Training plan longer than 20 weeks?

Give me the date of your Oly and I can give you some options of stringing some plans together.

Do you remember which sprint plan you used?

I'm thinking the best approach would be starting with a sprint plan now since it's been awhile since you have been doing any trisports - you have been doing a little running the last two months correct?

Then we would either repeat the last few months of the sprint plan to transition right into your final oly plan for your first oly race...or maybe a few other options.  That's what I'm leaning towards.

Question, when you say 'balance' do you mean do each sport 2 OR 3 times/week?

Also, when is your optimal days to run, bike, swim and off days?

With those answers I will see if I can come up with a good plan for the off season leading to your oly race using a blend of the existing minutes plans.

One more thing, I'm using this new custom plan creator I'm beta testing.

Do you have your current swim pace in minutes per 100meters?  And also your run and bike pace...if not I can guess.

Try this.  It's based on YOUR current pace and assumes it will not change...but I'm sure it will improve as you progress.  This is very similar to the other 'minutes-only' plan as far as short, medium and long workouts plus rest weeks.  For your Olympic race, and with your current pace your max volumes are based on some 'overdistance' training too...more so for confidence though.

I try to have the 'short' workouts as recovery workouts after the bike and run 'long' workouts.  This is a 3x per sport per week balanced plan.  If you want/need to drop a workout, drop the short workouts.  I would say you need a 'minimum' of 2 swim, 2 run and 2 bikes per week to at least have a decent performance-don't expect to shatter any records though.  Those 3rd workouts will really help a lot. (I've even done an Oly on only one bike per week - it will get you by...slowly though..I wouldn't recommend that for the swim or run though)

OF course since you're still building volume, all workouts should be done easy-breezy.  You can start to work on speed-stuff after your oly is done and you are doing the oly volume consistently.

*For weeks 1&2, since you only have been running here-and-there, I would axe the 'short' workouts so you don't startup doing too much.  When you are comfortable, add a 3rd workout in week 3 for a sport, then add another one in week 4, then by week 5, you can do all 3 workouts per sport.

I'm sure you know that I'm not a coach, but this plan is simple and conservative enough so that you should have no problems.    Restrictions and Terms of Use

Ron, would this be available to regular users of BT or is it already?

SR 

If you keep it on the down-low, I'll do one up for you too - for the sake of testing as it's not programmed for BT yet.  Just list me:

1. the race dates and priority and also distance. 
2. Give me your current avg pace for s, b and r. 
3. Also give me your preferred days to train the SBR sports
4. ...and if you have preferred days off or days for 'long rides and runs.'

This will be so cool! 

If you still need to iron some things out, could you please see what the following would output for at least up to the April 15th event:

• two 10k races, Feb 10th & Mar 3rd
• April 15, 2007, Tri-America Long Course 2k-60k-15k - A-race
• June 3rd Sprint
• July 15th Sprint
• Oct 7th Oly - B-race
• Nov 11th 70.3 - A-race
• Per HIM on 11/12/06: Wetsuit Swim 2:00/100yd, Bike 18.1 mph, Run 9:46 
• Any day is available
• Long runs weekday mid week or Sat, Long rides on weekday or Sat, Swim weekdays, Day off on weekday, Sunday easy day.
• Lifting weights 1-3 times per week

Thanks much Ron,

Don

Ok sranney,

First, here is the info you gave me:

1. April 28 - "B" race - 500yd/12.5/3.1
July 14 - "B" race - 1.5k/40k/10k
July 29 - "A" race - 1.2mile/56mile/13.1 (my first half Iron-distance)

2. Avg pace - s = 2:05min/100yd
b = ~15mph for z2
r = 10:00min/mile

3. Preferred days to train SBR
S - M, Th
B - M, Tu, Sun
R - Tu, W, Th, Sat
*NOTE: I've been running 4 days/week since last fall when I started training for a marathon last February; only recently got back on the bike; haven't been in the pool for a bit, but the pace for min/100yds is consistent.

4. Long days - Normally do long runs on Saturday and would probably like to do long bikes on Sunday.

Here is the plan following exactly what days you wanted to train.  For the '4rth' day of running, I added and extra 'short' run.  With two days of swimming on Monday, Thursday....I hope it's not a problem for the 1/2IM volume.  You may want to do that 3x as you get into the plan.  ALSO, those back-to-back long ride and runs for Sat and Sun, if you start feeling tired or un-recovered for Sunday, you may have to split them up more.

For Week 8, your sprint race, I didn't modify it but you will want to eliminate your long Saturday Ride/Sunday Run as you will be racing on Saturday.  YOU MAY have to 'rest' on week nine depending on how you feel after the race as Week 8 would have been your 'default' rest week.

*AND, in my unprofessional opinion, don't do the Oly - that could interfere with the 'peak' week of your 1/IM...I would like to see an Oly at least 6 weeks before a 1/2 - especially if it's your first.

And since you did do a Marathon and are at the 2hour+ volume, that run part of the plan could be changed to keep your current volumes - not sure what the goal is for that...

Remember, I am not a coach, these plans are following in the spirit of the 'minutes-only' plans and have not been tested past the Oly length.  Restrictions and Terms of Use

I'm modifying this...I see a few areas that I goofed...

Dig it!  Thanks Ron.  I appreciate your hard work on this and the whole site!

I had considered knocking off the oly two weeks before hand and trying to find one earlier, and other folks had told me the same thing. 

    

DRM, here it is per your specs above:

Some notes: 

*Unlike the other 'minutes' only plans that build to new volume for a 'first' race, this plan is based off of a 'maintenance' algorithm since you have JUST come off of a HIM and I'm sure, you want to keep the volume.

**'Total Volume' weekly hours do not account for you races.  I DID manually go in and tweak your race-week numbers.

You MAY want to give yourself another week or two of relaxing before hitting the plan since you are coming off of the HIM...not sure how you are feeling.  You did mention in your logs some lingering soreness and some back issues.  Regardless, you can probably jump into the plan anytime in December, but make sure you have rested enough...you want to be chomping-at-the-bit, FULLY rested and ready to go from a decrease in training.

This is a 3x per sport per week plan.  Remember, I am not a coach, these plans are following in the spirit of the 'minutes-only' plans and have not been tested past the Oly length.  Restrictions and Terms of Use

Ron, thanks for your time on this, greatly appreciated, I like being able to see the weekly progression in the training time for the year. 

I did notice one anomaly, there is no week listed for May 21st.  I just added a duplicate of the April 23rd week for it in Excel.

These plans would be 'minutes only' with about the same type of setup as the other free sprint/oly plans but slightly different for long sessions.

I'm not going to promise you breaking 13 hours, but if you would like me to setup something around your races and current paces, I can.

Just give me your:

• Current paces for your long swim, bike and run sessions and
• Optimal days to swim, bike and run - include denoted days for long sessions.