Half-Ironmman Training Plan 2014

I'd like to share my training plan for the first part of this year. There are plenty of sources for free training plans, of course; the one I've used in the past with some success is Ontri.com, but if you search online, you'll find a dozen sites offering a similar, free service. I purchased Triathlete Magazine's Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide by Matt Fitzgerald several years ago. Best $30 I've ever spent on triathlon. I have a few other training books, too: Triathlete's Edge by Marc Evans and The Triathlete's Training Bible by Joe Friel. I base all of my training plans around Fitzgerald's format, modifying based on Evans's and Friel's advice and my own experience.

I modify my training plans for my own needs, but if your needs are similar to mine, you may find my 2014 half-ironman plan helpful. Some details about my personal plan:

• I borrow heavily from Fitzgerald's interval recommendations; the base training plan is his, not mine.
• I write all my own swim workouts, but derive the substance of main set intervals from Fitzgerald's book.
• Most training plans follow a 3 week on, 1 week off pattern--that is, you spend every fourth week recovering. I've found that my body works best with a recovery week every third week. So my training plan gives you 2 weeks on, 1 week off. 
• It's a 20-week training plan, but (as you may notice) 20 does not divide evenly by 3. So the first training block is 4 weeks: 3 weeks on, 1 week off.
• There's a 2-week taper before the half-ironman race.

My training begins next Tuesday (Jan. 21); if you want to do Ironman 70.3 Kansas with me, yours should too! Here's the first training cycle; it covers the next four weeks.

2014 70.3 Plan (Meso-cycle 1)

And a few notes to help you interpret it:

• There are 3 workouts in each discipline each week.
• S=Swim, K=Kick, I=Individual Medley, P=Pull, so SKIPS means 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 IM, 100 pull, 100 swim. It's my favorite warm-up.
• I recommend always doing backstroke for cool-down, to try to reverse some of the repetitive stress on the shoulders from so much freestyle.
• The third sheet in the file has a chart for your heart rate intensities, but it's up to you to determine your training zones; do a quick online search, and you'll find plenty of articles on how to do it.
• This plan uses time instead of distance to set run and bike volume.

If you have any other questions, e-mail me or leave a comment below!