Coaching across multiple sports

Athletes who race in multiple disciplines

Many endurance athletes race triathlon as a primary focus plus standalone events on the side: a spring marathon, a gravel race, a charity century. As the coach you have to sequence the disciplines so the secondary races do not sabotage the primary ones.

How the Hub supports this

Per-race priority and periodization

Each Race carries its own priority (A, B, C) and its own periodization tag. You can mark the spring marathon as A and the summer 70.3 as A, with different periodization tags appropriate to each (e.g. block for the marathon, linear for the 70.3). See A vs B vs C race tagging and Choosing a periodization model.

Sport tagging on activities

Activities are tagged by sport (swim / bike / run / strength / other). The sport distribution chart shows how training time is splitting across disciplines.

Sport-specific thresholds

The Hub stores separate thresholds for each discipline:

• Bike: CP, FTP, W', CdA.
• Run: run threshold pace, run CP if applicable, RSI.
• Swim: CSS, swim HR threshold.

Each gets its own assessment cadence; they do not have to move in lockstep.

Sequencing strategies

Single-A approach (recommended for most)

Pick one A race per "competitive arc" of 4 to 6 months. Secondary races are B or C. The macrocycle anchors to the A race; secondary races slot in as hard sessions with mini tapers.

Dual-A approach

Two A races more than 12 weeks apart, ideally in different disciplines. Example:

• Spring marathon (A, run-biased build).
• Summer 70.3 (A, multi-discipline build).
• Fall recovery / off-season.

This works if the two builds can be sequenced cleanly. The weak point is the transition: the bike and swim degrade during the marathon build, and rebuilding them takes 4 to 6 weeks before the 70.3 build proper.

Multiple-A is risky

Three or more A races in a year, especially across disciplines, is rarely achievable at high quality. Most years one race is the real A and the others are well-trained B races labelled A.

Discipline tradeoffs

Adding a marathon to a tri season

• Run threshold pace moves up.
• Bike and swim degrade (less time, less specificity).
• Injury risk on the run goes up (volume + intensity stack).

Adding a gravel century to a tri season

• Bike endurance and CdA on rough surfaces benefit.
• Run might be unaffected if volume holds.
• Swim degrades (less time).

Adding an ultra (50K or 50 mile)

• Run volume way up.
• Bike and swim drop materially.
• Plan for a 6 to 8 week ultra build that essentially brackets out the other disciplines.

What the Hub does NOT do

• No multi-sport plan templates that auto-balance multiple sport races. Each athlete plan is configured individually.
• No auto-warning when two A races are too close together; the season view shows the phase overlap visually but does not block it.

What to log

• Race priority and periodization on each race.
• CoachNotes summarising the rationale for the season shape; the athlete sees this and the support crew understands it later.
• Updated macrocycle config when the discipline mix changes.

See also: A vs B vs C race tagging, Choosing a periodization model, Sequencing two A races, Sport distribution.