While out on my long ride this morning, I had time to think about yesterday’s long thread on AT vs. LT vs. AeT, etc. I thought I would take one more crack at creating some clarity. Think about this statement:
“Hey! A minute ago you said that was the cat. Now you’re saying it’s el gato. What the hell is this? You don’t know what you’re talking about! I’m confused!!!”
It’s all a matter of language. We try to translate one language into another, with which we are more familiar, and we get all screwed up.
If you have been spending your whole life in PhysioLand, and suddenly find yourself in GordoWorld, the language will get confusing. You’ll be trying to translate GordoSpeak into PhysioSpeak. Every day on the Gordo forum, well-meaning travelers post messages asking Gordo to translate “AeT” and “mod-hard” and “steady” into the PhysioSpeak terms “LT” and “OBLA” and “VO2max”.
To his credit, Gordo resists such translations and exhorts visitors to GordoWorld to learn the local language first, and then come back with more specific questions.
Similarly, visitors to MarkAllenLand will need to learn about the local language and its use of heart rate calculations, and the “fat-burning zone” and the “carbo-burning zone”. Denizens of GordoWorld that visit MarkAllenLand will be confused and puzzled and even begin to say the Mark doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Eventually, our seeker of truth will find their way over to TerraCoggan, where the inhabitants speak of things like “normalized power” and “L1 through L6” workouts. They’ll hear about Intensity Factors, and Training Stress Scores and Variability Indices. If our seeker has arrived in TerraCoggan after a long stay in MarkAllenLand, nothing will make sense. In an attempt to make sense of it all, the visitor will try translating all of the LinguaCoggan into MarkAllenVoice. It might translate, it might not.
Readers of Daniels know what “my VDOT is 51” means. I can’t begin to translate that into PhysioSpeak, but it makes perfect and instinctive sense to me.
We can trek around the globe visiting all of these training worlds (Strauss, McCormack, MultiSports, CTS, etc.), and we will find that the great spirits of endurance sport did, in fact, bring down the Tower of Babel by forcing all these various languages upon us.
The solution is to learn the language of the place where you find yourself. Read all of these coaches’ stuff. What you will find is a wide variety of terminology, but a rather consistent message about actual workouts. If one of these methods suits you and makes you feel like it would work, then learn that particular language. Do not attempt translations!!! If you’re going to follow Gordo’s advice, learn GordoSpeak and stick with it. Likewise on down the line. If you are never able to accurately translate any of these languages into the specialized language of the physiology lab – so be it. Even our most prominent visitor from PhysioLand (Coggan) says the same thing. On a couple of occasions, I have posted questions asking if was getting a translation correct. Coggan generally responds along the lines of, “What do you care where your LT is? Just do the workouts as prescribed.”
That advice is as good as it gets, my friends. Don’t worry about the translating. Worry about the language of the training paradigm you have chosen.
And, for the Lords of these various training lands, I suggest sticking to your own language. It is excruciating to read an article by the Lord of a given land that attempts to translate their own language into, say, PhysioSpeak, and completely botching the translation.
“Hey! A minute ago you said that was the cat. Now you’re saying it’s el gato. What the hell is this? You don’t know what you’re talking about! I’m confused!!!”
It’s all a matter of language. We try to translate one language into another, with which we are more familiar, and we get all screwed up.
If you have been spending your whole life in PhysioLand, and suddenly find yourself in GordoWorld, the language will get confusing. You’ll be trying to translate GordoSpeak into PhysioSpeak. Every day on the Gordo forum, well-meaning travelers post messages asking Gordo to translate “AeT” and “mod-hard” and “steady” into the PhysioSpeak terms “LT” and “OBLA” and “VO2max”.
To his credit, Gordo resists such translations and exhorts visitors to GordoWorld to learn the local language first, and then come back with more specific questions.
Similarly, visitors to MarkAllenLand will need to learn about the local language and its use of heart rate calculations, and the “fat-burning zone” and the “carbo-burning zone”. Denizens of GordoWorld that visit MarkAllenLand will be confused and puzzled and even begin to say the Mark doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Eventually, our seeker of truth will find their way over to TerraCoggan, where the inhabitants speak of things like “normalized power” and “L1 through L6” workouts. They’ll hear about Intensity Factors, and Training Stress Scores and Variability Indices. If our seeker has arrived in TerraCoggan after a long stay in MarkAllenLand, nothing will make sense. In an attempt to make sense of it all, the visitor will try translating all of the LinguaCoggan into MarkAllenVoice. It might translate, it might not.
Readers of Daniels know what “my VDOT is 51” means. I can’t begin to translate that into PhysioSpeak, but it makes perfect and instinctive sense to me.
We can trek around the globe visiting all of these training worlds (Strauss, McCormack, MultiSports, CTS, etc.), and we will find that the great spirits of endurance sport did, in fact, bring down the Tower of Babel by forcing all these various languages upon us.
The solution is to learn the language of the place where you find yourself. Read all of these coaches’ stuff. What you will find is a wide variety of terminology, but a rather consistent message about actual workouts. If one of these methods suits you and makes you feel like it would work, then learn that particular language. Do not attempt translations!!! If you’re going to follow Gordo’s advice, learn GordoSpeak and stick with it. Likewise on down the line. If you are never able to accurately translate any of these languages into the specialized language of the physiology lab – so be it. Even our most prominent visitor from PhysioLand (Coggan) says the same thing. On a couple of occasions, I have posted questions asking if was getting a translation correct. Coggan generally responds along the lines of, “What do you care where your LT is? Just do the workouts as prescribed.”
That advice is as good as it gets, my friends. Don’t worry about the translating. Worry about the language of the training paradigm you have chosen.
And, for the Lords of these various training lands, I suggest sticking to your own language. It is excruciating to read an article by the Lord of a given land that attempts to translate their own language into, say, PhysioSpeak, and completely botching the translation.