I’m trying to incorporate weights and swimming into a masters program where criteriums is the focus . 2023 I was improving well but needed a hip replacement in April of 2024 so spent the rest of the season just doing long hours of free riding by myself trying to stay away from intensity while I healed fast forward to 2025 and after riding fourteen races up to July I herniated two discs in my lower back leaving me sidelined for eight weeks . Now for my second comeback in as many seasons I’m trying to use swimming to add cardio work without stressing my legs . I’ve been doing this on my off days . Also adding in some weight training two days a week the day before my rest days Sunday Thursday . I seem to be getting mixed results with red days and yellow days . What is the best way to go about this to have a program that still progresses and does not set me back with too many red days . Today , Sunday , I did weights and it gave me a red days for Tuesday where previously it would give me red on Monday which was already my day off
Hey @David_Orelli 
By looking at your Calendar, are you counting your working sets to failure?
Here are instructions on how to properly input them so our fatigue management system doesn’t overly flag you: How to Add Working Sets to your Strength Training
Also, I would recommend, if possible to pair your strength training with your Hard interval days. This way you can have proper rest days or just go swimming.
More info here: Integrating Strength Training
As far as your Master’s plan, it looks good! The only potential change I would make is maybe lower it to 4 days a week, and on Thursdays, swim instead of doing the endurance workout. We want to focus on quality work, rather than quantity, especially after your injuries. Then you can add on as needed
A good mindset is to think about how much training I can effectively recover from, rather than how much training I can do.
Thanks for the info . As far as sets go I’m really starting out very slow doing three sets of ten on all exercises using very minimal weight , about 30 percent of one rep max . It does not seem to be too taxing . Not sure the program will differentiate the sets now at 100 pound leg press when before I was at 700 pounds pre hip replacement . For the swim , while I like the idea behind the swim to save my legs on Thursday which would make the ability to ride more intensity on Saturday and it could expedite my threshold improvements , my idea was just to add more base endurance without taxing the legs . Also I’m not a good swimmer so I’m pretty tapped out in a half hour so far and I need two separate days to get an hour of work . I ignored the red days and soldiered on this week eventually landing on just a diminished Saturday workout . I handled the hard Tuesday fine and took a complete rest day today Friday and will do weights and swim tomorrow Saturday with hard bike workout . If it leaves me crushed on Tuesday knowing full well this can show up much later as long term fatigue , I will re assess the idea of leg work in gym at this point and maybe just do upper and core work and the two half hour swims per week . I’m trying to meet my body where it’s at but the loss of fitness is certainly a hard pill to swallow 
thanks again for the input .