Recall from Chapter Two that fitness is the ability to do work, and we create and retain that ability by…doing more work. Here’s a tale of two athletes to illustrate our point: Waiting Walt and Get Faster Today Tom.
Waiting Walt
Walt begins October with a Functional Threshold Power (FTP) of 220 watts and 10k pace of 8:00/mile. He throws a leg over his bike or laces up his shoes, does his training at the prescribed intensities he’s read about in the latest tri-mag. It’s cold outside, it’s dark outside and so, while his frequency may be the same as In Season, his intensity continues to be low (per tri-mag) and his volume is low (see cold and dark). He rides and runs precisely on Zone 1, maybe Zone 2, confident he is building his “engine†and will get faster when the time is right. But let’s look at the training math: frequency is held constant while volume and intensity both decrease = Walt **does less work **= his body adapts by becoming less fit. If you cheese in the gym, you get weaker. You know this. Why should endurance training be any different?
Get Faster Today Tom
Tom’s game is much simpler. His Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is also 220w and 10k pace is 8:00. He is completely focused on watts/pace/speed at FTP or LTHR. On the bike, he might set himself of goal of X minutes per week at his FTP, increasing the watts he dials in on those sessions as he sees his FTP increasing. He does similarly on the run, using his 10k pace to calculate is other training paces, but is much more cautious than on the bike. He knows that running intensity is more risky than cycling intensity. He still does it, he’s just careful.
At the end of 8-10wks our two heroes meet for some field testing and then have a beer afterwards to discuss their training and where to go from here. Walt’s FTP is 225w, maybe 230w, and 10k pace is 7:45-50. Tom, on the other hand, has lifted his FT to 235-240w and his 10k pace is closer to 7:30. However, as Walt and Tom enter the next phase of their training **Tom has a 10-15w and 15-20″ head start on Walt. **That’s a lot of catchup, folks. In our experience, even if Walt gets on board the Tom Train, Tom will continue to increase this delta even more because he “gets it.†He has learned that work works, he’s not afraid to work, and he has a significantly different perspective than Tom on what work truly is. Walt’s experience, when riding with Tom (mostly likely on his wheel) will be WTF!!!
At this point in time, and we’ll discuss this more below, both Tom and Walt now realize that they need to start putting in the volume to get ready for the race. Walt: Is now trying to build “fast†at the same time he is trying to build “far.†He cannot manage the two simultaneously and spends his lunches sleeping under his desk (we’ve been there). Tom: He has built “fast.†He has more flexibility to separate his fast training from his far training. If he wants, he can consolidate his fast, focus on his far, and introduce bits of fast training into or around his far as he assesses his fitness and recovery from day-to-day, week-to-week, etc.
Full article here on the ENBlog
Sorry, it’s got a table that wouldn’t paste over here very cleanly.