Coach Robbie and I recently recorded a podcast on off-season training myths. Here’s a taste of the discussion in outline form.
Be sure to subscribe to the Crushing Iron podcast on iTunes.
THREE OFF SEASON TRIATHLON TRAINING MYTHS
1 . You Need to Do an Off-Season Marathon
• Marathon training during Ironman training is a surefire way to ignore swim and bike fitness.
• A marathon is harder on your body than a 70.3 and will cause more downtime for recovery.
• Exception: If you do a 2016 late summer, early, or late Fall Ironman, you can carry over the fitness to your marathon.
2. You Should Do Drills And Kicking In Every Workout
• Most triathletes have bad ankle flexibility and/or kick from the knees which makes kicking a waste of time and energy.
• Why spend 10-15 percent of your time reinforcing bad habits when conditioning and arm fitness isn’t there?
• Most triathletes simply aren’t strong enough to maintain good form.
3. You Should Cycle With Watt-Crushing Intensity
• Take a polarized approach. 80% of training should be at level one/level two zone. The other 20% on high intensity.
• Find ways to keep riding enjoyable instead of over-trained and fatigued.
• Think recovery for next workout AND long-term versus just this season.
Here’s the full podcast, which discusses everything above in more detail, plus simplifying swim workouts and post-Ironman Blues. If you have topics or questions, email us at [email protected].