Subject: RE: miles matters? Training is more than about miles/km.
When it comes to triathlons, it about how much effort was expended to achieve the time required to go a specific distance. Those are mutually dependent elements of defining training distances, frequency of those distances and necessary changes in the distances needed to train for a specific goal.
I guess, what I am saying is effort expended is as important as distance. In fact, you can not seperate the two elements.
There is no pre-determined distance necessary to train for a triathlon.... in fact, there are equally good training methods that don't use distance at all... they only use time (and, more specifically, time spent in specific HR training zones - HR is a good determinant of effort expended ).
I would suggest you look up a posted training schedule... then adapt it to your level of fitness. With one key issue to remember... training results are as much a part of recovery time as it is training time. How much time you spend recoverying from training determines improvement... not just training. Failure to recovery properly typically only results in injury and excessive fatique. This is what is called the law of deminishing return*. Basically, this means that without equivalent recovery time is included in the training process, a point will be reached where each additional distance or effort expended produces smaller, or diminishing results in better fitness.
FWIW Joe Moya
* Law stating that if one input in the production of a commodity is increased while all other inputs are held fixed, a point will eventually be reached at which additions of the input yield progressively smaller, or diminishing, increases in output.
Edited by Joe M 2005-05-01 11:49 AM
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