Getting In Shape For The Triathlon

Preparing for the Shidokan Triathlon was simply HARD work. I trained 6 to 7 days a week and some of the those days included 2 sessions a day.  My sparring and training partners consisted of students at the gym and pro fighters (Kelly Leo, Pedro Villalobs, and a few others). We'd warm up with a 3 mile run (Monday thru Friday with hill sprints mixed in on Tuesday and Thursday), followed by some stretching and a few rounds of shadow boxing. Then we'd punch, kick, and knee the bag for 5 rounds (with push ups and jump squats after each round). Pad work was next and we'd do a mixture of thai pads, focus mits, kick shield work. The pad work we do is live, meaning nothing is called. The holder catches and the fighter throws his techniques. You create the intensity of a fight without the injury. Afterwards we would Plum or neck wrestle 10 to 30 minutes, usually mixing in our team in a game of king of the mountain (where one guy stays in and tries to off balace his teammates). At the end of training we'd do the circle of death, where you move from bag to bag (about 20) skipping knees 10 to each bag (doing this twice). At the end, we'd do push ups and sit ups (100 to 200 push ups and 200 to 400 abs, the lower for maintenance and the higher end for fighting training). Saturdays started with 20 minutes of jump rope and then we spar 15 rounds changing partners throughout the workout. On Tuesday and Thurday nights, I would train judo with some really good players working on ground and throwing skills. Randori or sparring would be 30 min switching partners every few minutes. Since I worked in a gym as a personal trainer, resistance work (supersets and circuits) was done in the morning 3 days week (lifting was always stopped 1 to 2 weeks out of a tournament). A few weeks out from a tournament I would add a couple of 6 mile trail runs on Sundays. Sparring would become a mix of knock down karate, kickboxing and grappling with multiple partners for 18 to 24 rounds. I eat everything but meat, as this allowed me to recover quickly and I actually eat more food (yes, lots of carbs too). I will elaborate more on some of the weight, circuit and interval workouts I'd mix in too in future posts. Go train.