The 2018 OutSeason® Plans are Here!
Our OutSeason® Training Plans combine our focus on Quality Training with a commitment to Early Season Consistency. The result? In just fourteen weeks (14) you will build incredible bike and run fitness, setting the tone for the remainder of your season.
Over the past ten years more than 5,000 athletes have taken the Endurance Nation OutSeason® challenge. Training together as group, the energy and motivation are contagious -- it’s hard not to get faster!
Official OutSeason® Start Dates are:
2018 OutSeason Training Plan Availability
If you go to your Training Plan page and click on the Move/Change My Training Plan button, you'll see the 2018 OutSeason® are available. By early November, we will remove the 2017 OS plans from the drop down and automagically update the plan for anyone who is lagging behind (the same end date).
Overview
The plans have been updated again for 2018, with changes on both the micro and macro level. These are completely new plans and we're excited to see your improvements! You can read about most of these changes on the Training Plan Central Page here.
Training Plan Focus: Bike or Run
Now you can choose the area you want to work on. In general, the rule of thumb is that in your ODD years of EN Membership (1, 3, 5, etc) you should pick the Run Focus OutSeason®; and in your EVEN years of EN Membership (2, 4, 6) you should pick the Bike Focus OutSeason®. This ensures a balance across multiple years of training, and it dovetails with our Three Year Plan Guidance for how you should focus.
Run Focus Plan = Durability Runs plus One Quality Run. Two Quality Bikes.
Bike Focus Plan = Three Quality Bikes + Durability Running.
Training Plan Levels: 1, 2 and 3 (3 being the Most Challenging)
2018 represents the end of the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced labels. There are plenty of experienced folks who needed to use the Beginner Level, but resisted because they were veterans...and of course, great athletes who used the Beginner plans because they were first-timers to EN (not beginners).
Now you can choose your plan level off of your relative strength within the context of that plan. The higher the level, the harder the plan. In general, we recommend:
Level One = Newer Athletes to the Sport or Athletes Returning from a layoff / injury
Level Two = Consistent Athletes with 1 to 2 years of experience, continuing to build.
Level Three = Experience / High Performing Athletes looking for a breakthrough year.
Combined Main Sets
Rather than three separate plans by ability level, we have combined them into a single plan -- aka no more toggling plans just to see what other folks are doing. This is great for athletes who are a Level One Runner but a Level Two Biker. Or for athletes who want to start with Level One in the First Cycle, then move up to Level Two as they regain fitness.
Three Phases of Work/Testing
The OutSeason® has traditionally been two phases of 8 and 6 weeks respectively. In 2018, we have moved to three phases -- both for increased benchmarking as well as additional “rest” phases between the work.
4 Work + 1 Test as 1-4 (5)
4 Work + 1 Test as 6-9 (10)
3 Work + 1 Test as 11-13 (14)
Each “work” phase will have a training focus; each “test” phase will give 3 days for recovery before testing the focus discipline and returning to a regular training weekend. Bike and Run disciplines will both test in the final OS week.
Please Note: You do not HAVE TO test; we recommend it but it is your call!
Aggregated Resources
We have heard the call for help with our training plans, and we are doing our best to get organized. The first step has been to beef up the main OutSeason Plan Page resources for Members via the Training Plan Central Page:
Training Plan > Training Plan Central Page > OutSeason Plan Resources (here)
Here you will find links to the most relevant instructional resources, as well as the various tracking sheets around Body Composition, Running Durability, and Core.
Swim and Strength Options Remain Monday / Friday
Recommended: Monday and Friday should be rest days to allow for recovery.
Bonus Work: We encourage folks to do some core and strength work on these days as a compliment to the hard work of the outseason.
Swim Slower Than 2:00 Per 100 Yards? Or Can’t Stop Swimming? Don’t worry, we have maintained our Swim Supplement to add swim workouts to your OutSeason®.
The Swim
The OutSeason training plan still contains swim workouts in Weeks 11 through 14, so you can get a head start on the swimming in your next training plan. Don’t forget that most of you will transition into the Swim Camp training plan where you’ll “boost” the swim more.
For those of you who want to / need to continue working on the Swim, we encourage you to explore the resources we have available to you:
The Bike
There are several changes for the bike workouts, and they are available in Zwift and Trainer Road (see below). In no particular order:
Updated Bike FTP workouts to remove warm up (in sidebar now).
Combined Main Sets into single workouts.
Redefined the Functional Threshold work by training phase:
Phase 1 = Build time at FTP.
Phase 2 = Build FTP with fixed time intevals.
Phase 3 = Boost FTP with 110% sets.
Updated VO2 training sessions by Phase:
Phase 1 = 30" intervals
Phase 2 = 1’ intervals
Phase 3 = 30" PLUS Intervals (aka Max + Zone 5).
Updated Sunday ABP rides to reflect time in Zone 3 by ability level.
Added “Sweet Spot” training to the Saturday rides of the Bike Focused OutSeason® Plans to allow for fitness gains without unnecessary training stress.
Bike Workouts Available for Zwift
Thanks to @Jason Veith You can load your favorite 2018 OS workout into Zwift for training. The instructions on how to do that are available on Zwift here. New to Zwift? Get Started instructions are here.
Of course, you are welcome to replace any OutSeason® interval ride with a Zwift Race -- a 25mi race would replace an FTP / Threshold Ride; a 15-ish mile race would replace a VO2 / High Intensity Ride. And don't forget about our weekend rides on Zwift either (learn more here).
Click to download a compressed ZIP Archive of either a Run-Focused or Bike-Focused Plan by Ability Level:
- Run-Focused Workouts, Levels 1 thru 3, Pick your level when you click here.
- Bike-Focused Workouts, Levels 1 thru 3, Pick your level when you click here.
Bike Workouts Available on Trainer Road
Once you join the Endurance Nation Trainer Road group, you can access all of our workouts including the 2018 OutSeason® workouts. Learn how find EN workouts on Trainer Road here.The Run
The main focus of your OutSeason® running continues to be Run Durability. The Team has seen excellent results on this approach, and we are continuing to refine it with an eye towards improving your “in season” events. IOW, there should be no such thing as a great OutSeason® followed by a crappy Race Season!
To that end, the changes are:
Changed weekly run targets from distance to frequency (# of runs per week)
Created three phases of the Quality Weekend Run:
Phase 1 = Zone 3 / HMP intervals
Phase 2 = Zone 4 / Threshold intervals
Phase 3 = Negative split running.
In the Bike Focused Plans, the Tuesday Brick Runs are optional and the Thursday brick run is now a Friday optional run.
Updated Training Plan Videos and Podcasts
We have updated most of the podcasts and videos for the 2018 OutSeason training plans.
OutSeason = Triathlon Season RoadMap Refresh
Finally...while we have your attention...we wanted to remind you that now is a great time to submit your 2018 race calendar to us via the *Triathlon Season Roadmap survey here. When you submit your TSR, we now know what you’re racing and can message you important information about your races -- race weekend activities, race-specific tips, and more -- in a timely manner.
Thanks and we hope you “enjoy” the 2018 OutSeason, our 12th OutSeason!!!
Comments
I'll let everyone know if I hear an answer from Zwift on how to fix this.
I have some questions about the OS-Run Focus, week 11:
- Should the level-3 by 3x 1mi? Or are we take a step back after test week?
- Is the level-3 75 minutes or 85? Seems odd that we'd run less that level 2 ... or is the time drop because we're running 1x more a week?
- Do you we still want the option of the fast finish? Or is that left-over from the Coach Notes provided for wks 1-10? Obviously it's all "as you feel"
I'm gonna run 2x 1mi >> 75 min today and call it good. In the grand scheme of things none of this matters that much. But, if it's a copy-n-paste snafu, it may be worth correcting. To be honest, the Coach Notes seem identical to wks 1-10, where the run WAS almost entirely TRP ... but I guess this run is mostly TRP (if not all that steady)Run is listed as 70 mins, but level 1 description is 55' run done as 40'@ TRP, then 10' zone 3
Thanks.
Coach Notes: This is your QUALITY long run of the week, set up as a Negative Split by finishing in Zone 3. Run as best you can given the zones listed; if you can't hit the numbers then just do the best you can! Do not exceed 10 miles here.