EVERY SESSION COUNTS
THIS SIX- WEEK PLAN TO REACHING THE OLYMPIC- DISTANCE START LINE IS ALL ABOUT MAXIMISING EACH AND EVERY WORKOUT. AS IS THE IDEA OF SWEETSPOT TRAINING…
As sport science matures, training philosophies become more specific, more precise. Junk miles are replaced by efforts and sessions that fast-track your progress, ensuring you reach the race swim in optimum shape for the training time allotted. That last point is key to sweetspot training. You see, this form of swim, bike and run training is designed to give timestarved triathletes the greatest return for their performance buck.
Sweetspot training is often used by triathletes with 6hrs a week or fewer. The idea is that by training at the top of zone three and lower end of zone four – we’re talking around 75-85% maximum heart rate or, for power-meter users, 88-93% of functional threshold – you balance available time at a high enough level to stimulate a host of physical adaptations.
THE BENEFITS
The reason this form of triathlon training is so effective is because you can hit a number of physiological areas at once. As a snapshot, they are:
Boosting your lactate threshold (LT). High levels of lactic acid and their associated hydrogen ions lead to the burn and a drop in your power output. Raise your LT and you’ll be able to maintain a faster, stronger performance.
Increasing glycogen storage. This is the method by which your body stores carbohydrates to fuel intense sections of your race, be it sprinting to the next buoy, ascending a 1:7 hill or sprinting to the finish line. The more glycogen you can store, the longer you’ll sustain highintensity efforts.
Raising mitochondria levels. These are the energy powerhouses in your muscle cells and are essential for delivering a strong aerobic base.
One final one? Importantly, these efforts are manageable but hard enough that they stimulate performance benefits. The key is that they’re not constantly hard enough that it leads to overtraining.
SWEETSPOT SESSIONS
Studies suggest that a couple of weekly sweetspot sessions is an accepted entry to this form of training. As you grow in strength, you can increase this to three or even four sessions a week, but assess how you’re feeling so as not to drift into the realms of overtraining. There are numerous ways to design sweetspot sessions for triathlon but, as an example of bike workouts, we have…
SESSION 1
2-3 x 25min sweetspot intervals in a ride of around 1-1.5hrs.
SESSION 2
2 x 20mins at sweetspot pace with 5mins of rest. This might be too hard to start with, so maybe start with 3 x 8mins with 5mins rest and build up.
SESSION 3
1 x 45min sweetspot effort bookended with a suitable warm-up and cool-down.
THE FLIPSIDE
Like all models of training and periodisation principles, there are a few drawbacks to this form of training that you should be aware of. For starters, sweetspot training isn’t as effective as longer, lower-intensity efforts when it comes to endurance essentials like increasing your fat-burning capacity. At sweetspot intensity, you’ll consume more carbohydrates than you would otherwise. Also, while it’ll raise your lactate threshold, it won’t stimulate quite the same adaptations as efforts purely in zone four. Combined, this is why studies show that elites broadly spend 80% of their training at low intensity and the remaining 20% at very high intensity. But remember that elites have the luxury of time. Most age-groupers don’t. And that’s why sweetspot training is such a potent weapon.
Ultimately, it’s a proven method for the thousands of recreational triathletes who fit training in among a busy work and family life. You can use it year-round, though it’s particularly useful when transitioning from a winter’s general preparation phase to more specific efforts as race season nears. Oh, and it’s also great for indoor training!