Below is a month-by-month breakdown to give you an indication of where your training needs to be to successfully complete Challenge Wanak. These training tips are provided by respected exercise physiologist and endurance coach, Val Burke – www.valburke.com.

August

Winter is the time to refine your swim, bike and run technique. There’s no pressure to get the long miles in, daylight is limited and many of you may be training indoors. Use this time to work on bike cadence, short power with long recovery, standing and single leg work. If it is too cold to road bike, then get on your mountain bike and climb some hills.

For running ensure you know what good run technique is, and build technique intervals into your training with long recovery between each interval. Interval lengths are generally 30s up to two minutes, but recovery is long (1 ½ mins – 4 mins) so that each time you get back to your interval your body is fresh and ready to ingrain good technique.

At this stage everyone should be doing some swim:bike and running because come September it is time to build toward more specific training for Challenge!

September

The longer days and warmer weather will make you want to train in September! September is your final “general build” month. Beginner triathletes training for Challenge Wanaka will still focus on getting two swims, two bikes and two runs per week. And don’t forget about your strength training twice a week as well!

If you can’t swim well then you need to swim three to four times a week and get some advice on your technique.

If you are pretty good at all three disciplines and have a performance versus a completion goal, then you should be biking three to four times a week. Try to build your long bike ride up to 2.5 to 3.5 hours by the end of September either through a long ride every week or every second week.

Try to build your long run up to 1.75 hours by the end of September through a long run every second week. You can start running 20 mins:walk 1 min during all long runs to break up the repetitive damage.

Final tip for September:  Stretch after every run and bike!

The Challenge Wanaka Group meets every Wednesday night; you receive a monthly training program and all the support; motivation and education you need to take you successfully through Challenge Wanaka.

October

October, November and December are “Specific Training” months where you build your volume for the Challenge distances through your long training sessions.

Total training volume could be anywhere between 14 and 20 hours of training during October, depending on volume done in September and outside time commitments and stressors. By October you should have gradually built up your swim, bike and run endurance so you are ready to increase your long sessions as I have recommended below.

Many athletes have felt like the general build phase of July-September have been “two steps forward, one step back” as we have come through flu and cold season, but if you have an aerobic base in place, a flu or cold is a minor setback in the big picture.

In October, long training sessions are comprised of long bikes, long runs and long bricks (long bike with short run and short bike with long run). I recommend 90 – 120 km (3.5 – 4.5 hours) rides in October every second week with 75 – 90 km rides the weeks between. Every second week the long bike has a short (10-15 min) run off it to just get the feel of running off a long bike. I recommend long runs to 2 – 2.5 hours every second or third week, with 1.5 hr long runs the week between, bricked off bikes of various distances.

Swimming continues at two or three times per week, depending on how much swimming you need to do. As you build your distances the need for recovery is enhanced, therefore make sure you build in additional time for stretching and recovery.