Senior Citizen TRIATHLON training-HELP!
I have a resident who completed her last triathlon 4 years ago when she was 85. Today at 89 she hopes to complete one again. She has 16 weeks, and already swims and bikes daily. She continues to be active so keeping her on task shouldn’t be a challenge, but older body’s recover longer, how many intense, above normal training days on? How many resting days?
Hi Michele,
my hat is off to your client! What a privilege to be training somebody for a triathlon at the age of 89!
Even though 89 is no longer 85, I would ask her how she prepared for the one 4 years ago and take my cue from there. I don’t think you’ll find much literature suggesting a training regimen for such an extraordinary person.
Obviously, your main concern must be to prevent a musculoskeletal injury. Since she seem to have the swimming and biking under her own control, the ‘running’ part is your concern. You do not mention the length of the triathlon but I am assuming that the running distance in no more than 5 K. If she has set her heart at running, I would advise to do 3 sessions per week of practice. Walk / run is probably best with a lot more walking than running. Ultimately she just needs to jog across the finish line with a big smile on her face, even if she walked most of the rest of the distance.
I think it is absolutely awesome, and I wish her the very best of success.
Karin Singleton
www.meltnc.com
Definitely no problem to be working with older clients, simply have to be more careful and progress smartly. Start them out with what they can do now and keep bumping it up as you would with normal clients.
Take special care in their nutrition, as you might have to take into account chronic illnesses. Osteoporosis and arthritis just to name two.
That’s impressive! I would follow your client’s lead. Start with a simple tri plan depending on the distance and see how she responds. I would not add in additional recovery days, unless necessary, just because of age, but would watch her response to training, just as I do any of my athletes who are training for an event.
Good luck! I hope she inspires you as much as she has inspired the rest of us!