Episode 1: Season Planning

This week’s episode focuses on season planning; how to structure your general and specific preparation blocks; how to plan your A race and supporting races; how to approach training during the holidays; how to incorporate early-season racing and training camps into your season plan; how to think about planning for being a lifelong athlete; and many other topics that we will cover in future podcasts!

Extended show notes:

It’s Taylor Swift’s birthday! And the first episode of our podcast 

  • Context -- situate this conversation in the time of year 

    • How do you handle the holidays? Take the pressure off in the context of changing schedules and variables; enjoy time with family; don’t worry about hitting all workouts perfectly, as goal is to hit the ground running on January 1st 

    • Looking for 80% compliance at this time of year 

    • Time to purchase necessary equipment and gym membership

    • Get familiar with TrainingPeaks, Zwift, with your bike trainer, etc

  • Big picture principles -- Ironman training 

    • 2 phases: general preparation and specific preparation 

    • General preparation + examples

      • A ton of Zone 2 base work. 80/20. Very easy. Many athletes are not even swimming now. 

      • Additional spice goes from least specific to most specific: Neuromuscular, VO2s, Threshold to Tempo to specific race watts/paces. Shorter intervals to longer intervals. 

    • Specific preparation + examples 

      • Last 12 weeks is key, most specific to your race. What you do in the last 12 weeks has the most impact on your race.

      • Big days: nail fueling, hydration, metabolic adaptations, gear, mindset, etc. Example big days 12, 8, and 4 weeks out from race day.

      • Consistent routine, less travel, good recovery, family is on board. Live a boring, steady life. Don’t let yourself get sick.

  • If racing an Ironman, would you race during prep period? 

    • Sprints and Olympics OK during specific period

      • Race mindset can be helpful. Example: Cohasset Tri. 

    • But do not race in the month leading up to IM. 

    • Why is it a problem to race long leading up to IM? Example: 70.3 six weeks out from IM. Takes too long to recover. If you do a one week taper and two week recovery, you lose three weeks of specialized training. 

  • Early season 70.3: March, April can be OK. Example: 70.3 in Florida. 

  • Should you go to camp? When? Specific blocks? 

    • Coast ride // CA camps Jan-Feb

    • May include specific single sport training blocks i.e., run focus, bike camp in a warm location, etc.

  • How about if your goal is shorter races?

    • General to specific, but specific looks different, affords more opportunities to race. If you do sprints and Olympics, race a LOT; 70.3 could do 2-3… etc.

    • Recovery is much shorter for shorter races. If you love to race, shorter races are the way to go. 

  • Life planning, beyond season planning? Shorter distances at younger ages into longer distances at older ages. We don’t recommend that young athletes are signing up for Ironman-distance events (e.g. while still in college). 

    • Katie’s triathlon progression -- 5-year development period. 

  • Being an endurance athlete is about being patient on micro and macro levels. Our goal is lifelong athletes with a healthy approach to sport. Joy, health, and community out of sport.