Using TRIplans to race combinations of UK IRONMAN® and 70.3® events.

It has recently been announced that Tri Training Harder are the new coaching partners for the four UK IRONMAN® and 70.3® in 2015. As part of this I have been thinking about how to combine our TRIplans to best effect for athletes wanting to race multiples of these events. During this process I learnt a few things that may be of interest to athletes considering or entered in these races or maybe even those hoping to find a race entry for the events that are already full, but more on that later....

Firstly here is the chart that I drew up showing an overview of the mesocycles involved in preparing for each of the UK IRONMAN® and 70.3® events.

Multiple Events

More interestingly what will you do if you have entered two or more of the events? Lets start with looking at all the different combinations;

As you will see in the chart above there are only certain ones of these that are chosen and these are based upon a combination of what I think is likely athletes will enter and also what I think is wise for performance.

Mixing Build and Competition phases

Combining Wimbleball and Bolton is an interesting example. You can do this two ways;

You can either use a long course build as if you were only racing Bolton and use Wimbleball as a preparation race a few weeks before the IRONMAN®, racing ever so slightly within yourself and practicing everything that you will do in Bolton.

or

You can race and focus on Wimbleball using a long course build but with a middle distance competition period for 4 weeks going into Wimbleball and then put together your own active recovery week and a few key sessions in the penultimate week. Here you can see an example of where I have gone off a planned week and placed in an 'E' (easy) and two 'C' (competition) weeks between racing Wimbleball and racing Bolton.

In the diagram above you will also note 'B' (build) weeks for after Staffs and Wimbleball for those going onto race Wales. These are there to allow a progressive build back up to the training that you will be set in the first week of the Wales competition phase. Working back from this first week of the competition phase and looking at what you have done since Staffs/Wimbleball and also in the build for them you can plan some training or even directly copy some build weeks you have already completed.

Purchasing a long course build phase doesn't mean you have to complete a long course competition phase. You can piece together the blocks to suit your own timetable of events!

You will also notice that there is only one option for combining Wimbleball and Wales, this is due to the nature of both courses. Both require strong athletes and I believe that you won't benefit from sacrificing a long course build phase for Wales to perform at Wimbleball. In fact I think the extra strength and endurance gained will be very beneficial around the Wimbleball course. The same goes for combining Wimbleball and Bolton the long course build will serve you well around Exmoor.

I hope this article is useful and gives you a rough idea of how you can manipulate the TRIplans to work towards your goals. If you wish to gain any further detailed advice you may wish to consider speaking to a coach at length using our consultations services.