This forum is the best resource for self coaching. It has everything you need to know for training and racing buried in the archives.

I'd say look for a reference or two outside of what we might call triathlon training "common knowledge".

If you check out "Championship Triathlon Training" by George Dallam and "Triathlon Training Fast and Easy" by Rick Niles - you'll get some approaches very different from what you have found in the Joe Friel training books and have some food for thought from different viewpoints.

I had a coach for the past three years, but started self-coaching this year which has worked well. In the process I have, like you, started trying to find as many resources as possible. Two other books that I have found interesting are: "The Runner's Edge" by Stephen McGregor and Matt Fitzgerald and "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan. Both books are in some ways advertisements for using Training Peaks but they provide good information on how to analyze training data and how to think about training zones.

I am curious how you aggregate the various resources when the advice is conflicting. I am largely following the training plan in "Your Best Triathlon" for biking and running but am now looking at other resources when it comes to the swim. In retrospect I am wishing that I had been putting in longer swim sets throughout the winter and early spring.

Not to totally hi-jack, but I'm curious what you were swimming versus what you wished you had swam (and based on who's advice versus the original resource you used) and for what distance you're training? I ask because I feel like the resources, many of the above I have used, whats on here and what I've seen swim coaches post all varies drastically. Ingrained in my head by a teammate and pro-triathlete is that unless you're swimming 12k yards plus, you're not going to see any gains. But on limited time and having to focus on all three sports, that's a pretty hefty swim investment. I'm more in the 9-10k/week range now and curious what other's are doing. My longest is 70.3 this year.

I keep it pretty simple:

Masters swim team for swimming
Trainer Road subscription for cycling
Daniels Running Formula for running

For me, this has been the best bang for the buck as far as improving my triathlon times without a coach. But it takes a lot of self motivation. A LOT. I'm sure a good coach would ensure a faster and higher level of improvement but I need to save my pennies for now.

"Your Best Triathlon" only proposes about 2-3 hours of swimming per week (for Olympic distance) which put me at about 5k-6k. After reading some posts here and looking at the workouts in "The Well Built Triathlete" I increased the training about 9k-10k per week for a few weeks and started to notice some solid improvement. My sense (and I am not a good swimmer) is that 3-4 workouts of 3k+ per week would result in steady improvement.

My approach on this is get as many resources as possible. No need to do it all at once but I always used to like having on training book on the go at any one time. Single sport books are good too as you can take the ideas and concepts and apply them to the other two sports to see if they work.

I don't agree with following plans in books or online and I think it doesn't take too long to pick apart a few different training theories and cherry pick what you like best from them and build your own plan.

If you've hired coaches aswell it's worth looking over the sessions they have given you and adding working out where they were coming from and adding it into the equation. I find a training log invaluable as whether you realised it or not you've been constantly experimenting and testing training stimulus on yourself for as long as you have trainined. A well kept training log will allow you to go back and pick out when you performed well and then go further back and see what training gave rise to that.

Iain

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