Overtraining vs no-training and the law of diminishing returns

Triathlon Forum
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I wanted to share my experience with you simply because I find it interesting. I think that there are too many uncontrolled variables to say for sure what the cause is(sorry, I’m taking a quantitative analysis course right now), but it is interesting to ponder.

One race I do every year is the Ashland Int’l Tri. It is a 1/26/6, but the run is about .5 mile long. Last year I did it in 2:44:xx, and that was when I was training 15+ hours a week gearing up for IMLP. I had a lousy swim, an okay bike, and a pretty good run. This year, I am doing about 5 hours per week(and weigh about 5-10 pounds more), most of which is in the pool, with some running and riding(no more than 2-3 hours total), and I finished the race in 2:48:xx. I PR’d the swim(gotta get a sleeveless wetsuit), went about 3 minutes slower on the bike(due largely to headwinds and traffic on the course), and ran about 1:30 slower, but was intentionally taking it easy.

I also haven’t had as much post-race soreness as I did last year.

So now I am pondering the many and varied reasons why my difference in performance is so small given my drastic change in lifestyle since last year. Is it just that I’m a mediocre triathlete, and my best/worst is a small margin? Or can it be that all that volume is of limited value?

Anyway, I thought some folks might find this interesting.

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It is possible to maintain your fitness on quite a bit less training time per week than it takes to build it up. Also, shorter but more intense workouts can actually increase your speed over shorter race distances.

More likely though is that you did not go into this race as tired as you did last year.

I have had the very good fortune of being the beneficiary of years of profesional swim coaching. We worked very hard but also twice a year we tapered for championship meets. One thing I am convinced of after observing the amatuer triathlon world is that while triathletes understand the benefits of hard work, very few really get the whole concept of how important rest is to peak performance and even fewer understand how to plan and execute a really good taper after of a long period of hard work.