Six-Month Off-Road Triathlon Training Plan

6 months to go

It's time to get used to some regular training, although we've kept the sessions reasonably short for now.

5 months to go

This month you'll get used to the idea of switching from one sport to another within the same race. To achieve this you'll do 'brick’ sessions. These are back-to-back sessions of two disciplines. Where possible you should dothese bricks outside using race equipment. To do the swim/cycle brick it's acceptable to use your gym's pool and then an exercise bike. Aim to improve on your times every week.

4 months to go

The training programme enters its long-distance phase this month, and here you'll lay down kilometre after kilometre to increase your stamina. You will complete one longer swim, cycle and run every week, keeping Combined (or 'brick') session from last month to stop your routine changing completely. If you miss one of the long sessions, sacrifice the Sunday brick in favour of it.

3 months to go

This month you'll be upping the pace to build your fitness up to race readiness. Tempo training is done in the 80-90 per cent range of maximum heart rate (MHR). You find your MHR by subtracting your age from 220. Where tempo training is indicated, do sessions as intervals with two-minutes rests in between to build your fitness.

2 months to go

Race distance training. Over the next four weeks you'll attempt one full leg each week: one swimming, one cycling and one running. The remainder of your training will be as normal. You will aim to go faster than in the long-distance sessions you did in the previous month, but you'll maintain a constant race pace.

1 month to go

Tapering. The next four weeks will see you continuing to do your tempo sessions to increase your fitness while doing less long-distance work because you should have already built up your baseline aerobic capacity by now. Keep preparing for the bike/run transition by doing brick sessions, and push yourself to go faster than race pace on the shorter tempo training intervals. In the last week before the race, you will ease off to avoid going into the event exhausted.

Key: RP = race pace. FRP = faster than race pace.