Prep Phase

As I eluded to in my last post, Getting Back into the Groove, I wanted to walk through each phase of my plan and give a little context as to what they mean.  The first phase that my IM plan takes me through is Prep1 and Prep2.  These phases last 4 weeks each and will probably not have a recovery week built in because generally the volume is low, with a medium frequency, and low intensity.  Essentially these phases are designed to train your body to get ready to train. 

I would compare it to Dead Week in college, or at least what I did during Dead Week.  It's the time where you start to study, but don't do too much of it.  You get your schedule down of when your finals are, plan when you're going to study, and get in the mind frame of cramming all the information into your brain.  Not the best metaphor, but I think you get the idea.

With a family, work, PT and endurance clients, this is the time where I figure out from a scheduling perspective what works and what needs to be re-arranged to find a happy medium.  For me, it's going to be early morning training and later evening training and a heavier dose on the weekends with my 'long' and BT (break through) workouts scheduled at least 2 days apart for efficient recovery. 

Prep time is also the time to get back into the pool, lace up the running shoes, and hop back on the bike.  These training sessions shouldn't be very long or very intense.  Just enough to reacquaint yourself back to each discipline and start to work on building up your base.  This is also an excellent time to work on form.  Spend a lot of time working on swim drills, running form, and biking form so that you can hit the ground running when you begin "official" training.  Prep phase is also a great time to get your nutrition back on track with whole foods, adequate caloric intake, and many smaller meals throughout the day.