You need basic equipment to swim (pool and open water), bike (outdoors or indoors), and run. 

With all plans except the Beginner Sprint and Olympic plans (for which you don't need any of the following), you need either a heart rate monitor or power meter to measure intensity on the bike, and a way (such as a GPS-watch) to measure pace or heart rate or power for running. For the swim you do NOT need a watch. You can use the pace clock that most pools have, or simply RPE (rating of perceived exertion). 

You can use either a road bike or a triathlon bike for these plans, it is all up to you. If you are a beginner training for a sprint or Olympic race, you do not even need a road bike, any bike will do. 

In many of the plans certain swim equipment is used. Fins, pull buouy, and paddles would be the most important pieces to have. In addition, it would be good to get a snorkel. For intermediate and advanced plans, a Finis Tempo Trainer and ankle strap are also recommended. 

For advanced plans, a power meter on the bike is recommended. For intermediate long distance (70.3 andIRONMAN) plans, a power meter on the bike is also recommended. 

Heart Rate based workout

Power based workout

This is because the Training Peaks versions of the plans are not sold by Scientific Triathlon, but by Training Peaks, and as you can imagine, Training Peaks take a significant cut of the price. 

The PDF-versions on the other hand are sold directly by us, there is no middle man. 

This being said, when you pay for the Training Peaks version of the plan, you also get the PDF-version for no extra cost (see one of the previous questions). And, you get access to a lot of additional functionality by using the plan in the Training Peaks ecosystem (the amount of functionality depends on whether you use a Free or Premium Training Peaks account).

In value-for-money terms, we believe that the Training Peaks version of the plan (with the PDF included at no extra cost) is the best deal (although both options are exceptional value-for-money!). 

Because the Training Peaks versions are sold by and through Training Peaks, we do not control the sales channel/shopping cart system, and we simply are unable to change anything else than price. Only Training Peaks can offer refunds on their own platform, and they might do it if you contact their customer support, but they do not offer a 100% satidfaction guarantee. 

In contrast, with the PDF-versions, everything is under Scientific Triathlon's control. We are therefore very happy able and very happy to offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee and full refunds if you are not happy with the plan when purchased in PDF-format.

You have the option to pay with credit card or with PayPal, regardless of whether you go for the PDF-version or Training Peaks version of a plan. 

Step 1: Click on the plan you want under the heading "Choose Your Plan" further up this page.

Step 2: A window will open up where you should select whether to get the PDF-version of the plan or the Training Peaks version (pick your desired combination of pace, heart rate, and power, as explained in a previous question): 

Step 3A: If you go for the PDF-version, you will be taken to a shopping cart page that looks as follows. Just choose whether to pay by credit card or with PayPal, fill in your details and complete the order. 

Step 3B: If you go for the Training Peaks version, you will be taken to a shopping cart page on the Training Peaks website. In the first step, log in to your account or create a new account. In the second step, fill in your billing address. In the third step, choose whether to pay by credit card or with PayPal, fill in your details and complete the order. 

It really depends on what your scenario is. In many cases we may be able to recommend a plan and possibly some workarounds that will make it very suitable for you. 

Please email mikael@scientifictriathlon.com and describe your needs, and we will see if we can figure out a suitable option for you.

We will eventually add base training plans to our library. Once they exist, using them will be perrfect for this scenario. 

In the meantime, this is one of those questions that our support team can help you with. Please email support@scientifictriathlon.com and describe your needs. 

It depends. If it is unpredictable but still a "normal" 21st-century adult life (Monday-Friday workdays, somewhat regular hours) then yes. 

The key for you will be to really plan ahead exceptionally well, become a calendar-ninja/productivity-machine, and make adjustments when the need to do so arises. See some of the related questions in the rightmost column

If your life is unpredictable/irregular in some other way (e.g. you are a long-haul flight pilot with several days of exclusively work and sleep, followed by several days completely off work), then the best training for you is so far from these regular-schedule training plans that we would not recommend getting a ready-made plan. Instead, consider coaching, which is the ultimate way of getting the most out of your time to train and finding the right balance, no matter how odd your schedule may be. Customised training plan is another option you could consider. 

As for athletes of any experience-level, we recommend coaching as the ideal way to get the absolute most out of your training, with customised training plans coming second and ready-made training plans being our third recommendation. 

However, if you are not able or ready to invest in coaching or a customised plan, the ready-made Beginner plans we have are a perfect choice for you! They are designed to be easy to use and follow, even if you're very new to the sport. And they are structured with a focus on the most important big rocks that a beginner should tackle, and not get stuck in the weeds of less important details and nuances. 

In short, if a ready-made training plan is what your budget allows for, it is an absolutely brilliant option that you will benefit a lot from!

Hundreds of athletes have already used our advanced plans, and all the feedback we have is extremely positive, so yes, you are very likely to benefit from a plan. 

That said, if you are an athlete that have already exhausted all the low-hanging-fruit in your training, and you're looking for the finer margins of improvement, then full individual coaching will be even more beneficial, and if your budget allows, that would be our primary recommendation.  

If coaching is out of your budget, give the Advanced plans a try, and remember that if you buy the PDF-version (not the Training Peaks version) we have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so you can get your money back if the plan is not for you.  

No. The difference in training and recovery needs is primarily determined by athletic experience and ability, not age or gender. A 25-year-old complete beginner to the sport with no athletic history will be able to handle a lot less than a 55-year-old lifetime athlete who has qualified for Kona. 

This is why the plans are based on the three levels of Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Of course goal race distance also dictates training needs significantly, so that's the other dimension of the matrix. 

We also think that inter-individual differences in needs greatly outweigh group differences in needs. For example, the variance in training/recovery needs between males athletes age 30-40 will be greater than the difference between the average 30-40 year-old male and female athlete. 

In other words, it is much more important to adjust a plan for the individual than for the demographic group of the individual

This is why we encourage you to make your own adjustments to the plan, and not just follow it blindly. Refer to the questions in the right-most column for tips on how to make such adjustments. 

If you purchase the PDF-version:

Once you complete the order through the online shopping cart you will immediately be redirected to an order page here on scientifictriathlon.com where you can download the training plan. 

You will also receive a confirmation email with your order details and a link to that same order page for downloading the plan.

Download the plan and get started!  

We recommend you save the order page in your favourites so you always have access to it should you need to re-download the plan. And of course, save the PDF so you can easily access it anytime. 

If you purchase the Training Peaks version: 

You will be taken to an order completion page on trainingpeaks.com where you are asked to apply the training plan to the account (either by selecting Start on Monday, or by selecting a specific start or end date).  

If you apply the plan there and then, you will see it in your Training Peaks calendar immediately. 

If you don't apply it then and there, you can choose to apply it at any time, by opening it in the Calendar view in your Training Peaks account from the Training Plan Library in the left-hand panel. The plan will be available in this Training Plan Library forever.  

You will also be sent an order confirmation email from Training Peaks. If you want to also receive the PDF-version of the training plan for no extra cost, please forward this order confirmation and your request to support@scientifictriathlon.com. 

The first thing to keep in mind is to try to minimise these occurences by always planning ahead and being a "calendar ninja". Every week, look at your calendar and your training plan for the following couple of weeks, and try to predict conflicts and make adjustments ahead of time so you can complete as much training as possible. 

However, sometimes things do come up on short notice and you inevitably end up missing one or a few sessions. 

It really is up to you to decide what to do based on how you feel, and what you know about how much training you can handle acutely and recover from.

If you feel you can add the missed session(s) to one of the following days of training without it negatively impacting your performance in the key workouts planned for those days, feel free to do so. 

However, if you have the slightest doubt that "making up" for that session later will have even a small negative impact on your performance in those key workouts, just let that missed session go and do not try to add it in later. 

Many of the biggest problems in training, whether it be injuries, overtraining, or general fatigue and reduced performance, stem from trying to make up for training leading to doing more training acutely (in a short span of time) than you can handle. It's always better to err on the side of caution and not do the session later if you're unsure about what the right choice is for you.

You can and should make adjustments to the plan as needed. Of course, don't change things unless there's reason to do so, but it would be a very rare case where you can go through an entire training plan without making any changes. 

With any changes and adjustments you make, try to make sure you follow the following principles:

1. Keep easy days easy. If you have 3 days in a week with only low-intensity training (or complete rest), try to ensure that after your adjustments you still have 3 low-intensity days, even if they might fall on different days than initially planned.
   
   
2. Spread out easy and hard days. It's better to have your 3 easy days (continuing on that example) on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday than on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. 
   
   
3. Spread out your work within  each discipline. If you have 3 runs (or swims, or bikes) scheduled for a week, aim to spread them out across the week rather than stack them. For example, it's better to run on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday than on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

All that being said, sometimes you may have to break one of these principles, and as long as you're conscious of not putting yourself at risk of injury or overtraining, that's an acceptable thing to do. Done is better than perfect. 

Sometimes you may need to do adjustments other than just moving workouts around for scheduling issues. You may need to adjust for fatigue, or for not having time to do an entire workout as planned. 

When you have less time than the planned duration of the workout: 
Aim to get in as much of the main set as possible, but still retain some warm-up before the main set. As an example, if you have a 60 minute run (20 minute warm-up, 30 minute main set, 10 minute warm-down) planned, but only have 30 minutes, do a 5-minute warm-up and 25 minutes of the main set. 

Adjusting for fatigue:

If you are too tired, for whatever reason, to do a hard workout, we recommend:

• The 20-minute rule. Aim to do some warm-up and try to do some of the intensity planned within this 20-minutes. For example, if your main set is 20 x 1-minute intervals with 1 minute rest, then warm up for 14 minutes, and then do 3 x 1-minute intervals with 1 minute rest. Assess how you feel. Quite often, after working out for 20 minutes and including some intensity, you find yourself feeling better and better, and end up completing the workout as planned. If that happens, fantastic!
• If you still feel very fatigued and sluggish in the intensity,parts, but ok (if only just) for the low intensity parts, consider just making the session an easy recovery / endurance session in Zone 1 or 2.
• If after 20 minutes you feel that even low intensity doesn't make any sense given how rubbish you feel today, time to call it a day, go home and rest.
• If you cut the session short as per the previous paragraph, do not attempt any other training that same day. And any sessions you lose from that day should remain lost. Do NOT try to make up for these sessions or do them later in the week. Just get on with the schedule. The same goes for if you decide to replace the intensity with easy recovery / endurance. Do NOT try to cram in that intensity later. That session is gone, your body was telling you it was too much, and you do not want to push it over the edge again, you want to stay on the right side of the edge. 

Adjusting for illness:

If you miss days of training due to illness, make sure to take the first couple of days coming back from illness as low-volume, low-intensity training. If you were ill for two weeks or more, the first 5-7 days at least should be low-volume, low-intensity.  

All our plans are more all-encoompassing than just swim, bike and run performance. Which other aspects are in focus depends on which plan we're talking about. 

For example, for beginners training for a sprint triathlon, pacing is one of the main focus points outside of just the physical and technical improvements that we're focusing on, as that will be key for a beginner doing a sprint distance race. 

In contrast, for any of our Ironman plans, working on race nutrition and hydration is the most important factor we're focusing on outside of swimming biking and running. 

In short, all of the plans are more than just swimming, biking and running. What the other aspects are depends on the demands of the race and ability of the athlete.

Generally speaking, to expect to really get results you should aim to complete at least 90% of the work in the plan. 

You can't just do the "key sessions" and expect to improve anywhere near as much as you would if you do pretty much all sessions. The right mindset to endurance training is that every session is a key session (even though a lot of these key sessions are relaxed and easy). 

All that being said, of course you can still improve (maybe a lot?) if you don't hit 90% of the sessions. And if you are unlucky and get sick or hit by work and family duties really hard, achieving 90% may not be possible. Don't fret about it, but if you are in that situation, you need to set your expectations at a lower level. 

Note that doing 90% of the work doesn't mean that you shouldn't make adjustments. You absolutely should. For example, if long rides on Saturdays aren't good for you, you might switch your long ride to Wednesdays instead. Your still doing 100% of the work, even if you move things around.

There is of course a method to the sequencing of workouts, so please don't move things and change things if it isn't necessary. But generally, if you move things around and can still perform well in your hard workouts, then you're executing on the intended purpose of the plan and will see the benefits. 

The Strength Training plan works brilliantly in combination with any of the triathlon plans. 

There is no one right answer for how to place your strength workouts within your swim-bike-run training, but rather, use the following rules to find the best solution for you. 

1. The best time to do the strength training is when you can actually do it. Make it as easy as possible on yourself from a scheduling and logistics perspective. If it's easiest to do gymwork right after finishing your swim/bike/run session, do not worry about whether it's "optimal" from a physiological perspective - it is optimal because it's the time that you can almost guarantee that it will get done, and done is better than perfect. Minimising the risk of having to miss sessions is the first order of priority. 
   
   
2. The second most important thing to take into consideration is: how does the gymwork affect your endurance training the following days? Do you tend to be quite sore the day after lifting weights? Or two days after? If you are generally a bit sore one day after strength training, aim to do the strength training on a day when the following day's endurance training consists of relatively low-intensity training that won't be negatively impacted by some moderate soreness. If your soreness peaks two days after strength training, adjust accordingly. Of course, if you don't really get any soreness you have great flexibility and can do the strength training almost any time you please.
   
   
3. If you have great flexibility in your schedule and are looking for something as close to "optimal" as possible, our recommendation is to do the gym workouts on the same day as a hard swim, bike or run. Do the endurance workout in the morning and the gym workout at least 4, ideally 6+ hours later (afternoon/evening). Gym training can be considered quite intense, and the idea is that we want to keep our easy days easy, so we'd rather place the gym work on a day that already has a degree of intensity to it than to reduce the number of easy days in our schedule.

For more information on combining strength training and endurance training, please read our blog article Triathlon Strength Training - The Definitive Guide.

Please refer to the Training Peaks Help Center article here.