Youth Training Programs

Attached are your training and nutritional protocols for next week – please review each day’s notes and associated video links. Recently I have been asked my opinion about  what athletes should focus on when it comes to improving speed and my answer is usually a big surprise: aerobic base.  Without a doubt, aerobic capability is the BIGGEST limiter when it comes to long term speed & endurance, and I must admit that I personally discovered this the hard way.

Power of Aerobic Function

When I was at the Olympic Training Center, as a development athlete under the triathlon elite program, 80% of my weekly training consisted of speed & threshold workload in all three disciplines; however, my speed from quarter to quarter was not getting faster and my percentage of body of fat was increasing. It wasn’t until I began to increase my aerobic volume & reduced my speed & threshold workload (as recommended by a physiotherapist from Germany) to less than 5% of my weekly volume that my performance turned around for the better: faster interval times, improved duration before fatigue and lower body fat (down from 8% to 5%).  After much research and consulting with human performance specialists from around the world, I discovered that the reason for my stagnation as an athlete was because my body wasn’t taking in enough oxygen to burn fat (according to my heart rate monitor,  not perceived effort) as the main source of fuel for my muscle to move at any intensity level.  This was the first time that I realized the relationship between the aerobic base and the body’s ability to burn fat as a primary fuel source.

To share with you how much “faster” I became by building an aerobic base, I improved my running pace from a 6:15 pace at 155 down to 5:40 pace at the same heart rate (tested in identical conditions and venue); what this illustrated was that I was now able to burn fat for fuel efficiently enough to hold a pace that a year before was redlining my effort at a maximum heart rate of about 190. On top of the speed benefit at lower heart rates, I was no longer feeling like I was on the edge of an injury, along with feeling fresh after my workouts instead of being totally wasted from them.

Let’s look at the benefits of training & racing at the aerobic level:

1. Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF): the maximum heart rate you can go and still burn fat as the main source of energy in your muscles.
2. It is heart rate training that will enable you to recover day to day from your training.
3. It’s the effort level (the lower the better) that will help you burn those last few pounds of body fat.
4. It is the heart that will build the size of your internal engine so that you have more oxygen to deliver when you do want to maximize your speed in a race situation.

Over time, you will achieve the maximum benefits of aerobic training and at that point, we will increase the frequency of anaerobic training one or two days/week. The encouraging news is because of the aerobic base you have established, your body will be able to handle it. Keep at the intervals and you will see your pace improve once again for a period. But just like the aerobic training, there is a limit to the benefit you will receive from anaerobic/carbohydrate training. At that point, you will see your speed start to slow down again. And that is the signal that it is time to switch back to a strict diet of aerobic/fat burning training.

By following your protocols closely (regarding both duration and intensity), you will reap the long-term benefits of health, wellness and ultimately speed.  Just another tool to help you Working Smart, Not Hard and Avoid Overtraining!

Yours in sport & health,

-Coach Robb, Coaches and Staff

Thought for the week:

“Energy and persistence can conquer any and all obstacles.”