Super short workouts. Do you get them?

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Hi. I’ve been an Athletica user for 2+ months and I’ve really developed a complex relationship with it. While really enjoying the training and seeing what looks like progress on a low volume, sometimes I feel a lot of intervention is necessary (my intervention) instead of me just doing what I’m told.

(Granted, I’m the sort of guy that really needs to understand why I’m supposed to do this and that and needs to get on board with it.)

So, I want to ask you guys - does Athletica prescribe unpractically short workouts to you as well, and if yes, what do you do?

Examples:

  • 1400 meter swim (or even a 900 meter swim in the framework of 4 swims in a week),
  • 30 minute run with 6x30’/30’,
  • 32 minute bike (also with 30’/30’ efforts).

Not questioning the physiological sense of such workouts here, but I’m probably not alone in saying in makes no practical sense to split 2500 meters of swimming into two separate sessions, given the time and expense involved in the logistics. Similarly, the prep before and shower after a bike ride (whether indoors or outdoors) sort of become an annoyance. Telling the virtual coach not to set up short sessions (through the session feedback box) doesn’t do it. I imagine that the feedback is something Athletica uses as an additional gauge of session load/fatigue.

So what I’ll do is just exceed the planned workout time. For bike or run, I’ll add easy running/spinning. For swims, it’s more complicated because a longer warmup doesn’t cut it - sometimes I’ll combine two swim sessions, and sometimes I’ll extend the main set.

I tried the beta feature, where you can tell Athletica you want to “swim at least X minutes on Thursday”, but it requires a ton of such inputs, the outputs make no sense if you overcomplicate things for the algorithm.

And so I just do my thing, guided by Athletica’s suggestions (which is how I treat them), and the virtual coach tells me how awesome it is that I ignored his advice by doing 170% of the planned load for the workout… :joy:

On the other hand, like I said, I can see my fitness grow more than the volume (and especially the paltry volume of intensity) would suggest.

Probably helps that I’ve been doing tri training for 9 years, so shorter than some, but longer than most. It also helps that, depending on the week, I miss some sessions as “life gets in the way”.

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I have been using the platform around the same period of time and have joined the beta to avoid the short swims for the same reasons you mention (having to drive to the pool, prep/shower after, etc.)

I only use these settings below and it has been giving me three swim workouts consistently on the days I want them. Personally I do not follow the prescribed workouts (I use swimplan.com to generate workouts) but I try to stay close to the yardage recommended and also follow the “type” of workout i.e. aerobic, threshold, s/e, etc.

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I am also on a low volume plan and had to tweak the available hours per week a few times before I found a good balance. I’m finding it has been more dialed in after about 6 weeks of training now, but I am a novice triathlete so not a lot to compare with. Similarly if I have a 30 minute workout but I’m feeling decent, I’ll add on some easy aerobic time.

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:wave:t2: hey, and welcome to Athletica :pray:

For context: I’ve been on mid and high volume plans and can tell that even on those you will be offered shorter sessions. The principle is consistency; doing something everyday rather than doing 3 long workouts per week.

Especially in swimming getting on the pool pays dividends to most of use who learned to swim as adults. I used to stack two shorter sessions until athletica learned my swim pattern and gave me longer ones.

We often think longer is better but if we only have 30 mins - it’s better to do something rather than nothing.

For example: today I had two runs 35 mins. I did first one in the morning, then snug in a short 17mins in between podcast recordings as this was the only time slot I had today. Was it ideal? No but life happens and I felt stoked I managed to run twice. The mental boost of 17 mins was noticeable.

If you have more time and fitness, and it aligns with race goals, go ahead and extend your workouts. Athletica will give a little more “leash” as it gets to know you .

Keep ticking those boxes :raised_hands:t2::muscle:t2:
MJ

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Thanks for the response @Marjaana.

Like I said, I’m not questioning the physiological sense of greater frequency (even at the cost of a shorter duration per workout), and I know you’re supposed to get in the water every 2 days as a rule of thumb, and that frequency is just so helpful in running, etc.

What I don’t have time to do is to split my volume into tiny bits, because the logistics around training take more time, which I would rather be spending… training. I want to swim 4 times a week, realistically I’ll be able to swim 3 times a week, and right now I’m only able to swim twice. But even if I can go to the pool 4 times a week, I will not be doing those tiny sessions. I want a bigger return on the time investment.

Hence my question.

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Yes totally get it where you are coming from. Sorry if my advice came off as ignorant.
Understand also you don’t want to be jumping in the pool to do 1000m which is short for you. If you are in the pool twice a week, you could

  1. stack up two of the four swims together. (Obviously the second one : cut the warm up). For example; when I started with athletica, it gave me short swims too and this is what I did until it learned that I can I do much longer swims than it was giving me(override the workout and it will learn). I would stack up tech + threshold (alternatively aerobic) swim. Or speed and strength endurance (paddles). Depending on the rest of the program too.

Same with runs: just stack up shorter runs together if that’s what you’ve accustomed to… you know your context the best.
Move short bike session Vo2max to a day when you only have an hour. Speaking of Vo2max sessions: I’ve extended the warm up to 20 mins as I find older girls need just a little more time to get going. Then I do 2-3 sets of those 30/30s and cool down roughly 10 mins to an hour workout. Effective and short enough to fit into a busy day.

By the way, I lead weekly 30/30 sessions on Thursdays. Would love to have you join us! It’s a bunch of Awesome Athletica athletes doing hard things together! And it’s free

MJ

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