Pro/Elite training

Big congrats @Anna_K You provided one of the most interesting races I’ve come across!

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Another congratulations to @Anna_K! Once in a lifetime chance and you did it!

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Congratulations @Anna_K!

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Thanks guys! :wink:

(Answers… I don’t have definitive answers to anything training-wise… I’ve actually become a bit lazy myself in terms of reading scientific literature on training… Perhaps the most important resource are one’s own training diaries and I have read and re-read my own during my prep for the big day.)

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Glückwunsche aus Bayern, habe mir die letzten 50K live angeschaut. Was ein Rennen, selten so unterhalten worden.

But now the most important question, as you qualify clearly as elite, have you trained polarised, do you avoid "happy hard/no-Woman’s land/grey zone? :slight_smile:

The second most important question, do you train your endurance well below, below, at, around, above AeT/LT1? :slight_smile:

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Well if your performance isn’t appropriate for a ‘successful athletes’ podcast then nobody’s performance is. One of the most memorable Olympic victories since the Miracle on Ice.

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@Anna_K we would appreciate hearing your thoughts!

You are one of my true Olympic heroes!!! I’m going to search YouTube again and hope the interview is online

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Very interesting video it is always nice to have a look at what pros are doing across different endurance sports.
As a cyclist, other than that consistency and volume are important (which is kind of obvious) I could not find a lot of actionable stuff.
The two a days is not something I would do (as a cyclist maybe we can just extend workouts at easy pace?)
Also, I do not run so I do not have feeling for the workouts she is doing and for the pace/zone. I just basically understood she does all the speed work at threshold not above.
VO2 nor anaerobic are on the other hand very much needed in certain cycling disciplines (road races/ grand fondos at the pointy edge of things and crits), but maybe for us mere mortals in order to maximize results in gran fondos we could just follow this “marathon approach” similar to what we have already discussed on Dr. Ferrari’s and Inigo San Millan’s training models.

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Well, for me it’s just interesting to see how athletes/coaches solve the puzzle of meeting race demands and overcoming constraints. Therefore, it is interesting to see how different sport disciplines approach this. The pattern we see here is quite similar to a regular endurance sports weekly structure. It’s not as tough as what I’ve seen for African runners so far. So it is interesting to note. And the philosophy is similar to what we see with Blummenfelt & Co. There is common pattern.

Apart from this, 2-a-days are a staple for me, especially during the week. Always has been, in the old days as a long-distance-bike-commuter and for the last years in my home office setting due to family/work.

Interesting new That Triathlon Show Episode with Annemeik van Vleuten (& Dutch triathletes) coach:

I’m not fully done listening yet, but a few interesting notes to me:

  • Very strong proponent of polarized training
  • For fast twitch athletes, training looks even more polarized, and doesn’t really even prescribe intensity until a few weeks out from the event. Slow twitch athletes may do intensity year round, as it’s not as fatiguing to them
  • Never prescribes power for intensity: i.e go do intervals as hard as you can, but final one must be as good quality as the first one
  • Long aerobic rides are right at LT1. LT2 is way to hard to distinguish to be useful.

I find this prescription of training based on muscle type, extremely interesting. Being very fast twitch dominant, I’ve experimentally discovered exactly what he prescribes to work best for me. Also why sweetspot plans just kill me, even at low/mid volume.

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It’s exactly what should be done for athletes who have plenty of time to train. (ie. anyone over 12 hrs per week, which is probably half what the elites are doing).

My wife (not “elite” per se, but pro triathlete, and 5th at US Pro Nat’s in the TT in 2021) is a sprinter through and through. She almost never touches zone 4, 5, 6, 7 in training. Her sprint power is maintained at ~1100 for 5sec with virtually all z1, 2, & 3, training.

When you’ve been given the gift of strength and power, you have the luxury of training in zone 1 & 2, a LOT.

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I think that link may be wrong because the interview was with Louis Delahaije. (edit - link is correct but the preview above is wrong. weird.)

One thing he said is that he prescribes a lot of tempo/muscular endurance while at the same time saying his athletes are polarized 95/5. A lot of top coaches say this. The question is ‘what is a lot’?

I’m thinking that a lot of coaches don’t look at the three zones like Seiler does. They lump zone 1 and 2 into the aerobic bucket and zone 3 into the above threshold bucket and they call it polarized.

Maybe it is if you take a 20+ hour per week pro like Van Vleuten and if she does 4 hours per week of tempo it is still a small percentage of her total volume?

I’ve heard Jim Miller say the same thing. Steven Neal prescribes a ton of tempo.

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It is like some imperative you have to say you coach by polarized approach. And in the end everybody trains pyramidal :slight_smile: Ekhm… i am sorry - polarized but with a lot of tempo or around LT1.

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One of the interesting points about the Delahaije interview was his prescription of neuromuscular sprints (10 seconds).

I relistened to the podcast. His “tempo endurance” workouts are right around LT1. He says he prescribes three zones for workouts.

Easy
Tempo endurance
Max intervals

So technically he is keeping his athletes mostly out of the grey zone.

I’ve checked out his prescription of “aerobic tempo’ pace and it’s 70-80% FTP.

Where did you see that? In the podcast they talked about training at LT1.

Yeah on the podcast he talks about LT1 but doesn’t give his definition and lactate value. He says it’s Ironman bike pace which is 70-80%.
Elsewhere I read / heard him say 70-80% but I can’t find it.
Sounds similar to the ISM zone 2 of around 0.3 mmol above base line.