Schnellinger wrote:
I do think it is a good way to work out, but not necessarily the best for triathletes, and in particular LC triathletes (only my opinion). I don't think I5 workouts combined with a lot of I1 work is the best way to go, as 1) you need to be pretty fresh in order to get quality into your I5 sessions and 2) the training load att high intensity will be way less than what you can achieve with a lot of workouts in I3. I believe that the muscular adaptations you get from I3 work is what is most important for triathletes as all disciplines are aerobic events, where increasing the lactate threshold is what will benefit you the most. This is in accordance with Arild Tveiten`s philosophy (if I understand him correctly) and the way Olympiatoppen is heading. The idea is to keep the easy days easy (below 1.0mmol) and the hard days at the right intensity, which means at or below lactic threshold.
Yeah, so that is very different from subscribers to Seiler's observations, which basically attempt to eliminate middle intensities (in terms of HR zones, that appears to be from high zone 2 to low zone 4). One of the misconceptions of Seiler's observations and of his interpretations is that endurance athletes should mitigate or eliminate the high zone 4 and zone 5 work. In fact, he specifically states of 5,000 meter runners "These results provide experimental evidence supporting the value of a relatively large percentage of low-intensity training....provided that the contribution of high-intensity training remains sufficient".
Personally, I agree with you and think that middle intensities are pretty important in order to challenge acidosis and metabolite clearance mechanisms, which is the primary factor limiting the percent of VO2 max that an athlete can maintain. Seiler's contention is that low and middle intensities provide similar training acclimations but that middle intensities are nearly as difficult to recover from as high intensities. I've not seen literature that supports his former contention.
And sorry to the OP, this has definitely become a total hijack of your post (albeit a potentially informative one). So to answer your question from my $0.02 perspective, if you are so motivated and have the time, any extra pedal strokes should improve fitness as long as they don't compromise your key sessions.
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