Multisport plan glitch?

[Yiyan]

I was looking at getting a triathlon training plan in the calendar, but came across a glitch (I think…) with the plans.

I’ve looked at the sprint and olympic distance plans and they work towards the final day being your event. That’s perfect and exactly what I was hoping for, but… if I add strength in to the plan, it suddenly shifts the focus and it ends with a testing week instead?

I’d like to run the plan, with strength training, but have it geared towards finishing with my event. Is this an error on the way they are set up, or have I missed something?

[Pierre]

I know nothing but collected a few threads for you anyway. I think this is by design, see the post here:

Triathlon Training Plans

Be sure to choose the plan without strength if you want the plan to end on race day. The plan with strength is an off season plan and ends with testing. If you’d like a copy of the plan for TrainingPeaks to log your run and swim, send us an email at theminions@thesufferfest.com and we can get you set up with that!

There is a discussion about off season plans with strength over here:

Off/Base Season Triathlon

Having read Mac’s comments about how the Sufferfest cycling doesn’t necessarily follow the traditional linear periodization training (long base, build, etc.), that makes sense for cycling. Question/discussion therefore is around utilizing The Sufferfest for year-round triathlon/IM training. The 140.6 plan volume seems to be a heavy load to carry year round. Does the 140.6 training plan follow the same principle as the cycling plans, e.g. they are good to put on repeat all year? If no, is the…

There is also the option to add a strength block to your training plan, if you absolutely know what you are doing, but I - personally - wouldn‘t do it.

Another option would be to go the custom plan route:

Off/Base Season Triathlon

Having read Mac’s comments about how the Sufferfest cycling doesn’t necessarily follow the traditional linear periodization training (long base, build, etc.), that makes sense for cycling. Question/discussion therefore is around utilizing The Sufferfest for year-round triathlon/IM training. The 140.6 plan volume seems to be a heavy load to carry year round. Does the 140.6 training plan follow the same principle as the cycling plans, e.g. they are good to put on repeat all year? If no, is the…

Other option: Treat your test-week in the plan with strength as the event week. Prepare for a Full Frontal after your event - with enough rest in between.

Or just compare and possibly switch out the plans in the last couple of weeks if they are too different.

[Yiyan]

Thats great, thanks @Pierre ! Figured it was more likely that I’d missed something . Certainly looks like your search powers are much better than mine as well!

Good to know what and how to follow. As you note, think I’ll avoid combining plans for now… don’t want to overdo it and end up injuring myself or burning out.

[Jodiegilbert]

@Yiyan,

I hope you had a great season last year. I’ve posted and had some great answers from the Wahoo team on this subject. Since your post (like right after it) they released SYSTM and have done some pretty significant upgrades to the Multisport training plans. It USED to be that if you added strength, the plan was a not-ending-on-race-day plan (e.g. preseason) and without strength the plan would end on race day.

With the update, now you have the choice for a pre/off-season plan and a race prep plan, and you can add strength/yoga/mental to either. So, big improvement IMO, keeping strength in the plan is good for staying physically strong in all aspects through race day.

[Yiyan]

Yes indeed, thanks. Spotted the updated functionality and am testing an out of season plan as we speak! Some good improvements so far.