Sounds like a lot of intensity to me and not a lot of recovery

I'd second the too much intensity. Aerobic L1/L2 training should be 80-90% of your training, if you want a strong and efficient engine. Intervals etc are the fine tuning. 1 hard session a week in each of the disciplines is plenty.

This type of program has worked very well for all ability levels and you don't feel smoked all the time.

---

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

I would suggest some long, endurance work on the run and the bike. One long run per week slow to moderate pace. Long bike at a moderate pace.

I can’t recommend this book of plans enough. Something for every distance and schedule.

Triathlete Magazine's Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide: Plans, Scheduling Tips, and Workout Goals for Triathletes of All Levels https://smile.amazon.com/...W4RFSG4Z6H3FS2VMY7NA

Thanks for the answers.
What kind of intervals do you recomend if doing just 1/week ?

Tempo or Z4 on the bike and critical velocity at 10k pace on the run to keep in touch with the speed ?

For intervals it depends on how far away you event is, so long way would be vo2 Intervals to then closer to the event more specific to fine tune, usually tempo / sweet spot as most folks are racing below FTP.

---

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

To echo others, this is likely too much intensity to consistently fit into one week. Something that might help you figure out if it is and why is to write out which workouts you'll do on which days of the week.

You generally want some undulation in training load/stress day to day. The simplest way to do this is alternate high load/stress and low load/stress days. You can probably get away with stacking 2-3 higher load days in a row occasionally, especially if it is swimming stacked between two bike or run days.

Unless the work interval portion is very short, your intervals days are high load/stress days. Non-interval days can be high load as well if they are longer duration workouts, especially if you are attempting a duration longer than you've been doing recently.

So, I see 4-6 bike/run high load/stress workouts plus some of the swims probably. Maybe you combine some into brick workouts or just do 2 high load/stress workouts in a day, but that is tough too. Any way you slice it, I think you'll see that you won't have enough room for low load/stress days.

Ok...
So maybe
- 1 tempo, 1 long, 1 strides or Rpace running, others easy
- 1 sweetspot/Z4, 1 easy, 1 long with some sprints on the bike
-2-3 swims

And before racing, doing more specific intervals (15k pace run intervals)

Does it seem better ?

If you're only doing 2 x short (60-90 min?) rides mid-week, surely you could have some intensity in each (sweet spot, intervals)? That would be complemented nicely by 1 harder run session, with the rest easy sessions.

Do you apply 80:20 style rules when you have limited time? Thought it would apply more when you have time for lots of sessions at ~recovery~ easy pace.

My thoughts are if you only do one set of workouts you will get good at doing those workouts.

You should investigate what you need to do to improve and invest some time into doing that.

Of course if you like doing your workouts and are happy with your performances then that's a good reason to continue them as well.

I agree, too much intensity. I like to keep my week to 2-3 intensity workouts on the bike and run combined.

My typical week looks like loading a few days with intensity with days of recovery between. So maybe a Tuesday interval ride, Thursday interval run, and then maybe Saturday or Sunday intervals or tempo within a long ride/run. Try incorporating intervals like tempo z3 or vo2max z5 when you are further away from the race. Then in the last 4 weeks move towards intervals at race pace (z4). Specificity for the race.

I’m also with the rest of the thread. Way too much intensity.

What I would do - and what I do in my own training schedule - is:

Monday: Easy swim + short easy run
Tuesday: Easy bike + hard run
Wednesday: Long swim with progressive main set
Thursday: Short easy run + hard bike
Friday: Easy swim with band work
Saturday: Hard swim + long progressive run
Sunday: Long progressive bike

Long Progressive run & bike sessions are from very easy, to cruise into moderate tempo. The progressive main set on the long swim is from easy to around 1500m pace. Ex. 7-10x100 @ css+10, 7-10x100 @ css+5 & 7-10x100 @ css. 10 sec recovery between each 100.

Works very well for me and also the athletes I’m coaching.

---

Morten Falk Størling
Blog l Instagram l Facebook

Hi everyone and thanks for all the answers. Long holidays, I just come back to training.

So with all this information, and knowing I like to do run races off season and XC skiing races during winter, I think I could do this kind of typical week;

-3 key runs, 1 tempo, 1 Critical velocity when a run race comes soon or just an easy run with strides, 1 long run. 2-3 short easy runs.
-3 key bikes, 1 tempo/sweetspot, 1 short/medium with some sprints, 1 long. When I don't do the critical velocity run and a XC ski or tri race is coming, I'll add some vo2 intervals in the medium ride.
-2-3 swims with CSS, easy swim, long swim or with master group.

With this schedule, I'll have 3 hard sessions between bike and run, focusing on running when run races or on the bike/ski when tri or ski races are coming.

When no races at all, I'll keep just 1 tempo run and 1 tempo/sweetspot ride, rest of the week easy and strides.

Sounds better ?

This sounds better than your original proposal. If your body can recover and you see progress in training, I would go for it. You would actually be perfect to set up a training plan with 2PEAK. we also have multisport compatibility for cross country skiing so a lot of athletes that train and race like you can benefit.

You can get a 21 day free trial at 2peak.com
Best of luck!

I tried 2 weeks with this schedule.
I think it's also a bit too much ..
I'll keep it simple:
3 bike, 3 swims, 3 runs (+2-3 short run and 1-2 strength).
1 hard session per sport, tempo most of the time (some strides running), or specific paced intervals if races are coming.

Thanks for all the comments

I'm in a similar boat. I'm new to the sport & have a faster open 10k pb. I've gotten my 1500 swim down to under 25:00 but have been at it for less than a year. I think the plan looks good. I would tweak frequency within the disciplines. 3-4 swims, 4 rides (1 easy, 2 workout- 1 intervals, 1 tempo, 1 long) (can do 2 easy, 1 interval, and tempo/long ride combo too), 3-4 runs (1-2 easy, 1-2 workout, 1 long). I think your run is about as good enough as it needs to be. I would think more about timing. Your runs should almost always come after swimming, biking, or both. My exception is my long run but I do that on Sunday after a big bike/run (long ride, easy run or workout). I also do a short ride after my long run when I'm in season. I noticed a ton of swim improvement when I went from 2-3 times/week to 4-5. This is a sport where more is usually better if you can handle it.

What is so special about a weekly time frame? What if people used a ten day, or thirteen day schedule?

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"