A Look Into '12 Training Season Part 1

6 Oct 2012-

Leading into Kona I like to take time and reflect back on the season and see where all the numbers fall.  Give those of you that take the time to read this blog a little insight to what I have done going into this race.  As some of you know this season was quite unique as I put in a big cycling block from end of November to the end of April.  I then proceeded to put in a 8 week training block for Armed Forces Triathlon which was the end of June.  After that I stayed home in California for the month of July and raced locally on the bike and then headed up to Cascade Cycling Classic for 3 days of racing.  Around this same time I was notified that I had been selected to represent the Air Force at Kona, for the one male slot that we have.  Each branch gets 1 male and 1 female slot.  Coming back to Korea from the states I started a 11 week triathlon block to focus on Kona.

During the first block from end of November to end of April I started with a cycling coach who mixed in some swimming and running through the off season, normally swimming 1-2x a week and running 2-3x a week.  Zach Garrett is a good friend and I was his guinea pig as his first athlete.  I used the same triathlon coach as last year going with Scott DeFilippis.  Before I decided to do the whole cycling focus and then switch back I had Zach and Scott talk with each other to make sure they both had the same goals in mind for me as an athlete.  I thought that was something that was important and I wanted to be open about switching coaches and make sure they were on the same page.  Zach coached me from end of November through end of April, Scott picked up from May to end of June and then Zach coached/mentored me again for all of July.  Then starting first week of August Scott had full control of the Kona focus.

The reason I wanted to put in a huge cycling focus is because I thought I was a strong cyclist and then last year in Kona I got a reality check.  I swam 455th out of 1855, biked 560th out of 1855 and ran 112 out of 1855.  By those numbers my bike was the worst in Kona last year and that was something that I wanted to improve upon, so I wanted to train like a cyclist and become a cyclist.  I set out a goal to upgrade from CAT4 to CAT2 through the year and I accomplished that, I felt by the end of that journey that I was a cyclist.  Now with all of that in the books it is time to see where I am, last week was a good indicator but more about that in the next blog.

For this blog I am going to focus on the first part of the season all the way up to the start of the 11 week Kona block.

First up we will take a look at overall hours trained (my training for the next season typically starts first week of December):

2011:

(Click image to enlarge) From 12/01/10-12/01/11, Total Hours Trained per week

 

2012:

 (Click image to enlarge) From 12/01/11-7/29/12, Total Hours Trained per week

 

Swim:

  (Click image to enlarge) From 12/01/11-7/29/12, Swim Meters per week

 

Bike:

 (Click image to enlarge) From 12/01/11-7/29/12, Miles Biked per week

 

 

Run:

 (Click image to enlarge) From 12/01/11-7/29/12, Miles Ran per week

 

Lastly, here is a pie chart of % spent with each sport from 12/01/11-7/29/12

 

As you can tell the bike was definitely the focus.

 

Looking at all of that information one would think that my swim and run would suffer, and that was something I was really worried about.  When I came back to Scott for the 8 week build into Armed Forces I was really concerned about my run and picking up an injury.  He kept me on track and within a few weeks I felt like my running was right back to where it was if not a little better.  My swim wasn't quite where I had hoped but things really started to come together right before Armed Forces and I had a decent swim there.

 

All in all I was really happy with how this portion of the season went.  I only raced 2 tri's but managed to get in 27 road races.  Out of those 27 road races I picked up 8 wins and 14 podiums and upgraded from a CAT4 to CAT2.  I couldn't of asked for a better cycling season in terms of results, and felt like I learned a lot along the way in terms of tactics and racing smarter, luckily the legs were there to make up for the lack of experience for the first few races.

 

I do not believe nor recommend switching back and forth between coaches like I did to anyone, I think it is a very tricky situation but I am lucky enough to have two great coaches that both know me very well.  We have a really open athlete/coaching relationship and that is why we were able to make it work.  They both have their pro's and con's and I would highly recommend either one of them depending on exactly what you are looking for.

 

Later on this week I will post about the 11 week block of training leading into Kona, in a similar fashion.  Hopefully this will give some people some insight on how my confusing season went and why I chose to do what I did.  Eric Reid a great mentor and friend of mine told me a few years ago to be a better cyclist you need to train with cyclist.  I went above and beyond what he told me and I became one of the cyclist, now we just have to wait and see how all of that pays off........................................