Pushing for ideal race pace

As the global sporting spotlight will fall on Bahrain again later this year, GulfWeekly has teamed up with one of the world’s top trainers to coach the island’s sports-lovers to prepare to take part.

If you have ever fancied trying a triathlon there will never be a better opportunity. Your community newspaper hopes to inspire you to put your best foot forward and have a go.

Don’t be scared … Andy Price will help you every step of the way!

Here’s your WEEK 10 – 85 Days until Bahrain Challenge.

* Training programme for the week starting Sunday to Saturday, September 19
Week 3 of Block 2 (just two more after this and you get a rest recovery week). We continue to push the distance and try to get as close to your ideal race pace as possible.

The first race of the season will take place at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel & Spa on Friday, September 18, and it will be a new ‘Water Run’. Entries are open on the Bahrain Road Runners (BRR) website and will close on Monday. Adults will start at 9am with a 5km run. The entry fee is BD5.

Children aged five to 14 will run 1km and it will cost BD3 to enter. All participants will get a T-shirt to mark the occasion.

In two weeks is the first real opportunity to see how your training is progressing when the BRR Aquathon (swim followed by a run) takes place at Hamala Beach Resort.

You might want to consider changing your training programme this week, not to rest up but to make sure you have room for the water run as well as your other training sessions. Try not to drop important sessions like the long bike session.

For ease I will include a key to explain abbreviations each week:
• F/S – Freestyle or front crawl
• Alt – Alternative stroke. For most this should be backstroke, but for some breastroke
• PULL – F/S with a pull float between your legs
• KICK – F/S kick using a kick board
• R – Rest (normally in seconds)
• Z – Zones (1 – 4)
• RPM – Revs per Minute
• HRM – Heart Rate Monitor

Remember you can simulate longer, hard swims in the pool by reducing rest and upping the pace. At this stage you should be swimming repetitions up to 300m distances at above your race pace and having a short amount of rest to recover. This allows your body to train at pace whilst being stressed. It’s not all about long slow swims, it’s about training smart. Of all our three events, swimming is the one that benefits most from interval training sessions.

* SESSION 1 – Pool
• Warm up
400 F/S with every 4th length your alternative stroke R60
200F/S with every 4th length your alternative stroke R60
• Main set
8 x 200m F/S (Above race pace / Zone 4) with 100m F/S steady as recovery R30
• Warm down
200 F/S / Alt Stroke
Total – 3200m

* Session 2 – Pool
• Warm up
4 x 100m steady R30
• Main set
200m F/S / Kick / Pull / Swim (Each being 200m) R30
6 x 150m F/S (Hard / Above race pace) R60
4 x 50m F/S (Hard) R45
• Warm down
3 x 100m F/S Steady R 30
Total – 2600m

* Session 3 – Open Water
• 5 x 500m at race pace R60 between

* SESSION 1 – INDOORS / Turbo Trainer
Warm up – 15 building through the gears to increase your heart rate.
• Main set
10 x 4 minutes
• 1 min build pace
• 1 min hard / max effort
• 30 seconds easy recovery
• 30 seconds build pace
• 30 seconds hard / max effort
• 30 seconds easy / recovery
• Warm down – 10mins in an easy gear, bringing your heart rate down

* SESSION 2 - OUTDOORS (remember this is a Bike to Run)
• 100-minute ride followed by a 3-5km run. Both should be as close to race pace as you can manage. Start to practice your Bike to Run transitions.

* SESSION 3 – OUTDOORS LONG RIDE (as last week)
• 150 minutes ride. Start with 20 minutes in Zone 2 / steady before upping to as close to race pace as you can for the next 100 minutes. Drop back to steady for the last 30 minutes.
By now you should be close to or exceeding 90km for this ride. Try and go slightly further than last week during the 100-minute race pace.

Session 1 – Endurance Run (as last week but see if you can go slightly further)
• Warm up (before you start the run. Try to avoid going straight off. Always do some form of warm up) Mobility stretches
200m jogs
• Main – 70 minutes. All at just above race pace. Don’t be tempted to try and go faster early on as we build up your speed endurance. The additional 10 minutes may hurt but keep it up.
• Warm down
4 x 200m Strides (just above race pace)

Dynamic stretches. Don’t push the stretches just hold for 20 seconds each. Work from your feet up stretching each major running group muscle.

Session 2 – Intervals on a track if possible
• Warm up (get into a routine of doing the same warm up before each training session or race) Mobility stretches
400m Easy
Mobility stretches
400m Easy
• Main set (at race pace)
• 10 x 400m all at above race pace but not max effort. R90
• Warm down
Dynamic stretches. Don’t push the stretches just hold for 20 seconds each. Work from your feet up stretching each major running group muscle.

Session 3 – Bike to Run
• Following your bike give yourself 3-5 minutes rest as you stow away the bike then go for a 4-5km run at race pace.