Standard Week

[Toolish]

I am training for triathlons but want to do a bike focus.

How does this look as a standard week

http://coachlevi.com/training/example-c ... ek-layout/

Would drop the sprints and put a mid intensity ride in there, sprinting in tri's is a bit of a waste of time

I know it is a bit of a how long is a peice of string question, but would the weekly 2 hour intense ride be too much t orecover from for most people? Would that basically be a 2 hour TT or should it be something different?

[steve-waters]

Sprinting may or may not be a waste of time for tri's - what length of Tri are you doing?

For an ironman distance you are likely to race at or about your aerobic threshold - if however you are doing olympic or short course you are going to be pushing it alot harder and sprints would not hurt.

Sorry don't really feel comfortable to comment on the strucure for a focus week - other than above.

[Chookman]

What distance tri's are you aiming at and how many bike sessions do you want to do in a week? The bike leg is basically a TT so the most important factor is raising your threshold and increasing the amount of time you can spend at threshold. Sprints are a waste of time as you stated. for anything up to half IM distance I'd be aiming at sessions such as 2 x 20 mins 3-4 x 15 mins etc.

[Toolish]

Aiming at HIM, want to do at least 4 sessions a week, but hopefully more like 6.

I have been doing 6 x 4 on 2 off intervals with the goal over the year to extend the intervals out to work on raising FTP. Need to get some endurance in there too.

[Chookman]

As your aim is HIM, forget the sprints as they are a waste of time. As your goal races are later in the year(correct?), I'd Personally drop the intensity slightly to around 90% FTP (if using power) or approx 85% Max HR and do repeats such as 2x20 mins building to 3 x 20 mins, or other variations such as 2 x 30 mins, 1 x 60 mins. you could do this type of work 2 or 3 x per week if you are focusing on the bike; however if you are still doing intense running, you may only get away with 2 depending upon how you recover.

As the races get closer (4 months out), I'd up the intensity to 95-105% FTP, or if not using power, the intensity you could sustain for 60 minutes, and build up to doing 2 or 3 x20 mins with 5-10 mins between each. start off with 3 x 10 mins and increase it each week. There are different ways to approach the final months and they all have their merits. You could do 2 of these sessions per week for approx 2 months and then replace 1 with some V02 work such as 4-5 x 4 mins with 4 min recoveries; or you could continue on doing 2 x sessions @95-105% FTP until you taper.

So if you were riding 4 x per week I'd suggest 2 x interval sessions, 1 x recovery ride and 1 x long steady ride of 3-4 hours.

This is just one method; however it worked for me doing this sort of stuff. Err on the side of caution when doing V02 work as doing it for extended periods often leads to staleness/overtraining. 4-5 weeks is probably enough.

Another session I used to do at th end of a recovery week is to ride for 80kms approx at HIM pace then get off and run 10-12kms at your goal run pace, or slightly quicker. These sessions are great condidence builders!