Sweet Spot Part 1 for the Triathlete

• Increase power and endurance 

This plan is best for triathletes (all triathletes, not specific to a particular distance) who have taken their post-season break and are ready to start training again, no matter what time of year. Over the course of 24 weeks, this plan will build your foundation of muscular strength with our new total body strength and conditioning program, paired with muscle tension intervals, sweet spot, sprints and hills to create a progressive triathlon training program that will improve aerobic fitness, strength, speed and power in all three disciplines.

The basic level plan is low volume, thus suited for athletes with 4-9 hours per week (including 2 strength sessions/wk), or those with less endurance training experience, less time available to train, or athletes training for shorter distance events.

The intermediate level suits those with 8-13 hours per week available to train (including strength sessions), those with more experience in triathlon training or want to do 3 strength sessions/week.

All plans include field testing for swimming, cycling and running at the beginning, middle and end of the plan.

If you're preparing for a full or half-distance triathlon, it is advised to follow a higher volume plan; especially if the event falls early in the year.

• Includes pre-hab exercises for injury prevention
  
• Best for triathletes and cyclists who race off-road

This program was designed to build total body strength and your aerobic endurance. 

The total body training strength portion of the plan includes upper body, lower body and the trunk (core) workouts two or three times per week**.  

By connecting all three, you’ll generate more power on the bike because you’re able to transfer force into the pedals more efficiently. This is especially important for triathletes, mountain bikers, and gravel riders, who benefit the most from increased strength and stability in the hips, shoulders, and core.

** In Optimize, choose 'basic' for twice week total body strength workouts or the 'intermediate' level for three workouts per week, in addition to your base training! 

You’ll begin with an adaptation phase to get the body accustomed to strength training. Then a hypertrophy phase to increase muscle fiber size and strength endurance, a strength phase to increase maximum strength, then a power phase to convert the strength gains into speed.

The cycling portion of this plan includes structured sweet spot and tempo workouts plus zone 2 rides, all of which you may do indoors or outdoors. It also includes longer endurance sessions on the weekends. This 16-week plan is similar to our popular 16 Weeks of Sweet Spot Base plan but with the total body strength workout balanced with the cycling training. 

In addition, this program utilizes activation exercises to help prepare the body for the workout to come, and they also double as “pre-hab” exercises to strengthen the small muscles and connective tissues (tendons and ligaments) in the shoulders and hips for injury prevention. This is important because when you’re strong and healthy, you’re able to train more consistently, which ultimately leads to better performance.

In order to complete this program at home, you'll need the following equipment:

1. Minibands 
2. Bands with handles or 0.5 inch Superband like you see in the video
3. Stability Ball 
4. Kettlebells or Dumbbells (or something heavy- Can be ViPR or another heavy implement, though a range of weight options is best - heavy, medium, light.) 
5. TRX (Optional)