2019 Full and Half Plans
TEAM!! After much work and significant help from your teammates (see below) the 2019 Full and Half plans are as finished as they are ever going to be complete! 🤣
Shout out to @Scott Imlay @scott dinhofer @Pat Koss @Abbey Bonner @Derrek Sanks @Gordon Cherwoniak @Jenniferlyn Kryvicky And so many others!!!l
Ready to Access Your Plan?
You can head over to Final Surge And go to Training Plans / My Plans to find the 2019 Full and Half Plans.
Looking for Resources?
We've got you covered with the latest Zwift and Trainer Road workouts files. You can find relevant resources online here.
Need to Add it To Your Calendar?
You likely need to add specific weeks; which can be tricky. You don't want to bulk delete past weeks as your workout data is there...here's how you add specific weeks to your calendar: https://www.endurancenation.us/help/loading-specific-plan-weeks-into-your-final-surge-calendar/ If you need help, please ask first and we'll help you out!
+++++++ 🎉 The Official Notice! 🎉 +++++++++
Every year our plans are rebuilt to reflect our team-wide lessons learned and any new relevant best practices as learned from research. 2019 is no exception, as we continue to evolve the cycling load progression as well as the types of cycling intensity. The runs continue to rely on frequency (and Endurance Nation’s famous Split Run approach), but there is a bit more segmentation between each phase of running. There are new swim workouts as well.
Ability Levels
Each plan has workouts listed by ability, so you can personalize each session to your current situation. The most common mistake athletes make is over-reaching in training — training to catch up vs training to build up. Within Endurance Nation plans, athletes can choose their individual levels as dictated by health, fitness and goals.
- Beginner (Level 1) workoutsare for those doing this race for the first time, or their first race in a long time, or perhaps if you are returning from injury.
- Intermediate (Level 2) workoutsare for the experienced athlete who has a decent level of competence in the sport and is looking to improve.
- Advanced (Level 3) workoutsare the most challenging. Reserved for athletes who are currently fit, healthy and training to be competitive on race day.
Plan Types
We update all three versions of each distance plan yearly. That’s right. Every. Single. Year. Just like you, we are obsessed with getting better and doing our best at every single opportunity. Each distance has Bike-Focused, Run-Focused and Minimalist Options depending on your personal focus or area of need to be addressed.
- Bike Focused plans have more riding in them overall. This is great for athletes who need to focus on the bike or aren’t able to run as much. In terms of years on Endurance Nation, Bike Focus plans are good for your ODD years of membership (1, 3, 5, etc).
- Run Focused plans have more run frequency as compared to other plans. These are good plans for athletes who need to build run durability and strength. In terms of years on Endurance Nation, Run Focus plans are good for your EVEN years of membership (2, 4, 6, etc).
- Minimalist plans are for those athletes who are time-crunched and need to be ready to race without all the "bonus" workouts that the typical FULL or HALF plan entails. These plans emphasize the weekend training, and generally limit weekday training sessions to just one workout. Additional workouts on these days are at your discretion.
Overall Long Course Plan Edits
Our Full- and Half-Distance plans are built from the same playbook. We strive to keep the fundamental elements of our plans consistent so that athletes can seamlessly move between plans as needed.
On the surface, the biggest change is updating our "Big Day" approach to be a "Challenge Day." In the past this critical training session combined all three disciplines into a long training session. Designed to be a formative test of your functional endurance levels, the session wasn’t as effective as designed.
Firstly, it was often complicated by lining up all the disciplines in order which proved difficult for many outside of a race weekend. It required a significant swim performance, despite our early season guidance to stay light on the swim. And finally the final brick run session was compromised from overall fatigue.
With the 2019 plans, the Challenge Day is now exclusively cycling focused. The return on volume remains the same, but the logistics are easier and doing it on a bike makes it achievable for all. It will also prep athletes for the longer sessions happening in season.
The second change is raising the bar for cycling volume a little earlier in the plan. Leveraging the two Big Day Rides, Endurance Nation athletes will now transition from endurance into a final peak phase where intensity is key to maintaining strength, and longer weekend rides are meant to be easier and (surprisingly) a bit restorative.
This cycling transition is also organized to make room for the run to grow as the bike overall difficulty fades. The goal here is to allow for continued fitness gains through better spacing instead of stacking all three disciplines with similar training targets.
Here are the additional edits by discipline.
Swimming
- Two swims per week for all ability levels, making room for recovery as needed. This increases to three swims per week in the last three weeks of the program.
- Integration of progressive volume build into intermediate volume test sets.
- Return to time-trial sets for race specific training.
- Creating of an independent "Swim Supplement" plan that can be overlaid onto the final 12 weeks of your training into race day for athletes looking to improve the swims.
Cycling
- Three to four times per week. Early rides are Wednesday Threshold Intervals, Saturday Endurance, Sunday Tempo (Always Be Pushing ride).
- Later rides switch to Tuesday Max Power, Thrursday Sweet Spot Training and a Saturday aerobic ride.
Running
- Four to six runs per week are scheduled, depending on your ability level.
- Long runs are scheduled on either Thursdays or Sundays, based upon the weekly focus.
- The long run will be a Split Long Run (AM and PM) until the later weeks of the plan, where it becomes a more traditional long run.
Race Rehearsals
- All plans includes Race Rehearsals in weeks 15 and 18.
Comments
Is there supposed to be a 2019 Full Iron Run Focused plan? I only see Bike focus and minimalist in FS for 2019 Full plans.
moved to Production Help thread.
@Brian Terwilliger - yes, this is a glitch on Final Surge side, we have a ticket pending.
@Janyne Kizer - good catch. Thankfully the rest of the workout adds up to 13 and has instructions for 13 miles! 👍
I LOVE these changes!!!! Can't wait! Good job team
I got behind on the videos (hangs head in shame) and I wanted to watch them. I only see Video 1 of 12 in Final Surge.
What am I missing?
Could you please double check week eighteen of the Half Bike Focused plan?
There is a mismatch between the planned and the levels. The duration in the levels is the same as for the Full Bike Focused.
Plan Day #126
Bike Steady + Town Line
Planned: 2:30:00
Priority: High
Bike: Long Ride
Effort is mainly Zone 1 to Zone 2. Every 30 minutes you should include a max effort anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. Could be a Town Line sprint, or a short climb or just a sprint. Be sure to slow down, shift into the right gear and then get after it!
Choose Your Ability Level:
-Level 1: Ride time target is 3 hours.
-Level 2: Ride time target is 3.5 hours.
-Level 3: Ride time target is 4 hours.
Did I hear that these plans were updated? If so, how do we update them in Final Surge? Your Plan History > Adjust Plan???
Correct. Click "Endurance Nation" drop down, "Your Plan History", then choose the one you want to change and click "Adjust plan". You should be able to put in your old plan end date and it should apply the changes to only whats left.
I have typically deleted the old plan (which keeps all your completed workouts, then added the new/updated/revised one but that's because I switched to the new bike focus plan), but it should work fine the other way if you are staying on the same plan.
Thanks, @Patrick Hayden ! I wasn't sure if that update the plan itself or only your zones and so forth.