Aspiration meets actuality

Tzero supported athlete Alex Hinton is preparing for Ironman France 2010 under the guidance of coach Fiona Ford of Triathlon Europe. Following their initial meeting (see Part 1), Fiona gave Alex a set of sessions to ease him into his Ironman training.

Initial objectives included rebalancing Alex’s training so that he would spend more time on his weaker disciplines (swimming and running), and to do some basic fitness testing including a 20 minute bike time trial and 12 minute run test. In fact, his total weekly training hours have reduced with the Ironman programme, as before he was focused primarily on cycling.

Alex wrapped for winter training

As with most changes, things didn’t happen quite as planned. A key factor for Alex is to fit training around work and to maximise the use of his journeys to and from central London. This means frequent bike rides and the occasional long run are relatively easy to fit in, but structured sessions more difficult.

Alex has spent part of his first weeks of his Ironman preparation experimenting with different options to find the best way to manage the training. Inevitably, this resulted in some skipped or altered sessions to those planned.

Additionally, the start of training coincided with a sudden increase in his day job work load and a couple of overnight work-related trips that interfered with his training plans.

“I was a bit disappointed with how things panned out,” says Alex. “I wanted to do the training but sometimes I had to prioritise work or family. Hopefully work will calm down and I’ll settle into a better routine over the next few weeks. I’ve also noticed that despite the reduced hours, the workload felt harder because of the additional swimming and running.”

Fiona says Alex shouldn’t worry too much initially. “It’s normal for athletes to go through an adjustment period to adapt to a new regime. The key thing is to ensure good communication between the athlete and coach so we can bring the training and progression back on track quickly if things get derailed for any reason. I think Alex and I have established that nicely over the first month – well within the expect time frame when working with new athletes. This is really positive and will enable us to build positively into the next training phase.”

Alex should also not get too hung up about missed training sessions. “Sometimes you have to let them go. It can be a mistake to make up for lost sessions by overloading the following week, and hence tiring yourself out too much,” says Fiona.

Another issue arose when Alex attempted the time trial running session. Basically, after a long and tiring week at work, he simply felt too exhausted to do the exercise properly.

Looking forward, Alex and Fiona are both confident they can rework the schedule so Alex can manage the training sessions around work and family. For example, Alex and Fiona have decided to switch his weekly long ride from Sunday to Saturday. This means that after an early Sunday swim he can spend the rest of the day with his wife and daughter.

“Regular feedback enables the coach and athlete to work optimally towards their common, athlete-driven goals,” says Fiona.

Training stats

Triathlon Europe offers on-line and personal triathlon coaching including a series of triathlon training courses in the French Alps.

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