Oh no, what have I done! I started this blog in 2015 for my run up to Köln226. It’s all there for you to read, it wasn’t a lot of fun and I said that I didn’t plan to do another long distance any time soon.
Roth 2017 = Project 2017
So here we are in 2017 and I am signed up for my 2nd long distance Triathlon in Roth. I can defend myself a little bit though. I am a better athlete than I was 2 years ago, so hopefully I won’t be as out of my depth as I was then. I’ve also come up with a plan to avoid burning out like I did last time. Finally Roth is a special triathlon, it sells out in seconds and should be a very different proposition to Köln226.
It is 16 weeks until Roth now. I have been training but nothing crazy. My swimming is coming along nicely, I need to ride more, but I have been on the trainer semi-regularly and my running is ok, more than good enough for Roth. The 16 week build up is important to me, last time I basically went from January until September and blew up. I felt at my best in about June or July. This time I will do a shorter build, but try to really get some good quality and volume into that 16 weeks.
Be Iron Fit Plan
I have picked the competitor plan from Be Iron Fit, with some amendments. I will swim with TCEC on Mondays and Thursdays as I do now. The plan calls for 3x1h of swimming, I will do 1h15 on Monday, 1h30 on Thursday and a little bit when I can on another day.
I plan to do the runs pretty much exactly as described in the plan as with the rides. The one unknown for me is how to treat the rides to the pool and back. That takes 1h, but is an easy ride with lots of stops for traffic and traffic lights. Do I include them? On Thursdays the plan calls for 1h bike with some quality and a swim, that would be my normal Thursday minus the quality.
Fitting in the races
I also have some races to work around. Liege Bastogne Liege is no problem, a 10-11h bike ride fits in the plan nicely! Mainz HM and the Polderlauf 15km are also fine to work around, but Zell Sprint Triathlon and Worms Sprint triathlon are harder. They are on a Sunday, so a big Saturday is out, a big Sunday would be difficult, so where do I fit in the 5-6h bike ride and 2-3h long run?! I have taken 2 tactical days holiday in those weeks to work around them, I hope it works out!
One last thing, I will be run/walking in Roth. I tried my first run/walk last week and it was very good! I did 25km in 2h, running 9m15 and walking 45 seconds. The plan is to walk the aid stations, which are about every 2km.
To get me a sub-10, I imagine swimming 1:10, cycling 5:15 and running 3:30. Cycling would be the place where I could make up time, if training goes well.
Here is week one of my plan:
13:30 total seems very reasonable. I will try to hit everything pretty exactly. Wednesday and Sunday are Bricks, I haven’t done them for a while^^
See you next week!