High volume and reduce vs Medium volume and increase?

General
1

Interested to see what peoples (and coaches) thoughts on this are?

I’ve just finished a very successful marathon training plan and am now jumping into Ironman training. I’ve a few races but main ones are a 70.3 in July and Full IM in September. Last 5 months have been around 10-14 hours of training a week but heavily focused on running, just a couple of swims and bike rides per week.

Looking at setting a new triathlon specific training plan for the next 5 months and can’t quite decide. Do I go with a high volume plan (around 20 hours per week) and just reduce/skip sessions that aren’t possible… Or do I go with a Mid Volume plan and add in sessions where I have some time available? Does the AI coach prefer one or the other?

2

Personally I’d go mid-volume and either add sessions or go longer as feeling, just because if I see the workout on the plan I really WANT to do it LOL and the AI coach will gently scold you for missing sessions. Also this way you get all the core plans and don’t skip the more critical ones.

I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons to consider going higher volume, so I’d keep an eye on your progress and if you start to plateau you can always change plans to get more volume automatically.

$0.02 :wink:

3

I’m of a similar opinion tbh. The high volume one just looks daunting and I’d possibly lose motivation with missing sessions regularly?!