I realize Normann is going with something more structured now, but to some extent, I love his previous approach:
NS: … The past 10 years i never used a bike computer, i never used a heart rate monitor, I did no bike ergo tests to get data for training…I looked out of the window every morning and decided what to train or not…
While I understand that this is perhaps not the most effective way to train at the level of a World Champion, perhaps some age groupers who more or less already know what they are doing, might find this a motivating way to approach sport since we don’t earn our livings doing it :-).
I remember his other quote from his winning speech in 2006 in response to “what was your nutrition plan?”…he responded to the effect, “Breakfast, lunch and dinner at LavaJava, race day Gatorade Endurance Formula and Powergel 3x sodium”.
I think since then he’s said he is older and his body does not react as well to such haphazard nutritional plan, but it is nice to see that a guy just heading out and enjoying himself and just going with the flow on the nutrition front with on course stuff has had so much success.
It will be real interesting to see how he fares with CTS. Normann is incredibly strong who has had his misfortune at the big dance and last year missing Frankfurt. CTS may be just what he needs to set a controlled training plan so that nutrition does not become such an issue.
I am calling BS on that quote. I remember at least 3 or 4 years ago when he was training with the T-Mobile team and he talked about them putting him on a stationary bike that had an SRM on it. Something along the lines of, if he could hold a certain wattage for a certain period of time he got to keep the SRM. He talked about wattage like he knew what he was talking about and also mentioned successfully completing the test and being excited about the SRM.
So maybe his training is not entirely structured, but I don’t buy the whole wak up and look out the window, no bike computer, etc. stuff.
a training schedule is only the second best way to train. a trainer doesn’t know 2 weeks in advance how you gonna feel that day. an experienced athlete knows how much training load he can bear each day
normann surely knows a lot about training. he’s not gonna flip a coin to decide whether to go for long base training or 3hrs of LT intervals. not having a coach does not mean not having knowledge and experience. you’d wonder if you knew how man top cyclists train without a coach.
what he does and what he’s saying he does are probably two totally different things. he knows other pros read ST. when it comes to training, especially pros are hardly honest. i remember a french top rider (was it david moncoutié?) stating he never rides longer than 3 hrs… yeah … Or Roberto Laiseka, who claimed he never trains when it’s raining because he doesn’t like indoor training - the problem is that in the basque country it’s not unlikely to rain 3 days in a row…
Agreed…he likely already had in his head when he needed to do long rides, intervals, LT stuff, and the mix of sports. All he is probably referring to is heading out to run today cause it is pissing rain and then riding long tomorrow cause it is sunny and then cause he missed his track workout on account of the long ride day, waiting a few days and hitting the pool hard and spinning easy till his next track session etc etc etc. Like most, he knows what mix was needed, he perhaps let the conditions decide how he would mix it up…and I guess that approach iis what I am saying that some guys might benefit from from an overall motivation perspective.
ST: Many triathlon fans see you as a man’s man, perhaps a little macho. How is it being coached by a woman? NS: Why should a man be coached by a man? I like it being coached by a good-looking, well-educated women.
Gotta love not only putting her physical appearance in there, but mentioning it before her competence level.
I know a guy who has that approach - “I just go out and ride” he likes to say.
After hearing about his injuries and illnesses over the past decade I’ve come to realize that he does have a training plan - I ride until illness or injury forces me to rest.
Since his downtime has been greater than the rest of my training buddies over the period, I question whether his simple plan is allowing him to have more fun than the rest of us who think more about our training.
He races a lot and talks about how he can’t understand how he does great one week and just doesn’t have it the next week. Hmm…wonder why?
