There is nothing left until the competition, which I have been going to for a year and a half in total. So this post is for those who prefer the format of the artistic chatter of my blog dry facts un figures.
Countdown "3..., 2..., 1...!" went on February 18 — 15 weeks ago. Since I did not start from scratch, but from a minus balance, I also had a pre-preparatory period from December 22, when I first took the first steps on the track after a two-month break.
Based on the material from the links in the previous post, I made myself a training plan, which you can see on Google docs. Looking ahead, we can say that the plan is 95%+ fulfilled.
The principles of building a 4-month plan are simple. Rolling in, the main period with a gradual increase in volume, refusal of strength exercises in the last month, and rest before the race. Every 4th week is restorative.
During the week, Matt Lieto's standard plan had to be adjusted to suit himself. With the classical approach, the week should start with less loads, increasing towards the end. Firstly, this is due to the fact that the body prepares for general heavy loads in a short period of time 1-2 days by simulating a race. Secondly, people with a normal routine on weekends have more free time for longrans. Thirdly, after a large volume at the end of the week, a day off follows and then you can jump into our protein wheel with renewed vigor.
The adapted plan in Shchedrovsky looked like this. I knew that I could not be given two days of running and cycling longrans in a row, so it was quite natural to spread them to opposite ends of the week, leaving a day off between them. This made it possible not to be afraid to disrupt the knee and the whole plan. If in running training from Monday to Saturday my volume increased, then after a free Sunday on Monday I, fresh and rested like Leopold the cat, pedaled for about 3 hours. My employment at work allowed it. By the end of the week, the volume of the bike was falling and I was running full of energy on Saturday wherever I looked.
Swimming stood apart here. At first, the question was only about technology. Increasing the volume is not particularly recommended by professionals. Preference is given to performing various exercises. I tried to combine them. The time spent in the pool became less routine. After all, my approach is such that swimming in the pool I equate to running on the track in the gym and to pedaling on the machine. All this is somehow not very natural — anyway :) It is necessary to love swimming very much, so that with the available alternative to open water, you can continue to push off the walls of the aquarium endlessly, like a pet fish. Therefore, as soon as an alternative with a farm appeared, I did not think for a second.
It was only in April that I managed to go outside with a triathlon and literally take a breath of fresh air. How very different was what I was doing in the gym from the real movement. I would like to quote the title of the chapter from the Triathlete's Bible in the description of the sensations from this transformation — "From laboratories to the real world!"
There are many pros and cons, there is not enough paper for them, but the main plus for all our three outdoor sports is the presence of resistance in the form of wind and terrain. Of course, at first it may seem like a minus. The results are worse, it becomes harder. But at such moments it is necessary to drive treacherous thoughts about returning to the burrow, and "you need to think bigger and not to the light bulb."
To the promised figures.
During this time, according to my endomondo, the results came out/will come out as follows:
For comparison — the results for the whole of 2012 from the sports tracker are as follows:
I studied an average of 15 hours a week. 3 workouts of each type alternating running and cycling. In winter, a bicycle was combined with a swimming pool on one day due to small volumes and due to the fact that a treadmill was combined with power ones on another day. Later, there was a forced castling as the bike rides lengthened. The average volumes for the week consisted of 8 km of swimming, 200 km of cycling and 40 km of running.
There were some injuries during this period, but they can be safely called micro. It is a pity that psychologically the appearance of any even microtrauma was pressing, since in conditions of a strict schedule it was impossible to fall out of the clip for at least a week. After all, it's not just a week gone, in physical form you roll back for all two, plus you can't start working at the right volumes right away, either. So the time spent with an injury can be safely multiplied by three.
The race time, like any beginner, was initially planned to be overly optimistic. Not even considering that this is generally the first such event where anything can happen, since I haven't really checked my body (read — knee) in combat conditions yet. The first conversation with the coach helped here. If he agreed with my forecast on running and swimming, then knowing the bike trail in Pescara firsthand, he shook his head sadly. Shook, unfortunately for me, not up and down…
So for today I would like to overcome:
In total, the result is faster than 5 and a half hours, which is approximately equivalent to the first category, will be considered chic. Approximately, because there is no such distance in the Russian regulations.
So please take your leave, always your iron blogger.
Join the subscribers on Facebook*, friends, so as not to miss all the twists and turns of the race first-hand, while the new post on Lifehacker is just going to be in my head!
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