Training Plans

Thank you for your reply! I have been staying active from 2013 to now swimming, biking and running. Of course, I am not a pro so there are periods of time (a few weeks or so) where I do nothing.

Are the paid plans on this site detailed? That is, I have seen some free plans on the internet that say Monday: Run 30 minutes, Tuesday: Bike 40 minutes, Wednesday: OFF, Thursday: Swim 20 minutes, etc.

I am looking for more detail than that. For example, Monday: Run, Z1 5 minutes, Z3 20 minutes, Z5 1 minute, etc. Tuesday: Bike, 10' (Z1), 20' (Z3), 2' (Z4), etc

I don't want to pay for a plan here if it is the former less detailed version I described.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

I like training peaks and you can buy their plans. Some are more detailed than others, and I don't think their preview always shows you enough to make a good decision. I'm currently shopping for a HIM plan from them, and also love detail particularly on the swim. I'm not sure and I'm assuming that the longer plans might have more of an "intro period" that might not be long enough for what you are currently doing. If thats the case I would probably either up the intensity at the beginning or the time.

I'm also no pro so take what I say w/ a grain of salt.

With a Silver membership (not sure about Bronze) you have access to several intermediate sprint and Oly plans. They run from 12-26 weeks and include different numbers of races. You would probably need to tweak the timing a bit to accommodate your actual race schedule. All are quite detailed. One of the sprint plans is HR based, if that's what you're looking for; the others are RPE but you could easily use HR with those as well if you check what HR corresponds to each effort level. I haven't done the intermediate sprint plans but have used one of the Oly plans and it was quite challenging, with a lot of intensity on run and bike. As I recall, the swim workouts seemed a bit easy so I mixed it up with workouts from some other sources (Sara McLarty's website and articles, our hometown master's group). Might not be an issue if you're not a strong swimmer.

One thing to think about is your readiness to do run speedwork. The intermediate plans tend to have considerably more of that than beginner plans, so make sure you have built up a good base before starting (esp. the shorter plans, which tend to assume you have a base) and keep on top of stretching, rolling, etc.