Deca Training May/June 2018

I am often asked about the type of training required for a Deca. It is possible to complete a Deca on a programme of relatively few hours per week, but if you are wanting to achieve your fastest possible time, then you will need to train accordingly. My theories have evolved over the years and training time is obviously affected by other life circumstances.

This year I have trained a greater volume of miles than ever before. Luckily, I have the time and lifestyle to be able to do this, combining long training sessions with good nutrition, plenty of sleep and recovery time. I have increased the number of hours trained, whilst not becoming obsessed with purely counting up the miles and hours. Quality sessions are important, even for a race of 200 hours. A big influence this year has been the performance of Xandi Meixner At Buchs in 2017. We expected that she would be adversely affected at the Deca by having recently completed the RAAM ( bike race across America) , but she beat all the men on the bike section and was very strong over the last few hundred miles.

This is what May and June 2018 have looked like training-wise . In May 113 hours 48 minutes of training and in June, 113 hours 52 minutes. July will be 130 hours. The balance of swim/bike /run was as follows :-

May
Swim Sessions Distance Bike Sessions Distance Run Sessions Distance Supplements Salbutamol
15 45, 200m 27 1401 miles 19 130 miles n/a 0mg
June
Swim Sessions Distance Bike Sessions Distance Run Sessions Distance Supplements Salbutamol
19 51, 800m 24 1248 miles 27 166 miles n/a 0mg

I deliberately did 2 Iron distance races in June without a taper and on the back of a hard training week. For example , on Friday 25th May I did a training run of 26.3 miles in 3 hrs 53 mins, followed this on the Monday with a 100mile bike time trial ( 4 hr 41 mins) and an Iron Distance race that weekend in 10 hrs 24 mins., completing a 27 hour training week. 2 weeks later, after 22 and 29 hour training weeks, I completed the gruelling Triathlon X in grim weather conditions in over 15 hours. In the last 2 weeks of June I increased cycling mileage still further and began July with a 6 day stint with my Cycle Retreat friends in Spain, where I covered close on 400 miles and 40,000 feet of ascent (and a few runs and swim). July will see consistent weeks of over 30 hours training , totalling approximately 1800 miles of cycling, 180 miles of running and 75,000 metres of swimming, before easing back in the 2 weeks of August before the race. The total training volumes for 2018 are approximately triple the swimming and well over double the cycling that I did to break the 20 Ironman distance in 20 days world record in 2016. Running volume is quite similar to 2016. It will be interesting to see the effect on performance of this increase in volume , dedication and consistency. Week after week of average 26 hours per week training is quite tough. Previous Continuous Deca performance in 2008,2010 and 2017 have seen times of 313 hours, 239 hours and 222 hours.