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TRIATHLON TRAINING SCHOOL
Training philosophy
I believe in smart training. Each training must have it's own purpose (otherwise it's a trash workout) and the chain of these purposes builds a well balanced program resulting in a superior performance. Q U A L I T Y over Q U A N T I T Y !
A good program must have a balance of very slow, slow, medium, fast and very fast training.
The intensity, duration and frequency of the workouts should be precisely established considering the time of the year and the individual needs of each athlete. Because we are all unique, different training programs should be created for each of us.
In order to improve, we need to find the balance between training and rest. Training makes us tired and weakens our bodies, consequently, rest helps us recover so we can strengthen our bodies. C O N C L U S I O N - we are getting better while we sleep not while we train!
When we neglect training we are losing body conditioning and we don't progress. When we neglect rest training results in burnout, injury and overtraining.
Training should also be very specific to the goal. You need to improve those muscle fibers that are needed to accomplish your goals, for example, you need to train differently for sprint and ironman distances.
In order to be like Tim Deboom" moderate-hard intensity training and slow technique oriented training are major determinants of a successful endurance performance:because it targets LT and economy. or Paula Newby-Frazer you need to have: high VO2max (aerobic capacity), high LT (lactate threshold), high economy, high percentage of ST (slow twitch) muscle fibers and huge love of this sport in order to do the hard work necessary to achieve this level of athleticism. Because VO2max and the percentage of ST muscle fibers are the biggest determined of talent in triathlon, training doesn't have much influence here (unless you are a beginner in this sport). There are athletes at the top level having relatively low VO2max; however, very high LT and economy elevated by training which still makes them great athletes (for example Alberto Salazar - 2:08 in marathon). That's why I believe that
In order to validate the training program and measure improvement, each athlete needs to be periodically tested, no matter if he/she a pro or age-group athlete. You need to always know if you are progressing, at a plateau or moving backwards!
The training macrocycle (year, season) should be constructed by phases of general endurance (general development), specific endurance (specialized development), competition phase (race-pace development), taper (top performance achievement) and transition (physical and mental recovery).