First phase

After training 6 days a week in the pool until 30th of December I took a well-deserved break and took some time off for New Year’s and Christmas celebrations. My wife and I went to visit our family in Belgrade to celebrate the festivities with her family; including the Orthodox Christmas which was on the 7th of January.

Deliberate and planned breaks / days off are good and important for any training cycle, but they should not be extended or used in excess. This week I am back in Zurich and am continuing with my #PI2020 preparation.

Recalling my previous experience as a professional sportsman (I competed at the national and international levels in swimming) I planned this year into phases of training. The first phase (build-up phase) will focus on longer distances and longer sets to build my stamina and endurance. In numbers, this would mean 5 to 7 kilometres per training session made of up of sets of like 12 x 200m, 6 x 400m or similar. Plus I will continue with training 6 days a week.

Recognising that my friend and partner on the #IRONMAN journey is not an ex-professional swimmer his sets will be different. He was a professional sportsman too and played college basketball, but basketball is not at all like swimming. Initially, he will swim between 3-5 kilometres 4 to 5 times a week and will do shorter repetitions, but over time he will catch up in reps and length.

In this phase I will also increase the frequency of the other two disciplines; cycling and running. My strategy will be the same, start by building endurance and then as time progresses I will focus on building speed.