I’m looking for some more up to date info on comparison between the two. I have searched the archives but no recent info. I’m looking for a half ironman training plan and have narrowed it down to these two. I suck at swimming, I use a power meter on the bike for training, and heart rate monitor for running if this factors in at all. I have completed 70.3 and 140.6 races in the past with PRs of 5:00 and 11:30.
Thanks in advance
I’ve used both, Ironguides is a lot of FEEL or RPE…Endurance Nation is Power Meter and GPS.
COMPLETE opposites when it comes to the GEAR part, but very very close on the cycling and running training. Swimming however is why i switched to Ironguides. They put way more of an emphasis on it, where Endurance Nation even says bag the swimming in the off season if it is not in your LIFE schedule (good advice i ad hear too even with Ironguides).
tfun~
EN new plans allow more flexible if need to swim more often or/and different work outs
.
I never agreed with bagging the swim that EN promoted for people that could swim reasonably well.
Although I see their reasoning, I’ve felt that swimming through the winter helped me become a more complete triathlete.
I used the EN outseason program last year and added my 4 swims per week to it.
jaretj
They have a similarity in that they focus on building up speed/power before you add endurance. Beyond that they come from different schools of thought. EN is more “Slowtwitch-Approved” in its approach.
One consideration is that EN is very transparent in it’s thinking if you wanted to use as a base plan to build around, wheras IG can seem a little black-box in terms of how they sequence workouts, and do all their hormone balancing stuff.
Some key differences below, I’m sure people from either side will pitch in where I’ve got stuff wrong or over-simplified
EN
Coaching products: plans, team based coaching
Key concepts: Building your FTP and VDot, progressive overload through adding intensity,
Key workouts: Threshold sets (2x20s on the bike, 5-10 min tempo sets on the run)
Use swimming and running drills
No off-season swimming or weights
Big into powermeters, Zones on HR, Power, and pace
Active community and forum, lots of podcasts, ebooks etc
Very open approach with lots of debate and discussion
Key metrics: FTP, V-dot
Lots of focus on race execution
Claimed Kona qualifiers: 8
IG
Coaching products: plans, assisted plans, personalized 1-2-1
Key concepts: Balancing of catabolic and anabolic workouts, avoiding aerobic stress, value of repetition
Key workouts: 20x 1 min big gear on the bike, lots of use of pull-buoy and paddles on the swim, lots of treadmill work on the run
Don’t do swimming or running drills, but focus on increasing running cadence
Swimming year round. Weights if you’re older, but I don’t think as part of the plans
Anti-powermeter and HRM, Zones are PE based
Pretty inactive forum and community by comparison
Not really into discussing it all… “Stop stressing and follow the plan”
Key metrics: Feel,
Lots of focus on low cadence on the bike, high cadence (eg 96) on the run
Claimed Kona qualifiers: 27
Excellent summary from Tim.
Notes on the swimming thing:
Last we learned that many athletes did just what Jaret did: understood where we are coming from re offseason swimming, but decided to make and follow their own decision. So for this year, in outseason plans we:Restated our advice and experienceThen included resources for people like Jaret: our Swim Clinic eBook + 20wks of swim workouts for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced swimmers. The difference is that these swim resources are provided as a supplement to the plan: "here’s the OS plan. Here is our guidance on swimming. Still want to swim? No worries, that’s cool, here’s a technique focused ebook and a complete schedule of swim workouts, knock yourself out."Likewise, we realize that very few athletes fit a Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced profile across all three sports – rocks who can ride and run, fish who can’t run or bike. So for 2010 all of our long course plans include complete swim schedules for Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced swimmers.
I say all of this just to point out despite the perception that EN = no swim…every one of our training plans include a very comprehensive multimedia ebook + and 12 or 20wks of Beg, Int, and Adv swim workouts (about 180 total). We listened, we’ve adapted, the plans (in seventh generation now) are better than ever.
If anyone has an specific questions, please PM me or email admin@endurancenation.us
Patrick,
I thought that you guys have a very simple statement about swimming that seems to get lost.
This is what I understood.
I think that many people loose the first part of this statement.
Perhaps I misunderstood though.
Alan
Nope, that’s what we say. But when you say “stop swimming” it can get taken out of context and next thing you know I am drop-kicking anyone I know who smells like chlorine (for example). It’s all about ROI, we have far too many stories of folks not swimming for 5-6 months, getting 20-30 mins faster on the bike, setting a massive PR and swimming the same time as last year… But if you want to swim and love to swim, that’s fine. In our world, you are self-coached and are more than welcome to amend our guidance and leverage the value of the 400+ person Team…
thanks for all the info. it’s all very helpful.
Going through the same evaluation as the OP (though not as much experience in Triathlon) and figured I would bump this up.