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NEW TRAINING PLANS: Minimalist Ironman

Coach RichCoach Rich
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Team,

Many of you have asked us for tweaks to reduce the volume of our Ironman training plans and so we've created for you a suite of "minimalist" Ironman training plans. 

The basic weekly template of these plans is different from what you're used to:

Basic Week Template:


  • Mon: Swim Long set (but easy)
  • Tues: FTP Bike + up to 30' run.
  • Wed: FTP Run + Swim
  • Thu: VO2 Bike + optional hill run.
  • Fri: Swim + Strides (Adv only)
  • Sat: Long Ride, minimum 240 mins.
  • Sun: Long Run
You'll notice that the Sunday ride has disappeared and has been replaced by a Sunday long run. And Thursday is now another interval-based ride, similar to the Tuesday ride. 

 

Sunday long run: yes, we like you guys to run on Thursday, for many reasons. But the fact is that for many of you Sunday is just a better day, so we've made that change for you with this plan. You'll notice that Monday is a no-legs, swim-only day, to allow you to recover a bit from the weekend. 

Finally, these plans are 12wks only, the Race Prep phase of your training

These plans are available for you in the drop down menu of your Training Plan Page, so feel free to load it up and check out the details. 

 

Comments

  • Leslie KnightLeslie Knight
    Awesome!  This is pretty much what my time crunched weeks already look like. I work about 8AM to 6pm most days, with some starting earlier than that.  Long run on Thursday was going to start getting dicy with 0300 wake ups later in the plan...those runs were going to probably move to Sunday.
  • Phil MillsPhil Mills
    As in all things, there are trade offs. What would be the fitness impact of following a "minimalist" plan vs the beginning IM plan? I am contemplating completing my first IM next season. The lower volume would be an easier sell to the wifey, but would that make for a longer race day?
  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    Posted By Phil Mills on 13 Aug 2014 05:49 PM


    As in all things, there are trade offs. What would be the fitness impact of following a "minimalist" plan vs the beginning IM plan? I am contemplating completing my first IM next season. The lower volume would be an easier sell to the wifey, but would that make for a longer race day?

    First, training volume isn't a good differentiator between our Beg, Int, and Adv IM plans. The difference between these plans is much more in their respective intensity rather than volume. So the Beg IM training plan isn't really a lower volume plan then the others, if that make sense. In other words, you chose which plan to do according to your ability, not time constraints. 

    Second, the biggest differences between these plans and our "standard" IM plans are:

    • Movement of Thurs run to Sunday
    • Sunday ride (about 3-3.4hrs across all plans, at Z3) is replaced by a Thurs ~60-75' high intensity ride. 

    In my experience:

    • Some people just can't do a 2-2.5hr run on Thurs and a 3-3.5hr ride on Sunday. It's a non-starter and this plan is for them. 
    • The standard Sunday ride is an excellent tool for creating a very strong diesel engine. That is, the weekday interval ride increases the raw horsepower of your engine. The Saturday ride converts this to endurance. The Sunday ride compliments the Saturday ride, but trades intensity for time, and the net is you're just able to sustain a good bit of work for a long time. 
    • The "new" Thurs ride is an excellent combination of time efficiency and ROI, as measured by it's potential to increase your raw horsepower. That is, Tues + Thurs = legit sessions. Add Saturday to it and that's a legit bike week, in terms of training stress applied. 

    The net is that your training should always fit within the Box of time that life gives you. This plan is for people with smaller boxes and we are therefore training volume for intensity. 

    Finally, I'd say that users of this plan should:

    • REALLY do your best to get in the camp week, as written in Wk15 and maybe figure out how / bank SAUs to get clearance to "maybe" extend the weekend volume in wks 16 and 17. 
    • Be aware that the Saturday ride / Sunday long run turn will tough in the later weeks of the plan. I stopped doing and scheduling long runs on Sunday for Ironman athletes in about 2003, for very good reasons. But, again, the weekly template of these low volume plans is a function of a Thurs long run and Sunday long bike simply being a non-starter for some people. 
  • Keith ShacklefordKeith Shackleford
    I will probably stick with the standard plan. But I appreciate you guys recognizing the difficulty of of fitting in those long runs on Thursdays. Will we be able to easily see the Thurs Bike sets for those weeks when we really need to swap the Thurs Sun workouts, without reloading the training plans?
  • Gabe PetersonGabe Peterson
    Very cool! Any plans for a minimalist half ironman plan? Squeezing the long run in on Thursday can be challenging.
  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    Posted By Keith Shackleford on 14 Aug 2014 08:39 AM


    I will probably stick with the standard plan. But I appreciate you guys recognizing the difficulty of of fitting in those long runs on Thursdays. Will we be able to easily see the Thurs Bike sets for those weeks when we really need to swap the Thurs Sun workouts, without reloading the training plans?

    No, sorry. The only way you'll be able to see those is to load up the low volume plan, look for what you want to see, then load up your "old" plan, etc. 

  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    Posted By Gabe Peterson on 14 Aug 2014 08:42 AM


    Very cool! Any plans for a minimalist half ironman plan? Squeezing the long run in on Thursday can be challenging.

    Yep. When we catch a break, we plan to use this flavor of IM plans to create a similar flavor of HIM plans, with the long run on Sundays vs Thurs. 

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