Weight training for IM - Page 2 - Triathlon

25/10/2011 at 20:41

AH - you knees might adapt to hill running though. I dont do hill repeats, but I run some long hilly drags. You could build soem of these in.The downhills are good for building quad toughness too. You could do some lunges and bodyweight squats at home. One legged squats are a good one, as they use stabiliser muscles too.

O.rangeCannon.... Extravalanza here I come! pirate

pirate

25/10/2011 at 21:20

I find the gym stuff best for core / flexibility.
I really enjoy functional stuff as TR suggests - its strength, stability, endurance al in one....

(i do a warm of 2-3 * 15 of

reverse lunges,
superman squats,
lunge with opp wrist to ankle, (ie twist - vey hard to initialy stop falling over!)
heel flicks,
then lunge/stretches)

then the main set of 2-3*15 of

lunges, ( with free weights, 12-> kg),
bulgarian lunges (with free weights, 10kg) coz they are soooo hard,
box squats
lunge -> knee drives
swiss back jackknifes

I find this realy tough and it shags my legs for 2-3 days at the start, but gets easier as the weeks go by

I do some traditional weights, but don't think its that effective - more for conditioning really

I do find cycling hils, / big gear work / intervals / just riding hard effective in improving leg strength.... (however this is just a low % of riding otherwsie you get to fried)

I also think long runs help in getting the muscular endurance to just keep going on the run - I didn't do that many last year and suffered....

Hope

pirate

26/10/2011 at 07:28

Artful Hen wrote (see)

Thanks Hope.Makes sense and is the sort of useful info I was after. How many sessions a week do you do when IM training starts?

I did 2 a week for as long as I could.

Artful Hen

26/10/2011 at 08:27

thank you all. You all speak gooood sense. And it's all good stuff - just different approaches. i'll def include the functional stuff - spose I always have really. Just wanted to see if the weights might give me something extra. Bloody hell, if it helped Hope get round IMW it must be good!

OC - i don't know what half of those things are but will look them up.

Orca

pirate

26/10/2011 at 09:43

AH, I don't know whether the sterngth gained made a difference to the PB but it can't have hurt. I actually did it in an effort to reduce my body fat percentage. My weight was OK but my body fat was a bit high, (still is but it's not as high as it was) that was one of the main reasons for me but I'm quite sure that reducing my body fat was a big contributer to my Regensburg time. I also like weights and have a gym both at home and at work so it makes it easier for me to fit it in.

Artful Hen

26/10/2011 at 17:14

Thanks Orca. I often have to remind myself that instead of lusting after a lighter bike I ought to just lose some lard! that will have to wait until after Xmas. I'm in my 'fallow' period at the mo ...

Steel Magnolia

27/10/2011 at 07:44

Tri the video at this lonk (6 mins tri specific) http://www.thetriathloncoach.com/uncategorized/a-full-body-workout-in-less-than-6-minutes/

m..eface

pirate

03/11/2011 at 00:24

AH - sorry been busy.

Not sure anyone has answered the when question.

You need to decide what your limiters are.

For me leg strength isn't the limiter so if I was doing weights it would be down the order of priority. In which case I would stick them where they had least impact on my most important sessions. Endurance doesn't seem to be a limiter for me either so speed and pace/endurance are my limiters. Therefore from a running persepctive my important sessions are intervals and tempos with the LSR in third place.The leg strength would be firmly last. Very similar for the bike.

So I would want to be most rested for the tempo/interval workouts and wouldn't do leg strength before these key workouts (same or previous day). I may however do it the day before a LSR.

However if double dipping on workouts the main focus for all of us is sport specific and therefore it would be the second workout of the day/session. The cardio gets the full treatment with the strength training getting what you have left.You don't get full benefit from the strength training but you get most of it. Reversing it wrecks the sport specific stuff which unless you are very weak (you are not) would be the wrong focus.

I generally ignore weight training for legs but do stick in a quick upper body workout post interval/tempo run. I would avoid doing this on a day when I was swimming the next day - but a leg strength session would be fine the day before a swim. Takes <15 minutes.

I superset everything. No breaks, no rest, and use a Push/Pull to work different body parts, so in theory the chest is resting from pressups whislt I do pull ups.3 sets of each pair

Seated Row/Miltary Press
Pull Ups/Pressups
Deadlift/Plank

So that is me: what about you?

You are a girl (a nice one but a girl all the same). Therefore you are not likely to have the same leg strength as a man, this is a general comment and I've never seen you do a leg press or a squat so can't comment directly. Therefore you may place more focus on strength training.

What are you other limiters? This will help you prioritise the other workouts and rank the strength training accordingly.

Hope this helps.

M.eface

Steve Ho

09/11/2011 at 11:55

Edited: 09/11/2011 at 11:57

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