Aerobic strength is the bedrock.
When your body is redlining on race day, it is not your last threshold session that is going to help you hang in there. It is the neuromuscular strength you built quietly, in the presence of oxygen.
§ 01 · What it is
The layer underneath everything.
Sport‑specific strength is what holds you together at the pointy end of a race. It is not glamorous, it will not show up in your weekly summary, and it cannot be faked with a hard session the week before. It is built consistently over months in the one place it can only ever be built: in the presence of oxygen.
§ 02 · The hills
Use gravity to your advantage.
Cycling teams camp on the cols for a reason.
The slower you climb on the bike, the better your technique has to be. Running slowly uphill has the same requirement and is harder in some respects. The more gravity is pressing down on you, the greater the benefit — you are building brilliant technique in the presence of oxygen, and the body has the space to integrate it as bedrock.
On climbs you can work at higher wattages for lower oxygen costs. There is a way to hold threshold wattage in the presence of oxygen. Work your climb efforts in the AT1 range and you will build strength without damaging the aerobic system — a damage that comes from too many threshold efforts on the flat.
I would go as far as to say: throw everything you know about training out the window, go into the hills, and you will still race well. Make the hills your best friend and aerobic strength develops almost on its own. Speed always follows on from strength, not the other way around.
§ 03 · The surfaces
Trails, and water that holds you.
Where the tendons learn.
In my experience coaching professional athletes, we would benefit more from putting 40 km per week into their legs on trails than from the same mileage on the road. The balance, the tendon strength, the small stabilisers — mixed surfaces build a body that is bomb‑proof.
For swim strength: if you cannot swim with flat paddles without shoulder trouble, something in your stroke is not quite right — usually a catch that is too shallow. If you are not an elite pool swimmer, your thoracic is tighter, and you have to approach this differently. Use the muscles to develop a pull‑through that is strong in catch and hold.
Most age group swims are in wetsuits. Mimic that in the pool with a pull buoy and paddles, or wetsuit shorts. Build the swim strength the race will actually ask for.
What sits on what.
Speed sits on aerobic speed. Aerobic speed sits on aerobic strength. Aerobic strength sits on the hours you put in, slowly, in the presence of oxygen. Pull a layer out from underneath and the layers above cannot hold.
§ 04 · Smooth load
Pay attention to load,
not numbers.
The body has its own intelligence.
Training is not about numbers, it is about load. You can get so busy chasing numbers that you ignore the feedback coming back from your body. Numbers supply data to the mind, but the mind is not the physicality engaged in the work.
Aerobic function is a simple measure of strength. If you think you can overcome your legs with your lungs, you are limiting yourself. Build strength through aerobic movement patterns and it will relay back to you tenfold — the reward sitting in the next pillar, great aerobic speed.
Pay attention to load. Pay attention to fatigue. The rest takes care of itself.
Speed always follows on from strength, not the other way around.§ Notebook · halfway up a col, talking to myself
§ 05 · The payoff
Backend strength,
and a bomb‑proof body.
Durability late, durability long.
Your ability to hold yourself together towards the end of a race is bound by foundational strength. Athletes will often blame a lagging run leg on their run volume, when it is actually a lack of foundational strength on the bike. The devil is in the detail — the screen on the top tube does not have all the answers.
Then there is bomb‑proofing. Well‑conditioned athletes who are aerobically strong are far less prone to injury. If you are injury‑prone, there is a reason for it that is begging for your attention. Look at your aerobic strength and where it sits in your programming.
All that slow stuff you do in the hills. That is the race, long before the race.
§ Also in Physical