Bump.

Hello -

The image may be a little hard to read but here is a link to a larger view:

http://i64.tinypic.com/24vn0h2.jpg

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

Your swims are not long enough in the beginning, you should build up over 2000 within a few weeks. I would rather see 3 longer swims than 4 swims under 2000

Without you saying what you are doing in the bike sessions I'll assume that you are just riding easy/moderate on Zwift. You step up from 45 to 50 to 55 to 60 minutes. There really isn't much difference between those rides, I would build up to 60 minutes quickly (like by March) and keep it there. Continue your longer ride as planned.

You are basically running 3 days a week. Since you speak of marathon training I suspect you are capable of more pure running. However with the addition of swimming and cycling, increasing run frequency might be a little too much until you get into a normal routine and see how you feel. I would see how you feel after 8 weeks and if you feel you can handle more running I would add another easy 4 mile run

Thank you for the advice.I am going to increase the swims as you advise. You are right, 800, 850, and 900 are not long enough early on. I just started swimming in December and I already usually do between 1,000 - 1,300.

I rarely get on Zwift and just turn the pedals. I am usually doing some sort of event, either a race or a group ride. I'll try to come up with a more detailed plan on what I am going to do on the bike. I think one of the days will be a workout day where I choose one of the interval workouts than are 45-60 minutes long.

Do you think the long ride and long run distances are good? As a beginner, this plan is a lot to me but I think I can handle it and maybe add some distance or time if needed.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

How long are you long runs right now?

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

Your bike session on Sunday needs to be much longer, at least 2 hours.

Are you doing any bricks?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I have not done any long runs since the Marathon, but starting at 6 miles and working up to 14 in the plan should be doable for me. The long runs are the day after the long rides.

I have never done a brick before. I sprinkled some in after my long rides. I could add some running after my Friday rides to turn Fridays into bricks.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

I am working on increasing swim distance and adding more runs to make more bricks. I'll post an update chart in a while.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

I'm guessing most plans by coaches would have a longer run taper than six days. Could be wrong.

I was wondering about the short taper too. I guess the plans I was copying from had short tapers.

I updated the plan based on everyone's suggestions.

http://i64.tinypic.com/s16iko.jpg


Increased all swim distances by 200y.
Added a longer taper.
Added a short run on Fridays to make it a brick day.
Moved three of the Thursday middle distance runs to Friday to make some longer bricks.
Added intensity descriptions.


Thank you very much for all of the guidance.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

It is great schedule, and it seems that was the goal, have nice schedule around your family so you enjoy both.


In those cases where people do not have much time, I would start with defining your current fitness in each sport, and current experience level.

I would like to know my biggest limiters, resolving those will possibly give you biggest gains. Your biggest limiter might be your swimming technique, having said that you do not need to swim 900 yards on Wednesday in Feb, you might be actually staying on the side of the pool and learning some swimming tricks. Same goes for cycling, running....

How is your cardiac system? Respiratory system? learning few simple breathing tricks might give you huge gains on the bike and during run, also how do you know you will not get tired and dig yourself in to the hole, half way though this plan?

Also think what you gonna worn on during each session, delivery\utilization speed/strength etc...While on the bike you might work on your heart, lungs, particular muscle groups etc. all based on what you are trying to improve. While working on your respiratory system on the bike, you might actually affect next day swimming, so you need to plan this a bit more to get best bang for the buck.

Everyone is different, but my advice is not to be a slave to your plan. Your goal is to get yourself in the best shape possible for a May 70.3. My basic plan is to alternate biking days and running days with swims thrown in as doubles on run days (sometimes bike days).

When I swim, I like to shoot for at least 2,500 yards per swim. That generally consists of sets of 100's, 200's or 500's. My weekday bike rides are between 1-2 hours (usually 1:30). My weekday runs are a little more that an hour. I do one hard bike and run per week and go long on weekends. As a runner, I can get away with 3 runs per week. But I will add more runs as the spring approaches.

My usually week

M: Swim
T: Bike (1:30 intervals)
W: Swim, Run Easy
T: Bike (1:30 Tempo)
F: Swim, Run workout ( 2 x 3 miles)
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

While Zwift events are fun they can turn into a HOP ride (hour of pain). That's not bad but sometimes it's more effective to do intervals at threshold.

I honestly think the long rides and runs are in line with a beginner at the 70.3 distance. If your schedule allows I would add one 4 mile run in per week so you are running at least 4 days. Keep the brick days you proposed between 15 and 30 minutes.

Why plan a day off? With little kids and other personal stuff you will likely be provided with plenty of unplanned days off. If you do end up getting fitness in every day, then great! That is my strategy.

I agree with you. I don't plan off days, but they sure happen often enough.

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

I agree, but Tuesdays are rough. I don't get home from work until 3:45 and then my wife works 4 to 8. There IS time after the kids are in bed. I may use Tuesday as a makeup day if I miss too much due to the unexpected circumstances that you mention.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

I think it is a great plan. As a father of 3 young children too, I commend you for trying a 70.3 as the time commitment is tough. I would identify key workouts each week that cannot be missed and rearrange your schedule as life gets in the way.

Are all your workouts brick (one after another)? If they are, I would space some of them out (morning/evening). While it is good to get used to going into some workouts tired, you should not do it all the time. Getting a quality workout would be better.

From my experience in 70.3, see if you can up the distance of a mid week run. I am like you and was a decent runner going into the 70.3. I cut back my running believing that my run would be there because that is what I did. Well, come mile 9 of the half, after 4+ hours of racing, the run was not there anymore. I think I would do one interval/hill workout, a medium run with some tempo miles and a long run on the weekends. plus you should try and do as many run off the bike bricks as possible. Even if it 5 miles. It is more training your mind than your body.

Just my 2 cents.

Join trainer road and get a structured plan at least, the plug in your runs around the key bike sessions..doing the sweet spot base 1 and 2 should yield pretty high gains

A few things for us to help you out

Height/weight

swim speed 1000y TT

Bike 20 minute power

Run 5k or 10k times

My first impression is that you are building your training volume too gradually. Arthur Lydiard believed he could take a sedentary individual and get them to 100 mpw in 6 weeks...

I took a six year hiatus from training, where I was only running 3x per week and lifting weights. I was also 30 lbs overweight. I brought my volume to 10-13 hours pretty quickly, within a few weeks actually. (it took me much longer to lose the 30 lbs)

Bike
The best way to increase volume is through bike training. a HIM is a 56 mile race. You should have a weekend ride that is at least 50-60 miles. You should do another 1.5 hour training session with threshold intervals at your FTP. A third session could include base pace riding and sprints. A fourth session could be easy early on and maybe add a few vo2 max intervals closer to your race.

Swim
I am going to assume you are a mediocre swimmer, because most triathletes are. You should do 3 swim sessions, but like others have mentioned build to 3-4 hours of swimming per week. If you are really slow, that may mean 2000y/1hour sessions or 3000y/1.5hour sessions. That is ok. a HIM swim is around 2000y, so you should be swimming hard interval sets at race pace that make up 1500-2000 yards, such as 8x200 at race pace with 30 seconds rest.

Run
Run training is mostly about body composition until you are below 10-12% body fat. losing one pound of fat will drop your pace 2 seconds per mile. If you are already skinny then run training is quite easy. Run 5 times per week. 1 long run between 1.5-2 hours. 1 threshold session, early on train at tempo (marathon pace), then build to half marathon/10k pace. you should get about 4-5 miles of quality work built in. the other 3 runs can be 30-50 minutes and include strides.

This sounds like a lot of training, but you are either training to race, or training to finish. If you are training to finish just do whatever you feel like and have fun!

5'11 3/4"
164 lbs


SWIM:
I started swimming on December 4th I have swam 27 times averaging 1,100 each swim. Total yards in the pool is 29,625 yards. My longest intervals without resting are:


2,250 (Jan 26) (2:09/100y)
1,100 (Jan 9) (2:15/100y)
1,000 (Jan 8) (2:13/100y)
Before those three swims I was never able to swim more than 300y.


BIKE:
I started biking in december. FTP 222.
In January it is 229.


RUN
I started running in March 2016
Half marathon 9/11/16 @ 8:50 pace, very comfortable
Marathon 11/13/16 @ 9:58 pace. I was fully capable of 9:00-9:10 but I cam down with one of the worse colds in years two days before the race.
my 5k is around 7:55 pace




Pre-March 2016: couch potato, 184 lbs. Was able to drop 20 lbs.


Pretty terrible numbers all around but everyone starts somewhere.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

Thank you all for all of the advice! I am taking it all in, using some, tweaking some, merging them together, making myself and my plan better.

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"If it costs you 30 minutes at Maryland so what" -dwreal

My 2 cents - plan to have one of the weekend days as your off day. Do your long run on Friday morning. 14 miles can be done in 2 hours if you're a decent runner. Being around on Sunday or Saturday scores you major brownie points with your SO.

As for the plan - for 70.3 I try to swim 8k 3x a week/bike 100-120 miles/run 35-40 miles per week. Concentrate on the bike, usually 3 sessions (2 interval sessions, 1 long ride with a bit of tempo) are good, 4 sessions will get you really fit. Zwift is great for tempo and 40-60 mile long rides. Try to keep this under 11 hrs of training per week if possible.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Put up picks of your bike.... Also I finally got mine to the painter.:)