Contrary to popular belief, a lot of volume will not make you faster, especially if you have been in the sport for awhile. Endurance is part of the equation, but it’s definitely not the A well-developed triathlete must develop endurance, speed, strength and power. Neglecting any one of these areas will limit your potential as a triathlete. How we train athlete at Team FC – Fitness Coaching…in a nutshell The first phase of our training focuses on developing some strength and speed. Simply going longer will not make you faster. This is so difficult for many to accept because it is such a shift in thinking. Remember, going long helps you to resist fatigue and breakdown, but early in the season there is no need to develop your fatigue resistance.  Most triathletes come to the sport with limited training exposure to fast and quick training movements.  Although the chance of injury does increase slightly with more powerful and faster stuff, a well-structured program will allow you to build in some strength and speed without jeopardizing your health. The key is to do so without trying to maximize your endurance. Remember we don’t need the endurance early in the season. As the season progresses, our goal is to help build lactate tolerance (speed endurance). This is where we try and extend our early season speed we developed. Rest intervals get shorter and intervals get longer. As we approach race day, the endurance factor takes more of a priority because now we need to focus on what will prepare us for the demands of the race. You’ll see the number and intensity of the intervals shift to longer sustained efforts at an intensity that more closely matches your race day goal. The length of our program determines the time we spend in each phase. For athletes who are with me on a year round basis, we have the ability to focus on addressing the strength and speed component in much more depth. These phases can be repeated within the same season to allow for multiple peaks. So remember, your body must know how to efficiently move with power, strength and speed before we can add endurance to the mix. Focusing exclusively on endurance will definitely get you to to the finish line, but you will sell yourself short of your full potential. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing more about each of these phases. You’ll learn a few key bike workouts for each phase. My goal is to help you better understand how to structure your training.  I’ll be sending this information in our training tips newsletter so be sure and hop on the list if you haven’t signed up yet.  If you know anyone who can benefit from this, please share.
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