Merging into the Training Lane

303Endurance Podcast

What's your favorite winter activity? Skiing? Hiking? It's going to be a chilly weekend here in Colorado. Whether you are a cyclist or a triathlete, there's not going to be a lot of training outside. Organized rides and how they give back to their communities. Plus, how to merge back into consistent training and your best swim training return on time.

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In Today's Show

• 303Cycling News and Updates -
• 303Triathlon News and Updates - Best Olympic Moments
• Training Tip - Returning to Training

303Cycling Updates and News:

Want More Power On The Bike? Start With Your Ankles

303Triathlon News and Updates:

25 BEST MOMENTS IN OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC TRIATHLON HISTORY

303 Tip of the Week: Merging Into the Training Lane

Last weekend Mark Allen held his "Getting Back At It" call with his TriDot coached athletes. I'm having this same conversation with my athletes and sent the following message to my athlete's earlier this week.

I know you all are at slightly different places in your transition season. Some of you are racing 70.3s as early as May and have already started training consistently. Others of you may not have your "A" Race until as late as November and may be still enjoying some down time. Most of you fall somewhere in the middle. Generally speaking, it's time return to consistent training to maximize your development phase and be at your best on race day.

Here are some tips for merging back into the training lane.

1. Pick up where you are, not where you left off -The good news is your batteries are recharged, but you have likely lost some fitness. Your run paces and bike power likely not what they were before the break. It's important to adjust your training paces and power to your current fitness. You can either Field Test by doing a fresh FTP or run 5K test. If you don't want your first week of training to be a test week, manually adjust your paces to reflect your current fitness. For example, if your 5K time in the Fall was 25:00, what time do you think you could hit if you went out and did a 5K tomorrow? As TriDot athletes you can update that in your Threshold History with a new Swim, Bike or Run manual test.
2. Consistency over intensity and duration. It's more important to train consistently (something each day) than to do full workouts that result in having to little every day than to jump right into full duration and intensity. 0-60 is recipe for injury, so take a week or two to ramp up. Many of you have noted "feeling stronger each workout". That's exactly what I would expect to see as the fitness comes back. Thanks for those notes by the way!
3. Sleep. As you ramp up the testing, the body is going out of homeostasis and will need more recovery. The best recovery tool in kit is sleep. Get 8+ hours a night.
4. Eat good food. Eating nutrient dense food, dark leafy vegetables, good oils, good proteins, good carbs. Plan your meals and grocery lists accordingly. Here's are some articles and sources for nutrition help.

The Ultimate Grocery Guide For Triathletes

https://www.teamusa.org/nutrition

5. Strength is the glue. Strength training will make you a faster runner and a more powerful cyclist. The strength training workouts in TriDot are good for developing core, glutes, quads, lateral and rotational stability that will help prevent injuries and improve resilience. Low RPMs on the trainer or hills when you can get out will develop strength and power.
6. Mix it up. Vary the distance and intensity by discipline will give you more fitness gains.