Stupid question, but you're targetting a HIM race, yes?

---

Swim. Overbike. Walk.

Personally, I'm kinda forced to do 60 min rides (or workouts period) during weekdays and do longer rides / runs on the weekend. It's rare that I can workout for more than an hour on a weekday. I assume most of us AG's have to follow this rule to some extent. I try to sprinkle in some mid-week evening 5K road races after work to help boost my weekly hours (when building fitness for a race).

---

"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Not stupid, I should have said. SR 70.3 in 16 weeks, then IM COZ 16 weeks after that

Thanks.

Personally I prefer 3x60 rather than 2x90 on TR as I find I can get more frequent, better quality workouts and be able to hit my next workout in reasonable shape. The content may change according to the race I'm doing, but they're all fairly constant at 60 mins lenght, unless it's an IM in which case I'll edge one or two of the three 75 to 90 mins over time.

---

Swim. Overbike. Walk.

So now it’s the oldest question in the sport: How do I put 3 swims, 4 runs and 4 rides into a week, and potentially have a day off??? Plus, I want to space each sport out, not stack them up so there is a block of 4 runs in a row.
I work from home Monday and Thursday, so on those days I have morning, an hour for lunch or the evening.
Tuesday I have morning, and typically I’m in a hotel, so running in the evening is my best option.
Wednesday has traditionally been my day off, but I could run or ride in the evening.
Friday I’ve got only before or after work.
Weekends are wide open (provided I’m done on Sundays by 10am to make the church service. I’d lose home support if I was riding and missing that...). I favor running on Saturday, and riding on Sunday.

Anyone want to take a stab at a sample week? I’m looking for about a 10 hour week, total.

Nah, the oldest question is tubs vs clinchers.

---

Swim. Overbike. Walk.

Do you use Training Peaks? It’s probably the single most helpful thing I’ve found for arranging training because you can drag and drop without needing to create formulas on a spreadsheet. It also allows you to shift around workouts if you have commitments that might change week to week.

I have settled on a structure that puts the swims in first - I swim alone and therefore have to adhere to pool times. I have to swim in the mornings, and have found that swim/run days work best for me, leaving the other days for bike. Sometimes rather than trying to manufacture the opportunity for a long ride midweek (usually impossible because of work) I find doing a 90min/60min double is a decent day of training, sometimes doing a quality hard session in the morning, followed by rollers in the evening for recovery with some technique.

As a side note, how have you found TrainerRoad? I’ve been trying to self-coach through Hunter and Coggan’s book but some weeks you just want everything to be there for you.

I wouldn't like the 90min+90min+3hr option much.
90mins is starting to get long for quality intervals and too short for effective easier efforts.

But I wouldn't do 60min+60min+60min+3hrs either!
I'd find it hard to motivate myself for 3 short hard effort rides per week. I bet some of them would end up as just going through the motions.

For that sort of volume I'd probably be doing more like:

• 1x75mins incorporating 3x20min or 3x15min threshold intervals or over/unders
• 1x65mins composed of 20x1min VO2max intervals with 1min recoveries or 6x3min VO2max with 5min recoveries
• 1x25min recovery spin after a hard run
• 1x3.25hr endurance ride, maybe with some hills or harder efforts included

I think 3 main rides and one or two optional easy recovery spins paired with runs makes it easier to accommodate in a schedule too.

I would always take four days over three days. I like the consistency and when I take too many days off workouts start to suffer more.

I have a similar schedule and the way I work with it is I take 0 days off, but the beginning of the week is lower intensity (Mon-Wed) or Single sport. Thursday to Sunday are high intensity workouts at similar volumes. I also do a large amount of "Recovery" work which is stretching, foam rolling and EMS. Lastly I'm doing weights 2-3 times a week (ever other week is 3x) but if you strip those out you get:

3 Bike 60+60+90
3 Run 60+45+70
3 Swim 45+45+45

For what it is worth, I'm a short course competitor but I've placed well at the single 70.3 I've done with this plan.

---

------
"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

Yes, I do use TP and you’re right that the drag/drop really helps (if I’m on the PC, and not my iPad). I also set up an Annual Training Plan, but since I’m coming back from a few years of no data, that’s less useful for setting the target number. Plus, I’m jumping up to my first IM, so the hours are mostly guesswork + ST input :)
TrainerRoad actually surprised me with the structured plans for distance, plus divided by low/mid/high volume for each. I’m actually taking my weekly hours mostly from that, choosing the middle base/build/specialize for 70.3, then middle build/specialize for IM distance starting after SR. Since I’m a fairly weak cyclist, I try and put 50-60% of my weekly time on the bike. I’m not a great swimmer, but I seem to have less overall time to gain there (I’m sub-40 in the 1.2mile) than I can by riding stronger.
I did a few months of Zwift (and that comparison is the newest, biggest argument of the sport), and loved it as a way to get back on the bike. It was only when I felt I needed structure did I try, and stick with, TR. Yes, you can drop any workout you want into Zwift. But I’m not smart enough to know what workouts to do. I’m trusting the TR coach for that, and just letting it be what it is. One thing I’d love for them to figure out is how to let me fullscreen a YouTube video and still have the TR software overlay. But Spring is here and my training for longer stuff is going outside anyway.
Does that help?

That’s a lot for my little brain to make sense of, but I think I get it. The take home point for me here is your last sentence. Thanks

(Sorry for the multiple posts, I can’t multi-quote from the iPad)

Wow, first question is how you put the workout profile into the calendar like that. That’s really cool. I’ll have to look at your examples when I have a bigger screen. I don’t think now is the right time to add the weights, but I do like putting my recovery stuff in there. Since my calf strain, I’ve been doing 30 min of yoga every evening with my wife. Writing things down seems to make them real to me.
I suspect you have more intensity in your schedule than I do, by far. First season back, I’m trying for a broad base, plus, hurting isn’t appealing just yet. I may have follow up questions once I look at your pics.

The workouts are built in Training Peaks and then kept in my library. Since I've been using TR plan for the past 4 years I have just copied those worKouts manually into my library . They sync up with Garmin 820 or Zwift depending on if i am indoors or outdoors. The runs also are created in the TP Workout creator and then I export those to a FIT file that I copy onto my Garmin 920XT. The newer 9335 can sync from TP with a Garmin IQ App if you have one.

It was a lot of manual work but I've been at it for quite some time now so it just adds up. Below are the Workout Library (where you can store common workouts) and the BUILD WORKOUT screenshot when adding a new workout via the web. Not sure if the mobile version has the ability to do so as I've never tried.

---

------
"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

90+90+3hr is fine.
You’ll get stronger.
If you’re up to it, add a 60min ride like Mount Field.

I do 4 swims, 4 rides, 6 runs. Only way to fit it in a week is to have almost every day be a double or triple. Rest day is a swim. I take a real rest day when I feel like my body needs one.

KingM, that many individual workouts, but keeping to 12 hours/week seems like it wouldn’t benefit me. I bet you’re doing far more training than i would even want to do. Maybe that’s why i’m MOP and you aren’t? Nice work on your part...

PTP: A lot has changed since I was “serious” about this. I got a 935 last summer when I started training again, but didn’t even realize it could do all that. I’ve been using it for swims and runs only, since the winter was spent on the trainer. I still have my 910XT, and I may stick with that on the bike, since I like the quarter turn mount and the screens better than the 935.
Do you create the swim workouts in the watch too? I’m working with David Luscan of Finding Freestyle with his plan, and as I said above, I’m really liking it. But there are far more drills than I’m used to, so I don’t think pre-loading for that makes sense.
On the runs, do you set speed or HR alerts? Or is this primarily to mentally know in advance what you want to accomplish for that day? My thoughts typically just extend to: 1. Warm up by running easy to the light on Union/Lathrop rd, that’s 1 mile. 2. Settle into a loop around Austin Rd at 9:20 pace. Set my mile alerts to tell me my aveage at the end of each mile. 3. Back at my main light, shift back to easy for the last mile, or up the pace and add a loop around the park. I guess I’m not sure what having the actual workout loaded in the device helps with.
But I’m never too old to learn. At least not until the 12th....

I'm not much for the swim workouts being pre-loaded. I find that the good ol fashioned printed out sheet in ziplock bag works for me. The text on the watches sometimes are too small and furthermore I can't see ahead to the next interval when the watch is in "Workout mode". For the run and bikes though it's been a great time saver for me.

Runs for me indoor or outdoors are pretty specific. Where I live I have a dense neighbourhood (condo buildings) and the loops are flat and around the right distances for 400, 800 or 1k repeats depending on how many buildings I pass. If I am doing longer slower runs outside I have a trail 600M from my home I'm able to use for those.
As for alerts, I don't like them I find they just end up annoying me to pieces but if you've found a good use for them great. I'd probably use the "interval" function vs those if doing specific repeats personally but both would work.

Are you also considering the progression of your training? This is BASE time so perhaps more volume less intensity, which going back to the original question would mean 4 bikes now and then in the next phase drop to 3 but make the efforts harder.

---

------
"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

Generally I keep the number of sessions the same each week. 6 runs, 5 bikes, 3 swims.

Then depending on what I'm doing (marathon, 70.3, Olympic etc..) I'll shift the volume & content around.

As long as you stick with it you'll make progress, but personally I find that frequency has the biggest impact.

Well, I’m sort of like BOFOMOP :)
But I am working on climbing!
It’s anywhere from 9-14 hours a week dependening on what part of the season with peak of 17-18 before an IM. I just enjoy training.