The best way to get better in the off season is to consistently train. Too many athletes avoid the pool for a few weeks or only run for a couple months because they enjoy it more. I would find a balance of all 3 sports every single week and keep doing it.

Racing sprints and olympics will most definitely help you prepare and race 70.3's.

Are you mainly looking into improving your running speed?
If so, I would put focus on running and do track workouts. 400‘s, 800‘s mile repeats at 3k,5k,10k efforts. Lots of VO2max training and in addition longer threshold sessions or include faster paces in your longruns.

No, I'd like to approve across the board. I think running is where I could use the most improvement.

All the training plans I've used are based on FTP and best 5k (or something similar) So that has me thinking if I can get my FTP higher (its actually slowly declining from doing all these long races) And also target my 5k speeds. But I'm not sure if that's flawed thinking.


My current IM times are in the low 11s.

I never stop training. I think I'm more addicted to the training than the racing. The problem is, without a race I feel lost on how to train. I plan on taking some time to do more "fun, unstructured" training but after a month or so I want to focus on speed. I like being able to log into trainingpeaks and follow instructions. But nothing I see really applies.

It also depends on your weekly load to allow you enough time to recover. If you can, include track sessions and get used to running a higher speeds than race pace and improving your running VO2max. I typically would include two higher intensity run sessions per week of your schedule and recovery allows for it.

Dang it!!! I'm one of those people avoiding the pool right now. It's so damn cold and hard to hit the water.
I will swim starting next week.

I don't do Ironman so I cannot comment on what it takes to get to be faster in that discipline.

I have done many HIM's. I am not a good runner but my best running seasons came after a big focus on running in the winter months.
For me the big focus was 40 to 55 mile weeks from November through February.

In February I got back on the bike with easy workouts then in March I was full in on the bike and backed the run off to about 30 miles per week.
The run plan was basically Daniels Marathon A canned plan with a lot of volume and threshold workouts.

I have gone the 5K-10K route. I used this book to help me structure:
https://www.amazon.com/...le?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is not easy, the plan I chose was very advanced. I don't remember how many plans there were in the book but here is one I used:

removed link

Edit: I think this is the Daniels 5 to 15K plan

I mostly did two of the workouts a week because three was too much for me.

Edit 2:
This is my Daniels Marathon A plan
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Simple….train with a group

If you race sprints and Olys more frequently, then use those as the bulk of your "speed training." Not sure of your age, but you'll need the recovery regardless, so don't go crazy during the week. Maybe hit some (16x)400 & (8x)800 repeats between races at 5K/10K pace on the run, some sweet spot intervals(88-92% FTP) on the bike, 50s/100s in the swim. If you stay consistent with that, I bet you get faster. After a summer of that, sign up for a 70.3 and see if that speed carries.

What's your weakness? Look at the race results? Are you struggling and fading at the end of your bikes/runs in the race? Are you struggling to put down more power/speed and have no problem completing the distance?

I'd consider finding a sprint distance focus plan and working on that or an FTP type plan on the bike. If you really need some structured workouts to follow. Run some 800's at 10k pace, 6-8 min reps at FTP, 100 yd repeats in the pool. Pretend as if you have a sprint or olympic race in a couple months from now. Then in the spring/summer decide if you need to extend for a half/full. Just some ideas.

How much have you run? As in, tell me your miles per year each of the past few years? (I'd check past 100/100 results but they seem to have disappeared along with the training log migration?).

Anyhow, the best way to get faster at running is to do more easy running. If you're not running 2000 miles/year or more, bump volume before trying to add speed -- especially true over the winter in northern climates where outdoor speedwork can get trickier/treacherous at times.

If you are running 40 mpw or more and you are not already doing structured speed workouts, then I'll happily give you some workout ideas.

How much have you run? As in, tell me your miles per year each of the past few years?

I'm closer to 800-900 per year for the past few year. I assumed I was doing average for triathlon. I can definitely try to run more over the winter,

You answered your own question without going far enough. Maybe just spend a season focused on doing the training to get fast in Oly's and 70.3s.

It's easy to go long, anyone can do it, I mean look at any IM finish line. The bulk of the people are in after 12h. yet the #1 way those 12h finished become 10.5h finishes isn't by repeating the same training they've been doing. It's by figuring out how to get faster

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

That’s less than 20 mpw average. Lots of room for improvement there.

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Let food be thy medicine...

Unless you're already maxing out your body's ability there's two fundamentals to get faster: Train more and train harder.

The general pyramid of training importance is: 1-Consistency, 2-Frequency, 3-Volume, 4-Intensity, 5-Intensity distribution. This goes for any event from a 5k to an IM.

The actual training for an IM and an Oly is like 90% the same. High volume and somewhere around 80/20. You need a huge aerobic base and a slightly higher anaerobic capacity for Oly's, essentially your power curve should look a tiny bit more exponential than linear. 4-5 days of the week are still going to be high volume aerobic ~zone 2 stuff.

If you know running is the low hanging fruit then it makes sense to do a dedicated block (or even entire winter) focused more heavily on running. You could plug in your race times or do some TT's and plug them into McMillan or Daniels calculator and see if there's any times that are divergent from the calculator. That can tell you if you need to work on 5k-end speed specifically or if it's a more global 'get better at running'. If it's a short duration speed issue the training basically just has a higher frequency of 400's-1k's at the expense of some threshold stuff.

Also I have no idea your body composition, but weight and running have a direct relationship.

Desert dude full on assed challenge

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...your_time._P1051716/

Alternatively…train by yourself if that energizes you. Effective triathlon training can be accomplished either way!

Effective yes…but if you want to go faster, training with others of your speed or betting is a simple way to get faster….years of training in groups and alone, I was always faster when meeting up a couple times a week with others

no joke, my first tip is to stay healthy. before any magic program or secret workout, I think consistency is king. can't be consistent if you're missing weeks for sickness.

source: I'm writing this from a hospital bed.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Hope you’re better soon!

Yeah, this is really important, and part of why I suggested increasing volume of easy running rather than adding speedwork. Vastly more risk of injury -> inconsistency -> fitness losses from adding fast intervals than from modestly increasing running mileage.

Tough one OP. Conventional wisdom says to build your base over the winter so that you have an expanded aerobic capacity heading into the season. Bringing in those faster workouts now, without improving your strength, could leave you flat/burned out heading into the season. I know you want to improve speed but not seeing any improvement now might just be tied to always being in a 70.3/140.6 build & doing 70.3/140.6 specific workouts instead of VO2 work in-season. I would spend time now building your volume and getting stronger. Then I would add in the VO2 workouts in the spring before you start racing.

Edit: Reading that you're around 800-900 running miles/year I would double down on the above. I don't think you just need to crank out VO2 work now to get faster. 800-900 = 15-20 miles/week. That might be around average but it's on the lower side. Increasing safely to 30-40+ (up to 50) miles/week now, with mostly easy running, is what I would suggest. Then in-season you can hover a little lower & bring in the faster workouts.

Is there a max duration on the base training? I feel like after 2-3 months of base training in any disciplines, I need a change of stimulus. I don't think it's boredom, just seems like progress really slows down.

Have you spent a long time in base training without switching it up? Is that recommended?

Nils van der Poel did a 14-month initial base build from May 2019-June 2020, then 5 months of base from March-July 2021. Pretty solid results. And, note that this is the aerobic base all cultivated for a 12-minute race.

(see training log at the end of the pdf... https://www.howtoskate.se/)

Since most people adapt to a new stress in 5 to 6 weeks, you should change then.

You can change the amount of stress or to a different stress depending on your needs.