I’ve just built my plan for 2026 - took me a few goes to get it to something I felt happy with. From being classed as a “triathlete” I’ve now changed it to a runner as my A race is a Marathon in April. I’ve then put in a Ironman in September as a B race with a 70.3 in the middle as a C race.
What I am surprised about is the drop-off in my planned run fitness between April and September. It drops from 118 down to 50 - when in theory I am still running the same distance on race day. I expected a drop off in some respect - with the added fitness going towards my swim and bike - but this seems excessive?
I know I’m probably looking too far ahead but wondered if anyone who had done similar switches in priorities had noticed this? It would be nice to have both races as A races, especially with so much time inbetween - but I don’t think that affects the outcome all that much. I plan to swap out some of the runs for bike sessions during my marathon build.
Maybe @cmaloney also can give advice when she combines triathlon and marathon?
So at the moment you are on marathon plan until your main race, and you are adding swim and bike manually?
I think the system will allow some run fitness to drop in order to fit in more bike and swim. But you are saying it is not a small drop. Remember our triathlon plans are low on running load, so this could be related to the drop you see. Once you get there, I would just override running load. At this point you’ll be in strong running form after marathon ( you already are!).
I’m happy to have a look at your plan and give you pointers.
Thanks both. I guess the run fitness won’t be as high come the marathon as I’ll have swapped out some run sessions for bike, so it will be interesting.
I think as well there may be a bigger problem… the energy I have in my mind right now being more than the energy I’ll have when the sessions come in the middle of training
@jockefc23 My approach was a bit different as I chose the marathon training plan, starting January building to the Boston Marathon in April, and weekly I would manually add the bike and swim workouts that I wanted to do - I stuck to all the running it prescribed and added the other workouts as I saw fit. Then when the marathon was over, I chose the triathlon plan. Looking back, the marathon build brought my run fitness up pretty high, and it declined significantly leading up to my half Ironman, but you still hold on to the speed and endurance, despite the number being lower. During the marathon build I got up to running 110 km in my peak week, whereas only 50 during the triathlon training….
I guess the one thing is that I really shouldn’t be looking past the marathon race in April. I like to see a plan for the full year, especially when I’m planning training camps etc, but in reality I should focus on the first race, then once the marathon is done create a new plan for the triathlon. I suppose it doesn’t hurt having it there on the page for the time being.
This advice is completely non Athletica specific and is personal to me so take it with a pinch of salt (It also may be irrelevant, but I’m interested to hear your thoughts.).
Why don’t you set the Marathon as an A race. Then after that set up another plan with your September Ironman as an A race and the 70.3 as a B race?
My thought would be that you have two seasons in the year each with a race at its pinnacle.
This may be antithetical to the way Athletica and triathlon training works though.
I went the Cindy route, too, this year after Wildflower in order to train for my first marathon (Toledo). Biggest surprise to me—after the 2.5-month marathon build (+ COVID at the end of the build and a three-week delay in running the distance)—I was more than a bit surprised at how little my bike fitness had dropped.
