Rule #2: Be Consistent

"I've learned from experience that if you work harder at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work." - Louis C.K.

“There’s more to being a model than just being really, really good looking.” - Derek Zoolander

Training for a big event - marathon, Ironman, any event with "ultra" in it - requires work and dedication over an extended period of time. Getting in some big workouts is important. Can't be very effective at 26.2 miles if you don't do a handful of 20 mile runs. But, without a consistent regimen, those big workouts are at best less effective than one would hope, and at worst pretty much worthless in reaching your goals.

As boring as it may be, it is the day in and day out of getting in your workouts that can do the most for your level of fitness, and ultimately your racing success. You are better off getting 6-8 hours of training in each week, every week, than you are averaging 10 hours per week, but with wide swings in volume and intensity. So, what is the best way to go about being more consistent?

To start with you have to understand that training for that "big race" is not the only priority in life.
Work and family commitments come first. Training for your big race, while important, doesn't put food on the table or pay the mortgage. And a big day on the bike is less important than a close relative's wedding. Fortunately, for most of us, work and family commitments generally recur on a fairly consistent schedule, excluding big events or emergencies. By plotting out these commitments you can now start to put together your training schedule.

Now that we have that out of the way, the next thing to do is develop your personal basic work week. Doing this is relatively simple. Here are the steps:

1. Find the block of times you have available for working out -  Be realistic. Do not commit yourself to getting up at 4 am to get your daily run in if you work until 11 pm and are not a morning person. Also don't commit to 20 hours of work each week if you know it just ain't happening or if you aren't physically capable of doing that much work without burning out or breaking down.

2. Schedule in the weekly sessions that are fixed - This could be a masters swim group that meets on a Tuesday evening or a group ride you like to meet up with on a weekly basis. In my case, I have a Saturday morning long run and masters swimming on Tuesdays and Thursdays that are fixtures in my weekly training plan.

3. Schedule in your key workouts - This would include your long run, long bike, and interval sessions. Remember to allow for adequate rest between these key sessions. In other words, except for a specific big weekend-type of training block, make sure you have enough time between your key sessions to perform well and get adequate recovery.

4. Change your basic work week with your training plan/immediate goals - What you do in the "off season" is much different than what you do in the 12 weeks prior to an Ironman. You will also want to change your basic week with your goals for a specific training block. For example, when I was trying to improve my swim a few years ago I had a 10-week period where I swam 5 days each week, scheduling bike and run workouts around the swim. Once spring came around I was back to a more balanced approach to my training.

5. When life gets in the way, better to get a shortened workout in than no workout - Let's say you are forced to work late to finish off a big project at work, keeping you from meeting your weekly group ride. If time allows, you are better off getting on the trainer for 30 minutes of intervals than just skipping that workout. In such a case you are better off doing short, hard intervals than just doing some easy swimming, biking or running. I have a few examples of short, effective workouts below that work great in these situations.

For an example of what an Ironman workweek looks like, you can find Gordo Byrn's thoughts here.

Bike:
10 minute warmup - build intensity
10 x (1 minute hard + 1 minute recovery)
2 minutes colldown

Run:
1 mile warmup
5 x (2 minutes @ 5k race pace + 1 minute recovery)
1 mile cooldown

or

1 mile warmup
6-8 x (400M uphill + recovery back down the hill)
1 mile cooldown

Swim:
warmup - 300M easy
Main set - 8-12 x (100M @ threshold + 15 sec. RI)
cooldown - 200-300M easy

You can find Rule #1 here.


Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon