
Two months ago I began training for my third half ironman: the sixth annual Whirlpool Steelhead Triathlon, which will take place in Southwest Michigan, Aug. 2.
For the next six months I will build my aerobic base to sustain six-hours of training, test my athletic abilities by participating in various events (i.e. half marathons, trail races and Olympic distance triathlons).
By measuring my performance after each race, I will be able to assess my strengths and weaknesses. This will allow me to effectively tweak my training strategy to fully support my goal, which is to complete the 70.3-mile event in less than six hours.
In order to achieve my goal, I will need to finish the 1.2-mile swim in 40 minutes, ride 56-miles in three hours or less and run 13.1 miles in two hours.
The time and preparation that goes into training for such a race is comparable to how PR professionals begin building their communication plan for a client.
There are two main focuses when building a plan: goals and objectives,
To illustrate the application of these two concepts, I will outline my race strategy.
As you know, my goal is to finish the race in less than six hours. Actually, I am aiming for five hours and forty-minutes.
My best chance of achieving this goal, is to outline my objectives - in detail.
To begin, it is important to train five days a week. Each day is a building day, which means my training duration increases as the week progresses.
Detailing the objectives.
To finish the swim in 40 minutes, I will need to focus on three areas: drill work, speed work and open water swims.
Drills: improve form and technique
Speed: accomplished by swimming laps and measuring speed and distance once a month
Open water: builds endurance and improves sighting
To complete the 56-mile bike leg, in three hours or less, I will need to focus on two specific areas: eendurance and speed.
Endurance: each month the duration of the ride increases. The duration at this time is 60 to 90 minutes on the trainer. As spring approaches the ride will be moved outside on rolling terrain and slowly increase to four hours.
Speed:is built using intervals and hill repeats.
The final leg of the race is the run, which is a half marathon (13.1 miles).
Endurance is important here. By the time I reach the run I will have been going strong for almost four hours.
To complete the run in two hours, I will focus on two specific areas: shorter, quickly runs during the week and long runs on the weekend.
The shorter, quicker runs will last 60 minutes and include interval training, as well as hill repeats and tempo runs.
The long runs will be on the Buckeye Trail, which is a hilly terrain that challenges your balance, coordination and skills.
To measure my objectives, which will let me know how well I am progressing, I will use two tools: tests and a measuring device.
Monthly tests.
Each month I will test myself by participating in a race. With calculation of my time and duration in each discipline I will be able to tell if the drills, and other techniques are building my speed.
Measuring device.
I use the Garmin 305, a GPS unit that tracks, speed, distance, heart rate, calories burned, ascent, decent, and a whole lot more - don’t I sound like a commercial. But wait, there’s more.
The 305 is comes complete with a software program. After each run, I download information from my watch to the computer and walla, I instantly have the above information charted.
Just like a PR professional, I use, goals, objectives, strategies as well as tactics, which I will talk about another, time to establish, measure and track results.
Without all of the planning, it will be hard to hit my goal.
Could I do it without all this planning? Maybe. But, the planning is essential for future
races. Just as a well documented PR plan. This is were “we” get the tried and true data to
to grow, progress and tackle new challenges without doubt or hesitation.