Can't comment on the book but understand Chris Carmichael paid a settlement ($25,000 I believe) for doping some rider under the guise of, if I recall correctly, 'vitamin supplements' and his charade with Saint Lance is well documented. That said, your money, and if you want to give it to him....go ahead.

I've tried both, read Carmichael's book and tried it for a season of short distance stuff after baby #2 arrived, also did my first 70.3 that season, with my training more or less loosely based on the 70.3 training program. Went 4:54 on a pretty tough course, a few years later I went 4:44 on the same course using a higher volume approach. My impression is that it works just fine if you have a decent base of fitness going in, if you are new to endurance sports you'll probably be better served by putting some more time in the saddle, and building your run volume up using something like the BarryP plan for a season or two. For a half he even states in the book that it won't be the best performance you are capable of, but you'll still be able to put in a good effort and finish comfortably.
The year after that I used Greenfield's triathlon dominator plan to train for my first ironman. I had to adjust it a little as he actually has B and C races (1 HM, 2 sprint, 1 olympic, 1 HIM IIRC) scheduled in the program which didn't work with the local triathlon schedule but basically followed it 95% of the time. I set PBs in pretty much every race, and went 10:12 in my first ironman. That being said I did get IT band syndrome that cost me all my running my last 5 weeks leading up to the race. The part that saved me was that you put a lot of early running mileage on his plan and I ended up feeling great during the marathon despite no running for 5 weeks prior. After doing the BarryP thing this season, I do feel that I built a stronger run, and developed a lot more resilience against injury running 5-6 times a week, rather than the 3 run sessions in Greenfield's plan. But chances are if you are looking at these plans you have time constraints preventing you from upping your run frequency anyways.
I should also add that I usually did my own thing for a lot of the swim workouts since I swim with a masters group 2x a week.

Carmichael and Greenfield are two of the biggest con artists in endurance sports.

Their methods in that book may be sound, but their ethics are schitt.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Lance was time crunched, that's all it was.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

I did some time crunched cyclist this spring, and I got faster in 8 weeks. With the intensity, you have to recover, so basically work a day, take a day OFF. When I started trying to run and swim too, there was no way I could do it, because I was too tired on my non bike days.
I wonder if it would be productive to do HIIT in each discipline 8 weeks at a time?

Were you always tinkering on the edge of getting injured doing all the HIIT?

How did the body hold up overall doing this sort of training?

After doing my first IM I switched back to my strength which is around olympic to x50 distances. I do shorter workouts for the most part and add more intensity. I had some problems starting off with some calf issue on the run but got it figured out (form related, needed to push more and focus on getting knees up). I am a little faster on the run and run a lot less, much stronger on the bike (longest ride is 3 hours, most are 2 and under), and about 5 sec/100 faster on the swim. No way I could hold these paces up for longer distance races.

Everyone reacts different to training. I have always been a strength athlete and HITT is what I am used to. I can do the longer distance stuff but I do not have the base since I have only been doing this two years.

If I had more time I would do more running at lower intensity. I got a lot faster doing this and had less niggles. Biking and swimming are a lot easier on the body so going hard is not as much of a problem.

I did Carmichael's plan once. Went 2:11 in an oly tri. That is my best oly time ever by 10 minutes. But the workouts were extremely hard. I stopped using it because the workouts were not fun and I am getting too old to suffer. I just want to stay fit and have fun. But it works for the short courses if you do the workouts. Hard interval after hard interval after hard interval will whip you into shape.

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“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring.”
¯ Desmond Tutu

Can anyone comment on the time requirements of the TCT 70.3 plan? Are there any plans incorporating the commute into it?