A Blueprint to Designing a Training Program as a Time Crunched Triathlete or Hyrox Athlete - The Fundamental Drivers

TrainingPeaks personalised triathlon training plan

The key context of this blog post is that this is how I’d begin to formulate a training plan for either a beginner getting into training for triathlon, running, or Hyrox, or someone who doesn’t have endless amounts of time on their hands to train (like the majority of recreational athletes out there).

There is a hierarchy of drivers when creating a training plan for an athlete who is tight on time. These are consistency, intensity, volume within training. The hierarchy is in the order they are listed, consistency being the most important driver to start with.

1) Consistency 

2) Intensity 

3) Volume 

For most when starting out, experimenting to find a routine which can be achieved week in week out is the most important. A plan which accounts for your other commitments such as work, the school run, pub quiz on a Wednesday, ensuring sessions are scheduled to fit around these. This makes the plan achievable and realistic. Asking a time crunched athlete to sacrifice all the other things that bring them joy, or planning sessions that interfere with unavoidable daily tasks is a quick route to failure. In endurance sports, training compounds over time. Regular training week in week out is going to lead to better results than a constant cycle of trying to fit too much in, resulting in periods of doing very little training between these blocks as they are unachievable long term. Be honest with yourself on the amount of time you have available, this is where utilising a triathlon or Hyrox coach's knowledge comes into its own, they understand how to make the most of this time, which leads nicely onto our next point.

Once the consistency is in place, intensity should be the next focus. Intensity is the way in which you’re going to keep progressing within your training, pushing your body during sessions to achieve the desired physiological stimulus. This can be zone 2, tempo, threshold, VO2 intervals. Incorporating a range of different intensities into your training is very important, these need to be planned in and periodised throughout your training phases during the year to achieve the best results. A triathlon or Hyrox coach understands how to periodise your training, depending on your upcoming events, time of the year, ability, and personal strengths and weaknesses. Training quality is also an important concept that falls under the intensity driver. Completing a ‘quality’ session doesn’t mean you have to be smashing yourself with VO2 intervals. You can complete a quality zone 2 session by doing the intervals exactly at the planned intensities (pace/power), durations, taking the correct rest periods, hitting the desired stimulus. Every session should have a purpose when you don’t have endless time to train, so carry out sessions correctly to achieve the best results.

Running lactate threshold assessment

Setting accurate zones plays a big part in whether the intensity you are doing is having the right effect. Zones can be set through FTP tests on the bike, 30 minute running tests, ramp tests, however we always recommend lactate threshold assessments if possible, as by doing one you identify the only physiologically benchmarked zones (LT1/LT2). 

Now we come onto the final driver we can implement into a training plan for a time constrained triathlete or Hyrox athlete. Volume. For most of us, the amount of training hours we can fit into a week is almost predetermined by work, kids, social events, and more. Therefore it is far more effective to drive physiological improvements with intensity within your training. Many athletes chase volume early on, doing volume which is not sustainable. Building volume up over time is very important to ensure controlled and sensible development. If you ramp volume up too quickly you run the risk of getting injured. There is an age old saying that says you can only benefit from the training you can recover from. For example, the 3 hour zone 2-3 bike session you did at 9 o'clock at night and only got 4 hours sleep after is probably going to do more harm than good. More often than not, it would’ve been better to do a high quality 1 hour session that enabled you to get a good night's sleep, setting you up to tackle your sessions the next day head on. It may seem possible on occasion, but if you do this regularly it will likely lead to burn out and affect your consistency.

Gradual weekly increases in running volume shown by one of our athletes

One huge week followed by two weeks of very little is going to have less benefit than 3 weeks of consistent training even at lower volume. Aim to build volume over time, little increases across the week all add up. Adding an extra 1-2km over a few runs a week quickly adds up to a sizable chunk. This is why having a coach is important. They can view the big picture and track metrics such as week on week, month on month, yearly volume, ensuring they are progressing your training over time to lead to long term improvements. You want to plan in all your key sessions for the week, then introduce as much easy volume you can surrounding these. Never compromise on quality for more volume for extended periods of time.

If you’re not quite ready for 1:1 coaching, but would like to take advantage of our coaching team’s knowledge and get some advice on implementing the areas we’ve covered, then get in contact for a coaching consultation. This is an online session where you can ask any training, racing, tactical, equipment questions you like and we’ll guide you through the answers from our extensive experience. 

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