| DAY | SESSION | EFFORT CAP |
|---|
| Mon 8/31 | Upper-body strength (press, row, pushups — no leg work) · stretch 15 min. Legs are sore: today they rest. | stop 2 reps shy of failure |
| Tue 9/1 | Bike 16 mi outdoors, easy. Terrain varies outdoors — watch avg HR, not speed | avg HR ≤ 140 |
| Wed 9/2 | Swim (borrowed lane): ~550 m. 4×25 easy warmup · attempt 2×50 unbroken · rest well · attempt 100 m unbroken · easy 25s to finish. If the 100 fails, that's fine — find the current ceiling | no cap — technique & milestone |
| Thu 9/3 | Travel. Walk (target 8,000+ steps) · 10 min stretch · pushups if convenient | — |
| Fri 9/4 | Travel. Walk 8,000+ steps · 10 min stretch | — |
| Sat 9/5 | Travel (return late). Walk 8,000+ steps · stretch on arrival home | — |
| Sun 9/6 | BRICK: Bike 18 mi easy → transition ≤ 15 min → run 6.5 mi easy. Longest ride and longest run of the program, back to back — exactly what race day is made of. Fuel on the bike; run the first mile deliberately slow | bike avg ≤ 140 · run avg ≤ 145, ceiling 150 |
Morning Go / No-Go
Check wake RHR on the morning brief before training.
- ≤ 62 — green light, train as planned
- 63–66 — train, but easy only; skip the 100 m attempt if it's Wednesday
- ≥ 67 — swap to rest / stretching
Sunday's brick gets an extra rule: three days of travel beds and
event food come first — if Sunday wake RHR is amber, ride but drop the run to 3 easy miles.
The One Rule This Week
The deload is the workout — and it arrives on schedule. Four build weeks, sore legs, gym closed, travel: the calendar is forcing what the program would have prescribed soon anyway. The temptation will be to hammer Tuesday and
Wednesday to "bank" volume before traveling. Don't. Week 4's ride already showed the
pattern (avg 147 vs a 135 cap). Three easy-capped sessions, three walking days, one quality
brick — that's a complete, successful week. Fitness is built by the month, not the week.
Fueling — Travel Edition
- ~2,100–2,300 kcal on non-training days (burn drops when training does)
- Protein ≥ 135 g every day, including travel days — the hardest and most important line item this week
- Event food strategy: protein first at every meal, then everything else
- Log every meal, even approximately — a rough travel log beats a blank; 7/7 last week, keep the streak
- Sunday brick: eat normal breakfast, carry fluids + one gel/bar on the bike
Week Checklist
- [ ] Upper-body session Mon (zero leg work)
- [ ] 100 m unbroken attempted Wed
- [ ] 8,000+ steps each travel day
- [ ] Protein ≥ 135 g all 7 days
- [ ] Meals logged all 7 days (travel included)
- [ ] Sunday brick: 18 mi + 6.5 mi, caps respected
- [ ] Stretching 10 min × 5+ days
Week 4 actual: ~13 mi run / 22 mi bike / 1,350 m swim, all sessions completed, diet logged 7/7 —
the biggest week of the program, and the soreness is its receipt. Week 5 cuts run volume ~50%
(one session, but the longest yet), holds bike steady via two outdoor rides, and shrinks the swim
to one high-leverage session aimed at the single number gating race readiness: continuous distance
(currently 50 m; readiness model wants 400 m). The Sunday brick is deliberately placed after three
rest days — freshest possible legs for the two longest sessions of the program. Readiness may dip
this week as the 42-day windows roll; that is the model accurately reflecting a deload, not a setback.
T-minus 286 days.