I’ve prepared a twelve week training programme to prepare you for the Jules Taylor Wines Women’s Marlborough Triathlon. Each Thursday I will post it here for you follow along with. This programme started Monday 5 September 2016. The first weeks of the programme can be found:
What is the most important part of your training?
Is it the swim sessions? Bike sessions? Run sessions maybe?
The actual answer is your recovery. You only make improvements if you recover from the training that you do. If you don’t recover from the training, you will make yourself tired and fatigued that could possibly lead to injury.
Plan your days and make sure you get your scheduled training in. If for what ever reason you miss training don’t worry about trying to catch it back up. This will lead to you squashing a lot of training into a few days, which will then minimise the amount of time and chances for your body to recover.
Focus on looking forward and planning to make sure you get your training done.
Key Point for the Week
When running here are a few technique cues that you can think about:
- Keep your knee in line. Make sure you place your foot under your knee as the foot strikes the ground. Don’t get caught up in the hype about fore/midfoot or heel striking. Just aim to make sure that your foot lands under your knee not ahead of it.
- Maintain a short, quick stride. Avoid trying to lengthen your stride to go faster. Just turn the legs over quicker. Lengthening your stride can lead to injury.
- Push up and off. Focus on pushing the ground away behind you by pushing up and off the ground.
- Lock the elbows but keep them relaxed. Keep a 90 degree bend or less.
- Relax your hands. Keep your hands nice and relaxed. Imagine you are carrying an ETA potato chip in each hand and you don’t want to break it (even trying taking a couple of chips for a run). That is how firm your hands should be held as a maximum. Make sure they drive forwards and backwards and aren’t swinging across the front of your body.
- Run tall. Lift your chest up and run tall. Being hunched over is inefficient and restricts airflow into the lungs.
Next Weeks Training
This week we work on increasing the intensity in some key sessions and maintain your effort in other sessions to boost your fitness as we work through the weeks.
Monday – 3 October 2016
Run/Walk (a total of 40min) – 3min Run, 3min Walking Warm Up; 6x 3min Run (or Jog), 2min Walk; 4min Walking Cool Down
Tuesday
Swim – six lengths, taking as much rest as you need to between lengths
Wednesday
Bike (total of 35min) – 10min Warm Up; 3x 4min Hard, 1min Rest Interval (RI); 10min Cool Down
Thursday
Run/Walk (40min) – Same as Monday
Friday
Stretching Day (30min)
Saturday
Swim – eight lengths, taking as much rest as you need to between lengths
Sunday
Bike (50min) steady
If you would like further advice feel free to contact Coach Ray.
Coach Ray is the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant and is a prominent triathlon and marathon coach in New Zealand.
Coach Ray specialises in assisting beginner and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. He can be contacted at www.qwik.kiwi, ray@qwikkiwi.com and 021 348 729. Make sure you sign up to his monthly informative newsletter.
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