I’m lucky enough to live very near the new cycling specific wind tunnel that Chris Boardman has opened up in the UK and equally lucky enough to have been bought a session in there as a birthday present from my the wife. The nearest track velodrome is a good hour further away and up until the tunnel opened, i’d have been more than happy to travel to it. Though i do think the wind tunnel is on a par cost wise!
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Hi All
New Trainer road user here. Would anybody be able to help me plan out my season?
I am a time rich 23-year-old Triathle.
Stats about me: 62.5kg, 175cm tall, 315ftp, 1:17:45 open HM, 5:05 400m swim TT. This year my standard of racing has been a few podiums in tri’s with ~400 competitor fields and a 46 overall including pros (2nd in AG) at Alpe d’Huez Triathlon.
At the moment this is how my race calendar looks for 2020
Remaining base training. Not sure which plan yet?
Start a building plan. Not sure which yet?
8 Weeks from first goal race. Thinking of starting Speciality Phase High Volume Sprint Distance.
Race Block 1 - Speed/Threshold
(A) Welsh National Sprint Duathlon Championships - 05/04/2020
(A) Sprint Triathlon ( Chrik) - 19/04/2020
Leaving me 7 Weeks till next goal race. Thinking Speciality Phase High Volume Half Distance Triathlon without the first week, so jumping straight into week 2.
Race Block 2 Threshold/Threshold
(A) British Standard Distance Championships (Leeds) - 07/06/2020
(A) Welsh Triathlon National Middle Distance Triathlon Championships - 13/06/2020
Leaving me 12 weeks till next goal race. Thinking of jumping straight into the final 4 weeks of the Build Plan High Volume Full Distance Triathlon. Then finishing with Speciality of the same plan.
Race block 3 - Endurance/Long
(A) Ironman wales - 06/09/2020
Questions?
What training plans would people recommend I use for the remaining base training?
What build training plans would people recommend I use for pre Speciality Sprint Distance? (Build sprint would be the obvious answer but given I have some longer races later in the year. Without the gap for a build. Might Standard or half distance build work better as it works on speed and endurance)
Would Speciality Half or Standard be better leading into block 2 where I am racing both distances of race back to back?
Am I ok to jump straight into the 2nd week of the Speciality plan after race block 1 or should I take one week easy then start at week 3 instead?
Same Question with starting the build after race block 2 (so 4 weeks of build vs 1 rest week and 3 build weeks).
Can I have this many A Race? or should I pick 1 A race per block and derank the others to B races?
Should I try a year with mid-volume first before going straight to high?
Sorry if these seem like silly questions. I would just like to have the import from some more knowledgable minds at this early stage.
Cheers,
Wilf
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Checking in, 1 and a half weeks out from Busselton!
A couple of weeks ago, I did the Murray Man 70.3 - knocked a huge chunk off my PB (about 16 minutes from 5:06ish to 4:49:09).
Swim plus T1 (timing issues) 37:18
Bike: 2:29:05
Run: 1:41:14
I came 21st out of 163, and 3rd in my category (again). My swim was ordinary, and I had to stop two or three times in the first 800m to catch my breath. I nearly swore off Busselton, it was so bad! Fortunately, I found a rhythm after that and finished much stronger than I started.
T1 went pretty well, except my visor fell off my Rudy helmet ,and I had to faff about putting it back in.
The bike went even better than last year, although I didn’t get a chance to draft off anyone the whole race. I think I had a much steadier effort though, with my NP reading 199W (which means a NP of about 230-235W thanks to an inaccurate power meter). It got super windy by the 2nd lap (of 4) and so I was grateful for a few blustery training days in the weeks leading up.
The run went amazingly well. The first 5k my legs felt like lead, but after that, I felt like I could just keep on running forever.
Now, having finished my last big weekend of training, and beginning my 2 taper weeks, I’m starting to look forward to the big day. Last night’s swim was in appalling conditions - the waves had me airborne a few times, but I felt like I was much happier swimming in a wetsuit than I had been at Barmera.
My biggest concern is a saddle sore that won’t settle. I have a 90 minute brick session tonight, so I will see if that aggravates things too much, and if it does, I might need to take the rest of the week off the bike.
Last night, I boxed up my TT bike, and it’s being shipped off to Perth today. Fingers crossed it arrives before we do!
After my first 4k swim last weekend, I’m finally beginning to believe that I can finish this thing. If I can finish the swim, I can finish the race.
Goal time is 10h30m. I think if things go perfectly, I could get CLOSE to 10:00, but I don’t think things can go that well. I also have never run a marathon, so the last 15km will be the real test.
Can’t wait!
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Lack of sleeping killing me!
3.5h last night 
It’s not showing any effect on my training sessions, but when I’m not training I’m a bit out of it which means work and family are affected.
I’m going to restart my bedtime routine again tonight, see if that helps.
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I’ve averaged 8.25hrs/night over the last 7 days 
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That sounds terrible! What’s up with the sleep @JoeX ?Anything you can control or improve?
I’d ‘like’ that but I’m too jealous.
I’ve always struggled to sleep more than six hours. I’d blame my toddler but she’s an angel and slept through last night 20:30-07:30. Me on the other hand…00:08 to 03:38. 
A routine helps, so prep for tomorrow at 8pm, no internet browsing (or podcasts on planning periodised training) after 9pm tonight, close eyes at 10pm. 
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Hello all!
Jumping into this thread for the first time. Been doing triathlon for about 4-5 years and have done Ironman Louisville 2018 and have done 5 – 70.3 races along with a large handful of Sprint and Olympic distance races.
I am registered for Ironman Wisconsin in September this year along with another 70.3 (Ohio) and will sprinkle in a few Sprint and Olympic races and maybe an open half marathon.
Just came off the Columbus, OH marathon in late October and I am 3 weeks into a split between Base LV and SSLVII. Doing a moderate amount of work on the trainer to keep my base and build up the FTP a little……also in the gym and the pain cave right now to keep the strength up.
I am self-coached, so I am debating using a TR Full Distance plan and modifying just a bit.
Has anyone in here had any success with the TR Full Distance plans? Did you modify very much?
Thanks, and look forward to bouncing ideas and trade secrets back and forth 
Christoph Winter’s “The Sleep Solution” is an excellent read on sleep and how to fix it. Helped me to get from okay to great sleep. If it’s holding you back I’d suggest to start there.
TR full distance low volume all the way last season. Modified the runs a bit, substituted some Sunday rides with longer outdoor rides and swam a bit less than prescribed. Great results, comfortably finishing near 10hrs and a sub5 bike split. Recommended all day.
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Wow. Those are some great numbers, thanks for the feedback. My swim is average, bike is above average, and my run needs works. I’ll look into that plan, thanks again
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I’m having to do more of my run training on the treadmill this year because of logistics and the area that I live in. Do you have any tips to help deals with not running outside and mitigating some of physiological side of effects of just being in the TM?
For the three years leading up to March this year, I spent months at a time getting 4-5 hours of sleep per night while deployed. Now that that part of my life is over (and I’m much more informed about how important sleep is) I prioritize it above almost everything else. Because of my current schedule, I end up doing a lot of bikes/runs in the morning, and if something comes up that causes me to choose between working out on less than six hours of sleep or getting more than seven hours of sleep, I choose sleep every time. I have to take time at the beginning of the week to plan everything around getting the workouts in, but fortunately I can make it work. We don’t have kids (only a puppy), but I can’t imagine making it work if we did have kids with our schedules right now.
Unfortunately it sounds like your problem is a bit different (poor sleep and not just lack of time) but I’ve also heard good things about the book @TG333 mentioned.
One thing we do is set a “tripwire” so that a bit after 8pm, we drop whatever we’re doing and go upstairs to get ready for bed. It works…as long as we actually actually follow it 
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Lavender claymores before bed on that tripwire? 
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Googled that phrase to no avail, but I’m assuming it’s some sort of innuendo…? 
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Haha, negative on the innuendo…
The smell of Lavender is known to help you fall asleep faster 
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Okay last post it’s 21:12 here, just bathed the toddler so a bit behind schedule.
Went to one of the sites TR linked (will update later) which recommended going to bed (sleep) at 9 or 10:30 to wake at 06:15.
Got through my threshold lunch swim okay (45mins), in the evening fell apart halfway through Clark, Sweet Spot felt like VO2max so dropped intensity to 80% to finish it off…!
Not pretty but thought I’d put it up as a warning/guidance for anyone pushing through tiredness.
And then did a 25min treadmill run, at lint run pace 
Good night all!
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I am not looking at participating in any Ironman event in 2020, however 2021 will be my year.
I already ride centuries so I only need to focus on two sports for the next year. End of 2020 (October) I will run the Frankfurt Marathon and directly afterwards start to training for Ironman Frankfurt.
First thing is to buy running shoes…
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Check our the running thread, there is some marathon focus there and a 2020. Weston will start soon.
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Id love to say “yes” but I’m only exploring indoor running seriously now. So far it seems;
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Way less mature than indoor cycling - which surprises me.
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Running mechanics and run form is not the same as running outside.
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Pacing indoors is harder than outdoors.
Im mixing indoor and outdoor at the moment, while I can see potential value in intervals and tempo runs, the fact that treadmills have unknown velocity combined with tricky calibration of devices reduces likelihood of realising the benefit.