Training has been going well thanks 
Just done a big week in sunny Fuerteventura - 42hrs training in 7 days.
Have done some training races over the last 2 months. A half marathon in 69:33 & 21 miles (~45min) bike TT in PR power (330w or 5.2 w/kg). Swim feels to be improved from last year also.
Racing in just 2 weeks at Challenge Gran Canaria (20/04). Then Ironman Lanzarote the month after.
Thanks @giventotri. I’ve had a so so month, with good weeks interrupted by two average weeks: one week I was away with work and couldn’t train much, then I had a bit of achilles tendonitis so had to lay off run and bike for a week. Still working my way back on the running front but biking is fine.
Although it was an interrupted month I’m feeling in a good place. Swimming finally clicked a few weeks ago so feeling back to my best with that. I did a cycle sportive last weekend. It was the first time I’ve ridden hard all training plan so was a bit of a benchmarking exercise to see where I’m at, but I felt strong, normalised power was good for me, so I’m feeling in a good place to kick on with my cycling in the next few months. I’m taking a week off later this month to have a big cycling week.
So overall, 3 months out from my A race I’m feeling in a good place. My only slight concern is that the tendonitis flairs up again with my running so I’ll have to keep an eye on that.
Can we talk swim rpe/effort?
Using CSS, I’ve big doing my base intervals at CSS, my speed intervals hard, and my continuous base intervals at CSS +4 seconds (ish). Based on this thread:
I’m re reading the thread and wondering if I have it wrong? Should I be doing base intervals at CSS, and continuous base at CSS?
What is everyone else doing? I’m using the TR plan 100% because it’s easy to follow and works for now.
Sounds like some ripper training blocks ongoing. Love to see it. Just back from a winter in Tucson. Climbing Mount Lemmon has the legs primed for a big year.
I wouldn’t think of these as specific paces any more, although I used to. Unless you are swim fit, mid season fit.
A base swim for an Ironman, should feel easy primarily and I would expect it to be around my Ironman pace. But if it’s a bit slower I would accept that as how I am technique wise, I absolutely would not increase effort to make a pace but maybe check my catch, pull, etc.
CSS is a pace around Olympic or 70.3 hard swim in my experience. Tends to be used in threshold intervals, I’d call that a moderately paced 100 or 200m interval.
Harder, and or shorter intervals faster than CSS as long as I’m swim fit.
PB paced/all out 100s need 5-10min recovery and hopefully significantly faster than CSS.
Yeah, that makes sense. What confused me was that the “base intervals” Monday , and continuous base swim Friday are both RPE 5 (low volume full distance plan). Speed on Wednesday. So you either swim slow or hard, but never at CSS? 
I’ve been doing the base interval workout at or around CSS, and doing the long Friday swim at an easy pace (around 70.3 or full distance pace).
I’m not often at CSS pace it’s true, but that’s down to the club swim or Form swim plan I’ve followed. It’s been a few years since I followed TR swims, iirc there was a reasonable amount of threshold effort 100s in them which is fine, and not every session.
As you become more focussed on swim, if you do at all, it’s really all about technique not pace or effort. But the effort based TR swims are fine for people who want to put in the appropriate swim time, but focus on the bike when it comes to triathlon.
Basically if you’re swimming three times a week youre way ahead of the field in the first discipline 
If you feel good, then it’s worthwhile putting in strong intervals regularly. But if you’re dying in attempting them, then it’s time to pull back focus on the stroke.
For the continuous I’d be a little less than CSS at least. It should be an effort where say the pace at 500m is very similar at 1500.
The Wednesday speed is where you push your limits (within the bounds of good technique, no thrashing).
Don’t be afraid to be panting hard after a hard effort. With good rest and technique you can really work hard, while everyone else in the pool is nose breathing. My club sessions taught me this last year, with a coach on deck to tell you if your form has gone to hell.
Is that a bag filled with sand I see…?
Not posted for a while.
Work has just ground me down and it’s not until the last 3 weeks I’ve got back on track with training. Deferred outlaw half and going to have a big build for Copenhagen 2025.
Anyway… red light green light, is it shit for all other multi sport athletes? I’m constantly yellow. I looked back on my training history and it’s never green it’s always yellow or red.
It seems entirely pointless. Constantly trying to get me to do endurance rides when my legs feel great.
Welcome back @Simo429
I posted quite a bit in the RLGL threads, you can see my journey there. I’ve backed off some intensity, reorganised my week slightly, been more consistent I think not just in workouts but in terms of thinking about how I’m really feeling.
The flags appear less and when I expect/want them to now so it’s rarely changing my plan even as I’ve increased load. My easy days Thu and Sun are always easy now, and I make sure my club run day doesn’t have any other hard work in it. My FTP is still increasing steadily.
I’m interested to hear from other triathletes!
Glad you shared this! It was going great for me…. Until I started my full distance low volume plan at the beginning of April. My weekly long runs were supposed to go 60’, 75’, 90’ (this weekend). Well the first two were dropped to 25’ recovery runs from RLGL/AI. I follow the plan completely. So why is TR scheduling workouts that once completed and marked moderate (SS workouts) I get RLGL telling me to recover and my long runs chopped? Shouldn’t AI KNOW that if I complete the plan as prescribed I’m not going to be able to then do the work IT is prescribing?I had a recovery week this week with my 90’ run scheduled for next weekend. At this point the longest run I’ve done is 50’. I’m fairly certain AI will chop the 90’ run down. Looking forward I’m trying to see how I’m going to catch up with the projected workload. I’m sure it will work out, but it’s been a bit frustrating to follow the plan to the “T”.
Side note, I did Polarized base LV for 2 months prior and got nice 4% and 2% FTP increases. Just had AI do my most recent one and got a -.8%, not stoked about that. I’ve been following the plan 100%, so not sure what that’s all about?
On the bright side, I’ve felt quite fresh. 
You can change the training approach setting in the adaptive training section of the settings page if you feel RLGL is being too conservative.
I have it all the way to the right and I don’t see any red lights anymore, I only occasionally see a yellow light at the end of a training block, which I tend to ignore because I usually have a recovery week coming up. This is on a high volume half distance non-masters plan, and so far I haven’t had any issues recovering (with the caveat that I’ve been doing high volume plans for a while now).
You also don’t have to follow the plan to a T. If you feel you can do those sessions and still recover well, then do them.
Oh wow! This is good to know. I switched it one additional setting to the right to see how that goes.
Yeah, I’m going to have to ignore the run suggestions if they keep giving me recovery runs every Sunday (long run day).
Random question that I’m reminded of by this thread: One cross training device to rule them all - skierg vs rower?
Have any of you used a SkiErg as a cross-training tool for swimming, specifically? I don’t have any space left for a rower or a swim erg, but I might be able to fit in a SkiErg, and the movement and muscle involvement seems at first glance like it’d be complementary to swimming, but I’m curious if any of you have first hand experience with it.
I don’t think so. General fitness always helps, but there’s no substitute for swimming. And there’s no value in tiring yourself on other activities if you’re not fresh for the swim session.
I lift a bit but it’s easy to knacker the shoulders the days before a swim.
Has anyone try this tape before? Seems interesting and a good alternative to traditional bar tape…
On that note, I’m gonna be on the road later this week, so let’s do our roll call. We have our first few races of the year this month (Ironman Lanzarote for @Benwgoodfellow, Outlaw Half Nottingham for @Wayne_Smith, Ironman 70.3 Victoria for @ashfordneil, and I’m racing Ironman 70.3 St. George on Saturday). How’s training going, everyone?
Roll call! @ashman07 @Billabong @bretzky @DanF @Lee_Badrock @mrtopher1980 @Owenbrown @pstalley @windyyet
Hi all, So I raced Challenge Gran Canaria Middle this month (20th April). Pretty happy with how it went, Finished 11th Overall.
Seemed to be a pretty well-rounded performance at least with the 15th-fastest swim, 16th-fastest bike, 10th-fastest run.
The biggest positive of the day was the swim. Which is where most of my focus has been this winter. I came out of the water 1min 20s from the front, which is the smallest margin I have had since racing pro (past best was 2min 35s). Was even just on the back of the front group till the halfway Aussie exit. Where I lost contact annoyingly.
Bike was pretty average or even a bit disappointing. It is normally my strongest discipline. NP power was the same as I was doing last year in 70.3’s but from recent TT numbers & training sessions thought it would be higher.
Run was pretty solid. The course is a little short (maybe 400m) but then the course and terrain are not well suited to running fast (5 out/back laps with some gravel) So think actual run times are probably pretty honest. Run split on paper was a PR. But then the watch pace was not. It’s a little hard to judge but against other racers, it was my strongest discipline.
As you say, next up the Ironman Lanzorate full. Looking forward to it. But a little worried about winds being a smaller build. Also interested to see who is on the start list.
Have raced 5 fulls now and only ran well once. So my track record is not greater. But from training think this distance should suit me better.
