6 weeks to improve sprint time?

JohnBee

Ok, so did my second outdoor triathlon last weekend.

Improved only 3 minutes on a race I did last year, albeit this time there was heavy wind and rain.

There is another race I want to do in 6 weeks.

Most training programs are 12 weeks. Any short term programs to try and get some speed improvement in that short time?

PS my time was 1.32 so I am a beginner (and trained only 2 months for this race). Thanks!

68 lost souls

First off well done on your improvement.

Be careful of overtraining if you try and put a lot of work in and burn yourself out before the race.

I am not the most experienced person here but I would say 6 weeks isn't a whole lot of time. Most people would train for moths to make improvements. If you concentrate on getting the basics right though you should have some improvements and with each race you should gain experience and knowledge which will help such as pacing, transitions, where to position yourself at the start f your wave etc.

There was a 6 weeks training plan in rustling plus magazine 2 months ago I think.

shansey

Interval training and rest..in good order.

Ive been doing the following

Monday tough swim session with group
Tues Running intervals with club 800m or 1k efforts about 8 times and then few k to cool down
Wed Hill intervals on bike
Thurs long easy swim
Fri rest day
Sat long ish bike on TT bike bout 50k
Sunday running hill repeats

silver campaign

I'm in a similar position to you. Completed my second triathlon last week, also wet and windy. Possibly the same one in Lanesboro? I finished in 1.20 and am hoping to improve my time in a couple of races I signed up for at the end of August.
I have no specific plan really, I'm just going to try and learn from my recent experiences. I'm a better swimmer than I thought, so I'm going to start a little further up the front, and try not to get held up in traffic. Cycling is my strongest, so just keep up the regular weekly cycles. Running is my weakest, so I'll try do a good bit more running between now and then.

I read the best way to improve run in a short time is with speed work. I could be wrong, but my plan is to do 4x500m fast run followed by 500m slow jog = 4km run. Increase this as the weeks go by so I am doing 5x 500m and 6x500m up to maybe 7x500m. Basically doing a fast 500m followed by a rest / jog 500m each time.

Also I just watched some transitions on eurosport, going to use some bodyglide or something like that to get the wetsuit off quicker. I should hopefully be able to gain an extra minute or so with better transitions. Best of luck anyway.

couerdelion

JohnBee wrote: »

PS my time was 1.32 so I am a beginner (and trained only 2 months for this race). Thanks!

What were your splits?

It might be worth identifying your weakest discipline and focusing on that - could be what in management terms is "low hanging fruit""

JohnBee

Unfortunately I am a little weak on all sections

tunney

Four seconds a kilo a km.

Lose weight, run better.

MyWebPersona

As you are short on time you could look at each discipline and your current times. Then maybe say well to knock x off my swim time would take too long as v technical but if I up my cycling or running then I could go 2 or 3 minutes quicker in that discipline.

So just pick one discipline to improve this time around either cycling or running do the same training in the other too to hold your existing times.

I am no coach but that is what I would do.

MojoMaker

My recommendation is given the short period the discipline you are most likely to make the biggest short term gains in is the run. 5K is short enough that you don't need massive endurance but you do need to be able to suffer running fast over a period and 5-6 weeks of run-focused training with healthy dollops of intervals will certainly move you the run ranks.

Be careful how much you take on though as of the 3 disciplines the run is the one most likely to attract injury from sudden volume increases as opposed to simple tiredness.

unichall

I echo the post above about losing weight. Keep training as you have been doing and aim to lose between 1 and 2 lbs a week between diet and exercise. In the next 6 weeks you could lose 1/2 stone and then you will see a good improvement in both bike and run times.

In my opinion and from my experience this is how you will see the most improvement in such a short space of time