Planning to start training for my first 70.3 in January (race in ~June). I have complete a few shorter distance races–mainly utilizing Phil Mosely’s plans on Training Peaks. My goal is to finish the race with a time I am proud of (sub 5:30). I’m leaning towards using another canned plan (Phil Mosely or 80/20) to train for the 70.3. I have thought about hiring a coach, but am financially constrained, plus, I believe I still have gains to make before I take it to that level.
My question is what plan do you guys recommend? Am I making a mistake by using a premade plan? Follow up question: I am currently doing a maintenance/base building off-season plan. When I switch plans, the base phase would restart–how do I adjust so that I continue to increase my distances/times?
I use TrainerRoad’s triathlon plans. A lot of people criticize their plans, particularly the swim, but I find they get me into great shape. I use the mid-volume plan, which is plenty. It’s generally 4 rides, 4 runs, and 3 swims per week.
As expected, the emphasis is on the cycling where there is a lot of variety and detailed explanations. The running is simple. About one run per week is a brick run and one involves various kinds of short pick-ups, but there is not a lot of high intensity. That’s fine with me as I can plenty of intensity on the bike. And for what it’s worth, I’m 10 weeks into a plan and just set a PR in my half-marathon; I’m almost as fast as I was in my pre-triathlon days when I was purely a runner.
The swims are mostly short intervals (25-200 yards) on minimal rest (5-10 secs) with varying paces. One swim per week is a continuous, long swim (e.g. 2000 yards). I’m dubious about the value of long swims and instead do the suggested distance in 100-yard intervals with five seconds rest (e.g. 20*100).
TR plans used to be too intense and to make people susceptible to burnout, but since they’ve incorporated the lessons from adaptive training, I’ve found that they are much improved.
The plans consist of a base, build, and specialize phase, each of which is 8 weeks. Where you jump in depends on your current level of fitness and time until your target race. They have a plan builder option that allows you to plug in some of that basic information and then it will automatically fill the TR calendar with recommended workouts.
The 80/20 HIM plans are excellent. My friend who did an IM 20 years ago, and hasn’t done a triathlon since, started retraining during COVID, and then got motivated enough to do the 80/20 intermediate HIM plan, and crushed his race (4:45 in his first HIM).
I used the 80/20 advanced Oly distance plan for an Oly (not HIM, but the plan has nearly the equal training hours and structure) and won my AG 3 times (3rd OA in one race), raised my FTP 20w from a 5 year plateau, and had top 3 OA bike splits across the board in my local but competitive (Norcal) races. 90+ USAT rating at age 47, which is my highest ever.
The plan isn’t ‘magic’ - I worked really hard in training, and COVID lockdowns helped me avoid injury, avoid annoying colds/flus, and gave me more training time. But for sure, I enjoyed the plan and found it ‘just right’ for difficulty.
The 80/20 does an outstanding job of distributing stress so you reduce chance of injury, particularly by spacing out runs more and leaning more on bike training. The only thing I had to change for myself was to add more swimming, as that’s by far my weakness, and even the Advanced plans hang around 6-8k/wk, and never more than 9k I think.
I’d def recommend going this route first if you can’t go the coach route. (I can easily afford a coach, but I’m so happy with my 80/20 results so far that I can’t justify getting one!)
I was in a similar position to you. Didnt want (cant really afford a coach) so I decided to try 80/20 and was thrilled with my decision.
I took nearly 15 years off after only doing sprints and Olys in my late 20’s. Did my first 70.3 in June 2021 on Level 2 plan and performed really well. I think it is partially due to how healthy and injury free I stayed throughout the training plan.
It was a lot of hours and I followed the plan almost exactly as it was laid out, with the only exception being moving some days around based on work/family obligations.
The support from David Warden (and other 80/20 staff) on the member page was outstanding as well. I also think you can modify the plan enough to make it work for your strength/weakness. One less or more swim/bike/run/weights depending on the week and your needs.
Feel free to ask any specific question that you may have and I’d be happy to answer/help if I can based on my experience.
I used it when I got back into training after a long break for my first ever HIM. Felt pretty well prepared for race day.
I since used it for 2 more HIMs with equal success. Like all plans you only get out of it what you put into it though. If you need the financial “push” of a coach (i.e. I’m paying x per month I better do it) then it doesn’t matter how good a plan is if you won’t follow it.
I fully plan on using the Full distance 80/20 plan for IM Florida next year.
The 80/20 HIM plans are excellent. My friend who did an IM 20 years ago, and hasn’t done a triathlon since, started retraining during COVID, and then got motivated enough to do the 80/20 intermediate HIM plan, and crushed his race (4:45 in his first HIM).
I used the 80/20 advanced Oly distance plan for an Oly (not HIM, but the plan has nearly the equal training hours and structure) and won my AG 3 times (3rd OA in one race), raised my FTP 20w from a 5 year plateau, and had top 3 OA bike splits across the board in my local but competitive (Norcal) races. 90+ USAT rating at age 47, which is my highest ever.
The plan isn’t ‘magic’ - I worked really hard in training, and COVID lockdowns helped me avoid injury, avoid annoying colds/flus, and gave me more training time. But for sure, I enjoyed the plan and found it ‘just right’ for difficulty.
The 80/20 does an outstanding job of distributing stress so you reduce chance of injury, particularly by spacing out runs more and leaning more on bike training. The only thing I had to change for myself was to add more swimming, as that’s by far my weakness, and even the Advanced plans hang around 6-8k/wk, and never more than 9k I think.
I’d def recommend going this route first if you can’t go the coach route. (I can easily afford a coach, but I’m so happy with my 80/20 results so far that I can’t justify getting one!)
I second the 80/20 plans. Full disclosure, I am a brand ambassador, but that is because I have used and believe in them. Plus the team/community/website is very accessible for questions along the way.
I did my first 70.3 last month and trained for it using the training plan in Fast-Track Triathlete by Matt Dixon. Since this was my first time training for a 70.3 race, I have nothing to compare the plan to, and any plan would have been better than no plan. But I felt really prepared on race day, and I was happy with my performance. I’m sure there are plenty of people who will scoff at using a book instead of an online plan, but here’s what I liked about it:
*Cost! I felt completely prepared to excel in my race at 1/4 or 1/5 the cost of a lot of online plans.
*His overall approach resonated with me – building training time around the “non-negotiables” of life (work, family, etc.) rather than at the expense of those things.
*The plan was well laid-out and easy to understand.
*There was flexibility built in.
*I could follow it even without fancy things like a power meter.
*14 weeks (assuming having a good base of fitness at the start) seemed like a good length to me…long enough to make lots of fitness improvements, but not so long that I got bored and tired of following a plan (I was just starting to feel that way as we got to the taper…any longer and I think it would have gotten harder and harder to stick to the workouts–mentally, not physically)
*Balance of volume vs intensity – I was actually worried that there wasn’t enough intensity in the run workouts and that I would “forget” how to run fast…but at week 11 I raced an olympic distance tri, and ran a PR 10K…turned out I didn’t forget.
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it worked well enough for me that I’m going to use it again to train for my first 140.6 next year.
I don’t think you can go too wrong with paying for a plan, a coach, or coaching yourself. Just keep in mind the cookie cutter plans are blueprints for anyone to follow but might not be specific to your needs. Most should be taking something like that & adjusting to their needs, to their strengths/weaknesses. For something like sub-5:30, most will generally benefit from more volume & increasing the time spent running off of their long rides. You don’t need anything too fancy or complex to get there. If you put in the work, it’ll happen.
As far as the base building question goes, I’m not 100% sure I follow. The point of base building is to get in a lot of volume, which you can do because you’re not hitting main phase workouts that are either specific or fast or both. In a good base phase, you build your mileage as high as or even higher than you’ll get to in your specific phase. So you don’t really need to restart your base. You move into your specific block after something like a 12-20 week base block.
Sorry, let me clarify. The last week of the maintenance building plan I’m currently doing, the long run is 1:15 and the bike is 2:40 long. When I transition to the 80/20 plan, at the beginning of the base phase, the long bike/run durations will be shorter. Does that make sense? Should I adjust the 80/20 plan so that I am not reducing the durations?
I was in pretty decent shape when I started my 80/20 Level 1 70.3 plan. I had gone 1:03 in a Sprint just a month prior to starting. In the beginning, it was hard sticking to the 80/20 plan because it didn’t feel like it was “enough”. Paces were slower than I was used to and the volume was a bit low too. I decided to just trust the plan and stuck with it. Ended up going 5:07 for my first 70.3 in Waco, and felt incredible. Definitely a believer in trusting the process and I plan on following the Level 2 plan for the next 70.3.
I personally love the principle and I enjoy the workouts in practice. Do you think jumping into the last half of the 70.3 plan would be sufficient, given a good enough base? I’m working on some different workouts currently and I’m signed up for Oceanside in April, so when I finish my current plan and IF I can get my shit together for an April 2 race, I’d have 7-8 weeks to sharpen up.
I highly recommend Mikael Eriksson’s plans. I’ve completed the intermediate one, made big gains in running off the bike. Also got stronger on the bike, despite coming off Trainerroad’s plans into Mikael’s much easier training recipe. Can’t say much about the swim part, because I swim with a group, but I did do a few of the open water routines and improved my start/exit skills some.
As an intermediate level athlete I had good success with 80/20 plans. I think you should increase your swim volume to 3k per session rather than the scheduled sessions of 1,700 or 2,300 regularly. The Mikael Erickson plans look to be solid as well.