Start Here
Resources To Get You Started
Josh reached out…
The archive is great, and overwhelming, why don’t you make a simple page that gives the reader everything they need to get started?
Great idea.
Below you will find:
Stamina
Strength
Skills
Training Zones
Building Your Week
Dynamic Loading
Four Principles To Apply In Your Program
Before getting into specifics, this piece is a good introduction to the building blocks of athleticism.
Stamina
Build metabolic fitness by understanding your easy training zone.
Cycling is the most effective exercise mode for this goal.
Strength
First, your strength coach is likely to wreck you in an attempt to deliver value to you.
Second, start easy with light loads.
The early gains come from learning how to better use strength you already have. True gains take time to develop.
Third, for experienced strength athletes, here is an archive web link to the strength training page in our old business.
It covers:
Swim-Specific Strength Work by Scott Molina
The web archive server loads slowly. It’s worth the wait. You can navigate to a ton of free training resources.
Skills
Over time, I’ll be rewriting these.
Swim
Start by playing the Swim Game - it’s how I came back
Bike
Start with this article on How I Ride
Run:Walk
Do yourself a favor and use Run:Walk.
Start every run with 10 minutes of power walking
Insert 15-60 second power walking segments into the workout
Walk easily at the end of the session until your heart rate is below 100 bpm
Obviously, run:walk is different for an elite vs a newcomer.
You’ll find specific ideas on Pages 3 & 4 of my Run Workout Document.
Run Form
A thread
and a book recommendation
Training Zones
Start by finding your Aerobic Threshold.
Check in with aerobic threshold every time you train.
Next, read this article to understand Anchors, Caps and your Effective Range.
Video, if you prefer
Building Your Week
The best week is the one you complete.
When you start, set the bar low
Hit your minimum, daily
Build a habit of doing BEFORE you worry about what you do
Want to dig deeper?
I wrote you an article.
Nutrition
A thread of principles
…and a summary article with everything you need to dig deeper
Dynamic Loading
My conversation with Rich Roll sparked interest on Dynamic Loading.
This articles lays out the principles of my system in a way you can easily implement.
Four Principles To Apply In Your Program
The Core Lesson of Swedish 5:2 Loading => if you need one easy day, then take two. It’s that simple.
Judge Your Loading Days By What Happens 24-48 Hours Later => your loading days are likely too stressful. You should tolerate 2-4 loading days in every week. If you can’t then reduce the size of the peak days. Always keep the easy days easy.
Create An Objective Way To Assess Readiness => this can be as simple as measuring your morning resting heart rate.
Load When Your Body Is Ready To Absorb
How do you know you are absorbing your training?
You are consistent
You have no more than one “ workout miss” a week
Your mood, nutrition and sleep are stable
Cravings, niggles and irritability are absent
Keep it simple and persist.
Great set of resources. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the 201 of this—essentially training plan selection, interpretation, and finally the next stage, when to actually get a coach.
For context, I’ve been using some “automated” programming (running) for my current 50-miler prep upcoming March (and did the same for my 50K in September). With my eye on a proper 100-mile in September. My sentiment is that once I close the chapter on the 50-mile, I ought to better consider an investment in proper human coaching/planning the next stage. From there cascades a whole other set of questions around that, but this would be my starting point.