And people slate me for doing 200 burpees in one go?
That is just horrible and it’s your favourite ?!?
It’s all hard I guess
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Watching El Niños athletics sessions and coaching has given me lots of ideas for sessions similar to that. On track they do things like 300 hard 100 easy or 400/100walk/100easy or 600 hard 200 easy 500 hard 200 easy 400 hard , down to 200/200. Increase pace through reps. They never do things “at 5k pace” always RPE. The main set is never over 3-4k but this is middle distance training. In summer they do add short (200 or even 100) reps in for pure speed work which is more useful for 800m races.
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I like it because it feels great when yoyu get the pacing right. You also learn that the easy has to be easy, there’s not much recovery in 200m, so you want to make it as effective as possible, without taking the piss - I normally drop pace to 7:00/km, so about 1m20m recovery between reps
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I’ll be doing a bit of this in the summer I guess,as I say when your on the limit it’s all hard.
The fact you actually like it might explain quite a lot .
Stack at it !
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I think that graphic is really good but immediately (and still) thought it is missing the intensity domain ‘zones’ of moderate, heavy, severe. I guess the closest ot them is the Jack Daniels model. But those are what a lot of the exercise physiologists and science based coaches (I hate that phrase BTW) use. The point I was trying to briefly make on the running HR thread was theat if you can regularly do a series of tests and not just FTP or running threshold test the need for these ‘% of MaxHR/FTP/etc.’ zones becomes less useful as you know where LT1 and LT2 sit under varying conditions. Even if you’re not using lactate testing that is.
ETA: One thing I notice is AC is always about everyone doing almost nothing but Z0-2 on twitter, etc. but in the past he has put up sessions for his athletes as they’re building to races and for HIM there’s plenty of z3-4/tempo work and for IM what would be top of Z2, just below sweet spot type work. I know he would say that is because they have the base to do it but his athletes do the hard work (and the Z2 in a 3 zone model) too.
I reckon the secret to sustainable Ironman training is in this piece and the big push from Mark Allen.
https://alancouzens.com/blog/big_push.html
The way I view it - we should be training to get ready for the ‘big push’ rather than training for Ironman full time. It’s help my mentality to think it this way rather than trying to push for every week above +12 h - rather how good can I get in my 12 hours so that I am in a strong position for the 4 weeks of +18 hours for weeks 8-5 out from race.
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I think that’s a great point @Bosco64
Also I suspect it works for shorter times/ distances too. Eg. an athlete who usually trains for 6 hours per week, then bumps it up to 10 hours a month or two before their race, might see a proportional benefit.
And maybe we have been indoctrinated to think that 6 hours per week isn’t much. But it is! I think one of the big challenges for age grouper tri enthusiasts is finding a rhythm that works for them in their non-triathlon lives. If they can find this, and stick at it season after season, then perhaps they don’t need to be doing massive hours. Maybe less is more , sort of 
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Ive always said to people get to 12 weeks out with reasonable general fitness and having developed skills as best you can, then build into Ironman.
Frinkle 24 or even 30wk plans should be for couch to IM types with a lot of easy short stuff at the start
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not just physically but mentally as well. 6-7 months of doing a training plan for 1 day would hang over me amd ultimately do my head in just as I need to be stepping it up.
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yep…many coaches constantly contradict themselves and sadly the athletes just suck it up…
There is a lot of good research about power in the coach:athlete relationship…athletes very rarely give coaches honest negative feedback until the relationship breaks down…
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It depends on the athlete and the objective…but if you add in stretching and S&C, it possibly isn’t…
that said, i am always amazed at athletes who wish to do 18 hours on a completely unsustainable platform and social/domestic life…
so the ‘necessary’ hours land somewhere between the two…
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Everyone is different , but i fail to see how anyone with a real job and family life can do 18hrs and actually recover from it regularly. I have had the are you sure you can successfully recover from 12/15/18hrs a week every week convo more than once when ive had the but X on IMJ does 25hrs a week (X and IMJ are entirely fictional representations), and I help them to reach their decision that its not ideal and X probably isnt doing that every week. I had an older (18) junior claim he could do more, i warned him, he said but, so i said OK, but he came back 2 weeks later and said, “ok you was correct” 
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I am an outlier, but regularly train 18+ hours per week for many weeks. Over the course of the past 3 years, I trained an average 16h per week, that’s 2h20m per day 365 days per year. I do have a very understanding family and reasonably stressful job.
It’s hard work, but think that I got the results to show for it. Unlike many people on IMJ, I would never tell anyone that is what they have to do. To train at that level requires a massive commitment that has to come from within
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I seem to have fallen into a routine of ~8 hours PW recently +/-1 and almost the reverse periodization if you agree with that concept, personally I just call it training\exercising!
But without many real races currently it’s a diet of harder Zwift races, parkruns & an odd trail\fell run giving me some harder workouts. Topped up with easy\steady runs & rides.
When the weather improves and it gets lighter I’ll start getting out on a night\weekend and build up some more hours, and might even start swimming
Going over 10-12 regularly starts getting a bit tiring for me unless I sleep well and the sun on my back helps.
I could possibly do better with some focus etc. but that’s increasingly difficult for me, I just make it up as I go along these days!
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And swimming 
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No, this would be traditional periodization for IM (less specific to more specific)
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I like ~six month plans. But they can have a lot of variety in them.
I’m trying to do less than I usually do at this time of year, focus on consistency and health, but same approach to build: ramp up gradually then go hard for a few months SBR and taper.
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Another interesting share from Alan
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https://twitter.com/Alan_Couzens/status/1654329891784105984?t=GiYlgnSdXPZaXkkcSa1MJw&s=19
What? Next he will be saying the power of the crowd isn’t real, and tailwind doesn’t work.
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The circle jerk is strong in the comments there.
What about Hassan’s London win? Pretty sure that took some ‘mental toughness’ - although clearly yes, she will have obviously out in the miles
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