What’s the biggest goal of endurance athletes? Yep, to get fast! So many athletes ride, run and swim hundreds of miles only to look back and get frustrated that all that time did not translate into speed. If you want to get fast, you need the methods and plan.
“I feel the need, the need for speed” – Goose and Maverick from Top Gun.
In a recent article on Active.com, Rich Strauss addresses the need to train fast in order to get fast. The article is not chalked full of scientific evidence and experiments with guys on bike sucking on VO2 hoses. What is does have is a dose of common sense. If you train at 19mph on the bike, how do you expect to pull 21mph on race day? Sure, you can add in a tri bike, aero wheels and an aero helmet that you may not use in training, but you can’t hide behind equipment on the run. If you train to 8 min/mile pace and try to race at 7 min/mile, you will end up in an energy deficit just to finish the race since you are now pushing your body past the limits you trained to. Your body needs to be conditioned to be fast. Even Steve in a Speedo agrees that speed training will help you get fast!
Strauss also addresses the timing of adding speed training. He encourages athletes to use the “off-season” to focus on speed. You have less miles and more time to recover during the off-season, which lends itself nicely to speed work.
To integrate this advice into your training, you need to be organized. A large percentage of age groupers view the fall as a time to take a break and kick back, crack open a can of beer and suck down some pumpkin pie and cookies. Come late winter, early spring they are frustrated with weight gain, endurance loss and speed loss. It’s like starting all over again. If you want to improve, add speed, you need to get organized. Not only do you need to plan your 2011 race season and training plan, you need to set a plan for the off-season. This is the time to improve without risking injury when adding distance. If you don’t plan your races, training and off-season, you will end up frustrated and burnt out while not meeting your season goals. It’s all good to want to add speed work, but you need to strategize when and where to add it.
There are plenty of sites out there for training logs such as Trainingpeaks.com and BeginnerTriathlete.com. You can even make your own spreadsheet to set your goals and track your progress. Off-season is the time to invest in thinking about how to attack your training, time to see the forest through the trees.
Spend some time planning your miles instead of logging them and watch your performance exceed your expectations!
Ryan Falkenrath writes the blog falkeetriathlon.blogspot.com, and is a married father of two, owner of three dogs and trying to balance life, work and multisport. Ryan has participated in multisport events since 2001. Ryan is also the Kansas Endurance Sports Examiner and you can read more of his triathlon thoughs HERE. Contact Ryan at: [email protected] or follow him on @TriJayhawkRyan
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