As I am now starting my six month training schedule in preparation for a triathlon in June 2011, I thought over the period I’d write a few posts about the training schedule I’m embarking on, what the purpose of the different stages are and what they entail. Although you may not want to sign up for something like this, the stages of a longer term training plan apply in terms of any fitness goal you may have, and I’m hoping it may inspire you to start building up programmes of your own which run over a slightly more extended period. Remember that one of the worst things you can do in getting fit is just keep repeating the same thing over and over again, it stops being so effective and you are likely to find it boring.
As of Monday I’m going to be starting my Base Building programme. This focusses on building up your aerobic base which allows you to cover longer distances and do sprints etc with your technique intact later on. The triathlon I’m training for involves Swimming, Running and Cycling so the training programme is quite varied as it builds up both stamina and strength for those three skills.
The key point about it is not going over an 80% Heart rate – above this you go into aneaerobic training (where you burn off carbohydrate more effectively) for me that will all come later. The schedule for next week involves a combination of running, cycling and swimming building up on distance with weight workouts to build up muscle strength too. The most challenging thing for me is going to be running / cycling in the evenings. I work out in the mornings normally (and will still be doing that too as part of the programme) but to galvanise myself after work is going to be a huge challenge!
One thing I guess I should also mention is that I am far from an accomplished swimmer, so this is going to be a bit similar to starting out running for me – but luckily I have the help of a friend of mine (who swam for her country when she was younger) to help me with technique!
I’ll let you know how the first week goes…..
