Regardless of how often you race, your fitness and form can fluctuate over time - it takes quite some skill to be race sharp all season (and somewhat unrealistic!). Most athletes have an innate understanding of their form, whether through race performances or based on how training is going.
The key thing is, by introducing some mid-season training tweaks you can influence your form in a positive way for the remainder of the season. Here are some common scenarios and what actions you can take in training (bike and run focus) to address them:
Symptom: You're dead, flat and tired. You're lacking zip and freshness in your movement. Your motivation and enthusiasm is low.
Action: Rest. It's amazing how common this problem is. Triathletes, in particular, are so good at training they forget how to race, and how to rest before a race. While rest is a relative term, the theme is allowing your body to feel refreshed and physically ready for a race, with your mental state also benefitting. There are few good reasons for being tired going into a race where it compromises your performance. This is a quick and easy fix!!
Symptom: You're lacking a top-gear and the ability to get the top 5% of performance from your body, typically in Sprint of Olympic Distance triathlons.
Action: Assuming you're not tired…this would suggest you're lacking race fitness, and the training sessions where you are truly pushing to race intensity, albeit for a shorter period of time than the race.
The best training intervals to address this are:
Bike: 2-4min at Sprint Distance Triathlon intensity with 75-100% interval duration as recovery, for a total of 20-25min of intervals in a session.
Run: 1-3min at Sprint Distance Triathlon intensity with equal recovery, for a total of 10-15min of intervals in a session.
These are not long sessions, but the emphasis is pushing hard in each interval and recovering well between them, which means they are high intensity and hurt!! Of course, you can also use races themselves to build your race fitness, which can be a good strategy leading up to key events, but quality training sessions are a good alternative. You'll feel some benefit within 2-3 weeks of doing these sessions once a week in each sport, but don't continue them for more than 4-5 weeks in a row.
Symptom: You're lacking strength towards the end of your races, despite feeling great early on, typically in Sprint of Olympic Distance triathlons.
Action: Assuming you've got the speed you want, this suggests that your race threshold endurance is limited. That is, you can achieve race effort and hold it for a short period, but not hold it.
The best training intervals to address this are:
Bike: 3 x 10min / 2 x 15min / 2 x 20min at Olympic Distance Triathlon intensity with 5min recovery.
Run: 5 x 4min at Olympic Distance Triathlon intensity with 1min recovery.
The emphasis with this is the overall duration of the main session, with the intervals being sustained and the short, incomplete recovery. Your goal is to maintain your effort across and between each rep, at or close to race intensity. You'll feel some benefit within 2-3 weeks of doing these sessions once a week in each sport, and you can continue them throughout the season although perhaps after the first 4-5 weeks, only doing this session every second week.
Symptom: You lack basic endurance. You fade in long training sessions, and similarly in longer races, typically in long course or IM triathlons.
Action: Assuming your nutrition is not the limiting factor, the simple answer to addressing this is doing more long training sessions!! Of course, there is more to it than that since how you do those long sessions makes difference. This means focusing on your pacing and building your effort during the session so you start easily and finish strongly. A further progression on that strategy is to include some intervals in the last quarter of the session, something like this:
Bike: 3-4 x 10min / 2-3 x 15min / 2-3 x 20min at Long Course Triathlon intensity with 5min recovery. Do these in the last 60-90min of your long session.
Run: Progressively build to a tempo pace in the last 30-60min of your long run. The tempo pace could be anything you want, but essentially a change in pace from what you were running at.
The emphasis with these sessions is to deliberately increase your effort late in these long sessions. This requires concentration and effort, and works to counter any slackening off in effort, thereby building your endurance. Of course, it is assumed you are building the duration of this long session sensibly. As with the previous actions, expect some benefit within 2-3 weeks, and this approach to long sessions can be used almost year round.
The other benefit of these sessions, if you do them well, is that you’ll build your confidence in these scenarios which in aiming for mid-season tweaks is just as important as your physical fitness. Good luck!!
