Transition into Training by Heart Rate

Having decided on the Outlaw Triathlon for my focus in 2010 I had to get some sort of training in place. I finally stumbled on a 36 week plan created by Mike Llerandi, a top age group triathlete which can be found here:

trifuel 36-week-ironman-training-program

I started this back in December 2009 after getting my correct Max HR using the bike in the gym. After 30 mins the last few of which were the hardest I'd ever gone, I found my Max to be 210 bpm this along with my 44 RHR and a bit of calculation gave me my percentages to work from. Which were these:

Bike
100% 210
95%   201
90 %  193

85 %  186
80 %  177
75 %  169
70 %  161
65 %  153
60 %  145
55 %  137
50 %  128
Run
100% 215
95%   207
90 %  198
85 %  190
80 %  181
75 %  173
70 %  165
65 %  156
60 %  148
55 %  139
50 %  131

I trained hard on the bike but within the limits of the plan which wasn't easy as it was mostly on the turbo due to bad weather. I gradually started to see very good improvements.

Not only did my bike improve but using my Max of 215 for running and reducing my runs to 3 a week my speed improved and with regular swim sessions my swimming improved too. So much so that when I did the Dambuster triathlon this year I beat my swim by 2 mins my bike 10 mins and my run by 4 mins. My overall times were
2009 - 02:27:29
2010 - 02:11:36
I also managed to run the VLM as part of my training and took 19 mins off last years time then a week later I qualified for the World Duathlon Championships in Edinburgh. All these were just bonuses along the way as the Outlaw Iron Distance was my target.

I followed the plan fairly rigidly only having some extra time off to recover now and then or just because I felt I needed it. I was realistic with my timings and wore my HR monitor religously keeping to the required effort levels.
As I was training using the monitor a lot on the bike and run I could work my swims using Perceived Effort as recording HR wasn't an option and I started to get a feel for how I should be working.

Well, this all culminated in me completing the Outlaw in a time of 10:37:03, a time I'm more than happy with for my 1st attempt. I'm already planning to start the schedule again for the Outlaw again next year but this time I want 10 hours or less. Nothing like setting my sights high but I believe its possible, in fact after the year I've had I think anything is.