THE EPS TRIATHLON TRAINING METHODOLOGY

A question I am often asked is ‘why do you program training the way you do?’ The answer is related to the document “Getting the Most from Your Training” where I stressed that recovery from training is more important than the training itself in promoting improvement. This article explains the basis of the EPS weekly schedules and will supply you with the answers to any questions you may get about an EPS program.

Let us look first at a three week block at the Olympic or Iron(Wo)man level in times of intensity and recovery. It is taken for granted that technique is practised in ALL workouts regardless of intensity and/or duration.

Tony Benson

Level 3 Triathlon Coach

Wk 1		Aim	Workout	Cardiovascular	Muscle	Skeletal
Mon: Tue: Wed: Thu: Fri: Sat: Sun:	(am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am)	Swim Run Drills Cycle Run Swim Run/Rest Run Cycle Swim Run/Rest Ride? Long Run Rest/Swim Long Ride + Run?	Speed Speed Lactic Acid Tolerance Aerobic Threshold Recovery Anaerobic Power MVO2 Recovery Recovery Aerobic Conditioning Recovery Aerobic & Anaerobic Conditioning Specific Adaption	Hard Easy Moderate Moderate Hard Easy Hard Hard Hard Easy Easy Easy Easy Hard Moderate	Moderate to Hard Moderate Hard Moderate Moderate to Hard Easy Hard Hard Moderate to Hard Easy Easy Moderate Easy Moderate Moderate	Easy Easy Moderate Hard Easy Moderate Moderate Easy Easy Easy Easy Hard Easy Moderate Easy

Wk 2		Aim	Workout	Cardiovascular	Muscle	Skeletal
Mon: Tue: Wed: Thu: Fri: Sat: Sun:	(am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am)	Swim Run Cycle Run Swim Run/Rest Run Cycle Swim Run/Rest Ride? Long Run Rest/Swim Long Ride + Run	Speed Speed & Anaerobic Power Aerobic Power Recovery Anaerobic Power MVO2 & Anaerobic Power Recovery Recovery Aerobic Conditioning Recovery Strength & Aerobic Conditioning Specific Adaption	Hard Easy Moderate Moderate Hard Easy Hard Hard Hard Easy Easy Easy Easy Hard Moderate	Hard Moderate Hard Moderate Moderate Easy Moderate Hard Hard Easy Easy Moderate Easy Hard Moderate	Easy Easy Moderate Hard Easy Moderate Moderate Easy Easy Easy Easy Hard Easy Moderate Easy

Wk 3		Aim	Workout	Cardiovascular	Muscle	Skeletal
Mon: Tue: Wed: Thu: Fri: Sat: Sun:	(am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am) (pm) (am)	Rest/Swim Rest/Jog Cycle TT Rest/Jog Swim TT Rest/Ride Run TT Rest/Ride Rest/Swim Rest Combo Rest Rest	Rest or Aerobic Recovery Rest or Aerobic Recovery Race Specific/MVO2 Rest or Aerobic Recovery Race Specific/MVO2 Rest or Aerobic Recovery Race Specific/MVO2 Rest or Aerobic Recovery Rest or Aerobic Recovery Rest Race Specific/All Systems Rest Rest	E E Hard E Hard E Hard E E E Hard E E	E E Hard E Hard E Hard E E E Hard E E	E E Moderate E Easy E Moderate E E E Hard E E

As you read through this document you will note that the weeks shown above encompass some ~120 parameters. Of these ~60 (50%) are rated as ‘easy’, ~30 (25%) are ‘moderate’ and ~30 (25%) are rated as ‘hard’. Swimming accounts for ~10 of the ‘hard’ parameters, cycling for ~12 and running for ~8. The moderate workouts are: swimming ~4, cycling ~7 and running ~19. The ‘easy’ workouts are: swimming ~13, cycling ~8 and running ~24 with days or sessions ‘off’ accounting for the rest.

Secondly you will see that it will be extremely difficult to construct a programme in any other way and still maintain a three-tiered ‘hard/moderate/easy’ structure for anyone who is working during the week. This is why.

The Long Ride. Time suggests this has to be done on either Saturday or Sunday and safety in terms of the amount of traffic on the road means Sunday is the preferable option.
The Long Run. Due to the fact that the long ride is on Sunday time dictates this is best done on Saturday.
The combined effect of training extensively on both Saturday and Sunday dictates that Friday (to prepare for the weekend) and Monday (to recover from the weekend) must be ‘easy’ or ‘leg easy’ at least.
The fact that Monday and Friday must be ‘leg easy’ dictates that Tuesday and Thursday will be ‘leg hard’. This means Wednesday must be ‘leg easy’. It also means a serious athlete will attempt to train twice on Tuesday and Thursday as hard run or ride workouts cannot be done on Wednesday by anyone other than full or near full time athletes – and they will train 2-3 x day anyway!
The combined effect of all of the above dictates that hard swimming, (an ‘arm hard’ activity) is best done on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and if any swimming is done on Tuesday, Thursday and/or Saturday it should be recovery/technique swimming as this will not only improve swimming but it will also aid leg recovery provided it is done after the running and/or cycling is finished AND it is done easy enough not to interfere with swimming on Wednesday and Friday.
Other effects of the long run on Saturday and the long ride on Sunday.

a) Monday run drill and speed development workout must be done on ‘fresh’ legs. The Monday immediately following the TT/Recovery week is ideal and doing it early in the second week so 36 to 48 hrs after the Saturday long run is the optimum position for this workout.

b) Tuesday cycle speed/power workout should also be done as fresh as possible so again it is best done in the first week following a Sunday ‘off’ and early in the second week some 40 to 42 hrs after the long ride is the optimum position.

c) The threshold or aerobic power run workout MUST be done on Tuesday because the ‘slow’ twitch fibres need 72 hrs + to recover from the long run and 24 to 36 hours is plenty of time between a ‘fast’ twitch session and a ‘slow’ twitch one. Further it does not matter that the legs may be tired from the (am) explosive cycle session because the workout is heart rate controlled and speed is less relevant than it is in the more race specific Thursday run workout.

d) The run workout MUST be done first on Thursday because this is either a race specific workout or a race pace workout and as such MUST be done reasonably fresh to ensure it promotes specific running economy.

e) This leaves to aerobic power or threshold type cycle session for the Thursday evening – which is ok – because again it has more to do with heart rate and effort than actual speed and so long as the effort is there the training effect will be optimal.

f) Finally given the number of ‘hard’ and ‘moderate’ impacts in Weeks 1 & 2 the Recovery week is clearly essential as close to 50% of the ‘easy’ workouts, ie, rest, are in this week.

Tony Benson

Editor’s Note

1. Those on HP programmes should note that while they may have structured workouts listed in many places where “Rest” or “Rest/” appears in the schedules above the principles behind a HP programme remain the same. For example a run and a ride may be done on a Wednesday but the athlete must still be well conditioned enough to come up fresh for the Thursday morning run workout. If the athlete is not able to perform regular high quality workouts when it is demanded of them all the extra miles and workouts will not help him/her in the least.

2. Remember triathlon training is not a simplistic as "running after riding" - something I hear regularly - any more than a decathlete does 100m training first and 110mH fifth and 1500m last. It’s about arriving at a balance between the Cardio-vascular, the Musclo-skeletal and the Neuro-muscular systems and about ensuring skill training precedes gross training. For this reason an inappropriate cycle workout can lessen the value of a run workout (and vice-versa naturally). Classic examples of this are riding a heavy endurance session BEFORE running a high quality run workout or doing a threshold run before a speed/power bike.