Free Triathlon Training Programs and Plans

What's your need? We have a few plans here. I hope you have read the 'Choosing a Plan' article, if not to just get you thinking about your goals. Goals are are what is going to get you off the couch and out the door. It also will help if you just sign up for your first event - don't just talk about it...do it!

These following plans have 'Printer Friendly' screens. No reason not to print one out today and get started! Links will take you to the plan descriptions and details. Many distances will have several different plans to choose from depending on the athlete.

Free Beginner Plans - They are just that. Plan descriptions and a printer-friendly view to start your training today. The free plans below do not include specific workouts as beginners just need to focus on building endurance safely at slower pace. If you do the minutes, you will cross the finish line comfortably.

These are the plans that started the site and serve as the foundation. I did my first triathlon with these plans-so did my mother at age 59!

Beginner Exercise Program

Brand-new for 2006, this monthly series is an excellent program for the overweight or those not comfortable with running as it starts out with two months of biking and strength training, followed by swimming then by running. The end of the program will allow you to complete a sprint-level triathlon. Start month one and follow along as the program progresses.

*This program is not interface-able with the training log yet.

Couch-to-5K

Have no endurance base? A newbie in the truest sense of the word? Have no fear, we promise that you will love running once you're done with these walk/run programs. Inside you will find two variations: the 'Aggressive' 4 month and the 'Conservative' 7 month programs.

Couch-to-Sprint

You have your eyes on your first sprint, but with no endurance background, how do you start? The Couch-to-Sprint programs features several favorites. From Michael Pates Total Sprint for conservative building or stringing together the Couch-to-5k followed by some of our standard sprint programs, we promise to get you to race day...and across the finish line in 6 to 12 months!

Beginner Sprint

Includes our classic 'Original 13 Week Sprint.' We also have several 16 and 20 week programs to fit your schedule no matter if you have 6 times or 9 times per week to workout. Are you a little weak in one of the three sports? Many of these programs are 'focused' for additional time spent training on weak areas. A good place to start if you are familiar with exercise and all three sports.

Couch-to-Olympic

We put together several of the above programs to get you from walking to finishing an International Distance Triathlon. Depending on your strengths and weaknesses, these programs can go from 10 to 17 months from walking to race day.

Beginner Olympic

Much like the Beginner Sprint programs, these Olympic programs have several variations to fit your weaknesses. Choose from between the 16 and 20 week run, bike or swim focused plans. The 2x program is a great beginner program allowing solid base building with minimal time investment.

Beginner 1/2 Ironman

This half Ironman plan covers many weeks of challenging, but attainable training for someone who has some endurance experience, and ideally some Olympic distance races within the past season. This plan is also ideal if you have completed a half Ironman last season on minimal training and wish to improve while keeping a reasonable number of training hours.

Beginner Full Ironman

This training plan is written to prepare you to finish your first Ironman. While it is just a beginner’s plan, the hours per week start at a significant 8 hours and quickly move up to 15-18. You should already be consistently training 8-10 hours per week before beginning and ideally you should have completed some Olympic distance races in the past season and a half Ironman race would be even better.

These plans are also located within the Training Plan>Programs article category. There are many success stories with them - just go to the forum and ask or see the testimonials. These plans will give you a template to get out the door today and to cross that finish line. These programs here are just a simple starting point to get you past the finish line comfortably.

" Thank you for the Couch to 5K Plan. Just wanted to drop you a quick note of thanks. I had a running breakthrough today and finished my very first 5K (5.6 actually) with absolutely no walking breaks. I feel so empowered. Thank you and thanks to BT. You guys rock!"

- 'Caius'

"I would just like to say thank you to whoever wrote the 3x balanced program as it was easy to follow, was flexible, and was not so time consuming that I couldn't make time for my family. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I felt during and at the end. I would highly recommend this program to any beginner like myself. I look forward to the next event."

- '4jolliff2'

Just wanted to let you know that my sister and I used your 13 week plan for a sprint tri this summer. We ran our first race in Sept and are totally hooked. Thanks for the great advice and plan that you have here on BT.

- 'mosc11'

Whoohoo! Today I finished your couch to 5k program!! I still can't believe it!!! I can't run 5k in 30 mins yet, but I can run 30 mins!!! Thank you so much for this awesome plan!! 2 months from barely being able to run 5 mins and today I did 30.

- 'kathie'