Be Iron fit vs Endurance Nation IM Plans?

They have different angles of attach.  I've used neither but have seen both and read Be Iron Fit.  If I were you I'd probably go to all the free material on the EN site (you have already) and order the book since it's not that much money in the grand scheme of it all.  Then you can see what you buy into and makes sense for you.

My brief thoughts:
Be Iron Fit - Looks good and practical.  Easy to follow.  3 different 30 week plans.  The competitive one was going to be the one that I followed so I didn't really look at the easier ones but it made sense.  I still have it lying around and peruse it here and there along with Going Long just looking at different pieces.  It's just about 10 bucks so you really can't go wrong.

Endurance Nation - I've read all the free stuff and some summaries from other people.  Also listened to all the podcasts on my commute.  I tend to agree with the bulk of what they are say.  They have an outseason plan that you could do before launching into the 30 week plan above as well.  They are a little expensive so you'd have to weigh the benefits (active forum and feedback) vs how much you are willing to spend and also the possibility of just getting your own coach.  There is a lot more intensity built into EN approach and they leverage the equation work=intensity + volume to save you time.  Bike sessions are shorter but hard.  There is some hard running.  Lots of interval work.  It's all ROI based and they argue that swimming isn't that important in the outseason (assuming you are already MOP swimmer).  It's really about how much work goes into getting you to swim a 1:02 when you swim a 1:12 already and your time is better served on the bike and run where you will spend the other 9-12 hours of your day.  They do recognize that not everyone responded well to that approach so started including swim workouts as a supplement.  Some people get nervous about the intensity and steer clear.  If you are one of those people I'd go another route.  I'm not and I was very close to pulling the trigger but I basically just ponied up a little bit more to get my own coach.  They'll hate me for saying this, but you could just follow Jorge's plan on the bike for free and figure out to schedule running and swimming around it on your own and probably come pretty close.


I would definitely just buy the book for 10 bucks and read it.  From there you can make some decisions.  It's easy to follow and pretty basic (ie. you see a lot of it written as "1:15 Z1 to Z2").

I was going to do the out-season plan and then from there decide on which plan to launch into from there. I was making the same decision as you between the two so figured I'd chime in.

I'm in EN and I drink the Kool aid ! I set a 90min PR at Ironman Florida following their plan ! It's an amazing team with traininig plans, resources that can't be beat. I've had a one on one coach and I've gotten more feedback and responses to questions from the coaches at EN then I would get from my local coach. I've used their Outseason plan 2x and both times increased my power by more then 30 watts ! Increased my run speed by 25% . I didn't swim during the outseason. It was nice to have that time to concentrate on my bike and run. Within 2 weeks of returning to swimming I was at the same speed as before. I was 1 min faster in IMFL then IMLP so the plans work !! I would try a trial membership and go from there. Look at all the resources there is on the site. The coaches know what they are talking about. Besides my 90 min PR on our team there was also a 2.5hr PR, 1h PR etc !

EN rocks !!!

Nathalie

I've borrowed the Be Iron fit book and read it.. And I've also looked at lots of the EN free stuff.   I like the feedback I've heard from people that use the EN plans.  Realistically whichever one you choose if you follow it will work well.   EN seems to build their training into how you will race.  I didn't say that well they seem to help you with race day execution of their plans more.  But that could be just me.

This video might help you more since it's really coming down to a this or that decision.