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Ottawa Ironman

WEEKEND WARRIORS UNITE! Is it OK to be a Weekend Warrior?

WEEKEND WARRIORS UNITE! Is it OK to be a Weekend Warrior?

WEEKEND WARRIORS UNITE!

Is it OK to be a Weekend Warrior?

The short answer: apparently yes. If you would like the long answer on how to be a weekend warrior read on.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a weekend warrior is a person who participates in a physically strenuous activity only on weekends or part-time. The expression was first known to be used in 1981 when marathoning started coming into style after the 1970’s running boom and after the first Ironman in 1978. Training on the weekends became a necessity for the time-crunched age group athlete.

The average person with a job and 2 kids wanted to try Ironman events but quickly realized they didn’t have the time to train all day like the pros. And so entered the Iron Weekend Warrior: the girl or guy who wants to complete an Ironman but simply doesn’t have the time during the week to put in the long hours.

As a professional triathlon coach, I have seen two types of Weekend Warriors:

Warrior 1: Signed up for an Ironman with no previous triathlon experience and trains sporadically on weekends only, with no coach. Completes long distances on weekends 6-9 weeks before the event. Maybe gets injured and then hopes to heck that everything will fall into place on race day including pacing, nutrition, and equipment.

Warrior 2: Has completed some triathlons and starts training 6-9 months before the Ironman. Completes long planned workouts on the weekends with short higher intensity workouts during the week.

As you can imagine our Warrior 2 is more likely to get to the finish line injury free and have had a little fun along the way. Warrior 1 may still get to the finish line but there is a good chance she/he will be injured, dehydrated, overhydrated, undernourished, vomiting, nipples bleeding, feet covered in blisters, in the medical tent or downright exhausted. Warrior 1 may get the IM tattoo but there is a strong likelihood that they will never do a triathlon again!

The weekend warrior phenomenon is such a common training strategy that researchers decided they wanted to see what the efficacy of this type of training is. In 2017 Gary O’Donovan et al studied - The weekend warrior physical activity patterns and mortality followed by another study headed up by Mark Hamer et al in 2017 on - The weekend warrior physical activity pattern: how little is enough. This is what they discovered:

1)      “Weekend warriors who met recommended exercise guidelines (including those who exercised just once or twice a week but did so vigorously for at least 75 minutes, or at moderate intensity for at least 150 minutes) had a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, or other causes.”

We can now safely say that being a weekend warrior is good for our health although they didn’t study the impact of injuries on this group.

The next study which is more pertinent to the Iron endurance junkies is - Does cumulating endurance training at the weekends impair training effectiveness. This was the result:

2) “In a middle-aged population of healthy untrained subjects, cumulating the training load at the weekends does not lead to an impairment of endurance gains in comparison with a smoother training distribution.”

WEEKEND WARRIORS UNITE!!

It IS ok to cumulate the majority of your training on the weekends but please do me a favor, be the Warrior 2, not the Warrior 1.

Julia Aimers, CSEP Certified Exercise Physiologist, Certified Triathlon Coach is the Owner and Head Coach of Team Triumph Triathlon Club, Ottawa.

www.teamtriumph.ca

Check out our Iron Weekend Warrior Black Friday Flash Sale on Nov 23. Get a 10% discount when you register for the Saturday Long Spin/Run/Strength and Sunday Swim. Details info@pbest.ca

1)      The underappreciated health benefits of being a weekend warrior by Robert Shmerling MD, Harvard Health Blog. Feb 16, 2017. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/underappreciated-health-benefits-weekend-warrior-2017021611167

  1. T. Meyer et al. 2006 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16874148



Triathlon Training near Team Triumph

Heather Dunn

You can add me as a client for life. Still so much to learn about biking but am kicking butt on the hills out here - the “wall of pain” climb 2000+ft elevation has nothing on one of your classes!! Thank you!! 
ps - LOVING the Team Triumph biking shorts!!!

Tara McGowan

Team Triumph is a great Club where people from all levels of fitness can train. I was first introduced to Coach Julia when I went to a Training Camp in Utah as a tag along. My husband was training for an Ironman race at the time. I was recovering from an injury, but that didn't stop me trying the different activities at a beginner level. I remember swimming in the pool for Julia's first assessment. I was exhausted after only a few lengths. She gave me a few swim tips and I was eager for more. That was the point where I decided to schedule a one-on-one meeting with Julia and develop my plan to become active for life. In September 2016 I started learning to spin and run for the first time and took swim lessons to improve my technique. With Coach Julia's support and friendship from team members I have not looked back!

Susie Walter

With encouragement from my great friend Heather I joined TT in the fall of 2014. I remember nervously arriving at Canterbury Pool for the initial hour of swimming. Well I gasped at the thought of a 300 M warm up! I asked Julia if we had the whole hour to complete the warm up! Well it wasn’t too long after training and relearning the proper stroke technique the the warm became pretty easy. Now the 500 M time trial was a challenge but I was able to do it! In the spring of 2015 I completed the Perth Triathlon...lots of fun with TT and Julia was an amazingly supportive. A Christmas gift from my husband in 2015 allowed me to go to the Utah Training Camp in April 2016. I was certainly nervous given the experience of the athletes attending. I met some new people and everyone was friendly and supportive. We had a great time participating in the Sand Hollow Sprint Triathlon. More recently I have cut back on the swimming, but I hope to continue next spring. After a hip replacement in 2017 I am back spinning. The group dynamics of the spin classes with Maggie and Julia is fantastic. The music is great, the work out is awesome (I am soaked by the end of the class!) anyone holding back from joining TT for fear of intimidation....no need! Well have all started from different levels of fitness and experience and Julia and her team are there to train, coach, support and “POOOSH” all the way!

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