Unconventional Wisdom

Recently the 2nd place M35-39 and non pro 37 out of 1918 at the 2011 Ironman World Championship put up a post at his blog about his training during the last year leading up to the event.

You can read it here if you would like: (My) Secret Sauce

Here's what I am getting from the post. It is not that you can go and do only 12 hour weeks each week and go sub 9 by 61 seconds at Ironman Hawaii. Here's what you can learn from Sami:

• Cut out the crap
• Look at Sami's training week. No worthless workouts. 3 interval days, and 2 long days, followed by proper recovery in between. Get in and get out. Don't waste time with silly fun runs in the evenings. That's why I stopped doing my 3 mile lunch time runs. They were doing little to increase my fitness but simply slowing down my recovery. 
• Lay a base
• Many ultra runners who have been doing it for years get to a point where they do not have to really train anymore. They can simply race two or three times a month and do a few runs in between and never lose their fitness. Same with Sami. How is he training 10 hours less then many of the top guys, but still racing up there with them? He has put down a consistent 8 year foundation and is now busting his ass for 12 hours a week. 
• Frequency
• I think this is the key for getting the most out of any training you do. Repeatability. Don't do something one day that you cannot do the next. If you spend years laying down a solid base you can get to the point where you can train less often at a good intensity and maintain or slightly improve fitness. This will make you a better, faster, more consistent, and less injury prone athlete. 

As for myself. For the next decade or so I will do my best to train consistently each and every year. What I did last year and what I will do next season do about half a year of base training. After that for about two months I will cut down my volume and add in speed work and strength training similar to Cross Fit Endurance. Then a month before my first A race of the season, I will begin my taper.

Research shows that aerobic fitness develops slowly over time, and this is what will determine how fast and far you are able to run over a long distance. The anaerobic and muscular fitness both develop to a higher capacity fairly quickly. For example, when an individual begins lifting weights for the first time in a long time, nearly all of their quickly developing strength is not technically muscular, but neurological! Doing high cadence work on your bike also helps develop better neurological fitness gains.

However, I wonder to myself if Sami started training 20 hours a week, would he be a 8:30 Ironman finisher instead of a 9:00 finisher?