovery from an IM. You will have such a large amount of bike fitness that you can essentially ride the whole course at what would be an improperly fast level of work and still be able to run. Only caveat would be that its possible your legs will not quite have the 10K speed you'd want for a shorter race -- but the endurance and duability will be there.
And, its a lot of fun to do a race that is over by breakfast after you've spent a season going long. Very liberating!
With respect to HIM ... I think that is one where more care is probably warranted. I did a HIM one year, about 10 wks after an IM. Candidly, I probably wouldn't repeat that. I think it is different for everyone, but going back to long stuff right off IM and maintaining focus for another long race after the significant committment of an IM season was hard for me (and harder still on my spouse and kids).
I'd say LC races after IM require more care in planning and experience overall to work. If you have done more than one IM in a season w/o signif issues, or have done a number of IM races, then this may be less of an issue -- but if not, then I would take the EN advice and leave your post IM schedule pretty open until you get to/through the race and see how you feel.
Jason,
You're experience and those expressed by the team are things I've seen reflected in many, many, athletes over the years. In my experience, 80% of sane, well balance, have their heads scewed on straight, living and working in the real world peeps have about 2-3yrs of Ironman focus in them before the move on:
If you assume 1 IM per year, you're looking at 3yrs. Again, I've seen this hundreds of times. For athletes who want to continue to do IM's year after year, IM racing and training (probably the training most of all) is an intergral part of their lifestyle. It's just "what they do." Then, finally, within that last crowd you have the very visible/vocal/attract a lot of attention 10-20% who live and breath IM, the brand, the...everything...about it. Stickers, tats, compression jockstraps, been posting 3-4x/day on internet forums for 10yrs (ie, STILL talking about the same shit). I run from those people...
I believe it's very good, healthy, and frankly neccessary to step back from IM training and racing. My motto is "if it sounds like fun...do it. If not...don't do it." It's that simple.
The short course plan is an excellent general purpose training tool that will make you MUCH faster. You could jump from that straight into an HIM with only about 5-7wks of HIM flavor work, if that's what you wanted to do.
In the end, being faster at the IM distance is about a higher FTP + higher VDot, with the caveat that a very solid running base can sorta add a VDot point or two on IM race day. The best plan is one that has you chipping away at those items month after month, year after year, so that when/if you decide to jump back into an Ironman, you've got the speed and just need to toss some long bike and long run endurance under it.