The Basics, Part 1.
Because it's easy to get distracted.
To get more physically capable in endurance events, training is actually fairly simple. Note that I said simple, as opposed to using other words, like “easy.” Part of the inherent difficulty of endurance training is in the huge amounts of complete shit information out there. SO, I’m going to start a little framework of posts here about how I think about endurance training. Over time, I’ll deepen the discussions around each topic. But to begin with, here’s how training works:
Principle 1: High Volume
It makes sense at a simple level; in order to make big gains in anything, you need to practice it a lot! Endurance sport is no different, if you want to get better, you need to put the time in. Note that this is relative more than it is absolute. There’s nothing magical about training a certain amount of hours per week, all that matters to your body is that you’re doing enough that your body recognizes it as something to adapt to (which doesn’t really take that much). 1
Principle 2: High Performance Key Workouts
I think we can all agree that being so tired that you can’t hit the goals of your workouts is bad. However, I would argue that the bar should be a liiiitle *insert sarcasm* higher. By managing our focus, freshness, and fueling, we can come into key workouts (anything other than simple easy volume workouts) ready to execute really well, instead of just slogging through some “hard” sessions.2
Principle 3: Optimization, not Maximization.
You might be curious about what is the most important principle, that of volume, or that of key workouts performance? And the answer is neither/both. They are both equally important, and thus the goal is to optimize levels of both, rather than maximize either. If your volume is too high, then your key workout performance starts to suck. If you try to maximize key workout performance, you’re likely dropping your volume so much that your long-term potential drops. Don’t get sucked into thinking either is more important, you need both.
Principle 4: Lots of Low Intensity
There is one unifying practice that allows you to train a lot and to keep your key workout performance high: keeping the majority of your training pretty damn easy. The lower your average intensity, the more volume you can train, and the less effect that volume has on subsequent key workouts. Want to progress fast? Keep the easy days easy.
Questions for reflection:
What are you better at, volume? Or Quality workouts?
How are you measuring the performance of your key workouts?
How are you measuring the intensity of your volume?
How are you measuring your volume?