Introducing Smarter Training for Arete Athletes.

Introducing Smarter Training for all Arete Athletes.

A training programme that follows the athletes, not athletes that follow a training programme.

We are starting with the Youth Triathletes in the group that for the 2020/21 the focus for training is going to be the British Triathlon Performance Assessment Weekend that happens at the end of March/April.

We will obviously keep an eye on this in light of Covid. I had hoped that we were going to get an XC season in, but I think that this is looking increasingly unlikely.

The plan is to start to focus about 20 weeks out from the Performance Weekend, which will be the week commencing the 23rd November 2020 and then follow a plan to peak for the weekend at the end of March/April 2021.

Importantly the idea is that the plan follows the athlete and is specific to each athlete, and can be adapted to concentrate on the 'weaker' elements of an athletes discipline.

The approach will be that of 4-week periodisation - 3 weeks on and 1 week easier.

We will go through 4 different periods:

Base Period - General training focusing on 'training to train'.

Dates:

Block 1 - 23rd November - 14th December

Block 2 - 21st December - 11th January

This period will concentrate more on your basic abilities;

Aerobic Endurance - the ability to keep going for a long time at a low intensity,

Muscular Force - working on your ability to overcome resistance.

Speed Skills - which is your ability to move in a fast, efficient and effective manner.

Build Period - Specific training focusing on 'training to race'.

Dates:

Block 1 - 18th January - 8th February

Block 2 - 15th February - 8th March

This period will start to move focus onto your advanced abilities and become more race like, we will look at developing your -

Muscular Endurance - which determines your ability to go relatively fast for a relatively long time,

Anaerobic Endurance - which is your ability to train efforts well above your anaerobic threshold for a few minutes at a time

Sprint Power - the ability to sprint at very high power outputs for a few seconds.

Peak Period - Tapering for the race

Dates: 15th March - 22nd March

During this period it will be specific training simulating a portion of the race every 72 hrs.

Race Period - Removing fatigue and sharpening fitness

Dates - 29th March - 5th April.

During this block, we will be racing shorter intervals, at a higher intensity and concentrating on removing fatigue.

Obviously, dates are not yet confirmed, and we can adapt any of the above as more information comes out. But I think it is important that we now start to focus on this.

All the athletes can access their own individual training plans via the Training Peaks App.

I have got an account for each athlete in the group, which means that the programme can easily be adapted to follow the athlete and not the athlete the programme, it also means we can have joint group sessions, and you can fit sessions around your club swim programmes.

If you haven't got a TP APP, let me know, and I can set it up by return.

Importantly the TP App will enable each athlete to start to take control of their own training and adapt it further.

As coaches, the TP APP gives us some vital planning tools by allowing us to monitor fitness, training loads, training balance between the disciplines, form and fatigue over time and adapt any training specific to each athlete.

I am also going to use the Performance Management Chart to get actionable insights into how training is working for each athlete and discuss these in monthly one-on-one Zoom calls.

At Arete we want to be cutting edge, give all the athletes the best tools, access to the latest thinking and knowledge available, to gain insights from professional athletes.

We want to do this at the same time as having fun, creating great memories and lasting friendships in a supportive way.

The Arete way!

I am getting excited about focussing in!