Training plans for the masses

Most of the pre-plans are cathered for the skinny crowd. Now of course, their are some coaches out there that work plans for the Clyd/Athenas, but when people look at them, it the old ready book by its cover. How can this person be coaching if they look fat or large!! Kind of a conandra of where we are. Some Large athletes do perform pretty well, and are very bright with training ideas for larger people.

I think you hit the nail on the head there. The added weight and higher risk of injury makes our training more medically technical instead of the classic, "work out this much and get this result" cookie cutter approach. I've become an armchair web sports doctor and physical therapist trying to get myself to the finish line.

I find that I need more biofeedback, and I have to find the medical basis for all the recomendations and adjust everything accordingly. If I want to make fat loss gains I need to monitor the HR all the time and make sure I'm going slow enough. And in nutrition instead of going by "2 scoops of this mix per hour", I figure out grams of carbs per kg muscle mass per hour.

Great thread topic, Harold (hjmii), and fortunately, I heard pretty early on in my BT days that if I could do even 70% of any given training plan (for ex. the Silver level Half-Iron 20 week plan I followed last summer), then I'd be fine for race day.  There was no need to do all 100% or to try for makeup workouts if extra recovery days were needed.  And that worked fine for me, but in general, I am self-coached and unaware of coaches who wouldn't take into account the ht/wt diffs of larger athletes like us. 

That said, when I coach newbies from my gym towards their first tri or their fifteenth tri, I take into account the athlete's history of injury, background/years of training in each sport, and then push them through similar workouts, regardless of size.  I plan in the same amount of rest days, but I always emphasize the recovery after long runs.  Those and hill repeats are the most damaging of any workouts.  The more out of shape someone is, the more I emphasize finding an easy pace and just pushing through for time.   Again, that's regardless of size.

What's interesting now is that I have 2 trainees who couldn't be more physically different and I'm seeing just how strong a 210+ daily-exercising athena can be when compared to a former track spinter who's barely 135 but almost never exercises.  I'd say that the daily exercise and endurance background of the athena will help her last longer, race stronger than the other light-weight, but I do have to adjust their training plans accordingly.