For a bit of perspective, I am a long distance triathlete with a PB of 10h06mins at IM Copenhagen and several 10h times in Frankfurt and Austria respectively. My 70.3 PB is 4:45 in Dubai.
I have always had a coach plan my sessions, but I’ve been away from competition for a few years and I want to get back to it on my own, or rather, with TrainerRoad as my coach this time around.
As I plan my season it’s quite easy to schedule triathlon and cycling events, but I cannot seem to find a way to schedule marathons or half marathons.
Has anyone found a way of incorporating running specific training whtourh TR?
Another questions I have is, I am 48YO and it seems TR does not plan anything over 10-11hrs of training for us old farts!!! I am used to training roughly 20hrs when I am all in on these races, which I plan to be for the 2025 season. Is there a way around this limitations, or should I just cheat and change my age on my profile so the system gives me more training sessions over the course of the week?
Thakns in advance for all your help/comments/support.
Currently, TrainerRoad doesn’t offer running-specific plans, so events entered into your TR Calendar need to be cycling or triathlon-focused. However, you can add your marathon or half-marathon events to the TR Calendar as an “Other Activity.” To do this, click on the TR Calendar, select “Add Activity,” and choose the “Other Activity” option. This will allow you to categorize the event and add relevant details like the date and goal.
While TR’s triathlon plans do include running workouts, they are designed to balance running with cycling and swimming. If your focus is solely on preparing for a marathon, the triathlon running sessions/plan might not be ideal. If you have other triathlon events coming up, though, they would serve you well!
Regarding training hours, Adaptive Training doesn’t specifically cap hours based on age. Instead, it scales your plan to your recent training history and gradually ramps up your volume. If you haven’t been training close to 20 hours per week recently, Adaptive Training will start you at a lower volume and increase it as you progress. This ensures a more sustainable buildup in your training stress.
If you feel a workout is too easy or you’d like a longer session (or if a workout is too hard or you’d like a shorter one), Workout Alternates allow you to swap in a workout that will give you similar benefits.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Welcome to the forums …can’t believe you didn’t post in the Ironman Training threads!
For marathon training you have a few options imho; switch to single sport training, have a maintenance level of bike, or continue to train like a triathlete. I’ve tried them all and I’m still rubbish at marathons.
The key thing with backing off and focussing on running is that you can’t run nearly as much as you can bike and swim and your aerobic engine is developed on going up to weeks of 20hrs.
So, in your place, Id weigh up the marathon plan with enough bike and swim to maintain the overall engine, and watch for which sessions are impacting your run training.
I have two half marathons I want to do just to work on a bit of speed before the IM season starts in April. They are C races tbh and I can just do them as part of a long run on the weekend, but I was looking for some specific run sessions to work on speed.
Regarding the limits on the training hours, I eventually created the training plan and I see my weeks are starting at 12h for the first few weeks and they do ramp up to slightly under 20h, which I really is what I was looking for.
similar profile to you, but I’m about a decade ahead When I train for tri/du/aquabike/gravel versions of the same, I only use TR for the bike part. The running I base off years of experience, which comes from a lot of sources. The best reference I ever found (especially when I was competing at open 1/2 and full marathon distances) was The Daniels Formula book. It’s the closest I’ve found to a TR style program - get values from a chart based on recent all out run performances (equivalent to a ramp test), then plug those values into the program, which will give you specific workouts at specific paces
Thanks for the feedback, and I hope I’m still pushing some watts in about a decade’s time
I’ll go with the sessions TR has set me and the 8 weeks before the half marathons I’ll switch swimming for running specific sessions. Like I said, I’ve always had a coach but with 14years of triathlon training and racing, I feel I can give it a go with TR and some changes I make personally to the program.
Thanks and all the best in the training and racing!
For what it’s worth, I’ve used TR as a main driver towards half marathon fitness in the past (last winter/spring).
I set my half marathon race in my TR calendar as a 40k TT event which mimics the demands of that type of race. Then I followed the plan while building a solid base and getting some running mileage in, and slowly started prioritizing running as I approached the event.
As of now, we don’t have running-specific plans (I’d love that someday), but I found that it worked pretty well to get most of the specific/structured aerobic stimulus from the TR workouts and then take on generalized running workouts based on how I felt each day (easy run, progressive tempo/threshold, on/offs, strides, etc.). This helped me to ensure that I’d be aerobically fit and also have enough weekly mileage in my legs come race day.
This was my first running race and I performed way better than expected, so this somewhat loose approach seemed to work pretty well for me!
…can’t believe you didn’t post in the Ironman Training threads! 
When I train for tri/du/aquabike/gravel versions of the same, I only use TR for the bike part. The running I base off years of experience, which comes from a lot of sources. The best reference I ever found (especially when I was competing at open 1/2 and full marathon distances) was The Daniels Formula book. It’s the closest I’ve found to a TR style program - get values from a chart based on recent all out run performances (equivalent to a ramp test), then plug those values into the program, which will give you specific workouts at specific paces