waldick

Within the last two years I have gone from couch to Sprint Tri to this year a 1/2 IM. I had a extended recovery period from my last TT of right around 37 years. Somewhere along the way I seem to have lost 60 lbs or so; and hope not to find it again. I rode just over 4000 miles last year, swam 2-3 a week during the summer 30-45 minutes and ran 2 times a week 3 miles at a time prior to the Tri and then just stopped. The sprint tri went well, mostly, 10th out of the water, 10th off the bike and then...was passed by 34 people to finish 44th overall out of 100 or so people, 3rd in my AG (55-59). So, yes, running is my big weakness...I'm happy just to run a 10min/mi pace...

Now I'm training for the 1/2 IM in July. I bought Joe Friel's book and fashioned a training plan as outlined in the book, using 500 yearly hours as a basis and the suggested daily hours. I'm through 3 weeks of prep at 7.5 hours a week and now into Base 1/1 at 10.5 hours a week, peaking at Base 1/3 for 13.5 hours.

The amount of time per event in a 1/2 IM breaks out to about 15% swim, 50% bike and 35% run...roughly. But in the training plan the time spent on the individual events is disproportionate to the %s. For example, on my long swim day this week I swam 90 minutes, on my long run day I ran 90 minutes and then rode 90 minutes...

However, in two weeks, it looks like I'm scheduled to swim, bike, run for 120 minutes... seems like a huge increase per week (well in excess of the max 10% increase generally recommended).

I'm just wondering if I'm missing something or if I need to train that hard for that long....can I break the long workouts into 2 shorter sessions. Right now I'm doing Swim/Ride, Run/XT combinations alternating every day with Sundays off. Should I do a swim/swim/ride for example?

What have other people done with the Friel training plans ?