Sprint Triathlon Build For Andrew · Race day Saturday 12 September
Your swim, bike and run sessions. These sit alongside your lifts in the app. They do not live in the app, so this page is the program. Block 3 built the fitness. Block 4 delivers it to the start line. Block 3 stays here as your record of what you did.
Your Week The shape changes a little
The brick is now every Saturday. The lifts drop from three to two, a touch heavier.
- The standalone Friday bike is gone. The bike now lives inside the Saturday brick, because riding then running is the exact skill the race asks for.
- Two lifts, not three. The strength holds its ground while the race work takes the front seat.
- Cardio in the morning where you can. Race day is still 6.45am, and this block we start using that clock for real.
Shift the days to fit your week as always. Just keep 48 hours between the two swims for the shoulder, and keep Sunday a true rest day.
Two Rules This Block Non-negotiable
Neither of these costs you the race if we catch them early. Pushing through them could.
Every run in this block unlocks its intensity only if the week before went silently. If the thigh so much as whispers mid-session: stop, walk it home, message me. We repeat the easier version next week and nothing is lost.
The swims are longer now, so fatigue builds up inside a session in a way it didn't before. If anything catches or feels loose, end the set there and message me.
Fuel Is Part of the Program Straight talk
The 1800 line is a session. Treat it like one.
- The logs keep telling the same story. Under-fuelled weeks slow the thigh, flatten the bike and steal the exact gains this block is here to make.
- Anchor the morning: the shake plus a banana or oats, even with no appetite, especially before morning cardio.
- Build lunch and dinner off the 1800 line, rather than hoping the day adds up.
- Sitting under 1200 by mid-afternoon? Use the 500 calorie protein and carb backstop before dinner.
Hitting 1800 every day this block is as much a part of the program as any swim, bike or run.
The Weeks
Four weeks, each with its own character. Build, build, biggest, pull back.
Ease Back In Aug 3-9
Re-entry week on purpose. Four clean sessions with a quiet thigh unlocks week 10 properly.
You've done this before. Ease back into it. Long strokes, relaxed.
Breathe every 3 strokes. Same technique session as always.
This run has one job: prove the thigh is quiet. Nothing to chase this week.
Same as the first brick you did. Conversational bike, very easy jog. Welcome the volume back gently.
Build Again Aug 10-16
First proper working brick. The steady bike blocks are the race pace we build on next week.
The longest continuous swimming of the build so far. Got an open-water spot lined up? This is the week to christen it. Practice sighting: every 8 strokes or so, eyes up for a quick look, then back down. No wall out there to save you, and that's the point. In the pool, practice the sighting anyway on the middle lengths.
We're weaning the stroke off the buoy. It doesn't come to the race.
If unlocked, finish with 4 x 30 second relaxed strides. Tall, smooth, quick. Not sprinting. Walk back between each.
15 easy first, then the steady blocks (short sentences only) with 4 min easy spin between, easy to finish. Rack it, jogging within 2 minutes.
Race Rehearsal Aug 17-23 · The biggest week
Biggest week of the entire build. Sleep and the 1800 line count double here.
Easy pace, long strokes. The whole job is proving you can just keep going. Open water if you have it. If the shoulder's been fine: take the first 20 strokes a little stronger then settle into your rhythm. The race start will feel like that.
Same as week 10.
Start easy for 15 minutes. Single words only on the efforts, 2 minutes easy jogging between, easy to finish.
Alarm set, planned race breakfast, kit laid out the night before. The whole morning is the session. 2 x 10 min at race pace mid-bike (strong but controlled, short sentences at most), rack it, run 15 minutes with the first 5 at race feel. Legs will complain less than the first brick.
Message me before you start the session, not after. Big weeks only work if we respond to what the body says.
Easy Week Aug 24-30
The volume drops on purpose so the body banks the biggest block of work it's ever done. Don't add to it.
Relaxed.
Easy does it.
Nothing to prove this week.
The brick rests too.
With the year you've had on the illness front, this is the week that keeps you healthy through the peak. The final plan lands at the end of this week. It covers the last two: your enduro weekend, then race week.
A Few Things to Remember
Read once now, then again before week 11.
The Standards Same as ever
- The wave is still the wave. Build, build, biggest, pull back. Week 12 feeling easy means the plan is working. Do not add to it.
- The gates are non-negotiable. Run intensity only unlocks off a silent thigh. Swim sets end early if the shoulder catches. Caught early it's nothing. Pushed through, it's your race.
- Race morning is being rehearsed. The week 11 brick at 6.45am is a full dress rehearsal: alarm, breakfast, kit, clock, jelly legs. Treat it like the real thing and race day will feel familiar.
- 1800 every day. Same line, fourth block. The fittest version of you is the fuelled one, and this is the block where it counts double.
Your open-water spot, and whether the race lets you wear a wetsuit (check the race listing). Both change how we handle the swim and the shoulder, so message me the answers this week or next.
This is the block the race is won in. Any questions, hit me in the app. Let's get to work. Ryan
The Shape Two weeks left
This stops being a training block here. Everything from here is about getting you to 12 September fresh, rested and ready to race.
- The enduro is in the plan, not in the way. Sunday 6 September is the biggest physical thing you will do in these two weeks, so everything around it is arranged to protect it and then to recover from it.
- Lifts go two, then one. Both of week 13's are done by Wednesday so you get four clear days before Sunday. Race week gets a single 20 minute primer and nothing else.
- Nothing new goes in. No new sessions, no new exercises, no new food. Two weeks out is when you stop adding and start delivering.
- Cardio in the morning where you can. Same as last block. Race day is still 6.45am.
Shift days around work as always. The two you cannot move are Sunday 6 September and Saturday 12 September.
The Swim Changed Both your answers matter
You answered the two questions I have been chasing, and both answers change how we handle the swim.
You race in the tri suit, so you get no buoyancy help. Your legs sit lower in the water and you work harder for the same speed. So the pull buoy is gone completely. It doesn't come to the race, so it doesn't come to the pool.
We never got a venue sorted, so every swim from here is a pool swim and the lake on 12 September will be the first one. That is manageable, and it changes how you start.
Line up at the side or the back, never the middle. First 100 deliberately slow, then settle into your rhythm. Breathe every 3, sight every 8. If your breathing goes, roll onto your back, get it back, carry on. Nobody's race ends there.
If it's shallow enough to wade or run part of it, that suits you, and it is worth practicing rather than meeting cold on the day. There's a shallow start drill in week 13 for exactly that.
Chase the organizer for the actual swim distance rather than waiting for them to post it, and tell me what they say. It's the last unknown left in the plan.
The Enduro Sunday 6 September · 9.30am
55 to 60 miles, six days before your race. We plan around it properly rather than pretend it isn't there.
- It's the hardest session in these two weeks and I didn't write it. So we treat it like one I did. It gets a taper in front of it and a recovery behind it.
- Nothing hard Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Sunday is the session. Going in tired is how a long day in the woods turns into a hurt one.
- Finish it, don't chase it. There's twelve weeks of work sat behind a start line six days later, and the last time you pushed on a dirt bike you came away with the thigh strain we've spent a month working around.
- Eat and drink it properly. Two to three hours of riding is not something you get through on a shake and good intentions. Breakfast, fluid and carbs with you, then a real meal as soon as you're off it.
Tell me how Sunday left you. Legs, shoulder, thigh, sleep and anything you landed on. Race week gets built off that answer, so give me the truth rather than the brave version.
Fuel Same line, one last time
2,200 calories and 149g of protein, every day, both weekends included.
- The weekend is where it goes wrong. It has gone wrong three weeks running, and the two weekends left are the two that matter most in the whole build.
- Race week is not a week to eat less. Training drops, appetite drops and the calories quietly follow them down. Hold the line even though you're doing less.
- Thursday and Friday, push the carbs up and salt your food. Drink more than feels necessary. Saturday's tank gets filled on Thursday and Friday.
- Race morning is already decided. Bagel or toast with honey, a banana, and your ISO100 with milk, 60 to 90 minutes before. Exactly what you rehearsed, nothing new.
The Two Weeks
Sharpen and ride, then recover and race.
Sharpen, Then Ride Aug 31 to Sep 6
Four short sessions Monday to Thursday, then you back off completely and give Sunday everything you have.
Easy on the 400, sighting every 8 strokes the whole way. The 50s are at race effort, strong but controlled. Last time you swim this far before the race.
15 minutes easy first, then the efforts at 5k effort, single words only. Easy to finish. Last quality run of the build. If the thigh says anything at all, stop and walk it home.
Technique first, no buoy. Then the new bit: wade in to thigh depth, three dolphin dives, swim 15m, walk back. Four times through, and the low lake is rehearsed.
This is the session. Nothing else on Sunday, nothing hard on Saturday and no heroics in the woods.
Lifts are Monday and Wednesday in the app, both light and fast. Nothing in the gym after Wednesday.
Recover, Then Race Sep 7-12 · Race week
Six days from a 60 mile enduro to a start line. Everything here is short, sharp and about feeling normal again.
Nothing at all today. Tell me how Sunday left you: legs, shoulder, thigh, sleep, and anything you landed on. Everything below flexes off that answer.
Short and confidence building. You're not training here, you're reminding the body what it already knows how to do.
The last brick. First 3 minutes off the bike at race feel, then jog it out. This is a reminder. You should finish it wanting more.
If the legs are still heavy from Sunday, skip it and walk instead. Nothing is gained this week by pushing. Read the race plan below while you're at it.
Kit laid out, bike checked, breakfast staged, alarm set, route to the venue known. The whole job today is making Saturday morning boring.
Twelve weeks of work for this one morning. Go and do it.
How You Run It
Read this Thursday, then again on Friday night.
Race Day Leg by leg
- The swim. Start at the side or the back, never the middle. First 100 deliberately slow, then settle. Breathe every 3, sight every 8. If your breathing goes, roll onto your back, get it back, carry on.
- T1. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. You will not win this race in transition, but you can definitely lose it there.
- The bike. First 5 minutes easy no matter what your legs are telling you after the swim. Then steady, short sentences only. Drink.
- T2. Your legs will feel like someone else's for about 3 minutes. You have rehearsed exactly this feeling four times now. It passes.
- The run. First half mile slower than you want to run it. After that you can race. Whatever is left goes into the last mile.
We adapt, we don't panic. A sore, stiff week is normal and the plan above still runs. Anything that feels like an injury and we bin the sharpening entirely, race week becomes rest, and you race on feel. You would be surprised how little you lose in six days and how much you lose by forcing it.
Twelve weeks for one Saturday morning. Get to the line healthy and the rest looks after itself. Any questions, hit me in the app. Ryan
Sprint Triathlon Build · Built for Andrew · Race day 12 September · SupraHuman Coaching