Triathlon Training Notes

For some reason, triathlon attracts many who want to dig into the science of how to train, researching questions like, “Why do I need long runs AND short fast runs?” “Why should I train my core so much if I am not in a sit-up competition?” “Swimming is really the only technique-oriented sport, right?”

It all starts with base training. Marc Evans writes about base training in Triathlete’s Edge. The following is an excerpt from his book reprinted here with permission from Human Kinetics.

“The ability to compete at peak athletic levels depends first and foremost on the athlete’s base preparation. A concentrated base is the foundation, core, and framework that best performances rely on. Base preparation includes exercising at low intensities for long durations—the building blocks used to construct the higher intensity efforts that come later. Dryland training (strength, core, flexibility) plays a chief role in base preparation training to comprehensively prepare the triathlete.

Too many triathletes want to get to the more intense work and neglect this important training. As I like to say, “The bigger the base, the better you’ll race.” Base training is the most important training and preparation part of the season.

As noted in chapter 6, the base preparation period of training picks up from active restoration and includes 16 weeks of foundational work in endurance, strength, flexibility, and technique. The general benefits of base preparation training include the following:

* Develops sport-specific aerobic endurance
* Develops strength, flexibility, neuromuscular coordination, and technique
* Strengthens connective tissue
* Increases the number of mitochondria and capillaries within the muscles
* Increases blood volume
* Enhances glycogen storage and capacity
* Decreases resting HR and increases stroke volume

These benefits are achieved by meeting the objectives of the phase, which include:

1. Assessing current fitness
2. Gradually increasing aerobic capacity and endurance (oxygen consumption)
3. Adding to core and maximal muscle strength
4. Progressively overloading and building up workout frequency, volume, and intensity
5. Promoting neurological development of proper technique patterns to improve economy
6. Training with drills to improve flexibility and coordination (technical exercises)
7. Managing nutrition and rest
8. Transitioning (aerobic/stamina) to bike-to-run workouts of longer duration and low intensity

Base preparation begins by assessing and establishing the athlete’s current baseline fitness and from there establishing short-term, midrange, and long-range goals. I use a battery of pretests to determine an athlete’s swimming, cycling, and running fitness. This is followed by another or several periodic retests to evaluate progress throughout this phase. These tests help define the direction of the training plan by establishing objective training benchmarks, which can be repeated over time. From these benchmarks, an athlete can better establish realistic goals that will give their training and racing a sense of purpose and direction.”

What is the lactate curve? Why do I need to know the lactate curve? How does it fit into my triathlon training? When should it fit in my triathlon training? How does it affect my triathlon racing? What does the lactate curve mean to endurance athletes?

Peter Jannsen answers many of these questions in his book, “Lactate Threshold Training.” An excerpt follows that will likely wet your appetite to learn more about how it can help your racing.

“The lactate content of the blood is a parameter of great importance. This content is measured in millimoles of lactate per liter of blood. Healthy persons at rest have values roughly between 1 and 2 millimoles per liter, and strenuous exercise increases this value. Even slight increases in lactate content (6 to 8 millimoles per liter) may impair an athlete’s coordination. Regularly high lactate values impair aerobic endurance capacity.

THE LACTATE CURVE
For this reason, athletes should be prudent with the number of intensive workloads they undergo in a certain period of time. The workload intensities needed for various workouts can be determined by means of the lactate curve. Graph 89 shows the relationship between lactate content of the blood and the intensity of exercise. Intensity is expressed as running pace in meters per second.

To obtain a lactate curve, the athlete should run the same distance a number of times, each time at a higher pace. After every run, determine the lactate concentration in the blood. Every distance should be run at an even pace, and the running pace should be increased in small steps. The length of the run should be such that the athlete needs at least 5 minutes to cover the distance. When well-trained athletes run slowly, they have low lactate values; their energy supplies are fully aerobic. When the pace is increased, the curve begins to rise; the working muscles do produce lactate, but the quantities are so small that, for the most part, they can be neutralized by the body. It is a widespread belief that this is the case between 2 and 4 millimoles per liter. Therefore, this area is called the aerobic-anaerobic transition zone.

Each athlete can maintain a certain running pace for a long period of time without lactate accumulation in the body. If the pace is increased to a certain point, ongoing acidosis will occur, depending on the degree and duration of the increase, and at a certain moment this acidosis will force the athlete to stop. The lactate content that is measured at this borderline pace is also called the anaerobic threshold. The anaerobic threshold value is around a lactate content of 4 millimoles per liter. Exercise surpassing the anaerobic threshold will inevitably increase lactate content within the body.

Thus, exercise up to this level of the aerobic threshold is fully aerobic. Lactate content at the aerobic threshold is about 2 millimoles per liter. Exercise within the aerobic-anaerobic transition zone is more intensive, and energy supply is both aerobic and anaerobic. Production and neutralization of lactate are balanced. This zone is between 2 and 4 millimoles per liter.

The anaerobic threshold occurs when exercise at a high intensity results in an accumulation of lactate in the blood. Therefore, this type of exercise can be maintained for a limited period of time. But at an intensity just below the anaerobic threshold, this lactate content can be kept at a steady-state level, and this type of exercise may be maintained for a longer period of time, about 1 to 1.5 hours.

Lactate content at the anaerobic threshold is for many athletes about 4 millimoles per liter, but there are wide individual variations among athletes. Anaerobic threshold can be as low as 2 to 3 millimoles per liter or as high as 6 to 8 millimoles per liter. By drawing a lactate curve for every athlete, the anaerobic threshold can be found and subsequently used to set training intensities. The best way to find the anaerobic threshold is to determine maximal lactate steady state (MLSS), which is discussed elsewhere in the book.

Endurance capacity can best be trained by endurance workouts around the level of the anaerobic threshold, that is, workouts with lactate values of 2 to 6 millimoles per liter. These values may be determined according to the athlete’s test results. Very well-trained people mostly train their endurance capacity at somewhat lower values, between 2 and 3 millimoles per liter. Less well-trained persons often cannot help but peak to higher levels. They then surpass their anaerobic threshold and make their workouts less effective. Though they often feel satisfied with a strenuous workout, this type of workout does more damage than good.

The threshold pace is the speed that corresponds with the anaerobic threshold. Above the anaerobic threshold this speed can be maintained for a short period of time, but below the threshold it can be maintained 1 to 1.5 hours. The threshold pace, the running or cycling speed at the heart rate deflection point (HRdefl), is also called the V4 pace, as discussed in chapter 3. However, the term V4 is somewhat misleading, because many athletes have an anaerobic threshold over or under 4 millimoles per liters. For example, an athlete with an anaerobic threshold of 6 millimoles per liter could be said to have a threshold pace of V6.

Sport-specific performance capacity could be defined as the speed that is reached at a lactate content of 4 millimoles per liter, or V4. V4 is an important indicator of the athlete’s capacities. Any improvement of V4 pace will also improve performance capacity. Regular V4 tests indicate the athlete’s condition, so athletes can be monitored in their development and can be mutually compared. But remember that V4 is not the threshold pace for everybody, because many athletes have an anaerobic threshold under or over 4 millimoles per liter. Therefore, it might be better to test MLSS than V4.

Recovery workouts should not be intensive, and lactate content should remain less than 2 millimoles per liter. Intensive interval workouts give high lactate values, far surpassing 4 millimoles per liter. The effect of training will be that the lactate curve shifts to the right, as shown in graph 90.

Therefore, training intensities should be readjusted from time to time, and a new test procedure with blood sampling will be necessary. Not every athlete has access to blood testing, but other methods can supply the same or at least the most important information. All these other methods of finding the anaerobic threshold are discussed elsewhere in this book.”

If you’re planning a triathlon this year in the summer, or in a different location than you are used to, please read this excerpt to plan for the adjustment your body will make. It’s an excellent excerpt from John Mora’s Triathlon Workout Planner. This excerpt is reprinted with permission.

“Once you know your target zones, you must still do a little tweaking of the range numbers in order to further individualize your training for improved accuracy and efficiency. All training has to be individualized, and these adjustments take into account the different characteristics of each sport, outside conditions, and any illness or overtraining symptoms that Read more… »

For those who haven’t seen the post here, “Join Endurance Nation coaches and founders, Rich Strauss and Patrick McCrann for this FREE hour-long presentation on how to train and race your next long course triathlon.”

There is a link on that site where you can download the entire presentation and audio. Enjoy!

The competitive season for triathlons is typically May through September. Within that period you might have a race you really want to do well in, often called your “A” race, and those used more for tracking progress.

Periodization of training means planning your training cycles to maximize your performance for competition. You might know this intuitively but did not know there was a science behind it. There is a Tudor Bompa is regarded as the guru of periodization of training. I read his first edition “Periodization Training for Sports” when my son was on the high school track team. I was actually able to email correspond with an athlete who said he used that book as his training bible, and he went on to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

Training is broken down into yearly cycles, or phases:

• Anatomical Adaptation (getting your body and soft tissues ready for training)
• Hypertrophy (building muscle mass)
• Maximum Strength (taking the gains is mass and making them stronger)
• Conversion (taking strength gains and converting them to sport-specific power)
• Competitive and Transition (your races and before you start the training year over again)

In the second edition of Periodization Training for Sports, Tudor Bompa and Michael Carrera add some things that might be more interest to triathletes than just the science. It offers a yearly plan including the phases above. If you don’t think triathletes need strength training, ask Joe Friel and Tudor Bompa. You can benefit from strength training. The book walks you through the science of what to do, how to plan it, and break it down to smaller cycles (monthly and weekly) to maximize your performance.

It tells you the dominant energy sources, energy suppliers, limiting factors and training objectives, plans to train each energy systems, and nutrition. By the time you reach the plans, you understand and can immediately apply them because you already understand the science and how to get the most out of your training.

Here’s a good excerpt on Principles of Strength Training.

If you’re like me, you will enjoy learning the science behind the training theory. Then you will adapt to your own training and maximize your performance.