Originally Posted by
agarose2000
Here's the REAL secret:
For endurance sports like running and cycling, VOLUME is king. Run/ride 2x as much at low intensity, and throw in an occasional sprint/interval session once every 1-2 weeks, and you will be stronger, faster, and better at any distance lasting longer than 1 minute. All the talk about "train less, go faster" is fad training, and rarely works for the long haul. This is repeatedly proven by elite pros of both sports, yet time and time again, amateurs keep looking for "shortcuts" around it.
No special training program, recovery plan, protein drink, race fueling strategy, etc. will overcome a significant volume training difference upon race day. Not even close. Even for long races such as ironman and marathon - you can totally screw up all your nutrition, transitions, and pacing, and you'll still crush someone with similar genetic ability who trained 1/2 the volume you did, even if they trained at 2x the overall intensity you did.
If you want to get better for a really long time, HTFU and put in the volume.
HTFU is great for long races. If you are training for the 7-21 day stage race, Iron man triathalon or marathon. Then volume is King. But if you are training for a 2 1/2 hour mountain bike race, a one hour criterium, a Cyclo-cross race, short track mountain bike race, Sprint or olympic distance Triathalon, Track racing, weekend stage race with TT, Road, and crit stages then getting on your bike and riding for 5 hours a day is not the answer. You must do Intervals, Hill repeats, core work, recovery and functional strength building exercises.
All professionals having training secrets and special things they do other than ride their bikes 5 hours a day. If you do not believe me then I would suggest you follow my blog and watch how I train and see how I become Professional Mountain bike racer this year without doing any single day rides over 5 hours and a total volume not exceeding 15 hours per week with many training weeks under 12 hours. I was a weekend warrior and never trained over 7 hours a week until I got sick of racing in the Sport class and decided to take my cycling to the next level. I started my training program in October of 2007 and moved quickly from Cat 4 in cyclo-cross to Cat 2 in cyclo-cross. I went from Sport in Mountain biking to winning Expert races in 9 months. This year I am Cat 1 in Mountain biking and am shooting to be Pro by June.