At Davey Black Triathlon we use the online training platform ‘Training Peaks‘ to deliver and monitor training to each athlete.
Our methodology is to do regular Lactic Acid Threshold tests to track your fitness improvements throughout the season. These tests are very simple and they are a great workout in themselves. They also allow each individual to see and feel how much they have improved in the previous weeks before the test.
Coach Steve records the speed, power and heart rate data, along with other specific notes, in the TT Master File in the Athlete Folder in Dropbox which every athlete has access to. The athlete can then take these figures and update their Threshold figures in Training Peaks so that their target numbers for their next session are accurate for their current fitness level.
In your Athlete Account Settings, click on ‘Zones’. If this is the first time you have entered data into Training Peaks, you will need to scroll down and click the ‘Add Activity’ button for the specific sport you want to update, and you’ll have to repeat this step for each individual sport you want to add and track through Training Peaks.
Once you have the sport added, you then take your Threshold heart rate data from the TT Master File and enter it into the ‘Threshold Heart Rate’ Field, select ‘Lactate Threshold’ and ‘Joel Friel (7)’ from the Auto Calculation drop down lists, then hit the ‘Apply’ button, and then ‘Save’.
Once the heart rate data is up to date, you repeat this process for the speed data. Enter your Threshold Speed from your test data in the TT Master File and under ‘Auto Calculation’ select ‘Threshold Speed’ and choose either ‘Joel Friel for Running (7)’ or ’80/20 Swimming (7)’. Both of these calculators will give you the zones we use at Davey Black Triathlon, but the Joel Friel for Running (7) uses the same naming terminology if you want to keep things simple across all of your sports. If in doubt, use the Joel Friel calculation.
Finally, if you use power for swim, bike or run, then you need to update this. Cycling is the most common sport for the use of power, but if you do not use a power meter for any of the sports then you can skip this step and leave all fields blank. For power, the most relatable calculation to use for training with the Davey Black Triathlon squad is the 80/20 cycling (7) calculation.
Once all of these figures are updated, you can be sure that the training zones figures that are calculated for your sessions by Coach Steve are accurate and that you are training at the correct heart rate, speed or power.
If at any time you feel like a certain zone is too hard or too easy, then please make sure to firstly check that your Threshold information is up to date in your Athlete Account Settings, and if still unsure, contact Coach Steve.