Sub 45min Program for Triathlete

[bingobong]

Hi Ed,

I really like your training philosophy and plans however I am a triathlete and need to fit in cycling a swimming too. I currently run an hour every weekday morning and do a longer run on Sunday. My weekly training schedule looks like this all my sessions are about 1hr except for weekends:
Mon - AM run, PM spin class
Tue - AM run, PM swim
Wed - AM run, PM spin class
Thu - AM run, PM swim
Fri - AM run, PM light weights/core work
Sat - AM 3hr road ride
Sun - AM Long run 1.5 - 2hrs

I was looking to incorporate your sub 45 minute plan into my schedule replacing my existing morning runs (starting on a Tuesday) what do you think will this work with my other training as well?

I did a 4km time trail this morning (road course 500m splits time/avg HR):
2:02/135bpm
2:09/151
2:11/153
2:10/156
2:08/160
2:04/162
2:05/164
2:00/168
Total 16:50

Thanks in advance!

[TheEd]

Welcome bingobong .. I would like to mention that I have helped a number of triathletes in the past and with them and the success they achieved we focused on the quality sessions of the 10km training program

so focusing on the quality sessions of the program

the 2 most important sessions are the 5 x 2000m and the 6 x 1000m sessions

when doing those sessions it is advisable not to do a double quality day as you may break down instead of building up

what kind of quality are you doing in the pool and are you training in a squad?

once we shuffle things around we can start putting something together

Cheers

TheEd

[bingobong]

Ed thanks for the quick response. My swim sessions are not too hard - they are currently for maintenance and mainly focusing on technique and keeping speed/feel and I do them alone. I usually warm up easy with about 15mins of drills, then about 20mins of 10 X 100m sets/10s rest at about 70-80%HR, then cool down with 15 mins of drills again. I do usually go quite hard on the cycle sessions and also do a 10 - 20 minute brick run after each cycle session.

Other info:
- My max HR is 188bpm
- My average HR for bike and running races tends to be around 155-160bpm. I don't like redlining too much (i.e. I have low pain tolerance!) and I'm guessing my lactate threshold is close to 160bpm.

Also I meant to say start the program on Wednesday (rather than Tuesday) before as my current long run and most of my races fall on a Sunday. I completely agree with you about not doing double quality sessions on the same day as I have learnt from experience to maintain consistency in training and avoid injury. I have the option to switch around my Wed, Thu and Fri schedules to avoid doing a hard spin class on the same day as a quality run day. My run and swim sessions are pretty flexible in general as I do them on my own.

Appreciate your thoughts!

Cheers

[TheEd]

Hi bing .. the 2000 and 1000m sessions are the most important and they should be looked upon as making the centre of your sessions

so if we take week 1 and week 2 .. these sessions fall on the Thursday and the Tuesday .. so if we can find a way to develop your swimming and cycling around that then excellent

as for 'SPINNING' many gyms and users of spinning are not in-fact doing it correctly by gear crunching .. they land up working the leg muscles and in the process do not give a recovery session which was originally planned for the word 'spin'

if your current long run or race is on Sunday then the first Tuesday you can lower the distance covered to 1hr with the 2k session on the Thursday

I would strongly recommend you convert the balance of your tri-program around running as the aerobic gains from running far outweigh the that from swimming and cycling where technique certainly does play a major role

however change should be done slowly to assess the the body's adaptation to training

Hope this helps and then we can see what we can put together

TheEd

[bingobong]

Ok thanks TheEd - I am prepared to commit to this so I'll fit the rest of my training around the Sub45 min running plan. Re Spin classes I do them at high cadence (~100rpm) and about avg 80% max HR - I use them more as speed/maintenance sessions they can sometimes be hard from a HR/lactic build-up perspective but don't seem to take alot out of my legs as I rarely feel sore afterwards. I can back them off if I don't feel great on the day.

So I'll start Tuesday following the sub 45min plan exactly for the first two quality sessions (all run sessions are in the morning) with the following additions as the balance of my tri training:
Tues (Day 1): PM Light weights + Evening Swim
Wed (2) : PM Spin class
Thu (3): Evening swim
Fri (4): PM Spin class
Sat (5): Afternoon swim
Sun (6): Long road ride ~3hrs - I'll do the 30 mins easy run after as a brick
Mon (7): Light weights
Tues (8): Evening swim
Wed (9): PM Spin class

I'll give you feedback after the 2k and 1k sessions. I am used to training twice a day/12-15hrs week but I know these sessions are much harder than what I have ever done with running so am prepared to adjust depending on how my body responds. Cheers.

[TheEd]

great we will find a balance

and I shall work on providing a more accurate pace for you to your sessions from for this coming Thursday

the 2000 is a session that bites, so you will need to recover from that

what are your cycle of events / races looking like?

I will work round balancing everything towards the important events

Cheers

TheEd

[bingobong]

My next event is a Triathlon (10km run leg) on May 9th. If I start the program on Tuesday (tomorrow) then this will fall on day #13. I was thinking of swapping day #12 and #13 around so that the Triathlon can replace the 5km pace run planned for day #12... No other interruptions for this cycle.

My other priority events for the year are on the following dates:
Jun 13 - Offroad Triathlon (10km run)
Sep 5 - 100km mountain bike race
Oct 23 - Triathlon (10km run)
Nov 28 - Long course Triathlon (12km run)
Dec 5 - Half Marathon

I have a number of regular local club events (duathlons, sprint triathlons, road and trail runs, etc) every two to three weeks that usually fall on Sundays but they are not priority events so I will let you know when they come up and hopefully we can fit them in otherwise no drama if I don't do it.

I have an important mountain bike race on Sep 5 so I was hoping to get in an initial solid 3 months on the run program May - July, then I need shift priority focus on the bike for August (4 week peak/taper phase) so hopefully we can work out some sort of run maintenance schedule during that time. Then I pick up the run program again in Sep for the rest of the year for my remaining three priority events.

Looking forward to getting my target pace for my Thursday 2k session!.

[bingobong]

Hi Ed I started the 45min plan on Tuesday and did the 2k session today with 90s rests. First time I have done proper running intervals it felt hard but manageable. Results as follows (Total time/Avg HR/Max HR/R90 HR):
1) 8:09/155/166/109 (500m splits: 1:58/2:02/2:06/2:03)
2) 8:17/162/169/119 (500m splits: 1:58/2:07/2:05/2:06)
3) 8:26/164/170/125 (500m splits: 2:05/2:06/2:08/2:07)
4) 8:19/167/176/130 (500m splits: 2:03/2:09/2:08/1:59)

I am using a concrete trail with 500m markers. It is mostly flat with some slight undulations and turns. I did the session on a 2km section out and back so intervals 1&3 and 2&4 are identical. I started off a little fast on the first 2 intervals then settled into a hard but steady rythm. Second two intervals I started out easier and just tried to keep steady form and effort for the entire 2km. In the final interval I pushed hard for the last 500m. Heart rates are much higher than what I usually experience with cycling (avg ~160bpm)and they seem to keep going up and up... Based on this can you tell what sort of 10k time I am at and what should I be targeting at the end of 3 months?

Rest day from runnning tomorrow as per the plan (doing a light spin class). My cycling group are going out on Saturday for our regular weekend long ride is it ok if I switch day 5&6 and do the long run on Sunday instead?

[TheEd]

apologies bing, got bogged down with something yesterday before being able to reply however it seems that everything worked out for you

no need to do the long run as the cycling long ride should be sufficient

as for the direct relation to 10km time from the 2000m session, there is no direct relation on the sub 45 minute program and this session only correlates when the runner reaches 5 x 2k

so we need to work through the program in stages

however the 6 x 1k does have a variable to provide you with a 5km time you can work off

Hope that helps

TheEd

[bingobong]

Ok thanks I'm happy to work through the cycles and stick to the 45min plan unless you tell me to change something...