Wondering if you could give me some help…

I am flying out for hano hano on Jan 23.  I have been mainly off seasons training without any structure just doing what I feel like depending on the day.  Mixing in gym day, cross training  either running or on the bike and 1 or 2 days of 30 min -45 min paddle sessions. I have the 16 wk program and wondering if you could give me a recommendation for a five 5wk build until hano hano.  Should I start at wk 3-8  since I have maintain some fitness??

Thanks

Great to hear you are enjoying the off season and keeping up some fitness but unstructured and doing what you feel like and when.  Hano Hano is turning into one of the bigger early season races of the year and while we would all like to be “mid-season race ready” it could back fire on you if you try to do too much early in the season without a proper base. Now, I am not saying you are in this position as you have not completely let your fitness drop but, if you are like many of us it is always something you should consider when doing early season events.

Looking at the 16 week program, since you are not starting from zero, you should be fine to start on Week 4 (a base training week) and then follow all the way up to the final week. In place of your longer session on that  Saturday do the race.

Normally we would have you taper before a race but, in this case there is likely no real need to back it off that race week (other than for your travel) because this is a micro build so you will have only had a few weeks under your belt and no need to taper down. Rather, take a rest week after the race.

The main key during the next 5 weeks is to keep your aerobic sessions aerobic and always focus on technique – even during your quality sessions on Tuesday.  Focus on the key 2-3 technical areas that you need to work on or have trouble maintaining during the later stages of a race and try to dial in on correcting any of these flaws.

Finally, try to focus hard on your technique during this early season race. Use technique as your “rev limiter.” Don’t go so hard that your technique goes sideways on you.

Hope to make it to the race, see you then.