Using our free eight week program, you will be able to add additional speed before your next big race. Forget about missed opportunities in the winter and recent poor performances on race day. This is your chance to use our proven training and racing methodology to reignite your season before the year is over. Read on or click here to get your free plan on the Endurance Nation platform.

Who Needs Summer Speed?

Every year we have athletes come to Endurance Nation who are looking for help with their summer training. They fall into generally two categories: people who undertrained in the winter and people who can’t sustain their fitness into race day.

Regardless of which category you fall into, most people are really unwilling to change their training in the middle of their year. Whether they have a free plan from the Internet, a cut out from a magazine or a Coach, athletes are generally unwilling to change direction midseason.

While this might make sense with some kind of long-term investment, in the world of endurance performance we only have so many opportunities to be our best. And since the race season is upon us, if you don’t make a change the likelihood of you seeing anything different on race day is practically zero. Don’t think of it as rolling the dice. Think of it as an opportunity to explore a different style of training and a chance to see if this change could give you better fitness.

What Sets the Summer Speed Program Apart?

This new free program is built off of the renown Endurance Nation Get Fast™ program. While that program is available exclusively to members of Endurance Nation, we used it as a platform to create this program. The workouts that you will use have been proven across four years and several thousand athletes.

It’s important to note that this is not a training plan for a race, but rather for some midseason speed.

If you have some shorter races in the middle of your year before your bigger race at the end of the summer or early fall, this plan will fit perfectly.

If you are looking for a training plan to prepare you for your next Half or Full Iron Distance race, we suggest you go to our Training Plan Store and find that plan there, or Become a Team Member.

To be 100% clear, this program is designed to give you additional speed before you transition to your next block of race specific training.

Why Look for Speed in the Summer?

The Endurance Nation methodology is built exclusively off of Training Return on Investment.

We have found that athletes can only sustain a specific style of training for so long before the returns on that training diminish. For most long course athletes, the majority of their season is dedicated to longer steadier workouts. The general bias is towards increasing the volume to prepare you for race day.

Our style of coaching gives you the opportunity to build that endurance without spending countless hours on the bike or the run. We leverage intensity and training stress to mimic the conditions of longer workouts through focused training sets. This allows you to remain in control of your daily life and training schedule. We still maintain a “no compromise” attitude – we want you to be your best on race day, but we aren’t willing to sacrifice your daily life to get that.

What Does the Training Plan Look Like?

The best way to answer this question is to click here and get your own free version. While inside you have access to resource pages and instructions tell you more about the training plan.

The layout of the plan is eight weeks with two four-week blocks. Each week has both speed work during the weekdays and volume on the weekends. This allows us to help you maintain both aspects of your fitness while continuing to see improvement.

The training plan also has specific to benchmarking workouts written into each week. Designed specifically to capture your current state of fitness, you will find one session each for the swim, the bike and the run.

You will be able to compare your performance by time, effort, and intensity from week to week. This will give you immediate insight as to whether or not you are improving using the training plan. If you aren’t, then it’s time to make a transition, and we can answer your questions when it comes to that point. You can exit anywhere after the four week mark into the preparation phase for your next race.

The Summer Speed Plan Structure

Three Swims a Week: Two are Speed oriented, one is Endurance focused.

Three Bikes a Week: One Threshold session, one Endurance Session and one Tempo session.

Four Runs a Week: One Threshold run, one Endurance run, one Skills run and one Brick run.

What Are Benchmarking Workouts?

These sessions are critical not only to keep tabs on your progression through the plan. They will also enable you to plan with incredible accuracy what your effort(s) should be for each leg of the race.

Thursday Run TT @ 30 minutes – This folds into your main set, and is a chance for you to run at your goal race pace. You’ll be able to capture your Heart Rate and other relevant data each week. How is your body handling the work load? Is it becoming more efficient? Is your new training week working?

Friday Swim TT @ 400 yds / meters – You second “main set” of this swim will be your chance to see what a Steady State effort will yield in terms of time. Preferably done in a pool for accuracy.

Saturday Bike TT @ 30 minutes – This part of your longer ride will give you insight to how your new training translates to actual race efforts. Fitter is nice, but are you faster on your tri bike in the aero position? The clock never lies!

What About Adjusting the Workouts?

Every single workout inside our training plans has a different priority level. You can compare the priority levels on every workout and start by completing the most important ones each week. You will want to keep these workouts on the calendar as you shuffle them to meet your scheduling demands.

If you have specific questions we will be happy to answer them inside the Endurance Nation platform.

Why Is Endurance Nation Giving This Plan Away for Free?

The summer has historically been quiet for new athletes. Everyone is either racing, tapering or resting. We have additional bandwidth to accommodate supporting newer members.

There are plenty of benefits to helping people prepare for their races, and athletes are always amazed at how much we can accomplish in just a few short weeks. This is our chance to show you our best hand and let you see just how effective our training methodology, resources and community can be.

If you don’t think this plan is for you, please feel free to share it with your teammates and or training partners. We are constantly innovating and looking to do our best to help the Endurance Athlete regardless of their goals.

Best of luck to you this season and beyond!