Beginner Training program with just 3 days training / week

merc230ce

Hi all, after years of injury / laziness / parenthood I've been running regularly for the last few months with vague notions of working towards a marathon next year. Problem is that (apart from being 40) I'm coming off the back of 2 Achilles tendon ruptures, and they're not taking too kindly to me increasing either my training frequency or mileage. I'm running 5k fairly handily now, but I pay for it (pain in my ATs) the next couple of days, and even 10k seems like a long way away!

So I'm just starting to think about a Sprint triathlon as an alternative goal as the swimming and cycling would be easier on my ankles. I'm really paranoid about fresh injuries though, and want to be sure that I don't overtrain. Is it possible to train for a Try-a-tri / Sprint Triathlon, but only training every other day?

Most of the training programs I've seen recommend training 5 days a week, and that just feels like too much to me. I can manage 3 days at the moment, but I'm generally very glad when I wake up and register the fact that it's a rest day before hobbling downstairs :rolleyes:

I did read a throwaway comment somewhere, along the lines of 'At the very least do 1 swim, 1 ride, and 1 run per week', but I'd prefer to find something a little more structured! I loved my 'Couch-to-5k' app, coz I just stuck on the headphones and switched off the brain and did what the voice in my ears told me to do

So could anyone point me towards a low-frequency beginner's program? The Dublin City Tri on Aug 26th (17 weeks away) seems pretty well-timed for my needs, and they have a Super-sprint...

tunney

You have struggled to find such a plan because no such plan exists.

With 1 training session in each sport its just not possible

Sorry.

elvis jones

tunney wrote: »

You have struggled to find such a plan because no such plan exists.

With 1 training session in each sport its just not possible

Sorry.

I have to agree with that.

eoglyn

tunney wrote: »

You have struggled to find such a plan because no such plan exists.

With 1 training session in each sport its just not possible

Sorry.

This is true, but don't be disheartened as doing the same amount of training in three sports as you would do in one greatly reduces the chances of getting niggly injuries - this should negate your main worries re getting injured with a higher volume.

Provided you can swim already then training to get around in a sprint tri is a hell of a lot easier than doing the same for a marathon. Your first marathon you are likely to be out on your feet for 4hrs+. Look at previous results of any sprint triathlon to know you are definitely talking a lot less time, so training is less intense and with more variety.

There are lots of free plans on beginnertriathlete.com. This one is the lightest schedule which requires two sessions per week in each discipline:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=35
I would say you would benefit from another run session per week.

Good luck.

elvis jones

Or a brick session to get the legs ready for going from bike to run.

merc230ce

Ok, thanks all. Maybe not the answer I was looking for, but appreciated all the same!

mrboswell

Hi Merc,

You saw my other post earlier.
I've been concentrating on what I deemed as my 2 weakest parts - bike and swim. I haven't done any running apart from 15 mins this eve to blow the cobwebs off and I'm sorry I didn't start earlier.

We had a baby 6 months ago so I had to prioritise the training. I decided at worst I'd finish the bike and run regardless of any training and that I wouldn't finish the swim without any training.
I googled swim a mile in 6 weeks and have been swimming 3 times every week. After 6 weeks I plan to only swim twice a week and up the running. Did a brick session this eve - 40mins bike followed by 15 treadmill followed by total 1600m swim. Gym not ideal for that stuff but time is limited and I also don't really fancy cycling at night.

I too have had previous injury problems, particularly both hamstrings, and also delayed my start to getting out running.

I do approx. 50-55k cycle on Sunday and will up that to 80 this weekend (hopefully).
It includes hill of Howth a couple of times which is a killer but it really improved my cycling fitness.

Overall I'm delighted that I'm fitter than I was but I'm by no means very fit.

Make sure you can swim the distance and more and that will give you a great start. Then whatever you do make use of your 3 training sessions.

Best of Luck!

RacoonQueen

Have you just been running 3 days a week so far?

If so, once you start bringing the cycling and swimming in you might find it much easier to do more than 3 days than you think.

Bally8

Hi merc

Are you only able to do 3 days per week due to time/family constraints or is it because you are worried about injury?

All I can say is that if its injury/achilles worry- then dont. I suffer with achilles problems and find triathlon training fantastic because I can train every day now whereas when I was only running I could only manage 3 runs per week and had lots of times where I was too injured to run.

I feel the swimming and cycling has done huge things for my overall fitness and now I'm a faster runner because if it. I like the idea of sprint triathlons too because I can do less running but more training.

Best of luck with it all

merc230ce

Wow - thanks again to all for your responses.

@RacoonQueen - Hopefully you are right! Yes I have just been running 3 times a week so far. I'm going for a swimming lesson this week (I can breaststroke for a long time and have no fear of open water, but never learned how to breathe while doing the front crawl) and will try to get at least one swim session in per week from now on. Should be good for my crocked tendons

@Bally8 - you asked whether it was only injury which restricted my training or if family constraints come into it: I guess the answer is 'both': I'm hoping that your point about the different types of training being easier on the body will be true in the first instance. My kids are 13, 5 & 1, so obviously things are fairly full-on at home too, but they are (touch wood) pretty good sleepers, so if I get up at 6:30ish I can get an hour's training in before their day really kicks off. Hopefully this is another advantage to triathlon training - each discipline lasts a relatively short time, so the training times should be correspondingly short when compared with say marathon training. I did a 40 min bike ride this morning (14km, flat) - what a great way to start the day

@eoglyn - I'm going to try that training plan you suggested on for size and see how things go. In a sick way I'm looking forward to my first Brick session - should be an interesting new experience!

Thanks again to everyone for their input, and @mrboswell I might see you out on the Prom some morning!