Any intense 6 to 8 week workouts for a quick stamina athlete? - Triathlon Week

MirthMan · 08-04-2005, 11:12 AM

Hello Everyone, this my first post, this looks like a great forum and I am excited to become an active member.

So to the question, let me present my situation. I am a life time athlete of 24. There is never been a time in my life where I wasn’t active in some type of sport. My best sport is swimming. I was a college swimmer. I also have done quite a few road races (running). One thing that I’ve known about myself for sometime is that I get in shape very fast. For instance after a couple month hiatus from working out I can go from running 10 minutes hard to 2 weeks later running 6 miles feeling great. Same goes for swimming and bikes. I just kind of get in the zone when I work out and my body seems to catch on quick.

What I am looking for is a pretty intense workout, but that starts fairly easy, and progresses rapidly. What I’m really interested in are Olympic length triathlons.

Another thing is, I’m not trying to cheat the system or anything, I just know that I can increase my stamina and endurance very efficiently and quickly. I also don’t want to get hurt, so I take stretching very seriously, and always warm up and cool down.

Time is not a terrible issue. The biggest thing is I haven’t been working out for about 7 months now, my longest stretch ever, without really doing anything. I have been swimming some lately, but this was the first time in my life I wasn’t even interested in working out. I think a lot of it had to do with stress, like my job, getting married, my wife graduating, returning to school to finish my degree. But this little phase is over. And I am pumped to get started again.

I like to have a system, and not just wing it. I’ve always been very efficient in writing my workouts out and recording them. This is the only way for progress to me; it also helps to motivate me.

So I guess I was just wondering if anyone has come across a system such as this to get yourself back into action in about 8 weeks. Kind of like a boot camp. The only reason I even really thought about this is reading the Lance Armstrong book (first one) and saying that he went to like a 4 week camp in the mountains of North Carolina, and came back reborn or something, even though he just went through chemo, but his body was made for abuse.

I am certainly no lance Armstrong, but I have been fortunate to be stubborn enough to get myself in excellent shape, and my body seems to follow suit.

Thanks for all the opinions, and help, and Hello Again.

Tim

**daphne** · 08-04-2005, 01:59 PM

hi there..welcome to Triweek! Here is my 2-cent on your question: even if you raced a triathlon next week, you would probably finish. You would propably not have a good time, but you would finish in the mid-pack (depending how competitive race is). The question is what are your goals. Do you want to race for the experience and say you did it, or are you interested in placing well? I haven't seen any system that specifically helps you to get in shape in 8 weeks, I am sure there are some there. Although, if you followed a few training principles for endurance sports, in 8 weeks you will propably do well in an olympic race. There are some week long training camps, mostly though occur in late winter, early spring time, in time to prepare for the new season (northern hemisphere). You can search under "triatlon training camps".

The other point I wanted to make is that what makes triathlon especially unique is that you need to balance all three sports (swimming, biking, and running) according to the race, your strenths and weaknesses, and what you mostly enjoy. Whatever training plan you use, it needs to address all of the above (personal goal, course difficulty, experience, current condition, and overall fitness). You can customize any plans to fit you in a way that is meaningful to you and you can follow.

MirthMan · 08-05-2005, 06:28 AM

Thanks Daphne,

You bring up great points, and I'll definetly have to look into some of those camps (anybody been to one? What are they like?). I guess it's two fold for me as far as my desires and goals. The thing is it is really fun to race whether or not you win or lose, or whatever, I enjoy "road" races quite a bit, but I'd be lying if I say don't like winning even more. I do need to define my goals, and one of those goals is to come out first in the swim, and looking at my local triathlons, I think I could come close. (cleveland, oh)

I guess I should point out, I am not currently planning on any particular race, what I am trying to do is get myself in pretty good shape so I can set up my year long cycle of training. This is not to say I might not be participating in some races in the next couple months, especially since it seems like the season around here, then soon there will be 3 ft of snow on the ground. But I'm looking to get myself in good enough shape so that I can set up a training system for the year that will be most benificial and productive.

I would truly like to be very competive come next spring/summer. And I think I could with a good system. ( I have a couple good books; SERIOUS, 2 Triathlon books, I can't remember the titles but one is by a woman who I see all over the interenet as a coach in triathlons, but it has 7 or 8 programs for different races. Very informative, I'd recommend it if I could remember the name)

My biggest problem now is the biking. I know I could do solid in swimming and running, but I've never done any races with bikes, the main reason being money. The other 2 sports are free as you all know, this has limited my biking. I, however, have always performed very well on "stationary bikes" and been able to maintain high levels of resistance at around 90 to 100 rpms for nearly an hour or so. I hate buying a bike not knowing if I'm going to trash it from constant abuse, but honestly I don't have the money to get something very expensive at all. Running shoes are quite enough, but all the other gear really seems to add up. I'll find a way though! And suggestions?

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read and more suggestions are greatly appreciated, and I hope that I can be of some assistance to others, most likely in swimming>

Thanks,

Tim