Training Log Aerobic vs anaerobic training strategies

thegreenhand

thegreenhand

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So im a big cardio guy. The past year or so I've been really into triathlon. Swim bike run for those who dont know. I would love to do an ironman eventually but for now let's assume the race distance is a standard olympic length course. 1500 meter swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run.

I have a theory of an unconventional training plan and I want some opinions on it.

So the normal advice for triathlon training is 80/20. Which i think means 80%of training is done below the anaerobic threshold and 20% above. So most trianing is not speed work, it's LSD (long slow distance)

I want to forgo in that favor of perhaps more of 40/60 or 30/70 where the bulk of training is speed work and the remaining 30-30% is slow recovery workouts. I want to do this because a) I want to win some of these races after COVID ends and b) high tempo workouts just feel better to me

Some quick background on me, I was a lifelong soccer player for 15 or so years in my youth, playing quite competitively towards the end of high school. After i graduated i shifted my athletics into cardio/endurance and triathlon was a great fit for me. My resting HR is 50 bpm so im in decent shape already.

Is my plan stupid? Am i bound for injury? Obviously flexibility/mobility exercises will be paramount. My idea to do this sort of stems from MMA fighters where they are in very intense anerobic exercises for a decently sustained time. Basically rather than just be another malnourished looking cardio freak, can i train my heart to work such that it always working on the brink of going anaerobic? but ofc i'll still look malnourished lol :/
 
Sorry just now getting to this. While I don't have any experience in this area I am keen to see your log. Should be interesting to follow. Though I can chime in and say training above the anaerobic threshold means use of fast twitch muscles which leads to increased fatigue and lactic acid build up. Though the lactate threshold can be raised with continued training and the ability to remove lactic acid/lactate is increased via training in that range. So it may work in your benefit if the distance covered isn't too far as you'll be able to still be quicker out the gate and be able to rally at the end better as your type II fibers will be more likely be IIa muscles after training to utilize both glycogen and fat for energy as opposed to relying mostly on type I which don't exert a lot of force as is evident in most endurance athletes. It'll definitely be an interesting experiment to see how far these adaptations can go.
 
Thanks man, that write up was very informative. Just what I needed to see actually.

I’m thinking that my soccer background will come in handy here. While not every workout I do will be above threshold (like later today for example probably) the bulk will be. I can’t find much info on this sort of training but I’m young and healthy so I might as well put my body through it to see haha
 
Sep 3 2020

bike
20.3 mi. 13.3 mph avg. ~105 avg HR

was with a riding buddy of mine today so i took things slower than i probably would have on my own. That said after he had to head home i stuck out there and tested riding close to my max for a sustained time. the good news is that my cardiovascular system can take it - the bad news is that my legs can't

My legs were hitting fatigue much quicker than my heart/lungs. No matter how hard I pushed was never "running out of breath" but my legs would be crapping out. I suppose this may be good news if i can train my quads to endure longer because i still have plenty of room to go before hitting "the ceiling" with my HR. guess we'll find out...
 
Sep 4 2020

ez day

swim
40 mins in the pool (maybe 1000 yds or so). ~ 120 avg HR. (but my watch's HR monitor got kinda wonky in the water so idk for sure)


my legs have been taking it too hard this week for sure. i need to be very cautious not to overtrain with this. i've done it in the past and i have a tendency to convince myself that rest days aren't needed. anybody have experience with taking like 1-2 weeks of active recovery and then coming back? i would hate for this attempt at adaption to be foiled by my overeagerness
 
Sep 5 2020

ez day

bike
4x parking deck climbs (9 stories each trip up). ~90 avg HR

trying to build strength in the legs so that they can keep up with the heart. gonna see how i feel today and tomorrow before deciding if I should take 1-2 rest weeks before really kicking off this plan
 
Sep 6 2020

rest day

woke up this morning after sleeping in a couple hours later than normal. my brain normally forces me awake early but my body had to tell it otherwise. That kinda seals the deal for me on if I need this week or so off. I’ll be entering some hibernation here for a week with lots of sleep and good nutrition (and trying to stay off the weed and alc as I lounge around lol).

probably will still write entries in the thread here justs because the act of getting out my thoughts out has been very beneficial. I still have to bike around campus, walk to the store etc. plus I want to use this time to incorporate mobility exercises with resistance bands and also flexibility exercises into my routine. All very low intensity and volume though, of course
 
Might be a good time to recover as you said. Maintain some sort of activity though or the systems you're working on conditioning will down regulate.
 
yep i'll be keeping the legs spinning by biking to work a few times this week (4 miles each way). low intensity though, ofc. deep foam rolling has been very nice too. like i said, I want to try to incorporate more mobility exercises and now is probably the time to figure that out
 
I've been recommend to do the deep foam rolling and have been considering trying that myself. Glad to hear positive benefits from it here, as well. What type of resistance band exercises do you use?
 
Deru said:
I've been recommend to do the deep foam rolling and have been considering trying that myself. Glad to hear positive benefits from it here, as well. What type of resistance band exercises do you use?
Click to expand...
The foam rolling is absolutely incredible. Don’t be afraid to go deep into it, even though it may hurt it first. Once you roll it out things will ease up. Just really try to relax the muscles in contact with the roller.

as to the resistance bands I’m still working on that. I've found some youtube videos about like “mobility for runners” and stuff that I’ve been trying to piece together and find a routine I like.
 
Sep 10 2020

rest day
bike ~4 miles each way to work and back

took things pretty easy but it felt good to get the legs spinning. this rest was definitely a good idea. i can feel my body has recovered a lot. will slowly be easing back into workouts. depending on how i feel tomorrow i may go for a light, easy swim. otherwise, I'll restart the workouts Saturday or Sunday probably
 
Sep 13 2020

bike
14.5 mi. 16 mph avg. ~100 bpm avg HR

Easing back into things. I put some clip on aero bars onto my bike to get into more of an aero/time trial/triathlon position on it. took some getting used to but it does feel like i can crank out more power.

I've used this week to do some studying up as well. @Serotonin101 your point about the IIa muscle fibers was a really good one. It seems that not many coaches or high level athletes have really explored this avenue of training. Part of the problem is that many triathletes train similarly for all races, regardless of length (which is stupid IMO). For a full ironman distance the IIa fibers seem to become very similar to the slowtwitch type I fibers. However, it seems that the small population of middle distance runners using this strategy have a lot of success with adapting their muscle fiber profile so that the IIa become much more explosive while still minimizing them fatiguing, like the IIb fibers would. Plyometrics/strength work are a substantial part of their training. The parking deck climbs I did could certainly become a staple in my routine. For swimming I'll try to incorporate interval workouts and less on just low slow laps until I hit my the race distance, as I have traditionally done.

With running I will have to keep the high intensity training to a minimum though. It stresses the ligaments and joints in a way that swimming and cycling simply don't. I may use my 1-3 run workouts a week as my "base fitness" where I do utilize low HR, targeting the slowtwitch fibers. This should help with injury prevention I think. Intense runs will have to be a much less common occurence than I am currently doing, perhaps mostly reserved for closer to racing season. This does play to my strengths though, as running is by far my strongest discipline of the three and therefore it would make sense to dedicate more time to improving upon the other two.

We shall see...
 
Sep 14 2020

run
3.1 mi. 8:48 avg. ~130 avg HR

Took things really slow. Any slower and I dont think I'd even consider it running. Legs feel great after, no soreness or niggles. Will do some mobility work tonight. Going on a ride with a buddy tomorrow so idk what his pace will be like. Might even take the fixie so that I have to use more leg strength
 
Sep 15 2020

swim
30 mins. ~130 avg HR

the ride with my buddy this morning was less of a “let’s get our miles in” and more of “let’s ride to the nearest cafe”. Oh well he’s just not that kind of an enthusiast lol. Had to squeeze in a quick swim before work instead.

i tried doing intervals consisting of high intensity speed work and then rest periods during which pace was slow but I breathed a LOT less. Sort of increasing lactate threshold is the idea?? Regardless it seemed to be a sustainable workout than can be done quickly which is always good. The thing with swimming is that technique is so critical compared to cyclingor running. I’ll try to convince my sister to help me one of these days. She used to swim quite competitively.

and thanks for the encouragement guys, it means a lot💛
 
That's one thing that steered me away from swimming is that I just can't get the technique right and don't really have a pool or water to practice. I sink like a rock too with the muscle mass I have so I gotta kick my legs super hard to keep my lower body afloat lol
 
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