Yes, everyone should be doing intervals appropriate to their race goals. Beginners have less capacity for volume/intensity and need to ensure proper recovery between quality sessions.

Yes. Don't go 100% effort on them though--too much risk for injury. Start easy and progress from there. Base is important, but if all you ever do is base train/train slow, you'll be very good at racing slow. Research periodization and that'll help you determine when/how much base training and speed work to do.

I'd still get at least 6-8 weeks of steady state running/cycling in first though, intervals too early can be a shortcut to injury, it is easy to do too much too soon

Assuming you are an average Joe and not a genetic freak:
Swimming - YES
Bike - YES
Running - Probably not. Build a solid base first.

Read this:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

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Particularly novice runners will benefit a lot from the running economy developed from interval work - if done carefully. No reason to cut the rest terribly short since the focus is really on good form, I'd say go with a set of range of motion and running form drills followed by some 200s with plenty of recovery.

You're doing intervals every time you go up a hill or ride into a stiff headwind or try to get away from a dog.

You need that variability. Otherwise, how boring.

Short: Should you do intervals, yes.

Longer: What are your goals?

I.E. What races are you doing? What are your goals for those races? I advocate putting your races on the calendar and then build an appropriate training schedule backwards from there with Base, build, peak, taper, and race phases. Build these phases according to your actual current abilities, not where you think you are (seems obvious but you would be surprised). Some advocate doing intervals for small amounts of time during the base while some wait to start intervals during the build phase. When and how you do intervals all depends on your individual training philosophy (or coaches), what your body and mind can handle (what you can recover from) and what you are training for.

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

You're link doesn't work.

Fixed
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

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No. What's the rush anyways? A novice should be broken in easy. Let them have fun. If you subject a novice to brutal workouts too fast and too soon than this person my drop out in less than 6 months or worse, become injured.

To answer your question accurately, there are so many variables to consider such as what level of fitness you already have, previous injuries, races you are planning, are you doing it for social as much as goals etc. Then there is what type of interval, when (pref not all year), and volume. So you need to look at each specific athlete in detail before coming up with a good answer. But at a veryhigh level, I reckon bhc's view is a good generic answer. I.e. you can add intervals in the first year, but its best to be super careful with running. Dependent on the types of races you will be doing, you probably don't need much serious run speed work anyway (if at all). The Barry P plan has allot of good feedback, and is one I've personally started on recently, so looking forward to seeing how that goes for me after a few years of lower frequency running.

Define "intervals"

The brand new runner should probably do intervals. That's what the run/walk method is. They aren't particularly hard intervals, but they are still intervals.

Swimming, definitely.

Cycling, probably.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

True they should be doing intervals, I wouldn't recommend doing flat out 100s,200s or anything uber fast though.

For swimming and cycling you can pretty much go full tilt straight away though, they are low impact and the chance of injury is low unless your swim stroke is terrible, then you could get shoulder issues.

For a new triathlete, In swimming, I don't see a need for the new swimmer to be doing "full tilt" intervals, that implies flat out sprint 50 pace. We aren't trying to train sprinters.

They need to be swimming at or slightly faster than race pace. Work on technique at the same time.. That's pretty much the same as experienced swimmers as well.

Then, I don't see a need for a triathlete to ever do flat out 100's or 200's either when running.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Assuming you mean hard intervals by intervals.

You are probably asking about the idea of some people needing to build a base or whatnot.

If the person is otherwise healthy then within a week or three probably fine. If it's a person who has been running regularly for health, probably can get right into it.

If someone is right off the couch and out of shape then the risk is injury. But there's almost no way to lay out hard and fast rules without knowing more about the person.

I don't agree that triathletes shouldn't be doing sprints, anaerobic work also improves your aerobic capacity, sure it should only make up a small percentage of your weekly workout time.

For someone new to running i wouldn't even recommend doing race pace training, I went too hard too soon and my joins and shins couldn't take it.