It depends. If the race in May is your "A" race, then I would want to get into the build phase. If not, then there is no reason you couldn't stay in base right through that race (with a small taper and recovery). The 90% solution is consistency, so you are going to do OK either way.

---

Simplify, Train, Live

Yes, it's an A race. But to put it into context, I'm racing for me, not for prize money or as a source of income. I've got three A races, spaced out with a transitional week after racing; two months of build phase between each race; and a peak week prior to racing.

I hear what you're saying. I guess my question is for the half iron distance, where's the point of diminishing returns? What's a reasonable volume for base training, taking triathlon as a hobby?

It sounds to me like you have a solid plan but you're questioning it a bit, needing some reassurance. If you are training AND recovering, you're point of diminishing returns shouldn't be an issue. Make sure the time you are investing counts and you are making it count by recovering the right way.

if you are looking at some data and gauging how your body feels, there's nothing wrong with your plan. At some point you might feel draggy and stop improving, then it's time to back off and recover then work on your top end.

Since it's just 4 weeks until your may race, the higher intensity work may not lead to as much performance gain as say 8 weeks. Mostly though just some lowered volume in the 2 weeks coming into the event should be of great help. You seem to have thought it through fine

Mike, ihatethehills and jroden - thanks for the opinions guys. I'll have clear think about the next step in my rest week, next week...

JerseyBigfoot,

A couple questions you could ask yourself to help guide your decision could be:

1. Am I starting to see a plateau in my training numbers? If so, boost intensity in lieu of adding additional hours.
2. Do I want to do my "A" race at a training pace or at a race pace? Extending the base phase and shortening your build training will give you less time to train at higher race-like intensity for this race.
3. Are additional training weeks of 20+ hours sustainable? Where will you go from here, in terms of hours, if you stay in base? Can you add more volume to continue an upward trend in your training stress?
4. What about adding in a limiter-sport overload week? maybe keep swim and run volume the same, and add in a high dose of bike time?

---

Jon Ryder
RPM Coaching

Thanks for the questions - now in rest week and having a good think about the 'plan'.

I feel the plan is working well, and in many respects I think the the benefit of having some structure is consistency. Perhaps more so than anything else at my level. The base phase still seems to be giving improvements and my body is absorbing the added workload. I 'feel' stronger. Swimming has finally 'clicked' and I'm comfortably holding my target pace for long intervals; run pace is almost at my target pace for runs up to 25km; and my target cycling speed is also fine.

With all this in mind, I have decided to repeat the final base period with similar goal weekly hours - I'll aim to add only an hour a week. Whilst I say I absorbed the workload, I did feel like I was dragging a bit in the final week. I didn't feel close to injury, but don't want to add too much extra volume and risk an injury. I feel another base period with similar volume will reap both physical and mental rewards.

Additionally it allows me another four weeks to work on my body composition, as I feel the base period is a better time to get to race weight rather than trying to cope with the higher intensity of the build phase whilst restricting calories. I'd like to drop another 2% body fat from 8% to 6%, which should be cheaper and faster than new wheels…!

I've thought about having an overload on a single sport, which would probably be swimming. I could use more run improvements, but I don't feel like I can handle much more run volume without significantly increasing my risk of injury. I would like to add in gentle short runs (i.e. 5k) and a short pool session in between my main run and swim days to aid recovery, but then again question whether the benefit of adding some gentle time-on-my-feet runs and sessions in the pool to just reinforce my stroke would be outweighed by fatiguing myself - possibly mentally more than anything.

The benefits of a coach are becoming apparent - someone who you can bounce these ideas off. I think ST could do with a little bit more structure in the forum rooms and subdivide so there was a specific forum for people to discuss training. On the flip side, being slightly OCD, I like spreadsheets and tracking all this data…!