The Endure EQ Vol. 002 | How to build a sustainable training program without giving up your progress in triathlon

Hello Reader,

Welcome to Vol. 002 of The Endure EQ.

Every week you'll get a deep dive into a topic related to endurance training, maximizing your potential or reaching peak performance.

Today’s estimated reading time: 4 min 34 sec

Let’s jump in.

Most training programs are unsustainable.

A 12 weeks to Ironman Triathlon plan will not set you up for a life-time of success in endurance sports.

The only way to see that level of success is to build a sustainable training program.

Unsustainable training:

Random workouts with little cohesion
Injury and/or burn-out
Short term focus
Always adding more

Sustainable training:

Repeatable for years
No heroic efforts, only consistent work
Focus on key principles
Load when ready

There are 2 pathways that you can take with endurance training.

One path is what I call a typical triathlon training plan. Random training before starting a race plan that has a base, build, race cycle all within 1 year.

Contrast that with the Sustainable Training Model.

Years of focused work with sustain, add some load, sustain new load
A year long build
Complete big race
Return to sustainable training

How to build a sustainable week that will keep you training for a long time.

Build a sustainable week

Sustainable training is what you’re capable of hitting, consistently for weeks without sacrificing recovery.

I wrote about building recovery habits here.

Audit your time to understand the minimum amount of training you can hit.

Flip the script so that instead of “I have to train 5 times per week” it’s “I have 5 blocks of training every week”.

Build your training schedule around this.

Key Workouts

There are 2 key session types you need to implement into your schedule:

Easy Endurance
Long Days

Easy and endurance paced sessions are the foundation of all endurance training. These sessions align with your typical zone 1 and zone 2 training. Low intensity work is understood to need to be around 80% of your total training volume.

When building a sustainable schedule start with 100% of your training in these zones.

Long sessions are the first load you should add. Endurance training and racing is all about extending the length of time. So we want to start adding longer training sessions. (Think double the length of your current longest session).

I’ll show you a framework for adding load (or higher intensity work).

The key is to build consistency in your training and develop a baseline amount of fitness before progressing.

Use rest strategically.

Rest sessions build the foundation of recovery. You want to get used to taking complete rest days and adding supportive sessions.

Remember sustainable training is all about playing the long-game.

Add loading days

Before adding any loading sessions establish a baseline of fitness.

Once you know how your body responds you can start to play with load.

Loading sessions are used to build on the physical demands needed for your race.

Each race distance will have a different type of load so customize the sessions depending on your race.

There are 4 types of loading sessions that you will use in your training:

Long
Strong
Tempo/Threshold
Speed

Here is a run-down on each type:

Tempo/Threshold are your moderate and high intensity training sessions. These need to be added with caution to see how your body adjusts to a higher intensity of training. You can think of these sessions as building your top end fitness.

Speed sessions are maximal sessions that work to improve economy and sprinting ability. All endurance athletes should learn how to move fast as it carries over into the other sessions.

Strong sessions are your resistance training in the gym or sport specific sessions. These are used both as injury prevention and power/strength building.

Implementing these workouts:

Now how do we add all these in?

Gradually. While paying attention to how your body is responding.

The key thing to remember is we are not loading for the sake of loading. We are doing so to improve your fitness while still respecting your bodies ability to sustain the load.

The basic training cycle will now look like this:

Sustainable training
Add 1 loading day
Maintain load
Add 2nd loading day
Maintain load
Continue…

Alan Couzens recommends trying to achieve 4 loading days without sacrificing recovery. But you should build up to this gradually over time.

Try to maintain the current load for 3-4 weeks before adding another loading day.

Look for stability in your recovery metrics before you start adding more loading days.

The big difference between a loading and non-loading day

Determining the size of your loading day comes down to an understanding of your current fitness.

Within the TrainingPeaks numbers

If you have a fitness level of 60 (CTL):

Recovery: 10-30 TSS (under current fitness)
Maintain: 60 TSS (around current fitness)
Load: 120 TSS (double current fitness)

The type of loading day should relate to your long-term athletic goals:

Sprint/Standard: more threshold and speed work
Long-course: long days, tempo, and strength

Every distance needs some of each type of load just in different quantities and at different times of the year.

Why even bother with sustainable training?

Sustainable training expands your time horizon.

The performances and gains that you are looking for in endurance sports will not come from a 12 week training program. They come from being consistent with the basic building blocks for years. This might sound like a tough ask when you have races you want to do in the next year.

You can still do those races you just might not reach the level of performance you are looking for in that time-frame.

A sustainable approach to training prepares you for the races you want to do for the long-run.

Do you want to be a life-long athlete, or a one-and-done never-again athlete?

You can enjoy the benefits from endurance sport across your whole life:

Great health
Balanced training
Energy for the day
Able to chase kids around
Able to do the races you want

These are possible if you take a sustainable approach to training.

Recap

Sustainable training considers what you’re capable of hitting consistently for weeks without sacrificing recovery.
Loading is used to improve aspects of your fitness while respecting your bodies ability to sustain new load.
Sustainable training is all about expanding your time horizon to years not weeks.

If you want the complete table for key sessions for Sustainable Endurance Training I made the whole thing into a Notion Page for you.

Thank you!

- Chandler

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