Irishrower said:Hi,
Im an active semi professional rower. I have a very good base fitness,
but am a Hw, (92kg)......I cycle when i get a chance as my rowing takes
up every morning mon - thurs and sat - sun and every weekday night
apart from friday night.
I used to swim for my county in Ireland, but havent done it in a while.
Again, when i can, I will try and get some lengths done in the pool.
Basically I work better to a regime and when I have a traget...so...
What should I be aiming for, (lengths wise), when im in the pool and
how many miles should i aim to acheive for cycling; to be able to enter
an event and compete to a good novice standard?
Depends on the length of event you're going to enter. Unlike rowing,
most triathletes don't generally go much over the event distance in
training - if you're entering a sprint then some longer distances in
training might be useful, if you're entering an ironman then you'll
likely never attempt the full distances in training, at least not
together and probably not the run.
Like rowing, it's also a lot more complicated than just putting in the
miles. You also need to think about speed work, technique, etc. You
also don't mention running. If you are planning to carry on your
rowing training and hence have only fridays and weekend afternoons to
focus on triathlon training then I'm not sure what the point is - by
sacrificing your rest day or trying to train after a double outing on a
saturday or sunday then you'll almost certainly impair your rowing
performance and will be too tired to get much benefit out of the
triathlon training. If you're planning to exchange a couple of
sessions on the erg or the water for sessions on the bike or in the
pool then you should identify what your biggest limiters in triathlon
are and exchange appropriate sessions. E.g. if you think that running
endurance could be a problem then exchange an hour steady state on the
erg for an hour steady running.
Strength and endurance shouldn't be a problem for you - if you have a
swimming background then you could probably enter an Olympic distance
event now and get round with no additional training in a respectable
time. Your biggest limiters are likely to be technique and
sports-specific fitness, particularly on the swim and the run - rowers
tend to adapt to cycling pretty quickly. You're also likely to do
relatively better on flatter courses where your weight won't be a
disadvantage.
