Train on the evidence.
Evidence-based coaching, from a coach who helped build the evidence.
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Every session is a structured workout, so it pushes straight to your Garmin, Wahoo, Polar or Coros watch with the intervals and targets already built in.
Go to sample weeks and training-load structure ↓
You already train across swim, bike and run, and you want a focused run-in to your half-distance triathlon, not a long base phase started from scratch. This is a 17-week build that sharpens an existing engine into race fitness, peaking near 15 hours a week, then tapers you in fresh. The point is to add race-specific sharpness without digging a hole you cannot climb out of before race day. Newer to long course, or building from a modest base? Start with the Half-Distance Foundation plan first.
WHAT'S IN EVERY SUMMIT PLAN
Coaching built in, not just a list of workouts.
✓HR-anchored to your own threshold
Targets are set from your own heart rate, so they scale to you, not a generic chart.
✓About 80 percent easy
Most of your running kept genuinely easy, with a smaller, sharper share of hard work. Endurance research links the fastest marathon and half-marathon times to more easy running, not more hard.
✓Structured to your watch
Every interval downloads to your device and guides you in real time.
✓A weekly coaching note
Plain English, every Monday: what matters most and what to drop when life is loud.
✓Three doses every week
Full, reduced and minimum, so a hard work or family week never derails the plan.
✓A day-one guide and workbook
The reasoning behind every session, with every term defined in full.
THE INTENSITY THAT GETS YOU THERE
Most of your training, easy.
A big aerobic base carries the work, with a smaller, sharper dose of hard efforts placed where they earn their keep.
Easy ~80%Hard
Polarised training has the strongest evidence, so these plans are built that way. Pyramidal training is also effective, so in one-to-one coaching the balance is tailored to your stage of training and your life load.
Where your training load sits in the typical age-group triathlon population, from my own PhD research (the TrainingPeaks Coach Blog I wrote →).
Dr Leighton Wells
PhD · MAppSpSci · TrainingPeaks Level 2 · 7× IRONMAN® finisher · research on 34,731 training sessions
HOW IT IS BUILT
What it is built on
Built the way the evidence says a half-distance triathlon is built: a broad aerobic base trained mostly easy, the bike carrying the aerobic load while the run is built carefully, and a limited, deliberate dose of harder work. It opens with an orientation week and a benchmark week, then progresses in absorbable steps with deload weeks along the way.
In the build you rehearse race-pace efforts and brick sessions, so moving off the bike onto the run feels familiar rather than improvised, and your key long days grow steadily. Every session is anchored to your own threshold, your LTHR (Lactate Threshold Heart Rate), set in the benchmark week, so easy days are genuinely easy and the hard days count.
The plan peaks near 15 hours in its biggest weeks, then tapers cleanly so you arrive sharp. There are 139 structured workouts that push to your watch and guide each interval, and every week comes in three doses, full, reduced and minimum, so a loud work or family week never derails the thread. It is built to the same standards behind every Summit plan.
THE SUMMIT COACHING CYCLE
Coach yourself the way we would.
This is the rhythm we run in one-to-one coaching, and we encourage you to run it yourself when self-coaching. The plan prescribes the training; you measure, monitor and manage, week to week, and each step feeds the next.
PPrescribe
The plan designs each week with intent, built on the method above.
MeMeasure
Capture every session, and just as important, how it actually felt.
MoMonitor
Watch the trends, your fatigue and your life load, not just one session.
MaManage
Adjust, progress or back off, then it feeds into the next week.
THE AUTHORITY BEHIND YOUR PLAN
Peer-reviewed research
Published in leading sport-science journals.
Invited presenter
For AusTriathlon and TrainingPeaks.
European College of Sport Science
Presented at the ECSS 2025 congress in Rimini, a leading global meeting.
ENDURANCE RESULTS FROM SUMMIT ATHLETES
Real results, from real endurance athletes.
50-min IRONMAN® 70.3® PB, and a first IRONMAN® finish“I reduced my IRONMAN® 70.3® PB by 50 minutes in less than 12 months with Leighton, and he coached me to my first IRONMAN® finish.”
Andrew Hyde · First IRONMAN® finish 40 minutes off an IRONMAN® 70.3®“Exceptional, personalised service. Leighton provides great insights and really knows what endurance training is all about. I reduced my IRONMAN® 70.3® time by 40 minutes.”
Scott Hunter · IRONMAN® 70.3® athlete Before you start
You should already be training consistently across all three disciplines, with a broad fitness base to sharpen rather than one to build from the ground up. Newer to the distance, or working from a modest base? Start with the Half-Distance Foundation plan and step up when you are ready. The plan opens with an orientation week to settle in and set up your devices, then a benchmark week that sets your heart-rate zones from your own threshold, so nothing in the build is guesswork. A heart-rate monitor is essential, and you will need pool access for the swims.
FROM PLAN TO COACHING
A plan gives you the structure. Coaching adds the person reading the data.
Buy this plan, and if you later move to one-to-one coaching with Dr Leighton Wells, your first month is free. We pick up from where the plan has taken you, with your training built and adjusted around you, week to week.
Delivered through TrainingPeaks and loads into your calendar from your chosen start date. Train to your own limits and seek medical advice before starting a new program.
Summit Triathlon Coaching is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by World Triathlon Corporation (The Ironman Group), the T100 Triathlon World Tour, or Challenge Family. IRONMAN® and IRONMAN® 70.3® are registered trademarks of World Triathlon Corporation.
I coach triathletes, runners and IRONMAN athletes who want training that fits real life, not just a race calendar. I’m a sport scientist with a PhD in Sport Science, a Master of Applied Sport Science and a seven-time IRONMAN finisher, so it’s evidence-based but lived-in. We read your data and how training is actually landing, keep most of it genuinely easy, and progress in steps you can absorb. If you want a coach who listens, adapts and explains the why, I’d love to work with you.
