Getting Consistent (ramble, ramble thoughts)

I've had the last 3 weeks off doing basically whatever I want to do and now I need to get back to some consistent but easy plan.

I'm going to spend the next 6 weeks doing short/easy workouts just to get back to training.  Plans are:

Run at least 30 minutes each day

Bike up to an hour 3 days a week

Swim at least 4 days a week.

That should take me into the second week of January where I will still have a few weeks before I get serious on the bike again.  By then I will have decided what to do with my running plan.  Right now I'm leaning towards a Daniels type plan and I'll be a few weeks ahead so that if anything happens I'll be able to back it down for a week and recover.

I would like to get back to bigger run milage like I did last year.  Then I started running a lot in early November and was running 50 to 55 miles a week.  It will take me more than 6 weeks from now to get there so I don't hurt myself.  Realistically I will be able to hold that volume of running until late February/early March when it should be warm enough to ride outside again.  When that happens I'll bring my running volume down to 40 miles a week.

I'm still really undecided on my swimming.  I want to swim faster but the return on the time invested is low compared to running.  I can see myself swimming 4 days a week for a while which normally gets me some improvement but in order to get much better I'm going to need 5 days and some instruction.  I don't know if I'm capable of doing that while running a lot again.

Since I'm planning on going to USAT Nationals swimming is a bigger part of that race.  The best I've done in an Olympic distance race is a 2:10 and I need to go under 2:05 to have a shot at making Team USA.  I think with good swim training I could drop a minute off of my 1500 time and with good run training I could drop 2 minutes off of my 10K time.  That still leaves me 2 minutes short of my goal as I don't think I can ride much faster than a 59 minute 40K and still be able to run effectively afterwards.

Looking at the results from last year 20th place went 2:05, I think 2014 will be faster but just using that as a target I'm probably need to go something like:

22 swim

59 bike

42 run

1:30 in transitions

That is the best that I think I could realistically go in the best possible circumstances.

What do I need to get there:

Swim:  I need consistent training, I'm probably already there but if I got better that would take some tension off of the other sports.

Bike:  I'm already capable of that speed on a flat course.  I've done 1:00:30 at Maumee Bay in 2012 and I'm a stronger biker now than I was then.  Still I will need to be consistent in bike training and not able to slack off.

Run:  This is where I need the most work but have the most room for improvement.  The best I've run in an Olympic distance triathlon is a 43:30 a few years ago, recently a 44:00.  That means the run would have to go from a 7:05 mile to a 6:46 mile or a drop of ~:20 per mile.  Last year I ran a low 20 min 5K so that indicates I was a little better runner but still have a lot of work to do.

Going out on my own

Well I've broken away from my long time coach Mike Plumb after 4 terrific triathlon seasons.  During that time I've gone to Long Course Nationals twice, Triple T 4 times, Xterra USA Championships, local series races and a few Rev3 races.  I've also made USAT All American 3 times, I don't know about this year yet.

Just this year I've done particularly well with an expected mid-pack finish at Long Course World Championships, a 1st in AG at the Sprint at Maumee Bay, 1st in AG and 4th OA at Caseville Half, 1st in AG and 6th OA at Sylvania Sprint, 3rd in AG at Rev3 Cedar Point Half and 2nd in AG at Rev3 Florida Half.  This is mostly do to the coaching that I got from Mike Plumb at Tripower.org.

Now I'm moving on to do somehting a little different that having a coach wouldn't let me do.

Number one thing is that I'm going to work with my tri club FAST (swimfasttrifast.com) to put together a team of people to compete at USAT Nationals.  This is for anyone and everyone in the club regardless of their abilities.  I just want people to go and do the very best that they can.  In doing that I want to put together a few weekend camps at a local park where we can concentrate on triathlon all weekend.  I'm looking to do one in May, June and July.  Along with that I would like to put together a few single workouts to help people doing Long Course Nationals.

Personal goals for 2014 are to do the best that I can at Triple T in May, USAT Short Course Nationals in August and Xterra Nationals in Late September.

In route to doing that and being competitive I need to increase my run speed, I think I have plenty of endurance just lack the ability to run fast for short periods of time.  My current abiltiy to run a 44:00 10K in an Olympic distance triathlon is just not fast enough to be competitive on a national level.  I can only do so much with a fast bike ride and decent swim.  In the following posts I hope to document my improvements.  I've 46 years old and can't expect to keep getting faster for much longer, I think the next few years will be my fastest yet.

2012 Felt F5 that I purchased last summer