- What's up, motivators? Taren here.
If you have been thinking about training for a triathlon,
or starting to train,
or you've trained for a long time
and you hear all the jargon of improving your FTP,
or your VO2 max, or your maximal aerobic velocity,
or getting your race pace dialed in,
it tends to be really, really confusing.
Fortunately, there is some science out there
that has found what the best predictors
of triathlon race performance are.
We are gonna go through that study
that tells all of us
what you should really actually be focusing on.
Then, we're gonna fill out
this training plan a little bit here,
so you can understand how we take
what the science is saying to us
and actually apply it to a training plan that you can use.
Hopefully, you find this helpful.
Stick around. Let's do it.
My name is Taren Gesell.
In my late 20s, I was overweight, unfulfilled,
and couldn't even run to the end of the block.
Over the following 10 years,
I lost 65 pounds racing triathlons,
running races, cycling events, and world championships.
But eventually, the suffer culture
of endurance sports training caught up to me,
causing health issues and injuries.
Now, my company MoTTIV and I
are on a mission to help people live more fulfilling lives
by reaching endurance sports goals using healthy methods.
We can all kill it on race day without killing our bodies.
Let's do it.
So, I remember when I first started training for triathlons.
I was really struggling with understanding,
"Well, do I do these super high-intensity intervals
of 15 seconds
or do I just run and ride low and slow,
like maybe Maffetone method might support?
But then, how do I actually get comfortable at race pace?
What about HIT intervals of two to four minutes?"
And then I started understanding about VO2 max and FTP,
and all of these things start getting into the realm
of like everything is saying a different interval is best
or that a different metric being FTP,
or sprint power, or VO2 max is best,
but how do I start coordinating all of these things?
It was really hard for me
to start wrapping my head around.
First, we're gonna help you with that.
We have an app that can help you with that,
but this video is going to help explain that a little bit.
I wanna show you one study
that was done by somebody who we've had on the podcast
that helps give you an indication
of what you should really be focusing on
to make sure that you have a good race outcome.
This researcher, Paulo Puccinelli,
who we had on the podcast,
he did this study here
that you can go and look up on your own at PubMed,
and I'll save you all of the details.
But the really big predictors
of total race performance in a triathlon
was maximal aerobic velocity, I'll explain that in a second;
triathlon experience,
how many races you've done in the past;
and percentage of lean body mass.
Let's quickly explain those three things,
I'll start with triathlon experience.
That's something that you can control just by racing more.
You get better at racing more.
And then I want to talk about maximal aerobic velocity
because this relates to the intervals that we talked about.
Maximal aerobic velocity
is how fast are you going at your VO2 max.
Your VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen
that you can process every single minute.
It's, like, theoretically,
a very good indicator of what your top end is;
how healthy is your aerobic system, your heart and lungs.
Traditionally, VO2 max was thought to be the king,
but it's not necessarily what your VO2 max is,
it's how fast are you going at your VO2 max.
And that requires different training
than actual VO2 max training.
But VO2 max training itself is still very important
because VO2 max training is more similar
to what you experience on race day.
So it's important to get comfortable
at that VO2 max effort
as opposed to just focusing on absolute top-end speed.
So let me go over to the whiteboard,
and I'll explain how we coordinate the two
into a cohesive training plan,
and then I'll come back to the third point
which is the percentage of lean mass
and how it coordinates with the training plan
that I'm about to give you.
So, let's start filling out this training plan here.
I've just mocked out a very typical,
average kind of training week
where we have Monday, a steady bike;
Tuesday, an intense run;
Wednesday, a main swim;
Thursday, an intense bike,
then followed by a strength session;
then Friday, we have a steady swim;
then, Saturday, we have a main big bike
followed by a brick run;
and then Sunday, we have main run.
What we're going to focus on
for the purposes of this maximal aerobic velocity discussion
are the intervals.
So we're gonna focus on the intense run, the intense bike,
and then I will talk about the intervals
that we do during the main bike and the main run.
The intense run and the intense bike
are where we are gonna focus on maximal training velocity.
And we are going to split the focus
into two separate frames of time.
The first timeframe is the base training phase.
For people, this is the off-season
and the base building season.
And then the second phase is the plan phase.
So this is when you actually get into a training plan.
We're not just doing a training plan
that is looking the same year-round.
It needs to be a little bit different between the two.
In the base training phase,
what we like to do is this is where we start doing intervals
that are roughly about 15 seconds
to 60 seconds.
And the work-to-rest ratio
is somewhere around 1:4.
And this is really, really uncommon
for a lot of training plans
because most triathlon training plans
focus on intervals of about two to eight minutes long,
that common VO2 max improving kind of interval.
But as we've seen in that study, maximal aerobic velocity,
the fastest speed that you can possibly go,
is really important.
So during the base training phase,
we do these 15 to 60-second intervals
with about a 1:4 work-to-rest ratio.
So it could be like 15 seconds, really hard,
60 seconds rest,
or 60 seconds, really, really hard,
four minutes rest.
This is going to allow you
to hit really peak efforts over and over and over
because you have a really big rest.
And because the work timeframe is so short,
you can hit it really hard
and go to those maximal aerobic velocities.
So this is key and this is really unique
to our training plan because a lot of people, like I say,
even if they're working with a coach
are just focusing on that two
to eight-minute kind of effort
when a training plan starts rolling around.
So this is two to three months for a sprint training plan
all the way up to about six months
for an IRONMAN training plan.
This is where I do think
that those traditional two to eight-minute intervals
are really important.
So when we start getting into that training plan phase,
that's when we start with roughly two-minute intervals.
And yes, we do build up to eight-minute intervals.
And as opposed to a 1:4 work-to-rest ratio,
the ratio gets flipped roughly.
Because the intensity is a little bit down
which is required
because the interval is gonna be longer,
we are focusing on keeping that heart rate nice and high
and keeping the heart rate beating at a high level,
so that we can work on that VO2 max
that is important for getting comfortable at race pace.
So base training phase,
we look at that maximal aerobic velocity kind of effort,
recruiting all those neuromuscular firing patterns
and all of the different muscle groups,
and then we start refining that
into being able to hold race efforts for longer.
So this might be a series of intervals
that are two minutes long with 30 seconds rest
or eight minutes long with two minutes rest,
roughly around there.
And as you progress,
you go from these 15 to 60-second intervals,
then you start with two minutes,
and then gradually make the work interval longer
and the rest interval shorter.
So we're getting the best of both worlds:
the maximal aerobic velocity, the FTP,
and the VO2 max over here.
But how do we then translate that
into being able to execute a race really well?
Well, that's in these Saturday and Sunday workouts,
where in the base training phase,
this is going to be very, very light year-round.
We just want to make sure
that you are focusing on low-intensity efforts,
just low, zone 1, zone 2,
get out and ride for a comfortably long amount of time
so that you can stay aerobically healthy
and your endurance can stay nice and high.
But when we get into the plan phase,
we start to build from anywhere
from as low as five-minute intervals
up to a two-hour interval
for IRONMAN athletes.
And we're doing these longer and longer intervals
of five minutes, 10 minutes,
15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, two hours
just slightly above our target race effort,
and we're doing the same thing in the bike and the run.
So we're getting this complete 360-degree fitness
where our maximal aerobic velocity
is really well-structured
in the intense run and the intense bike.
During the base training phase,
we have the endurance and the metabolic flexibility
being to burn carbohydrates and fat
during the base training phase.
Then come a training plan.
We start refining that VO2 max
with longer intervals of two to eight minutes
and shorter rest periods.
And then with the intervals in the plan phase,
we're refining that ability
to go for a long period of time at a fast effort level
by doing longer and longer intervals.
So with this, you're getting
that complete 360-degree fitness
where there isn't a stone left unturned
and it's not just haphazard
of doing some short intervals, and then some long intervals,
and then some VO2 max intervals,
where everything is building upon each other
in a structured fashion.
Now, let's get back to that third aspect
of predicting your race performance,
which is body composition,
and it does relate to this.
So you've seen how we coordinate the really fast,
super intense efforts to get this point number one,
maximal aerobic velocity, faster and faster.
But then, we don't just focus on that
by doing nothing but super high-intensity interval training.
We then build into the VO2 max efforts
so you're more comfortable at your race pace.
We talked about triathlon experience,
you really just need to race more.
But what about this percentage of lean mass?
Is that just about dieting
and getting your body weight down?
Here's the bonus part of what I just showed you
in that plan.
Whereas most triathlon training plans
really just focus on that two
to eight-minute interval kind of effort,
this other article here
that looked at a whole bunch of studies,
this is called sprint interval training, 40% more fat
will then hit in 60% less time.
We looked at a bunch of studies.
Here's the big takeaway from what they looked at.
The data show that sprint interval train
led to a 40% higher reduction
in body fat percentage than HIT.
Additionally, SIT, the super intense intervals
of those 15 to 60-second participants
exercised for 61% less time than HIT.
So the takeaway here is that
remember, the first study said
that maximal aerobic velocity and lean mass
were some of the most highly-correlated measures
of triathlon race performance.
These sprint intervals have been more associated
with a better reduction in lean body mass.
So, while all of the training plans out there
really just focused on those two to eight-minute intervals,
they're doing you a disservice
because they're taking up more time
and they're not getting you as prepared as they could be.
I think that both types of intervals are very important.
That's why in our training app...
There's a link in the description below.
Try it for free for 14 days,
and if you like it, stick around.
It's far less costly than a one-on-one coach
or in a lot of cases, even doing it yourself.
And we like to think
that it is as good as one-on-one coaching
because we incorporate both
those super high-intense intervals
and then build up to the VO2 max
in the right times of the training season.
So, we're not ignoring either.
If you wanna try that out,
there's a link in the description below.
If you found this helpful,
hit the like button below.
Later, motivators.