Coach Danno?

My wife Sally wants me to start coaching triathletes. I’m not certified, but I think I could do it. Apparently one of her friend’s kids is a current swimmer who wants to give the sport a try. The kid, a daughter, can’t pay for a coach or a team or anything like that, but hey, she still wants to compete. Well, times are tough, and I get that, and more to the point, we all like it when somebody takes some time to show us the ropes of a new sport. I told Sally last night that I absolutely WILL NOT meet with this girl one-on-one (Hello lawsuit!), but if there’s a little group of them, then I’ll give it a try. I mean, triathlon is a great sport, but I very much doubt that a bunch of high schoolers, no matter how enthusiastic, is gonna have the knowledge and self-discipline to set themselves up for success in a demanding and not at all obvious sport like triathlon.

It’s an open question in my mind if I need to be certified. I mean, if I was gonna charge money for my time, then yeah, I would DEFINITELY need to be certified. But as this is more in the way of an under-the-table arrangement between friends, well… it’s just a question of liability. I don’t particularly want to get sued for trying to do someone a favor. Against that, there’s the fact that I’m a certified Army Master Fitness Trainer and former D-1 college swimmer with experience designing training programs for other folks. Granted, that stuff was a while ago and not specifically for triathlon, but the basics of tri aren’t overly difficult to master. And I’ve been training myself and competing successfully for two full seasons. So although I don’t particularly think of myself as an expert, I know a few things, and I’d be happy to pass those on.

So… how do you design a training program for triathletes?

The key, I think, is to keep it as short and fast as possible within the confines of the realities of the sport. Which is to say that even a “Sprint” triathlon is gonna last more than an hour, so training for such an event is gonna require more than just interval training.

Let’s start by breaking the season down into 3 parts, each of which I’ll arbitrarily label at 6 weeks in length. That makes this an 18-week plan, which means that you could essentially implement it twice in a year, while also allowing yourself some down time for a short off-season and/or cross-training period. Alternately, you could do it once and leave yourself time for a whole other season of sports. In my own High School years, we used to do some running and other dry-land work towards the end of summer and before we got back to Base Training for the short-course swimming season, and that was invaluable to me later in life, both when I joined the Army and then later when I started doing tri’s. Of course, triathlon is already a sport that requires a good bit of rounding, but it’s still nice to have some time to focus on either one specific element or on lifting weights. And I personally LOVE my off-season training.

Part I – Base Training (6 -8 weeks)

This is where we get ready to train. If we were doing run or triathlon training for adults, this would be the long-slow-distance (LSD) super-aerobic work—the part that most people hate. At least for me, this is the part where I’m using my heart rate monitor and ensuring that I don’t overwork, in favor of just putting in miles and training my body to go loooooooong.

For teens, I think you still need to do a good bit of pure distance training. But you also want to add in some anaerobic work, too, hopefully getting in at least a little something fast every day. The reason for the shorter distances is a) because it’ll keep your kids from losing their minds, and b) kids under 18 generally need to do speed work more than they need to do LSD-type work. So then the challenge here is to build an aerobic base while maintaining at least some focus on anaerobic (speed) work, too. Bottom line, we want to go long, but we also want to get their Heart Rates up, too.

Ideally, I’d like to go with a medium-hard day on Mondays, a long-hard day on Wednesdays, and another medium-hard day on Fridays. Saturdays are your super-hard days, in anticipation of having Sunday off. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’d like to keep the sheer distances down but increase the speed. I also think it’s important to do some distance timers and/or training races at the end of this phase to gage your progress and just basically get excited for the season.

Part II – Intensive Interval/Quality Work (6 -8 weeks)

With a quality base built, you’re ready to turn it up and start really working towards specific goals—and maybe competing in your preliminary seasonal, non-taper races.

Back when I was swimming, this was the part where, especially in college, I would do A LOT of butterfly stroke work. Sets like 5 x 300 butterfly on 3:45 were what led to championships later in the season. If you can grind that set out at about Week 10 of your training cycle, then it’s 100% guaranteed that you’ll be able to finish strong in the 200 Fly at the League Championships 6-8 weeks later.

As far as theory goes, I think the same sort of principles would apply to triathlon. Here’s where you want to really get into your whole “hard-day/easy-day” thing, alternating drills, straight-up lung-busting endurance training, and speed & power work. These days, this part of the season is easily my favorite because I start doing running and riding intervals and riding hills, and that’s what I enjoy. It’s more intense and typically less mind-numbing than just pounding out those aerobic miles at a steady, controlled heart rate.

Part III – Speed Training and Taper (2-3 weeks each)

This is pretty easy. The first three weeks you focus on getting faster without losing aerobic capacity. You’re doing shorter distances on longer intervals, but you’re trying to go faster. That said, you’re not giving up much total mileage yet. We still want to put in work, we just want to put in HARDER work, with more rest between intervals. Maybe you’re not pushing quite so many miles on those long Saturdays any more, but you definitely need to keep working hard for those first three weeks.

The last three weeks are similar, but you’re coming down in the total distance worked. But not in intensity! You still want to go FAST! Tapering is never about training slow. It’s about training less distance but going much, much, much faster.

That said, in my experience tapering is very much an individual thing, and if you’ve got some kids who’re really tired, they may need more rest. I would also caution that’s it’s better to peak early and hold a taper than to peak late and not be ready for the big race. Most folks can hold a good, working taper for 4 to 6 weeks (or longer!) as long as they keep the intensity up whenever they’re out there working.

So anyway, there’s a little triathlon theory. Comments and questions are welcome.