JohnnyKay and Fred Doucette's HIM/IM focused Mentor group-CLOSED (Page 13)

With regard to the volume conversation, I work one-on-one with a coach at QT2 Systems.  My plan is built around attaining "critical volume" in my IM training.  Here's the QT2 take on critical volume:

Okay, this one is for the more math or detailed oriented folks out there. These thoughts are the fundamental basis of my training principals as well as the calculator. Coming into triathlon, most athletes try to cut corners on training volume by completing intense workouts. This is a short cut to faster race times over shorter distances as well as a short cut to injury. Below I will discuss what it takes to gain speed, efficiently and safely for the long haul.

In my opinion, every athlete has a speed potential based on their swim/bike/run paces at threshold. Based on these paces, one can get a good idea on how they may perform at other event distances. There are many calculators out there (like this one: merv's) that will tell you what your marathon performance may be based on your 5K time. These performance estimates, use a a curve that defines how your pace changes relative to race distance. I call this curve, a speed potential curve. What most calculators don't tell you is that in order to achieve this speed potential you must have a certain amount of endurance training given the event distance. I believe there exists undeniable volume thresholds that must be met prior to the event in order to achieve that speed potential as well as to have an enjoyable experience. The volume thresholds, or critical volumes that I like to use are as follows:

Swim - 9/3 of the event distance per week
Bike - 8/3 of the event distance per week
Run - 7/3 of the event distance per week

For single sport events like the marathon, I believe these volumes should be met for at least 5 weeks (preceding the taper) during training for the event. For triathlon, I believe these volumes should be met for at least 1 week during training (ideally during your final build weeks based on the build/taper protocols in previous thoughts). The duration is less in triathlon because of the cross training effect between the disciplines. Another factor that I have observed is that additional benefit can be realized on run performance by increasing bike volume up to 50% greater than those volumes specified above. This tactic is pretty elite stuff and should not be considered by folks who have not already met the other critical volumes or feel that they have room to improve their pace at threshold.

Okay, so how does one use this information to schedule their workouts or plan their season? First off, total volume from year to year should not increase more than 30%. If you are not sure of your total year volume, use your sustainable weekly volume from the previous year. Your sustainable weekly volume can be determined by looking at your previous years training log, and observing what your highest volume consecutive weeks were. You should begin to see a consistent volume that you were able to perform for at least 4-6 weeks during the season without burnout or injury. Your goal should be to build up to, and meet or exceed this volume by up to 30% prior to your final two week build for at least 4 weeks. Based on the build/taper protocols, the final build week should be 20% above this sustainable volume. Now, where do you fall in terms of critical volume? Using the factors above you may find that you will be well trained and ready for a half iron event but under trained for an iron event. Does this mean that you should not complete that Ironman you were planning? No, it just means that you will not meet your speed potential for the race, and chances are that you will not be happy (hit the wall, cramp, drastically reduce your pace) at some point during the race. If you fall into this category, you should carefully consider your pacing for the race.

The critical volume factors should be used to determine how much volume to complete for your goal event. Typically when I lay out a multiple month plan leading into an event, I look at where the athlete's volume is currently and whether or not it will be safely possible to reach the critical volumes for the event in time for the taper. The priorities for an athlete trying to set up his or her own schedule should be as follows:

1. Meet the critical volume for your event using low intensity workouts (less than 85% of threshold heart rate). Don't bother adding intensity until you feel you will be able to meet the critical volume for your event. Sometimes if it is obvious that you will be able to meet the critical volume (or close to it), you can add intensity in parallel with adding volume.
2. Begin to add intensity workouts to your weekly routine with no more than one intense workout per week on the bike or run. It is not important what format these workouts come in. An example would be to complete hill repeats earlier in the season and track workouts as your races approach. Try to make the workouts more and more race specific as your race season draws closer. Just get good and tired for each of these workouts, don't totally wipe yourself out. Once you have met the critical volumes, these workouts are designed to increase your speed potential curve (5K times, 20min TT times, 400yd swim times).
3. For elite athletes in the ITU scene or that race at shorter distances, sometimes the best way to improve speed potential after adding intensity is to increase volume beyond what is required for endurance. For most, this is not necessary because weekly intense workouts are enough to elicit speed improvements.
4. After meeting critical volume and increasing speed potential, additional benefit can be gained on the run by adding up to 50% bike volume to the critical volumes above.

Let's take a look at what this means for the most extreme example, Ironman. Have you ever wondered why the time gaps on a percentage basis between the pros and age group athletes are much greater in Ironman than Olympic distance racing? It's simply because most pro Ironman athletes are able to meet their critical volumes, while age groupers are not. The pros are able to maintain pace, while most age groupers significantly slow down at some point during the race. For example, if I wanted to be a top pro Ironman triathlete, I would want to meet the critical volumes for the event plus the additional 50% bike volume.

Swim = 2.4 miles = 4220 yds x 9/3 = 12,660yds

Bike = 112 miles x 8/3 x 150% = 450 miles

Run = 26.2 x 7/3 = 60 miles

For a pro Ironman triathlete, this equates to about 3.5 hours of swimming, 23 hours of biking and, about 7 hours of running. This is a total of about 33.5 hours of training for the final build week before the race. Using the build/taper protocols, my sustainable weekly volume prior to the build should be about 20% less, or 27 hours in order to be properly prepared for the final build weeks. Based on this, it's no surprise that you see elite Ironman triathlete's training in the 30 hour range.

Sure, speed can be gained by shorting the critical volumes and doing more intense workouts however, a drastic reduction in total race time is realized when an athlete "hits the wall" during a race. In addition, the chance of injury is drastically increased with this kind of short cut. I find it much more beneficial and safe to meet the critical volumes first when possible.

Long workouts each week can be up to half of the bike volume and one-third of the swim and run volume each week. Intensity on these days should be easy for beginners to moderate for advanced athletes as they approach the racing season (no faster than halfiron pace minus 4 mph on the bike). All other workouts, other than your long workouts and key intense workouts should be at a very easy aerobic recovery pace. ==>CONTINUE TO CRITICAL VOLUME II

Hey Kelly, I'm familiar with the QT2 philosophy and I don't think there's anything wrong with you (or others) taking that path.  It's one very likely to lead to success if managed appropriately.

But, even assuming he is correct about his critical volume theory (which could be debated since it's almost impossible to 'prove', but really not what we need to be doing here anyway), the fact is that most athletes have limitations on the amount of time they are able to train.  Some, as he notes, is dictated by how much they've trained in the past--and related to the recovery challenge that Bryan and I referenced.  But some is also driven by the 'rest of life' which makes consistent 20+ hour weeks nearly impossible for many (I raise my hand).  So, the alternative is to boost your training load with some intensity.  He may argue that there is no substitute for this critical volume in order to meet one's 'speed potential', but the speed potential most people are concerned about is the one they can achieve while keeping training in its appropriate 'compartment' within their lives.  For some, this compartment is quite large and high volume training is a very feasible option.  For others, the compartment is much smaller, so they are forced to look for other ways to maximize what they can--whether or not this reaches the QT2 'speed potential' becoems somewhat irrelevant. 

The fact that there are plenty of examples of those who train well below his critical volumes yet do well on an absolute and relative (don't 'hit the wall' or slow down meaningfully) basis shows that there are other ways to train for the distance.  The (legitimate) comeback would be that they aren't really reaching their 'speed potential'.  To which I would relpy, "So what?" 

Again, there's nothing wrong with the approach you are taking.  It's just not that different from what most people are trying to accomplish (within their own constraints) in IM training.  They are just using different approaches that will work better for their circumstances.

Thanks for your reply - just the words "you've got lots of time" made me feel better. I feel like this plan is flying by and I'm not making the most of it. Just sort of following along.

May has some longer brick workouts so that part is coming. One I saw was a 25 min run, 2 hour bike, 25 min run. I'm thinking I was better off not looking a head! That will be good practice for nutrition though.

I'm not saying volume is the be all end all, I'm just saying that the volume has a specific purpose for me and that there's method behind what I'm doing (as compared to just doing volume to see how big I can make the bar graphs in my training log). 

Fair point.  I, for one, never doubted that.  Keep at it! 

Did some interesting work in Masters today. While doing a set of 3x300's my coach started to count my strokes without me knowing. She found that I started at about 19 strokes per 25 and towards the end I was hitting the wall around 21 and 22, and 23 on the final 25. Once she told me about it and had me count I was doing 18's on my 3x100 and final 500 as well with my longest being 19 strokes. I found today that counting strokes, not every lap, but just checking in can be of great benefit. I was more focused on keeping my catch and pull as long as I could and became more efficient with each stroke.

This can be beneficial in OWS as well with strokes counted between buoys and seeing how well you are swimming. Of course for that to work all buoys need to be equal distance apart.

Regarding volume... the plan I'm using peaks at 12 hours/week.  I've tweaked the plan to fit my life by adding 2 days to each 'week' (now working in 9 day cycles instead of 7 days). The plan bases swim and run on distance, bike on time. I've added a bit of time to the longest rides because I am slower than 'average'  so my hours will probably be a bit more than 12 on the peak weeks.

I think training by time works well for most people but coming from a running background and being much slower than average I prefer to train for distance (which I know is against what most of BT subscribes to but it is what works for me).

I swim mostly longer sets.  Usually one of my weekely swims in a 3000-ish yard straight swim and another is in the 4 x 800 range.  My other two are usually shorter strength work and a 1500 yard recvoery swim.