The Plan

So here I am, one year out from the Lake Placid Ironman. Where the hell do I start?

You might be asking yourself the same question about a goal of yours. What do I need to prepare myself the right way? A plan, that’s where we start.

My plan this year is broken up into three phases. The first being a strength phase. The second is to achieve my goal weight of 190. And the third is getting my mileage close to Ironman distances.

My training will start in the weight room. Building a better machine that I can fine tune as we inch closer to next year. The weights will be with me for this entire journey adding strength and endurance as well as the proper mechanics for each of the three sports.

Being overweight for most of my life has left me with countless imbalances. The way my body moves is still changing and developing. Not many of us are blessed with an athletic body. But through strength training we can make our bodies stronger, balanced, and flexible. These skills can make us more athletic, and more importantly in triathlons, efficient.

For the first 16 weeks, I’m using a 3 days per week conjugate split. I have 6 workouts over a two week period. Three upper body days (A workouts) and three lower body days (B workouts). The first week being an ABA split the second week being BAB. Then repeating and increasing reps and weights based on weeks before . Concentrating on strength and endurance. Special attention will be given to my posterior chain, hip mobility, and core strength.

I use the term “carry yourself” with my clients frequently. As soon as you lose your core or your hips lock up on you in running, biking, or swimming, you can literally be dead in the water. I’ve always felt this even as a fat little kid riding his mountain bike around Angola, NY. Once I got tired my back started to hurt, and my pace would slow. My weak core lost posture, which lost efficiency, and that’s a slippery slope when it happens. I’ll be damned if it happens to me in July!

I’m still getting in my miles. At least two longer bike rides a week. A three day split for running; a sprint day, a pace day, and a distance day. Distance now between 8-10 miles. Swimming now is still open water trying to get out at least once a week. I wake up with sun salutations (yoga sequence ) almost every morning and has helped tremendously with my flexibility. I’m enjoying the summer activities like hiking, camping, canoeing and being more active in general always helps with any fitness goal.

There it is for the next 4 months. It’s not so much thinking anymore it’s just focusing on executing the plan!

Dan Rohde

Human Athletics

Dan.Rohde@HumanAthletics.com

Related articles

• Why Ironman? (chasingmydreamlife.com)
• Rolling in the deep (singletrackedmind.com)
• Ironman Lake Placid 2013 – The Experience (fitnessandfrozengrapes.com)