Any/many folks here do 80/20 training[/b] for triathlon, either specifically the 80/20 book/plans by Warden and Fitzgerald, or the 80/20 Seiler training philosophy self coached or with a coach? Have you done the 80/20 training through an entire race season? Do you have experience with other training philosophies to compare it too?
2 years ago I did a TrainerRoad based plan (auto generated by their plan builder) for Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga and it went well. Definitely a lot of hard training. I wasn't thinking about training limits so some of what I did was added on by me on top of the TR Plan. Last year was a disrupted season for so many of us, and as I began to reformulate a plan for 2021 in the late summer of 2020 I picked the 80/20 book off my shelf, revisited the key points, and began using their Maintenance Plan (they were giving it away for free on TrainingPeaks - and still are here[/url]) and it felt really good.
In earlier years when I was training and racing 9 marathons, my favorite days were my "recovery run" days. I had a workout to do, but the task at hand was to do "easy", and only easy, having worked out hard for a day or two before. I loved being able to run easy knowing I had earned it by trained hard in recent days, and that I would once again be training hard the next day.
Then when I moved to triathlon, I spoke with one athlete who was very successful, and Kona qualifier multiple times, and I asked him, "when are the easy days?" His response was a bit crushing. He said "there aren't any." That was back in 2014 and for a few years I just trained moderate and hard every day, rotating through swim, bike and run, for Ironman 70.3 Boulder in 2015 and Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga in 2019, and a couple of Olympic tris.
80/20 brings me back to that joy of "earned easy days." And having metrics to monitor and avoid overtraining seems crucial in triathlon because I have found my body can handle moderate and hard efforts rotated through swim, bike and run, but I'm convinced that's not the optimal approach to avoid injury and be the fastest on race day.
I reached out to few pros on Instagram asking if they did at least 80% of their training volume at easy intensity. Every single one that replied basically replied "at least 80%" which is pretty strong validation for this approach at the pro level, and while I was a bit skeptical at first that the 80/20 distribution would apply both to a 20+ hr a week elite triathlete and a 9+ hr a week age grouper, but the science indicates it does, and my experience seems to confirm it. I am now 52 yrs old and I think being extra careful of my intensity distribution seems more critical than ever before.
I'd love to hear anyone else's experiences with an 80/20 approach to tri training.
2 years ago I did a TrainerRoad based plan (auto generated by their plan builder) for Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga and it went well. Definitely a lot of hard training. I wasn't thinking about training limits so some of what I did was added on by me on top of the TR Plan. Last year was a disrupted season for so many of us, and as I began to reformulate a plan for 2021 in the late summer of 2020 I picked the 80/20 book off my shelf, revisited the key points, and began using their Maintenance Plan (they were giving it away for free on TrainingPeaks - and still are here[/url]) and it felt really good.
In earlier years when I was training and racing 9 marathons, my favorite days were my "recovery run" days. I had a workout to do, but the task at hand was to do "easy", and only easy, having worked out hard for a day or two before. I loved being able to run easy knowing I had earned it by trained hard in recent days, and that I would once again be training hard the next day.
Then when I moved to triathlon, I spoke with one athlete who was very successful, and Kona qualifier multiple times, and I asked him, "when are the easy days?" His response was a bit crushing. He said "there aren't any." That was back in 2014 and for a few years I just trained moderate and hard every day, rotating through swim, bike and run, for Ironman 70.3 Boulder in 2015 and Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga in 2019, and a couple of Olympic tris.
80/20 brings me back to that joy of "earned easy days." And having metrics to monitor and avoid overtraining seems crucial in triathlon because I have found my body can handle moderate and hard efforts rotated through swim, bike and run, but I'm convinced that's not the optimal approach to avoid injury and be the fastest on race day.
I reached out to few pros on Instagram asking if they did at least 80% of their training volume at easy intensity. Every single one that replied basically replied "at least 80%" which is pretty strong validation for this approach at the pro level, and while I was a bit skeptical at first that the 80/20 distribution would apply both to a 20+ hr a week elite triathlete and a 9+ hr a week age grouper, but the science indicates it does, and my experience seems to confirm it. I am now 52 yrs old and I think being extra careful of my intensity distribution seems more critical than ever before.
I'd love to hear anyone else's experiences with an 80/20 approach to tri training.