Use the Plan Builder. Specify your A and B races when doing so. Then go with it!
Suggestion given I hate dreadmills.
For my winter runs, I use icebug shoes. They’re from Sweden, designed for winter (example rubber remains cushiony below freezing, quite water proof for when there’s snow/ice/water/slush) and more importantly have recessed carbide lugs so I can confidently run on icy road and have zero slips. It feels like normal shoes. I just did a 10K trail run this afternoon in them.
Overall I’m happy with my IMAZ19 in 12:34:59 I really wish I could have done it 3seconds faster!
I didn’t have time to train enough to get a PR and I learned plenty.
I’m happy with my 1:27 swim especially as i had a great ROI. I only improve my swim at 3+ sessions/wk and invested that precious time in bike & run for most of season. I did hour-long OWS in lake in summer and then did 3 weeks of 3swims/week in pool just before the race (1:35 was target).
I walked quite a bit during marathon (5:14) Left leg started to hurt after 15km which had not happened in any of my 20-30km long runs! Looking back I think
- I need to race more and get some more suffering
- do very long brick instead of just training each segment. I did plenty of bricks but next year, I’ll go for 5+1h or 4+2h bricks
- my running volume was also to blame. There were too many (business travel) weeks that pulled avg down to 32km. I had a dozen solid weeks at 40+km/wk.
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i decided to do Sustained Pwr Build MV first given i have fitness, motivation & energy to burn.
I don’t want to do 5-6 months of base. I’d rather do the intensity indoor then base outdoors 
I’ll take a break once ski season is on then I’ll do the 28weeks (SS base or Full IM Base, etc).
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Where is the new plan builder?
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Interesting! I would also have suggested SSB before FD BBS.
The one of Plan Builder could be a great alternative.
Is it the last 8 weeks of the FD base ? And which 3 weeks of FD build?
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Plan builder for me give me.
- Full distance base for 12 weeks
- Full distance Build for 13 weeks
- Full distance speciality for 8 weeks
Mid volume
Has anyone taken a good look at the new customized plan function? Looks interesting, but I cant help having trust issues with what is spit out… not to say its wrong, but for example in my case, I am nailing 1 70.3 A race, then a 70.3 B race in buildup to my full race. It is spitting out to start with half base, then half build, half specialty, 70.3 A race, recovery week, full build, 70.3 B race, full specialty, then full distance race.
For the most part it seems to check out, but I would have thought it would have spit out full distance base, half build maybe, half specialty, then full build and full specialty, maybe cutting into the full specialty by a few weeks. Alliteratively, my plan was to follow the full training base, build, half specialty, then once the 70.3 A race was complete, full build and full specialty (and cut what needs to be cut).
Anyways, I know theres many ways to skin a cat but it seems to me that the 70.3 base might be too low volume.
I am just hesitant to follow what this thing spits out and yolo it. Any thoughts on what you more experienced folk have done in the past? I think I will use this as a guide but slot the full base instead of the half base and do some mix and match. Cool system, surprised they rolled this out so early, but TBH I am kinda on the fence of waiting to see how the triathlon guinea pigs test with this before I go into this with absolute faith…
Edit: Upon closer inspection I think the problem is the whole “A” vs “B” vs “C” race labels really have a large impact on how the scheduling is done. Would be nice to know the impact of the race labels vs scaling, but I assume thats part of the “secret sauce” of TR so 
I think this is a pretty sweet function but it isn’t “highly intelligent” and tbh, I think it works as a great sanity check and thats about it. Pretty neat function, tbh I had low expectations considering all the permutations and combinations this thing could have but they really simplified it and I think it works for the purpose. I think if it was any more complicated it would require exponentially more complexity to do. For now I will use it as the sanity checker and thats about it!
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Adding onto this, it seems it just mixes and matches the pre-built plans instead of doing a “full custom” plan for you, so you can either
A) Trust fully with what this spits out
B) Make a plan based on your own experience and “sanity check” against what this spits out, seems to check out similar to what I would have done
C) Ignore this function and do it entirely manually if you have trust issues
I like the fact it does not do full custom, as I think theres too much going on to do that, especially with respect to triathlon. Thats more “coach” level where its entirely personalized. Seems like this just takes some guesswork out of your planning, especially if you are not experienced with planning your own race seasons
It’s hard to say this early, and I haven’t tried it yet myself. The suggestion for @JustinDoesTriathlon to do I think 39 weeks of full distance raises my eyebrow.
It’s early release right, so I wouldn’t blindly follow it yet, I’d feedback and ask questions. There are bound to be certain race combinations that throw out imperfect plans.
What does that look like? Is it the standard 8 weeks, then repeat the first 5 weeks, or is it a continual build, with the long rides getting progressively longer throughout the 13 weeks?
Yeah I liked @JustinDoesTriathlon original plan. His spat out plan seems a bit suspect to me as well.
Lanzarote question since you are doing it this upcoming May or have done it in the past.
Trying to determine whether to go tubeless or not. Some of the race reports I’ve read stated that some of the roads towards the end are pretty bad, making me think tubeless might be the best choice to protect against pinch flats. However, I’m a bit wary ever since I had a valve stem leak that I couldn’t seal during a gran fondo earlier this year. Additionally, I’ll be flying with my bike from the states and am not sure if I want to deal with re-setting up tubeless tires once I get to the island. Any idea of the local shops are well-stocked with tires/tubes/sealant?
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I also got a 13 week build and this appears to be what it did.
Hi all,
Will do my first ironman distance triathlon this year at Frenchman in may, an event in France near Bordeaux, with a pretty flat bike course. And will do IM70.3 Vichy in August.
Following the FD mid Volume plan for the bike, i’m at week 4 and going well. Doing BarryP for the run, and for the swim i’m on my own for the moment.
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Vichy is a great race
I need to study it a bit more. As it’s supposed to be MV but most weeks seem just to have 3 rides
Plus its given me a ramp test at the end if the week
But it just seems to repeat weeks 1-5
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It depends on your level of experience as to which part of the training plan it cuts. From memory for more experienced athletes get the base phase cut if there aren’t enough weeks for the full progression while less the experienced get weeks cut from Speciality I think.
I signed up for the Half IM in Memphis, October 2020. I’ve run several marathons, several hand-fulls of Centuries on the bike… I’m was planning to get fit AF on the bike and race a normal road/crit summer, plus a little swimming and running mixed in. But after paying for this entry, I think I might have to get a little more serious.
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