making up my own plan - reviews???

It's difficult to tell because there is no mention of what intensity the workouts are to be done at and/or what intensity variations within workouts. In general you'll need to work all three energy systems each week for each sport but your plan doesn't seem to have that capability simply due to the frequency of each sport.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean...(can I blame it on still being new???)

Let me try to clarify,

During the week, I am trying to do 3, focused, intense workouts.  One focused on each discipline.

On the weekends I am varying all 3, less intense, but longer distances.

The zumba classes are 1 hour each, and they are intense (according to my HRM, I burn 700-800 calories in an hour).  The strength trainings are also usually moderate to intense.


**hope that helps**

let me see if i am reading this correctly.

you are doing 1x hard workout in each sport per week.

one longer workout on the weekends, alternating which sport you do? or 3 workouts over the weekends?

either way i dont think that is going to get you all that far.

on the running, runnign hard with that little running is likely to get you injured.


on the cal burned. HRM generally WILDLY over estimate the cal you burn. i know for me, riding half IM type speeds, i am burning roughly 600 or so per hour. running maybe 1000.

On Saturdays I am doing brick runs:
1st week - swim/bike
2nd week - bike/run
*repeat*

On Sundays I am doing endurance (longer than tri distance):
1st week - swim
2nd week - bike
3rd week - run
*repeat*

I know...it's weird...

again, this is what I'm *trying* to do, I don't always make it!


I feel pretty confident on the runs, it is my strongest out of the three.  I am actually doing a 10-mile race 1.5 months after my tri.  I used to run a lot more, but I got bored with it, that's why I signed up for a tri!


perhaps I should lurk a bit more to get the feel of the boards before I keep talking :-p

ohh - and on the HRMs, I thought they were the best way to measure how many calories you were burning.  I don't use the ones on machines (I know those over estimate).  I have a Timex one, I paid good money for it!

the newer HRM might be a bit better, not sure. would be a good thing to find out one way or another.


On the training front, the reason i am saying what i did abotu the training is that with endurance training consistancey is going to do more than a few HARD workouts.

doing a bit less, but more often will yield much better results.

keep asking questions!
thats what the forum is here for:-)

I used to check my HR vs. HRM - it was pretty accurate until a couple weeks ago (either that or my HR was 32 when doing my brick this morning :-p).  I think it just needs a new battery.

Quote above - do you mean drop the intensity/speed drills for more endurance? 

I feel like I have the endurance for bike and run, but I am VERY slow at both (bike ~9-10mph (when not in city traffic - training blog includes 3 miles of city traffic just to get from my apt to the trail and back!) and run ~10 min/mile) - but I know on the other hand that building up that endurance can also lead to faster speeds...

Swimming, I really don't know what I'm doing.  I'm reading Total Immersion by Terri Laughlin, and trying to teach myself what I'm doing so I won't have to doggie paddle the entire way! lol...


I'm not trying to argue with you (don't know how it comes across on a MB), just stating where I'm coming from, and trying to understand more!  I really appreciate your feedback, Thanks!

not arguing either;-)


This is mostly in ref to the running. what you are trying to do here is drop overall run pace, not produce the ability to sprint. since you are doing triathlons (at the shortest still a 2 mile run or so), you should be more concerened with dropping the pace you can sustain, rather than working on how fast you can go for a short amount of time.
think about this, football players track their 40yrd times, and a lot of them could KILL any triathlete or distance runner. but ask them to hold that speed, or anthing for a lot longer, and its game over. you need ot train the body for the task at hand.

at the speeds you are running right now (and frankly, the speeds most of us are running), simply running more will yield the same or more returns with a LOT lower risk for injury.

the goal in your running should be to get in the workout with as little damage to your body as you can, at a pace/effort lvel that allows you to repeat as often as you can.

once you have a solid amount of running built up, then you can ad in a bit of speedwork.

with the bike and swim you have more wiggle room in that there is not the impact of running and thus can be pushed harder (some in biking, all the time in swimming).

for what its worth, i am running 5ks right now in the lower 6 min, higher 5 min range per mile, and do the vast part of my training in the mid 7 to 8 min range. if i tried to run that hard more than in races and a VERY few other workouts, i would fall apart.

It's a little hard to review your plan without a little more information.... First, what distance tri are you training for? Second, do you have any specific goals for the tri? Are you doing this mainly as something to supplement your current fitness routine? Is your goal primarily to complete the tri, or do you have any kind of time goal? What is your background in running & biking? (You've told us you're pretty new to swimming).

As for your plan, what kind of times/distances are you planning on incorporating for your training sessions?

One thought I can offer without more information is that most guidelines I've seen on running recommend against incorporating much in the way of running speedwork until you've consistently been running somewhere in the range of 20 or more miles per week for a while. If you've been running at that level for a while, and you're dropping back your run volume to train for the tri (and incorporate your other non-tri training) then it may be okay to include a day of speedwork. If not, including one day of speed training per week could be setting yourself up for injury.

On cycling, when you say "cycle class", is this an outdoor ride or an indoor spin class? If it's a spin class, you should know that indoor spinning =/= outdoor riding. If it's a spin class, and it's possible to replace that with an outdoor ride, that would be good. If your goal is mainly to finish, a spin class will probably be okay.

In general, I would say that what you have planned will probably allow you to COMPLETE a sprint triathlon, but it probably won't get you much in the way of performance gains.... If your goal is to try something new while keeping up what you've been doing, it will probably be fine. If you're looking to finish in the top 20-30%, probably not....

thanks, newbz!!!


First, what distance tri are you training for? - it's a sprint (.62 mi swim, 17.? mi bike, 3.4 mi run)

Second, do you have any specific goals for the tri? - finish!  I'd like to make it in under 3 hours, but I know I'm not going to be at the top of anything!

Are you doing this mainly as something to supplement your current fitness routine? - I'm doing it to challenge myself, physically

What is your background in running & biking? - I've been running for 2.5 years, have completed 3, 10-mile races (and a bunch of shorter ones).  I bought a bike in March...so I'm pretty new to that, but feel OK endurance-wise (I've done 17 mile rides)

sorry, yes, at my gym cycle = spin.

I could easily replace that with another outdoor ride, it's actually kind of a bother in my schedule right now (the class).  I thought it could/would help me with speed...

I suggest that you pick up a copy of Friel's Triathlete's Training Bible or one of the other books out there if you really are interested in setting up a program for yourself based on fairly established training principles.

Here's my feedback based on my observations and readings. 

First: Consistency matters.  You need at least 2-3 workouts in each discipline per week.  Also, your weekends, if that is when you have the most time, should include long bike and long runs (the definition of "long" is based on the distance for which you are training). The bottom line, is that you need to do these longer runs and bike rides every week.  If time is constrained, I would ditch the "brick training" and replace that with a long bike.  Sunday can be your long run. 

Second: what types of workouts should you incorporate?  In my opinion, if your goal is to get faster as a triathlete, than your energy should be devoted to the most time-efficient training and that would be longer distance, aerobic workouts in each of the swim, bike, and run.  I question how much of your zumba classes will transfer over to S/B/R?  Maybe a lot - I don't have the facts, but I suspect that only some aerobic will transfer.  My advice is to train in the disciplines that you race.  IOW - swim, bike and run if you want to get good at swim, bike and run. 

• Swim drills are great to supplement your longer swims.  However, you need to put in longer swims every week to train yourself for the distance needed to swim.  As for drilling - I incorporate drills in each swim workout (E.G., warm-up, some drills, mainset, cool down). 

• Bricks are useful, but if time is tight, you are better off emphasizing longer stuff and foregoing the bricks. If you want to add in bricks easily, tack on a short 15 minute run after most bike workouts just to keep the legs used to the idea of the transition from bike to run.  Occasionally, I will do longer bike/run bricks to test myself.

Last: At what intensity?  As I wrote above, I believe we do better with longer aerobic workouts vs. speed work.  As others have said, the speed workouts are a supplement to your long stuff.  For example, your current plan seems to replace much of your aerobic workouts for the run with speed training.

In summary: you can do this if you concentrate on the three disciplines of swim/bike/run, workout consistently, and focus on longer aerobic distances vs speed work and drills.

Just wanted to second newbz and gritty.
I've proven that only doing speed work DOES NOT work.
The day I lengthened my training distances (and consequently times) but at slower-than-race pace, I immediately got faster when racing.
Doesn't seem logical, but there you go.
steve