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10 Week Sprint Triathlon Training Plan

Week Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
1 Swim 30 Bike 30 Run 30 Swim 30 Bike 30 BRICK B 30/R 30 OFF
2 Swim 30 Bike 45 Run 30 Swim 30 Bike 45 BRICK B 30/R 30 OFF
3 Swim 45 Bike 45 Run 30 Swim 30 Bike 45 BRICK B 45/R 30 OFF
4 Swim 30 Bike 30 Run 30 Swim 30 Bike 30 or OFF BRICK B 45/R 30 OFF
5 Swim 30 Bike 45 Run 45 Swim 30 Bike 45 BRICK B 30/R 30 OFF
6 Swim 45 Bike 60 Run 45 Swim 30 Bike 45 BRICK B 45/R 30 OFF
7 Swim 30 Bike 60 Run 45 Swim 45 Bike 45 BRICK B 45/R 30 OFF
8 Swim 30 Bike 30 Run 30 Swim 30 Bike 30 or OFF BRICK B 60/R 30 OFF
9 Swim 60 Bike 45 Run 45 Swim 30 Bike 45 BRICK B 60/R 30 OFF
10 Swim 30 Bike 30 Run 30 Swim 30 Bike 30 or OFF RACE !! OFF

How hard?
All workouts are to be done in the aerobic zone. That means that you should be able to carry on a conversation fairly easily. If you have a heart rate monitor and know your Max Heart Rate (MHR), then you need to keep all workouts at 70 percent or less of MHR. If you don’t have a monitor, then go by perceived effort of five to seven on a scale of one to 10. Again, you should be able to talk as you bike or run. It is very important for you to train in this Zone. This is where all your aerobic capacity comes from. Even the best in the world spend 70 to 80 percent of their time in the aerobic zone. If it your effort starts to get too hard, then take one to two-minute walk breaks every eight to 10 minutes on the run and coast a little bit more on the bike.

Can I switch days?
You can switch days if you need to and if it works out better for your schedule. However, try to keep like-workouts separated. If you swim on Tuesday, then try to schedule the other one for Friday. The goal is to equally distribute the workouts so you are not doing a run back to back and then not running again for five days. For now, it’s OK to bike back to back because the bike leg is the longest leg and you have to bike three times per week anyway.

Can I skip another day if I’m tired?
Yes. Even with Sundays off, we all get tired, so you can take an extra day off when you need to. The best day to take off is Friday because Saturday is your most important workout of the week. If you want a little extra rest then that is fine. Also, weeks four and eight are designed to be a little lighter in order to give your body time to adapt to the stresses of the three previous weeks. By Saturday’s brick, you should be ready to go.

What do I do for swim workouts?
Swimming is different from bike and run since the workouts are usually always broken up into smaller sets with rest in between. Part of the reason for this is to help the body stay fresh enough to maintain proper form. In swimming, technique is EVERYTHING! If you find that swimming is a struggle, even after you are developing fitness in the other sports, then make sure to spend a lot of time learning how fix your swim stroke. Swimming should not be a struggle to keep yourself floating. Learn how to float first and let the water help you do some of the work. Then learn how to become streamline and more fish-like. The best source for this is Total Immersion DVDs and books. If you are a new swimmer, then drills and form-work will easily take up half of the time in your swim workout. The world’s best swimmers are always working on swim drills and finding ways to be more efficient.

Even with a lot of drill work, there is still time for some swimming. There are many resources that have swim workouts that can be followed. One of the best tools is the Swim Workout Binder for Triathletes by Gale Berdhardt. At first you would only do some of the included workouts. The goal is to be able to swim a workout of 1,000 yards. If you don’t have a workout plan, then following something simple will work well. You can mix up swimming 25 yards and 50 yards at a time in sets of five to 10 with 10 to 15 seconds rest in between. Maybe you would do 6 X 25 yards with 10 second rests followed by 5X50 with 15 seconds rest. Eventually you’ll be capable of reaching a higher number then even moving up to 75 and 100 yard intervals. All this is still at an easy aerobic effort and you should always warm up with some drill first. When you’re ready, you could join a masters group.

What is a brick workout?
Brick workouts are most often a bike followed immediately by a run. For now, this is all done at that aerobic “conversation” pace. Sometimes, people will brick a swim/bike or a swim/run. Of course a race is just one long swim/bike/run brick right?

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