220Triathlon Edição 334

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FEBRUARY 2017

PERFORMANCE

With the Christmas eating season ticked-off, now’s the time to knuckle-down and add some

multisport brick sessions to your training mix. Here’s

Dermott Hayes

with his January plan…

BRICKFOCUS

2017 TRAINING PLANS: PART 4 OF 6

ou’ve possibly spent the last few weeks

chinning port, gobbling pâté for

breakfast and rarely thinking about a

certain thing called triathlon. Now, then, is the

time to peel yourself off the sofa and refocus on

your multisport goals for 2017.

After completing a time-trial last month and

now being able to cover sprint distance in

training, short-course athletes should continue

to build on those distances during January. For

longer runs and rides, ensure that you’re ticking

off some hill work; it can either be a route that

includes various climbs or it can be repeated

climbs of a particular hill. Make hills your friend

as they’re a great way of improving overall power

for plenty of race courses.

The other major introduction in this phase is

the Brick. It’s time to start getting multisport-

specific and that means bringing in the idea of

running straight after cycling. This month we

start with an indoor-based session that allows for

multiple transitions between bike and run.

For the session, try to get into your running

stride within 2mins and then maintain pace.

Expect it to feel awkward initially and don’t be

surprised if you’re running faster than predicted.

Aim to be disciplined and maintain good form for

each rep. Continue to focus on post-exercise

stretching to prevent injuries and muscle soreness,

and also try to include some strength sessions.

ALLABOUTBUILDING

For long-course athletes, it’s all about ‘building’.

Every week and month must develop on the

previous month and specifically the objectives

are to build distance and build strength.

The most important area to work on for the

next two months is climbing on the bike and run;

this’ll be in both the longer sessions but also the

interval sessions where you’re able to control the

finer details. Monitor time, distance, incline,

power and heart rate when working through

them. Make a note, so you can repeat the sessions

and aim to match the rate of Perceived Exertion

(see below) with pace, power or heart rate.

Long-course training involves a degree of

repetition. Don’t be put off by this, many athletes

will have ‘go to’ sessions that are important to

include at least once per fortnight. These allow

you to create a picture of progress.

Where possible at this phase, include hill work

and trails in your longer runs as this can be a

great way to improve your road speed. For the

swim, include some technical drills into your

swim sessions. Coping with the increase in

overall volume of training is key so ensure you

eat and sleep well to recover.

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IMAGES

REMY WHITING, AS DESIGN

PERCEIVEDEXERTIONCHART

Follow the suggested ‘perceived exertion’

(PE) rating for each session to peg your

training efforts correctly.

NOTHING

VERY, VERYLIGHT

VERYLIGHT

LIGHT

LIGHTTOEASY

EASYTOMODERATE

MODERATE

MODERATETOMODERATELY

UNCOMFORTABLE

MODERATELYUNCOMFORTABLE

TOMODERATELYHARD

HARD

VERYHARDEFFORT

ATORCLOSETOMAXEFFORT

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