* PLEASE NOTE REGARDING SWIM WORKOUTS * 
You have your choice of workouts for each distance. (workouts listed at the bottom of the page) You may choose whichever workout you wish. For example, there are two workouts totaling 750 yds. Take your pick! I suggest not doing the same workout each time to break things up.

Speedwork/Quality Phase

The following program is designed for the triathlete who has competed in several triathlons, perhaps even a season of triathlons, either Sprint Distance or Olympic Distance Races. It also takes into consideration that the triathlete can run at least 5 miles at around 10/mile pace or about 50 minutes, swim at least 3000 yards per week and ride at least 15-25 miles 3 times per week on the bike. As always, increasing your efforts in training in an attempt to improve your performance requires some thinking  on your part. Remember you have to race and train smarter.

The first 12 weeks of the program is considered a base building phase gradually increasing your distances in all three sports.. A speedwork/quality phase makes up weeks 13-16 with weeks 17 and 18 dedicated to the taper. You will also notice three recovery weeks on weeks 4, 8 and 12. These are important. Stick to them. By the end of the base building phase, some of you may start to get a little grumpy and irritable. This is due to the fact that you are pushing that “overtrained” state. Fortunately, the speedwork phase begins the following week. During this period you will be cutting back on the mileage/yardage while maintaining your overall endurance. This will also provide you with the added rest for which are looking. You will probably experience an increase in energy and your attitude will start to err towards the positive side! This is also a time when you must begin to use your head, control your energy and train smart! An improper approach to speedwork can lead to injuries in all three events. We will discuss this further as we break down the individual activities.

The base building phase focuses on general aerobic training and should include the use of a heart rate monitor. If you do not own one, than I suggest you make the purchase. There are several on the market and all do a fine job. Refer to the Tri Links section for more information on purchasing heart rate monitors. And you do not have to buy the most expensive. However, you will want a model that has at least an overall time display. This will keep you from having to wear both a watch and HR monitor when you run.

I subscribe to the Maffetone method of determining your aerobic heart rate zone. This is just one method of heart rate training and certainly not the only one. You will find a complete description of the most popular methods in the article "Follow Your Heart: Methods of Heart Rate Training."

According to Dr. Maffetone, the following formula will give you your aerobic heart rate zone:

180 minus your age will give you your upper range of your aerobic zone in beats per minute. Then subtract 10 from that number to find your lower range in beats per minute. If you feel this range is too high then bring everything down 5-10 beats per minute.

Ex: A 37 year old individual in descent shape-

180 – 37 = 143 This would be the upper range.

143 – 10 = 133 This is the lower range.

Therefore, the aerobic range of this particular individual is 133-143 beats per minute. .Click here for a complete breakdown of Dr. Maffetone’s method of HR training. Now according to Dr.Maffetone, this should be fine for the run and the bicycle. However, some folks have a hard time sustaining that high a heart rate on the bike. So an adjustment downward may be necessary.

The heart rate monitor should be used as a means of keeping yourself in “aerobic” check. BE STRICT with yourself and stick to your aerobic levels. Do not let anyone else influence your training. If you have been training with a partner or are currently looking for one, explain to the individual what your goals are and make sure he/she will go along. I also suggest purchasing Dr. Maffetone’s book “Training For Endurance.” I am really not trying to single out or promote his materials, I just feel he does a nice job of conveying his message while keeping things simple and easy to understand. And even if you do not fully agree with his HR training zones, the book is extremely informative and can be applied to any type of training program.

** NOTE** I have included an extra workout in weeks 9-17 for each activity. You will find each highlighted in red. They include a Saturday swim, a Friday bike ride and a Sunday long walk  (or walk run). Each will be discussed below in their respective section. They are considered recovery workouts but will also contribute to base building within your overall program.

Swimming: The swim portion of an Olympic Distance Tri is 1.5K  or about 1 mile and you find a set of swimming workouts for the entire program at the bottom of this page. They were designed for training in a 25 yard pool. If you are swimming in a 25 meter pool you can use the same workouts. For a 50 meter pool, there will be some changes. You are certainly not bound by these workouts so feel free to tweak them as you see fit. Please see the breakdown below:

25 Yard (meter) Pool – usually standard length
1 length = 25 yards (meters)
2 lengths or 1 lap = 50 yards (meters)
4 lengths or 2 laps = 100 yards (meters)
½ mile = about 800 yards = 32 lengths
1 mile(1.5K) = about 1700 yds (meters) = 68 lengths

50 Meter Pool
1 length = 50 meters
2 length = 100 meters
½ mile = about 800 meters = 16 lengths
1 mile (1.5K) = about 1500 meters = 30 lengths

When you read the swim workouts, you will notice that I did include yardage for stroke drills but did not specify the type of drill. If you are having difficulty with your stroke and you are without a swim coach, I suggest you purchase Terry Laughlin’s book and/or video series (800-609-SWIM) or Steve Tarpinian’s video (800-469-2538). I have not viewed either one but I understand they are full of drills and are terrific!

***The main set of each workout is based on repetitive swims with very little rest between each. Swim these relaxed. The idea is to build endurance while swimming aerobically, NOT fast. You will find your speed will begin to increase naturally. In order to stay aerobic, periodically check your heart rate throughout the set. The quickest way to do this is place your finger under your chin/neck, find your pulse and count the beats for a six second count and add a zero to the total. For example:

14 beats in 6 seconds = 140 beats per minute.

This reading is not as accurate as would be displayed on a heart rate monitor, however, I have attempted to wear a HR strap and monitor on a set of 100 freestyles (do not bother trying this, it is futile!) and found the finger-to-throat test is certainly accurate enough. Besides, it is all we swimmers have! Try to keep your heart rate between 140 – 160 beats per minute. For folks in their 40’s and up, try to keep your rate closer to 140, maybe even a bit less. For athletes in their late twenties to mid thirties, try to keep it closer to 150. And for those in their twenties and younger, 160 should be fine. The idea behind this method of training is to prepare your heart rate for the bike ride upon exiting the water during a race. The closer your heart rate is to your bike training rate, the better the outcome of your entire race. For example:

Let us say you are in your early 40’s and for eighteen weeks the bulk of your aerobic bike training was at an average heart rate of 125 bpm (beats per minute). Come race time, you exit the swim with a heart rate of 175 bpm. As you begin the bike ride, you are now a full 50 beats per minute above your bicycle training rate! Within a mile or two the ride, your heart rate will drop, but probably not the full 50 beats. More than likely, it will settle in at about 145-155 beats per minute or a 20-30 bpm recovery. Thus you will be riding the 25 mile/40k bike coarse with a heart rate some 20-30 beats higher than your training rate! And this will be the beginning of the end, for you will pay the price on the run. Now, if you were to exit the water in the same race with your heart rate closer to 140 or 150 beats per minute, and you recovered the same 20-30 bpm during the bike ride, your heart rate would settle in somewhere between 120 and 130 bpm – your normal bicycle training rate! This would only leave you better prepared for the run.

Flip turns – Do not worry about flip turns while you swim unless you feel very confident doing them. Simply take a quick breath on the wall and push off. Flip turns will cause your heart rate to rise. This in turn may negatively affect your aerobic pace. If you do swim with a masters program, you may be forced to do flip turns to keep up with the swimmers in your lane. If this be the case, move to a slower lane with less pressure from the other swimmers.

Breathing – when swimming freestyle, you should get into the habit of breathing every stroke. The more oxygen you take into the body, the lower your heart rate will remain. However, alternating your breathing or breathing every three strokes, will help you in two ways.
1. It will balance out your freestyle stroke.
2. It will get you used to looking in both directions, which may help during a race when trying to find your mark.

Also practice lifting your head and looking forward when swimming…say once or twice per lap during your main set. You may have a black line down the middle of the lane, but unless you are racing in the clear waters of the Caribbean, the open water in most tri’s will be fairly dark.

** You will notice I added a 1000 yard Saturday swim workout in weeks 9-17. The purpose of this workout is to add base yardage to your swim program and still benefit from the effects of a recovery swim. Treat this workout solely as a recovery workout after your long run on Saturday. Swim easy and relaxed, but not sloppy. There is absolute no stress involved. Kick easy, swim real easy, just relax, rest a lot and piddle in the water.

The quality workouts listed at the bottom of this page are designed to help you build speed. You will be getting a bit more rest overall from here on out, however, there will still be some longer distance workouts to maintain endurance. When you do the workouts, you want to slowly build your exerted effort and work on getting faster as the set progresses. You also want to build each workout with the last week of the quality period showing the greatest results. For example:

Your quality set is 5 x 100's all out on the 6 minutes. First, you want to try to build your effort with each lap of the100 so you are finishing faster than when you started. In a 25 yard pool, always swim the first 25 yards building up your effort so when you come off the first wall, you can begin to really push it.You will also want to attempt to descend each 100 so that each 100 gets faster. And your overall set should be faster the last week of the quality phase as opposed to the first. You do not want to start out at a full sprint. You will risk injury, perhaps in your shoulders, and you will be driving your heart rate up too fast, too soon. I suggest you swim your quality workouts in a 25 yard pool. The point is simply to build speed. If you attempt to do quality work in a 50 meter pool, lake or ocean, you will tire out much sooner due to fewer walls which will actually hurt your speedwork as well as your stroke. Plus you will not be swimming this hard in a race, so there is no point in trying to simulate such conditions. And again, do not worry about flip turns. In a set like this where you are pushing your heart rate to maximum levels, flip turns will not hurt you. But if you do not know how to do one...it is fine. Taking a quick breath on each wall with a good push-off will actually help you remain in "sprint-mode" for the entire swim.

Cycling: Again, your bike rides should be aerobic, concentrating on staying within your heart rate zone. Remember, for some, the running heart rate zone may be higher than that of cycling, so you will need to experiment to find out what works best for you. Attempting to cycle within your running HR zone may do more harm to your aerobic system than not. To experiment, subtract 5 to 10 beats from your running zone and determine how it feels during the ride. For example:

If you are 40 years of age, and in pretty good shape, your aerobic heart rate zone based on the Maffetone method, should be 130-140. If you were to subtract 10 beats for your cycle training, your zone would be 120-130.  And this is where you should experiment.

Obviously, the flatter the terrain on which you ride, the easier it will be to monitor your heart. If you live in a hilly or mountainous area, your rate will definitely rise when cycling uphill. If this be the case, shift to higher gears (so you are spinning) and try to keep your ride smooth. Avoid pumping the pedals if possible. The harder you pump, the higher your heart rate will rise. This will not always be as easy as said but you should at least attempt to keep your heart rate as low as possible during the uphills. Also, try to remain in the saddle while riding uphill and only climb out as a last resort.

Cycling workouts during base building phase:
Monday- your ride should be treated as somewhat of a recovery/aerobic ride after your long Sunday ride.Warm up for 15 minutes keeping your heart rate (HR) below your training zone. For the bulk of you ridekeep your HR at the lower end of your training zone. Finally, leave yourself enough time for a good cool-down. On all cool downs, wait until your HR drops as close to or below 100 bpm before stopping.
Wednesday- your ride will be about the same as Monday. However, during the bulk of your ride, train with your heart rate at the mid to high end of your zone but do not go higher...stay within it. Just remember to leave yourself enough time for a cool-down.
Friday- when you begin your Friday rides on the 9th week, treat each one as an easy, easy spinning day. It will be a nice warm-up for your  Saturday long run. Keep your heart rate well below the zone throughout the entire ride.
Sunday- finally, your Sunday ride will be the most important. This is where you will practice your eating and drinking. Begin the ride with a 20 minute warm-up. For the bulk of the ride keep your HR at the low end of the zone for as long as possible. As you increase your distance, you will begin to see your endurance fall off as your heart rate will climb just a bit toward the end of the ride. In fact you will probably be riding slower than when you began. Do not worry, just keep your HR in the zone. Eventually, you will see your endurance increase. Finally, leave yourself enough time for a cool down.

Aero position: The cycling portion of an Olympic Distance Tri has become somewhat of an "all-out" sprint and acclimation to the aero position is necessary, especially on a flatter race coarse. The flatter the coarse, the less the need to get out of the saddle to ride i.e. Hill work. Your Sunday long ride will certainly be a good time to practice. Once you have decided on a race, try to find out as much info as possible about the bike coarse. Is it hilly? What are the winds like…etc? Then try to simulate these conditions within your own training rides. For example, if the coarse is hilly, incorporate some hill work or hill repeats into your biking regimen. If you know the coarse is famous for its winds, say along a coastline, try to ride on days you know the wind has picked up. Typically, the wind will pick up in the afternoons so plan a couple of rides after work. Once daylight savings time begins, you will have time in the late afternoons to get in a good ride. A good lower back stretch is a must as you increase the distances in your cycling. One good exercise is to lay on your back and pull your knees to your chest. Wrap your arms around the outside of you legs and gently squeeze the arms pulling the knees closer to the chest. You should feel this in your lower back. Remember, ease into the stretch by pulling gently. You may also lift one leg at a time to your chest while leaving the other extended with a slight bend.

        *** NOTE***

When incorporating hill work into your bike rides or if you are faced with strong headwinds throughout your ride, staying aerobic should still be your goal. With the hills, this will be tougher to do. Unlike riding into head winds, gravity plays a huge roll on hill work, and your heart rate can soar. So do the best that you can. As you travel uphill, stay in the saddle, switch to higher gears and try to maintain an easy spin as opposed to pounding the pedals. Obviously, if you live in the west where “hills” are much steeper and longer, some of this is easier said than done, but try to stay as close to your zone as possible. For some of you, headwinds will always be part of your training. If so, again, shift to higher gears, and find a comfortable pace. As I stated earlier, gravity will not play the same role here, but psychologically, head winds can be quite defeating. Find a nice gear and spin rather than grind the pedals. Do not worry about speed.

Bike trainers: During the winter months, some of you will be forced to ride indoors on a trainer. And this can be extremely boring!…even with the most user friendly trainers such as a Computrainer. However, riding on a trainer does provide one excellent benefit - Mental Toughness. And this will only help. Once you begin riding outdoors, the bike trainer can still play a significant role in your cycling program especially during your quality workouts.

Quality workouts can be dangerous on the highways unless you can find a road that is rarely traveled upon. And even this can be dangerous simply because sprint cycling on the highways requires so much thought and concentration, safe biking habits are usually sacrificed. The trainer will offer you the ability to focus solely on your speedwork without any worry of highway traffic.

Quality Work: Like swimming, you will want to build within your quality set, as well as throughout the weeks of the quality phase. For example:

If your quality workout consists of 6 x 5 and 2's...Five minutes hard, two minutes easy/recover, you should take the first 5/2 of the first day building your effort. On the first 5/2, gradually build your effort throughout the first five minutes. Do not just start out hammering. On the second 5/2, you can build your effort a little quicker so by numbers 3-6 you are really going after it. And each particular quality day, follow this same pattern. By the last week of the quality phase, your output or results should still exceed those recorded on that first session.

** You will notice I added a 20 mile bike ride on Friday's in weeks 9-17. The purpose of this addition is to add base mileage to your cycling program and still benefit from the effects of spinning. The ride can be used as a recovery ride as well as a prep ride for your Saturday long run. However, to benefit from this ride you must spin in a high gear the entire ride, keeping your heart rate very low. If you are riding on hills, than this will be tougher but try to stick to your plan. If you are riding in headwinds, just slow your cadence until your heart rate drops to the desired mark. For more information on the benefits of spinning and how it can positively affect your running than click here!

Running: The key to a successful running program is training smart. And the best way to accomplish this is through aerobic training with a heart rate monitor. By now you should have determined your running heart rate zone based on the information at the top of the page. However, if you would like to explore other methods of heart rate training feel free to check out the article on Methods of Heart Rate Training. As you know by now, I tend to adhere to the methods of Dr. Phil Maffetone. And according to Dr. Maffetone, a successful running program should include a solid warm-up and cool down. When you head out on your run, spend the first 12-15 minutes warming up slowly bringing your HR up to your aerobic zone. After you have completed the bulk of your run spend the last 12-15 minutes bringing your heart back below your training zone. For example:

An individual with an aerobic HR zone of 130-140 bpm heads out on a 45 minute run. The first 15 minutes is spent slowly bringing the heart rate up to 130 bpm. After the warm-up, the individual then runs for 15 minutes keeping his/her heart rate between 130-140 bum. Finally, the last 15 minutes will be spent running below 130 bpm and should be maintained until the run is completed.

The running distances in the program are listed in minutes. However, if you feel comfortable running in miles than that is fine. Just allow yourself a sufficient warm-up and cool down period. The advantage of running by minutes is it allows you to accurately assess your training improvement.

Running hints: If you can, run on a grass path, or gravel path. The softer the ground, the better the shock absorption for your legs. Concrete is the worst, asphalt is next, tar is very soft (running track) with any type of dirt trail being the best. Actually, running on a golf coarse is ideal! Unfortunately, concrete sidewalks surround the entire island on which I live, so remember, you get what you get. Whatever the surface, stay aerobic and you should be fine.

***For some of you, you will be testing new grounds regarding running distances and injury prevention is of the up most importance. If you are having difficulty on your long run, then incorporate some walking into the run. Long time marathoner, author and running coach, Jeff Galloway incorporates walking into his training programs for longer distance running. After reaching a particular distance in your long run, begin a walk/run segment to finish your run. For example:

If your long run is 60 minutes or around 6 miles, and you are having problems getting over that 45 minute barrier, than run/walk for the remaining 15 minutes…perhaps 3 minutes run, 1 minutes walk. You will find that your overall time will not be that much slower and most importantly, you will feel much better after the run. At least your legs will thank you! If you do decide to run/walk on your long run, do not run until you become fatigued and then decide to walk. Many folks will say to themselves “I'm not stopping, I feel fine” subscribing to the no pain, no gain philosophy. However, you may find you will not recover fast enough for the next run segment. If you have set a 3 minute limit to your run, then stop at 3 minutes! If you want to build your mileage as pain free as possible then stick to your limits regardless of how good you may feel.

**You will notice walking was added to the program in weeks 9-17. I am a huge believer in walking. You can use it as a means of recovery after your long ride as well as a substitute for an easy run day. I usually walk at least once during the week, for about 75 minutes and at a rather fast pace with a long stride. I like to think of it as an extra day of running without the pounding. I personally do not do a lot of arm pumping when I walk, however feel free. It won't hurt you.

Weights: Finally, I suggest you lift weights at least two days per week and no more than three. Do some type of circuit training and 2 sets of 15 reps per exercise. Keep the weights light. You do not want to build bulk. We just want to build some strength for endurance. And, make sure you do not rush through each set of 15. Just because the weights are light, does not mean you hurry through the set. Take your time with each rep concentrating on form rather than speed. You may feel sluggish the first couple of weeks but it will get better. A basic circuit consists of Lat Pull Downs, Bench Press, Leg Lifts, Leg Curls, Squats (or lunges), Tricep Pull Down, Bicep Curls, Calf Raises and sit-ups or crunches. Feel free to add or leave out what you see fit.

Speed or Quality Workouts

**Note** regarding the Quality Running Workout: if you are unable to make it to a track, then you can incorporate this workout into your regular daily run. Just take your average 1 mile split time and half it. This will be the length of time you will run hard. Then divide the average by four and this will be your recovery run. Then walk for 1 minute.

For example:

Your average 1 mile run is 8:00. You will run hard for 4 minutes, recovery for 2 minutes and walk 1 minute. The warm-up and cool down will remain as above. For a 7:00 minute/mile average, your hard run will be 3.5 minutes (3:30), your recovery 1.75 (1:45) minutes and your walk 1 minute and so on.

Swimming Workouts

*** PLEASE NOTE REGARDING SWIM WORKOUTS *** 
You have your choice of workouts for each distance during your training. You may choose whichever workout you wish. For example, there are two workouts totaling 750 yds. Take your pick! I suggest not doing the same workout each time to break things up.