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This in my opinion would be the best thing you could do.

I got the opportunity to train properly this year for the first time ever, so started in March 2 weeks after IM NZ with a 20 week aerobic base plan. I used a heart rate monitor and worked out my zones for running and cycling. I then stuck religiously to the plan, which was harder than you would think, some days you just want to blast out the door and see how fast you could go. I then did 11 weeks of speed work prior to IM WA. In short; time at IMNZ 12:15, time at WA 10:03. I was fortunate to do a bit of simple testing with one of our sport physiologists. We looked at aerobic coupling at the 18 week stage. Bascially if your aerobic fitness is at its peak your HR should closely follow your power output. Thus as you start to lose glycogen and tire and your power output falls, your HR will fall in a direct manner. If you are unfit your HR can stay elevated or increase if you are badly out of shape. I think Brendon Downey has some stuff on this subject on this website. Mine stayed easily within 5% the whole way thru so I was felt the training plan had done the trick. A similar effect occured in IM WA.

Additionally the strength and endurance built up gradually protects you from injury, which I guess is as important as anything

Go for 16 weeks of solid aerobic work, up the intensity a couple of months out and see how you go.

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I don't think you're going to find many people around who will argue against base being important. Jacmun and BBB are right that you need it and that it will improve your times, but I do disagree with one thing. I think time spent in Z1 is wasted time from an aerobic point of view. Of course, sometimes you need recovery days to work all the crap out of your legs, which is where Z1 riding and running comes into play. My base rides are completely aerobic the whole time, but they're still not easy. I'll sit in Z2/Z3 for 3 or 4 hours at a time (mostly Z3). Those are the rides that are going to make you stronger.

If someone is just starting out, they'll probably see tons of improvement from Z1/Z2 workouts, but if you already have several years under your belt (sounds like you do from your post), you'll get a lot more benefit from working out in Z3 IMO.

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What do you think about doing Z1/Z2 work for 16-20 weeks and yet run a 80-90% effort 5K once every 6 weeks ? Will that interfere greatly with the base one is trying to build?

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Lots of different schools of thought on this one. Personally, I don't find that doing Z1 only stuff works for me (and yes, I tried it one year).

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Why do you think the adaptations will be better in zone 3 as apposed to zone 1 or 2?

Novices will easily venture into zone 3 due to their lack of endurance. Spending time in zone 1 and 2 will develop that endurance (mitochondrial develop and capillarisation).

The biggest issue I have with people spending time in zone 3 is that it will never give you an opportunity to be able to double the amount of time you can spend training in zone 1 or 2. Therefore the people that are training in zone 1 and 2 will have the opportunity to train twice as much. Don't you think the long terms adaptations to this will be better then spending 1/2 the time training in zone 3?

I actually believe your recovery costs are too high in zone 3. As triathletes we are trying to juggle 3 disciplines into one week. Spending too much time in zone 3 will only take away from the opportunities that could be spent enhancing your aerobic developments in all 3 disciplines. By spending time more time in zone 1 and 2 your reducing your recovery times. Therefore, doing things like 2 sessions per day, double runs days, PM to AM runs, brick sessions become much more benefical and realistic to the demands of a triathlon.

Intensity has a habit of killing the minimal volume required to achieve the biggest gains. This is why people aren't achieving anywhere near their true potential because they think intensity can substitute volume. It just doesn't work like that.

If your serious about improving your aerobic capacity then you probably need to reduce the intensity and start training more. Doing 3 sessions PW for each discipline is a great way to introduce yourself to triathlons, but that is as far as it goes. It's an introduction to triahtlons. If your serious about improving your results then you need to start thinking about doing 4-5 sessions PW in each discipline. That's triahtlon training. There is no avoiding this. Even if your were to look at doing 4-5 sessions PW in each discipline it will still fall well short of a typical recovery week for a swimmer, cyclist or runner.

We barely do the minimal training at the best of times. Introduce intensity into the equation and then it just becomes that much mor complicated

Paul

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I agree with you that novice triathletes shouldn't be doing 4 hours at Z3 their fisrt season, but for someone who is trying to get fast, training in Z1 most likely won't yield the same results. The Z3 work puts a larger strain on your body, which is the point. After recovering, you're able to come back stronger than before. This effect isn't as pronounced with Z1 training. Obviously there needs to be some discretion....you don't send a high school freshman linebacker into the weight room to do 300 lb bench presses....he'll rip out a shoulder or tear a pec or something, but I guarantee you that college and pro football players are doing that. The cycling team here at my school is a huge proponent of Z1/2 training (lots of Z1). I see tons of Cat 4/5 riders out there doing it. I don't see very many 1/2 riders, though.

As far as recovery goes, I don't see the extended recovery times until there's significant Z4/5 work being done. A couple weeks ago I did 5.5 hours on Saturday (mostly Z2 w/ maybe 1.5 hours at Z3) then 3 hours on Sunday at Z3. I took Monday off then did 3 hours at Z3 again on Tuesday. As long as you take care of your nutrition during the workout and are careful with the recovery (my post-workout routine takes nearly an hour), recovering from a lond Z3 ride doesn't take very long, provided that you've worked up to it properly. Since Z3 is still aerobic, the mitochondrial development is still there. I completely disagree that base training should be easy (training is never easy). It should be aerobic. I'm never going to throw up at the end of a base workout from oxygen debt like I might later in the season, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to work hard in January and February.

I agree with you that intesity kills the volume in a week, but Z3 really isn't that intense. I can get in 300 miles a week on the bike with lots of Z3 stuff, and still have time to do 35 miles running at Z3. I've been lazy lately with swimming, but if I had more time I'd be getting in probably 12,000 yeards (nowhere near the 60,000 I used to do, but still plenty of Z3/4 work...I don't get much benefit from base training in the pool).