I did my first sprint tri this summer and darn it, I am hooked. Something about getting to spend more time outdoors during the nice weather and not spending an extra 45 minutes a day driving to and from workouts is a plus. But I am definitely a swimmer first.
So, if I really wanted to be a serious triathlete, the advice for the “off-season” would be to concentrate on my base building and weak links – running (averaging 11 min miles! ICK!) and cycling (not as bad as the running but still needs quite a bit of work).
But I am a swimmer, who will now be doing triathlons in the “off-season” for fun and a wish to be mildly competetive in the sprints. So how do I work my swim season so as not to loose the precious gains I’ve made in running and cycling but really putting forth the concentrated effort to do well at swimming? Not only that but I’ve never considered myself a distance swimmer before although I have always been fond of “middle distance” 200s. That’s nothing compared to a ½ mile minimum. Yes, I won’t be the most stellar swimmer this way either but I am quite happy with placing in the top half of my age group with an occasional shot at placing in a weakly contested event. Add to the pile I don’t have much time between finishing grad school this winter, working more than full time, and an icky major metro area commute. A total of 6-8 hours a week will be reserved for a few special “to the max” occasions. I can probably manage 4 hours on a consistent basis without killing myself but maybe only 3 in really awful weeks.
I’m confused on how to balance the sports while putting a major emphasis on swimming. Also, how to taper with throwing other stuff into the mix? Back off everything else two weeks out? Three weeks? I suppose I’ll be able to pick only one taper meet and make it count. And what events should I try this winter? Normally I would mix things up with a whole bunch of strokes, mainly breaststroke, the 200 free, and maybe a 400m free for fun. I don’t know if I will be able to put enough time in the pool to do longer distances but feel an urge to do the one hour swim in January (go NEM!), an 800m free in December, and a 1650y in March (something I don’t think I’ve EVER done in my lifelong swimming career except in practice).
I hope maybe others can discuss their own seasonal issues here and we can figure out some plans that work for us as there are no books I’ve found which cater to periodizing the year with multiple sport seasons. (for me, swimming Fall/Winter and triathlon in the spring/summer)
Thanks!
