Optimizing Your Training Within Real Life Constraints: Answering Listener Questions

we are tired on the day we have VO2Max workout scheduled, what should we do?

remember from the pillars episode that we did and former episodes on recovery, sleep is just like, that's 90 % of recovery as Alistair Brownlee tells us, right? And then nutrition's 9 % and everything else is 1%. So if you're going to get that good sleep kind of coming up, then I would move the session

Hello and welcome to the Athletes Compass podcast where we navigate training, fitness and health for everyday athletes. We've had some questions from the Athletica forum and our social media about our recent Key Pillars episodes, the VO2 max series and about long runs and rides on Athletica. Keep the questions coming, ask them on our Athletica social media or on our forum. Thank you very much. So from the forum about the Key Pillars episode.

Here's the question for those balancing work, family and training, what's the best way to get the most out of limited training time? What does a well balanced training and recovery plan look like for busy recreational athletes?

Well, that's a big context specific open question. However, if I in my biased opinion for the question placer, ⁓ it is the like a low volume plan of any of the from any of the sports that that you see on Athletica. Like that's that's my bias. Obviously, that's what we've formed them for. Right. That's you know, you've got

Wow.

⁓ Key aerobic development sessions in there. Back to the key pillars episode. We talked about the, you know, after you've got that base, you've got the HIIT sessions. You've got the strength training in there. And then, you know, around that is all the other key pillars that we spoke about, and nutrition and mental health. So, ⁓ but in terms of the actual training, those are all sort of sitting in there.

waiting for you to execute. Now you have to execute those according to your context. So you need to click and drag and move those around and delete as well ⁓ or even add. that's, but again, that's the whole, the flexibility of the Athletica ⁓ ecosystem allows you to do that.

But Paul, if you skip a session, then the AI coach is going to give you, ⁓ you've missed three sessions last week. Why don't we do a little bit better job trying to stay consistent and compliant?

That's my opinion. MJ, what do you think?

Yeah.

⁓ yeah.

The AI coach is just trying to keep you honest, right? The AI coach is there to just try to keep you on track, right? It's trying to keep you in the track ⁓ because you've come to Athletica and you've placed a performance goal in front. the algorithms are there to work towards developing you so that you can achieve your goal to the best of your abilities. That's what it's trying to do.

And so that's the AI coach's job is to just give you those little reminders. sometimes the AI coach, or often the AI coach doesn't know, ⁓ at least at this point in the game, as much context as you know the user. So you've got to just take some of those words with a grain of salt, as we say.

I had a good conversation this morning with a, one of my athletes and we were talking about trying to figure out how to get everything in because, she has three kids, she has, ⁓ busy job, ⁓ her schedule is relatively stable in terms of her work. So one of the things that we talked about was looking at her daily schedule, given her child responsibilities and then.

blocking out on her calendar from five to six AM or five to six PM or whatever it might be for her time and given her context, her hour or whatever she can that day. then, you know, using Athletica or her training plan to put that workout into that time. ⁓ so that she uses her context to determine what she's able to get done.

Yeah, that's amazing. Great advice, good practice. The only thing I would add on that is just a reminder. If you work on an electronic calendar diary as I do, you can always go to your profile settings and you can click on the ICAL or ⁓ the calendar link and it will actually import that session into your actual busy calendar as well. So you'll actually have that. You can actually like... ⁓

place that in the day to the time that you can do that workout for, which can be handy.

Yeah, I didn't know. I did not know that. That's very handy. Cool.

Yep.

Yeah.

I think like most of our athletes and us included, our biggest problem to reach our goals is lack of time and all the other little pieces that we need to do as adults. And, you know, we know from sports science that if you want to perform at your best,

you have to put some work into it. And the further you want to come, the more you have to train. So at some point, like you have to have an honest conversation with yourself or a coach or a good friend. And, you know, try to figure out what is the best that I can be with the constraints of my life.

and be okay with it because life is freaking messy. It's never going to be the way you want to. There are all kinds of obstacles that are there to learn from if you're willing to learn from them. And any program works.

you

That's at least my opinion. If you can put in the work, most of the programs work and the best you can do is to take care of this moment. So whether it's planning your days so that you get some work done or you just commit to yourself blindly to prioritize your training so that you can get more hours in.

We have the daily availability feature in Athletica. And it's a little bit frustrating because when we are given the choice to push button, my humble opinion is that we always want to push it because we're curious to see what happens. But if you can...

restrain yourself from pushing too many buttons, you can actually move around and look at your plan with the zoom out vision and try to have a second thought. What is the best plan for me this week? I don't know. I'm mumbling. I'm going all over the place, but as a busy mom of three, ⁓

Well, no, it's because you,

I know why you are, because you feel these comments from users in ⁓ Zendesk and as well on the forum regularly. So you're speaking to all the people that you talk to, right? And you try to guide, right? And there's a lot of various different issues and whatnot are in here.

It's.

On the one hand, people come to Athletica because they want an optimized plan. Granted, right? AI and no question, we work towards delivering that. Of course, then now we bring in life into that mix, right? And now we make things a whole lot more complicated. Now we've tried to, we do have a system where we allow, which is called, we originally called it user time constraints. Now it's just called daily availability.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And you'll see this, I'm here right now actually, like you'll go to settings on Athlautica, then you go to training, which is like the top one there. And then you'll come down there and within a, you know, just a couple lines, you'll start to see all the days of the week there where you can select the days or the type of exercise that you have the ability to do or not do. And then you also have like the slider bar in terms of how many hours you could kind of devote to that.

⁓ So you can click those buttons as much as you want, as MJ kind of says. But the more you click those around, you might imagine, and the more you narrow the ability to perform an exercise, the less Athletica is able to optimize your performance. Now, it might not matter. Life gets in the way. Life is first and foremost, right? You gotta...

You've got to go through and do your life and your context wins at the end of the day. Of course, you still want to be the best that you can be and the best athlete that you can be if you come to Athletica. So we still do our best always, but we now have a new feature, which is basically it's like an optimizer bar. And you'll find this below in ⁓ this feature setting, right? And it kind of ranges. If you don't put any constraints on there,

It'll be fully green and we'll give you that optimized plan. this would be in the case where, you know, you're a retired person or whatever, you don't have too much. You got a lot of time on your hands and you just care about optimizing your performance. So that's fully green. And then of course, you know, it goes to yellow, the more constraints, know, kind of moves to yellow. And then you put a lot of constraints, it'll sort of go down to red. Don't worry about it. If it goes to red, you're still going to get a good plan, but it's just, it's a relative kind of, ⁓ you know,

We're just letting you kind of know that it's like here's the sort of the situation. What tends to be, you know, tends to be a duration biased algorithms, the more because, you know, we are talking about an aerobic sports. Typically these are aerobic sports and typically these are long. So you would, you know, ⁓ it makes a lot of sense that it's a duration biased load algorithm. And that's, you know, you'll see that anywhere you kind of go.

⁓ And, but yeah, so just keep, mindful of that. The plan's still optimized, but ⁓ we can only kind of go so far to doing that depending on how many constraints you make. And I think that's generally what you were trying to say, right, MJ?

Thank you saving me there.

You

No, I knew you were getting it. I knew you

were getting it.

we are tired on the day we have VO2Max workout scheduled, what should we do? Should we move the session to another day or use the workout wizard to change the session but risk not really hitting the training objective?

Nice, good question. Yeah, and again, ⁓ how long is a piece of string? Context rules? Either option is honestly good. ⁓ So your situation, you know, if you've got time and you're looking at your schedule and you're not feeling it, but you're like, you know what, things are lining up. I could probably get a good sleep tonight. I'm going to move that session. I'd be like, I'm going to move that session to tomorrow and I'm just going to do...

an easy 45 kind of thing or whatever. It's whatever I can kind of squeeze in, but I'm going to do my key session sort of tomorrow and hope that remember from the pillars episode that we did and former episodes on recovery, sleep is just like, that's 90 % of recovery as Alistair Brownlee tells us, right? And then nutrition's 9 % and everything else is 1%. So if you're going to get that good sleep kind of coming up, then I would move the session over.

⁓ for myself personally, and then I do the key session there. ⁓ But if you're time crunched and you can only do... Doing something is better than doing nothing, right? So if you... In the case where you're time crunched and... you're still not feeling like you can do a VO2 max workout, then I would change it to whatever else in the wizard appeals. We talked about in the Pillars episode the importance of feel, and we've talked about that otherwise.

If your feel says, look at the wizard and the different options that are on there, and then switch that up to what the session that feels right, and that's the right answer for you.

I think many of us ignore the intuition. So if you get a question, hey, is what I do, I'm feeling kind of fatigue and I've had a lot of good training sessions. And we get this question in our heads, should I even do this VO2 max session? I'm feeling a little fatigued, like carrying a lot of fatigue. I think then you can trust that intuition. I think you can move it.

Give yourself a little bit recovery and then do it later.

Yeah, but I, then again, be the devil's avocado. Uh, the opposite sometimes happens too. And I've seen this in you MJ as well, where it's like, you okay, I just, I get, I'm going to get the first set done and then, know, if I still feel garbage there, I'm going to, I'm going to call it. And sometimes you do that first setting. like, Oh yeah, actually I feel a whole lot better now. And now I'm going to do, you know, do the whole workout. Right. So context.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

You're totally context. But sometimes if training week is leading up to a VO2 and you're carrying a lot of fatigue, you might be able to do it well, but then the recovery takes longer from that. Do you know what I mean? You can still crank out a good VO2 max session, but then you're

drained for days. So there's no perfect answer here.

Yeah, for sure, there's that. There's no perfect answer.

No, and the context matters.

So we have another question about VO2 max and this time more specifically about 30 30s in the context of running.

I know Athletica favors 30-30s for intervals, improving VO2 max. However, I note that the research behind these is based on cycling research. And I wonder if there is research that suggests 30-30s are more effective than other workouts for running. I'm a little concerned that if we are generalizing from cycling only as the neuromuscular demand is so much greater and getting to your heart rate to this level when running.

Mm-hmm.

Let's stop there and answer that part of the question.

Yeah, no. So I would say most 100 % also appropriate for running. You just kind of, they're not always, you know, described as 30-30s. They might be described more as, you know, 200 meters with 100 meter float kind of thing, right? Like that would be more the running context in terms of how they would, but you you might be doing around 30 seconds for the, for your 200 meter effort on the track.

Great question.

But make no mistake about it, runners often use short intervals to optimize as well. And certainly ⁓ same sort of concept with the 30-30 allowing for the lower level of lactate and the lower level of neuromuscular strain too. can also assist with that. ⁓ Likewise, when we do 30-30, sometimes in Athletica you'll see a prescription where we're

recommending that you do these up a hill, and that also takes loading off of the hamstrings. And it kind of almost creates more of like a cycling, ⁓ a functional running movement, but it's more ⁓ like a cycling kind of movement and whatnot as well. also very, very useful as opposed to just doing a long interval. So it's a nice way to do a more sustainable high intensity movement in running.

And again, remember always most important sessions next session. And ⁓ it's like that consistency kind of matters and it helps to facilitate that. So MJ, what's your experience with running in 30 30s, especially living in flat Texas?

Yeah, I've been doing both flat and a little slide uphill, like underpass. That is my only hill here. But you could do this in the pool too. know, and oftentimes like when I coach women,

not necessarily triathletes or runners, but I get them on a bicycle at the gym or a rower and do 30-30s or even treadmill incline and walk. ⁓ But yeah, pool is great. You can add more high intensity in your training. Like if you're worried about ⁓ injuries, but you still want to ⁓

do high intensity pull is excellent for that.

Fantastic.

For someone who is ⁓ relatively beginner with running, Athletica gave me 3 times 10 30 30s up a hill. I managed 9, split into two sets before near death.

Hahaha.

The prescribed workout also had me doing five strides at zone four heart rate. Won't this compromise the efforts in the heel repeats? So she was doing primers before that.

Yes, yes, this is,

these are some tricky questions. ⁓ And, you these are non, you're describing some non-optimal prescriptions, honestly. ⁓ So, and these are little, you know, these are nuances that we're working on in the platform. But ultimately, there's been a...

A situation with the algorithm, the loading algorithm has almost intercepted with the, you know, basic. So when we talk about load, we are talking about how, you know, how much total duration you should actually do. ⁓ And then sometimes that loading day, that session is going to be a hit session. Sometimes that session is going to be aerobic development.

And unfortunately, we're working on this, but there's ultimately been an intercept between the load, which has been recommended to be high, and ultimately the high intensity work that's in there, which is probably sounding like, you know, the three by 10, 30, 30s would be easy for one individual, ⁓ but they might not be ⁓ manageable for you, and that's kind of what I'm hearing here.

⁓ In that situation, this is where we often talk about the feel and the importance. You've got to actually look at that session that's in front of you. And if it doesn't look manageable, like it's sounding like the way it is, you need to switch that up and move it to another day where it actually might be a little bit of a lower loading and more appropriate loading, ⁓ as well as doing a workout wizard swap on that one too.

In terms of the zone 4 heart rate, it sounds like your prescription needs to be changed to pace because that should be more the strides should be more at the pace marker and you've probably got your settings where you're you're you've only got heart rate safe for example being prescribed so you obviously you can't do Strides at zone for heart rate because of the heart rate lag phenomena heart rate doesn't go up there quickly, right? So that's just again you've identified a limitation

But yeah, you're supposed to be doing those at a zone for pace or power output. So you may want to invest in ⁓ a prescription, ⁓ like a GPS monitor or a running power meter, say for example, in that situation.

And I think we can do a better job explaining what strides are. they are basically, you just pick up your pace increasingly and it's 10 seconds. Just pick up your pace. It doesn't have to be exactly pace four. You just want to activate those fast with muscle fibers so that you're ready for those 30 30s. That's really what they are.

Yeah. Yeah. And don't do the first one. Don't

do the first one all out too, right? Like warm into these. Like this is, that's the purpose of the stride, right? Like you're slowly bringing your body up to speed or, you know, exercise rate ultimately. But the first one should be, you know, you're just activating sort of slowly there. So don't even worry about it you get up to the zone, zone four pace at that point. ⁓ Yeah. Build into these.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

and

All right, ⁓ from our social media, what is the effective difference between 30 30s, 30 15s and 40 20s? If I have a choice between them, how should I know which to do? Sometimes it seems my heart rate doesn't get up as high as I think it should on the 30 30s. Should I be doing 30 15s instead? I love this question.

Yeah, it's a great question. And we talk about this, I'll just put in a little plug for our partner, Velocity. We do a lot of discussion about these, especially on Velocity Live. And this is an incredible add-on feature that we have, where it's only $5 more per month to go and join us on Velocity. And you get live coaching from MJ and I.

and others that are on the platform, and Paul as well does these as well. And we actually kind of do these various different types and we talk about the differences during. So for example, I guess to the first question, what's the difference between ultimately the 30-30 and a 30-15? Let's just look at those ones. So in a 30-30, you've got 30 seconds of work and usually in zone six.

All right, and then typically 30 seconds of rest or recovery, which is generally passive or just turning your legs over and you've got certain sets of these. Conversely, with a 30-15 situation, same work about, but a shorter duration of recovery. So you don't have as much time to kind of, you know, clear things and recover for the next one. So you've got to move right into the next one.

Basically, you get more of a, what would it be, ⁓ I guess you'll probably get the higher heart rate response on the 30-15. They wind up being a little bit more like the long interval because of that short duration of recovery, but still super effective. A really good progression, and MJ does this often, where she will do 30-30s first, but then as everyone's kind of regularly showing up to the Velocity session, then she'll move that over to 30-15s.

So, yeah, and we've also talked on other podcasts about the effect of these short intervals, short intervals versus long intervals. And ultimately, ⁓ the short interval formats that you're talking about here, they keep the overall stress a little bit lower than the long interval. ⁓ Long interval, we actually did one of those sessions today. They can be quite taxing because of the duration.

at that high, high interval. But these ones are quite short. So they keep your lactate, ultimately, and your overall sympathetic stress a little bit lower. So more sustainable. And then over the last one, 40-20s, 40 seconds now relative to that, 30 seconds of work. Well, again, now you're getting closer to the longer interval, right? So it's like...

Thank

these are even harder kind of thing, right? So there's a progression there. So I would actually rank all of those in the order that you have them. I would say 30-30 is the easiest, 30-15 is the next progression, and the last progression there is 40-20. That would be sort of, that's kind of the differences there. It's almost the fatigue level or the ⁓ difficulty of them from a lactate sympathetic standpoint.

Definitely come and join us on Velocity. We have classes ⁓ Tuesdays at 6 and Thursdays at 8.30.

Third is CT.

All right. We have had ⁓ several foreign questions about this topic and I've had several athletes of mine on Athletica ask me the same question. They're doing a marathon or a long gravel race yet because of their weekly time limitations, Athletica doesn't have them do the kind of long runs or rides that may be helpful for their training. example, the person's schedule for my athlete, that it doesn't permit a 20 mile run before the marathon.

that kind of training. What should they do? What is the value of that long run and ride before the workout? ⁓ And how can we make Athletica work given those time constraints?

Mm-hmm. Yep. Well, I'll start out and I'll just say like the very first thing, you know, it's interesting that we all kind of come with this bias because we've used static plans in the past and a lot of the static plans, basically, they always have that long ride or the long run, which is, in them, ⁓ which is great and those, you know, those work to a certain level, but ⁓ you have to think about it whenever you do that.

long, huge long ride or huge long run, especially the huge long run, it's, you know, especially the neuromuscular strain that's involved with that. It's really hard to kind of pick back up and do much after that in the, in the days following. So it's actually not a great practice from a coaching standpoint or a physiology standpoint to do that one, one long one. The key thing you actually, if we actually look to the science, the key and you know,

Mmm.

Again, experienced coaches. The key thing you want to ⁓ look at, the hallmark of thing you should be paying attention to is your weekly training duration in that exercise mode. So how can you maximize that? And that's what Athletica does for ⁓ most of the plans, especially the mid and high volume plans in the running. There's lots of two a day workouts. There's lots of...

A lot of workouts, you don't tend to any one big whopper of a long run. With the exception of maybe some of the 100K ⁓ ultra plans, there's a few longer ones in there. But yeah, that's the reason being is just kind what I was saying there, right? It's like overall weekly volume should be your overall, should be the thing that you try to focus in. How, you know, what's the...

What's the level of weekly volume that I can get up to? You know, is it, is it 50 K or are you sitting up in the 80 K level? Are you 120 K kind of, kind of athlete, right? But that weekly volume is going to be the key marker that allows you to perform well. And this always blows people's mind when, and it blew my mind as well. When a coach first showed me, um, I ran some of my best marathon times in Ironman when I, when I actually did this and I was scared. I was nervous because the longest run I'd done.

Hmm.

was 28K, right? And I was like, can I actually go? Can I actually do that 42K? And I could, no problem. It was when I actually had to execute and stuff. I was fully capable and more capable than I had been in all my previous training boats when I sort of done it that way. So, yeah.

Good. Keep your questions coming. These are our favorite shows to do. We love answering your questions and our next episode about math and Fat Max is going to be all based on questions and we love them. So keep them coming. Thanks for exploring the path to peak performance with us today on the Athletes Compass podcast. When you subscribe, you'll ensure you're always tuned in for our next journey into endurance, mindset, and performance.

And when you share this episode with a friend, teammate or coach, you'll be helping them discover new ways to level up their training and life. Take a moment right now, subscribe, share, and let's keep this navigating this endurance adventure together. For more information or to schedule a consultation with Paul, Marjaana or myself, please check the links in the show notes for Marjaana Rakai and Dr. Paul Laursen I'm Paul Warloski, and this has been the Athletes Compass Podcast.

Thank you for listening.