It reminded me of this old post which I have dug up to try and persuade you to hold back on those recovery sessions even when you feel great because fatigue can be waiting round the corner. Easy means easy no matter how good you feel!

Anticipating shifts in energy

During training you will experience cycles or waves in performance and fatigue which tie in closely to the training load you are under.
As load is accumulated it will become harder to maintain performance and fatigue will be accumulated. There is a distinct lag between the training and the subsequent fatigue however which represents the time it takes your body to start recovering and adapting to the stimulus.

When we experience good form in training and start hitting personal best workouts which we all hope to do, it is an indicator that the right training load has been achieved and while we feel energitic at the time we can anticipate fatigue in the coming period as your body tries to adapt.

Hopefully then you will be able to recover and train hard again soon. The adaptions that have occurred will allow you to perform well again and achieve new levels in training.

Where many athletes go wrong is failing to understand how the cycles of performance and fatigue interact and relate current fatigue to current training load without appreciating the delay.

This means that when performance peaks and we feel energetic it is tempting to push hard in training. For a short time this is possible because fatigue has not caught up yet but when it does however it is often greater and requires more recovery resulting in slower adaption.

To optimise your training you need to be disciplined enough to accept when your training has peeked and anticipate fatigue rather than wait for your performance to drop off and fatigue to rise to a level where it is too hard to train.

If you do this chronically it will lead to over training and deep deep fatigue that may take extended periods to recover from.

A previously unknown hormone, irisin, released from muscle in resonce to exercise was describe in the most recent edition of Nature (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22237023). Before I completely loose your attention you should also know it has potential therapeutic uses in the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes and you will hear a lot more about it in the future. This study while done in mice also identified the human equivalent which is 100% identical which is a remarkable similarity when compared to other factors. This suggest the mechanisms may be well conserved between mammals.

“Irisin is induced with exercise in mice and humans, and mildly increased irisin levels in the blood causes an increase in energy expenditure in mice with no changes in movement or food intake. This results in improvements in obesity and glucose homeostasis. “

It does this by converting fat storing “white fat” cells which make up the vast majority of the fat in the body to “brown fat” cells which have very different properties.

Brown fat or brown adipose tissue (BAT) expresses a special protein (UCP1) that allows it to burn fat and release the energy as heat rather than the bodies chemical energy ATP. Cells exposed to irisin increased their levels of UCP1 50 times or more.

This fat burning BAT is activated by cold expose to generate heat but it is also known to be activated by exercise. It si also known that exercise results in burning more energy than that actually required to perform the physical work but it is not know exactly why.

“it is likely that irisin is responsible for at least some of the beneficial effects of exercise on the browning of adipose tissues and increases in
energy expenditure”

This raises the question why exercise (a condition where you would think you need to conserve energy) should activate a mechanism which burns energy fustily.

“One explanation for increased irisin expression with exercise in mouse and man may be that it evolved as a consequence of muscle contraction during shivering. Muscle secretion of a hormone that activates adipose thermogenesis during this process might provide a broader, more robust defence against hypothermia”

You may also be asking will this help me exercise or not? Unfortunately apart from helping you keep weight off irisin will probably not help your muscle utilise fat for energy but there has been no research done on this to date.

The fact that is helps combat diet induced obesity and diabetes (even if just in rats at this stage) means irisin and irisin mimetics will be be hotly pursued as theraputics over the next few years.

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
Albert Einstein

Science is a great thing, it gives us a framework to understanding the world through hypothesis, observation, manipulation, quantification and analysis. There is a lot of it out there however and while any single report or piece of research is what it is, it can often be used in the wrong way or a misleading way by the media or individuals trying to support their own hypothesis.

A new trend I have notice and one that I am certainly guilty of myself is the dissemination of science through social media such as twitter. The result is one line statements sometimes branded as ‘fact’ or ‘conclusive’ backed up by science. Sometimes these claims may be quite fair but very often they are wild claims, without foundation, not backed up by the quoted science or not referenced atall.

In sports science this becomes even more mystical as the studies become smaller, less well controlled and often entirely anecdotal. This level of confusion comes even before you have assessed the methods and the actual data.

When face with this onslaught of garbled science truths with enough spin on them to make an electron dizzy it is important to be able to make your own mind up about the validity and the importance of what you read.

Follow the rules I am going to give you and you will be able to make your own mind up about the information I and everyone else is throwing at you. For now remember:

*Most reports or studies are fine, it is the inference that others put on them where it all goes wrong.
*Scientist are great at spin because their funding is closely linked to how significant there work is.
*Nothing is absolute,it is unlikely that any one report can be conclusive due to biological and experimental variation.
*Be sceptical but do not loose faith and use you intuition.

That’s why I was so interested to read a case report of a Norwegian elite cyclist using a low volume approach with specific training modifications to be more compatible with their cold climate (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22124353).

They report over the course of one year “VO2max improved by 10.5 %, from 66.6 to 73.6 ml·kg-1·min-1 and the ergometer TT performance improved by 14.9%” while on a program consisting of just under an average of 5 hours cycling per week. His weight and body fat percent were unaltered during the time. That sounds far more realistic to me than any elite cycling program I have seen in the past and coincidentally is very similar to my own weekly average cycling.

Now don’t get too excited it is not quite that easy. While this represented a reduction in total volume from their traditional cycling program, they still maintained a total average of 11 hours per week by the inclusion of running (and we assume functional and strength work) in their program.

This is desirable because it is more compatible with a cold climate but is only effective assuming the gains in VO2 max are transferable between sports, which certainly seems to be the case in this instance.

Støren et. al. 2012

This low cycling volume approach used high aerobic intensity training (HAIT) consisting of sessions between 90-95% heart rate max. Two intensive blocks of 14 and 15 sessions in 9 and 10 days respectively were separated by more moderate training with just 3 HAIT sessions per week.

Interestingly while the HAIT sessions in the intervening periods were cycling sessions, the HAIT session durring the intensive blocks were all running sessions consisting of 4x4min treadmill sessions.

This report represents the closest model I have seen to something that could be applied to the age group triathlete. With the low volume of cycling and inclusion of running it describes a method to improve performance across disciplins (his running VO2 max also increased substantially)!

Low volume with high intensity sessions across multiple disciplins can be very effective and it seems cycling large volumes at low intensity during the winter is not the only route to cycling success.

Sometimes I get irked when I hear tempo training getting criticised for being ineffective or even detrimental. The truth, I believe, like all sorts of training is that it is done badly, here is why I think that is.

Not enough discipline When athletes train at a low volume the averages creep up, the intensity of recovery rides, aerobic base rides warm ups cool downs and intervals breaks all creep up. It is important to keep clear distinctions between your intensities and not end up with all your riding quite hard but not hard enough to get the effect you want or easy enough to allow recovery. When you look at a power file you should be clearly see when you were riding tempo and when not, if you can’t your probably going to hard the rest of the time.

Not enough variation of intensity Training a range of intensities will allow you to develop in a balanced way and give a number of different stimuli. There is no ‘magic’ intensity do not over emphasise 70%, 80%, 90% 100% of threshold or you will stagnate and not improve.

Not enough recovery If you are using a lower volume tempo training approach you need more recovery. More days off and more longer breaks to allow complete recovery. Too often I see athletes struggling because they have free time and throw in extra training because they feel good. Just like an interval session you need to see clear differences between your rest periods in terms of days and occasionally weeks.

The hardest thing for an athlete to do is not train. You can’t sit still. You feel like you should be out there working
Graeme Obree

This may not be surprising but the results of a large cohort study of 592 adults (mean age 51.4 for the 267 men and 50.3 for the 325 women) suggest that the amount could make a big difference (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21233153).

This large study measured body mass index, waist to hip ratio, and HOMA insulin sensitivity in 2000 and again at follow-up in 2005.

Having a higher daily step count in 2005 than in 2000 was independently associated with lower BMI, lower waist to hip ratio and greater insulin sensitivity in 2005.

Recent recommendations of 3000 steps per day for five days a week (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19362695) will undoubtedly result in improved health but is significantly less than the popular 10,000 steps per day guideline (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20386248).

These researchers estimate that increasing step count to meet the 10,000 step most days guideline “would have a threefold improvement in HOMA insulin sensitivity compared with a similar person who increased his or her steps to meet the more recent recommendation of 3000 steps for five days a week.”

While this may be the most efficient intensity to develop aerobic endurance it relies heavily on having the metabolic fitness to back that up.

In the case of this example I have already used you can compare the first athlete who has a fatmax (highest absolute amount of fat burned) in the top on their tempo zone compared to a second whos fatmax is probably of the bottom on the range tested.

This means that while the first athlete can happily train well above aerobic threshold and develop fitness efficiently the second athlete may have to be more patient and train at or below aerobic threshold (which was 9kph in this case) to develop their metabolic and aerobic fitness.

It will be of no surprise athlete 1 is an experienced long distance athlete having done 6 ironmans while the second is a junior training for sprint events.

This is also a good demonstration of why more low intensity training can be appropriate for younger athletes trying to develop endurance for longer duration events such as triathlon.

Observations of the German junior elite cycling teams training behaviours (href=”http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20861522) prompted some discussion among athletes and coaches. After a 15 week base building period, it seemed those who improved the most logged significantly more low intensity ‘aerobic’ training hours and less high intensity ‘threshold’ hours. While there there are many confounding factors it does raise the question is high intensity simply no substitute or can it actually be detrimental to aerobic development?

It is not my view that higher intensity training is detrimental rather the unstructured, undisciplined way it is conducted here that is the problem.

“Why the benefit of lower intensity vs higher is a good question” asks leading triathlon coach John Dargie “and I’m not sure I have the answer. The lower intensity is to my mind much more reproducible – if done properly and fueled appropriately it can be done every day. Threshold stuff is fatiguing, levels more variable day by day. Also threshold is often badly done, with average intensity correct but control of intensity within sessions too variable. You don’t need to go much over threshold (3-5% or less) for it to be very fatiguing and hence unsustainable”

It is well accepted that focused low intensity aerobic training or ‘base training’ is important to stimulate adaptions required to perform to your potential. These adaptions include:

Metabolic- adaptions allowing better fuel utilisation, oxygen transport and lactate clearance. For instance increases in beta fatty acid oxidation, increased muscle myoglobin and an increased propoetion of LDH-H.

Cardiovascular- adaptions resulting in increased cardiac output, muscle oxygenation and oxygen transport. For instance increased stroke volume and heart rate, increased capillarisation of muscles and increase plasma volume and red cell number.

Pulmonary- adaptions allowing improved blood gas exchange for example strengthening of respiratory muscles and increase tidal volume.

It my experience the way to train any physiological system is to frequently repeat a stress that targets the system. When it comes to the aerobic system that target is the aerobic threshold (AeT) which is basically which is hard to pin down but is basically where your breathing become such that you can no longer comfortably breath through your nose. It will be around the last baseline point on a lactate curve or below VT1.

When training at the aerobic threshold all of the key aerobic systems are stressed and the stress can be sustained for extended periods at a time without disproportionate levels of fatigue.

“The problem with base workouts” says Joe Friel author of Triathletes Training Bible,“is that it seems too easy at first so the athlete is tempted to abandon their aerobic zone and start riding variably paced with hard and easy efforts – fartlek intervals, essentially. And by so doing reduces the aerobic benefits of the day’s workout.”

It is possible that the high intensity work could be detrimental for instance by increasing the production of catabolic hormones such as cortisol and glucagon. It is likely however that it was the riders that showed the most discipline to remain in their optimum training range rather than giving in to the temptation to let pace vary that reaped the rewards.

In short, take care to control your efforts, reserve hard efforts for specific workouts, make your basic aerobic training count and if your coach tells you to go easy then they probably mean EASY!

A recent study has flagged up a number of mental strategies as positive indicators of triathlon performance (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22212260).

1) Competitive motivation to participate
2) Pre-competition routines
3) Energising strategies
4) Setting outcome goals for races

It is not really surprising that those that are motivated perform better, the same motivation no doubt filters though to training as well. Also having clear and ambitious goals for a race can help drive you on and become more energised and focussed.

The use of pre-competition routines and energising strategies is interesting because it is something we can all do.

For triathletes it often starts the day before…..


1)Bike cleaning and preparing of the legs
2)Preparatory training session which may include short intervals using race equipment
3)Visualiseation of each element of the coming race from the start to finish
4)The night before meal and relaxation routine


I do all or most of these things before a big race and like to finish by watching Rocky in bed which ensures you wake up with a winning theme.


1)The morning coffee and the pre-race meal, you should know what this will be
2)The ritualistically setting out of the transition area as if for a surgical procedure
3)A set movement preparation and warm up routine
4)High tempo music
5)Positive self talk and visualisation of positive race scenarios
6)A final caffein gel before getting in the water

If your the type to stand around chatting about the weather and shivering then it should not be a surprise to you if you get mauled in swim start.

You may not go through all this before every sessions but these techniques will also help you perform in training.

In triathlon it is also important to go a long way on little energy or more accuratly as much energy you like from fat but little carbohydrate. At rest most people will burn at some if not all fat for energy but the intensity of exercise increase the balance shifts toward carbohydrate until it is the sole fule that your body uses.

Because the body carries only a limited amount of carbohydrate, when you run out you bonk, blow up or have a ‘hypo’ which means your muscles have run out of usable fuel and have to slow down accordingly. You will then be forced to go at an intensity where you can metabolise fat for energy.

There are several ways to avoid this:

1) Replace the carbohydrate you use
2) Pace yourself to a level that is energetically sustainable
3) Train your ability to metabolise more fat and less carbohydrate

In Dundee we have been doing some fule utilisation profiling and what you see here are 2 plot, one for a well trained long distance athlete and one for a sprint distance athlete.

You can immediately see there is a large difference between the two profiles, while the first athlete can metabolise fat as the predominant fule source even at threshold the second completely shuts down fat metabolism in their tempo zone.

To develop this there are several training and dietary modification that can be made and also mistakes that can be avoided but here I will just give you my top two do’s and don’ts.

Do…..

1) Think about modifying with the proportion of fat in your diet especially before specific sessions. Try doing longer sessions on a high fat/ protein breakfast and reducing carbohydrate accordingly. Short term changes in diet can have large effects on metabolic pathways.

Do…..

2) Include high intensity exercise which can efficiently stimulate fat metabolism. It is true that lots of low intensity exercise can increase your fat burning ability but very high intensity exercise can also do this and take much less time.

Don’t…..

1) Don’t be tempted in to a very low fat diet. This may be healthy and advisable for most people but for endurance athletes removing fat from the diet rapidly turns off fat mobilising and metabolising pathways.

Don’t…..

2) Train on empty. Starving your body of fuel forces it to use what it has without necessarily inducing adaptions. This may mean fat is burned in the short term but not that your ability to burn fat will increase. It also means muscle protein will be be broken down as that is the only way it can maintain blood sugar to keep your brain happy.