Sprint triathlon training
The sprint is the shortest of the main distances: 750 m swim, 20 km bike and 5 km run. An age-grouper finishes it in about one to one and a half hours. It is a good place to start: the distance is short, yet it has all three sports and both transitions.
How many weeks to train
TriCoo usually plans 12 weeks for a sprint: 6 weeks of base, 4 weeks of build and 2 weeks of taper. If there is less time until the race, the plan shrinks to 8 weeks.
This window is for someone who already swims, bikes and runs. If one of the sports is not there yet, start with Your first triathlon season. A plan on its own does not mean you are ready to race.
How TriCoo builds the plan
The plan is built from your schedule. You say which days and how much time you can train. TriCoo spreads swimming, cycling and running across those days.
In the base phase almost all work is easy. The build phase adds faster intervals and bricks. Load grows from week to week, but with a ceiling. After a few load weeks comes a recovery week: one week in 3 for beginners, one in 4 for everyone else.
The plan does not stand still. Missed a session or slept badly, and TriCoo recalculates the week. It does not make up for what you missed: extra work in the remaining days would only add fatigue.
Sample week
Sample week
Week 10 of preparation, build phase. Total 4 h 55 min.
- Mondayrest
- Tuesday
- Swim, 35 min, with threshold intervals
- Wednesday
- Bike, 1 h, easy
- Thursday
- Run, 45 min, easy
- Friday
- Swim, 35 min, with short fast intervals
- Saturday
- Bike, 1 h 10 min, brick: bike
- Run, 10 min, brick: straight into an easy run
- Sunday
- Run, 40 min, easy
A sample for the profile below, computed by TriCoo. Your plan will differ.
Who this week was computed for
A made-up athlete, 35 years old, intermediate, who swims, bikes and runs regularly. No strength training chosen. Thresholds are known: bike power, run pace and swim pace. One main race, a standard preparation window.
Time by day: Tue swim up to 45 min, Wed bike up to 60 min, Thu run up to 45 min, Fri swim up to 45 min, Sat bike and run up to 90 min, Sun run up to 75 min. Monday is a rest day. 6 h a week in total. This is a setting of the example, not a norm for the distance.
For four weeks before the preparation the athlete trained like this: Tue swim 40 min, Wed bike 45 min, Thu run 45 min, Fri swim 40 min, Sat bike 90 min, Sun run 60 min. Fitness at the start of preparation was 36. From there TriCoo computed week after week, and every week was done exactly as planned. There are no missed sessions, illness or bad days in the calculation.
Generator version: endurance-week-v26.
This is a build week. Its main session is the brick on Saturday: a ride and a short run straight after it. The other days are shorter. Swims are on Tuesday and Friday because that is how the athlete in the example set up their days.
Bricks
A brick is a ride with a run straight after it. It teaches your legs to run off the bike. For a sprint TriCoo schedules a brick every second load week of the build, with a 10-minute run to start with. More on the Brick workouts page.
Taper
In the last 2 weeks before the race, volume drops: first to 60%, then to 40% of normal. Short fast efforts stay so the body does not forget the pace. More on the Tapering page.
Pick a race
Sprints are in the race calendar. If you have done a sprint, the next step is the Olympic distance.
TriCoo builds a plan around your schedule and recalculates it after every session, missed day and bad day.
About TriCooRead next
- Olympic distance trainingOlympic distance: 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike and 10 km run. Training timeline, phases and a sample week of a TriCoo plan.
- Your first triathlon seasonWhat you need to be able to do before you start, which race to pick first and how much time to allow. For people who have never raced a triathlon.
- Brick workouts: bike then runWhat a brick workout is, why you run straight off the bike, how often TriCoo schedules bricks and how long the run is for each distance.