When a new athlete joins my coaching programme, one of the first things I do is set them up on TrainingPeaks. And almost every time, the response is the same:

"This looks complicated. Where do I even start?"

I get it. TrainingPeaks has a lot of features. But as a coached athlete, you only need to understand a handful of them — and once you do, it becomes the most useful training tool you'll ever use.

This guide is for athletes who are new to TrainingPeaks and want to know exactly what to look at, what to ignore, and how to get the most from it as part of a coaching relationship.

Why every beginner triathlete deserves support from day one.

When a new athlete reaches out to me, I almost always ask the same question early in the conversation:

“What are you hoping coaching can give you that you can’t get on your own?”

For seasoned athletes, their answer is shaped by race splits and training history.

For beginners? Their answer is shaped by something even more important:

The desire to start the right way. Without confusion, injury, or burnout.

How a certified triathlon coach personalizes training for beginners, time-crunched athletes, and competitive performers. Online coaching from the Netherlands.

In this follow-up, I want to show you what that planning actually looks like in practice — by walking you through my own Annual Training Plan (ATP), my race classifications, and how each training phase fits together.