Yep. Easy to get trapped in using terms that have slightly varying intent.

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Ryan
http://www.SetThePaceTriathlon.com
http://www.TriathlonTrainingDaddy.com
I got plans - https://www.trainingpeaks.com/...dotcom#trainingplans

Hill repeats outside are magic

What helped me a few years ago on the bike was using the indoor trainer and virtual power. I've never used HR for cycling, only running to stay in zone 2/3 etc.

The virtual power setup simply required a speed/cadence sensor, a ANT+ USB stick (to send data to laptop) and I used a free cycling program called Golden Cheetah. This turned out to be a great training tool and an incredibly low budget.

https://www.goldencheetah.org/

You start by determining your virtual FTP then all workouts are based on percentages of FTP.

For example a one hour workout might look like this:

10' warm up at 60% FTP
5 x [30" at 120% FTP, 30" easy]
5' easy at 60% FTP
5 x [2' at 105% FTP, 1' easy]
5' easy at 60% FTP
1x10' at 90% FTP
10' easy cool down

I would do 3 indoor sessions a week during the winter. I rarely did any workouts over 90 minutes during the winter. They were an hour long on average and rarely had any steady state riding over 20 minutes. With so many intervals and having to hit power targets there was no time for boredom in these workouts. These shorter workouts allowed plenty of time to run and swim. I would often do a 3-4 mile run right after the bike workout.

Once warmer weather settled in I then took to longer rides (2-3 hours etc.).

If you can run a legit 1:17, you can/should be thinking about breaking 2:20 on the bike. You have the engine.

I'd suggest riding ALL of the hills you can find and attacking them as interval sets. You can go harder, more often, on a bike than you can running. You really just aren't training hard enough on the bike if you are a 1:17 13.1 guy. You don't need a power meter.

Oh I fully went into my 70.3 knowing I was way under-trained on the bike. I have hills for days to attack so that wont an issue and I am definitely planning on training a lot more than last time around. I actually looked through my training logs and my bike mileage was a pathetic 20-70 per week for the 13 weeks before the tri when I started training.

One question for anyone is what to do in cycling base phase of training? Like Ive said I know running and for that I want to get in a solid block (~8 weeks) of easy miles before going into a transition phase with some hill reps, light tempos before really pounding out those intervals that make you fast. Basically the base phase of running sets your aerobic ability for that season because it takes the longest to build and goes away the slowest compared to the anaerobic stuff which takes less time to build and goes away first. In cycling is it a similar progression or can I just go straight at the hard interval sessions

Your trainer is supported by Trainer Road for virtual power. All you need is a bluetooth speed sensor to use virtual power. If you have HR also; as you learn what your efforts do to your HR you can use that to help in your races.
Look at their plans and start with one of the build plans. Start with low volume and stick to it. They will get you faster.
If you message me with a name and email I can give a free month by referral.