I would try taking a week off.

I've upped my drinking over the last several weeks. First race with the new program is this Sat. Should be interesting.

YMMV.

Good luck.

You are getting older, not faster.

On the plus side, you probably age up soon.

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Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.


as for the OP. 5-6 hours isnt much, for triathlon. but you could really see some running gains on that time. maybe try single sport running for a while to up that fitness level.

It might help elicit some more detailed responses if you added some additional info. Ie. Height, weight, age, Ftp, 100/400m swim pace, 5k, 10k, HM times. Without the above types of info, It's hard to say do this or do that.

With all that being said, 5-6 hours per week will probably just maintain the fitness you have if you're doing any work in all 3 disciplines. You could probably reap some nice benefits if the full 5-6 hours was devoted to one of the disciplines.

Yeah, 6 hours / week isn't a lot. But your performance is not just about your training time. I would look at stuff you can improve outside of workouts, like sleep and nutrition.

Cheers,
Ginger

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https://www.instagram.com/gingerhowellracing/
If you find yourself thinking "What if I can't", instead think "What if I can!"

Sounds like a good plan. You got to stay hydrated....

Ok, I was more thinking in general. Specifically my level is this:
40 years old never swam before...
5'11
176 lbs
Swim: 400m 7:50min, him swim 36 min
Run 5k: 18:50 him run approx 1h40
Ftp: 320 him bike flat: 2h16

Flat him best so far 4h42

Training:
Swim 1h masters
Bike 2h per week trainer road
Run 3h per week. 3 runs
Sotimes a weekend ride of 2.5h on top (1-2x per month)

Thanks for feedback

Bike looks good.

400m swim pace is slower than HIM pace...was the HIM a wetsuit swim? Regardless, single sport focus on the swim (hopefully with a masters group or individual coaching) would be a good idea.

Your 5k speed is nice. You could probably hold more of that speed for longer efforts if you upped your mileage but the swim is, in my opinion, the big limiter in your overall performance...especially at Olympic distance or above.

"I try to follow the 80-20 intensity distribution on 5-6 hours per week."


If you're sure you can't add volume (ie: hours), what's to keep you from a 70/30 plan..and then when you stagnate, a 60/40 plan?

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"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz

When I hit a "plateau" within the confines of my life tolerance for triathlon/endurance sports, I usually just stop and smell the flowers for a while, let myself get a little out of shape, or do some other sport all together. When I come back to it, I get to improve all over again!

This was stated tongue in cheek, but it actually works for me in my pursuit of a balanced life that allows me to pursue my many and varied interests.

I do tris for a year or two

Then switch to another sport for a year or two
Back to tris etc

Keeps things fresh and fun for me

If you keep doing the same thing, then you'll get the same results. Assuming the 5 hours/week of workouts is fixed. Your training efforts should be different for different race distance goals. Not sure where you want to go and it will probably change over a season or seasons.

Here's some suggestions for your consideration:

• Swim -- training with a Masters group is great.


• Talk with the coach and ask for stroke improvement help to get more efficient. May swim faster to yield quicker times, will probably swim more efficient within your 36" HIM time giving you more energy for bike & run, or maybe both.
• Or change lanes and go with a faster group to pick up speed (better for Sprint thou applicable to both)
• Or change lanes and train with longer distance intervals
• Bike -- Ride with others to be challenged or pick up some tips. LBS group may be best option. Other things to consider:


• Swap out an hour of running for biking especially if wanting more of an HIM PR
• Focus on bike speed if wanting to PR in Sprint
• Focus on bike endurance/stamina if wanting to PR in HIM
• Focus on something other than just 2 hours of riding
  
• Upgrade equipment (more expensive and you probably have some really good stuff already but the shiny stuff always looks for cool in your garage than online...……)
• Run -- Throw in a 5K or 10K open road race for speed. Also think about changing these:


• Run 3x times a week with a 30 minute run after the 2 hour bike, 60 minute and 90 minute for the other two runs
• Do fartlek run workouts for 2x60 on 2 days, then 60 easy for the other day if staying at 3 days or just drop if going to 2 days/week
• Trade an hour of the run for the bike and do 2 days fartlek or bike + 30 minute brick run and 90 minutes open

Not sure of your physique but if able to drop a couple of pounds that will yield the potential to change by a stairstep tier of performance for the better.

Consider racing a bit more. More expensive but you may learn race preparation and race tactics plus more speed that will drop your time quicker in Sprint, Oly, and HIM.

Changing to solo sports for a season or two, then returning to tris changes the scenery more than the times.

https://www.palmtreesahead.com/feed
https://www.palmtreesahead.com/tri-50-states

my 2c:

if you're limited to 6 hours/week then you might need to go for more of a high intensity paradigm - i don't think you'll get much benefit from low-intensity, low-volume. try gradually increasing the amount of intensity as much as you can without getting any warning of injury or poor recovery.

your bike is awesome for that low volume, your run is reasonably good, your swim is poor (i don't judge as i'm similar). however swimming, for someone with little background in it, takes a lot of time to improve. you will likely see better HIM time saving by concentrating on your run which is good enough to suggest you have some talent there which is probably ripe for progress. i also find running a more time-effective activity for general aerobic development so in a time-crunched training plan it is better bang for your time-buck. conversely cycling typically requires a lot of time investment to develop past the good point you are at.

as suggested, doing some blocks of more focus on swimming or running might get you some big gains that you can then hold when returning to more balanced training.

Do you have a coach? If not, maybe get one? If so, get a new one?

You probably just need to majorly change things up. Eventually the body will adapt to the stresses you throw at it. In order to keep getting fitter, you need to stress the body in new ways.

That's the very first thing I thought of as well.

Sounds like you're potentially in quite a good place... And realistically you're doing half the amount of training of a lot of AG athletes so there is a lot of headroom.

Your run potential is pretty good if you can do a 5k that fast - lots of scope for stretching the speed with longer runs. Maybe train for a half marathon - it's a fun distance without all the downsides of marathons in terms of beating your body up.

Your swim is slow, but as an adult onset swimmer you're always going to be slower than the average small child (I have exactly the same problem - my 12 yr old daughter can do a 2km swim 6 minutes faster than me!) There is a lot you can do to improve this though. Again - more hours in the pool....

Your biking is already pretty awesome for 2 hours per week. If you're on 320W FTP for 2 hours a week then think what you could do with 6 hours a week!

If you're feeling like you're on a plateau are you really just a bit flat this week? How's your nutrition? Are you sleeping 5 hours a night, or 8? TBH you could probably lose 5kg which would help you a lot, this might also hint at scope for nutritional improvements.

Take a few days off, have a think, and reasure yourself that you are unlikely to have hit your genetic potential yet...so onwards and upwards.

Yes I must agree that your results are exceptionally good for 5,6 hours of training and I would not like to know what happens if you really started training.

You’re over biking massively in a race with a 5km to 70.3 run pace difference like that.

Thanks for your comment. I was contemplating the idea of running an open half in order to stretch my 5k time.

I will probably skip 1h of biking and replace with running and see how things go.
Uli

I fully agree. The problem is just that I don't know how much to hold back and i tend to get excited on the bike when I can pass so many people and have no one around to pace myself....guess a powermeter should find its way under my christmas tree....
U

Thanks. I hope to be able to put in the time once my kids are a bit older....until then I just see how far I can get with my current training. My long term goal is to kq once I hit the 45-50 agegroup 👊...given health allows.
U