Project Sub 80 Phase 1 Endurance Block · For Brent
Your swim, bike and run sessions for the next 4 weeks. These sit alongside your three lifts in the app. They do not live in the app, so this page is the program. Read it once properly, then just follow the week you are in.
The Strategy So you know why
Your PR is hiding on the bike. Here is the maths.
- The bike is the big fuel tank. Your split sits at 42 to 45 minutes. Lifting your average speed by 2 to 3 mph takes 3 to 5 minutes out of it. Same engine, different sized tanks to drain.
- The run gets maintained, not built. You do not lose a strength by feeding it once a week.
- The swim gains are free. At your current pace they come from form, not fitness.
- You are in a gain phase. Muscle gets built in recovery, and endurance volume is the tax on recovery. One quality session per discipline is deliberately the whole allowance. More is not better this phase. Better is better.
Every week from week 2 onwards is unlocked, not given. Hit the targets in the current week and the next week opens up. Miss them and we repeat, no drama: repeating at target beats advancing on a fudge.
And the rule that matters most for you: easy sessions are pass or fail. The win condition on an easy run is staying at or below the ceiling pace. Anyone can run fast. Almost nobody can run slow on purpose. Going faster fails it. Same goes for the easy spinning between bike reps. Discipline is a rep too.
The Week At a glance
Three endurance sessions. One job each.
Slot the swim wherever logistics suit, paired with a lift day or on its own. Just keep at least one full rest day in the week.
The Sessions
Four weeks per discipline. Every session has a target, and the targets are the scoreboard.
Bike Tuesdays · 50 to 60 minutes
All sessions: 10 minutes easy spinning to warm up, 10 minutes easy to cool down.
- Intervals are comfortably hard: you could speak in short sentences but you would rather not.
- Seated, steady, no grinding huge gears out of the saddle.
- Cadence around 85 to 90 revs per minute. Why: quicker spinning shifts the work toward your heart and lungs and away from pure leg muscle force, which spares your legs for lifting and running. It is also simply how faster cyclists ride.
Note your average speed across the three reps. This is the number we beat.
Opens when you hold target on all three week 1 reps.
Longer reps, same even pacing.
Compare against week 1. That number moving is the whole point.
Your target is not one heroic rep. It is holding the same pace on the last rep as the first. Even pacing is a skill, and it is exactly the skill that produces a fast 12 mile split on race day. The final rep of every session is your green light. Last rep is yours, bury it.
Swim Thursdays · about 30 minutes
These are technique sessions, not fitness tests. Two focus points every single length.
- Long strokes. Fewer, bigger pulls. Reach on every entry.
- Exhale into the water, so you only have to inhale when you turn to breathe. Why: most self-taught swimmers hold their breath, which spikes the heart rate and makes 8 lengths feel like 20. Fix the exhale and the swim gets easier without getting fitter.
Count your strokes per length on the first and last rep.
Same two focus points, longer reps.
Hold the stroke when it gets boring. That is the drill.
Nearly your race distance in one go, twice.
Every session ends with 2 x 25m at race effort, so speed never feels foreign.
Consistent rep times and a shrinking stroke count. One fast rep proves nothing. Six identical ones prove the stroke is real.
Run Weekend · 35 to 40 minutes
Your run is the strength. This phase we protect it and spend nothing we do not need to.
Ceiling pace applies. Finish with 4 to 6 strides: 15 to 20 seconds of smooth, fast, tall running, walk back fully between each. Why strides: they keep your speed and your calves conditioned to quick running in tiny, safe doses, so pace work later never lands as a shock.
One controlled reminder of race pace. That is all this phase needs.
Rules of the Block
Pre-approved swaps, the extras menu, and what comes next.
The Flex Rule Pre-approved
Week 3 stacks your biggest bike with your only quality run.
- If that week is beating you up: the run tempo slides to week 4, and the week 4 bike drops to 2 x 12.
- That swap is pre-approved. Use it if you need it, no penalty on the scoreboard.
Feeling Great? The extras menu
Good. Here is the full menu of approved extras.
- 2 extra strides after a run.
- One extra 25m race-pace rep in the pool.
- One extra sled trip on lower day.
Extra bike intervals, extra tempo running, or load jumps in the gym beyond the written progressions. Every session in this block has a target, and beating targets is how you push in this phase.
Phase 2 gets built once we lock your race date: race-specific bike work, bike-to-run brick sessions, and the taper. The athlete who nails 4 controlled weeks walks into phase 2 ready to be let off the leash where it counts, with a race date on the calendar and a number to hunt. Earn this block first.
Project Sub 80 · Phase 1 · Built for Brent · SupraHuman Coaching