Amateur Runners Should Take More Inspiration from the Training of Triathletes than Pro Runners
Performance in any endurance sport is best predicted by the volume of training the athlete has managed to accrue over preceding months and years. Mitochondria — the muscles’ aerobic energy factories — respond first and foremost to volume of training, becoming more efficient once higher intensity training is undertaken. Volume followed by intensity is the tried and tested approach to training, and while many tinker round the edges, it remains as true today as it was 60 years ago when athletes first began to train with scientific rigour. And sure specificity comes into play — you won’t improve mitochondrial density in your calves by taking on a long canoe trip — but to a large degree, aerobic exercise is largely interchangeable. This is why you see the World Record breaking speedskater, Nils Van Der Poel, riding a bike for 25hrs per week (or more) in his base period to make him better able to skate for 12mins and 30secs at the Olympics: it’s all legs and lungs and rock & roll.
Volume matters, and at a cellular level the human body is pretty agnostic about how you arrive at that volume. While speedskaters seek out novel and efficient training stimuli, and triathletes, by the very nature of their sport, are required to practice three distinct disciplines, runners are purists. The target of 100 miles per week is often cited as the point at which a runner can claim to be running a ‘high volume’. Mechanically this is true: 100 miles of running is incredibly taxing. But for the kind of runner who has the capacity to run that much, it most likely equates to only 12 or 13 hours of stimulus every week. Even the world’s greatest marathon runner, Eliud Kipchoge, only runs between 180 and 220km per week, which, given he runs his 40km tempo sessions at roughly 20kph, means he’s probably spending under 15hrs actually running, even in a big week. Elsewhere in the running world, pros are doing way less volume than that to perform at the highest level.
Meanwhile, in triathlon, Olympic distance specialists are training for around 25hrs per week, while long course athletes might train around 35hrs per week. The lion’s share of that volume will be on the bike, with running limited to the minimal effective dose — there’s no point risking injury if you can get most of the aerobic benefit from a lower impact modality. There’s also the fact that triathletes compete within a few percentage points of elite athletes in the individual sports of cycling and swimming, but the run is more attritional, and they tend to be 20% or more slower than elite runners, particularly by the time they run a marathon in the context of long course. But that doesn’t mean that we as amateur runners shouldn’t learn from them: given that a 2:35 marathon would be a dream performance for most of us who compete in the real world triathlon of family/work/running, and that’s the kind of time elites are now able to run off the bike, we’re actually targetting similar goals.
Here’s what I think we can learn from multisport athletes:
- Aerobic Volume is Everything
As an endurance athlete, your number one job is to do as much easy aerobic work as possible to create more mitochondria and develop the biggest, most efficient engine possible. - Mix Modalities
You hear a lot of runners say, “I get injured if I run more than 80km per week.” Fine. In that case, hop on your bike and add volume that way. With a couple of easy bike rides thrown in, you can hit 10hrs per week, at which point (in my experience) you start to notice real aerobic gains. As runners we would never add a different sport at the expense of running, but it might be possible to add aerobic stimulus to a week’s work with additional bike riding, hiking, swimming or XC skiing. - Intensity Management is Essential
Given the frequency of training triathletes have to undertake, they are excellent at managing intensity. What’s the use of riding so hard on a Tuesday morning if you can’t go out for your afternoon run? Get acquainted with Zone 3 in a five zone system and when in doubt, keep intervals on the easy side of hard — better to be undercooked than burnt to a crisp. - Eat to Compete
“There is no speed without power, and there’s no power without calories.” — Olav Alexsander Bu
We worry way too much about weight in running, and way too little about metabolic performance. In a flat marathon, a kilo here or there will make very little difference, but the ability to burn more calories than your competitors will. If anything, seeing Kristian Blummenfelt dominate triathlon at all distances over recent years has been an inspiration to me and should be to most amateur runners. - (Pro’s only) Be Open
It’s interesting listening to a lot of triathlon podcasts how available these athletes make themselves to the media, and how they recognize that their role is largely to promote their sponsors, whether that’s through winning races, or doing media appearances. The top 3 from Kona 2022 are all great at this: Kristian Blumenfelt and Gustav Iden were great on the Rich Roll podcast, and since winning in Nice, Sam Laidlow has been doing the rounds, speaking eloquently and openly about his training and his season. I wish more runners approached their media obligations similarly: given runners do less than half the training hours of a top triathlete, it can’t be down to a lack of time!
While I take a lot of this on board in my own training, for the time being, mixing modalities is a pipe dream. I work from home and I have young kids: finding the time to ride a bike is tough. But that said, I ran a big PB in the marathon in the autumn of 2018 after a summer of mixed running and bike commuting. I wrote about that training cycle here — you’ll notice some of my ideas on training have progressed since then.
