After Kona back in October I decided that I would switch my focus to cycling and start prepping for the Tour de Korea. There were two bike races after Kona that I did a little prep work for to end out the season. If you remember I got taken out and crashed in the crit but came back two weeks later to win the road race, so ended the season on a high note. Well over the past 4.5 months a lot has changed and I am starting to feel more like a cyclist right now than a triathlete, but don't be fooled I have still been running and swimming a bit as well.
I switched coaches back in late November and started full time with Zach Garrett a member of the US Military Cycling Team, accomplished cyclist and Aerospace Physiologist. We kept in mind that I would be returning to Triathlon shortly after the Tour de Korea so agreed to try and maintain my run and swim, but we knew it would drop off a little bit. The bike was the main focus and we will soon see how that works out, but I can tell a huge difference from November till now.
So what has the last 4.5 months looked like? I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks home in California and the weather cooperated and made for some great training. I was also able to attend the US Military Cycling Team Camp down in Florida and get two races under my belt as well as train with the Elite Team and soak up a bunch of knowledge from the best riders in the military. With all of the above happening I put in some solid training, but also put in some solid travel across the Pacific Ocean. Below are some graphs to help you see how things have went over the past 4.5 months.
Above is the hours I put in each week. I have averaged 13 hours up to this week, and have a total of 265hrs and 4,340 miles accumulated between all 3 sports. 11/28/11-4/17/12
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For those of you that use TrainingPeaks and WKO+, this is my total TSS combined for Swimming, Running, Cycling. I averaged 772 not including this current week, which is the last column. 11/28/11-4/17/12
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And again for those TrainingPeaks/WKO+ users, here is my PMC Chart. Those 2 spikes in TSB were when I came back from Camp and was completely exhausted from a big week training and the travel to get back and then just as I got back into it I got sick. 11/28/11-4/17/12
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With all of the above data some of you may be able to relate to all of it, but for the most part everyone can understand the hours/distance trained. The biggest thing that a lot of people overlook in training is consistency. I would like think that if you look at the above data you can see that I have been really consistent week in and week out considering the circumstances. When you travel across the Pacific it can make things a little harder as it eats up a few days, but for the most part I am not putting in "huge" weeks and just keeping everything consistent. Over the last 15 months I have completely turned my training around and have found great results in that. What has been different? I have found great coaches, put my trust in them and let them guide me down this path. Training is quite simple when you are surrounded by great mentors, coaches, friend and of course family.
Hope this little insight into my training helps you better understand what I have done to prep for the Tour de Korea and hopefully some solid results will show how hard I have been working. Be on the lookout later this week for a Pre Race Blog about the TdK
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