12 Week Olympic Prep Plan (10 - 14hrs per week)
Author: James Beckinsale
Length: 12 Weeks
Tags: triathlon, olympic
Typical Week: 3 Swim, 3 Run, 2 Bike, 2 Strength, 1 Day Off
Longest Workout:
1:00 hrs swim
3:00 hrs bike
1:45 hrs run
Author: James Beckinsale
Length: 12 Weeks
Tags: triathlon, olympic
Typical Week: 3 Swim, 3 Run, 2 Bike, 2 Strength, 1 Day Off
Longest Workout:
1:00 hrs swim
3:00 hrs bike
1:45 hrs run
12 Week Olympic Prep Plan (10 - 14hrs per week)
THE OLYMPIC PREPARATION PHASE (8-12 Weeks)
You have either gone through the whole process from Foundation building your skills and technique into Winter building your fitness and holding technique under more pressure and now you’re embarking on the final preparation to your Sprint Triathlon. Or you may be just tapping into this phase of your training to help you with your final preparation for your Olympic distance race.
On the whole this plan will use the polarised training model where the majority of the training will be in zones 1 & 2 with around 20 of the training in zones 4 & 5. That said some sessions you need to practice "race pace" and this is zone 3.
Most people are looking to target a Olympic Dist Triathlon
1. As its the next challenge up form a sprint
2. They do not have time to train for longer distances
The key is:
1) You are not injured
2) Your enthusiasm is high (you have not overdone the training to this point)
3) Technically you are sound
4) You have done the intensity sessions in the winter plan
Improved economy + increased training loads + psychological skills = faster & tougher athlete
Warm up (400m)
100 back - 100m Front scull deep kick (FSDK) - 100 Front doggy deep kick (FDDK) - 100 fly (if new to fly do 4 x 25m)
Pre main (3 - 600m)
1 - 2 x (100 single arm Left & Right into – 100 single arm with paddles into – 100 single arm)
Main set 1 (1300)
4 x 25m sprint OFF 30 seconds recovery
100m back recovery
4 x 100m L3 threshold off 20 seconds recovery 100m back between
4 x 25m sprint off 1min
100 back
2 x 200m L3 TH - OFF 45 sec rec
Cool down (400m)
200 back - 100 double arm back - 100 best front crawl
Go through full warm up (15mins)
Main set (600 - 1600m of work)
6 - 8 x (200m L5 max into 400m jog)
Cool down
Flushing after final 400m jog
Warm up 5mins easy spin - into 5min build 1 x gear harder each minute into - 5mins of L3 sprints (on technical sessions don't work hard on the sprints)
Main set L2 spin ups
3 - 6 x 5mins as...
1. race cad (look to hold around 95rpm)
1min easy
2. +5 rpm
1min easy
3. +10 rpm
Cool down
5 - 20mins easy spin
Maintenance exercises:
1. Advanced nordic hammies
2. Upper body (push ups/ dips/ pull up's)
3. Legs (clean & jerk or squats)
4. Physio ball hip strength (squad with ball against the wall)
5. Single leg squat into jump
6. Trunk 1 (Ballistic ball sit ups with partner or against the wall or V-sits)
7. Trunk 2 (front plank into rotation)
Warm up (4 - 800m)
1 - 2 x (100 back - 100m fsdk – 100 fddk – 100 fly)
Pre main (8 - 1600m)
1 - 2 x
Swim
100 single arm alternate Left & Right into 100m swim
Paddles
100 single arm L & R into 100m paddles
Pull Buoy
100 single arm L & R into 100m pull
Finz
100 single arm L & R into 100m finz
Mains set 1 (700m)
Drill/ swim 150's
25 catch up – 100 swim - 25 catch up
25m fist - 100m swim - 25m fist
25m head tap – 100m swim- 25m head tap
25m Finger drag – 100m swim - 25m finger drag
25m Forearm drag – 100m swim - 25m forearm drag
25 Shark fin - 100m swim - 25m shark fin
Cool down (3 - 600m)
1 - 2 x (100m easy back – 100 double arm back – 100 best swim)
Go through full warm up (15 - 20mins)
If you have a warm up that works for you please use this, just be ready to run hard at the start on the L4 work
Pre main:
2 x 200m @ L4 with 200m jogs
1 x 400m @ L4 with 400m jogs
Main set:
3 - 5 x 1km @ L3 off 120 hr rec
(how long does it take to recover?)
Cool down:
I have put flushing together to give a gentle elongation to the muscles post hard or long work out. More info and how to drills on this video
Flushing - https://vimeo.com/149033159
Full warm up:
5mins spin - 5mins build - finally 5mins staying in hard gear then sprinting final 15 seconds of each 1 minute (15mins)
Main set 1
5 - 10 x 30 seconds hard - 1mins recovery
You will not see very high heart rates on the 30 secs as its not long enough.
Main set 2
3 - 5 x 90 secs hard into 2mins easy
You should see HR climb to around L4 and start to build lactate after about 30-40 secs
Cool down
10 - 20 mins easy spin
After years of coaching athletes in person I wanted to help athletes who couldn’t engage with coaches or clubs personally. Rather than just providing online training plans, I have put together a number of resources including plans, videos and articles https://www.jamesbeckinsale.co.uk/
For the training plans to become personal to you I’ve included profiling tools that will help set your individual training zones. I’ll also be posting training sessions and current thinking on social media.