I’m not sure many would ever do this for half or full distance events. But anybody do something like do the Zwift slowtwitch group rides/runs, do a little swimming and just do sprint and Olympic distance for fun without strict plans? Normal people do that, right?
Sprints for me have always been secondary goal events so I always just had fun. But I was typically training for something bigger. But there are always people there who I talk to who do the same event each year without big huge goals. It’s just something fun to do and to help them stay fit.
I think I ask as I’ve been doing more structured training for a good 6+ years and I feel like I’m the future, after a check off a couple more big goals, I might transition to training that’s less formal. ie ride a few days a week. Do some running. Etc.
I did 5 or 6 of my 9 IM’s and who knows how many half’s, Oly and Sprints without any sort of “plan.” Was I winning age group awards, nope. Was I enjoying myself, absolutely! Did I go slower than when I followed a formal plan, nope. All of my IM’s were within about an hour of each other and I always finished solidly MOP except for when I did Kona via the lottery.
My only plan was to swim, bike and run as much as I could and wanted to. These days I’m no longer doing triathlon but only cycling and I still don’t follow a plan other than ride as much as I want to whether that’s on the road, gravel, group rides, solo spins, and Zwift rides (rarely do a race).
I switched to the no formal training plan when COVID started and haven’t gone back. I don’t think I will unless I train for another full. If you aren’t chasing peak results and have years of running/cycling/swimming base, I think this is a better plan. I’m definitely happier this way, especially on days when I decide to take an unexpected rest day. And I don’t think I’ve lost all that much fitness.
I run three days a week, ride three days a week, lift two days in there as well, walk a fair bit on weekends and evenings. No regimented plan…I just run, or just ride, as long or as far as I feel like it. This has kinda been the “plan” for the last 10 years. Usually podium in my age group for sprint and Olympic duathlon, top 10 at the very least. At my age, I’m more about staying fit, healthy and having fun than the ultimate goal of placing. I don’t care if I come in last…it’s about pushing myself to do something out of the ordinary.
No I haven’t, but I have wondered about it. The thing that has stopped me is that I suspect you could get more or less the same results on the ‘no plan’ plan, but hopefully a good coach or plan helps you develop and improve over time in a way ‘no plan’ probably won’t.
You can “no training plan” any distance if your goal is just to be MOP and have some fun. I’d say it’s the norm even, relative to very formal coaching plans. And there nothing wrong with that. It’s the group that pays the RDs bills!
I did my first few IMs and a 100M Ultra this way and was decent enough.
To you last point, I think you’ll still remember that structure once you check off some goals and go “no plan.” The years of discipline won’t disappear, and your “no plan” will probably be light years better “structured” than what my completely uneducated “no plan” looked like way back when.
I run three days a week, ride three days a week, lift two days in there as well, walk a fair bit on weekends and evenings. No regimented plan…I just run, or just ride, as long or as far as I feel like it. This has kinda been the “plan” for the last 10 years. Usually podium in my age group for sprint and Olympic duathlon, top 10 at the very least. At my age, I’m more about staying fit, healthy and having fun than the ultimate goal of placing. I don’t care if I come in last…it’s about pushing myself to do something out of the ordinary.
My goal when I started to endurance sports, running at the beginning, was to find something I enjoy and help keep me fit. I’ve switched more to cycling and have started doing longer gravel events which are fun but challenging. Over the years I’ve found my “sweet spot†for “long†weekend rides is 2-3 hours. Occasionally longer but I find anything longer than 3, if I’m riding solo for sure, it starts becoming a task. I enjoy having coach but for me it’s less about a coach motivating me and more about somebody who can manage many of my different event timelines where I need to taper into and even more importantly keeping me healthy by enforcing proper rest and recovery. But of course over time some of that knowledge has seeped into my brain so I’m much more aware of when I’m pushing it too hard
No I haven’t, but I have wondered about it. The thing that has stopped me is that I suspect you could get more or less the same results on the ‘no plan’ plan, but hopefully a good coach or plan helps you develop and improve over time in a way ‘no plan’ probably won’t.
My coach has helped me improve over time for sure but I think as important is pretty strict with making sure I get enough rest and recovery to stay healthy.
I did 5 or 6 of my 9 IM’s and who knows how many half’s, Oly and Sprints without any sort of “plan.” Was I winning age group awards, nope. Was I enjoying myself, absolutely! Did I go slower than when I followed a formal plan, nope. All of my IM’s were within about an hour of each other and I always finished solidly MOP except for when I did Kona via the lottery.
My only plan was to swim, bike and run as much as I could and wanted to. These days I’m no longer doing triathlon but only cycling and I still don’t follow a plan other than ride as much as I want to whether that’s on the road, gravel, group rides, solo spins, and Zwift rides (rarely do a race).
+1 on this!
Been doing various stuff (full/half IM, marathon, trailraces, etc) without any real plan? I plan as I go, train what I can fit into life, and - most importantly - try to have fun all The time! Very happy with That approach!
I think the key to the “no plan training plan” is you still get the volume. Many people need a formal plan or they simply won’t get out the door enough. I love being out so base training on work, life, and weather but generally get the miles in and just make sure I have enough speed in there for fun! For most of us tri is a lifestyle and for fun, and for me I dont need the stress of a super formal plan to get out and play.
I think the key to the “no plan training plan” is you still get the volume. Many people need a formal plan or they simply won’t get out the door enough. I love being out so base training on work, life, and weather but generally get the miles in and just make sure I have enough speed in there for fun! For most of us tri is a lifestyle and for fun, and for me I dont need the stress of a super formal plan to get out and play.
I think the structured training plans really make a difference when it comes to truly pushing your limits, whether that be volume limits or speed limits. Without a plan, it’s very easy after you hit your ‘upper limit’ to say “whew, that was hard, that’s enough!” and stop pushing for more. Whereas on a structured plan, you build up gradually (if it’s a good plan) and then when it’s time to bust through that performance limit, you bite the bullet and do it, more confidently than without the plan.
You def don’t need a plan to do reasonably well in triathlon though - my Oly times with literally no plan are only 5-6 minutes slower than my times with a solidly executed plan. (To be fair, 5-6 minutes in a Oly is typically bigger than the difference between winning your age group outright, vs coming in 5th.)
I have no plan other than two workouts per day adding up to 2 hrs on weekdays and 3+ hrs each day of the weekend. Done all distances from sprint to Ironman with nothing other than ‘ok what should I do this morning’. But the volume just takes care of being able to do any events. May not be optimal but it is enjoyable. This does not mean I don’t do intervals and hard and long workouts. I do all of that just randomly with no program
Think two things are being talked about here. Big difference between a “no training” plan (ie planning to do no training), and training with “no plan” (ie training but with no structure).
I had coaches from 2014-2020 and thought I did well within my AG at most IM branded 70.3’s. At the end of 2020 I had some major “real†life changes happen and decided I wouldn’t benefit from a coach any longer and split ways. This last year I removed the “training†aspect from my life and did more of the “exercise†when time would allow it and I can say there isn’t much difference(for me personally). At Boulder 70.3 in 2019 I went 4:27 which got me 4th in 25-29 and 14th amateur, a few weeks ago at the same race I went 4:30 and was 4th in 30-34 and 22nd amateur. I swam 3min slower, biked 4min slower but ran a 1:27 OTB and that was a nice run PR on that course. I was slower than before but also had a lot more free time with family than I ever had before. I also didn’t stress over missing certain workouts or hitting certain benchmarks, just enjoyed being active leading into the race and loved every minute of the race itself.
I"m going back to no plan. I used one this year for Gravel Worlds and while it worked fine I missed the group rides/runs. So my “plan” here on out is to use the Wed/Sat group rides, Tues/Thurs run groups as my training with Master’s Swim. The social aspect is what I missed and the groups give you the higher intensity that you need.
I’m a big believer in the “no plan†plan. The big key for me is to have a runner friend, swimmer friend, and a cyclist friend. I just train with whomever is free that day and we get the double bonus of training and social time.
At 10hrs/week, my only real plan is to get out the door everyday. I mostly alternate bike and run on harder days and will sometimes do both on easier days. I know I need to go hard some of the time and go long most of the time, so I organise my outings around these principles. I fit in my mix and match day twice a week (one bike, one run) that is really just a bunch of varrying duration max efforts with recoveries in between often targetting segments from 2 to 20 minutes. I run some trails when I feel like it, singletracks or gravel too. Once every other week there is a hill repeats day, run or bike, it depends.
I’m enjoyin it very much and that’s why I’m doing it this way.
I’ve done 4 sprint tris this summer with basically no swimming or cycling since the pandemic began. I’ve averaged just under 40 mpw running since the pandemic began. Definitely slower in tris compared to pre pandemic, but not by a lot, which has been surprising. Noticeable shrinkage of my quads. Barring a running injury that forces me to do alternative training sooner, I’ll probably get back in the pool regularly sometime this winter and resume balanced SBR training late next spring.
Think two things are being talked about here. Big difference between a “no training” plan (ie planning to do no training), and training with “no plan” (ie training but with no structure).
Yes. I was definitely referring to the no, or very little, structure.
