What is it about the plan you used before that makes you want to change your approach? If it's not delivering the results you want, I would recommend building your own plan or working with a coach who can customize your training to your strengths & weaknesses.

Generic plans are inherently limited. With at least two ironman training builds in your past, you probably have enough experience to take what you've done it before and tweak it to better fit your needs if you don't want to start from scratch.

---

-Andrew

To improve, you either need to train more, or train better...or both. If you can't realistically train more, then you need to train better, and that means either a custom plan you develop if you understand the theory and can adapt a basic structure to your needs, or getting a coach to build you the plan and adapt it as you go along.

If you want better results, you need to be coached.... either by yourself or someone else. But just following a basic plan, is not coaching. It's a basic guideline, but little more.

---

TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

What if I end up recommending the same program again?

I used a plan by Matt Fitzgerald from Training Peaks, hit somwhere between 95%-98% of the workouts PR by over an hour last month at Maryland

---

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

Which level did you use?

---

Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Are the trainingpeak plans free?

I'm doing my first IM this year (also Maryland). I've looked at plans on TP and Beginner Triathlete, and have no idea which one is a good first plan.

Any context on what folks used for their first IM and just a brief note on their experience would be awesome.

The longest distance I've done is a 70.3 a couple of years ago. I'm looking for a six month plan starting in May. Joe Friel has one on TP, and Beginner Triathlete has a pretty detailed plan for free that I could add to my TP account for planning and tracking.

I've looked everywhere and can't seem to find may reviews on these.

I'm using a Matt Fitzgerald level 8 Olympic plan and I'm loving it, my run has improved a lot compared to when i was using Garmin plans.

Which Beginner Tri plan are you looking at? Chances are me or one of my coaches wrote and it and I can vouch for it. I have some IM plans on Training Peaks too. Lots of options - send me a PM if you want more info. Happy to help.

---

Mike Ricci
2017 USAT World Team Coach
USAT National Coach of the Year
Coaching Triathletes since 1992.

check out "be iron fit" book. 3 different plans. just finish, intermediate, competitive.

Sorry for the dealy. I used Level 6. I am currently using a Level 7 70.3 plan, little tougher workouts.

---

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

Big fan of Matt Fitzgerald's plans and Training Peaks. I'm on his 70.3 plan now (level 8/9) and really like the results. For reference done IronFit and others as well over the last 5 years. It's a 20/80 focus so lots of hard, shorter intervals.

http://www.trifuel.com/...on/ironman-workouts/

Still the best free plan on the Internet. Beware of BT, the free plans are classic bait and switch

Does it populate the weeks in TP for you or do you have to pick the days?

---

_________________________________
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

It populates the whole plan based on your race date. I then went in and made some tweaks to certain workouts (timing/duration/days). It's so easy to change stuff up. Copy/paste/delete/Etc. It also auto populates your planned workout with your files. The analysis is great. I use a heart rate monitor and power meter and it's cool to see how it all interacts.

I could not agree more. Used it for first, second, and working on third IMMOO. Only mod I made was I added more running mileage. Satisfied with results for sure. Good luck

---

"There are no problems in life, just many leadership and learning opportunities." SED

Is this plan for a competitive individual or more for the average guy? I am doing my first at IMMT this Aug and have been following the "just get it done" version from the Iron fit book. The hours of training are much higher in the trifuel plan so I am wondering if I am under training.

Yes, you are.