OUR PLAN

By: Danah Raymond

Training Philosophy

I strongly believe that fitness is a life-long endeavor. By putting health and fitness as a priority in life, I strive to find creative ways to have fun while getting fit. This way, it’s exciting and not just something on my list of things to do for the day.

Triathlon is a way to keep anyone motivated to get and stay fit. By registering for a race, you are immediately motivated to get training since you have a specific goal and deadline. For the beginner, this goal may be to just get across the finish line in one piece. For the seasoned athlete, this goal may be to set a Personal Record or be at the top of his/her age group. And for those elite athletes out there, this goal may be to be one of the 1st people to cross the finish line.

The decision to compete in a triathlon means you are looking for a challenge– above and beyond a regular workout routine. All three sports of swimming, biking, and running are placed back to back in one race. But any one of these sports would be a challenge all by itself. So, it is very important to know your plan of attack! You must know what your goal is, what kind of time must be invested, the right type of gear to use, and most importantly how to train effectively for all three of these sports.

The goal of the athletes on this site is to successfully complete an off-road triathlon a year from now, and to place in that race. That involves an open water .5-mile swim, 13-mile mountain bike, and a 5-mile trail run. Their training plan will be outlined here on this page. As much as you might like to jump in and train with them, be careful. Because if you do not have the same level of fitness as they do, you may set yourself up for failure.

Plan of Attack:

Training is a progression. It’s a series of steps that take you on the road to reaching your goals.  There are 6 steps or cycles on that road: base, skills, intensity, peak, competition, and recovery macro cycles.

Base Macro Cycle: 8 weeks

This cycle has low training intensity and low training volume which allows us to lay the foundation of our training program. Here we focus on building aerobic fitness through easy, continuous workouts. This will lead to strength and endurance.

Red Weights Day: Upper Body Training Includes Chest, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, Back, and Core 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps

Blue Weights Day: Lower Body Training Includes Lunges, Free standing squats, Calf Raises, Hamstrings, Glutes, and Core 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps

All Green Swim, Bike and Run workouts are a slow, easy pace in Zones 1 and 2

All Black Swim, Bike and Run workouts are an easy to moderate pace in Zones 2 and 3

All Purple Swim, Bike and Run workouts have some speed work added in Zone 4, but are mostly in Zones 2 and 3.

Skills Macro Cycle: 4 weeks

This cycle involves sport-specific training and focuses mainly on improving and fine-tuning our swim, bike, and run techniques. And since our race is off-road, we will be hitting the trails!

Intensity Macro Cycle: 16 weeks

Demanding and vigorous, this cycle will combine the base and skills developed over the last 2 cycles and pump up the intensity! This cycle has a higher training volume and will have us going longer distances.

Peak Macro Cycle: 16 weeks

Workouts in this cycle are going to be shorter but faster! We will be building speed and building toward the BIG RACE.

Competition Macro Cycle: 4 weeks

Race time!!

Our Trainer

Danah Raymond, professional trainer, marathon runner, and fellow triathlete has helped countless people reach their goals.  She specializes in helping normal people achieve remarkable things.  She is an experienced distance swimmer, and bicyclist.  She holds a degree in exercise science and is knowledgeable in nutrition and injury recovery.  She has agreed to post our training plan here for you to see and maybe get ideas from.

(If you’re thinking of following our plan, don’t.  We do want you to get involved, but everyone is different and since this plan is personalized to our needs you could end up either injured or held back from your potential.  Feel free to comment and Danah will respond to you with options to get your own personalized plan!)