As that relates to triathlon training, you must work around or in the rain. I'm not a fan of riding my bike in the rain at all. Besides the more slippery conditions, there is the cleaning up of the bike afterward and just the wet misery of riding in the rain. If there are two operating standards in my training, they are that I'm a fair weather trainer and I believe in the "no pain, no pain" adage.
I do exaggerate, because of course there's no such thing as painless long distance triathlon training and there's no way to get the training done required without withstanding some adverse conditions. But as with any passion, if it ain't fun, why do it?
I had planned to ride yesterday and today, but both days are rainy and chilly (60-it's all relative). So I'm adapting my training.
I did my stretching yesterday and I will do my rubberband workout today. And I am ahead on my training plan anyway.
I am planning on doing the Ecumlaw Half-Ironman on September 13. That gives me sixteen weeks to train as of last week.
The more simple training plan, the better. At the beginning of every season, I check out the same training books and realize that nothing new has been said about marathon training in 10 years and long distance triathlon (LDT) training in 5. So I re-read this stuff, and I absorb a little bit more each time. What I find is I get out the calculators and the notebooks and start figuring out heart rate statistics, threshold training parameters, number of training days, aerobic workouts, anaerobic workouts, diet and equipment. I slowly realize that if I get too wrapped up in that stuff I realize that I'm too poor and too impatient for this training and I get demoralized. The one saving grace is that I have done an LDT before and based on what I have learned, I can at least complete, if not improve, on any future races. Until I can afford a personal coach and/or to quit my full time job, I will just wing it as best I can. Minutiae can be fun, but if you're not careful, you'll discover one day that you have constructed the greatest training plan known to man, that requires the Harvard brain trust to decipher. I created just such a training plan about six months ago, built on idealism and good intentions. It was pretty fun to put together, but no way I was going to follow it.
So I fall back on what I learned in Marine Corps boot camp and have relied on when all else failed. Keep it simple, stupid (KISS principle).
I have set out to follow two basic workouts for each of the three sports, plus some strength and stretching after each workout. As fast as possible and recovery pace. And when I say as fast as possible, I do mean without throwing up when I'm finished. Push the machine a little bit, but when it starts shaking apart, slow down. My training plan at all times is, sure, I'd like to win the race. But I'd also like to do this for the rest of my life, and hell, I have to work in the morning! If I had the choice of winning Ironman Hawaii once or doing twenty more LDT races, I'll take the twenty more races. I would, however, like to someday participate in Kona. Not out of the realm of possibility. Just out of the realm of possibility right now.
The most basic training philosophy, and in my experience, the most important, is whatever training you do, do not increase, week over week, your training load by more than 10%. The second most important is listen to the feedback your body is giving you.
Having said this, I go back to the simplicity mode. My basic plan is to increase my training time by one hour per week for the next 14 weeks (taper the last two weeks).
As you may point out right off the bat, by going from 60 minutes to 120 minutes in the first week, you have already blasted your own theory right out of the water. And you would be right except that I have been doing some pre-season training that includes a minimum 30 minutes of walking per day and a couple of times in the pool per week for the last few months. Also, there are the few occasions when I've ridden to work on my bike or just taken a spin. I don't count this strictly, but it does count. This is a pretty good base and my body shouldn't be shocked or damaged by increasing training by an hour per week. So starting with sixty minutes per week is almost hard to do because my body is ready to do a lot more. By week ten of training, I will finally be back to that 10% theory and the increase will be less than ten percent going forward. This will actually allow me to increase training intensity and overall speed without pulling muscles or exhausting myself.
In the meantime, as I increase my training by one hour week over week, I will pay close attention to what my body is saying. If something hurts the wrong way, I will pull back. If I have basic full body exhaustion, it's time to nap instead of work out.
A couple things I'm doing differently this season is a lot more stretching, more strength training and a more controlled easing into the training. I have a sense that I think the same thing at the beginning of every season, but there is something very interesting about sports like triathlon (body building is another that comes to mind), and probably all sports to a certain extent. The people who are the best triathletes are the people in their thirties and forties. Thirties and forties are retirement or well past retirement age for most sports. This is no doubt partly because triathlon is a relatively young sport. And besides running, which is problematic, lower impact overall. But it is also because it is a complicated sport that has a lot of factors. Just to start with, you are working with three sports. I will never run as fast as I did in my teens and twenties, but I think I can bike just as fast, probably faster, and I know that my best swimming times are far ahead of me. I may not swim my fastest until I'm into my sixties.
It takes a long time to get good. Just as in a career where it takes a lifetime to reach your pinnacle, so it is with triathlon. As long as you don't total the vehicle, you can drive that jalopy for a long, long time.
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