Mark Allen’s Training

I’ve always enjoyed history. In my undergrad days I had a double major – physical education and history. I even taught US history at the high school level for nine years in what now seems like another life. That was back in the late 1960s and most of the 1970s (there was a gap in the middle as Uncle Sam needed me to help fight a war in Vietnam). Whenever I put the two together (physical fitness and history – not teaching and war) I’m having a good time. Studying how the icons of endurance sports used to train is especially interesting to me. I hope to write about some of them here in the next few weeks – if I can get ahead of the book deadline I’m currently staring down the barrel of. It’s been a challenging book to write. I’ll tell you about that some other time. But for now I want to tell you about how Mark Allen trained 20 years ago and what we can still learn from it.

 

We think of Allen as perhaps being the best Ironman-distance triathlete in the sport’s rather short history. I could even make the case that he was the greatest male triathlete of all time at all distances given his 20 wins in a row in the late 1980s and early 1990s including the first World Championship at the Olympic distance in 1989. But until 1989 he could not make it happen in the biggest triathlon of all – Ironman Hawaii. Six times he DNF’ed or finished behind people such as Dave Scott, Scott Molina and Scott Tinley. Then it happened. His training paid off and he won six times in six starts in Kona. How did he train then?

 

He basically followed a three-mesocycle periodization format. In the first period he focused on aerobic endurance. The second was devoted to strength. And the third was for speed. Then he was ready to race. He generally moved on to the next mesocycle when he saw an obvious plateau in performance.

 

We can still learn a lot from how he trained. The first block of his training is the piece I so often see missing in most athletes’ training. Regardless of your endurance sport, the most important aspect of your fitness is aerobic endurance. Yet I see triathletes, cyclists and runners only paying lip service to it. They seem to be impatient to get to the hard stuff – hill work, intervals, fartlek and tempo.

 

I know of athletes at all levels, from age groupers to top pros, in many endurance sports having great seasons after spending several weeks just focused on aerobic endurance. It’s the most important training you can do in every macrocycle.

 

Allen used a fairly complex formula to determine an aerobic endurance training heart rate zone based mostly on age and experience. I’ve found it’s remarkably accurate and closely matches the zone 2 training I have athletes do in their Base periods. His long, steady sessions at this rather low effort built a great aerobic engine. His goal was to get as fast as possible at a low effort. That’s a great goal. Using the formula he determined his aerobic endurance training heart rate was about 155 bpm and so would spend hours running and riding at that intensity in the first period. He says that when he first started he was running 8:15 mile pace (5:09/km) at 155 bpm. After a few weeks he was running 5:20 per mile (3:20/km) at the same heart rate. That’s a whopping 35% improvement. How would you like to run 35% faster or raise your FTP on the bike by 35%?

 

If he could run a 5:20 mile at a low heart rate and effort, coming off of the bike after 112 miles and running 6 minutes per mile was relatively easy. In fact, that’s what he did in 1989 in perhaps the greatest Ironman of all time. He went shoulder to shoulder with Dave Scott until about 4km to go on the run when Dave faded and Mark kept his relentless 6-minute pace going (see accompanying picture). I was there as a spectator that day and am still amazed at how easy he made it look. Two hours, forty minutes and four seconds for a marathon after riding 112 miles. No one has matched that time in 19 years.

It seems that we’ve forgotten how important it is to become as fast as possible at a low effort before moving on to higher-intensity training. I’d suggest that after your first A-priority race this season that you return to Base training for a few weeks and do lots of training in my heart rate 2 zone for the run or the bike, or Andy Coggan’s power 2 zone on the bike. You’ll get faster without working any harder.

Comments

[Michael Bauman]

Fascinating, useful, and inspiring -- many thanks, Joel.

[Fitz]

Right on Joe. I noticed that you also advised people to hold off on tempo runs during this aerobic/base-building phase of training. Many distance runners incorporate tempo runs during their base phase because they complement the aerobic development that's a focus during this period. Since they're aerobic in nature and therefore not as challenging as intervals, why don't you think they should be included in a base phase?

[Carlos Cuenca]

Congratulations, Joe, for the new blog, and, by the way, what a nice post.
Carlos

[Drew]

Three minutes per mile is insane, for lack of a better word. What kind of improvement could a normal human expect? For example, 155 bpm also sits squarely in my Zone 2 HR and corresponds to about 7:35/mile. But my mile PR is 5:05. It seems incomprehensible to be running close to that pace at the same HR.

[Shane]

For running aerobic endurance, do you have to use HR zone 2(Friel system) or can you use Pace zone 2(Friel system)? I find it difficult to get my HR into zone 2 sometimes doing aerobic workouts even though my pace is in mid to high zone 2.

[Joe Friel]

Shane--Yes, you can use pace. But yu need to make sure you keep testing pace as it will change rapidly at first. Th 2 zone will soon become the 1 zone. HR doesn't change like that.

[Joe Friel]

Drew--There is no way o predictin that. Can only find out by trying.

[Joe Friel]

Fitz--Be patient. There is a time that's right but it isn't in the early Base period.

[Paul F]

G'day Joe,

Would you know what sort of volume he did on a weekly basis to support those developments?

Cheers
Paul

[Joe Friel]

Paul F--Huge volume. He was putting in more than 30 hours per week even around 40 hpw.

[mg]

Joe, If you're coming off an A priority race and have a couple of weeks to spare, would you recommend starting off with base 1 (for road cycling), eg. only zone 2, or is it advisable to incorporate some moderate tempo work/cruise intervals into the program as well?

[Joe Friel]

mg--More than likely I'd have you go back to aerobic endurance training. But, as usual, 'it depends.' There are lots of variables.

[srking]

Hi Joe,

In training for a (hilly) century ride, what are the longest durations you recommend for:

1) aerobic zone 2 ride

2) "race pace" ride

Thanks,
Steven

[Joe Friel]

srking--I hate to muddy up the water, but I don't use duration in determining the workout for events like a century any more. I use TSS (Training Stress Score) which requires having a power meter. First I figure out what the TSS is likely to be for the event. I then have the rider do a weekly workout of that TSS with an emphasis on high duration-low intesity. Over several weeks that workout shifts from duration-focused to intensity-focused. This is a far more accurate way to train. But a lot more complex. I've written about it in previous posts. Do a search on 'TSS' to find them if you want to know more.

[rb]

New blog is much cleaner, keep up the good work. According to http://www.duathlon.com/articles/1460 it took Mark Allen a year to get down to 5:20 pace/mile at 155bpm. Might want to double check as your post says 'a few weeks,' which would be mind-boggling.

[JD]

Nice new blog.

Do you think using decoupling to set steady state duration at a 4 / 5A intensity is useful in increasing aerobic capacity .

thanks JD

[Joe Friel]

JD--No, I don't think that's a particularly good way to build aerobic capacity. You can do it with volume. It wl just take a long time. High intensity (Coggan 6 zone power) intervals is very effective though. Good luck!

[Cliff]

Joe - I enjoyed this entry, but you overstated the rate of improvement Mark Allen made with aerobic heart rate training. You said that Allen improved his pace from 8:15 per mile at 155bpm to 5:20 per mile at that same heart rate, "in a few weeks".

From Mark Allen's original article:

"So, for the next FOUR MONTHS (emphasis added), I did exclusively aerobic training keeping my heart rate at or below my maximum aerobic heart rate, using the monitor every single workout. And at the end of that period, my pace at the same heart rate of 155 beats/minute had improved by OVER A MINUTE (emphasis added). And after NEARLY A YEAR (emphasis added) of doing mostly aerobic training, which by the way was much more comfortable and less taxing than the anaerobic style that I was used to, my pace at 155 beats/minute had improved to a blistering 5:20 mile."

It took Allen almost a year of aerobic training to reap those awesome improvements you cited...not "a few weeks".

http://www.duathlon.com/articles/1460

[Air Jordan]

Your blog brings me a lot of fun. Very glad to have the opportunity to meet you. Take ralax and give yourself a surprise, and we will live more happy.

[triwithms]

Thanks Joe.

I just started training a few weeks ago after 7months off.

Seeing as though it is already late-June I've pretty much written off this season for competing in any triathlons, I was wondering If I would benefit from doing mostly aerobic training until early next year or if it is important to go on to strength training as well.

Is the measure of a plateau that for the same HR an athlete is no longer increasing in speed?

Thanks,

Rob.

[Joe Friel]

Rob--There's no question that doing aerobic training the remainder of this season will be beneficial to your performance next year. It isn't nearly a clear about strength work. I _believe_ it is beneficial.

[hummho]

would you be able to explain how tempos affect the early base phase in a bad way? thanks

[JimmyB]

Good blog. The formula that Mark Allen used to get himself from a 8:15 pace at 155 bpm to 5:20 was the 180-age formula that Dr. Phil Maffetone developed, which is based on RQ. Mike Pigg used the same formula for his aerobic base work. They also used Maffetone's MAF test to monitor the state of their aerobic system. You can read about Mark's use of the 8k MAF test in the blurb on him in The Lore OF Running, which can be found here:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Mark_Allen_/_Maffetone_/_Low_HR_training_%96_lengthy_excerpt_from_Noakes_Lore_of_Running_P2182666/

[Steve Kester]

Joe, Inside Triathlon's Mark Allen article has brought this topic to the fore again.

I've trained huge volumes in the past, but I still bonk late in the marathon, and I'm wondering if it's because I'm not trained to burn fat well. I'd like to give Mark's (and your) strategies a test.

Here's my question: I have a LOW maximum heart rate (low-mid 160's), so the formulas based on age (I'm 48) still put me in HR zones that I consider high.

Any suggestions?

[Joe Friel]

Steve Kester - A formula based on averages, such as age, only work if you are average.