Yeah don’t worry about getting too anal about the training plan. When you finish this one, if you want to do another one, you’ll be ready for more detailed training.
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I read this entire thread and will give you my .02 worth as well.
Find a Master’s class that has an on-deck swim coach. Pay for swim lessons. Do NOT stress on the swim until you can get into the water. Why? Much easier to learn correct technique before you develop BAD technique. This will give you the best bang for your $$$.
Use the time now to lift and develop upper body strength and endurance. Pushups (how I HATE those things) are great.
For the bike, follow the TR plan of your choosing.
For the run, you can follow the TR plan. Or just freakin run easy. Stay in Z2 if you can. Give your legs/body time to adapt to the running stress. For a n=1, during this covid stuff, I just ran for time about 3x a week. My runs got faster for the same or lower RPE. This is also part of the Barry plan – just getting miles in.
This is all about having fun. There is a TON of stuff to learn for triathlon. But the community is very supportive and helpful. Be consistent, know advancement is not linear, and at times, this just plain is aweful. Keep this fun.
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Thanks for the feedback. Yes I’ll be getting swimming lessons as soon as possible. So in your opinion I should wait for the pools and classes to reopen, rather than going swimming on my own on the lake?
Also, do you have any “dry land” exercises or strength training plan to point me towards? I found a few youtube videos, but nothing very structured.
As for the rest, I just started the mid volume olympic base for the bike. Today was actually my first workout (Monitor) and it went pretty well. I ended up keeping my previous FTP of 197, as I did a zwift race on Friday and managed to get a 20 min power of 205w, so pretty close to my previous ramp test. The workout felt “comfortably uncomfortable” as a Sweet Spot workout should feel, so I think the FTP is set correctly. Now I just need to follow the plan and hopefully see a better result in a few weeks/months.
For the run I think I’ll keep doing my Z2 runs as you mention, 3 times a week.
Thanks again for the help.
Yes. Everyone around you is in the same situation of lack of pool access. Don’t develop bad habits and you will be faster overall in the long run.
Not really. There is a ton of discussion on strength training here and other places. If you want something simple that will help overall, based on my N=1, is simply do @Abi_Carver Yoga15 workouts. I don’t know your overall fitness background. Her stuff is something you can follow (I have to pause it periodically to catch up) and do at home and will help with your body overall.
HTH. Keep asking questions.
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Yes you should keep and use whatever your test result says, it reflects your current fitness and sometimes that means a dip or no change.
Holding 205W for 20mins is reflective of an FTP around 190 in my book Id ise a 0.93 multiplier as its not following a protocol with a clearing effort - but thats just me.
Either way, I wouldnt worry too much about it. I think we all fall into the trap of seeing it as our High Score (in fact Im just celebrating a new high myself), but its just a yardstick for training really. Your High Scores come from your race performances 
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I used the TR HIM program last year and it worked fine. I just did the swim myself. Swimsmooth is a good website https://www.swimsmooth.com/ for technique and useful visualisations. I went from no tri to sprint , olympic, HIM and IM in under 2 years. Had to learn freestyle with a bit of coaching but got to the point where I didn’t lose too much time on the swim. Just build a base to get you round with energy left for the rest. With the HIM last year I didn’t bother swimming until 8 weeks before ( having done no regular swimming for 10 years since IM) and still got round ok. I always went with the 3/3/3 split with the swim dropping if pushed for time. For the run you don’t need to do the full distance - I never ran more than 15 miles for IM and had no trouble in the marathon (4.20). The bike helps the run but not vice versa. Consistent training is the key. I had a coach for IM and have never trained so consistently which meant I never felt I wouldn’t finish . I tend to be bottom half of the pack for perspective with no special background in any of the disciplines. Don’t forget to practise transitions you can lose or gain a lot of places in those changeovers.
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Disagree with this.
A bike helps with the run, and the run helps with the bike.
Strong running will give you stronger bike too specially the ability to resist higher intensity for long periods of time.
Maybe things have changed but that was always the general advice I was given. Undoubtedly, there are some gains in CV but the used muscles are different.
A brief search seems to have a mix of opinion but I anecdotally made more gains in my running than cycling when IM training, having done more running previously and very little cycling
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I actually debated if I should keep the previous test or the new. The ramp tests were 10 days apart. The second ramp was a little “atypical” as I described previously, so I ended up keeping the previous result. But as you said, I don’t think it really matters all that much at this point (with the newbie gains, I expect the body will adapt quickly). If I struggle to keep up with the workouts, I’ll adjust it.
I think the run can help a little with the cardio part of the bike, but then the limit becomes really quickly the muscle strength, technique and core stability. I agree that the bike has more cross-training benefit to run, specially being low impact and allowing higher intensity on the workouts with lower injury risk.
i started 3 years ago, but only Duathlon with 47 years, i cycled the half of my life, but started running with age of 47, so anyway i think it’s good, when you walk a lot, it worked total good for me.
i have a dog, so i walk with him to work, take a walk on lunch time and back to home, mostly after my trainings sessions i walk again with my dog, so it is a good base and recovery.
the first 2 years i went often 2 times a day on a small city mountain, think it helped me really a lot too
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You are not wrong. In a tri race a faster bike will be better than a fast run, but that doesnt mean that running is not important or helpful.
I see them as complementary. A person should be able to still run hard off the bike on a race. The only way to do that is training at the speed you will race…
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Hmmmm…not certain that is correct. All my experience says that a faster run is where most races are won and lost.
And way too manmy people say they had a “great bike” but then fall apart on the run. You can’t have a “great bike” if your run turns to poop. Triathlon is a 3 discipline event…the only determinant of a great race is your finish time.
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Ok…maybe i didn’t explain it correctly.
I have learned that its better to be 10 minute faster on the bike and 5 minutes slower on the run (about 23 s per mile slower) than saving energy and had a faster run. We all know 23 sec per mile is huge when it comes to running. In cycling the extra 1 mph is about 20 w.
A faster bike will eventually lead to a faster race, if you sacrifice running a little bit, but that doesn’t mean you can neglect running.
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Yeah, but 20W is HUGE, especially across an IM course…I just did some quick figuring on Best Bike Split based on the IMWI course.
5:26 split (~21mph): 180w NP, IF .56, TSS 169
5:36 split (~20mph): 165w NP, IF: 52, TSS 151
Now, I should be able to execute a good run off either of those splits…but if you take those same 15w and add it to the 5:26 split, it changes substantially for me.
5:13 split (~21.3mph): 195w NP, IF .61, TSS 193
Sure, on the surface, you would trade 5 minutes on the run for 10 min on the bike…but a 10 minute difference on the bike is likely going to cost you more than 5 minutes on the run. And if you can get the 10/5 tradeoff, then you probably weren’t pacing your bike properly in the first place.
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Thanks for posting that analysis. I agree that it’s very easy to look at the bike and say “That’s almost half my race, if I can improve one discipline by 5% it should be the bike.” But the sneaky catch is that aerodynamics make a 5% increase in your bike FTP get you 2-4% gain in speed depending on where you’re starting off.
In the above example, working backwards it seems he has roughly a 320FTP. A 9% gain would be moving up to an FTP of 349. (No easy feat there.) If he wanted to do his IM at a 0.56IF (low but hey we have numbers) that would mean instead of 180W he would do 195W. And as we saw above, that would get him 13min or a savings of 4%.
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Hmmm…you just pointed someything out that is off with my analysis. I had my FTP in there at 260w…but in some previous analysis, it was at 320 (forgot why I did that since that is well beyond my reach, but whatever…).
So the 180w NP example is really a .70 IF…I’ll rework the examples and see how the numbers adjust overall…but they will only serve to underline my point, I think…going up 15-20w is a huge uptick in your bike effort and one that will likely sabotage your run.
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I think investing on the bike has one big plus not directly related to just the bike split time. If you increase your ftp, you can lower your exertion on the bike, saving your legs and being fresher off the bike to start the run.
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It depends on your pacing strategy…yes, if you raise your FTP and keep your previous power goals, then you exertion level will be lower, likely setting your self up for a better run.
Or, you can keep your original planned IF and get a faster bike split for the same exertion level.
I would say it depends on your confidence in your run.
For me, as a mediocre runner, I used my strength (the bike) to set me up for a good run…while I was never able to pull off a good run in a full IM (long stories…ugh), it worked with great success for multiple 70.3, including punching my ticket (twice) to Chatty Worlds in 2017.
I always rode within myself on the bike (which still often got me a top bike split) and then hit the run relatively fresh.
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I did IM Switzerland and particularly the Germans would be uber bikers and then die on the run. I started on the run and met a guy who was a much faster biker and was already on his third band. I ended up passing him before the finish. At the elite level good bikers seem to need a good margin to escape being cleared up by the stronger runners. Best to be good at everything ike Chrissie Wellington!
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Depending on the race, no?
On a full IM fo sure… 20 w on 112 miles its huge.
20w on a 70.3 less of an impact.
My point was (and is) there is a point (and is individual) where your overall race is faster on a faster bike split and slower run. I would rather lose 20s per mile on a run (a huge drop) if i can finish the race 1 or 2 minutes faster by having a faster bike split.
The problem is. Too many triathletes (specially age groupers) tend to bike super fast and then no legs for the run. And its not because they are not good runners, but because they over estimate the benefits of quick bike slower run.
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