Sprint Distance triathlon Training Help page

[Danzsyco]

Hello all! So I read through the other triathlon posts but didn't really find what I was looking for, my sprint distance triathlon is October 7, 2012 and my question is, has anyone trained PB style for a sprint distance or regular tri and if so if you could give me any specific training advice/tips. For example would love to know how often to train for what - how often to run, swim, and bike, and at what intensity? I do have a lot of flexibility in my schedule but don't want to burn myself out, I have 1 - 2 hours per day to devote to training. I am confident that you can train PB style but am at a loss as to where to start... Help please!!

PS. I regularly log 10 - 15 miles run/walk per week, bike 10 - 20 per week, and swim 1-2 hours per week currently but all at a pretty slow moderate pace.

[primalrob]

PS. I regularly log 10 - 15 miles run/walk per week, bike 10 - 20 per week, and swim 1-2 hours per week currently but all at a pretty slow moderate pace.

that's about all you need to do for right now. a sprint distance really isn't much, and doesn't require much training. while training for mine, i stayed really primal with my food, and pretty much did primal blueprint fitness with a run or a bike ride maybe once or twice a week in the 2-3 months leading up to it...plus lots of hiking, but that was more for fun.
i only did about two weeks of actual triathlon training, but i kept my fitness up all year round. i would recommend keeping up your current training, then around mid september or so start trying some brick workouts, where you double up your workouts (bike & run, swim & bike), and maybe do a long run or ride once a week. take the 2-3 days before the race off and just do a little active recovery.

[fat belly frog]

I recently brought a triathlon magazine that had a sprint training plan in the back, might pay to have a look at your local store and flick thru the pages and see if you can find one, I have a look tonight and post something up it was pretty basic.

I also have a book thats for training for multisports events it has a few detailed 12 week training plans in it and lots of information about training zones, more complicated. It will be the basis of the program I will be following for the 12 weeks leading into my adventure race (swim, paddle, run, MTB, run) that I am doing in November.

If you are really keen you can get professional plans (ben greenfield) made up for you based on current fitness and goals. Theres also a wealth of knowledge and info on dedicated tri forums. I am keen just to finish so happy to plug along with my own plans based on books and mags.

Cheers

[Reborn Grokker]

I found an easy program and great info at trinewbies.com. It's not too hard to stay paleo/primal during training, just don't let other endurance athletes convince you that you "need" to carb-up--it's not true. I have dont a 30 mile bike ride on an oz of almonds and water with lemon juice/salt, so you don't "need" the extra carbs, even primal ones.

[Danzsyco]

PrimalRob thanks tons!! good to hear, I don't know that I'll ever want to do a full triathlon, sprint distance seems more my style, thanks for the info, super helpful!!
Fatbellyfrog - I have "traditional" training plans for tris and I just don't want to get burnt out with all the hours upon hours of training, I want it to be fun but also be able to complete everything fairly easily on race day!! So I'm going to try the whole primal way of training and see what happens!
Reborn Grokker - thanks tons!! all good info I feel I'm on the right track but just wasn't sure all the info is incredibly helpful!

This week will be my first "full primal" training week - hopefully trying to keep this lifestyle up indefinitely I love the outdoors so it shouldn't be too difficult!
thanks everyone!

[fat belly frog]

No worries, Its easy to train for these things when you enjoy been outside doing stuff.

Sorry I didnt read you post fully last week so missed the bit about training primaly, I think Mark did a post on this a while ago might pay to search his archieves. The plans I have by Gale Bernhardt for a sprint tri start at 2.5 hours/week build/peak to no more than 4.5-5 hours for a couple of weeks. I think you can train PB way no worries for a sprint tri.

I currently in the building endurance/fitness (from a very low starting base ) phase and learning new skills so doing slow long distance (for me) swims, runs, bike rides and surfski paddles mixed in with HIT conditioning weights sessions 1/2 times per week, Intervals for the surfski and 1 sprint session/ 2 weeks. I am enjoying the training outside and am currently doing ~6-8 hours per week across my four disciplines (swim, run, paddle, bike) and weights.

Please keep us updated with how your training is going I for one would be interested in what your training looks like.

cheers

[grecorosana]

This is an older post but I decided to pitch in since I just finished my first sprint tri. I joined a training group in Miami and my coach uses a program called Training Peaks which I find incredibly useful since there is an Iphone app so I always know my workout of the day. I have to say though that I train pretty intensely and I like it. 6 x week and Fridays are my days off. I run about 4-5 weeks (including brick and track sessions at the University of Miami), swim 3 x week (pool and open water) and bike 2-3. My first triathlon was on August 19 and not only I came almost 6min ahead of my 1:30:00 goal (my finish time was 1:24:37) but I made it to the podium (2nd place) in my division.

Nutrition is still challenging. When I started training in April I had followed PB for a while and was eating about 1300-1500 cals a day and 50 -75 gr of carbs and at some point I hit a wall, so I started eating more and adding carb sources from sweet potatoes, quinoa, bananas and rice and now I eat about 150-200 grms a day. I also eat dried fruits and Larabars. For sports supplements I use a low carb protein shake and products from a brand called Visalus, they have amazing endurance drinks called Pro and Go with no sugar, very little caffeine and great taste. They use a sugar substitute that doesn't raise insulin levels so there is no crash.
My next race is on Sept 23rd and I hope to be able to beat my time :-)
I'm here if you need extra help.

[DeeDub]

Well, add me to the list of tri wannabees. Not looking to win any medals, just want to be able to do it in a respectable time. I've looked at the training regimens, and will likely not follow any of them. I'm not willing to completely turn my life upside down for this, so things have to fit into my everyday life.

For now, I'll be cycle commuting to work (12km each way, including a couple of decent hills) three times a week. Swimming once a week (starting with the official sprint distance). Running 5km once a week (middle aged, former athlete and soldier, knees simply aren't going to take a whole lot more pounding than that). Throw in a couple of evening bodyweight outings (pushups squats whatever) and once a week hitting the free weights hard for 20-30 minutes, and that's all she wrote.

I realize it's probably not ideal, but it's better than sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing, and like I said, not looking to win any medals.