This plan is primarily endurance focused, so you won’t see much in terms of intensity scattered throughout, although we will certainly do some uptempo work to get you prepared for the training that will come later in the season. This plan is best used coupled with another plan that can follow-on from this one, such as our half-iron or full-distance plan (if you combine this with the full-distance plan, you can get 45 weeks of your training year covered with just TWO plans).

This plan progresses from around 7 hours in the first week to a peak of 9 hours, averaging just over 7.5 hours when the two weeks devoted to testing and recovery, respectively, are included. You will build time over the first four weeks, test in the fifth week (testing information is in the PDF), and then build for another three weeks before taking an easy buffer week ahead of shifting to your next plan. You should finish this plan without much residual fatigue, since you are primarily building your endurance capabilities.

You will need a pull buoy, paddles, fins, a Finis Tempo Trainer, and a heart-rate monitor (if you use one) and/or a power meter on the bike (if you use one). This whole plan can done via RPE, however, if you don’t like using technology such as HRMs and power meters.