You can’t log slow miles and call it training. Not the whole story anyway.
Zone 2 matters — it’s the base nearly everything else sits on. However, moments that actually decide a race rarely come from the base itself. The climbs, finishing sprints, honest swims. These moments need punch. Easy mileage won’t give this to you.
Holding pace and power deep into a fatigued state is its own trainable quality, separate from raw aerobic fitness. This doesn’t show up automatically from logging easy hours alone.
If you’re returning from injury, or newer to endurance sport, Zone 2 training alone can carry a lot of the progress. The fitter you get, though, the less that holds — threshold work and harder efforts become what keeps moving the needle, and they’re exactly the part easiest to bail on.
Coming off injury makes this trickier. Carelessly piling on intensity is exactly how I ended up hurt before. This time it needs to be executed with intention, not recklessly — especially with big end-of-year races approaching.
Long and steady gets you somewhere. It won’t carry you through the big moments without something sharper beneath it waiting.
What aspects of your training or goals have you been coasting on where you need to be pushing?
— Iggy
If this was useful, send it to someone who’d also find it useful. If someone sent it to you, subscribe here.