Help me to bridge over from half race to full base

Training
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I never did triathlon, no swimming, almost no running and no serious biking but with the low volume plan of trainerroad and with the help of the forum I managed to finish my first half ironman in Zell am See without killing myself - I was totally flashed I did it in under 6 hours and was so glad I took my chances with trainerroad :partying_face: :partying_face: :partying_face: :partying_face: :partying_face:

NOW I want to go long and was hoping for your help again :hugs:

During the half plan I tried to do the run & bike workouts from trainerroad but I almost never did all of them. For swimming I concentrated on technic and was doing my own thing without following any plan. Of course I want to follow the full plan but on some weeks I will have to cut out some workouts like I did on the half plan. To be honest I want to aim for 10hours but that is another topic.

Event: Hamburg Ironman on 21. June 2020

It’s 41 weeks to go and the low volume plan is 28 weeks (12 base, 8 build, 8 specialty)

So I have 13 weeks to bridge, since my event (01.09) I did nothing :rofl:

I want to do some strength training and downhill riding and I could do Sweet Spot 1 & 2 but this time I want to start the full plan with a buffer so I can get sick or something :sweat_smile: I had the problem with no buffer in the half plan and I don’t want to do it again

For swimming I plan to do only technic for the moment but for running I don’t know what I can/should do until full plan starts.

So to summarise the questions:

1.) How big should the buffer for the full plan be?
2.) What cycling and running workouts should I do before the plan starts
3.) Any complains about harder strength training in the gym

thanks a lot!!!

2 Likes
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Hi Anita

cheers on your 70.3! I’m in a similar boat, some thoughts

As you said, you probably want to add some buffer weeks to your FD plan (vacation/sickness), so start maybe 2-3 earlier

Also over such a long Phase of training it may be beneficial to have some time off from structured training, but that depends on your mental and physical needs (training burnout prevention).

So depending on how you decide you can go with SSB or Traditional Base before your FD plan.

It’s a good time of the year to get strength training going, which you later maintain.

I did little intensity on running last year during the post season, max 30-40 min at easy, but often. Helped me to be fresh for the next phase. It took some mental effort to not continue on all the tempo runs and intensity but I had a great season afterwards.

Finally check out this thread Long term plan for a 70.3 A race next August

2 Likes
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Thank you for the reply and the link - helped a lot :muscle:

My plan is now:

swim:
1-2/week - work with swim smooth drills mainly on my technic

bike
next week I will start in the middle of ssb 1 to have the time to do full ssb 2 and start with a buffer of 3 weeks in the full plan

run
1-2/week - at least one run >40min easy pace and maybe one about 35-40min with faster pace

strength
1-2/week - full body workout

So to summaries I only structure bike and the rest ist more random. Also I want to go riding downhill and will skip a workout here and there from ssb. What do you think do I loose to much fitness?