More to the point, are you getting the results you desire, year-in, year-out? Or have you plateaued and are unable to make any further progression with your performances? Many athletes believe they have achieved results in the past because of their training, whereas in actual fact many may have achieved these results despite their training. This will only continue for so long before you start to plateau and/or stagnate.
Chances are you are not training optimally and this is most likely due to the type of training you are doing (i.e. duration and intensity) and more importantly when you are doing it! When viewed upon on a daily, weekly, monthly or even annual basis, the structure that connects a good training program to deliver you at your race day in great shape and well-rested is termed "periodisation".
Creating a well-balanced training program that works for you is almost like piecing together the bits of a jigsaw puzzle...put one ill-fitting piece in place and you can just about make the picture 'work'...put several pieces in the wrong place and not only does the picture not 'work' it's also very likley to fall apart too! Do you want this happening to you?! No, I didn't think so!
The biggest "headache" facing many athletes (especially those new to the sport) is simply having access to a large variety of training sessions geared towards master's pool swimming, road racing or time-trialling for the bike, and road, track or cross-country for the run and not knowing which ones to attend and when. Whilst some of these sessions will be highly beneficial for you to attend and learn from, they certainly won't all be linked together with the respective coaches communicating constructively with each other about your training. For example, Coach Joe from the local master's swim club is unlikely to know that you had a tough session this morning at Coach John's running intervals and as such cannot perform your threshold swim session to the best of your ability. If Coach Joe expects you to be able to perform at all his swim sessions but you love attending Coach John's running sessions, eventually something's got to give. Unfortunately, this will either be your relationship with Coach Joe and your attendance at the swim sessions, or worse yet, your body may simply breakdown with injury and/or illness due to an ill-fitting jigsaw puzzle of a training program. Clearly, optimizing your training program for you should come well before trying to fit into a variety of sessions which aren't tailored to inter-connect effectively for you.
Whether you have an online training program with The T*E*A*M CORE or you are part of our structured triathlon squad program here in Perth, Western Australia, you can be assured that your needs are catered for and that a training program with excellent periodisation is put in place to help you achieve and progress further! In fact, we do so much to ensure that your training and preparation for key events are catered for, that we offer the most comprehensive triathlon training program that you will ever come across - anywhere! Knowing that your swim, bike, run, brick and core strengthening sessions are all coordinated and run by the same source of coaches will enthuse you with confidence that you really are training as optimally and efficiently as possible. No more "garbage yardage" or conflicting training sessions...thus freeing you up to spend more time doing the other things in life that are important to you!
Periodisation for training and preparation (in a variety of sports) was initially conceived in the former Soviet Union in the 1960s and later brought to the USA and the theory translated by the Romanian sports scientist, Dr. Tudor Bompa. Central to the concept of periodisation is the notion that training for any sport should be organised such that practices go from being very general in nature to much more specific as the competition or event approaches; the typical misconception with respect to triathlon for example, is that preparation for any event distance should go from long, steady workouts to shorter more intense efforts as race day draws closer (more on this later).
The other important concept associated with periodisation is the division of training into unique temporal cycles of work, i.e. MICRO (1-2 weeks); MESO (4-8 weeks) and MACRO (6-12 months) cycles. Typically, from a seasonal traithlon perspective, this would have the coach & athlete dividing a 12-month period into 3 distinct phases:
Base of Preparation Period
Competitive Period
Transition Period
...the length of each phase being determined by such factors as: goal race (A-race) duration; experience and ability of the athlete; number of B and C-races leading up to the A-race and proximity to this event; and even the length of the race season (which varies considerably from Northern to Southern Hemispheres).
Many athletes are aware that they should have some sort of periodised structure to their training programs, but are quite often unsure of how to set-up such a program. Misconceptions and poor understanding of the theories surrounding correct training methodology can often lead to this situation arising. We have listed below some common misconceptions and errors in implementing correct periodisation with respect to triathlon and have categorised these into the respective training cycles:
A. Micro-cycle Misconceptions & Errors:
You have periodised your annual program into Base, Competition and Transition periods (well done!) but have left the detail of your weekly program to the 'mercy' of your respective swim, cycle and run coaches - all with conflicting aims and expectations relative to their sport. As such a serious conflict occurs between your sessions meaning that your 'easy' / recovery sessions are done too hard and as a result your 'harder' sessions are done too easy as you are too tired from the easy sessions! As such, you never actually progress.
You don't value the importance of 'easy' / recovery sessions during the week to freshen you up and allow you to hit your 'hard' sessions harder. Same result as Point # 1 in that progression is limited and chance of injury / illness / stagnation is increased...sometimes dramatically.
Fig. 1 The workout/recovery cycle as described by Seth Hosmerwww.velocoach.com
You don't actually know what levels you should be training at in any given session and have no quantitative way of measuring just how hard you are going. Perceived exertion and 'feel' for how hard you are going is great if you know your body well enough, but few people do - even the pros - and even they use quantitative analysis to ensure that they are optimizing their training accordingly on a daily basis. Ascertaining your appropriate Training Levels with the "In-The-Zone" Athlete Toolkit from The T*E*A*M CORE will help to ensure you are working either as hard as you think you are, or going as steadily as you should be on recovery sessions. Learning more about some of the New Technology that will allow you to monitor your training more efficiently will also be a massive help!
You dont value the importance of a regular (once-weekly) REST DAY and think that "resting is for softies". Some coaches will say that if you have a busy work schedule and cannot get in 'enough' weekly volume that you should 'forfeit' your rest day in favour of more training. Whilst this theory of getting in 'enough' training to make your training 'worthwhile' is sound, in reality what we see time and time again is athletes who do not allow themselves any down time at all consequently see their work / social / family lives start to suffer - often with devastating results. Besides the benefits of rest and recovery for efficient training adaptation, you should view your once-weekly rest day as much of a mental break from the stress and strain of everyday life and chance to spend some quality time with those who love you. Trust us, your motivation for training will improve as a result and is one of the many reasons why we have our athletes resting on a Sunday so that time-off really is 'time-off'.
B. Meso-cycle Misconceptions & Errors:
You may think that simply splitting your year into 3 phases of Base, Competion and Transition is enough 'periodisation' outside of your weekly schedule itself, but you'd be wrong for doing so. An effective training period should involve a series of "build" or 'hard' weeks followed by several days or a week of "recovery" or 'easy' sessions. Many programs will follow the simple rule of "2 weeks on / 1 week off" or "3 weeks on / 1 week off", or a combination of the two. It is possible with the correct technology and the right athlete with the right diligence to be a little more 'accurate' with when to have these recovery weeks (utilising what is termed more of a "linear progression"), but typically knowing that you have a regular easy week every 3rd or 4th week becomes something that you look forward to and something that will motivate you to finish-off that last hard block of training. Without regular recovery periods, your training will rapidly become "boring" / "dull" / "lifeless" / "unmotivating" which are all quotes from athletes who have simply lacked adequate recovery, adaptation and subsequent progression leading to stagnation and burnout from overtraining.
C. Macro-cycle Misconceptions & Errors:
You will have no-doubt read many generic training programs in various triathlon magazine publications which talk about the need to build-up with plenty of "LSD" Base Training (Long, Slow Distance) at the start of any triathlon program upon which you then become more 'specific' by dropping some of the long miles (often completely) in favour of short, intense interval-type sessions to build your 'speed'. If you haven't read about this, my guessing is that you probably think like this...start long and easy and get shorter and faster - whatever your distance. If this is you, things need to change - and soon! There is nothing specific about short hard intervals on the track at above-threshold pace (see the Athlete Toolkit for what this equates to for you!) for an Ironman athlete 8 weeks out from his / her A-race, nor is there any sense in a junior athlete who is racing over the sprint-distance format (750m swim / 20km bike / 5km run) to be going out and doing 100+ km group rides to "get the miles in" just 3 weeks before a race. Periodisation is all about going from being 'general' in your approach to Base Training to 'specific' in your approach to the Competitive Phase. This is one of the main reasons that the term "Reverse Periodisation" has been coined for long distance athletes in particular who view doing 'short' threshold-building sessions in their Base Period and longer endurance / tempo rides in the Competition Phase as being a "reverse" of the norm, whereas in actual fact this is simply correct periodisation building from general to specific.
I personally find that many athletes fail to set appropriate goals for their macro-cycles / seasons and as such simply go from year to year wandering fairly aimlessly with respect to what they wish to achieve. Goal Setting in the transitionary period between the end of your last season and start of your new Base Phase is a great way to optimize your training and racing for next season.
Remember that a successful periodised program would be divided into 3 distinct blocks: Base; Competitive and Transition. How many times have you completed a season with below-par results only to decide you' will skip the typical 4-week "off" period immediately after your final event in favour of some more miles to get "ahead of your competition" for next year. What happens all too often though is that even before your next Competitive Phase begins, you are already feeling jaded and lusting after some time-off when its at this point in time you should be (and need to be) at your most motivated. Skipping this Transition Phase is a big "no-no" and is something you should look forward to...you don't need to turn into a coach potato as a result of this time-off (fat chance of that anyway, right?!), but will benefit from engaging in other non-triathlon activities during this time, e.g. walking, hiking, MTBing etc. Enjoy this time - you deserve it!
Try not to think of each block of training as 'suddenly' going from focusing on endurance to speed (for example), but that each period of your training program contains a variety of training intensities, its just that the relative ratios of these intensities should change with respect to which phase of training you are currently in.
The actual build-up or "taper" to your A-race is something which many people also get wrong, typically because of one of two reasons:
you don't reduce volume OR intensity leading into the event because you are fearful of losing 'fitness'.
you reduce both volume AND intensity (almost completely) resulting in heavy, "numb" legs and a feeling of being surprisingly "flat" come race day.
The purpose of a reduced-volume taper is to allow you to rest-up sufficiently to help alleviate any residual fatigue you may have had from your program, but doing so in a constructive manner to maintain a degree of intensity in your sessions which will ensure that you'll still be "sharp" come race day. So the moral is: lowered volume but maintenance of intensity (albeit in much smaller doses).
The key ingredients in our T*E*A*M CORE Training Programs are:
Knowledge, experience and expertise
Attention to detail and planning
Flexibility and communication
What makes our training programs so successful for so many people is the detail and time put into constructing a superbly balanced schedule that fits around your needs. Our coaches draw upon experience and expertise gained from many years of working with some of the world's best coaches, athletes and at some of the world's best academic institutions. This ensures that what you receive is quite simply "nothing but the absolute best".
Flexibility in your training program is also a key ingredient to your development and any program taken at face value should only be seen as a "skeleton outline" of what the program will eventually become. In order to offer this level of flexibility, excellent two-way communication between yourself and your coach is absolutely essential. You will quickly learn that communicating how you are feeling (whether that be verbally, via email, data transfer or simply body languauge) should be something that you are totally open about with your coach to get the most out of yourself. Your trust in your coach's coaching style, knowledge and experience is absolutely vital for this process to be effective.
If you decide to train with The T*E*A*M CORE through our various coaching services you will be accessing some of the world's best triathlon training programs, catered specifically towards your needs. Our methodology is simple but effective and from reading the above information you should now have a good appreciation for how, why and when we do things the way we do. Here is a brief list of some of the "DOs and DONTs" of training with The T*E*A*M CORE:
An effective training program with the T*E*A*M CORE will involve the following:
DONTs
DOs
Brag about the number of miles you have swum, biked or run - especially if they've just been long and slow (this will just make you a long, slow triathlete!)
Tell us about the amount of training you've done and the intensity at which it was completed included any information on your Training Stress Scores (TSS) and how well you recovered after these sessions!
Use 'endurance' training as your only way of building 'endurance'.
Use structured strength and threshold training to not only build your speed and economy at threshold (your biggest indicator of endurance performance) but to also indirectly build endurance - you'll be surprised how effective this is!
Get burnout by doing loads of long miles at the start of your program thinking that LSD (Long Slow Distance) training is beneficial for your performance at any distance for a prolonged period.
Realise that by building a strong foundation or "base" of threshold and strength training that you'll do your longer 'endurance' rides at a much faster pace when it comes to specifically preparing for your long-distance event.
Use the whole winter when its cold and dark outside to get in all of your base miles.
Use the summer months (most likely closer to you’re A-race) to enjoy your more specific endurance rides and runs (for long distance athletes).
Get bogged-down with copious amounts of monotone low-intensity training sessions in your base period as you'll soon be bored to tears and hate training.
Maintain variety in intensity, volume and frequency throughout the year which will ensure your maintain focus and be more effective as a result!
Waste your money on a training program if you are convinced that training long and slow for 12 to 15 weeks and increasing by ~10% volume each week is the way to achieve optimal results; or if you believe that recovery and rest is "for softies".
Invest your time, money and energy in a program that will help you achieve new heights in your performance so long as you are willing to understand, appreciate and believe in why it will help you do this.
Think that less volume means poorer performance (it would if this were all that you were changing).
Believe and understand that by better structuring your training program to include regular periods of rest and recovery you will be better placed to give more of yourself in the sessions that are going to lift you to new heights!
Think that "triathlon is the be-all and end-all in my life!"
Commitment like this is impressive in the out-set, but in fact signifies a total lack of balance in your life. Even the PROs have balance and keep a level head and they don't have a 'job', family and social life like you do! Get it together, realise that you are doing this sport because you love it and aim to take things a touch less seriously - you'll be amazed by the results and everyone else will love you for not being that "grumpy old triathlete" all the time!
So, if you like the idea of adding structure and variety into your training program and more importantly seek to have a reason and understanding as to why you are doing each session and when, then The T*E*A*M CORE is for you!
However, if what you have read above does not agree with your world-view on this subject of effective training program development and the thought of potentially reducing some of your "garbage yardage" in favour of more poignant training sessions scheduled at more appropriate times in your training program, then we wish you the very best of luck...just remember though that endurance just builds endurance and long slow distance training will inevitably lead to a long slow race. If you are happy with that, great.
You will find the following link to The T*E*A*M CORE's online chat forum a useful place for more information on this topic:
More to the point, are you getting the results you desire, year-in, year-out? Or have you plateaued and are unable to make any further progression with your performances? Many athletes believe they have achieved results in the past because of their training, whereas in actual fact many may have achieved these results despite their training. This will only continue for so long before you start to plateau and/or stagnate. 
The biggest "headache" facing many athletes (especially those new to the sport) is simply having access to a large variety of training sessions geared towards master's pool swimming, road racing or time-trialling for the bike, and road, track or cross-country for the run and not knowing which ones to attend and when. Whilst some of these sessions will be highly beneficial for you to attend and learn from, they certainly won't all be linked together with the respective coaches communicating constructively with each other about your training. For example, Coach Joe from the local master's swim club is unlikely to know that you had a tough session this morning at Coach John's running intervals and as such cannot perform your threshold swim session to the best of your ability. If Coach Joe expects you to be able to perform at all his swim sessions but you love attending Coach John's running sessions, eventually something's got to give. Unfortunately, this will either be your relationship with Coach Joe and your attendance at the swim sessions, or worse yet, your body may simply breakdown with injury and/or illness due to an ill-fitting jigsaw puzzle of a training program. Clearly, optimizing your training program for you should come well before trying to fit into a variety of sessions which aren't tailored to inter-connect effectively for you.
