05/07/2020
Part 1- Physiological reponses
Everyone has heard of the phase "no pain no gain". Well here is a new one for you, "a lot of pain for very little gain". This weeks topic will focus on training intensity for amateur endurance athletes.
-
As a sports physiologist we study how the body responds & adapts to exercise. The majority of these studies are carried out in a controlled environment in lab based setting over a short period of time. Testing protocols such as functional threshold power (FTP), Vo2max, Lactate testing, windgate etc are the gold standard when it comes to testing an athletes fitness/power output. Studies also show the best way to increase these numbers is training at these intensities (i.e) sweet spot, Vo2,LT efforts.
-
HOWEVER... although training at these high intensities show great physiological benefits in performance, it's important to understand the studies are done in a controlled setting over a short space of time. Training in this moderate to high intensity zone isn't sustainable over the course of a season.. Yet us amateur athletes spend the majority of our weekly training in the moderate to high intensity bubble, making every training session hard or kind of hard, accumulating fatigue week in week out until until or body finally has enough and something gives.
-
The worlds top endurance athletes spend the majority or their training season in Z1/2, keeping the easy days easy and the hard days hard. As amateur athletes the majority of us have full time jobs and therefore can't train 20+hrs a week like a professional. This doesn't mean we go out and cram in the fancy Vo2, sweet spot training sessions each week to make up for our lack of training time. Yes these sessions have a role but to be a consistent athlete you need to build a foundation and then use the moderate to high intensity effectively to peak for events and increase the chances of achieving your goals.
