World Championships Qualifier Q&A - Carolyn Tonelli

Known as the crazy Doc to some here is a glimpse of what Carolyn’s training has been like leading into the 70.3 World Champs!

1. How many times a week were you riding/running and swimming in your 70.3 lead in?

Riding/mag training 3 times a week, swimming 3-4 times a week, running 4-6 times a week, up to 20 hours per week total.

2. What type of bike sets were you doing? Can you give us an example of one?

A couple were 2x50min TT efforts on mag trainer, then run off bike on treadmill building to 3.45 pace, but I would often end up doing the midday 40 min tempo treadmill run also to utilise the caffeine in my system!!

3. What are your peak power and FTP values?

294 watts, FTP 4.2W/kg

4. What type of run sets were you doing? Can you give us an example?

Run sets were either 400m or 1k repeats.

Examples were 15x400m descending from 90 to 80 secs followed by 20 min tempo run, or 10 or 12 x 1k repeats, the aim always being 4min pace or quicker, but it depended how I felt on the day

5. Tell us about your hardest training day?

This would have to be a typical Thursday:

6am track – 5×100’s, followed by 10x1k at 4 mins with 2 min walk float, then 20 minute tempo run followed by a 20 min cool down run Then off to work Run 30 mins on my lunchbreak Then come home, sort out the household, then do a 1 hour evening mag trainer set at either a set heart rate/cadence, or 2 min max efforts.

That, or the 160k ride through the hilly countryside with the Ironman boys at the peak of their training, and me coming off 4 weeks of relative rest!

6. What is your biggest tip for new Triathletes leading into a 70.3?

2 things: 1.Use some big training days to sort out your race nutrition plan 2.Trust the process- your coach will have a plan that ends on race day, so follow your program, and if you don’t understand the what/why/how, then ASK!