Workout Wednesday with Sandrine Benz

With the new year we bring you an old favourite -  the return of Workout Wednesdays! Every week we will highlight training habits and tips from some of the top age group athletes at the 2015 Chicago Grand Final.

This week we start with a Champion, Olympic Distance Female World Champion Sandrine Benz from the 30-34 age group. After conquering quite the improvement from her 33rd place at the London Age Group World Championship in 2013, she went on to win the 2014 Kitzbühel ETU Triathlon European Championships and then claim the World title in Chicago. She shares some of her favourite workouts and tips for dominating triathlon.

How you got involved in triathlon?
I started doing Cross-Country running at the age of 17. During my preparation for the entry test for the study of the Science of Sports and Physical Exercise, I discovered the swim and bike discipline. So, at the age of 23, I toed the start line of my first triathlon and was fascinated by the sport right away. In my first years, I tried myself on various triathlon distances until I started focusing on the Sprint and Olympic Distance Triathlon from 2013 on.

How often you train?
Every day. Most often 2 sessions per day and approximately 12 - 15 hours per week.

Best training advice?
Enjoy every minute you spend training and think about how privileged you are to be able to invest some of your life’s time in triathlon training and being part of an amazing worldwide movement.

What motivates you to race?
Having a meaningful goal in training and a way to observe my personal athletic development in the sport. Apart from that, I just love the atmosphere of triathlon races and I enjoy making new friends all over the world.

Favourite swim workout:

Warm-Up: 8x25, every 4th fast
            6x25, every 3rd fast
            4x25, every 2nd fast
            2x25, both fast
          (All of them with pullbuoy only).

Main Set: 20x100 with paddles and pullbuoy on a given send off time (for me it’s 1:30 minutes).

Cool-Down: 3x200 paddles and pullbuoy. The first one easy, the second one Ironman-pace (medium) and the third one as fast as you can

Have fun!

Favourite bike workout:
This workout can be done indoor on the turbo or outdoor on a hill. It’s about strength.

Warm-Up: 15 - 20 minutes easy ride

Main Set:
Indoor: 6-8x (4 minutes big gear in time trial bars, 2 minutes easy ride)
        For big gear, you start with a gear where the cadence is around 70 RPM. With each repetition, you take one gear harder until you arrive at
        a cadence of 50 RPM. From then on, you keep this gear on the 4 minutes big gear until the end of the Main Set.

Outdoor: 6-8x uphill ride in time trial bars and big gear.
          You start with a gear where the cadence is around 70 RPM and take one gear harder with each repetition that follows. Once you arrive at
          a cadence of 50 RPM, you keep this gear for the rest of the Main Set.
          The easy downhill ride is the break between the Hill Repeats.

Cool-Down: 15 - 20 minutes easy ride

Favourite run workout:
Negative Split run (can be done anywhere outdoor or indoor on a treadmill).

You run easily away from your home for 20 - 30 minutes (depending on your race distance). Then you turn around and run back home as fast as you can (and hopefully arrive there within less than 20-30 minutes

On the treadmill, you do a 20-30 minutes easy run, followed by a 20-30 minutes run as fast as you can.