Appo probably just wanted a couple weeks off after a tough race plus holidays with a little one, and they’re making a joke about it. Like the Justin Riele dead earlier in the year. You can’t take the banter too seriously with TTH, which is part of what makes the current format really good!
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Yeah, I was interested the first week they talked about it. But the 2nd week, understood they’re just trying to create content in this time of year when they don’t have much to talk about.
If there was real beef, they wouldn’t talk about it that way.
Greg’s converted me as a fan. Telling it like it is (3h marathon is slow when you realise it’s 50% more than world record) and thrashing wannabes. He probably grew tired of people telling him he sucked as a pro when he could kick any AG’s butt building themselves up on their social networks with half decent amateur results.
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The discussion on how swim training should be structured was the most interesting part of this podcast to me.
There is often a discussion around the usefulness of the 4x1000 set and the banter around that but this past episode introduced the idea of two other kinds of sets at the 18:10 point. The question for Greg was:
“Aside from drills and technique work…what would be your #1 swim session to help triathletes…this can be different for professionals and amateurs…that would enable them to maximize their swim performance in a triathlon?”
Greg’s Answer (which I’ll paraphrase):
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“My favorite set ever is 10x400s long course with 20 or 30s rest, go as hard as you can”. He then clarifies this is more a workout for professionals or elite swimmer and then suggests workout #2 below bc this one would lead to form breakdown in most AGers.
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Quick 100s on quick rest. He defines quick rest then as 2-4s (NOT 10-15s) for 100s and suggests 10x100 at a pace that is insanely hard for you where you are just making the “on interval”. He says this mimics straight swimming with a quick break that resets the stroke. Later in the answer he suggests building this workout from 10x100 to 20x100 for 70.3 training and even possibly 30 or 40 for Ironman.
Apo then challenges Greg to simplify if this pace should be race pace or faster to which Greg says it should be harder and then defines it as threshold/threshold+ ending in almost VO2 by the final few intervals.
Finally he brings up the idea that triathletes are really good at getting and staying in an uncomfortable space for a while on the bike and run but in the pool they struggle to do the same.
Thoughts on the workout as prescribed? Sounds realllly hard to me but maybe thats bc of what he says at the end. I am an adult onset swimmer.
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I thought that was a good take. I was hugely disappointed @JackKelly-TTH didn’t name the 5 pro’s whose training he thinks sucks. Jack, blink twice if Lionel is in the room with you…
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Jack’s I think really making an effort to not end up on pro’s shit list after some of his comments have done so in the past (Imogen, Laura Phillip, etc.).
Tbh he might very well have said someone like Cam Wurf because as Strava-impressive as some of his epic training days are, the value and specificity to racing, and timing a week before the world champs is highly questionable.
do you think the idea of having 2-3s rest vs 10-15 matters all that much?
100%. People take way too long rest intervals. Swimming on a send off should get challenging
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Absolutely, but then again they are two different sets. For most they will not be able to reset their form as he suggests on a touch and go though, that’s where the 10-15 rest comes in. It takes a real swimmer to be able to get recovery on just touching and go, so I would call that more of a pro set..
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I don’t swim anymore, but back in 2019 when I was swimming my best (33-34 min for the 1.9Km), there is absolutely no way I would be able to do 20x100 on 2-3 rest at threshold pace LCM. I don’t think I could even do it in scy. And I know 33-34 is nothing to brag about, but 2-3 seconds to “reset” would have been nothing, might as well just do 2000 @ threshold.
Maybe that set is for the pointy end of the AGers, but not for your average person.
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I think it all depends on the situation and the actual pace you’re trying to hold. What would you consider your threshold pace? I think it’s doable, but depends if you have draft or not, wearing speedos? clean shaven? trisuit? etc.
I think deep down we all know what we need, but I have to say, I know the 400s are better for me, but boy that’s hard to keep up the pace when training with proper swimmers…
Oh and I swim ~30-31 min in a 70.3 OW sea swim. Wetsuit and lack of tumbleturning helps 
Much as I’m a huge fan of the show, the training advice generally has me shaking my head more times than not.
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thats interesting. I thought that was a really good pod .
For the right level of athlete the training advice was also pretty good ,and there is a lot, that with a bit of tweaking will work for other levels.
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I agree. It felt like a dumpster fire and i had to turn it off. This is the first episode in awhile i had to stop as they have been excellent to this point.
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Road to Oceanside anyone?
Ari scooping TTH and saying that Greg is dropping his pro license?
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Have to agree as well, loved the training talk. I wonder what to criticize about the training tips that were mentioned tbh
Well, I guess I’m sort of obliged to give an example here. At the risk of my post getting deleted for being “very stupid”: Jack’s rule that every athlete of his has to plan a couple of races in the first quarter of the season - in order to stay motivated to train through the winter - was one that sounded particularly dogmatic and out of touch.
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Who are the athletes Jack coaches? Jocelyn, Ari, Greg are the only ones I know. How about Jimmy Whelan? I recall hearing before that Jack will coach him in his transition from cycling to triathlon.
Is he even a triathlete?
This isn’t about whether any athlete is guilty or innocent it’s about pattern and professionalism. If pressuring Taylor Knibb on air to reveal information she clearly didn’t want to share is acceptable, why should anyone be surprised when the same boundaries appear to be pushed elsewhere?
ok dogmatic yes , but its defo good to do some races such as a 5 k ,10 k ,half marathon , swim galas ,x country , cycle cross, duathlon etc etc.
but again for an aspiring elite development athelte there was a lot of food for tought, and for a weekend warrior that swims like 100 m in 2 min there was still enough good stuff to make it worthwhile for most ( my 2 cents)
for a start success does not come in 6 month and not even 2 years is something a lot of agers totally forget so when vicky says it took her 10 years thats good stuff.
and yes I agree to tell a 8 min 400m guy to take like 2 sec rests between efforts is challenging to say the least lol
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