Hi, I hope this can help my decision but also provide insights to the community.
I am training for a Half-Ironman (June 2025), with the goal of sub 5 hours. I’m 40, working full time and with family. I don’t like the TR AI generated training plan, especially because it won’t fit my work and family life.
Therefore, my solution is to train the three disciplines with separate training plans, but I will make sure they will fit together well, especially in terms of management of overall training load and recovery weeks. I already have professionally developed training plans for swimming and running.
My question is, which specialty phase (or, cycling training plan) will be best for me?
Consider that the bike is my weakest discipline, and that my goal is to race the 90k of the bike leg hopefully within 2.5 hours.
Thank you,
Stefano
What is the course like? Flat? Hilly?
As a generalisation, I would start with a lot of rides like Round Bald +2 / +3 and Gammon along with a smattering of Red Lake +5 / +6 / +7
Others that know more will have other suggestions
thanks! the course is described as “rolling”, but it is just a very general indication. It’s 90k, so I am undecided on which “cycling plan” put in my TR calendar.
In the “custom plan” the system automatically select it for you based on the “type” of event you include into the plan. However, description of events is a bit limited.
Criterium is obviously not what I need.
Grand fondo seems too long.
40k TT seems too short.
Rolling and Climbing road races seems focused on burst of power, and possibly a final sprint.
So I am quite undecided 
Hey there and welcome to the TR community!
Out of curiosity, what about the TR plans won’t fit into your work and family life compared to the separate plans you’ve chosen? If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it!
Regarding the Specialty Phase, I think the Half Distance Tri plan or the 40k TT road plan would suit your needs. Both would have you focusing on the long, sustained efforts you’ll need to work on in preparation for the race.
You could also use Plan Builder while choosing either a Triathlon or Cycling focus to map out your training until June of 2025. That would also cover your Base and Build Phases of training, which would then lead you into the final Specialty Phase.
Hope that helps – feel free to let us know if you have additional questions!
Thank you.
Two main reasons for TR Half Distance Tri not fitting my schedule.
- two many double workouts per day per week
- I will do only 1 swim per week
My ideal schedule is one workout per day and one rest day: rest-bike-run-bike-run-bike-run. I’ll do one swim per week, when I can, fitting family duties (I have the 2k swim in my “arms”, and I can’t train more that this ideal schedule–so no reason to improve 5 total minutes here, much better to improve 60min on the bike 
)
Also, I am much better at running and I am more independent in training the run, I mean, I know what to do and have quite some experience. However, I need to focus on the bike, that’s where I’ll make the largest improvement.
So yes I do the plan builder but there are couple of issues:
- why I can’t anymore rearrange the schedule on each specific block, and for example choose the “type” of phase such as polarized?
- if I choose the cycling focus on the plan builder, that is exactly my doubt: what kind of cycling event is best?
Thank you so much for all the support
What duration of workout can you do on the 3 bike days per week in your schedule?
Well, there I have a bit of flexibility. For now in my other base and build plans 60, 60 and 90-120 (weekend), have worked well. I can sometimes add one more day, for example I can do 60min early morning and then push the run in the afternoon/evening.
I usually train early mornings. And I love the polarized approach. Therefore I do the large majority of my training at low intensity both in biking and running.
I am increasingly pleased with the results I am seeing from rides that broadly fit with the type of training described in this thread Recent Flo podcast with Steve Neal
In TR terms, variants of Round Bald are a pretty close fit.
To build the aerobic base to support a 2.5h ride in a triathlon, I think they would work very well.
Between now and June, you have plenty of time to a massive base build and supplement it with some race specific supra threshold stuff.
Got it – I will pass that feedback along to the rest of the team, thank you!
We have made some edits to Plan Builder recently, so it’s possible that some things work a little bit differently than you might already be used to. Check out some of the updates and new features in this other thread if you haven’t seen it already:
You can also still add Polarized plans/phases to your plan if you’d like. Instructions on that can be found in the following article:
For a cycling plan, I think the 40k TT option would be a good fit. While you aren’t doing a 40k TT, the workouts in that plan will still do a great job preparing you for the type of effort you’ll be doing in your half-distance IM. It focuses on muscular endurance and improving your steady-state power capabilities, which is what you’ll need for success in your event.
Welcome to the forums, we have a small - but perfectly formed - community of Ironman triathletes you can chat this sort of thing over with here:
I’ve highlighted three points from your post;
-
Sub 5 is a serious target, this does not play well with a one sport per day constraint. I would lift your time goal, and rather see what best performance to can get.
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Combining three single sport training plans into a tri plan is a very common mistake that often leads to frustration, burnout and or injury. If you aren’t looking for a triathlon plan then I would suggest you either take a run plan and add only easy bikes, or take a bike plan and add only easy runs. Neither are as good as a tri plan.
I haven’t mentioned swim because there is no way and no plan that will improve swimming to the level of a sub 5 athlete on one swim per week.
- You haven’t mentioned your recent performance, so hard to say but this would lend itself to a focus on hard bike sessions and only easy run sessions.
Most of us have family and full time jobs so we have lots of insight to share that might help you. Have fun!
I agree with @JoeX points.
What are the gaps you are trying to close? I wpuld want to know that before deciding a plan of action.
How close to a sub 2hr30 bike are you?
Swim and run already aligned with your sub 5hr goal, can you afford to just maintain these to hit the bike target for example.
I think you’ve got to be an exceptional responder to training to go sub 5 without a significant number of 2 a-days
Plus or minus as few minutes depending on ones strenghts…
Swim - 32 minutes (about 1:39 - 1:40 per 100m)
Bike - 2h 40m (21mph / 33.8kmh)
Run - 1h 35m (7:15 per mile / 4:30 per km)
T1/T2 - 8 minutes
Gives 5 minutes wiggle room for HIM staring with a 4
I did a bit of analysis a few years ago using stats from Coachcox - my sub 5 would be 30, 2h30, 1h50. A rare combination needing a flattish bike course like Barca.
It seems that most are running 1h3x
Hi Stefano, and nice with a lofty goal. If you reach it or not, going through the progress of training for a HIM will make you fitter!
I would agree with above that a low volume half triathlon plan from TR would probably work great. You can delete the TR run/swim sessions if you prefer your own program. This way you still get a nice progression over time.
There are others that only swim 1x per week and they manage as well. You can combine one of the run sessions with one of the bike sessions so that you don’t get “double days”.
If you really want to do a cycling plan I would suggest general base I-III, sustained power build, grand fondo or 40k TT. This will provide you workouts in the right energy systems, although less specific to your event than the triathlon plan. It’s what people did here before there were triathlon plans though.
Let us know how you decide!
Thank you all, really useful insights.
My times now are (give or take):
- 00:40-45 swim
- 2:50-3:00 bike
- 1:40-1:45 run
So my total could be 5:30:00. I have 9 months of training so I am confident and I love this challenge 
In terms of mixing different plans: I have some experience with structured running training, and my swim time is basically done with zero training, and my bike is definitely the weakest discipline. But I am aware that I cannot really “mix” plans, but rather I should “merge” plans in a smart way.
My main focus will be the structured bike training plan, and the running program will be tailored around the bike, possibly with a vast majority of easy run, 1 long run in the weekend, and 1 threshold run every other week. In running training, I will slowly increase load and weekly mileage.
I am also pretty aware about overtraining, that’s why I’d prefer to keep a low intensity focus in the majority of my sessions, possibly with only 1 intense bike day per week, and 1 intense run every other week–plus long bike on Saturdays and long run on Sundays).
Listening to all your advices, I think I will go for the Half-Distance Tri plan, following the bike plan as closely possible, and managing my runs around it.
Thank you all, I’ll follow up with updates and possible insights for all of you 