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 carry a half-distance base, and you want to point it at the day rather than start another long build. This is a focused 14-week run-in to your full-distance triathlon: race-specific volume and rehearsal that turn the fitness you have into a full-distance result. It opens at real long-session volume and builds to a genuine full-distance peak, bike-led and protective of your running. Building from a more general base, or want the whole journey in one plan? Start with the 25-week Full-Distance Triathlon Complete plan.
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 does the heavy lifting, with a smaller, sharper dose of harder work to lift race-specific fitness.
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 a full-distance triathlon is actually built off an existing base: mostly-easy aerobic training anchored to your own physiology, the bike carrying the aerobic load while the run is built carefully, and long sessions progressed in steps your body can absorb.
The long ride stretches out past five hours and the long run climbs toward two and a half, with race-pace rehearsal, brick work, and fuelling practised so race day feels familiar rather than improvised. Every session is anchored to your LTHR (Lactate Threshold Heart Rate), your own threshold, set in a guided benchmark week, so easy days stay genuinely easy and the key sessions count.
The plan peaks near 16 hours in its biggest weeks, then tapers cleanly so you reach the line fit and fresh. Every week comes in three doses, full, reduced, and minimum, so a loud work or family week never derails the build. 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 have a half-distance base and be training across swim, bike, and run. 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. Building from a more general base instead? Start with the 25-week Full-Distance Triathlon Complete plan and step up to this when you have raced long course.
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. A free TrainingPeaks Basic account is enough to run it. 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) or Challenge Family. IRONMAN® is a registered trademark 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.
