Personally, I would definitely not run for more than 60 minutes continually training only for a sprint tri, simply due to the training fatigue that would result from it. Three runs a week, one super easy and short after a bike, one tempo, and one on the track sounds about right.

Depends on how many hours a week you have/want to train, but 5/6 hours/week is sufficient to be competitive overall in sprints, if you're training right. The race is only an hour, as you mentioned. My longest sprint took me 70 minutes and that was because the swim was long and I suck at swimming.

If you really want to compete, the training load isn't that much different (look at the workload that a 5K track runner or 800 freestyle swimmer does). The advantage of sprints/olys is that you can drop the longer stuff and not lose too much (but doing the longer stuff would still help).

Since your goal here is more time with the fam, drop a lot of the Z2 stuff; focus on quality/intensity. It's a 1hr event, so you don't need to get efficient at burning fat and sparing glycogen. 60min max runs and 90-100min. bikes work well for me, but at that low mileage you can be doing intervals, tempos, etc. and still recover. Ex. 1mi warmup, 4X800, 1mi. warmdown. I used to do a lot of 3.4mi runs (loop by my house) halfway between open 10k pace and triathlon 10k pace; short but a solid Z4+ effort.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
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I only do sprint distance duathlon but I think the hours trained transfer. I train on average 12 to 14 hours a week. I rarely run more than an hour and I rarely ride more than 75 minutes at a go. I do a fair amount of speed work, two run interval sessions and one tempo run per week as well as one interval session on the bike plus one "tempo" session on the bike per week as well.

If you can finish sprint Tri in 60 min, you are super fast. I mean top 5 fast. I do a lot of Sprint tris and you need high intensity interval training. Once your heart rate is up, you will have to keep it high until you finish. It’s a fast race and you will have to go all out. It’s so fast a couple of seconds during transition matters sometimes. A couple 5k run, race effort 10-20 mile ride and interval swim in a pool is good. If you can practice, transition, even better. If you can keep the transition time under 1 min, you will see you beat several people already. Anyway, it’s a fun race so enjoy.

You do sprints in 60 minutes

You sure we shouldn’t be asking YOU how long to train

😎

What is your performance goal. That determines everything.

Do you want to be top 15 overall; top AG; top Masters; or just finish in the top half and feel good?

To finish top 15, you will still need to train on the order of 10 hours week. To finish top half, you can probably get away with 5 hours/week.

I'm capping myself at a max of 10-11 hours per week.

My goal is to do the best that I can with that quantity of training. Last season I capped myself at 8 hours per week and I was able to place at a few local (small) sprints. I think my best finish was 61 minutes.

With that much volume, you should crush local sprints. By crush, I mean podium overall in smaller ones to definitely 1st or 2nd AG as a worst-case.

Back to your original question about longest workout, I am not a coach, so take that for what it's worth. If I were in your shoes, I would probably do my longest bike around 90 minutes (inside) and longest run around an hour. Longer runs would not hurt, but I would hit that point of diminishing returns around an hour.

For a ~60 min sprint, assuming you have a decent base, I have had good results with the following approach (starting about 6 weeks out): swim twice per week, 2-3000 m sessions, with decent but not exhausting main sets. Bike: three workouts, vo2 max, strength and combined long 90-120 min with tempo/treshold sections. Running; speedwork, hills and 60 min with a few sections. I keep the all the sessions short and sweet other than "long" ride and run. 10 day very gradual taper into race.

Maybe it’s different where you are but I’ve finished sprints anywhere from low to mid 50 minutes to maybe 1:15ish because the distance is rarely the same. Is there a standard sprint distance that I’m unaware of that people are assuming is in play here???

Is there a standard sprint distance that I’m unaware of that people are assuming is in play here?
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They do their best out here to make the sprint distances about 1/2 the distance of an oly (granted, logistics dictate that they're not always successful). So 750y, 12-13 mi, 3.1 mi. Getting all of that done in under an hour is considered pretty darn fast in most people's books. Use that as your benchmark and adjust accordingly.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

60 min for a standard sprint (750m/20k/5k) would probably be competitive in a local race. I'm slower than you, but have found in general:

- To feel good or be competitive in my AG (50-54 this year), I need 8-12 hours (anything less is probably just to finish). With your ability level, sounds like that's probably a good volume range.

- 2 hour long ride sounds about right (i alternate between 90-120 - have gone longer and seems overkill, shorter than 90 doesn't seem enough)

- 90 min. long run could be a bit long if done as a weekly staple, but of course it depends on general volume and what type of runner you are. My staple regular runs are 60 mins, try to go 75 or so once a week, and maybe 90 several times building for a specific event.

- You will need more intensity, but be careful, don't overdo it or you'll get injured (for me the go-hard-all-the-time mindset is a recipe for injury - for example, middle distance runners don't train this way, the physiological demands are still mostly aerobic -- you have to use the intensity dose/timing carefully to build fitness).

Sprints are a lot of fun. I haven't done anything longer in many years, decided to stay with this distance (if anything I wish there were more super sprints). Good luck with your training.

I mainly do sprints and average 7-9 hours a week over the past 10+ years.

My training "plan" over that time has been:

Rarely run more the 4 miles

Rarely ride more than 25 miles.

You need the "I'm gonna puke" feeling in a sprint which you get off hard/short sessions.

2 hour bike or 90 minute run is almost a 70.3.

haven't parsed the thread but... depends on how good you want to be at racing sprints. the principles/fundamentals of aerobic training are such that to induce desired adaptations you'll still need to swim, bike, and run for a lengthy time. In general i put the floor for these sorts of things, no matter the distance being raced, at 3-4000m, 3 hour ride, 1:45 run.

Outside of the specific prep phase(s), training for a sprint and Ironman specialist is largely going to look the same.

Balancing "ideal" with "life" tho is up to you (and your coach if you've got one).

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
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1:00.00 is more than "local competitive". It would have podiumed in every single Age Group at the last USAT Sprint National Championship, and won most!




I mostly agree with your suggestion.

- I swim 3x a week because I come from a competitive swimming background, and like to maintain a level of swim fitness that's above what's really necessary for triathlon. If logistics dictated, I could make 2 good swim workouts a week work.

-I rarely run much more than an hour, but I try to run 6 days a week, Barry P style. Once out of base build phase, one "middle" workout will be mid-high intensity intervals, the other tempo. The the other 4 runs (3 "short" and 1 'long") are super easy. I tend to error on the side of too little run intensity over too much, as over-training the run is most likely to cause injury and/or negatively impact subsequent workouts, including those for the other disciplines.

-I bike 3-4 times a week.
-Ride 1: a highly structured (always on the trainer) 45-60 min VO2max interval workout.. This is the key bike workout of the week.
-Ride 2:45-60 min Sweet Spot. Can be indoors or out. Later in the cycle, the intensity may rise into the "threshold" zone.
-Ride 3: Scheduled as 60-90 min Sweet Spot, but can be flexed to longer ride at lower intensity if desired. Outdoors, if weather permits.
-Ride 4: If I feel like riding any more, it must be Z2 or lower. Never scheduled.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Here is a comparison between two of my athletes

(dates are day/month/year)
IM one wins them
MTR one is vying for Olympic selection

IM one had a race at the beginning of December (set a course record) so in recovery for the rest of the month.
January is the only full month of training for both of them - not a lot of difference.

With the time budget you have you can still improve speed if you plan well. Don't fall into the trap of doing everything hard.