High Intensity Training

Hi,

Good questions and good discussion. I see it, the issues are intensity, the appropriate intensity, and the appropriate combination of volume and intensity (when, how much, etc)

• Intensity: Two points:

1. "Functional" and relative intensity: whenever possible we encourage athletes to use the functional metrics of pace on the run and power on the bike. Intensities are therefore described in relation to what you've actually proven you can do in testing or training. For example, a prescription to run 1 mile at 9:00 pace is based on your tested ability to run a 5k in xx:xx. Much less guesswork, in other words. Similar on the bike and, if you don't have power, there are still many lessons you can learn about training with heart rate from the power-training world.
2. "Fitness is in the muscles," that is, when you move from z1 to z2 to z3, etc, what is happening is you are recruiting a larger and larger percentage of available slowtwitch fibers, then fast twitch fibers, etc. Think of it as a tug of war team, with Slowtwitch guys on the rope and Fastwitch guys on the bench. As the requirement to pull harder increases, more and more slowtwitch guys are put to work and you eventually start to pull fast twitch guys off the bench and put them on the rope. Two things:
   • You need to recruit a muscle fiber to get it to improve it's ability to pull on rope or pedal a bike. So if all you ever do is ride or run z2, for example, you're leaving a good bit of your ST squad, and all of your FT squad on the bench. They won't improve.
   • At z4, you've now got all of your ST squad on the rope, becoming better ST fibers, and all/most of your FT squad on the rope, becoming better at what they do and, some of them, even begin to take on the characteristics of ST fibers.

The net is that by exercising at z3-z4 we are getting all of the tasty, go-longer, z1-2 adaptions as well as the very tasty z3-4 go-faster adaptations.

Appropriate Intensity: should probably put all of that functional jazz down here, I suppose. Jack Daniels Running Formula and VDot offer us a very proven structure within which to prescribe appropriate intensity, given an athlete's current tested fitness. Power training offers us the same opportunity on the bike and these tools can be easily transferred to heart rate based training. In addition, I'd like to point out that, in all my years of Ironman coaching I've never seen an athlete become injured on the bike by riding too hard...unless they ran into something :-)  I firmly believe you can't start too soon to get fast on the bike by...riding very fast, a lot. The question is the proper combination of intensity and volume, see below.

Appropriate combination of volume and intensity. This is where people screw it up. We recommend that rather than thinking in terms of Base 1,2.3, Build 1,2, etc, you think of the movement of training through the year as from General Preparation to Race Specific Preparation:

General Prep: I want to get fast and prepare myself for the race specific training that happens later. I do lots of high intensity cycling and an appropriate amount of high intensity running, while keeping the volume low. Volume is kept low primarily because, as an age group athlete, I owe it to myself, my family, and my sanity to keep it as low as I can for as long as I can. So I keep the hours short but put a lot work in those hours, making myself faster and preserving SAUs (Spousal Approval Units) for when I really need them, in the Race Prep phase

Race Preparation Phase: ask yourself "what are the requirements of the race?" I focus on Ironman training so my answer is "I need to be able to lock myself in the aero position and be very comfortable, while eating and drinking at my z2 effort. Then I need to come off the bike and run, a long time, at my z2 effort." So I do more of _that_ and less get-faster training. Along the way I sort out things like race nutrition, bike fit, hydration and sodium needs, etc. In other words, the volume goes up because volume is a requirement of the race. I turn down the intensity to accommodate the volume and to ensure I'm working within race specific intensities.

The key, and this is a big one, is that by thinking in terms of General Prep and Race Prep, you separate high intensity, get-faster training from lower intensity, get-longer training. This separation is absolutely critical. I like to say "Build FAST, then put FAR under it."

Traditional pitfalls:

• Focusing on volume as the primary training input, with intensity always kept low: see my tug of war dealio above. If all you ever do is ride 18mph, how do you ever expect to ride 21mph on race day? If you want to ride fast you have to ride fast. If you want to run fast you have to run fast. Yes, you can make yourself run faster by running more and more often, but I'd rather figure out how to keep someone healthy and make them faster with 4hrs of running per week than spend weeks build up to and sitting on 7-9hrs of running per week. It's simply more time efficient.
• "I spend months and months putting in the time at z1-2, earning permission to do the harder work later in the season to make me faster." However, later in the season = closer to the race = requirement for volume increases = trying to do intensity + volume at the same time = sleeping under your desk at work. 

Just a few thoughts as  I successfully avoid some podcasting I need to do :-)

Rich Strauss
EnduranceNation.us

Thanks Rich for taking out some time from your busy schedule to respond in such depth! Let me keep it simple and straightforward. I run a 5K in the low 22's and do weekly long runs during the season at around 11:15-11:45 per mile. Of course I would love to do more intensity and faster workouts so I can get faster! When I go to such websites as yours I dont see anything on the pre plans showing anything below z3, am I wrong? So, what you are saying is if I use any of your plans and go by them that I wont get overtrained and burned out and will definitely get faster. Also, I also go much faster in bike portions of triathlons than what I train at, so with your plan I should see huge improvements?

Once again, many thanks for your time!

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by the "pre-plan" above. If you can tell me exactly what plan you're looking at above I should be able to help you.

Also, if you're 5k times are low 22's, you should definitely be running faster than 11:30's for your long runs. This is a helpful VDot pace calculator you can use to determine training paces: http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm

Thanks for the good words. Excellent point about z1-2 above. Additional notes:

• Swimming: most people can tolerate high intensity for every swim workout. Very low risk, in other words.
• Cycling: with proper integration into the training plan as a whole, most people can tolerate, and do well, with a good bit of intensity. During the offseason we prescribe our workouts as main sets only, with only volume "suggestions," which is to say you're fine to warmup 5', drill the main set (20-40' total) and get off the bike. In general "the shorter the ride the harder the ride."
• Running: yes, there needs to be a period of consistent, injury free running to adapt the lower legs for running, and prepare them for harder running. However, in my experience, most people asking themselves the question "how do I get faster" are usually doing so after a (long) period of typical z1-2 type work, ie, they've made those adaptations.

Finally, everything depends on how all of this stuff above is mixed into a training week: Monday works with Tues works with Wednesday, etc. The biggest mistake I see with Ironman athletes, from a weekly template perspective, is the Saturday long bike followed by a Sunday long run. At some point (usually around a 3.5hr long bike and 2hr+ long run) the combination of the two begins to severely impact downstream workouts until Monday and Tues are basically a wash.

I am talking about the HIM 70.3 plans you have discounted 20% off. I looked at the sample which said week 7. Is this plan the beginner, intermediate, or advanced and do you take into consideration how much mileage someone is presently doing as to which plan to sign up for?

Also the poster jsnowash discussed age as a factor in this type of training. How does that play into things? Does someone my age do the same workout as someone 20 years younger, or 30 years younger? Once again, thanks for all your time.

Sorry, I suck for not checking this thread. Is there a setting in here for email notification of new posts?

Anywho, Intermediate, Beginner or Advanced is a function of your PR times for the distance. You'll find these definitions next to the products in our store. With regards to starting fitness:

• 20wk plan = we sorta assume that you're not starting from peak fitness, but you're also not starting straight off the couch either :-) These are not "20wks from Couch to Ironman Training Plans", in other words. I believe the long runs in week 1 might be 1:00 and the long bike 2-2.5hrs. The rate of increase of the volume and intensity is faster from Advanced to Beginner. Meaning, if you raise your hand to be on the Advanced squad, then I don't have to be very nice to you :-) I can turn the dial from a 5 to a 10 in a just a few weeks.
• 12wk = race prep phase and we do assume a certainly level of pre-built fitness.

With regards to age, no, these are not age adjusted, ie this is a Masters plan, this is YoungDoodes plan, etc. However, we provide a ton of documentation and other resources to help people become better self coached athletes and tweak the plans themselves. I don't know if there is a Masters forum in here but a gather of like aged-peeps, sharing training information, would be a valuable resource for you to tap into.

Thanks for the good words. I like to write :-)

This has worked well for me....I've stayed injury free and progressed from a 28 minute 5 k down to sub 21 minutes in 18 months.

That above is the definition of an effective training plan. I like to say:

• The quickest way to run faster to wrack up months and months of injury free running. Inserting intensity, crazy volume, or other sexy stuff into your runs, while effective and can help you get faster faster...all of that is secondary to just not getting hurt.
• The quickest way to get slow is to get stoopid and get hurt. You can easily throw away months and months of training by getting too sexy and getting hurt.

In my experience, it all comes down to the effective integration of volume and intensity across a training plan, at the season long, macro-level, and also an effective mix of workouts in a training week.

• What is the mix of workouts I can do, effective, week after week. This my Basic Week, a template training week I just do week after week.
• I then manage the details of that Basic Week, according to the movement of volume and intensity across a training season. As I describe, the follow of this mix should be from General to Specific. Not Base 1, 2, 3, Build, 1, 2, etc. General ---> Specific

Breaking up long bike and run

Absolutely critical. Hands down the most effective and significant change I made to my training, coaching, and training plans, ever.

Thursday Long Run: separates the long bike from the long run. Rather than have you riding 1-2hrs in the dark, before work by yourself on a Thursday, much easier to do a 1.5-2hr run that day instead.

Sunday Semi-Long Ride (Saturday is riding): Thurs long run = opportunity to ride in the sun with your friends for 2+hrs on a Sunday. Think about it: if you're already doing a 2hr run on Sunday, then you've gotten the green light to invest 2hrs on a Sunday. In my experience, it's MUCH better to make that investment on the bike because it works much, much better with the long bike investment you're making on Saturday.

At some level of volume, usually around a 3-4hr Saturday long bike and a 2hr Sunday run, the combination of the two begins to significantly impact each respective workout (you're afraid to ride hard on Saturday because of the Sunday long run and the long run is crap because you're shelled from Satuday) AND, most significantly downstream workout. Monday is crap, Tues is a little better, etc.

This separation is a do not pass go idea. I'm sorry, but Sat long bike, Sunday long run, at least for IM training, is old skool. Every good IM coach I know has figured this out. If a week is still structured that way, to me it's a flag that the author likely hasn't done a 5hr long ride and 2.5-3hr long run and learned there just has to be another way.

Bonus Material, Basic Training Week Presentation

Presentation slides, .pdf
Presentation audio