Subject: Intensity in IM training -- when and how hard? Hi everyone, I am just about at my wit's end trying to figure out how to build intensity into my IM plan. I know there are lots of individual differences, but it seems like there are serious coaches advising all sorts of things: Friel and Byrn in Going Long emphasize muscular endurance (zone 3), Fink in BIF calls for only zone 4 and says zone 3 produces too much fatigue with not enough benefits, and Dave Scott and at least one peer reviewed study say above-LT/FT is where you get the real gains, but of course injury potential there is pretty scary, especially combined with high volume, and it's so un-race-specific. What do we really know about intensity in IM training? I'm also wondering about when to schedule intensity (which training blocks) and balancing intensity vs. volume. I plan to increase volume until 7 weeks out, then a 4 week build period with less volume and more intensity, but I'm not totally sold on that approach. This is my second IM season; my last one I did basically BIF with no intensity except hills, so I was building volume until 3 weeks out, and that worked quite well. Of course now I'm trying to push the speed where in my first I was mostly just happy to get through it. |