Due to family and work concerns, I can train about 10 hours a week. There’s a lot of literature out there that says this and that about keeping your heart rate low during the early part of the season, but it seems that when I use those ten hours in the suggested base heart rate zones I lose fitness and have to regain it later. So I was thinking about just continuing to do sweet spot and anaerobic work during the week and long aerobic stuff on the weekends while other people are in their “base period”. Not really sure if this would work.
Appreciate any thoughts, esp from those who understand a physiological perspective.
So I was thinking about just continuing to do sweet spot and anaerobic work during the week and long aerobic stuff on the weekends while other people are in their “base period”.
If you’re a triathlete, why are you doing any anaerobic work?
Depending on where you are in your triathlon career. I believe it is more important the first few years, and should not be a huge emphasis after that. I’ve developed my program this year based around intensity and threshold work, with much less “base”.
The start of the season is generally lower volume, but building, with a good dose of higher intensity work on shorter intervals with adequate rest (1:1 or greater). The first few months are usually a steady progression of adding volume slowly to a peak average (and then holding for the remainder of the block). As the volume builds, you modulate the intervals so that they steadily become longer (at the same wattage, with the same rest) or you add more of them. This generally keeps the % volume of intensity per week/month/whatever measure you use/ the same. I find it to be important to work all ranges of the energy system spectrum for complete development. This means that you need to include intervals from perhaps 90% of threshold up to 130%. This can generally turn into a number of workouts per week. Due to being in school and working, I kept it to two workouts on the bike per week and one on the run (along with a long run of specific pacing). One workout focused on intervals of 2:30 or less, with recovery greater than 1:1, to focus on the left side of the power curve. The other was generally longer intervals (5 minutes progressing to 15), with 2:1 rest or less (as the intensity was generally 95-108% of threshold), to focus on the right side of the power curve.
Running can be developed in a similar way. Perhaps the most important thing to look into is your “long run”. Most athletes squander this run and use it as a sight-seeing outing. There is not really any reason to run this run at any pace slower than marathon pace. Athletes who complain that their long run takes too much time to recover from should really investigate running it at a faster pace. This is assuming you do you long run based on miles (the race is X miles, no matter how slow/fast you run). There is so much more mechanical fatigue from running slow on purpose it almost adds to the recovery time.
It is important that you do not begin this progression too early as you may have too much time before your big race and you may peak early. Planning ahead is a must!
So I was thinking about just continuing to do sweet spot and anaerobic work during the week and long aerobic stuff on the weekends while other people are in their “base period”.
If you’re a triathlete, why are you doing any anaerobic work?
You assume that anaerobic work has no physiological benefits to triathlon?
Are we to assume you are looking at long course triathlon? Not a lot of base is necessary for short course racing, it involves a LOT more threshold and top end speed work that needs more recovery and requires fewer hours of actrual training to accomplish a good training season.
If we are talking long course, up to IM distance, then a strong aerobic base is extremely helpful. I disagree with people who advocate heavily weighted interval programs for the athlete who is NOT already very fit and in the prime of their fitness (age 20-30 males). Masters athletes in particular will require more recovery, especially if they have been athletic for dozens of years and have ravaged their bodies somewhat. You body needs some time to get those type II muscles to start thinking like Type I fibers to add to your ability to go longer day in and day out.
Areobic base it not just built by running and biking forever on weekends. Its built on hiking trails with your kids (carrying them adds a strength workout), XC skiing with your spouse to a picnic in the forest on a saturday afternoon and other family inclusive things that require steady state effort for long periods of time. Try walking around disneyland keeping up with a 5 year old all day! Cross training while incorporating your kids/spouse is an absolute necessity for young families, unless you secretly want a divorce.
So I was thinking about just continuing to do sweet spot and anaerobic work during the week and long aerobic stuff on the weekends while other people are in their “base period”.
If you’re a triathlete, why are you doing any anaerobic work?
You assume that anaerobic work has no physiological benefits to triathlon?
You assume that it does?
Please describe what anaerobic workouts you would recommend to improve triathlon performance.
So I was thinking about just continuing to do sweet spot and anaerobic work during the week and long aerobic stuff on the weekends while other people are in their “base period”.
If you’re a triathlete, why are you doing any anaerobic work?
You assume that anaerobic work has no physiological benefits to triathlon?
You assume that it does?
Please describe what anaerobic workouts you would recommend to improve triathlon performance.
Take your pick. Any at all. Its not simply the physiological changes in muscle enzyme concentrations, fibre recruitment etc. that improve performance, but other factors as well. Perhaps you should try it sometime.
How about some 10s uphill sprints with long recovery?
As mentioned, check out Endurance Nation if you are planning to race IM and 70.3.
If life only allows you to have 10 hours a week to train, you may as well make the best of it. EN is focused on getting the most return on investment for your training time (especially in the out season). This means raising you threshold power and pace by doing different types on interval work instead of sitting at Z1 or Z2 all winter long.
My n=1 experience has been very good with Endurance Nation and I have not done any “base” training in the last two years. I only started running and triathlons 3 years before joining EN so it isn’t like I had a huge base built up before that, but I did have something. Sure, doing 20+ hours a week of base building may benefit me, but the reality is my life (work, wife, child, etc) do not allow for it so I prefer to get the most out of the time I can put in.
10 hours a week of training is not too bad for an age group athlete. Most don’t do that every week of winter. I am pretty sure if you do 10 hours/week of general endurance training you could do well next year. And general endurance training is not an excuse for going slow only, but it definitely is not lots of anaerobic intervals! The first 10 seconds of a race are usually not very important so I would not spend too much energy in improving that section of a race.
How about some 10s uphill sprints with long recovery?
Perfect set! I do 5 of those 10 secs sprints a week. Together with recovery around 7.5 - 10 minutes. I do a few 25 meter sprints in the pool as well. With a little less rest. 5 more minutes spend on anaerobic work. The rest of my 10 hours/week I much rather spend in a more specific way.
Take your pick. Any at all. Its not simply the physiological changes in muscle enzyme concentrations, fibre recruitment etc. that improve performance, but other factors as well. Perhaps you should try it sometime.
How about some 10s uphill sprints with long recovery?
I did a decent amount of anaerobic work this year, but it was because I was road racing, not tri racing. My observation was that, while I had gains in anaerobic power, gains in FTP either slowed or reversed during level 6 blocks.
Maybe you’ve seen age group triathletes limited by anaerobic capacity. I have not.
How about some 10s uphill sprints with long recovery?
Perfect set! I do 5 of those 10 secs sprints a week. Together with recovery around 7.5 - 10 minutes. I do a few 25 meter sprints in the pool as well. With a little less rest. 5 more minutes spend on anaerobic work. The rest of my 10 hours/week I much rather spend in a more specific way.
Good. I never said it was meant to be the bulk of your week. I just said it must be addressed. You have to look at the athlete as a whole and you can’t simply brush off various forms of training because they are an “endurance” athlete.
Take your pick. Any at all. Its not simply the physiological changes in muscle enzyme concentrations, fibre recruitment etc. that improve performance, but other factors as well. Perhaps you should try it sometime.
How about some 10s uphill sprints with long recovery?
I did a decent amount of anaerobic work this year, but it was because I was road racing, not tri racing. My observation was that, while I had gains in anaerobic power, gains in FTP either slowed or reversed during level 6 blocks.
Maybe you’ve seen age group triathletes limited by anaerobic capacity. I have not.
Was your anaerobic training an adjunct-to, or instead-of, race specific threshold work? The timing of sessions matters as well. Intervals lengthen, wattage decreases, rest decreases systematically as the race gets closer. Its a bit different for road racing, but for the vast majority of traithletes it is about holding the maximum sustainable wattage that you can run to your potential off of.
Not too sure about the 5x5x5 … unless you meant just 5x5. I would suggest (take it for what its worth), that you make this workout something like 6-8 x 5 @ 110-115% FTP with 1:1 recovery or thereabouts. The 5x5x1 is going to be tough if you want to hit the correct wattage targets… you want to be into anaerobic capacity if you are only doing 1 minute intervals. This would require adequate recovery (Probably at least 3 minutes) to maintain that output, which would make this ride quite long.
funny you should ask…i am actually re-accessing. my weekly schedule…As I am trying to optimize both my run and bike workouts.
As of now:
M: EZ recovery ride 1h-1.5…I do long run monday a.m.
T: 2ish hour ride with the 5X5-6, or 3X10
W:
Th: 2-3 hour ride with 2X20
F :
S: long ride:
S: EZ 1-1.5 recovery.
The recovery ride monday gets scraped if I did one on sunday…and vice versa…OW swim day instead.
obviously the interval days can be shortened in length but i like to ride as much as I can i the summer and also like to get a really nice warm-up so that the first interval/s is not wasted.
In the winter I do the alternating 2day on the rest day from bike 2days etc…
…Its a work in progress but think it has being helping.