35 year old female triathlete in preseason training
Needs Analysis: Our subject is a 35 year old female athlete training for her 3rd triathlon. This is a half Iron Man competition. A little over a year ago, She was promoted at work, and had to take off from serious training for the past year. However, she still exercises 5 days a week. Due to her promotion and busy work schedule, monitoring her fatigue levels will be essential for success. She has experienced minor plantar fasciitis in the past, so mobility and flexibility will be included in addition to the aerobic plan each day.
Summary: Since we’re pre-season training, we're going to improve aerobic capacity and endurance performance, while correcting any previous or current muscular imbalances. There will be a high-frequency of 5-7 days, and then we’ll begin to taper off in the last 4 weeks leading up to the race. Since our athlete is competing for the first time in over a year, we will monitor the duration of the workouts, pending how she feels during and afterwards. However, the goal is to keep the duration moderate to long. The intensity should remain high at 70-90% on most training days. Also, it’s vital that we train to maintain a solid aerobic base first and then build it up. The training for an ironman is around 4-6 months, so for the first 9-10 weeks, we’ll get her back to training consistently with an above average V02 max and then begin to build by adding HIIT and interval training. Each week, we’ll increase by 5-10% to prevent any overtraining symptoms. We can do this by either increasing the intensity or the duration.
Complete Half Ironman
Swim: 1900m
Bike: 56 miles
Run: 13.1 miles
Weeks 1-8 Building a base
Below are example weeks for the beginning and end of the first phase of training. Week 1 will be endurance based to see how quickly she can complete longer durations. From there, we can formulate a proper workout program for her going forward.
Monday: Swimming
Intensity: 70% V02max
Duration: 1500 meters/30 laps
Tuesday: Biking
Intensity: 70% V02max
Duration: 45-60 minutes
Wednesday: 30 minute short easy run
Intensity: 70% V02max
Duration: 30 minutes
Thursday: Swimming
Intensity: 60-90% V02max - Interval training.
Duration: 30 minutes - 3 minutes 80-90% / 2 minutes 60-70%
Friday: Indoor Cycling
Intensity: 60-90% - Interval training
Duration: 15 minutes - 90 seconds 80-90% V02max / 60 seconds 60-70% V02 max (focusing on speed)
15 minutes - 2 minutes 80-90% V02max / 60 seconds 60-70% V02max (focusing on strength, adding resistance to the bike)
Saturday: Long distance, slow run
Intensity: 70% V02max
Duration: 45-60 minutes
Sunday: Rest
Week 4: Improvements in time are starting to advance. Week 4-8 will continue to focus on building a strong aerobic capacity, by adding more duration.
Monday: Swim
Intensity: 70-90%
Duration: 1700-1800 meters - Pace/tempo training
Tuesday: Bike
Intensity: 70-90%
Duration: 45-60 minutes - Pace/tempo training
Wednesday: Easy run
Intensity: 70-80%
Duration: 45 minutes
Thursday: Swim
Intensity: 70-90%
Duration: 45-60 minutes (3 minutes 80-90% / 2 minutes 70%)
Friday: Bike - Long slow distance
Intensity: 70% V02 max (If she feels good, add in short 1 minute intervals of 80-90% V02max every 2-3 minutes for 30-60 seconds to help mimic hills and moments of trying to get ahead of other participants.
Duration: 75-90 minutes
Saturday: Long, slow distance run
Intensity: 70% V02max
Duration: 6-7 miles
Sunday: Rest
Weeks 8-16: Continuing to maintain an advanced aerobic capacity, while building running economy, introducing more advanced interval and high intensity drills on each day. Plus, we will start introducing runs after swimming and biking to begin mimicking the race.
Week 8
Monday: Swim
Intensity: 70-90% V02max
Duration: 1900 meters
Details: 200 meters 80-90% / 30 seconds rest 3x | 300 meters 80-90% / 30 seconds rest 3x | Finish the last 400 meters at the highest intensity possible.
Monday evening: 30 minutes easy run
Intensity: 70%
Duration: 30 minutes
Tuesday: Cycling/outdoor bike - Focus is on high intensity longer intervals, attempting to reach competition pace for longer periods of time.
Intensity: 60-90% V02max
Duration: 60 minutes
Details: 6-8 minutes 80-90% V02max | 3 minutes recovery going as slow as needed for the first 30-45 seconds and then picking the speed back up to 60-70% for the last 2-2.5 minutes in the recovery. Repeat this for 60 minutes.
Wednesday: Run - Focus is still to maintain an easier pace, but now that we’re building, we’re going to add in longer, more intense intervals.
Intensity: 60-80% V02max
Duration: 60 minutes
Details: 6-8 minutes 80-85% | 2-3 minutes 60-70%
Thursday: Swim - Focus is endurance. Now that we’re in the beginning stages of building, we’re going to start to mimic the race by making Thursday, Friday, and Saturday about endurance.
Intensity: Try and stay around 80% V02max for the majority of the first 1000 meters. The athlete can do a recovery/rest swim for 2 minutes, if needed and then finish the last 1000 meters, staying at a 75-85% V02max
Duration: 2000 meters
Friday: Bike
Intensity: 75-85% V02max
Duration: 3 hours
Friday PM: Run
Intensity: 70% V02max
Duration: 20 minutes
Saturday: Run
Intensity: 75-85% V02max
Duration: 9-10 miles
Sunday: Rest
Note: Week 9 is going to focus on recovery, by decreasing the intensity and/or duration by 10%
Week 15: At this point, we need to maintain what our athlete has built, while staying away from injury, before we begin to taper. We’ll continue to include interval and HIIT training in the beginning of the week and more endurance/long training towards the end of the week, with making Sunday our rest time.
Monday: Swim - The focus is increasing the amount of time spent in each high intensity interval.
Intensity: 70-90%
Duration: 1900 meters
Details: 400 meters 80-90% | 30 seconds full recovery or 1-2 laps of recovery swim | Complete 4 times and finish the last 300 meters as quickly as possible
Monday PM: Recovery run
Intensity: 70% V02max
Duration: 20-30 minutes
Tuesday: Bike (indoor cycling) - Mix of HIIT and interval training, working with resistance to mimic hills and speed to improve time.
Intensity: 60-90%
Duration: 75-90 minutes
Details: 0-30 minutes: 8 minutes at 80% V02max/2 minutes at 60-70% - complete 3x
30-60 minutes: 2 minutes at 90% V02max/2 minutes at 60-70% / 3 minutes at 90% / 3 minutes at 60-70% (Alternate between 2 and 3 minute intervals)
60-90 minutes: Complete the last portion of the the ride remaining at the highest intensity possible
Wednesday: Running (treadmill) - Similar to the bike; mixing HIIT with interval training, working with incline to mimic hills and speed to improve time.
Intensity: 60-90% V02max
Duration: 60 minutes
Details: 0-30 minutes: 8 minutes at 80% V02max/2 minutes at 60-70% - complete 3x
30-60 minutes: 2 minutes at 90% V02max/2 minutes at 60-70% / 3 minutes at 90% / 3 minutes at 60-70% (Alternate between 2 and 3 minute intervals)
Thursday: Swim - Endurance focused
Intensity: 75-80% V02max
Duration: 2100 meters
Friday: Outdoor cycling
Intensity: 75-80 V02max
Duration: Approximately 50 miles
Friday PM: 30 minute recovery run
Intensity: 70%
Duration: 30 minutes
Saturday: Run
Intensity: 75-80% V02max
Duration: Approximately 12 miles
Sunday: Rest
Weeks 16-20: This is our tapering period. We will begin to decrease the intensity and duration by 5% in week 18. By week 19, intensity and duration should be taken down by at least 10%. By week 20, which is the race week, keep all training under 45 minutes to ensure adequate rest time. If the athlete wants to be active the day before the race, due to nerves, allow an easy-moderate bike ride at a low intensity for 30 minutes.
References
Haff, G., & Triplett, N. T. (2021). Essentials of strength training and conditioning. Human Kinetics.