Whats a zone?

There's three:

Easy
Medium
Hard

*snerk*

JorgeM - 2009-01-14 9:13 PM

Birkierunner - 2009-01-14 7:06 PM so...if I'm on the trainer and feel like crying "mommy", am I going hard enough? 

nope, you don't have to feel it, you actually have to start crying

now see...if I had taken the USAT Level 1 Coaching seminar I would have known that.  Thanks Coach J !  

Birkierunner - 2009-01-15 8:41 AM

JorgeM - 2009-01-14 9:13 PM

Birkierunner - 2009-01-14 7:06 PM so...if I'm on the trainer and feel like crying "mommy", am I going hard enough? 

nope, you don't have to feel it, you actually have to start crying

now see...if I had taken the USAT Level 1 Coaching seminar I would have known that.  Thanks Coach J !  

Now you understand why Jorge is such a success.  Most people think that I keep a towel on my bike while on the trainer for the sweat.  It's actually for the tears.

docswim24 - 2009-01-15 9:31 AM Guess you don't like my blog title very much.

I would add that I believe there is also a difference between the bike and run. I have a few years of experience and find that I can generally do a fair amount of work on the bike in Z2 & Z3 without hurting myself, but am just now starting to be able to train in low Z2 consistently without injury on the run.

I hope to be able to consistently train in Z2 or Z3 by the end of this year but think building up to this intensity takes time and for me, it has taken more time to safely build up the run intensity vs. the bike intensity.

So far I have found the greatest gains when I bike hard(Z2-Z4) and consistent and run easy (Z1/Z2) which allows me to run consistently.

Excellent post.  You used my favorite training word consistently. 

How dare you bring reason into this thread

Have you? no idea. 

However, the idea that one training style is the best for every individual has been suggested, at the very least, if not outright stated.  I think that is unreasonable.  If you posted that, then the answer is yes.  If you didn't, the answer is no.

But I am no coach, so please feel free to rip that opinion apart.

bryancd - 2009-01-15 4:12 PM I look at this thread like a P.S.A. for solid IM athletes who use 'Base" as an excuse to slack off and still convince themselves they are training. I see that a lot. Denial is not a river in Egypt.

I'm sorry, I just can't take you seriously with that avatar, I keep trying to read what you write but my eyes are curiously drawn to the left.  Then I start wondering what's on the bridge screen causing him so much surprise.  Klingons??  Green skin lady???

Scuse me, I gots to go swim some base yardage tonight

RPE es Supremo... Old Skoo Rocks

That's what I'm talking about! But with the L...

The way I interpret this thread is exactly to debate why believing the ‘one size fits all’ approach for tri training can be misleading. Some coaches, books, venues, etc. have made popular certain approaches to the point that their proponents or their audience now believe in this like gospel whether the premise behind it is sound or not or more important applicable to their particular needs.

In this particular thread the ‘traditional’ approach been debated is that training should follow an specific progression and that certain intensities should be avoided all together or initially for a given training cycle otherwise the athlete is at risk of not reaching his/her full potential, injury, etc. If you look at what physiological training adaptations we seek to accomplish for endurance sports and how or when this adaptations take place, then it is easy to realize this ‘traditional’ approach present wholes that can be debated. It doesn’t mean it is necessarily right nor wrong, it obviously works for the right people and I posted the reasons why/when, above, but also there are valid arguments to debate and challenge it with alternatives that can better serve many athletes.

No need to rip anyone’s opinions apart; they are just that, opinions whether right or wrong or whether we agree or disagree. That to me is very different to present an opinion as conclusive evidence and promote it to the point that we shouldn’t even question the elements or reasoning behind it. IOW, I could present you my argument and give you the sources I’ve used to formulate my own opinion for you to then analyze all that info, formulate your own opinion and ultimately agree or disagree with me. Or I could just tell you my opinion as definitive evidence and just ask you to believe me because I am right.

In the end, athletes are free to dig into these ideas/concepts as deep as they want or not. They are fee to believe or challenged ideas and experiment to find what’s the best way given their specific needs. There is no one size fits all, most approaches will work IF the athlete do the work consistently, the question most AGers should consider is given their specific needs and limitations what’s the best use of my training time to achieve my goals.  None of what I suggest involves quick fixes or short-cuts; that I don’t believe in. If you want to get fast you have to do the work and do it over and over and over for a long time (read years).

Bravo.