Year-end reviews can focus on stuff & achievements
I’m grateful for my younger self’s relentless focus on buying me time
I’m shifting my writing over to Substack:
I hope you join the community.
Ryan came over and we went deep with a progressive bike test.
You’ll find article, video and training prescription in this morning’s Substack post.
I’m shifting my writing over to Substack:
I hope you join the community.
Getting Faster This Week has published on Endurance Essentials
I’m shifting my writing over to Substack:
I hope you join the community.
New this morning on my Substack
More ideas Monday when I unpack @theryandreyer Lactate Test
👇
https://feelthebyrn.substack.com/p/how-i-ride
I’m shifting my writing over to Substack:
I hope you join the community.
You’ll find today’s post over at my new location on Substack.
Time is a critical component of your endurance training. The article covers the origin of Big Day Training, which was my favorite workout as an elite triathlete. Also covered, is how you can apply the principles for amateur athletes.
An Ultraman Training Day – The Origin of Big Day Training
I’m in the process of moving my endurance writing over to Substack and hope you join the community over there.
I’ve changed the format of the Sunday Summary to something more user friendly
It’s called Getting Faster This Week and you can find it at my Substack
I’m in the process of moving my writing to Substack and hope you join the community over there.
At the start of 2022, a vision came to me:
That’s was my vision.
What is your vision?
That’s for you to decide.
I’m going to show you how to get there.
I’m ahead of schedule and have done it several times before.
If you’re feeling courageous, maybe tell someone.
Absolutely, tell yourself, in writing.
Own it.
Over time, perhaps you realize your fears are an illusion and you share your vision with the world.
What’s it going to take?
So much work, it’s overwhelming.
Inside my light was going out.
It was time for a change.
Asking the right question, the answer arrived.
Positive change is built from new connections and action.
How many new connections do I need?
Seemed do-able. Certainly worth trying.
Break the goal down into simple, manageable pieces then do them, daily.
My best case scenario requires 4 new connections a day. I can do this.
What do I know about action?
What actions can I commit to making happen for 1000 days?
Seems small. Simple is a better way to think of it.
Simple, daily actions.
Fitness takes a long time to accrue. Just the way it is.
Fortunately, the real world is NOT like that.
Everybody gets their shot.
Thing is, we never know which connection will come through.
In 2022, Rich Roll gave me my shot. Our podcast goes SuperNova and brings five years of connection in a fortnight.
Keep swinging.
Our connections let us know what resonates.
In January, I am migrating to Substack and splitting my blog.
WordPress won’t let me migrate you – you’ll need to sign up.
Subscription is free – there’s an option to financially contribute if you wish.
Come along for the ride. It’s going to be great.
Every new cyclist knows the feeling of being completely blown after a hard effort.
In my first bike race, I decided to attack the bunch, downhill. Don’t ask me why. Back then, I’d lose my mind when my HR was up.
The attack left my legs shattered and saw me quickly spat out the back when the bunch rolled me up.
In swimming, as I challenged my ability to swim long via 4000, 5000, 6500 and, eventually, 10000 meter workouts, there would be days when a switch-flipped and, instantly, my pace dropped by 10s per 100.
Like my first bike race, there was no coming back.
In running, particularly long races, my experience was different yet again.
Here, pain would slowly build in in my legs and my pace would gradually slow.
Eventually, my legs would be so beat up, I was unable to place a meaningful load on my cardiovascular system.
Fueled up, and hydrated, with no ability to raise my heart rate.
Exercise physiologists refer to the above as Durability
…the time of onset and magnitude of deterioration of physiological performance parameters over time during prolonged exercise.
– TTS Podcast with ed maunder & stephen Seiler
Quite a mouthful.
I prefer to think in terms of DEPTH.
Think Deep.
Deep Fitness
Fitness, that goes the distance.
Fitness, nurtured with sleep and nutrition.
How might we build this fitness?
Last Monday, I shared an Endurance Hierarchy
Before you try to get faster, DEEPEN the fitness you already have.
You are going to be surprised by this process.
It will make you faster AND give you the capability to hold your speed.
Dead-simple approach
Make sure you’ve developed the Ability To Do Work before starting this training.
How much should you do? Start with a 90:10 split.
If you incorporate hills then you might already be doing this training without realizing it.
That said, if you are ‘trying’ on your hills then you are likely to be training more intensely than required.
This tip, to slow down, will be a recurring form of my advice to you.
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You’re almost certainly training more intensely than you realize.
It’s not your fault. It’s the way we’re wired.
The solution is simple, aim your mistakes towards “low & less.”
In the unlikely event you’re aiming too low, you get more volume around aerobic threshold.
This is not a problem, it’s a benefit from my approach.
You’ll benefit in avoiding the common pitfall of nuking yourself as soon as you add a bit of “proper” training.
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What is a Heavy Domain set?
I’ve written out examples for you.
Tips for all sports:
Advanced athletes, build up to 40-60 minutes worth of work, broken.
Remember: this is not more than 10% of your total volume
Resist: the urge to go bananas when heart rate rises
Know: The big gains come from:
Build fitness that permeates every cell of your body.
Think DEEP
In January, I am migrating to Substack and splitting my blog.
WordPress won’t let me migrate my existing subscribers.
Subscription is free – there’s an option to financially contribute if you wish.
Come along for the ride. It’s going to be great.
Upside Strength with Sean Seale – covered season planning, athletic development, personality profiles of elite athletes, individual variation in training response, recovery tactics… and more.
Top Five Threads
Endurance Training Tips
High Performance Habits
Today, I am going to touch on a favorite topic.
Getting Tired The Right Way
“Right” meaning the way that directly benefits race performance, or builds the capacity to do the training required for race performance
Let’s start at the beginning.
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You’ve signed up for a race. How long is it going to take you?
Consider The Gap between Average Daily Load and Likely Race Duration
The wider the gap, the lower your training intensity will need to be.
The initial focus: skills, strength and building the capacity to move.
Above is a long weekend from in November, ~10.5 hours of volume across three days.
When you are pushing duration, you will need to back off the pace.
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Extend by Compressing => patiently build the capacity to fit your event into fewer days.
Triathletes, look at total time (& distance) by sport. The multiple, or fraction, of race distance completed each week gives valuable insight into the humility you must display with race pacing.
Runners, your job is easier, look at weekly mileage and remember ALL mileage counts (walk, hike, run, you name it).
Everyone, judge your fitness by what happens after you load.
When you push duration, how long does it take you to return to normal training?
The depth of your fitness will be determined by your ability to back-it-up following your key endurance days.
The weekend after the block (above), I did the equivalent of a Half Ironman (below)
These two days were not done at race pace.
Race Simulation workouts would have been too costly to my overall week. I would have needed too much recovery.
Step Two: after you have proven “Ability to Move” move on to “Ability to Do Work”.
What I was seeking was placing the work-equivalent of my goal event into a single day, or 24-hour period.
My long “workout” is actually a series of workouts, intervals, meals… spread across a period of time.
Then I rest, do easy training, absorb and return to my normal training week.
Over time, my ability to do work will improve.
If it doesn’t then I need to see what is preventing improvement (below).
How can we train the ability to do work?
You gotta put in the hours.
Years later, it’s time to think about the specific demands of your event.
Step Three is training to perform and that’s a topic for another day.
The more time you give yourself to prepare, the faster you will be in your racing.
Feel The Byrn 
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