Hi
I’m fairly new to triathlon (have done one season) completed a HIM and couple of sprints. I feel like I’ve now hit a bit of a wall with motivation/ training. I don’t have another event planned for this season, and am wondering where to go with my training now? What do other peoples annual plans look like? Not sure when to take a break, then start base training and then start a plan for new season races. I’m in the UK
A couple of TTS episodes - highly recommended:
Season planning:
https://scientifictriathlon.com/tts317/
Season break:
https://scientifictriathlon.com/tts314/
What I do: I pick an A race in June or early July and then another in September. An A race is a race that anchors your training plan. You train “for this race”, i.e. do race-specific workouts in the run up to it and decrease the amount of training one-two weeks before the date. You can do other races but the plan is tailored to this race specifically.
The plan for the June-July race will typically take not more than 5 months, so I’ll do some sort of base plan October to January. This is also a good time to focus on one sport (your weakest) and limit training in others.
Fully agree on the podcast recommendations and training. I also do a distance run race in the fall because it’s my relative strength (helps me feel successful) and then start the calendar year with a long block addressing my weaknesses.
Hi
I’m fairly new to triathlon (have done one season) completed a HIM and couple of sprints. I feel like I’ve now hit a bit of a wall with motivation/ training. I don’t have another event planned for this season, and am wondering where to go with my training now? What do other peoples annual plans look like? Not sure when to take a break, then start base training and then start a plan for new season races. I’m in the UK
Congratulations on completing your first season - a huge accomplishment in itself!
When thinking of planning, I can’t help but think of goals - as for me the plans I create are in service of the goals I set. (With time you might even want to think about the differences among Process goals, Performance goals, and Outcome goals - and aligning those, so that you can further sharpen the various layers or time-spans of your plans).
What goals would you like to achieve with your plans?
As for the planning process, the above links and feedback are great. One additional resource I really enjoyed and used beginning my second year (and continuing through my third) was Matt Dixon’s book Fast Track Triathlete. In addition to full-year plans for 70.3 and 140.6 races, he also walks readers through the process of designing plans at multiple levels (including days, weeks, phases of the year, and full-year planning) and includes the A/B race method as described in a post above. Dixon also has a great podcast (check out Purple Patch Podcast) and I’m sure he has a session that covers some of the basics, but the book IMHO is definitely worth the buy. Even if you race short-course the process and methods he discusses could still be applied, though perhaps a little less directly.
Keep us updated on your goal and plan development!
Mine is a lifestyle program
spring-summer fall
Weekdays bike commute to work - jog to pool, swim, strength, jog back to office, bike commute home (optional transition short run), skip bike on heavy rain days - adds up to 2-3 hrs. I am 56, and have no kids to worry about
Weekends: 3-4 hrs of swim bike run
Winter
lunch - swim or XC ski, evening bike trainer or run and strength (roughly 2-2.5 hrs per day)
weekends - XC ski both days, one day long with some jogging after. If weather sucks, swim 2 hrs per day and jog 30 min on treadmil
This ends up being 800-900 hrs per year. I can pretty well jump into any race as long as I am not nursing an injury from a crash. I go hard when I feel like it, and go easy when I don’t and skip training when I don’t want to (almost never…I need to move)
I work in an office, no manual labour.
Race 3 times a week on Zwift for 50 weeks of the year. 1 zwift BMTR 100 miler on the weekends. Break for the winter and New Years binge.