Check out Kicker Endurance

http://www.kickerendurance.com

There is a free 10 day trial (I think still) ....I've been using it and am pleasantly surprised how effective it has been. The ProTips videos are an awesome addition too! Works for me.

You can customize your ability level for swim, bike and run (so advanced swimmer, but novice runner) - and the plans change reflecting your evaluation.

Cheers!

JR

PS - Rappster, Heather Wurtele, Simon Whitfield and Jeff Symonds are all associated with the program.

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"It's a line you have to cross to understand."

My coach, James Beechey at FxVCoaching.com, offers 16 week custom plans and monthly coaching at reasonable prices. Everything is based on a detailed questionnaire and emails as often as necessary. I think he would be a good fit for someone with a running background since his background is primarily in cycling and swimming. Great guy to work with.

Thanks I will check him out.

Thanks, I will give it a look.

Looks interesting. Rapp are you out there? Care to comment?

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"Base training is bull shit" - desertdude

I'm here. What questions can I answer. There's kind of a lot to cover, but maybe best to just check out kickerendurance.com and see if it looks like a match and/or if you have questions.

I have a discount code that gets you 50% off a yearly package if you want it - 50169019. But happy to answer questions first.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

Rapp,

Thanks. Does the software that creates your workouts take into consideration progress made over the season? Like an increase in FTP?

Also who created the workouts in the database? Did you and the other athletes have a say in any of that part of it or are you guys more of a promotional team?

Thanks

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"Base training is bull shit" - desertdude

I'm not 100% sure on the workouts. I do know that I didn't plan any of them. I know Kevin Cutjar (long time coach out of Penticton) did a lot, as he is basically the "head" of coaching for Kicker. Paulo did some work for the company back when it was Triton, but I'm not sure whether any of his work was kept. I *think* it was. Kevin might also have merged in some of the workouts from his prior company - endurance planner. My wife Jill did some of the workouts for that for the sprint program. So, as far as I know, it's all first-rate coaches. The athletes are, absolutely, more of a promotional team.

The workouts are assigned by zone, and then you actually determine what the zones mean. You can put in a value for max HR (though it, somewhat embarrassingly) uses 220-age to give a value for you, though you can override it. And then you can put in a cycling power lactate threshold and running lactate threshold pace and it will populate zones for you. But again, you can override these.

But if you are asking if it assumes that your FTP will increase, it doesn't. It assumes you adjust your FTP such that "zone 3" is equivalently hard.

Does that make sense?

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

This looks like it could be interesting; I'll have to remember to check it out once I get through my Chicago Marathon training plan in October. I plan on using the off-season to work on building a nice cycling base so I can hit the ground running in 2015!

Thanks.

No, I wasnt asking if it automatically adjusted FTP (that would be neat if it could pull it from training files and adjust), I was asking I guess what you answered, that is can I change my FTP after I do a new test say mid-season to adjust training zones. This may be worth a look for the free trial, I dont like plans that have just 3-4 days of riding as I like to ride 5 (I just like bikes!) I am torn between this and buying RaceDay Apollo and trying to geek out that way to create training plans for myself based on current fitness. I just cant justfy a coach at $150/mo as an expense on the family budget just yet

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"Base training is bull shit" - desertdude

I'll just add quick update to what Jordan wrote. Kevin is, and has been, my personal coach since I started in triathlon back in 2007. He has also coach my girlfriend and hundreds of others to great success. So he is familiar with guiding athletes of all abilities. Kevin rewrote all the programs and workouts for the launch of Kicker. The workouts and training philosphies in Kicker and the same that he uses for my personal programs. It was pretty cool to create a program in Kicker and see how closely it resembled my training personalized training plan from Kevin. It was cool to see all of my favorite workouts included in there.

Check out the free trial and if you have any questions or suggestion the Kicker Team would be thrilled to hear them,

Jeff

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Thank you for adding to the thread! I will check it out

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"Base training is bull shit" - desertdude

Rehashing this a little since Kicker is something that seems would fit what I'm looking for... Having a family (and expenses that go with them), and all the expenses for the sport (which for me is a hobby), a semi-automated coach is a good compromise for me.

Simple feedback: there should be a better trial option. Not necessarily something free, but something like, first 1-3 months are at the 30% discount (or 50% with all those codes around at this point). My problem is that I filled out the questionnaire accordingly, entered my races and... since I got a race this coming Sunday, I'm getting pretty much nothing in terms of workouts, and when it picks up, it's beyond the 10 days free trial. I could fudge the system, but then I'd get a calendar that I would not follow at all for the next 10 days.

I understand there is a one month subscription, but the price of it is on par with 6 months of premium TrainingPeaks (considering all the 20% TP codes around as well), and TP has the Virtual Coach. It is not as fleshed out as the Kicker system, but again, it's cheaper.

Also - I entered swimming as my weak link. I understand that I can only get better by training - but I do not have access to local pools three times a week (two local pools, and public access is only on Wednesday and Friday nights). There needs to be a slider, limiter or an option of some sort to accommodate that.

Otherwise, I'll keep fiddling with it until the trial expires, and make my decision then ;)

thanks for insight, I assumed there was a way to cap things like swimming as I can swim only 2 days a week in off season and three once spring hits so I would rather be riding my bike with that time

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"Base training is bull shit" - desertdude

If there is a simple way to do that, I haven't found it ;) I'm pretty much in the same boat, once Spring starts, I can swim outdoors whenever I want, but Winter swimming is limited for me.