Here is a snapshot of my early triathlon season training from Strava:
Notice all these little tiny bubbles - each bubble represents one of my numerous, very short workouts. On many days I do 3 workouts: A quick 30-minutes run perhaps. A brief 20-minutes swim. A fast 15 minutes on my bike trainer. And these aren’t warm-ups or cool-downs - each bubble represents the whole session. (The number of minutes on the bubbles is the combined total workout time for the day).
Evidence suggests that short, frequent workouts are better for improving efficiency/economy (versus fewer, longer workouts). The triathlon training program I loosely follow is very insistent about avoiding "inappropriate training volume --which is primarily referring to the tendency of weekend triathletes to exhaust themselves doing "epic workouts". A well-known run training rule is to try not do more than 25% of your weekly mileage in one session.
So I assume these arguments in favor of frequent workouts for enhancing race performance are somewhat accurate and certainly I hope to improve my race times. But actually the main reason for this program is that I have simply felt like doing shorter workouts. I am really just lazy. It seems easier for me now to do short sessions.
- Especially easier when they are pleasant swims in the tiny pool at the luxury spa in my apartment building.
- Or a quick 15-minute trainer ride first thing in the morning before shower and breakfast.
- Or short runs around MidTown park, or on treadmill.
I have managed to arrange my schedule around these short, intense sessions, though it is occasionally inefficient time management, and I would acknowledge I may be compromising some training quality.
Of course most of us weekend athletes cannot maintain such a schedule (that’s why we are called weekend athletes, right?)
Of course most of us weekend athletes cannot maintain such a schedule (that’s why we are called weekend athletes, right?)
And even for me this training regime won’t last long, as the season progresses I anticipate shifting into longer, more race-specific sessions.
There was an article in the NY Times to the effect that "Short intense exercise is found to equal a longer moderate workout." Short meaning, on a stationary bike, 2 min easy, 20 seconds intense x 3, then 3 mins cooldown. This was the equivalent to 45 mins of moderate biking. So 10 mins, with 60 sec, hard.
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