Annual Training Log - Swim, Bike and Run Miles for the 2013 Triathlon Year

In 2012 I did my first ever yearly tally of training miles. That post can be found here. In this post I will present my 2013 training log. For reference my training years start in December and do0 not coincide with the calendar year.

For comparison I also have Chris "Macca" McCormack's training miles for the 2002 year. He is a 2x Ironman World Champion and according to his book, "I'm Here to Win", in 2002 he swam 720 miles, biked 18,275 miles, and ran 2,907 miles. That seems like a lot of miles and especially on the bike. Here is how my 2013 season compares:

Here are my yearly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 10,895 Miles / 1012 hours 

Swim: 638 miles (1,122,000 yards)  / 288 hours
Bike: 8,584, miles / 496 hours
Run: 1,728 miles /  211 hours
Core:  17 hours 

Those numbers come out to an average of 84.33 hours per month, and 19.46 hours per week. Weekly mileage is 12.3 miles (21,500 yards) swimming, 165 miles biking, and 33 miles running.

For those looking for a little more granular data by month then here you go:

Total Training Hours By Month For 2013 Season

Treadmill Workouts for Winter Running Triathletes

My Current Paincave -
The University of Arizona Rec Center

Now that winter is upon us I thought I would compile some of my favorite treadmill workouts. Treadmills can be great tool to improve running by allowing me to:

#1) Run more miles - Treadmill running is easier on my body. I can run longer and recovery is shorter than running outside on concrete and asphalt. Ultimately it is a great tool for increasing my volume.

#2) Drive cadence - The nature of treadmills tend to be good in driving cadence and good form.

#3) Reduce chance of injury - Besides slipping on ice, avoiding cars, etc, running on treadmills usually results in running in a warmer environment. I'm a big fan of running in warmer environments because ultimately it results in less joint and tendon stiffness. The youngsters might not appreciate this but I can assure them that they will appreciate it as they get older.

As for actual workouts, I'll give you a couple of sample workouts that I do. Let's call my threshold pace 5:25.

The Threshold Workout: Very similar to the popular cycling workout where the emphasis is on threshold work at, near, or above your threshold pace. The goal here is to work at raising my lactate threshold or the "sustainable speed" that I have.

Warm-up: 10-15 minutes starting at 6mph. Increase by .1mph every 15 seconds. By 5 minutes I am at 8mph, at 10 minutes I am at 10mph. Continue until I reach the starting point for my mainset (usually between 10.8 and 11.2. Afterward set back to 7.0mph or easy jogging pace for 2-3 minutes of recovery.

Mainset: 2x20 minutes. Start at a point that is a little bit below threshold. Say 10.8 for now and increase by .1 every 3 minutes. If I start at 10.8 that would leave me at 11.4 for the final segment. Recover for 5 minutes at easy pace. Then start the next one .2 above the starting point of the first one.

Cool-down: Easy jogging 5-10 mins. I do this as descending back down from say 8mph to 6mph decrementing by .1mph every 15 seconds, or 30 seconds depending on the length of cool down.


The Accelerated Tempo: A more aggressive tempo workout that takes me to the mental breaking point and beyond. The goal here is that I am doing a V02 max interval at the end of some significant running. I like this workout on the treadmill because it is short, and is constantly building and reinforcing positive/growing thoughts. In addition you get to see your cardiovascular and respiratory systems transform. You are aware of when you start sweating, breathing hard, building up significant amounts of lactate and really suffering. These can be extremely motivating because generally you are going to want to quit and the strong minded will always "embrace the suck" and breakthrough. Breaking through mental barriers is often times more important than physical barriers. Lastly I like this workout as it gives my body a chance to warm up and adapt before the pace gets really high.

Warm-up: 10 minutes starting at 6mph. Increase by .1mph every 15 seconds until I reach at 8mph. Hold steady until I reach 10 minutes.

Mainset: 40 minutes. Starting at 8mph increase by .1mph every minute. I have 40 minutes but I will keep on pushing this so it could be 45 minutes by the end. 40 minutes puts me at 12mph. 45 minutes puts me at 12.5mph.

Cool-down: Set at 4mph until I get some semblance of recovery and then bump to 6mph and jog easy for 5-10 minutes.

Again these are my workouts with my pace. Always consult a physician and your coach before starting any fitness regimen. In addition, if you want to use these workouts with the intended benefit then they will have to be adjusted based on your own capabilities.

Pro Ironman Taper Triathlon Taper For 2013 Ironman Arizona

The Ironman Taper: Keeping the fire going,
while recovering is always a delicate balancing act

In this post I will precisely outline my Ironman triathlon taper for the 2013 Ironman Arizona race. No two tapers are the same for me, but the key to the Ironman Arizona taper was that it also coincided with the end of the season. That meant there would be no races afterwards to worry about. This resulted in an adjustment to my taper to include more work just below, at, or above race pace, than I typically do. It didn't differ in any meaningful way from the taper I outline before the taper began. I have not included warm-up, or cool-down efforts, just mainsets. I always warm-up and cool-down at a very easy pace. In addition, all race pace efforts were also done at a race pace cadence which for me is about 95. Here is the that taper:

Thur (Day 10): Bike 1:38:25, 35.18 miles, 254 NP, 211 AP. Mainset as 2x longer intervals at, or just above race pace, in this case 16 mins at 283 watts, 20 min at 290 watts, then some work above goal race pace, 4:17 at 347 watts. The times were just a function of the limitations of the road I was riding on. Then 4x1 min, at or just above threshold, with 90 seconds recovery between efforts.

Fri (Day 9): 6k swim with 4000 time trial as mainset. Easy 30 mile bike to and from pool, 177 watts, 1:52:43, peak 1 min 264 watts.

Sat (Day 8): 10 mile run, midday in scorching heat and sun on varied terrain at race pace for most of it. Miles were, 7:00, 6:53, 6:43, 6:49, 6:49, 6:25, 6:49, 6:55, 6:44, cool-down.

Sun (Day 7): Swim 5K in the pool with wetsuit on. Mainset 4x(400 @ race pace, 50 kick, 50 easy), 4x400 on 6 with paddles, long interval to allow body to cool down from wetsuit, sunny and warm. Goal was to get familiar with wetsuit swimming again as it had been nearly two months since my last wetsuit swim. Bike to and from pool, 30 miles, 1:56:03, 185 watts. 5x intervals, 1-3 mins in length, at race pace.

Mon (Day 6): Run 7.19 miles, 53:20, mainset 7x 1/2 mile intervals at or slightly faster than race pace (6:23-6:43), with ~1:15 recovery between intervals. 4 strides working up to threshold pace at end of stride.

Tue (Day 5): Commute to PT, 15 miles, mainset 3x10 minutes near race pace with 2:30 rest between, 260 watts, 257 watts, and 269 watts. Commute to pool easy 5 miles, Swim 4K with mainset as 10x200 on the 2:45 in 232, 231, 229, 229, 228, 227, 226, 225, 224, 222. Easy commute home in dark. 35 miles total, 2:11:36.

Wed (Day 4): Run 5.48 miles, 41:08, mainset as 4x 1/2 mile, at, or slightly faster than race pace (6:27 - 6:46) with 90 seconds recovery. 2 strides working toward half-IM pace.

Thur (Day 3): Commute to the pool, 15 miles easy, swim 45 minutes with the mainset as 4x200, 8x100 descending on the 1:30. Wall times were 237, 234, 231, 229, 116, 115, 114, 113, 112, 111, 111, 111, 111. Bike home with 3x 1-2 min intervals at race pace, 10 mins near, but below race pace (252 watts), 5:30 near, but below race pace (243 watts).

Fri (Day 2): Rest Day with travel & pro meeting, visit Atomic and 2XU at the expo.

Sat (Day 1): 20 minute swim in Tempe Town Lake with a few efforts bridging up to other swimmers, then resting for 15-45 seconds, and then bridging quickly to the next group of swimmers and so on. After completing one lap, hopped out, and hopped back in to do another half lap or so. Biked 27 minutes, ~9 miles, with 3x3 at race pace, the rest was easy spin.

Sun (Race Day): 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run