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Long Range TrainerRoad Strategy
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I'm getting back into Tri after a 3 year layoff due to career and family. The career situation has changed, and I'm no longer putting in 80-100 hours per week. While some of this new found time is going to family, I'm also committing to getting back to competition shape.

Today, I'm 36, 6'0" and 195lbs, about 15lbs over my racing weight (was 11% bf, hydro tested). My goal is to do a serious weight drop, targeting 173lbs and sub 10% bf over the course of a year.
Have won some small local races, lots of top tens (overall). Point being, I was decent locally. Never thought about, or trained for regionals or races with more than 300-400 people.

Old training volume was ~8-12 hours per week, heavy run focus.

Today... I'm four weeks into my running plan which is very similar to Barry P's incredible work. Swimming isn't going to start until next year.

My goal is to be be ready to blast in the spring of 2017.

I skipped cycling because that is my question. I've started using TrainerRoad with my CT (currently doing Tradional Base-Low Volume), and I love it. My first target race is ~15 months out with the A races coming in the late summer. How should I approach the various plans with such a long timeframe?

1) Approach 1: 12 weeks of the low volume base, followed by 12 of medium volume, 12 high volume, then high volume build then high volume Tri specialty.

2) Approach 2: low volume base, low volume build, low volume Tri, then do medium, then high.

3) Approach 3: I'm doing this wrong, do it this way!

Once I get races on the schedule it can all be tweaked.

Any way, I want to really focus on the bike, do this right, and come out in 2017 better than I left off in 2012. I'm a finance guy and appreciate feedback from you folks with the backgrounds in fields pertaining to performance. All I know on the topic comes from this board which is a good thing. Right? Right?

Thanks in advance!
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Re: Long Range TrainerRoad Strategy [Bradford79] [ In reply to ]
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I've used TrainerRoad plans for the past two winters to get ready for bike racing (no tris) so I have done the traditional base, build, specialty thing twice now. I'm not a coach so take this for what it is worth but my opinion would be if you are shooting to race in 2017 (or 2016 for that matter) you should do the plans straight through in the designed progression without repeating the phases. In in essence you should make your year+ of training before you race into several full training blocks rather than one super long block staring with a 36 week base period.

If you do the FTP testing, intensity will be scaled to your current conditioning. And the plans are structured no so much to be a linear progression in intensity but more of a change in focus as you move along. Sure, as you get into later build and specially phases the workouts are "harder" especially if you don't like higher effort level intervals but you will be ready for them in 12+ weeks. Your FTP tests will set the intensity levels as you go along. This base, build, specialty, repeat approach will allow you to work on all the systems you'll need not just the one's focused on in the base workouts. When you come back around and start over again, you'll be stronger. (On top of all that, the base workouts can be a bit boring as there are some long rides in there so I personally would have a really hard time churning away on them for 8 straight months!).

Again, I am not a coach but that is my 2 cents!
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Re: Long Range TrainerRoad Strategy [Bradford79] [ In reply to ]
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I have nothing to add in regards to the plan, wiser men than myself will be along to help with that, but recommend checking out some of the Sufferfest videos. If you haven't used them, they have greatly increased the enjoyment I experience while on a trainer ride and work wonderfully hand in hand with TrainerRoad.
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Re: Long Range TrainerRoad Strategy [STP] [ In reply to ]
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When you say you did the base, build, specialty thing, are you referring to doing 4 wks, 8wks, 8wks, repeat...or 12wks base, 24wks build, 24 wks specialty? I guess what I'm asking, is do say the mid-volume for each stage, or do you go thru the low/mid/high for each stage before moving on to the next stage? I'm looking to be a little more structured this year as opposed to last, and trying to figure out best way to do it.
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Re: Long Range TrainerRoad Strategy [Bradford79] [ In reply to ]
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That's great, welcome back to the sport! With that much time to work with, I'd recommend selecting some smaller events to target throughout the year and then planning a few smaller peaks over the next 15 months. This way you can run through Traditional Base, Sweet Spot Base 1 &2, Build, and then Specialty 2-3 times, taking a small break in between each cycle to fully recover before starting again. By doing this, and targeting a few smaller events in the mean time, you'll not only be able to get the most out of your fitness development, but you'll also learn a lot about your body and how it responds to the different cycles of the training, allowing you to critique small things in order to have the best plan of action possible for your target event. If you have any other questions, feel free to shoot me an email to Trevor@TrainerRoad.com and I'd be happy to discuss more.

Professional Mountain Biker and Community Manager at TrainerRoad - Cycling's Most Effective Training Tool
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Re: Long Range TrainerRoad Strategy [HoustonAg] [ In reply to ]
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I did no repeating, I picked a track (mid volume for me) and follow through the base, build then specialty track.
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