07/10/2026
Surprised from this past weekend's result at Challenge Roth with Alanis Siffert? Or perhaps over the past few years with Julie Derron at the Olympics and also Ironman? Now is a great time to go listen to all the SECRETS that have led to their success in the now ancient podcast I did with Scientific Triathlon back in 2018.
Go back even further to the successful careers of Chrissie Wellington, Daniela Ryf, Emma Snowsill, Nicola Spirig, Tim Don, James Cunnama, Siri Lindley, Caroline Steffen, Greg Bennett and so many more. At some point you have to stop asking, "What are secret workouts?" and start asking what these athletes all had in common.
There isn't one magical training session or a revolutionary philosophy. It is years of consistent development.
Too many athletes have lost sight of long-term athletic development. Too many athletes are trying to train like someone in their tenth or fifteenth year of high-level training when they've only been doing the sport seriously for two or three. They jump from one trending workout to the next, chasing FTP, VO₂max, and wonder why they plateau or break down.
The best coaches understand that you're not just preparing an athlete for their next race. You're developing someone who can tolerate more training, recover better, and become more durable year after year. That process isn't exciting, but it's what allows athletes to keep improving long after others have stalled.
The recent success of Julie Derron and Alanis Siffert isn't something that happened overnight. It's the result of years of patiently building robust athletes who can consistently absorb training at a high level.
There's a lesson in that for every age-group athlete. Stop looking for the workout that's going to change your season and start building the habits that will change the next five years. That's where the biggest gains are made.
Carson Christen is a sport scientist and professional endurance coach with Trisutto. We discuss the Trisutto approach to triathlon training and its components, including specific aspects of swimming, biking, running, strength training and nutrition.