80/20 Triathlon

Discover the Breakthrough Elite-Training Formula for Ultimate Fitness and Performance at All Levels

By: Matt Fitzgerald, David Warden

Narrated by: David Warden

A breakthrough program for triathletes -- beginner, intermediate, and advanced -- showing how to balance training intensity to maximize performance -- from a fitness expert and elite coach.
Cutting-edge research has proven that triathletes and other endurance athletes experience their greatest performance when they do 80 percent of their training at low intensity and the remaining 20 percent at moderate to high intensity. But the vast majority of recreational triathletes are caught in the so-called "moderate-intensity rut," spending almost half of their time training too hard--harder than the pros. Training harder isn't smarter; it actually results in low-grade chronic fatigue that prevents recreational athletes from getting the best results.

In 80/20 Triathlon, Matt Fitzgerald and David Warden lay out the real-world and scientific evidence, offering concrete tips and strategies, along with complete training plans for every distance--Sprint, Olympic, Half-Ironman, and Ironman--to help athletes implement the 80/20 rule of intensity balance. Benefits include reduced fatigue and injury risk, improved fitness, increased motivation, and better race results.

Workouts

Very good information and great workouts I will definitely be doing 80/20 to prepare for my first triathlon

Provides building blocks for triathlete training.

The background information and scientific explanations seem clear and sound. To make practical use of the ideas, you must reference a lot of material (tables, training plans, etc) in a pdf that is automatically downloaded with the book. I believe that if you go through this information while listening to the book, you can either build your own training plan for any length of race/experience level/goal or customize plans that are provided. I think the authors tried to make things as easy as possible for triathletes to determine various thresholds and zones used in training. Unfortunately, you can't follow the references made extensively by the book unless you have printed out a copy of the pdf or have a large screen where the pdf can be viewed. Clearly, putting together a triathlon training plan can be complicated, but if you have the ability to understand some mathematical data, and some patience to make a detailed plan,, this book provides a road map and the pdf provides all the building blocks you should need. However, you will also need some technical equipment such as a heart rate monitor, garmin (or equivalent) with multisport capabilities, power meter, etc. If you don't have a range of measurement devices or are not willing to make a detailed plan, the main lessons you can learn from the book is that approximately 80% of time spent on each discipline (80% of distance in case of swimming) should not be hard. Most non-professional triathletes unconsciously spend too much time on workouts that are hard enough to hinder recovery and harm performance in subsequent hard workouts. In the end their race performances will stagnate and they will fail to meet their potential.

Great information for triathletes

This was a very informative and an interesting read. That being said, it was a little advanced for me. While I am preparing for a sprint as a means of weight loss, this is for the seasoned triathlete. While I am no where near the type of althalete that this book would beat bwnefit, I still found it interesting and helpful to what I am doing. While I wanted something that is more analogous to “triathlons for dummies,” I still found this informative, helpful and an excellent guide for training as I progress toward my goals. #newme #triordie #timetotrain #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Outstanding information.

I had a great experience reading the material in this book. I am a beginner in the world of triathlon and needed solid information to assist me with getting started. I recommended this title to several of my friends who are interested in training.

Great book to help keep you from over-training

I am preparing for my first half ironman distance triathlon and am trying to follow the principles outlined in this book. It is early, but I can already see the benefits of "holding back" in my training. The concepts make sense and I look forward to applying the 80/20 rule in all of my training going forward. The book is excellent and lays out all of the science behind the approach as well, which is great.