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 ↓
Between races, most triathletes either drift or keep smashing themselves. This is the third option: a three-week block that holds your engine, restores your rhythm and rebuilds the strength habit, so your next build starts from freshness rather than fatigue. It is also priced as a first taste of structured triathlon training: the same session design, coaching notes and sport-science standards as every Summit race plan, in a block you can try for the cost of a race-day breakfast.
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 training kept genuinely easy, with a smaller, sharper share of hard work. Endurance research links the strongest results to more easy training, not more hard.
✓Structured to your watch
Every swim, ride and run 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 with a smaller, sharper dose of hard work. The distribution the research ties to the strongest endurance results, and the right dose for a block whose job is to hold fitness, not force it.
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.
Endurance research links the fastest race times to more easy training, not more hard (Muniz et al., 2024, Sports Medicine →).
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 transition block should be: mostly-easy aerobic work to hold the engine, one quality run per week, and every energy system touched lightly rather than hammered.
The run week obeys a hard Summit rule: volume and intensity never rise together. Week 1 re-opens tempo, Week 2 sharpens with a 400/800/1200/800/400 speed pyramid while the long run holds flat, and Week 3 pairs the long-run peak with gentler hill strength. The 10x200 swim benchmark runs in Weeks 1 and 3, a built-in progress check with no formal test.
Two full-body strength circuits each week, taught exercise by exercise, and a genuine rest day every week, explained on the day. Run it once between races, or stack two or three rounds into a 6 to 9 week base: the restart at 8.5 hours after each 10-hour peak is the deliberate step-back that makes repeats safe. 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 its 30th Annual Congress in Rimini, Italy (July 2025), a leading international sport-science congress.
“The empty day is where the week’s work becomes the week’s gain.”
From the plan's rest-day coaching notes
ENDURANCE RESULTS FROM SUMMIT ATHLETES
Real results, from real endurance athletes.
50-min 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 a 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
This plan assumes you already swim, ride and run. Full weeks are 8.5, 9.25 and 10 hours; the built-in Minimum dose weeks run closer to 3 to 4 hours. It is not a couch-to-tri plan. When you are ready for a race build, the Summit Ironman 70.3 Foundation plan is the natural step up, or go straight to one-to-one coaching.
FROM PLAN TO COACHING
This block is a taste. Here is where it leads.
When you are ready for more, step up to a full Summit race or base build and, when you move to monthly one-to-one coaching after it, your first month is free. Or pair an advanced Summit plan with one-to-one coaching from the start, and your first month of that guidance is free. Either way, coaching picks up from where this block has taken you, with your training built and adjusted around you, week to week.
Rather skip the second plan? You can go straight to one-to-one coaching with Dr Leighton Wells, PhD (Sport Science), MAppSpSci, at any time.
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.
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.
