Tri training - strength training question
I’m following a training program for my triathlons that calls for training 6 days a week - this I’m good with; I would do cardio training 3 times a day if I had room in my schedule for it.
The part that I’m less comfortable with is that I am doing a pretty rigorous set of strength training 2 days a week - Wednesday and Friday. I want to be able to push myself and push myself really hard. But, I’m finding that I am no where near recovered enough by Friday to be able to lift again. The strength training is mostly core body strength stuff; but, there are LOTS of lunges (2 sets on each side of forward lunges and 2 sets each side of backward lunges). The next day is a bike ride, so I’m working hard with my legs on the day between, too.
The question:
should I try and modify this in order to give my muscles time to recover? Is my strength training doing me any good if I’m not recovered when I go into my second strength training session of the week?
How would you recommend rearranging my training schedule? (right now, I am doing:
Sunday - run
Monday - day off
Tuesday - run
Wednesday - strength training & swim
Thursday - bike
Friday - strength training & swim
Saturday - bike + run (and, I generally swim a short bit before that)
Thanks for all suggestions!
June 26, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I would keep the intensity up for the triathlon training, but maybe go really easy on strength training or leave it out. I did lots of bricks, which I see you only doing that on Saturday. I would always try to run off my rides, it is what helped me in Ironman. Keep at it!
June 27, 2009 at 9:16 am
I agree with princess. I would go easier on the strength training and also spread it out more during the week, so Tues/Fri so that you get more rest in between. With thr bricks…..hell yeah, i always try to run at least a bit right off the bike to get that initial shock out. Keep it up. Also, you need to decide whats more important to you (getting stonger or improving your bike/run times). If its the latter, the strength training needs to come second fiddle and not interfere with the running/biking. Keep it up!
June 27, 2009 at 9:57 am
Yeah. I’m revising my training approach. I am going to borders this a.m. to get Joel Friel’s Triathlete’s Training Bible and putting away this book that I had, ‘12 week triathlete". I think that Tom Holland’s "The 12 Week Triathlete" served me well to get me to my first event; but, now I want something that I can customize a bit more; I want a way to help me improve my times; I don’t feel like I can do that with training hard & tired 6 days in a row… but, wanted to put it out there and get feedback to make sure that I’m not just ‘wimping out’.
July 3, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Hired a coach… she’s going to write me a plan… Glad I did it and feeling optimistic. I am very happy with the tweaks I made to my training… doing more bricks; really dialed back the lower body strength training to offer more recovery and upping my distances a bit. I feel really good.