Why durability is more important than FTP in triathlon training – Triathlon

It’s the final proof that your training has been successful, and year after year, athletes work hard to see if they can improve. Functional threshold powerOr FTP. We test, retest, and become completely obsessed with the 20-minute power number. A high FTP makes you more race ready.

Then comes the actual race day.

Two hours after a 70.3 bike ride, or halfway through an Ironman, watts collapse and heart rate rises as speed deteriorates. Suddenly, that big number on TrainingPeaks that you thought looked pretty good isn’t what you can keep in the race.

This disconnect reveals a difficult truth that many athletes fail to recognize: Maximum power numbers do not determine endurance race victories. Durability does that.

What is durability really?

In endurance sports, muscular endurance is your ability to maintain performance despite accumulating fatigue. It’s not a number you can get away with when your legs are fresh; It’s how much energy you can keep pumping out when you’re three hours deep in a pain cave.

As the race continues, this decline represents a fraction of the others. Their heart rate remains constant no matter what work they do. The pace of their activity is recorded in their brains, which helps them stay efficient without quickly depleting their energy. In simple terms, robustness means resistance to physiological drift, which is the slow decline that makes athletes perform worse over time.

You’ll hear this all the time in the racing and ultra-running communities – they know that the winner is the one who slows down the least. Whereas in triathlon, we track peak metrics (FTP). These numbers reflect our potential, but they don’t tell us what happens three hours after the race.

In a training scenario, two players might test identically Threshold power. But in the third hour of race day, the durable athlete is still spinning high and feeling happy at 75-80% of max, while his less durable counterpart sees his power falling to the ground. That’s it for long distance racing.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) test trap.

We can achieve this by examining the default 20-minute test. Pedal for 20 minutes, then multiply by 0.95, and there you go! There is an approximation of your lactate threshold.

Scale is not the problem. Our use of it is.

Anyone with a decent fit Anaerobic engine The FTP numbers were hit on very short test protocols. And while you may be able to hit a huge 20-minute number, that doesn’t mean you have the deep aerobic strength required to maintain those numbers for the duration of a long-distance event. You do this at a peak level, not in an extended effort under extreme fatigue.

An inflated number that looks “new” is a basis for setting your race goals — but it’s often unrealistic relative to your actual physiology. The first hour looks great. Two o’clock gets uncomfortable. In the third hour, your strength is waning, and your heart rate is redlining. You didn’t suddenly lose fitness; This dream race of yours was a pipe dream in the first place.

They are seasonal FTP

FTP is also risky because it is too easy to play early in the season. Then you can add some power, throw in a few more intervals, and the 20-minute power number often goes up within weeks. You feel smarter, the data is exciting, and you think you’ve nailed it.

But just raising your ceiling doesn’t raise your foundation.

Your FTP could go from 215 to 230 watts in the spring – but all you’ve done is improve race performance if you still can’t maintain consistent power for three hours by late summer. You’ve just put together something that looks like progress, but doesn’t have the money. For long track athletes, your endurance determines how much force you will end up using late in the race.

The real name of the game is resistance to fatigue

The sport of long-distance triathlon is, at its core, a fatigue management game. Each of these athletes standing on the podium does not necessarily have the highest FTP; They are only able to achieve this with less physiological stress.

To create true endurance, you must address the following four pillars:

1. Aerodynamic force: A powerful aero engine can produce the power you need to race your goal without causing metabolic disturbances.
2. Refueling: You need to eat carbohydrates regularly. To delay fatigue Maintain energy availability It is essential and prevents your fuel tank from becoming empty. For more on carbs and fueling on race day, check this out Athletes’ Guide to Racing Fueling for Every Distance.
3. Muscle toughness: Your muscles must be physically prepared to continue contracting forcefully for several hours of repetitive movement. You can develop this through geared bike work, off-bike transition running, and heavy strength training.
4. speed: We’ve said it beforeAnd we’ll say it again: Going hard, even for a few seconds, will exhaust you faster and sabotage your endurance by the end of the day.

If your endurance is adequately tuned, your heart rate and perceived exertion will closely match your power output. When that’s not the case, you experience cardiovascular dysfunction—your effort goes up, but your energy goes down.

How to stop guessing and measure your triathlon durability

Durability is not a magic number; It’s a trend you should spot in your historical data.

First, take care of your class. Decoupling power to heart rate determines how much heart rate “drifts” upward relative to power over time. The bottom line is that if your separation is low after a three-hour steady effort, you are doing a great job of controlling your workload aerobically.

Next, stop and focus on your best 20 minutes. Look at your long periods. Are you able to consistently achieve your goal from two to four hours of riding?

Finally, track your heart rate trends using Heart rate monitor. If your power is steady, but your heart rate slowly rises toward the stratosphere, your body is really working to maintain that output. Your durability still needs work.

These trends will tell you how ready you are to race far more than any extreme test could ever happen.

Precisely adjust the power of your triathlon

Fill in the remaining gaps in your 70.3 or Ironman plans with strict FTP ratios. So you’re not talking about your long training sessions.

Longer sessions of 60 to 90 minutes at race pace will reveal all. Can you keep it up without your heart rate wandering? Do you get 80 to 100 grams of carbohydrates per hour So that the fuel tank does not become empty?

Racing simulator is your last step towards reality. Additionally, they tell you that your actual sustained race power is almost always lower than what the FTP numbers show you, but is more repeatable on race day when it matters.

The athlete who holds on for dear life wins

It is common to see athletes start strong but later struggle in longer races. The problem is that your peak performance may not be enough to secure a win. Success is achieved – and consumed – through slow, painstaking effort lasting over many hours.

A simple speed error in the first hour causes the heart rate to increase, the feed to throttle, followed by a collapse of the numbers. In the final hour of the bike, this T1 superhero simply hangs on and does everything he can to keep those pedals working.

Meanwhile, solid triathletes do well within themselves. Their strength is steady, their heart rate is well regulated, and they are preparing for it Run the run actually.

The difference between the two athletes is not ultimately their FTP. It’s its durability. The triathlete who fades the least down the track is the one who takes it all.