Training to race or racing to train?

This is a subject which I have covered many times in newsletter articles. I have to revisit it about every six months. Usually when we get a few new squad members who “just don’t get it”.

Endurance training is best done at a pace which stimulates the development of the athlete’s “fat burning system”. This pace is fairly easy. Lots of hours at 50-70%HR. Training at this pace usually means that when the workout is over, the athlete can take the kids/dog for a walk. Mow the lawn or vacuum the carpets.

It should not leave you “flogged”. You shouldn’t be so wiped out by the workout that you have to flop onto your bed. If an endurance workout leaves you feeling totally wasted.

You’re either, doing it too hard, not refuelling well enough after previous workouts or you may be dehydrated.

Going too hard — If the object is to build the biggest endurance base, the answer is to do as much endurance training as you can possible recover from. If you do endurance training at the right pace, it’s easy, it doesn’t wear you out and you can get more of it done. There has to be a good reason why we see groups of A grade cyclists and pro cyclists spinning along, talking to each other at high cadence, late in the mornings. They’ve been out for three, maybe four hours, spinning away, practicing perfect technique.

If those very good cyclists spend so many hours riding easy, why do we see beginner cyclists and mediocre triathletes racing each other and anyone who dares show up on the road in front of them?

Those very good cyclists we see doing their endurance work at such an easy pace, do go hard sometimes. They go very hard, but during an endurance session.

The biggest mistake I’ve seen self trained age group triathletes make, is to do the endurance training too hard and be too wrecked to put any effort into their “hard stuff”. As a result they never extend their endurance base as far as they could because they get too tired and become “run down” before they reach their goal. And they’re unable to put the effort into A/T, VO2 max, or lactic tolerance workouts because they’re never fresh enough. As a result they improve, up to a point where their progress grinds to a halt.

It is a fact, that you will improve no matter what you do, as long as you’re out there doing it.  But this type of approach is only good for a year or so. After that, you just keep trying, like a fly trying to get through a closed window, and you go nowhere.  

Ongoing improvement over several years is what is going to take an athlete to his/her potential. A triathlete will never reach his/her potential in one or two seasons. So a long term plan must involve blocks of pure endurance building. After all the shortest triathlon anyone will ever do is still an endurance event. They call short triathlons “sprints” yet the fastest people take more than 30min to complete it.

A sprint in any other sport takes less than 30seconds. In any other sport, an event which takes 30min is an endurance event and treated as such in training.

As triathletes, we have to train for long term development, never lose sight of the fact we are endurance athletes and to  train in a way which will have performance improving season after season.