Base IM plan

Triathlon Forum
1

Hi everyone,
after a really bad season, I want to plan the next one without doing the same mistakes. Past summer I ran a 37min 10k, I did oly’s with good results (for my level), ran a marathon with some difficulties (bad preparation) in 3:07.
In winter, I trained for 2 long XC ski races in France (76 and 42 km).
I ended the winter KO, and i’m just getting better after being cured for anemia.

Next year, I’d like to race an IM and some oly’s. I’d like to train with the British Cycling bike base training plan (3 bikes, with one long ride, and 2 sweetspot). I do some of those bike sessions skiing.

I have 2 questions:
1-What do you think about this kind of typical week for base building (see below) ?
2-What HR should be during a sweetspot session (2x20min basically) ? I aimed to be between 160-175bpm past year, with a 175 LTHR but sometimes it felt hard.

M: swim 2-3k
T: indoor Sweet Spot bike+short easy run
W: easy/medium run
T: indoor Sweet Spot bike+short easy run
F: rest
S: swim 3-4k+long ride+short easy run
S: medium easy run+recovery ride

I planned to swim 2 times/week, sometimes 3, because I’ve got some time constraint and think bike is more important since I can swim 3.8k without much fatigue

Thanks a lot
Ivan

2

My bike training has typically consisted of a schedule similar to your proposal. 60-80mins on Tuesday and Thursday evenings focusing on threshold or sweetspot intensity work with VO2max one session perhaps every 2 or 3 weeks. Then a long ride on Sunday morning. Time permitting, and if I felt like it, I might slot in another ride on Friday evening or Saturday.
My weekday efforts would often consist of something like 2x20 in the 93-95% FTP range, or 3x15min of over/under intervals. However, since most of these rides tend to be on the trainer, I’d also replace many of them with group rides or races on Zwift. I don’t feel there’s any major benefit to maintaining extremely consistent power for all training sessions, and variety keeps me far more motivated which often makes it easier to put in a quality session. If you’ve got a power meter, HR monitor etc, it’s simple enough to ensure you’re not taking it too easy on yourself or going way overboard simply by keeping an eye on TSS, NP, IF, etc