Winter Training: The Base Phase
During the winter months, if I was your coach
and I oversaw your training, I would rather see you swim
500 meters of near perfect freestyle than 3,000 meters of
inefficient freestyle. I would rather see you bike for an
hour at a cadence that is efficient for you, than see you
ride four hours with inefficient pedal and power output.
I would rather see your running form efficient and proud,
than seeing it breaking down in several areas.
We are triathletes. We are self-motivated and self-disciplined.
No one forces us out of bed every morning to drive to swim
practice in the dark or to go for the morning run when there
is a chill in the air. This is a great attribute you have,
but it can also contribute later in the year for not improving
your performance. The winter months is a time to improve
your form in all three disciplines so that later, when it
is time to train your body at a higher intensity, you will
be more efficient with your energy usage and perform better.
I often see athletes training too hard early in the year,
only to burn out both physically and mentally weeks before
their big race. It is important to set your goals and to
have constructive workouts during the base phase.
Goal Setting – The Mental Foundation
To begin your training season, you first need to use your
brain synapses. Determine what your goals are going to be
for the season. Goals are to be measurable. You need to
know you are getting closer to your goal. For instance,
your goal may be to finish your “A” priority Olympic
distance triathlon in a time of 2:17. Dissect your goal
further and determine that you plan on doing a 24 minute
swim, a 1:14 bike and a 39 minute run. In addition, you
can have short-term goals to maintain your motivation such
as running a 10K race in March under 37:45. A goal should
be under your control. Saying you are going to place top
eight in your age group is not a goal because you don't
know who will be showing up at the race. A goal should be
in the positive, such as I am going to finish in under twelve
hours and eight minutes. Don't say my goal is to not finish
in over fourteen hours. Finally, a goal must be a challenge,
yet realistic. You can't have a goal that you are going
to do an Ironman race under nine hours if the last one you
did took fourteen hours. A challenging, yet realistic goal
will help maintain your motivation.
Now that you have determined your goals and you have them
on your computer, bedroom post, in your car, office desk
and bathroom mirror, start the process of achieving these
goals. As I stated earlier, you must strive for efficiency
in all three disciplines. If the swim is more inefficient
than your cycling, you will want to spend more time on your
swim in the winter months. Work on your weaknesses, while
still maintaining your strengths as much as possible. Training,
especially the winter months, is about trying to improve
your limiters in the sport. Now that you have your goals
set, it is time to set your agenda for training during the
base phase.
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