# How to Train for Multiple Race Distances; Injury Prevention for Older Triathletes; Creating an Optimal Fuelling Strategy | Listener Q&A| Ep 579

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 25 Feb 2026, 32 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO4962370305.mp3

Coach Rob answers listener questions this week, covering: * How to structure a season with multiple race distances without compromising your goal event... * Why injury prevention becomes a critical training variable for athletes as they age... * How to build a fuelling and hydration strategy that works on race day. Plus practical advice on training plan structure for first-time 70.3 athletes. * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Thinking about your first Ironman or 70.3 in 2026? At Team Oxygenaddict, we specialise in helping busy professionals fit high-quality training around demanding jobs and family life. We’ve just reopened for new athletes with only a handful of slots available. Book an application call today to find out if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming season here: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/consultation-call/ * * * * * * * * * * * * precisionfuelandhydration.com Precision Fuel & Hydration help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies for training and racing. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised race nutrition plan for your next event. And then book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the PF&H Athlete Support Team to refine your strategy. Listeners get 15% off their first order of fuel and electrolytes with Precision Fuel & Hydration. Simply use code OXYGEN26 at checkout to claim your 15% discount * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:04] Hello, and welcome to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.
[0:07] We're brought to you every week by our sponsors Precision Fuel
[0:10] and hydration.com. You can get 15% off your first
[0:14] order with the code OXYGEN 26. Welcome to the show everybody.
[0:18] I'm your host coach Rob Willby from Team Oxygen Addict
[0:21] Triathlon Coaching and every week I'll bring you an episode
[0:24] of this podcast to help educate, motivate and inspire you.
[0:28] If you're a first time Iron Man or first time Iron Man 70.3
[0:32] athlete, you want to be completing your first event this
[0:35] year, you're in the right place. If you are doing your second,
[0:39] third, fourth Iron Man or 70.3 this year, hopefully you're also
[0:43] in the right place. What I'm going to be doing on
[0:45] this episode, so when be answering questions that
[0:49] athletes and listeners of the show and views of YouTube have
[0:52] sent in, and I'm doing this with the podcast recently, I feel
[0:56] like it's the best way to help people out is to answer genuine
[1:00] questions. People have sent over to me.
[1:02] And often I'm really surprised by this.
[1:04] I'm really surprised by the questions that people ask.
[1:06] And as you can imagine, having done this podcast for over 10
[1:09] years at this point, I'm not going to say it's difficult to
[1:12] come up with ideas, things to talk about.
[1:14] But I think one of the contexts I forget is that my listeners
[1:18] are constantly sort of falling into and out of the buckets of
[1:21] listening. And sometimes I'll feel as
[1:23] though I've talked about this before, but I think it's
[1:27] important for me to recognise that listeners might only listen
[1:30] to 1 episode of the show. It might listen for six months,
[1:33] it might listen for a year. So I find this approach of
[1:36] answering genuine questions people have given to me as a
[1:39] coach really helpful in terms of giving me an insight into what
[1:44] people are actually asking, what they're confused about.
[1:47] And it gives me an insight into the different conflicting
[1:52] opinions that are out there. If people read on the Internet
[1:55] or more so these days I'm, I'm seeing more and more recently
[1:58] athletes sending questions through where they say, I asked
[2:01] ChatGPT a question about this and it said this.
[2:04] And you know, this seems to conflict with that I've heard
[2:06] you say on the podcast. So we're entering a very
[2:10] interesting era, I think, where people are moving away from
[2:13] going and using Google, finding a website and reading
[2:16] information and comparing in their own minds the different
[2:20] versions of things and thinking, well, this might work for me,
[2:23] this might not work for me. People seem to be shifting
[2:26] toward this use of, you know, ChatGPT is much, much more that
[2:31] seems to have a way of synthesising all the different
[2:34] informations out of that, but then presenting it as fact to
[2:37] athletes. And so in some cases, that's
[2:40] really good. Some cases it's definitely
[2:42] helping people shortcut the route through to understanding
[2:46] things. In some cases, it's giving
[2:48] people answers that really don't seem to suit them.
[2:51] So yeah, if you've got any questions that you'd like
[2:54] answered, feel free to send them over.
[2:56] The e-mail address is help@oxygenatic.com and you can
[3:00] leave the comments on the YouTube section.
[3:01] You can leave the comments in Spotify or up the podcasts, but
[3:05] the quickest ways to e-mail over to me and I can't guarantee that
[3:09] I'm going to get to answer every single one, but I try and reply
[3:12] to every single person who sends us a reply over if I can't use
[3:16] it on the podcast. OK, so there's a couple of quick
[3:18] things you could do to help us if you don't mind before we get
[3:20] started. Firstly, if you, if you like and
[3:22] enjoy this episode, please, please consider following us on
[3:26] Spotify or up the podcasts like the episode.
[3:29] I want to give that sort of reassurance to people.
[3:33] I will try my hardest to answer the questions that you guys have
[3:37] got. I will try my hardest to give
[3:39] you honest information. I will try my hardest to make
[3:42] this show as good as it can be. Obviously, it's a big commitment
[3:46] putting out a free podcast and a free YouTube channel every week.
[3:49] And you know, I'll be honest, part of this is it's kind of
[3:52] it's advertising for the coaching, isn't it?
[3:54] But part of it, much more importantly is.
[3:57] And from an education background, I was a teacher for
[4:00] 20 years. I genuinely got a that's what
[4:04] really drove me in the early days of of doing triathlon
[4:06] myself back at the end of the last century, if you can believe
[4:10] that, was figuring out how to do this, was looking at the
[4:13] challenge of an Ironman, thinking how on earth do you go
[4:16] about getting yourself into shape to do this thing when most
[4:21] of the runners I know spend all that time figuring out how to
[4:24] train to do a marathon. And that's just the end of this
[4:27] thing. How do you get in shape to swim
[4:29] and bike and run so far and be able to complete it and not not
[4:35] fall over along the way? So I loved figuring this out.
[4:38] I was the guy who was reading dozens of coaching manuals and
[4:42] articles and magazines and, you know, articles on the Internet
[4:45] as that came along and became popular.
[4:48] I've loved figuring that out. I've loved sharing that
[4:50] information since the early days.
[4:52] I've loved talking with other athletes and working it out.
[4:55] So if what I've learned here really helps you out, then
[4:58] great. If you can help us out by liking
[5:01] and subscribing, that's great. Just helps the show get shown to
[5:04] more people and YouTube especially seems to really
[5:08] respond if people just click a light on the show.
[5:11] It pushes out to more people who YouTube think are like you who
[5:15] watch similar videos to you. So it's a, it sounds like a
[5:18] really small thing, but when you're a small channel, you
[5:21] know, you're about 10,000 subscribers at the moment.
[5:24] The behaviour of the people who have subscribed to your channel
[5:27] really, really affect how YouTube show your video or not
[5:32] to other people who are like you who haven't heard of the channel
[5:34] yet. It's fascinating to look at and
[5:36] really enjoying figuring out. But it turns out one of the
[5:39] really biggest things that that really can help a channel out is
[5:42] somebody clicking like on the show and subscribing to the
[5:45] channel. And that in itself is kind of a
[5:47] signal to YouTube that the person creating this is doing
[5:50] something that you find valuable.
[5:52] So therefore show it to more people who are also watching the
[5:56] kind of videos you are who are interested in triathlon and Iron
[5:58] Man. So it really helps us out.
[6:01] Secondly, if you're looking for help training for your first
[6:04] time, man, if you're considering coaching, please check out the
[6:07] coaching memberships over at teamoxygenetic.com.
[6:10] That's what I do for full time living.
[6:11] I'm not a content creator, I'm a triathlon coach.
[6:13] I think I've created the most comprehensive triathlon coaching
[6:17] programme that's specifically designed for busy age groupers
[6:20] who've got full time jobs, busy lives, families and you're
[6:23] trying to balance the training in and around all of that.
[6:27] That's what I do day in, day out as a full time job.
[6:31] It's not a side gig for me, it's not a hustle to make some extra
[6:33] cash on the side and I am no longer a first athlete, I'll say
[6:38] that. So I'm not doing this to fund my
[6:39] race wheels. It's what we do as a
[6:42] professional service to professional people who take the
[6:46] triathlon really seriously, but once essentially shortcuts to
[6:51] how to get the training right and how to get there and make
[6:55] the best use of the time that they've got available for them.
[6:58] So if you're interested in that sounds good.
[6:59] If you like what you hear today, there's a link in the show
[7:02] notes. You can book a call with me.
[7:04] We'll have a talk and find out about your history, about the
[7:06] goal event you've got going on. You can ask me any questions
[7:09] you've got about the coaching process.
[7:11] I can show you our training plans, I can show you our
[7:13] athlete communication app. I can talk you through exactly
[7:16] how I will structure training for you, answer all your
[7:19] questions. And if that sounds good and if
[7:21] it's your budget and you want to go ahead with coaching, then
[7:24] fantastic. So I'd love to hear from you.
[7:27] All right then. So let's jump into these
[7:29] questions. And again, they are a
[7:31] combination of questions that have been sent through from
[7:34] listeners to the show, from viewers of YouTube, and also
[7:37] people who've emailed in. So if you've done that, that's
[7:40] brilliant. Thank you.
[7:41] If you've emailed, then I'm going to use your real name if
[7:43] you're a viewer on YouTube and I won't use your YouTube handle
[7:48] because it can just sound a bit strange.
[7:49] So let's kick this off. First off, Mark Birch just
[7:54] contacted us from America. Hey, Rob, love the podcast.
[7:58] Here's my question. My 70.3.
[8:01] I'm Michigan is 6 weeks after USA TS Olympic and Sprint
[8:07] nationals. Is that enough time between
[8:10] races? I'm planning to do really well
[8:12] at both of them. I want to do the Olympic in goal
[8:15] of 220 and the Sprint in a goal of 105.
[8:18] I'm a really solid male, 60 to 64, age grouper a train year
[8:23] round. And is 6 weeks enough time to
[8:25] recover? Typically I get minimal soreness
[8:29] after races. I'm more concerned about
[8:31] fatigue. Love to hear your thoughts.
[8:33] Thanks very much Mark. It's a really good general
[8:37] question to consider what races you want to do can do in the
[8:42] build up to your goal race for the year.
[8:44] So my first question to Mark would be what's the main goal
[8:47] here? Is the main goal of the USAT
[8:49] Nationals, Olympic and Sprint? Is the main goal of 70.3 From
[8:54] the way the questions phrased, it sounds to me like it's kind
[8:58] of a jewel, a race season peak there where we want to do really
[9:03] well at both of them. And he says it's a really solid
[9:05] male, 60 to 64 age grouper wanting to perform presumably be
[9:10] near the top of the of the age group rankings and possibly even
[9:13] podium or when. My advice to most people here is
[9:16] we'll look at it firstly through the lens of the 70.3 race.
[9:21] We're training for the 70.3 and we've got an Olympic over a
[9:24] Sprint along the way. Actually six weeks out in terms
[9:28] of fatigue terms is absolutely fine.
[9:32] I've got no concerns an athlete is going to have lingering
[9:35] fatigue six weeks after a Sprint to Olympic race.
[9:39] In terms of going forward into 70.3, the question that I've got
[9:43] is what would we need to compromise along the way for the
[9:47] 70.3 training in order to also do really well at the Sprinting
[9:53] Olympic? And do we approach it by way of
[9:56] adapting a 70.3 plan to have a taper in recovery for the
[10:01] sprinting Olympic? Or do we approach from the point
[10:03] of view of preparing specifically for the USAT
[10:07] Nationals and then tack on the training for the 70.3
[10:11] afterwards? Now that second instance, I
[10:13] don't think that works. I don't think you can prepare
[10:16] specifically for sprinting Olympic and then tack on what
[10:20] would essentially be, you know, you'd have 5 weeks of training
[10:23] after you've recovered for a week, at least a week if that's
[10:26] going to be tapering. There's really not enough time
[10:29] there to do a 70.3 build if you trained specifically for the
[10:34] distance of Olympic and sprints. I think we have to put that on
[10:36] one side. So what we're left with is
[10:38] training for the 70.3 and adapting that training for the
[10:42] USAT Nationals at Sprinton Olympic.
[10:44] And I think that can be done with the caveat of the thing
[10:50] that I try to make athletes most aware of is try and be aware of
[10:55] where you're where your blind spots are.
[10:58] Try and be aware of what might be most dangerous to you.
[11:01] Try and be aware of what might derail your training and what
[11:05] you can possibly do to avoid things that are going to derail
[11:09] your training. Because ultimately, any training
[11:11] plan is only going to be effective as long as you can
[11:14] execute each one of the sessions every day and you can recover
[11:18] from those sessions in order to train again.
[11:20] So what I'm saying here is the consistency of training is much,
[11:23] much more important than actually the tiny details of
[11:28] what each training session is. And why I'm going with this is
[11:32] it's tempting to lead toward adding more and more higher and
[11:37] higher, higher and higher intensity sessions in to prepare
[11:41] for, for Olympic and especially sprints to try and get the, if
[11:46] you like the speed work done is the phrase people would
[11:49] traditionally use in training. But it's that speed work that is
[11:53] going to put you into the higher bracket of fatigue.
[11:57] And it's certainly that higher intensity speed work on the run
[12:02] that's going to put you into the high risk of picking up
[12:05] soreness, potential niggles, potential injuries.
[12:08] And typically what we see here is as athletes tend towards
[12:11] doing faster and faster, harder and harder runs, especially if
[12:16] they're doing track intervals, the danger here is soreness in
[12:20] the lower leg, in the calf and the soleus, soreness that might
[12:24] stay around for a day or two days.
[12:27] That might start to feel like a, you know, a tweaked muscle, a
[12:32] pulled muscle, sore muscle might be something, especially in the
[12:36] male 60 category. We might start by getting
[12:39] Achilles tendon soreness. Those things that you might be
[12:43] tempted to do at the very top end are things that might derail
[12:46] your progress long term and the things that might cause you
[12:49] soreness that irritate you on a day-to-day basis.
[12:52] Forget about the training and racing part of it.
[12:55] If you can't walk around because you've got inflamed Achilles
[12:58] tendons, it's a miserable place to be.
[13:01] So that's the caveat. I think I will say here I would
[13:04] be really, really cautious of how much top end work you do
[13:09] across when bike and run. I would be especially cautious
[13:13] about trying to do really high end top end running.
[13:17] That's not to say you're not going to prepare for the demands
[13:21] of the races that you're going to do.
[13:22] You've got to run fast 5K, you've got to run fast 10K.
[13:26] But let's be sensible and break this down.
[13:28] Let's look at realistically the pace that you're going to be
[13:30] running the 5K at on race day of the bike.
[13:34] And let's say if that's as fast as you're going to be running,
[13:38] that is probably a good compromise between needing to
[13:41] prepare and worrying about running so hard that you're
[13:44] going to create an injury. So let's pick some rough numbers
[13:47] here. Let's say that you're going to
[13:48] be running, I don't know, you've said you've said 105 for your
[13:51] Sprint distance race. So I'm going to say 20 minute 5K
[13:54] and pick that number. That would represent a really
[13:57] good run split for someone in the M68 group.
[14:00] And in a Sprint distance race, that's 4 minute kilometres O, if
[14:05] you're doing some running at or around 4 minute kilometres,
[14:09] that's going to be giving you two things.
[14:12] It's obviously the the aerobic training benefit, the, if you
[14:15] want to call it VO2 Max training benefit, whatever that is, it's
[14:19] going to be making you run faster, making you out of
[14:21] breath. So that's part of it.
[14:23] But as long time listeners of the show know, we can do all of
[14:26] that hard work on the bike. We can train the blood, the
[14:29] lungs, the oxygen transfer, that can all be done top end and
[14:33] higher intensity, not on the bike safely with no impact and
[14:36] no risk of injury. So the reason to be doing fast
[14:39] running is mechanical. The reason for doing that is to
[14:43] get your body used to running at the kind of speed, at the kind
[14:47] of like turnover, at the kind of biomechanical gate that you'll
[14:51] have to run at on race day. So we don't necessarily have to
[14:56] be doing this in, you know, traditional 400 metre reps, 800
[15:01] metre reps, 1K reps. What I'd actually advise here is
[15:05] doing what run coaches would call microburst form intervals.
[15:11] So what we're looking to do here is go out, get really thoroughly
[15:14] warmed up and then within you run, you can approach this
[15:16] almost like a fart like run where you gradually increase the
[15:19] speed and you do intervals of running, let's say 100 metres at
[15:24] your goal race pace, like turnover, that biomechanical
[15:28] speed run. See buddy gradually gets used to
[15:31] running at that pace without putting the long intervals of
[15:35] running stress on your body. And I'm a really big fan of
[15:38] this. We'll do between 4:00 and 10:00
[15:41] of these fast running form strides, if you want to call
[15:45] them those within a steady run. And then that way your body gets
[15:49] used to the turnover and can remember how to run quickly
[15:53] without getting to the point where you're putting real stress
[15:57] on your body. And then you've got that long
[15:59] term goal of training well for your 70.3.
[16:03] I'm at 70.3 along the way as well.
[16:05] That's personally how I would go about approaching it.
[16:08] I would also have the athlete do some faster runs off the bike.
[16:12] So increase, you know, we might keep them really short for a
[16:15] spin distance race and have them only maybe be 10 or 15 minutes
[16:18] long, but have that brick run gradually increase to the point
[16:22] where it's going to be done at goal race pace.
[16:25] So we're going to minimise the amount of really fast running,
[16:27] but we're going to try and use it in a really clever way.
[16:30] I think in terms of the bike training, it's absolutely fine
[16:33] for you to be doing threshold intervals, even VO2 Max
[16:37] intervals on the bike. That's great.
[16:39] That's going to give you really good foundation of fitness on
[16:42] the bike that'll bleed over onto fitness to the run and it'll
[16:45] also help your overall engine size for the 70.3 Michigan,
[16:49] that's great. I think you're already going to
[16:51] be doing the kind of swim intervals that will be at or
[16:54] above the pace you're going to swim at in the Olympic, in the
[16:57] Sprint. Just by the nature of swim
[16:59] training, you always go to be doing some kind of fast swim, 20
[17:04] fives or 50s, purely because they're good form technique
[17:08] work. They teach you to grip the water
[17:10] really well. So that's worth remembering.
[17:12] There's not a necessary need to drive yourself really, really
[17:16] hard in the pool and swim much above that kind of pace because
[17:20] you're doing it as part of your technique drills already.
[17:22] So bear that in mind. But the overall approach I take,
[17:25] Mark, is sketch out your 70.3 training plan and then find out
[17:31] a way to be really smart within that plan in the way that you're
[17:35] going to adapt it to prepare your body for the specific
[17:39] demands of the faster running within that training plan.
[17:43] And that doesn't mean doing lots of long, fast, hard run
[17:45] intervals because that's ultimately going to Add all the
[17:48] extra fatigue and injury risk that might then derail your
[17:51] ability to do the 70.3. Hope that one works for you,
[17:54] Mark, and I wish you all the best.
[17:56] Please get in touch after you've done your events this year.
[17:59] I'd love to know how you get on. I'd love to see that.
[18:03] That'd be that'd be great to hear results and actually I
[18:05] might read out as well for athletes and listening on the
[18:09] podcast as well, if you're up for that.
[18:10] So thanks very much for sending that through for us.
[18:13] Okay, next question. This question is from George
[18:17] friends. George says, Hey, coach Rob, I
[18:20] recently stumbled upon your YouTube channel and I find
[18:24] videos in the podcast. It's really helpful.
[18:26] Thank you, I've just started training for my first 70.3 in
[18:31] July. I've created my own training
[18:33] plan but I wanted to get your thoughts on it please.
[18:36] At a high level, a typical week looks like this.
[18:40] Monday traditional strength lower body and core 40 to 45
[18:44] minutes or weighted high intensity interval circuit 40 to
[18:49] 45 minutes. Tuesday run 6 to 8 kilometres,
[18:54] brackets faster session. Wednesday, bike 20 to 30 K
[18:58] optional core session. Thursday traditional strength
[19:02] upper body and core 40 to 45 minutes or jump rope and core 20
[19:08] to 30 minutes. Friday rest weekends.
[19:12] Saturday long rides followed by a brick run at 10 to 30 minutes
[19:18] at race pace. Sunday swim and long run.
[19:22] Based on your advice, I'm assuming you'll suggest I need
[19:26] to swap my long run and long ride days.
[19:29] Any high level guidance or advice on my above plan would be
[19:32] much appreciated. What I'll do here is I'll talk
[19:35] you through how I would set out a training plan for 70.3 and
[19:40] then we'll look at what you're doing and how it's how it's
[19:43] similar and how it's different and we'll go through the basic
[19:46] principles. So the first thing that I'll say
[19:49] to athletes when we're training for 70.3 or indeed 9 manners,
[19:53] not all of these training sessions are equal and not all
[19:56] of these training sessions are only going to improve your
[19:59] ability to do that sport. So what I mean by that is
[20:03] training on the bike is going to help you run.
[20:06] It's going to help to a lesser extent you swim.
[20:08] Training on the run isn't going to help you bike.
[20:10] Training on the run isn't going to help you swim.
[20:12] That bike work is going to form the largest part of your day on
[20:17] race day, and it's going to need to form the largest part of your
[20:20] training and training. So if we're going to have more
[20:22] sessions of anything, it's going to be biking because that's
[20:25] going to be the thing you get the most bang for your buck.
[20:28] It's going to be, if you want to think that this way, the fitness
[20:31] of the heart, the lungs, the blood, the blood vessels, the
[20:33] oxygen transfer, all of that stuff goes on.
[20:36] Your body doesn't know what you're doing exercise wise.
[20:39] It's pumping blood around, it's getting more efficient at that.
[20:42] It's transferring oxygen between the blood and the muscles and
[20:45] calmed outside back to the IT doesn't know what exercise
[20:48] you're doing. So the bike is the safest place
[20:51] to train in terms of injury risk and it's the smartest place to
[20:56] train in terms of the transferable oxygen transfer
[21:00] fitness that you're going to get.
[21:01] So we'll try and do most of our training on the bike and then
[21:05] the next key building block of the training plan, if you like,
[21:09] is to think of it in terms of four key training sessions.
[21:13] Let's get these done first, let's place these first, and
[21:16] then let's place other things around it.
[21:18] So it sounds like you've got these in, but we need to go into
[21:22] the detail of what they are. So our four key sessions would
[21:25] be two key bike sessions, one key back, A1 key run, one key
[21:30] swim session. So what are these going to look
[21:32] like? The two key bike sessions are
[21:34] going to be 1 long endurance ride, which you've got in here,
[21:38] one shorter but harder interval rides that's going to be aimed
[21:42] at, if you like building your engine size looks like that's
[21:45] your your Wednesday bike session.
[21:46] And if that's not what you're doing in the Wednesday bike
[21:48] session, that's what you can change to do that in there.
[21:52] Your key run is going to be your long run, which you've got in
[21:56] here. Your key swim is going to be
[21:59] depending on your background as a swimmer.
[22:01] We'll start by making sure you've got the necessary swim
[22:05] technique to swim the distance efficiently.
[22:08] We'll work on the technique to improve your technique so you
[22:11] can be more efficient. And then we'll look at building
[22:15] the endurance so you can swim the length of the the goal event
[22:19] comfortably. So it's kind of a, a pyramid
[22:21] there where we, we work on technique first to improve
[22:24] technique. You get fit as a byproduct of
[22:26] working on the technique. And only at that point do we
[22:29] shift the focus to what might consider this to be an endurance
[22:32] swim. So it depends there what's going
[22:34] on in your, in your swim journey.
[22:36] So again, you've got one swim in there for the week.
[22:38] So the thing that's interesting in your training plan at this
[22:43] point is the number of strength training sessions that you're
[22:47] doing in the amount of time you're dedicating to that versus
[22:51] using that time in a different way.
[22:53] Where I would go with this for an athlete would be to say,
[22:56] right, we've talked about our four key sessions, how would we
[22:59] then best use time going on forward from that if we've got
[23:03] more time? So what I would say to athletes
[23:06] is the next priority is going to be to getting up the frequency
[23:11] if you're running. So ideally I'd like to see you
[23:13] running three times a week. I'd like to see a couple of
[23:15] short runs during the week that gradually extend in duration.
[23:19] Then I'm going to be looking at adding in an extra bike session.
[23:23] So you're up to three bike sessions a week.
[23:25] And then we'll look at adding in extra swim sessions depending on
[23:29] your need for those extra swim sessions.
[23:32] And then we'll look at you need the strength training and for if
[23:37] you like functional conditioning training, which often can be
[23:40] done in a very short session after a bike or run session when
[23:44] you're already training in your instance.
[23:46] The big change I would make here is 2 things.
[23:49] The first one is all of your endurance training is getting
[23:52] done at the weekend. You've got a Saturday long ride
[23:55] and brick, you've got a Sunday swim and long run.
[23:57] So it's all gathered in now at the weekend, creating a massive
[24:01] pile of fatigue all in one go. So you're right.
[24:03] The first thing I would do is I would try to separate out your
[24:06] long run and your long ride. Ideally, we're going to have
[24:10] that long run done midweek and you ride done at the weekend.
[24:13] So you've got a couple of days recovery between 2:00.
[24:15] Again, remember the long run is, is where your highest risk of
[24:19] injury, especially if you're doing it when you're fatigued.
[24:22] So let's try and do that when you're fresh.
[24:24] The long ride is when you're at least risk of injury.
[24:27] And actually, if your long ride is tough because you're already
[24:29] tired, that's fine. That's really good training.
[24:32] I don't feel you're at very high injury risk there at all.
[24:35] So separate those out if you have to do them both at the
[24:38] weekend. Do your long run on Saturday,
[24:41] your long ride on the Sunday. OK, the next advice I'm going to
[24:45] give you here is drop that brick run.
[24:47] We don't want you doing brick runs until six weeks out from
[24:50] race day. So drop that entirely.
[24:53] That's really specific extra stress on your body.
[24:56] That's really going to raise the risk of injury training there,
[24:59] especially if you do at race pace.
[25:02] So get rid of that until six weeks out and then when you
[25:06] reintroduce it, have it be easy runs first rather than at race
[25:12] pace. OK.
[25:13] The next piece of advice I'm going to say here is you've got
[25:16] 240 to 45 minute sessions a week here while you're just doing
[25:20] strength work. Now obviously I've got to be
[25:22] careful with the advice that I give here.
[25:23] There might be a specific reason you're doing that and there are
[25:27] sub categories of athlete for whom strength work is very
[25:30] important. And for ageing athletes, I think
[25:33] maintaining muscle mass that we have is really important.
[25:36] We've got to we've got really look after that and and it gets
[25:39] more important as you get older. But if you were younger athlete,
[25:43] I'd say you're definitely going to get more bang for your buck
[25:46] in terms of your racer and the 70.3 by doing more running and
[25:52] more biking. That's going to be much more
[25:53] specific. I don't think you need to be
[25:55] doing traditional strength work and pressing weights.
[25:57] I think you need to switch that to be functional strength
[26:01] training test. So by that I mean the kind of
[26:04] exercises that physio would give you to keep you rehabbed and
[26:09] prehabbed for running. So stuff that's going to help
[26:12] you posterior chain, get you glutes firing, get your
[26:15] hamstrings firing, and strong things that are going to support
[26:18] your ability to run with tired legs.
[26:20] So typically what we look at here are things like hit
[26:24] bridges. You can go online and look these
[26:26] up, but they're really good. They're not necessarily they
[26:29] don't feel like traditional strength exercises, but the fact
[26:32] for activation initially, if you spend a lot of days sitting on
[26:35] your bummets desk, your glutes aren't doing an awful lot apart
[26:38] from being a seat all day. So just getting them in the
[26:41] pattern of firing again is something you can do that will
[26:44] really, really help you out. So consider that.
[26:47] Consider how you using that time.
[26:49] I would definitely been off any jump rope work.
[26:51] I don't think that's specific at all to your or triathlon needs.
[26:56] And arguably it's going to be putting a lot of stress on your
[26:58] lower legs, calf slayers, which is exactly what we want to try
[27:02] and avoid. So again, great for Oval
[27:04] fitness. You know, if you're preparing
[27:05] for high rocks or whatever, it definitely has its place.
[27:09] But if we have limited time to use, let's use it in the most
[27:13] efficient and sensible way. Hopefully with that I've given
[27:16] you enough information that you can, you can make some tweaks.
[27:20] You've got the basics of it there.
[27:21] You know, you've, you've got the basics of the four key sessions
[27:24] getting done. The thing I'd like to see you do
[27:26] is just spreading that fatigue out a little bit more.
[27:28] And on that basis, think really carefully about where you place
[27:31] that rest and recovery day. Try to use that at the moment
[27:35] you've got it just before you do all your big volume at the
[27:39] weekends. I think it'd be better used
[27:41] after your biggest and most tiring session so your body can
[27:45] recover. Make sure you're recovering from
[27:47] week to week so that you're there to absorb all of the
[27:50] training that you do and you don't end up digging yourself
[27:53] into a massive fatigue hole. OK, at this point, I'm going to
[27:56] give a shout out to our sponsors, Precision Fuel and
[27:59] Hydration. You can go to their website.
[28:01] You can use the free Fuel and hydration planning tool to
[28:04] receive a personalised strategy for your next race.
[28:07] The plan will help you understand your own
[28:08] carbohydrate, electrolyte and fluid needs.
[28:11] You can even book a free one to one video consultation with PF
[28:14] and HS Athlete support team. And remember, if you want to
[28:17] make your first purchase, you can use the code Oxygen 26.
[28:21] The 15% off genuinely mean this when I say it.
[28:24] Getting you fueling right, getting your hydration and your
[28:27] electrolytes right on race day is as important to your success.
[28:31] Definitely Iron Man, to a lesser extent, 73.
[28:35] It's as important to your success as all the training that
[28:39] you've done. I can't stress that enough.
[28:41] You can't get through the day without eating.
[28:44] You can't get through the day without taking in carbohydrates,
[28:47] You can't get through today without replacing the water and
[28:50] electrolytes that you're losing because you're out there for so
[28:53] long. And one of the challenges here
[28:55] is you can get through all of your training sessions without
[28:58] needing them. Arguably you know you're always
[29:00] going to have something to drink and eat on your long ride, but
[29:03] all your other sessions you can probably get through without
[29:06] needing to fuel them. So you need to practise in
[29:09] training, fuelling these sessions because you're not
[29:12] going to be able to get through race day without fueling.
[29:16] So you need to be practising getting in between 60 and 90
[29:19] grammes of carbohydrate per hour on your long ride.
[29:23] You need to be practising taking in fluids and carbohydrate on
[29:27] your long run. Like I said, you can get through
[29:29] every long run without needing anything.
[29:32] But should you? That's the question.
[29:34] If you've never practised what it feels like to try and drink a
[29:37] litre of fluid an hour when you're running, then it's going
[29:40] to feel really weird and strange on race day.
[29:43] If you've never practised having to eat or take gels on the run,
[29:46] it's going to feel really weird and strange on race day.
[29:49] He wants to be practised at this and know that your body can
[29:52] absorb it and more importantly, know the numbers of grammes that
[29:55] your body can comfortably absorb so you don't end up in the port
[29:58] a potty. So that's my advice to you.
[30:00] Head over to precisionfuelandhydration.com,
[30:03] use their planning tools, start to do this in training,
[30:06] experiment with the levels and then you can dial us in.
[30:09] In training, you can dial in a new race simulation, weekends
[30:12] and then you B&C races. And when it comes to race day,
[30:15] all you've got to do is do what you've done all along the way
[30:18] and there's going to be no concerns for you.
[30:21] And look at that. We're at 30 minutes already.
[30:22] We've we've really raced through the time today.
[30:25] So I've gone through just a couple of questions, but there
[30:27] were really good questions in terms of helping me explain to
[30:30] athletes how you can go about structure training, you know,
[30:33] for your races. So I hope that's really, really
[30:35] helped you. I'll save the other questions
[30:36] for another week and what I'll do is I'll wrap this up and say
[30:40] just remember you can use the code OXYGEN 26 at
[30:42] precisionfuelandhydration.com for 15% of your first order.
[30:46] And if you're interested in coaching, if you've liked what
[30:49] you've heard today and you're finding your own training, like
[30:52] 70.3 training complicated, if you want someone to take all the
[30:56] worry if that's away and to make plan for you and to give you
[30:59] coaching advice, I'd love to talk to you about how we can
[31:02] help you out. There's a link in the show
[31:03] notes, you can book a call with me.
[31:05] We can have a chat. I'll talk you through our entire
[31:07] coaching process how we can best help you out.
[31:10] And if you're a good fit for joining the team, I'll offer you
[31:12] a place if we've got one available at the time and we can
[31:15] go forward from there. So there's a link in the show
[31:18] notes, book that call. There's a link in the show notes
[31:20] to go to precisionfuelandhydration.com.
[31:22] And until next week, I hope you have a great safe training and
[31:25] racing week. Summer's on its way.
[31:27] Hopefully before we know it, there's going to be some
[31:29] sunshine to get out for those longer rides in.
[31:32] I'm coach Rob Willoughby and you've been listening to the
[31:34] Genetic Triathlon Podcast.

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