Dear Training Diary...
In this post I will introduce you to my current sports performance. I'm using a scientific approach, paired with a fetish for Excel and a pinch of humor.
Basics
The fitness includes 4 basic skills: Strength, speed, endurance and mobility.
Today I will focus mainly on endurance, which is the most important for the upcoming Half-Ironman in August. But also triathletes train strength, speed and mobility and their mixed forms (strength endurance, anaerobic endurance and speed). Without them you will not become a good triathlete or a good athlete.
The most important event for me for this year is the Half-Ironman and my whole training is currently geared towards it. This competition has priority number 1 for me.
Training planning
For the training planning I chose the most important competition and periodized the year backwards with different focal points, which concern my training.
The most important thing in training planning is to choose the right load in order to set a sufficient training stimulus, but also to avoid injuries and overtraining.
Intuitive or according to body feeling is not a bad approach for the beginning, but if you want to approach it more professional, you take the science to the assistance.
The question at the end of the session is always: How intense was the session and how does it help me? Can this be measured?
The answer is yes! On the basis of some data like duration, speed and pulse you can calculate the individual stress you put on your body during training. Explaining the whole thing in detail would go beyond the scope here, so I'll give you a link to read ;-)
Link
Forgive me for the mix of German and English but I think you can see it quite well.
You can see that I am competing in 5 competitions this year. I have assigned different priorities to the competitions. "C" stands here for competitions, by which I simply train through, means I do not plan any recovery here and the goal is not to get my best time out here. Rather an additional training unit and get used to a competitive feeling.
"A" stands for competitions for which I prepare myself optimally, i.e. also plan enough recovery before the competition to start in the ultimate top form. "B" would be something in between, but it' s not in my plan this year.
On the right you can still see the periodization phase I'm in and what I'm training exactly, but that's unimportant for now. If you have any questions, ask me in the comments ;-)
My current form
That all sounds pretty ambitious at first, but how fit am I really at the moment? Can I even manage the Half-Ironman? We use the scientific approach and take a look at my current graph:
Looks incomprehensible at first, but I'll enlighten you:
The green line describes my current state of fitness. CTL stands for "Chronic Training Load". This is my current fitness level as far as endurance training is concerned. At the moment I'm scratching at a value of 40, while the best of the best are playing at a value of 200... long way... Years of training and so on...
The red line "ATL" shows "Acute Training Load". This is the load of the last 7 days and therefore the exhaustion I exert on the body.
The purple line "TSB" shows the "Training Stress Balance" and consists of the CTl minus the ATL. It shows my "freshness". The higher this value is, the more likely it is that I can get my best performance. Shortly before an important competition, you want this value to be positive. During training, the value will usually be below zero.
What are we interested in here now?
It's important that the green graph goes up steadily. Not too fast, but it should not stagnate. If you also constantly notice better times in training, you are on the right track. Before the competitions you should lead the purpleGraph over a period of 7-15 days to a positive value of about 20 and the competition will run very well. Hope my green line goes over 9000 one day xD
My performance
In swimming I continue to work on technique and endurance. If I swim 3x 500 meters Intveralle (1min break in between), I need about 34 minutes. The goal is to finish the 1.9km in less than 40 minutes. It's definitely realistic.
Cycling is very new for me. I still have to get used to the road bike, so it's difficult to make a statement here. The goal is to complete the 90 kilometres in less than 3 hours. In training I have already driven an average of 31km/h for 1.5 hours, so the whole thing looks good so far.
Running is my strongest of the 3 disciplines I guess, but that's because I train them the longest. The goal is to finish the last 21 kilometres in less than 2 hours. Wouldn't be a problem at the moment if I hadn't ridden a 3 hour bike before. This is definitely a factor that I should not underestimate and have to train!
What is important is that I get better from day to day and that I notice this in the most different procedures.
Finally, a few parameters that you can use for running to see if you are improving or not.
The lactate threshold, for example, can be used, as can the maximum oxygen intake Vo2max. I have the advantage that my watch does that for me. You can also use a fixed distance for a test and see if you can either get faster, or if the distance becomes more relaxed for you due to the effort and the pulse.
On the right side I have compared my times in the short, medium and long distance (up to 400m/1,6km/infinity) with the current world records. A value of 1 would reflect the world record. It's easy to see that I like sprinting more :D
As long as all these parameters go up, I'm happy and getting better. It becomes interesting if and when I reach a plateau.
I think that's enough for a glimpse for now. I will try to post more often again, so that I keep you up to date ;-)
Today's Training
- 400m for swimming in
- 3x 500m intervals
- 100m swimming out
- Some nice jumps from 1m & 3m
What did I learn today:
- enjoyed the day with my family.
- Pasta with pesto tastes good
Actual Training Schedule!
At the moment there are a lot of endurance training sessions to build up enough endurance for the Half-Ironman.
My competitions
13.05.2019: Half Marathon
01.06.2019: Toughmudder Full Race (extreme obstacle course over 18km)
02.06.2019: Toughmudder Full for fun (extreme obstacle course over 18km)
13.07.2019: Toughmudder Full Race (extreme obstacle course over 18km)
14.07.2019: Toughmudder Full for fun (extreme obstacle course over 18km)
05.08.2019: Northsman Half-Ironman 70,3
19.08.2019 Marathon
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Best regards
