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?
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 
I’m of a similar opinion tbh. The high volume one just looks daunting and I’d possibly lose motivation with missing sessions regularly?!
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I’d agree with Kimber. I’d suggest the mid-volume plan. You can extend the volume on endurance days when you have time and energy.
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I’ll be the devil’s advocate and tell you to do the high volume plan - lol. I am currently on high volume and if you are okay with deleting sessions (which I feel like you are), it does give you more options for swims (I usually get 5, and I always delete 1) and also gives different running workouts (similar to marathon plan with HIT/MIIT for the Sunday long run)…I think you can easily follow high volume plan doing 15-18 hours…
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This is interesting, I hadn’t thought about the fact that the high volume plan would give me more similar workouts that I had been following for my marathon one…
This week has been a non start anyway due to travelling and a knee problem so I may reset the mid plan for next week and go high volume.
I shall report back on my findings 
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