Alison Freeman: USA Triathlon Level III & TrainingPeaks Level 2 Certified Triathlon Coach
AS SEEN ON TRIATHLETE.COM
Coach Alison provides a deep dive into the what, why, and how of the 80/20 training strategy in this Triathlete Magazine article. This plan takes the 80/20 half-distance training plan provided within the article and loads it into TrainingPeaks for you, including structured workouts for many bikes and runs so that you know you are sticking to the intended training zones.
About the Plan:
This 16 week 80/20 training program is designed for triathletes racing the half-distance who have at least one season of experience racing long-course triathlon. Each week has been carefully designed so that 80% of the training (give or take a few percent, and excluding race week) will be executed in Zones 1 and 2, and the remainder in Zones 3+.
A typical week has three swims, three bikes, three runs, and two recommended strength sessions. Your long rides are on Saturdays and your long runs are on Sundays. Mondays are your off days; optionally, you can move up the scheduled Sunday aerobic swim by six days to Monday. There are brick workouts on Saturdays beginning with week 5. Race effort test days are provided in weeks 8 and 12.
Workout Distances & Durations:
Before starting this plan, you should have a solid base of 7-8 average training hours for the past 4+ weeks, including interval work at threshold effort levels, so that you are prepared for the training volume and intervals in week 1 of the plan. Additionally, within 2-4 weeks of starting this plan, you should set or update your pace, power, and/or heart rate training zones to ensure that you have current numbers for all zones in each sport.
The plan begins with 4800 yards/meters of swimming, 3 hours 15 minutes of cycling, and 2 hours 20 minutes of running total in the first week. It peaks in week 13 with 7100 yards/meters of swimming, 6 hours of cycling, and 5 hours of running.
Take your training further with Coach Alison's book, Unlocking Triathlon
Unlocking Triathlon supplements the training plan with discussions of skill development across all three sports, detailed information on fueling and hydrating for training and racing, coaching guidance from plan start to finish, and detailed race day prep. The training plan plus the book provides the complete package to set you up for success on race day.
Have questions?
Email Coach Alison.
I am a USAT Level III Certified Coach based out of Boulder, Colorado. I specialize in working with athletes new to triathlon or to long-course (70.3 and Ironman) racing. I excel at educating my athletes and giving them confidence in their training - especially important for first-timers! - as well as in maximizing the efficiency of my athletes' training hours. All of this led to my book, Unlocking Triathlon, which was published in Fall 2026 by Human Kinetics.