I’ve got a big race year planned and one of the most challenging triathlons on my list is the Abu Dhabi race this March. What makes this race so different? For one, it’s the only Ironman I’ve ever raced with a full 200km bike section. That’s more biking than I’ve ever done, so it’s going to require a special kind of preparation.
So here’s the plan. My training program starts this Monday, and it goes all the way to the week before the race. During this time, I plan on gradually increasing my weekly distance on the bike, up to a point, and then leveling off right before the competition. I’ve used a similar approach for other races, so I know it works. It’s simply a matter of seeing what happens.
I’ll be keeping the same running and swimming distances each week. I’m only going to change the biking distance. During week one, I’ll be biking 650km, week two will be 850km, then 1000km for week 3, 600km, and finally 500km. The final week will be the most relaxed. I’ve found it’s much better to recover and do the race fresh than to try and push it one week out.
Week 3 will be the most challenging. I don’t think I’ve ever biked 1000 kilometers in a single week, and just so you know, I’ll be doing that on top of my other training. It’s certainly something I know I can do, but it won’t come easy. I’ll keep all of you posted on how it comes together.
This year’s new gear will certainly help out. I’ve got the 2011 [intlink id=”522″ type=”post”]Canondale Slice[/intlink], and the [intlink id=”522″ type=”post”]Shimano DI2 [/intlink] electronic gear shifting system. I like the Slice a lot because it reduces the shock from the rear, which basically means I don’t get tired as fast as I used to. And the DI2 makes gear shifting much smoother, another big time saver. I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do for me.
I’ll also be doing some competition preparation out in Lennox head, where my coach lives. We’ve been spending a lot of one-on-one time together, mostly working on swimming. The biking is a big part of the Abu Dhabi race, but you can’t take everything else for granted. You still have to work on the fundamentals.
I’ve signed up for a few more races in the coming months. I’m registered for the Port Macquarie 70.3, the Bussleton 70.3, and the new Challenge Cairns Ironman. After that, I’ll be heading off to the USA to train in Boulder Colorado. As you can expect, I’m definitely going to do Challenge Copenhagen in August, and after that, it’s hard to tell. I haven’t signed up for anything that far out, but I definitely plan to do a few more races.
And that’s it for my training schedule. The most difficult week isn’t that far out, so I’ll let you all know how it goes with the biking.
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