It can be done either way. The big question is have you achieved the level of recovery I wanted or needed from the week, as its possible to keep digging the body eeper, just in a different sport.

I have cycled weeks to be:-

Week 1 - run focus, still biking a reasonable amount, taking it easy on the swimming.

Week 2 - bike focus, still running and swimming a reasonable amount.

Week 3 - swim focus, biking and running easier / less volume, so the legs get a recovery week.

Then repeat. I have also switched it up to a 4 week cycle where week 1 is balanced swim, bike and run, then week 2 is the run focus...

Overall you have to make sure you get the recovery your body needs, for which there are several ways to do it. Just make sure you get it.

---

http://www.tri-monkey.co.uk

3 weeks full training

1 week volume reduced to 60% and keeping a close eye on my TSS to keep in around the 60% too. I also will sometimes skip a worjout I had scheduled for that week if I'm not feeling it, as I feel mental recovery is most important.

---

I am a bad runner.
I met Javier Gomez once.
I don't speak in miles.
I have opinions.

This was much easier before covid when life stuff naturally interfered with training and forced rest

Now, I need to force these into the schedule otherwise I’ll just keep training like a knucklehead

I think an overall rest week once in awhile is very good for the body

I think my IDEAL would be something like 3 days on/1 day off (or recover) followed by 3 on/2 off and repeat. I think that mostly takes care of the need for recovery. However, I don’t always make this work properly, and because of that, I think 3 weeks on, 1 week rest is really good. Except for the really big base prep and pre-season (or the freaks who can train like mad all the time and recover fine), I would generally argue against building so much fatigue that you need more than 2 solid rest or recovery days to feel near 100%. I have definitely been the guy to try to “fit in” all I can, to the detriment of recovery and adaptation. On the other hand, I usually come back from a hard 3 days followed by 2 days rest feeling really strong.

That isn’t exactly in line with your question, so here’s my thought on that. I like to match long rides with long runs (ex: Saturday long ride, Sunday long run) and then alternate weeks, with a shorter ~60-90 minutes each for the following weekend. I keep the long days easy, and then do FTP/tempo ride/run on the next weekend. For triathlon, I think going into a long run tired from a long ride or FTP session makes a lot of sense. For time crunch, I had an athlete I coached doing full gas intensity on some Friday rides, then long and easy on Saturday bike and Sunday run. It worked extremely well, as he went 10:10 on a challenging IM Wisconsin course averaging 8 hours/week training, and with a relatively weak bike split compared to what he COULD have done.

Heart, diaphragm, back and core are all muscle groups that don't get a day off under your scheme. Your body needs some down time, both mentally and physically, especially as you get older and/or busier. I was never very good at "active" rest, so I found taking Mon-Wed or Mon-Thursday completely off during my rest week really helped my body get ready for another 3 week block. If I didn't do this I found I could easily get sucked into going too hard.

Look at it this way, when was the last time somebody said they were "over rested" during the part of the year when they are actively building fitness.

What I have discovered both in reading and now in practice is that for me stress is stress. So running, biking, swimming, family , job, Church, etc all cause stress in some way and my body responds really the same way. which makes planning recovery very hard.

so for looking at global recovery it is really hard not to take into account total workload even though i might do a bigger bike week followed by a run week.

Running has always been my weak point, so getting high quality sessions is one of my top priorities....what I'm finding is that after a big bike day, I'm not always fully motivated to go out and do a long run the next day - especially when the weather is cold wet and generally a bit shit..! so I thought staggering them might be more effective.

I feel the same way and I found that sometimes my biggest need was for mental recovery (especially because of COVID stress)

What are your thoughts about fun as an element of your training plan and how do you work it in to keep your mind fresh (hard days, recovery days, etc)?

---

Hustle City is a story-driven, cycling game that rewards fitness, creativity and nerves of steel. Apply to test the beta @ http://ridehustlecity.com

http://ridehustlecity.com
Instagram @ridehustlecity

Training is fun for me... my issue is just limiting how much fun i want to have :)

My most fun things of the week are zwift races, a weekly “race” group ride and then a gravel ride on Sunday’s.

When I get into the heat of “training” I spend less time on my “fun” and more time on intervals.

I’m also using retail therapy to help keep me happy, which is a strange new habit