TY12

We all know about Calendar Year (CY) and Fiscal Year (FY) but I am coining a new phrase, Training Year (TY).  Last week was the official start of TY12.  My TY typically runs from November 1st to September 15th with the rest of the time as my off season.  At least that is how it seems to work out anyway.  It wasn’t planned that way it just happens.

TY12 again brings some changes.  In TY10, my first crack at triathlon, I had 18 weeks of training to get in shape to survive the 20 weeks of training for my first 70.3.  I went with 11 workouts a week and about 5 weeks in dropped that to 10 as I really didn’t like swimming that much.  In TY11, my first crack at Ironman, I did 10 weeks to get in shape to survive the 20 weeks of training for Ironman Lake Placid.  Again I went with 11 workouts a week but from the start only swam twice a week.

TY12 is different.  I am going with 6 weeks of pre-training as I didn’t loose too much fitness.  This year I stayed active over the off season and it paid off.  My paces are about where they were at the end of my Ironman training and I am fresh physically and mentally.  This year I am going with 14 workouts a week.  Two strength sessions, four each of swim, bike and run.  And no skipping swims.  I used to hate swimming but this year I joined LA Fitness which has lap swimming all day, as well as regular gym offerings.  Now with 5 swims in 8 days I am loving swimming.

During the Ironman training, I cracked the code!  It happened during the two epic long swims.  When I finished the first 5500M pool swim I was pretty happy I didn’t quit.  A week later, at the half way point of a 6000M pool swim I figured it out.  It was two things that did it.  First I started following the swim workouts, previous to that I was just swimming random lengths to make the distance but I found following the workout I could just focus on the next set and work through it.  Second, with limited pool hours it was hard to get the swims in but with more flexible pool hours I could go when I was “in the mood”.

Between the great swim hours at LA Fitness and this new idea of actually following the workouts I no longer dread swimming.

So 14 workouts a week for 6 weeks and then into 14 workouts a week for 20 weeks leading up to the Knoxville Rev3 Half Rev on May 6th.  Will I miss the occasional workout?  Sure, shit happens, but I will feel less stressed about it because of the extra workouts along the way.

Happy new training year!