At the start of the year I built out an annual training plan. I’d worked out which events I was going to take part in and I modelled my training around those events to ensure I was suitably fit and rested for each one. Then COVID-19 happened….
Every single event that I had signed up for this year has either cancelled or been postponed so I’ve had to tweak my training plan. I’ve shifted my focus back to base training as I now don’t need to be in peak condition but I do need a decent foundation for next year so I can head back stronger than I would have this year.
I’ve opted to follow the triathlon maintenance plan from 80/20 training for a couple of different reasons that are personal to my goals. Number one I want to take the opportunity to improve swimming technique and this plan gives you loads of sessions to do exactly that, especially in the open water. Number two, I still have an extremely poor aerobic base and so now I can put in lots of hours of zone 1/2 heart rate driven running training to slowly build that up, and finally given that I don’t yet know when my next event will be I can cycle round this program for as long as it takes and then switch to a build phase at the appropriate moment.
I’ll keep you appraised of plan progress but it would be great to hear about your plans and approaches during this unique time.
