My early season peak has me doing St. anythony’s and gulf coast half with 2 weeks i think. The first being an oly and the second a half. I have never raced at these distances before, only doing sprints. Most people would say i do enough training for them already though. My goal is to compete for my ag win in both which would require around a 2 hour oly and a 4:30 half. How best shoudl I set up my training for them.
Here is my situation. My swim is ok but I got someone to work with me and I am gonna swim 6x a weeks. I will get faster. Since the distances are similar for the swimI am not too worried there. The bike and run are my strengths. I race at about 23 mph for 10-15 miles, not sure how long I could hold that. I noramlly put up between 200-220 miles on the bike with my normal ride going 50 and my long ride going 70. I mis a good bit of intensity in there too.
For the run I belive I could go 37-38 min 10k right now just havent raced one yet. I also have gone a 1:22 for a 12.7 mile trainign run that i wasnt tring to go fast. I feel I could do a 1:20-1:25 half off the bike. I am able to run top end for atleast a 5k right off the bike no matter how hard i go ont e bike.
Enough of the backgorund on to the questions. My thoughts are to do base like I was only doing a half and then in build to kind of alternate between the oly and half. Maybe do longer bricks and then alternate threshold workouts for the oly and half each week. My body responds much better to high volume than anything else. How far off am I on this thinking? Thanks
Doing a Oly triathlon 2 weeks before a Half is a great idea and if you do fine in the Oly you will be highly motivated to race the Half. You thoughts are correct but with the splits you said, you’ll hardly do a under 2:10 Oly and most likely will not be able to do the half in 4:30. Its better not to have great expectations cause the achievement is bigger then. One thing is to do a 1:22 1/2 marathon in training and other is doing it with 91,9 K under your belt. Also you have to improve on your bike! What you are going to run will depend on how fit you are on the bike. It may seem like I’m just picking on you but as I said, it’s better to keep our expectations low. Long bike rides are needed. 3,5 hours is enough for one workout. Do a week or two with two or three 3-3,5 bike rides. Bricks are the perfect workout to finish the week. One a week is quite enough.
All the training you do for the half distance triathlon will do for the olimpic race!
Ok… so good luck!
If you are a 2:10 Olympic tri guy, you basically have to keep around the same intensity on the go for an entire half Ironman if you want to go 4:30. Your going to be swimming at the same intensity, biking at 95% olympic tri intensity and running at the same intensity as Olympic tri for 21.1K. If you are a 38 min 10K guy, you have no hope of running 1:20’s off the bike. Better plan to be 1:30 even at best. I’ve done around 25 half Ironmans, and the only time I’m down in the low 1:20’s is when I was also sub 35 min for 10K. Sadly, that type of speed is no longer in my legs.
Anyway, good luck in your goals. As Pedro suggested, keep them realistic. Just so you know it is possible, I did do 2:10 in an Olympic tri and two weeks later I did exactly 4:30 in a Half (with a broken front wheel and rubbing breaks for over 50K), so it is possible !
what ag are you in? What are you doing with those 200 miles per week?
Those arent the splits I hope to run. Those are where I am at now. last year was my first full year. The mistake I made last year was not enough intensity. I basically stayed in base 3 instead on build. I was doing build wrong. I figured it out towards the end of the year and made some nice gains but too late. I dont want to make those mistakes again.
How shoudl I structure the build phase? Should I go at race pace for the oly and do longer bricks for the half? I like your quote in the sig btw
Ohhh… sorry, must have misunderstood you. Anyway, if you wanna run a 1:20’s off the bike you should really put extra milage on the bike. Of course you also need to do some run work but the bike is almost as important as the run work FOR the perfomance on the half. This doesn’t really apply to the Oly. Hope you got the point.
My guess is that if you wanna go 1:20’s, you should be worth at least 35’ over 10k and that should be your goal for the Oly!
As for the structure of the build phase, can’t really tell you much cause I’m not a coach and you should get one to think it out for you. 
If you have expectations to race at that level you should get a coach. Not, not an ad for smartasscoaching.
You can pay for a coach or do it on your own. If you like to be slave to a plan and need direction, chose a coach.
Or if you don’t want to pay, just do 12-15 hours per week, ride 100-120K once a week at race pace for at least 50K, run at least 60K per week with one run up to 25K, one run with something like 4x1 mile at 90% faster than Olympic race pace, and throw swims, and other filler aerobic runs and bikes in to get your hours in. Rest one day per week. Take every 4th week easier. Ideally, 5-3 weeks out from your half Ironman, you will log multiple 20+ hour weeks if you hope to run sub 1:25 (ie, you need to pile on bike miles during those weeks, and unlike Ironman guys, don’t waste time doing 100 miles, go 50-75 more often at an aerobic pace that is mildly uncomfortale)
Most importantly have fun. At 4:30, you are just another age grouper not making money off the sport, so don’t get too serious about this shit. Just go out and put one foot in front of another. Since you are new to the sport, you will make huge improvements just putting in miles.
Nice choice of words Dev… need… slave… 
Smartass my friend, my whole life is dictated by a schedule. My work schedule is decided for me by my company, customers, boss and peers, my home schedule is largely dictated by my family and son’s activities, I gotta coach kids soccer and manage and coach an XC ski club for kids. My only sane time is from 5:30 am to 9:00 am or so and I like it to be totally flexible. I could not handle a real training plan as it would force me to to ride in 5 degrees and rain one day and then run in 32 degrees and 90% humidity two days later. I prefer to have the flexibility to choose to run when it is raining, and ride when it is nice, or when I can synch up with my friends etc :-). Training and racing is recreation, and I would go nuts if it felt like a chore (ie I HAVE to do workout X cause it is on the spreadsheet). I’ve raced tris for 20 years and still love the sport. I know my results could be better with a proper structured program, but I am willing to live with that compromise given my lifestyle :-).
I am actually doing something real similar to that now. Except my hours are about 19-21 for a normal week. My normal bike ride is 50 and my long is 70. I dont do any hard work on the long ride though. I dont have the money for a coach now since I am a student. I may get a few bucks as time goes on and maybe get a coach t odesign my build phase. Now I am not looking for a plan to be a slave of but more of the philosophy behind that plan. I like to understand whatI am tring to do. It seems the general idea it to do base for the half and then when build comes do the speedwork for the oly but with bricks and long workouts designed for the half. Am I correct on this thinking?
I know all about your life. But unless the person you were replying to has a similar than you, your advice doesn’t apply, does it!? You think that if your athletic goals were your #1 priority, you would do the same thing?