Training science, coaching, and the 80/20 method — from Matt Fitzgerald and the 80/20 Endurance coaching team.
What Is the Best Triathlon Distance? A Mom & Coach’s Take on Sprint, Olympic, 70.3, and Full Ironman The short version. There are four standard triathlon distances. Sprint (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run) on 4 to 6 hours a week. Olympic (1,500 m, 40 km, 10 km) on 6 to 8…
Alicia Phillips ·
3 Powerful Steps to Avoiding Bad Workouts With Coach Jim Vance How do think about avoiding bad workouts? Every athlete, from beginners to seasoned competitors, has experienced a workout that simply didn’t go well. A session that felt sluggish, unproductive, or even frustrating. But why does this happen, and more importantly, how can we…
Jim Vance ·
The Aging Triathlete: Still Swimming, Biking, Running… Just a Little Slower (And Complaining More) Ah, the aging triathlete—a rare breed of stubborn endurance and questionable decision-making. Despite the years ticking by and the body protesting at every turn, we just can’t seem to quit swimming, biking, and running. Sure, we move a little slower…
Anne Sharkey ·
Your Journey to Sprint Triathlon Success Begins Here Are you ready to kickstart your fitness journey and conquer a sprint triathlon? Whether you’re a beginner looking to complete your first race or an intermediate athlete striving to improve, this 6-week sprint triathlon training plan is designed for YOU! Starting Monday, March 3rd, join a…
Jim Vance ·
So Your Buddy Talked You into Running Your First Ultra, Now What? The short version. An ultra is any race longer than a marathon, most often 50K, 50 miles, 100K or 100 miles. Start with a 50K or a leg on a team, give yourself about 22 weeks of training on an ultra-specific plan, expect…
JW McKenna ·
So You are Thinking About Your First Triathlon The short version. Pick a sprint triathlon, usually a 750 meter swim, a 20 km bike and a 5 km run, give yourself 12 weeks, and spend most of that time on the swim and on easy miles. Practice the two transitions, practice eating on the bike,…
Alicia Phillips ·
What does it mean to be good at a sport? And what approach can you take when you are thinking about how to be a better runner than Jakob Ingebrigtsen? Most endurance athletes would say it means being fast. Implicit in this definition is the notion that performance is the proper basis for judging of…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
Understanding Goal Setting for Endurance Sports Athletes The two strongest individual predictors of health, wealth, happiness, and staying out of prison are intelligence and self-regulatory ability. This fact has caused some psychologists to ask whether self-regulatory ability isn’t just a manifestation of intelligence, but recent research has succeeded in demonstrating that the two phenomena are…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
I’ve never seen more people starting over with running than I have within the last year. Many, like me, have had to start over after a bout with illness. Others have had to do so after race cancellations robbed them of motivation. Even outside of pandemic years, though, starting over is a common phenomenon in…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
Is Pre-Race Tapering Worth It? Recently one of my custom training plan clients emailed me with a question. He was three weeks out from the marathon he’d hired me to prepare him for and was somewhat alarmed to see that I had scheduled a 20-mile run featuring 16 miles at his goal marathon pace at…
Matt Fitzgerald ·
