Glossary

The words your plan uses, in plain language. On a plan page you can tap an underlined term in a session for the same explanation.

Easy running: Running slowly enough to talk in full sentences. Most of your running is easy: it builds endurance without leaving you tired for the next session. In triathlon and cycling plans: Slow enough to talk in full sentences, whether you are swimming, riding or running. Most of your training is easy: it builds endurance without leaving you tired for the next session.
Long run: The longest run of the week, at a relaxed, steady pace. It teaches your body to keep going for hours and is the most important session of a plan.
Medium-long run: A midweek run longer than your other easy runs but shorter than the long run, at easy pace. It adds endurance without a second hard day. In triathlon and cycling plans: A ride or run longer than your other easy sessions but shorter than the long one, at an easy effort. It adds endurance without a second hard day.
Tempo / threshold: Comfortably hard running, about the effort you could hold for an hour in a race. You can speak a few words, not sentences. It raises the pace you can sustain. In triathlon and cycling plans: Comfortably hard, about the effort you could hold for an hour in a race. You can speak a few words, not sentences. On the bike, threshold is the power your FTP describes; tempo is a step below it.
Intervals: Short hard repeats, around 5K race effort, with easy jogging between them. They improve how much oxygen you can use. In triathlon and cycling plans: Hard repeats with easy recovery between them: around 5K effort on foot, at or above threshold power on the bike. They raise the top end of your fitness.
Repetition pace: Very short, fast but relaxed efforts with full recovery between them, to practise good form and speed.
Strides: Short accelerations of about 20 seconds at the end of an easy run: quick and smooth, never a sprint, with a full walk back between them.
Race pace: The pace you plan to hold in the race. Practising it teaches your body and your head what race day should feel like.
Progression run: A run that starts easy and gets gradually faster, finishing at a strong but controlled effort.
Hill repeats: Short hard efforts up a hill, jogging or walking back down to recover. They build strength and power with less pounding than fast running on the flat. In triathlon and cycling plans: Short hard efforts up a hill with an easy recovery back down, on foot or on the bike. They build strength and power for a hilly course.
Downhill long run: A long run on a course that loses height, to toughen your thigh muscles for a net-downhill race. Descending is surprisingly hard on the legs.
Cutback week: A lighter week, about a fifth less running, every third or fourth week. It lets the training of the weeks before sink in. In triathlon and cycling plans: A lighter week, about a fifth less training time, every third or fourth week. It lets the training of the weeks before sink in.
Reduced week: A week you said you would be travelling or busy. The plan holds your fitness that week instead of building it, then carries on.
Taper: The last two or three weeks before the race, when running drops so you arrive rested. A little speed stays in so you feel sharp. In triathlon and cycling plans: The last one to three weeks before the event, when training time drops so you arrive rested. A few short efforts stay in so you feel sharp.
Shakeout: A very short, very easy run the day before a race, just to loosen up.
RPE (effort): Rate of perceived exertion: how hard a session feels on a 1–10 scale, where 1 is walking and 10 is an all-out sprint.
Heart-rate zones: Bands of heart rate from Zone 1 (very easy) to Zone 5 (very hard). Most running belongs in Zone 2; tempo work in Zone 4. In triathlon and cycling plans: Bands of effort from Zone 1 (very easy) to Zone 5 (very hard), by heart rate or by share of your FTP. Most training belongs in Zone 2; threshold work in Zone 4.
Brick: A bike ride followed straight away by a run, to get used to running on tired legs in a triathlon.

Triathlon and cycling

Long ride: The longest ride of the week, mostly at an easy, steady effort. It builds the endurance and the eating habits a long event needs, and it grows a little most weeks.
FTP: Functional threshold power: roughly the highest average power, in watts, you could hold for about an hour. Bike targets are given as shares of it, so retest every couple of months.
Sweet spot: Riding just under threshold, about 88 to 94 percent of FTP: hard enough to build real fitness, easy enough to repeat for long blocks and recover from quickly.
Recovery spin: A short, very easy ride in a light gear, no more than about 45 minutes. It loosens the legs after a hard day without adding fatigue.
Spin-ups: Short bursts where you raise your pedalling speed as high as you can while staying smooth in the saddle, then ease off. They train a quick, efficient pedal stroke.
Climbing repeats: Several hard climbs of a few minutes each, mostly seated, with an easy roll back down between them. They build the strength a hilly route asks for.
ERG mode: A smart-trainer setting that holds the power you set, whatever your gear or cadence. Handy for intervals: you pedal and the trainer keeps you on target.
CSS (critical swim speed): The pace per 100 you could hold for a long, hard swim of about 30 minutes, worked out from a 400 and a 200 time trial. Swim sets are given as seconds either side of it.
T1 and T2: The changeovers in a triathlon: T1 from swim to bike, T2 from bike to run. Time spent there counts, so practise the order you will do things in.
Open-water swimming and sighting: Swimming in a lake or the sea instead of a pool. Without lane lines you lift your eyes to a landmark every few strokes, called sighting, so you swim straight.
Brevet controls: The checkpoints on a brevet, where you get your card stamped or record your passage within set opening and closing times. Missing one, or arriving after it closes, ends the ride officially.
Brevet: A long, self-supported randonneuring ride on a set route with a time limit (13.5 hours for 200 km). It is not a race: finishing within the limit is the goal.
Gran fondo: A long mass-start ride, usually 120 to 160 km with a lot of climbing, timed but ridden by most people as a personal challenge rather than a race.

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