4-Week Beginners Heart Rate Triathlon Plan (No Swim) 2024 - Weekly 6½-7¾ Hours

This plan is perfect for beginners looking to maintain their fitness without access to swimming facilities. It’s ideal for those with limited time to train outdoors, as most of the programme focuses on indoor training. However, it can easily be adapted for any time you can spend outside. Emphasising skill development, this plan suits athletes of all levels and across all distances. Before starting, you should already be cycling 2-3 times a week for 45-60 minutes and running 2 times a week for around 15-30 minutes. The plan includes bodyweight exercises as swim replacements, and uses heart rate for both cycling and running. We’ve included a rest day every Monday for proper recovery, but feel free to adjust it to fit your schedule.

You’ll need a bit of space for the strength sessions and some stretch cords if you have them (no other equipment is required as all exercises are bodyweight). A turbo trainer and either a treadmill or some time to run outside (maximum of 90 minutes) are also necessary. If you need to build up to the required base fitness, check out our complete beginner’s plan here.

The bike and run sessions are structured workouts that can be downloaded directly to your training device. For Zwift, TrainerRoad, etc., please see our power-based plans, which allow you to focus on the workout specifics rather than how to execute the next section.

All of our plans come with email coach support. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at info@tccendurance.com. If you need more or less volume, we offer the option to change plans.

Key points of the plan:

• Starts at 6.5 hours a week (Strength 1:15, Bike 3:30, and Run 1:45)


• Peaks at 7.75 hours a week (Strength 1:15, Bike 4:00, and Run 2:30)


• Average of 3 Strength sessions, 3 Bike sessions, and 3 Run sessions per week


• Longest Strength session: 30 minutes


• Longest Bike session: 2 hours


• Longest Run session: 1 hour 30 minutes

This plan uses heart rate for both running and cycling, so a GPS watch with a heart rate monitor and a power metre are essential to get the most out of this programme. If you need a plan based on power, pace, or RPE, please check out our other available plans here. If you don’t see what you need, we also offer bespoke plans tailored to your requirements. Please email us at info@tccendurance.com for more information and to discuss your plan with one of our coaches.