How much should I keep increasing my effort?
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Iron Dan posted 9 weeks ago.
The 10% increase is the generally accepted maximum that you want to increase a week to help avoid the risk of injury. You don't need to increase at all if you don't want to. The amount you want to increase to is generally limited by what your goals are. If you are wanting to run a marathon, you will want to increase you milage up to around the 26.2 miles a marathon is.
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FlashRedGLS1.8T posted 9 weeks ago.
Some also suggest a recovery week every 3-4 weeks by reducing mileage by 25%.
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Toothless posted 9 weeks ago.
What are you up to in terms of hours per week? What is the breakdown by discipline? And do you intend to stick with the sprint distance or move up to longer distances either later this season or next season?
Here is my long answer not knowing the above info: If you are a normal working triathlete with family, etc., and you are new to the sport, I would suggest that you figure out how much time per week you want to (and have time to) commit to triathlon training. Make that a goal that you can repeat week to week and still meet all of your other life committments. Then, if you haven't reached that weekly goal yet, continue to slowly increase the duration of your workouts to meet that goal. Once you get there, do that routine until your fitness plateaus. It will probably take you many months to a couple of years to reach a plateau. Consistency is the key.
Google "Alan Couzens blog" for some good info on this.
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tsilcyc posted 9 weeks ago.
seaduspx wrote:
If one is to increase the workout by 10% a week, at what point do they stop increasing?
When they get to Ironman. :)
But seriously, if your goal is to do a sprint and you're comfortable with the distance already, it's time to work on speed. If not, continue until you are comfortable with the distance.
When my wife was training for sprints, she was covering more distance in her training and decided to move up to Olympic. It really depends on what your goals are.
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TriSooner posted 9 weeks ago.
Also, increasing EACH discipline 10% EACH week = burnout and/or injury. Alternate which discipline you increase per week. Most training plans will have a swim-focus week, then a bike-intense week, then a run-focus week, then a recovery week. So, one week increase the swim by 10%; the next week increase the bike by 10%, etc.
I get the point of you question though: I found that once I hit the 40 miles of running per week in-season, uber-fatigue sets in and both biking and running suffer. That's just me. I've reached a 'junk mileage' point of diminishing returns. So you will have to find that upper-limit of what you can handle. But if you are already comfortable with the requisite distance, tsilcyc has a good point: focus on speed. I don't see the need to ride 100k if you are racing sprints.
So 325 hours a year of training and a 13hr finish gets you into the 16th percentile at Ironman Germany? Dude, wait, what?
I have 68 days to go until my first race - a sprint.
I do listen to all of the advice given to first timers here. One piece of advice is to not worry about how fast I am going, but because this is my first time, to concentrate on developing my fitness; by getting some miles under my belt whether it be biking, running, or swimming. Basically, build my endurance.
If one is to increase the workout by 10% a week, at what point do they stop increasing? Isn't too much too much? Did that make sense?
Thanks!
Paul