1) Come up with a calendar for a whole year's worth of events, holidays, family events, A race, milestone race, milestone goals etc. Find A race (IMMY 2016). Go backwards from the date of A race (24 weeks back) to determine training start date.
*note - 12 November 2016 is IMMY race day and 24 weeks back is 30 June 2016 (week 1). It;s a week before Ramadhan. I trust my base is adequate to officially begin training in week 7 after Aidilfitri.
2) Come up with a daily sechedule. Week start on Monday and ends on Sunday. Have to be as detailed but consise.
My sample include 3 session (or slots) of swim/bike/run, 3 session of strength, 1 recovery/off day. I also have suplement or replacement slots if I happen to miss the mandatory sessions.
3) Pilot week - to estimate and fine tune logisitical details. Things to observe:
- How long does it really take to begin your work out. e.g.: setting up bike, getting all the gears in place, travelling to location
- Can you really commit to the time? MOrning sessions - hard to wake up early
- What gear to bring/pack - do you already have an organized way to have them ready when you need it instead of looking for it right before workout starts?
- Pre and post nutrition
Basically this week the goal is not distance, time or intensity. Its just about showing up and making sure (honestly) the slots you allocated in your daily life works!
4) After you can actually show up for your work out only then you can be more specific about the type of workouts.
This is where I use Matt's plan and just insert them in the available slots. I plan weekly in case urgent things come up and also not to overplan.
It has to be said that the pilot week is important.
Having done the pilot week, I found the following issues:
- not knowing which route to ride
- having my shit all over the place and wasting time looking for them
- not knowing gym/pool closing time
- morning slots are tough but shit does happen and you have to reschedule
but not all are negatives though:
- I actually have more time than I thought
- Exploring new places to workout - closer to office for example
- Your own sense of time - working out no matter the time/weather (unless its lightning and thunder outside). So your workout might start at 7 PM or 11 AM - odd times, but the sooner you adopt the mantra "it is now or never" the better.
Notable fine tuning done to pilot schedule:
a) having a progressive bike route in place. So I just pick a place and ride - I know the distance and time to complete the route. Easier to plan.
b) Mandatory gear preparation before workout - sort of like checking in your stuff during Ironman, you get all the shit the day before.
c) Simple nutrition to bring or know the place to buy and having a standard groceries list
d) Include slot to buy groceries
e) Getting all the stuff that will interfere with training out of the way - buying all that needs to be bought and have an organized system - seperate bags according to work out etc.
f) Tell your family this is what your typical week probably look like for the following 24 weeks.
Some people might have other ways to schedule their plan, but this currently works for me and I don't rule out other plans or the process involved.
Training has begun and it's been great. Will try to update weekly starting from Week 7.
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