That Triathlon Show

In today’s Research Roundup we bring you four recent studies. How world-class Norwegian endurance coaches programme strength and speed, the factors determining how a runner’s physiology holds up over two and a half hours of running, a defence of the critical power model written by the people who built it, and a polarised versus high-intensity trial in cyclists with a result neither of us expected.

HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

• Strength and speed training across eight Olympic endurance sports (including triathlon, swimming, cycling and running), from 12 world-class Norwegian coaches whose athletes have won over 400 international medals. How many hours a year each sport does, and which sport sits at the bottom of the table.
• What those sessions look like: exercises, sets, reps and how close to failure the athletes are taken, which is a long way from what randomised trials prescribe. Plus the 10 hours a year of speed training every sport did, and what it looks like.
• How Daniel and Mikael each place strength and speed work in a real training week, where they differ from the Norwegian model, and why an age-group athlete in their forties is a different case from an Olympic athlete in their twenties.
• Physiological resilience (durability) during two and a half hours of continuous unfed running, with thresholds, running economy and VO2max retested at the end. Which variables fall most, which barely move, and how runners of different ability differ.
• Mikael sets the running economy decline against what a pair of carbon shoes buys you and asks which is bigger. Plus the two qualities that separated the runners who held up, one aerobic and one from the gym.
• Ten common criticisms of the critical power model, answered by the group that built it: whether CP is just FTP renamed, whether the model claims you can hold CP forever, whether a power law fits the curve better, and where the authors concede most.
• Critical power as a moving number rather than a fixed one, what that does to how you prescribe a threshold session, and the gap between the test durations the paper recommends and the ones Mikael actually uses.
• Polarised against high intensity with the hard sessions held identical, three a week for six weeks, one group adding four hours a week of easy riding. What the time trial showed, and why Mikael thinks the result is wrong (a strong statement!).

SHOWNOTES, LINKS, RESOURCES AND RELATED EPISODES:

• Follow Daniel Rowland and Endurance Ideas and Implementation on his website, Substack and Instagram.
• The shownotes for today’s episode can be found here.
• The full podcast episode archives (including category filters) can be found here.
• Related episodes:
  • New Research on Torque Training, Ketones, Carb Loading and Pacing | Daniel Rowland | EP#698
  • The 10% Rule Applies to Your Long Run, Not Your Week | Research Roundup | EP#709
  • Is VO2max more important than lactate threshold? | Research roundup | EP#705
  • [Triathlon Science] Durability decoded – a 2025 perspective with Michele Zanini, PhD
• Studies discussed:
  • Strength and Speed Training Practices for Olympic Endurance Sports: Insights From World-Class Coaches – Haugen et al. 2026
  • Determinants of Physiological Resilience Among Recreational-To-Competitive Endurance Runners – Malinen et al. 2026
  • Ten Common Criticisms of the Critical Power Model Revisited – Black et al. 2026
  • The effectiveness of polarized versus high-intensity training in moderately trained cyclists: a randomized parallel-design study – Moran-MacDonald et al. 2026
  • Best-Practice Training Characteristics Within Olympic Endurance Sports as Described by Norwegian World-Class Coaches – Sandbakk et al. 2025
  • Strength Training Improves Running Economy Durability and Fatigued High-Intensity Performance in Well-Trained Male Runners: A Randomized Control Trial – Zanini et al. 2025
  • Effects of Exercise Training on Mitochondrial and Capillary Growth in Human Skeletal Muscle: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression – Mølmen et al. 2024

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