My plan changes all the time due to schedule but I try to do 3 runs per week. 1 is a run that is about the same distance plus 1km as what I will be running in the race so I can see where my time is. 2nd run is either Fartlek or Hill training. 3rd run is distance run. If I don't do the distance run it's a run that's built into Brick sessions.

Swimming I will do 3 workouts a week as well, sometimes 4, swimming is my worst so it needs the most effort. Same type of thing. One swim I will do a distance swim in laps. the other 2 workouts are drills.

Biking I try to do 2 or 3 a week. Same type of thing where 1 will be a distance bike. The other will either be hills or a Brick.

Then I still try to fit in some strength training sessions.

Every 4th week I'll have a recovery week where the workouts are a little less intense.

Nutrition. I'm with you on those goo things. Yuk! I've heard a lot of people say they use the NUUN tablets in their water. I'm going to try that. There is also the chewy candy things that I may try as well.

Good free plans are hard to come by honestly. You may want to look at the free trial at Endurance Nation.

FWIW here is my take on a training plan. Here is my general weekly schedule:

M- Recovery Swim, T- Med Ride/Track work, W- Long Run, Th- Interval Bike/Tempo Run, F- Long Swim, Sa- Off, Sunday- Long Ride (brick if close to race)

I TRY to get 3 swim sessions in if possible. The thing is however the ROI on swim time is minimal. You can work your tail off for 10 seconds per hundred and it only returns you 2 minutes on an Oly swim. My advice is to work your on your bike and run as the ROI is greater.

When structuring a plan look at spacing out your long run and ride because they put the most stress on your body. A lot of people will do them both in the same weekend. This generally isn't the best idea due to the fact whichever one you do Saturday will effect your output on Sunday. Also work off of time instead of distance. You body doesn't know distance. It knows the amount of time and intensity of the workouts you put it through. The level of stress my body feels on a 5 mile run is totally different than yours. So if you are looking for plans stay away from distance based ones. As far as strength training I do it where I can. Weights are also the first thing to go if I'm crunched for time. The best strength training for a triathletes legs is low cadence work, whether you get that on hills or on a trainer in the hardest gear. Upper body is paddles in the pool or swim cords.

If you can't stomach GUs you can look at either Cliff ShotRoks (sp?) or the GU product that is similar. I also have friends that use Napalm by Infinit. It's basically granules that you water down to the consistency you want from gel like to more liquid.

So much good advice here! I'll try to remember it all when I do my first Oly tri next year!

This sounds super old fashioned, but check out your local library for a training plan book. That's where I got mine. I checked out a book with lots of training plans, spent an afternoon deciding which one would work best for me, wrote it all into a calendar, and returned the book. It's been a great plan so far (race is in 3 weeks). It was completely free (to me) even though it's a higher quality than most free ones since it was in a published, rather expensive, book.

Since I live on Gu, I can't help you much in that department. I do use Clif Bars on long rides, but I could never race with them because the fiber would upset my stomach on the run.

Good call on the library. The Time Crunched Triathlete by Chris Carmichael would be a good read. I see you have kids Vtate75 and work full time. I know how "time crunched" we tend to get.

Good call on the library. The Time Crunched Triathlete by Chris Carmichael would be a good read. I see you have kids Vtate75 and work full time. I know how "time crunched" we tend to get.

Thanks for the information on the book. I looked it up and it had a lot of good reviews so I ended up ordering it to keep in my own library. Now if I just had the time to read everything. :laugh:

Check with your local tri club. Many of them not only have distance training plans, but dedicated distance training groups.

I've never formally trained using a plan before, so I have no helpful comments there. This probably explains my amazingly slow finish times. Oh well.

Nutrition:
Okay, I like gels. But I don't use them exclusively, and I don't use them at all on the bike. This is my standard Olympic race day nutrition/hydration setup (assuming no crazy issues like excessive heat or rainstorms or something like that):

2 Days prior: Carbo-fest. Preferably Asian (Mmm... Pad Thai...), but just good old spaghetti works well, too.
Morning: 2 granola bars, washed down with lots of water.
T1: A water bottle that I hit if it's a hot day.
Bike: I keep a bento box on my bike filled with shot bloks (including margarita - SALT!!!) and sport beans. 2 NUUN-filled water bottles. I set my garmin to go off every 4 miles, then I eat 50-60 cals plus at least one big gulp of water. Although this does help me fuel regularly, it's more a necessity to ensure I'm not dehydrating. It's SO EASY to forget proper hydrating on the bike.
T2: If I'm feeling weary, I have a gel - usually something with lots of caffeine, and a sip of water.
Run: Usually, if I've had a gel in transition, I'm good to the finish line. If not, then I'll hit a gel about the 5K point. An accel gel (protein) or double caffeine gel does the trick. Water at every station, no exceptions.
Finish: Anything and everything. If it's handed to me, I'm shoveling it in.

What you may notice not seeing is Gatorade. How you feel about gels? That's how I feel about Gatorade. It makes me want to go behind a tree and heave it all back up.

Good luck finding something that works for you. Nutrition/hydration is such a finicky and individualized experience, that you just have to haul off and experiment on yourself. The above protocol has taken years to reach this point, and I keep tweaking it as I go.