That Triathlon Show

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1. Hickson's Landmark 1977 VO2max Study, Reanalysed | Research Roundup

   5 november 2026 · 1 uur 24 min

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   In today's research roundup we cover four recent studies and help triathletes and other endurance athletes apply them in practice. We have ten years of training diaries from a World Championship medal-winning 800 to 1500 m swimmer, bicarbonate's effect on fatigued efforts in cycling, a fresh reanalysis of Hickson's famous 1977 "linear" VO2max study, and a meta-analysis of 69 trials on just how much time to do in HIIT sessions and continuous endurance sessions before running into diminishing returns. Lees meer

   HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

   Ten years of training diaries and long interviews with a world-class 800 to 1500 m swimmer with 11 major championship medals: the volume, the intensity distribution, how the Norwegian group defines its zones, and what changed around the seasons when his results declined.

   Long-course against short-course pools for a short-course specialist, how much the turns were trained, and what that means for triathletes who will never do a turn in open water.

   Race-pace sessions that were never all-out, small regular doses of speed, and one heavy gym session a week: how a world-class distance swimmer built his specific preparation.

   Threshold sets from the paper's example weeks, with the splits and send-off times, and the case for longer rest between hard swim sets than most swim programmes give.

   Bicarbonate supplementation during three hours of riding, followed by a 2-minute and a 12-minute time trial: which effort changed, and the sodium question the design leaves open.

   Hickson's 1977 "linear increase in aerobic power" study reanalysed with modern statistics: whether the curve really was a straight line, how much faster the fastest responders improved than the slowest, and whether a programme this hard was the right one to study, where Daniel and Mikael see it differently.

   A meta-analysis of 69 randomised trials on HIIT and moderate-intensity continuous training: how many minutes per session it takes to get most of the VO2max gain, and who the answ…

2. Joel Filliol, Coach of Seven World Championship Titles: You Need Less Intensity Than You Think

   29 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 51 min

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   Joel Filliol has coached four athletes to seven triathlon World Championship titles: Mario Mola, Vincent Luis, Katie Zaferes and, this year, Vasco Vilaça. On his third appearance on the show we cover how the squad's training has (and has not) changed over a decade of titles, the training week and progressive sessions behind them, how much intensity is actually enough, and how the same principles apply to age-group triathletes on 10 to 15 hours a week. Lees meer

   HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

   What has and has not changed in the squad's coaching between Mario Mola's first world title in Cozumel in 2016 and Vasco Vilaça's in 2026, from social media to carbon shoes and what they do to run training load.

   The minimal effective dose: whether it applies to intensity or to volume, and how a squad built on doing less can still describe the training as hard.

   The base training week Vasco described on the show in 2023 (six swims, six bikes and six runs), how close it still is, and why the hard sessions are spread across the week rather than blocked.

   How a progressive run session like 16x400 m is prescribed and paced from block to block, and the part of it that has to be held most strictly.

   Mega sessions and confidence: what an outstanding training session does and does not tell you about race day, with Kona as the example.

   How the elite principles scale down to an age grouper with 10 to 15 hours a week, how easy easy training should be, and how to build a sustainable week from scratch.

   The swim rules from Joel's Top 20 Rules for Faster Triathlon Swimming that matter most for age-group triathletes, the readiness and recovery scores he would rather athletes trusted less, and the questions to ask in a season review.

   Vasco's road to the LA Olympics 2028, the Supertri race he turned down this year, and whether a sprint finish against Matt Hauser can be trained, with a lesson from Simon Whitfield's build to Beijing 2008.

   SHOWNOTES, LINKS, RESOURCES AND RELATED EPISODES:

   Follow Joel Fill…

3. Why Being Too Efficient Holds Back Your Cycling | Björn Kafka, Uno-X Cycling Coach

   22 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 43 min

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   How do WorldTour cyclists train across a season, how do you profile a rider and decide what to work on, and what should amateur cyclists and triathletes know about cadence, easy riding and durability? Lees meer

   Björn Kafka coaches for the Uno-X Mobility WorldTour team and has also coached athletes to world and Olympic titles and medals in mountain biking, track cycling, and even snowboarding. He is also a co-developer of the A Faster You platform, formerly Aerotune.

   HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

   Profiling a rider from the power curve: which durations to read, and why a rider can be too efficient in December.

   The off-season plan for the typical age-group triathlete with a low VLaMax and a threshold already close to VO2max, and where cadence and fuelling come into it.

   What a look at 22 masters athletes with unusually high 4 to 5 minute power showed about how much they eat, and the cost of chasing race weight.

   Self-profiling for self-coached triathletes: three test durations, which bike to test on, and why a weak number is not automatically the one to train.

   Inside a WorldTour year: off-season volume, how volume changes before key races, weekly training patterns, and key sessions for GC riders and Classics riders.

   Cadence as a training tool, from fibre recruitment to what it changes for a triathlete who mostly rides steady.

   How easy the easy rides should be, from a GC rider to a punchy rider to an amateur on ten hours a week, and how to fit more volume around work and family.

   Durability: why there is still no good score for it, how to train it, and whether it deserves to be called a fourth performance factor alongside VO2max, utilisation and economy.

   SHOWNOTES, LINKS, RESOURCES AND RELATED EPISODES:

   Follow Björn on Instagram, and A Faster You on their website 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:

   Training, testing, metabolism and physiolo…

4. Marius Bakken: The Norwegian Method Is Built Around Your Muscles, Not Your Heart

   15 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 17 min

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   Marius Bakken is a physician, a former professional runner and two-time Olympian with a 13:06 personal best for 5000 m, and the person who developed the training approach that later became known as the Norwegian method, since used by Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Andreas Almgren and many others. We cover why he sees the muscles rather than the heart and lungs as the real limiter, how double threshold works, how to find and control your threshold with or without a lactate meter, and how much of it carries over to triathlon. Lees meer

   HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

   What muscle tone actually is, why it rather than the heart and lungs sits at the centre of how the method builds a training week, and how to palpate your own quads or use a simple morning stair test to track it.

   The weekly template behind the method, why double threshold is treated as one long session with a break in the middle, and why the sequencing of short and long reps matters.

   Finding your threshold with a lactate step test and a follow-up field test, or with no lactate meter at all, and how far below it the training should actually sit.

   Controlling intensity within a 6 x 6 minute session with and without lactate, the RPE that matches the zone, how you should feel when you finish, and the most common way people get it wrong.

   Why total running volume matters for muscle tone as well as running economy, when to split easy runs into doubles, and where strides do and do not earn a place.

   The Saturday X-session, what an Olympic champion hurdler's threshold sessions suggest about triggering the anaerobic system too early, and how a marathon block changes the week.

   How much of this carries over to cycling and triathlon, how the Norwegian triathletes organise their hard days, and what Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Andreas Almgren have added to the method, building upon Marius's work.

   Flat periodisation, fitting the method into a spring marathon build, the final four days before a championship race, and adjustments for beginners, o…

5. Kona Science Special: Humidity, Heat Training and Race-Day Cooling | Research Roundup

   8 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 26 min

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   With the Ironman World Championship in Kona this Saturday, this Research Roundup is a heat and humidity special for triathletes and other endurance athletes, built around four big topics instead of four single studies. How much heat and humidity each slow you down when you separate the two, what the largest reviews say about heat acclimation and whether sauna and hot baths work as well as active methods, how fast heat adaptations arrive and how fast they fade, and which in-race cooling strategies work, while also being practically feasible. Lees meer

   HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

   Separating heat from humidity: a study that held the vapour pressure of the air constant from 18°C to 27°C and 36°C, then doubled it at 36°C, and why dew point is the number you want to check before a hot race.

   A meta-analysis of 135 studies and 1,531 participants: how short, medium and long heat acclimation protocols compare, and which of four approaches (constant work, isothermal, self-regulated and passive) comes out ahead.

   Sauna and hot baths after training: what a stricter meta-analysis of 10 controlled studies found, why the control groups matter so much, and the case for active heat training when time is short.

   How many heat sessions, how long and how hot: a review of 211 papers, the free online predictor that comes with it, and whether the sessions need to be on consecutive days.

   Five weeks of home-trainer heat sessions in 20 elite cyclists: when haemoglobin mass starts to move, how quickly the gains decay, and how to plan around these dynamics before racing.

   Four days of 90-minute heat sessions: what changed after such a short protocol, why time-to-exhaustion results look so much bigger than time trials, and whether feeling adapted without being adapted could backfire in an all-day race like an Ironman.

   Ice caps, a cooling neck collar, the Omius headband and water dousing in running studies: which ones improved performance, what they did to core temperature, and why Mikael ends up defe…

6. How to Race the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona: A Complete Guide | Tomasz Kowalski

   1 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 34 min

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   Tomasz (Tomek) Kowalski is a triathlon coach with a great track record of athletes racing Kona, among them age-group world champions and podium finishers. With the IRONMAN World Championship coming up again in Kona we cover everything age-group triathletes need to know to have a successful race there, including when to fly out, training and tapering on the island, heat preparation at home, equipment choices, and pacing, fuelling and hydration on race day. Lees meer

   HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

   The single most common reason a Kona race goes wrong for age-groupers, and roughly how much of the damage it accounts for.

   When to fly out: the time-zone rule of thumb, the trade-off between arriving early and arriving fresh, and whether you need to fully adapt to Hawaiian time at all.

   Training on the island: how much lower your watts and paces can be at the same RPE, how long the last long ride and run should be, and whether to keep touching threshold in the final three weeks.

   Swimming in the last ten days: open water or pool, how to structure an open water session with no buoys to swim between, and how to use the Hoʻala training swim.

   Heat preparation before you travel: a hot water immersion protocol with durations and water temperature, and why using a CORE temperature sensor or sweat testing gets less weight than you might expect.

   Kit for the heat: aero or road helmet, visor or no visor, three headwear options for the run, and whether to change from trisuit to running kit in T2.

   Pacing the swim, bike and run: how many watts to expect to give up compared with a cooler Ironman, and how the impact of the rollers changes depending on how strong a cyclist you are.

   Fuelling and hydration in the heat: the body mass loss on the bike that puts your run at risk, and how easily caffeine intake creeps too high.

   SHOWNOTES, LINKS, RESOURCES AND RELATED EPISODES:

   That Triathlon Show Community on ROUVY

   That Triatlon Show Group Ride on ROUVY - 5 October, 18:00 CET (12pm ET, 9am PT), 25 km…

7. Going All In on a Marathon Block as a Triathlete | Q&A

   24 september 2026 · 1 uur 26 min

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   Mikael Eriksson and Jack Hutchens answer listener questions, starting with a long look at how to fit a marathon into a triathlon year: when to do it, how much running it takes, what happens to the swim and the bike, and how far the long run really should be. Then questions on racing a 70.3 inside a base phase, coming back from overtraining syndrome, and whether you have to dig a hole to get supercompensation.
   We do listener Q&As monthly, the last Thursday every month. Lees meer

   HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

   Where a marathon fits in a triathlon year, autumn against spring, and the one situation where the less obvious option is the right call.

   Setting run mileage when you are also swimming and biking. Why the starting point is your own running history rather than a plan chosen by goal time, and what is wrong with how most marathon plans are built.

   A pro triathlete with a 60-minute record of 400 W at 78 kg asks why a 2:30 marathon still feels far away. What VO2max and fractional utilisation leave as the only possible explanation, and what can and cannot be changed about it.

   Long run distance against total volume, and the main point of disagreement between Mikael and Jack for this episode. Plus how far the longest long run should go, banded by goal time from a first marathon through to sub-2:30.

   Quads as the limiter in the marathon, from a listener with a 1:17 half and a 3:01 Ironman marathon. Conditioning, cadence, shoe drop and fuelling, and which of those actually matters.

   Racing a 70.3 in the middle of a base phase. The question to answer before you decide, and where Mikael and Jack come down differently on treating a race as a training day.

   Returning to training after overtraining syndrome. What to monitor on the way back, why HRV gets less weight here than you might expect, and the case study of a world-class skier who came back from underperformance to the top.

   Whether supercompensation requires digging a hole. Thirty-three trained triathletes, a three-week overload…

8. David Tilbury-Davis: Everything That Decides Your Results Except the Training

   17 september 2026 · 1 uur 50 min

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   David Tilbury-Davis has coached world class triathletes since 1995, among them Lionel Sanders, Ashleigh Gentle, Skye Moench, Cody Beals and Matt Hanson. In this episode we cover everything that decides whether an athlete reaches their potential except the training itself: professionalism, how you design your life around the sport, the decisions you make week to week, psychology and mindset, and the coach-athlete relationship. Lees meer

   HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

   The single change outside training with the biggest upside, and the second one David adds straight after it, which most athletes with a job will find far harder than the first.

   Professionalism defined as everything that performatively matters and is not swim, bike, run or gym, and the checklist David runs through when he wants to know how professional an athlete really is.

   The difference between a support structure that is supportive and one that is merely tolerant, the conversation to have before committing to a season, and why David wants to interview the 5am-club influencer's partner.

   Guardrails: the training window one of David's pro athletes drew around her day and refused to move, what he tells younger pros about procrastination, and the checks he runs before anyone turns pro.

   Why self-doubt and imposter syndrome run high in almost every athlete he has coached in 30 years, what separates the ones who use it as fuel from the ones it consumes, and where he draws the line between confidence and arrogance.

   Executing a session versus staying present and engaged in it, the athlete riding four hours in ERG-mode watching Top Gun, and the cue David uses for how wrecked a training week should leave you.

   Attention as a resource you spend: structured swim sets on the watch, the athlete apologising for a warm-up five watts off, and the one split David actually wants reported back to him mid-session.

   The 80 / 15 / 5 split David puts on coaching, what falls into the 5 per cent, and the pizza-slice session he invented…

9. Strength and Speed Training Methods of Norwegian Endurance Coaches | Research Roundup

   10 september 2026 · 1 uur 37 min

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   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. Lees meer

   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 …

10. Alistair Brownlee, Two-Time Olympic Champion | Everyone Was Surprised by How Slow I Trained

    3 september 2026 · 1 uur 18 min

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    Alistair Brownlee is the only triathlete to win two individual Olympic golds, winning at home in London in 2012 and in Rio in 2016. He retired at the end of 2024 after an 18-year career, in which he also won two World Titles, four European Titles and the Commonwealth Games. He also has two second-place finishes from Ironman 70.3 World Championships. This is a conversation about how he actually trained across two decades, in particular when he was at his most dominant and changed the sport: the volume, the intensity, what he would do differently, and lots more. Lees meer

    HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY TOPICS:

    Second at Norseman two weeks before this recording, on what he calls zero structured sessions. What has held on, what has gone, and which part of the power duration curve goes first.

    The training week behind two Olympic golds: hours, sessions per sport, the swim, track and bike sessions he built the year around, and what share of it was actually done at intensity.

    Riding at 200 watts with a threshold north of 400, and running five minutes per kilometre when he has a 28:32 PB. Why he was that strict about it, and the two things it bought him.

    High intensity as the icing on the cake: why he thinks the icing contributes less than most athletes believe, and what follows from that if your cake is small.

    His test for whether an easy session was genuinely easy, why feeling hypoglycaemic on an easy ride tells you something, and why he will not give you a wattage or a lactate number for it.

    Injuries, and whether you have to take that risk to win an Olympic title. His arithmetic on what a month lost to injury really costs you, and what that means for today.

    What changes when you have 10 hours a week rather than 35: the one thing he would move about the intensity proportions, and the trap most age group athletes fall into.

    Sodium, cramp and the gap between the literature and what athletes report. Why he is not sold on sweat sodium testing, what heat training did to his own numbers, an…

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