A few months back we put out a call for a 220 reader who four-time Kona queen Chrissie Wellington could mentor. Unsurprisingly, we were inundated with offers…
Katy Campbell was the lucky winner, and with Chrissie’s help she's now picked an A-race for 2014: the Alpe d’Huez Tri. With a big goal set, coach Matt Edwards can now crack on with her training plan.
"Katy now has a target race, which means we’ve been able to work backwards from July 2015 and split her year down into sections, each with a particular focus," says Matt. "This will help her physical development, keep her activity varied and, we hope, interesting and motivational.
"From now until January, she’ll be ‘preparing to train’. This means ensuring she is in good physical condition – so working on her strength and stability exercises – and finding out what a manageable, consistent set of weekly sessions will look like. She will be doing some swimming, biking and running, but with little structure. She will be working on swim technique, but otherwise in the main just doing what she feels like doing.
"Making sure her body is ready to build up her swim, bike and run training is essential in helping ensure she avoids injury and gets the most out of the work she’ll do after Christmas.
"Working out what a realistic training load involves means asking the following: where and when can she swim? Can she run during a lunch hour?
"These practical questions can be also addressed now, so by the time it comes to ‘starting training’ she is already comfortable with the logistics of training, which, for someone with a job and a life, is so important. Having the nuts and bolts dealt with means she can put energy and focus into quality training.
"The final reason to make sure Katy prepares herself properly and doesn’t do too much swim, bike or run too early is to ensure that she takes ownership of what she does, thinks about it and really engages in what’s going on.
"In one sense training is easy – anyone can go out and rack up hours and miles of swimming, biking and running. Knowing why you are training in the way you are, knowing how your body functions, being conscious of your movement and the feeling of getting stronger – this is at the centre of achieving what it is you set out to do."
... and don't forget – you can find lots more free triathlon training plans on the 220 Triathlon website, including sprint distance, Olympic distance, Ironman and more.
(Images: Jonny Gawler)