Hi there! I am exploring Athletica and have a couple of general questions:
(1) I am trying to figure out what the best plan would be to combine running, cycling and strength workouts. I am not preparing specifically for any competition, but enjoy doing all the sports and would like to structure my weekly workouts a bit better. Would the best approach be to choose a duathlon plan, and manually add strength workouts throughout the week? I enjoy going to the gym at least twice a week, but it does not seem that Athletica will program S&C sessions on that plan. Should I just add them manually and let Athletica adapt the rest of the week?
(2) A second question has to do with Test Week. I had just started a cycling plan but it just seemed that manually changing bike sessions for running sessions would be inferior to letting athletica plan both types side-by-side, so halfway thorough test week I decided to change the plan from cycling to duathlon. Now it seems that Athletica has jumped straight into duathlon training, but my testing is not finished. Is there any way around this, so that maybe I can make next week into a test week for the duathlon plan, for example?
When you create a new plan, it should automatically create a test week for the next week unless you tick the box that requests for this not to happen.
Sometimes if you just amend an existing plan it may not force this through, I believe there is another selection box to make Athletica create a new plan - maybe try this?
As for your first point, I have been through the same thing. I have a half marathon coming up in October but off the back of my triathlon plan I want to keep some cycling in there. I looked at a duathlon training plan and will just add in my own strength and swimming sessions - to be honest I was fairly fluid when these would happen when they were in my plan anyway so this seems the best option!
And thanks for your reply! Yes I’ve seen the tick to skip the test week but I have not marked it, so I was assuming it would be there. I did, however, choose to start the new plan today (instead of the default option, which says “next week”), so this may be causing the trouble? I will try again with the default option then, and if that doesn’t work maybe I will change to a blank plan for the rest of the week and start a new plan next Monday. And thanks for your input regarding the duathlon plan too, I think I will give that a try and see how it goes!
HI Adria, i had the same dilemma after finishing triathlon season. I wanted OFF season phase that will have a lot of strength (Rebuild and to prevent injuries) and Run (i have some running races for the fall) with some Bike. After 3 months i will go to another phase where i will decrease Runs but increase Bikes. Than back to Triathlon season in early spring. I chose Hyrox training and making some manual modification . This is example of my upcoming week
Hi Pawel, and thanks for your reply! I had not considered Hyrox, so I guess I will explore that option at some point too! However, my main focus is running and cycling, and I have my own strength routines (so I would ignore Athletica’s specific workout suggestions anyways), so I suspect duathlon may suit me better? Lots of stuff to explore! Also, nice and busy week ahead, I like that the strength workouts look more varied in your plan than what I had seen in the other plans I tried, so that may be worth taking into account! I wonder if that is specific to the Hyrox plans…
i would say those strength trainings are more specific to Hyrox competition. I actually don’t always follow them since i have my own heavy weight sessions but i do pickup some specific exercises from them. In your case seems like duathlon may be a better choice. You can also manually setup type of trainings and what days you want them when you starting specific block (it used to be in Beta version only but i believe it is available for everyone now). Good luck with your block
